Extravagant In Generousty Series

SELFLESS

week 3 Extravagant In Generousty

Pastor Timothy Porter

Text: Proverbs 26:21 (ESV)

INTRODUCTION:

I wanna talk about overcoming our selfish attitudes and becoming extravagant in generosity, extravagant in generosity.

I researched the idea of selfishness just so I would understand it more so for our message series, and I came across an article entitled:

"Science Shows Us We Are Selfish."

I thought that was funny because I don't need science to tell me that people are selfish.

Just go to Wal-Mart, sit in traffic, or better yet! Carry on a conversation with a child! By nature, you can just look around and see that people are inherently selfish.

According to this article, the bad news for men is this. Men are generally more selfish than women. Sorry guys.

There's a study that shows that the male neural reward system is more stimulated by self-centeredness.

Women, on the other hand, they're likely to get a dopamine rush whenever they do something good for other people.

Why is this?

Well people argue because men are wired to survive.

"I'm gonna leave my cave, go out and kill something, "drag it back so we can survive." We're stimulated by that.

Women, on the other hand, they're nurturers and they get excited about helping everybody else survive.

So typically women are more generous.

Men, If you're in good shape, big muscles, the news gets worse for you. Just thought I'd tell you, the article says that bigger muscles lead to a smaller heart.

Ladies, if you're feeling pretty good about yourself, men aren't the only ones that are selfish. When it comes to chocolate, it is every woman for herself.

Studies are clear that if a woman is with her best friend and has a choice between a bigger piece of chocolate cake and a smaller piece of chocolate cake, she's gonna hose her buddy almost every single time, she's taking the bigger piece of cake and the ladies all said, "Amen."

Our culture is all about selfishness. What does culture tell us? Gratify yourself, indulge yourself, get whatever you can get, get what is yours, it's all about you. Jesus though, on the other hand, says, "If you want to be His disciple, "you don't indulge yourself, "but you start by denying yourself. "If you want to follow me," Jesus said, "It's not about you getting more of what you want, "it starts with self-denial, "you deny yourself, you take up your cross, "and then you follow Jesus." Rather than being selfish in all we do, I believe that God calls us to extravagant generosity!

Our key verse for us today, I want to look at Proverbs 21, verse 26,

? READ / PRAY

I love that imagery. Even though in our culture today, it's natural to be selfish, to crave and crave and crave and crave and want more.

There is another type of person who is righteous, a follower of Christ, and this person gives and doesn't hold back.

Abby and I like to say it this way, "That as a follower of Jesus will lead the way with irrational generosity because we truly believe it's more blessed to give than it is to receive."

When we give we want to give as God gave. We want to give without holding back.

For those of you that are going, "Shoot, I can't believe I came on a generosity week, "I should've just stayed home."

I want to talk directly to you because that was me years ago, and I want to show you three different mindsets about generosity.

? Three different mindsets about generosity.

3.) THE BAG

The first one if you're taking notes is what we call the bag mindset, the bag mindset.

The person with the bag mindset believes there is never enough, there's never enough, and honestly, this is how I many of you grew up. With a real poverty mindset, a lack, a scarcity mindset.

In fact, Haggai 1:6 , let me give you the context. God's people during this time were not putting God first. They were taking care of themselves or at least trying to, but they were not rebuilding the Temple of God, they did not put God first and because of it Haggai 1:6 says, Haggai 1:6 (NKJV) 6 "You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes."

This is The bag mindset. Most Americans, tend to live this way. We don't put God first and we believe there's never enough.

When it comes in but it just goes out, there's holes in the bag.