Be A Model of Generosity

 

Hello everybody, my name is Dean Davis and this is “Multiply,” the podcast that provides a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters. 

As I speak to you today, I have recently attended meetings at Asbury University that some have called a spontaneous revival and others have called an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Many who have attended these meetings have testified that they sensed, in an unusual way, the presence of God to heal, save, and cleanse from sin. In that environment, it was easy for people to trust God to work in them in ways that they had only dreamed of before. The goodness and the presence of our loving heavenly Father was so real to so many.

Faith came easy in that place. Our heavenly Father is a good, good God. Yet we need grace to trust God more in our day-to-day lives don’t we?

Daily people all over the world face challenges related to money. I have never met a young person yet who truly believed he or she had enough money. In fact, I have not met more than few older people who have said, “I have more than enough money.”  Have you?

Money seems to be in short supply. But our need for food, clothing, shelter, education and healthcare just grows and grows.  So it’s hard for most of us to be generous. Almost everyone I know who has learned to tithe, that is, to give 10% of their income to God, has described a struggle to give that much to the Lord. Many have feared that tithing would bring immeasurable financial difficulty. Every tither I know had to struggle to exercise faith to give God 10% of their income. It’s not easy to become a generous person.

Even so, I know many generous people: brothers and sisters in Christ from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America.  They testify that you cannot out-give God. They tell stories of how God has met their needs. How he has helped them and how he has provided in ways both miraculous and ordinary.  I hope you also know some generous people.  If you do, I’m pretty sure they also struggled to find faith to tithe. But once they began, they learned that you cannot out give God. He gives us more than we can imagine possible.

I have observed that when there are two generous people in a church, others soon learn to give. Soon the church becomes generous.  In my experience, a church does not become generous with just one generous giver. It takes at least two for the love of generosity to spread in a congregation.  If, over time, only one member of the church is generous, others will look to him as the church’s patron.  They will say to themselves, “We do not have to give, because our patron will meet the needs of the church.”  This is a recipe for disaster.  But when there are two generous givers in a church, soon there are three, and then four, and then more. Usually the pastor or church planter is the first generous giver.  He or she gives generously and then testifies about how God meets needs. It may take one or two years of modeling generosity and testifying of God’s gracious provision, but sooner or later, there will be a second generous giver in the church.

I have also observed that if the pastor or church planter is not generous in his or her giving, no one else will be either.  What about you? What steps is God calling you to take to give more and trust him more for his provision? As a church leader, your example is powerful.  What steps toward generosity will you take today?

This has been “Multiply.” And I’m Dean Davis asking, “Who will you share this encouraging word with today?

#EncouragementForVillageChurchPlanters #Generosity