Radical Generosity
Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others.19 By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life. 1 Timothy 6:18-19 (NLT)
God's 5 Eternal Investment Funds
1. God wants me to invest in His treasury fund. This is an act of worship. How? By using some of the money to express worship!
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6:19-20 (NIV)
Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits (first part) of all your crops (income). Proverbs 3:9 (NIV)
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21 (NIV)
Such giving is to be undesignated giving. In other words, you don't tell how the money should be used! It is given when you worship.
However, anything specially set apart for the Lord—whether a person, an animal, or family property—must never be sold or bought back. Anything devoted in this way has been set apart as holy, and it belongs to the Lord. Lev 27:28 (NLT)
On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income...1 Corinthians 16:2 (NIV)
You can read more about tithes in Deuteronomy 14:22, 23.
2. God wants me to invest in His mutual fund. This is an act of fellowship (helping others). How? By using some of my money to encourage fellowship.
3. God wants me to invest in His growth fund. This is an act of discipleship. How? By using some of my money to enhance my character.
Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Romans 12:13 (NIV)
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 2 Corinthians 9:12-13 (NIV)
The earnings of the godly enhance their lives, but evil people squander their money on sin. Proverbs 10:16 (NLT)4. God wants me to invest in His equity fund. This is an act of service. How? By using some of my money to expand my ministry. All of this is to learn how to serve others.
Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding. Proverbs 23:23 (NIV)
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Romans 12:1 (MSG)
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' Acts 20:35 (NIV)5. God wants me to invest in His global fund. This is an act of missions. How? By using some of my money to extend my mission.
The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. Proverbs 11:24 (MSG)
He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses. Proverbs 28:27 (NIV)
He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done. Proverbs 19:17 (NIV)
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:15-17 (NIV)
...I'm setting you up as a light for the nations so that my salvation becomes global! Isaiah 49:6 (MSG)How Can I Afford to Make These Investments?
I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Luke 16:9 (NIV)
We must support believers who go on trips like this so that we can work together with them in spreading the truth. 3 John 1:8 (GW)
Ask me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your own possession. Psalms 2:8 (GW)
And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? Luke 16:11 (NLT)
For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. 2 Corinthians 9:10 (NLT)
The Prayer of Agur
O God, I beg two favors from you; let me have them before I die. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name. Proverbs 30:7-9 (NLT)
We will never get anything done if we wait for the perfect conditions to give!
Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest. Ecclesiastes 11:4 (NLT)
This was totally spontaneous, entirely their own idea, and caught us completely off guard. What explains it was that they had first given themselves unreservedly to God and to us. The other giving simply flowed out of the purposes of God working in their lives. 2 Corinthians 8:5 (MSG)
How is God wanting to flow through your life? Be radically generous today!
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