It’s Your LIFE PART THREE - Impact

It’s Your LIFE PART THREE -Make Impact

Main Idea: Living with awareness that leads to action will leave a lasting impact.

Prayer: “I want to experience the joy that comes from being generous. I ask that today an opportunity to be generous will come my way, that I will recognize it when it does, and that I will have the courage to jump in and give.”

Scripture: Acts 2:42-46, 2 Corinthians 8:7

Introduction

We are in the final week of a three-week series called, It’s Your Life, where we are looking at the life-changing power of being generous.

We believe God has called us to partner with his kingdom work in the world by blessing the people around us in a variety of ways.

If you missed the first two weeks, we highlighted seven different ways in which we can be generous.

We can be generous with our thoughts, words, money, influence, time, attention, and belongings.

Hopefully by now you are seeing generosity is about far more than your money.

Generosity is about taking your entire life - everything you are and everything you own - and using it to bless the people around you.

In week one, we talked about the first step on the pathway to a generous life: awareness.

I pray the Holy Spirit has helped you keep your antenna up, and has shown you opportunities to be generous to the people around you.

Last week we talked about moving from a desire to be generous to living generously.

Our challenge was to start small and let God multiply our faithful efforts.

Isn’t it amazing what God can do when we look past our limits and give Him what we have?

So, it’s your life and if you want it to go well and get better, you need to “Be Aware, Respond, and make an Impact.”

Today we are going to talk about the final step on our path towards a generous life: Impact.

Main Teaching

What comes to mind for you when you hear the word impact?

If you're a sports fan, it might be the collision between a wide receiver and a linebacker he's trying to tackle.

Or maybe a right hook from a boxer as he hits his opponent.

Maybe the first thing that comes to mind is a moment when you lost your footing and you knew you were about to make impact with the ground.

If you are anything like me, the thing you care most about is if anyone saw you stumble.

Sometimes the embarrassment is worse than the actual physical pain.

This is how we normally think of impact, The action of one object coming forcibly into contact with another.

However, there's another definition of impact as well.

Impact can also mean; “Having a strong effect on someone or something.”

For example, have you ever been to the ocean and just watched the waves crashing onto the shore?

If you have, then you are experiencing multiple types of impact.

There is the collision of the waves when they hit the shore and crash.

But that's not where the impact starts.

Those waves are formed by energy passing through the water.

The wind actually has an impact on the water and the friction and energy it creates causes those waves you see constantly coming up to the shore.

I find that fascinating.

There is an impact we cannot see that is creating impact we can see.

Yet another way, the collision we see at the end of a wave is caused by energy and friction created by invisible wind.

If you don't have an opportunity to get to the ocean, you can still see impact in action next time you go to the lake.

Simply pick up a rock and throw it out into the water.

When that rock makes impact with the surface it creates ripples throughout the water.

Those ripples continue to move through the water away from the point of impact.

In fact, you can see a ripple without ever identifying the impact that caused it in the first place.

This is the power of impact.

But impact doesn’t exclusively exist in sporting events or bodies of water.

Impact is something we as human beings have the ability to create.

I'm not talking about the kind of impact that happens when you fall down, I'm talking about the kind of impact we can have when we commit to living generous lives.

We see this happening all around us.

Let me do a quick survey here: if you have ever been impacted by another person, raise your hand.

Look around for a moment, and see that every hand in the room has been raised.

We have all been impacted by other people.

But here's what most of us have never thought about.

That person who impacted your life so deeply was also impacted by someone else.

That person was impacted by someone before them.

When you are impacted by another person, you are most likely experiencing what I like to call, “the ripple effect.”

Just like you might not see the start of a wave in the ocean, or the point of impact that causes a ripple through a lake, most of us never see the origin of the impact we experience.

Why? Because impact goes all the way back to the beginning of human history.

When you read the scripture, you see the story of God creating humanity in His image.

A generous God who breathed life into his people and invited them into his story.

All Impact can be traced back to this moment.

I share all this with you to make a very important point.

Impact is How the Gospel and Generosity Spreads.

Our Christian story is a story of impact.

It is the story of one life intersecting with another life that has taken us from the beginning of human history until the moment we find ourselves in now.

I want to take you to the book of Acts today and give you a demonstration of what this impact looked like in the early church.

Let’s look at Acts 2:42-46 together:

“They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the Apostles. All the Believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere Hearts. Praising God and enjoying the favor of all people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

This passage describes the explosive growth that was happening in the early church.

But to fully understand the ripple effect taking place here, you need to understand the context of this story.

In the gospels, we are given the story of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Remember, Jesus promised his followers that He would be the one to defeat death and reconcile all of humanity back to the Father.

And while followers of Jesus didn't quite understand what this meant, they were witnesses to his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection from the dead.

After his resurrection, Acts chapter one tells the story of Jesus ascending into heaven.

At this point he gives his followers a mandate: to be witnesses for him in the entire world.

To tell his story.

In essence, Jesus is challenging his followers to have an impact on their world, because of the impact he has had on them.

Jesus is creating a ripple effect!

And to ensure that this ripple effect continues on, the first followers of Jesus are given the Holy Spirit to guide them and give them power as they continue to have impact in the world.

So by the time we get to Acts chapter 2 and we see this church giving their possessions to the poor, worshiping together, enduring in the face of persecution.

We aren't seeing a standalone event.

Instead, we are seeing the impact of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

The last part of the passage we read in Acts chapter 2 says this: “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

It is easy to look at this phrase and think to ourselves, wow!

The church was growing in leaps and bounds!

What incredible impact!

But when we understand the context, we realize they were just responding to the impact they experienced.

One of the things this early church was known for was its incredible generosity.

They shared all of their possessions and made sure everyone was cared for.

Do you think they would’ve still done this if they didn’t have a front-row seat to the self-sacrificing love of Jesus on the cross?

If they didn’t see a God who gave himself fully out of love for his creation?

The generosity of God expressed through Jesus was the ripple allowing the first church to be generous.

And the ripple didn’t stop there.

You can trace it from the early Church in the book of Acts all the way to churches around the world right now.

The ripple effect is powerful because it has the ability to go on until Jesus comes back.

That is - if we do our part.

In order for the impact of generosity to continue to bless the world, then we have to continue to be generous.

Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8:7: “See that you also grow in this grace of giving.”

Don’t miss this important truth: generosity inspires generosity!

The generous life is extremely contagious, and when we commit to being generous people, the ripple effect will continue to create more generosity in the world.

In order for the impact of the ripple effect to continue, we have to get better at generosity.

We have to become more aware, more intentional, and more active.

If we as a church commit to increasing our generosity, our impact will grow exponentially.

If we fail to do it, then the ripple will stop and we will find ourselves as a church with very little impact in the world.

So how do we as followers of Jesus and as a church body multiply our impact through generosity?

Of course there are many answers to this question, but today I want to focus on one.

And I believe if we would instill this practice into our lives and into our church, we would see greater impact than we've ever seen before.

We need to tell stories of generosity.

Now it goes without saying, we cannot share stories of generosity if we are not creating them first.

But I think there is some flawed thinking about sharing stories and we need to address it.

I often see well meaning Christians who refuse to share their stories of generosity because they believe it is prideful to do so.

Certainly as followers of Jesus we need to be on guard against a proud heart, but I believe we can share stories of generosity with the right motives.

Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 5:16; “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven”

Did you catch what he said?

Where does it say that our light should shine? Privately?

No, Jesus clearly says our light should shine before others.

Jesus even gives us the proper motivation so we can make sure we aren't being prideful.

What is the motivation Jesus gives us?

That others may glorify their father in Heaven.

The end goal of our generosity should always be for other people to see God for who He truly is.

The verse does not say people should see our good deeds and glorify us.

If you are living a generous life so people can pat you on the back and tell you how great you are, then you need to check your motives.

But, if we are being generous so others can see how big and loving and gracious our God is, then we have to share those stories.

People have to see our good deeds, and our light has to shine in front of a dark world who so desperately needs it.

When we commit to glorifying God through our stories of generosity, we keep the ripple effect going strong.

Now imagine what happens if you share your story with someone else?

The ripple continues to grow.

This is the true power of the generous life.

You might not be able to impact the world by yourself, but together, and with the Holy Spirit’s help, you can impact every person on this planet with the love of Jesus.

Conclusion

As we end this series, I want to mention one last thing the generous life will give you.

If you choose to commit yourself to a generous life, you will create a legacy.

The dictionary defines legacy as, “anything handed down from the past to the next generation.”

Let this sink in for a moment.

Generosity is not just about what it does for you.

It’s not even just about what it does for the recipient of your generosity.

The generous life has the power to go far beyond your life and your story.

We all know our time here on this earth is limited, but the ripple effect of our generosity has the ability to be used by God far beyond our lifetimes.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, what you are doing today is creating your legacy.

So here is the question: what is the most powerful legacy you can create? I

’ll give you a hint: It isn’t money, and it isn’t fame.

Each of us has the opportunity to create a legacy of generosity.

You can live a generous life today, and I promise it will continue to impact people well after you are gone.

I want to ask you to do something as we end this series.

Will you pray this prayer with me?

This prayer has been our hearts cry throughout this whole series.

Let’s pray together.

I want to experience the joy that comes from being generous. I ask that today an opportunity to be generous will come my way, that I will recognize it when it does, and that I will have the courage to jump in and give. AMEN