Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
Would God call you a generous person? And stop,
stop. Right before you think about how much money
you give, I want you to rethink the question.
If God didn't even take into account anything
to do with money, how generous are you from his
perspective? Are there other ways that he measures
generosity that might be even way more important
than money? And let me give you a hint. The answer's
yes, and you don't want to miss Living on the
Edge today. It's New Year's Eve, and right now
Christians across America are making last -minute
giving decisions, writing checks, clicking donate
buttons, responding to year -end appeals. But
here's a startling question. Is generous giving
really about the size of your gift? Today on
Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram explains how
God measures generosity in a way that'll completely
flip your perspective. Using a familiar Bible
story, Chip shows that true generosity goes far
beyond your checkbook. It touches the deepest
parts of who you are and what you value most.
And then just after Chip's message, we'll explain
how you can leverage your year -end donation
at livingontheedge .org. Until midnight tonight
on New Year's Eve, every dollar given to support
Living on the Edge is automatically doubled in
size and impact because of this match. Well,
more details later. But right now, the message
from Chip called, How Does God Measure Generosity?
So, how does God measure generosity? Well, Jesus
has a way of taking what we believe and what
we think and how we evaluate and literally turning
it upside down. And the way he does that is to
bring life and is to bring freedom, but we just
get used to seeing things and evaluating things
in ways that are very, very subtle. but lead
us down paths that ruin relationships, that hurt
people. In fact, the word miser comes from the
root word for miserable. Miserly, non -generous
people are miserable. And yet, there's something
when we think about generosity, when we self
-evaluate, we say, oh yeah, I think I'm pretty
generous. This series is not about money. This
series is about generosity and being smart. about
living your life in a way that brings about the
highest and best results for you and the greatest
glory for God. So Jesus has a teachable moment
with his disciples. There's a treasury over there.
It's outside the temple. People are coming and
dropping large gifts in it. And a woman comes
by and drops something very small. And Jesus
stops everyone and says, wait a second. Don't
miss this moment. Luke chapter 21, verses one
to four, pick up the story. As he looked up,
Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the
temple treasury. And by the way, I think it was
very thankful. I think when he gives people a
lot and they're giving gifts, I think it brings
great joy to his heart. There's not a good person
and a bad person in this story. There's a comparison.
He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper
coins. And so he's looking at the balance. Some
very, very large gifts. Two small copper coins.
Then notice what he does. I tell you the truth.
This poor widow has put in more than all the
others. And then he gives the explanation because
I don't know about you, but that's not good math.
Right? I mean, a lot of money versus two small
copper coins. They physically gave more, but
according to Jesus, she gave more. And then he
tells us why. All these people gave their gifts
out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty
put in all she had to live on. Now the breakthrough
concept here, I put it right up front in the
notes. This is how God measures generosity. God
measures generosity not by the size of the gift,
but by the size of the sacrifice. What he was
saying was that it cost her more to put in two
small copper coins than it cost them. Why? Because
it impacted her lifestyle. She basically had
the faith to believe and had a heart to say,
I love you, God. By the way, when we give, that's
the message. This isn't a performance. When we
give to God, it's an act of love. And this woman
said, I don't have hardly anything left, but
I want to give what I have. And I believe and
I trust that once I've given all that I have
to live on, that the God that I serve is kind
and generous and powerful and he's going to meet
my needs. See, when Jesus sees sacrifice that
impacts our lifestyle, what he sees is a heart
of love. And that's why he said she was more
generous. I actually taught this at a conference
once. And it was one of those like four days
conferences where you get four or five messages.
And on the very first day of the conference,
I told people, I want you to know, even the title,
Genius of Generosity, it's really not about money.
And you know how you're in a line at the buffet,
one of those afterwards, and I hear these two
people talking and they're kind of leaning one
over to the other and didn't know I was behind
them. Well, you know, this guy says it's not
about money, but generosity, you know where this
thing's going, right? And it was really interesting.
When I got done with this message at the very
end, that lady came up to me. She didn't know
I ever heard it. She said, you know, when you
said that this wasn't about money, I thought,
yeah, right. She said, when you finish this on
how God measures generosity, she goes, it's really
not about money, is it? I said, ma 'am, it's
really not. It's really about heart. It's about
life. It's about how smart people live who understand
who God is and want the highest and best for
their life and for others and to honor him and
not waste their life. See, the whole point of
generosity, I mean, you know this intellectually.
God really doesn't need your money. He owns everything.
But steps of generosity are a part of his plan
so that intimacy and relationship with him can
increase. And the only way that intimacy ever
happens with God is this mechanism called faith.
The conduit of relationship with God is not knowledge.
Knowledge puffs up. Love edifies. The conduit
is faith. You can have knowledge and never put
it into action. But when I believe what God says
to the point that I trust and I act, I respond
to light and he gives more light and the relationship
and the intimacy. So one, not all, but one of
the primary ways as he develops intimacy is by
teaching me to be like him. To trust that God
is who he said he is, that his word is really
true, that when I give my... money or my time
or we'll see our reputation, our future, or even
my life, or the most precious thing that I deem
precious to me, when by faith I say, Lord, it's
all yours and it's available whenever, however
you want, it cultivates this amazing thing where
the love of God gets deposited in you and it
overflows into relationships. I was thinking
about this whole area of It was sort of the background
for this book several years ago. And as I was
thinking about generosity, I was just sitting
at my desk. And Christmas is a tough time for
pastors on messages, okay? Because have you ever
heard this story before? I mean, right. I mean,
you're like, okay, let's go to church. Okay,
let's see. There's Magi. We got shepherds. We
got Mary. We got Joseph. We got the manger. I
mean, what am I going to say? And I was thinking
about generosity and, you know, sometimes I'd
just put my feet up on my desk and had a good
cup of coffee and I just sort of mentally thought
about, Lord, I don't know why this question came.
Why did you come to this planet the way you decided
to come? And why did you introduce us to the
very characters? I mean, the Christmas story
is very interesting where you have these probably
Persian or Babylonian. studies of the stars who
see a star probably 18 to 24 months before the
baby was actually born. They see it and they
go on a journey. And then you have these low
life kind of, actually sort of a disenfranchised
social group of shepherds. They get in the story.
And then you have a teenage girl, Mary, probably
15, 16 years old, and a blue collar worker who's
betrothed to her. Well, they become a big part
of the story. And then pretty soon you have angels
involved. And I just started thinking about,
and I just laid the story out. And as I did,
I thought, it's a graduate level. Each step of
each person introduced into the story, all the
way to Jesus and God the Father, is a snapshot
of what the Bible teaches about the heart of
God and generosity. We'll hear more from Chip
Ingram's message in just a moment. First, we
invite you to multiply your year in support of
Living on the Edge through an exciting match
that's active through December 31st. Every gift
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From a series called The Genius of Generosity,
again, our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram. get in
those Bibles and follow passage to passage with
me, but I want you to listen through the story
through the lens of generosity. We pick it up
where far beyond money, the magi come and that's
what they give. On coming to the house, they
followed the star for almost two years and they
saw the child with his mother Mary and they bowed
down and they worshiped him. Then they opened
their treasuries and they presented him with
gifts of gold and incense and of myrrh. And so
the first people in the story are people that
they literally get the least revelation, right?
I mean, it's not an angel. It's just a star.
They've studied the stars. They've done some
research. They follow it. It lands over Bethlehem.
Here's a couple. They know the stars about the
king of the Jews. They inquire about the king
of the Jews. They see the child, and they give,
and they give money. It's great. Lots of good
reasons, and they're generous. They want to,
and it's an act of worship. Notice it didn't
say they gave. It says they worshiped him. Like
David said, I will not worship God with anything
that costs me nothing. There's a sacrifice. We
want to honor him. But here's the catch. When
you get generosity just in the financial realm,
you can give and not be generous. You can give
regularly, systematically, the first fruit, and
not be generous. I got an interesting email.
Someone boldly went online, because I asked you
to kind of tell me your story, and she wrote,
the last few sermons have been very convicting.
It says, but when you talked last week, and you
said, everyone thinks they're generous, I knew
in my heart that I was not a generous person.
Oh, my husband and I, we give regularly to the
church. And when you went through those steps
about giving the first and the best and systematically
and proportionally, we do all that. But I knew
at the personal level in my heart, there still
existed the greed of a child looking at a birthday
cake, always wanting the biggest piece and the
best one. This showed up often anytime our money
was at risk. And especially when people showed
up at my door and asked me for things. It's kind
of like, you know, the boxes we play in. Generosity.
Give first, got that done. Then you miss the
point. Generosity is an issue of the heart always
tied to relationships. And it's a sense of how
do I love people? And so the email is pretty
long. And she goes on and says basically, Lord,
I believe now that you really do own everything.
And even my own kind of personal money. And these
people that sort of irritate me when they come
to the door. Want me to give them something.
And I just want you to know that I want to learn
to become generous. So she actually prays and
says, send someone to my door. And I want to
give to them. And so, of course, God answers
those prayers pretty quickly. And she was at
the door right in the middle of dinner and had
a ministry meeting that night. Had to be there
by 7 o 'clock. The door knocks. And she comes
and there's someone from Teen Challenge. You
know, it's a Christian group that does drug rehab.
And she looked at him and You know, her supper's
there. Everybody's eating. She's got to go. All
the things that make you want to be what? Non
-generous. And she remembered her prayer. She
listened to their story. And then the little
girl said, I just want to thank you for listening
to us. You know, it's kind of like we've gone
door to door and it's not going real well. And
she said, well, actually, you're an answer to
my prayer. She goes, our pastor's talking about
generosity and I prayed God would send someone
to my door today that I could give to. And she
goes, I gave to her. And she goes, wow, you're
gonna go on the top of our ministry report and
here's what I want you to get. The end of the
email says, joy welled up in my heart. I went
back, I had only five minutes to eat my dinner.
I ate my dinner in five minutes. Everyone had
already eaten theirs. I was going to be a little
late for the meeting. I was a little late for
the meeting. But my countenance and my heart
and my joy, who showed up to that meeting was
a different person. Do you see the difference
between just giving your money and being generous?
Now what I want you to see in the Christmas story
is I think God introduces us to the Magi. They
know him the least and they get the least clear
revelation. But they respond to what they know.
But after they respond to that, the next group
is the shepherds. And you know the story of the
shepherds, right? The sky lights up. It's a chorus.
I mean, they're singing. Can you imagine? I mean,
you're just sort of a regular guy. You're out
on the job. Hey, Bob, it's your turn. It's the
night watch. Oh, okay, you know, and it's kind
of the middle of the night, and then, boom, right?
The sky lights up, and they're singing, and you're
going, what's this about? We pick up the story.
It says, when the angels had left them and went
into heaven, the shepherds said to one another,
let's go. Leave work. Yeah, let's go. Where?
To Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened
which the Lord has told us about. So they hurried
off and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby
who was lying in the manger. And when they had
seen him, they didn't just worship by giving
a gift. It says they spread the word concerning
what had been told them about this child. These
shepherds probably didn't have anything to give.
They didn't have any money to give. I mean, these
are people that are like way below our welfare.
I mean, they just had subsistence living. They
couldn't get into good restaurants. They smelled.
They had a bath once every month, you know, whether
they needed it or not. And God chose to reveal
the child to them and then notice they got a
story because they went around and they were
the first evangelists, were the first people
to say, the Messiah has come and we've seen him.
And so the Magi were generous with their money
and their hearts were open, but they got a star.
The shepherds, they get an angelic choir with
clear direction, and they hear from the parents,
this is the Messiah, and they get the privilege
of taking what they had and sharing it. For the
first time in all the earth, the awaited God
-man who would come to save the world, shepherds
get to give their time. For most of you, not
for all, but for most of you, your time's more
valuable than your money. When we're talking
about generosity, please don't think writing
a check, as good and wonderful that is, is that
my question would be, how are you doing in your
growth of generosity of giving your time? I want
you to know money is the training wheels. When
you begin to say, God, I want to give you the
best of my time. I don't know what that looks
like for you. It's the early morning for me.
I want to give you the best of my time. And if
you're like me, you're going to get a call from
someone and it shows up on your phone. And I
have about three people in my life, when their
name comes up, it's like, this is not a short
conversation. It's never a short conversation.
In fact, it's a conversation where I can ask
one or two questions and 45 minutes later, I'm
not sure, if I hung up, they wouldn't know it.
But you know what I've realized is, Jesus loves
unlovely people. Jesus made time for people that
most of us don't want to make time for. And what
I'm really saying, see what generosity is, it
breaks your pride. Generosity says this person
or this dysfunction with this conversation, with
this baggage matters to God so they matter to
me because he lives inside of me and giving my
money is a pretty high control. I can do it on
my terms. I give my time. It gets messy. The
shepherds left work. It's one thing to write
a check, but I mean, to leave work, to not work
so much, to give time to family or a friend or
to minister or to open your home in a small group.
Oh, but I'd have to leave work early and other
people will get ahead while I... Yeah. Takes
faith, doesn't it? Are you starting to see? Time
is way more valuable. But it goes beyond that.
The Christmas story then introduces a new character
and we get Joseph who's engaged. And as you read
this, the engagement period in the Jewish culture
is, you know, the families would be involved
and the families would agree this is the right
man, this is the right girl. And in this culture,
it would be a semi -arranged marriage. And then
there would be what's called the betrothal. And
so you would get engaged and then you'd have
up to sometimes a year. And the man would then
get the house ready and get financially responsible
and where they're going to live. And the betrothal
period was very official. I mean, it wasn't like
today when you're engaged and say, hey, you know,
I'm not sure this is really right. Let's break
the engagement. The only way to break an engagement
then was to have a divorce. Now listen to Joseph's
story and think of what it would be like, especially
guys, think of this as your girlfriend and you
hear this story about her. Matthew chapter one,
beginning at verse 18, it says, this is how the
birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother
Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph. But
before they came together, she was found to be
with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph,
her husband, was a righteous man, he didn't want
to expose her to public disgrace, but he had
in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he
considered this an angel of the Lord, that phrase
often, angel of the Lord is the pre -incarnate
Christ. The angel of the Lord appeared to him
in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do
not be afraid to take Mary home with your wife.
because what is conceived in her is from the
Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son. You
will give him his name, Jesus, because he will
save his people from their sins. And all this
took place to fulfill what the Lord had said
to the prophet. The virgin will be with child
and will give birth to a son, and they will call
him Emmanuel, which means God is with us. When
Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the
Lord had commanded him, and he took Mary home
to be his wife. Now just, you talk about your
reputation, all right, guys, those of you that
think about way, way back for some of you when
you were engaged and your girlfriend comes to
you and says, hey, I just want you to know I've
never been with another man, but I'm pregnant.
And you say, well, how can this be? And she says,
well, it's God. Oh, really? Yeah, it's God. Angel
told me. I mean, all of his life, the suspicion.
How in the world could any man marry some woman
who's pregnant with someone else's kid? His reputation,
gone. If you didn't understand the end of this
story, you might call it a cliffhanger. Please
keep listening because the familiar story of
Jesus' birth to Mary and Joseph has stunning
implications for your life and mine. This is
Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip is
presenting a practical teaching series called
The Genius of Generosity. We're glad that you've
set aside time to join us for today's teaching,
even on New Year's Eve. It's a good sign that
you're committed to understanding the Bible and
applying its wisdom to your daily life. In fact,
after 30 years of sharing Living on the Edge,
we've discovered that our listeners are learners.
When today's culture seems divided, there's a
growing hunger for knowing the truth about God
and His Word. Chip? Thanks so much, Dave. You
know, I'm so excited because we're seeing something
happen all across the country. More and more
Christians are hungry for something deeper. They're
tired of skimming the surface, and they want
to really understand God's Word. They've tasted
enough faith to know there's something more substantial
and available, and they're really ready to go
deeper. And Living on the Edge comes alongside
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when they're ready to, I mean, move from like
being that casual Christian to really get serious
with the Lord. And I just have to tell you, it
is so exciting. I get emails and letters, I mean,
thousands of people who say, you know, I kind
of heard a lot about God and I caught your program.
I was driving across the country or someone sent
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And you know what? I've been a Christian for
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power and a life change. And they just say, thank
you so much. And I just have to tell you, I think
it's a message that, I mean, when Jesus said,
follow me, the indication was we would walk with
him and do what he does and follow him. And where
did he go? To the cross. And you know something?
Until we die, you don't experience resurrection.
You don't become that person that has answers
to prayers and God really moves. And what I want
you to know is that living on the edge. is about
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surrender is the channel through which God's
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together. Even on New Year's Eve, we have people
standing by to take your call. As you're ready
to respond to Chip, just call this number, 888
-333 -6003. If you prefer to give online, just
go to livingontheedge .org. And many in our audience
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can do that by addressing your envelope to Living
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30024. Our address again is P .O. Box 3007, Atlanta,
Georgia, 30024. Here's our phone number again,
888 -333 -6003, or give online at livingontheedge
.org. How does God really measure generosity?
I'm Dave Drewy, inviting you to hear Chip's answer
tomorrow, New Year's Day, on Living on the Edge.