MAKING ROOM FOR GENEROSITY

Make Room for Christmas #2

Pastor Dennis Clanton

Woodland Church

Sunday, December 14, 2025

GOD WANTS ME TO BE GENEROUS

(2 Corinthians 9:7) “God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”

1.  Give yourself to the Lord

(2 Corinthians 8:5) “Their first action was to give themselves to the Lord…”

2.  Give yourself to others

(2 Corinthians 8:5) “Their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.”

LOOK AT MY MONEY AS MANNA FROM GOD

(2 Corinthians 8:15) “As the Scriptures say, “Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough.”

(Exodus 16:18) “When they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed.”

LAP – You gather by working. If you keep too much it will rot your soul.

IMAGINE WHAT YOUR GENEROSITY CAN DO

1.  A harvest

(2 Corinthians 9:6) “Remember this-a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.”

How does your generosity come back?

(2 Corinthians 9:9) “As the Scriptures say, “They share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”

2.  A new world

(2 Peter 3:13) “We are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.”

Generosity will begin to heal your heart

3.  A vision of our Savior

(2 Corinthians 9:15) “Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!”

(John 3:16) “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

(Isaiah 9:6) For a child is born to us, a son is given to us.”

(Romans 8:32, Message) “If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us?”

Growthwork

1.  Change needs to come from the inside out

(2 Corinthians 8:8) “I am not commanding you to do this. But I am testing how genuine your love is…”

2.  Focus on God’s grace, not your heart

(2 Corinthians 8:9) “You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.”

3.  Just begin to give

(Mark 12:43) “This poor widow has given…”

4.  Give what you can

(Mark 12:43) “This poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions.”

5. Give because you love

(Mark 12:44) “For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”

Prayer

God, I look to you to provide my needs.

God, I love you more than I love money.

God, I live for you and you alone.

Amen