Generous Me

Introduction

Review of past two weeks

2 Corinthians 9:6–9 ESV

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.”

Scarcity

Will I have enough

Am I winning?

What’s in it for me?

Abundance

It’s all God’s and everything he has is ours

He wants to give us what we need which is often more or other than what we ask for

The God of abundance who says to his children all I have is yours has given you all you need to live the generous life - I’ve proven it: See my Son, Jesus.

God gives not just for us but so that we can be generous with others - It is possible to have/live a generous life regardless of our financial situation.

Our Journey Into Generosity

How each of us grew up/learned about getting and giving

In general - abundance or scarcity?

What God says - tithing, pledging, generosity

What we did

Married Life

The story of our early years

How our attitudes were different

The financial struggles

Kids

Money management and debt. Debt is the biggest obstacle to generosity.

Friend asked once: Hey, if you can only save $5 a week or month that’s better than nothing.

Jack: Give when I can…More like oh, I need to give something this week.

Guilt

In my mind, giving was what I wanted to do once everything else was taken care of. Would often think (sometimes aloud: this money could have been used for…).

I was stuck in a scarcity way of thinking - it would be great to be generous some day...

We didn’t plan to give/be generous.

A lot of mental road blocks

Also thought: I give food or I give other things so money is optional. Justified in our minds not giving money for Kingdom work.

Patti

What we taught our kids (or tried to).

Taught to put others first, give to the things of the Kingdom; Compassion kids, etc.

Did those things as a family

Saw us struggle, be inconsistent…work through; give when it wasn’t easy.

Plan better than we did. We were taught to plan but didn’t always do it well.

The Road of Growing in Generosity

Realized this was a weak area of our witness to Christ and his kingdom.

Getting a handle on our finances

Got out of debt

Making and keeping a budget - and sticking to it

Planning our giving

Bridge building project - planned our giving to the mission of the church, building project AND for helping people.

Goal: Look for ways to increase our generosity every year.

Where the Tithe is a bad model (and not NT). Start somewhere.

We started small, worked at becoming consistent (automatic withdrawal really helps!), and decided on the things we really don’t need that we can live without that we were mindlessly spending money on.

What Our Generosity Looks Like Today

Our Why Today: Care about the things the Father cares about

Needs of people in the Lincoln community

Make our community a better place

Be part of something bigger that draws people to Jesus

Our How Today

Money

Time

Other resources

Our What Today

The Kingdom Mission

Resources That Can Help You

Personal, family, life group, kids and teens. Sent out in the eNews earlier this week.

Financial planning course coming in January.

Like to talk more with us, mention that in the chat box or email me.