Speaker: Greg Sanders

Passage: Luke 6:38

THE REASON WE GIVE

Good morning, Vintage family. Today, we are actually in gathering, and we’re not going to be putting that out publicly because we’re dealing with some fairly high-level information about some of the work that we do across the globe, and we always try to protect that, just to keep the work of the Lord going smoothly. 

And yes, I’m intentionally speaking in vague terms. We do a lot of mission work that deals with rescuing children and seeing them step into better opportunities in life. And so those things need to be– let’s just call it classified. 

So, because of that, I decided to take a few moments today to just share some things that have been stirring around in my heart, things I’ve been chewing on. A lot of times with my job, my company that I run, I fly around the United States a lot to visit churches where we’re doing integrations. 

And I get a lot of time on the plane, and I get a lot of time in my Bible. And every once in a while, the Lord will just give these little thoughts and ideas, and they might not necessarily work into a full-blown teaching on a Sunday morning. 

But I wanted to share one that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and it’s really out of Luke 6, and it’s around the idea of giving. And if I could just put a lens around it for us to view it with: in essence, I think we completely misunderstand giving, why we give, and what the purpose is. 

JUDGEMENT AND FORGIVENESS

And so, Jesus makes some statements that I want to read. If you know this passage, just listen to me read it. But if you’d like to, it’s in chapter 6, verse 38, and Jesus will open with a teaching about condemning and condemnation. And He says, “Stop judging others, and then you’ll not be judged.” And then we could push pause there and say, Wait a second. 

I don’t want to deal with judgment right now, because I don’t think that’s really what’s in my heart. But what I want to look at is what Jesus is doing, is He’s creating this concept of there are certain things in life that if you do them, they come back to you. I.e., if you judge others, judgment comes back on you.

So, He’s talking about the reflection and that what we put out into the world tends to come back at us. He says, “Stop criticizing others, or it will all come back on you.” Again, He’s doing the same thing. He’s saying, Look, if you’re a critical person, you’re going to receive criticism. 

And He’s trying to create an index so those that are listening to Him teach begin to understand that the way they live towards the world around them is going to directly affect the way the world lives towards them. 

And He’ll go on and say, “If you forgive others, you’ll be forgiven.” Great posture to live with. I’m going to be forgiving. I’m going to be a person that dispenses forgiveness easily. And maybe we should just push pause for a second and say, if you’re a person who struggles with holding a grudge, you struggle with forgiveness. 

I had a really interesting conversation with a lady that’s not a believer. I think she is a Buddhist, and she was talking about compassion, and the idea was just put it out into the world. And I just sat and smiled, and obviously, I come from a different perspective. 

But I did realize something: that a lot of times, we try to make forgiveness a one-step idea, where if somebody hurt me, I have to forgive them. That is true; Jesus teaches that. But He also teaches, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” He also teaches that we are to pray for those who despitefully use us. 

And I realized something while I was talking to her: that the first step in forgiveness is setting our heart posture towards goodness, beginning to pray for someone. Let’s say you have a friend that hurt you. When you actually spend time praying, Hey, Lord, I just want to pray blessing on them, it changes the way you think about them, and it makes forgiveness much easier to walk into. 

And if we don’t understand that principle, we’re going to get stuck and mired in the fact that I can’t get past the hurt. So, Jesus is dealing with some of that stuff. 

GIVE AND IT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU

And then He steps into a completely different concept about giving. He says, “If you give, you will receive your gift, will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving, large or small, it will be used to measure what is given back to you.” 

Very strange shift to go from, Don’t judge others, don’t criticize others, walk in forgiveness. Oh, hey, by the way, let me talk to you about giving. 

Often, growing up in the Kingdom, obviously, giving is almost a hot topic for people. It’s polarizing. Some people are really into giving, and they’ve really understood the concepts in the Scriptures, and they love it. Others are very critical of giving because they feel like, The church just wants my money. 

And I want to set all that aside and just look at what Jesus teaches because we’re followers of Jesus, and so if Jesus is teaching principles about giving, I want to know why. 

He doesn’t teach giving from a lens of need. What do I mean? He’s not raising an offering. He’s not looking to do a campaign. He’s talking about a concept to live with. This entire passage is conceptual ideas for how you are to live from His Kingdom’s perspective. He’s basically saying, This is how you should be living. I’m God. This is how I created things. This is what you want to do. 

So, I want to give us some principles out of this. In chapter 6 verse 38, “Give and it will be given to you.” I rarely love the King James, but I kind of love the King James in this: it says, “Give and it shall be given unto you.” It’s a great word. 

Here’s what I want to tell you: earthly generosity engages a Heavenly reality. Earthly generosity engages a Heavenly reality. In other words, when we give, it opens a portal for giving to flow back into our lives. 

Jesus is teaching a concept, saying, I want you to understand when you give, when you live in generosity, it triggers something supernaturally, it opens a portal. And I want you to consider that He doesn’t put an end on when it stops. 

JESUS’ GOOD MEASURE

Here’s my question: I’m fifty-two, thinking about my latter years, and I started realizing if I live this principle, which obviously I’m teaching it because it’s been something the Lord’s taught me through the years and I love it. I love generosity, I think it’s a blast. But what does that do for my family? Because there’s no end to this. When I step into generosity, it opens a supernatural portal. 

I think we err if we assume that there’s a direct one-to-one relationship. Jesus doesn’t say that at all. In fact, He goes on and says, “With good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.” 

This was my grandfather’s favorite verse. My grandpa Giles was a pastor. Every Sunday night, he would take the offerings and he would quote this verse. And so, I’m super familiar with it. But when I started looking at it, my question is, with good measure, who’s measuring this? Why is it pressed down? 

I love to be in the kitchen. I love to cook, love to bake. And when you’re packing brown sugar for a recipe, say you’re making chocolate chip cookies or something like that. A lot of times, you’ll tamp that, and you’ll hit that cup against the countertop. Why? To get all the air out of it and settle it. Because we understand that if we press it down, we get more into it. The volume increases, the density increases. 

That’s the concept here. “But with good measure, pressed down, and shaken together.” It seems to be that somebody else is in control of that. I would submit to you that Jesus is talking about a supernatural principle, the principles governed by the supernatural realm, which means it’s God that’s dealing with it this way. 

Pressed down, shaken together, and running over. I love this. It reveals God’s heart for us. His declared goal here is abundance running over. It means He wants to give us enough that it falls off the edges and it gets wasted. 

Which is a crazy idea, that He’s so committed to generosity and so wants us to step into this principle, so He’s teaching it because that’s what Jesus is laying out: I want you to learn to give so it can be given back to you. 

In other words, if you’re stingy and you don’t understand generosity, all you’re really doing is limiting what God can do in your life. It means God is actually trying to fit as much blessing as possible into your life. 

Could you consider with me that that might explain why there’s such a strong human sin nature tendency and such a strong demonic idea to align against giving? There’s so many internal voices of distrust, I don’t know if I should. 

GENEROSITY DRAWS FAVOR

Giving has nothing to do with who you’re giving it to. Giving has to do with who you’re releasing it to. I give because He told me to. I love this because now if I’m driving down the street and I see somebody in need– we’ve all seen people, you know, requesting help. I can give with no concern for what’s going to happen with that because I gave it out of a generous heart. Now, do I think it’s good to have concern? I do. 

But then He goes on and says that not only is He going to be pressed down, shaken together, He’s going to have men give into your bosom. Out of the King James again, “Shall men give into your bosom.” A different principle is released.

Earthly generosity releases additional earthly generosity. There’s a reciprocal value in the earth. It’s not just supernatural law. So, now we have two things coming into our life. There’s a horizontal– we could call it that way, we’re from the earthly realm– and there’s a vertical, and they’re both beginning to pour back into our lives and generosity. It’s not just God who gives. 

I see something in this that I had not seen. I was on a plane a couple weeks ago. Generosity changes my interactions with others. It draws favor out of people. Being a generous person draws favor out of people. It doesn’t mean it draws favor from the ones you gave to. It means there’s a favor index that begins to move towards you because you’re a generous person. 

KINGDOM ECONOMICS

And then He lands it, and I love where He lands it: “For with the same measure that ye meet–” it’s a great phrase from King James– “with all it shall be measured to you again.” So, let’s look at that in the New Living because it doesn’t make a lot of sense on that one. “Whatever measure you use in giving, large or small, it will be used to measure what is given back to you.” 

Measured, it means to apportion. Your generosity is not measured against someone else’s means. It’s measured against yours. Think about the widow’s might, what Jesus teaches the disciples. She gives very little from a fiscal point of view, but it’s a large chunk of her life. 

So, your generosity is measured against your means. So, let’s say your means are, I have five dollars I can give. Give it. Give it with great gratitude and thankfulness and pride. Don’t give it with a, This isn’t going to do much. That’s the wrong principle. 

We’re not talking about financial principles here. We’re talking about Kingdom economics. Generosity is not about finance. Generosity is about an attitude of heart before the Lord. And so, if your means are little, or if your means are great, give according to your means. 

What I also see here is that our understanding of this directly affects this principle. If I understand this principle, I can step into it. If I don’t, it’s almost like not being willing to go through a door. There’s a doorway here to step into blessing. 

What I see here that I had not ever seen before: Jesus opens with, Hey, give so it could be given to you. He’s inviting those listening to His teaching into a generous lifestyle so the pressed-down-measured-together thing can happen for them. The other thing I see here is the return in generosity is limitless. There is no ten percent tithe index on this. 

Now, how do we give? Different conversation. I think if we’re talking about Kingdom dynamics and Kingdom economics, then we need to do it in a Kingdom way. There’s a lot of teaching in the Scriptures about how to give correctly. 

I do believe the tithe belongs to the storehouse. I think Biblically, the tithe is ten percent. I think that is supposed to come to the local church. I think it’s how the Lord set it up. 

A GENEROUS LIFESTYLE

But generosity, the offering, the giving, this is a lifestyle pattern, not just a write-a-check once-a-week idea. It’s me learning how to live with an index that says, I’m a conduit of resource to the world around me because every time I step into that, He just pours back in. 

My nephew is a musician, and I won’t use his name because I didn’t ask him if I could use this story. So, he moved to a city in the United States to try to make it as a musician and decided that he was so broke that he was just going to lean everything he had into the Lord. So, he started tithing 40% of his income. 

And he was sharing stories with us, and I know how broke he was. I mean, it was like, I’m eating Top Ramen three meals a day kind of broke. So, Uncle Greg doesn’t have the heart to say, Dude, that’s kind of crazy. Maybe just give ten percent until you get back on your feet. Because I was really proud of him because it was his decision, it wasn’t a teaching he heard, it was just him going, I want to test this principle. 

We would sit and talk about his journey, and I’d offer him jobs to come here, and he’s like, No, I really feel like I’m supposed to stay the course. Like, Okay. And I felt like the Lord just whispered to me a couple things: I want you to support him in it, and I want you to bless him. 

And so I had a guitar that I loved, but I never played it because those days are kind of behind me. And so, he was out here with us, and I just handed it to him, said, Hey, this is for you. And he was a little shell-shocked, but I felt like the Lord was very clear with me, I want you to do this so he begins to understand that he stepped into a lifestyle of generosity, and I’m going to begin to bless him. 

And so, I just happened to be the guy in the room that could hear the voice of the Lord, and the Lord used me. Within three months of that moment, all of a sudden, he lands a gig. He’s touring the United States as a musician, everything shifts and changes. And I love it because what I see is a young man who understood the principle of, If I give to Him, He gives to me. 

And I know the arguments, But we don’t give to get. Jesus seems to teach that you can. “Give, and it’s going to be given to you.” What’s my point in all this? Am I trying to bolster the offerings? No, not at all. What I’m trying to do is get us out of the wrong mindset because an abundance life requires an abundance mindset. 

If I’m going to live in the abundance of God, I have to step into the principles of abundance. And I can’t step into the principles of abundance until I step into the principles of generosity. 

And generous living draws favor out of Heaven, and it draws favor out of the earth. That’s what I want for us, is to become a generous people, so we can shape the city, we can shape the world, we can send money overseas, we can do everything we’re supposed to do because we’ve caught on to this principle that Jesus said, and we’ve realized, Oh, wait a second, I can give, and He just pours back in? 

And here’s what I love, Proverbs teaches this: it is impossible to out-give God. “The man who gives to the poor gives to the Lord, and He will never allow himself to be held in debt.” There is this wild index available to us that I don’t think we see. And I want to challenge you: go to Luke 6, read it, study it, and look at it for yourself. 

I’ll leave you with one last story, a personal testimony. Last year, 2024, I felt like the Lord said to me something very unusual, had never happened before. In January, I just felt like He said, I want you to tithe on the year this month. I was like, Excuse me? Because to do that, it means I’m giving out of what I’ve saved, which was, you know, being carnal, That’s mine, and I already tithed on it, it’s mine.

And so, I prayed through it. I talked to Belinda about it. She’s like, I love this. So, we did it. I got to the end of the year and realized a couple things: I took a faith step, I did not know what I was going to make because of business style, I just didn’t know. 

I took a guess, and I took a big guess. I was like, All right, let’s just send it. Let’s see what happens. Worst-case scenario, I gave too much. God will bless it. I get to the end of the year, and I actually had to give more. 

What did I learn out of that? That our King loves to play with finance with us. He loves to grow our understanding of His goodness, and if we will just relax and partner with His character– how good He is– learning to be generous people because of that, He’s going to pour incredible resource and opportunity into our lives. 

I hope you can chew on this. Hope you can take it away and consider it. I hope it changes the way you live towards money. I love you guys. Have a great week.