Rick Warren - God's Promises About Giving Part Two

Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Today we continue on

a journey through a powerful series called God's Amazing Promises.

In the upcoming lessons, you'll discover some of the most

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thousand four. Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with part

two of a message called God's Promises about giving.

Jesus says, give and it will be given back to you.

And notice in full measure, you don't get a little back,

you get it all back and more given it will

be given back to you in full measure. God's gonna

make sure he outgives you given it will be given

to you in full measure, and what you receive will

need to be pressed down and shaken together. What's that

talking about. Well, let's say if you're getting grained and

people are pouring grain in your sack, and you've paid

for a whole sack, you're gonna shake it like this,

and then you're gonna press it down so you can

get the maximum amount of grain or coins or anything

else into that sack. And he's saying, God wants to

give you so much, you have to press it down.

You have to shake it together to make more room,

because God wants to give you more than your sack

can hold. He says, what you receive will need to

be pressed down and shaken together, but it will still notice.

It will still run over and be poured into your lap.

That makes me think of a lottery. It's just pouring in.

It's pouring into your lap. And then he summarizes that,

Jesus summarizes this this way, the way you give to

others is the way God will give to you. Whoa

that we can just stop right there and in the

message and have you go home and think about this,

that the way I give to others is the way

God will give to me. God is waiting for me

to be generous. He wants me to prime the pomp.

Why because he wants me to learn to be like him.

I can't be like Christ without giving. God so loved

the world that he gave. You've heard me say this

many times. You can give without loving, but you cannot

love without giving. You spell love giv God so loved

the world that he gave. And so if we're going

to be loving, then we've got to learn to be giving.

We've got to learn to be generous. So he says,

give and it will be given to you. And the

way you give to others is the way God will

give to you. That's promise. And he says, if you're generous,

God will give you more than you can handle. Let

me show you some other verses about this that God,

I'll get back more than I actually gave out Proverbs

eleven twenty four says this, some people give generously and

end up with more, while other people don't give what

they should and end up poor. That actually rhymes some

people give generously and end up with more, and while

others don't give what they should, they end up with

being poor. He's saying, you are. You are determining how

much I can bless your life. Proverbs nineteen, verse seventeen

says this, and if you're a businessman, you need to

start and circle this verse. Being generous to the poor

is like lending to the Lord, and God will pay

you back for what you've done. He's saying that giving

is an investment that when you try to give it away,

God says, I'm going to pay you back. He says,

you see a homeless person on the street and you

give him some money. Are you support the Peace Plan?

When you support the Peace Plan, you're helping poor people

all around the world because that's one of our Caring

for the sick and assisting the poor are two of

the key principles of the Peace Plan. He says, when

you're generous to the poor, it's like lending to the Lord,

and God will pay you back. In one of the

translations of this verse, it says, and God pays great

interest on your loan, it's like loaning to the Lord.

So you're not really giving that money away because God says,

I'm going to pay you back with interest. Giving is

an investment number seven and the promises of God about

giving in generosity. God promises that if I learned to

give like God tells me to give, God promises to

meet all my needs. Now that just sounds too good

to believe. It just sounds too good to be true.

But over and over and over in scripture, God says,

if you'll put me first in your money, and if

you'll learn to be generous and not tightfisted, not tied wad,

open handed, open hearted, I will meet all your needs. Philippians,

Chapter four, verse seventeen and nineteen. Paul says this, I

want you to have the good that comes from giving.

Circle that I want you to have the good that

comes from giving. The whole reason I'm teaching this message

is because I love you and I want you to

have the good that comes from giving. I know the

good that comes from giving. I've been doing it all

my life. I've been blessed all my life because I've

learned the good that comes from giving. Most of you know,

Kay and I are reverse pilors. We give away ninety

one percent of our income and we live on nine percent. Now,

we didn't start there, But how are we able to

live that way? Because the good that comes from giving.

God just says I'm not going to let you outgive me,

and the Bible says this, I want you to have

the good that comes from giving. My God will use

his wonderful, richest in Christ, Jesus to give you everything

you need.

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Now back to more from God's Word with Pastor Rick Warren.

And the Bible says this, I want you to have

the good that comes from giving My God will use

his wonderful, richest in Christ, Jesus to give you everything

you need. Wow, do you believe that verse? If you know,

you got to just take an exact on ife and

cut it out of your Bible. Jesus said, I will

make sure you get everything you need. Now. Notice he

didn't say I'll give you all your greed. He says,

I'll give you everything you need. There are some things

I think I need that I really don't need. God

says all your needs will be met, doesn't say all

your greeds, all your desires, all your lust will be met.

You know it's not like, well, I want to rolls Royce.

That's not a need. But he said, I will give

you everything you need if you learn to be generous.

Look at a couple of other verses there. Again, there's

so many these verses. I had to cram them on

your outline and still left out you know so many

Proverbs twenty eight, Verse twenty seven says this, he who

gives to the poor will lack nothing. Circle that will

lack nothing. If you want to lack nothing in your

life emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, then you need to learn

how to give to the poor. But he who gives

to the poor will lack nothing. But he who closes

his eyes to their need will receive their needs, will

receive curses. When you're driving along and you come up

to stoplight and there's a homeless person on the side,

do you just kind of keep looking forward and you

close your eyes to what is on your side? The

other night, Kay and I took our eldest grandchild for

her sixteenth birthday up to see Phantom of the Opera

in la and we turned under an underpass bridge, and

I believe there were probably twenty people camped out in

tents living under that. Every bone in my body wanted

to stop right there. There were cars behind us, and

we couldn't because I'm going I can't turn my eye

to this. And I know that Kay, every time she

sees a homeless person, she stops, she rolls down her window,

and she helps him out. That's one of the reasons

God has blessed us is because he says, you'll lack nothing,

but if you close your eyes to the needs of

the poor, your life's cursed. Here's another verse about the

same thing. Second Corinthians, chapter nine, Versus seven and eight.

You should give as you have decided in your heart

to give. In other words, nobody can tell you what

to give. What's generous for you is your decision based

on how much income you have. But he says you

should decide what you've decided in your heart to give.

Never give reluctantly or under pressure, because God loves the

person who gives cheerfully. Now you've heard me say this.

If you ever feel pressured by anybody, including me, on giving,

don't do it. Don't give why because you don't get

any credit for it. You don't get any blessing out it.

God doesn't want stingy givers. God doesn't want grouchy givers.

God wants people who give cheerfully. That Greek word, there's

the word hilarious. It means hilariously, I enjoy it. People

Often you'll hear say, well, I give till it hurts. No, No,

give till it feels good, till it becomes joyful. Don't

give reluctantly, don't give under pressure, because God loves a

cheerful giver. Now that's the premise. Here's the promise. Then

here's the promise. God will generously provide for you. Sow

that here's the promise. In all things, at all times,

you'll have all that you need and plenty left over

to give more to every good work. You might circle

all the alls in that. I mean, it's like there's

no wiggle room. God has not allowed any wiggle room

for himself in this promise. He said, if you learn

to give generously, cheerfully, generously, spontaneously, not out of neglect,

not out of regret, not out of pressure, not out

of compulsion, but cheerfully and generously, he says, You're going

to have all you need at all times, in all things,

in all places. There's no wiggle room there. God says,

I am guaranteeing I will meet your needs. Do you

believe that verse? Let's go to a couple more promises.

Number eight. God says that if I learned to give

like he gives, he will multiply what I give him.

He'll take what I give him, and he will multiply

it and make it go even further. Now, there's so

many examples of this in scripture that I don't even

know which one to choose from. I could tell you

about the story of the Jesus feeding the five thousand,

where he took a few loads and a fish, a

bread and fish, one boy's lunch, and he fed five

thousand people with it. By he took it, he broke it,

he blessed it, and he multiplied it. And throughout the Bible,

God does this principle of multiplication, the miracle of multipation,

many many times. He takes a little, and what you get,

whatever you give God, he turns into a lot. So

whatever you need more of, give it to God. Let

me say that again, whatever you need more of, give

it to God. You need more time, give your time

to God. Put him first in your time. You need

more money, give your money to God. Put him first

in your money. You need more energy, give your first

energy to God, and he'll multiply. You'll have more energy.

You know. Throughout the Bible, God compares giving and generosity

to planting seeds. Let me show you a couple verses.

That's a very common metaphor. He says that every time

you're generous, every time I give to God or to

other people and need whatever, he says, it's like planting

a seed. Tewod Corinthians chapter nine, verses ten and eleven

says this, just as God gives seed to farmers and

bread for food. God gives you a supply of seed,

in other words, to plant. He gives you a supply

of seed to plant, and then He makes it grow.

So there's a great harvest from your generosity. And here's

the rest of the promise. God will make you rich

enough to be generous at all times. Now, you might

want to write this down. Giving is not a debt.

I owe, it's a seed. I sew. Giving is not

a debt. I oh, it's a seed. I sew, and

I sew it in faith. God doesn't need your money,

He doesn't need my money. Then why does God want

to teach me giving? To teach me to trust him

and so I become more like him and to become

more generous. Giving is not a debt. I owe, it's

a seed. I sew. Now, when you plant a seed,

do you get one seed back?

No?

You get a whole plant with a lot of fruit

and eat in those fruits. There's a multiplication of seed.

No one has ever planted one seed and got back

one seed. If I take a kernel of corn and

I plant that corn in the ground, I don't get

one kernel of corn back. I get a stock with

three or four ears of corn, with literally hundreds and

hundreds and hundreds of kernels on that corn. This is

the principle of multiplication. He says that if you'll take

when you give to people, if you'll take your money

and use it to help others, God says, I'll multiply it

so that when it comes back, it's multiplied. You don't

get one seed back when you plant it. You get

one hundred or one thousand seeds out of that one blessing.

Now here's the important part that I want you to get.

God says, you can plant. I'm giving you just like

I give a farmer seed to plant. I'm giving money

for you to use for good. Money is a tool.

Money is neither good nor bad. It's just a tool,

and you should use money for good rather than bad.

Any money I just spend on myself, it's gone. Any

money I use for good is actually building an investment,

and it's multiplying in heaven. But when you plant a seed,

you reap a harvest. Now, God lets you decide the

size of your harvest. It just all depends on how

much seed you plant. Here's what the Bible says. Tewod Corinthians,

chapter nine, verse six. Remember this. Okay, Now, anytime the

Bible says remember this, God wants you to remember it.

Remember this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and

whoever sows generously will also reap generously. That means God says,

you get to decide. I get to decide how much

God blesses my life. And how do I decide how

much God blesses my life by my giving? If I

sow just a few seeds, then I'm going to reap

a small harvest. If I sow a lot of seed,

if I give a lot away, then I'm going to

reap generously. The size of the harvest is determined by

the size of sowing. God leaves it up to you.

If you have little faith, then you get a little result.

If you have a lot of faith, you get a

lot of result. If you sow extravagantly, you get an

extravagant result. Back now, in planting seed and waiting for

the harvest, the harvest is never immediate. I want you

to get this because a lot of people don't understand this.

The harvest is never immediate. Seeds take time to grow,

so you plant in one season, in the planting season,

and you harvest in another season, maybe six months later.

It's not instant. This is true in your generosity and

your giving. It's not like I give something to somebody else,

or give something to God today and this afternoon God

makes up for it a slot machine where you put

in the coin and pull the you know, the one

armed bandit, and all of a sudden you hit the jackpot.

God is not a gambling man with like like a

like a slot machine. No, he is like a farmer.

He says, you plant in one season and you reap

in another. Look at this verse on the screen. Ecclesiastes eleven,

Verse one says this be generous, and instantly you'll be rewarding. No,

it doesn't say that. Doesn't be generous and what one day,

one day, one day, you will be rewarded. There is

always a time delay between sewing and reaping, between planting

and harvest, between giving and receiving. Why is there always

that delay? Because God wants you to trust him. Are

you going to do the right thing? If you saw

immediate results every time you gave, there'd be no faith needed.

You know, you know, like this jackpot I put in this,

I get this, I put in this, I get this

this week. You know. I remember one time I was

out on the patio after service and a guy came

up to me after a message that I taught on tithing.

And he came up to me and he said, Pastor Rick,

tithing didn't work for me. I saw no return on it.

I said, well, when did you start? He said, last Sunday.

Last Sunday. You know that's not like a season away.

God says, have you developed a habit of being generous?

I want to see if you've developed this habit before.

I'm not interested in playing games with you. Now. Let

me just pause right here and share my personal testimony.

I learned generosity at a very early age. As a child,

my parents gave me three little envelopes and later three

little piggy banks, and they would give if my allowance

was three dimes or three nickels or three quarters, and

then later it was three dollars. As I got older,

one's envelopes was marked tithing, one envelope was marked saving,

and one envelope was mark spending. And if I got

that money. I was taught from an early age you

don't get to go out and just spend it all

on yourself.

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