From Greed to Generosity

1. From Greed to Generosity B.A.S.I.C. Training

2. A Brief History of Greed • Genesis 3:6 -- When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. • At the heart of the fall in the garden was greed or covetousness.

3. Greed happens when Satan deceives us into wanting something we are not supposed to have. • The Bible is full of examples of the disasters that come when people covet. • David and Bathsheba • Ahab and Nabaoth’s vineyard • Balaam and his desire for riches • We can learn from each of them

4. God Condemns Covetousness and Greed

5. Exodus 20:17 -- "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.“ • Romans 1:29 -- They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips…

6. Colossians 3:5 -- Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

7. How do we define greed? • Greed is a matter of misapplied love • Ecclesiastes 5:10-11 -- Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner, except to feast his eyes on them?

8. Greed is a problem of blind fools • Isaiah 56:10-11-- Israel's watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep. They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way…

9. Greed is a misunderstanding of God’s generosity • James 4:1-3 -- What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

10. Need, Greed and Generosity • “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” Mahatma Gandhi

11. Native American Parable • Two wolves fighting inside each of us • One wolf is love, peace, kindness and generosity. • The other is fear, hate, prejudice and greed • Which one will win? • The one which we __________________

12. Luke 12:13-21 – Parable of the Rich Fool • Was the trouble that he was rich? • Was the trouble that he was successful? • Was the trouble that he had overabundance? • So, what was the problem? • How are we using God’s blessings?

13. To beat greed we must learn to fully trust God • Hebrews 13:5 – “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,    "Never will I leave you;       never will I forsake you.“ • Do we really believe this? If so, we have the freedom of TRUSt

14. 1 Timothy 6:6-7 -- But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. • Do we accept this? If so we have the freedom of contentment.

15. Luke 12:33-34 -- Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. • Could we bear to do this? If not, we will never know the joy of generosity

16. Generosity is God’s way! • He blesses us for our good. • He blesses us for the good of others. • God fills us to overflowing so that we will pour out in goodness, kindness and generosity to those around us.