Generosity takes a miracle. You don’t just become a generous person unless you have been moved by the hand of God. In Philippians 4:10-23, Paul comes to a crescendo finish to his epic letter to the Philippian church on the source of scandalous joy. A joy that is produced not by man made efforts, but the act of a supreme God working in the life of an ordinary believer. Through trials, through humility, through parroting the Lord Jesus as a humble state of a bond servant, and through a generous heart. Do you believe in miracles? Because that’s what it takes to become a generous person.
Watch the end of the Cal vs. Stanford game, “the Play”, as it is called, played in 1982, at the Cal Memorial Stadium. What a moment. What a place. I used to play rugby for Cal in that stadium. Cal was down by 2, two seconds left, a kick off and a run to the end zone. How did they do it? The announcer says, “It’ll take a miracle.” And it happened. Cal beats Stanford. The announcer goes wild! The Cal students are out of their minds.
Well, what does this have to do with generosity? It will take a miracle to change the heart of the average American church goer to become as the Philippian church became, generous in their giving to the point where Paul says he "mega rejoices” over it. How did that happen and what do we learn from this history lesson?
Joy, true joy, is a miracle of generous giving of one's life and resources. Remember Billy Crystal’s line in Princess Bride? His wife asks him, Max the miracle worker, "will it work?” He says, “I don’t know. Bye bye boys, it’ll take a miracle.”
All content for The River Church Sermons is the property of The River Church of the South Bay and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Generosity takes a miracle. You don’t just become a generous person unless you have been moved by the hand of God. In Philippians 4:10-23, Paul comes to a crescendo finish to his epic letter to the Philippian church on the source of scandalous joy. A joy that is produced not by man made efforts, but the act of a supreme God working in the life of an ordinary believer. Through trials, through humility, through parroting the Lord Jesus as a humble state of a bond servant, and through a generous heart. Do you believe in miracles? Because that’s what it takes to become a generous person.
Watch the end of the Cal vs. Stanford game, “the Play”, as it is called, played in 1982, at the Cal Memorial Stadium. What a moment. What a place. I used to play rugby for Cal in that stadium. Cal was down by 2, two seconds left, a kick off and a run to the end zone. How did they do it? The announcer says, “It’ll take a miracle.” And it happened. Cal beats Stanford. The announcer goes wild! The Cal students are out of their minds.
Well, what does this have to do with generosity? It will take a miracle to change the heart of the average American church goer to become as the Philippian church became, generous in their giving to the point where Paul says he "mega rejoices” over it. How did that happen and what do we learn from this history lesson?
Joy, true joy, is a miracle of generous giving of one's life and resources. Remember Billy Crystal’s line in Princess Bride? His wife asks him, Max the miracle worker, "will it work?” He says, “I don’t know. Bye bye boys, it’ll take a miracle.”
One of the most beautiful things about the gospel is the way God levels the playing field. It does not matter how much money you have, how many bad choices you have made in the past, where you go to school, or what your reputation is like. Jesus came that each of us might know and be found in him. You probably know this already.
But shoot. It is soooo easy for us to slip back into believing that God loves us because we’re “mostly good.” Even when we know the truth.
Did you know that “being found” in Jesus means we actually have to give up our reputation and resume in order that we may stand in and live out of HIS righteousness? For those of us who are proud of where we’re from or what we’ve done with our lives, that’s a big idea to wrap our minds around. And an even bigger idea to actually live by.
The River Church Sermons
Generosity takes a miracle. You don’t just become a generous person unless you have been moved by the hand of God. In Philippians 4:10-23, Paul comes to a crescendo finish to his epic letter to the Philippian church on the source of scandalous joy. A joy that is produced not by man made efforts, but the act of a supreme God working in the life of an ordinary believer. Through trials, through humility, through parroting the Lord Jesus as a humble state of a bond servant, and through a generous heart. Do you believe in miracles? Because that’s what it takes to become a generous person.
Watch the end of the Cal vs. Stanford game, “the Play”, as it is called, played in 1982, at the Cal Memorial Stadium. What a moment. What a place. I used to play rugby for Cal in that stadium. Cal was down by 2, two seconds left, a kick off and a run to the end zone. How did they do it? The announcer says, “It’ll take a miracle.” And it happened. Cal beats Stanford. The announcer goes wild! The Cal students are out of their minds.
Well, what does this have to do with generosity? It will take a miracle to change the heart of the average American church goer to become as the Philippian church became, generous in their giving to the point where Paul says he "mega rejoices” over it. How did that happen and what do we learn from this history lesson?
Joy, true joy, is a miracle of generous giving of one's life and resources. Remember Billy Crystal’s line in Princess Bride? His wife asks him, Max the miracle worker, "will it work?” He says, “I don’t know. Bye bye boys, it’ll take a miracle.”
