Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
Speaker 1: the Bible Teaching Ministry of Rick Warren. And today we're
Speaker 1: continuing our series called the Habits of Happiness. In this series,
Speaker 1: Rick dives into the Book of Philippians and helps you
Speaker 1: discover God's path to true and lasting happiness. I can't
Speaker 1: wait for today's message. Here is part one of a
Speaker 1: message called God's Promise to the Generous.
Speaker 2: Today we wrap up the series by looking at the
Speaker 2: last habit in the last passage or the last few verses.
Speaker 3: Of this incredible book.
Speaker 2: Now, Paul ends this little book with the greatest promise
Speaker 2: ever given in the Bible, without a doubt, Philippians four
Speaker 2: nineteen is the greatest promise God gives to you and
Speaker 2: to me. And the reason I say it's the greatest
Speaker 2: because it's so inclusive, it's so expansive, it's so including
Speaker 2: and encompassing every other promise of the Bible. Philippians four
Speaker 2: nineteen says this, You can be sure that God will
Speaker 2: take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding yours
Speaker 2: in the glory that pours from Jesus. You can be
Speaker 2: sure that God will take care of everything you need,
Speaker 2: his generosity exceeding yours in the glory that pours out
Speaker 2: from Jesus. Now that word first, it says you can
Speaker 2: be sure. In other words, this is not a hope,
Speaker 2: This is not a wish, This is the might. This
Speaker 2: is not I'd really like this. This is a certainty.
Speaker 2: God guarantees this. God says, I guarantee that I will
Speaker 2: take care of everything you need, my generosity exceeding yours.
Speaker 2: I'll take care of everything you need. I had to
Speaker 2: go look up that word everything. It's a little word
Speaker 2: in the Greek. It's the word poss pas in Greek,
Speaker 2: and posse means anything, everything, all things, whatever, whenever, however,
Speaker 2: every circumstance, at all times. Now, what is not included
Speaker 2: in that word nothing?
Speaker 3: I mean, there's no wiggle room in that word. There's nothing.
Speaker 2: So then my big question when I look at that
Speaker 2: versus this, then, why do you have so many unmet needs?
Speaker 3: Is God a liar? Is this just a verse?
Speaker 2: You go, oh, yeah, I kind of hope this works
Speaker 2: or not? Is God really a liar? Is God actually
Speaker 2: saying I will meet every need? Does that include emotional
Speaker 2: needs yes? Does it mean physical needs yes? Financial needs yes,
Speaker 2: relational needs yes, Spiritual needs yes. God says, I guarantee
Speaker 2: that I will meet every one of your needs, and
Speaker 2: my generosity will exceed yours. So why aren't all your
Speaker 2: needs met?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: As you know, I've said this many times, there's a condition.
Speaker 2: With every promise, there is a promise. With every promise
Speaker 2: in the Bible. There are over seven thousand promises in
Speaker 2: the Bible. And God says, if you do this, then
Speaker 2: I'll do this. If you do this, then I'll do that.
Speaker 2: And if you do that, then I'll do this. And
Speaker 2: God says, there's a premise. With every promise, there is
Speaker 2: a condition. Now I can't claim Philippians four nineteen. Paul
Speaker 2: ends this book with the greatest promise in the Bible
Speaker 2: unless I do what is talked about in verses fourteen
Speaker 2: to seventeen, verse eighteen, And in that passage of scripture
Speaker 2: it talks about generosity. In fact, that phrase in the
Speaker 2: message paraphrase says God's generosity exceeds yours. This promise is
Speaker 2: tied to generosity. God says, I will never let you
Speaker 2: give more than me. You cannot outgive God. You've heard
Speaker 2: me say that many many times. Now go back and
Speaker 2: Remember the reason that Paul wrote this book. It's a
Speaker 2: thank you note for an offering. Remember Paul is in
Speaker 2: prison in Rome. He's an old man. He's awaiting execution
Speaker 2: by Nero. He has started churches all over the Roman Empire.
Speaker 2: One in corinth and he writes letters to them called
Speaker 2: the Corinthians, and one in Philippi and he writes a
Speaker 2: letter to them called the Letter to the Philippians. One
Speaker 2: in a church in Thessalonika. It's a city in Greece,
Speaker 2: and that's called First and Second Thessalonians. If he had
Speaker 2: started saddleback, he would write first and Second Californians. And
Speaker 2: he writes these letters and then he says, you guys
Speaker 2: in Philippi, you have been the most generous with me.
Speaker 2: He says, you have helped me time and time again.
Speaker 2: And this is a fake you note. This book that
Speaker 2: he writes is a thank you note and a receipt
Speaker 2: for their generosity. He saying, I got your gift. And
Speaker 2: through the entire book he talks about joy and generosity,
Speaker 2: Joy and generosity. In fact, Paul actually brags about this
Speaker 2: church to all the other churches he started, and he
Speaker 2: writes a letter to the people in corinth the Corinthians,
Speaker 2: and he actually brags about these guys.
Speaker 3: If they're on your outline.
Speaker 2: I want to look at this as the context of
Speaker 2: where we're going today. Tewod Corinthians eight, Paul says. To
Speaker 2: the people there, he says, I want you to know
Speaker 2: about the church in Philippi's generosity. He said, even while
Speaker 2: suffering in severe trials, the Philippian church was and extreme poverty.
Speaker 2: This was an incredibly poor church, very poor church. Their
Speaker 2: lives have overflowed with joy. I notice, even when they're
Speaker 2: going through tough times and extreme poverty, he said, these
Speaker 2: Philippians are still overflowed with joy because of their amazing generosity.
Speaker 2: He says, I personally witnessed their giving and not simply
Speaker 2: giving what they could afford, but giving even beyond human ability.
Speaker 2: So these people were flat broke, they were in extreme poverty.
Speaker 2: None of us are in extreme poverty, he said. Yet
Speaker 2: they were giving even beyond their human ability. How in
Speaker 2: the world do you do that, he said. Nobody told
Speaker 2: them to do it. It was due to their own
Speaker 2: generous hearts. In fact, they begged and they pleaded for
Speaker 2: the privilege of giving to serve God's people. And they
Speaker 2: gave in such a way that we did not expect.
Speaker 2: He said, first they gave themselves to the Lord, and
Speaker 2: then they gave themselves to us, and that is what
Speaker 2: pleases God. So Paul is bragging about this church, saying,
Speaker 2: this is the most generous church on the planet. If
Speaker 2: God brag about your generosity, if God would ask you
Speaker 2: to stand up right now and say, let me tell
Speaker 2: you how generous this person is with their time, with
Speaker 2: their money, with their influence, with their energy, with their praise,
Speaker 2: with their words. This person is an incredibly generous person. Now,
Speaker 2: there are really only two kinds of people in life,
Speaker 2: their givers and their takers. And you have to make
Speaker 2: a choice. This is one of the habits of happiness.
Speaker 2: You have to make a choice. Am I gonna be
Speaker 2: a giver in life? Or am I going to be
Speaker 2: a taker in life? I've told you many times, if
Speaker 2: not by accident, that the word miser and the word
Speaker 2: miserable go together. The more it's all about me, the
Speaker 2: more I take, take, take, take, take, the more unhappy
Speaker 2: I am. The more I give, give, give, give, give,
Speaker 2: the more generous I am with every area of my life,
Speaker 2: my praise generous, with my love, generous with my time,
Speaker 2: generous with my money. The more generous I am, the
Speaker 2: more happy I'm going to be. Now, during this series,
Speaker 2: we've looked at the Book of Philippians, and we've looked
Speaker 2: at what I've called the habits of happiness. And we've
Speaker 2: looked at the habit of integrity, and the habit of humility,
Speaker 2: and the habit of charity. We've looked at the habit
Speaker 2: of serenity. How do you live with peace of mind?
Speaker 2: We've looked at the habit of reliability, being dependable, We've
Speaker 2: looked at the habit of productivity. Paul ends this book
Speaker 2: with one final habit. He says, if you really want
Speaker 2: to be happy in life, you're going to have to
Speaker 2: learn the habit of generosity. That's going to produce more joy,
Speaker 2: more happiness in your life. And through the whole book
Speaker 2: he does this, and he's talking about these different things
Speaker 2: we have to learn. In Philippians chapter one, verse nine,
Speaker 2: he says, you've got to learn how to love, and
Speaker 2: then in Philippians one, verse ten, he says, you've got
Speaker 2: to learn what matters most.
Speaker 3: Will make you happy.
Speaker 2: And then in Philippians three he says, verse ten you've
Speaker 2: got to learn how to know Christ and what it
Speaker 2: means to go through tough time suffer with him. He said,
Speaker 2: that'll actually make you happy. And in three seventeen, Chapter three,
Speaker 2: verse seventeen, he says, you've got to learn to be mature.
Speaker 2: The more mature you are, the happier you'll be. Last
Speaker 2: week we looked at Philippians. Chapter four, verse eleven. He says,
Speaker 2: you got to learn to be content. That's a habit
Speaker 2: of happiness. And he says, if you'll learn to be content,
Speaker 2: then you're gonna learn to be happy. And in these
Speaker 2: last few verses of this book, he says, you got
Speaker 2: to learn to be generous. And if you learn to
Speaker 2: be generous, your joy is going to overflow. So here's
Speaker 2: what I want to do today. I'm gonna quickly take
Speaker 2: you through the book and do a summary. Just give
Speaker 2: you six things. The list six things of the benefits
Speaker 2: of being a generous person instead of being a taker
Speaker 2: in life, being a giver in life. I'm gonna give
Speaker 2: you the six benefits of what it does to you.
Speaker 2: And then I'm gonna explain to you how you can
Speaker 2: claim that promise where God says I will meet every
Speaker 2: need in your life, My generosity will exceed yours. Now,
Speaker 2: the Bible says in Proverbs chapter eleven, verse seventeen, the
Speaker 2: kind and generous man benefits himself.
Speaker 3: What does that mean.
Speaker 2: It means that you're gonna get out of life what
Speaker 2: you put into it. The kind and generous man benefits himself.
Speaker 2: God has established. One of the laws of the universe
Speaker 2: is this. You're gonna sow what you reap. Whatever you plant,
Speaker 2: you're gonna harvest. Whatever you give out, you're gonna get back.
Speaker 2: But you're always gonna get back more than whatever you
Speaker 2: give out. Now, this is true in every area of
Speaker 2: your life. If you give out praise, people are gonna
Speaker 2: praise you back. If you give out love, people are
Speaker 2: gonna love you back. If you give out gossip, people
Speaker 2: are gonna gossip about you. If you get angry with others,
Speaker 2: people are gonna get angry with you. If you are
Speaker 2: generous with others, other people are gonna be generous with you.
Speaker 3: Now here's the point.
Speaker 2: Whatever you need more of in your life, you need
Speaker 2: to give away what you've got. Let me say it again,
Speaker 2: whatever you need more of in your life, you need
Speaker 2: to give away what you got in other words, let's
Speaker 2: say you don't have any energy.
Speaker 3: You're tired all the time. You're worn out.
Speaker 2: How do you get more energy by laying around on
Speaker 2: the couch watching TV. No, that didn't give you energy.
Speaker 2: There's only one way to get energy. Expend what you've got.
Speaker 2: You need to get up and exercise. Why because exercise
Speaker 2: actually increases your energy, not decreasing it. By using what
Speaker 2: you've got, you actually get more. So, if you need
Speaker 2: more time in your life, you need to give away
Speaker 2: some of your time unselfishly, serving others, serving God unselfishly.
Speaker 2: And God says, I'll give you back more than you
Speaker 2: have given out. I will never let you be more
Speaker 2: generous than me. Whatever you need more of, you give
Speaker 2: it away. You need more money, you need to give
Speaker 2: away some of your money. You need more energy, you
Speaker 2: need to go give away some of your energy. The
Speaker 2: kind and generous person will benefit himself.
Speaker 3: Now how do I benefit myself? Well?
Speaker 2: The Book of Philippians, which is about a thank you
Speaker 2: note for generosity, gives the six ways that when you're
Speaker 2: a giver not a taker in life, you actually end
Speaker 2: up being blessed more. Number one, the first benefit of
Speaker 2: generosity is I earn the gratitude of others. I earn
Speaker 2: the gratitude of others. You go up in esteem, you
Speaker 2: go up in your reputation, you go up in people
Speaker 2: loving and being grateful for you.
Speaker 3: The more of a giver you are.
Speaker 2: If you think about the people in your life that
Speaker 2: you're most grateful for, who are they? They're the people
Speaker 2: who invested in you. They invested time, money, energy, patience, whatever.
Speaker 2: The people you're most grateful for are the people who've
Speaker 2: given them most to you. If they've been stingy, you're
Speaker 2: not grateful for them. Now, let me see it this way.
Speaker 2: You earn a living by what you make, but you
Speaker 2: earn the respect, and you earn the gratitude of others,
Speaker 2: and you earn a legacy, and you earn a reputation
Speaker 2: by what you give. You earn a living by what
Speaker 2: you make, You earn a life by what you give,
Speaker 2: and you earn the gratitude of others. Paul gives an
Speaker 2: example of this, that the most giving people to the
Speaker 2: most appreciated people. Philippians Chapter four, This last passage we're
Speaker 2: looking at. He says this, how grateful I am, and
Speaker 2: how I praise the Lord that you are helping me again.
Speaker 2: They just sent it an offering to him. It was
Speaker 2: so good that you helped me when I needed it.
Speaker 2: You Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial
Speaker 2: help when I brought.
Speaker 3: You the good news. No other church did this.
Speaker 2: You sent me aid again and again when I was
Speaker 2: in need. So I am generously supplied with the gifts
Speaker 2: you sent me. And look of the next verse Philippians
Speaker 2: Won three, five and seventy says, every time I think
Speaker 2: of you, I give thanks to God for you. Because
Speaker 2: you've been my partners in spreading the good news. It's
Speaker 2: right that I should feel as I do about you,
Speaker 2: in other words, so grateful, so loving, for you have
Speaker 2: been a very special place in my heart. We have
Speaker 2: shared together the blessings of God. Question, is anybody grateful
Speaker 2: for your generosity? Can you think of five, ten, fifteen,
Speaker 2: twenty people? Go, Man, that person is so loving, they
Speaker 2: are so giving. They have been so generous with me
Speaker 2: that they are grateful for you. Why don't you write
Speaker 2: a note or make a call to all the people
Speaker 2: who've been generous to you a way to give thanks.
Speaker 2: You can give thanks by talking to people, say thank
Speaker 2: you for your generosity to me. The way, You've been
Speaker 2: so giving in my life. You were there when I
Speaker 2: needed you. You help me financially, you help me physically,
Speaker 2: you help me emotionally. The people who've been given to you,
Speaker 2: you speak grateful for them, But at the same time
Speaker 2: you want to say, who am I being generous to
Speaker 2: that they're grateful to me. That's the first thing I earn,
Speaker 2: the gratitude of others. Number Two. Every time I'm generous,
Speaker 2: I show what really matters most. I show what really
Speaker 2: matters most every time I'm generous. Why Because what matters
Speaker 2: most things are people.
Speaker 3: People.
Speaker 2: Things don't matter most. Life is not about the acquisition
Speaker 2: of things. Now, when you give, when you're generous with
Speaker 2: your time, your money, your energy, whatever, every time you give,
Speaker 2: you're showing what matters to you. Tell me how you
Speaker 2: spend your money, tell me how you spe spend your time,
Speaker 2: and I'll tell you what matters most to you. And
Speaker 2: if I looked at some of your schedules, what matters
Speaker 2: most to you is your hobby. What matters most to
Speaker 2: you is your sport. Some of you you look at
Speaker 2: your time, money, What matters most to you is your children.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that's wrong I'm just saying, whatever you
Speaker 2: spend your money on most is what matters to you
Speaker 2: the most. Jesus said it like this, Wherever your money is,
Speaker 2: your heart's going to be there.
Speaker 3: See.
Speaker 2: I don't care about Microsoft because I don't own stock
Speaker 2: and Microsoft.
Speaker 3: But if I bought.
Speaker 2: Stock and Microsoft all of a sudden, I'd care about
Speaker 2: the success of that company because wherever you put your money,
Speaker 2: that's where you put your heart. And so when I
Speaker 2: am generous, it shows what really matters most. Now, Paul
Speaker 2: talks about this issue through the whole book. We've looked
Speaker 2: at it for nine weeks. Look at some of these
Speaker 2: verses Philippians one verse ten, I want you to understand
Speaker 2: what really matters, Paul saying, I want you to understand
Speaker 2: what really matters. And the way I give shows what
Speaker 2: really matters in my life. What does matter my life
Speaker 2: not acquisition. Life is not about the accumulation of things.
Speaker 2: He who dies with the most toys still dies. I
Speaker 2: heard about this guy who a billionaire, and this is
Speaker 2: a true story. A billionaire oil man asked to be
Speaker 2: buried in his Cadillac and at the funeral, one of
Speaker 2: the guys said, man, that's living.
Speaker 3: Really and I'd call that dying is what I call it.
Speaker 3: That's dying.
Speaker 2: And so what you put your self in emphasis in
Speaker 2: shows what matters most. Jesus said, a man's life does
Speaker 2: not consist in the abundance of things that he possesses.
Speaker 2: In other words, I could spend my whole life working
Speaker 2: working hard to get money so I can buy things, things, things, things, things,
Speaker 2: and my pile of things can get bigger and bigger
Speaker 2: and bigger, and at.
Speaker 3: The end of the life, my pile is this big.
Speaker 3: So what.
Speaker 2: Life is not about things? It's about learning how to love.
Speaker 2: It's learning about relationships. And if at the end of
Speaker 2: life I've got a giant pile of things, but I'm
Speaker 2: estrange for my wife and kids, I missed it. I
Speaker 2: just missed the purpose of life, because the purpose of
Speaker 2: life is not collecting things. You are to use things
Speaker 2: and love people. If you start loving things, you're gonna
Speaker 2: use people.
Speaker 3: You get it reversed.
Speaker 2: And so every time I'm generous with my time, with
Speaker 2: my money, with my effort, with my energy, I really say,
Speaker 2: what matters most is God and people. What matters most
Speaker 2: is love. Now Paul talks about this in verse chapter three,
Speaker 2: verse seven, all those things, all those little fribulties that
Speaker 2: I thought were so very important, I now consider worthless.
Speaker 2: I don't have to have that, I don't need a
Speaker 2: status symbol to make me feel good about myself. I
Speaker 2: now consider worthless because of Christ. You see, this is
Speaker 2: how generosity breaks the grip of materialism in my life. Now,
Speaker 2: what is materialism? Materialism is the idea that having more
Speaker 2: will make me more happy, more secure, and more valuable.
Speaker 2: And none of those things are true. We talked about
Speaker 2: that last week. That's materialism. Materialism is all about.
Speaker 3: Getting, get get, get, get, get, get get.
Speaker 2: I gotta get a little bit more next year. I
Speaker 2: gotta get a little bit more next year.
Speaker 3: I gotta get.
Speaker 2: That's called materialism. How do you break the grip of
Speaker 2: materialism in your life? There's only one way. The anecdote
Speaker 2: forgetting is giving. So every time I'm generous and I
Speaker 2: take something that I've got and I give it to you,
Speaker 2: or I give it to God, or I give it
Speaker 2: to a poor person or whatever, then I am actually
Speaker 2: breaking the grip of materialism in my life. In Philippians
Speaker 2: three twenty, Paul says, where's citizens of heaven?
Speaker 3: Where the Lord Jesus Christ live.
Speaker 2: He says, I'm not living for here and now I'm
Speaker 2: storing up for eternity. I'm not trying to make my
Speaker 2: pile on this side of eternity. I'm trying to make
Speaker 2: my pile on that side of eternity. I'm living in
Speaker 2: light of heaven. See what does my generosity? What does
Speaker 2: my giving reveal about me? What is it reveals most important?
Speaker 2: Where I put my money is where I put my heart?
Speaker 2: Now Number three the third thing. Every time I'm generous,
Speaker 2: I earn the gratitude of others. I show what really matters.
Speaker 2: Number three, I become more like Jesus.
Speaker 3: Why.
Speaker 2: Because Jesus is the most generous person who ever lived.
Speaker 2: Jesus is a giver. Why am I becoming more like Jesus?
Speaker 2: Because giving is the essence of God. God is a giver.
Speaker 2: If God was not a giver, none of us would
Speaker 2: be sitting here right now. Because everything in my life
Speaker 2: and everything in your life is a sheer gift of God.
Speaker 2: If God wasn't generous, I'd have nothing. The air we breathe,
Speaker 2: the sun that shines down on us, the fact that
Speaker 2: my heart is beating that I'm taking the fact that
Speaker 2: I have lungs.
Speaker 3: I didn't earn these lungs. I didn't earn this life.
Speaker 2: It was given to me out of God's great generosity.
Speaker 2: If God wasn't a generous god, I would have never
Speaker 2: been created. And if God wasn't a generous God, I
Speaker 2: wouldn't say the next word word.
Speaker 3: Everything.
Speaker 2: The Bible says, every good gift and every perfect gift
Speaker 2: comes down from the heavenly Father of life.
Speaker 3: He said, well, wait a minute, I earned this stuff.
Speaker 3: Where do you think you got the ability to earn?
Speaker 3: But I thought it up? Where do you think you
Speaker 3: got your brain?
Speaker 2: Everything in your life is a gift of God. Everything,
Speaker 2: the freedom you have, the fact that you have eyes
Speaker 2: to see, it, ears to hear, It's all a gift
Speaker 2: of God. Because God is generous. Now, God wants his
Speaker 2: children to become like him, the Bible says, God so
Speaker 2: loved the world that he he gave. You've heard me
Speaker 2: say this many times. You can give without loving, but
Speaker 2: you cannot love without giving. So you say, well, you
Speaker 2: know I really love my kids, do you give them
Speaker 2: your time?
Speaker 3: Well? I really love my wife, what are you giving her?
Speaker 2: God so loved the world that he gave and This
Speaker 2: is what love is all about. I become more loving
Speaker 2: when I become more generous. You spell love giv Lust
Speaker 2: is based on getting. Love is based on giving. Lust
Speaker 2: can never wait to get. Love can always wait to give.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things you ask about us
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Speaker 1: Rick has created another deck of scripture cards with fifty
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