How to Love Generous Living

How to Love Generous Living

We have been talking a lot lately about generous living.  Today at church, we are talking about learning to love living generously.  Our focal passage for today is in 1 Timothy.

For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

¹¹ But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. ¹² Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ I direct you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, ¹⁴ that you keep the commandment without fault or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

¹⁷ Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. - 1 Timothy 6:10-17

The following are my Bible study notes based on my pastor's sermon.  You are invited to watch, listen, and worship with us here. 

How to Love Generous Living

Loving generosity will protect you from the love of money, which causes people to wander away from their faith.  

A generous person will be prosperous,
And one who gives others plenty of water will himself be given plenty. - Proverbs 11:25

One who is generous will be blessed,
Because he gives some of his food to the poor. - Proverbs 22:9

Generosity invites God's blessings into your life. It is more about what God wants for you than what He wants from you.  

The world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God continues to live forever. - 1 John 2:17

How to Love Generous Living

1.  We need a spiritual understanding.  

Money is temporary.  It is not permanent.  

As he came naked from his mother’s womb, so he will return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. This also is a sickening evil: exactly as a person is born, so will he die. What then is the advantage for him who labors for the wind? - Ecclesiastes 5:15-16

When you set your eyes on it, it is gone.
For wealth certainly makes itself wings
Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. - Proverbs 23:5

Money is not certain.  Only God and His Word are absolute. 

Money is not satisfying.  When we have a little money, we tend to want more.

The love of money will never cure the greed in a person's heart.

2.  We need a personal understanding.

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. - 1 Timothy 6:17

God wants you to enjoy what He has given you.

God wants us to share with others.

 Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. - 1 Timothy 6:18

Tithing is Biblical.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and put Me to the test now in this,” says the Lord of armies, “if I do not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. - Malachi 3:10

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Tithing is more than a law.  It's about love.  Tithing is not commanded in the New Testament.  In the Old Testament, it was law.  In the New Testament, it's about grace and loving others.

Tithing is the best way to love generous living.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. - Matthew 6:21

Trusting God repositions your heart.

How to Love Generous Living

How to Live Life Generously (Step Up Series)

How to Live Life Generously

Generosity is more about what God wants for you than what He wants from you.  Today's scripture passage is in 1 Chronicles 29.

Then the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly, for they made their offering to the Lord wholeheartedly, and King David also rejoiced greatly.

David’s Prayer

So David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly; and David said, “Blessed are You, Lord God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and on the earth; Yours is the dominion, Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name.

“But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given to You. ¹⁵ For we are strangers before You, and temporary residents, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope. ¹⁶ Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and everything is Yours. ¹⁷ Since I know, my God, that You put the heart to the test and delight in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have willingly offered all these things; so now with joy I have seen Your people, who are present here, make their offerings willingly to You.  - 1 Chronicles 29:9-17

The following are my Bible study notes based on my pastor's sermon.  You are invited to watch, listen, and worship with us here.

What if there was one specific practice in life that would guarantee the following?

1.  Bring you constant joy

2.  Bring others joy

3.  Meet your greatest need while meeting the needs of others.

4.  Open up the windows of Heaven and invite God's blessings into your life

5.  Protect you from envy, greed, comparison, and self-absorbed living

Here is the one word that brings these results - generosity.  Generosity is more than meeting a need.  Meeting a need is great, but to be generous is to "give to overflowing."   All God puts into our hands should flow from our fingertips to others. What keeps us from living life wide open with generosity?  STUFF

There is nothing wrong with having things, but it is wrong when things have you.

How to Live Life Generously

1.  Ownership

All we have belongs to God.

The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains,
The world, and those who live in it.
² For He has founded it upon the seas
And established it upon the rivers. - Psalm 24:1-2

Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and on the earth; Yours is the dominion, Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. ¹² Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. ¹³ Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name.

¹⁴ “But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given to You. - 1 Chronicles 29:11-14

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God is the source.  We are not the source.

For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it, either. - 1 Timothy 6:7

 “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes which I am commanding you today; ¹² otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, and you build good houses and live in them, ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks increase, and your silver and gold increase, and everything that you have increases, ¹⁴ then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ¹⁵ He who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions, and its thirsty ground where there was no water; He who brought water for you out of the rock of flint. ¹⁶ In the wilderness it was He who fed you manna which your fathers did not know, in order to humble you and in order to put you to the test, to do good for you in the end. ¹⁷ Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ ¹⁸ But you are to remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, in order to confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. - Deuteronomy 8:11-18

If you don't own it, you don't worry about it.  Let the Owner, God, worry about it.

2.  Stewardship 

God entrusts some things to me.

For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given to You. - 1 Chronicles 29:14

For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. - Matthew 25:14

God is trustworthy?  Are we trustworthy?

We don't own our stuff.  We just manage all that God has entrusted to us.

3.  Worship

Everything is entrusted to us for His glory. 

Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and everything is Yours. - 1 Chronicles 29:16

Trusting God is an act of worship.

Every time we act generously, we are reflecting the heart of God. 

I want to say to God, "God, You are worthy of my trust.  I want to honor You with all my stuff." 

 PIN ME!

How to Life Life Generously

Guard Your Hearts from Greed and Worry

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Scripture Passage:  Matthew 6:19-24

 The following are my notes taken during my pastor's sermon.

Guard Your Heart from Greed and Worry

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;  for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
 
The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. 

Matthew 6:19-24

Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.

Proverbs 4:23 

Points to Ponder

1.  Our treasure must be correct.

*Earthly treasure is never safe.  It has enemies:  rust, moths, thieves.

*Earthly treasure is not always bad.  it is not a sin to own things.  It is a sin when things own us.

*Earthly treasure is never permanent.

He said,“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Job 1:21 

Money (Bible Study on the Book of James)

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Today’s topic from our Bible study in the book of James is “Money.”  Recently, our pastor preached a sermon series on the Book of James.  These are my Bible study notes based on his sermon.

Keep deception and lies far from me,
Give me neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me with the food that is my portion,
That I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or that I not be in want and steal,
And profane the name of my God.

(Proverbs 30:8-9)

Money:  James 5:1-6

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.  James 5:1-6

Avoid the ungodly and wrong uses of money.

Don’t be a hoarder.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal. – Matthew 6:19-20  

Don’t be a cheater.

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns. You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; so that he will not cry against you to the Lord and it become sin in you. – Deuteronomy 24:14-15 

Don’t be a self-server.

Apply your heart to discipline and your ears to words of knowledge. – Proverbs 23:12  

Apply the Godly and right use of money.

How we get money:   

 Don’t obtain money dishonestly.

Make sure the method doesn’t hurt your health.

Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. – Proverbs 23:4

Make sure your method of obtaining money doesn’t hurt your family.

Make sure your method of obtaining money doesn’t hurt your testimony! 

Make sure your method of obtaining money doesn’t hurt others. “Don’t step on people’s heads while your climbing the ladder to success.”

How we guard money:

Saving money is encouraged.  It helps us prepare for the future.  This is different from hoarding. 

There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man swallows it up. – Proverbs 21:20 

How we give money:

There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, And there is one who withholds what is justly due, and it results only in want. – Proverbs 22:24 

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal. – Matthew 6:20 

Audit yourself:

Take a look at the way you manage your money and see if you are being obedient in the scriptural principles of this message.

Final Note

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. – 1 Timothy 6:17

You'll find all my posts about this study on the book of James here.