November 23, 2025 • 58 mins
We trace how wealth can hide our need for God, why a single encounter with Jesus rarely brings clear sight, and how desire, discipline, and devotion reshape the way we give. Scripture reframes tithing as a starting point and elevates generosity that pursues justice, mercy, and mission.
• rich young ruler and the shock of wealth
• two-touch healing as a metaphor for spiritual sight
• desire, discipline, devotion as a growth path
• Israel’s three tithes and firstfruits trust
• why tithing is training wheels, not the goal
• creating margin and resisting autopilot giving
• six traits of generous living: gratitude, mission, intentionality, charity, unity, holiness
• practical next steps toward joyful, planned generosity
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Will Hawk (00:46):
Find a sink, find a sink.
Tiffany Grantham (00:47):
Please turn in your Bibles to the book of
Mark, chapter ten.
We'll begin in verse 17.
If you're reading out of yourpew Bible, it's on page 846.
I'll give you a few seconds toturn there.
Will Hawk (01:03):
Tiffany's on it, man.
She's like, sit down, I got aBible verse to read.
Tiffany Grantham (01:11):
And as he was setting out on his journey, a
man ran up and knelt before himand asked him, Good teacher,
what must I do to inheriteternal life?
And Jesus said to him, Why doyou call me good?
No one is good except Godalone.
You know the commandments, donot murder, do not commit
adultery, do not steal, do notbear false witness, do not
(01:34):
defraud, honor your father andmother.
And he said to him, Teacher,all these I have kept from my
youth.
And Jesus, looking at him,loved him and said to him, You
lack one thing.
Go, sell all that you have andgive to the poor, and you will
have treasure in heaven, andcome, follow me.
(01:55):
Disheartened by the saying, hewent away sorrowful, and he had
great possessions.
And Jesus looked around andsaid to his disciples, How
difficult it will be for thosewho have wealth to enter the
kingdom of God.
And the disciples were amazedat his words, but Jesus said to
them again, Children, howdifficult it is to enter the
(02:16):
kingdom of God.
It is easier for a camel to gothrough the eye of a needle than
for a rich person to enter thekingdom of God.
And they were exceedinglyastonished and said to him, Then
who can be saved?
Jesus looked at them and said,With man it is impossible, but
not with God, for all things arepossible with God.
(02:36):
This is the word of the Lord.
Will Hawk (02:38):
Amen.
Hey, just leave that up forjust a minute.
Don't take it off yet.
Thank you, Tiffany.
Appreciate it.
Thomas, is this the kid youwant in your youth ministry?
True or false?
It's kind of true.
It's not the kid you want toleave your youth ministry.
Like by senior year, you'relike, get this figure out.
Yeah, but this is the kid whosits still, he pays attention,
(02:59):
he's got his stuff figured out.
I just want you to notice this.
By the way, welcome to MitchryChurch.
My name is Will.
I'm the lead pastor here.
Excited to hang out with youguys.
In the event that you weren'there last week, we are doing two
weeks on generosity and youjust slid in.
If you were here last week andyou knew we were doing two weeks
on generosity and giving, andyou showed up anyway, I'm really
proud of you, and I want you toknow that.
(03:20):
One of the things I just wantedto point to this from the very
beginning.
There's a million things youcould teach.
This isn't going to be our maintext for the day.
I love the fact that when Jesussays it's hard for a rich
person to enter the kingdom ofheaven, the disciples are what
word?
Starts with an A.
Astonished.
Do you want to know why?
Because it's easy when we havemeans for our lives to look like
(03:42):
we are exceedingly righteousand godly.
It is easier for it to lookthat way.
And what you're going to see,we'll look in one other passage.
The disciples are right.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
If they're not making it, howis anybody going to make it?
Because the religious elite oftheir day were wealthy.
And so they would have lookedat this.
They would have looked at thePharisees whose lives were just
(04:04):
all buttoned up and perfect.
And for Jesus to say, it'sactually really hard when we
have a lot of stuff in thewallet in the back pocket or in
an account.
That absolutely blew theirmind.
And so here we go.
You guys can throw it to uh toregular slides and stuff now.
Thank you for leaving that up.
Here is uh the hope for today.
I want us to see the concept ofgenerosity clearly as it
(04:27):
relates to scripture.
And I do have a little bit offuel in the tank.
Um, I have fuel in the tank fora couple of reasons, but I will
only give you one.
I heard the best story when Iwas uh finishing up church last
week, and I've been waiting allweek to tell you this.
So I got permission to sharethis story.
I need you to know that.
(04:48):
Somebody's been inviting afamily member to church for a
long time.
They have not been going tochurch for a long time because
you ready for this?
Whenever I show up to church,all the church does is talk
about money.
So they show up last week.
By the way, if you're if you'renew to Mid Tree, uh, we haven't
talked about money in ages.
(05:08):
We work through books of theBible.
If it comes up, we talk aboutit.
We don't really do topicals andwe're doing two weeks on it.
Um, so he shows up with hisfamily member, and I say, Hey
guys, we're gonna be talkingabout money today, and his heart
drops.
Like, I've been trying to getthis family over church forever.
He hasn't gone in ages becauseall we do is talk about money.
(05:30):
And I'm even like, I even had alittle line where I said, Some
of you are leaning next to theperson that you invited, and
you're saying, I promise wedon't do this every week.
Like, I'm so sorry.
Here's what ends up happening.
I'm trying to be very vague,and I can't even tell you the
end of the story because it'seven better, but it is that
person's story to tell.
Shows up, some dude justtalking about money the whole
(05:51):
time.
He's he's at church.
He leaves, and when he getshome, unexpectedly from a source
that he had sort of given up onand written off, a check for
thousands of dollars is on thedoorstep under the mat.
This is like 10.
By the way, we're not aprosperity gospel.
I'm not saying give me 10 andI'll turn it into 100.
(06:13):
You're in the wrong place ifyou wanted that.
If you need 10 to turn into100, you got to talk to Stokes,
not me.
That's more his world thanmine.
I'm like, give me $10 and I'mgonna ask you to go live in
Kenya.
That's the difference.
And um, but he shows up tochurch, talks about money, it's
like, you have got to be kiddingme.
And on the very week he decidedto go, on that very day, was
(06:35):
the exact same day in God'sprovidence.
Every one of our days writtenbefore one of them came to be,
Psalm 139.
He gets home and has anunexpected blessing.
And it was just like so, I'mnot nervous to talk to you guys
about money.
I wasn't really nervous lastweek.
I'm definitely not nervous thisweek.
I'm not saying lift yourdoormat when you get home.
But I am telling you this, thestory actually gets better from
(06:58):
there, but I can't tell itbecause it isn't my story to
tell.
But maybe you will get to hearthat testimony in the days,
weeks, or years ahead.
How is it that we can seegenerosity clearly?
Now, this is Mark 8.
I know that you're not able tosee everything that I have up
here, but what I do want you tonotice is this story in the
(07:19):
middle.
One of the weirdest stories.
You couldn't preach the storyduring COVID, and I'll tell you
why.
Because they came to Bethesdaand some people brought to him
being Jesus a blind man, andthey begged Jesus to touch him.
And he took the blind man bythe hand and led him out of the
village.
Remember, they just wantedJesus to touch him.
And when he had spit on hiseyes and laid his hands on him,
(07:40):
he asked him, Do you seeanything?
All right, this is taking it tothe to the next level.
All right.
This bothered me theologicallyforever.
What happens next?
Jesus is only asked to touchthe guy.
He takes it a step up, spits,puts it on the guy's eyes, and
then looks at him, red letterson the screen.
(08:01):
Do you see anything?
Does Jesus have infinite powerto heal?
Yes or no?
Infinite power to heal.
And he looked up verse 24 andhe said, I see people, but they
look like trees walking.
Okay.
Was Jesus having an off day?
Had he missed his coffee?
Was it just like, oh gosh,guys?
I mean, I've been doing so manymiracles.
(08:22):
The manometer's just a littlelow right now.
It's gonna be hard to pull thisoff.
Why?
Why does Jesus half heal thisguy?
And what does it have to dowith us seeing generosity
clearly?
Pay close attention.
I see people, but they looklike trees walking.
Then Jesus laid his hands onhis eyes again, and he opened
(08:43):
his eyes, his sight wasrestored, and he saw everything
clearly, and he sent him homesaying, Don't even enter the
village.
Your life is about to change asa result of this.
Why did it only work halfway?
Jesus is not at low power.
One of the things we realizeabout Scripture is many times
(09:06):
Jesus is doing things beforethings and after things to
explain the things that comebefore.
Why is it that this man neededto be touched twice?
Why was it that it was going torequire more than one encounter
with Jesus?
Please hear me on that thismorning.
Why does it sometimes requiremore than one encounter with
Jesus?
Well, one reason is because ofwho he was coming from.
(09:28):
Here are the people who looklike they have their lives
together.
If you feel like you have yourlife together because you had
one encounter with Jesus, youneed to read the story that
comes from above.
It is a dangerous thing tothink.
I went to church camp when Iwas a kid, I walked down, I
filled out a card, I prayed withmy mom and dad, I joined crew
in college, I repented tomorrow,and I became a Christian.
(09:49):
I've had my encounter withChrist.
So now I'm gonna live agenerally good life, and I'm
gonna try to do all the thingsthat the world does with just a
little bit of Jesus on top.
That is what we see in storyone.
We need more than one encounterwith Christ to see clearly.
Well, what happens at thebottom is Peter confesses Jesus
is Christ.
Jesus went on with thedisciples, and on the way he
said, Who do people say that Iam?
(10:11):
In other words, you can have anencounter with me and not fully
understand who I am.
You can be near me, you can goto church for years and not see
clearly, and at the very end,Peter confesses, you are the Son
of God.
And Jesus says, just so youknow, you didn't come up with
that on your own.
Why do these stories livearound Jesus having two
(10:33):
encounters with someone to seeclearly?
Because it is very dangerousfor us to think that we've
encountered Jesus once.
So now our mind, soul,affections, emotions, desires,
and actions automatically moveinto that category.
Number two, you are going tolive in a world where lots of
people have an encounter withJesus and an opinion about
Jesus, but there is only one wayto see him as Lord of all.
(10:54):
I submit this to you becausewhen it comes to our generosity,
most of us had an encounter,had a teaching, watched a Dave
Ramsey thing or whatever else itwas.
We said, boom, got it.
It's kind of who I am, and wemoved on.
Now listen, you may be able tonavigate.
You might be able to walkaround, but you're gonna walk in
a world not seeing clearly ifgenerosity or prayer or
(11:18):
faithfulness or evangelism ormission or anything else you
feel like you have stamped andit is done.
I would encourage you withthis.
All of us need to continuehaving encounters with Christ so
that we can see clearly.
And in our culture, generosityis one that is gonna require
more than one encounter withChrist.
And that is exactly what wesee.
Now, this is where we left offlast week.
(11:40):
If all you knew was the Bible,we walked through what you would
believe, we walked through whatyou would feel.
We're gonna get real practicaltoday.
What would you do if all youknew was scripture?
I have been very careful when Iput something on the screen to
not editorialize today.
I do not want to give youWill's opinions, best guess
theological assumptions.
(12:01):
I just want to give you Biblebecause I feel like I know you
and you know me.
This is the kind of Sundaywhere the antennas go up and we
are looking for problems andwe're looking to justify things.
So my goal is to simply giveyou scripture that would say, if
all I knew was the Bible, whatwould I do when it comes to
(12:23):
money?
And by the way, this thirdcategory is the most dangerous.
The reason it's the mostdangerous is because by far,
this is the one that is theeasiest to be legalistic about.
The easiest to check the box,feel like we've given our heart
to God because we had oneexperience with Christ, we
haven't grown from that.
We go into autopilot once webegin answering number three.
(12:44):
And that was actually a problemin Jesus' own day.
As he told this parable to somewho trusted in themselves that
they were righteous.
I'm gonna be drinking a lot ofwater.
Let me just own the awkwardright now.
I was traveling a bunch, I'vegot like plain head, if y'all
know what that means, and I'mhearing myself twice today, so I
apologize.
(13:05):
He told this parable to somewho trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and theytreated others with contempt.
By the way, there's aconnection there.
If you see yourself asrighteous, you will often begin
to treat others with contempt.
Not the point of the sermon,but good to know.
Two men went up to the templeto pray, one a Pharisee,
impressive guy, and the other atax collector, not an impressive
(13:29):
guy.
The Pharisee, standing byhimself, prayed thus.
I am not like other men.
God, I'm grateful that I'mdifferent.
What he's saying here, I'm gladI'm better than the people
around me.
I want you to watch how we cameto that.
The Bible could have listed hisentire heart.
This is what it lists as towhat caused him to become
(13:51):
self-righteous and see otherpeople with contempt.
I'm not an extortioner, I'm notunjust, I'm not an adulterer,
I'm not even like this taxcollector.
That's a bold statement to sayin front of God.
I fast twice a week and I givetithes of all that I get.
That those two things are whatcaused him to think that he was
better than everybody elsearound him.
(14:11):
I skip a meal and I putsomething in the plate, and that
is all it takes for me to bebetter than the people around
me.
But the tax collector, standingfar off, didn't even feel like
he needed to be near, wouldn'teven lift up his eyes to heaven,
he beat his breast saying, God,be merciful to me, a sinner.
This is the kind of prayer thatsaves your soul.
I tell you, this man went downto his house justified rather
(14:35):
than the other.
For everyone who exalts himselfwill be humbled, but the one
who humbles himself will beexalted.
This was a problem.
What we're talking about todayhas been a problem for 2,000
years.
So let me give you a paradigmto understand giving as well as
any other spiritual disciplineso that you do not become
self-righteous, nor do youbecome lazy thinking you've had
(14:58):
an encounter with Christ, andthat would be enough.
I'm not gonna tell you to writethings down often.
I would capture this.
And the reason I would capturethis is this will apply to
everything in your life, notjust generosity.
I think it's good for you tohave a paradigm for spiritual
growth.
There are three categories,three tranches, three terraces
of pursuing the Lord.
(15:18):
Now listen to me.
I am telling you that one isbetter than the other.
This is not a everybody gets agreen ribbon for participation.
But I also want to tell youthis not all of us will get to
the third rail in this life, ineverything.
All right?
Desire leading to discipline,desire leading to discipline
(15:39):
leading to devotion.
Desire is I want to reflectGod's something.
Now you can fill that in withanything from the character of
God.
Today we're gonna talk aboutgenerosity, okay?
That's what we're talking abouttoday.
I want to reflect God'sgenerosity to me in Christ.
2 Corinthians 8, 9 will be thelast verse you see today.
(16:01):
That's what I desire.
All right.
Now listen to me.
Just because you want somethingdoesn't mean you have obtained
it.
I'll just talk to the husbandsin the room, all right?
Just because you want to notleave your boots out does not
mean your wife is giving youcredit for not leaving your
boots out.
Okay?
Just because you want to, youpick your own thing.
(16:23):
Just because you want to dosomething, that could be a good
desire.
I want to serve the Lord.
So did the rich young ruler,and he was the most impressive
kid in the youth group.
Desire is not enough, but nothaving a desire is a terrifying
place to be.
I desire to give the Lord mylife.
That is beautiful.
That doesn't mean you've doneit.
You have to repent, you need tobelieve, you need to be
(16:45):
baptized, okay?
But having a desire is abeautiful place to start.
That desire should then lead todiscipline.
Let me be careful with thisword.
Our English diction uses theword discipline in two different
ways.
I wake up at six o'clock in themorning to go running, that's
called discipline.
I reach for a cookie and I'meight years old and my mom
(17:07):
smacks it away.
She wouldn't have reallysmacked me, but she smacks it
away.
That's called discipline too.
This would be category onediscipline.
I'm intentionally organizing mylife.
I have a plan and I practice itwith joy.
By the time we get todiscipline, we have moved beyond
desire.
I don't just desire something,I have put feet to my faith.
The rich young ruler never gotto discipline.
(17:28):
He had all the desire in theworld, but he never made it to
discipline.
I've got a plan and I practiceit with joy.
And then some of us in someareas will, by the grace of God,
gifting of God, calling of God,move to devotion.
I want to be careful with this.
There was if I woke up on theday I turned seven years old and
(17:52):
I shot basketballs for an hourevery day.
If I had a desire to be a greatbasketball player and I had the
discipline to pull it off, Iwould never have made it into
the NBA.
It is not in the cards for me.
Okay?
Wasn't gonna happen.
There are some things where wemay not be, and by the way, God
gifts us with all kinds ofdifferent things.
(18:13):
He doesn't do it equally, okay?
God is not an equal distributorof gifts, which is also a grace
to us when we see people whoare better than us at things.
We don't have to say, oh, well,I'm not so bad at this.
We can say, well, God's giftedme to be good in other things,
right?
That's that's 1 Corinthians,the body, chapter 12, working
together.
Devotion is I delight in goingabove and beyond.
(18:34):
Now, if I were to take the wordgenerosity out and I were to
pick a different character ofGod, truth.
I I want to reflect God'struth.
That's a wonderful thing.
Doesn't mean anything until youbegin to say, so I have a plan.
I read my Bible every day.
I've started memorizingscripture.
I I uh I get online and I lookat studies, I show up to church,
(18:56):
I go to Bible studies.
Now I have a discipline.
Some of those people will moveinto devotion.
I don't just desire it, I don'tjust have a discipline for it.
I feel more alive when I amsharing the truth of God than
anything else.
Those are the people who becomepastors, preachers, MCG
facilitators, leaders, Sundayschool teachers, et cetera, and
so on.
All right?
(19:17):
Not everybody will do that.
If you look at this and yousay, I want to reflect God's um
mission, some people will have ahuge heart for that.
And then what do you do?
You have a plan, you give to amissionary, you go on a mission
trip, you you uh startsupporting whatever else, and
then all of a sudden it goesabove and beyond, and you leave,
(19:37):
you go and you spend your lifeelsewhere.
You can apply anycharacteristic of God that we
could desire and watch it walkthrough these things.
The question for you today isthis when it comes to
generosity, don't answer outloud, but answer honestly in
your heart, mind, and soul,where are you?
Is it something that you evendesire at all?
(19:59):
If you don't desire it, I Idon't know that you've
understood the gospel.
When God gives his absolutebest, unequivocally, holding
nothing back, there should besomething in us that at least
has a desire to be generous tothe people around us.
I hope that if you have adesire, it will turn into a
discipline.
I'm about to help you withthat.
And maybe some of us have had adiscipline, but God would call
(20:22):
us into a higher level where weactually feel worship explode
from us when we say, justbecause I've had one encounter
with Christ, I may be called tomore.
So I give you this as a littlebit of help.
Now, let me give you just onequick thought on desire and one
on devotion.
If you don't desire something,people who do are gonna look
(20:44):
crazy to you.
By show of hands, how many ofy'all had know someone who is
serious about cold plunging, oryou knew somebody who is serious
about cold plunging?
I just need, all right, if youdon't know what this is, you you
put a bunch of cold water in abike.
Thomas has one.
Can I see it?
Is it like tucked around?
It's in the closet.
If you saw our church on Mondayand Tuesday, good gracious,
(21:06):
Thomas will pull this thing out,he'll fill it with water, fill
it with ice, and then he justsits in it because it's good for
his health.
I did it one time.
I did feel great for like 15minutes afterward.
Painful minute and a half, twominutes.
If you see somebody do that andyou do not have a desire for it
or for the benefits, do youknow what you call that person
(21:28):
crazy?
You call that person a fanatic.
By the way, that's what theworld is supposed to call you.
It's supposed to look at yourdesire for Christ and say, that
doesn't make any sense to mewhatsoever.
But once you get to the placewhere there is a discipline,
you're like, oh, okay, I canbegin to see the benefits.
You may even devote yourself toit, where you spend how much
(21:49):
money on Amazon to buy thatthing?
$48,000.
Incredible, incredible.
What I would say about devotionis this: if you can't think of
anything in your life thatcauses you to worship that you
go above and beyond, I want youto hear this from me.
You're missing out.
I do not want you to bebaseline Christians in anything.
You are gifted to excel insomething.
(22:12):
I'll never forget sitting downat a dinner table with someone
in Columbus, Georgia.
I was talking to them aboutthis new church plant uh called
Midtree, and we had just gottenthis property.
These were people who had beento Midtree, they were involved
in Midtree, and I said, We'rewe're raising money because we
(22:33):
want to be able to break groundand we want to be able to build
the building.
And I just share with him.
He walks away and he comes backwith a check in his hand and he
hands me the check.
And when I look at it, my firstthought was this.
I didn't think you could dothis much on a check.
Like, don't you need to callsomeone?
Don't you need to like, isn'tthere somebody?
(22:55):
You're not supposed to be ableto like go and get these.
It seems like a dangerousthing.
He wrote a check for $250,000and handed it to me after a
30-minute conversation.
Can I tell you that is morethan discipline, that's
devotion, and I will prove it toyou by telling you this.
That person has not been tothis building.
That person wrote a check andknew.
(23:18):
Remember, we were a nomadicchurch.
We were meeting in Columbus atthe time.
That person wrote a checkknowing that if this building
got built, it would edge themout of likely involvement here.
That is what devotion lookslike.
And when you see it, not onlydoes their heart get sent on, do
you know how much worship thatput inside me?
(23:40):
And it doesn't just have to begenerosity.
Remember, fill in the blank,but find something to devote
your life to.
All right, now let's get intothe nitty-gritty of what we're
supposed to do.
Little fun question to startyou with.
I've got a poll.
So if you want to engage, grabyour phone, scan the QR code.
It's gonna take you to a littlepoll.
I would love to see how youguys would answer this question.
(24:01):
The question is going to bewhat percentage did the average
Israelite give in the OldTestament?
What percentage of income didthe average Israelite give?
And I've given you a couple ofoptions there.
I'll leave the QR code up whileI still see phones up.
If you get it right, you willenter into the category of
(24:23):
people who are available to getone of two books that I'm giving
away today.
So, all right, what percentagedid the average Israelite give
in the old testament?
Let me see.
All right, here's how oh no,oh, is it is it just man, I love
doing that.
(24:43):
Oh, there we go.
All right, we'll we'll let itkind of keep going.
But uh I gave you a couple ofcategories.
In first place, right now it's10%.
It's growing, it's shrinking,25% just took the lead, 50% or
more.
Not many people are sayingzero.
All right, so what percentagedid the average Israelite give
(25:03):
in the old testament?
This is really a cool thing tosort of look at and study.
I'm gonna I'm gonna hit pausein just a minute.
Do do do a few more of you.
All right, well, I think it'sprobably gonna hold right there,
okay?
What percentage did the averageIsraelite give?
You guys went with 25%.
(25:24):
The correct answer is about23%.
And so if you pick 25, you win.
You're correct.
All right, I'm gonna I'm gonnagive you this.
Raise your hand if you pick25%.
Go ahead, throw your throw yourhand up.
Way to go.
All right, if your hand is up,you you are able to come and get
one of these two books, whichwill be left here until the end
of service.
(25:44):
Okay.
Available for you.
And if you're lying in thehouse of the Lord, uh, God will
know.
And by the way, He knows whenyou're not in the house of the
Lord.
And I don't know why peoplemake a distinction in that.
What percentage did the averageIsraelite give?
It always happens.
I love it.
The very first it's still here.
It's still, I'm just saying.
(26:04):
If you don't know me and howhow okay I am with spontaneity,
there were three tithes thatwere typically given in the Old
Testament.
One was a Levitical tithe, itwas given to the priests, and
don't tell Stokes this, it wasgiven to the musicians.
Let's just focus, let's focusright here.
All right.
Now, this means that in threeareas of their life they were
(26:28):
giving.
But for just a moment, detachyourself from your wallet and
move to your heart.
God instructed for his peopleto have a heart for three
things.
He said, Do you want to know myheart and my character?
Do you want to have more than adesire but a discipline?
Do you want to have a plan tohave a heart like my heart?
You are gonna care about thepriests, the ministers, and the
(26:50):
musicians.
You are gonna care about thosewho are caring about you.
Number two, there are gonna bethese festival tithes.
This may actually be myfavorite one to present to you.
This would have been money thatwas put to the side because God
frequently in the life of hispeople would say, I want you to
stop, I want you to pause, and Iwant you to have a party.
I think seven times, Thomas,I'm looking at you.
(27:12):
Was it about seven times in theIsraelite calendar that they
would have a festival?
It wasn't a few.
It's six or seven times.
And God would say, I want youto stop everything, I want you
to eat good food, have a goodconversation, and I want you to
talk about my goodness to you.
By the way, that's why we doMCG celebrations.
We're not just trying to fillout a calendar, we're trying to
fill out our heart with how Godhas called his people to live.
(27:34):
So, what do we do?
We eat good food, we share goodstories because we have a
really, really good God.
This is what the festival tithewas.
And both of the top two wouldhave been annual.
They would have done this everyyear.
And then there would have beena charity tithe.
This would have been for peoplewho were foreign, for the
orphans and for the widows.
This is our 127 ministry andaction, which means this person
(27:56):
would have given 10%, and inthat year, this person would
have given 10%, and this 10%would be broken up into three,
basically, because they only didit every third year.
So you actually end up withlike 23.33 repeating percent.
All right.
That is what the averageIsraelite would have given,
(28:16):
listen carefully to what I'msaying, out of obligation.
That would not have been goingabove and beyond.
That would have been thediscipline number, not the
devotion number.
There were people who weredevoted to it.
That what we're looking at isthis.
It is a very cool thing thatGod said, I am giving my
(28:37):
children a plan.
I have a question for you.
I'm not putting this one up onthe screen.
Uh, as of the 20th, five daysago, what's today?
25th, 24th, doesn't matter.
As of 23rd, all right, as ofthree days ago, I now have three
teenage boys in my house.
I love this.
There will be like a teenylittle nine-month period where I
(29:00):
have four teenagers in myhouse.
18 years of youth ministry.
I hope I'm not walking intothis naively, but my wife and I
are very excited about theteenage years.
Super fun stuff.
I have a 13-year-old, that13-year-old is named Ames.
I don't think he's here rightnow, but I did see Tiggy, so
maybe he is.
He's probably sitting in myoffice.
All right.
If I decided I want to teachAmes what the Bible has to say
(29:25):
about wealth, possessions, andgenerosity, and I put together a
plan and I said, here's whatI'm gonna do.
I'm gonna sit down with him for60 seconds a day, and I'm gonna
read him a different verse,just one verse.
I'm never gonna repeat the sameone twice.
I'm gonna read him one verseout of scripture that has to do
with wealth, treasure,possession, money, and
generosity.
(29:45):
How many weeks would it takefor me to get through what the
Bible has to offer him?
I want feedback on this.
How many weeks would it take?
Five.
Remove that man.
Hey, I mean, don't you knowverses about creating chaos in
the house of the Lord?
(30:07):
Okay, I I've got 67, five, huh?
52.
Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys.
Adorable.
366.
Not days, weeks.
If I started with the Ames, theday he turned 13, he would be
19 and a half and out of thehouse before I repeated one
(30:31):
verse.
Okay.
That I I give you this, noteditorializing to tell you God
wants you to have a plan towardthis.
And if you don't have a thoughttoward it, toward it, it it
isn't on him.
You probably had an encounterwith Jesus, thought you were
seeing clearly, and then juststarted walking around in your
(30:53):
life.
It would take about sevenyears, 366 weeks.
Now I will say you should startwith your children.
The younger, the better.
Giving has never been adifficult issue for me because
it was modeled from my mom fromthe time that I was teeny,
right?
So when I got my first job atSubway at 15, actually, when I
was working at Camp Joy at 12and 13 years old, it was just
(31:16):
like, okay, here's my check.
Got 10%, send it out, no bigdeal.
God wants us to have a plan.
And God gave his people a veryclear plan.
Now the word tithing, whichyou'll hear in the church often,
comes from this Hebrew wordmasar.
All it means is tenth.
Take a piece of pizza, cut itinto, or take a circle of pizza,
(31:37):
cut it into 10 pieces, pullone.
That would be called a tithe.
It's just another word fortenth.
And for whatever reason, thechurch hasn't contextualized to
just say tenth.
We still say tithe.
So that's what it means.
And in the church, there arethree common opinions on
tithing.
Don't raise your hand, but Iwant you to go ahead and say
which in your own heart, whereare you on this?
(31:59):
Three common opinions ontithing.
Christians are required totithe, not required to tithe,
but should not required totithe.
I feel like I know where mostof you would be.
The problem with selectingnumber one, I'll tell you where
I am personally, but where I amdoesn't mean that's where you
(32:21):
need to be.
Remember, desire, discipline,devotion.
We're not all going to be inthe same place on those.
The problem with number one isthat in Romans and throughout
much of Scripture, we read thatChrist is the end of the law.
In other words, there is not astatic law that is applied to us
for righteousness to anyone whobelieves.
(32:41):
And for somebody to say, hey,Christians are required to
tithe, actually, in my opinion,goes above and beyond the
mandate of Scripture becausewe're not required to do
anything under the law.
We operate by the law of graceat this point.
In other words, we can't earnour salvation, which is exactly
what the rich young rulerthought he had pulled off,
exactly what the man praying whothought he had figured it all
(33:03):
out.
The problem in number three, bysaying you're not required to
tithe, I know I it may soundlike I'm talking out of both
sides of my mouth here, butJesus would say this in Matthew
23 (33:13):
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you
tithe.
His issue is not you legalistsfor tithing.
He says you're tithing out ofmint and dill and cumin.
In other words, they would goto their kitchen uh windowsill
where they're growing theselittle herbs, and they would
count the leaves, and one oftheir plants would have ten.
(33:35):
They're like, well, that one'seasy.
They would take one and theywould give it as an offering to
the Lord.
Another one had five leaves,had to take it, tear it in half,
keep one, and give the half,right?
Okay, we're doing basicfractions now, we won't do any
more.
But notice what Jesus says.
You're tithing mint and dillingcumin, but you have neglected
the weightier matters of thelaw.
Do you think my biggest concernis you go into your garden
(33:57):
bringing a cucumber to church?
That's not the big deal.
I'll tell you what the big dealis: justice.
Do you care about the people inyour world that are being
crushed by those around them andyou could step in to do
something?
Do you have mercy?
Do you look around and seethose who are in need?
Need mostly of me, but in needin general.
Do you have a heart ofcompassion?
Are you faithful in your life?
(34:19):
Or do you have a veryimpressive life, but your heart
is eaten up with sin and prideand lust and whatever else?
But then notice what Jesus saysThese you ought to have done.
You should tithe, is what he'ssaying.
But you need to make sure youknow what the most important
(34:39):
thing is.
And then he looks at them andhe calls them blind, which is
why I began by asking you, areyou seeing clearly when it comes
to this?
I'll tell you where I am.
I'm somewhere at 2.5.
I live somewhere here.
I don't think we're required totithe.
I think it is a wonderful placeto start.
But what I have, it's sort oflike baptism.
(35:03):
Do you have to be baptized togo into to go to heaven?
No, you don't.
That that would be legalistic.
But everybody who repents andbelieves in Christ should be
baptized.
Christ calls us to.
And if you look at baptism as,man, this thing is just too
difficult.
It's too awkward.
I don't want people to know.
Can I tell you getting baptizedin front of a bunch of
believers is one of the easiestthings Jesus asks you to do?
(35:23):
Hey, will you tell the story ofmy grace to people who have
heard the story of my grace andresponded to it so that they can
celebrate my grace in yourlife?
The rest of the Christian lifeis going to be really hard if
that feels like the high watermark, but there is a benefit to
the concept of tithing.
So the way when I think oftithing, I would put it this
way (35:41):
it offers benefits with some issues.
Benefit number one is it'sclear and easy to teach.
You can teach it to a kid.
It is not difficult to teachthe concept of tithing.
You can teach it to a newbeliever.
It doesn't matter if the personis salary, hourly, or sales.
It is very easy to move thedecimal one place to the left.
(36:01):
Like tenthing is not difficultat all.
That is one of the advantagesof it.
Randy Alcorn, who writes onheaven and eternity and
possessions and wealth, often hewould say tithing is the
training wheels of giving.
It's not going to allow you tofly down the hill.
It's not going to move you todevotion, but what it will do is
keep you from falling off thebike, basically.
(36:21):
It'll keep you from doingnothing, being self-absorbed, or
whatever else.
Tithing is the training wheelsof giving.
The other thing that tithingdoes, but a lot of people don't
realize this, is for theIsraelites, tithing meant two
things.
It meant I'm giving 10% forthem 23%, 10, 10, and then 10
every third year.
It was not only I am givingthis, it was when they were
(36:45):
giving it.
If you look in the inscripture, what you will find is
God asked them to give itfirst.
So the first of what you get, Ihad a teenager come up to me at
the in the service and theysaid, Hey, I haven't tithed and
I think I need to start.
And I'm like, that's a greatthing.
We're gonna talk about it nextweek.
And they said, but what I thinkI'm gonna do is I'm just gonna
(37:06):
wait till the end of the year.
I'm gonna calculate it all upand then I'm gonna give 10%.
I'm like, hey, I think that'sgreat.
It's gonna be tough though,because Christmas is right there
around the corner.
Like, let's just be realistic.
You're probably gonna startjustifying some stuff.
And I will just tell you forme, it's paycheck comes on like
the second or the third by thefourth, 10% is pulled and it is
(37:28):
taught, it is like tossed towardthe church.
That's that's just Will's modelbecause this is what I grew up
with.
The the advantage of the firstfruits is not only are you
saying, God, I'm thinking aboutyou before everything else, it
actually requires trust.
Go for a moment into living inthe Old Testament.
I want you to imagine thatyou're a cattle farmer and you
(37:51):
have one bull and you have oneheifer.
I never thought I'd get to sayheifer in church.
All right.
One bull, one heifer.
And it kids or whatever you gotgoats is more of my thing.
Uh it has a baby, but itdoesn't have two, it has one.
And you and your wife arelooking at this first calf, and
(38:14):
you're like, this is thebeginning of our small business.
This is the beginning of ustaking care of our kids.
You go home and you startreading Bible story to your
kids, and you happen to be inLeviticus, where God says, Give
me the first of every maleanimal that's born.
And you have to say, I coulduse this as an investment, I
could use this to build betterfencing, but instead, I'm giving
(38:35):
it to the Lord.
Why?
Because God is selfish?
No.
Edit, undo, go back to lastweek.
God doesn't need anything, Hecreated everything.
So if God is a God who asks,why is He a God who asks for our
own good?
What is God wanting?
Trust.
Man is not fallen from the skyright now, and every one of you
will go home to a pantry and toa fridge that has stuff in it.
What does it look like for usto trust when we have so little
(38:58):
to need?
Well, what it looks likesometimes is not just a tempt,
but making sure that it goes outfirst rather than saying, God,
I'm gonna give you what's left.
I'm gonna give you my best.
And this is what we would haveseen in Leviticus.
Now, the problem with a strictformula, while there are
benefits, is that neither Jesus,Paul, or the apostles ever
(39:21):
says, you must tithe.
I think the closest is thatverse that I gave you in Matthew
23.
In fact, most of the time whenthey bring it up, they're
preaching against beinglegalistic, which is why I can't
get my mind wrapped around itis a requirement to tithe,
because it seems like Jesuspushes against it.
But as I have this wholeconcept up of tinting and
(39:43):
tithing and wherever you are onthis, can I speak to two people
in the room?
Person number one says, Well,what if I can't?
Am I about to walk throughthose doors and feel ashamed for
the weeks?
No.
No, you shouldn't.
Remember, it's the trainingwheels of giving.
It is a wonderful place tostart, but is not the high
watermark of devotion to God andgenerosity.
(40:05):
I have a desire to be generous.
Stop, pause, and praise Godthere.
You may have never givenanything to the church, to the
Lord, to a missionary, to anonprofit, or anything else.
And if in this moment you'relike, I want to be a generous
person, that is a win.
Take the win that God iscalling you to have a desire to
be generous.
(40:26):
And what I would say is this ifthat has never been you, if if
that has been seeminglyimpossible for you, make future
decisions that allow margin forgenerosity.
What we do innately, let me askyou this.
If you get really, really busy,what word do you start saying
when people say, hey, can we gettogether?
(40:48):
You're really busy, hey, can Icome over and hang out?
What do you say?
No.
Or sorry, that's nicer.
I say no.
Sorry, brother.
Okay?
If you're really, really busy,you start saying no.
Depending on which one of youis in charge of the budget.
If it gets really tight towardthe end of the month, at least
one of you is probably going tobegin saying no.
(41:09):
If you're really, really tiredand your kids are like, hey, can
we go play football?
What are you probably gonnasay?
It's okay, be honest.
Like, no.
I'm worn out.
I've been working hard so youcan buy that football.
All right, you go play with it.
I'm gonna I'm gonna take a nap.
When we get to the end of ourmargin, we start saying no.
So if tithing feels likesomething that is radically
(41:30):
different than anything youcould pull off, let me encourage
you with this.
You have made past decisionsthat have caused you to live on
the edge.
That is human nature, that isAmerican, that is what we do.
We red line, we don't live withmargin.
In the decisions that you havein the days ahead, decide not to
make financial decisions thatsqueeze you from being able to
(41:51):
be generous.
Sure, you could afford an$80,000 truck, or you could get
one for 40 or 20 or 5 and begenerous.
Make decisions today that leaveroom for margin tomorrow.
You do that with yourcalendars, you do that with your
energy.
It is normal for us to live onthe edge.
The other group of people Iwould talk to is me, and I need
(42:13):
to repent to you of something.
The other group that I wouldtalk to is the group that would
look at this and they would saythat tithing is the gold
standard of following Christ andgenerosity.
That was me.
If I think that it is the goldstandard, what I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna do it on autopilot.
I don't even see the moneyleave my account.
(42:34):
It is, and by the way, I don'twant you guys to stop giving
automatically.
It really does help us withplanning and budgeting.
We're we're coming up with away to fix this problem, but can
I just give you my problem inmy own heart?
For me, tithing was the goldstandard.
It's all that I ever knew, it'sall that I was ever taught.
So I did it, and it was veryhard not to become
self-righteous, not to feel likeI'm doing everything I'm
(42:57):
supposed to do, move on.
I've had an encounter withChrist, and so now I'm moving
on.
That was my issue.
My heart is not in giving tothis church.
I give to the church, but myheart's not in it.
I barely even think about it.
I don't even feel it.
One of our elders hasspecifically been talking with
us for years.
And he said, I hate that wedon't pass a plate anymore and
(43:17):
it doesn't have anything to dowith the money that comes in.
I don't like it because there'snothing in our service that is
pointing to a generous God whohas given and calls us to give
generously.
And when I see thatseven-year-old put one dollar
in, that does more for my heartthan the guy who's been
auto-drafting for 10 years.
And it's true.
And because I have beenauto-piloting my giving, I don't
(43:41):
think about it.
Do you know what happens whenyou have a pastor who doesn't
think about giving?
He doesn't talk about giving.
When you have a pastor whodoesn't talk about giving, you
have a congregation who has notbeen educated in giving.
That is my fault.
That is on me.
And so you may see in the weeksahead a start passing a play.
I need you to hear this from menow.
We're not trying to make moremoney.
What we want to do is have aspot in the service for those of
(44:04):
you who are already giving tobe able to say, Lord, I gave
this three weeks ago.
I hadn't even thought about it.
I'm praying that it would gointo mission.
I'm praying that it would plantchurches, I'm praying that it
would put Bibles in hands, I'mpraying that it would expand
your kingdom.
I don't pray about anythingthat I give because I don't even
think about it.
Because for me, tithing was thegold standard and it leads to
arrogance.
(44:24):
And when we see Christ talkabout standards, keep in mind he
never moves down, he alwaysmoves up.
You've heard it said, you shallnot murder.
But I say to you that everyonewho is angry with his brother,
here's what you have heard thestandard is.
Can I increase it and tell youI don't even want you to be
(44:45):
angry?
You have heard it said, youshall not commit adultery.
Can I take it a step furtherand tell you that everyone who
looks at a woman with less inhis heart has already committed
adultery?
Jesus never diminishes.
Now we don't have this ontithing, but if we did, I think
Jesus would say something like,You have heard it said that
those who have received from theLord give to the Lord by
(45:07):
tithing 10%.
But I say to you that a poorwidow came in and put in two
small copper coins, making up apenny.
By the way, she couldn't eventithe off this.
Do you realize that?
She has two coins.
They're made out of copper.
She ain't about to chew thething and spit 20 whatever
percent of that piece.
So she gives not 50%, she couldhave, she gives all of it to
(45:30):
the Lord.
And Jesus points at this and hesays, Truly I say to you, this
widow is put in more than allwho are contributing with their
regular giving, automaticallydrafting out of their account
because her heart is in it.
They've given out of abundance,but she out of her poverty has
put in everything that she hadto live on.
Jesus constantly raises thebar, not lowers it.
(45:54):
I'm gonna rocket through a fewthings so that you can have a
discipline for giving because Idon't want you to follow a
strict formula.
I think it will make you alegalist.
I think it is great trainingwheels.
And if you don't have anydiscipline on this, I think you
should take a step in the rightdirection, have a desire.
And honestly, this is what Iwould love.
Uh buy somebody's lunch today.
(46:14):
Buy somebody's lunch today whoyou do not know.
Take care of somebody's gaswhen you see them in the pump.
Love on someone and see if thatgenerosity doesn't give back to
you so much more than what that$15 or $20 would have been.
I would challenge everybody inthe room sometime today.
And if you're not going to seeanybody today because you're
going home to take a nap andwatch a game, whatever, do it
tomorrow.
But in the next two days, Iwant you to be generous in some
(46:36):
capacity.
And just to make it easy, don'tgive it to the church, okay?
Just be generous with someonearound you because I want that
for your own soul.
Rather than following a strictformula, believers should
display traits that honor andreflect God's character.
Now, much of what I'm sharingwith you comes out of this book.
I have one left, by the way.
Uh, God and Money.
(46:57):
It's written by two guys whowent to Harvard Business School.
They are our age.
It was recommended to me byStokes.
I've read the first half of itand getting ready for this, and
the applications I'm about togive you in rocket form come
from this.
Here is the discipline that Iwould recommend.
Not a hard and fast line.
These are traits that I wouldwant every believer to have.
(47:19):
Gratitude, number one.
Everything we own belongs toGod.
Everything.
Nothing you have is yours.
Family you were born into, youdidn't pick.
The ability, the intellect thatyou have, you didn't
pre-install, God did.
Country you were born into,schools that you went to, all
pre-installed software by thecreator of the universe.
(47:41):
Therefore, any produce thatcomes from that is something
that he has done.
I'm not gonna read every verse.
I just want you to know I'm notgonna editorialize anything
that I am giving you.
My favorite, though, would beMalachi 3.8, if you want to
check this out in your studytoday or tomorrow.
People are wondering whythey're not being blessed.
And God literally says this,you are robbing me by not
(48:03):
tithing.
Why would I say that?
Because what God, I'm nottrying to guilt anybody.
What I'm trying to say is Godis considering what they call
theirs, His.
You can't rob someone ofsomething that isn't theirs.
And he is looking at what theyhave in their hands and he's
saying, You're robbing me by notgiving it because everything is
mine.
I would shoot for gratitude.
The second thing, I would shootfor mission.
(48:26):
Wealth and possessions shouldbe used for God's purposes.
Who is faithful and wise, theone who stewards what God has
put in his hands well.
Philippians 4, 18, I havereceived full payment and more.
I am well supplied.
This is Paul talking as he isdoing missions.
(48:46):
Having received fromEpaphroditus, this dude was
given some gifts and broughtthem to Paul, the gifts you
sent, and he doesn't say thanks,it's made life easier.
Here's what he points to (48:55):
it was a fragrant offering and it
pleased the Lord.
He's not even talking about hisown life.
He's saying your missionalgiving is an offering unto God.
A third trait that honors andreflects God's character is
intentionality.
Money is one of the strongestforces on the planet.
It will guarantee earthly lossor eternal gain.
(49:17):
In other words, there is notone cent that you can spend on
this planet that is not gonnaeventually rust or fall apart.
And if you say, Will, what if Iwant to save it and give it to
my children?
I think you should.
I think you should plan foryour children and want to bless
them well.
Just be careful.
Wealth that comes easy easilycorrupts our souls.
But I would also tell you this: whatever they spend it on, a (49:35):
undefined
house or a car, it's gonnabreak.
There is nothing in this worldthat your money is gonna is
going to ultimately last.
But everything that we give toGod and to his kingdom will last
and it will last forever.
So we ought to be intentionalwith it.
John Steinbeck, Americanauthor, would say this: a
(49:55):
strange species we are.
We can stand anything God andnature can throw at us.
Disease, sickness, difficulty,we can handle it.
The only thing that we can'thandle is plenty.
Too much good is the greatestharm for the human soul.
A woman came up to him with analabaster flask of very
expensive ointment.
(50:15):
She poured it out on Jesus'head as he was reclining at the
table.
And when not the Pharisees,when the disciples saw it, they
were indignant, saying, She justwasted a bunch of money by
pouring something expensive onChrist.
They'd had an experience withChrist, but they weren't seeing
clearly.
Jesus, aware of this, said tothem, Why do you trouble the
woman?
She has done a beautiful thing.
(50:36):
Why?
You will always have the poorwith you, but you will not
always have me.
And pouring this ointment on mybody, she has done it to
prepare me for a bear.
She is looking ahead.
You are looking in front ofyour own feet.
And because she is thinkingeternally, what we would call a
waste makes all the sense in theworld.
(50:57):
I have more scriptures for youthere, but for the sake of time,
I would just tell you, Jesuslooks at that and calls it a
beautiful thing.
We ought to pursue the Lord inour charity.
If you looked at that verse andyou saw you will always have
the poor with you, but you willnot always have me, and your
(51:20):
first thought is, then why arewe giving to the poor if we're
never going to fix the problem?
Congratulations on being apragmatist, but you're not a
great believer.
The believer looks at the poorand sees it as opportunity.
Those who have contempt intheir heart look at the poor and
say, What decisions did youmake to get there?
How did you find yourselfthere?
Now look, I'm not saying thatisn't an important question to
(51:43):
ask and we need to be goodstewards of the funds that we
have.
I would just flip the questionand say, How many decisions did
you make that got you where youare?
I'm not saying you didn't makeany.
What I'm saying is many of usare fortunate and blessed simply
because we are fortunate andblessed.
In addition to charity, I wouldpoint to unity.
Apart from God, money willdivide us.
(52:04):
But in Christ, money unites us.
Our call to worship, by theway, I did not plan this.
It just happened again that thecall to worship happens to be
in this.
David provides for the house ashe was able.
In addition, he gives out ofhis, here's the word.
David goes above and beyondbecause he has devotion to the
Lord.
He then looks at thecongregation and says, We want
(52:25):
to build a temple for the Lord.
Do you want to be involved?
Will you consecrate yourself tothe Lord?
And do you know what happensnext?
The people rejoice because theygave willingly.
This entire kingdom is drawntogether because they are about
something that is bigger thanthemselves.
And finally, holiness.
Uh the quote on the top theonly thing that breaks money's
(52:49):
power over us is giving it away.
That is Stokes' quote to methis week that I think is a
quote from John Cortinez, whowrote this book.
So I'm giving Stokes credit forit, but it may be needing to be
credited to someone else.
I just couldn't actually findit in the book, but I do love
the quote.
The only thing that breaksmoney's power over us is when we
(53:10):
give it away.
Those who desire to be richwill fall into temptation and
senseless, harmful desires thatlead to ruin and destruction.
He who loves money will not besatisfied with money.
Take care, be on your guardagainst all covetousness, for
one's life does not consist inthe abundance of his possession.
I give you these six because ifI wasn't just looking for some
(53:34):
kind of one touch, okay, it's10%, or maybe it's this, or
maybe it's more.
I I don't want you to have ahard and fast rule.
That got me into trouble forthe past 20, 30 years.
I had a hard and fast rulesince I was a kid sitting in the
pew.
So I thought I was doingeverything that God could
possibly want for me until Istarted writing this for you
guys.
What I would rather is havepeople and have myself be a
(53:58):
person of gratitude, mission,intentionality, charity, unity,
and seeking holiness.
That, to me, is what disciplinelooks like.
And if God calls you tosomething higher, praise God
that this may be something thatcauses you to worship.
If you're here today, that'sgreat too.
All uh all that I am pressingon you is this.
(54:19):
Uh, worship team, you can comeup.
I'm not sure who's coming up.
All I care about is this.
Whatever is north of where, I'msorry, whatever is south of
where you are, that's where Iwant you to go.
If you don't have a desire, Ijust want you to start having a
desire.
If you want help figuring thatout, I'll meet with you, or a
guy who's much smarter than mewill meet with you.
If you have a desire but nodiscipline, I think you ought to
move that way.
(54:40):
If you have discipline andyou're debating, might I be able
to be devoted to this and findgreat joy in it, then that's
what I would call you to.
Why?
Because this is the essence ofthe good news of Christ.
As you wrestle and think, andkeep in mind, we we're not
passing a plate, where there'snot like we're not kicking off
our capital campaign untilJanuary.
(55:02):
But we do want people as wemove into Thanksgiving and
Christmas to start thinkingabout do I have a heart that is
generous?
You know the grace of our LordJesus Christ, and if you don't,
I hope you're beginning to seeit and maybe see it clearly
today.
Life isn't about money.
It certainly isn't gonna beabout that in the years to come.
(55:23):
When I was a kid, I went toDisneyland and we bought a bunch
of Disney Bucks.
Y'all know what I'm talkingabout?
Disney Bucks?
If you if you can't relate tothat, just have you ever been on
a mission trip and exchangedmoney and you got a different
kind of currency?
The moment you get those Disneybucks, or the moment you get
those pesos, it feels the exactsame amount until you get to the
(55:45):
end of your trip.
And by the time you get to theend of your trip, you're like, I
gotta do something with this.
I can't put gas in my car whenI get home with this.
And so, do you know what endsup happening?
You start getting reallygenerous.
You're like, Well, I got 4,000pesos.
I don't even know what theconversion rate is.
I raise money.
What am I gonna do with it?
I I you know what?
I got it, I'm gonna buy thatCoke.
I got it, I'm gonna do this.
(56:05):
Do you know why that happens?
Because the money that you'reholding, you realize only has
value for a moment.
And when you get home to yourreal home, it's valueless.
Every dollar and every cent isthat way for us.
It feels right now like itmatters so much, but there will
be a millennia where it's gonnafeel like Disney Bucks and pesos
(56:29):
when you're back home.
So let's view people who canhave it openly.
Not because we want to pay offdebt, not because we have great
mission, not because if you havegiven to the church in the past
year, you have helped plant 60churches around the globe, not
including the ones in Kenya.
I don't even tell you guysabout this stuff, but you have.
(56:50):
Because it's what your soulneeds to be able to see Jesus
clearly.
So let's be a people who do,because this is what he did for
us.
For our sake, he became poor sothat by his poverty we might
become rich.
And if you need to richly seeJesus clearly, and it has
(57:10):
nothing to do with money, prayand draw near to him today.
A group of us will be prayingon the back porch if you want to
join us.
Feel free to walk, do whateverit is you need.
But let's spend a few momentswith God before we head out.
Find a sink, find a sink.
Tiffany Grantham (00:47):
Please turn in your Bibles to the book of
Mark, chapter ten.
We'll begin in verse 17.
If you're reading out of yourpew Bible, it's on page 846.
I'll give you a few seconds toturn there.
Will Hawk (01:03):
Tiffany's on it, man.
She's like, sit down, I got aBible verse to read.
Tiffany Grantham (01:11):
And as he was setting out on his journey, a
man ran up and knelt before himand asked him, Good teacher,
what must I do to inheriteternal life?
And Jesus said to him, Why doyou call me good?
No one is good except Godalone.
You know the commandments, donot murder, do not commit
adultery, do not steal, do notbear false witness, do not
(01:34):
defraud, honor your father andmother.
And he said to him, Teacher,all these I have kept from my
youth.
And Jesus, looking at him,loved him and said to him, You
lack one thing.
Go, sell all that you have andgive to the poor, and you will
have treasure in heaven, andcome, follow me.
(01:55):
Disheartened by the saying, hewent away sorrowful, and he had
great possessions.
And Jesus looked around andsaid to his disciples, How
difficult it will be for thosewho have wealth to enter the
kingdom of God.
And the disciples were amazedat his words, but Jesus said to
them again, Children, howdifficult it is to enter the
(02:16):
kingdom of God.
It is easier for a camel to gothrough the eye of a needle than
for a rich person to enter thekingdom of God.
And they were exceedinglyastonished and said to him, Then
who can be saved?
Jesus looked at them and said,With man it is impossible, but
not with God, for all things arepossible with God.
(02:36):
This is the word of the Lord.
Will Hawk (02:38):
Amen.
Hey, just leave that up forjust a minute.
Don't take it off yet.
Thank you, Tiffany.
Appreciate it.
Thomas, is this the kid youwant in your youth ministry?
True or false?
It's kind of true.
It's not the kid you want toleave your youth ministry.
Like by senior year, you'relike, get this figure out.
Yeah, but this is the kid whosits still, he pays attention,
(02:59):
he's got his stuff figured out.
I just want you to notice this.
By the way, welcome to MitchryChurch.
My name is Will.
I'm the lead pastor here.
Excited to hang out with youguys.
In the event that you weren'there last week, we are doing two
weeks on generosity and youjust slid in.
If you were here last week andyou knew we were doing two weeks
on generosity and giving, andyou showed up anyway, I'm really
proud of you, and I want you toknow that.
(03:20):
One of the things I just wantedto point to this from the very
beginning.
There's a million things youcould teach.
This isn't going to be our maintext for the day.
I love the fact that when Jesussays it's hard for a rich
person to enter the kingdom ofheaven, the disciples are what
word?
Starts with an A.
Astonished.
Do you want to know why?
Because it's easy when we havemeans for our lives to look like
(03:42):
we are exceedingly righteousand godly.
It is easier for it to lookthat way.
And what you're going to see,we'll look in one other passage.
The disciples are right.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
If they're not making it, howis anybody going to make it?
Because the religious elite oftheir day were wealthy.
And so they would have lookedat this.
They would have looked at thePharisees whose lives were just
(04:04):
all buttoned up and perfect.
And for Jesus to say, it'sactually really hard when we
have a lot of stuff in thewallet in the back pocket or in
an account.
That absolutely blew theirmind.
And so here we go.
You guys can throw it to uh toregular slides and stuff now.
Thank you for leaving that up.
Here is uh the hope for today.
I want us to see the concept ofgenerosity clearly as it
(04:27):
relates to scripture.
And I do have a little bit offuel in the tank.
Um, I have fuel in the tank fora couple of reasons, but I will
only give you one.
I heard the best story when Iwas uh finishing up church last
week, and I've been waiting allweek to tell you this.
So I got permission to sharethis story.
I need you to know that.
(04:48):
Somebody's been inviting afamily member to church for a
long time.
They have not been going tochurch for a long time because
you ready for this?
Whenever I show up to church,all the church does is talk
about money.
So they show up last week.
By the way, if you're if you'renew to Mid Tree, uh, we haven't
talked about money in ages.
(05:08):
We work through books of theBible.
If it comes up, we talk aboutit.
We don't really do topicals andwe're doing two weeks on it.
Um, so he shows up with hisfamily member, and I say, Hey
guys, we're gonna be talkingabout money today, and his heart
drops.
Like, I've been trying to getthis family over church forever.
He hasn't gone in ages becauseall we do is talk about money.
(05:30):
And I'm even like, I even had alittle line where I said, Some
of you are leaning next to theperson that you invited, and
you're saying, I promise wedon't do this every week.
Like, I'm so sorry.
Here's what ends up happening.
I'm trying to be very vague,and I can't even tell you the
end of the story because it'seven better, but it is that
person's story to tell.
Shows up, some dude justtalking about money the whole
(05:51):
time.
He's he's at church.
He leaves, and when he getshome, unexpectedly from a source
that he had sort of given up onand written off, a check for
thousands of dollars is on thedoorstep under the mat.
This is like 10.
By the way, we're not aprosperity gospel.
I'm not saying give me 10 andI'll turn it into 100.
(06:13):
You're in the wrong place ifyou wanted that.
If you need 10 to turn into100, you got to talk to Stokes,
not me.
That's more his world thanmine.
I'm like, give me $10 and I'mgonna ask you to go live in
Kenya.
That's the difference.
And um, but he shows up tochurch, talks about money, it's
like, you have got to be kiddingme.
And on the very week he decidedto go, on that very day, was
(06:35):
the exact same day in God'sprovidence.
Every one of our days writtenbefore one of them came to be,
Psalm 139.
He gets home and has anunexpected blessing.
And it was just like so, I'mnot nervous to talk to you guys
about money.
I wasn't really nervous lastweek.
I'm definitely not nervous thisweek.
I'm not saying lift yourdoormat when you get home.
But I am telling you this, thestory actually gets better from
(06:58):
there, but I can't tell itbecause it isn't my story to
tell.
But maybe you will get to hearthat testimony in the days,
weeks, or years ahead.
How is it that we can seegenerosity clearly?
Now, this is Mark 8.
I know that you're not able tosee everything that I have up
here, but what I do want you tonotice is this story in the
(07:19):
middle.
One of the weirdest stories.
You couldn't preach the storyduring COVID, and I'll tell you
why.
Because they came to Bethesdaand some people brought to him
being Jesus a blind man, andthey begged Jesus to touch him.
And he took the blind man bythe hand and led him out of the
village.
Remember, they just wantedJesus to touch him.
And when he had spit on hiseyes and laid his hands on him,
(07:40):
he asked him, Do you seeanything?
All right, this is taking it tothe to the next level.
All right.
This bothered me theologicallyforever.
What happens next?
Jesus is only asked to touchthe guy.
He takes it a step up, spits,puts it on the guy's eyes, and
then looks at him, red letterson the screen.
(08:01):
Do you see anything?
Does Jesus have infinite powerto heal?
Yes or no?
Infinite power to heal.
And he looked up verse 24 andhe said, I see people, but they
look like trees walking.
Okay.
Was Jesus having an off day?
Had he missed his coffee?
Was it just like, oh gosh,guys?
I mean, I've been doing so manymiracles.
(08:22):
The manometer's just a littlelow right now.
It's gonna be hard to pull thisoff.
Why?
Why does Jesus half heal thisguy?
And what does it have to dowith us seeing generosity
clearly?
Pay close attention.
I see people, but they looklike trees walking.
Then Jesus laid his hands onhis eyes again, and he opened
(08:43):
his eyes, his sight wasrestored, and he saw everything
clearly, and he sent him homesaying, Don't even enter the
village.
Your life is about to change asa result of this.
Why did it only work halfway?
Jesus is not at low power.
One of the things we realizeabout Scripture is many times
(09:06):
Jesus is doing things beforethings and after things to
explain the things that comebefore.
Why is it that this man neededto be touched twice?
Why was it that it was going torequire more than one encounter
with Jesus?
Please hear me on that thismorning.
Why does it sometimes requiremore than one encounter with
Jesus?
Well, one reason is because ofwho he was coming from.
(09:28):
Here are the people who looklike they have their lives
together.
If you feel like you have yourlife together because you had
one encounter with Jesus, youneed to read the story that
comes from above.
It is a dangerous thing tothink.
I went to church camp when Iwas a kid, I walked down, I
filled out a card, I prayed withmy mom and dad, I joined crew
in college, I repented tomorrow,and I became a Christian.
(09:49):
I've had my encounter withChrist.
So now I'm gonna live agenerally good life, and I'm
gonna try to do all the thingsthat the world does with just a
little bit of Jesus on top.
That is what we see in storyone.
We need more than one encounterwith Christ to see clearly.
Well, what happens at thebottom is Peter confesses Jesus
is Christ.
Jesus went on with thedisciples, and on the way he
said, Who do people say that Iam?
(10:11):
In other words, you can have anencounter with me and not fully
understand who I am.
You can be near me, you can goto church for years and not see
clearly, and at the very end,Peter confesses, you are the Son
of God.
And Jesus says, just so youknow, you didn't come up with
that on your own.
Why do these stories livearound Jesus having two
(10:33):
encounters with someone to seeclearly?
Because it is very dangerousfor us to think that we've
encountered Jesus once.
So now our mind, soul,affections, emotions, desires,
and actions automatically moveinto that category.
Number two, you are going tolive in a world where lots of
people have an encounter withJesus and an opinion about
Jesus, but there is only one wayto see him as Lord of all.
(10:54):
I submit this to you becausewhen it comes to our generosity,
most of us had an encounter,had a teaching, watched a Dave
Ramsey thing or whatever else itwas.
We said, boom, got it.
It's kind of who I am, and wemoved on.
Now listen, you may be able tonavigate.
You might be able to walkaround, but you're gonna walk in
a world not seeing clearly ifgenerosity or prayer or
(11:18):
faithfulness or evangelism ormission or anything else you
feel like you have stamped andit is done.
I would encourage you withthis.
All of us need to continuehaving encounters with Christ so
that we can see clearly.
And in our culture, generosityis one that is gonna require
more than one encounter withChrist.
And that is exactly what wesee.
Now, this is where we left offlast week.
(11:40):
If all you knew was the Bible,we walked through what you would
believe, we walked through whatyou would feel.
We're gonna get real practicaltoday.
What would you do if all youknew was scripture?
I have been very careful when Iput something on the screen to
not editorialize today.
I do not want to give youWill's opinions, best guess
theological assumptions.
(12:01):
I just want to give you Biblebecause I feel like I know you
and you know me.
This is the kind of Sundaywhere the antennas go up and we
are looking for problems andwe're looking to justify things.
So my goal is to simply giveyou scripture that would say, if
all I knew was the Bible, whatwould I do when it comes to
(12:23):
money?
And by the way, this thirdcategory is the most dangerous.
The reason it's the mostdangerous is because by far,
this is the one that is theeasiest to be legalistic about.
The easiest to check the box,feel like we've given our heart
to God because we had oneexperience with Christ, we
haven't grown from that.
We go into autopilot once webegin answering number three.
(12:44):
And that was actually a problemin Jesus' own day.
As he told this parable to somewho trusted in themselves that
they were righteous.
I'm gonna be drinking a lot ofwater.
Let me just own the awkwardright now.
I was traveling a bunch, I'vegot like plain head, if y'all
know what that means, and I'mhearing myself twice today, so I
apologize.
(13:05):
He told this parable to somewho trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and theytreated others with contempt.
By the way, there's aconnection there.
If you see yourself asrighteous, you will often begin
to treat others with contempt.
Not the point of the sermon,but good to know.
Two men went up to the templeto pray, one a Pharisee,
impressive guy, and the other atax collector, not an impressive
(13:29):
guy.
The Pharisee, standing byhimself, prayed thus.
I am not like other men.
God, I'm grateful that I'mdifferent.
What he's saying here, I'm gladI'm better than the people
around me.
I want you to watch how we cameto that.
The Bible could have listed hisentire heart.
This is what it lists as towhat caused him to become
(13:51):
self-righteous and see otherpeople with contempt.
I'm not an extortioner, I'm notunjust, I'm not an adulterer,
I'm not even like this taxcollector.
That's a bold statement to sayin front of God.
I fast twice a week and I givetithes of all that I get.
That those two things are whatcaused him to think that he was
better than everybody elsearound him.
(14:11):
I skip a meal and I putsomething in the plate, and that
is all it takes for me to bebetter than the people around
me.
But the tax collector, standingfar off, didn't even feel like
he needed to be near, wouldn'teven lift up his eyes to heaven,
he beat his breast saying, God,be merciful to me, a sinner.
This is the kind of prayer thatsaves your soul.
I tell you, this man went downto his house justified rather
(14:35):
than the other.
For everyone who exalts himselfwill be humbled, but the one
who humbles himself will beexalted.
This was a problem.
What we're talking about todayhas been a problem for 2,000
years.
So let me give you a paradigmto understand giving as well as
any other spiritual disciplineso that you do not become
self-righteous, nor do youbecome lazy thinking you've had
(14:58):
an encounter with Christ, andthat would be enough.
I'm not gonna tell you to writethings down often.
I would capture this.
And the reason I would capturethis is this will apply to
everything in your life, notjust generosity.
I think it's good for you tohave a paradigm for spiritual
growth.
There are three categories,three tranches, three terraces
of pursuing the Lord.
(15:18):
Now listen to me.
I am telling you that one isbetter than the other.
This is not a everybody gets agreen ribbon for participation.
But I also want to tell youthis not all of us will get to
the third rail in this life, ineverything.
All right?
Desire leading to discipline,desire leading to discipline
(15:39):
leading to devotion.
Desire is I want to reflectGod's something.
Now you can fill that in withanything from the character of
God.
Today we're gonna talk aboutgenerosity, okay?
That's what we're talking abouttoday.
I want to reflect God'sgenerosity to me in Christ.
2 Corinthians 8, 9 will be thelast verse you see today.
(16:01):
That's what I desire.
All right.
Now listen to me.
Just because you want somethingdoesn't mean you have obtained
it.
I'll just talk to the husbandsin the room, all right?
Just because you want to notleave your boots out does not
mean your wife is giving youcredit for not leaving your
boots out.
Okay?
Just because you want to, youpick your own thing.
(16:23):
Just because you want to dosomething, that could be a good
desire.
I want to serve the Lord.
So did the rich young ruler,and he was the most impressive
kid in the youth group.
Desire is not enough, but nothaving a desire is a terrifying
place to be.
I desire to give the Lord mylife.
That is beautiful.
That doesn't mean you've doneit.
You have to repent, you need tobelieve, you need to be
(16:45):
baptized, okay?
But having a desire is abeautiful place to start.
That desire should then lead todiscipline.
Let me be careful with thisword.
Our English diction uses theword discipline in two different
ways.
I wake up at six o'clock in themorning to go running, that's
called discipline.
I reach for a cookie and I'meight years old and my mom
(17:07):
smacks it away.
She wouldn't have reallysmacked me, but she smacks it
away.
That's called discipline too.
This would be category onediscipline.
I'm intentionally organizing mylife.
I have a plan and I practice itwith joy.
By the time we get todiscipline, we have moved beyond
desire.
I don't just desire something,I have put feet to my faith.
The rich young ruler never gotto discipline.
(17:28):
He had all the desire in theworld, but he never made it to
discipline.
I've got a plan and I practiceit with joy.
And then some of us in someareas will, by the grace of God,
gifting of God, calling of God,move to devotion.
I want to be careful with this.
There was if I woke up on theday I turned seven years old and
(17:52):
I shot basketballs for an hourevery day.
If I had a desire to be a greatbasketball player and I had the
discipline to pull it off, Iwould never have made it into
the NBA.
It is not in the cards for me.
Okay?
Wasn't gonna happen.
There are some things where wemay not be, and by the way, God
gifts us with all kinds ofdifferent things.
(18:13):
He doesn't do it equally, okay?
God is not an equal distributorof gifts, which is also a grace
to us when we see people whoare better than us at things.
We don't have to say, oh, well,I'm not so bad at this.
We can say, well, God's giftedme to be good in other things,
right?
That's that's 1 Corinthians,the body, chapter 12, working
together.
Devotion is I delight in goingabove and beyond.
(18:34):
Now, if I were to take the wordgenerosity out and I were to
pick a different character ofGod, truth.
I I want to reflect God'struth.
That's a wonderful thing.
Doesn't mean anything until youbegin to say, so I have a plan.
I read my Bible every day.
I've started memorizingscripture.
I I uh I get online and I lookat studies, I show up to church,
(18:56):
I go to Bible studies.
Now I have a discipline.
Some of those people will moveinto devotion.
I don't just desire it, I don'tjust have a discipline for it.
I feel more alive when I amsharing the truth of God than
anything else.
Those are the people who becomepastors, preachers, MCG
facilitators, leaders, Sundayschool teachers, et cetera, and
so on.
All right?
(19:17):
Not everybody will do that.
If you look at this and yousay, I want to reflect God's um
mission, some people will have ahuge heart for that.
And then what do you do?
You have a plan, you give to amissionary, you go on a mission
trip, you you uh startsupporting whatever else, and
then all of a sudden it goesabove and beyond, and you leave,
(19:37):
you go and you spend your lifeelsewhere.
You can apply anycharacteristic of God that we
could desire and watch it walkthrough these things.
The question for you today isthis when it comes to
generosity, don't answer outloud, but answer honestly in
your heart, mind, and soul,where are you?
Is it something that you evendesire at all?
(19:59):
If you don't desire it, I Idon't know that you've
understood the gospel.
When God gives his absolutebest, unequivocally, holding
nothing back, there should besomething in us that at least
has a desire to be generous tothe people around us.
I hope that if you have adesire, it will turn into a
discipline.
I'm about to help you withthat.
And maybe some of us have had adiscipline, but God would call
(20:22):
us into a higher level where weactually feel worship explode
from us when we say, justbecause I've had one encounter
with Christ, I may be called tomore.
So I give you this as a littlebit of help.
Now, let me give you just onequick thought on desire and one
on devotion.
If you don't desire something,people who do are gonna look
(20:44):
crazy to you.
By show of hands, how many ofy'all had know someone who is
serious about cold plunging, oryou knew somebody who is serious
about cold plunging?
I just need, all right, if youdon't know what this is, you you
put a bunch of cold water in abike.
Thomas has one.
Can I see it?
Is it like tucked around?
It's in the closet.
If you saw our church on Mondayand Tuesday, good gracious,
(21:06):
Thomas will pull this thing out,he'll fill it with water, fill
it with ice, and then he justsits in it because it's good for
his health.
I did it one time.
I did feel great for like 15minutes afterward.
Painful minute and a half, twominutes.
If you see somebody do that andyou do not have a desire for it
or for the benefits, do youknow what you call that person
(21:28):
crazy?
You call that person a fanatic.
By the way, that's what theworld is supposed to call you.
It's supposed to look at yourdesire for Christ and say, that
doesn't make any sense to mewhatsoever.
But once you get to the placewhere there is a discipline,
you're like, oh, okay, I canbegin to see the benefits.
You may even devote yourself toit, where you spend how much
(21:49):
money on Amazon to buy thatthing?
$48,000.
Incredible, incredible.
What I would say about devotionis this: if you can't think of
anything in your life thatcauses you to worship that you
go above and beyond, I want youto hear this from me.
You're missing out.
I do not want you to bebaseline Christians in anything.
You are gifted to excel insomething.
(22:12):
I'll never forget sitting downat a dinner table with someone
in Columbus, Georgia.
I was talking to them aboutthis new church plant uh called
Midtree, and we had just gottenthis property.
These were people who had beento Midtree, they were involved
in Midtree, and I said, We'rewe're raising money because we
(22:33):
want to be able to break groundand we want to be able to build
the building.
And I just share with him.
He walks away and he comes backwith a check in his hand and he
hands me the check.
And when I look at it, my firstthought was this.
I didn't think you could dothis much on a check.
Like, don't you need to callsomeone?
Don't you need to like, isn'tthere somebody?
(22:55):
You're not supposed to be ableto like go and get these.
It seems like a dangerousthing.
He wrote a check for $250,000and handed it to me after a
30-minute conversation.
Can I tell you that is morethan discipline, that's
devotion, and I will prove it toyou by telling you this.
That person has not been tothis building.
That person wrote a check andknew.
(23:18):
Remember, we were a nomadicchurch.
We were meeting in Columbus atthe time.
That person wrote a checkknowing that if this building
got built, it would edge themout of likely involvement here.
That is what devotion lookslike.
And when you see it, not onlydoes their heart get sent on, do
you know how much worship thatput inside me?
(23:40):
And it doesn't just have to begenerosity.
Remember, fill in the blank,but find something to devote
your life to.
All right, now let's get intothe nitty-gritty of what we're
supposed to do.
Little fun question to startyou with.
I've got a poll.
So if you want to engage, grabyour phone, scan the QR code.
It's gonna take you to a littlepoll.
I would love to see how youguys would answer this question.
(24:01):
The question is going to bewhat percentage did the average
Israelite give in the OldTestament?
What percentage of income didthe average Israelite give?
And I've given you a couple ofoptions there.
I'll leave the QR code up whileI still see phones up.
If you get it right, you willenter into the category of
(24:23):
people who are available to getone of two books that I'm giving
away today.
So, all right, what percentagedid the average Israelite give
in the old testament?
Let me see.
All right, here's how oh no,oh, is it is it just man, I love
doing that.
(24:43):
Oh, there we go.
All right, we'll we'll let itkind of keep going.
But uh I gave you a couple ofcategories.
In first place, right now it's10%.
It's growing, it's shrinking,25% just took the lead, 50% or
more.
Not many people are sayingzero.
All right, so what percentagedid the average Israelite give
(25:03):
in the old testament?
This is really a cool thing tosort of look at and study.
I'm gonna I'm gonna hit pausein just a minute.
Do do do a few more of you.
All right, well, I think it'sprobably gonna hold right there,
okay?
What percentage did the averageIsraelite give?
You guys went with 25%.
(25:24):
The correct answer is about23%.
And so if you pick 25, you win.
You're correct.
All right, I'm gonna I'm gonnagive you this.
Raise your hand if you pick25%.
Go ahead, throw your throw yourhand up.
Way to go.
All right, if your hand is up,you you are able to come and get
one of these two books, whichwill be left here until the end
of service.
(25:44):
Okay.
Available for you.
And if you're lying in thehouse of the Lord, uh, God will
know.
And by the way, He knows whenyou're not in the house of the
Lord.
And I don't know why peoplemake a distinction in that.
What percentage did the averageIsraelite give?
It always happens.
I love it.
The very first it's still here.
It's still, I'm just saying.
(26:04):
If you don't know me and howhow okay I am with spontaneity,
there were three tithes thatwere typically given in the Old
Testament.
One was a Levitical tithe, itwas given to the priests, and
don't tell Stokes this, it wasgiven to the musicians.
Let's just focus, let's focusright here.
All right.
Now, this means that in threeareas of their life they were
(26:28):
giving.
But for just a moment, detachyourself from your wallet and
move to your heart.
God instructed for his peopleto have a heart for three
things.
He said, Do you want to know myheart and my character?
Do you want to have more than adesire but a discipline?
Do you want to have a plan tohave a heart like my heart?
You are gonna care about thepriests, the ministers, and the
(26:50):
musicians.
You are gonna care about thosewho are caring about you.
Number two, there are gonna bethese festival tithes.
This may actually be myfavorite one to present to you.
This would have been money thatwas put to the side because God
frequently in the life of hispeople would say, I want you to
stop, I want you to pause, and Iwant you to have a party.
I think seven times, Thomas,I'm looking at you.
(27:12):
Was it about seven times in theIsraelite calendar that they
would have a festival?
It wasn't a few.
It's six or seven times.
And God would say, I want youto stop everything, I want you
to eat good food, have a goodconversation, and I want you to
talk about my goodness to you.
By the way, that's why we doMCG celebrations.
We're not just trying to fillout a calendar, we're trying to
fill out our heart with how Godhas called his people to live.
(27:34):
So, what do we do?
We eat good food, we share goodstories because we have a
really, really good God.
This is what the festival tithewas.
And both of the top two wouldhave been annual.
They would have done this everyyear.
And then there would have beena charity tithe.
This would have been for peoplewho were foreign, for the
orphans and for the widows.
This is our 127 ministry andaction, which means this person
(27:56):
would have given 10%, and inthat year, this person would
have given 10%, and this 10%would be broken up into three,
basically, because they only didit every third year.
So you actually end up withlike 23.33 repeating percent.
All right.
That is what the averageIsraelite would have given,
(28:16):
listen carefully to what I'msaying, out of obligation.
That would not have been goingabove and beyond.
That would have been thediscipline number, not the
devotion number.
There were people who weredevoted to it.
That what we're looking at isthis.
It is a very cool thing thatGod said, I am giving my
(28:37):
children a plan.
I have a question for you.
I'm not putting this one up onthe screen.
Uh, as of the 20th, five daysago, what's today?
25th, 24th, doesn't matter.
As of 23rd, all right, as ofthree days ago, I now have three
teenage boys in my house.
I love this.
There will be like a teenylittle nine-month period where I
(29:00):
have four teenagers in myhouse.
18 years of youth ministry.
I hope I'm not walking intothis naively, but my wife and I
are very excited about theteenage years.
Super fun stuff.
I have a 13-year-old, that13-year-old is named Ames.
I don't think he's here rightnow, but I did see Tiggy, so
maybe he is.
He's probably sitting in myoffice.
All right.
If I decided I want to teachAmes what the Bible has to say
(29:25):
about wealth, possessions, andgenerosity, and I put together a
plan and I said, here's whatI'm gonna do.
I'm gonna sit down with him for60 seconds a day, and I'm gonna
read him a different verse,just one verse.
I'm never gonna repeat the sameone twice.
I'm gonna read him one verseout of scripture that has to do
with wealth, treasure,possession, money, and
generosity.
(29:45):
How many weeks would it takefor me to get through what the
Bible has to offer him?
I want feedback on this.
How many weeks would it take?
Five.
Remove that man.
Hey, I mean, don't you knowverses about creating chaos in
the house of the Lord?
(30:07):
Okay, I I've got 67, five, huh?
52.
Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys.
Adorable.
366.
Not days, weeks.
If I started with the Ames, theday he turned 13, he would be
19 and a half and out of thehouse before I repeated one
(30:31):
verse.
Okay.
That I I give you this, noteditorializing to tell you God
wants you to have a plan towardthis.
And if you don't have a thoughttoward it, toward it, it it
isn't on him.
You probably had an encounterwith Jesus, thought you were
seeing clearly, and then juststarted walking around in your
(30:53):
life.
It would take about sevenyears, 366 weeks.
Now I will say you should startwith your children.
The younger, the better.
Giving has never been adifficult issue for me because
it was modeled from my mom fromthe time that I was teeny,
right?
So when I got my first job atSubway at 15, actually, when I
was working at Camp Joy at 12and 13 years old, it was just
(31:16):
like, okay, here's my check.
Got 10%, send it out, no bigdeal.
God wants us to have a plan.
And God gave his people a veryclear plan.
Now the word tithing, whichyou'll hear in the church often,
comes from this Hebrew wordmasar.
All it means is tenth.
Take a piece of pizza, cut itinto, or take a circle of pizza,
(31:37):
cut it into 10 pieces, pullone.
That would be called a tithe.
It's just another word fortenth.
And for whatever reason, thechurch hasn't contextualized to
just say tenth.
We still say tithe.
So that's what it means.
And in the church, there arethree common opinions on
tithing.
Don't raise your hand, but Iwant you to go ahead and say
which in your own heart, whereare you on this?
(31:59):
Three common opinions ontithing.
Christians are required totithe, not required to tithe,
but should not required totithe.
I feel like I know where mostof you would be.
The problem with selectingnumber one, I'll tell you where
I am personally, but where I amdoesn't mean that's where you
(32:21):
need to be.
Remember, desire, discipline,devotion.
We're not all going to be inthe same place on those.
The problem with number one isthat in Romans and throughout
much of Scripture, we read thatChrist is the end of the law.
In other words, there is not astatic law that is applied to us
for righteousness to anyone whobelieves.
(32:41):
And for somebody to say, hey,Christians are required to
tithe, actually, in my opinion,goes above and beyond the
mandate of Scripture becausewe're not required to do
anything under the law.
We operate by the law of graceat this point.
In other words, we can't earnour salvation, which is exactly
what the rich young rulerthought he had pulled off,
exactly what the man praying whothought he had figured it all
(33:03):
out.
The problem in number three, bysaying you're not required to
tithe, I know I it may soundlike I'm talking out of both
sides of my mouth here, butJesus would say this in Matthew
23 (33:13):
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you
tithe.
His issue is not you legalistsfor tithing.
He says you're tithing out ofmint and dill and cumin.
In other words, they would goto their kitchen uh windowsill
where they're growing theselittle herbs, and they would
count the leaves, and one oftheir plants would have ten.
(33:35):
They're like, well, that one'seasy.
They would take one and theywould give it as an offering to
the Lord.
Another one had five leaves,had to take it, tear it in half,
keep one, and give the half,right?
Okay, we're doing basicfractions now, we won't do any
more.
But notice what Jesus says.
You're tithing mint and dillingcumin, but you have neglected
the weightier matters of thelaw.
Do you think my biggest concernis you go into your garden
(33:57):
bringing a cucumber to church?
That's not the big deal.
I'll tell you what the big dealis: justice.
Do you care about the people inyour world that are being
crushed by those around them andyou could step in to do
something?
Do you have mercy?
Do you look around and seethose who are in need?
Need mostly of me, but in needin general.
Do you have a heart ofcompassion?
Are you faithful in your life?
(34:19):
Or do you have a veryimpressive life, but your heart
is eaten up with sin and prideand lust and whatever else?
But then notice what Jesus saysThese you ought to have done.
You should tithe, is what he'ssaying.
But you need to make sure youknow what the most important
(34:39):
thing is.
And then he looks at them andhe calls them blind, which is
why I began by asking you, areyou seeing clearly when it comes
to this?
I'll tell you where I am.
I'm somewhere at 2.5.
I live somewhere here.
I don't think we're required totithe.
I think it is a wonderful placeto start.
But what I have, it's sort oflike baptism.
(35:03):
Do you have to be baptized togo into to go to heaven?
No, you don't.
That that would be legalistic.
But everybody who repents andbelieves in Christ should be
baptized.
Christ calls us to.
And if you look at baptism as,man, this thing is just too
difficult.
It's too awkward.
I don't want people to know.
Can I tell you getting baptizedin front of a bunch of
believers is one of the easiestthings Jesus asks you to do?
(35:23):
Hey, will you tell the story ofmy grace to people who have
heard the story of my grace andresponded to it so that they can
celebrate my grace in yourlife?
The rest of the Christian lifeis going to be really hard if
that feels like the high watermark, but there is a benefit to
the concept of tithing.
So the way when I think oftithing, I would put it this
way (35:41):
it offers benefits with some issues.
Benefit number one is it'sclear and easy to teach.
You can teach it to a kid.
It is not difficult to teachthe concept of tithing.
You can teach it to a newbeliever.
It doesn't matter if the personis salary, hourly, or sales.
It is very easy to move thedecimal one place to the left.
(36:01):
Like tenthing is not difficultat all.
That is one of the advantagesof it.
Randy Alcorn, who writes onheaven and eternity and
possessions and wealth, often hewould say tithing is the
training wheels of giving.
It's not going to allow you tofly down the hill.
It's not going to move you todevotion, but what it will do is
keep you from falling off thebike, basically.
(36:21):
It'll keep you from doingnothing, being self-absorbed, or
whatever else.
Tithing is the training wheelsof giving.
The other thing that tithingdoes, but a lot of people don't
realize this, is for theIsraelites, tithing meant two
things.
It meant I'm giving 10% forthem 23%, 10, 10, and then 10
every third year.
It was not only I am givingthis, it was when they were
(36:45):
giving it.
If you look in the inscripture, what you will find is
God asked them to give itfirst.
So the first of what you get, Ihad a teenager come up to me at
the in the service and theysaid, Hey, I haven't tithed and
I think I need to start.
And I'm like, that's a greatthing.
We're gonna talk about it nextweek.
And they said, but what I thinkI'm gonna do is I'm just gonna
(37:06):
wait till the end of the year.
I'm gonna calculate it all upand then I'm gonna give 10%.
I'm like, hey, I think that'sgreat.
It's gonna be tough though,because Christmas is right there
around the corner.
Like, let's just be realistic.
You're probably gonna startjustifying some stuff.
And I will just tell you forme, it's paycheck comes on like
the second or the third by thefourth, 10% is pulled and it is
(37:28):
taught, it is like tossed towardthe church.
That's that's just Will's modelbecause this is what I grew up
with.
The the advantage of the firstfruits is not only are you
saying, God, I'm thinking aboutyou before everything else, it
actually requires trust.
Go for a moment into living inthe Old Testament.
I want you to imagine thatyou're a cattle farmer and you
(37:51):
have one bull and you have oneheifer.
I never thought I'd get to sayheifer in church.
All right.
One bull, one heifer.
And it kids or whatever you gotgoats is more of my thing.
Uh it has a baby, but itdoesn't have two, it has one.
And you and your wife arelooking at this first calf, and
(38:14):
you're like, this is thebeginning of our small business.
This is the beginning of ustaking care of our kids.
You go home and you startreading Bible story to your
kids, and you happen to be inLeviticus, where God says, Give
me the first of every maleanimal that's born.
And you have to say, I coulduse this as an investment, I
could use this to build betterfencing, but instead, I'm giving
(38:35):
it to the Lord.
Why?
Because God is selfish?
No.
Edit, undo, go back to lastweek.
God doesn't need anything, Hecreated everything.
So if God is a God who asks,why is He a God who asks for our
own good?
What is God wanting?
Trust.
Man is not fallen from the skyright now, and every one of you
will go home to a pantry and toa fridge that has stuff in it.
What does it look like for usto trust when we have so little
(38:58):
to need?
Well, what it looks likesometimes is not just a tempt,
but making sure that it goes outfirst rather than saying, God,
I'm gonna give you what's left.
I'm gonna give you my best.
And this is what we would haveseen in Leviticus.
Now, the problem with a strictformula, while there are
benefits, is that neither Jesus,Paul, or the apostles ever
(39:21):
says, you must tithe.
I think the closest is thatverse that I gave you in Matthew
23.
In fact, most of the time whenthey bring it up, they're
preaching against beinglegalistic, which is why I can't
get my mind wrapped around itis a requirement to tithe,
because it seems like Jesuspushes against it.
But as I have this wholeconcept up of tinting and
(39:43):
tithing and wherever you are onthis, can I speak to two people
in the room?
Person number one says, Well,what if I can't?
Am I about to walk throughthose doors and feel ashamed for
the weeks?
No.
No, you shouldn't.
Remember, it's the trainingwheels of giving.
It is a wonderful place tostart, but is not the high
watermark of devotion to God andgenerosity.
(40:05):
I have a desire to be generous.
Stop, pause, and praise Godthere.
You may have never givenanything to the church, to the
Lord, to a missionary, to anonprofit, or anything else.
And if in this moment you'relike, I want to be a generous
person, that is a win.
Take the win that God iscalling you to have a desire to
be generous.
(40:26):
And what I would say is this ifthat has never been you, if if
that has been seeminglyimpossible for you, make future
decisions that allow margin forgenerosity.
What we do innately, let me askyou this.
If you get really, really busy,what word do you start saying
when people say, hey, can we gettogether?
(40:48):
You're really busy, hey, can Icome over and hang out?
What do you say?
No.
Or sorry, that's nicer.
I say no.
Sorry, brother.
Okay?
If you're really, really busy,you start saying no.
Depending on which one of youis in charge of the budget.
If it gets really tight towardthe end of the month, at least
one of you is probably going tobegin saying no.
(41:09):
If you're really, really tiredand your kids are like, hey, can
we go play football?
What are you probably gonnasay?
It's okay, be honest.
Like, no.
I'm worn out.
I've been working hard so youcan buy that football.
All right, you go play with it.
I'm gonna I'm gonna take a nap.
When we get to the end of ourmargin, we start saying no.
So if tithing feels likesomething that is radically
(41:30):
different than anything youcould pull off, let me encourage
you with this.
You have made past decisionsthat have caused you to live on
the edge.
That is human nature, that isAmerican, that is what we do.
We red line, we don't live withmargin.
In the decisions that you havein the days ahead, decide not to
make financial decisions thatsqueeze you from being able to
(41:51):
be generous.
Sure, you could afford an$80,000 truck, or you could get
one for 40 or 20 or 5 and begenerous.
Make decisions today that leaveroom for margin tomorrow.
You do that with yourcalendars, you do that with your
energy.
It is normal for us to live onthe edge.
The other group of people Iwould talk to is me, and I need
(42:13):
to repent to you of something.
The other group that I wouldtalk to is the group that would
look at this and they would saythat tithing is the gold
standard of following Christ andgenerosity.
That was me.
If I think that it is the goldstandard, what I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna do it on autopilot.
I don't even see the moneyleave my account.
(42:34):
It is, and by the way, I don'twant you guys to stop giving
automatically.
It really does help us withplanning and budgeting.
We're we're coming up with away to fix this problem, but can
I just give you my problem inmy own heart?
For me, tithing was the goldstandard.
It's all that I ever knew, it'sall that I was ever taught.
So I did it, and it was veryhard not to become
self-righteous, not to feel likeI'm doing everything I'm
(42:57):
supposed to do, move on.
I've had an encounter withChrist, and so now I'm moving
on.
That was my issue.
My heart is not in giving tothis church.
I give to the church, but myheart's not in it.
I barely even think about it.
I don't even feel it.
One of our elders hasspecifically been talking with
us for years.
And he said, I hate that wedon't pass a plate anymore and
(43:17):
it doesn't have anything to dowith the money that comes in.
I don't like it because there'snothing in our service that is
pointing to a generous God whohas given and calls us to give
generously.
And when I see thatseven-year-old put one dollar
in, that does more for my heartthan the guy who's been
auto-drafting for 10 years.
And it's true.
And because I have beenauto-piloting my giving, I don't
(43:41):
think about it.
Do you know what happens whenyou have a pastor who doesn't
think about giving?
He doesn't talk about giving.
When you have a pastor whodoesn't talk about giving, you
have a congregation who has notbeen educated in giving.
That is my fault.
That is on me.
And so you may see in the weeksahead a start passing a play.
I need you to hear this from menow.
We're not trying to make moremoney.
What we want to do is have aspot in the service for those of
(44:04):
you who are already giving tobe able to say, Lord, I gave
this three weeks ago.
I hadn't even thought about it.
I'm praying that it would gointo mission.
I'm praying that it would plantchurches, I'm praying that it
would put Bibles in hands, I'mpraying that it would expand
your kingdom.
I don't pray about anythingthat I give because I don't even
think about it.
Because for me, tithing was thegold standard and it leads to
arrogance.
(44:24):
And when we see Christ talkabout standards, keep in mind he
never moves down, he alwaysmoves up.
You've heard it said, you shallnot murder.
But I say to you that everyonewho is angry with his brother,
here's what you have heard thestandard is.
Can I increase it and tell youI don't even want you to be
(44:45):
angry?
You have heard it said, youshall not commit adultery.
Can I take it a step furtherand tell you that everyone who
looks at a woman with less inhis heart has already committed
adultery?
Jesus never diminishes.
Now we don't have this ontithing, but if we did, I think
Jesus would say something like,You have heard it said that
those who have received from theLord give to the Lord by
(45:07):
tithing 10%.
But I say to you that a poorwidow came in and put in two
small copper coins, making up apenny.
By the way, she couldn't eventithe off this.
Do you realize that?
She has two coins.
They're made out of copper.
She ain't about to chew thething and spit 20 whatever
percent of that piece.
So she gives not 50%, she couldhave, she gives all of it to
(45:30):
the Lord.
And Jesus points at this and hesays, Truly I say to you, this
widow is put in more than allwho are contributing with their
regular giving, automaticallydrafting out of their account
because her heart is in it.
They've given out of abundance,but she out of her poverty has
put in everything that she hadto live on.
Jesus constantly raises thebar, not lowers it.
(45:54):
I'm gonna rocket through a fewthings so that you can have a
discipline for giving because Idon't want you to follow a
strict formula.
I think it will make you alegalist.
I think it is great trainingwheels.
And if you don't have anydiscipline on this, I think you
should take a step in the rightdirection, have a desire.
And honestly, this is what Iwould love.
Uh buy somebody's lunch today.
(46:14):
Buy somebody's lunch today whoyou do not know.
Take care of somebody's gaswhen you see them in the pump.
Love on someone and see if thatgenerosity doesn't give back to
you so much more than what that$15 or $20 would have been.
I would challenge everybody inthe room sometime today.
And if you're not going to seeanybody today because you're
going home to take a nap andwatch a game, whatever, do it
tomorrow.
But in the next two days, Iwant you to be generous in some
(46:36):
capacity.
And just to make it easy, don'tgive it to the church, okay?
Just be generous with someonearound you because I want that
for your own soul.
Rather than following a strictformula, believers should
display traits that honor andreflect God's character.
Now, much of what I'm sharingwith you comes out of this book.
I have one left, by the way.
Uh, God and Money.
(46:57):
It's written by two guys whowent to Harvard Business School.
They are our age.
It was recommended to me byStokes.
I've read the first half of itand getting ready for this, and
the applications I'm about togive you in rocket form come
from this.
Here is the discipline that Iwould recommend.
Not a hard and fast line.
These are traits that I wouldwant every believer to have.
(47:19):
Gratitude, number one.
Everything we own belongs toGod.
Everything.
Nothing you have is yours.
Family you were born into, youdidn't pick.
The ability, the intellect thatyou have, you didn't
pre-install, God did.
Country you were born into,schools that you went to, all
pre-installed software by thecreator of the universe.
(47:41):
Therefore, any produce thatcomes from that is something
that he has done.
I'm not gonna read every verse.
I just want you to know I'm notgonna editorialize anything
that I am giving you.
My favorite, though, would beMalachi 3.8, if you want to
check this out in your studytoday or tomorrow.
People are wondering whythey're not being blessed.
And God literally says this,you are robbing me by not
(48:03):
tithing.
Why would I say that?
Because what God, I'm nottrying to guilt anybody.
What I'm trying to say is Godis considering what they call
theirs, His.
You can't rob someone ofsomething that isn't theirs.
And he is looking at what theyhave in their hands and he's
saying, You're robbing me by notgiving it because everything is
mine.
I would shoot for gratitude.
The second thing, I would shootfor mission.
(48:26):
Wealth and possessions shouldbe used for God's purposes.
Who is faithful and wise, theone who stewards what God has
put in his hands well.
Philippians 4, 18, I havereceived full payment and more.
I am well supplied.
This is Paul talking as he isdoing missions.
(48:46):
Having received fromEpaphroditus, this dude was
given some gifts and broughtthem to Paul, the gifts you
sent, and he doesn't say thanks,it's made life easier.
Here's what he points to (48:55):
it was a fragrant offering and it
pleased the Lord.
He's not even talking about hisown life.
He's saying your missionalgiving is an offering unto God.
A third trait that honors andreflects God's character is
intentionality.
Money is one of the strongestforces on the planet.
It will guarantee earthly lossor eternal gain.
(49:17):
In other words, there is notone cent that you can spend on
this planet that is not gonnaeventually rust or fall apart.
And if you say, Will, what if Iwant to save it and give it to
my children?
I think you should.
I think you should plan foryour children and want to bless
them well.
Just be careful.
Wealth that comes easy easilycorrupts our souls.
But I would also tell you this: whatever they spend it on, a (49:35):
undefined
house or a car, it's gonnabreak.
There is nothing in this worldthat your money is gonna is
going to ultimately last.
But everything that we give toGod and to his kingdom will last
and it will last forever.
So we ought to be intentionalwith it.
John Steinbeck, Americanauthor, would say this: a
(49:55):
strange species we are.
We can stand anything God andnature can throw at us.
Disease, sickness, difficulty,we can handle it.
The only thing that we can'thandle is plenty.
Too much good is the greatestharm for the human soul.
A woman came up to him with analabaster flask of very
expensive ointment.
(50:15):
She poured it out on Jesus'head as he was reclining at the
table.
And when not the Pharisees,when the disciples saw it, they
were indignant, saying, She justwasted a bunch of money by
pouring something expensive onChrist.
They'd had an experience withChrist, but they weren't seeing
clearly.
Jesus, aware of this, said tothem, Why do you trouble the
woman?
She has done a beautiful thing.
(50:36):
Why?
You will always have the poorwith you, but you will not
always have me.
And pouring this ointment on mybody, she has done it to
prepare me for a bear.
She is looking ahead.
You are looking in front ofyour own feet.
And because she is thinkingeternally, what we would call a
waste makes all the sense in theworld.
(50:57):
I have more scriptures for youthere, but for the sake of time,
I would just tell you, Jesuslooks at that and calls it a
beautiful thing.
We ought to pursue the Lord inour charity.
If you looked at that verse andyou saw you will always have
the poor with you, but you willnot always have me, and your
(51:20):
first thought is, then why arewe giving to the poor if we're
never going to fix the problem?
Congratulations on being apragmatist, but you're not a
great believer.
The believer looks at the poorand sees it as opportunity.
Those who have contempt intheir heart look at the poor and
say, What decisions did youmake to get there?
How did you find yourselfthere?
Now look, I'm not saying thatisn't an important question to
(51:43):
ask and we need to be goodstewards of the funds that we
have.
I would just flip the questionand say, How many decisions did
you make that got you where youare?
I'm not saying you didn't makeany.
What I'm saying is many of usare fortunate and blessed simply
because we are fortunate andblessed.
In addition to charity, I wouldpoint to unity.
Apart from God, money willdivide us.
(52:04):
But in Christ, money unites us.
Our call to worship, by theway, I did not plan this.
It just happened again that thecall to worship happens to be
in this.
David provides for the house ashe was able.
In addition, he gives out ofhis, here's the word.
David goes above and beyondbecause he has devotion to the
Lord.
He then looks at thecongregation and says, We want
(52:25):
to build a temple for the Lord.
Do you want to be involved?
Will you consecrate yourself tothe Lord?
And do you know what happensnext?
The people rejoice because theygave willingly.
This entire kingdom is drawntogether because they are about
something that is bigger thanthemselves.
And finally, holiness.
Uh the quote on the top theonly thing that breaks money's
(52:49):
power over us is giving it away.
That is Stokes' quote to methis week that I think is a
quote from John Cortinez, whowrote this book.
So I'm giving Stokes credit forit, but it may be needing to be
credited to someone else.
I just couldn't actually findit in the book, but I do love
the quote.
The only thing that breaksmoney's power over us is when we
(53:10):
give it away.
Those who desire to be richwill fall into temptation and
senseless, harmful desires thatlead to ruin and destruction.
He who loves money will not besatisfied with money.
Take care, be on your guardagainst all covetousness, for
one's life does not consist inthe abundance of his possession.
I give you these six because ifI wasn't just looking for some
(53:34):
kind of one touch, okay, it's10%, or maybe it's this, or
maybe it's more.
I I don't want you to have ahard and fast rule.
That got me into trouble forthe past 20, 30 years.
I had a hard and fast rulesince I was a kid sitting in the
pew.
So I thought I was doingeverything that God could
possibly want for me until Istarted writing this for you
guys.
What I would rather is havepeople and have myself be a
(53:58):
person of gratitude, mission,intentionality, charity, unity,
and seeking holiness.
That, to me, is what disciplinelooks like.
And if God calls you tosomething higher, praise God
that this may be something thatcauses you to worship.
If you're here today, that'sgreat too.
All uh all that I am pressingon you is this.
(54:19):
Uh, worship team, you can comeup.
I'm not sure who's coming up.
All I care about is this.
Whatever is north of where, I'msorry, whatever is south of
where you are, that's where Iwant you to go.
If you don't have a desire, Ijust want you to start having a
desire.
If you want help figuring thatout, I'll meet with you, or a
guy who's much smarter than mewill meet with you.
If you have a desire but nodiscipline, I think you ought to
move that way.
(54:40):
If you have discipline andyou're debating, might I be able
to be devoted to this and findgreat joy in it, then that's
what I would call you to.
Why?
Because this is the essence ofthe good news of Christ.
As you wrestle and think, andkeep in mind, we we're not
passing a plate, where there'snot like we're not kicking off
our capital campaign untilJanuary.
(55:02):
But we do want people as wemove into Thanksgiving and
Christmas to start thinkingabout do I have a heart that is
generous?
You know the grace of our LordJesus Christ, and if you don't,
I hope you're beginning to seeit and maybe see it clearly
today.
Life isn't about money.
It certainly isn't gonna beabout that in the years to come.
(55:23):
When I was a kid, I went toDisneyland and we bought a bunch
of Disney Bucks.
Y'all know what I'm talkingabout?
Disney Bucks?
If you if you can't relate tothat, just have you ever been on
a mission trip and exchangedmoney and you got a different
kind of currency?
The moment you get those Disneybucks, or the moment you get
those pesos, it feels the exactsame amount until you get to the
(55:45):
end of your trip.
And by the time you get to theend of your trip, you're like, I
gotta do something with this.
I can't put gas in my car whenI get home with this.
And so, do you know what endsup happening?
You start getting reallygenerous.
You're like, Well, I got 4,000pesos.
I don't even know what theconversion rate is.
I raise money.
What am I gonna do with it?
I I you know what?
I got it, I'm gonna buy thatCoke.
I got it, I'm gonna do this.
(56:05):
Do you know why that happens?
Because the money that you'reholding, you realize only has
value for a moment.
And when you get home to yourreal home, it's valueless.
Every dollar and every cent isthat way for us.
It feels right now like itmatters so much, but there will
be a millennia where it's gonnafeel like Disney Bucks and pesos
(56:29):
when you're back home.
So let's view people who canhave it openly.
Not because we want to pay offdebt, not because we have great
mission, not because if you havegiven to the church in the past
year, you have helped plant 60churches around the globe, not
including the ones in Kenya.
I don't even tell you guysabout this stuff, but you have.
(56:50):
Because it's what your soulneeds to be able to see Jesus
clearly.
So let's be a people who do,because this is what he did for
us.
For our sake, he became poor sothat by his poverty we might
become rich.
And if you need to richly seeJesus clearly, and it has
(57:10):
nothing to do with money, prayand draw near to him today.
A group of us will be prayingon the back porch if you want to
join us.
Feel free to walk, do whateverit is you need.
But let's spend a few momentswith God before we head out.
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