Rick Warren - Daring To Be Generous—Part One

Hello, everybody, This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. If you're

joining us for the first time or you've been listening

every day for ten years, we just want to say welcome,

We love you, and we pray for you every day.

So we're continuing with this series called Daring Faith the

Key to Miracles. And in this series you're learning how

to have a bold, unshakable faith that gives you courage

to impact the world around you. And if you're like me,

you'd really like to be more bold and have more

courage to share your faith in Christ. All right, let's

jump right in with Pastor Red with a message called

Daring to be Generous.

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 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 an integrity, humility,

and generosity, you will set up for yourself a barrier

to the three greatest traps in life that cause people

to fail in life. Now, in the Bible, there are

about seven thousand promises of God. These are blank checks

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. It's over seven thousand

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's so interested

in us learning how to be generous? That he gives

all these kind of rewards and promises more than any

other thing. And 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

about generosity is 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 lust songs.

Lust is about getting you make me feel like a

natural woman. 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 of the Bible. The word believe

we all know that's important is used two hundred and

seventy two times in the Bible. Believe to hundred and

seventy two times. Pray. That's an important word. We that

is used in the Bible three hundred and seventy one times,

three hundred and seventy one times. The word love obviously,

we know that's an important world where it is used

seven hundred and fourteen 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 sheer gift from God.

Even the ability to earn is a gift from God,

and God wants us to learn to be like him.

This is what happens in you every time you are generous, okay,

number one. First thing that happens. Generosity honors God. Generosity

on the God giving as an act of worship, and

it's a recognition that everything you have is a gift

from God. The Bible says in the Second Corinthians chapter nine,

you will be glorifying God through your generous gifts. Your

generosity will prove that you are obedient to the good

news of Christ. Proverbs fourteen thirty one says, 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 because wherever my money in time is what

attracts me. The Bible says this proverb fourteen twenty three.

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 time percent on the first

day of the week. Say God, you're really number one.

It all came from you. Matthew six verse twenty one.

Jesus said, your heart will be wherever your treasure is.

So wherever you put your money, that's where your heart's

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 twenty one, twenty six. 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 eleven forty one.

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 reminds me an old story Bob told me. One day,

Bob took his young son, who's sitting in his car seat,

to McDonald's and to buy him some French fries. And

he takes him to the drive through 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 it was because

of me, he said. The second thing I realized is

that my child doesn't realize that I could take them

all away if I wanted to. I could take the

whole thing away, say 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 taken. I could

have bought him for myself. I could 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 going to

be yours after your diet. 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 God didn't love you and be generous with you, you

would have zip not of nothing. He could take it

away from you instantly and he could give you ten

times that a mount instantly. He just wants you to

learn how to be unselfish. Why because God is a frygiver.

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

all you get. And materialism is about taking in and

acquiring and hoarding, and I gotta get more and more

and more and more. 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 six twenty four, you cannot serve both

God and money circle the word cannot. Notice. He didn't

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

is 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 call 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

a materialist. It's called catalogs. And when you look through

a catalog, man, I didn't even know they made that,

but I got to have it. Now. Where was I

without that? First Timothy, chapter six, verse seventeen and eighteen 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 problems of people who or 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 life. 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 trust 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. Tewod Corinthians says, this you're giving proves

the reality of your faith if I leave in one

six says 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 of

your faith. Stinginess 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 anxiety, that's a fear,

that's an unbelief. Stinginess is caused by unbelief. You're generous

because of your faith. In Malachi three ten, God dares

you to trust his promises. He says, this, bring the

whole tie that's ten percent into my storehouse. What's the storehouse,

it's the temples wherever you worship. Test me in this

and see if I will not throw open the flood

gates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that

you won't have room enough for it. God says, I

dare you. This is the Pepsi challenge test 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 philosophical arguments for the existence

of God, the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, the ontological argument,

cons moral argument, and all the others. But in the Bible,

it says, the way you prove that God exists 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 heart 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 in that which is

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?

All right, let's look at some promises. Number seven, Giving

our generosity brings God's blessing. I could give you one

hundred verses on this in the Bible. Generosity brings God's blessing.

If you want God's blessing on your life, you must

learn to not be a miser. You must learn to

not be stingy. You must learn to be open handed

with what God has given 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 twenty two.

Nine generous people will be blessed. Now. You either believe

that or you don't. But God said it and it's true.

Deuteronomy fifteen ten. 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 to. There's the answer right there. Give generously.

That's one of those seven thousand promises. Here's another one,

Tewod Corinthians nine, seven and eight. 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 leftover to give joyfully to others. It brings

God's blessing. Number eight 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 twenty. 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, it was all about what I got.

And as a child, all my joy came from the

presence I got, not from the presence 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 presence I get.

My joy comes from watching other people unwrap 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 eighty 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 difference when you 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 eleven twenty four. The world of the generous

gets larger and larger, and the world of the stingy

gets smaller and smaller. Some one twelve says this verse nine.

Those who give generously to those in need, you're helping

the poor. You're helping the 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. Forty years ago,

when can I got married, we started tithing our income

ten percent. The end of our first year marriage, we

raised our giving to the Lord and to charity to

eleven percent. In the second year, we raised it to

twelve percent. Third year we raised it three percent, 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 anybody about this.

For over twenty five years, we just quietly did it,

raising our giving from twenty percent to thirty to forty percent,

to fifty percent to sixty to seventy of You know

that for the last ten years, Can 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.

When I was testifying at the A d C. At

the Congress, I was testifying before Senate, one of the

guys took me sid a senator and he asked me

a question. He says, you know, Rick, I know this

thing about purpose driven life sold the gazillion copies, best

selling book in the world. You know, for four years

it was the best It's the best selling nonfiction book

in American history. It's in one 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 shows you to

write the best selling nonfiction hardback in all the time?

I said, Oh, I know, I know why. He said why.

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 wouldn't go buy a bigger car. You know I

wear a watch from Walmart. You know I live I

drive a fifteen year old Forward truck. God knew I

wouldn't spend the money on 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 cellar,

i'd give away millions. Ste No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't.

I guarantee you wouldn't. Why Because you're not being generous

right now? And I was generous when we were out

of work, and I was generous when I had no money,

and I was generous when the cupboard was bear and

I was generous when Kay was holding the job and

I was trying to put me through school, and I

had a forty year track record of being generous, and

God knew he could trust me. And with that generosity

came additional influence. Number ten, generosity. This is a big one.

Generosity multiplies my money. This is a big one. Now

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 ten

percent of my income that's called tithing, that he makes

the ninety percent go further than if I had one

hundred percent on my own. The Bible says this Proverbs

eleven twenty five, A generous man will prosper. You want

to prosper? There it is a generous man will that's

God talking. And he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

And the Bible says the second Corinthians nine, 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. Now you will be enriched so

that you can give even more. 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 to you, and we'll see who wins.

You're never gonna win the generosity game. I can tell

you that generosity multiplies my money. Number eleven. 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 one twelve, verse

five and six says, this all goes well for the

generous man who conducts his business fairly. There's two of

those things, integrity and generosity right there. Such a man

will not be overthrown by evil circumstances. Now notice it

doesn't say you don't have evil Circumstance says 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

gonna have evil circumstances 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 by the evil circumstances happen

in your life. God's constant care of him will make

a deep impression on all who see it. They say,

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 twelve, generosity will be rewarded in heaven.

It will be rewarded in heaven. The Bible says this

first Timothy, chapter six, verse eighteen nineteen. Use your money

to do good. Now, once you 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 pull in a U haul.

You can't take it with you, but you can send

it on ahead. How do you do that? Four times

this 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 faith, 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 sixteen, verse nine. 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 you mean by that, mate?

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 gonna be saved, and

they're gonna go to heaven with you. And when you

get to heaven, then there will be people in heaven

who greet 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. Is 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 the 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 going to

have forever. Everything I spend on myself on earth, I'm

losing everything 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

to use it for eighty 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.

Let's bow for a prayer. Father, I thank you for

the gifts that have just been given. And I know

what you're going to do in people's lives, and I

thank you for that. And Father, maybe even there are

people here today who didn't participate, but you're going to

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.

What a great message today from Pastor Rick. There's something

I always can use in my own life after listening

to this show. All right, would you like to step

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