Picture a kid on a 747 in a thunderstorm. Rain streams down the windows, the sky is gray, and the plane shakes. Then it breaks through the clouds into sunlight. Pastor Dave was about 12 on his first flight, and he says he'll never forget it. His younger brother looked out the window and whispered, "It looks like heaven."
That moment changed how Dave saw the world. In Week 1 of Growing Generous at Courageous Church, he argued that generosity can do the same for you.
A Bigger World
The message is anchored in Proverbs 11:24. One translation puts it this way: the world of the generous gets larger and larger, while the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
Dave is clear that this goes beyond money. It includes your time, your encouragement, and your attention. He even says the fastest way to feel refreshed is to refresh someone else.
The Real Issue Is Trust
Most of us want to be generous. The hesitation comes from a different question: If I give, will I be okay?
Dave calls this a trust issue, not a generosity issue. Generosity is where we find out whether we trust God, and where that trust grows.
A Story With a Twist
Jesus tells a parable in Luke 12 about a wealthy man whose land produces a huge harvest. He builds bigger barns to store it all and plans to take life easy. Then God calls him a fool.
Dave points out that his problem wasn't the blessing. The man says "I" and "my" over and over, and he never sees that the harvest came from the ground, not just from him. He didn't pick his era, his family, or his opportunities. When we see that, Dave says, we hold what we have more loosely.
Three Ways to Start
Dave offers three practical steps:
Build a foundation of faithful trust. For Dave, that means tithing, giving the first 10% back to God. He and his wife have practiced it for over 20 years, and he calls it the place where trust begins. It's his conviction, shared as an invitation.
Get a vision for giving before getting. Dave shares how a calling to give shaped his family's life and even their business. The church lived this out by presenting nearly $6,000 in supplies for Toys for Tots, the MUSC family room, and Birthright.
Make your life about the mission. Walking into a coffee shop or a gym, you start asking, "Who can I encourage? Who can I bless?"
If You're New, Skeptical, or Starting Over
You don't have to believe everything or give anything to be welcome. If you're new to Charleston, haven't been to church in years, or have never been at all, this series is a low-pressure place to start. Nobody is expected to give. Dave simply asks you to come back next Sunday and see what happens.
Mark December 6 for Giving Sunday. The envelopes ask, "What are you believing for?" The answer might be healing, hope for a marriage, or just a little faith.
As Dave puts it, a scared world needs a generous church.
Ready to find out what a bigger world looks like? Join us at Courageous Church in Charleston.