The Blessing of Generosity – Part 9 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast, I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. We’re gonna be sharing today on the blessing of generosity, and we’re gonna be talking about the grace of giving. You don’t want to miss this broadcast because I believe when you understand this principle of the grace of giving, I believe that you can be, as Paul says, “Enriched in all things,” and it will lead to your prosperity. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re here with us today. We’re talking about the blessing of generosity and the grace of giving. And we’ve been sharing from 2 Corinthians chapter eight and chapter nine, where Paul talks more about giving and receiving than anywhere in the New Testament. So this is the greatest disposition on giving and receiving in the entire New Testament. So I think it’s important for us to understand this. So we began in 2 Corinthians 8 and we talked about there was a grace on the Macedonian churches, and Paul used them as an example to encourage the Corinthians to give. And then he said, “I want you to get involved in this grace.” And then he said, “Ultimately, this was the grace that was on Jesus.” And he said, “When you administer this grace right, it leads to abundance.” Now, he moves on in 2 Corinthians 9 and says this, “For as touching, ministering to the saints, it’s very necessary for me to write to you.” So now he says, “So there’s this grace on the Macedonian churches, there’s this grace that I want you to get involved in. There’s this grace on Jesus.” Now he says, “Not only this grace is on you, but I want this grace to work through you as you minister, as you share with others.” And so he says then in verse two, “For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boasted them of Macedonia”. So Paul’s been bragging on this church that Achaia was ready a year ago, and your zeal has provoked many. So you’re zealous, but I want you to follow through. Sometimes Aaron, you see people that are really zealous, but they don’t follow through. And you wanna follow through. And so he says, “Yet I sent brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf, that I said, you should be ready lest those of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, that we say not, you should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.” Now, in verse five, he kind of turns, and this is where I really want to get into the meat of this today in verse five. And Aaron, if you wanna read in verse five, let’s just read verse five and talk about that for a minute.

 

  So it says here, “Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation.”

 

  Now that is a mouthful. So you guys prepared a gift. You know most of the time when I give Aaron I purpose, and it talks about this later in this scripture, purpose in your heart to give. So I purpose the gift. And generally when I go to a meeting, I have already purposed in my heart what I’m gonna give. And unless God really speaks to me, most of the time, that’s what I bring, that’s what I prepared. And so he says that, “If you do this beforehand, it ought to come out of a bounty or out of generosity.” I believe generosity is a greater motivator than need, not of covetousness. And so I want to give to be generous. In fact, some of the ministries I give to, to be honest with you, some of the most wealthy ministries in the world, and I believe that God has made them wealthy because they’ve administrated finance as well. And I’m not giving all the time because there’s just a need that’s being shared. Now, there’s times that I give to those that are in need. We also give to some of the poorest people in the world. We help orphans and orphanages, and we help build churches in third world countries. And I helped one woman in our church start a ministry and she feeds over 1200 single women and orphans every day in Africa. And I’ve helped her buy vehicles, buy trucks to transport the food. I’ve helped her build buildings, I’ve helped her build a hospital, actually pay to have this equipment moved from the United States. We got a group of doctors, gave all the medical equipment for the hospital, and then we as a church gave a gift to match to help other people get encouraged to give. And she paid for the transportation. And then over in Africa, they paid for the place to have this hospital in the Congo. So I’ve helped people in all kinds of places, helped people all over the world in Asia, Africa, south America, Mexico, Canada, the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Israel, we’ve given to people all over the world, and I love to give, but most of the time need is not my motivation. Most of the time I give because I purpose in my heart and I feel like God puts in my heart what to do. I really try to be obedient to God in the realm of giving, so I can receive what God wants me to receive.

 

  And God’s not a manipulator.

 

  Amen.

 

  The holy spirit is not a manipulator. And I actually, there’s some ministry, some organizations that try to play on people’s emotions, and almost in a manipulative sort of way to get people to respond and give. If I sense manipulation going on, I just shut down right away. I’m like, I’m not gonna be manipulated. I want God to be speaking to me and to be motivated by what he’s doing in my heart.

 

  Amen.

 

  Not by any type of marketing scheme,

 

  Amen. manipulation type of thing.

 

  Praise God. So we give out of bounty rather than out of need, or generosity rather than need. Then he says, and Aaron, I want you to read verse six through verse 10. And there’s a whole lot to talk about here in verse six through verse 10.

 

  This says, “But this, I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you always having all sufficiency and all things may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written, he is dispersed abroad, he’s given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. Now, may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, multiply the seed you’ve sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.”

 

  Amen. There’s so much he talks about. But in verse six, he says, “He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.” So who determines the bounds of our harvest?

 

  You do.

 

  We do.

 

  The sower, yeah.

 

  A lot of people think that God de determines the bounds of our harvest, but it says here that he who sow sparingly. So we’re the one who choose whether we sow sparingly or bountifully. Now, God doesn’t operate, he’s not like Jesus, when he watched the people gave, he saw this poor woman, widow cast in two mites. And he said, “She gave more than everybody.” Why? Because she gave everything. So God operates on percentages. But we have a lot to do with the harvest that we receive. And so he says, “Whoever sow sparingly is gonna reap sparingly.” You know I grew up on a small farm in north of Lamar, Colorado. And generally we had these little irrigated fields that we would plant, they’d be 10 or 20 acres. Now we received great harvest for those. We also had some dry land for a period of time. And we received more harvest from those because they were larger fields. You sowed more seed, now we could control the conditions a lot more on the irrigates, so we could be a lot more consistent about what we received there. But then I moved when I was just 23, almost 24, and mom and I moved to Kit Carson, you were just a little boy. And we started a church there, and the average size of a farm there was over 2,500 acres. And so I began to think in different realms, and I had farmers that actually farmed like thousands and thousands of acres. And they would actually go out after, I mean, some of them farmed 20,000 acres and they would go out after, they would start planting in August. The ideal time to plant winter wheat in that area, they were mostly big wheat farms is September. But they would start in August, kind of the middle to the end of August, and they would plant clear through October, sometimes the beginning of November because it just took ’em that long to get done, even though they were planting with 60 foot drills. And I mean, it was a major deal. But then they would go out after later and take a truckload of seed, which would’ve been a pretty good harvest for some people and just plant the edges of the fields. And they would get where the grasshoppers had eaten it off, before the freeze. And they would get more harvest off the edges of those fields than some people would get off their entire farms. So he that sows the bountifully, you sow more seed, you’re gonna get more harvest. He that sows sparingly, you sow just a little seed, you get just a little harvest. But it all starts with percentages. And God’s not worried about what you don’t have, but you start where you’re at. So we determine the bounds of our harvest. Now verse seven is so important, before we leave we’ll talk just a little bit about this, “Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give.” We give as we purpose in our heart. I’ve purposed in my heart to be a giver. God gives seed to sowers. If you’ll purpose in your heart to be a giver, I believe God will see that you have seed to sow.

 

  I like something that you’ve said too, if you make giving your goal, your living won’t be a problem.

 

  Right.

 

  Because if giving, if being a blessing to other people, other ministries is your goal-

 

  Amen.

 

  Then your living is not gonna be a problem.

 

  Amen.

 

  I actually like this quote that Winston Churchill said. He said, “You make a living off of what you get, but you make a life off of what you give.”

 

  Praise God.

 

  And a lot of people are just trying to make a living. They’re just trying to  It’s about me, my four no more, but that’s actually not a godly mentality.

 

  No.

 

  That’s a very worldly mentality. A godly mentality is you wanna be a blessing to other people.

 

  Amen. We wanna sow seed, we want to be generous, praise God. And you know what, when you make giving your goal, your living is no problem. So many people just say, well, I’m trying to make a living. I think if you’re just trying to make a living, you kind of got the focus wrong. And if it becomes about generosity, and you say, well, you live in America, there’s lots of money. Listen, I’ve been to third world countries where I’ve seen people that are super, super prosperous. And it’s like, you know what, they determined to be a giver, and God opened doors. I was in Jamaica, I met a man in Jamaica and this man went to another island. He started painting houses and he got money, and bought a car, and started a taxi business. So he had a painting business and a taxi business, where a lot of people were just living on their bare means. But wherever you  If you determined to be a giver, God will see that you have seed to sow. And prosperity is different things to different people. But God’s promises, God’s work will work for you no matter where you’re at, whether you’re in America, whether you’re in Africa. Praise the Lord, the word works.

 

  Amen.

 

  Praise God. So we’ve been talking about this. We’re gonna come back and we’re gonna talk about grace abounding toward you. There is a grace in the realm of giving that God wants each of us to operate in. And I believe God wants that grace to abound toward us. In fact, I believe if we don’t get involved in the grace of giving, we limit the grace of God towards us in this realm. So stay tuned, we’ll be right back. Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you’ve been connected with us while we’re talking about the blessing of generosity. We have these teachings and those live in church services available to you free of charge on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com in downloadable audio and video. Also, check out my book, “Provision: Releasing Supernatural Increase In Your Life.” You helped single moms and orphan children in Congo, Africa.

 

  Right now we have 510 household, 775 are kids in school we sponsoring every month, and 450 we feeding every day.

 

  We support Julie. We helped her last year to build a new feeding center. Praise the Lord. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us and we’re right here in 2 Corinthians 9 talking about the grace of giving. We were in verse six in the first half of the broadcast, talked about the seed that you sow determines the harvest that you receive. So if you sow sparingly, you’ll reap a sparing harvest. If you sow bountifully, you’ll reap a bountiful harvest. And then it says this, “Every man according as he purposes in your heart,” I believe this is one of the greatest ways that you can give, just purpose in your heart, that I’m gonna be a giver. If you determine to be a sower, God will see that you have seed to sow. If you determine to be a giver. You know as a young man, I tithed from my very first paycheck. I remember I’d worked all summer, drove tractor, made like two or $3 an hour, made like a little over $1,300. I remember bringing a check to my Sunday school class for like $135. You know I was 12 or 13 years old. I remember when I was 16 or 17 giving, I think I was 16 years old, I gave a thousand dollars check to a missionary. And that was like a half or two thirds of my summer income. So God has  I determined as a young man to be a giver and God has made it so I can give, hallelujah. Now I can.

 

  Generosity is actually a huge testimony that Jesus is alive as well. It’s a testimony to non-believers that Jesus is alive, that there is a God. This is about eight years ago, but I was home for Christmas break. And I just decided I was going to kind of finish up my doctoral stuff in music. And rather than pursue a career in music, and becoming a professor, and playing in symphonies, I was gonna become a pastor. I made that decision. And I was coming back to Houston to just finish up my last big doctoral exams. And there’s a gentleman that I taught lessons to, he was a very accomplished person who was close to 90 years old. He was actually a retired professor from Rice University in sociology. He taught there for 50 years, I think, he got a PhD from Princeton and this is his first job. And he had this job as a professor there his entire time. And he’s actually a very liberal person politically. He was the first faculty sponsor of the very first gay and lesbian club at Rice University. And the mayor of Houston at the time, she was very, very liberal. She was a lesbian woman. She actually hated Christians and churches. She actually wanted to pass a law in Houston that pastors had to send their sermons, their notes to get approved. It was just crazy. But anyway, this gentleman, I taught him lessons and I told him that I was gonna become a pastor and he like, thought it was crazy. But I told him what happened, something that happened over winter break, this is eight years ago. I told him, I know like in his field of study, poverty is something that he really studied. But I told him that what happened, I shared this testimony and it was a complete miraculous giving testimony. But I was at church on a Wednesday night and we had some missionaries here. The jollies, they’re missionaries we support here, ambassadors to the nations, and they support, they feed a lot of children in poor countries, and have some schools they’ve built.

 

  And build houses.

 

  And they build houses, yeah. And at the time they could build a house for someone in need or a pastor for just $5,000. And if someone got up to take up the offering and said, you know what, I think on this Wednesday night we’re gonna build two houses.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And so that’s $10,000, that’s actually a pretty large offering on a Wednesday night.

 

  Very large.

 

  With just a 100 people at church. And I had ran out a check for a hundred dollars that night to give for these missionaries. And I just felt God told me to add another zero to it. So I took that check and then I turned a hundred into a thousand. And the next day I was coming by the office to see you. And I asked what was the offering and it was just barely over $10,000.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And so if I hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have built those two houses. So I was excited ’cause again, God spoke to me and he confirmed it. Like we exactly hit that $10,000 mark. So I told this student of mine who is a retired sociology professor and it really amazed him that we support these mission, but we really make an impact. And it’s a testimony that Jesus is alive, that the gospel is real.

 

  Amen. Amen.

 

  And I told him, I was really excited to go into ministry and not just be stuck in academia.

 

  Amen. So we give as we purpose in our heart, we don’t do it grudgingly. We don’t do it because somebody twists our arm and make it. Nobody made you do that. Nobody twisted your arm, nobody pressured you. I remember that night there was no pressure whatsoever, praise God.

 

  And yet-

 

  And God loves a cheerful giver.

 

  We got an offering for that missionary that was like 10 times our regular offering on a Wednesday night. And we built two houses in a third world country to take care of poor families. And you know what, we’ve done this all over the world and we’ve helped people in all kinds of places. But it says, “God loves a cheerful giver.” It’s not that we have to do this, guys, we get to give, I get excited about giving. It is so exciting to me to be a giver. It’s so exciting to get involved in what God’s doing. And then he says in verse eight, “God is able to make all grace abound towards you. That you always, having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work.” Not just some grace, he’s able to make all grace. Thank God we get involved in the grace of giving. Amen.

 

  Amen. And while I was in Houston, this is kind of neat too, but I went to Lakewood church and at first Lakewood, the building that they’re in it was the former sports arena for the basketball team, they’re the Houston Rockets. It’s somewhere Joel took Victoria on their very first date and he said they sat clear in the back right under where the flag is. That flag is still there. And someone spilled beer on Victoria. But when they initially got that building, they didn’t own it. They signed a lease from the city. The city owned that building, that sports arena. And I think for 30 years they had to pay a hundred million dollars. They also spent like another hundred million dollars in renovations. And this is kind of during the recession, the Obama era recession. But the city of Houston was in need of finances. So this liberal mayor actually approached just out of the blue, approached Lakewood church and said, “Hey, we’ll sell it to you outright for $7 million.

 

  Supernatural. That is supernatural. That is amazing to buy that building for  And I remember when Joel bought it, I thought, or get the lease for so many years I thought you’re crazy spending so much money, but God knows what he’s doing and Joel heard God. And so he did this lease for 30 years, but then just in a short term into the lease, and he spent nearly a hundred million fixing up that building that he was leasing. Just as short term into that lease he was able to buy it for $7 million. That is a miracle. God does miracles in the financial realm. And you know what Aaron? God has done miracles for us. When he says God is able to make all grace a bound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. That has been the testimony of my church in Kit Carson. That has been the testimony of the church here that we always had all sufficiency in all things. And we gave first in Kit Carson, we gave somewhere between 10% and 50% of that church income away every year. And you know what, that church never lacked in a very small town with a smaller congregation. And we’ve come here, and we had almost no people and no money. And you know what, we’ve given between 10% and 27% of our income away every year. And you know what God has made grace abound toward us. And it says that you always having all sufficiency, we have never lacked, we have never lacked in all things. Not only have we never lacked for buildings, like it challenged me when we moved, God gave us this building, it’s very evident to me. We bought it for a third, what the building sold for next door. And then they’ve sold for doubles since that. And then we built it out supernaturally $17 a square foot when the average cheapest rebuild you could do was $40 a square foot. We did it for $17 a square foot, that is supernatural. God making grace abound toward us. We used a great builder. We paid everybody what they asked, praise God. And you know what, it is awesome how God blessed us and how God helped us. He’s able to make all grace abound towards you that you always having all sufficiency in all things, we have never lacked, may abound to every good work. And this church gives to about 70 ministries every year, between 60 and 70. And then we support 35 ministries every month. And when I’m going into a time, just like recently, we took the greatest step in expansion in the ministry that we’ve ever took. And I committed about a third of our church income per year to outreach. But I didn’t quit giving to other ministries. Listen, I’m given more than I’ve ever given. I’m not gonna cut off my seed sowing, that you may abound to every good work. So we’re given to all kinds of places As it is written, it says, “He’s dispersed abroad, he’s given to poor, his righteousness remains forever.” We’re gonna have to come back tomorrow and talk about that scripture, because that’s really talking about the fruit of a righteous man in verse 10. The fruit of what happens when we get involved in sowing and reaping, when we get involved in the grace of giving. There’s actually seven things that are listed in verse 10 and verse 11 that happen when we get involved in the grace of giving.

 

  Yeah, and I’m excited to talk about that. My wife, Heather and I were actually talking about these seven things.

 

  Amen.

 

  And she wrote ’em down and we were just talking about, she was wondering about the fruits of your righteousness, what that really means.

 

  Amen.

 

  And generosity affects things in the spirit realm, it affects you.

 

  Amen.

 

  And the fruit of your righteousness, we’re all made righteous in Jesus.

 

  Amen.

 

  But we all need to be producing fruit. Jesus wants us to produce fruit. And when people stop giving, when they stop being generous, it’s hard to produce fruit. It’s hard to see that fruit of the spirit in their life, which is love, joy, peace, that a lot of it’s all linked to generosity.

 

  Yeah, and so there’s seven things. We’ll mention them today, but we’ll come back, and tomorrow we’ll talk about these seven different things on the broadcast. He says, “He gives seed to the sower, bread for your food, multiplies your seed sewn. He increases the fruit of our righteousness. We’re enriched in everything.” It doesn’t only affect you in the area of finances, he says, “You’re enriched in everything. It leads to your bountifulness, ” number six, “And it causes thanksgiving to God,” number seven. And finally he says, “Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. So you want to get involved in the grace of giving, hallelujah. And if you’re not giving somewhere else, I’ll tell you what, “Grace for Today” and Charis Christian Center is great place to sow your seed. So get involved today in the grace of giving. I want to encourage you, I believe when you do that you will be blessed. Well friends, I don’t wanna leave this broadcast without giving you the opportunity to receive the greatest of all gifts, and that’s the gift of Jesus. God gave us Jesus so that we could be forgiven for our sins and receive eternal life. Pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe Jesus is your son. He died for my sin. And you raised him from the dead and made him Lord. And right now I surrender to you in Jesus name. Friends, our broadcast can now be seen by over two thirds of the world’s population, and it’s our partners that have made this available. I wanna invite you today to become part of this blessing by becoming a partner of Charis Christian Center and “Grace for Today.” So we would love to hear from you. And thank you so much for prayerfully considering this today. Blessings.

 

  When we step out in faith and tap into giving and receiving, there are tremendous promises available to us. Discover scriptural principles that will help you understand the abundant blessing that is connected to generosity. We are blessed to be a blessing. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of the teaching, the blessing of Generosity, a $20 value free of charge. Download it today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  Praise the Lord, friends, I want to invite you to church this coming Sunday morning, whether you’re in Colorado Springs or whether you’re wherever you are at, if you’re in Colorado Springs, you can see us Sunday morning at 8:30 or 10:30 AM live. But you can also watch us with our livestream congregation at 8:30 or 10:30 AM, or you can go to our website and get it anytime at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

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