Pastor Jeremy kicked off our new series, Three Choices That Will Change Your Life. Our best life isn’t built by consuming everything for ourselves, but by intentionally blessing others. When we leave room in our lives for generosity, God can use our time, resources, and encouragement to change lives and create a legacy that echoes for generations!
Notes 📓✏️:
Leave the edges.
The best life isn’t built by consuming. It’s built by contributing.
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Acts 20:35 (NLT)
Giving people actually live better lives.
How do you build a life that helps other people win?
“Let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it.”
Ruth 2:2
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner.
Leviticus 19:9-10
Don’t maximize everything for yourself.
“Even if she gathers among the sheaves, don’t embarrass her. Rather, pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up.”
Ruth 2:15-16
God said, “Leave the edges.”
Boaz said, “Let’s drop handfuls [of the harvest] on purpose.”
1. A Generous Life Doesn’t Consume Everything It Produces
“It’s not all for you.”
Don’t build a life where everything revolves around you.
The richest life isn’t the one that consumes the most.
It’s the one that contributes the most.
2. A Generous Life Creates Margin For Other People To Win
The problem is many of us harvest our lives right to the edges.
“I wish I could help, but I have nothing left.”
Maybe we’ve harvested too close to the edges.
3. A Generous Life Doesn’t Just Leave the Edges. It Drops Handfuls of Blessing on Purpose.
Most people ask, “What do I have to do?”
Generous people ask, “What more can I do?”
We often mistake caring for helping.
You don’t help someone by feeling something.
You help someone by doing something.
The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.
Proverbs 11:25
“I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was homeless and you gave me a room. I was shivering and you gave me clothes. I was sick and you stopped to visit. I was in prison and you came to me.”
Matthew 25:34-40 (MSG)
4. A Generous Life Can Echo for Generations
You never know what God is building through your generosity.
When you spend your life helping other people win, you end up discovering the life you’ve always wanted.
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
You were created to leave the edges.
You were created to drop handfuls of blessing on purpose.
Somebody else’s miracle is hiding in the edges of your life.
One Day To Feed The World – GIVE HERE
Discussion Questions 📝❓:
- What’s the difference between ‘caring’ and ‘helping’ that Pastor Jeremy pointed out, and why is this distinction important?
- How did Boaz go beyond just following God’s law about leaving the edges, and what can we learn from his example?
- What does it mean to ‘leave the edges’ of our lives, and how is this different from what the world typically teaches us about success?
- How does the biblical principle ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35) serve as more than just a command, according to Pastor Jeremy?