There are times when I examine the way Jesus taught, and I am blown away. I have noticed that Jesus often spoke to his followers moving from general issues to more specific concerns. He would, in a sense, spiral from the outer issues into the deeper inner issues of a topic.
In the sermon series I am concluding this week, I have noticed this same method. I noted last week that my gracious giving message of 11/17 should have preceded my generous giving sermon of 11/10, but now I see more clearly why He did that. He was spiraling into the real issue.
In Luke 6:27, Jesus instructs his followers on how to associate with others and giving takes on a primary focus. It's as if He is using giving to explain how we should interact. The movement of His message goes from giving to generous giving to gracious giving to genuine giving.
Genuine giving (the warnings of Jesus in Luke 6:39ff) is what I call the necessity of having our heart pure in the act of giving. Jesus warns that the spiritually insightful, producing tree, and able builder must have things right on the inside in order for their outer activity to amount to anything. Giving is the same.
The discipline of giving cannot be practiced-in truth-without the right heart. You can give. You can give generously. You can give graciously. But unless your heart is right, you cannot give genuinely.
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