Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning!

Well today we starting a new sermon series entitled “The generous life.”

We are also starting our community groups this week and want to encourage you to join a group… I really believe as we dive into this series on generosity that it will impact us both personally and as a local Church..

We are going to break this series into two parts...

First, We are going to begin with

what has been Given to us The Inflow of Generosity… then second half of the series we are going to focus on the Outflows of Generosity..

A great way to view Generosity is to picture it like a funnel —The top of the Funnel represents all that has been received, given and poured into our lives… It can a range of things from our experiences to blessings of life…

All the things that we would be thankful for… All the things that have been poured out in Salvation..

The funnel has flow… and what ever has been poured into our lives has purpose and a flow....

The funnel was never designed to hold liquid — it was just designed to be a pipeline of blessing…

In Matthew 10 when Jesus commissioned his 12 disciples to go proclaim the gospel… He gives them some instructions..

He tells them to bi pass the gentiles and go straight to the lost house of Israel…simply because the time was not yet for the gentile mission.

They were to be on a mission to..

Jesus tells his Disciples as you Go... dont take extra money Gold or Silver... extra bags or luggage….

Jesus says to his disciples don’t take any provision

It’s a little like travelling on Delta airlines… bring nothing extra..no extra luggage.

Leave behind your extra coat and tunic…

The truth is that many of the disciples of Jesus didn’t have much to begin with… many of the disciples came from very humble backgrounds....

The Historian Josephus tells us that most philosophers and peasants of the day only had one coat.

When you think about the commission --- it was no easy task....

Not only does Jesus says go with nothing… he tells them..

Go preach the kingdom of heaven… that a tall order....especially when you think of conflict that Christianity had with Judaism....

Most of us get stumped on this one task of evangelism… We read the statistic a few weeks ago that only 3 in 100 Christians ever share their faith… and only one of them does it consistently.....

But add to the list...

Heal the sick…now that’s difficult… Raise the Dead…cleanse the lepers…cast out demons…

You can’t do all these things without God’s power at work in your life…

These disciples didn’t go out cold turkey into the mission field…

Jesus had spent at least 3 years training, equipping, modeling and empowering these Disciples..

Jesus had poured Generously into the lives of his disciples .... their tanks had been filled up and it is now it was their turn to pour out what been given freely given to them.

Jesus doesn’t call the equipped as much as He equips the called..

The apostle Paul expresses this same principle — That receiving from God always precedes Giving… This has been called the law of the Harvest.

Paul writes to the Church at Corinthians… .

In context it is about the offering taken up for the church in Jerusalem.. Paul was reassuring the Church that as they gave… God would meet their own needs.

Paul tells the Church… that has they gave… God would provide for their needs..

He would give the seed for the sower...

The lesson is that.

God’s abounding grace extends beyond the mere replenishment of resources.

He is powerful not only to replace resources spent in Christian service but also to multiply them to the point that at all times and in all things we have all that we need…

This harvest does not consist of personal wealth and riches

It is a harvest of generosity.

God will take inadequate efforts at good works and increase them so that they bless many people.

All a person has to do is give.

Generosity has inflows and outflows

T/S Why should we be concerned about pursuing a generous life?

1. Generosity gives Purpose and Meaning!

"The world is peppered with people who can coax small seeds of inspiration into richly flowering ideas that put humankind on a better path.

And then there's that guy in Des Moines.. Iowa"

Early one morning, a trooper with the Iowa State Patrol had attempted to pull a man over—but he "stepped on the gas and triggered what turned into a 10-to-15-minute pursuit."

The chase finally ended when the cars got off the freeway, and "a pit maneuver - when police bump the back of the vehicle and put it into a spin..

So what caused the driver to speed away from his traffic cop? "[T]he 46-year-old at the helm of this idea told authorities that leading police on a chase was just something on his Bucket List."

one of the local sergeants "told the Associated Press he'd never heard such an excuse" in almost 30 years of law enforcement work.

Hopefully not many of us have a dream of being chased by police, but we do all have dreams and goals --- One of the keys to finding purpose and meaning has to do with our contribution..

Generosity speaks of our contribution in life… What am I giving?

It focuses on a deep felt need within all of us!

We all want to make a difference.. whether it’s in our homes, in the Mark place, in our field of study…Whether we are farming rice or growing crops… there is the sense that what we are doing is making a difference.

We all have this desire to have our lives count..

Winston Churchill said..

“We make a living by what we get.

We make a life by what we give.”-Winston

Churchill

Good way to frame life… we can either “Make a living” or “Make a life”… If we are going to make a life --- it’s going to be marked not by withdrawals --- what we are trying to get out of life...but by our deposits…

Before Pam and I got married… We had excellent premarital counseling that has really helped over the long hall… We actually did it twice just to make sure… Once with Dave and Janet Cunningham.. and then again with our Dave and Chrisy Eden...

Both amazing Couples…

They told us that it is not what you get out of marriage, but what you put into a marriage… It’s all about our contribution… Marriage is like a fruit basket — If you keep both keep on taking fruit out of the fruit basket nothing will be left… But every time you add something you making an investment and contribution and that is what makes a marriage — If you are going to make a life rather than a living it has to be marked by deposits.. contribution.

Jesus taught the principle of generosity… He taught that it was more blessed to give than to receive.”

In Luke Jesus taught that when it came to forgiveness… we are to be generous.. with forgiving others.... Forgiveness involves setting a person free from the past and the obligations of recompense that attach to his actions.

But Jesus’ demand is yet more radical… not only are we to forgive but we are to offer an open hand of generosity to that person...

The “good measure” here is a generous measure.

The imagery is that of the measuring out of grain by volume.

The giver presses down and shakes the grain to fit in as much as possible, and not content with even this full measure, he piles it above the rim of the measure to the point where it cannot be contained by the measure and spills out.... Jesus teaching that when we give in generosity God will pour generosity it will be pour back to you in a similar measure… Peter asked Jesus how often he should forgive a brother who sinned against him?

Peter throws out what he considers a generous number… 7 times?…

Jesus responds… seventy times seven… in other words there is isn’t a value you can put on the number of times that you forgive… This just goes to show you how we differ from God… We sent boundries and limitations on how generous we are going to be...

Why the Generous life?

1. Generosity gives Purpose and Meaning!

2. Generosity makes your World Larger.

If you look at the Icons on the background slide you will notice that the Generous life…has several categories....

We often just think about generosity in monetary terms… it is that… but it’s much more..

.. Generosity starts in your Home… How do we treat each other in our homes…do we hold on to grudges… or are we generous towards one another… Are we generous in the our work place…Do we do the least the or do we do the most to help the business or organization… Do we think of others in our work environment…How can we make our coworkers life easier?…

.. How about our time?…

Do we look at our time do we guard our time or do we make time for others…

The Bible teaches us that Generosity actually expands our worlds.. Give and will be given… Sow and you will reap.

The book of Proverbs expresses this truth with lucid imagery.

This verse is kind of counter intuitive — From the time we are children, we are used to thinking of certain things as “ours”.

We learn early on that there are boundaries..The material world is divided between what is “mine” and what is “not mine”….. Just this week.. on Valentine’s Day - Pam bought “G” one of the children she takes care of… this huge sugar cookie - it had this thick icing and Shaped like a heart… It was so big — And all Pam wanted was a little piece… but “G” was not going to have of that… We all have that in our nature don’t we… We all have that cookie that we hold onto...

Scripture challenges the lines of “mine” and “not mine.”

One of the ways that Generosity is going to enlarge your life is that

Shifts our focus off of ourselves.

While it’s important to maintain a healthy level of self-awareness and sensitivity to oneself, often the focus we put on ourselves is filtered through a negative lens.

Many of our thoughts about ourselves are tinged with criticism, stress, doubt, uncertainty and obsession, none of which do any good for our level of confidence and success.

Generosity distracts us from the scathing insults of this inner voice while creating quite a strong argument against it.

It is difficult to prove we are worthless when we are watching someone else benefit from our actions.

Generosity Enlarges our world is an amazing principle… Because it means that giving means greater rewards..

If you are wanting to increase and an area become Generous in that area… If you want to be rich in friendship… begin to offer friendship

The person who scatters seed, giving away his resources, increases all the more.

The person who withholds, or is stingy, does not enjoy blessing.

The person who waters others will be watered; God will meet the needs of that person.

Why pursue the Generous life?

1. Generosity gives Purpose and Meaning!

2. Generosity makes your World Larger.

3. Generosity is good for Your health and well being.