Why do some Christians give joyfully while others give reluctantly?
Most of us know generosity is good. Yet many Christians still approach giving reluctantly, defensively, or simply as another bill to pay.
Tish Maier talks with Des Smith about why that gap exists and how churches can help people move towards joyful, gospel-shaped generosity. They discuss gratitude, sacrifice, stewardship, and practical ways to cultivate hearts that delight in giving rather than merely feeling obligated to do it.
Des is the Senior Pastor of Trinity Church Lockleys Adelaide and Tish is the Support Raising Manager at Reach Australia.
Toolbox:
Part 1: Ep 455 When giving is uncomfortable instead of cheerful in your church (Des Smith)
Credits:
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Transcript:
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00;00;08;15 – 00;00;32;26
Tish
Hi, I’m Tish from RH Australia. I look after generosity and prayer. Welcome to the One Thing, a podcast designed to give you one solid practical tip for gospel centered ministry every week. Today we’re doing another episode on generosity. This time talking about practical things we can do to help cultivate hearts. Give cheerfully to the Lord, especially when so many voices in our culture yell otherwise.
00;00;32;29 – 00;00;45;01
Tish
If you haven’t already, go listen to our last podcast, where we talked more broadly about the joy of generosity and creating a joyful, generous culture in your church. I’m joined again by Desmond. It is.
00;00;45;04 – 00;00;46;24
Des
Hi.
00;00;46;27 – 00;00;58;27
Tish
Welcome back. So, des, before we sort of launch off, what is your immediate gut reaction when someone asks you to give financially? And why do you think that is?
00;00;58;29 – 00;01;20;10
Des
You know, I think, this is going to sound like a weird thing for someone who’s speaking on the importance of generosity to say, but normally quite negative. So if I run into a charity mugger at the supermarket, I get yet another email, even from a really good cause. My normal reaction is just no thank you.
00;01;20;13 – 00;01;40;25
Des
I think that’s partly because, Suzy, my wife and I, we’re quite planned in how we give. And so generally, we’ve already worked out what we’re going to give to this year. And so anyone who asks for anything else, it’s just kind of an automatic no. So it’s not like we hate giving. It’s more like, well, we’ve already planned what to give to and so we’re going to get to that.
00;01;40;28 – 00;01;58;21
Des
But if it’s a really good cause, you know, sometimes we’ll go, oh, actually, maybe we should do that. So generally like, we pro giving, as I hope will become clear. But generally because we’ve already kind of filled up a dance card. Yeah. If, if someone just approaches me in the street, it’s generally a no.
00;01;58;24 – 00;02;03;12
Tish
I mean, there’s something in it being called a charity mug that tells you the emotion behind it, isn’t it?
00;02;03;14 – 00;02;17;10
Des
I know, I know, and I feel sorry for those guys. Charity mugger is an, charitable term. Because, of course, they are lovely people doing important work. Some of them do it in a slightly manipulative way, but, you know, I get where they’re coming from.
00;02;17;13 – 00;02;37;27
Tish
Yeah. Yeah. No, I get the vibe as well, I understand. And but can you, on the flip side, tell me a bit about the journey God’s taken you on to help you get to a place of joyful generosity. You talked about you very planned in it. Yeah. How have you sort of landed to the way you give and you think about and do joyful generosity?
00;02;37;29 – 00;03;11;15
Des
Yeah. I think probably the first thing that I’d say is that God gave me the benefit of two generous parents. Both my parents are people who are generous in their own ways. I remember my mum teaching me some of my earliest lessons in generosity, particularly to the poor, when I was a little kid. My dad has always been a guy who has been financially generous, financially generous to us as kids, particularly as we grew up, but was also keen to use the money that he had, to help those less fortunate than himself.
00;03;11;15 – 00;03;30;08
Des
And I think that rubbed off, and it became clear that this was something they actually enjoyed. They saw the benefit of it. So I think how you raised I had a real step up there. But I think obviously as I also became a Christian, I suppose just the longer and longer you you’re a Christian, the more you realize you don’t actually deserve anything.
00;03;30;09 – 00;03;53;28
Des
Like, I didn’t do anything to deserve to be born on this beautiful planet. I didn’t earn my spot here. Absolutely. Everything I have is given to me. And I think just the more and more I’ve reflected on that, the more that’s encouraged me to give to others as well, because I’m just increasingly aware of how literally everything I have is something that was given to me.
00;03;54;00 – 00;04;02;22
Des
Even the sunshine that’s coming in through the window right now, is is a gift. So hopefully that, you know, kind of flows on over.
00;04;02;24 – 00;04;11;05
Tish
It’s a little bit like when you start thanking God for things, and then you just keep going and you can’t stop because you realize it’s it’s absolutely everything.
00;04;11;07 – 00;04;17;17
Des
Yeah. That’s right. Yes. Making a list of things to to thank God for things is it is a risky business if you’re in a rush.
00;04;17;19 – 00;04;18;27
Tish
Yeah.
00;04;18;29 – 00;04;20;22
Des
Don’t do that if you’re in a rush.
00;04;20;24 – 00;04;49;27
Tish
No. Definitely not. Yeah. I think about the journey God took me on. I mean, it’s it’s always growing and developing, right? But I remember there was one key moment when I was, at uni and I was reading the Bible with someone, and we were reading two Corinthians, and we got to chapter eight, and I just said to her, oh, I don’t know how you feel about this passage, but this one is hitting really hard for me, and I need to go and do something about it because I was like, I’m not giving.
00;04;49;29 – 00;04;52;12
Tish
I don’t think at that point I was giving it all. I was barely making.
00;04;52;15 – 00;04;52;18
Des
Any.
00;04;52;18 – 00;04;53;21
Tish
Money whatsoever.
00;04;53;23 – 00;04;55;02
Des
And yeah.
00;04;55;05 – 00;05;10;06
Tish
I had Bible say, and I remember going to my Bible study who was also one of our ministers. And I was like, can you sit down and talk about giving with me? Can we go through my budget and you help me figure out how much money you have? And he very graciously and kindly was like, yeah, absolutely.
00;05;10;06 – 00;05;36;27
Tish
So he said back in, I mean, it didn’t take very long because I really was not earning very much or paying very much. Thankfully, I had parents who were still happy to keep me at home. And he looked at it and he was like, Tish, I think you can honestly and, and God ravishingly give $0.50 a week, right?
00;05;36;28 – 00;05;50;10
Tish
You can go up from there. And I was like, really? Okay. And that was where it started. That was like, but I was so, you know, it was freeing and joyful. So even to start giving it felt pathetic. But, you know, thankfully it’s gone up from there. But,
00;05;50;12 – 00;05;55;06
Des
At $0.50 for you at the time was obviously that was real money.
00;05;55;08 – 00;05;56;07
Tish
Yeah.
00;05;56;09 – 00;06;05;03
Des
And but good to know that you could give that and still be allowed to have breakfast every day rather than every second night, you know, to kind of kind of put off cornflakes.
00;06;05;05 – 00;06;08;28
Tish
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And so anyway, but that was a it was a real hot.
00;06;09;00 – 00;06;11;13
Des
Challenging moment. And.
00;06;11;15 – 00;06;13;01
Tish
Yeah. Anyway.
00;06;13;04 – 00;06;13;25
Des
How great.
00;06;13;28 – 00;06;22;04
Tish
How good. Anyway, so now you press play on another episode of The One Thing.
00;06;22;06 – 00;06;31;19
Tish
So does your book explores biblical, cheerful giving. Why do you think our personal joy and generosity, intellect.
00;06;31;21 – 00;06;58;15
Des
Well, I think it ultimately comes down to the character of God. So God is a giver by nature. He didn’t create the world because he needed one. He’s not a needy God in need of praise. He needs to create billions of people. I mean, once we here, we need to give him that praise, because it’s the only appropriate thing that we ought to do to the literal center of the universe.
00;06;58;18 – 00;07;23;11
Des
But he doesn’t need it. So there is a real sense in which he’s created us for our benefit. So he is he’s all about the other and he’s all about giving. But also he seems to get a kick out of it. So he seems to love making other people for their own benefit. So right there in the being in character of God, you have got someone who is both a giver but also a cheerful giver.
00;07;23;11 – 00;07;49;13
Des
He loves giving. In fact, you know, he loves giving good gifts to his children. And so therefore, if I’m a Christian and, God is increasingly conforming me to the likeness of his son, who is the exact representation of his being, in other words, making me look more like him. If God’s a cheerful giver and God’s making me look more like him, then I will have to be a cheerful giver as well.
00;07;49;14 – 00;08;04;09
Des
It won’t be enough just to be cheerful, but selfish. It won’t be enough to be a giver, but miserable. I’ll have to be both, ideally, because both of those things are intrinsic to God’s character. Through.
00;08;04;11 – 00;08;17;16
Tish
But as he’s mentioned before, most of us don’t really feel joyful when we’re asked to give money. So we’re Christians by being transformed into Christ’s likeness. But that’s not how it necessarily feeling. Why do you think that is?
00;08;17;18 – 00;08;43;27
Des
Well, I think there’s a whole bunch of reasons. Some of the reasons we don’t feel cheerful. I think, okay. Because, it might be that I mean, people often ask for money really badly. So not every charity asks for money badly, but they often do. And or maybe we’ve been burned in the past, by the way, we’ve been asked for money, and we feel like we’re being used and manipulated and things like that.
00;08;43;27 – 00;09;06;19
Des
So no wonder we don’t feel happy or cheerful when we’re asked to give like that. It might be that the approach is okay, but the circumstance just isn’t right. We might be just totally stretched and just not able to give. And so we’d love to, but we just kind of get a bit sick of having to say to people, I’m really sorry, I just can’t give to this good cause because I’m already strapped.
00;09;06;21 – 00;09;42;02
Des
I don’t even have $0.50 a week to give. But I think sometimes, it is actually a problem with us where we think that we can’t give where actually we could, and we’ve just fallen that little bit, too, in love with the good world that God has given us, which is always the trap, of living in such a good world, particularly in a place as blessed as Australia, where we become so attached to the good gifts that God has given us, that we actually thought it very hard to let them go and give them to others if we’re asked to.
00;09;42;05 – 00;10;00;28
Des
So I think that there’s a mix of reasons, but I also, if I’m ever reacting negatively to a request to give to others, particularly where it’s clear that I could use the money more than me, I think I always want to start with my heart there, and then maybe go to, oh, maybe my circumstance has done allowed.
00;10;00;28 – 00;10;03;06
Des
Or maybe they asked badly or whatever.
00;10;03;08 – 00;10;12;26
Tish
I like that, I like that you’re you’re stopping in the from the immediate, like you’re not taking an immediate gut reaction, but you’re stopping me thinking, where is my heart in this?
00;10;12;29 – 00;10;13;23
Des
Yeah.
00;10;13;26 – 00;10;20;03
Tish
And then coming up with a reasonable answer and thinking through rather than running with a lot of.
00;10;20;07 – 00;10;21;23
Des
Yeah, yeah.
00;10;21;26 – 00;10;34;21
Tish
And what have you done in your spiritual journey does to help you be able to get to that point and give cheerfully, or what people call truce, do you remind yourself of you need permission to do that?
00;10;34;23 – 00;10;56;22
Des
Yeah. Yeah. And look, I want to be super clear here because I hope I’ve been honest about, like, I don’t always give cheerfully. Like, sometimes I do give, and I do just give sometimes to get people off my back or, sometimes just begrudgingly or whatever. So I’m not some sort of Zen master who’s biblical giving, if you can be a Zen master of anything.
00;10;56;24 – 00;11;19;13
Des
But, I think, I mean, what have I done? I mean, I think, I mean, to be honest, again, nothing I’ve done, I’ve been shown good models, so I’ve, I’ve, I grew up around generous people. That’s been really helpful. You know, as I, as I read the scriptures, as I look at the good world that God has put us in, I.
00;11;19;15 – 00;11;44;15
Des
I keep trying to remind myself of how I, I’ve done literally nothing to deserve to be here. So literally everything I have is a gift. And so therefore I can’t really grasp onto anything like that. There’s this great bit in one Chronicles 29 which reminds all of us of that fact. David is doing this big fundraising campaign for the temple that his son Solomon is going to build, and he says, oh, I’m going to give a ton of cash.
00;11;44;15 – 00;12;04;11
Des
And the leadership of Israel is going to give a ton of cash. And all of you Israelites, could you please give a ton of cash? And they all cheer? Yeah. And there’s this big celebration. But then rather than pat themselves on the back, David then prays and he basically says, God, you have given us literally everything. How can we be so generous as we’ve been today?
00;12;04;14 – 00;12;27;16
Des
Doesn’t deny that I’ve been generous. He says everything we have comes from your hand anyway, so we’re not actually giving anything that didn’t belong to you in the first place. And I think reminding yourself of that is just really handy. It’s like when you’re five and you want to give your mum and dad a Christmas present, but you earn $0 or they give you $10 to buy them a lousy bar of soap or something.
00;12;27;19 – 00;12;48;04
Des
And they love getting the soap from five year old you. But are they financially any better off? Now, of course they’re not. But they love it because, it came from you. But I think that’s a long winded way of saying just keep reminding yourself that you just do not deserve to be here. And then everything you have is a gift.
00;12;48;07 – 00;13;14;17
Des
And, you know, to the nth degree when you think about Jesus, you know, who, through his poverty, you know, made us rich towards him on the cross. You know, two Corinthians eight. That’s just a crucial truth. I think if you just keep remind yourself of that. That’s I’ve found just drumming those basic things into myself is pretty healthy when I’m feeling stingy.
00;13;14;20 – 00;13;35;21
Tish
And I think the picture of of the joy of the people in that when they’re dedicating what they have to the building, that temple, you know, they’re so excited about it because because they’re partaking in something that is, joyful for the Lord, and they’re excited about it together and their lives. And because of because they recognize that it is from God.
00;13;35;21 – 00;13;41;05
Tish
And I just. Yeah, that thankfulness and joy and generosity all tied up together.
00;13;41;07 – 00;13;44;22
Des
Yeah. That’s right. Yeah. They’re not they’re not stoic. This stoked.
00;13;44;24 – 00;14;01;02
Tish
Yeah. That’s a good way of putting it. Yeah. So going maybe a little bit back towards the. Where are you heading? We were talking about Jesus. How do you hold intention there? Reality of the sacrifice of giving. Because we do what? Our giving to be sacrificial.
00;14;01;04 – 00;14;27;23
Des
And yes, of it. I think the one thing to say is, I think you’re right. I think, giving ought be sacrificial. We ought give to the point where it hurts that little bit, not because we’re masochists, and we think that suffering is a good in and of itself, but we realize that there are, causes and things in this world that are more important than our comfort.
00;14;27;26 – 00;14;59;06
Des
And so we’re there for it is good to give to those things and to those people, even if it hurts us a little bit. Because those things are actually more important than us. But I think if what you can do is increasingly fall in love with the things that you’re giving towards, the the pain of generosity will be more than made up for by the joy of seeing what your money given away achieves.
00;14;59;09 – 00;15;21;01
Des
So, it’s, you’re always going to love something. You’ve just got to love the right things more. I think so, I think it’s not. But on the one hand, don’t deny that, you know, you’d have to give up some good things if you’ve got to give away money. Absolutely. It will mean, you know, a more modest holiday or a bombing a car or, you know, whatever it is for you.
00;15;21;03 – 00;15;44;21
Des
But, you’ll be paid back tenfold when you can look at the much better things that your money was able to achieve. You know, when you look at your sponsor. Q oh my goodness, yes, I’ve got a bumper car, but this kid gets an education and a chance at life. And if you give in to a Christian aid agency like we do, like a chance to hear about Jesus, like, that, you know, who cares about my bought me car?
00;15;44;24 – 00;15;56;08
Des
Like, I think, if you can just keep just keep falling in love with, with the results of what you’re giving, gives that that does certainly take the edge off the sacrifice.
00;15;56;10 – 00;16;14;23
Tish
Absolutely. I mean it when I think about it. I think about that a little bit in Hebrews 12. Rejoice for the joy set before him. Jesus endured the cross, you know, like he he gave up a lot more than money. He gave up everything and died and sacrificed everything in the most painful way.
00;16;14;26 – 00;16;15;07
Des
00;16;15;14 – 00;16;19;04
Tish
But it was for the joy set before him and it’s.
00;16;19;07 – 00;16;19;28
Des
Yeah.
00;16;20;00 – 00;16;39;06
Tish
When you, when you’re looking at the outcome which is, and you love the things that you’re giving towards, he loves his people, it’s a joy and the glory of God is a joy. And so I think there’s yeah there’s so much in the joy on the other side.
00;16;39;09 – 00;16;39;25
Des
Yeah.
00;16;39;27 – 00;16;43;12
Tish
It makes the sacrifice pale in comparison.
00;16;43;14 – 00;16;50;11
Des
Yeah, yeah. If you can focus on what you’re giving in, generosity achieves under God. That’s fantastic.
00;16;50;13 – 00;16;58;23
Tish
So, des, how do you think we can cultivate hearts at practice and rejoice in giving?
00;16;58;26 – 00;17;38;11
Des
Look, I don’t think there’s any one silver bullet with that. I think there’s all the obvious things. I think there’s read your Bibles. Look at the way God has given to you through creation. Most of all through Jesus. Keep reminding yourself of that. Get into habits of daily gratitude. I think, you know, in your prayer life, when you’re praying each day, you know, make sure that, you know, as you are spending good time thanking God, you know, for all the good things he gives you before you get to the shopping list, of things that you need.
00;17;38;14 – 00;17;56;16
Des
Again, not wrong to have that shopping list. God calls us to do that. I think that’s right. I think another way is actually just to to kind of do it. So I think the thing about money is money and wealth are not wrong, but they are sticky. And the longer they stay stuck to you, the harder they are to peel off.
00;17;56;18 – 00;18;18;12
Des
So if you can continue to get good at just kind of peeling bits of money off yourself and giving it to other people, it will mean continuing to peel it off will get better. You do not want that stuff sticking to you like cement. You want to just practice doing it. And that actually, you know, I think just really helps.
00;18;18;14 – 00;18;32;08
Des
And again, it’s a feedback cycle because you do it and you do it as an act of worship, and you see the great results and you go, oh, that’s amazing. And, and so it gives you that added motivation to do it the next time. I think.
00;18;32;10 – 00;18;44;26
Tish
Oh, I love that image. Peeling the sticky money off and yeah. Oh that’s great. I’m going to hold on to that. Right at that moment I had some I had some thoughts jotted down that I’ll.
00;18;44;29 – 00;18;45;21
Des
Just share away.
00;18;45;23 – 00;19;07;07
Tish
Quickly. So I think about sort of different areas on how do we cultivate hearts that rejoice in giving spiritual, as you said, prayer, fulness and thankfulness. And we’ve talked about this whole time, you know, we want to be we will be thankful and full of joy for everything God’s given us in prayer for and recognizing that we are dependent on him for everything.
00;19;07;09 – 00;19;18;00
Tish
I think that transforms our hearts. Practically. I think it’s really helpful, as you mentioned before, to figure out what you’re passionate about, do some research and give in to that space.
00;19;18;06 – 00;19;18;24
Des
Yeah.
00;19;18;27 – 00;19;49;20
Tish
Practically start doing it and and figure out the places that get you excited. And actually being and read the updates and, and see the impact. And I think that as you say, it’s great. It’s a feedback, but you just get more excited. And I think if you can practically get your hands dirty in whatever that means, you know, if you’re giving to Scripture or something because you really want to see kids talk the gospel, then that going and giving not just money, but giving you time will make you more excited about that ministry as well.
00;19;49;20 – 00;19;50;08
Tish
00;19;50;10 – 00;20;07;24
Des
Absolutely. Because, you know, I mean, that’s so true because I reckon sometimes we give as a form of tax, like we give to kind of get our guilty conscience off our back or the person asking off our back, and we give it we don’t give it a moment’s thought. Of course our money was still do good. If we do that, that’s worth it.
00;20;07;29 – 00;20;30;12
Des
That’s better than not giving. But it’s even better if you can actually see your giving as part of a broader partnership with that ministry or that charity where you are not just giving, but you’re also praying for them, you’re reading their updates. If there’s an opportunity for you to be in contact, say, with a missionary or someone like that, you know, you write to your compassion kids or whatever.
00;20;30;14 – 00;21;05;20
Des
That’s that’s really helpful because in that sense, you’re not just giving them money. You’re actually you’re partnering with them in that project. And I think that’s really helpful. It is why, a consequence of that, though, is that as a household, we have normally focused on, maybe giving more to fewer projects. So rather than, you know, giving to 20 charities, you know, we might we might choose 2 or 3 to focus on and try and give a lot to because there’s only so many, organizations you can be involved in, in those other ways.
00;21;05;20 – 00;21;16;01
Des
You can give money to anyone, but you can’t pray for 20 charities or right parties. So we generally do that. We know that I did you did ask about that. But, you know, that was just a reflection.
00;21;16;03 – 00;21;33;18
Tish
No, that’s good. That’s helpful. And I mean, the if you want to on the number of charities that people usually give to you maxes out at about six. So yeah. Right. Yeah. I think where most people if people are invested, you can’t really invest that much. Like, yeah, you’re hot and your energy as well as your funds I think.
00;21;33;18 – 00;21;38;19
Des
Yeah. It’s like Dunbar’s number for charities except it’s not 150. Yeah.
00;21;38;19 – 00;21;39;10
Tish
Okay.
00;21;39;12 – 00;21;41;02
Des
Yeah.
00;21;41;04 – 00;22;04;09
Tish
Other other helpful things that I think just help build. Oh, cultivate our hearts is having, as you said, daily habits, but also rhythms into cycles of life that are just a little reminder for us to think about generosity. So and if financial year is a classic because you think about your tax deductible giving, then you brought a giving start of the year.
00;22;04;10 – 00;22;31;01
Tish
People regularly use the start of the year to review their budgets, so think about giving them an end of the year. But also if there are milestones in life, you know, if you go, if you pay increases or if you, receive some inheritance or sell a house or a car or something, just like the moments where your financial situation might shift a little bit, it’s helping you.
00;22;31;08 – 00;22;40;19
Tish
How can I be generous in that moment and use those as triggers and pray through those as well? Not just, yeah. Not just thinking. Yeah.
00;22;40;22 – 00;23;00;05
Des
And we’ve in our household, we actually find that those rhythms work well, even just on an annual basis. Like we’re not selling a house or a car every year. But, you know, at the end of the year, Susie and I will work out what I combined incomes will be next year. And then we work out what percentage of that before tax we want to give away.
00;23;00;07 – 00;23;12;21
Des
And then we kind of divvy up the resulting figure between all the different things we’ve decided to give to church, you know, overseas mission, charity, etc.. Which is actually quite a fun thing to do in itself.
00;23;12;23 – 00;23;13;04
Tish
It is.
00;23;13;05 – 00;23;38;14
Des
But of course we don’t we don’t have enough money to give all of that away in one. Bingo. So we have to spread it out over the year. But that just means that I have all of that in like, a to do list on my computer, which really submits itself at the beginning of every month. And so at the beginning of every month, it’s like, oh, it’s my turn to give X number of dollars to open doors.
00;23;38;16 – 00;23;58;10
Des
And then so I do that and then I pray for open doors and then, you know, the next month it might be a missionary or whomever. And so just even there’s kind of there’s the, there’s the practicalities of that. It means that we do actually give we don’t just forget, but it’s actually also quite nice. It’s like, oh, the beginning of the month is that’s giving day.
00;23;58;12 – 00;23;59;19
Des
And that’s quite fun.
00;23;59;21 – 00;24;18;12
Tish
That is fun. My husband actually, and I sat down yesterday that was, public holiday activity, nice. And reviewed our budget and talked about how much we can give away, and how much we’d give it away in reviewing what it was for the year. And, you know, we prayed through and we’re like, actually, we can give away more than we thought we could.
00;24;18;14 – 00;24;23;03
Tish
More than $0.50, more than $0.50, considerably more than $0.50.
00;24;23;06 – 00;24;23;21
Des
Yes.
00;24;23;23 – 00;24;45;16
Tish
But you know, and that is such a joy. And we were looking at our calendars and we were like, okay, when do we have time to call the individuals that we support as opposed to the organizations or charities, to ask them if they need an increase? And we were like, what a joyful thing is that? And how freeing is it to put calendars and call them and be like, hey, can we give you a bit more?
00;24;45;17 – 00;24;49;25
Tish
Like, oh, we were just came away from that conversation buzzing. What’s a fun.
00;24;49;25 – 00;25;11;10
Des
Phone call to make, right? Like, I don’t want to make a phone call to say, we can’t give you any more, but to be able to say, oh, could we give you more? Fantastic. And what a nice phone call to receive. Because most people, when they hear we’d like to talk about our giving, like, now we’re going to get less so them to get a call from you guys to go, oh, would you like some more?
00;25;11;12 – 00;25;12;13
Des
What a good thing.
00;25;12;15 – 00;25;35;07
Tish
It’s so good. Let me tell you in, because looking after some of the support raising for Reach Australia, those are the best emails and phone calls. And we get those messages. So encouraging. Okay. And I think that ties into my last note that I’d put down is relational talks to the people you’re giving to, build a relationship with them so that you are excited to partner with them.
00;25;35;09 – 00;25;53;18
Tish
And I think talk about it. We don’t want to boast. I think there’s a lot of scope for people to boast, and we don’t want money to ever be a pride thing. I think that’s the fear with this and the wording in the left hand, right hand passage. But I think there’s scope for talking about giving in a way that’s really encouraging.
00;25;53;18 – 00;26;13;28
Tish
And that’s what happens in two Corinthians eight and nine is, the Macedonians. I used to encourage the Corinthians, and vice versa in chapter nine. So, yeah, I think there’s a and David, when he’s talking to the Israelites as well, he’s encouraging because he’s like this is what I’m going to do. Yeah, it’s not mine anyway.
00;26;14;01 – 00;26;34;21
Tish
So I think there is room for us to have more conversations about and tell stories. You know? Yeah, we might have heard other people be generous or seen other people be generous. Tell those stories to encourage one another. This is an awesome thing for us to be discipling one another in growing godly generosity in one another and encourage each other in.
00;26;34;24 – 00;26;37;03
Des
Yeah, generosity is a team sport.
00;26;37;06 – 00;26;48;21
Tish
Yes, yes. Love that. Okay. Does bring it home for us. This is the one thing. So what’s one practical thing for those of us who want to cultivate hearts joyfully?
00;26;48;24 – 00;27;12;09
Des
I reckon if it’s just one thing you’ve got to start with just daily Thanksgiving for what you have done. And I just I just challenge you to stay stingy. And thank God every day for the good things he’s given you. Most of all, in Jesus. Like you just will not be able to do it. So stop with that.
00;27;12;11 – 00;27;43;14
Tish
Love it. Thankfulness. All right. Excellent. Let’s have a look at what’s in the toolbox. So a lot of these things we looked at in the last episode there is that last episode we talked about, which is about church and generosity. Dr. Smith, you’ve also got an article on generosity that we’ve put the links in. You’ve got your book, the journal give out the journey of generosity, but, you know, it’s in here for, which can be used as a workshop or, Bible study.
00;27;43;16 – 00;28;03;27
Tish
And the Generosity Project, which is a book which can also be used to Bible studies. This is a great one to talk about with your staff team. But it’s also great to share it around with other people. We talked about how you can to estimate maybe this is a way to open up a conversation. I’m tish chat soon.
