Part 3- A New Heart for Our Resources: Radical Generosity

Few things confront the power of mammon more directly than learning to live with open hands.

Over the past several weeks we’ve been exposing one of Scripture’s greatest rivals to God: mammon. We’ve seen that mammon promises abundance without dependence. It tells us that if we can simply accumulate enough money, possessions, success, and security, we’ll no longer need God. Comfort, control, self-indulgence, whatever the idol, mammon offers a way to grab it without needing Him. It’s a lie, of course. But it captures us nonetheless.

So we’ve turned the corner. Naming the problem isn’t enough. The real question is, how do we actually form a new heart toward money and all of our resources? That journey includes contentment, generosity, stewardship, simplicity, and radical trust. I want to focus on generosity, because few things confront the power of mammon more directly than learning to live with open hands.

There is more than one antidote to mammon, but radical generosity may be the most powerful, because it sits directly against the lies mammon plants in our hearts. And God calls us to give not out of compulsion, but with joyful hearts.

▶  Watch: Generosity | BibleProject

Generosity Reflects God’s Own Character

We give because God is a giver. Go back to the very beginning. In Genesis 1, God creates everything and then hands it over. He holds nothing back.

“Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.”  – [.no-reftag]Genesis 1:29[.no-reftag]

And this isn’t only for His chosen people. When Paul stood before the philosophers in Athens, he told them that God doesn’t need anything from us. He is the one who gives to all mankind life and breath and everything (Acts 17:25). Every person with oxygen in their lungs is living on God’s generosity. Sunshine, the ability to think, family, friends: the evidence is everywhere, and the list is endless.

So what has He withheld from us? Literally nothing. He did not even spare His own Son.

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”  – [.no-reftag]Romans 8:32[.no-reftag]

God Owns Everything

This is where generosity and stewardship meet. If generosity asks, “What should I give?” stewardship asks a much deeper question: “Whose is it in the first place?”

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”  – [.no-reftag]Psalm 24:1[.no-reftag]

In our culture we talk about ownership. I own my house, two cars, my retirement accounts, a few modest watches. They’re mine. I control them, and I can do whatever I want with them. But the Bible doesn’t teach ownership. It teaches stewardship. God created everything, and He asked Adam to rule over it and manage it all for Him. Nothing we possess ultimately belongs to us: not our money, our homes, our careers, our talents, our time, or even our success.

“You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.”  – [.no-reftag]Deuteronomy 8:17–18[.no-reftag]

Owners ask: “What do I want to do with what’s mine?”

Stewards ask: “Lord, what do You want me to do with what belongs to You?”

That shift doesn’t reduce our freedom. It actually gives us freedom. When everything belongs to God, we’re released from the crushing burden of trying to control everything ourselves.

Generosity Creates a Cycle of Blessing, Not the Depletion of Mammon

Mammon always tells us we need more, and more is never enough. Honestly, when was the last time you looked at your bank account or investment account and thought, “That’s enough, I’m good”? I’m not sure I ever have. Table for one? If I had a billion dollars, I might want more. That’s the cycle of depletion mammon keeps us in.

Generosity breaks it. Jesus Himself said:

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  – [.no-reftag]Acts 20:35[.no-reftag]

How can that possibly be true? A few reasons.

[.text-color-blue]When we give, we align with Jesus.[.text-color-blue] Does Jesus need our money or our time to accomplish His will? By no means. But He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Our meager giving by comparison reflects Christ and lets us live out the gospel with our resources. For me, giving is one of the few places in life where I actually get to see how God is using me.

[.text-color-blue]Giving takes our eyes off ourselves.[.text-color-blue] I don’t know about y’all, but I love to think about myself. I love thinking about the cool house I’m going to buy or how I’m going to spend my vacations. I don’t know where in Scripture I got the idea that this is what I was called to. Giving takes my eyes off me and puts them on others.

[.text-color-blue]Giving grows contentment. [.text-color-blue]When we give generously, we are saying that God’s provision is enough and acknowledging Him as our ultimate provider.

[.text-color-blue]Giving stores up treasure that lasts.[.text-color-blue] Jesus tells us to lay up treasure in heaven, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). When we die, everything we’ve accumulated gets left behind. Not so in God’s economy. I don’t fully know what that means, but I know God will redeem whatever we give for His Kingdom. How cool will it be to get to heaven and see that the tank of gas you filled for someone in need was used in God’s economy?

And yes, there is a real return. Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you” (Luke 6:38), and in Malachi 3 God challenged His wandering people to test Him with their tithes and see if He would not open the windows of heaven. But let me be clear: we do not preach a prosperity gospel here. Nowhere does Scripture promise that giving will make you rich. But when we release mammon’s grip, the blessings are tremendous. He will never leave us or forsake us, and He will supply every need we have in Christ Jesus.

Faithful Stewardship Matters More Than Great Success

Stewardship also changes how we measure success. In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14–30), a master entrusts bags of gold to three servants, “each according to his ability.” Two put the money to work. One buries it out of fear.

What does the master commend? Not brilliance. Not comparison. Not the biggest return. He praises faithfulness.

“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.”  – [.no-reftag]Matthew 25:21[.no-reftag]

The world celebrates accumulation. God celebrates faithfulness. Some are entrusted with much, others with little. The question is never, “How much do I have? Did I do better than the guy next to me?” The question is always, “Am I being faithful with what God has given me?” That takes some significant relearning for me!

And faithfulness is far bigger than money. Our work, our families, our health, our time, our homes, our relationships, our spiritual gifts, our influence, our testimony: every one of them has been entrusted to us, and every one of them can be poured out for the good of others.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters… It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”  – [.no-reftag]Colossians 3:23–24[.no-reftag]

Generosity Is a Command, and Through It We Participate in God’s Redeeming Work

Generosity isn’t optional. We are called to love our neighbors, to seek justice, and to care for the poor and needy.

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  – [.no-reftag]Micah 6:8[.no-reftag]

“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”  – [.no-reftag]1 John 3:17–18[.no-reftag]

Our giving should be organized and planned. It should also be responsive and unplanned. When we see a need, how do we respond?

Why does God command this? He hates poverty, suffering, and death. So why doesn’t He just wipe them from the earth? I don’t know that answer. But I do know that when we respond, we reflect His love. We get to participate in His Kingdom coming and His will being done on earth as it is in heaven. That is a privilege!

“If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.”  – [.no-reftag]Isaiah 58:10[.no-reftag]

So we have to ask ourselves: are we living for this world, or for our eternal home? If it’s the latter, we should be excited to give everything we have for His glory.

Closing

Mammon teaches us to become owners. Jesus calls us to become stewards. Owners grip tightly because everything depends on them. Stewards hold everything with open hands because everything belongs to God.

Contentment teaches us that Christ is enough. Generosity teaches us to loosen our grip. Stewardship teaches us to faithfully manage everything He has entrusted to us. And every act of giving is an act of resistance against mammon.

So maybe the question isn’t simply, “How much should I give?” The deeper question is: If everything I have belongs to God, what kind of heart is He forming in me, and what is He asking me to do with what He has entrusted to me?

One of my favorite sayings, which I’ve modified after studying all of this:

Success is not my job.

Faithfulness and excellence is my job.

My success is ultimately God’s job.

May we live today so that one day we hear those wonderful words: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Questions to Consider

1. If my generosity reflects my understanding of God’s generosity toward me, what does the way I currently give say about the God I believe in?
2. What am I holding onto so tightly that giving it away would expose whether my security is really in God, or in mammon?
3. Where do you find yourself saying “my” more than “God’s”?
4. Besides money, what resource do you think is hardest to steward well?
5. How can we apply this to our workplace, to the dollars we receive from our work, and to our motives for work?

Resources:

Video: Generosity | BibleProject

Scripture: Matthew 6:19–21, Matthew 25:14–30, Luke 6:38, Acts 20:35, 1 John 3:16–18

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