Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
What if I told you that I had an investment tip
that would net you a guaranteed high rate of
return that would allow you to enjoy many of
its benefits right away and would significantly
help others without affecting your bottom line?
There is such an investment strategy, and today
you'll learn how to become the smartest money
manager on the planet. Philanthropy is a big
word for giving money away. We tend to associate
philanthropy with millionaires who need a tax
break. But what if generosity has nothing to
do with how much money you have or how holy you
think you are? What if sharing your money produces
an outcome you can't receive any other way? Well,
today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram describes
how charity becomes the gateway to intimacy with
our Heavenly Father. And then, just after Chip's
message, we'll explain how you can leverage your
year -end donation at livingontheedge .org. Until
December 31st, every dollar given to support
Living on the Edge is automatically doubled in
size and impact because of this match. More later.
But right now, the message from Chip. Let me
give you four reasons now why it is genius to
be generous. Number one, generosity changes our
lives. Generosity changes our lives. It blesses
our lives. It enriches our lives. It makes life
better. The very last words we ever hear in the
Bible from Jesus are this, and they're not in
the Gospels. It's a quote from Acts where the
Apostle Paul quotes Jesus and says, Jesus said,
it's more blessed to give than to receive. The
word blessed, you know what it means? Happy,
welfare, good. uplifting, encouraging. People
who give are more blessed even than those who
give receive. I mean, this is the ultimate win
-win proposition. Second reason is generosity
connects us with others. A generous man will
prosper and he who refreshes others will himself
be refreshed. Proverbs 11, 25. A generous, literally
that word prosper, a generous man will be fat.
It doesn't mean, you know, like. You need to
go to Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, but it's
this idea that you'll prosper, you'll have more
than you need, and he who refreshes others, when
you give and are kind to others, will himself
be refreshed. When you give and when you're generous
of your time and generous of your talent and
generous with your money, generous with your
stuff, let people use your car, let them use
your house, let them use this, when you're generous,
it connects you with people. Third, generosity
helps us invest in what matters most. And so
Jesus is going to be like a wise investment counselor
in the Sermon on the Mount. And he's going to
say, don't invest over here because it won't
turn out bad ROI. But I do want you to invest
over here, very positive ROI. And by the way,
here's why. Look at it. There's a negative command
and there's a positive command. And then he gives
the reason. And this is sort of investment counseling.
He says, do not store up for yourselves treasure
on earth where moth and rust destroy and where
thieves break in and steal. And would you underline
the word for yourselves? Now the way that you
would accumulate wealth was through fine clothing,
precious metals, and grains. And so even that
word rust has the idea not just of metals but
maybe of varmints getting in and eating your
grain and ruining it. And so basically the grammar
here is stop investing solely on earth. And the
reason is because you can suffer great loss.
All those are temporal. Now, by the way, he's
not saying it's wrong to save because the scripture
tells us elsewhere to save. He's not saying that
it's wrong to prepare for the future. You know,
the writer of Proverbs says you need to make
provision and think about what's going to come.
And it's not wrong to have something nice. We're
actually commanded in scripture to enjoy the
good things God gives us. This is a prohibition
against selfish, greedy hoarding that you think
that this is now and I'm going to have it. And
my life, my success, my power, my happiness is
going to come from investing. my time and energy
in the right now, in temporal stuff. Then he
gives the other advice. He says, but store up.
Now, would you underline why? For yourselves.
This is for your benefit. He's giving wise investment
counseling, treasures in heaven where moth and
rust do not destroy and where thieves can't break
in and steal. In other words, it's a better investment
because when you make this investment, 100 %
return. And so all through the Gospels, Jesus
talks about what's it, so what would be like
to invest treasure in heaven? Treasure in heaven
in Luke 16 is you give your money and your time
to help other people come to Christ. And when
you get to heaven, they will welcome you because
you gave. When you give a cup of cold water,
when you provide relief and love in the name
of Jesus, there'll be a reward. That's an eternal
heavenly treasure. When you use your money to
help the poor, you're lending to the Lord. All
those things. He says, there's a bank account
with your name on it with very specific reward
in heaven that can't be touched by thieves or
rust or moss. So he says, that's great. Then
he gives you the reason. Look at verse 21. For
where your treasure is, there your heart will
be also. Literally meaning, it says, for where
you treasure your treasure, that's where your
heart will be. So what he's saying is, there's
a relationship between what you worship. Don't
make a bad investment where it'll be temporal,
loss, can change overnight. Some of you know
about that, right? Jesus is just saying. He's
not saying you're more righteous, more holy,
you're better than other people when you invest
in the things that last. He's just saying there
are smart investors and there's dumb investors.
Dumb investors focus all their time, all their
energy around worshiping things and people that
change and that will let them down and won't
come through and can be stolen and removed from
them. And smart investors. take a big part of
their portfolio, and they invest in things that
can never change, never be touched, and will
last forever. And then he goes, because you gotta
be asking yourself, how does this idea of your
heart and investments, and why is that so important?
And so notice he's going to give a metaphor,
a picture. Look at verse 32. He says, the eye
is the lamp of your body. If your eye is good,
your whole body will be full of light. But if
your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full
of darkness. If then the light within you is
darkness, how great is that darkness? Put a box
around the word good, put a box around the word
bad, and circle the word eye. Jesus is an amazing
teacher. He talks out there's two treasures.
Then he's going to say there's two eyes, and
later he's going to say there's two masters.
And he says there's treasure in heaven, there's
treasure in earth. Which investment? Now he's
going to say the way that you come about deciding
where to invest has to do with your eye. Your
eye is the lamp of your body. Your eye is what
you look through. It's how you perceive. It's
how you decide. It's where your focus is. It's
how you get direction about where you're going
to go. And there's a very interesting word. This
word for your eye is good, the word good. You
know how some words in English depends on the
context what they mean? This word is haplos in
Greek. It can either mean singularity or loyalty
and focus, or it can mean to be liberal or generous,
depending on the context. So he says if your
eye is good, if your loyalty is toward God, and
you're liberal and generous with what he's given
you, he says your body will be full of light.
In other words, you'll reflect God's light. You
will enjoy God's light. You'll share God's light.
He says, but if your eye is bad, another interesting
word. We actually, it's the word poneros. Literally,
it means evil. It's used of Satan for being evil.
And also, there was a Jewish idiom that talked
about the evil eye. And the person with the evil
eye is a selfish, greedy, hoarding person. He
says, if your eye is about you and accumulating
and protecting and saving and not letting anybody
in and trying to He says, then even the light
you think you have, your focus, the idea that
you think, if I just have this much, then I'll
be successful. And if I'm successful, then I'll
be a someone. If I'm a someone, then I'll have
security. And if I have security, then people
will love me. He goes, hmm, dumb, dumb, bad investment.
Because he says, there's two treasures you have
to discern, two eyes that give your focus. And
he says, it really boils down to your focus will
determine. Notice there's two masters. He says
no one can serve two masters. This isn't like
double employment. He says you'll be a slave
to one or a slave to the other. He'll either
hate the one and love the other or he'll be devoted
to one and despise the other. You can't serve
God and mammon or money too. According to scripture,
I bet the first 15 years I was a Christian, I
would think there's God and Satan, good and bad.
Those are the two big gods. That's not what the
Bible teaches. The Bible teaches there's two
gods. There's God and money. Now, Satan may energize
that. But see, if I have money, I think it'll
deliver me the success, the significance, the
security, the people, the admiration, the fame,
whatever it is that I think will really come
through. And Jesus says, if you don't get the
right master because you have the wrong eye,
you'll invest in the wrong spot. And you can
look like things are going really, really good.
And just in one New York minute, things can get
turned upside down. And that person you set your
heart on is gone. That money you set your heart
on evaporates. That house that was going to be
the big deal is underwater. The promotion that
was going to make you a someone, you started
the company and now the board says you're not
fit to run it anymore. And they decide they want
to get someone else. And if you've ever been
around a person, who set their heart on some
things and the thing crumbles, I will tell you
what, it's painful to watch. And so the final
thing he teaches here, he says generosity frees
our heart. See, at the core of it, what Jesus
says, you gotta invest. I wanna protect you from
investments, but the way to protect you from
investments is I wanna protect your heart. Because
out of your heart flow the issues of life. See,
when I'm consumed by the God of money, I work
crazy hours, I consume, I use people to get things.
And what that produces is very bad dysfunctional
relationships. And so like, there's lots of really
old people in places whose kids don't care about
them and don't talk to them and don't relate
to them because they had their focus and their
eye and their master on what they could have
and succeed. And there weren't relationships
because their heart got hard. Their heart wasn't
for the things that really mattered. I've never
had anyone that I've buried say, I'll tell you
what, man, my dad, He had the coolest watch,
house, and 401k in the world. I mean, it was
awesome. In fact, I took it off his wrist when
they put it in the casket. That's how good it
was. The only thing you ever hear when people
die are the relationship that people had with
that person and what that person did in relationship
to them and who they impacted out of the love
of their life. Very few things last. And so the
lure, see, Just like, you know, in all these
scandals, what do they do in scandals today?
If you want to know what's going on in a scandal,
what's the old axiom? Follow the, come on now,
follow the money, right? The money trail. And
God says the same thing. Your heart goes where
your money flows. So if you want your heart to
be about golf, spend all your money on golf.
If you want your heart to be all about business,
make it all about business. If you want it to
be about real estate, go. Just you spend your
money where you want your heart to be because
that's where you go. And what Jesus is saying
here is the mirror of your heart is your money.
I mean, if you just want to know where you're
at, you just look at, so there's where my money
goes. Those are my priorities. Those are my real
values. And so what he does is he gives us this
investment plan to protect us. We'll hear more
from Chip Ingram's message in just a moment.
First, we invite you to multiply your year in
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.org. from a series called The Genius of Generosity.
Again, our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram. So it's
genius to be generous because it changes our
lives. It's positive. It's a win -win. It's genius
because it connects us deeply with other people.
It's genius because it helps us invest in what's
going to matter most so we're not disappointed
and have a bad investment. And it's genius because
it frees our heart. So here's the kind of $64
question. If generosity is so smart, why isn't
everyone doing it? I mean, I could give you the
statistics among Christians. It's not real pretty.
Most Christians are not very generous. But why?
I mean, if what I just taught is true, why wouldn't
we be the most generous people in the world?
We're going to explore that. And I'm not talking
just about your money. I mean, if you think this
series is going to be about money and you're
tempted to check out, let me warn you. Money
is like the training wheels of authentic generosity.
But let me highlight, this is why I struggle
with not being smart. One is because wealth is
powerful and deceptive. I mean, money isn't neutral.
According to Jesus, remember he talks about the
sower and the seed in Matthew 13 and Mark 4.
And the sower of God's word, he casts the seed.
And there's four different kinds of soils. And,
you know, there's the hard soil and there's shallow
soil. And then there's the soil with the thorns.
And the thorns that grow up are the deceitfulness
of riches and the worries of other things. This
is just reality. When money is deceiving me,
I'm the last to know it. Most people that are
greedy and hoarding think other people are greedy
and hoarding, but not them. I mean, when your
eye is bad, notice even Jesus said, even the
light that's within you, he uses the same word.
We think we're doing okay. See, the problem with
it is it's so easy to be deceived and we rationalize
and we're in denial and compare ourselves to
other people. The second reason is because of
the lure of mammon worship. I mean, the drive,
I grew up thinking, you've got to be successful,
you've got to be significant, you've got to have
security. And the way you measure that is what?
I mean, I remember talking to a number of years,
an executive here in the Silicon Valley is well
-connected, and he had had a conversation with
someone who was, remember when they did, I don't
know if they do top 40 or top 50 on Forbes now,
but this guy was, they were doing top 50 at that
time, and he was 51. And he wrote like a seven
page letter to Forbes demanding that he be put
on the list because why he qualified as one of
the 50 richest people in the world. You think
that's about money? I mean, that's like ego over
the top. But the problem is I can look at that
out there and say, oh yeah, I can't believe that.
I mean, how many, the guy's worth a bazillion
dollars and he's got to write eight page letters
to, but see. And mammon worship says if you have
enough money, then you can buy that and be that
and show that. And this kind of car says that
and this kind of watch. And, you know, now you've
got a place in the mountains. You've got a place
on the beach. And, you know, you've got the Maserati,
the Ferrari, the Bentley, whatever. Or you're
low -key about it and you have lots and just
at the right time you let people know what you
have. And you know what? It's all relative. Because
you may not have any of that all kind of stuff,
but, man, you've got a pair of jeans. You probably
didn't understand these are diesels, baby. Amen.
Wranglers, man. I mean, we all do it. We all
do it. Mammon worship, impressing, success, significance,
what I look like, what I've got, what zip code
I'm in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it
sucks. Guess what? And it just demands your life.
Whatever you worship, it demands your life. You
got to work and you got up early and there's
pressure. The third reason it's... Generosity
is difficult as it demands faith. I mean, if
we actually believed in heaven, I mean, if I
told you, if I told you, hey, I got this amazing
investment, 90 % of it fails. You really need
to invest with me. You're going to go, what?
That's what Jesus is saying. Look, treasures
on earth, 90 % of it's going to fail. Treasures
in heaven, 100%, great ROI. Where do you want
to invest? See, if you believed in heaven and
I believed in heaven and I believed in eternal
rewards, I'd be going, duh. It doesn't mean I
wouldn't enjoy nice things now. It doesn't mean
I wouldn't have a good savings plan. But it would
mean I'd draw a line like I have that this is
my standard of living and any and everything
over above that, God, you keep bringing it in,
I'll pass it on. I mean, my dream is to give
more and more and more and more and more till
the day I die. I got plenty. I've got more than
I ever dreamed I'd have. But it requires faith.
The number one reason people aren't generous
other than greed and selfishness, we just sort
of, is fear. At the end of the day, what is it?
I would be generous with my time, but I only
have so much, and if I give this away, I'd be
generous with my talent, but I can't volunteer
for that because I've got to take care. I'd be
generous with my money, but I'm afraid I won't.
God says, wait a second. I have unlimited supply.
The reason Jesus talked about money, the reason
the Bible teaches about this, it just is the
easiest way to see it. When I've given money
and God blesses, given and God blesses, I get
to see in reality, This is real, but it requires
faith. And there's times where he's, at least
in my life and people I've known, he asks you
to take some steps when you think, well, if I
do this, then what about me? And he goes, well,
well, what about me? You think I can deliver
or not? The fourth reason is because of what
I call temporal myopia. It's just, that's nearsighted,
but I thought it sounded more cool than nearsighted.
Temporal myopia. Jesus was teaching, and as he
was teaching, a man yelled out, Master, Master,
tell my brother to share the inheritance with
me. And Jesus said, Who made me your financial
counselor? But he took that moment. He said,
Hey, everybody, since that guy brings it up,
beware. Beware. You better be really, really
careful of the deceitfulness. Of money and what
it will do to your heart. And your relationship
with God. In fact let me tell you a story. And
this is in Luke chapter 12. He tells a story
of men who. His business was booming and booming
and booming. He goes you know what I'm going
to do. I'm just going to build bigger and bigger
barns. And I'm just going to eat drink. And you
know not worry about anybody else. Life is about
me. It's hedonism. It's about pleasure. It's
about when I arrive. I have arrived. And I'm
going to do it. The Bible says God required his
life that night. And said you fool. And then
Jesus explained this nearsightedness. He said,
so it will be with all those that are rich toward
the things of the world, but not rich toward
God. I don't know about you. I want to be rich
toward God. And every time I've ever been generous,
people I know, they're ever generous. You know
what happened? God just blesses. What you do
and how you wrestle in your own heart, and that's
where you're at. What your body language tells
me. Ooh, if this is really true, I'd have to
make some adjustments. Yeah, you would. It's
called peeling off the calluses of your heart.
Faith, letting the Holy Spirit warm it up. But
here's what you need to hear. Generosity is the
gateway to intimacy with God. Some of you don't
feel real close to God. I didn't feel very close
to John Saville. You start realizing that it's
his money instead of yours, and you just say,
every day, I just, that checkbook, how do you
want to spend it today, Lord? And to this day,
I'm still asking God, you know, I've got a few
hours left in the day. How do you want to spend
it today? And then as I was studying this yesterday
morning, reviewing, I, around the table, I gave
each of my grown kids around the table and their
mates a $100 bill. And I said, here's what I'd
like you to do between now and Christmas. Would
you just ask God as you come across someone who
has a need, and it can be a poor person, a hurting
person, a friend, just whenever God speaks to
you, you've got $100 between now and Christmas,
would you love them for God and in my name? Would
you just do whatever you think would really,
you know why I did that? Because I want my kids,
I want my kids to understand. They'll be pretty
free spending my money, I think, don't you think?
And they're already generous. But I just, I wanted
to give them that experience between now and
Christmas. And then I said, when we get together
at Christmas, tell me the stories, will you?
Just tell me the stories. I just want to hear.
That's what God's done for you and me. Brilliant
people ask these three questions. Am I using
the money and trust to me in accordance with
the owner's wishes? And who's the owner? God.
Am I carefully keeping account of where all the
owner's funds are going? I mean, a lot of us,
if we just got even on a basic budget, we would
have excess to share with others. We're just
sloppy with it. Third, am I becoming best friends
with the owner by the privilege and opportunity
of managing his resources? You know, you want
to hear some answers to your prayers? Try this
one. Okay, God, I want to take a little, here's
$50, $20, $100, $1 ,000. I'm going to set it
aside. Who do you want me to bless? Would you
show me in the next few days as I walk around
who you want me to help? I will tell you what,
he will. And you'll give it, and you'll have
this charge of joy. And something great will
happen. And you'll get connected to your Father,
some of you, in ways that you never have. This
is the genius of generosity, that God would give
us an opportunity to partner with Him by sharing
in the joy of giving. You're listening to Living
on the Edge with Bible teacher Chip Ingram. We'll
hear a closing comment from Chip in just a moment.
It's Christmas Eve, and we commend you for spending
this half hour with us. We're hoping and praying
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your walk with God as you engage in the joy -filled
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