Basics | Week 7 | Sermon

Just like my going and living intentionally, the first thing is our story, our testimony is a mission, not a memory. Living intentionally with our money, tithing is also a testimony. It's not a transaction.

It's not something that God wants from us. It's not something that this church just wants from you. It's what God wants for us. And we will see clearly that there are things in our lives that we will never be able to experience until we surrender to this. And that why God asked us to tithe

is for us. Because it does something in us. It declares something through us in our trust of God, And then God uses what we give to do something in this world that we get to be a part of that is really what we were built for. And we get to be a part of lasting

change. For example, everyone who gives here that sacrifice and tithes here, guess what you were a part of? 212 baptisms and 619 eternities being changed

for all of time. That's what we get to be a part of. And you know what? I had to learn this. So I'm just gonna tell you a little bit of my story and then walk through the three responses

that we face. And and how I wrestled with them.

Because I I like I said, I became a Christian. I told that last week. And right away, I jumped in. I came to know Christ. I was committed to church. I grew, you know, public worship, private practices. I got into community and biblical community. I grew. You know, I went to grow in community where I had friends and people in my life where I'm known, accepted, supported, developed.

And then I would go. And right of way, I go. I found out what my talents were, my time. It was ironic that God called me into what I'm doing because

like I said before, I told my mom once when she made me take a speech class because she said everybody needs to know how to talk in front of people. And I said, as God is my witness of anything I can do in my life, I will never talk in front of people. And God, Jesus said, hold my wine, and here we are today. And I

did all that. And then when it came to this point of God asking us to tithe, like to be generous, and to give the first and best of my income as a sacrificial gift in showing him that he is Lord not money. In honoring the fact that he gave me everything and just asked for part of it back.

The fact that he uses it to transform lives in ways that I would just spend the money on something stupid probably. I hit a wall. I gave, but I gave my leftovers in last. I was tipping God. And I was already a pastor. So I gotta understand if you're here and you're getting frustrated already,

if you don't believe any words that come out of my mouth, believe this. I know exactly how you feel because I felt it and I probably felt it even stronger than you do. Because I was in ministry and yet I wouldn't do it.

And part of my frustration because is it makes it worse because I had what I thought were really good reasons. I was being severely underpaid as a youth pastor

and I thought it was ridiculous to give my employer 10% of my money back when they're underpaying me. And I justified I work sixty hours a week instead of forty hours a week, so my extra time counts as a tithe. I had every reason.

You know the Bible says be a cheerful giver. We'll see that in a minute. I could say, hey, I don't have to give because I ain't cheerful about this. I had everything

going against me except for my wife who has the gift of giving and likes to trust and honor God said, I think we should be doing this. So I wasn't leaving the home. Well, I fought it. We would give a little, a little there, a little this, and and and and and but not really just be intentional and look at what is tithing.

And then I came to a point where she talked to me about it. She prayed for me, and the praying for me sick the Holy Spirit and one of my friends on me is when I sat and a guy who helped me plant this church, Randy Deal. He was the executive pastor at the church we were at together before we came here. And

he sat me down and said, listen, you've been a ministry while you're leading over 200 students. You're telling of they need to trust God and things like how they date and how they treat their parents of what they do in school bus. And you are ignoring what God's asked you to do financially. I

get it. When he challenged me that way, I had the same look at him that I'm seeing a bunch of men look at me right now.

I'm thankful. I mean, I fought. I made it hard. I fought. I was frustrated. But I eventually had to sit by myself

because he said these words. All these things you're telling me, I get. But what does any of that have to do with the simple fact that here is why God has asked you to trust him with his money no matter how much you have, no matter what the current circumstances,

and what it is, because what it does for you and in you and through you is the very reason he asked you to give even when you feel like you can't. And I had to sit before the Lord. That's what I'm asking that you guys would be honest and look at.

Because here's what I wanna do. I gotta keep my time right and I don't normally do this, but I want a rapid fire through the Bible, a bunch of passages really quick. I'll give a little bit of context so you don't know what you know what's going on, but I'm gonna start

all the way back in Genesis four, and I'm gonna look through about eight passages that talk about giving and what's the idea of why we give, what is a tithe, what is all this about. Go all the way into the New Testament really fast because I know many of you already know what God says about this. I mean, many of us sitting in this room are like me. If you know what the Bible says, you're it's a heart issue for you, not a head issue. But a lot of us, you don't even know what God simply says about it. And I just wanna go, this is the things that faced me. I had to sit there and go, am I gonna believe God?

Am I gonna believe God on this? Because it changed everything. And

so here we go. I'm gonna walk through these. So here we go. First off, Genesis four chapter three through seven. This is like right in the beginning. Cain and Abel, they're Adam and Eve's sons,

and it shows them worshiping God through sacrificial giving before the law even existed. Before the commands to do it even existed. And and it's interesting because God accepts Abel's but rejects Cain.

But listen to what it says. When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift, the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift,

but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry and he looked dejected. Why did they both gave? It wasn't just about the giving. It was the order and the amount. Like what did he do? What was the difference? It says Cain got around to eventually bringing some.

In other words, he took his crop, made sure he had enough. I'll give a little bit to the Lord. God did not accept that. Abel brought the first and the best. He brought first

and best because it showed that I trust God as the provider of all, and I'm not gonna wait till I know I'm okay. I give to God first. That's what God accepted. Because what this means is is it's actually that giving is to give your first and your best in faith, not casually from what's left.

And then and look it says it made Cain very angry and he looked dejected. Matter of fact, he went on and killed his brother. I feel like that's what a lot of you guys are looking at me right now like you're Cain and and I'm being able and you're gonna you're mad at God, but you wanna kill me.

That's usually what happens when we just we don't want to accept something. Because you go to Genesis 14. Now Abram, who's not Abraham yet. This is still before the law is set. Before tithing is set down as a command. It says,

Abraham meets this priest Ming, Michilzedek, after he has this great victory, and he gets a bunch of cash, basically. He gets a bunch of stub, and this priest prays over him and says, you know, you realize God gave you this victory, and he tithes. It's the first tithe. He gives a tenth. Tithing means a tenth, by the way. It's 10%. In the Bible, tithe means tenth, and tenth is always a test.

It's very literal on that. So if you say you tithe and you're not at least a tenth, you're not tithing, you're just giving. And so it says this, Melchizedek,

the king of Salem and a priest of God most high brought Abraham some bread and wine. Melchizedek blessed Abraham with this blessing. Blessed be Abraham by God most high, creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high who has defeated your enemies for you.

Then Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered. The first tithe in scripture wasn't demanded. It was a voluntary act of gratitude and it was worship not obligation.

Leviticus twenty seven thirty and thirty two. Now this is when it's the context of it being set down as a command to God's people to say here's what I'm asking you to do. It says it

says, one tenth of the produce of the land whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees belongs to the Lord and must be set apart at to him as holy. Count off every tenth animal from your herds and flocks and set them apart for the Lord as holy.

That holy means set apart. Meaning God that says, hey, it's to show that I have given you a 100% of what you have I gave you. I want the first tenth. I want you to set up it apart as holy to me. And why? It's because it does something in us. It's not just some tax.

It's a trust that says, actually do believe that God is the provider. And when I do that and God does provide, I don't worry about money anymore.

If you go to Deuteronomy eight seventeen and eighteen, it goes deeper into this. It says it

Moses, as they were going in the promised land, warned the people as they went. He goes, God's gonna bless us, but we gotta remember that it's his wealth. He gave it to us. And don't brag and think, I did the work. I did this. It's in my strength. He says this, he did all this so you would never say to yourself, I achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy. Remember the Lord your God. He's the one who gives you the power to be successful in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.

In other words, when we forget the source, we fear the shortage. And that's why he asked us to give first and best.

Deuteronomy fourteen twenty two and twenty three goes deeper into the purpose of what does God do with it. Why what does he wanna do with what we give? It says it's in the context of for the worship, for the temple.

It says this, you must set aside a tithe of your crops, one tenth of all the crops of your harvest each year. Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship.

Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God. You all understand that I can trust God more than fear the other stuff, the shortages, and all of that. And it says your designated place of worship. In the New Testament, Paul says in first Corinthians 16, you give where you gather. So it does answer the question of when people say, well, what if I give elsewhere?

We can give elsewhere, but he wants us to bring the tithe to our designated place of worship. Malachi three eight through 10. It's a test in our heart. Do we trust God?

This is in the context of after the exile, and I think this relates to us in our culture today as Christians. God they got sent in exile. It was bad, but God blessed them and took care of them. They come back. God's blessed them again. They're doing well. And instead of tithing, they start giving their leftovers because they focus more on building bigger houses. It literally says you're building bigger houses, nicer stuff. They're spending it on themselves to live nicer. They're raising their standard of living and lowering their standard of giving.

And here's what he says to him. Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me. But you ask, what do you mean? When did we ever cheat you? You've cheated me of the tithes and the offerings due to me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple. Enough food, mean, so I will do through you what I'm going to accomplish in the world.

What they were bringing was they were bringing their lame and goes on to say their lame and sick animals. Because they're like, well, that one's not gonna do me any good. I'll just give that to God.

He says, if you do, says the Lord of heaven's armies, I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in. Blessing there doesn't just mean finance. It means you will see

my purpose. You will not have that fear. You will not go without. You will have what you need, and you will have a calmness, peace, contentment, a joy.

A matter of fact, he goes on one point to say, and if you don't you're gonna be cursed. I didn't want to write that down because I thought you guys a bit confused by the idea of curse. Like it was like some curse, and now I just said it. So why didn't I just read it?

It means the curse is, if you don't you're gonna be cursed with always freaking out about money.

You're gonna be cursed with never having enough wanting more. You're gonna be cursed with even when you have a lot worrying about losing it. And all of that's gonna make you not want to be generous. All of that's gonna make you want to pucker up when a pastor says, hey, God wants us to give to to be generous people. That's what God does. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.

Anything you say you love, if you don't give to it, you don't love it. And and we struggle. I struggle with that. I was under the curse.

See my curse when I grew up is because I grew up in a home that my parents were really open about money. 90% of that was great. They taught me to save. Was a great saver. They taught me not to get into debt. I never got credit card debt. They taught me all those things, but they also openly talked about where they were at. And when you're seven years old and your dad loses his job and they're talking openly about I don't know how we're gonna make the house payment and all that, it added something that came with all the good, anxiety.

I

didn't even realize this. I carried a basic anxiety. The reason I was a good saver is I was always afraid. Even the good things I did was out of fear. Fear of not having enough. Fear of missing out. Fear of what might happen. Fear of that. And that is what led to my resistance in tithing. Because I'm like, how can I give to God when I don't make enough? How can I give to God when I'm at a church that's finishing the budget, 150,000,

$1,000,000 over budget a year, and they won't they they this is what we pay a youth pastor? And it was 25% less than a teacher makes in that area. And and how could I feel good about that? It really went back to my childhood. I was under this curse of always freaking out.

That's what Malachi is talking about. That's what God says over and over and over again. We get caught in this cycle, and giving breaks us out. And then you're like, well, that's Old Testament. Well, let's jump into the New Testament. In Matthew twenty three twenty three, Jesus is calling out some pharisees

because they were tithing. I mean, really tithing. Gross, not net.

They were tithing off their herb garden. That'd be like your side hustle where you get paid in Venmo, and you think God you know, the government might find out, but God doesn't know. So I'm not I'm just gonna keep that money. You know? They were really strict on tithing. His problem wasn't with that. His problem was with, but you don't care about people. You think you're doing this to prove yourself and make yourself more spiritual.

So look what he says, he goes, What sorrow awaits you teachers of the religious law and Pharisees hypocrites for you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income of your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of law justice, mercy, faith. But look what he says, you should tithe. Yes. That's Jesus

in the New Testament saying you should give a tenth. My problem isn't with the giving the tenth. My problem is that all you're doing is giving. You're not loving. But don't neglect the more important things. He goes on in into Acts, chapter four where where where it shows that in the New Testament,

God doesn't lower. See, lot of people like to argue, well, a tenth, that was the Old Testament. We're now under grace. So you think that God would take something that is really a part of the moral law of God? The character and nature? And say, hey, when you didn't even know the fullness of the gospel,

and you didn't have the Holy Spirit in your life, it was here's what I'm asking you to do in generosity. But now that you absolutely know the love of Christ, and you have the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm gonna lower the bar. He doesn't do that on any other command that comes into the New Testament about love.

They all raise, and it's shown right here in Acts chapter four when this church became the church and they were struggling. You know why they're struggling? There were 120 people. One sermon, they had 3,120. They had 3,000 new believers in a day. We've come close. 3,000 in eight weeks.

And that's hard. You got a lot of needs that's gotta be taken care of. And it says all the believers were united in heart and mind. They felt what they had what they owned was not their own. That's the key to why God asked us to give. It's a declaration that I know what I have is not mine.

So they shared everything they had. They were no. There were no needy people among them because those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring money to the apostles to give those in need. Grace produces more generosity, not less.

And then finally, the passage I refer to as part of my struggle, second Corinthians nine six through eight. Paul says, remember this, a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but he who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure

for God loves a person who gives cheerfully and God will generously provide all you need then you've always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. So he says we should give cheerfully with joy. And you know what a lot of us take that is, like I did.

Well, I don't feel good about it, so I guess I don't have to give. What he meant was when we learn to give intentionally because we know what it's about, you will have joy. You will see God take care of you. It's not a I see it, then I'll believe it. It's like I I accept it, and then I'll see it.

And so there it is. That's just a quick bottom line from Genesis to right now.

Giving was never about a tax. It was about trust. It's not just a rule to follow. It's a rhythm of freedom. And so what we got to do I was confronted with this. I sat there. My friend challenged me. I kinda knew this, but I looked at it again. And I had three different responses

about what to do in this moment. And I think every one of us is in one of these three spots right now. The first one is fear. Fear. Fear causes us to flee it. You don't be afraid because I don't wanna deal with it.

I was I've I ran into a few kids out here, and it's funny whenever I talk to kids and like if you have your own kids or well, you remember when you were a kid? When they don't like something or they're afraid of something or they know they did something, they won't look at you.

I went into a little, hey, how are you doing? And I try to go around. They go around. And and it's like it's funny. Like they actually think if I don't look at you, you're not there. That's how many of us are with this idea of honoring God with our money. I'm so afraid that if I ignore it, it's not really an issue.

It's an issue. It's an issue in your heart whether you see it or not. It's an issue that we need to address. And I realized that's what I was doing. Every excuse I made was a distraction. I just thought if I didn't look at it, it wasn't there.

And and I try to run. And the reason a lot of us are stuck in the fear mode is you're like, I can't. I can't. I can't says, I'll go without. There's no way I could. It says, if I tithe, there's I won't survive. But there's another type of fear in this room too. It's called I could fear.

The I can'ts and I coulds. They both create fear. The I can'ts is where I'm at is where I was at as youth pastor. There is no way. I don't even get paid enough to support myself. Why would I give to God first? That's exactly when he wants you to give first.

But there's also a lot of us in this room that our fear isn't that you can't, it's that you could is your fear. It's what I could be doing with this money if I don't give it. I could be this. What am I it's more of I won't live, and the other one is what I'll miss out on.

And so we struggle with that. We're afraid. They're afraid that if I do that, I can't do this. I'm gonna miss out. And many of us are in this phase that it's even worse. You were an I could who already did. And now you say you can't.

Because you're in debt, and you've bought a house, and you've leveraged yourself to where there isn't any margin at all, and now you're stuck. And that's really the problem. That's where I was. I felt like this is impossible to do. And then my friend says, what's impossible? If I actually started tithing at least 10%.

The math doesn't even math. I can't even pay my house payment and buy groceries if I do that. And my friend said, but God said that's exactly when you should.

Because now you're trusting the fact that you say, God, you said you will take care of my needs.

What happens if you tried that and it works?

You realize in our culture money is such a strong idol. If you just solve that, you know how many other things would get fixed in your life because you would say, if you can trust God on that, what would you not trust God on now?

It really is the answer in our heart of, I can say I love God. I love His love. I believe in Him. I trust Him. You could say those words and do so many things, and that's what I realized. I could say all that, but if I don't trust Him with my money, I don't really trust Him at all.

I'll trust you for all this this theoretical stuff, God. But my everyday existence? No way. No. I'm not saying that's you. That was me. I finally realized. I was saying, I don't really trust you in the day to day.

I don't really trust your heart. I don't really trust that you will take care of me. I don't trust that not getting this stuff but letting you bring me this different blessing is really better. And that's what I had to wrestle with. And I wrestle with it so strong that I moved right into the next one, frustration.

Frustration causes us to fight it. So now, other than just flee it, that when it got pointed out and I got confronted, I got confronted.

I got angry. I had to have looked at you guys have. I had some of you sitting here going, this is great. I wanna walk out of here, or you're just angry with me. You wanna be Cain, man. You're just like, I wanna go find somebody to kill that's telling me to do the right thing. And

the reason I know that's true is that was me. All I'm telling you is that was me. I'm not this pastor saying, we need your money. I'm a pastor that says, I would not have the blessing of being here talking to y'all and all the joy I've had over the last twenty three years if I didn't figure this out and trust God on this.

It opened a door to a level of lack of fear and lack of that. But I at the time, I fought it because I got angry. I've got angry. You know why? Because I'll go, I can't figure out how this will work. God's

ways are not our ways. God is more powerful. God knows all. If God is bigger than us, better than us, he knows us. He knows what our problems are. He knows what our idols are. He knows what our issues are, and he knows what we need. And if I really believe that, but I didn't. I fought it.

Because frustration says, don't like it. I don't trust it. I'm not gonna do it. And here's what happened with me. I came up with I started asking what I call these common questions that people start thinking whenever you say we should tithe.

We get in and I did the same thing. Now I'm not saying you're doing it because they they could be some legitimate questions. All I know in my heart, these were say, uh-huh. Well, what about this?

Well, what about this? But what about this? And I realized it was a defensive heart of frustration trying to you know, that if you do it in a fight where you credit that's what's a deflection. I'm gonna take this off of what I need to look at and make it something that's your problem.

And so what I did was I asked these questions. Isn't tithing just old testament? It says to give cheerfully, to give for what you pray in your heart. Paul also says give proportionate. Proportion means percentage. It's based on on what you may how God has blessed you. Meaning proportion, it's not just percentage. It means increasing.

It means going more. That if you've been blessed more, you should give even more. And so but I I I thought it was only Old Testament. Jesus said you should tithe. I was just saying like he was getting me off the hook. I don't have to listen to this.

At least me. Does it have to be 10%? I think I already settled that. I think the word tithe actually means a tenth. And if you study the Old Testament, they gave more than 10%. The 10% was the minimum that took care of their church, basically.

So when you say I give to missionaries, I give to that, I give that's the other question. Is can I give elsewhere? You can. I think you can. But 10%, I think, is a starting line, not a finish line. So does it have to be 10%? No. It could be 11. It could be 12. It could be 14. And

and and and and and then you say, well, I give elsewhere. At least I keep saying it like that. I'm assuming you guys are gonna I might be the only idiot in the room that did it this way. But when I said can't I give elsewhere because I did give to some other things.

Gave to some needy kid in Africa. I've did a couple things my wife and I did because she was always mad at me because she was always, we need to honor God. And I think he'll bless us for this. And I was like, well, we give elsewhere.

And I told my friend Randy that. I go, well, I may only be given this much here, but I give elsewhere. And he looked at me and says, oh, how much? What? Add up your percentage. How much do you give elsewhere? That made me mad. Because when I added up, it was like less than 2% total. And I realized it was a smokescreen.

It was a way for me to say, leave me alone. You may look like I'm not doing this, but I give other places. It's kind of like this cloak of invisibility.

And the truth is, can you give elsewhere? Yeah. But I I still believe that in the Old Testament and New Testament, it says the storehouse in Malachi was your local place of worship. Paul said in this one, bring it to your house of worship. In chapter

16 verse two of first Corinthians, he says, bring give where you're gathered. Your primary giving to the Lord should be in your home church.

And then then one is like, well, what if I give my time? That was my other one. I go, well, I don't get paid well enough so I work sixty hours a week instead of forty. That's my tithe. We're gonna talk next week that God does call us to honor him with our time using our talents that he's given us.

But that's a completely different topic. They're not the same. What giving does has to do with the issue of money in our heart. It has nothing to do with time. They're two separate things. And the last one was, what if I don't trust how the church uses my money? Well, the the truth there's two truths on that.

The first one is this, we are to give with no strings attached. That's part of giving. It teaches us to not control it.

You know, if ever you had anyone in your life, maybe a family member, a friend, they acted really generous. They're always offering to give you something, then you learned the hard way after the third time that every time they gave, that was worse. It was better off to not accept what they gave because it came with control and strings attached and conditions, and it was always horrible and you'd wish you ever that's how many of us think of our giving is we are not donors

when you give to a church. We are disciples that are relinquishing control of the money and say, God, I'm gonna trust that you're gonna do something with it through my church. The only way you shouldn't give to your church if you have a problem with money is not about opinions.

Because sometimes the opinion is somebody like, why do I need to give? We just we just keep reaching out. We chant. When's enough enough? Why do I need to give to a building campaign? Because they wanna put seven or more seats in here. Well, guess what? Because we're called to reach people. When's enough enough? When we're done and there's no more people to reach.

That's the mission.

So you don't give based on your opinion. Now there is a reason to stop giving in a church. If they obviously are bad doctrine, don't give to that church. If they're teaching a false gospel, don't give to that church. The problem is all the bad doctrine, all that means you probably shouldn't even go to that church. So you know if you sit in a bad church and say, don't agree, that's why I'm not gonna give. The problem isn't really with the church because you keep going. The problem is you don't wanna give. You should leave and go find a church you can tithe to.

That's what I had to face. The other thing is, yeah, if you think we're ridiculously bad, like, yeah, if you see me fly in in a helicopter and we have a helipad over here and I only live two miles away, instead of driving my 1991 Chevy Silverado that I drive? Yeah. That might go, I don't know about that.

I had that excuse. I thought the church was abusing me. But my choice was not to stop giving. If I really thought it was unfair what they're doing, I either go ask for more money or I leave.

So I for me, all of those common questions was a smokescreen to distract and take the attention off me, my heart, and what God says. I want to bless you and you are living under a curse when you don't trust me in this way. And that curse is brought on by yourself.

The fact that so many of you are frustrated right now and fearful right now is because of the curse. It's not because of what God's asking you to do. It's because you're stuck not choosing the third option, which is faith. Because faith brings freedom.

Faith says, God, I trust you first, and everything else will fall into place. That's what I had to do. And you know what? I didn't do it cheerfully at first,

but I did it. I may have been faithful, but not cheerful. I finally looked at my wife. I felt go, you know what? Fine. Let's do it. 10% off the top right now.

I didn't even look at our savings. I looked at the checking. I go, let's just do it. I half kinda thought, God, alright. I am gonna put you to the test. And you know what? I almost thought in my heart, and my wife and my friend Randy will shut up when I go belly up. And the weirdest thing happened. I didn't. It was hard.

But you know what's weird is after about a year of it, we had given up any chance because we can never save any money doing this. So I thought, I'm never buying a house in Orange County. I was getting paid $32,500 a year and my rent in my two bedroom apartment with two kids was $22,100 a month.

And I did it. My wife and I just tied.

A year later, the church had to figure out how to get a new lead pastor into a house and it was finally faced them that how ridiculously hard it is to get a house. And they helped him get a down payment.

And one of the elders says, Bill's been here for five years. He has two kids crammed in his apartment. We should do the same thing. And they helped us get a down payment, and we got a house. And our house payment was $600 a month less than our rent.

The next year, that same year actually,

the new guy looked at stuff and said, you know, all of everybody's pay was based on the old senior pastor that he didn't even need the job. He was independently wealthy. So the reason they didn't wanna pay anybody, right, is they paid, well, we're not gonna pay any more than the pastor, and he was only taking like $30, $35,000 a year. So everyone was stuck.

He says, we need to pay everyone. Right? And he said, yeah. And I got a $35,000 raise. I did not foresee any of that. But God took care of us. And what I mean is if I hadn't done that, we finally got to the point that with my wife's job and my job and the house and all that, we could afford to live there. Had a house

two miles from the beach. I was in that house for a year and then God, now I need you to go and move to Arizona back where you came from. Walk away from your job and your house and everything, and you have no income. Not even $32,500 a year. You're going with nothing, and you're gonna start a church.

You do realize what I'm saying is if I hadn't agreed to give and saw how God provided through that, we wouldn't be sitting here right now. And I would have been the one that missed out.

There are things in your life just like my life that God wants to give you that are greater than just stuff, that gives you what we really, really, really desire, that is on the other side of trusting him with your money. And we got to get past the fear and the frustration and get to the faith.

That's what Jesus said in this last passage I want to read here in

Matthew six nineteen through 24 he says, don't store up treasures here on earth where moss eat them and rust destroy them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven where moss and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is,

there the desire your heart will also be. It doesn't say where your heart is is where your money goes, It says where you choose to put your money is where your heart will go.

He says your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy your whole body is filled with light, but when your eye is unhealthy your whole body is filled with darkness. So he says if you have the wrong picture view of something it affects everything.

And he's comparing this to money. Money is that thing.

Money is the light that can bring light or darkness into our life. And he says, if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is. If you're sitting here struggling, I give a little here, I give that, this is ridiculous, they just want my money, use all the excuses I did. You're gonna be trapped in a darkness that you think you're right, and you're wrong.

And you're in darkness, and that's where that curse comes from. And this is why you're mad. The reason you're even frustrated, if you're frustrated right now, is because of the darkness. The blind spot in your eye. I know that because that was me. And I am telling you, is so much better on the other side. So much better.

Because he says, no one can serve two masters for you will hate one and love the other. You will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. You're gonna get to a point as a Christian that if you don't figure out the tithing thing, there's no further you can go. And

that's why you're fearful. That's why you're frustrated. That's why your faith is blood. That's why you're always restless. That's why you're fighting. That's why you're struggling. That's why you get mad at me when I talk about money. It's why. And I know it because that was me. I was you. I was you.

And the only answer was I surrendered. What would happen if every one of us in this room that knows Jesus decided I'm gonna tithe. I'm gonna get this right, what would God do through us? What would He do if we just went all in? Now I get it.

I believe biblically a tithe is a starting line not a finish line. But I also know that we have a God of love and grace. So

here's what my challenge would be. What if we just said, alright, God, I'm gonna start walking your direction. And my goal is to get to 10 and maybe beyond. But right now, I'll at least today take two steps. If you're at 0%, go to two. If you're at two, four, six, eight. Who do we appreciate? Jesus. Yay.

10. And when it says that we should raise our standard of giving, not just living, that's what Paul said, give in your heart proportionate. I think many of us have the ability, but we stopped at 10 and we just raise our standard of living. What if we kept going with that theory and you went to 12 to 14 to 16 to 18.

You will be blessed. You know why? I was the guy that just those years ago, I was already in ministry, that I fought and struggled with the 1% I was giving. God has blessed me. I've been able to see this.

I so have bought in now instead of fighting it. The freedom is so real. The blessing is so real that my wife and I are currently at 18%. I'm not asking you to do something I'm not doing myself. And I can sit back. I make enough now that I can look and go, you know, there's a lot of I coulds.

There's a lot of things I see drive by me on the street that go, I could. There's a lot of trips I can do. I could. That's still there. But I won't anymore. Because what I've experienced on this side, the peace, the purpose, the joy, the satisfaction, the contentment, It ain't worth it. It ain't worth it.

What would happen if you just did it? Dude, I just do it and see what happens. Because you know what? The bottom line of all of this is what is God really what what is the heart of God really in all this? Why He asked us to do this?

And I think about it this way. When I was a kid, played baseball, my dad played baseball, but I'm ambidextrous. You know, I can do things right handed, left handed. I write lefty. You know, I can bowl righty, eat with both hands. You know, really efficient at that. But when I started playing baseball, I was a left hander.

And when I got to the age where as now you pitched instead of the coach pitching, my dad bought me a brand new glove. It was awesome. Expensive. And then I was training to be a pitcher because he's a pitcher I wanna pitch. So I'm out there pitching with him.

And and I threw and after a while he goes, alright. So I want you just to relax and not even worry about accuracy. I just want you to uncork one and just be loose and just throw one as hard as you can. And I did. And he goes, alright. Can you throw it any harder?

I go, harder? He goes, yeah. I go, okay. I can throw it harder. I took the glove off my right hand, and I threw one right handed. Pop. He throws a lot harder right handed. So my dad goes, get in the car.

So we get in the car. Don't even tell my mom we're leaving, and we leave. Now I just assumed I know what he's doing. He saw me right handed. I'm lefty, but maybe I don't know. I don't know where we're going. But we go into this sketchy neighborhood up into this townhouse, and my dad goes, hey. You know who lives there?

I go, no. He goes, that's Adam on our team. My dad was our coach. And I go, yeah. And you go, what's Adam? I go, he's a left hander. And they go, And have you seen his glove? He goes, his glove is falling apart. And it's because he lives in this place because his dad left his mom.

And she's trying to take care of Adam and his two brothers right now. And it's been hard. And we've been helping her out. And he goes, Hey, you know what? I think you're a right hander now, but what do you think about giving your brand new glove to Adam? You know what I said? No way.

If I give him my glove, I don't have a glove. I can't believe you're gonna ask me to play baseball barehanded, dad. That's not what I said. It never crossed my mind that giving that glove would make me suffer and go without. I trusted my dad.

And I said, really? Yeah. And I got excited to give it. You know why? The second reason is, I didn't pay for the glove. The glove was my dad's that he gave me. I understood that anything I had was really his that he lets me use.

So I was like, if you want me to do that, that sounds great. And then he says, alright. Let's go, dad. He goes, no. I just want you to do it. I didn't understand. It was the greatest gift he ever gave me. He let me go and give it. I walked the door, knocked on the door. My friend Adam died. So I go, hey, Adam. He's like, yeah. What's up? I go, turns out I'm right handed. You want my brand new left handed glove?

And he goes, what? Yeah. And he goes, mom. And her mom came out. She looks, and she immediately sees it. She kinda looked past me, I realized, and saw my dad sitting in the car. She started crying. She was so thankful. She grabbed me. She hugged me, and she whispered in my ear, tell your dad thank you.

She knew what was up. I got to have the joy of giving it, but she knew where it really came from. That's what it is when we give, guys. We have to settle in our heart that everything you have, your glove ain't yours. He gave it to you to use.

And if he asks you to give it away, he'll take care of you. Because I didn't play bare handed. We then went to the to the to the sporting goods store next, and he bought me a new one. Now he did say, hey, can't afford two really expensive gloves in two weeks. So I had to get a little bit less nicer one. But I didn't care

because that worked just as fine. And I got to watch Adam play and his mom and the joy of what it did. That's what that's what tithing is. That's what God is asking. Get it centered in your heart. I had to get it centered in my heart that I have so much freedom and trust in God now because I know that everything I have he gave me. So why won't I give him anything he wants?

Because he always takes care of us. So now I don't fear anything else. I'm not afraid of it. I don't want you to be afraid either. And in the end, the best thing I could say is when I walk back to the car after I gave that glove this is hard. I haven't told this story in a long time and since I told it last.

I have a harder time remembering my dad's face if I don't look at a picture.

But there's one face I remember still. It was that face. Because when I walked back, I looked through the windshield, and it's one of the only two times. It was the first time I ever saw my dad crying. But he was also smiling. The joy I saw in my dad's face and the tears of joy in his eyes of him so joyful watching his son

be generous freely and abundantly

that He got to give through me. I will never forget. Guys, that is why we tithe. Father God, I thank you. I thank you that you love us that much, that when we trust you on this, it's us who is blessed.

So Lord, I pray for myself and everyone in this room that we would understand that. And I pray for anyone here who is so afraid or even fearful to the point of frustration that, God, that you would just speak to them, that they would long to see and experience the joy that you have as our father

when we take what you've given us and we give and use it intentionally. So Lord, I pray that you'd speak to us on that. I thank you for your love, and I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

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