Generosity

GENEROSITY

What is generosity?

the quality of being kind and generous.

Generosity: giving your attention, time, abilities, money, and compassion freely to others.

We often think of generosity as the decision to donate money to a worthy cause or buy a meal for someone on the street. Those are indeed generosity, but generosity in the context of authentic love is much more than financial giving. When we love authentically, we have an attitude of generosity in all we do. (Gary Chapman, Love is a Way of Life)

Example: "I was overwhelmed by the generosity of friends and neighbors" synonyms: liberality

Is it an expaned characteristic of a Christian?

Romans 12-6-8 Amplified Bible

V6. Having gifts(faculties, talents, qualities) that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them:[He whose gift is] prophesy, [let him prophesy, [let him prophesy] according to the proportion of his faith; v. 7[He who gift is] practical service, let him give himself to serving; he who teaches, to his teaching: v. 8 (He who exhorts, encourages), to his exhortation; he who contributes, let him do it in simplicity and liberality; he who gives aid and superintends, with zeal and singleness of mind, he who does acts of mercy with genuine cheerfulness and joyful eagerness.

Romans 12:7-8 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;

8Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.

When writing to the Romans, he tells how churches had given to the poor in Jerusalem and he was carrying it there. Paul then reminds them that they owe the poor because their acceptance. They are now a member of the body of the church, they should communicate (give) to the poor.

Distinguished author Tim Keller says, “Our bank statements are perhaps the greatest evidence of having minds that have truly been transformed by the grace of God.” Tim Keller

Luke 6:38 - Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

Not talking about “seed money” on TV evangelist.

“I want my last check to bounce.” (He wanted his bank account to read EMPTY.) These are the words of a billionaire philanthropist Charles F. Feeney, who began secretly giving his money away in 1984. Feeney’s goal was to make a difference in the world while he was alive. By 2016, he’d given away more than $8 billion to charitable organizations around the world.

His impact made others such as Bill and Linda Gates. They set up a charitable foundation giving large amounts of money away: At first they contributed $94 million later a total over $16 billion. One of the recipients was educators across the nation. Other missions involved fight AIDS and drilling wells so people could have good drinking water. The mother of bride to be, Linda Gates, on the day before they were married, her mother told her “from those to whom much is given, much is expected.”

Warren Buffet was encourage by this and he gave $30 billion in shares of stock to the Gates Foundation.

(Love as a Way of life. Pg 145)

Andrew Carnegie--Carnegie -- 1835-1919 (83 yrs)

Picked cotton for $1.20 per week when young.

One of the most wealthy men to ever to live in U.S.

Carnegie, Bill Gates, Vanderbilt, Ford, Rockefeller

He invested in railroads and then started in Steel

Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Mellon University

Built 3000 libraries around the world.

His philosophy -- “Man does not live by bread alone. The man who dies rich dies in disgrace.” Gave away around 4.3 billion.

Generosity is not about what’s in your bank account—it’s about what’s in your heart.

James 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

1 John 3:16-17

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

We know that through the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. It is also true that through the overflow of the heart, we will give.