An Abundance Mindset in a Scarcity Culture

• Generosity is less about making financial transactions and more about our spiritual transformation to become generous people.
• The danger in not cultivating a spirit of generosity is that we would delude ourselves into thinking that we have light when we really have darkness like Jesus taught in Matthew 6:23.
• If we believe and recognize how God has been abundantly generous to us through Jesus Christ, then we can be free to be abundantly generous as well.

EP 8: Why is Generosity a Discipleship Issue?

Teaching: Courageously Generous - Matt Williams

Teaching: 2 Corinthians 9:1-15 - Matt Williams

Teaching: Luke 12:13-21 - Scott Mozingo

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Most everything we do with our money is transactional. So then it would make sense that when we get to giving, it also feels transactional. And I think that's the first major roadblock and hang up in thinking about our money and our finances as a discipleship issue is to get out of the transactional mindset and think of it through a transformational lens.

And so if you think about reframing the question, so how does my money shape my relationship with God? Is it helping or is it hurting? Like that really is the question that then every answer can can flow down. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Grace Church Members Podcast. I'm Whitney Manus, and around here we like to keep things fair, so we're putting our very own Scott Mozingo in the guest seat today so that he can practice taking a little bit of what he's usually dishing out. No, we're kidding.

But when Scott is not podcasting, he is helping our church think well about generosity. It is a subject that he's passionate about and more importantly, that Jesus is passionate about. And as we're recording, we have Thanksgiving coming up, closely followed by Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and then we'll be posting this on Giving Tuesday. And it's kind of interesting. Even that order of operations says a lot about how we're thinking about generosity in itself. We're going to eat a lot and then we're going to shop a lot, and we'll put a little altruism at the end to make us feel a little bit better.

So it's evident that we do have some work to do, but Scott has some thoughts to help us reframe that paradigm. Scott, it's always good to see you. Thanks for being here. Yeah, thank you and thank you for that welcome. You're right, it is the the order is a little interesting, although not surprising. And this notion of giving Tuesday, I was very resistant to for a number of years just because I felt it was super gimmicky.

And just like, OK, if you got anything leftover after all the stuff that you were convinced that you needed through all of the Black Friday ads, then just throw a little money in the plate right to a towards a good cause. But you know, then I started started thinking, if, if people are thinking about giving and if the door is cracked, then why don't we just like stick our foot in the door and see if we can just push it open a little bit further. So that's what we're going to try to do today. Yeah, absolutely.

And yeah, I mean, even just the the name Giving Tuesday like that, there's a little bit of a difference between, let me just give something like there's all these charities, there's all these very valuable nonprofits, and I'll just give something to them. But that's a little bit different than this idea of generosity. And I've already said that word 12 times.

So tell us talk a little bit about that. Just how are we trying to separate out those two things? Yeah, I would love to, I would love to rename it Generous Tuesday. And honestly, as believers, it, it really should be generous every day. And I think that's the point.

And so, but if we could start by parsing out the difference between the two, to me, you know, giving is a transaction and it's, it's because it involves, it involves money, it involves currency. And most of the time if we're using cash or right now, you know, credit card, it's just a simple transaction. I need something, I want something, food, gas, groceries, clothing, Christmas presents. All I have to do is present some currency and then I get something in return, right?

So most everything we do with our money is transactional. So then it would make sense that when we get to giving it also feels transactional. And I and I think that's the first major roadblock and hang up in thinking about our money and our finances as a discipleship issue is to get out of the transactional mindset and think of it through a transformational lens.

And so if you think about just reframing the question, so how does my money shape my relationship with God? Is it helping or is it hurting? Right. Like that really is the question that then every answer can can flow down, you know, answers to how we live, how we save and how we give. And I would prefer putting it in the other in reverse order, how we give, how we save and how we live.

But everything comes kind of flows down, if you will, from that question of how is basically money and finances shaping my faith, my relationship with God. Yeah. And so I think generosity is a great word to just camp out on and just think about how that plays a role in my spiritual formation.

So not transactional, but transformational. Right. And then it's not, it's not just money. You know, money is a big piece of it and Jesus does talk about it a lot.

So that's part of it. But that it's time and it's resources. Like we want to be generous people and that touches more areas of our life. Then I'm just going to ship out a chunk of my paycheck each month and then I'm good and I did my piece. Yeah. If we thought about generosity as a virtue or as a character quality versus just a transaction, then it does seep into every single area of your life.

So a generous person is going to be more generous with their time, their words, their relationship. And so one way to think about it is, is generosity is certainly more than just money, but it can't be less than, right? It's got to include that just because of the challenging nature of money. And we can look at just Jesus's words himself. And we'll do that here in just a second.

But. But Jesus really, really, really doubled down on on money. So we've got to pay attention to that. Yeah. So I think for I was having a lunch with one of our leaders this week and he brought up this idea because I always ask people where their ideas of money were formed. Yeah.

So I asked the leader on Monday. I was teaching the class last night of young professionals. And so the question, you know, these are all people who were serious about following Jesus. Where did you get your ideas about money? And there is almost always some type of family origin story. There may be a church story there where it was emphasized and maybe the parents, you know, said, hey, we got to give back to the church.

And maybe there was a percentage, 10% that was thrown in for for some like these students last night, it was when they got into some money difficulty, whether it was through some difficult decisions, some things that were thrust upon them or like college debt. So then they had to get serious about how to handle their money. But almost to a person of the folks in the room, they did not say the scriptures was the primary formative tool in the way they thought about money. And I just think that's really interesting.

And so part of the the goal and what I have the pleasure of doing for our church and what we're going to do here is really to kind of root our thoughts about money in the scriptures, of which they're they're a lot of, and let that be the primary driver and then see how well our personal experience and our cultural experience holds up against the Scriptures. So I think that any fair minded person would want to do that if they're really want to follow Jesus and take him seriously and believe that the Bible is God's word. So to me, a big part of how we can describe our relationship with money because money is in some ways money is is is a is a neutral thing, right.

It's just paper. It's just coins. It's plastic for crying out loud. Right now. It's just a few keystrokes on our cell phone, right to move money around. Yeah, but it's powerful.

The the the power is where we have to take into account the question I I asked about our relationship with God. Are we using it for good or are we using it for or is it being used for I'll against us. Maybe be the way better way to say it. Sure.

So some of the roots of how we think about money. I I think for me, it's comforting just to go all the way back to the origin story, not in our family of origin, but in Adam and Eve and in the origin of civilization in the beginning of mankind, because Adam and Eve were presented with a beautiful living experience. You know, there's a garden and there's a river and there's raw materials and there's animals and there's like everything that they need. And God gave all of that to them for their good pleasure, except you told them there's one thing you can't do.

You got to stay away from that tree. You can't eat from it. And then so they, God gave them abundance, right? But then there's a second, there's a second voice that enters in who's the opposite of the voice of God. And he basically contradicts what God says. And he said, hey, God, he may have given you all this, but he's actually not good.

He's holding out on you. He doesn't want you to have everything. You deserve it all. And he doesn't want you to have it.

And so he's holding out on you. And what what the serpent introduced, but the enemy of God introduced was a scarcity mentality. Yeah.

So in a land of abundance, they now are introduced to a scarcity mentality that they fall for, and they question the goodness of God. Yeah, and it's the same paradigm that, I mean, is really repeated throughout Scripture, like ongoing too. So I'm doing remember your joy with a group of ladies and you know, we talked about God provides the manna and the Israelites come out of Egypt and they're like, you brought us out here to die. Like there's no food. And that's a real need.

But then God provides the mana and they still get to a point and they're like, there's no food. But we also hate this mana that you gave us. So it's like, OK, there's there's not really scarcity. We're just perceiving that it is and we're just complaining.

But then you have in Psalm 78, it says God rained down mana for them to eat. And so there's actually abundance all the time. And that's what we're, but that's what we're thinking through is, you know, what we want and what we perceive the scarcity to be, and sometimes what the scarcity actually is versus what God is actually giving us. Yeah. And what's interesting is that the the physical means, you know, of which they are judging abundance or scarcity is really tied back to the provider. Yes.

So, so when we have a scarcity mindset, it's less about what we have or don't have. It's really a question about God. And we might not like that, but but really that's what we're saying is, God, are you good? And can you really provide for me? Have you really provided for me? What am I entitled to?

And I think if we're honest with ourselves, those questions, they just, they roll through our minds and they influence us. And is God's goodness the same as what I think goodness is? Because a lot of times I think I can get on board with like, yeah, God is good. God probably does have my best in mind, but that's actually just not what I want right now. Like God has given me manna, but I just don't like it. I would like a steak please.

No, that's right. And so you take you take this abundance and scarcity mindset that I think we all struggle with, and then you go to the scriptures and you read like the words of Jesus. And I'll steal this from a recent sermon I was listening to from John Mark Comer, and he was talking about growing up in church. And I grew up in church with a reverence for God's word.

And so I knew I knew it was right. Like I knew it was it was morally good and right. Well, I knew it was morally right, but I wondered if it was personally good for me, Like would it lead to happiness? Because it seemed like God was trying to take something away from me and keep me from something that might be more, might lead to more happiness.

And so I knew he was right. But was he good? And we can kind of get into this narrative as believers is like following Jesus like it will include suffering like that is true. Jesus told us that himself, but then we equate that to be like, there's no goodness to be had and we're just here to suffer until we die and then everything is going to get great so we can get stuck there. When I think what you're saying now is like, that's not true, there's more for us.

Well, I mean, I remember when I heard that quote, it put into words what I was thinking and I went back to the idea of being a teenager, right? So growing up in church, a new right from wrong. And so then you have teenagers doing teenage things, right?

So if they're drinking, if they're partying, if it's there's immorality involved, then you just think, oh, well, God's against all the fun, right? Like God wants me to be over here and, and stay away from those things. And, and he just doesn't, he just doesn't want me to have any fun. And we have a very adolescent immature way of what we're thinking of how we're thinking about goodness, right?

But like nobody 20 years later, 30 years later says, gosh, I wish I could go back and do all those stupid things that I was doing in high school. Those were so good. Like nobody says that, right?

And so I think like when we talk about the idea of generosity, so Jesus says a lot of lot of crazy things, right? So I'll say one, and then we'll go back and look at some of the other things. But like he says, it's, it's more blessed to give than to receive. And Paul repeats this in Acts 20.

So, so I'm forced to say, do I really believe that? Do I really believe that it's better for me to give than to receive? So I mean, that sounds right.

But like, is that good? Like, does it lead to like, happiness, like human flourishing? And so that's really kind of a test of a test of faith. And what I've found, you know, we have a very generous church and I have a lot of these conversations and, and nobody who is generous is looking back just like the 40 year old looking back at the teenage years going, gosh, I wish I could go back to being greedy. I wish I could go back to hoarding my resources. I I wish I wasn't so generous.

Like no one says that there's no such thing as generosity, regret. Because if you will take God at his word, it actually proves that. Yeah, 100 percent, 100%. It leads to happiness. And then, you know, you can, you can look, there's all these studies have been done that people who are generous people, they have just a better quality of life, like anxiety lower, right, don't struggle as much with despair. They, they laugh, they laugh more, they live longer, they have better quality of relationships.

And, and so just just on the sociological side, you might say, oh, there's something, there's something to this. And so, yeah, taking Jesus at his word, taking Paul at his word and really trusting that God is a God of abundance who has called me to be generous. And so I just kind of thought we might could look at a couple passages. Yeah, and one thing I'll say too is I think the teenage example is a good one 'cause, you know, you've raised teenagers. I'm trying to disciple some teenagers and there is something about like they cannot think further than like 5 minutes from now, you know, and I'll say in my late 20s, I can't really think further than tomorrow.

So you know, that's. You're you're empathetic with that. Right, I am, you know, some of it's a human condition, but I do think as you get older and wiser, like you just think about time differently. But there is something to like we have to believe because in the moment, like there is loss, like it's we have to die to ourselves. First there's a hurt and then there's a long term benefit. And sometimes by long term, we mean like a month from now. And then sometimes it truly is on down the road.

But it's hard for us in the moment to say, OK, this is going to be really worth it when I'm 40, you know, because I'm like, right now, I would like to be worth it this second or tomorrow you. Know, or at least I want I want a guarantee. Yes, right. And that's the opposite of having faith. Right.

But I know if I go to Target and I buy myself Starbucks and I get some new clothes and whatever else, like I know I'm walking out of Target happy. Yes, there's a guarantee because again, it goes back to the power, the power of money. That's right.

And so thinking about Jesus Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5 and 6, one of Jesus's longer teachings that we have recorded. And I want to use that because that is familiar to a number of this. We, we know the Beatitudes. And if you just read the beatitudes, I mean, again, Jesus says some some upside down things when he says, you know, blessed are those who were poor because they'll realize their need for him. Blessed are those who mourn because they'll be comforted. Blessed are those who are persecuted for doing right for the Kingdom of heaven is there.

So there's all this upside down teaching that that Jesus gives. And then right after what we call the Beatitudes in verses 13 through 16, he uses this idea of salt and light.

And so we know that salt has this ability to preserve to to keep something in the healthy state, right. And then light, let me just read what he says about light. You're the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket. Yes, we got a little children's song in our head, you know. No, I'm going to let it shine.

So instead, you put that lamp on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house. So in the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see so that everyone would praise your heavenly Father. So this idea that light it points it's it's so it illuminates, it points in a certain direction, it draws others to it. Moss to a flame. Yeah, it serves as like a beacon, right?

So the idea that if Christians live according to God's word and according to the power that he's given us to the Holy Spirit to live according to his word, then we're we're to preserve and we're to be this type of light, this kind of beacon of hope. All right, So then he goes on and he has a number of different subject that he's touching on, and money comes up a couple different times. But then in chapter 6, two pretty famous passages around money. One is the treasure in heart, where your treasure is the desires of your heart will be.

And then no one can serve 2 masters, for you will hate 1 and love the other, be devoted 1 and despise the other. You can't serve both God and money. So in between these two passages around money, he goes back to the theme of light. I think it's super interesting.

So he leads with this idea of salt and light. And then in this longer discourse about money, possessions, not worrying, God taking care of you, all of that he drops in these verses. So let me read them to you. Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your whole body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light.

But when your eye is bad. Your whole body is filled with darkness. And then listen to this. If the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep the darkness is.

So in other words, if we go around calling something good that's actually bad, then how dangerous is it for us? How deep has that lie set in how deep that darkness really resonates within our soul and keeps us from from being the person the people God has called us to be, which is people of light. Yeah.

And so I don't, I don't think that there's any coincidence that in this conversation around wealth and the power of wealth and God is provider and not being able to serve 2 masters and treasure and heart, you have this idea that if we live with our possessions, according to God's word, we are going to be a lamp, we are going to be a light. But if we do not, how deep the darkness can really be. And that's my biggest concern about just thinking about money through a transactional lens, even giving a percentage away, like, OK, I give a percentage away.

So then God's good with me, He's happy. So then I can do whatever I want to with everything else I have. Like, that's not a healthy view, right? And having our views of money formed by any other source than the Scriptures, particularly when the power of money is so strong. Yeah. And the cultural pressures are so strong, it is really easy to say something is good, but it's actually bad.

Yeah. So just going back to our kind of silly little example that you can spend all this money on yourself and other people, OK, so that's not wrong. But you can kind of indulge, right, on Black Friday sales and Cyber Monday sales and local Saturday sales and all this. And then let's not forget about giving away a little bit and say, oh, that's so good. Look what I did. I mean, that's why I didn't like it, right?

That's why I think it's gimmicky, because I'm afraid that what we're doing is we're saying something is actually good. That's really darkness. Yeah, and it's a it's a great picture. You know, as we often talk in terms of like, OK, when I get to the end of my life and I am standing before Jesus like that really is probably should be like my greatest fear is that he was like, hey, you're in darkness the whole time and you just missed it, You know, and like the things that the world was holding out to you, whatever those are, like it's different for all of us.

But you thought that was the light and you thought that you were in the light and then you didn't have it. But also, how much more powerful and influential are we as individuals, but also as a collective, as the church? And when we think about all of our people connected to our church that are like going out into the upstate, if all of those are individual lights, right?

Well, that's really something to aspire to. You know, that like that captures my heart. I want to get on board with that. Yeah. And to your first point, just about rendering a judgement, I think if our answer to God is comparing ourselves to other people, like that's an example of how deep the darkness is. Yeah.

And he's like, hey, you compare your life to Jesus because why? Because I sent him to redeem you, and then I gave you the power through the Holy Spirit. I blessed you with every spiritual blessing. Ephesians one. By his divine nature, we've been given everything we need to live a godly life. Second, Peter 1, I am, I am calling you to transform your life into the image of Jesus.

Romans 829 He's your Big Brother. He's the first born and we're supposed to look up to him and emulate him. And he's given us the power to grow and mature and develop. And the idea that we can do all of that without God in being involved in our finances, except for like a small part where we're willing to give away. And in the average Christian, I mean, gives away like 3% of their income, right, right.

So we're, we're not, we're not talking about 7%, We're not talking about 10%. We're not talking about 15%. We're not talking about 20%. We're not talking percentages at all. We're talking about an attitude that is geared around generosity that is part of the spiritual formation plan that God has put in front of all of us.

And so like, like, I like to use this example. If you say, OK, God is fill in the blank, a lot of us say, well, OK, God is love. Yes, God is love. We identify with God as love. And if we are going to emulate God, then we need to love him and we need to love others, right? Basically, Jesus summarized the whole law in those two things.

Love God, heart, soul and mind, love neighbors as yourself. And if I said, OK, Whitney, God is love. And so you loving as well as you can with God's help is going to grow you and mature you to a fuller version of a disciple follower of Jesus. And you're like, you know what, I think I'm out on love. Like I just got to work on myself. I got a career, I got some things going on.

I'm real busy right now. And so I hear you. I do think that's important, but I'm just going to call a time out on love and maybe three to five years from now, just check back with me. Like that would not be a good spiritual formation strategy, right? Right.

All right. So then if I say, hey wit, you realize God is the most generous being that has ever existed. And you know what he did? He created you in his image to bear the marks of every bit of him, including generosity, all the communicable attributes that get passed down to you.

Generosity is one of those. That's what he created you for. So in order for you to grow, to become more fully like Jesus, to grow in holiness to godliness, you're going to have to be generous. And you're like, you know what, I'm just going to call Tom out on that because I'm not really at the place in my career where I want to be. I've got all this student debt. Things are just, I'm not, I'm just not doing well financially, which means I'm not where I want to be.

And so one day, I mean, I really do want to be generous because we all do, because that's how God created us. But yet we can come up with lots of reasons why. And I would just encourage you, if you're still listening to me, to think of it in terms of a character quality or a virtue that God is desperate to grow in you. And it really does not have to do with the dollar amount or percentage. It is a character quality that that God instilled in you that the fall may have may have marred, but it did not erase.

And I'll give you a great example of that. OK, We just had one of the hardest natural disasters to ever hit our area, right? So for a week, things were really upside down, right?

So work wasn't as normal, school wasn't as normal, church wasn't as normal. And a lot of people didn't have power, couldn't couldn't travel around like you would normally do. So everything kind of comes to a halt.

But not just that, but then people are in need. People are in need. People are without, people have trees on their cars, on their houses. It's just, it's just kind of a mess.

So what did everybody do? They looked for people who were in need and they were filled with generous acts of love and kindness and some financial. But generosity flowed so much during that week. Yeah. And you know what I saw? I saw people who were genuinely happy.

Yeah. Despite their circumstances, Right. You know, despite things not going well for them personally when they didn't have power. And, you know, their their week was interrupted and. And maybe they had a tree on their house. Yeah, but the ability to get out and to love and serve and show generosity to others, it was like the best of mankind, right?

Yeah, it was, it was, it was Acts 20. It is more blessed to give than receive. And I just, I just think back to that like, God knows what he's talking about. Yeah, yeah. And to your point about like, we're really made for this. This is what God has set us up to be.

And so we step into that and we're going to have a completely different experience of humanity. I mean, right after the hurricane, I mean, I spent those days watching some neighborhood kids so their parents could clean up some trees and all that good stuff, and then just helping some neighbors chop up trees and carry them to a burning pit. And I have, I call these things like barn raising efforts, you know, like how people used to do that. And it was this like foundation of community. You have people coming together and they are offering, people are bringing food, people are bringing their tools.

And everybody's like spending the day like just building a barn for somebody else, somebody else in the community. And the kids are there, kids are running around. But like, I feel like we've missed some of that and we lose like this great moment because whenever I get to step into moments like that, it's so evident to me. I'm like, this is exactly what I was made to do. And we all go home and we're like, we kind of wish that it wasn't over and we could keep doing it. I couldn't have said it better myself.

And one of the things that was obvious about that time is we couldn't be distracted. Our phones weren't working, our Internet wasn't. Working. And so we were, we were back to how we were created, which which was our relational creatures who were made to look out for one another, to serve one another, to care for one another, all acts of generosity.

And so I just, yeah, I mean, as we get, you know, closer to the end of the year and we reflect on that time, you know, what would it mean to really tap into that? Like I said, the beginning and not be a a giving or a generosity Tuesday, but really a generosity everyday. But that only comes from this type of transformation of recognizing that God is an abundant God. I do not live in scarcity. No, no matter. I mean, if you are listening to this podcast right now, then you are one of the wealthiest people in the world by the world standards, just because you have a device that allows you to listen to this, right?

And I know you may not feel that way because again, our eyes are looking around at other people in our orbit, in our neighborhood, in our county that have way more than we do. But if we could look around to the rest of the world, we would just realize how wealthy we are. It's all relative. Yeah.

And so that's another sermon for another day. But let me just say on this topic and we'll kind of kind of wrap up here, but when you just think about motivation for giving, you know, often we talk about the mission and rightly so. Like we are able to use our resources collectively, like you talked about all these little beacons of light collectively doing more than any of us could do on our own. Right, like generosity is an individual thing and a collective thing that's. Exactly. Right. Yeah.

And so we get to the mission, we further the mission, we help see Kingdom results both here around the state and around the world. And that is awesome. That should be motivating for us.

But to me, like we're that's just scratching the surface. Yeah, like that's just scratching the surface. So that's like number one reason to be generous #2 reason to be generous is the, the call in command of God, like to just to be obedient to Scripture, to form a, a, a discipline around acknowledging and worshipping God and responding to him as the great giver, the giver of all good gifts. I don't have anything that he hasn't given to me.

And so I just acknowledge that when I'm being generous like that, that's good. And, and I don't necessarily I, I don't need to wait until I feel all of that, sure. To make that step. Yeah. Of, of giving as a way to acknowledge his goodness in my life. OK.

So I think that's too, I think discipline is really important. I think mission is number one. I think discipline is number 2.

But this idea of spiritual formation and transformation, like often, you know, I'll hear other pastors say this, you know, they'll say, and I mean, I've said it too, I'm including myself. They'll say, I don't want something from you, I want something for you. And which is a great little statement, but then you say, OK, well, tell me more.

And there's not always a lot of more behind that, right? And what I would say is no, if you just go read the Scripture, 2300 verses in the Bible around money, a fourth of all Jesus's teachings involved money. Like it's pretty clear that this thing that God has given us, that we think about, we touch about we touch, we dream about every single day that God put it in our life to draw us closer to him.

And not just use for mission and not just use as an act of obedience, giving it back to him, but as transformation. And, and it goes back to this idea of the generous nature of God. And so you can go to passages like Second Corinthians 8:00 and 9:00, which basically touch on all three of these motivations. And you know, like, just look at like a verse, like verse 9, you know, the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that his poverty, he can make you rich.

So he's basically motivating the Corinthians church by using Jesus as an example of generosity. You know, John 316 for God so loved the world that he gave. Yeah.

So even like God the Father gives, Jesus gives, the Holy Spirit gives just the Trinity is is all about grace, generosity, gift. Yeah. And so when you read a passage like Second Corinthians 8, there's missional, there's response to obedience to God through worship, and then there is this transformative element of what God is doing when we use the resources that he's given us and and give those away. And it kind of works two different ways. One, it helps combat sin, which is where the cancer of 2 masters, because money can lead to greed, envy, coveting, discontent.

And those are real. Those are real struggles. Yeah. Those are real sins of the flesh. Those are those are real things that will compete for our spiritual power. And the only antidote I know to that is to be open handed and to be generous.

Yeah. And and that's what that's what God says. I didn't come up with that. That's what he tells us. That's right. So we have like the negative side, the, the challenging side, which generosity helps us avoid, and then the positive side where generosity helps us grow and become more like God, more holy, more generous, more compassionate, more just.

And, and so you just see this big picture idea of God using this thing, which is in every one of our lives to nurture our relationship with him and to help us mature and become more like him. So when someone says what do you mean? You want something for me, not from me. That's what I say. Yeah, and it's exactly to what you started this podcast off with talking about, like, do I really believe that this is good for me? Is this God's best for me?

And it's in that same at the beginning of 2nd Corinthians 8, Paul starts out and he says, now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God and his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor like they're not. They don't have nearly as much as we do.

But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity. For I can attest that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. And they begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. Like. I want abundant joy which overflowed in rich generosity and the privilege of being a part of what God is doing.

God knows what's good because he created us. And so like, to me, I feel like he's just giving us a road map to this idea of growth, maturity, joy, happiness, human flourishing. And then he's given us this resource all around us. And he's like, Hey, can you put two and two together and, and act and just, I mean, my, I, I have hundreds of passages that will help you.

But I mean, this is where I think the spiritual battle of the age is raging. The war is raging. And so if, if God knows that and God designed that, guess who also knows that the enemy knows that that same sucker that showed up in the garden and said, hey, you know what? He's, he's really not for you. He's really not for you today. He's saying everything you have really is for you.

It really is for you. You can trust, you can trust yourself. You need all these things and more to truly be happy. And, and so like the more things change, the more things stay the same.

And so I do feel like there is spiritual transformation at stake. And so this isn't just funding a mission. This isn't just a church budget, a new ministry option idea, a great nonprofit. It's that that's, that's part of the equation, but it's, it's actually small part of the equation.

The idea of developing and cultivating a relationship with God, and God transforming us and the enemy being defeated all at the same time, like it's pretty cosmic. It is, yeah. It's way bigger than what we imagine. Yeah.

And so when we just say, yeah, I mean, I, I gave 7%, ten percent, 12%. I wrote that check and I put it over there in the corner. And then I just focused on everything that I had left and what I wanted to do with it. Like we're, we're missing, we're missing something because God wants you to just like the joy that you should have in generosity that you just described. God wants you to enjoy. He wants you to enjoy your home.

He wants to enjoy your food. He wants to enjoy your clothing. He wants to you to enjoy your life because he gave you all those things He wants When you put money in the bank, when you put it in responsibly and save for the future, He wants you to have joy in that, not anxiety. That is not enough. Yeah. And and So what I feel like is we have a joy issue around all aspects of money.

Like we don't really enjoy the way we're spending it because we're discontent, right? And we want. What other people have We go have a meal at a restaurant and we worry that we didn't order the right thing or that we didn't even go to the right restaurant. Why? Because we have so many choices, we get paralyzed and we don't enjoy what we have. That's right, yeah.

Right. We save and we live in a doomsday culture where there's all this fear around the future because fear sells. Fear generates revenue for other people.

So that's about money. And so then we're not really joyful and thankful that we're able to put money away. Yeah, and it's it's too easy to not make that connection because as you're listening to this, we just had Thanksgiving. That's right. And that is a key piece to this. Like this is this particular episode is not about gratitude, but it is critical because if we understand how abundant God has actually been to us, like we don't question God's goodness to us.

If we've been paying attention the whole time. And if we took Thanksgiving seriously and really thought about gratitude and saw what the Lord has provided to us, again, far more above than what we deserved or asked for. And we recognize the abundance, we can see the manna and we were like, the manna is enough. I mean, that's another part of that passage is it's like everybody took away what was enough, People who took too much got enough. People who didn't have enough, they had enough.

And so we can just take that for what it is and not be like, I just wish it was steak, you know, then that is actually that is going to drive our generosity. So we just, I mean, we have to encourage all of us to don't miss that connection between Thanksgiving and Giving Tuesday, like make that natural. Progression. There's a straight line between God as the giver between the gratefulness that we should receive as the that we should offer as the receiver and then the open handedness that we should be in willing to offer generous gifts to other people.

It's just it's all it's all connected. It's all connected. And so so yeah, I just think that they're they're big things at stake. I think we should enjoy what God has given us. I think we should save appropriately, but we should do it all with this really heart towards generosity. And if you start there, you know, if you invert the paradigm and you make giving a priority, that comes from a generous heart.

And so sometimes you're going to have to give before you cultivate the generous heart, right? But I would say take the step and pray, talk to God, talk to other people and cultivate your mind with scripture and just let God do the transformation. If what we're telling you is true, then God is way more invested in this than you think he is. And he will help you if you will just ask. And and so the the transformative power of generosity is really what I just wanted to encourage and inspire people to today.

Yeah. No, I think that's great. Thank you, Scott, for just your time and your thoughts around all of that. And just as we close, I would say like include community in this. You know, if you're thinking about things and you have questions, whether it's discipleship leaders or pastors at your campus or however we can help you, don't try to do all of this thinking by yourself because you'll talk yourself out of it, you know, And so get some accountability in there and hopefully that will be helpful for you.

But we're praying for all of you as you go into the holiday season and appreciate you all listening to this. So thanks. Yeah, Thanks, Witt.