¶ Promoting Generosity in Relationships"
Hey , welcome to Doing Life with Ken and Tabitha . We are so pumped that you're tuning into this podcast . It has been designed for people just like you . We wanna do life with you , share our wins , our defeats , our ups and our downs , in hopes that you'll grow closer to God and to the people that you love in your life . Sit back and enjoy today's podcast .
Hey , what's up everybody ? Hey , everyone , welcome to Doing Life with Ken and Tabitha .
Welcome to Doing Life with Ken and Tabitha , so pumped to have you on for another episode .
guys , we got a good one for you today . You're going to want to tell everybody that you know to tune in today . Share this comment on it . I mean it's going to . Hopefully there can be an impartation and also an activation of this super important principle called generosity . And there's no time like the Christmas season to kind of express the joy of generosity .
So we're pumped , it's that time of year , it's that time of year .
If you're new to our podcast , we want to say welcome . We're so glad you found us . We are praying for you and believing that this is going to be a blessing to you .
Yeah we really are , and if you're new , make sure that you hit the subscribe button . If you're on YouTube , if you're new , make sure that you hit the subscribe button . If you're on YouTube , if you're watching via podcast , make sure that you hit the follow . We release a new episode every Thursday at 3 pm .
Of course , tabitha and I we've been married for 25 years y'all and we don't know everything . This , of course , is first a marriage podcast and a relationship podcast , but it's also a personal growth podcast .
So , wherever you are in your relationship status , we hope to share life hacks , life principles , to help you grow closer to God and also closer to the people that God has placed in your life . I'm happy to say that we are happily married , but it wasn't always like that .
There was a time where I was mean and I was selfish and I was prideful and , honestly , I just didn't know how to be a husband . I've been single for so many years and all of my friends were single .
And so when we got , married .
God had to do a real work in me , and you were a hot mess too . I was a hot mess and we don't have time to go into however hot mess you were , because we can go back to other episodes , but just know that wherever you are in your relationship , your best days can still be out in front of you . I really believe that people just need tools .
You don't want to go into your bag and don't have the tools that you need to do a job . That's like you're trying to build something . You ain't got a hammer , you ain't got no nails . There are a lot of people that you got married and you still love each other . You don't like each other right now , but we want to help give you some tools .
Absolutely , and I think you know you were saying you know well you were , you know you were mean and you said all of these things . And I was looking at you today and like , wow , that wasn't who you really were , though . You know what I mean . That was just some frustrated person who didn't know principles and didn't have answers and things like that .
But I'm just so glad that I didn't quit on you , that you didn't quit on me , that we didn't quit on ourselves , but we decided to fight and the principles that we give in this podcast , you know , like we're just talking about the things that we did to become who we are now and what we're doing now to keep on growing and get better .
Yeah , and you know we don't know everything , we don't try to know everything . We want to share our I think sometimes you can learn more from our mistakes and you can learn more from our losses and more from the things that we're just trying to figure out still than even , sometimes , the things that we have figured out .
So we just love to do life with people , to share our wins and our losses , our ups and our downs , and the hope is that the Holy Spirit will use all of this to help people in their journey relationally with him and also with their spouse and significant others . And so I'm pumped about today , sweetheart . I feel like generosity is huge .
I feel like marriages could be restored . If I'm crazy , if I'm a crazy giver towards you , if I'm crazy in my generosity towards you , our marriage is probably going to be all right . If you're crazy in your generosity towards me , our marriage is probably going to be all right .
The reason that many people struggle in their relationships is because they married to stingy people and unfortunately , when you marry a taker or when you are a taker , you actually suffocate the life out of the relationship and I pray that we can kind of activate generosity . Today I've kind of been on this word , activation , which activation means ?
To make something operative . To me , it means to turn something on that's been turned off . It's like coming into a room and it's dark and flip the light switch .
I believe that this podcast today is going to flip the light switch of generosity in somebody's life , meaning that you have a gift of giving , but it's been lying dormant from the trauma that you've experienced , or even from a lack of understanding .
Our job today is to flip that light , switch on through the power of the Holy Spirit , so that you can be a giver again . You know , I think that . Why do you think that people that used to be givers have stopped being givers ?
Well , I mean , I don't know . I mean , I think . First of all , I want to say that we're talking about giving of money . We're talking about giving of finances Because when you sit like I didn't grow up in church- Well , I'm not just talking about giving up money oh , you're not talking about that .
I'm talking about generosity .
I'm thinking of like giving , like you know , to church , to the needy to organizations .
That's a part of it . Yeah , that's a part of it .
Like , because I think there's a lot of people who say that they're generous .
¶ Unlocking Financial Abundance Through Generosity
They say , oh their mind that I'm a generous person .
You just think like oh well , I'm generous because I'm just a nice person or I approve of , oh I applaud when someone else gives .
So you need to rank yourself on a scale of one to 10 , because the law of destination starts with location .
Yeah .
If you say I want to be a generous person because God's generous , he loved the world so he gave his only begotten son . So when the father gave us Jesus , jesus was his first and his best . So if we want to be made in this image and likeness which we are , but if we want to be like more like our father , we have to be generous as well .
I think we have to be generous as well . I think we need to do a generous inventory on a scale of one to 10 , 10 being extremely , perfectly generous . Where are we ? Because what you're saying is that there's some people that they say , oh yes , I'm generous , like you're an eight and nine , but you're really a two .
How can we tell if we're really generous or not ?
I think you know , for let me talk from my experience . So I used to be , you know , growing up , things like that Um , we would consider ourselves very generous people . Um , I grew up in the projects .
We didn't have a lot of money , you know , we didn't know , you know we did the best with what we had , but we would go to the salvation army and we would give of our time . Uh , we would prepare food , we would clean , we would do all kinds of things .
We had a community center where we would go and serve other children within the projects and things like that . We would pick up trash . We considered ourselves very generous people and we were in certain areas .
But when it came to the area of finances or actually giving money , that's where our generosity stopped , because our perspective was we don't have it to give , so we're generous , but not in that area . And so for me , I think there's a lot of people who they see churches doing great things and they see we have times of giving , especially around Christmas time .
We do so much , yeah , yeah yeah . Right now we are actually in a times of giving like , especially around Christmas time we do so much .
Yeah , yeah , yeah . Right now we are actually in a time of giving that's about to happen in three days and we would , you know , we would love whoever's led to to participate in that . We've done this giving called Super Sunday our year in giving for 24 years , and it's actually I heard this years ago .
You gave your way into debt , you got to give your way out of debt , and I think there's a lot of people that struggle financially and they say , well , let the people who aren't struggling take care of the needs of everybody else . But the kingdom of God works differently .
God says if you can be faithful over the little , then I'll make you rule over the much . So now we have financial success , but one of the principles that we lived out was that we would give to God first , even out of our need . And so I always believe that you can sow a seed today to take care of future needs tomorrow .
And that is the act of faith where I'm believing God to provide for me . He is my Jehovah Jireh . But a lot of people they stay stuck because they say they're generous with their time but they're not generous with their resources . And I can show it to you in the Bible , maybe we'll get there .
Today , second Corinthians sticks out to me , where it says something like he gives seed to the sower and he multiplies your seed sown . If you go through all of these scriptures .
He's really looking for people that are givers , so that he can make sure that you have more to give , and so we're talking about generosity , but I kind of cut you off Anything else .
Yeah , I mean just one more thing with that and I cause I think there's a lot of people in that . So you know I wasn't churched , I didn't grow up in church . I considered myself a generous person . But what my family didn't know , we didn't have this , we didn't have the gospel back then .
Okay .
But when I became born again and I got , the gospel was preached to me . I read the gospel that Jesus came to to to be good news to the poor .
Right .
Good news is to the poor is that you don't have to be poor anymore , right ? And so what ? When I ? When I got that message and I became a giver , giving out of I didn't have a lot of money , but I gave a little bit of my money , like , okay , I have a budget , here's some money , I'm giving this to God .
And then I began to just believe , like through my generosity , god is going to be generous to me . Then I got my way out of debt . Then I really became generous . I really became generous in every area of my life and not just leaving certain areas to certain people . Do you know what I mean .
Yeah , well , that's interesting . That that's how you started this off . I mean , that's really good . Well , I think that there's a lot , because this has been something we've been walking in for 24 years . Please stick with us . I'm talking about business owners , multimillionaires , those who have absolutely nothing . You have a lot of debt .
We had over a hundred thousand dollars of debt when we first got married and it was so bad that I would wake up in the night crying . I had so much financial pain I never thought . I don't know how many times I got turned down for our first home .
I probably got said no to at least 10 times when we tried to buy our first home together and I remember when we first got married , I think our combined income was like $10,000 for the year , Four years later after being a generous person . Okay , our combined income was over $700,000 for the year . That is not a bragging statement .
That is a statement about a God who is a provider and he will move based upon the person who's generous , who understands the principles that's been placed in the scripture before the foundation of the world . There are financial principles . There's watch this .
There are things that leave your hand but it doesn't leave your life and a lot of people look at giving as an expense . It's really an investment into kingdom matters . It is an investment into eternal things and what I've learned over the years is that you cannot out beat God and given , no matter how hard you try .
Now there have been times in my life where I felt like I've given too much . You know there are some people that are like you know you always got to try to pump them to give , pump them to give . That ain't my crowd of people . Like if you don't want to give , don't give . The Bible says don't give reluctantly that means you don't want to give .
Don't give , don't even do it . You're wasting it .
Don't give out of compulsion , like somebody got to pump you up and show you a bunch of starving children in some distant country . Don't give out of compulsion , for God loves a cheerful giver . So for me , I know that my audience are people that I don't have to pump them to give . Like , I'm the kind of person that I don't have a giving problem .
I have a saving problem . I'll give too much , and I believe there's people like me out here that really , um , you don't have to like pump me up to give . I'm like ready to give because god's been good to me . Um , my problem is that I could give too much , um , but I've always told myself that I can't give too much .
And you know , jesus got on the cross . He gave his life for me . So now me giving out of my resources , my time , my talent , my treasure , the shirt off my back , that's an easy thing , because he's given his life for me , and so I kind of wanted to define some things before we jumped in it , but it's been good already for me .
You know I like to just jump in the baby head first all the time .
Oh man , I wanted to define . How would you define generosity , sweetheart ? Oh man , I wanted to define .
How would you define generosity , sweetheart ? I would define it as probably like a willingness , a willingness to be a blessing . A willingness to be a blessing , but not even a willingness , because , like I said , you can will to do it , but unless you do , unless you actually pull the trigger to do it . But unless you do , unless you actually pull the trigger .
Like you see someone , um , you know , I I've done this before . Uh , they're , they're in the line before me at the grocery store . They go up to the grocery store and they don't have enough money to pay for their groceries and then they say , oh man , um , I'm making a little old lady voice , because it was a little old lady .
And she says , oh , okay , and she starts picking out her the I don't forget what fruit it was but she starts picking out fruit from the bag so that she can balance it out and pay for it . And I was just like , oh , I got this , which is the whole bill . I got it Like I got it all . Just do it . I mean , it was maybe $30 .
I wasn't being like you know , superman , but I was like I just I got the whole thing . You can sit there and watch it or you can do something about it . You have to pull the trigger . Watching it doesn't make you generous .
Ooh , that's so good . I'll give a classical definition Generosity is a virtue that involves giving good things to others , freely and abundantly . It's a quality of being kind and giving . So it's a lot like unselfishness . Yeah , okay , generosity is not just about giving money , even though money is a part of it .
Okay , if you're a person that never gives money , um , as a believer , we are supposed to be giving money . Okay , but it's not just about giving money . Generosity is about anything that you will do away from yourself to cause a blessing or increase in value in somebody else's life . It is not giving to get .
It is giving to give , meaning that , even if it does nothing for me , even if I don't get a harvest , I'll still do it , because generosity is not about what it's going to do for me , because generosity is not about what it's going to do for me .
See , sometimes , if you sow a seed and your motivation is because you know there's going to be a harvest , or you know that when you give this person a gift , they might be able to promote you , bless you , sweetheart , this is not really generosity . That's an investment . That's you just knowing that you're going to get something better in return for it .
Now , so the motive of why we give is love . Generosity is founded in the love of God and it's giving to a person or to God , knowing that it's going to make his kingdom larger . It's going to be a blessing to this person . Now , after you give , the Bible says that a man what a man sows , that shall he reap . Meaning that now you can believe God .
Your motive is love , but your faith is that I'm going to get a harvest so that I can do it again , so that I can be a bigger blessing , because I'm blessed to be a blessing . So forgiveness would actually be an act of generosity , meaning that you hurt me , you did me wrong , but now I extend to you forgiveness , I release you , you owe me nothing .
That's coming from a place of generosity . Okay , I'm serving can be an act of generosity . Okay , I'm willing to lay down my calendar and my time to do something that's small to be a benefit to somebody else . It's coming out of a place of generosity . Intercession can be an act of generosity . I'm going to God and I'm not just praying for me and my family .
I'm going to stand in the gap and make up the hedge of protection for somebody that I don't know . I'm going to pray for those who are in office . I'm going to pray for Israel . I'm going to pray for those who are in Ukraine . That is an act of generosity . Discipleship is an act of generosity . I'm going to take out of my time .
I'm going to have a small group over my house and have to clean up after y'all . I'm going to answer my phone to answer your questions , even though I got questions . I'm going to help you with your pain , even though I got my pain . That is an act of generosity . And when you really look at generosity , our whole faith hinges upon this principle .
Our whole faith hinges upon this principle . God so loved the world , so he was generous by giving the life of his son so that he could produce more sons and daughters . Christianity is founded in generosity . We're more like God when we give . We're more like Satan when we're stingy .
You don't want to be like Satan . So you can be generous with your prayers , you can be generous with your compliments , you can be generous with your time , you can be generous with conversation and loving on people , kindness , encouragement , all of that stuff is generosity .
Now bring it over into the marriage context , if you could . What does a marriage or relationship look like when somebody's stingy I'm using that word because I can't think of a better word the opposite of generosity .
It's so . You , though it's the perfect word that you would use Give me another word the opposite of generosity , stingy is withhold .
That's too sophisticated , I like stingy Not interested no . Stingy is withhold . That's too sophisticated I like stingy , not interested .
No , stingy's better . Yeah , laxadaisical , we'll go with stingy , okay .
All right .
¶ Importance of Financial Generosity in Relationships
So if you're married to a stingy person , all right , and they're what about me ? What about me ? What about me ? What about me ? What about me ? What about me ? That's going to be a bad relationship . But if you're married to a person that's always willing to give of themselves , always willing to serve , I'm telling you , that's where great marriages are born .
They are born out of the place of generosity . They really are . What are you smiling about ? I'm smiling because I know in marriage the number one thing that you would like me to be generous about would be what I don't know . You're making assumptions about my character .
I just felt like and it was just really funny when I think about a marriage and relationship and being stingy .
Well , I want to ask you a question Would you want me to be generous with you with the same ?
I just feel like that's always pointed towards the man .
It's always pointed towards the husband . Like , my brain is always on sex and I just want you to be generous with sex , but I would think that if it's good to you , you want to be generous , you want me to be generous with it as well .
You're absolutely right .
Uh-huh , yeah , like last night . You came up to me and I felt like being stingy because my stomach ain't been acting right . Y'all pray for my stomach .
But I wasn't stingy . You did right . It was so to see , not play the stingy card . You were generous because I waited up for you in that shower all night , taking all day in the shower , blessed you generosity you're right , I stand corrected .
Come on , man , yeah yeah , obviously , I see this whole thing . No , when a marriage is what it's supposed to be , both people want to have sex with one another . It's a place of intimacy , it's a place of connection , it's a place , my God , even naturally speaking , you release certain endorphins and hormones .
That's good for your health and so , yes , it's not just a man that should be wanting to have sex with his wife . The wife should be wanting to have sex if it's being done right , people are being cared for .
It's being done generously .
Yeah , you got to be generous with this stuff . Man , get married , don't be stingy . Be stingy with the sex we should do a podcast called Don't Be Stingy , called Stingy Sex .
This is it right here . We just did it Stingy . That's it . The last three minutes , that's it . Yeah , that's it right there , but anyway .
so generosity is huge . But generosity includes forgiveness and serving and all those things , but it also includes giving away money , it includes your resources and you know people will say well , I tithe my time . Listen , let me help you . Ok , the tithe is not just an Old Testament principle . You guys please listen to me .
When Jesus talked about the tithe in Matthew 23 , 23 , he said this you should do . When the writer in Hebrews , chapter seven , wrote about the tithe , he says there was no stop . It kind of language meaning that the tithe , when you give God the first 10 percent of your increase , that is a believer principle .
It's not a law like in the Old Testament , like if you don't do this , then this is going to happen . It is a principle of priority . It's a principle that when I put God first the 10% , he's going to bless the 90% . We know this because Abraham paid a tithe to Melchizedek 400 years before the law . This has nothing to do with the law of Moses .
Please understand . He did that under grace . When Abraham , the father of our faith , paid the tithe to Melchizedek , it was a signal to the New Testament believer because Melchizedek represented a shadow of Jesus in the Old Testament .
It was a signal to us today to bring the first and the best to Jesus today , not out of obligation but out of revelation because we love him . And so when people say I'm tithing my time , listen . That might be a great principle Give God two hours and 40 minutes of your day , but the tithe has never been about time .
It is a financial principle in the Bible . Whatever your currency is if it's pounds , if it's euros , if it's rands , whatever nation you in , if it's cattle 10% of the currency or the resources that you use to buy stuff , it belongs to God , and when you bring it back to him , I believe that the tithe is the first step to generosity .
I think there are some people today they say well , I just want to be generous , I don't want to tithe . I believe the tithe for the believer is the first step to financial generosity . It is not the last .
The offering is anything that's over and above the tithe , and so I think it's important that , as we end this year and go into another year , that we get our financial houses in order . Absolutely 20 years ago we had a ton of financial pain and we had to do a financial clean sweep . We had to get our financial house in order .
I'm happy to say it's one of the best decisions that I ever made .
Thank you for leading us .
Yeah , as a businessman . As a businessman , I was a businessman and I was a non-tither and my business was like having a bag with holes in it . I made a lot of money but I didn't have a lot to show for it . My marriage was not good .
My relationship with God was so-so , but when I began to give God the first and the best through the tithe and looking for opportunities to give offerings , man , our marriage got good . I felt a connection to my high priest , who is Jesus . He turned our finances around and we became into a very blessed place to where man we could . Just .
We had 19 people live with us over a span of nine years , remember that . That's crazy generosity . What do you Remember ? That that's crazy generosity . What'd you think about that ?
That was uh . I think that I honestly I'm like , how did we do that ? Cause , right now we have three kids and I'm like , whoa , we can't do that right now . That's too much . But it wasn't . We had grace for it . You know , it was before we had kids maybe one or two kids .
And when you let people live with you . People don't know you giving a lot . I'd rather give away money .
Now that you know hindsight . No , I mean , we did what we needed to do for the moment and yeah , but we were generous .
generous with , and this is not all relatives and probably out of the 19 people , 16 of them . We didn't charge anything , didn't they could eat our food ? They could do . We were just trying to help them get out on our feet . I would have a young man come to my house say welcome to my closet . I had tons of suits , get whatever you want .
That's just generosity . When we said we're going to leave Washington DC and move to a city in Gainesville , florida , to plant a church , and didn't know one person , we gave all of our life savings away . We left all of our friends and family . That's an act of generosity . It's not for a pat on the back , it's just .
I love to exemplify before people so that they can see that when you live with an open hand , then your hands are open for what God wants to put in it .
When you live with a closed fist , it's closed for what God wants to put in it , and so when you open your hand , it signifies that you have an open heart , and really , generosity has a lot to do with the heart , and that's why the Bible says where a man's treasure is , that's where his heart is . So , where your money is shows what you really love .
So back to the beginning , where you say there are people who think they're generous but they're not . You should be able to see it in your budget . You should see your generosity in your checking account . You should literally get a ledger and be able to judge on a scale of one to 10 if you're generous .
And then you got to be really honest with yourself , according to God's word . And so right now our giving starts at 16% . It hasn't always been like that and it probably averaged around 20% after we give in Super Sunday , our year end offering . So we start at 16% , start , but we go up from there .
And I just say that to let you know , because I don't want to just preach this , I want to live it out . And some people say , oh , that's just too much . That's fine , you can do what you want to do . But I want to be an example to people that there's just something . Doesn't the scripture say that if you give bountifully , you shall receive what ?
So God puts the authority of the harvest in the seed that you sow . And people want a bountiful harvest , but they sow a sparingly seed , and that would be a biblical contradiction for you to have a bountiful harvest but you're not a sower .
Yeah , I think I just love the . I love being a giver , I love being generous , I love like . My attitude toward God is that I want to be blessed , to be a blessing meaning that it doesn't matter I could be a billionaire , and Lord , give me more , because the more I have , the more I'm doing . I want to see orphanages built .
There's a dream center we want to be built here in Orlando . I mean , there are so many things that we want to do so that we can dispense God's blessing .
I want to make a measurable change in homelessness and poverty in the cities we're called to . I'm not talking about we go out and feed a couple of people . I want to see a measurable change , like there was 500 homeless people , now there's 100 in my city .
I want to establish rehab programs , dream centers whatever we got to do to see a measurable change in combination with the preaching of the gospel . I want to see multiple campuses and multiple nations around the world . We want to see 2 million people come to Jesus over the next 20 years .
We want to help a million married people have a better marriage , a better relationship . I mean , that's just the tip of the iceberg , but if you give a drug dealer money , you know what they'll do They'll buy more drugs . If you give a man , a woman of God , people of God more money , you know what we'll do .
We'll expand the kingdom of God , because money is not bad . It's a magnifier of what's in the heart . It's immoral . You give one person a brick , they'll throw it through a window . You give me a brick , we'll build another church . We'll build an orphanage .
We'll build a hospital .
But doesn't the Bible say money is the root to all evil ? The Bible never tells you not to have money . It says don't love it , don't serve it , don't covet after it , don't worship it , don't make it an idol . And the way that you don't worship it , serve it , love it , trust it , make it an idol is that you give it .
That's right . You know , I had a conversation recently with the kids and we were out shopping and doing stuff and every time you go shopping they ask you would you like to donate to this charity ? Every store has a charity and they want to round up , which is pennies , like it's not a big deal . You know what I mean .
But and they saw me through a period of time say no , thank you , no , thank you . I just smile no , thank you . Everybody's trying to buy something . We're going down the wall , the mall and there's kiosks and end of the day , they started like busting on me in a negative way Dag , mom , it's only five cents , you can't round up , you know whatever .
But then I had to break it down to our children , okay .
Break it down .
I had to break it down and just begin to tell them look , guys , we are generous people . Okay , I said we
¶ Impact of Small Acts of Generosity
give away money and a lot of money . I am very intentional with the seed that I sow . I have this much money and I'm very intentional with what , where I put it . Yeah , I can tell them the roundup pennies , but I am , it's just me being very intentional and focused .
No , I have goals and I'm sowing this to the house of God because the house of God has needs , not that everyone else , not that they're not great organizations out there , but there's so much that I am being intentional with , with the money that I give and I think that's just , you know , a great , I don't know I wear it as like a badge , like Lord .
You know , here I am , I'm a generous person , you know . Tell me what to do . You know I'm here to just , I'm ready to pull the trigger at any time . But it's just like an attitude , it's a lifestyle .
I don't know , ain't it just like kids that don't have nothing to try to tell you what to do with your seed ?
it's only rounding up what you mean .
I said look , ain't it just like people have no jobs trying ? To tell you have no money to tell you what to do with yours .
Because I think they were feeling the pressure of people want to sell you something and I'm like baby , you don't have to feel pressure . I give Between me and God he knows what I give . I don't have to be yes man to nobody else .
You know what I'll say this about generosity , though , is that it doesn't even have to be big to be generous .
You know , I remember years ago there was , um , I was at IHOP and I'm saying this years ago cause I ain't been in a hot IHOP in a minute but I was at IHOP pancake restaurant and , um , the bill was like $35 , but I just felt led to leave the waiter a hundred dollar bill , and I left a hundred dollar bill , and I just left the IHOP , and on my way
out to the parking lot and walking to the car , the lady bust out . Thank you , thank you . I said God bless you , you know , because sometimes it's the small things that can make a big difference .
Thank you , was worth a million dollars . Yeah , sometimes it's the small things that can make a difference .
You know , we had a hurricane that came through Florida not too long ago , hurricane Milton , and we have a couple that I see in our neighborhood and they are homeless , they're displaced in their house .
So they've been staying in hotels and I had met them before and I'd done some generous things for them and I've been looking for them again because they're a married couple , they have a child that they push around and in my mind really in my mind I want to adopt this couple and I want to help them go all the way up the ladder , help them get jobs , so
forth , and so on . So I'm working right now with our team about listen , we can't change the whole world , but what if we took one couple ? We help them get rent , we help them get a job we help them get clothes , we help them get interviews , we help them with everything .
So I'm working on that right now , and so I've been looking for this couple and the hurricane was about to come in and the hurricane is supposed to hit Wednesday night .
It is Wednesday afternoon , it's dark , winds are blowing and all of a sudden I see this couple standing outside of a CVS and the police is talking to them , and this one policeman he's fully dressed in his uniform and I can tell that he's asking them like where are you guys going ? It's dangerous out here .
I can just tell through the posture they're not doing anything wrong . They got a buggy and they're in the middle of this wind . And I got a choice I can drive back to my house and be in my comfort to eat these pizzas that I just bought , or I can get out of my car and see if I can be the solution to a problem .
I get out of my car and I walk up to this police officer with this couple and I say hey , what's going on here ? And the police look at me like who is this ? And I said do you guys have a place to stay ? And they said , no , we're in a hotel , but we don't have money to extend tonight and I said I got you for two nights in the hotel .
The woman shouts thank you , jesus . And starts dancing and running through the parking lot . It's not big things , but some . You would be amazed of how small generosity can change people's lives . Me and my son we're just traveling to North Carolina .
I was preaching at a church that we cover there and we got a rental car , and so at this airport they had a rental car shuttle . I hate these car shuttles , man . I really . These shuttles go into the rental car places .
Yeah , get on a bus to go someplace else . Gotta get on a bus to get somewhere .
But anyway , there was an older gentleman who was driving . I don't know how old he was , let's just say in his 60s , and he was just doing a phenomenal job . I mean , he just put your bags up there . So he was about to get off the rental car and he wouldn't let we can get our bags .
He was like no , he got our bags , put them outside of the bus and I , kind of you know , I got lost , thinking about where's my car and what time is it , and I forgot to give him a tip . I didn't even think about it and I finally got my car and I'm about to drive off and you know how you have the line where it's like if you go this way .
You got the spikes where your tires and I saw his bus . It was still inside there and he looked like he was about to pull
¶ Impact of Generosity on Lives
off . I grabbed $10 out of my backpack and I said Kenny , I want you to jump out the car and I want you to take this $10 , get on the bus and give it to that man .
Oh , mama loves this story .
And I'm telling you it was like a movie from the matrix . It was almost like the doors in the back are open and Kenny goes through the doors . As the doors are closing , he walks into the bus and the guy you could just tell like what are you doing on the bus ?
And Kenny hands him $10 and I can see from my car that the guy's eyes gets big and he's like , wow , the guy opens up the door , gets off the bus , runs up to my car and shakes my hand . Thank you , thank you , thank you , god bless you , god bless you . And I said God bless you . It was $10 .
Little acts of generosity can make a huge difference in people's lives . That's what generosity is about . It's not about the church trying to get the money from you . It's about them trying to get faith into your heart to be a blessing . It's not about the church trying to get the money from you .
It's about them trying to get faith into your heart to be a blessing . It's not about people trying to take advantage of you . It's about God trying to use you as an instrument of generosity in the earth . It's not about people trying to get something like an expense .
This , listen , do you know that when you're generous , it shows people that God is real and God is for them , and sometimes it's just the little things . And so , for me , I want to be a generous person with my words , my encouragement , my clothes , my money , my resources , my home people living with me .
Teach your children to be generous .
Be generous man .
That is a lesson that Kenny will keep for his life , yeah yeah , he was a soldier with it too .
Jumped on there with his little cornrows . That's my boy , and I'm sure in his mind he's just calculating like why is dad asking me to jump ?
out of his car . He's probably thinking $10 . He didn't even think about it .
He took the money , jumped out , jumped on the bus doors closed . And that man was just , he was just so honored .
I love you guys .
You guys are the best ?
What do you want me to cook for you ? What do you want me to make for dinner ? Oh , we won't .
I'm going to tell you what we really want . You know Psalms 112 and 5 , it says Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely who conduct ? their affairs with justice . This is a promise from God , not a suggestion , that good will come good in your marriage , good in your life , good emotionally good in your marriage .
Good in your life , good emotionally good relationships . Good things are going to come when you become generous . It's not a suggestion , it's a command from God . It reminds me of Oral Roberts , old school evangelist from back in the day . God rest his soul . He's no longer with us .
He used to say something good's going to happen for me today , something good's going to happen for you today . I prophesy that over somebody who's watching . Something good's about to happen for you today . When you make a decision to get more generous , god promises you the good things are coming your way . That is not wrong , that's not unbiblical .
That's what God's word says Proverbs 20 , 22 and nine . It says he who is generous will have a blessed eye , for he gives his bread to the poor . You know , I think we need to exchange the evil eye for a blessed eye . And you say , pastor , what is a blessed eye ? I think a blessed eye is a person that looks for giving opportunities .
They are all around us . I want to look for opportunities that I can sow into . Many people are looking for getting opportunities . Ooh , can I get somebody to give to me ? What can I take from somebody ? The Bible says it's more blessed to give than it is to receive .
I'm looking for opportunities to give in my church , to give to organizations , to give to the homeless , the poor , the needy . I have an eye . Does anything stick out to you ? I don't want to just .
No , yeah , I think that's that . You know , just being blessed to be a blessing , just looking around and instead of looking at everything that's wrong in the world . You know , looking around and oftentimes when we look and we see what's wrong , we just complain about what's wrong , but you know , we can actually be the answer to the problem .
I can make a change , we can actually make a change .
We can fix it , I can make a change .
First , timothy 617 says command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty . So the opposite would be be humble , nor to trust in uncertain riches , but in the living God . So one of the ways that you trust God is that you trust him with your riches . Okay , who gives us richly all things to enjoy ?
So God doesn't want us to not enjoy our life . That's not fleshy , he gives us richly all things to enjoy . It says let them do good and they be rich in good works .
So here's the , there's a four command , four part commandment do good , be rich in good works , ready to give , willing to share , storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may hold lay hold of eternal life . So what the Bible tells for those who are rich , god's been good to you financially .
You know , percentage wise , rich people give less than poor people , percentage wise , percentage wise . And it should not be . Um , there are rich people and I've heard this comment before . What I don't want to be the only one given . If I give , what other people are going to do ?
Listen , you don't be concerned with what other people , do you be concerned with the blessing that God has entrusted to you and give big . And the Bible gives us four commands . It says what ? Do good , be rich in good works , ready to give , willing to share . Do good , rich in good works , ready to give , willing to share .
Then it says , so that you can store it for yourself , eternal things . So you're giving . See what we get . As it relates to resources , it's all temporal . People are so man .
They're storing up for themselves new cars , new homes , better vacations , 401ks , investments , mutual funds , and those things are good because the bible says to leave an inheritance to your kids , kids . But those things do not pass .
When your spirit leaves your body and you go on to eternity , you don't take your 401k with you , you don't take your mutual funds , you don't take your stock portfolio with you , but the only thing that has an eternal value is what leaves your hand on the behalf of generosity , that you give .
And the Bible says that when you do that , you do good , you share , so forth and so on . You lay up for yourself eternal foundations , an eternal storehouse . So giving to the kingdom of God . Now , there's a lot of good organizations , but the church is the only place that has an EROI , an eternal return on investment .
So when we give to anointed ministries and souls get saved , that's the only thing that has an eternal impact . And as rich people , people who have business owners , kingdom builders , wealthy people , we should not just be giving for food and water and clothing .
We should be giving to local churches that have an E-R-O-I , where people are getting born again , coming out of darkness into the light . But those are the things that have an eternal storehouse . They have an eternal benefit . Are you with me ?
today I want to give personally . You want to give right now let's say you know I'm a business owner . Right , I love God , I'm a business owner . I can give to a nonprofit organization out here , or I can give to a church , which is a nonprofit organization . I want to give to a church that is going to take it and multiply it .
When you give to the church , you are giving to like , like you're given to a blessing , like we have the favor of God , like we are the hands and feet of God , we are speaking on the behalf of God . We're going to take your $10 and make it $10,000 . Like give to the blessing .
Listen . And it's not even just about giving to our church . Pick a church , yeah , we don't care . It's just about , like us , loving the bride . Like you're born again , you love Jesus . Quit dogging out his church , quit talking bad about his church . Start giving to the local house .
As imperfect as it is there's no perfect church but they still are doing an eternal work that God tells us to support financially . So here's the truth . You ready for it ? You don't give to your church , you actually give through your church . It is the way that you give to God , because you can't touch God . He's invisible , but he's omnipresent .
The way that you give to God is that you give to his bride , and when you give to the church , you give through the church . God receives it there . That's what Hebrews 7.1 is talking about , about the tithe . Here men receive your tithe , but there he receives it as a witness that he lives . And so I got a few closing thoughts here .
How do we become more generous ? You have to live open hearted and open handed , meaning that love is the motivating factor of why I give . I give even if there was no return on it , because I love Jesus and I love people , because he first loved me . That has to be the motivation of my giving .
Not getting , not harvest , not people putting my name on a plaque . I give because I love
¶ Transitioning to a Stewardship Mentality
God . Number two I want people to know you must transition from an ownership mentality to a stewardship mentality , meaning that what we have we don't own . We are stewards of it . So the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof . Our house is not our house . Our car is not our car . Our kids are not our kids .
The reason that people withhold what they should be given is because they think it's their money . So the only way to be a giver is that you got to move from an ownership mentality into a stewardship mentality . 10% . If you balk at giving 10% is because you think it's your money .
When you know that you are a steward and that God owns it all , meaning that 100% of your money belongs to God , he gives you 90% to see if you can be trusted over it and you give him back 10% . 10% is easy when you understand that 100% of it is his . That's all you're asking for , lord . Lord is 10% .
I don't even get excited when I go to Macy's and there's a 10% sale . I'm not . I'm not tripping over 10% . The only people that trip over 10% is they have an own is mine , it's my money and giving helps you get set free from that greed . And number three I would say this you have to create a giving plan for you and your spouse .
You know , if you want to be more generous , don't just say I'm a generous person . Create a giving plan . Many people have a business plan , got a marketing plan .
You got all these plans . Where's your ?
giving plan . People say , well , I want to make six figures this year , I want to give six figures this year . People say I make a living , I make a given , you know , and so I give to live and I live to give . I just feel like God always gets seed to the sower .
I feel like we live in a generation of people where there's a lot on the heart of God that needs to be built in our generation . But we need kingdom builders to rise up , people that are blessed to be a blessing , that understands that we can actually wage war with our finances . We can win in war better .
A lot of people just want to pray , but I remember going to a radio station years ago and they said well , pastors , they pray but don't pay , and so they wanted me to pay up front because of the reputation of people .
And that was sad to me because I believe that when people think of the church they should think that we're well provided for because our God owns a cattle upon a thousand hills , but many times we break his principles of finances that , and then we get upset when they're taught about as if you know , well , I heard , I think , a lot of people don't give .
it's almost as if they're afraid like well , if I get , like what is the church going to do with the money if they give money ? And I find that that's weird to me , like I personally have never had . that comes from people who have been hurt or maybe skeptics or they've heard something , but I've never been a part of that church .
I don't know who these people are talking about . Surely there's . I mean , I don't know people out there that are crazy , but I don't know . I have two eyes . I'm a pretty smart person , you know . Coming to a church building , you know , I see like I see what you're doing . Oh , I see your people out on the highway feeding the hungry .
Like I see what you're doing with my eyes Like I don't know .
I think those are excuses to not be generous . Can I give somebody who's watching just a piece of advice that helped me years ago when I first started giving .
¶ Principle of Generosity
I am not responsible for what a church , a nonprofit or an organization or the homeless does with what I give to them . I'm responsible with obeying God , Amen , and here's the principle to them I'm responsible with obeying God and here's the principle . The Bible says that whenever you sow a seed , the seed first must die .
And unfortunately , many people they don't let their seed die . That's why they never get a harvest . The people that says , well , I gave this amount of money , I need it back , or I gave this amount of money Then they trying to control the narrative . And I want the church to do this . And did we build this building over here ?
Yet , If not , they're trying to control you haven't let your seed die . See , seed has to die before it can ever come back in the full harvest . And so years ago I realized that I'm only going to stand before God and give an account of how I obeyed his call to be generous and the place that I give to .
They will stand before God and give an account of how they stewarded what people gave that will help people with the homeless . Because I remember people telling me well , don't give cash to the homeless , Just give them food . You don't know if they're going to buy substances and drugs and alcohol with that money .
And so for years I just went and tried to get homeless people food and I was my own skeptic . Now and then I realized it's not always my job to determine what they're going to do with the money , because now I'm given in fear , not even know . So now , every corner I go past , I ask the Holy Spirit Lord , do you want me to give ?
90% of the time is yes , and when I get a confirmation from the Holy Spirit to give , I'll get $2 , I'll get $5 , I'll get $10 , I'll get $20 , and I'll just give it to them . It's not my job to judge what they do with it . It's my job to be the hands and feet of Jesus . It's my job to obey God and to be a conduit of blessing in the earth .
It's their job to do what's right with it . When I got that revelation , it freed me up and , like I say there's , sometimes I go past the homeless person . I don't feel it , but most of the time , if the Holy Spirit is like , yep , be a blessing . Man that's what I'm here for .
I'm here for that , I'm here for that here , get you a sandwich , bro , or , you know , pay a bill . It takes the joy , like you have the privilege of being generous . Like you have , you have this privilege , but then it just sucks all the joy right out of it when you're like well , what are they going to do when I give them the money ?
it's like yeah , like I finance their habit of course .
Okay , now I'm never going to give because I'm too like . You know , like what am I ?
no , just just don't think of it so deep the trippy thing are the people that go to come to the church and you're like what are they doing with the money you never say that when you go to Publix . You never say that going to the grocery store when you put gas at the Exxon . You know what they're going to do with the money .
You don't know what Exxon doing with the money . You don't know what Apple doing with the money . Why the church .
I think sometimes people who have those attitudes and perspectives don't know what it's like to need . They've never been in that needy person in that needy position . So for me , I know what it's like not to have food to eat . I know what it's like to wait in welfare lines to get a turkey .
I know what it's like to feel like I have been thoroughly blessed because somebody picked my name off of the Christmas tree and brought me some clothes and delivered them at the hospital . I went to the hospital , come home with Christmas yeah , when our little is a lot to someone else .
But then also times we can judge , like if you had would have given my family money when they were little . Maybe they did take 50% of it and go buy alcohol with it , but the other 50% it put a loaf of bread on our table . Like , just do good , don't worry about it , people need it . It doesn't matter .
Don't worry about it , people need it , it doesn't matter . What would we do if we had X million dollars to build the Dream Center now in Orlando ? What would our homeless population be like ? What could we do ?
I'm not worried about all the rest . I don't need to be rich , I don't need a super gigantic salary . I just want to be used of God and I'm looking for people around the world that hear an anointing and hear that and partner with us . And so I want to pray for generosity to be activated in our listener today .
But before you do that , I want to pray at the end , and I believe that there's something that's turned off , that's about to be turned on . I want to talk about our Super Sunday Giving celebration that's coming up on December the 8th .
That's something to talk about and if you are watching this and you've been stirred to be generous , we would love for you to be able to sow a seed into the work of the Lord here at Doing Life with Ken and Tabitha , which is actually an outreach arm of a live church in . Orlando , florida , in multiple cities .
At the end of every year , we have a giving celebration . It's like a year-end offering , a kingdom expansion offering , and the offering that we receive at the end of the year . It helps us reach more people and change more lives . Next year , we are a 5013C nonprofit organization , so we don't get the benefit of selling tons of products To to to to do things .
We have to depend on the people who've been blessed by our ministry . And so , um , all we ask our church to do and now we want to ask our podcast family to do is just say , god , what would you have me to give ? And if you don't mind , could you just take a moment and just ask the lord , that lord , what would you have me to give ?
Don't mind , could you just take a moment and just ask the Lord , that Lord , what would you have me to give ? Now , our hopes is that you'll hear his voice and you'll obey his voice . If it's zero , that's fine . If it's $100 , that's fine . If it's $5,000 or a million dollars , that's fine too .
You can go over to mylifechurchorg backslash give , hit the dropdown menu that says giving and go there . The website will be in our show notes , but stick with me for a moment . Jesus is the reason for this season , y'all , and before we buy gifts for people that can't heal us , deliver us or save us , we believe the first and best gift should be to him .
Giving is never what we have to do . This is what we get to do . It is my honor to dig deep and to give . I mean , I have a number that I want us to give in Super Sunday this year .
I have another asset that I want to liquidate and if that happens before the end of the year , I can't make December 8th , but by the end of December I want to be able to double that amount . And I want to do that because , number one , god's been good to me and I love him .
But number two , 100% of everything that we receive just helps to go reach more people and do more ministry . And even when it comes to the poor , we set ourself to invest 10% of what comes in back into missions . So there's a portion of what people give to our church . The person is like man , I wanna do more for the poor .
When you give to our church , we do . We help the poor around the world . I can tell you around the world things that we do . But I just believe in ending your year in faith and I believe for some people this has been a challenging year and we don't want to end our year in unbelief and worry and doubt and fear .
We want to end our year in faith and we say get a word from God . Okay , the word of the Lord for our church is the word communion , and not communion like wine and bread communion , but Konani , a fellowship with God . And this is a season where we want you to be close to Jesus , we want you to hear his voice and sense his presence in all you do .
And if you want to sow towards that word or maybe God to give you a word of your own and you want to sow towards that word , you can't buy a blessing , but you can sow a seed out of love and faith and believe God that 2025 going to be your best year ever .
I believe it'll be your best year ever if it's your best year spiritually and we want to put God first in a tangible way . If this bears witness with you and you want to sow into our ministry , you want to give towards it
¶ Activation of Generosity and Blessings
. Listen , just go over to our website mylifechurchorg . Backslash , give , give whatever God puts on your heart between now and the end of December . We'll actually extend it to you now . We want you to give on December 8th . Now . Some of y'all want to make this your tradition and start flying in just to have your feet . There's something about Super Sunday .
There is no greater anointing and tangible presence of the Holy Spirit like Super Sunday . God confirms , when thousands of people come together sacrificially giving . The presence of God shows up in a magnificent way .
If you can get here , get here on December 8th , but if you can't , you can also give online , and anything you give all December long will go towards Super Sunday and I'm pumped about that .
I want you to pray .
I want you to pray that there are some people that the gift of giving has been lying dormant , and I want to pray for activation of generosity , just things that have been turned off to be turned on . Can you just pray for the people ?
Father , in Jesus name , I lift up every person listening right now and I pray for that gift of generosity . I pray that they begin to view it and know that it is a gift on the inside of them . It's a gift that they can pull the trigger on at any time .
And so , father , in Jesus' name , I pray that , through your anointing that , that gift is being opened up , it is being unwrapped , it is being activated . They thought that they couldn't make a difference , they thought that that wasn't for them , but lo and behold , father , they have a gift of generosity on the inside of them .
So , father , I pray those who have a little will give that little , but they cannot outgive your giving , father , because as they give of their little , they will receive from you , father , but they will be able to then give more and then receive more , because the Bible says that when we give , it's given back to us in a good measure , pressed down , shaking
together and running over , will men give unto their bosom . We cannot out give your giving , father . And so I just pray the favor of God upon every person . I pray that their eyes are open , that they will begin to see not negative things but opportunities to be a blessing , opportunities to be generous .
And , lord , I pray that they are truly blessed to be a blessing , that as they receive , they are giving and as they receive they are giving all the days of their lives . In Jesus name , amen .
And we also pray for witty ideas and inventions to be imparted to you , Doors of opportunity . Wrong doors be closed , right doors be open . Even those of you all who are in a court battle for some reason , we pray for favor with every judge and every attorney involved and things work out for your good .
For those of you all who have red tape in a business deal , we pray the favor of God's going before you even right now as you set your heart to be more generous . I pray for those of you all who are in need of new jobs .
We pray that new jobs come your way , supernatural debt cancellation , favor in the marketplace , that the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just . You happen to be the just , the people who want to build something that's bigger than yourself .
So we come against the poverty mindset , the victim mentality , and we declare that our best days , your best days , are still out in front of you . In Jesus name .
Amen . And I saw this one thing while you were praying , babe I saw a trash can , and that trash can represents things that someone who is watching that you need to throw away .
You're unable to be generous because this addiction maybe it's an addiction , just something that you're purchasing , buying whatever has been taking up your ability to be generous , but not only when you throw that in the trash can .
Literally , you will have room to be generous in your finances now , but even as you throw that thing away , god will be able to just pour more into you in every area of your life , and so I just pray that blessing over you Be obedient to that word . I believe you know who I'm talking to .
And I believe there's someone who's been dealing with severe back pain . You've been dealing with back pain . We pray that the power of the Holy Spirit begins to touch you right now and we command that inflammation , that swelling , wherever it's been , something that's torn , something that's broken , something that's not aligned we command that back pain . Leave right now .
We call you healed in Jesus name . Hey guys , if you enjoyed today , man , please let us know . This is one of those podcasts that you got to listen to it again and again and again . There was not just the activation of generosity , it was also the impartation of generosity , which is the download of the Holy Spirit .
Share this with your spouse , share this with your kids , share this in your small groups , and we pray that it just makes a huge difference in your life . If you're new to our podcast , welcome . Make sure that you hit the subscribe button , the icon on YouTube . If you're on another platform , hit the download so that you can be the first .
We release a new podcast every Thursday at 3 pm . Please let us know if this has been a blessing to you . We would love to hear your testimonies your comments any reviews that you have . You got anything , sweetheart ?
No , I'm good . Did you think I was going to say something ? I had no clue , sorry , no .
But , hey , and other than that , we would love to see you , man . If you're ever in the Florida area , come over to Orlando , tampa or Gainesville , come worship with us , hey , and take part in Super Sunday . Y'all Giving starts right now . The phone lines are open , like they used to say back in the day .
No , the internet is open and , uh , use it to bring God glory Y'all . We love you , guys . Next week Next week is the grand finale to season two , all right , and so we're ready to celebrate Christmas with y'all , and so make sure that you tune in next Thursday . We'll see you soon , peace .