Why it's Genius to be Generous, Part 1

Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Are you tired of hearing about all the bad financial news?

Well, I've got news for you. For the next two weeks, we're going to go on a journey. We're going to talk about how to live in a way that's smart with your money, smart with your time, smart in a way that brings joy and life and encouragement. And we're going to hear from the wisest financial counselor in all the universe to help you personally. Stay with me.

Does money consume your thoughts? The worry, the hoarding, the endless chase for more, more, and more? It's exhausting. What if God has a plan to liberate you from the tyranny of financial gain? Today on Living on the Edge, Chippinggram describes a lifestyle that frees our hearts and transforms our relationship with God.

Drawing from the wisdom of Jesus in Matthew chapter 6, he'll show us why smart people spend carefully. Wise people save regularly, but genius people give extravagantly. And along those lines, I'm pleased to report that our audience is already displaying the genius of generosity because we're receiving an outpouring of response to the December match, in which your donation is matched dollar for dollar. And you can double your gift right now by going to livingontheedge.org. For more later.

But right now, the message from Chip: why it's genius to be generous. Until my probably late 20s, The word generosity I thought was reserved for two very special groups of people. People that were very, very rich, they should be generous because they have a lot. or people that are very, very holy. Because they're so holy, God will do special things for them.

I'm serious. I mean, it's not like I wanted to be like selfish. I thought I should be moderately... generous But I mean to be open, lavish, kind. I mean over the top, being willing every day in every way to just share with people.

I thought, if I win the lotto, if I start my own business, if I make it Major League Baseball, someday then you know it's something to aspire to to be really generous. But I don't have a lot of money.

So, you know, generosity would be like graduate-level Christianity.

Someday, you know, like the few, the proud, the Marines, someday if I get really holy, then maybe I'll be generous. But for right now, you know, I don't want to be greedy and selfish because that wouldn't look good and I don't think God would like it.

So I would just sort of like to be a little generous. And that's sort of how I looked at things until I met A man named John Saville.

Now, John, you have to know, he was 75 years old, had come to Christ in his 60s, and had been. Gone broke a couple times and lived a life that, in some ways, he thought, boy, he really had wasted. And so he'd been a Christian about 10 years and had the sense of urgency. In fact, It's had just this heart to share and love people. And so he's 75 years old and I'm The pastor of this mini-church, we got 35 people, and I'm 28, and I'm the new young pastor, and I'm filled with zeal and not very much knowledge, and he's filled with lots of knowledge and not very much zeal.

And um He's the chairman of the elders. And so I've never been an elder, I've never been a pastor. I told them I was too young to be an elder, but they said, well, the Constitution says you're one, so you just have to figure it out along the way. I said, okay. And so, but John and I sort of, we would go to meetings, and once a month I'd see him, I'd see him in church.

We had nothing in common. He wasn't into sports. He owned a CPA firm in downtown Dallas called Savin Dodgel. Um And, you know, it's just like he was a really nice, neat old guy. He was a little kookie.

Honestly. You know, I was pretty into, had to be a cool Christian, and something good would happen, and John would rare back in a meeting and go, Praise the Lord! And I would go, oh, brother, please don't do that one in public, you know. And so it was about a year, and John gave me a call, and he said, Chip, I'd like you to come down to Dallas and have lunch with me. I'd like to talk to you.

I said, Okay, sounds good. And he said, Now you need to wear a tie. Where we're going to go, you have to have a tie. In fact, you have to have a coat. And I thought, oh, brother, I own two ties and one coat, so okay.

And so I got my beat-up car and I drove down downtown Dallas, got to the address, and it's an all-glass building and with all the other glass buildings and find a place to park and go up like the 38th floor or something. And the doors open and it's all wood. And, you know, it says Saville, Dodge, you know, CPA firm, big firm. And they had this whole floor. And Mr.

Savile will see you now. And I walked back to his office. Hey, Chip, how are you doing? He put his arm around me. And we walked over to here and we went to this glass elevator and he punched it and it opened and we went all the way to the top floor and it opened and there was this restaurant and then racquetball courts all made out of glass and you could see all over the city and we sat down and someone with a white towel came here and someone with a towel was over here and they gave me a menu and I'd never seen a menu like this because there was no prices on it.

I said, how would you know what to order? There's no prices on it. I mean, it was like very upper, upper, upper. And John said, Oh, I really want you to get something you really like, Chip. The filet's great here.

And well, thank you, Mr. Saville. No, no, it's John. Come on, you know. And so we sat down, we had this lunch.

Uh As we got done with lunch, he said, let's get some coffee, and it sort of cleared out a little bit. John had this little white box and he put it in front of me and He opened the white box and then he pulled out a a brownish kind of looking checkbook and he came to me and he said, open that up.

So I opened it up and it said Pastor's Discretionary Fund. And he said, look at the stubs in the back. And so I went to the back, and it had deposit 5000. $5,000. He said, Chip, here's what I'd like to do.

I've been watching you for a year, and I think I can trust you. I want to have a secret pack. You can't tell anyone about this.

So what's this all about? Yeah. He said I'm not going to live that much longer. And I have a real heart for people that are hurting and people that are poor. And so You Every day are touching people that are hurting and poor.

Where we lived, it was a little bit of a depressed area out in the rural area of Texas. And so what I'd like you to do... is I'd like you to take this checkbook and I'd like you to put it in your back pocket every day. And anytime you feel God prompting you to meet the need of a poor person or a hurting person or some sort of ministry that you think would bring joy to my heart and glory to God, I want you to take care of it. And just do it in my name.

So don't tell anybody it's me, but I all I want you to do is And so you'll notice on the front of your notes, I actually put this, it says, John had a desire to help poor and hurting people. I had an opportunity, I interacted with a lot of poor and hurting people, and so we made a deal. And then what he said is, like, every three or four months, I'll give you a call and we'll have lunch like this. And I mean, it was a lavish lunch. And I would sit down about every four months and I would tell John's stories about what I did with his money.

And early on, you know, like the first, I remember driving back in my little unair-conditioned car and thinking, oh man, what if I mess up and this is his money and who am I going to give it to? And I don't know when and why. And I got real uptight for like three or four days. And then I thought, you know, what the heck? How bad can it be giving people money away?

And so I remember the first time I was in a grocery line, and there was this young mom. And, you know, have you ever been where someone has groceries and they don't have enough money to pay? And they're trying to figure out, you know, how much, what they should take out of the basket? And, you know, she goes, I'm really sorry, but my husband, you know, he's kind of on a binge right now and he's left us. And so I don't have, I'm going to drive to my mother's, but I don't have gas.

And here's my three kids. And, you know, this was sort of like a no-brainer. And I said, excuse me, ma'am, do you need some more food to go? And she goes, well, I, and I checked it out and it was for real. And I said, you know, why don't you get your basket and get what you really need?

And she did, and she came back. And then I said, and I paid for that. And then I said, don't you need some gas? I heard she goes, and the safe way, 7-Eleven was there. And I said, well, come on over here.

And I took care of that. And then pretty soon there was someone who's ice cold and there's an elderly couple and they couldn't pay their electric bill and I took care of that. And, you know, it went from sort of like, oh, I'm afraid to mess up to this is fun. I I mean, I I lost my keys about twenty times in the first three years of our marriage. And so finally, right next to where I went out the door, there's a little ledge, and I put my wallet, my keys, and John's check book.

And every day it was just my ritual. Wallet, Keys checkbook. And so every day I'm walking around. Can you imagine? Every day I'm walking around thinking, I wonder who God wants me to bless and love and help with John's money.

And it got to be a blast, actually. It was really fun. And you got to see what would happen. And then, so story after story after story. And then John would call and say, How's it going?

I said, Great. He says, Well, Chip, praise the Lord. Come on down and have lunch.

So, you know, I'd go down, and pretty soon it was like, hey, up the glass elevator, walk in. Hey, I'll see you what? Get Mr. Savile? We would go up, and sometimes we'd have a three-hour lunch.

And I tell him story after story after story. And then after a while, I noticed that when I gave the money to certain ways with certain people, I got a real loud, praise the Lord. And when I did other things, oh, praise the Lord.

So I'm not dumb. I started looking to... I think I'd like to give the money more where it really fires him up. And three things happened. This is an amazing relationship.

I did this for about six, seven years. And Later, I moved from that little church, and John later went home to be with the Lord. But three things happened. Number one, rarely a day went by that I didn't think of John.

Now think of that. I mean before it was like once a month elders meeting or I might see him, but I never thought of John. I mean, he didn't, we didn't work out together. We didn't have any common interest. But now that I'm spending his money every day, I'm thinking about John, asking the question.

I wonder what John would want me to do. Second thing that happened is, I strangely became far more meticulous about balancing his checkbook than my own. And I'm a big picture person, I didn't really like details, and so. And I never had that much money, so I didn't think it mattered.

So if I had $400 or $500 and the bank statement come, if it was within $20, that was close enough for me. You know, the bank's probably right anyway.

Well, this was not a good plan for my wife, who's not made at all like that. She goes, we need to know exactly. Ah, well, you know, it's going to take me two hours or three hours to figure out, because I wasn't very good at details then either.

So, what I realized, however, I couldn't tell Terese about this.

So I just somehow learned to get very meticulous. I mean, I'm going to give an account to an accountant. Are you kidding me? I mean, it's not like, well, hey, John, you know, I spent about $1,200, $1,400 in the last couple months, or, you know, I help people $3,000. I mean, give or take $500.

I mean, that's not going to work with John.

So, I mean, I got really good at keeping very clear track. The third thing that happened, and this I never expected, is John and I became best friends. Literally best friends. I started going to those prisons with him. We hung out together.

As he bought extravagant lunches, and I told extraordinary stories of our quarterly celebrations. And what you need to hear, there was no sense of obligation. There was no sense that we were doing some big righteous thing. We weren't martyrs. We weren't saving the world.

It was like an adventure, a celebration of taking someone else's money and his heart and being his representative and just having a blast. Does anyone here think there might be a parallel? See? Generosity, the genius of generosity, first, it has nothing to do with how much money you have or don't have. Zero.

It has nothing to do with how holy you think you are or are not. It has everything to do with understanding. God has given us all things. Time, energy, money, talent that belong to him, and every day is an adventure where he's bringing people across your path that he wants some of the time deposited in you to go over here, and some of the talent to go over there, and some of the money to go over there. And it's like, and by the way, When you give it out, here's what God promises.

I'll make sure I fill up the account. Because after my lunches, John would never say a word, but I'd get my bank statement.

So I'd spend $2,000 one quarter and maybe $3,000 another quarter and maybe only $1,100 another quarter and then I'd get my bank statement and guess what? Boop, $5,000. He would just fill it up. And that's the way it is with God. The goal of generosity, the goal with our money and our time and our talent, really.

His heart is is to build a relationship. His heart behind this is not that we just, quote, get things done. It's not just that we're generous with our money. It's the gateway to intimacy. It's one of the major ways God connects our heart with His heart.

In fact, here, let me give you a definition of genius and of generosity, and I think you'll see why I named the series this. The word genius is from the root word meaning to produce. To be a genius, actually, it's to produce something. It's the personification of quality. We call someone a genius who has great natural ability for a particular activity.

And so Einstein is a genius in physics, and Bill Walsh was a genius in terms of. offense and football. Any person with a high intelligence, a high IQ, we call them a genius. The special ability. It's being wise.

It's being a little bit beyond smart.

Now the word generosity comes from a root word, this is interesting, to be generous. The root word comes from noble birth or something that's excellent, generous, having qualities associated with being like a king or a queen or a prince or a princess. It's to be noble-minded and gracious, magnanimous. It has the underlying willingness at every moment of time to share. The Hebrew word for generous literally means overflowing with water.

It's a picture of not just meeting people's needs, but soaking it and overflowing, and water being a picture of that which gives life. The Greek word for generosity is the word for ready at any moment to distribute, ready to share, ready to give. And all I want you to know is We're going to talk about being beyond smart. Beyond wise about being genius. Do you see the bright idea on the top of your notes?

It says to be smart and you should be smart. You should spend carefully. To be wise, and you should be wise, you should save regularly. But to be genius You should give. extravagantly.

That's what I got to do with John's money. And it taught me a lot about how God, my Father, has entrusted things to me, and He wants me to be smart, and He wants me to be wise. But he wants me to be a genius. We'll hear more from Chip Ingram's message in just a moment. First, we invite you to multiply your year in support of Living on the Edge through an exciting match that's active through December 31st.

Every gift is matched. Every dollar multiplied by two. Every investment maximized for kingdom impact. Double the impact of your gift at livingontheedge.org. From his series called The Genius of Generosity, again our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram.

Let me give you four reasons now why it is genius to be generous. Because I'm just gonna guess, at least there's one or two people that maybe have my background, and it's not like you wanna be selfish, and heaven forbid you don't wanna be greedy. But the idea of being extravagantly generous is like fearful and like it might be for someone else.

So let me give you four specific reasons. Why but Generosity is, in fact, genius. Number one, generosity changes our lives. Generosity changes our lives. It blesses our lives.

It enriches our lives. It makes life better. The very last words we ever hear in the Bible from Jesus are this, and they're not in the Gospels. It's a quote from Acts. Where the Apostle Paul quotes Jesus and says, Jesus said, It's more blessed to give than to receive.

The word blessed, you know what it means? Happy. Welfare, good. Uplifting, encouraging. People who give are more blessed even than those who give receive.

I mean, this is the ultimate win-win proposition. When you give and when you're generous, a good feeling comes inside.

Well, guess what? Here's the win-win. You get a good feeling by giving. The people who receive what you give, they get a good feeling by receiving. And God says, when I find people that are liberal and generous, I will fill up their account again.

Because I'm looking for people that'll be a stream. I'm looking for people that I can drop things in the stream and it goes and they can use whatever they need and then it goes on and they love people. But a lot of people are a dam. God drops it in and hits the dam.

Well, you never know, rainy day, a lot of difficult things. And so they just keep saving, saving, hoarding, hoarding. And even when they share, They kind of share with this But like I feel obligated, I guess if I'm supposed to help out with this. But what's it like when you're around someone who says, hey, I got the bill this time? People are winsome and attractive and people that are generous with their time.

People say, hey, I know you're moving. Does anyone like to move? No, I'll be over Saturday moon. I'll help you out. What do you think about those kind of people?

Those are the kind of people you want to be around. Generous people have friends. Generous people are attractive. Generous people are happier. What's the opposite of being generous?

Miserly. We say, oh, he's an old miser. I mean, how many people this year are saying, I want to be like Scrooge? I mean, he's no one's hero. Are you ready?

The root word for a miser. Same root word as miserable. Selfish, greedy, non-generous people are alone, isolated, and miserable.

Now, in Christian circles, what happens is we work at appearing generous and can be miserly in our heart. Because we want to appear like we're caring, we want to appear like we're generous, we want to appear like we're loving. But real generosity comes out of the heart where you really want to help others. You're willing to share, knowing that as you give it away, God will take care of you. Second reason.

Um is generosity connects us with others. A generous man will prosper, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. Proverbs 11, 25. A generous, literally that word prosper, a generous man will be fat. It doesn't mean, you know, like.

You need to go to Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, but it's this idea that you'll prosper, you'll have more than you need, and he who refreshes others, when you give and are kind to others, will himself be refreshed. When you give and when you're generous of your time and generous of your talent and generous with your money, generous with your stuff, let people use your car, let them use your house, let them use this. When you're generous, it connects you with people. I'll never forget, I learned this in a graphic way. When I was pastoring in Santa Cruz, you know, I had, you know, four kids under the roof, and I had to get my part done early.

And the way I worked it is, I just got up real early so I could get my sermon and my time done. And we were at a real rapidly growing time, and I had a lot of people reporting to me.

So I knew that by 8.30 in the morning or 9 when I came in, if I didn't have my work done for the day, I was in trouble.

So there was a little, actually called a donut shop. They make bagels. And it was a Cambodian family that came to the States. And the whole family did it, and it was sort of a hole in the wall, and they would start those bagels like at 3.30, 4 in the morning. And so I'd get there about 4.30 and they would put on a couple pots of coffee and there was a little table in the corner and about 4.30 I'd get some coffee and I would study from 4.30 to about 8, 8.30.

And when I came by, usually then a guy came in, his name was Mike, and he sat and he was a homeless guy. And he sat and he, I guess, had enough money for just one cup of coffee. And if you've ever seen people that have done really heavy-duty drugs, I mean, they're etched. And he was always really, really dirty. And he looked scary.

Have you seen people that look scary? And every day he would sit there like this. And hi m hi, I mean I didn't notice anyway. I mean, you know. Just walked by and he was just in a stupor.

And this went on for like over a year. And so I'd be in the corner, and then at 6:30, a bunch of guys every day would come, 6-7, they would talk until about 8. The 8:30 group would come in. It was just my little corner, you know. And one day I just thought I was actually studying about generosity and And I said, hey Mike, can I buy you a cup of coffee?

No, no, no, I I mean it. You know, w want a bagel too and And he kind of turned his head and he goes, Yeah, I think.

So I got him a cup of coffee. You take anything in it and I brought the... Yeah. I mean, I'm just thinking, maybe he can't talk. And so I bring a cup of coffee, and he didn't want a bagel.

And um, okay, great. You know, so much for that. Hey, Lord, I was really generous. I don't know what I was expecting. And about five minutes later, He turned around because people came in and I'd say hi to him.

So is your name Chip? Said yeah. Chip. Did you see the sunrise this morning? And you know, I didn't notice.

He goes, look, and we were, there was glass next to us, and it was beautiful, I mean, pink, like you just couldn't hardly imagine. And then he pointed, he says, you see that bright star right there? I said, yeah. He says that's Venus. It's only going to be like that two and maybe three more days.

And I don't know why I said, hey guys, who are over there? Come look at this. We look off all these guys and we're looking at this sunrise and this star. And I'm thinking, how does this guy know this? And I just sat down with him.

It cost me a dollar and a half. to buy a guy And I found out why and how his children were gone, what he'd been through, where he'd been double-crossed, why he was on the streets, why he slept in the car. He was a master craftsman. He was actually a very, very smart guy. We actually became friends.

In fact, even after I left Santa Cruz, when I would come back and visit, I would get up real early and go over, and there'd Mike, and I mean the guy would hug me. And it cost me a dollar and a half. Generosity connects you to people. Generosity is the smartest, wisest, best way to live. Third, generosity helps us invest.

in what matters most.

Meanwhile, You just need to mark this down. Every one of us worships something or someone.

Okay. I mean, you might write that in your notes. Every one of us worships something or someone.

Where your money goes tells you who or what you worship. In other words, Jesus is just real clear, and every one of us has something or someone that we think deserves my energy, that deserves my time, that deserves my money. And what I'm expecting is that is going to produce security and significance and happiness. Everyone on the face of the earth worships something, and some people worship success, and some work, and some golf, and some their kids, and some their mate, and some Jesus. And so Jesus is going to be like a wise investment counselor in the Sermon on the Mount, and he's going to say, don't invest over here because it won't turn out bad ROI, but I do want you to invest over here, very positive ROI, and by the way, here's why.

Look at it. There's a negative command, and there's a positive command, and then he gives the reason. And this is sort of investment counseling. He says, Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. And would you underline the word for yourselves?

Now, the way that you would accumulate wealth was through fine clothing, precious metals, and grains. And so, even that word rust has the idea not just of metals, but maybe of varmints getting in and eating your grain and ruining it. And so basically the grammar here is stop. Investing.

Solely. on Earth. And the reason is because you can suffer great loss. All those are temporal. On a bad day, a thief comes in or the rats get into your grain or someone steals it.

Now, by the way, he's not saying it's wrong to save because the scripture tells us elsewhere to save. He's not saying that it's wrong to prepare for the future. You know, the writer of Proverbs says you need to make provision and think about what's going to come. And it's not wrong to have something nice. We're actually commanded in Scripture to enjoy the good things God gives us.

This is a prohibition against selfish, greedy hoarding that you think this is now and I'm going to have it, and my life, my success, my power, my happiness is going to come from investing my time and energy in the right now. in temporal stuff. Then he gives the other advice. He says, but store up.

Now, would you underline why? For yourselves. This is for your benefit. He's giving wise investment counseling, treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves can't break in and steal. In other words, it's a better investment because when you make this investment, 100% return.

And so, all through the Gospels, Jesus talks about what's it so, what it would be like to invest treasure in heaven. Treasure in heaven in Luke 16 is: you give your money and your time to help other people come to Christ, and when you get to heaven, they will welcome you because you gave. When you give a cup of cold water, when you provide relief and love in the name of Jesus, there'll be a reward. That's an eternal heavenly treasure. When you use your money to make disciples, when you use your money to help the poor, you're lending to the Lord.

All those things. He says that's that's There's a bank account with your name on it. with very specific reward in heaven that can't be touched by thieves. Or rust, or moss.

So he says that's great. Then he gives you the reason. Look at verse 21. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Literally, meaning it says, for where you treasure your treasure, that's where your heart will be.

So what he's saying is, there's a relationship between what you worship. Don't make a bad investment where it'll be temporal, loss, can change overnight.

Some of you know about that, right? Jesus is just saying. He's not saying you're more righteous, more holy, you're better than other people when you invest in the things that last. He's just saying there are smart investors and there's dumb investors. Uh This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and what you've heard today is the very first message in a practical teaching series called The Genius of Generosity.

Generous living is joyful living.

Now don't go away, Chip has more to say on today's topic, coming up in just a moment. Living on the Edge is celebrating 30 years of God's blessing, and over these three decades, our commitment to the cause of Christ has only grown deeper. In fact, we're more determined to share a cold cup of water to those who are thirsty than ever before. Chip, each time Living on the Edge is broadcast to the world, Christians begin to discover the joy of living like Christians, even when life is hard. Sunday morning.

is easy. But what about Monday morning when you face a difficult boss? or Tuesday afternoon when you get that diagnosis. or Wednesday night when your teenager is making choices that absolutely break your heart. This is where most Christians struggle.

not with Sunday faith, but with everyday faith. And you know, Living on the Edge teaches believers how to think biblically about real life, how to handle their money God's way, how to navigate relationships with wisdom, and how to face suffering without losing hope. When you give to this match... You're equipping Christians to live out their faith in the real trenches of life. and not just in the safety of a church service.

We're committed to helping Christians live like Christians. 24-7, 365. That literally, as they walk with Jesus, it comes out of their life and their heart and their lips and impacts people around them. Three decades of God's provision point to one truth. He's not done yet.

Living on the Edge's greatest impact lies ahead. If there's ever been a day where we need Christians to live like Christians, it's now. and you're invited to be a part of it. Through this match, your gift doubles instantly. More pastors equipped.

more families strengthened, more believers reached. Would you multiply your impact? Right now. You can respond to CHIP right now by giving online at livingonthege.org or call this number, 888-333-6003. To send your support in the mail, address your envelope to LivingOnTheEdge, P.O.

Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia, 30024. You can also call 888-333-6003 or visit us online at livingonthege.org. I'm Dave Druy, inviting you to join us when Chip Ingram continues to describe the genius of generosity tomorrow on Living on the Edge.