Daring Faith: Daring To Be Generous with Rick Warren

if you'll take out your message notes I really as I said don't have a sermon today because I'm going to spend most of the time of you going outside and seeing what we've got to do but if you want the blessing of God on your life if you want the power of God in your life if you want the anointing of God through your life you must build your life on three things to have the blessing of God integrity humility and generosity integrity humility and generosity these are the three great antidotes to the three great temptations in life I don't have time to get into it today but this if you build your life on integrity humility and generosity you will set up for yourself a barrier to the three greatest traps and life that cause people to fail in life today since it's we're gonna give an offering I want us to just look at one of those generosity generosity now in the Bible there are about 7,000 promises of God these are blank cheques for you and God says if you do this I'll do that with every promise there is a premise God says there's a condition for every one of the promises of God in your life promises for success promises for satisfaction promises for fulfillment promises of blessing and over 7,000 promises of God to you but every promise has a premise in the Bible the number one thing that God has promises about is connected to generosity there are more promises related to generosity in the Bible than any other subject and when I say generosity I'm not just talking about money I'm talking about being generous with your time being generous with your energy being generous with your praise being generous with your talent being generous with every area of your life it is becoming an unselfish person and more promises about that than anything else so what is generosity why is God so interested in generosity why is he so interested in learning learning how to be generous that he gives all these kind of rewards and promises more than any other thing the answer is because generosity is love in action you can give without loving but you cannot love without giving you cannot be loving without being generous if I tell my wife that I love her but I'm not generous with my wife I don't really love her if I'm not generous with my kids I don't really love my kids because love gives God so loved the world that He gave and as I said it's all of generosity simply love in action and if I'm not a generous person I'm not a loving person I may think I am but I'm not because love is all about giving it's not about getting a lot of songs on the radio they're not love songs they're love songs lust is about getting you make me feel like a natural woman uh you know you make me feel good that's lust that's not love love is giving lust is about getting now interesting I did a study of the major words of the Bible keywords the Bible the word believe' we all know that's important is use 272 times in the Bible believe 272 times I pray that's an important word we that is used in the Bible 371 times 371 times the word love obviously we know that's an important world where it is used 714 times in the Bible but the word give is used two thousand one hundred and fifty two times why because God is a giver everything you have in your life is a gift from God if God was not generous you would have nothing your heart would stop beating right now God is a generous God he gives you air sunshine a mind to think and everything else in your life is a shear gift from God even the ability to earn is a gift from God and God wants us to learn be like him now since today we're going to give a historic offering I thought before I send you out I just real quickly give you a dozen of those major promises about generosity in Scripture you're going to have to write fast but here are a dozen benefits this is what happens in you every time you are generous okay number one first thing that happens generosity honors God generosity honors God giving is an act of worship and it's a recognition that everything you have is a gift from God the Bible says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 you will be glorifying God through your generous gifts that's what you're going to do in just a minute your generosity will prove that you are obedient to the good news of Christ proverbs 14 31 says whoever is generous to the needy that means you give money to help the poor and that's part of what we're doing is we're helping the poor whoever is generous to the needy honors God it honors God number two generosity draws me closer to God generosity draws me closer to God why because whatever I invest in is what I'm interested in if I invest my time in something I invest my money in something I invest my energy in something whether it's golf or a new business plan whatever I invest my time and money in shows what's important to me and when I invest in God and his work it not only honors God it draws me closer to him because wherever my money and time go is what attracts me the Bible says this proverb 14:23 the purpose of tithing is to teach you to always put God first in your lives we give the first part of our income first 10% on the first day of the week say god you're really number one it all came from you Matthew 6 verse 21 jesus said your heart will be wherever your treasure is so ever you put your money that's where your hearts going to be and if you want to be closer to God put some money there it'll draw you closer to God number three generosity makes me more like Jesus generosity makes me more like Jesus because the most generous person who ever lived of course was Jesus Christ he sacrificed his own life the Bible says we have been saved because of the generosity of Jesus every time you give time money energy anything you become more like Jesus every time you give your heart grows bigger every time you give you become more like Christ now the Bible says this proverbs 21 26 the greedy always want more but the godly love to give and the more godly you become the more generous you are and it also works in Reverse the more generous you are the more godly you're going to become the more godly you are the more generous you be the more generous you are the more godly you'll be Luke 11 - 41 purity is best demonstrated by generosity in other words to live a holy life is to be a giver it makes me like Christ you know when I see this verse it reminds me an old story Bob McEwan told me one day Bob took his young son was sitting in his car seat - to McDonald's and he in to buy him some french fries and he takes him through the drive-thru and he gives his son sitting there the French fries and he says as he was driving back home it smelled so good he said I just reached over and took one of my son's french fries he said my little son said dad you can't have any these are my fries Bob said I immediately had three thoughts he said number one I realized that my child had forgotten that I am the source of all fries he would have no french fries if it weren't for me I brought him here I drove him here I bought the fries I paid for the fries I handed him the fries he would have no fries in life if it weren't for his father and the only reason he got any was because of me he said the second thing I realized is that my child doesn't realize that I could take him all away if I wanted to I could take the whole thing away so no more until after supper or no more right now that's all you can eat I could take him away instantly or on the other hand I could go back and buy him a truckload of fries if I wanted to I was totally in charge he was not and he said third I realized that I really didn't need his fries that if I had wanted fries I could have bought him for myself I had plenty of money I could have take I could have bought him for myself I can easily get my own I just wanted my young son to learn unselfishness I wanted him to learn how to share those are the same three reasons God wants you to learn generosity God does not need your money it all belongs to him anyway it wasn't yours before you're born it's not gonna be yours after you're died he just loaned it to you while you're alive it's all his he is the source of all fries everything you have in your life if you if God didn't love you and be generous with you you would have zip nada nothing he could take it away from you instantly and he could give you ten times out of mount instantly he just wants you to learn how to be unselfish why because God is a fry Giver God is generous and it makes me like Christ number four generosity is the cure for materialism generosity is the cure for materialism materialism is all about getting get get get get get get get get get get all you can and can't all you get and materialism is about taking in and acquiring and hoarding and I got to get more and more and more mo the only antidote the only antidote to materialism is giving you may say I'm not materialistic but if you're not generous you are you are because the only antidote every time you give you break the grip of materialism in your life you break it you stop being a materialist now the Bible says this jesus said in matthew 6:24 you cannot serve both God and money Circle the word cannot notice he did to say you should not serve both God and money he said you can't it's impossible you can't have two gods in your life you got to decide what's more important to you being rich or serving God what's more important to me is God number one in my life or his money number one in my life he says you can't have two gods you can't serve both in your life and in a consumer-driven culture and especially in the good life of Orange County it's pretty hard to fight materialism everybody agree with that it's very easy to get caught up in being a consumer and thinking that my life that my net worth determines my self-worth it does not your values are not your valuable and your net worth and your self-worth are not connected but daily you are bombarded by advertising and Satan has a little tool he likes to use to make you materialist it's called catalogs and when you look through a catalog you man I didn't even know they made that but I got to have it now where was I without that first Timothy chapter 6 verse 17 and 18 says this command those who are rich by the way everybody listening right now hey tell you this you're rich you may be unemployed but you're rich the poorest of the poor in America are richer than most of the rest of the world most of the world would love to have the the problems of people who are poor in America command those who are rich that's all of us in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain but to put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our what would you Circle that word enjoyment did you know that everything God created is for your enjoyment God wants you to enjoy life not just endure it God created it for your enjoyment that's the kind of generous God he is everything provided for our enjoyment command them that's us to be generous and willing to share and in this way they will take hold of the life that is true like you don't know what you're really living for until you break the grip of materialism in your life number five generosity demonstrates my faith generosity every time you give it demonstrates your faith because it shows that you're trusting in the promises of God it shows that what kind of what you believe it shows that you believe that God will take care of you if you obey Him 2nd Corinthians says this you're giving proves the reality of your faith Philemon 1:6 says your jet you are generous because of your faith by the way that's why I've been trying to build your faith for the last nine weeks you're generous because your faith stin genus is caused by unbelief I don't really believe that God can take care of me I don't believe that if I give this away I'll have enough for myself that's a worry that's a anxiety that's a fear that's an unbelief stin genus is caused by unbelief you're generous because of your faith in Malachi 3:10 God dares you to trust his promises he says this bring the whole tithe that's 10% into my storehouse what's the storehouse it's the temples wherever you were worship test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you won't have room enough for God says I dare you this is the Pepsi challenge chest of the Bible I dare you this by the way is the only place in the Bible it says you can prove there's a god when I was in seminary working on my doctorate you know we learned the the fizzle Salah philosophical argument for the existence of God the cosmological argument the teleological argument the ontological argument Kant's moral argument and all the others but in the Bible it says the way you prove that God exists is by tithing and see if he doesn't bless you more it demonstrates my faith number six generosity reveals my character in other words it shows what kind of heart you really have it shows do I have a selfish art or do I have an unselfish heart do I have a generous heart do I have a stingy heart giving generosity shows what my heart is really like in fact the Bible says that God uses money to test what's really inside of you and he uses money to test and see if he can trust you with more and he says if you're faithful with little things I'll give you more things and the Bible says if you're faithful and that was just not your own what I loan you where on earth I will give you greater blessing in eternity you may not realize this but the rewards and the responsibilities that you have in heaven are going to be based on how you manage your money huh look at this next verse Jesus Christ said it if you are untrustworthy with worldly wealth you don't manage your money well you're not generous with it if you're untrustworthy with worldly wealth who will trust you with the true riches of heaven and the answer is nobody God won't your responsibility and rewards in heaven are going to be built on how you handled what God gave you right now what did you do with what you were given alright let's look at some promises number 7 giving our generosity brings God's blessing I could give you a hundred verses on this in the Bible generosity brings God's blessing if you want God's blessing on your life learn to not be a miser you must learn to not be stingy you must learn to be open-handed with what God has gave you helping other people with everything you've got and the more you give away your time your talent your treasure the more God will give you giving brings God's blessing look at these verses proverbs 22 9 generous people will be blessed now you need to believe that or you don't but God said it and it's true Deuteronomy 15 10 give generously then because of this God will bless you in all your work you want God to bless all your work and in everything you put your hand to you want God to bless everything you put your hand you there's the answer right there give generously that's one of those 7,000 promises here's another one 2nd Corinthians 9 7 & 8 God loves the one who gives gladly and God will make it up to you by giving you everything you need and more so that there will not only be enough for your own needs but plenty left over to give joyfully to others it brings God's blessing number 8 generosity increases my happiness generosity increases my happiness everybody knows this that generosity increases your happiness the only people who don't know it people who aren't generous jesus said it like this in acts 20 there's more happiness in giving than in receiving now I will admit to you when I was a child at Christmas it wasn't all about what I bought everybody else when I was a child is all about what I got and as a child all my joy came from the presents I got not from the presents I gave to other people but that was a long time ago I was immature and I was self-centered today I'm a grandfather today at Christmas it's not about the presents I get my joy comes from watching other people unwrapped the gifts that I've given to them why because I grew up I stopped being self-centered it stopped being about me that's called maturity unfortunately some people never grow up and at 80 years old it's still all about them what am I getting out of this and they've never learned the joy of generosity generosity increases my happiness number nine generosity this will blow your mind generosity expands my influence the more generous you become the more influential you will become influence comes not from what you get in life influence comes from what you give away in life and the more you give away the more influential you'll be now there's everything being famous and being influential there are a lot of people who are famous who have no influence a lot of selfish people who are famous but don't have real influence when you want to help other people influence comes from generosity here's what the Bible says proverbs 1124 the world of the generous gets larger and larger and the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller some 1:12 says this verse 9 those who give generously to those in need you're helping the poor you're helping that unfortunate will never be forgotten you want a legacy help the poor will never be forgotten they will have influence and honor I have found this one to be true in my own personal life but the more generous I became the more influential I became you know my story you know my story 40 years ago and Kay and I got married we started tithing our income 10% the end of our first year image we raised our giving to to the Lord and to charity to 11 percent in the second year we raised it to 12 percent third year we raised it three percent and and and fourth year we keep adding and even in tough times we would always raise our giving a little bit why because I wanted my heart to grow bigger every year I wanted to be more like Jesus I wanted to be godly I wanted to be like God I wanted to be holy now we weren't doing this to show off because as you know I didn't tell any by about this for over 25 years we just quietly did it raising our giving from 20 percent to thirty to forty percent to 50 percent to 60 to 70 and most of you know that for the last ten years Kay and I have given away ninety-one percent of our income and we live on nine now we do that because you cannot outgive God and God says you give to me and I'll give to you and you know what I've learned is that while my giving went up so did my influence last week when I was testifying at the EDC at the Congress I was testifying before Senate one of the guys took my side senator and he asked me a question he says you know Rick I know this thing about Purpose Driven Life sold a gazillion copies best-selling book in the world you know for four years it was the best it's the best-selling non-fiction book in American history it's in a hundred and thirty seven languages it's in Guinness it's the most translated book in the world except for the Bible has two Guinness records and he goes why do you think God chose you to write the best-selling non-fiction hardback in all the time so do I know why I know I said what I said because God knew he could trust me with the money God knew that I would not spend it on my stuff I wouldn't go buy a bigger house I I wouldn't go buy a bigger car uh you know I wear a watch from Walmart you know I live I Drive a 15 year old Ford truck God knew I wouldn't spend the money in myself I would use it to help more other people now I know a lot of people say well shoot if I wrote a gazillion seller I'd give away millions - no you wouldn't no you wouldn't I guarantee you what why cuz you're not being generous right now and I was generous when we were out of work and I was Genesis when I had no money and I was generous when the cupboard was bare and I was generous when K he was holding the job and I was trying to put me through school and I had a 40 year track record of being generous and God knew he could trust me and with that generosity came additional influence number 10 generosity this is a big one generosity multiplies my money it's just a big one and I give you a lot of verses on this generosity actually multiplies my money God has worked out the universe in such a way that when I give God 10% of my income that's called tithing that he makes the 90 percent go farther than if I had a hundred percent on my own the Bible says this proverbs 11:25 a generous man will prosper you want to prosper there it is a generous man will part that's God talking and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed and the Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 9 you will be enriched Circle that word that means you're gonna have more than you have right now you will be enriched so that you can be a fat cat and spend it all on yourself no you will be enriched so that you can give even more generously God multiplies your money you play this game God says you give to me and I'll give to you and you give to others and I'll give you dwell see who wins you you're never gonna win the generosity game I can tell you that generosity multiplies my money number 11 generosity brings God's protection a lot of people don't know this one that it actually brings God's protection on your family on your business on your own life Psalm 112 verse 5 and 6 says this all goes well for the generous man who conducts his business fairly you got there's two of those things integrity and generosity right there such a man will not be overthrown by evil circumstances no notice doesn't say you don't have evil circumstances you're not overthrown by them everybody has tough times everybody goes through problems there's no guarantee of a problem for your life you're going to have evil circumstance in your life but when you're generous God says I will make sure you're not blown away by them you're not overthrown but the evil circumstances happen in your life God's constant care of him will make a deep impression on all who see if they think look at that guy he's blessed even in tough times God is blessing him even when things are going wrong in his life and all around him generosity brings God's protection and then number 12 generosity will be rewarded in heaven it will be rewarded in heaven the Bible says this first Timothy chapter 6 verse 18 19 use your money to do good now let's just circle the word use money is to be used it is not to be loved it is to be used you use money you love people if you start loving money you're going to use people money is a tool you might write that down money is neither good nor bad it's just neutral you can use it for good or you can use it for bad there's nothing evil about money it's just neutral it can be used in really good ways it can be used in really bad ways people say doesn't the Bible say money is the root of all evil no it doesn't it doesn't say that it says the love of money is the root of all evil you're to love people and use money not reverse so he says use your money to do good always being ready to share with others whatever God has given you by doing this you will be storing up real treasure for yourself in heaven it is the only safe investment for eternity and they that's us you will be living a fruitful Christian life down here as well now you can't take it with you you never see a hearse pulling a u-haul you can't take it with you but you can send it on ahead four times a scripture Jesus says store up treasure in heaven how do you do that how do you bank in heaven by investing in people who are going there that's how you do it by investing in what we're doing in daring fate getting people into heaven getting them strong getting them growing he said that's investing in heaven he said what you send on ahead you're going to be able to enjoy the treasures in heaven for yourself one of the most important things that jesus said is this next verse luke 16 verse 9 I tell you this is Jesus talking I tell you use your worldly wealth your worldly resources that's your money to benefit others not yourself others and make friends so what do mean by that maybe I'll come back to that in this way your generosity stores up a reward for you in heaven what does it mean to use my worldly resources to benefit others and make friends he's not saying go out and buy a bunch of friends that's not what he's saying what he's saying is this take some of your money and use it to build bridges of friendship to bring people to Jesus Christ who are then going to be saved and they're going to go to heaven with you and when you get to heaven then there will be people in heaven who greets you and say hey you're here thank God for all you did you gave some money that brought me to Jesus Christ I'm in heaven because of you I'm your friend forever is anybody going to be in heaven because of the way you use your money I'm gonna have tens of thousands of friends in heaven because of the way I've used my money it's anybody gonna be in heaven because of the way you used your money are you gonna have any friends up there because people say thank you I'm here because of you you bought a Bible you sponsored a project you built a church you helped the program you did other things and through that I came to know the Lord I'm here because of you I'm your friend forever that is what it means to be rewarded in heaven and those rewards you're gonna have for everything I spend on myself on earth I'm losing every thing I invest in others and in God's work I'm going to gain again in heaven where do I want to keep my greatest wealth here where I get the user for 80 years or in heaven where I get to use it for trillions of years in eternity it's a no-brainer generosity will be rewarded in heaven now it's time for us to give our offerings and make our three-year pledges kay and I gave our envelope last night and here's what I want you to do if you have prayed about this and you say I know what God wants me to give I mean you've had eight weeks nine weeks to think about it then I want you to take this out and fill out the envelope and you can make your cash and and and your pledge offering you could do that if you've already done this online like I said about a thousand families have already given online uh I just want you to write your name down here sign it and write I gave online if you have not prayed about this do not give because you're not going to you're just going to make an impulsive emotional decision I want you to take this home with you think about it pray about it and then you can bring it back next week or you can give online or you can mail it in but don't do it now you need this is an important decision because of these 12 benefits I write a newsletter called news and views most of you know it's an email I send - insider information every week and this week on Friday I said I honestly admitted that I had mixed emotions about this weekend I always do I've done it seven times mixed emotions first I'm ecstatically happy over what I know is going to happen I have no doubt this is going to be a huge success it always is God always comes through I know that people who are gonna make sacrifices are gonna grow I know that their faith is gonna change their life I know that the journey over the next three years is gonna cause people to grow in the women of God and men of God and it's gonna bring enormous blessing I have no doubt about that and for that I'm excited but I'm also saddened and I'm also grieving for the fact that I know that there'll be some people here we're gonna miss this whole thing and it's not hurt god it's gonna hurt them and that grieves me the one day they're going to be people who came to Saddleback Church they're gonna stand before God and God's gonna gate say I gave you this great opportunity to make a difference at Saddleback Church and I grave you an opportunity to grow in faith I gave you an opportunity to practice my promises I gave and you didn't do it what were you thinking for those who don't become a part of this it's not gonna hurt God it doesn't hurt me it doesn't hurt the church church is gonna succeed whether you're a part of it or not you are the one who gets hurt and so I want to challenge you if you have not made this decision to go home and seriously think about do I want to miss out on this do I want to miss the personal benefits that will those twelve things that are to bring to my life because one day you'll give an account to God on that that's bow for prayer father I thank you for the gifts that have just been given and I know what you're gonna do in people's lives than I thank you for that and father maybe even there are people here today who didn't participate but you're gonna put it on their heart this week saying I do not want to miss out on the miracles in my own life on making a part of history of being part of something bigger than myself help them to get over their fear their anxiety or their unwillingness to trust you and I pray this in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Saddleback Church

Views: 88,772

Rating: 4.7578287 out of 5

Keywords: Rick Warren, Saddleback Church, Daring Faith, Faith, Generosity, Giving, Integrity, Humility, investment, God, Happiness

Id: 2_5-4wiOxsE

Length: 33min 55sec (2035 seconds)

Published: Mon May 18 2015