Introduction

We are in the final week of a three-week series called, The Generous Life, where we are looking at the life-changing power of being generous. We believe God has called us to partner with his kingdom work in the world by blessing the people around us in a variety of ways.

If you missed the first two weeks, we highlighted seven different ways in which we can be generous. We can be generous with our thoughts, words, money, influence, time, attention, and belongings. Hopefully by now you are seeing generosity is about far more than your money. Generosity is about taking your entire life - everything you are and everything you own - and using it to bless the people around you.

In week one, we talked about the first step on the pathway to a generous life: awareness. I pray the Holy Spirit has helped you keep your antenna up, and has shown you opportunities to be generous to the people around you. Last week we talked about moving from a desire to be generous to living generously. Our challenge was to start small and let God multiply our faithful efforts.

It’s been so exciting to start to hear your stories of generosity. Isn’t it amazing what God can do when we look past our limits and give Him what we have? Today we are going to talk about the final step on our path towards a generous life: Impact.

Generosity is about taking your entire life - everything you are and everything you own - and using it to bless the people around you.

Main Teaching

What comes to mind for you when you hear the word impact? If you're a sports fan, it might be the collision between a wide receiver and a linebacker he's trying to tackle. Or maybe a right hook from a boxer as he hits his opponent. Maybe the first thing that comes to mind is a moment when you lost your footing and you knew you were about to make impact with the ground. If you are anything like me, the thing you care most about is if anyone saw you stumble. Sometimes the embarrassment is worse than the actual physical pain. This is how we normally think of impact, The action of one object coming forcibly into contact with another.

However, there's another definition of impact as well. Impact can also mean; 'Having a strong effect on someone or something.'

For example, have you ever been to the ocean and just watched the waves crashing onto the shore? If you have, then you are experiencing multiple types of impact. There is the collision of the waves when they hit the shore and crash. But that's not where the impact starts. Those waves are formed by energy passing through the water. The wind actually has an impact on the water and the friction and energy it creates causes those waves you see constantly coming up to the shore. I find that fascinating.There is an impact we cannot see that is creating impact we can see. Yet another way, the collision we see at the end of a wave is caused by energy and friction created by invisible wind. If you don't have an opportunity to get to the ocean, you can still see impact in action next time you go to the lake. Simply pick up a rock and throw it out into the water. When that rock makes impact with the surface it creates ripples throughout the water. Those ripples continue to move through the water away from the point of impact. In fact, you can see a ripple without ever identifying the impact that caused it in the first place. This is the power of impact.

But impact doesn’t exclusively exist in sporting events or bodies of water. Impact is something we as human beings have the ability to create. I'm not talking about the kind of impact that happens when you fall down, I'm talking about the kind of impact we can have when we commit to living generous lives.

We see this happening all around us ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium

Each of us has the opportunity to create a legacy of generosity. You can live a generous life today, and I promise it will continue to impact people well after you are gone.