Value Driven Generosity

Please stand if you're able to the reading of the word of the Lord.

From Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am.

And he said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.

So Abraham arose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac.

And he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

Then Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey.

I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son.

And he took his hand from hand the fire and the knife.

So they both bent both of them together.

And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father, and he said, Here I am, my son.

And he said, Behold the fire in the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?

Abraham said, God will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering, my son.

So they went both of them together.

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

But the angel of the Lord called to him and said from heaven and said to him, Abraham, Abraham.

And he said, Here I am.

He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for now.

I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.

And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand that is on the seashore.

And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.

So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Bersheba.

And Abraham lived at Bersheba.

The Christ with the flower fades.

But the word of our God will stand forever.

The word of our God, the word of our God will stand forever.

The word of our God, the word of our God will stand forever.

You may be seated at this time.

But He has used you all in this interim period to be very generous.

You know, historically, this point in the year, from just a financial aspect, we're usually pretty far behind in our budget.

And this year we're we're doing pretty well, especially all things considered, like I said, through this interim period.

And so that's not a boast on you all, as it's more of a praise to the Lord for stirring up your hearts to give and just acknowledging that what you give, uh the Lord provided you anyway.

So uh this morning, I almost want to use it more as an encouragement to say, hey, thank you uh for your generosity and reminding you that you are not alone uh in your sacrifice sacrificial giving.

Others uh in here are sacrificially giving to you as well.

Uh and so wanted us just to take a moment to look through Genesis today uh to talk about kind of value-driven generosity.

So you probably have usually two mindsets.

I don't know which side of the pendulum you might swing on when you're thinking about either spending money or giving money away.

There, there's kind of two aspects.

There's the cost-driven, uh, where it's how much is this going to cost me?

Right?

And you might look at that as uh from the tithing perspective as, okay, if we give this, what are we losing?

Right?

So uh maybe we can't do that renovation to the home, maybe we can't go on that uh certain vacation, maybe we can't um, you know, get that uh certain car, right?

So there's a cost value, right, or cost analysis of just what does this cost, right?

But then there is a value-driven mindset.

You're not thinking about necessarily what it costs, you're thinking about what do I gain?

What do I gain from this transaction, right?

Probably the best example of value-driven mentality are commercials, right?

So think about an SUV commercial.

What are those SUVs doing, right?

They're driving through the woods, they're driving on that ginormous sand dune in the Sahara, right?

What are they trying to say?

Because they they might mention the price, but it's at the very end.

They're trying to say this car, the value it brings to you, right, far exceeds its cost, right?

Look at all the freedom you can have, right?

Or you think of a truck commercial?

What are the trucks always doing?

They're always pulling some huge trailer, right?

Some huge load of steel.

What are they trying to say?

Don't worry about the cost.

The value is look look at what you can accomplish.

Look at what you can have.

And so my philosophy about giving and generosity, it has more to do with not what is the cost to it, not to say that that that's not sinful.

It's not wrong for you to have that uh mentality, right?

Because uh giving is sacrificial, so there's an understanding of a cost.

But it's more how can I show the value, right?

The blessings of being generous.

And I've read to you all in Sunday school, and maybe up here, a quote from a story called The Little Prince.

It says, if you want to build a ship, you don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

I'm not here this morning to tell you, I need to, we need to collect your money.

What I want to spend this time doing this morning is just reflecting on the endless immensity of the beauty of Christ, right?

The generosity of God the Father to give us his son, right?

So that we'll think more of Christ, we'll think highly of Christ, and you know, we'll have more joy in Christ.

So that's that's what I want us to do this morning.

You might be saying, well, you know, why are we in Genesis 22?

Well, Abraham in this moment is showing a huge willingness and just generously offering up his son Isaac.

Right?

Now, obviously, there is a lot of the gospel, right, in that of Christ being ultimately the son being offered up.

But when you really think about what was Abraham asked of, right, is an enormous cost.

But I think why he was willing to do it was because he ultimately saw a greater value in the obedience to the Father's request.

So we're gonna walk through this morning what is the value of generosity through uh the opportunity to test your faith, a freedom from anxiety, an assurance or experience of God's provisions and his blessings.

So we'll pick it up in verse one.

And after these things, God tested Abraham and he said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am.

He said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.

So Abraham rose early in the morning.

He saddled his donkey, he took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac, and he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and he arose and he went to the place of which God had told him.

I'm gonna go back old school to the 90s, uh, if you remember the movie Aladdin, right, kids?

Not the weird one with Will Smith, but the animated one.

Uh there's a scene, right?

Jasmine leaves the palace, she's in the marketplace.

Uh, she gives a little boy an apple, and the vendor's like, hey, you gotta pay for that.

She's like, Well, I can't pay for it.

So he's gonna cut off her hand, and then Aladdin swoops in and kind of you know rescues her, and they go back to his little house that overlooks the palace, and then uh the guards kind of find him or pursuing him, and he looks at Jasmine, he's like, Do you trust me?

Right, he reaches out his hand, and kind of without hesitation, she says yes, right?

And so then they leap, they kind of leap off the balcony to try try to escape.

That's a little what God's doing here when it says he's testing Abraham.

He's saying, Do you trust me?

Do you trust when I ask of a generous offer from you?

Do you do you trust me?

And what do you see Abraham does?

He doesn't hesitate.

Says he rises up early, he collects all the things that he needs, and he goes.

Now, why would God do that?

Why would God even go through all this?

Here's the remarkable thing when when God asks of us, right, when he asks of a generous heart, he's not doing it for himself.

Right?

He doesn't need anything from us, right?

Ultimately, he's not gonna need Isaac as a as a sacrifice.

So he doesn't ask for himself.

He asks us and he tests us because we need it.

It's ultimately for our blessing.

Right?

It's for our blessing that our faith is tested in a sense to be shown is stronger.

Now, kids, you might be thinking tests, like I don't like tests because I have a teacher and they make hard tests, and it's opportunity for me to make a bad grade and to feel bad about myself, right?

But that's not real, that's not the true intent of a test.

The true intent of a test, right, is to show the strength and the capabilities.

Right?

So when the Lord tests us, when it's when you hear the Lord saying test Abraham, it's not I want to see Abraham fail.

It's actually want the opportunity to show Abraham his faith that I've given him, the strength of it, the capability of it, and ultimately how I'm the one who sustains him.

Right?

So it's not a negative thing.

And so when the Lord asks us to give, to generously give, it's not for his own benefit, it's for yours to be able to test your faith, to see the opportunity in which the Lord will sustain you through that.

And so that's what Abraham shows us.

It also gives us a freedom from anxiety.

Verse 4 and 5.

On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and he saw the place from afar.

Then Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey, I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.

Now, I imagine Abraham has a sense of anxiety here as he's on this three-day journey, as he sees the mountain approaching, that he's supposed to sacrifice his son.

But the text doesn't really say that, right?

His response isn't really one of anxiety because he's like, Look, me and Isaac, we're gonna go over there and we're gonna worship, and they're we're going to come back.

Right?

Deep down, Abraham is showing a sense of like, I don't know how this is gonna work out, but we're coming back.

I'm not coming alone.

So there's this real sense of peace, right?

And this is where I think there's a correlation.

Right?

If we're less generous, we're probably gonna be a little more anxious.

Right?

If if you're someone who kind of worries about the future, worrying stifles generosity, right?

Because there's a concern that the future hasn't been secured, right?

And that, hey, I need to hold on to the resources that I have to help secure a future that I'm worried about.

But you don't see Abraham doing this.

His whole future was on Isaac, right?

That's his future.

And yet he's willing to say, I'm I'm I'm not gonna hold on to him.

Why?

Because Abraham knew that he couldn't control or guarantee the future, that God is the only one who holds that.

And he trusted the Lord enough to know that my future is secure.

I don't know how he's going to do that.

But what I do know is me holding on to the one thing I think is going to control it won't work.

So I'm not anxious to give it up because I know it's still going to be secured in the future.

Right?

Generosity is a cost we can bear in the present because we know our future is secure.

Right?

You'll you'll have less anxiety in life the more generous you are, because the more generous you are, the more you're willing to say, look, I don't know how this is gonna work out in the future, but I know it's gonna work out.

And that will actually help you in your anxiety, in worrying about the need to control something that you will worrying won't help you control it anyways.

But allows you to look towards the Lord who does control the future.

Another value of generosity is it strengthens our assurance that God will indeed provide.

So on to verse 7 and 8.

Isaac said to his father, Abraham, My father, and he said, Well, here I am, my son.

He said, Behold, the fire in the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

And Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.

So they went both of them together.

Our struggle, maybe my struggle, right?

I won't I can't speak for you all.

My struggle is I I don't always know if God will provide, right?

I keep kind of, even though he's provided for me for 42 years and has far exceeded whatever I could think of my life, he's always provided, yet I still struggle with that.

I still struggle with wondering what will you provide?

So, in a sense, what I want to do is kind of hedge my bets, right?

I I know God will provide, but I also know that if I have enough money in my bank account, I'll also I'll be able to offset any of those difficulties where maybe he did not provide for the standard I was expecting.

Right?

And look, we I've I've said this a thousand times.

It it's not sinful to be rich and everyone in here, right, has has done comparably very well to the rest of the state of Alabama or the rest of the world.

So there's no shame, right, in the amount of money in your bank account.

But there is a danger in you using it to hedge your bets on lessening your faith that you have in the Lord and how he ultimately will provide for you.

Right?

We we can't hold on to money, to thinking this is what we need for an abundant life, right?

Because right, here's the reality.

Whatever abundance you think your life should be like or one day might be like when you're older, it does not compare to the life the Lord has prepared for you for all eternity, right?

And that's always only found in Christ.

Our abundance of life can only be found in Christ.

I mean, what does Scripture say?

Jesus came that we may have life, and then what does it say?

And have it abundantly.

Because he says, I am the good shepherd, lays down his life for his sheep.

Right?

Scripture is very clear on that.

Your life and the abundance of it is through me, Christ, because I'm willing to lay down my life as a good shepherd, or one who is to take care of you and to secure your future, and to give you more than you could ever possibly imagine.

I'm promising you, I'm going to do that.

Right?

Or were said, he who do not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Abundant life in all things.

Is that not what we all want in life?

Yet we fall into the trap of thinking money is what's going to provide it abundancy or in all things.

Right?

The very outcome that we try to accomplish through holding on to our money is the one thing it can't do.

Right?

Money will not buy you a 25th hour.

It will not buy you an eighth day, and it will not buy you a 13th month.

And I think what you realize, you know, the older you get, the older I'm realizing, it won't even buy you happiness.

Right?

And yet, here we have scripture promising over and over that the thing we can't buy, we've been given.

Only his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

So your generosity, right?

The value-driven in generosity is for you to continue to see the assurance that God will indeed provide.

Just like Abraham's assurance of like he indeed will provide for himself a sacrifice.

The other value-driven aspect of generosity, it's one thing to be told this, it's another thing to experience it.

So verses 9 through 14.

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there, and he laid the wood in order, and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and he said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, Here I am.

He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him.

For now I know that you fear God.

Seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and he looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his thorns.

Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide.

As is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided.

I was sharing this uh this morning with Andy.

He's asking about how India was.

I knew two things about India.

It is really far away, and there are a lot of people there.

Okay?

I knew that.

But I had never experienced how far away India is until you've crossed half of the continents and you keep going.

Right?

It is remarkable how far India is away.

Now I know.

Like when someone's like, I'm going to India, I'm like, oh man, like, have you been?

Because it's far.

Like, whenever you think you're halfway, like you're not.

Like Europe's not halfway.

You got to keep going.

Okay.

And then it was like, well, there's a lot of people there, right?

So there's more people in India than China.

It's like a little over 1.4 billion people.

And you're like, okay, yeah, no, that's a lot of people.

You do not know how many people that is until it takes you an hour and a half to drive 10 miles both directions.

Doesn't matter what time of day, because there's 1.4 billion people on their motorcycles just going around.

Right?

We drove three hours out of Hyderabad.

Hyderabad's only like the sixth largest city.

It only has like 12 million people, right?

So was that three times the state of Alabama?

We drove three hours out to a village.

And even driving, right?

You're just driving on this road.

There's just people.

There's people on the side of the road.

It'd be the equivalent of you driving down 65 to the beach and you just see people like on the side of 65.

Like, I don't know where they where they came from, how far they walked to even get there.

Like we're driving in a car.

It's just people everywhere, right?

I got to experience the like I don't complain about 280 at 5 o'clock anymore.

That's not that's not traffic.

Okay?

It's not traffic.

That's just a few people on a big road.

Okay?

That's not true.

I still complain about it.

Um I refuse to drive on it at 5 o'clock.

But you all instinctively know, right?

There's a difference between told something and experiencing it.

Right?

Another example, under the Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, and at its widest point, it's 18 miles wide, and that it's over a mile deep.

But I've never been there, right?

And some of you have.

And if I asked you to come up here and be like, explain, like, explain how big it is to stand on the rim of the Grand Canyon, you would probably just say, like, I can't explain it.

You have to see it to experience it.

And that's what Abraham gets.

That's the value of generosity.

You're not just told God provides.

You actually get to experience his provision.

How many times do I think I have stopped short in my faithfulness?

That I've stopped short in obedience or continue to pursue the Lord and robbed myself of seeing the Lord provide.

Like, have you ever thought about that?

Have you ever thought about something you were pursuing or you thought you should be pursuing and you gave up on it?

And you didn't give God the opportunity to show up.

Abraham kept going.

He kept going all the way till he pulled the knife out.

And his reward was seeing God respond.

And Scripture encourages this.

Scripture actually encourages you in your faithfulness to keep going so that you would expect the Lord to show up.

Right in Malachi 3.10, it says, Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts.

If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

I mean, Jesus constantly saying that.

Ask, ask me.

Ask and you'll receive.

I'm generous.

Keep going.

Keep going until you see how generous I am.

We give up on his generosity.

Like, think about how many times you've cut him off short.

It's like, ah, he doesn't want that for me.

I don't think that.

We cut him off.

You limit, I mean, we limit God.

I limit God, right?

I can't speak for y'all, sorry.

I limit God all the time.

And that's not who he is.

He's constantly telling us, test me, because it's not for me.

It's for you.

It's your blessing.

Right?

You think about Abraham didn't get to see the incarnate Christ.

He didn't actually get to see the person who was to fulfill all the promises that God made to him.

But what did he get to see?

He got to see that ram.

Right?

That ram is the first substitutionary atonement that we see in Scripture.

It was the sign that Abraham got to see that, you know what?

You're right.

One day you are going to provide.

You are going to make me a great name.

You are going to make me a great nation.

You are going to make the world blessed by my namesake.

Because you're going to provide the person to do that.

And it's much like us, right?

We haven't gotten to see the pre-incarnate Christ.

But each week we get to come to the Lord's table.

And you get to taste, you get to hold, you get to touch, you get to be reminded of the substitutionary atonement that God generously provided for you.

So that you indeed would have the things that money and you could never accomplish.

Right?

Righteousness, joy, eternal life.

Finally, our value in generosity is God's blessings.

So verses 15 through 19.

And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and he said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you.

And I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.

And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies.

And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.

So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Bersheba.

Abraham lived at Bersheba.

Look, I I get we're real sensitive to the prosperity gospel, right?

And rightfully so.

I hope this doesn't come off as a prosperity gospel.

Right, prosperity gospel is me saying, if you give us more money, I can guarantee you God will give you more money.

Or if you give us more money, I can guarantee God's gonna make you healthier, right?

And things will go your way.

That's not true, right?

We know that's not true.

But what is true is the more you give yourself to the Lord through obedience, the more he gives himself to you.

That is a blessing, right?

That is a return on investment, right?

Generosity, the act of generosity is an act of obedience.

And what does Scripture say about obedience?

It says, if you abide in me, my joy will remain in you, and your joy will be full.

Right?

That's a guarantee.

That's a promise.

Generosity makes us more joyful.

Holding on to things doesn't.

I've actually I read a couple of different articles, and they both referenced a similar study, and it was this.

They gave envelopes out with between$15 and$20, and in the envelope it had instructions.

It said, either spend this on yourself or give it to someone else.

Give it away.

And then they asked the people, how did you feel on a scale of you know about joy?

And the people who gave away their money all said they had greater joy than the people who spent it on themselves.

Now, why is that inherently true?

Why would giving inherently make us more joyful?

Because we're made in God's image, who's a very generous person.

And as believers, right, we have all with a new heart, being given God's spirit, it absolutely should make us happy.

Because it made Christ happy, it made God happy.

And actually, when you think about it, if you're a believer and someone asks you for money, you ought to see that as a bit of an honor and a privilege that they are recognizing in you God's generous nature.

Not, oh, here it goes again.

It's oh, here's an opportunity for me again to show people the generous nature of God the Father.

Right?

It shouldn't be an annoyance.

You should be excited that people acknowledge, hey, I think you're a generous person.

I see you as a generous person.

Why?

Because you've experienced the generosity of the gospel in your own life.

And you're happy to show that to other people.

Another benefit's a bolder prayer life, right?

The more we experience God, right, the more he shows himself to us, the more you you take off those limits.

And now your prayers are bolder, they're bigger because you're not praying to the God you've limited.

William Carey, right?

He's the missionary to India.

He said, Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.

That's a remarkable mindset.

And one I've shared uh with the session before about how, like, man, I don't even know how to pray big.

Like, I'm I limit God so much, it's hard for me to comprehend infinite asking of an infinite gracious God.

But William Carey, right?

Who went in and was like, look, man, I expect big things from God.

And so I'm gonna attempt big things for God.

Why?

Because I think God's big.

Because he's a generous God.

Generosity makes you more forgiving.

Right?

Think about it.

Generosity and forgiveness are kind of the same thing, right?

They're both costly.

And they're both often given to someone who doesn't deserve it.

Right?

Forgiveness is hard because it cost you something and you're giving it to someone who didn't deserve it.

You're taking their debt that they should pay.

Well, what is generosity?

It's you bearing a cost and giving to someone that they didn't deserve it.

So you can see how people who are generous are also more forgiving.

Right?

If you're more forgiving, you're more patient.

You're more willing to bear other people's burdens.

And why?

Because Jesus carried our burdens.

Right?

Why do we forgive?

Because Jesus forgave.

Right?

He gave himself up.

You become more compassionate, right?

If you're generous, you're more mindful of needs.

Right?

You're just generally more mindful of people.

Right?

A reflection of who Christ is.

He was mindful of your needs.

He was mindful of your debt.

You weren't even mindful of your debt, right?

If we're not believers, we're not mindful of our debt.

We just kind of keep going along.

But the Lord graciously revealed, like, hey, you have a huge debt, and that debt deserves death.

And the only way you can be paid is by someone who's perfect.

And that's me.

So I'm going to generously offer myself to you because I know what you need.

Imagine generosity like this.

I'll kind of close, we're getting we're done here.

Uh what happens when you throw a little pebble into a pond?

Right?

That little pebble might seem insignificant and it's small.

Right?

But you throw it in the pond, then what happens?

It creates these ripples.

And these ripples go out far wider than the size of that pebble.

And I think sometimes we might discredit our giving and our generosity as some insignificant amount.

Like, well, you know, we gave it to the church, and who knows what y'all do with it.

But the reality is what?

That pebble makes a makes a residual effect.

It goes out.

And when you start seeing generosity is that same act, right?

You might just see it go in the water, but the Lord can see its effects.

Right?

You can see it continuing to spow.

And what's remarkable is a church of our size, right?

Think about it, can have a massive impact around the world.

Right?

I got to go experience that in India.

Person we support.

And I got to see 87 church planters in a country that is Hindu and Muslim.

And how churches have continued to plant.

And I got to see a whole village of people who all were gypsies and now become Christians and we're worshiping the Lord, albeit in a 95-degree church for a three-hour service.

But but right, like some of your money helped that happen.

You didn't probably think about that when you wrote that check, and it might have been you wrote that check five years ago.

But it's impacting people because the Lord uses his generosity, right?

Far bigger than the gift itself.

Right?

There's infinite value in being generous because there's infinite blessings in Christ.

And I pray that we all will be generous enough to experience that.

Let's pray.

To be like, well, I should be more generous and do more and give more and just be more and more, more, more, more, more.

The reality is you're not asking us to give more.

You're asking us to trust you more.

You're asking us to give you the opportunity to reveal yourself more, to show your generosity more, to show us how infinitely gracious and merciful you are that we oftentimes limit you in.

You ask us to give, Father, so ultimately we would just be more blessed by you and what you've done for us and grow a greater appreciation for you and a love for you and an affection for you and a desire for you.

So I pray, Father, that we, you know, our hearts wouldn't be driven to give to just appease you or to feel not feel guilty about ourselves.

But we genuinely would feel excitement and joy and just the opportunity to trust in you more.

And it's your name we pray.

Amen.