Rick Warren - Radical Generosity—Part One

Hi, this is Rick Warren.

Did you know that the best gift you can give

anybody is to bring them into a relationship with Jesus Christ?

And did you know that the best time to do

that is it Christmas. Here's what I want to challenge

you to do. I want you to make a Christmas

list of people. Think of all the people who you

know who don't know Jesus or who might know Jesus

but don't go to church anywhere. And I want you

to start praying for them. And then I want you

to invite those people you've prayed for to come to

a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day service at your church.

Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is

the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Hey, We're so

glad you've joined us. Today. We're continuing a powerful series

called radicalis Developing Spiritual Roots. And in this series, Rick

will show you how to grow deep in your faith,

stay grounded in God's word, and become everything He created

you to be. I'm excited to hear what Rick has

to share today. This is part one of a message

called Radical Generosity.

Now, for the last six weeks, we've been looking at

this series I'm calling radicalous, which is the Latin word

from the roots, and we're talking about deepening spiritual roots,

going deeper, not being shallow, people, not being selfish, people

being deeply rooted in the love of God. And over

the last six weeks, we've looked at radical gratitude, We've

looked at radical faith, We've looked at radical joy, we've

looked at radical love, we've looked at radical hope. This week,

I want us to look at the issue of radical generosity. Now,

the Bible says this, if you take out your message notes.

One of my favorite verses in the Bibles, Proverbs eleven

twenty four message paraphrase says, the world of the generous

gets larger and larger, the world of the stingy.

Gets smaller and smaller. Now, what's he saying there?

That when I'm generous, it enlarges my heart, It enlarges

my perspective, it enlarges my impact. When I'm generous, it

enlarges my influence. Now he's not just talking about money here. Okay,

let me just explain to you generosity is far more

than financial giving. Oh no, no, money is just a

little teeny tiny part of your life. God wants you

to learn to live generosity as a lifestyle, not as

a giving of money, but as a lifestyle of generosity.

And the Bible tells us that we are to be

generous in every area of our lives. We're to be

generous with our time. We're to be generous with our praise.

We're to be generous with our sympathy. We're to be

generous with forgiveness. We are to be generous with our love.

We're to be generous with our compliments. We are to

be generous with our kindness. We are to be generous

with our attention and paying attention to the needs of people.

We are to be generous and listening. We're to be

generous and not being judgmental. City is far, far, far

more than simply about giving money. It's about living a

life that is unselfish. It's about living a life that

where you're a giver, not a taker, in every area

of life.

And that's what I want you to be.

It's what I want to be, It's what God wants

us all to be to live this generous lifestyle. So

what I want to do this weekend is two things. First,

I want to define, according to the Bible, what radical

generosity is as opposed to just normal generosity. And then second,

I want you to see the five amazing results it

has in your life, how it transforms you. When you

develop an attitude of openness toward everything in life, and

you're generous with your talent, and you're generous with your service,

and you're generous with your praise, and you're generous in

every area of your life, the difference it makes in

your life. So first, what is radical generosity? If you

want to talk about generosity. The classic passages in the

Bible are in the Book of Second Corinthians letter written

to the people who lived in Corinth, Greece. Second Corinthians.

He'd written it to us would be second Californians. And

in corinth he writes two chapters Paul, chapter eight and

chapter nine that are the classic passages on how to

live a generous lifestyle. It is just like First Corinthians

thirteen is the chapter on love in the Bible, and

Hebrews eleven is the chapter on faith. Second Corinthians eight

and nine are the classic chapters and what it means

to live generously in life. Now, let me just start

with the definition. You may write this down. Radical generosity

is an attitude, not an amount. Radical generosity is an attitude,

not an amount.

It is not about amount.

God couldn't care less how much you give in life.

What he cares about is how you get, and what

he cares about is why you give. God cares about

your motivation. He doesn't care about the amount. Radical generosity

is an attitude, not an amount.

Now, notice here in.

Verse twelve of Second Corinthia's eight it says this, if

you're really eager to give, there's the attitude. It isn't

important how much you're able to give. God wants you

to give what you have, not what you don't have. Now,

as I said, God looks at the why and the how.

Not the what.

He's more interested in your heart why. God doesn't need

your money. God doesn't need your time. God doesn't need

your talent. God doesn't need your sympathy. God doesn't need

really anything from you zero. What he wants is your heart.

What he wants is your love. And the Bible says

where your heart, where your treasure is your heart is.

He wants your love. And so he's saying here, it's.

Not what you give, it's why you give it, It's

how and.

Why you give it.

And he says it's about attitude. And then Paul in

this passage gives us four attitudes that define radical generosity. Now,

the best way to learn in anything in life is

to learn by a model. You see somebody else do it,

and then you learn. And we learned generosity best from example.

I learned to be generous growing up under my parents.

My parents were the most generous people I'd ever met,

and still have ever met.

They taught me.

I watched them give everything away in their lives to

other people with an open hand.

They held it out.

They gave away hospitality, they gave away income, they gave

away food, they gave away their time.

And energy and effort.

And I watched how joyful my parents were growing up

as generous people, and it taught me the value of

generosity in my life. Now, Paul gives us an example

of some churches in a portion of Greece. In ancient Greece,

one of the provinces in ancient Greece was called Macedonia.

Philip of Macedon was the original ruler. His son you

certainly heard of. His son was called Alexander the Great.

He was from Macedonia and Paul in his travels, the

apostle Paul started a number of churches in Macedonia. They're

in the Bible, and he writes a letter to them.

One is a church at the city called Philippi, and

we get the book Philippians.

And another one is he.

Writes a letter to the church at Thessalonika, another city

in Macedonia, and it's called Thessalonians. Corinth the letter he's

writing right here is a city in Greece. Now here's

the background of story.

The Christians in.

The church in Jerusalem in Israel were under severe financial suffering.

The church was under enormous stress, enormous pressure. They were

financially tied. It was extremely poor church in Jerusalem. So

Paul says to all the other churches, he says, let's

take up a special offering and give to support these

people in their financial crisis in Jerusalem. Well, all of

the churches of Macedonia.

Stepped right up.

They said, sure will help, and they gave generously, they

gave radically, they gave extremely. And Paul now is writing

to another church Corinthi, says, what about you guys, why

don't you do the same thing? And he uses the

churches of Macedonia as an example. And here's what he

says in verses one and two. He says, we want

you to know, talking to the Corinthians church, what God's

grace has been accomplished in the churches in Macedonia. They

have been severely tested by the troubles they went through.

But their joy was so great. They were extremely generous

in their giving to help this church in Jerusalem, even

though they themselves are desperately poor. Now, if you've got notes,

I want you to circle their joy was so great,

their joy was so great. And here's the first attitude

of radical generosity. Radical generosity is enjoyable. It is enjoyable.

We give out a joy. We don't give out a duty.

We don't give out of guilt. We don't give out

a pressure. We don't give out of a compulsion. We

don't give out of obligation.

We give out of joy. It is enjoyable. It says,

their joy was so great.

Now, I want you to look at that verse for

a minute and notice several things about these churches in Macedonia. First,

it wasn't a wealthy church. In fact, it says they

were desperately poor. Second, it said they had their own problems.

They were being severely tested. So this church needs help themselves,

and yet they're given to help somebody else.

They were severely tested. You know what was going on there.

I talked about it last week. Persecution.

This was during the time of the Roman Empire and Nero,

where if you were a Christian that meant you're a

Christian you die. That's what it meant, you die. You're

either going to be fed to the lions in the

Colosseum or you're going to be nailed to cross and

tarred and lit to lit with fire to illuminate the

Appian way, the Roman road. And so in those days,

if you are Christian, men, you follow Christ, you die.

So these churches are poor themselves and they're under intense persecution.

But notice it didn't stop them from giving. It said

they were extremely generous. What's extreme generosity, it's radical generosity.

They gay And then why did they give. They gave

out a joy, not out of duty your obligation. Now, friends, unbelievers,

just don't get this. You don't get it till you

have Christ in your life. You don't even understand it.

Why because giving out a compulsion is not true giving.

Just keep it. You don't get any credit for it

from God. So he's saying you give out of joy.

People don't understand that people actually give out of joy.

Now the Bible says this. Jesus said it. Look on

the screen. He said, there is more happiness in giving

than an receiving. Now, I have to admit, when I

was a kid, I thought that verse was a lie.

That just isn't true. It's a whole lot more fun

to get things than it is to give. That's just

not true. And I have to admit that when I

was immature as a child, Christmas was all about me.

What am I gonna get? What's under the tree for me?

That's okay if you're immature, what's in it for me?

But you know what, hopefully I've matured and today now

I'm a father and I'm a grandfather, and Christmas is

not at all about what I get. I don't even

care if I get anything. Christmas is about giving to

my kids and grandkids and the joy of watching them

open it. That's the joy I get. Now. I don't

get any joy about you know, getting a pair of socks.

So what you know, I mean, you know what I

get the joy out of is giving and watching the

kids and the grandkids open and enjoy that. The mark

of maury is when you switch and you begin to

understand that there really is more joy in giving.

Than in getting.

If I'm still enjoying only getting, it means I haven't

grown up yet. It means I'm still self centered. It's

not by accident. The word miser and miserable come from

the same word, that when you're miserly, you're gonna be miserable.

The happiest people in the world are givers in life.

The unhappiest people in the world aren't takers. All I

do is they take. They're self centered, they live, they

live for themselves. Radical generosity is enjoyable. The second thing,

second attitude of radical generosity is radical generosity is supernatural.

It's supernatural. And that's what we see in the next verse.

In verse three, Paul is talking about these poor people

in Macedonia who gave to help another poor church in Jerusalem.

He says, for I testify that they gave as much

as they were able, and even beyond their ability. How

do you give beyond your ability. That's supernatural giving. Natural

giving is to give what you're able. Supernatural giving is

to give beyond your ability.

And how do you do that? Well?

God, what I've learned is this, and I've been given

for now. I've been learning this act of generosity for

about thirty five years. What I've learned is that when

I figure out what I'm gonna give, God always shows

me how. A lot of times when I failink I need,

I not need. I want to give. I want to

give this amount, I go, I don't. I don't have

that money, where's that gonna come from? Or how we go?

We gotta pay that bill or this or that. And

when you say that, what happens is then God shows

you a way. When you figure out why you want

to give, God will always show you the how. He

will always make a way. Number three, Radical generosity is enthusiastic.

It's not out of guilt, as I said, it's not

out of drudgery, it's not out of a sorrow, it's

not out of home.

Man, I gotta do this. Radical generosity.

The kind that God says that's the only kind of

counts is the kind that's enthusiastic, and he says this

in the rest of verse three and verse four, talking

about the model he gives us of enjoyable, supernatural, enthusiastic giving,

he says, of their own free will, they begged us,

and they pleaded for the privilege of having a part

in helping God's people in Judea.

He's talking about Jerusalem.

Now, I want you to circle some words here on

that verse free will says of their own free will,

it says they begged, circle begged, they pleaded, circle, pleaded

for the privilege, circle, privilege to have a part.

What's he talking about here?

He's talking about people who were giving, not grudgingly, but

enthusiastically enthusiastically. The Bible tells us that to be enthusiastic

means to be in Theos. The enthusiasm comes from the

Greek word in Theost. Do you know what in Theost means?

In?

Is the word in in is in, and theos is

the word for God. To be in Theos means to

be in God. When you get in God, you will

be enthusiastic.

Number four.

The fourth thing, radical generosity is not just enjoyable, supernatural enthusiastic.

It is a spiritual habit. It is a spiritual habit.

It's not something we you know, we get all psyched

up to do, we have to motivate ourselves.

It's just a habit that we do.

In fact, the Bible says this in Second Corinthians eighty five.

They gave in a way they did not expect. We

did not expect.

They first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us,

And this is what God wants. And we actually teach

this habit of spiritual generosity in class two one spiritual maturity,

because it's a mark of maturity. And we call these

the one on one two one commitments. First they gave

themselves to the Lord, that's one oh one, and then

they gave themselves to us. That's church membership. They joined

the church family. Said, we're committing ourself to God. Then

we're committing ourself to a group of Christians. Have you

made those two commitments? He says, this is spiritual maturity.

It is a habit. What is that saying.

It's saying it's a spiritual habit of my life. Because

I am a mature believer. It's not something where I'm

waiting for a quiver in my liver. Oooh, I should

give you know, you know, I should be generous to

this person. I should listen to this person, I should

talk to this person. No, no, it's it's an attitude

of saying. It's a habit, and it's good for my heart.

Every time my heart, every time I give, my heart grows.

In fact, let me read your verse in verse nineteen.

Write this verse, Denni's not on your outline Sewod Corinthians

eight nineteen. It says this, your offering is a service

that glorifies the Lord and shows your eagerness to help.

He says, your offering is a service that glorifies the

Lord and shows your eagerness to help. And that is

exactly what you did. And you glorified God, and God

is smiling. It didn't matter what you gave. It was

the matter of which you gave. It was your heart,

it was your attitude, not the amount. And God is

pleased when we give enthusiastically and willingly and generously and

supernaturally as a habit of life.

Such a great message by Rick today and every day.

I sure hope you were just as encouraged as I was.

And now here's Rick with a special message.

Hi, everybody, this is Pastor Rick. I would like to

thank you.

Thank you for being a part of our Daily Hope family.

I don't get to say that often enough, but your

generosity is helping us share the hope of Jesus with

people here at home and literally all around the world,

even in places where it's difficult and even dangerous to

get the good news. You know, I recently heard from

a woman named Eunice in Cameroon. Cameroon is a country

in Central Africa, and she wrote to me. She said,

Pastor Rick, I lost both of my son, both my

son and my daughter in the war, and now I'm

raising four grandchildren on my own. I was overwhelmed with grief.

But then she says, but through the Daily Hope devotionals,

I have found strength and comfort and peace in God's word.

So thank you for helping me hold.

On to hope. Wow.

That's powerful. That's powerful, and that happened because your giving

is helping Eunus find the strength to carry on, to

raise her grandchildren, and to keep trusting God even through

the deep loss of her kids. Now, right now, I

wanted to tell you about this because we have a

special opportunity. There's some generous friends who have offered a

matching grant that will double your gift. That means whatever

you give today will go twice as far to reach

even more people with God's word.

So can I ask you a favor.

I want to encourage you and give your best gift

you can today. But together, let's keep bringing the hope

of Jesus Christ to people like unus. There are still

people who've never heard the name of Jesus. We want

to keep expanding to get the message to the whole world.

So help us out. Let me just close by saying

I love you, I do, I love you. I thank

God for you, and I am so grateful that we

are in this together. God bless you.

This matching grant is only available until midnight on December

thirty first, so please act now by going to Pastorick

dot com. That's Pastorick dot com, or you can just

text the word hope to seven oh three oh nine.

That's the word hope to seven oh three oh nine,

and thank you so much for your support. Be sure

to join us next time as we look into God's

word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by

Pastor Rick's daily hope and your generous financial support