The Contagious Joy of Generosity

Leslie Basham: What does a generous heart sound like?

Cheryl: My husband and I believe that anything we have is God’s, and we look for opportunities to serve others so that others can grow spiritually in any way possible that we can share.

Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of The Quiet Place, for Wednesday, February 13, 2019.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Over the last couple of days, we’ve been looking at a passage in Scripture that I love. It’s just three verses, and it’s about a group of women who ministered to the practical needs of Jesus. In fact, let me just read those verses, if you weren’t with us for the couple of days. It’s found in Luke chapter 8, just verses 1 through 3. It says,

Jesus went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him. 

Of course, that was the twelve disciples that Jesus had chosen to accompany Him in His work. But it says in verse 2,

Also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for him out of their means.

Now, there’s so much we aren’t told in that passage, but I love what we are told. These are women who had been dramatically, radically transformed by Jesus’ teaching and His ministry. 

Now, we don’t know if they were all wealthy women. Some of them were. But whatever means they had, they used it to support Jesus. And, of course, it wasn’t just Jesus they were supporting. It was also that band of disciples and perhaps others who were following Jesus as this teacher.

Well, as I was preparing for this series, I couldn’t help but think about some of the women that I know who are still meeting the practical needs of Jesus. Now, of course, they aren’t literally walking with Him as these women did in the New Testament because He’s no longer here on earth. But they are serving Him by serving His people and serving His kingdom. And they’re giving generously to the work of Christ in this world.

One of the ways that these women are supporting the ministry of Christ is by giving to meet the needs of Revive Our Hearts. I contacted several of these women. They’re friends of mine. They’re supporters of this ministry, and I know they support other ministries as well. So I asked them, “Why do you give to support the Lord’s work in general, and why do you give to support the ministry of Revive Our Hearts in particular?”

Today I wanted to take time to share several of their answers with you because I think, as you hear from these women, God will cause a greater spirit of generosity to well up in your own heart as it has in mine.

So first let me tell you what a woman named Lori said. 

Revive Our Hearts first impacted me in ’99 at a woman’s conference in Texas where I heard your message, "Forgiven, Forgiving, and Free."

I had so much to be forgiven of personally and people that I needed to forgive. Your books, especially Lies Women Believe, and your teachings have helped make me more aware of my faulty thinking and have radically changed our marriage and our parenting. Through personal struggles of learning to live in this fallen world, receiving Jesus’ forgiveness and love, and the ongoing revival in my life, it’s been a journey that I have thankfully made with my Bible, Jesus, and your books.

Because Jesus has done a mighty work in my life through Lies Women Believe, it directly had a positive impact on my husband so many years ago. He has become a huge fan of Revive Our Hearts, so much so that he’s the one that initiated our becoming a Ministry Partner. When your wife becomes kinder and easier to live with, it’s a win-win for everyone.

I strive to live out the truth and principles of biblical womanhood in my marriage and as I homeschool our four children. There’s such a stark difference in my children’s lives and hearts since the Lord uncovered the lies that I was enslaved to.

I may not be able to change my past decisions and their consequences, but God is definitely redeeming today and the future of my daughters’ lives, and that is so beautiful. As a result of confession, repentance, and forgiveness, God is bringing beauty out of the ashes of my life.

And as a result, Lori has said, “I want to support the work that Christ is doing through this ministry so that it can happen in other people’s lives as well.”

I love how Lori is passing along the baton of faith to her own children and also passing along what she has received to others by investing in Revive Our Hearts.

Now, as I was thinking about women who display the beauty of a generous heart, I also thought of a friend named Cheryl. Our team had a chance to talk with Cheryl about the joy of giving, and here’s what she said.

Cheryl: Well, Revive Our Hearts has just changed my life. The last nine years I’ve been going through some really big trials. One that started nine years ago that put me in a depression that was so hard that I really didn’t function at all. And jumpstart now to nine years later, I still have that same trial, and it’s harder than it was nine years ago, and on top of that, I have two more trials that are just as difficult.

And this past year, God has healed me of that depression, and I am totally free. I have joy. I have learned how to have true joy in the middle of these trials, and it just makes me want to shout to everyone and just share my story. And a lot of this teaching has just come from Revive Our Hearts. So it is just overflowing. It’s like I can’t quit talking about it.

The book that’s been very meaningful to me through Revive Our Hearts is Lies Women Believe, because of my depression. I know that mine started from years ago, and it started with lies that I started believing. Then as I got older, I started living like the lies that were told to me. And then when I hit forty, the depression came because of the lies.

But now that God has freed me from all that depression, that’s the book that just means the most to me that I just want to teach to everyone because I believe if we can learn the truth that those are lies.

My husband and I believe that anything we have is God’s, and we look for opportunities to be able to open it up, to be able to serve others so that others can grow spiritually in any way possible that we can share. Even though I’m giving, I’m the one that benefits the most.

Because of how much I’ve gotten out of Revive Our Hearts, being a Ministry Partner to me, with living in Puerto Rico, and we lived in St. Thomas before that, I know that the giving will be able to benefit so many more people and will be able to reach out to so many other countries or territories, which is where I was.

Nancy: Our team recorded that interview with Cheryl at a Revive Our Hearts True Woman conference. While Cheryl was in the States attending that conference, she had opened her home so that other women could meet there and watch the livestream of that event.

That’s just another example of the kind of generous heart that comes from being changed by Jesus and wanting to serve Him.

Kim is another woman who exemplifies this heart attitude. I asked her, “What difference has Jesus made in your life, and how has this motivated you to give to His work?”

Kim wrote:

Jesus Christ is my everything. He has saved me and given me an abundant life filled with joy overflowing and peace in the midst of the most challenging circumstances. He has transformed my life.

It’s funny that you would email and ask me to answer these two questions because just recently I went to get my taxes done, and the accountant was commenting on how I gave lots of money away. She thought this was unusual for a young person like me (I turned thirty this past year). I explained to her that God has been so good to me, and I wanted to give back to Him.

I gave her a little tract that explained the good news of the gospel, and said, "This will explain why I like to give my money away. Accepting Jesus is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

And what a sweet witness that was to her accountant. She went on to say to me:

Lots of people would look at me and say that I was too young to be giving money to the Lord. They would think that in your twenties and thirties you should be investing your money in the bank, paying mortgages. They say, "You don’t have money to give to the Lord." The truth is that you are never too young to be giving to the Lord’s work. You cannot out give God.

He has taken care of everything I’ve needed, all while I’ve had the great privilege of investing in eternity. Now that’s an account that always has a good return.

Kim went on to say,

Jesus Christ is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and my deepest desire is to glorify Him. Because of this, I desire that others would know Jesus like I do. By investing my financial means into organizations like Revive Our Hearts, I’m able to impact others for Jesus Christ that I would otherwise never come into contact with.

I love to give money to the work of Christ and have a little part in what God is doing right here in North America. I love to give overseas. But I also see the mission field in my own back yard. As a society, we have become biblically illiterate, and there’s such a great need for solid biblical teaching based on the Word of God.

I want to be a good steward of what God has given me, so I’m very particular where I invest financially. What I love about Revive Our Hearts, and why I love being able to have a part in this ministry financially and through prayer is that they point people to the Word of God. They teach about revival and living a consecrated life for Jesus Christ. They are committed to the Word of God, and the Word of God is what changes people.

The messages and books and resources from ROH have greatly impacted my own personal Christian life by drawing me closer to Christ and inspiring me to go deeper into the Word of God. Because God has done a work in my heart through the teaching of His Word on ROH, and I want others to experience the abundant life that Christ died to give to them, well, that’s why I invest in Revive Our Hearts.

Wow! What an encouragement it is to read something like this and hear about a young woman who is saying, “Life is too short to spend all my income on myself. I want to invest in kingdom work and have a spiritual return in the lives of others.”

Well, over the last couple of days, as I was teaching on Luke chapter 8, I talked about what one writer has called “gospel patrons”—those who give out of their resources to support and underwrite the work of Christ and His kingdom.

And these women that we’ve been hearing from today are gospel patrons. They’re women who are amazed by what God has done for them so they want to give generously back to Him.

Let’s hear some more about their joy in giving.

I heard from a friend named Vicki. She wrote:

As I’ve encountered Jesus Christ and His living and active Word, I’ve come to experience healing and freedom from the burden and guilt of my sins. And I’ve come to experience hope for my tomorrows.

After an unwanted divorce and then many years later in a second marriage, as I was in God’s Word and seeking to know Him, God showed me my sinful heart attitudes that were at the core of the discord in my marriages. These heart attitudes could not be healed by being single or by marrying a different man. God was using marriage to reveal the depravity of my heart and my desperate moment-by-moment need for my Savior Jesus Christ.

Having experienced the brokenness and pain of sinful choices, I am more than eager to financially support bold proclamation of truth so that women, regardless of life circumstances, will experience the power of God’s provision in Christ.

I see the Spirit of God working through Revive Our Hearts as truth is boldly proclaimed. Revive Our Hearts’ programs echo the still, small voice of God, calling women to that restful and healing place of obedience to the Word of God. And, according to my husband, as Revive Our Hearts impacts the lives of women, those women are impacting the men in their lives. God is on the move at Revive Our Hearts.

And this couple, Vicki and her husband, have been such sweet friends and supporters and encouragers of this ministry because of what God has done in their lives and their desire to invest in others’ lives as a result.

Well, here’s a letter from another woman who has a heart to give. Jenny said:

Jesus is truth and light. Satan is lies and darkness. For many years I believed the lies of Satan and the world and lived them out. When finally coming to repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ, I discovered Elisabeth Elliot’s radio program, Gateway to Joy.

As I listened to her biblical teaching and practical application, God continued the transformational work He had begun in my life. Her counsel on biblical womanhood ran polar opposite to what was bombarding me daily through the media, magazines, and friends.

With my Bible in hand, I listened and learned, and Elisabeth Elliot became my spiritual mother. She was a lifeline, encouraging me to stand firmly on the Rock of Jesus Christ and His Word.

Sadly, though, we never financially supported that ministry. Several years passed, and Elisabeth left radio broadcasting. Another woman, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, had been called by the Lord to a new program, Revive Our Hearts.

In the fall of 2001, I eagerly listened to your first broadcast. Immediately my mind and heart knew that you were called for this generation to teach and proclaim the truth of God’s Word as Elisabeth had done before. I also strongly sensed that the Lord was calling my husband and me to become financial supporters of this new ministry.

After the many years, when as a woman, wife, and mother, I have felt alone and swimming upstream in the culture, ROH has been there for me as a constant source of encouragement and strength while consistently pointing me to Christ and His Word. Revive Our Hearts is like a very good friend, holding me accountable to truth, challenging me to become the woman God created me to be.

My husband, my children, my extended family and friends have all been greatly blessed because of the guidance and counsel I have gleaned from you and from Revive Our Hearts, proclaiming the truth of the Bible that sets women free.

My husband and I are grateful for the privilege to partner financially with this ministry, and we would encourage others to join together with us in calling women to freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ.

Well that woman and her husband have become sweet friends and partners of this ministry. They have invested in this ministry, and we’ve continued to invest in their lives. And through this partnership, many other lives of women and their families around the world are being transformed by the truth that sets people free.

And here’s another letter. This one from a woman named Lois. I had the joy of meeting Lois and her husband not too long ago, and she shared with me this sweet testimony, and I asked if she would put it in writing so we could share it with some of our ministry friends. She said:

While attending a women’s retreat in New York in 2005, I walked into the campus’ Christian bookstore, and I remember specifically asking the Lord to help me find a Bible study or a book that would encourage me in my walk with Him. As I perused the shelves, the title of a large paperback book caught my eye: Seeking Him: Experiencing the Joy of Personal Revival.

Now, Seeking Him is a book that I co-authored with Tim Grissom a number of years ago. And Lois went on to describe how God used this Seeking Him study in a significant way in her life. She said:

Seeking Him was the catalyst God used to help me begin to discover decades of unconfessed sin, hurts I’d inflicted on others, and a holier-than-thou-attitude and lifestyle. No wonder repeat sins had such a grip in my heart and life.

Working my way through Seeking Him, I was convicted to contact individuals and seek forgiveness for my hurtful words and actions. I returned some things I had long ago borrowed and kept from people to whom they belonged.

Slowly, the Lord helped me to clean house, which started a sanctifying process in a wonderful way, providing newfound relief. I’m thankful the Lord continues to do surgery, to cut away the sin and ugliness that desire to own me.

Because of the impact of Seeking Him, I shared the book with my husband. He studied it, and then we shared Seeking Him in an adult Sunday school class at our church. Eventually, all the adult Sunday school classes simultaneously went through the book, learning and growing together, for a total of five or six classes from young adults through seniors.

Because of a life-changing impact the ministry of Revive Our Hearts has had on our lives, my husband and I felt led of the Lord to give financially to encourage and help the ministry spread the good news of freedom in Christ to those who are struggling or living without hope. We’ve seen ROH do that powerfully through this wonderful teaching ministry that is so desperately needed in our time and in our culture.

Well, as I think about women whose lives have been dramatically transformed through the power of Christ, His gospel, and His Word, I think of my precious friend, Vicki Rose. Vicki and Bill have been on the Revive Our Hearts’ broadcast a number of times in the past, and if you go to ReviveOurHearts.com, we’ve posted a video we’ve produced of Vicki and Bill’s story.

Vicki tells about how she was separated from her husband, who was addicted to drugs and women, and Vicki was raising their two young children alone. At a point of desperation in her life, she came to know Jesus. Her life was healed. God restored her marriage, and in the nearly thirty years since, has used her as an instrument to minister to other broken women and marriages.

If you’ve not seen the video of Vicki's story, you will want to go to ReviveOurHearts.com and pull it up. It’s really an amazing story. But I want to share with you a short clip where Vicki shares why she and her husband are so grateful to the Lord for the ministry of Revive Our Hearts, and why they have chosen to support this ministry financially.

Vicki Rose: One of the greatest tools in my life for walking all of this out—for being married, staying married, being a wife who respects her husband—one of the greatest tools for me has been listening to Revive Our Hearts.

I tell Nancy Leigh that I’m her walking buddy because when I go for exercise, for a walk most days, or a roller blade, or whatever it is—bike ride—I strap on my iPod and listen to Revive Our Hearts every day.

I need reminding every day of who I am in Christ, what that requires of me. I need that teaching to help keep my eyes focused on the Lord, on the goal of walking with Christ. I can be in a really bad mood, and Billy and I could have had words, and I’ll turn on Revive Our Hearts and hear something that really causes me to be sorry for my own attitudes and behaviors and draws me back to a right attitude. Revive Our Hearts is key in my life. Nancy Leigh’s teaching, she’s a godly mentor who teaches the Word of God like no other.

When I’m walking and listening to Revive Our Hearts, I realize that women all over the world are able to hear it because of women, like myself and like you, who can invest in the ministry of Revive Our Hearts. Women all over the world can tune in by podcast or computer, and that is mind-boggling to me that someone in a closed country, where the gospel is not allowed to be preached, can hear the Word of Christ preached through her computer.

So supporting Revive Our Hearts, I believe, is one of the most important ministries to women that we have the opportunity to participate with and support.

Every single tool that Revive Our Hearts has points me and others to Christ and to that fulfillment that we’ve talked about. And I am really excited to be a part of accelerating that movement.

Nancy: In Acts 23 the apostle Paul quoted the Lord Jesus saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

That’s more than just a verse to quote for today’s guests. They truly understand the joy of giving to the Lord’s work. It’s women, like the ones we’ve heard from today, that help make Revive Our Hearts possible. And they don’t support this and other ministries out of obligation. They don’t give grudgingly. They’re sharing their very lives, praying for us, sharing this ministry with others.

As you think about your stewardship of the resources that God has entrusted to you, if the Lord has used Revive Our Hearts in your life or in the lives of others that you know, would you consider how you could joyfully give to support the work of this ministry?

• That could mean committing to pray faithfully for our various outreaches.
• It could mean sharing this message with other women who need to hear it.
• And perhaps God has made it possible for you to give a financial gift to help keep this ministry going.

We trust the Lord to meet the needs of this ministry through people like you who say, “Yes, God has touched my life. His truth is changing me. And I want to be a part of helping to get this Word and work of Christ into the lives of others around the world.”

Thank you for giving joyfully, and what a privilege it is to do that together, for the sake of Christ and His kingdom.

Leslie: Yes, and Nancy, today, when listeners give a donation of any amount to Revive Our Hearts, we’ll say “thanks” by sending them a copy of a pamphlet you wrote. It’s called, “Giving God’s Way: Biblical Guidelines for Giving.” So, as a listener, you can get this helpful pamphlet by going to ReviveOurHearts.com and making a donation. Or you can ask for it when you call in with your gift. The number is 1–800–569–5959.

Tomorrow, Nancy will be back with her husband Robert to talk about marriage lessons they’ve learned from Romans chapter 12. Please join us again tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.