LIVING TO GIVE
Day 1
“In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.’” - Exodus 13:14
What if one of the greatest dangers to our faith isn’t forgetting what God said, but forgetting what God has done?
Israel had seen things no generation before them had seen. They watched God confront Pharaoh, divide the Red Sea, and lead an entire nation out of slavery. But God knew something about the human heart: yesterday’s miracle can quickly become today’s forgotten memory. So He built reminders into the rhythm of their lives.
When their children asked, “Why do we do this?” parents were supposed to tell the story: “Because we were slaves, and God delivered us.”
That is the heart behind generosity.
God wasn’t simply teaching Israel how to manage money, crops, or livestock. He was teaching them how delivered people live. He wanted every act of giving to remind them, “Everything we have is connected to the grace of God.”
The core idea is simple: after God delivers us, He wants to develop us.
Sometimes we want the first part without the second. We want Jesus to forgive us, rescue us, restore our families, give us peace, and answer our prayers. But Jesus didn’t save us so we could remain unchanged.
Salvation begins something.
God delivered Israel from Egypt, but then He had to get Egypt out of Israel. Their location changed in one night; their hearts would take much longer.
The same is true for us.
Jesus can forgive us instantly, but learning generosity takes formation. Learning patience takes formation. Learning to trust God instead of money takes formation. Learning to put others ahead of ourselves takes formation.
God wants to change the way we think about everything we possess.
Our culture constantly tells us, “We need more.” A better house. Another upgrade. More convenience. More security. And without realizing it, we can begin measuring God’s goodness by how much we accumulate.
But Scripture gives us another way to live.
The goal isn’t simply for us to have less. The goal is for us to become people who give more.
God is not threatened by us having possessions. The danger comes when possessions have us.
This matters for our families, too. What are the next generation learning from the way we handle what God has given us?
Imagine our children asking someday, “Why does our family give?”
What would we say?
“Because the church told us to”?
“Because Christians are supposed to”?
There is a better answer.
“Because God has been incredibly good to us. Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves. Everything we have ultimately belongs to Him, and our family wants our lives to show that we remember.”
Generosity becomes a testimony.
We give because we remember the cross.
We give because we remember grace.
We give because we remember that our greatest need could never have been purchased with money. Jesus stepped into our slavery to sin, gave Himself for us, and brought us into freedom.
And delivered people should begin to live differently.
Today, we can talk about this as a family. We can ask one another: “What has God done for us that we never want to forget?”
We can name His faithfulness.
We can tell the stories.
We can remember the prayers He answered, the doors He opened, the seasons He carried us through, and most importantly, the salvation Christ has given us.
Because generosity grows naturally in hearts that remember grace.
When we remember how much we have received from God, giving stops feeling like something being taken from us.
It becomes worship.
WATCH THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE HERE: https://www.youtube.com/live/tczohgHsNZE?si=7osxJbmi485e1fjc
