Pastor_Transcript6
40 Days of Community
Part 6
Living A Generous Life
Transcript of Message by Rick Warren
November 6-7, 2004
This message was on Rick’s heart to preach for our congregation at Saddleback this week. It includes discussion of our upcoming capital campaign, some personal and congregational stories of giving, and a time of communion. It may not be an appropriate message for your congregation at this time. If you prefer a message that is more in line with the theme of “Worshiping Together”, please refer to the alternate message posted to the website called “How to Tell God You Love Him”.
NOTE: This “Living a Generous Life” message is based on the same outline as is used in the Week 6 lesson for the small groups, so be aware that the same content will be taught by Rick Warren by video this week. If you decide to use this sermon, an explanatory email is provided on the Small Groups page that will help your hosts prepare for their lesson with this duplication in mind.
Good morning everybody! It's good to see you. If you will take out your message notes.
For the past 6 weeks we've been in the series on “40 Days of Community,” building relationships, how to deepen the sense of community in our church family, particularly in our small groups, and reach out to the community around our church family. The word for community in the Bible is the word 'fellowship'. Fellowship has been what we've been talking about for the last 5 weeks. And the word 'fellowship' in the Bible is a Greek word. It's the word 'koinonia'. Let's say it together. Koinonia.
Koinonia is such an important word. It's translated many different ways. Because like a diamond that has many multiple facets to it, so does fellowship. And in the Bible ‑‑ you will notice there on your outline that koinonia is translated not as just fellowship, but it's also translated as community. I gave you one example. There are a lot more examples. There are a lot more of these. It's translated as participation. Koinoneo is translated as contribution. And koinoneo is translated as generosity. This is important because all four of these are essential elements of fellowship.
If you and I are going to have fellowship together, there has to be a sense of community. There has to be participation on my part and your part. There has to be a contribution, where I make a contribution in your life and you have to make a contribution in my life. And there has to be generosity. You cannot have community without generosity. We are generous with our time and with our energy and with our money and resources in all the different parts of our lives. So you really cannot enjoy community without these other things, participation, contribution and generosity.
Let me show you a few examples from the Bible. If you look up here on the screen, the first verse is Philippians 4:15. It says, "You became my partners in giving." That phrase, 'partners in giving,' is one word in Greek. It's the word 'koinoneo.' 'Partners in giving' is the same word for 'fellowship.'
And then in Hebrews 13:16, "Keep doing good in sharing your resources." That phrase, 'sharing your resources,' that's the word for 'community'. That's the word for 'fellowship'. It's koinoneo.
And then the next one, 2 Corinthians 8:4, "They begged us to let them have the joy of giving their money for God's people." That phrase, 'joy of giving their money' actually is the word for fellowship, for koinoneo ‑‑ for community, koinoneo.
And then one more, 1 Timothy 6:18, "Be generous and willing to share." And that phrase there, 'willing to share,' is just one word in the original ‑‑ in the Bible. It's the word 'koinoneo.' And so you can't have community without generosity. And we cannot complete our study of community without looking at how to be more generous with each other.
I read an interesting quote this week. Carl Meninger, the famous psychiatrist who founded the world‑famous Meninger Psychiatric clinic, said this: "Generosity is one of the essential components of mental health. We have found that generous people are rarely mentally ill." Generous people are rarely mentally ill. So today, in the interest of the mental health of those sitting on either side of you, we are going to look at how to be more generous with each other after this song.
[Song performed]
All right. Why does God want us to learn to be generous with each other? Well, there are seven wonderful and incredible benefits in my life that I like when God says that I am generous with other people. Here they are.
Number one, generosity creates COMMUNITY. Generosity creates community. 2 Corinthians 9 tells us, "your generosity not only provides for the needs of God's people, but also produces prayers of thanksgiving to God." When we are generous to each other, we thank God for each other and are drawn closer to each other.
Randy Frazee learned about the connection between generosity and community from his unchurched neighbor. He says, "My neighbor asked if he could borrow my ladder. I said, of course. I later learned he had one of his own. He didn't need to borrow my ladder. He just used it as a way to build our relationship. And when he borrowed my stuff, it made me feel that I was needed, and I liked that feeling. I have now learned to do the same thing with my other neighbors. My other neighbor, Randy, has a Shop Vac, and I borrow it every Friday night to clean my car with my son. In fact, now Roger leaves it out for me. I told Roger recently that I could afford to buy my own Shop Vac, but I just like the interaction of borrowing his. Roger asked me to please not buy one for myself."
See, he can now see the connection between generosity and community. You see, the Bible says this. Look at the next verse, Matthew 6, read it with me. "Your heart will be wherever your treasure is." In other words, wherever I put my time, my money, my effort and my energy, wherever I invest myself, that's what is going to attract me. My money tends to be a magnet. In other words, if you want to get a heart for Microsoft, buy some stock. It's real simple. The moment you buy stock in Microsoft, you will be very interested in that company.
The same is true where if you want to be interested in United States of America's economy, buy treasury bills. And as the economy goes up and down, you will be very interested in the American economy if you are buying treasury bills. You see, wherever you put your time and money, that's where your heart is. So for many of you your heart is in your boat. That's where you are putting your time, money and energy. Or your heart may be in your home. You are putting your time, your money in it fixing it up. Or your heart may be in your work. That's where you are putting your time, your money and your energy. Or it may be in a hobby. That's where you put your time, your money and your energy. Wherever your treasure is, your heart will be there.
So any time that I am generous with you, or I am generous with the poor or I am generous with anybody, with God or anybody, that's where my heart tends to go. And every time I give to God it draws my heart closer to God. And every time I give to you, it draws my heart closer to you. Giving or generosity creates community.
Now the first Christians were very famous for their generosity. In Acts Chapter 4 it tells us, "The community of believers shared everything in common." They were a family. They just shared it all. What is mine is yours and you can share it with me. It was voluntary.
It's not communism. That says what is yours is mine and I will take it. Christianity says what is mine is yours and you can share it with me.
Now, when you had children or little kids in your home, if you were a parent, did you enjoy watching them share with each other? Of course you did. One of the primary lessons of life teaching little kids is learning how to share. And when you would see your kids be unselfish, you are very happy with that. And God is the same way. When God looks down on us and sees us being generous, He is saying, "That's my boy!" "That's my girl!" "They are doing what I want them to do." Because God is generous and He wants us to become like him.
Number 2, generosity defeats MATERIALISM. The more generous I am with you, the more it defeats materialism in my life. Would you agree that we live in a culture of materialism? Well, yeah, especially here in Orange County where it's, you know, get the all you can, can all you get and sit on the can. You know. It's like the goal is to get more and more and more. And just about the time that you catch up with the Jones', they refinance, or they file bankruptcy. But either way, you know, you can never catch up. It's like, can I get more? I want more. I have to have more. I have to save more and spend more. And just about the time that you think that you got it all, the Christmas catalogues come out and they tell you about all kinds of things that you did not know that you could not live without. And so you got to go out and get more and more. And we do live in a very materialistic culture.
I don't know if you know this or not, this was in the paper. Orange County residents make more but give less a way. A George Gallup Pole survey found that the average Orange County resident gave four‑tenths of one percent of income to charity, which was the least generous county in the nation. Now, think about this. That's ‑‑ it was 4 times worse than the next least generous county.
Now Orange County is the fourth wealthiest county in America, and the worse at generosity. Gallup said this: He said, "When it comes to giving, more Orange County residents literally stop at nothing." 70 percent gave less than $500 to charity last year. Now what is amazing to me is this: In this sea of selfishness, God has planted an oasis of generosity in Saddleback Church. This is the most generous church in the nation. And it's amazing to me in all the places He put it in the middle of Orange County. It's kind of like when you want to see a diamond, to really see it sparkle, you put it on black velvet so you can see the difference. And in the least generous county in the nation, God created an island of generosity. This church is the most generous church. It's amazing, the contrast between our church and just what is going on around us, which is all about getting instead of giving. I don't know of any churches that are going out and saying, 'let's go out and spend a couple million bucks going out and feeding 35,000 homeless for 30 days.'
When you come onto this property, 120 acres, and you see all these buildings ‑‑ this one alone cost $12 million. That was years ago. Somebody paid for it. Well, I will tell you who. It was people who were generous. Instead of remodeling their home or buying a bigger home or buying a boat, they gave to build Saddleback Church. This just didn't happen. It's because we have incredibly generous people in this church. And it's just amazing compared to the culture. But the fact is its tough keeping your priorities right when you are living in society where it's all about getting. The one with the most toys wins. No, the one with the most toys still dies. Ok? Whether you got toys or not.
Now the antidote to materialism ‑‑ there is only one antidote, and it's generosity. And every time that you are generous, you have a spiritual victory in your heart. Every time you are generous, your heart grows. It does not shrink. Every time you are generous, you break the grip of materialism in your life. Why? Because materialism is all about getting. Get, get, get, get, get, get, get. And it's my nature to get and to hold on. And God says every time that you share with a friend, share with your family or share with a neighbor, or any time you are generous with anybody, you are breaking the grip and defeating the materialism in your life. By the way, that's why if you are a parent, you need to have your kids watch you giving. They need to see you being generous. Because they certainly are not going to learn it in schools in Orange County. They are not going to learn it anywhere else. You are being generous, they need to see you model it in front of them so that they can learn it, too.
Now the Bible says this in Matthew 6:24, "You cannot serve both God and money." Would you circle the word 'cannot'. Notice it does not say you should not. It says you cannot. It's an impossibility. You can't have two number ones in your life. You can not say making a lot of money is number one and God is number one. One of them has to be number one. You have to choose what is going to be number one. So any time that you are generous with other people, you are creating community with them and defeating materialism.
Number 3, it strengthens MY FAITH. It strengthens my faith. Generosity strengthens my faith. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 9:13, "Your giving proves the reality of your faith." We talked about this a lot. There are more promises in this book, in the Bible, about giving, than promises about any other subject. In fact, God talks more about giving than He does about heaven or hell. Why? Because He wants us to become like him. God is a generous God. You would have nothing in your life ‑‑ I would have nothing in my life if it were not for the generosity of God. I would not take my next breath if it were not for the generosity of God. And so God says, I just want you learn to be like me. I am generous with you and I want you to learn to be generous with other people. Now sooner or later you have to decide, “do I believe all those promises in the Bible?”
Here is one of them. It's a principle in 2 Corinthians 9. It says this: "Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously, will also reap generously." Now you know this principle because it's true in every area of life. If you give out judgment, if you are judgmental of other people, other people will judge you. Whatever you sow, you are going to reap. If you are critical of other people all the time and you are picking at them and nitpicking, they will be critical of you. If you gossip about other people, I can guarantee it, people will gossip about you. If you are envious and jealous of other people, other people will be envious and jealous of you. Whatever you give out you are going to get back. If you are giving out encouragement and sowing affirmation and kindness, people are going to be affirming and encouraging and kind to you. And if you so love and you are loving other people, people can sow love back to you. God wired the universe that way. Always, always.
If I take a kernel of corn and I plant it in the ground, I am not going to get one kernel back, I will get a stock with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kernels. If I take one tomato seed and plant it in the ground, I will not get one tomato back, I will get a whole ton of tomatoes. Whatever you give out you will get back in a greater degree. Why? God wants us to learn to be generous.
Now sooner or later I have to ask God and ask myself, am I going to trust your promises where He says I will take care of all your needs if you will be generous? The reason He asked me to do that is because it's the exact opposite of my human nature. It's my nature to hoard, to stockpile, to accumulate and get it all myself, and to be fearful and insecure and say, 'I can't give away anything, I have to keep it all because how will I be taking care of myself?'
Jesus says, "Life does not consist of what you collect, it's what you give." You see, there are two kinds of people in life. There are givers and there are takers. Only two. You are either be a giver in life or you are a taker. Takers are always the unhappy ones. You see, it's not by accident that the words 'miser' and 'miserable' comes from the same Greek word. Miser and miserable. When I am a miser, I will be miserable. The most giving and generous people in life, they are giving their time and energy and giving their resources, helping other people. They are the happiest people on the planet.
And so money actually becomes the acid test of my faith. Am I going to be generous and expect God to keep his promises? A lot of people, even believers, when it comes to money, they act like atheists, like God is not there.
Bob McQue tells this cute story about his son. He took his son to McDonald's and he bought him a super‑sized french fries. And he said he was driving him back home, and those things smelled so good in the car. And those french fries, that aroma was just coming over. And he said, “I just reached over and I just took one little french‑fry out of my son's french fries and I ate it. And my son got all upset and said, ‘Dad you cannot have that one. These are my fries.’” And he said, “you know, I immediately had three thoughts.” He said, “first as I sat there I thought my child has forgotten that I am the source of all fries. I brought him here. I took him to McDonalds. I made the order. I paid for the order. And handed them to him, and I am driving back home. He would not have any fries if it were not for me. The only reason that he has any fries is because of me, the great fry giver.
“The second thing I thought is my child doesn't realize that I could take them away in a second if I wanted to. Ok? Or on the other hand, I could buy him an entire truck load of fries if I wanted to, because I had the power to do either.”
And he said, "The third thing that I realized is, I didn't need his fries. In fact, I could easily get my own. I could buy myself 100 packs of them if I wanted to. I just wanted him to learn to be unselfish."
Now, those three lessons are the reasons why God wants you to learn to be generous with other people. Same thing. God says, “I want you to remember that I am the source of everything you got, and you would have zip, nothing, you wouldn't even be alive if it weren't for me. I chose to create you, and I have chosen to give you all the things that you got. It's all from me.”
Number two, “I could take it away from you just like that, or, I could double it just like that, because I have the power.”
And number three, God says, “I don't need your fries. I don't need your money. I am not poor. I just want you to learn to be unselfish. I want you to learn to be generous. I want you to learn ‑‑ and I want to develop your faith.”
Now what happens when I start becoming a more generous person? Look at what the Bible says. 2 Corinthians 9:8, "God is able to make it up to you by giving you everything that you need and plenty left over to give joyfully to others." If you will practice generosity and being generous with the people around you, He said, “I will make it up to you by giving you everything you need, plus, I will give you more so you will have stuff to share with other people.” God is looking for channels to use. He is looking for people to say, "God, use me to be a blessing to other people." And in the meantime when God finds a channel, it's like a straw, He starts pouring straight through it. Because most people get it and keep it. They don't get it and then pass it on. God says, "If you learn to be generous, I will bless you more than you can imagine."
I have seen this over and over in thousands of letters that we receive. During the 25 years of Saddleback's history, we've had four special emphasis ‑‑ giving emphasis. One of them was years ago back in '87 called 'Possess Our Land', and 633 people, families, sacrificed to buy this property at great expense. And they were very generous. They put off buying homes and cars and stuff like that in order to buy this property which you are now sitting on.
And then in '93 we had another one called 'Time to Build'. We were in a tent. And we had a bunch of people sacrifice, and they gave and generously shared. And we built this building which we are now meeting in. And then we did another one called, 'A Building for Life' when we built this bridge, and we built the ministry center, and we built a bunch of other things, parking lots.
And the then a few years ago we had the fourth one called 'For the Children,' which we built the children's ministry center. All of that happened because of the generosity of other people.
Next year, in 2005, we are going into our fifth phase 5 in building this campus, which will involve ministry ‑‑ I mean a chapel for weddings and funerals, and the student center for our teenagers. There is a brochure that you can read about it later on. But the bottom line is this: During all of those phases, we've received thousands and thousands and thousands of letters, I mean, I have got boxes and boxes of them, where people said, "my faith grew more during that time than any other time because I was being challenged and I learned to be generous and it strengthened my faith." At Saddleback we don't believe in fund raising. I don't believe it. I believe in faith raising, not fund raising.
Number 4, generous. When I am generous with other people, it's an investment FOR ETERNITY. It's an investment for eternity. Generosity is an investment. Luke 16 verse 9, would you read this verse aloud with me. "Use your worldly resources to benefit others. In this way your generosity stores up a reward for you in heaven."
Now you have heard me say many times, and you have heard it said, you can't take it with you. You are never going to see a hearse pulling a U‑Haul behind it. It's not going to happen. Did you know that mortuaries sell these things called 'burial suits' for suits when people don't have a suit to be buried in? Do you know what the difference is between a burial suit? There are no pockets in them. It's true. Why? You don't need them. You can't take it with you. But you can send it on ahead. How do you do that? By investing in people who are going there. And every time that you are generous, with the poor, with a friend, with a neighbor, with anybody, with God, any time that you are generous with your time your money or effort, God says you are storing up in the bank in heaven . Now, your time on earth is only about 80, maybe at the most 100 years. You will spend trillions of years in trinity. Where do you need to have the biggest account? Where you are going to spend the most time.
So how do you store up treasure in heaven? Like Jesus said to do. Well, look at the next verse. 1 Timothy 6 says this: “Tell the rich” ‑‑ by the way, when you ‑‑ stop reading. That's all of you. The rich, if you are an American, you are rich. In fact, you might write this down, here is a web site, globalrichlist.com. And you can type in your salary, and it will tell what percentage you are in the world. But everybody in America is already in the top 5 percent. Compared to the rest of the word, even the poorest people are rich. So He is talking to all of us. He says, "Tell the rich to use their money to do good, giving happily to those in need, always being ready to share with others whatever God has given them. By doing this, they will be storing up real treasure for themselves in heaven." It's the only safe investment for eternity. And they will be living a fruitful Christian life down here as well.
Now, there is no greater investment than the kingdom of God. When you help other people with your time, with your money, with your resources, whatever you got, you are actually ‑‑ God says, "I am counting that as an investment in heaven, because you are not spending it on yourself, you are using to it help somebody else, and that means that you are big like me." He says that's an investment that's protected in heaven. And He says it pays good rates. It's proven great dividends and no risks. And you are not going to get that kind of investment anywhere else. You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give. There are so many examples of generosity in this church you don't even know about. They happen literally every day of the week. Let me show you just one.
Last Saturday about 50 men in our church decided they wanted to go help poor single mothers up in inner city L.A., so they made all these gift baskets and filled them with coupons and ‑‑ I mean gift certificates, and Bed and Bath stuff, and all kinds of stuff, and then they took and distributed about 50 gift baskets just to poor, single mothers barely making it in inner city L.A. Watch this.
[Video played showing scenes of men delivering baskets to single mothers and their children]
Now why would 50 guys in this church decide to spend their Saturday taking gifts to single mothers? I mean, they could have stayed home and watched football. They could have hung out and laid around on the couch. But instead they did something. Well, you know who got blessed most in that? They did, because their heart grew and they broke the grip of materialism over their back and they are growing. They are becoming more like Christ and storing up investment in heaven.
And that brings me to number 5. Generosity blesses me IN RETURN. It not only creates community and defeats materialism and strengthens my faith, it blesses me in return, right now. I mean now. I don't have to wait for heaven . This is stated over and over and over in the Bible that God blesses those who are generous. It's like hundreds of times He is saying, I want you to get this one for sure, because I want you to learn to be generous.
There is another word for generous. It's the word 'gracious.' It's gracious. God shows his grace by being generous to you. Now there are lots of examples of how blessing ‑‑ generosity blesses me in return. Here is one in Deuteronomy 15. He says, "Give generously and do so without a grudging heart. Then, because of this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to." Circle the word 'all' and circle the word 'everything'. God says I will bless you in all that you did, and everything that you put your hand in. How many of you would like that to happen? He says to give generously. Become a generous person. Here is the question: Do you really believe that? If you don't believe that, you should take a pair of scissors and cut it out of the Bible because you don't believe it. See, what is amazing to me is that some people can trust God for their eternal salvation but don't trust God with their finances. What is the logic behind that one? In other words, I can trust God to forgive all my sins and trust God to secure my eternity in heaven, but I don't trust him to keep his promise about money. Really? I feel sorry for people who are stingy because they don't trust God. They don't have any confidence in God. As a result, they miss out on so many blessings. God says, "I want to bless you in return."
Now on the back of your outline here is the sixth reason. It produces HAPPINESS. It produces happiness. Acts 20 verse 35. Jesus said, "There is more happiness in giving than receiving." There is more happiness in giving than receiving. Now, it feels good to give. Do you see these people on T.V., and they are having this, you know, what do you call them? Giving-a-thon or whatever? And they are saying, "Give 'till it hurts." I don't agree with that at all. I totally disagree with that. You should never give until it hurts. You give until it feels good, because giving makes me happy. What it's saying is, you know this. Who is happier in life, the takers or the givers? The givers. The takers are not happy. They are scared to death that they are going to lose what they got. They are insecure and uptight. They are not happy and generous people. So He says, "I want to produce happiness in your life." And the happiest people are the most generous.
Let me tell a story that will blow your mind. Right out here outside of this building, between this wall and the road, that land out there that the creek goes through, the real pretty land, you know that land out there? We've been trying to buy that land for years and years. It's owned by the county. And they would not sell it to us. We needed that land because we need it to finish the circulation pattern around here to make it easier to get in and out of this property, and we need it because we wanted to put the chapel out there and additional parking, and we need it for our master plan. And the county for years said no way are we going to sell you that land. In fact, we will never ever sell it. The only way that we would be interested in this, in letting you have that land, is if you have an environmentally sensitive piece of property that was more important that than piece, and we would consider swapping it.
Let me tell you a story. Forty years ago, long before this church was ever thought about, I was in the fourth grade. Forty years ago. And God had a couple of Christian men, one named Paul Maddox and another named ‑‑ his son‑in‑law, Bill Grady, those two guys, Christian men, go out in the canyon and buy 440 acres of canyon land. It has sat there undeveloped for 40 years. They never could get anything developed. It sat there undeveloped for 40 years. Thirty years ago, when I was just a teenager, I was invited to speak at a church, and a member of that church was Paul Maddox's brother, David Maddox. And that weekend I was invited to stay in the home of a member, and I stayed in the Maddox's home and got to know them and we became good friends. That was 30 years ago.
Twenty‑five years ago, Kay and I moved from Texas to Southern California to start Saddleback. I was 25 years old. And we came here with no money and no buildings and no members. I did not know anybody in the Saddleback Valley and had no money. You know the story, you have been to the 101 Class where we got our first month rent free because I did not have any money for a down payment or the first month's rent. We were going to sleep in the truck. When we moved out here we spent $1,000 pulling our U‑Haul out. It was kind of like the Beverly Hillbillies moving out to Southern California. And so we had no money. And I had been here a couple days, and I got a call from a man named Bill Grady, one of the guys who owned that land out there. And Bill Grady called up and said, "Is this Rick Warren?" And I said, "Yeah." And he said, "Are you the kid that is starting a new church in Southern California?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "Well we never met." And I said, "No." But he said, "I heard that you are starting a church?" And I said, "Yeah, I am." He said, "What is your means of support?" I said, "I don't have any. I don't even have any members yet. I don't have a salary or any support." He said, "We never met, but I feel led of God to pay your apartment rent for the first two months." “Well, you are a friend now, friend. Ok? You are my best friend because you are the only guy that I know.” Out of the clear blue this guy called. Somehow he heard that I was starting a church. And he said, "I want to pay the rent for your first two months." So I met Bill Grady. As time went by, Paul Maddox died and the land went to his brother, David, who I also knew. And in the last few years, David Maddox and his son and daughter‑in‑law, Ron and Sandra Maddox, became members of Saddleback church. So they have been members here for sometime. Just recently the Maddox's decided that they would donate that 440 acres to Saddleback Church. It's the last most environmentally sensitive piece in the county that connects the corridor from north to south that the wild bobcats and all those people can ‑‑ or animals can go up and down ‑‑ up and down that corridor without having any buildings in the way. And the county has wanted that piece for a long, long time. And they gave it to the church, and we are swapping it for that.
Now that land could not be bought. But if you could buy it, that's about $10 million worth of land that we are getting for free. Isn't that amazing? I want you to hear just a little bit of the story see a little bit of that land. And just watch this.
[Video played]
DAVID MADDOX: Regarding that property at Williams Canyon, the 400 acres, it came into the family in 1964. And my brother, Paul, and Bill Grady has a son‑in‑law, and his wife, purchased the property. And then through circumstances in the family, deaths and other things both for Bill and for Paul, holding the property for them was more difficult or containing. So they asked for my help. And I tried to help them some, and eventually I became the owner of the property. And I have it now for close to 20 years. I tried to use it for different ways in developing and it did not work too well either. And I decided to ask my son if he wanted me to retain the property or go ahead and sell it.
RON MADDOX: It's pretty perplexing because of the beauty of the land in the heart of Orange County. You can see the way to the Pacific Ocean that it could not be developed in the 40 years that our family had held this property. It was an issue that was kind of difficult and had been on my heart for quite a while, and thinking that I could develop it better than my father. It was on my heart especially during a series of messages here at Saddleback about being ‑‑ to be a blessing to others. And during that time, the Lord began to speak to me in a very quiet voice that began to make me realize that perhaps this land could be used for a greater purpose, perhaps a purpose that would help the church and ministries to many people here at our Saddleback community.
SANDRA MADDOX: As I watched my husband struggle day in and day out and we continued to pray and continued to talk about what to do with the property, or what not to do with it, and how he should discuss it with his dad, and tell his dad, and I just remember one night I just woke up and he was ‑‑ you know, he works really late at night, and he was up, and I could see intensively looking and trying to decide what to write.
RON MADDOX: I wrote a letter shortly after that based on the encouragement of my wife and the strength that she gave me to pursue that vision that I felt. I shortly thereafter received a call from the pastor of our church that stated that they were very interested in the property and they would like to meet with my dad and I to see about the gift and how it could be used.
DAVID MADDOX: Since then we've been visiting and learning about the thoughts of the church, and the developing of the property, and how this ‑‑ since that maybe using the property itself, how some exchanges or things like that it will be ‑‑ the value will be multiplied many times over. And it makes you remember the boy with the loaves and the fishes. And the Bible does not say much about how he felt because we just know that he felt great. And that's how we feel. We feel wonderful because once what we have is put in Christ's hands it really multiplies.
SANDRA MADDOX: As David mentions about the story about the little boy and how he must have experienced joy, that's how we feel as a family. That's how we hope everybody would feel. And it does not really matter what little thing, big thing you have, it's just being obedient to that call, listening to your shepherd's voice and turning it over to Him, and watch Him magnify your gift.
DAVID MADDOX: And I think that it really emphasizes what our pastor has been saying these last few weeks, that we really are better together.
[Video ended]
One of the cool things about this is we are only having to trade 40 of those acres to get this property out here. So we will still have 400 acres in the canyon which we might be able to build a little retreat center out there or something.
Here is the lesson. There are two lessons. You might write these down, because these are amazing lessons. Number one, God is working even when you don't see it. God is working even when you don't see it. When I was in the fourth grade, God knew that someday Saddleback was going to need that property. And he had two Christian men go buy property out there that would get it. That is so like God. It's just so cool how God knows way far in advance of what he wants to do. And we are just pawns in his plan. When I was doing my A.B.C.'s, God was planning how to get that land for this church. That is God. And sometimes there are things going on in your life and you go I don't know why this is happening. And I am sure they were asking all along how come this is not selling how come we cannot develop this. God had a plan.
The other great lesson out of that is generosity creates miracles. Generosity creates miracles. None of this would have happened if David and Ron and Sandra would have said this is God's, let's just give it. And they were generous. And it created a miracle that is going to effect tens of thousands of people.
Kay and I have had an opportunity to be miracle workers through little acts of generosity. And God wants to make a miracle worker this week. You can be the answer to somebody's prayer. You can be the answer to somebody's prayer if you are alert, aware and be generous and willing to help and give of your time or resources or money or energy or contacts or whatever, and God will use you. And you know what? When you become a generous person, life becomes an adventure because you see God working through you over and over and over and over.
Here is the seventh reason why God wants us to be generous, and it's the most important of all. Because generosity makes me MORE LIKE GOD. Generosity makes me more like God. God is generous. John Chapter 1 says this, verse 16, "We all live off God's generous bounty, gift after gift after gift.” And to become like him, we've got to be generous. See, God is a giver. God so loved the word that He gave. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. It's the essence of love and it's the essence of fellowship. God says, “I want to you learn.” That's why this book is about giving. As I said, God talks more about giving and generosity than He does about heaven or hell in the Bible. Did you know that? Because He wants us to be more like him.
In class 201 we tell you that the word 'believe' is used 270 times. The word 'pray' is used 371 times in the Bible. God wants us to pray. The word 'love' is used 714 times in the Bible. God wants you to learn to love. But the word 'give' is 2,162 times. Because He wants you to learn to be generous.
Kay and I have been through six different giving emphasis, two in another church and four in this one, and every time we grew. Because the Bible says this in 2 Chronicles 29 ‑‑ 1 Chronicles, "Everything we have comes from you Lord, and we can only give you what is already yours." He already owns all the french fries. So if He owns them all, He can give them back. You know three times in the 29 years Kay and I have been married, we've given away our life savings three times. Three times God said give it all away. Why? Because our security is not in a bank account. Our security is in God. He can turn it off in one place and turn it on another. It's real easy. My security is not in my bank account. My security is in God, and that's a lot more secure than the stock market. Would you agree with that? Yeah, it's a lot more.
How many of you were here when we did the 'Time to Build' giving emphasis? Can I see your hands. You will know this story. Back in 1993 we were meeting in a tent over here, and it said we need to build. We needed a building. He we said it's time to build a building. We had over 10,000 people coming and we still did not have a building. So we said, "Let's build a building." So I was over here reading the Bible and preparing my heart, and I was reading in the Old Testament about how King David was asking people, and He was going to give for the temple. In it God told David “I want you to announce to the people what you are going to give so you can be a model.” And I thought, that's nice for David. And God said, "No, I mean you." "Oh, no." "Yeah, I mean you." And I said, "Oh, God, I don't want to do that. I want ‑‑ it will be misunderstood,” and all kinds of questions, and, “God –" do you ever have one of those whiny days with God? I had a whiny week. And “God, I don't want to do that.” God said, "You can. It's not for their benefit, it's for your benefit. You need to trust me in this."
And I went to Kay and I said, “let's start praying about what would be our gift.” And we never want anybody to sacrifice more for this church than us. Somebody might give more, but nobody will sacrifice more. I will make sure of that. I will never ask you to do something I have not already done. And we said, "What would really stretch us?" And I said, "You pray and I will pray." And we got back together and said, "Ok, how much did you come up with?" "You go first." "No, no, you go first." And it was, okay, well, we had come up with the same number. And we both felt that God was telling us to give two full years of salary.
Now at that time my salary was $50,000 a year, that was a $100,000 gift. You need to know that I don't take a salary from Saddleback anymore. We lived in a 1200 square foot home, and I built the kid's bedrooms in the garage. And my 3 kids grew up in bedrooms that I built in my garage. And God said, I want you to give $100,000 to this gift, to this building, and you are going to trust me. I said, "God what am I supposed to live on in the next 2 years?" And He said, "Do you really believe the Bible? "Yeah." "Well, then trust me." So the next week, those of you that were here back in '93 will remember this, I stood up, and my knees were quaking, and I said, "I don't want to do this, but the Bible talks about the leaders leading the way, and God has told us to give $100,000 to this offering." And I went home and I thought, you fool, what in the word have you done? And it was pretty dicey because I had no idea where I was going to get that money and what we were going to live on. Four days before that offering, it was 4 weeks later, 4 weeks of tension, a publishing company called me up on the phone and said, “Rick, we think that you should be an author, and we want to you write a book called the Purpose Driven Church,” not life, church. And I said, "That doe sound like a good idea." “So we are going to send you a contact for $150,000.” All right, God, yeah. Okay. Oh, now we are talking, Okay. Okay. And the next week I got up and I announced to the whole church and they knew ‑‑ and the place went crazy. We were all clapping and cheering. And you know what? I would not give anything for the lesson that I learned in faith that day.
And I will tell you, since '93 God has tested my faith in far, far bigger ways than that. And every time that He does, I know that He is stretching me and my heart is growing and I am becoming a more generous person every day. Now let me tell you this. Before you get any wrong ideas, the amount makes no difference at all. What God looks at is the attitude. God has all the french fries He wants. He does not need yours. Okay? What He wants is for you to be unselfish, so He does not look at the amount, He looks at the attitude. And the Bible says this in 2 Corinthians 9, "You will be glorifying God through your generous gifts."
Tom will talk about how we have the right attitude.
Tom:
How do you have the attitude that God wants us to have when we give? The Bible has a lot to say about that also. It starts with our heart. God is a lot more interested in our willingness than in our wealth, because He is interested in what we want to do. Look ‑‑ let's read together 2 Corinthians 8 verse 12. "If you are really eager to give, it's not important how much you are able to give." Can it be clearer than that? God is saying, “I am not concerned about that.” And so He talks to us about these attitudes that He wants to develop in our hearts.
In the next verse, 2 Corinthians verse 9:7 talks specifically about four key heart attitudes. "You must make up your own mind as to how much you should give. Don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure, for God loves the person who gives cheerfully." Jot down four attitudes.
First, you give THOUGHTFULLY. The Bible says you make up your own mind. Don't give impulsively. You think about it and pray about it. I used to do think, and maybe some of you think, the most spiritual kind of giving something is when you give just impulsively, spontaneously. And somebody talks about it and you say I am going to empty my wallet. Really, the Bible says that is not the most spiritual kind of giving. God says, “I want you to think about it and pray about it. I want to you make up your mind about this.” Why? Because we plan anything that is important in our life. He wants it to be important and meaningful. It's based on prayer and consideration. That's one of the heart attitudes, you give thoughtfully.
And number two, you give ENTHUSIASTICALLY. Not reluctantly. You don't give out of guilt or motivation or I have to give and if I don't give I will get hit by lightning. You give because you know what God is going to do for your heart. The more I have given in my life, the more enthusiastic I have become about giving because I watched what God has done in my heart and through giving. The more you give, the more enthusiastic you are without a shadow of a doubt.
Third, you give VOLUNTARILY. You give voluntarily. You don't do it under pressure. Let me just be real clear about this. If you ever feel pressured to give, don't give. Don't give. Some of you are thinking, I feel pressured because of what Rick just said, or what you are saying right now we feel pressured. I need to respectfully say that we are not pressuring you to give. We are not. We know that God does not bless gifts that are given under pressure, so why would we pressure you to give. It just might be that it's God talking to you. It's just might be that it's Him. Here is a basic rule of thumb in life: Any time you are pressured by a person to give, don't give. God will not bless it anyway. But every time you feel challenged by God, you better give because only He knows what He is going to do in my heart and through that gift when I decide to give, so you give voluntarily because of what God is doing in your life.
And, finally, God loves a person who is giving CHEERFULLY. You give cheerfully and you give with joy. It's interesting, one of the Greek words, the language the New Testament was written in, one of the Greek words for offering is the word 'hilarious.' So if we are going to do offerings right, we have to have stand‑up comedy during the offering so we can enjoy it, because it's a hilarious thing of what God does when you and I decide to give. One of the things that I love about Saddleback is that it's a church that is filled with these cheerful people, we enjoy people coming in and going out. And one of the things ‑‑ one of the reasons that there is so much cheerfulness in the church is there is so much generosity in this church. You cannot have joy ‑‑ I cannot have joy in my life without giving, without generosity. But it's not always easy. Sometimes it's a challenge to be cheerful when you give.
There was a church up in Idaho that needed to build a new building because it was getting filled up, and one of the leaders got up and said, "I have good news and bad news. And the good news is we have the money to build a new building, and the bad news is it's still in your bank accounts." That's where the money is to build the new building. That's the challenge of it. Sometimes it's a challenge to think how I can be cheerful when God is challenging me to give. When you feel that way, just remind ourselves of these benefits, of what God wants to do in our hearts.
Just turn over to the front of your outline again, and let's just read these together again, and let's be generous to those who came in late and give them the fill‑ins. Why not be generous? Would you read the fill‑ins with me? It creates community, defeats materialism, strengthens my faith, and it's an investment for eternity, it blesses me in return, it produces happiness, and it makes me more like God.
Rick:
Hello? There is one other word translated in the Bible from the word Koinoneo, and the word is communion. And so we can't end '40 Days of Community' without taking communion together. The word communion is the word fellowship, it's the same word in the Bible. So today we are going to take communion before we close, and I will ask the servers to come and begin serving, we will wait until everyone has been served before we eat together, and while we are waiting, let's sing a song.
[Song performed]
What is the meaning of communion? Communion is a reminder of the generosity of Jesus Christ. That's why we take it. Jesus, on the night before He went to the cross, took his disciples into a room, and He took some bread and He took wine ‑‑ or in this case, juice, and He said, "These are two symbols that I am giving you to remember what I am going to do for you, and they are to be symbols to help you remember how much I love you." And He said, "The bread is going to represent the body that I am giving for you, it's going to die, and I am going to hang on the cross, and my body will be broken for you." And then He said, "The juice or the wine will represent my blood that was shed for you.” And He said, "These are things just to help you remember how much I love you."
The whole reason we have Saddleback church, the whole reason we do any of this is because of the generosity of Jesus Christ. The Bible says this in 2 Corinthians 89: Look up here on the screens. “Do you remember the generosity of Jesus Christ, the Lord of all? He was rich beyond our telling, yet He became poor for your sake so his offering might make you rich.” He is not talking about money here, obviously. He is talking about the true riches of life. The wealth of life. He says the God of the universe humbled himself and came to earth in human form, Jesus Christ, and He went through all the trials and tribulations and hassles that we do. But then He allowed himself to be falsely accused, put on a cross and crucified. There is the God who created it all. He could have come off that cross in a second, but He didn't. He stayed there to pay for all the sins of the world. He said, "Now, I am doing this so you can go to heaven and you don't have to pay for your sins. All of your sins will now be forgiven and you don't have to go to hell because I have paid for all of the things that you have done wrong in your life on the cross. And not only have I paid for your past, I will give you a purpose in your present, and I will get to know you and you can get to know me, because I have come to earth."
And you can have a personal relationship with God and learn to love him as much as He loves you. And then He says, "Not only that, I paid for your ticket to heaven by dieing on the cross for you. And you don't have to worry about your eternal security. Trust in me and you will live with me forever in heaven. I don't want to you forget that act of generosity."
The next verse, Acts 15:11, let's read it together. "We are saved because Jesus, out of shear generosity moved to save us." The only reason you are going to heaven is because of the generosity of Jesus Christ. That's why He wants us to learn to be generous. The Bible tells us that we give because He first gave to us. On the night Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and He broke and it He blessed it and He said, "This is my body which is given for you, do this to remember me." In the same way, Jesus took the cup, and He said, this is my blood which was shed for you. Now obviously when He said it, He had not gone to the cross yet. So He is saying this in advance. "This represents what I am going to do for you on the cross. And every time you drink it, it's just a visible reminder of how much I love you. Do this to remember me."
Bow our heads. Would you pray this prayer with me in your heart? Dear God, I know that everything that I have is a gift from you. I would have nothing if you were not generous. And I know that you want me to learn to be like you. Help me remember that every time that I am generous it creates community and strengthens my faith. And help me to see it as an investment for eternity. Jesus, I know that I will never be able to repay what you have done for me, but I want to learn to be generous like you, giving thoughtfully and enthusiastically, and voluntarily and cheerfully. This Thanksgiving I want to give my thanks through giving. First I want to give you my life, and then I want to give back to you some of what you have given to me. In your name I pray, Amen.