Sermon Transcript

0:00:14.0

One of my favorite sections of scripture is known as the Sermon on the Mount.  This is found in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7.  Probably one of Jesus’s most famous sermons or, some people say, collection of sermons that were developed.  Several weeks ago or months ago when we were in Israel, we went to the Mount of Beatitudes on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.  And we went to the place that many people believe Jesus delivered these words found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7.  It’s a very practical section of scripture.  It’s one of three major discourses that Jesus delivered and that are recorded for us in the Gospels.  You have the Sermon on the Mount.  You have the Upper Room Discourse, John 13-17.  And then you have the Olivet Discourse.  Just days before He went to the cross He met with His…well, at least three or four of His disciples on the Mount of Olives and talked about the end of the age and signs of His second coming.  But the Sermon on the Mount is one that everybody kind of knows about.  And it’s a very practical teaching.  As you read through it, you’ll find Jesus landing upon life in a lot of different ways.  And it shouldn’t surprise us that He walks about money.  It’s one of His favorite subjects for reasons that we’ll get into this morning.  He spoke more about money than He did heaven and hell combined.  And so in the Sermon on the Mount we have Jesus talking about our treasures on earth and in heaven.  And in Matthew 6:19-24, interestingly enough, this section of scripture is just prior to the time He talks about worry.  And He says don’t be anxious about anything, but pray about everything and so forth.  So I’m just gonna take a stab in the dark here.  There might be somebody here who is worried about money.  Jesus has a lot to say about both our wealth and our worry, and it’s right here in the Sermon on the Mount.

0:02:09.8

Now, because Matthew 6:19-24, which I’m gonna read in just a moment, has to do with money, some people like to call this the “Sermon on the Amount”, and that’s a good way of thinking about it.  I got a bigger laugh in the 8:00 service, by the way.  Maybe you’ve heard it before.  But let me read Matthew 6:19-24, the words of Jesus.  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  The eye is the lamp of the body.  If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!  No one can serve two masters.  For either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.”  Now, we’ve been talking in this series about God’s plan for financial freedom.  We talked about that in week 2.  And we said that means free of debt, free from the love of money, free to give generously…and do you remember the last one?  Free to have…oh, come on…free to have fun.  You missed that one?  Free of debt, free from the love of money, free to give generously, and free to have fun.  And we got after the free of debt one and the free from the love of money one.  This morning I want to get after the free to give generously one.  And again, as we talk about giving from the perspective of Jesus here, I don’t want you to tense all up and get nervous about what the preacher’s gonna say.  Just relax.  No hidden agenda here.  Let’s just hear what Jesus has to say about a very important subject here.  And I want to share with you six principles from this reading, from Matthew 6:19-24 and some other passages we’ll go to.  But six principles about giving and generosity and why this is a subject that is important for all of us.  What’s in it for all of us?  What’s the self-interest there, if I could put it that way, and the reasons why giving is an important thing for all of us to do to grow in the grace of giving and in the grace of generosity.

0:04:38.3

Along the way and before we get into those six items, let’s just talk about two portfolios.  I’ve mentioned this earlier, but there are really two portfolios that every one of us is building or should be building.  One is an earthly portfolio, the other is an eternal portfolio.  Jesus has primarily in mind our eternal portfolio in this passage I just read.  But we could go other places where the scripture teaches us to focus, you know, appropriately on our earthly portfolio.  But let me just lay down some ideas and some principles here.

0:05:09.9

We invest in an earthly portfolio for income.  We get that, don’t we?  I mean, whether it’s stocks and bonds or mutual funds or precious metals or real estate or whatever, saving and investments we’re trying to build for the future and maybe build an income stream.  But you invest in your eternal portfolio for outcome.  What outcome am I talking about?  I’m talking about the outcome of a changed life when you invest in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ through your church and other places and you invest in eternity.  You invest in changed lives.  And the outcome that the gospel is gonna produce in that person’s life.  Earthly wealth grows by buying and selling.  Now, we understand that.  You buy low, you sell high.  That’s how you make money in the stock market, right?  That’s how you make money in the real estate market. You buy low and you sell high.  I’ve never been able to time that very well.  That’s why it’s not about timing the market.  It’s about time in the market, you know, and just staying there for the long haul.  But buying and selling is what we do in the earthly marketplace as we build our earthly portfolio.  But our eternal portfolio, eternal wealth grows by sowing and reaping.  And we’ll come back to that principle in a little bit.

0:06:26.8

So here are six principles of giving that are important for all of us to consider.  Number one, giving is an investment in eternity.  Jesus says it this way.  “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”  He’s very clear here.  He’s talking about an earthly investment versus a heavenly investment, an eternal investment.  Now, everybody I know, including myself, is looking for a good investment tip.  I wish I had been on the receiving end of the one that said, “You know, there’s this little company out on the, you know, west coast called Microsoft that you ought to think about investing in.”  Wouldn’t you have liked to have gotten in on the ground floor of that one?  Or Dell or, you know, one of these high tech companies.  Or Coca-Cola.  You know, bought it for pennies on the dollar.  Everybody’s looking for a good investment tip.  And there are all kinds of shows you can watch on television, cable TV, financial news programs.  Imagine you’re watching one of them, and there is a panel of maybe five guests.  Neil Cavuto is, you know, the moderator there.  And they’re all spouting off their investment strategies for the coming year.  And one guy over here says, “It’s time to get out of the stock market and get into bonds.”  The other one says, “No, it’s not time for that.  In fact, just the opposite.  It’s time to get out of bonds and get into equities in the stock market.”  Another guy over here, you know, he’s advocating precious metals, gold and silver, as an insurance policy against the future.  Somebody else is talking about real estate.  And then the fifth person is Jesus.  And He gives His investment advice.  He says, “Listen, I’ve got investment advice that is literally out of this world.  Pull everything out of earth and put it into heaven.”  Can you imagine advice like that?  Neil Cavuto’s jaw dropping to the floor.  Never invited again to a panel like that.  What are you, crazy?  Pull everything out of earth and put it into heaven?  That’s kind of what He’s saying here.  He says, “Don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.”  That happens, doesn’t it?  Just about the time that portfolio of yours is growing, the stock market is growing, there’s a crash or a correction.  By the way, it happens about every 8 to 10, maybe 11 years.  We’re due for another one.  And it just kind of comes and goes, doesn’t it?  Or that real estate investment you made or whatever it is.  He says the thieves break in and steal.  Yeah, today even the identity thieves can get at your stuff.  And at the end of the day, you can’t take it with you anyway.  You know that, don’t you?  You can’t take it with you, but you can send it ahead.  And that’s where your eternal portfolio comes into being.  Jesus literally has a vision for your financial life and mine that’s out of this world.  So He says pull it out of earth and put it into heaven.

0:09:40.8

Think of it this way.  When you came to faith in Jesus Christ, I don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest that God opened a bank account in your name.  Call it a heaven 401k account.  And you say, “Well, Pastor, that’s stretching it a little bit, isn’t it?”  No, I really don’t think so.  In fact, in Paul’s letter to the Philippians he is encouraging them for a number of things that they’ve done to benefit his ministry and to help him out.  And he encourages them for the gift that they gave, the financial gift that they gave to his ministry.  But he say in chapter 4 and verse 17, “Not that I am looking for a gift from you.”  He says, “I’m not looking for something from you.”  He says, “But I am looking for what may be credited to your account.”  That’s financial language.  He is saying, in effect, “There is an account in heaven with your name on it.  And because you invested in my ministry,” Paul says, “I am thrilled that that credit is going to your account.”  So imagine you have a heaven 401k account.

0:10:45.0

Now, in the earthly world, studies have shown that people who work for an employer that make a 401k account available to them to invest in their future, there is a high percentage of Americans that have zero in those accounts.  The account is open.  The account is available.  And they never take advantage of it.  And they get to that age where, you know, you say we need to retire or move on to something else.  And, you know, they’re looking around for somebody to take care of them like the government or somebody like that because they didn’t put anything in their 401k account.  It’s up to you to do that.  The government makes available IRA plan and tax-deductible plans.  There are all kinds of ways to invest for the future.  And there are biblical reasons to do that.

0:11:28.9

But it’s equally frightening to imagine Christians ending up in heaven and realizing they didn’t put anything in their heavenly 401k account.  Now, heaven will be heaven for everybody who is there by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  But if I understand the words of Jesus correctly, it will be more heavenly for some who chose to lay up for themselves treasures in heaven.  And circle those words “for yourselves”.  Jesus uses that phrase twice in these verses.  Don’t lay up for yourself treasures on earth.  It’s all gonna go away one day.  But, by comparison, He’s wanting us to think eternally.  He says, “Lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven.”  I call this sanctified self-interest.  This is something you need to do and I need to do for ourselves, because there is an eternal benefit for it.  Now, be careful.  You can’t buy your way into heaven.  That’s not what I’m talking about.  But your experience in heaven and my experience in heaven is enhanced in some way that I don’t completely understand when we invest in heaven.  When we send it ahead.  And Jesus says that this is the most safe, secure investment you can make.  Because when you lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, it’s a place where neither moth nor rust destroys, where the thieves—even the identity thieves—cannot break in and steal.  And I’m here to tell you.  Heaven has a dividend reinvestment plan that is literally out of this world.  I don’t know how it all calculates up.  But when you and I take the step of faith to live generously, to give to God first, to lay up for ourselves…again, sanctified self-interest here.  Jesus is telling us to do this.  And when we take the step of faith to do that—I don’t know—there is some kind of eternal benefit on the other side that makes heaven even more heavenly than it already is.

0:13:44.7

Larry Burkett was one of the pioneers of teaching in the area of biblical financial stewardship.  He’s with the Lord today.  But years ago, before he passed away, he led Christian Financial Concepts, which later became Crown Financial Ministries.  Larry Burkett used to say, “The Lord tells us that there really is something akin to the First National Bank of Heaven, and He wants us to know that we can invest for eternity.”  Haddon Robinson was a professor at one of my alma maters, Dallas Theological Seminary.  And he was a radio Bible teacher and a great expositor of scripture.  He wrote a book on the Sermon on the Mount.  And when he came to these verses right here, he said these words.  “Two thousand years have passed.  The situation may have changed, but the reality hasn’t.  Stocks and bonds are at the mercy of a changing market.  Inflation, like a rat, can nibble away at a bank account.  Currency can be devalued.  Houses, boats and cars are subject to fire, tornados and rust.  Even land can lose its value with just one chemical spill.  Wherever we put our wealth, there are no guarantees.  Only short-sighted investors build up portfolios on this earth.  Jesus gave better advice on investments.  Equities built up in heaven are more secure and bring better dividends.”  I was hoping an “amen” might shout there, but let’s move on.

0:15:10.6

Giving is an investment in eternity.  Secondly, giving moves my heart closer to God.  Here is how Jesus said it.  In verse 21 He says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Think about that for a moment.  Where your money goes shapes your heart.  We like to say, “No, my heart follows my money.”  It’s actually the other way around in the spiritual realm.  Your money shapes your heart.  And your heart is shaped by where your money goes.  Another way of saying is a glimpse inside your financial life or mine is a peek inside our heart.  It tells the whole story on our heart.  And you want to know why Jesus spent so much time talking about money?  Why 16 of the 38 parables that He told have a money or stewardship theme to them?  It’s because He’s trying to get to the heart of the matter in all of this.  And the heart of the matter has to do with who sits on the throne of our lives.  Giving moves my heart closer to God, and the opposite is true as well.

0:16:34.9

Now, I think what Jesus is looking for is people like, well, let’s just say Moses in the Old Testament.  You remember Moses?  You can read about him in the Old Testament books of Exodus and so forth.  But he’s also mentioned in the Hebrew hall of faith in Hebrews 11.  And here is what the writer of Hebrews says about Moses in a summary kind of fashion.  He says, “Moses regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward.”  Moses had an eternal mindset.  He was in line really to become a future pharaoh.  He grew up in all the privilege and all the treasures and all the wealth of Egypt.  It was his for the waiting.  And you remember the story.  And at age 40 he was banished to the backside of the desert for another 40 years.  And he met God at the burning bush.  And then the last 40 years of his life he led the people of Israel out of Egypt.  The writer of Hebrews with New Testament lenses says Moses’s life is a description of a guy who regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ of greater value than all the treasures of Egypt.  Why?  Because he saw an eternal reward in the future.

0:18:02.4

And this is what Jesus is wanting us to do.  In Matthew 6, He is trying to point us and tilt us, our hearts, in an eternal direction.  He says, “Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is also.”  Remember the conversation Jesus had with a rich young ruler?  He met this young man who came to Jesus with all kinds of questions about, you know, the law and what the law meant.  And they had a conversation about that.  And then Jesus looked at this young man, and He says, “Here’s what you need to do.”  He was a wealthy young man who had inherited a lot and a lot of power and possessions.  And He says, “You need to sell everything you have and give it to the poor and then come follow Me.”  Now, that’s what I call a radical financial plan.  And just relax.  Jesus didn’t say that to everybody in the scripture.  But Jesus, being God, has the ability to look inside our hearts (0:19:00.0) to see if there is any point of competition in our heart with Him.  And He looked inside the heart of that rich young ruler, and He saw that money was his god.  They had just finished a conversation about the Ten Commandments, the first of which says “You shall have no other gods before Me.”  And He looked inside that man’s heart and saw the competition.  And he prescribed radical financial surgery.  “You’re gonna have to dissolve yourself from all of this and distance yourself from it to follow Me.”  Now, that may not be your issue.  But it illustrates how easy it is for money and wealth and possessions and the pursuit of it can become our god.

0:19:45.4

So giving is an investment in eternity.  Giving moves my heart closer to God.  Number three, giving clarifies my vision.  Jesus goes on to say in verse 22, “The eye is the lamp of (0:20:00.1) the body.  So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light is in you, how great is the darkness!”  Now, what does that have to do with the price of tea in China or up the road here?  I mean, I’ve read that for years, and I’ve thought, this just seems out of place.  He’s talking about money in this context, and then He shifts to light and darkness and, you know, the eye and all of that.  What’s He talking about here?  And I did some further study years ago and discovered He’s drawing upon some rabbinical teaching in the 1^st century where the rabbis used to say that bad eye person was a stingy person and a good eye person was a generous person.  And when you read that understanding into these verses, I come up with this summary of what Jesus is saying.  And that is that stingy or “bad eye” people lack vision and they have a scarcity mentality.  They’re the people that are always saying, “Well, we haven’t got enough money around here to do that.  How we gonna pay for that?”  And then there are generous, “good eye” people who are full of vision and have an abundance mentality.  Why do they have an abundance mentality?  Because they came to the first message in this series where we talked about how God owns everything.  “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”  He owns everything.  He doesn't have a resource problem.  Not at all.  And I’ve been around both of these kinds of people in church and in ministry life for many, many years.  I’ve met the stingy, “bad eye” person, that every time you roll out a vision, their first question is, “Well, how we gonna pay for that?”  And I’ve been around some very generous people who are full of vision.  And they’re not asking the “how we gonna pay for it” question.

0:21:59.1

I remember just a little over five years ago…actually, probably seven years ago, the first conversation I had with some broadcasters in Washington, D.C., that approached me about broadcasting our sermons on radio.  And it led to about a two-year conversation before we pulled the trigger on it.  Just a lot of due diligence that we were looking at on how to do it.  We eventually produced some sample programs.  And during all that time there was a network out on the west coast that, when they were in town in D.C., would call me up.  And we’d have conversations.  And we were just getting to know each other and getting comfortable with each other.  They kept telling me, “We want you on air.  We want you on air.  We want you on air.”  We produced the programs.  We got to that point where everything was a green light.  The door was wide open.  Just didn’t have a dime to pay for it.  And radio broadcast airtime and production is very, very expensive.  But the first question to ask is not, how do we pay for it?  If I had asked that three years earlier or two years earlier, we would have never gotten down the road.  I’ve always been and I’ve always tried to surround myself with generous, “good eye” people who are full of vision, God’s vision, and who know how to prayerfully get before the Lord and receive His vision for the future.  And they have an abundance mentality.  My Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills.  He doesn't have a resource problem.  The last question to ask is, how do we pay for it?  And that’s where we were.  And we took six months to share the vision with a group of people in D.C.  And I’m telling you, it exploded in generosity.  In fact, the network came back to us and said they’ve never seen a startup program…well, they’ve only seen one other one raise that much money in a startup phase.  The last one, if I name the program, it’s a national Christian radio program, you would recognize it.  But it was 30 years ago the last time something like that happened.  And to God be the glory for that, because we didn’t start with the scarcity question.  “Well, we don’t have enough money to pay for that.”  Well, if it’s of God, it isn’t His problem.  He’s got more than enough.  God always has enough resource to fund whatever vision He’s given to us.  And this is what Jesus is saying here.  And this applies to your personal life as well as you step out in faith financially.  When we give to God first, what did I say a couple weeks ago?  When we put Him first in our finances, we are delegating the responsibility to make it all work in His hands.  When He is last in our budget, guess who assumes the responsibility?  Us.  And then He looks at us at some point and says, “How’s that working for you?”

0:24:51.1

So giving is an investment in eternity.  Giving moves my heart closer to God.  Giving clarifies my vision.  Number four, giving focuses my priorities.  Look at verse 24.  Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money.”  Circle the word “cannot” there.  Are you a go-getter, a type-A person?  The kind of person who doesn’t like to hear the word “cannot”?  I mean, if I could change my ethnicity and my nation of origin, I’d be a Mexi-can, not a Mexi-can’t.  That’s just the way I’d be, all right.  Come on.  That was really good.  Come on.  Give me a…that was good.  A Mexi-can, not a Mexi-can’t.  I’m an Ameri-can, not an Ameri-can’t.  I mean “can’t” and “cannot” is just not part of some of our vocabulary.  And so when Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and money,” that’s hard for me to factor.  If you had said it’s hard for me to do that, if it’s an uphill climb to do that, okay.  But I cannot do it?  Because He knows there is only one seat on the throne of your life and my life.  And perhaps the greatest threat to the lordship of Jesus Christ in our life is this little thing called money.  That’s why He went after it so many times and at times prescribed radical financial surgery.  And, by the way, you don’t have to have a lot of money to make money your god.  It just takes a little bit to insert that in Jesus’s rightful place.

0:26:46.1

In the old translations, the King James Version says, “You cannot serve God and mammon.”  Webster defines “mammon” as the false god of riches and avarice.  And John Milton in his classic book Paradise Lost picked up on this.  And Milton used his creative pen to personify the devil and his demons in Paradise Lost.  And he named one of the diabolic creatures Mammon.  Gave him that name.  And if you read Paradise Lost, you’ll discover that Mammon is called the “least erected” of the fallen angels.  He walks hunched over with his eyes cast downward as he looks to the ground for lost treasures. Mammon is greedy and always hungry for gold or money.  And Milton’s depiction of Mammon in Paradise Lost reminds us how prone we are to worship wealth and why Jesus had to say, “No one can serve two masters.  Either he’s gonna hate the one and love the other, or he’ll be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money.”

0:27:58.1

Giving refocuses my priorities.  It’s also the best antidote to the materialism of our day.  Okay?  I mean, materialism is wanting to grab us at every turn.  And when you commit to giving and to giving to God first, it not only moves you closer to Him and makes an investment in eternity and clarifies your vision, it reprioritizes your focus in life.  It’s not about earthly things.  It’s about heavenly things.  You begin to live with an eternal perspective, with your eyes on an eternal reward.  And you can say no to the treasures of this life.  Not that you don’t have fun once in a while.  I’m not saying that.  Remember, free of debt, free from the love of money, free to give generously, and, yeah, free to have fun.  But you’ve got your priorities in place.

0:28:55.5

Here is a sixth principle.  Giving activates God’s economic plan.  How many of you want God’s blessing on your finances?  I certainly do.  Well, Jesus said this in Luke 6:38.  We’ll move from Matthew to Luke 6:38.  These are the words of Jesus.  He says, “Give, and it will be given to you.  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.  For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”  Now, these are pretty profound words if you just take them at face value.  Jesus says, “Give, and it will be given to you.  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.”  Now, you’re probably wondering why I have a box of cheerios here.  It’s because about halfway through the message at the 11:00 service I get hungry, and I was gonna have a bowl of cereal.  But besides that, I love breakfast cereal.  Cheerios is a good one to buy because it’s heart-healthy, right, and gluten free, all those kinds of things there.  But here is what I’ve noticed about, you know, dry cereal like this at any of your grocery stores or whatever the brand is you might like.  You buy a big box like this.  I don’t know how many ounces this is…18 ounce box.  It’s the biggest one Cheerios make.  And when you open it up, it’s filled up to about here, isn’t it?  I’m, like, what’s with that?  What happened?  Why do they need such a big box for this amount?  And somewhere in the manufacturing and in the shipping, you know, the contents settle, do they not?  And you end up opening up a box that, you know, three-quarters of the way full.  But that’s not the way God manufactures things in our life.  He says give and it shall be given unto you.  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over so that it pours into your lap.

0:31:00.5

Now, here is what I’ve learned over the years.  God has basically two size scoops.  He has a large scoop, and He has a small scoop.  And when the settling takes place, He’s gonna reach for one of those scoops.  And it all depends on how much we’ve given.  Again, Jesus says, “Give, and it will be given to you.  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together so it settles.  Now, I’m gonna reach for my scoop.”  And He pours in more.  And He pours in so much that you can’t even close the top of the box lid because it’s pouring over into your lap.  You get the picture there.  So let me say it again.  Jesus says, Jesus says, “Give, and it will be given to you.”  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over as it pours into your lap.  The measure with which you give is the measure with which it’ll be given.  It’ll determine which scoop God picks up.  And for whatever reason, He has obligated Himself to that economic principle.  Now, I’m not a prosperity theologian where I think you can name and claim it.  But I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater because I read this principle all over scripture.  Not just here, but also in the Old Testament.  Book of Malachi where the Lord says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and test me in this.  If you don’t have enough faith to trust me, then test me.  Put me to the financial test and see if I won’t open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing to you that is so big you can’t handle it.  And on top of that I’m gonna rebuke the devourer that’s beating you up right now.”  I mean, that’s a good deal, isn’t it?  Put Him to the test.

0:32:48.4

And then I go to 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, which is the largest section of scripture in the New Testament in Paul’s writing given to matters of stewardship and giving.  And he talks about all the churches that he planted and the generosity of the Macedonians and all of that.  And he comes to chapter 9.  And in the context of that subject, he says, “He who sows sparingly reaps sparingly.  He who sows generously reaps generously.”  And he’s talking about money.  He’s using a farming analogy.  Every farmer understands, if I want a big harvest, I’ve got to scatter a big seed.  But if I’m a stingy, “bad-eye” person with a scarcity mentality, then I’m gonna be a stingy farmer, right?  And I’m not gonna get much of a harvest.  So I say giving activates God’s economic plan.  These are biblical economic principles woven through all the pages of scripture.  And it’s just our responsibility to take them by faith and to act upon them.

0:33:54.8

Lastly, giving makes me more like God.  And I love this part.  John 3:16.  You can say it from memory I’m sure.  “For God so loved the world that He gave.”  He gave.  And not with just a little tiny scoop.  No, He gave His one and only Son.  That’s a big gift, big gift.  In fact, God is the most generous being in the universe.  So much so that you can’t out-give Him.  I think that’s what Jesus is saying in Luke 6:38.  Give and it shall be given unto you, because you can never out-give God.  He’s always got a bigger scoop than you.  So put Him to the test.  Learn to walk by faith in your financial life.  Learn to activate these economic principles.  And when you do and when I do, we are never more like God then when we give.  I mean, we should grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and grow in the grace of giving.  We should be becoming more generous in our time and our talent and our treasure as God stretches our faith.  Why?  Because He is such a generous God.  It just makes no sense.  A stingy Christian is an oxymoron, friends.  A bad-eye, stingy Christian with a scarcity mentality is just…it doesn't compute in the scriptures because God has been so generous with us.  In fact, James 1:17 says, “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”  He is a generous God, a good God who loves to give good gifts to His kids.  And nothing pleases His heart more than when we walk by faith and we grow in the grace of giving and generosity.  It puts a smile on heaven’s face and on our Father’s face.

0:35:54.5

I’m just trying to share with you from scripture why it’s in your interest and my best interest to become more generous and more giving.  It’s an investment in eternity.  Jesus says do this for yourself.  It moves my heart closer to God.  It clarifies my vision.  It focuses my priorities.  It activates God’s economic plan, and it makes me more like God.  Sounds like a deal, doesn’t it?  So from this day forward, let’s walk by faith, friends, with eternity in view.  We’re just passing through this life.  The Bible says we’re pilgrims.  We’re strangers in this world.  And the older I get and the more I walk with Jesus, the less this world satisfies.  And if you’ve come to that place where you’re just completely unsatisfied by any pursuit you’ve had in this world, well, maybe that’s just a little bit of eternity that God has put in your heart.  Because you were made for so much more and created for a paradise that we don’t live in right now.  So this world will never completely satisfy.  It doesn't mean you don’t have an earthly portfolio and you don’t take care of your time here on this earth.  But not at the expense of that eternal portfolio.  Make sure you're laying up for yourself treasures in heaven and growing in the grace of giving for all of the reasons that we just talked about from Jesus’s teaching.  Let’s pray together.

0:37:27.6

God, thank You so much for this study.  Thank You for giving us so much financial wisdom in scripture, and we just scratched the surface.  But thank You for being a generous God, a generous God who sent Your one and only Son.  You gave Your Son so freely and so generously to pay the penalty for our sin, to pay that sin debt that we owed You and that we had no ability to pay.  You're so generous that You give us the free gift of eternal life.  What an amazing and generous gift that is.  I pray that every follower of Jesus Christ today, that every one of us would grow in the grace of giving and generosity with our time, with our talent, and, yes, Father, with our treasures.  And for anybody here who somehow might have gotten confused what this thing called the Christian life is all about, Father, I pray that they would come to the cross this morning to receive the free gift, the free gift of eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and begin to live from that time forward in real freedom—free from the penalty of sin, free from the power of sin, one day free from the presence of sin, free of debt, free from the love of money, free to give generously, and free to have fun—the freedom for which You created us and redeemed us.  And we ask this all in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, amen.

0:39:28.4