The Blessed Life: God Rewards Generosity

THE WARM-UP:
Who is the most generous person you know?
Do you think you are a selfish person or a generous person?

READ John 12: 1-8
Was Judas selfish or generous? Did he really want to give the money to the poor? Judas was the money keeper for the disciples. Why do you think Jesus would ask someone to lead in their area of weakness? We are frequently temped in our area of weakness. When we successfully defeat the temptation, God helps us to grow stronger!
We also see in these verses, an act of true outlandish generosity here. Mary doused Jesus’ feet with very, very expensive perfume. A year’s wages for a bottle of perfume seems like a lot of money and it was! She poured it out on Jesus! This is much more than a simple tithe or even a normal offering. She was giving an extravagant offering to Jesus! If you can, give an example from your life, or from the life of someone you know, of a gift to the church or to someone else that fulfilled a specific need unknown to the giver.
Points to Ponder:
• A selfish person will always find good reasons not to be generous.
• Selfishness always looks after self by pointing at someone else.
• Wherever you find generosity, you will find selfishness battling for control
• God wants to help us turn our area of greatest weakness and potential defeat into our area of greatest victory.
• True riches are souls!
• Generosity is extravagant.
• It’s not the amount; it’s the heart.
• God has a purpose for every gift.



THE TEAM WORK-OUT:
1. Is it harder for selfishness or generosity to have the upper hand in our lives?
2. Think of areas over which you have responsibility…are any of them in areas of weakness?
3. Define these three levels of giving: Tithes, Offerings, Extravagant offerings.