Speaker 1: Hi, this is Rick Warren.
Speaker 2: Did you know that the best gift you can give
Speaker 2: anybody is to bring them into a relationship with Jesus Christ?
Speaker 2: And did you know that the best time to do
Speaker 2: that is it Christmas. Here's what I want to challenge
Speaker 2: you to do. I want you to make a Christmas
Speaker 2: list of people. Think of all the people who you
Speaker 2: know who don't know Jesus or who might know Jesus
Speaker 2: but don't go to church anywhere. And I want you
Speaker 2: to start praying for them. And then I want you
Speaker 2: to invite those people you've prayed for to come to
Speaker 2: a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day service at your church.
Speaker 3: Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is
Speaker 3: the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Hey, We're so
Speaker 3: glad you've joined us. Today. We're continuing a powerful series
Speaker 3: called radicalis Developing Spiritual Roots. And in this series, Rick
Speaker 3: will show you how to grow deep in your faith,
Speaker 3: stay grounded in God's word, and become everything He created
Speaker 3: you to be. I'm excited to hear what Rick has
Speaker 3: to share today. This is part one of a message
Speaker 3: called Radical Generosity.
Speaker 2: Now, for the last six weeks, we've been looking at
Speaker 2: this series I'm calling radicalous, which is the Latin word
Speaker 2: from the roots, and we're talking about deepening spiritual roots,
Speaker 2: going deeper, not being shallow, people, not being selfish, people
Speaker 2: being deeply rooted in the love of God. And over
Speaker 2: the last six weeks, we've looked at radical gratitude, We've
Speaker 2: looked at radical faith, We've looked at radical joy, we've
Speaker 2: looked at radical love, we've looked at radical hope. This week,
Speaker 2: I want us to look at the issue of radical generosity. Now,
Speaker 2: the Bible says this, if you take out your message notes.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite verses in the Bibles, Proverbs eleven
Speaker 2: twenty four message paraphrase says, the world of the generous
Speaker 2: gets larger and larger, the world of the stingy.
Speaker 1: Gets smaller and smaller. Now, what's he saying there?
Speaker 2: That when I'm generous, it enlarges my heart, It enlarges
Speaker 2: my perspective, it enlarges my impact. When I'm generous, it
Speaker 2: enlarges my influence. Now he's not just talking about money here. Okay,
Speaker 2: let me just explain to you generosity is far more
Speaker 2: than financial giving. Oh no, no, money is just a
Speaker 2: little teeny tiny part of your life. God wants you
Speaker 2: to learn to live generosity as a lifestyle, not as
Speaker 2: a giving of money, but as a lifestyle of generosity.
Speaker 2: And the Bible tells us that we are to be
Speaker 2: generous in every area of our lives. We're to be
Speaker 2: generous with our time. We're to be generous with our praise.
Speaker 2: We're to be generous with our sympathy. We're to be
Speaker 2: generous with forgiveness. We are to be generous with our love.
Speaker 2: We're to be generous with our compliments. We are to
Speaker 2: be generous with our kindness. We are to be generous
Speaker 2: with our attention and paying attention to the needs of people.
Speaker 2: We are to be generous and listening. We're to be
Speaker 2: generous and not being judgmental. City is far, far, far
Speaker 2: more than simply about giving money. It's about living a
Speaker 2: life that is unselfish. It's about living a life that
Speaker 2: where you're a giver, not a taker, in every area
Speaker 2: of life.
Speaker 1: And that's what I want you to be.
Speaker 2: It's what I want to be, It's what God wants
Speaker 2: us all to be to live this generous lifestyle. So
Speaker 2: what I want to do this weekend is two things. First,
Speaker 2: I want to define, according to the Bible, what radical
Speaker 2: generosity is as opposed to just normal generosity. And then second,
Speaker 2: I want you to see the five amazing results it
Speaker 2: has in your life, how it transforms you. When you
Speaker 2: develop an attitude of openness toward everything in life, and
Speaker 2: you're generous with your talent, and you're generous with your service,
Speaker 2: and you're generous with your praise, and you're generous in
Speaker 2: every area of your life, the difference it makes in
Speaker 2: your life. So first, what is radical generosity? If you
Speaker 2: want to talk about generosity. The classic passages in the
Speaker 2: Bible are in the Book of Second Corinthians letter written
Speaker 2: to the people who lived in Corinth, Greece. Second Corinthians.
Speaker 2: He'd written it to us would be second Californians. And
Speaker 2: in corinth he writes two chapters Paul, chapter eight and
Speaker 2: chapter nine that are the classic passages on how to
Speaker 2: live a generous lifestyle. It is just like First Corinthians
Speaker 2: thirteen is the chapter on love in the Bible, and
Speaker 2: Hebrews eleven is the chapter on faith. Second Corinthians eight
Speaker 2: and nine are the classic chapters and what it means
Speaker 2: to live generously in life. Now, let me just start
Speaker 2: with the definition. You may write this down. Radical generosity
Speaker 2: is an attitude, not an amount. Radical generosity is an attitude,
Speaker 2: not an amount.
Speaker 1: It is not about amount.
Speaker 2: God couldn't care less how much you give in life.
Speaker 2: What he cares about is how you get, and what
Speaker 2: he cares about is why you give. God cares about
Speaker 2: your motivation. He doesn't care about the amount. Radical generosity
Speaker 2: is an attitude, not an amount.
Speaker 1: Now, notice here in.
Speaker 2: Verse twelve of Second Corinthia's eight it says this, if
Speaker 2: you're really eager to give, there's the attitude. It isn't
Speaker 2: important how much you're able to give. God wants you
Speaker 2: to give what you have, not what you don't have. Now,
Speaker 2: as I said, God looks at the why and the how.
Speaker 1: Not the what.
Speaker 2: He's more interested in your heart why. God doesn't need
Speaker 2: your money. God doesn't need your time. God doesn't need
Speaker 2: your talent. God doesn't need your sympathy. God doesn't need
Speaker 2: really anything from you zero. What he wants is your heart.
Speaker 2: What he wants is your love. And the Bible says
Speaker 2: where your heart, where your treasure is your heart is.
Speaker 1: He wants your love. And so he's saying here, it's.
Speaker 2: Not what you give, it's why you give it, It's
Speaker 2: how and.
Speaker 1: Why you give it.
Speaker 2: And he says it's about attitude. And then Paul in
Speaker 2: this passage gives us four attitudes that define radical generosity. Now,
Speaker 2: the best way to learn in anything in life is
Speaker 2: to learn by a model. You see somebody else do it,
Speaker 2: and then you learn. And we learned generosity best from example.
Speaker 2: I learned to be generous growing up under my parents.
Speaker 2: My parents were the most generous people I'd ever met,
Speaker 2: and still have ever met.
Speaker 1: They taught me.
Speaker 2: I watched them give everything away in their lives to
Speaker 2: other people with an open hand.
Speaker 1: They held it out.
Speaker 2: They gave away hospitality, they gave away income, they gave
Speaker 2: away food, they gave away their time.
Speaker 1: And energy and effort.
Speaker 2: And I watched how joyful my parents were growing up
Speaker 2: as generous people, and it taught me the value of
Speaker 2: generosity in my life. Now, Paul gives us an example
Speaker 2: of some churches in a portion of Greece. In ancient Greece,
Speaker 2: one of the provinces in ancient Greece was called Macedonia.
Speaker 2: Philip of Macedon was the original ruler. His son you
Speaker 2: certainly heard of. His son was called Alexander the Great.
Speaker 2: He was from Macedonia and Paul in his travels, the
Speaker 2: apostle Paul started a number of churches in Macedonia. They're
Speaker 2: in the Bible, and he writes a letter to them.
Speaker 2: One is a church at the city called Philippi, and
Speaker 2: we get the book Philippians.
Speaker 1: And another one is he.
Speaker 2: Writes a letter to the church at Thessalonika, another city
Speaker 2: in Macedonia, and it's called Thessalonians. Corinth the letter he's
Speaker 2: writing right here is a city in Greece. Now here's
Speaker 2: the background of story.
Speaker 1: The Christians in.
Speaker 2: The church in Jerusalem in Israel were under severe financial suffering.
Speaker 2: The church was under enormous stress, enormous pressure. They were
Speaker 2: financially tied. It was extremely poor church in Jerusalem. So
Speaker 2: Paul says to all the other churches, he says, let's
Speaker 2: take up a special offering and give to support these
Speaker 2: people in their financial crisis in Jerusalem. Well, all of
Speaker 2: the churches of Macedonia.
Speaker 1: Stepped right up.
Speaker 2: They said, sure will help, and they gave generously, they
Speaker 2: gave radically, they gave extremely. And Paul now is writing
Speaker 2: to another church Corinthi, says, what about you guys, why
Speaker 2: don't you do the same thing? And he uses the
Speaker 2: churches of Macedonia as an example. And here's what he
Speaker 2: says in verses one and two. He says, we want
Speaker 2: you to know, talking to the Corinthians church, what God's
Speaker 2: grace has been accomplished in the churches in Macedonia. They
Speaker 2: have been severely tested by the troubles they went through.
Speaker 2: But their joy was so great. They were extremely generous
Speaker 2: in their giving to help this church in Jerusalem, even
Speaker 2: though they themselves are desperately poor. Now, if you've got notes,
Speaker 2: I want you to circle their joy was so great,
Speaker 2: their joy was so great. And here's the first attitude
Speaker 2: of radical generosity. Radical generosity is enjoyable. It is enjoyable.
Speaker 2: We give out a joy. We don't give out a duty.
Speaker 2: We don't give out of guilt. We don't give out
Speaker 2: a pressure. We don't give out of a compulsion. We
Speaker 2: don't give out of obligation.
Speaker 1: We give out of joy. It is enjoyable. It says,
Speaker 1: their joy was so great.
Speaker 2: Now, I want you to look at that verse for
Speaker 2: a minute and notice several things about these churches in Macedonia. First,
Speaker 2: it wasn't a wealthy church. In fact, it says they
Speaker 2: were desperately poor. Second, it said they had their own problems.
Speaker 2: They were being severely tested. So this church needs help themselves,
Speaker 2: and yet they're given to help somebody else.
Speaker 1: They were severely tested. You know what was going on there.
Speaker 1: I talked about it last week. Persecution.
Speaker 2: This was during the time of the Roman Empire and Nero,
Speaker 2: where if you were a Christian that meant you're a
Speaker 2: Christian you die. That's what it meant, you die. You're
Speaker 2: either going to be fed to the lions in the
Speaker 2: Colosseum or you're going to be nailed to cross and
Speaker 2: tarred and lit to lit with fire to illuminate the
Speaker 2: Appian way, the Roman road. And so in those days,
Speaker 2: if you are Christian, men, you follow Christ, you die.
Speaker 2: So these churches are poor themselves and they're under intense persecution.
Speaker 2: But notice it didn't stop them from giving. It said
Speaker 2: they were extremely generous. What's extreme generosity, it's radical generosity.
Speaker 2: They gay And then why did they give. They gave
Speaker 2: out a joy, not out of duty your obligation. Now, friends, unbelievers,
Speaker 2: just don't get this. You don't get it till you
Speaker 2: have Christ in your life. You don't even understand it.
Speaker 2: Why because giving out a compulsion is not true giving.
Speaker 2: Just keep it. You don't get any credit for it
Speaker 2: from God. So he's saying you give out of joy.
Speaker 2: People don't understand that people actually give out of joy.
Speaker 2: Now the Bible says this. Jesus said it. Look on
Speaker 2: the screen. He said, there is more happiness in giving
Speaker 2: than an receiving. Now, I have to admit, when I
Speaker 2: was a kid, I thought that verse was a lie.
Speaker 2: That just isn't true. It's a whole lot more fun
Speaker 2: to get things than it is to give. That's just
Speaker 2: not true. And I have to admit that when I
Speaker 2: was immature as a child, Christmas was all about me.
Speaker 2: What am I gonna get? What's under the tree for me?
Speaker 2: That's okay if you're immature, what's in it for me?
Speaker 2: But you know what, hopefully I've matured and today now
Speaker 2: I'm a father and I'm a grandfather, and Christmas is
Speaker 2: not at all about what I get. I don't even
Speaker 2: care if I get anything. Christmas is about giving to
Speaker 2: my kids and grandkids and the joy of watching them
Speaker 2: open it. That's the joy I get. Now. I don't
Speaker 2: get any joy about you know, getting a pair of socks.
Speaker 2: So what you know, I mean, you know what I
Speaker 2: get the joy out of is giving and watching the
Speaker 2: kids and the grandkids open and enjoy that. The mark
Speaker 2: of maury is when you switch and you begin to
Speaker 2: understand that there really is more joy in giving.
Speaker 1: Than in getting.
Speaker 2: If I'm still enjoying only getting, it means I haven't
Speaker 2: grown up yet. It means I'm still self centered. It's
Speaker 2: not by accident. The word miser and miserable come from
Speaker 2: the same word, that when you're miserly, you're gonna be miserable.
Speaker 2: The happiest people in the world are givers in life.
Speaker 2: The unhappiest people in the world aren't takers. All I
Speaker 2: do is they take. They're self centered, they live, they
Speaker 2: live for themselves. Radical generosity is enjoyable. The second thing,
Speaker 2: second attitude of radical generosity is radical generosity is supernatural.
Speaker 2: It's supernatural. And that's what we see in the next verse.
Speaker 2: In verse three, Paul is talking about these poor people
Speaker 2: in Macedonia who gave to help another poor church in Jerusalem.
Speaker 2: He says, for I testify that they gave as much
Speaker 2: as they were able, and even beyond their ability. How
Speaker 2: do you give beyond your ability. That's supernatural giving. Natural
Speaker 2: giving is to give what you're able. Supernatural giving is
Speaker 2: to give beyond your ability.
Speaker 1: And how do you do that? Well?
Speaker 2: God, what I've learned is this, and I've been given
Speaker 2: for now. I've been learning this act of generosity for
Speaker 2: about thirty five years. What I've learned is that when
Speaker 2: I figure out what I'm gonna give, God always shows
Speaker 2: me how. A lot of times when I failink I need,
Speaker 2: I not need. I want to give. I want to
Speaker 2: give this amount, I go, I don't. I don't have
Speaker 2: that money, where's that gonna come from? Or how we go?
Speaker 2: We gotta pay that bill or this or that. And
Speaker 2: when you say that, what happens is then God shows
Speaker 2: you a way. When you figure out why you want
Speaker 2: to give, God will always show you the how. He
Speaker 2: will always make a way. Number three, Radical generosity is enthusiastic.
Speaker 2: It's not out of guilt, as I said, it's not
Speaker 2: out of drudgery, it's not out of a sorrow, it's
Speaker 2: not out of home.
Speaker 1: Man, I gotta do this. Radical generosity.
Speaker 2: The kind that God says that's the only kind of
Speaker 2: counts is the kind that's enthusiastic, and he says this
Speaker 2: in the rest of verse three and verse four, talking
Speaker 2: about the model he gives us of enjoyable, supernatural, enthusiastic giving,
Speaker 2: he says, of their own free will, they begged us,
Speaker 2: and they pleaded for the privilege of having a part
Speaker 2: in helping God's people in Judea.
Speaker 1: He's talking about Jerusalem.
Speaker 2: Now, I want you to circle some words here on
Speaker 2: that verse free will says of their own free will,
Speaker 2: it says they begged, circle begged, they pleaded, circle, pleaded
Speaker 2: for the privilege, circle, privilege to have a part.
Speaker 1: What's he talking about here?
Speaker 2: He's talking about people who were giving, not grudgingly, but
Speaker 2: enthusiastically enthusiastically. The Bible tells us that to be enthusiastic
Speaker 2: means to be in Theos. The enthusiasm comes from the
Speaker 2: Greek word in Theost. Do you know what in Theost means?
Speaker 1: In?
Speaker 2: Is the word in in is in, and theos is
Speaker 2: the word for God. To be in Theos means to
Speaker 2: be in God. When you get in God, you will
Speaker 2: be enthusiastic.
Speaker 1: Number four.
Speaker 2: The fourth thing, radical generosity is not just enjoyable, supernatural enthusiastic.
Speaker 2: It is a spiritual habit. It is a spiritual habit.
Speaker 2: It's not something we you know, we get all psyched
Speaker 2: up to do, we have to motivate ourselves.
Speaker 1: It's just a habit that we do.
Speaker 2: In fact, the Bible says this in Second Corinthians eighty five.
Speaker 1: They gave in a way they did not expect. We
Speaker 1: did not expect.
Speaker 2: They first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us,
Speaker 2: And this is what God wants. And we actually teach
Speaker 2: this habit of spiritual generosity in class two one spiritual maturity,
Speaker 2: because it's a mark of maturity. And we call these
Speaker 2: the one on one two one commitments. First they gave
Speaker 2: themselves to the Lord, that's one oh one, and then
Speaker 2: they gave themselves to us. That's church membership. They joined
Speaker 2: the church family. Said, we're committing ourself to God. Then
Speaker 2: we're committing ourself to a group of Christians. Have you
Speaker 2: made those two commitments? He says, this is spiritual maturity.
Speaker 1: It is a habit. What is that saying.
Speaker 2: It's saying it's a spiritual habit of my life. Because
Speaker 2: I am a mature believer. It's not something where I'm
Speaker 2: waiting for a quiver in my liver. Oooh, I should
Speaker 2: give you know, you know, I should be generous to
Speaker 2: this person. I should listen to this person, I should
Speaker 2: talk to this person. No, no, it's it's an attitude
Speaker 2: of saying. It's a habit, and it's good for my heart.
Speaker 2: Every time my heart, every time I give, my heart grows.
Speaker 2: In fact, let me read your verse in verse nineteen.
Speaker 2: Write this verse, Denni's not on your outline Sewod Corinthians
Speaker 2: eight nineteen. It says this, your offering is a service
Speaker 2: that glorifies the Lord and shows your eagerness to help.
Speaker 2: He says, your offering is a service that glorifies the
Speaker 2: Lord and shows your eagerness to help. And that is
Speaker 2: exactly what you did. And you glorified God, and God
Speaker 2: is smiling. It didn't matter what you gave. It was
Speaker 2: the matter of which you gave. It was your heart,
Speaker 2: it was your attitude, not the amount. And God is
Speaker 2: pleased when we give enthusiastically and willingly and generously and
Speaker 2: supernaturally as a habit of life.
Speaker 3: Such a great message by Rick today and every day.
Speaker 3: I sure hope you were just as encouraged as I was.
Speaker 3: And now here's Rick with a special message.
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, this is Pastor Rick. I would like to
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you for being a part of our Daily Hope family.
Speaker 2: I don't get to say that often enough, but your
Speaker 2: generosity is helping us share the hope of Jesus with
Speaker 2: people here at home and literally all around the world,
Speaker 2: even in places where it's difficult and even dangerous to
Speaker 2: get the good news. You know, I recently heard from
Speaker 2: a woman named Eunice in Cameroon. Cameroon is a country
Speaker 2: in Central Africa, and she wrote to me. She said,
Speaker 2: Pastor Rick, I lost both of my son, both my
Speaker 2: son and my daughter in the war, and now I'm
Speaker 2: raising four grandchildren on my own. I was overwhelmed with grief.
Speaker 2: But then she says, but through the Daily Hope devotionals,
Speaker 2: I have found strength and comfort and peace in God's word.
Speaker 2: So thank you for helping me hold.
Speaker 1: On to hope. Wow.
Speaker 2: That's powerful. That's powerful, and that happened because your giving
Speaker 2: is helping Eunus find the strength to carry on, to
Speaker 2: raise her grandchildren, and to keep trusting God even through
Speaker 2: the deep loss of her kids. Now, right now, I
Speaker 2: wanted to tell you about this because we have a
Speaker 2: special opportunity. There's some generous friends who have offered a
Speaker 2: matching grant that will double your gift. That means whatever
Speaker 2: you give today will go twice as far to reach
Speaker 2: even more people with God's word.
Speaker 1: So can I ask you a favor.
Speaker 2: I want to encourage you and give your best gift
Speaker 2: you can today. But together, let's keep bringing the hope
Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ to people like unus. There are still
Speaker 2: people who've never heard the name of Jesus. We want
Speaker 2: to keep expanding to get the message to the whole world.
Speaker 2: So help us out. Let me just close by saying
Speaker 2: I love you, I do, I love you. I thank
Speaker 2: God for you, and I am so grateful that we
Speaker 2: are in this together. God bless you.
Speaker 3: This matching grant is only available until midnight on December
Speaker 3: thirty first, so please act now by going to Pastorick
Speaker 3: dot com. That's Pastorick dot com, or you can just
Speaker 3: text the word hope to seven oh three oh nine.
Speaker 3: That's the word hope to seven oh three oh nine,
Speaker 3: and thank you so much for your support. Be sure
Speaker 3: to join us next time as we look into God's
Speaker 3: word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by
Speaker 3: Pastor Rick's daily hope and your generous financial support