Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. See, the whole point of generosity, I mean, you know this intellectually. God really doesn't need your money. He owns everything. But steps of generosity are a part of his plan So that intimacy and relationship with Him can increase.
And the only way that intimacy ever happens with God? is this mechanism called faith.
Well, Happy New Year! We commend you for spending part of this holiday with Living on the Edge. Most people start the new year thinking about their finances, budgets, goals, maybe even charitable giving. But today, Chip Ingram poses a penetrating question, how does God really measure generosity? What you'll discover might surprise you.
Chip shows us that generosity isn't primarily about money at all. It's about something far more profound. And by the way, if you're among those who contributed to the December match, thanks so much. We're deeply grateful for you. And now let's begin Chip's message called, How Does God Measure Generosity?
The Christmas story is very interesting where you have these probably Persian or Babylonian. studies of the stars, who see a star probably 18 to 24 months before the baby was actually born, they see it and they go on a journey. And then you have these low life kind of actually sort of the disenfranchised Social group of shepherds, they get in the story, and then you have a teenage girl, Mary, probably 15, 16 years old, and a blue-collar worker. Who's betrothed to her?
Well, they become a big part of the story. And then pretty soon you have angels involved. And I just started thinking about it, and I just laid the story out. And as I did, I thought, Each step of each person introduced into the story It's a snapshot. of what the Bible teaches about the heart of God and generosity.
Now normally I would uh have you uh get in those Bibles and follow passage to passage with me, but But I want you to listen to the story through the lens of generosity. We pick it up where, far beyond money, the Magi come and that's what they give. I think God introduces us to the Magi. They know him the least and they get the least clear revelation. But they respond to what they know.
But after they respond to that, the next group is the shepherds. And you know the story of the shepherds, right? The sky lights up. It's a chorus. The sky lights up and they're singing and you're going, what's this about?
We pick up the story. It says, when the angels had left them and went into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let's go. Where? To Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.
So they hurried off and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. And when they had seen him, They didn't just worship. By giving a gift, it says they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. These shepherds probably didn't have anything to give. They didn't have any money to give.
Shepherds get to give their Time. For most of you, not for all, but for most of you, your time is more valuable than your money. When we're talking about generosity, please don't think writing a check As good and wonderful, that is, is that my question would be: how are you doing in your growth of generosity of giving your time? I want you to know money is the training wheels. When you begin to say, God, I want to give you the best of my time.
I don't know what that looks like for you, it's the early morning for me. I want to give you the best of my time. And if you're like me, you're going to get a call from someone and it shows up on your phone. And I have about three people in my life, when their name comes up, it's like, this is not a short conversation. It's never a short conversation.
But you know what I've realized is? Jesus made time for people that most of us don't want to make time for. And what I'm really saying: see, what generosity is, it breaks your pride. Generosity says this person or this dysfunction with this conversation, with this baggage, matters to God, so they matter to me because He lives inside of me, and giving my money is a pretty high control. I can do it on my terms, I give my time.
It gets messy. The shepherds left work. It's one thing to write a check, but I mean to leave work early and other people will get ahead while I. Yeah. Takes faith, doesn't it?
You're starting to see Time is way more valuable. But it goes beyond that. The Christmas story then introduces a new character and We get Joseph who's engaged.
Now just you talk about your reputation, all right, guys? Think about way, way back for some of you when you were engaged. And your girlfriend comes to you and says, Hey, I just want you to know. I've never been with another man, but I'm pregnant. And you say, well, How can this be?
And and she says, well, It's God. Oh, really? Yeah, it's God. Angel told me. Eeeeeeeeee I mean, yeah, okay, so let's get now.
You have an angelic visit. And this angel, literally, I mean, in the middle of the night, you have this dream, and he speaks to you and says it's okay. And then he says, This is the Savior of the world. The Messiah is coming. Mary told you the truth.
This is the real deal. I want you to do it.
Now, sometimes we read these Bible stories like Joseph, some wind-up religious robot. Oh, yes, God said it, I will do it. God said it, I will do it. He's a guy. He's thinking, now wait a second.
I mean, this is when the sexual mores were way different than they are now. I mean, you could get stoned. for adultery. You don't have babies out of wedlock.
So now Joseph is going to marry a girl that's pregnant? What are the guys down at the bar going to say? Joseph, you fool, Joseph, you idiot, can you believe that? I mean, all of his life, the suspect, the suspicion. How in the world could any man marry some woman who's pregnant with someone else's kid?
In that day, his reputation gone. Let me ask you. When you start thinking about money or time or reputation, what's the most valuable? What's the hardest to give? I'm gonna guess.
Okay. Group this size, we have people that probably give your money. Faithfully. And I bet there's people in this room that actually are pretty willing to give your time. But I bet there's some of us that As relatives come in, or when a topic comes up at work.
And it's one of those black and white issues, and you know the Bible says this, and it's really clear, and your personal convictions are here. But you know, if you would fly your flag and verbalize that, they would think you're one of those Bible-thumping, anti-intellectual, evangelical weirdos. And you know what you do? You don't say anything. Because what people think of you matters more than what God thinks of you.
And how you appear, and it might impact your career, and it might impact the future, right? You tell people you go to church here and they look at you like So you're just not smart or what? You're not a thinking person? You're... You're not an intellectual?
Are you willing to give God your reputation? Are you willing to kind of go out there on the limb and say, you know, Lord? And by the way, I don't mean to be stupid. I don't mean to be argumentative. I mean, there's a lot of Christians that please, you know.
act in ways that actually hurt God's reputation. I'm talking about you know those areas when the Spirit of God is prompting you to step up and verbalize and model what you really believe and all this pressure that you are so afraid of what people think. Generous people. Joseph gave his reputation. For Mary, it was beyond her reputation.
I mean her reputation was ruined. But she gave her future. We pick the story up in Luke chapter 1. It's in the sixth month. God sent the, now notice the angel.
Gabriel, he's the great messenger of God who is announces the greatest announcements in Scripture. Gabriel goes to Nazareth, to a town of Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary, and the angel went to her and said, Greetings, you're highly favored. The Lord is with you. I mean, I just, I don't know how or where this happened, but I just picture it had to be in a private place.
And, you know, maybe Mary was just getting ready for bed, or maybe she couldn't sleep that night, and all of a sudden, An angel's in the room. I mean, light emanating out of him. He starts to speak to her. Her responses. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
Wouldn't you? But the angel said, Do not be afraid, Mary. You found favor with God. You will be with a child and give birth to a son, and you're to give him his name Jesus. This is really good because at least Joseph gets a dream that says Jesus is the name, and Mary gets a visit that says Jesus is the name.
So when they talk together, they're on the same page. Then notice, he will be great and be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end. Mary understood what was going on here. The throne of David, his kingdom.
Later in the same book, she has this prayer, this magnificent prayer, and she talks about how God is faithful to the humble, and she quotes 12 to 15 different parts of Old Testament passages. This young girl was godly, maybe 15, 16 years old, knew God, loved God. Found favor. Those words, the throne of David, he'll be called the Son of God. She understood the long-awaited Messiah, God visiting the earth, fully God, fully man, is going to take up presidence inside my body.
And I will give physical birth. to the Son of God, and I will be the mother of the Messiah. But she sort of had a methodology question. And so her response is, How can this be? Since I'm a virgin.
And the angel said, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, so that the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. And then almost as though, can you imagine a little 15, 16 year old girl, trying to take all this in. And it's like the angel said, you know, by the way, let me give you a little touch of reality. You know Elizabeth, your aunt? Yeah.
You know the old lady who can't have kids? Yeah. I mean way past childbearing? Yeah. Right now, She's six months pregnant.
And what we find is after this, Mary goes and visits her, and I think it was a great encouragement to her faith, especially when she walked in the room. And John the Baptist would leap inside. of Elizabeth in recognition of this is the mother. the Savior of the world. And he says, for nothing is impossible with God.
And then I love her response.
Now I want to talk to you ladies. And I don't know much about this except I have one daughter. and one wife. And I talked to my wife a lot about the dreams she had someday and what the wedding would look like, and this guy that she was going to marry, and the kind of person he would be, and maybe, you know, two or three kids. You know, when you're a young girl, don't you have dreams about your future?
and what it's going to look like and who he might be and You know, where are you going to live? You know, back then I don't think they had white picket fences, but I, you know, Mary gave her future away. Her life was never normal. And her response was, I am. The servant of the Lord, be it unto me according to your word.
Before we continue, we want to thank those who gave to our year-end match before the December 31st deadline. God has blessed Living on the Edge through your generosity. And because of your faithful giving, we'll be able to accelerate our impact in our 30th anniversary year, 2026. Your partnership means pastors will be equipped, families strengthened, and believers around the world discipled. Thank you.
Now, let's get back to today's teaching from his series called The Genius of Generosity. Again, our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram. Here's what you gotta grab. God who actually made all that there is, wants to do things in you and through you beyond your wildest imagination. But he doesn't have your heart and can't start to guide you until you can demonstrate you trust him.
And you say, Lord, I'll trust you with the training wheels of my money. And then you begin to say, I'll give you the best of my time. And then it's your reputation. And then here's. A lot of people get there, and what they say is: now, God, here's what I want you to know: inside this box.
For my future, as long as I work at this kind of job, marry this kind of person, never get geographically beyond where I am. You know, I just want you to know inside this box, you can do whatever you want with my life. And you know what God does with most people's lives? He does exactly what you let him to inside that little box. And you can go to church, and you can write your first check to the Lord, and you can read your Bible, and you can go to a little Bible study now and then, and even share your faith now and then, and feel like, but God's been tapping on your shoulder and say, What about your future?
What about your future? You willing to go anywhere? 80% of all the people in America have a job they hate. But they won't leave it. Because the economic income is greater than doing what they were made to do.
See, I mean, it's a scary You're starting to get generous when you say, God, I want to do with your future. anything you want done in my future. And that usually requires some sort of step of faith. And then people that we interview or people that you know that have this sort of winsome, attractive love for God that oozes out of them and it's the kind of Christians we all someday kind of want to be, I will tell you what, they've given their future to God. And they're doing some things and experiencing things they never dreamed would ever happen.
They thought it only happened to, quote, really spiritual people or really smart people, really holy people. And what I will tell you is the Bible is filled with only ordinary people through whom God does extraordinary things. And their prerequisite isn't gift or talent or smarts or heritage or background. The prerequisite is trust. and availability.
And that's why the Christmas story is a graduate level and generosity, because it's unlikely people. Who God does improbable, impossible, amazing things as increasing levels of generosity. And she gives her future, and then Jesus does what? He gives us life. Mark 10:45, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give his life.
For many. The word for there means in the place of as a substitute for. And you can kind of see, I sort of picture, you know, Down here, they see a star. A little bit of revelation, they respond to it. They get an angelic visit.
Over here, wow, he gets a dream with an angel of the Lord. She gets a visit from Gabriel. Jesus Before the foundations of the earth, looks through the portals of time and the eternal now. And who for the joy, not reluctantly, who for the joy? Was it hard?
Yes. Did he anguish in his soul? Yes. Was it in the garden? Was it a struggle?
Completely. I like that because it is for me too. But when he gave his life, it wasn't a reluctant, it was who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, offering himself.
So he could pay for you and you and me and you and you and whosoever would believe in him. The Father goes beyond that. The father gave his son. In that window, in that moment of time when Jesus hung upon the cross for the first time in eternity, the Father would turn away from the Son, and the just wrath of God, your sin and my sin, and the sins of all people of all time, would be placed on him as a sin offering. And so he would cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
And who? And he would take on your sin and mine, and the Father. would give. And for some of us As you learn to become generous and God uses you. There's an Isaac in your life.
That's why that picture's in the Old Testament. There's been times when one of my kids has been an idol in my life, and God, are you willing to let him loose and go away? Pursue this career that I thought he's never going to make any money, he's never going to have a life, and it's probably not going to work out. And it's a long way from here. Yes, Lord.
or letting your kid go to a mission field. There's another time in my life when my wife was an idol. And she would tell you now, that's... one of the hardest, most difficult times. But what God did in and then through.
What precious possession, what are you hanging on to? That God just wants to pry your little fingers off of so he could let you experience his love. Last night at the end of the service, there was a guy waiting around for quite a while and He, um I thought, what's up? And he said, I just came here to thank you. I said, what for?
He said, well, I've been kind of involved in ministry in 2020. I'm 29 years old. I'm in a graduate program now, and I do some teaching in my church, and I've told people all kinds of stuff for lots of years. But in the last two weeks, three of the biggest things happened that just shattered my life. And he said, You know something?
There were two or three things that I've always held back, even though I was involved in ministry and read the Bible, two or three things that were just, mm-mm, God, I'm not trusting you with those. And I, for the first time in my life, told God, I'm all in. And I surrendered my life. I mean, I've been a Christian for years, but I surrendered all that I am, all that I have. God, I want you to know I'm afraid, but I believe that you're good and you're kind, you're a son and a shield, you give grace and glory, you won't withhold any good thing.
But now I'm taking that step. And he said, I just can't tell you what's happened in my life and my heart. And I've been a Christian most all my life, but the power and the experience of God and the love of God that I've heard about but never experienced came because I gave. Why? What's the scripture teach?
Give. And it'll be given, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, run over, back into your lap. But it's not about money. Money's the training wheels. Yeah, when you give, yeah.
But time, same. Reputation, future, life. precious possession. There's three little things I want you to fill in. I've shared these, but I want you to just jot down three observations about the Christmas story and graduate level generosity.
Number one, generosity is not so much a virtuous act as it is a virtuous response. Each time it was God, God put the star. God sent the angels. God was in the dream. God appeared to Mary.
He loves you. He's reaching. He's drawing you.
So generosity isn't something great you do, you respond. Second, God doesn't measure generosity by the size of your gift, but the size of your sacrifice. And I would just ask you to begin to ponder, what would it look like to go from the step that I'm on to the next step on this journey? There's a sacrifice, but not as some legalistic I've earned God's favor, but I want to respond to God's love. at a deeper level of love.
And finally, increasing levels of generosity bring increasing levels of reward. and blessing. I mean each time the blessing is greater and greater and greater and greater and greater. Because you give and God always gives back. And on this first day of a brand new year.
Chippingram concludes this four-part teaching series called The Genius of Generosity. Generous Living is Joyful Living. Stay with us because Chip will share a personal illustration in just a moment. As we enter the new year of 2026, you might be hunting for a Bible study to share with your small group at church, or perhaps an interesting subject you can pursue in your daily times with God. While Living on the Edge offers a robust collection of options, including the teaching series that concludes today on the genius of generosity.
In this study, we discover the power, the freedom, and the rewards of developing a generous heart. To hear the four messages in this counter-cultural series, go to livingonthege.org. And look for the study called The Genius of Generosity. Chip? As we wrap up today's program and the whole series, I have to tell you something that I did, and it was so fun and so exciting.
I taught through the generosity ladder. You know, I talked about your money with the Magi, your time with the shepherds, your reputation with Joseph, your future with Mary, your life with Jesus, and then the most precious possession, how the Father gave the Son. And we had a big ladder up on stage. I mean, a really big ladder. And I had a friend come, his name is Mark Green, and he and his family own Hobby Lobby.
And he went through each rung on the ladder. He actually stepped up on each step as he shared his testimony on each of those points. It was so powerful. And he talked about how his grandmother taught them to give money. And then how, as he got older, his father taught them about time.
And then just Hobby Lobby, their reputation, where they said, you know, we are just not going to be open on a day in our reputation matters. And then their future, and how they took steps of faith. And then, as they did that, it's very interesting at Hobby Lobby for the last three years, they have given, as they've prospered, all their employees a raise over the last three years because it was a season of prosperity, even though the economy was bad. And then, on top of that, they take all their profits, and it's something ridiculous: like 40 or 50 percent of all their profits, they fund ministries all around the world in evangelism, discipleship, feeding the poor. And it was just so cool to have him there because I taught it.
And he climbed up and shared his story: how each rung of that ladder and how the increasing generosity developed greater intimacy in his own heart, in his family. And then he talked about the game plan they've developed to teach his kids and later grandkids about generosity. And I just thought, what a legacy. What's your legacy? What's it look like to be generous beyond money?
In this season, what will it look like for your time, your reputation, your future, in fact, your very life to be a gift back to God and let Him use it however He wants? I can tell you from my time with Mart and His family, it is a powerful, precious thing to give away. Be generous. You will never regret it. Thanks, Chip.
And as we close today's program, we want to thank those who gave generously to the December match, in which your contributions to Living on the Edge were doubled in size and impact. We can't give a final report because it's too soon to know the final amount that arrived. Mail is still coming in. But I can tell you this, the outpouring of support was remarkably strong. And because you participated so generously, we can step into the new year with boldness and confidence.
Now, if you meant to send a contribution but didn't meet the match deadline last night, it's not too late to make an impact with your generosity. Here's where to address your letter, LivingOnTheEdge, P.O. Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia, 30024. Our address again is PO Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia, 30024. or give online at livingonthege.org.
Need direction on how to make 2026 the best year ever? I'm Dave Druy, inviting you to hear Chip Ingram's insightful answer tomorrow on Living on the Edge. Mm.
