Being generous with your money is good. But if that's where it ends, you're missing God's purpose in this important character quality. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah considers what Jesus said about living generously. Not surprisingly, it isn't about what flows from your wallet, but what flows from your spirit.
Listen as David introduces today's message, A Life of Generosity.
Well, you know, there are many people who are very generous, and they're not all Christian people. Generosity is a characteristic that is admired by everyone, not always pursued by everyone, but admired by everyone. And the Bible has quite a bit to say about it. And I think we should have a biblical concept, a biblical doctrine of generosity that permeates our lives and the lives of other Christians that we know.
So we're going to take a couple of days and talk about that, and we'll begin that in just a moment. Let me talk about some generosity from our part. We want to generously give you a book, a book that will help you grow in your faith and be strong in your concepts of who God is and what He has promised to do.
So this book is called What God Promises You: Seven Truths That Will Change the Way You Live. And the book is available from Turning Point. If you will send a gift of any size during this month, in the few days we have left and ask for your copy, it will come to you. Through the mail, just as soon as we can turn it around, and you will have it to build upon as you go into this new year and trust the Lord for growth in your life. Once again, the book is called What God Promises You: Seven Truths That Will Change the Way You Live, and it's our resource for the month of January.
Now I hope you Know somebody who's generous. I hope you're generous. But what is it? What does it mean to be generous? And how do we go about that?
Here's part one of a life of generosity. Was in the fall of 2014, and high school custodian Carolyn Collins. Was about to take out the trash in the early morning darkness when she heard a loud knock on the cafeteria door.
So she set down her garbage can and cracked the door. Two students, a boy and a girl, looked at her nervously. Can we please come in? asked the boy, even though school didn't start for two more hours. Me and my sister are getting tired of waiting outside.
They said they'd been living in a car with their mother. Who had dropped them off early so they could get ready for school in one of the restrooms. Carolyn Collins felt her eyes fill with tears. The teams were hungry.
So she fed them some fruit and milk and cereal that she could get to in the cafeteria. And this was the day that she hatched a plan. for a school giving closet. That's what she called it. Food, clothing, shoes, toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, and more, all free to any student at her school.
Tucker High School, about twenty files from Atlanta. Collins immediately spent two hundred dollars of her own money. on snacks and toiletries and socks. and pencils She asked the administrator if there was a place where she could put all this stuff. After cleaning out an old storage room near the cafeteria Collins' giving closet, was up and running.
Since 2014, if you're in that school's 1800 student body, And you're in need of an item such as food, soap, school supplies, book bags, and clothes. If you just mention it to Collins, She'll open the closet. You can take whatever you need. When I tell them I love you, And I see the smiles on their faces. That's pure joy, she says.
Everybody needs somebody. Seeing that they know they are loved, that's My reward. Carolyn Collins epitomizes what we call. generosity. I want to just talk to you.
for these few moments we have together about Generosity. Before we go any further, let me lay down a foundational principle. Here it is. Generosity is not what's in your bank account, it's what's in your heart. Most of us, if we are honest, equate generosity with financial giving because that's what we hear about most of the time when that word is mentioned.
But generosity has a much fuller definition than that. Generosity includes respect and compassion and courtesy and forbearance and patience. All of these are expressions of a generous spirit. Each day, we're given opportunities to exercise generosity. To respond to impatience with patience.
to reply to a hurried or thoughtless comment. with an expression of understanding. To overlook what we don't like in someone so we can seek and find what we do like. For most of us, Generosity doesn't come naturally. How many of you know nobody has ever been born into the universe?
as a generous person. Can all the mothers say amen? Yeah. Children fiercely protect their toys. Have you noticed that?
And as teenagers, we're more interested in fairness than benevolence. As we become adults, we're so weighed down with financial overwhelm, we can't find any time to be generous. It might not come naturally to us to be generous, but let me tell you something I've learned. It does come naturally to our Heavenly Father. And we can learn from him.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. and comes down from the Father of lights. With whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Every good gift we get comes from our generous. Heavenly Father.
I read an article by Mark Altegree and it had the title Our God is incredibly generous. I couldn't wait to see what this guy said. Here's what he wrote. One of God's attributes that I know hear about is his generosity. We teach about God's sovereignty and His holiness.
We preach on His infinite power and His omniscience and His wisdom and His love. Because loving is part of the Godhead that we want to hear most, but here's what you need to know, he said. Because he is loving, he is generous. I have not heard many who have focused on God's lavish generosity. I have not heard many teachings, he wrote, about expecting God to be generous to us when we.
Come to him with our needs and our requests. But our God Said this writer, is a lavish, overflowing, generous, bountiful, magnanimous God who loves to give good gifts to his children. He even blesses those who hate him with thousands of good things. How much more will he bless those of us for whom? He purchased with his own son's precious blood.
When we look at God's creation, He said we catch a glimpse of God's overflowing, lavish nature. And then he illustrated it. He said he created billions of galaxies and stars. The sun, the moon, the planets. God didn't create just one simple kind of star.
He is over-the-top creative. He's generous. The heavens declared the glory of God, including His abundant, bountiful nature. Look at the earth. There are more than 750 species of butterflies.
11,000 species of moths that have been recorded, and many, many more out there yet to be recorded. There's somewhere around 22,000 species of fish. There's over a hundred and fifty species of roses. Thirty-five thousand species of spiders in the world. And of course.
the greatest and most generous gift of God. was the gift of his own son, Jesus Christ. Who was the greatest act of generosity ever? And it was poured out through his blood to save us and give us infinitely wonderful eternal life. Which is ours when we put our trust in Him.
Oh, yes. Our God is a generous God. And here's the good news. We are made in his image, and therefore we can take comfort in knowing that generosity. Is within our reach.
We can learn how to be generous. And that should be our goal. I'll be honest with you. I want to be a generous man. I hope I'm generous now, but I want to grow old more generous.
Generosity should be a goal for all of us. And you know what? Here's something I've learned. Maybe you've learned it too: the older you get, the less you are impressed with all the junk you have. Isn't that true?
Let me give you, first of all, a picture of the generous life from the New Testament, a story most of you probably know that's in the New Testament. It's a story that you have to read and understand and kind of get inside of to really appreciate because generosity is one of those principles that's more caught than taught. In other words, you see it and you understand it more than just reading about it. We understand it most when we see it in operation. And one of the best examples of generosity in action can be found in the New Testament.
The story is told in Mark chapter 12, and it begins with Jesus sitting near the treasury, observing the people as they gave their offerings as they came to the temple.
Now, in the temple of Jesus' day, there were 13 receptacles where the Jews brought their taxes and their tithes. And each treasury box was created like this. It had a large horn coming out of the top into which people would place their money. which then funneled down through the receptacle into The collection box.
Some worshipers deliberately reduced their offerings into as many small coins as possible so that when they threw them into the brass horn, you could hear them giving their money all over the temple. Echoing off the great stone walls, and people would say, Oh, that must have been a great offering. On this particular day, as Jesus sat there by the treasury, He watched many people come and throw in large amounts of money. to be seen and heard by others. And then a poor widow came in.
and quietly made her meager offering. In the language of the New Testament, the word we translate as the word poor.
Well, that's the word used to describe somebody who is really, really poor, somebody who is destitute.
someone who is a pauper or a beggar. In our day, this widow might have been someone depending on public assistance or someone off the street, someone homeless. In our story, Jesus tells us specifically what the poor widow gave. He said she gave two mites. And the word mites translates the Greek word lepta, the smallest denomination of coin that was minted in the Greek world.
In the economy of that particular day, a mite was worth 128th of one day's pay. Not enough even to buy a stale piece of bread. Never one to waste a teaching moment, Jesus says to his disciples, having observed this, This poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury. For they put in out of their abundance, but she put in out of her poverty all that she had, her whole livelihood.
Now, I want you to know that Jesus does math different than we do. He didn't take our math classes. He came into the world with a total understanding of heavenly math. And Jesus made an astounding statement. He said she put in more Then all of the rest of the people who had come before her With their loud-sounding offerings.
G. Campbell Morgan wrote: It's an amazing thing. He said, Jesus did not say, this poor woman hath done splendidly. He did not say this poor woman hath cast in very much. He did not say she hath cast in as much as anyone.
He did not say she has cast in as much as the whole of them. He said more than them all. Presiding over the temple coffers that day, the Lord of the temple took the gifts and he sifted them. And on the one hand, he put the gifts of wealth and the gifts of ostentation, and on the other hand, two mites. And he said, The two mites.
We're more than they all. In other words, Jesus indicated that the thing that is most important is not how much is given, but the extent to which the gift is sacrificial. The widow's total giving demonstrates an attitude of absolute trust in God. And the power of the story gets Way more powerful than what we've already read as we look at the potential of this generous life. By itself, this woman's act of sacrificial spontaneous generosity, I mean, it challenges us.
Just to read the story, I mean, you're really impressed that something like a Hollywood movie could be made out of that. You see it in your mind's eye. You see this woman bending over with her two little coins and putting them in the receptacle. And then we see it against the backdrop of the culture. And its impact is even greater.
Let me tell you what I've learned. In the Roman world, Generosity was regarded as a virtue reserved for the rich and the powerful. The Latin word Generosis from which we get the word generosity. referred to a person's birth. It comes from the Greek word Genesis, like the book of Genesis in the Bible.
And the book of Genesis is the beginning.
So generosity comes from a root word that means the beginning. It talks about the fact that in order to be generous, you had to have had a good beginning. You had to have been born into wealth. You had to have been among the elite. You had to have been an aristocrat.
In fact, their culture depended on this. The wealthy acted as patrons, funding the work of artists and artisans and commissioning public works.
However, unlike our definition of generosity, which expects nothing in return, Wealthy Roman citizens were compensated for the strain on their bank account. They could take the form of preferential business arrangements, promoting someone for political office, advocating for favorable laws, or championing a benefactor's civil status. Come to think of it, it's quite a lot like what we do today, isn't it? If you have enough money, you can get influence. Let's just say it that way.
The widow gave all that she had in the temple. and she wouldn't have been expected to give anything. She would not have been included in the list of the generous. She was swimming upstream against the culture and against the custom of her day. As Americans We like to pat ourselves on the back and repeat the mantra that we are the most generous nation in the world.
And to be truthful, our government does give a lot of our money away.
Sometimes we wonder Who's telling them they can do that? But that does not make us a generous nation. Generous nations are made up of generous people. And I'm going to give you a statistic that may shock you because it shocked me. 85% of Americans give away less than 2% of their income.
You say, Well, I don't believe that. I didn't either, but. I didn't do this statistical study.
So here's this woman. Are you with me? She didn't have anything. She's not even supposed to be doing this because she's not in the right group. She's not in the right segment of society.
And you know what I thought when I read this again and studied again? Maybe you can identify with me. I think she just got overwhelmed with God. Have you ever been overwhelmed with God? No matter what you have, you just give it to them.
What do you want, God? You got it all. You are such an overwhelming God. I hope if you have never been overwhelmed with God, before you die, you have a chance to be overwhelmed with God. It will do something in your life that you probably never anticipate.
So there's the picture of a generous life, and there's the Potential of it.
So now the question is.
Okay, I got it. I know what generosity is. What is the path to a generous life? If it is true, Why is generosity so hard? How do we cultivate generosity in our lives?
And I've done a lot of homework on this and read a lot of stuff on it, and mostly from the scriptures. And I don't have a Opportunity to share with you what I've learned, but I want to give you some of the thoughts. that I've collected about How to develop generosity in your life. First of all, change the way you think about money. The most vital step we take toward developing a generous spirit is turning the way we think of money.
on its head. When we remember that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, We realize that nothing good is really ours to start with. It's God's, and He bestows it on us as a gift. To be used so that we can glorify Him. And when we start thinking of money is just one of the countless good gifts from our Father who loves us.
We can rest in the knowledge that He knows what we need. He never leaves us. Without responding to us, he promises to provide, and his storehouses are unending. Think of it this way. You make a pie chart.
To see where your money's going. Maybe you're that artistic person and you do that, or you do it with your computer.
So much in this piece, so much in this piece. Here's our utilities, here's our rent, or whatever. And when you get all done, all of your money is in the pie. And each expenditure in every category takes away from the whole until you use it all up. It's a closed system.
There's nothing for you outside of that circle. But God is infinite and he doesn't work in pie charts. He works in rivers, rivers of blessing, and he never runs out. His is not a closed system, it's an open system. And He is the one who supplies all of our needs, and He never runs out of supplies.
He can hear us. And He can respond to us, and we can stop thinking about our money in terms of a pie being eaten up and start thinking of ourselves as conduits of His grace. What he gives to us, we can pass on to others without fear. Here's what Luke 6:38 says: one of the great teaching verses on economy. This is from the New Living Translation.
Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over. and pour it into your lap. Isn't that the truth? And we've seen it, and we've experienced it, and we know that God doesn't work in a pie chart, He works in a river.
2 Corinthians 9:8 says it this way: And God will generously provide all you need, then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with other people. Not only should we change the way we think about money, but we should expose our heart to the brokenness of humanity. Let me just say it this way, you will never be generous if you never see the need. If you live in your little moat-surrounded castle and never venture outside to see how most people live and what their needs and problems are. you will never be a generous person.
Kenneth Byring discovered the power of this principle years ago. He was an affluent and, he thought, generous man. He was a construction magnet. But he went to Vietnam in the year 2000, and his whole life was transformed. His story is One of the best you'd ever read.
The retired Construction owner was helping a relief organization bring food and medicine to a village. And it was there that Barring personally delivered a wheelchair to a six-year-old polio victim. The girl's reaction changed his life. She got a big smile on her face. She couldn't believe it, said Bering.
It's a sensation I've never experienced before with anything else in my whole life. He was inspired and he came home. And he created the wheelchair foundation, and today, His foundation delivers 10,000 wheelchairs a month around the world. He saw the need. He saw how desperate these people were in cultures where wheelchairs are not available, and it changed his whole life.
He saw the need, and it made him a generous person. You see the point? Living in a prosperous nation with a welfare system which, though flawed, provides a safety net of sort to needy people. It's easy to think that everyone has what they need. But that's not the case.
And if there's poverty in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, how much more is there in the poorest countries in the world? Believe it or not, 400 of us from this church. Piled into airliners and flew to Swaziland, Africa, to help people. in one of the poorest countries in the world. Our whole strategy was We were going to go there and plant Crops for these people.
We had special crops that were created just for them, and we would plant crops around the villages. We were there for 10 days. and most of us will never ever forget. What happened? Yes, that was quite an experience that we had.
And we talk about it even today, quite often, remembering some of the things that took place while we were together in Africa.
So um We'll have more about this tomorrow. We're about halfway through this message. After we're finished with this stewardship collection, we're going to teach the book of Ecclesiastes, Heaven on Earth, one of my favorite studies of all time, and one of the most amazing books in the Old Testament, filled with truth about, well, just about everything you can imagine. And written by a man who was struggling to find life without God. We'll talk more about that when we get closer, but that's what's coming up after we finish with.
investing for eternity. And we're very close to that right now. Be sure and join us tomorrow as we conclude our discussion of Investing for Eternity with Part 2. of a life of generosity. For more information on Dr.
Jeremiah's special message on generosity, please visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected, our monthly Turning Points magazine and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio. Or call us at 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's new book, What God Promises You, Seven Truths That Will Change the Way You Live.
It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International and New King James Versions, available in your choice of attractive and durable cover options. Get all the details when you visit our website, davidjeremiah.org slash radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow for more from this special message on generosity on Turning Point with Dr.
David Jeremiah.
