Monday Morning Quarterback – Sermon Edition
Yesterday (9/11/22), Pastor Andy Stanley preached the 5th sermon in his You’ll Be Glad You Did series: “Live Generous” (he addressed the poor grammar out of the gate, so don’t come at me).
There were some amazing nuggets about living a generous life in this thing, but here are a few bullet points that stuck out:
- Generous living does NOT equal random acts of giving that flow from spontaneous emotional or guilt-ridden moments.
- Rich people are not necessarily rich. Generous people are generous.
- Generosity requires a plan.
- There are 5 things that people do with money, and normally in this order: (1) Spend (2) Repay debt (3) Pay taxes (4) Save (5) Give
- Our goal should be to reverse that order: Give first, Save second, Live on the rest.
- Giving should be an automatic percentage commitment, no matter what.
- To know where to give, consider (1) what you’re grateful for and (2) what breaks your heart.
I especially loved that last one: giving to what you’re grateful for or for what breaks your heart.
Grateful Giving: This is where giving to things like your local church, your local nonprofit arts organizations, or your school or other educational institutions come in.
Giving to What Breaks Your Heart: This is where giving to causes that benefit things you’re burdened for comes into play. A charity that benefits children or elderly or animals or some other population that you have a particular burden for.
Basically, what has been helpful in your life and what makes you cry?
The gist of the sermon was this: Why spend all our lives accumulating things that we barely use or hardly need?
Why not reverse the typical order and give first?
Living generously is a key way to loving God and loving our neighbor.
