February 16, 2025 • 43 mins
Generosity - Avoiding Money Sickness. Message by Adam Meredith at The Red Door Community Church.
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(00:00):
To start this morning I wouldlove to invite Nigel Onamade and
he's going to come up and tella brief story of generosity.
And I'm going to frame it foryou after he tells his story.
Good morning everybody.
Am I supposed to preach?
I guess the story started aboutfive years ago when my wife and I
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decided we were going to sell thehome we were living in and either
buy a new place or build a new place.
And this was just before COVID.
And we eventually sold that home.
And Covid, of course, it was in themiddle of Covid, and the person who
bought the home then rented it back to us.
So we were staying in the same homethat we built so many years ago.
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Now, every year, the landlordraised the rents as landlords do.
Sometime last year, I think it wasAugust or September, he raised the
rents again to $750 a week, which wasthen putting a strain on our finances
and our savings and everything.
And of course, coupled with.
Progress payments for the newhome and interest rate rises and
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all that, it was stifling us.
Now, I started questioning andsaying, God, did you actually
lead us to sell that home?
And, you know, there was times Iwas really confused and I was, like,
worried, like, look, we can still affordto pay both rent and the mortgage,
but it was getting very, very tight.
And it still is becausethe home is not built yet.
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It's been four years and we're stillwaiting for the home to be built.
Now, two weeks before Christmas,I get a random WhatsApp message
from some young chap in Singapore.
We used to live in Singapore.
This was 18 years ago.
And this kid was 14years old at that time.
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And he remembers my wife and myself beingon stage serving in the worship ministry.
And God told him to bless us.
So I'm thinking, really?
How is that possible?
And apparently God had toldhim three years before, but he
didn't do anything about it.
And God now reminded him againsometime in November, was it December?
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And he got my contact details fromthe worship pastor, got in touch with
us, I get this random text saying,you don't know me, but I know you.
I used to watch you onstage when I was 14.
This guy is probably 30 plus now.
He says, can I have a video chat with you?
We have the video chat.
He says, is there anything thatis, is there any strain you're
going through financially?
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And I share with him what's going on.
He's like, wow, interesting.
After the call, he drops into our account.
He asks for my account details, of course.
I would say what I wouldearn in a fortnight.
Twice of that he put into the accountand that just assured me that God was
trying to tell me He will take careof us and I did not make a mistake
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to sell that house now That, to me,was a massive form of generosity.
I was learning how to trust God formy finances, how to trust him, that
he would take care of me in every way.
And this guy was, of course,learning how to listen to God.
And he was so accurate to haveknown when to actually obey
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God and then give that seed.
The week after he.
gave us that money.
My wife and I were here in churchand I said, look, I think it's right
for us to then tithe the amountfor that money that he gave us.
And we did that.
The very following month, this sameguy dropped the exact amount that
we had typed into our account again.
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Because he keeps askingus, is the house done yet?
And I'm like, no, it's not done yet.
This last week, he droppedanother amount into our account.
God is in control.
That's all I can say.
And you cannot out give God.
Thank you.
Oh, very good, Nigel.
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Thank you for sharing.
I think I want to just frame that foryou in relationship to there's Two sides
to the coin of generosity one side isactually giving and the other side is
how we receive And so the truth is youcan only any of us can only really give
to the degree that we have received.
Would you agree?
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We can't give what we don't have right?
And so So, I want you this week, alittle bit of homework before we jump
into the message, is to consider thequestion, when was the last time, or
can you remember a story where you feltyou were so blessed by someone else?
And as you do that, give thanks to God,because it's God who has done that.
Does that make sense?
Because if we talk about how do we livea lifestyle of generosity, we've got to
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actually return to the places and spacesin our stories where we have been gracious
recipients of moments of generosity.
Whether that's financial, whetherthat's not, it might not be.
Does that make sense?
So I would love to encourageyou to consider that question.
When was the last time youreceived an act of generosity?
No matter how big and howsmall, they're all Important.
(05:07):
So we're here today in Lukechapter 12 from verse 13 and
we're going to read this together.
This is the story of Jesus talkingabout the parables of a few
things, but we'll get to that.
Let's just read it.
Someone in the crowd saidto Jesus, Tell my brother to
divide the inheritance with me.
Jesus replied, the man whoappointed, who appointed me a
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judge or an arbiter between you.
And then he said to them, watch out.
Everyone say, watch out.
Be on guard against all kinds of greed.
Life does not consist in theabundance of possessions.
And he told them this parable,the ground of a certain rich
man yield an abundant harvest.
He thought to himself, what shall I do?
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I have no place to store my crops.
Then he said, this is what I'll do.
I'll tear down my barns andbuild bigger ones, and there
I will store my surplus grain.
And I'll say to myself, you haveplenty of grain laid up for many years.
Take it easy, mate.
Eat, drink, be merry.
But God said to him, youfull this very night.
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Your life will be demanded from you.
Then who will get what youhave prepared for yourself.
This is how it will be for whoeverstores up things for themselves
but is not rich towards God.
Then Jesus says to his disciples,that was a big bomb moment.
Can you feel it in the room?
Jesus said to his disciples,Therefore, what's a therefore?
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We're trying to work outwhy has he told us this.
He tells us this, because I don'twant you to worry about your life,
what you will eat, or your body, whatyou will wear, for life is more than
food, and body more than clothes.
Consider the ravens.
They do not sow or reap.
They have no storeroom orbarn, yet God feeds them.
How much more valuable you are than birds.
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Who of you worrying about worryingcan add a single hour to your life?
Since you cannot dothis very little thing.
Thank you, Jesus.
Doesn't sound like a very little thing.
Why do you worry about the rest?
Consider the wild flowers.
How they grow, they do not labor or spin.
I tell you, not even Solomon in all hissplendor was dressed like one of these.
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If that is how God clothes the grassof the field, which is here today
and tomorrow is thrown into the fire,how much more will he clothe you?
You of little faith, and do not setyour heart on what you eat and drink.
Do not worry about it, for the paganworld runs after such things, and
your father knows that you need them.
But seek his kingdom, and all thesethings will be given to you as well.
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Do not be afraid, littleflock, for your father has been
pleased to give you the kingdom.
Sell your possessionsand give to the poor.
Provide purses for yourselvesthat will not wear out.
A treasure in heaven that willnever fail, where no thief comes
near, and no moth destroys.
For where your treasure is,there your heart will be also.
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Awesome.
So Jesus starts out with thisphrase at the start of this
reading today, watch out.
Another way to say that, hesays, beware of money blindness.
Understand money sickness,and acquire money wellness.
Why is he saying watch out?
The text starts with this manwho comes to Jesus and says,
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Hey, Jesus, sort this out for me.
My brother, tell my brotherto divide the inheritance.
Now, this is a younger sibling,and the older brother has received
the inheritance, and has probablyinherited the entire estate.
And the older brother is not sharingthe inheritance or the estate with
him, and so there's some, kind ofsibling, conversation going on,
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probably not all that positive.
And so he comes to Jesus and says, Makemy brother divide the inheritance with me.
And now when Jesus refuses, firstly,we must remember that doesn't mean, you
know, that we shouldn't, you know, evergo to court to deal with injustice.
Sometimes those moments arenecessary, but Jesus says here,
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who, who has appointed me?
In other words, he's saying,actually, that's what not, I'm
not, I'm not here to do this.
This is not my mission.
This is not my job description.
I'm not here for this.
I have limited amount of time, butthat's not what I'm here to do.
But when he says something, thismoment, he shows that he discerns
what's actually going on in this family.
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The family's being torn apart.
Can you imagine?
In the next statement, he showsthat he understands why it's being
torn apart, because the family isbeing torn apart because of greed.
It's money sickness.
It's money centricity.
It's a materialistic heart.
It might be in this man.
It might be in his brother.
It might be in all of them.
We don't know, but the pointis, is he says, watch out, be on
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guard against all kinds of greed.
And in this warning,there's a premise here.
There's something that is anassumption that needs to be drawn out.
And the premise is, when he says,watch out for all kinds of greed,
the assumption is that greed issomething that can be hidden from you.
You can't see it.
It will deceive you.
It will fool you.
To put it another way, Jesus is assumingthat the condition of money sickness,
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that blindness to the condition,is intrinsic to the condition.
Does that make sense?
So, for instance, we don't seeanywhere in the Bible where Jesus
says, please be on guard for adultery.
Well, does that mean somehow, you know,greed is worse than adultery or something?
No, it's, it's both damaging, buthere's the tick, you don't actually,
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you're not, you're not ever unaware thatyou're committing the sin of adultery.
Would you agree?
It's fairly obvious something'sgoing on, but when you're in greed
sickness, you can be completely
You can't see it.
Why not?
Because greed touches the heart, itmoves subtly, it moves slowly, it gets
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inside, and Jesus is saying, watch out.
So what I want to do is I actually wantto summarize this reading that we've read
into these two paragraphs very quickly,and I want to speak them in a way that
summarizes everything that Jesus has said.
So it says, if you worry a lot aboutmoney, okay, or if you resent people
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who have got money, Or, if you arerun off your feet trying to get
it, or if you can't give it away soradically that you're not willing to
dip into your savings and investmentsand give to that level, you may,
everyone say may, have money sickness.
Second paragraph, either you're lookingfor money to be your security, or you're
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looking to money to be your beauty.
That's an interesting concept, isn't it?
Think about the parable of the thefield and the flowers of the field.
We can be using money to actuallymake us feel secure and safe.
We can be use money to makeus feel beautiful, acceptable.
So if you're looking for money foryour security, if you're looking money
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for your beauty, and if you're lookingfor money to give you things, aka
the kingdom, maybe there's a kingdomyou're trying to buy for yourself.
Newsflash, if you're a follower ofJesus, you've already been given the
kingdom, but you're using money to lookfor things that only God can give you.
You may have to consider, issomething going on that I'm
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unaware of that is hidden to me?
Do I have money sickness?
Does that make sense to everyone?
And also realize that if you seeyourself having money sickness, you
know what the human reaction is?
We always go, oh, I'm not that bad.
We always underestimatethe impact of it, don't we?
We always do.
And that's part of its subtlety,because we'll underestimate
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How it touches our lives.
And Jesus says watch out.
Watch out.
To watch out, what does that mean?
It means to be very suspicious.
It means to ask lots of questions.
You know, asking questions,being suspicious of everything.
It, that's what it means tobe on guard, being careful.
And Jesus is saying, don't trustyourself with money, saturate,
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saturate yourself with questions.
Hundreds of questions, here'ssome examples, don't, you
don't really need that.
Do you really, really need more?
Couldn't you live more simply?
Couldn't you give more of your money away?
And you ask yourself, andJesus says, Watch out.
Saturate yourselves with questions.
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Now, as we've gone through thisseason and today, this is the most
prevalent moment in our entireseries that you need to watch out.
Because what's going to happenin the course of it, it may
already be happening right now.
When I started talking,suddenly you're all like, Woo!
I'm getting a little bitdisturbed on the inside.
Maybe there's a sudden reaction of anger.
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Maybe there's somethingthat's stirring on the inside.
Watch out.
Watch out, because something istrying to reveal to you that you
potentially have money sickness.
And the Father wants to leadus all to money wellness.
Just because you're reacting, don'tgo, Oh no, I've gotten it wrong.
I'm, I'm, I'm, it's hopeless.
I'm a lost cause.
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No, no.
We need to see we have moneysickness and then, Lord Jesus, help
me move towards money wellness.
Does that make sense?
So be aware.
Be aware that that'swhat might be going on.
The best question I like to askmyself is how much is enough?
How much is enough?
You know, as your savings increase, asyour salary grows, as your years pass
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by, as you get older, as the childrenno longer need school fees to be paid,
as suddenly you've got more going on.
How much is enough?
But know that if you have moneysickness, it'll always feel
like you don't have enough.
But watch out.
If you're not watching out, you'reactually being voluntarily blind.
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I've got a slide because there's aninteresting idea about the word In
the Bible, the word believe is used272 times, the word pray is used
371 times, love is used 714 times.
Oh dear.
Give is used 2, 162 times.
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Welcome to church.
I've been looking at the Bible and whatit says about giving and I'm trying to
come to grips with why it feels likeJesus is always talking about giving.
Giving.
And frankly coming to grips withthe fact that why do we at church
don't talk about it too much?
Here's something personal.
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And even why I'd feel like I'ma little bit afraid to even talk
about it in the first place.
Why is that?
What's going on?
And as I've kind of analyzed thatand looked at that this week, Jesus
constantly talking about it, I beganto realize that giving is not just some
duty that lays along a list of all otherduties to be performed as a follower
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of Jesus, like worship, evangelism,prayer, loving others, helping the poor.
No, actually, giving is at the heartof the reason, is at the heart of every
single thing a Christian is and does.
See, if you look at the whole scopeof the Bible, what it says about
everything a Christian is and does,giving is at the very heart of it.
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Let me show you what I mean.
The three cardinal virtues, oneway of describing the Christian
faith in terms of Christiancharacter, is faith, hope and love.
Now, if you can't give, the numberone question we must ask is do I
have faith to believe that God willreally care for me when I give?
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If not, this is not just a questionof a lack of generosity, it's
a question of a lack of faith.
Okay, hope.
What if we don't give?
Hope means the question of wheredo I really get my value from?
Where do I get my sense of worth from?
Is it from Christ or is it how we live?
The restaurants we eatat, the clothes we wear.
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One of the reasons we don'tgive is because of hope.
Our hope is located in the wrong location.
And so giving is again touchingon this picture of hope.
And then there's faith, hope, and love.
One of the reasons we don't give isbecause we lack sympathy, sensitivity
in a world that is out of control andthe needs are completely unbelievable.
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There's so much needout of there, out there.
We don't even know How much needis out there and sometimes we don't
want to look at it because it's kindof like, wow, that's pretty heavy.
The needs are so prevalent.
And then we say, oh, you know, ourcapacity to love, we get scared.
We don't want to see the difficultiesand so we cut ourselves off from them.
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And therefore, the only way to buildfaith, to build real faith, to build real
hope, to build, to build real love isgiving as a reality check of those things.
It's not just one thing to do ona very big list of things to do.
It's all of those things.
It's not one subject.
Oh, when can we get on tothe next subject, Adam?
Looking forward to next week.
Thanks very much.
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No, it's all the subjects.
Giving is at the heartof all the subjects.
Here's how you do it.
When you feel like You need to movebeyond it, that sense of money sickness.
When you want to activate faith, hope, andlove, stir that in your heart, you give.
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Let's take a look at the moment of,of what the Christian faith is, not
just what it is, but what it does.
It serves God and it serves others.
Would you agree?
Our Christian faith is toserve God, to serve others.
Now, if you're struggling to believethat everything that you have is a gift
from God, then And I struggle to give.
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There's a question, isn't there?
That my love for God is reallyjust lip service or just sentiment.
It's not real.
How can I say I want to serve others andnot be an answer to someone else's needs?
Again, it's just a sentiment.
It's not actually real.
And so giving is not just part ofone thing, it's all the things.
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And so I think because of that,and the nature of whenever you
talk about money, it just stabsat the heart, don't you agree?
It just knocks on the heart.
It probes the heart.
It prods the heart.
We find it hard to talk about.
Until you put your wealth on the line,there is no reality check to your faith.
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Oh, welcome to church this morning.
The reason Jesus is talking about it sooften is because there's not just one
subject among many, it's all the subjects.
So watch out.
So where should I place my money?
Glad you asked.
We're going to jump into theparable of the sower in Matthew
13 from verse 18 and it says this.
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Listen.
Then to what the parableof the sower means.
So you know the parable of the sower.
The farmer sowed his seed on, the path.
Sowed his seed on the, andthe, and the crows came.
He sowed the seed in the rockyplace, the weedy place, and
then he sowed it on good soil.
And this is one of those parablesthat he sells, but this, in this
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moment in Matthew 13, he explainsit, and this is the explanation.
Listen to what the parableof the sower means.
When anyone hears the message aboutthe kingdom and does not understand
it, the evil one comes and snatchesaway what was sown in their heart.
This is the seed sown along the path.
The seed falling on rocky groundrefers to someone who hears the word
and at once receives it with joy.
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But since they have no root,they only last a short time.
When trouble or persecution comes becauseof the word, they quickly fall away.
The seed falling among the thornsrefers to someone who hears the word,
but the worries of this life andthe deceitfulness of wealth choke
the word, making it unfruitful.
But the seed falling on goodsoil refers to someone who hears
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the word and understands it.
This is the one who produces acrop yielding a hundred, sixty,
thirty times what was sown.
And so the thorns in thisparable represent very clearly
the deceitfulness of wealth.
It's super clear.
Now what's interesting is when youresearch ancient farming practices,
the farmer would actually plant thornson the edge of his crop in order to
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prevent people from either just strollingthrough the crop and rooing in it,
for, for, prevent animals going in.
There was a specific strategic placementof thorns on the edges of the crop.
So what does that mean?
Because the image of the soilin the parable is actually
representative of our hearts.
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Then in your life you are either goingto put your wealth, i. e. the thorns,
at the center of your heart, and pleaseknow if you put the wealth at the center
of your heart and you're also puttingthe Word of God at the center of your
heart, what's going to happen is TheWord of God in you is going to become
unproductive because the worries oflife, the deceitfulness of wealth, chokes
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out the fruitfulness of God's Word.
So what does it meanto plant at the edges?
It means that on the edges of the crop,this is where the poor would come.
Have you ever heard thatword, the gleanings?
They would come to the edges ofthe crop to receive gleanings.
And according to the book of Deuteronomyand Leviticus, farmers would leave
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the edges of their fields unharvested.
They would, wouldn't pick up the thingsthat they dropped, the gleanings.
And should harvest be overlooked, in thatarea, they would just actually leave it.
And so when your wealth is kept atthe edges of your heart and not at
the center of your heart, that'swhen you can have a productive life.
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When you strategically, regularly,sacrificially, give cheerfully,
you're setting your heart, up yourheart to have good soil, producing
a crop that yields a great return.
Today I was thinking, this morningactually, about some people
that I've met over the courseof 25 years of doing ministry.
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And you get to meet all sortsof people in all sorts of ages.
And I've noticed something aboutpeople, again, money sickness,
you don't know you have it, okay?
And I remember there were a coupleof conversations I've had, where I'm
starting to see that people, oh, overthe course of their lives, they've kept
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money at the centre of their hearts.
And so, So, in one example, I met someonewho's 90 years old, okay, and at 90 years
old, they're saying sentences like, Idon't have enough money to live, okay.
How old?
90, okay.
And then what happens is, theconversation, because Pastor Adam
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sometimes just goes there and maybeI shouldn't, so how much is your
bank account out at the moment?
How much savings do you have?
And this has happened more than once.
This is why I'm bringing this up.
The answer was 2.
2 million dollars.
Now, as soon as I say that, I wantyou to know that I'm not talking
about what a bank balance is.
I'm talking about, in light of havingthat much cash, your heart still
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says, I don't have enough to live.
There's a question mark.
Do you agree?
Because it's not about, please,this is not a judgmental statement.
I don't care how muchyour bank account says.
What God cares about is the conditionof your heart to go, Oh, please, may
as I arrive at 90 years old, I neverwant to be in a place where I look
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at going, Gee, I've, I've, I wantto never say, I've looked at my bank
account to get my sense of enough.
I want to always go, I looked atJesus to get my sense of enough.
That's what we all want, wouldn't we?
But be careful, watch out.
This is subtle, this is hidden.
This requires more thought.
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Are you okay out there?
So how can we do that?
How can we be different?
How can we avoid money sickness?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
So over my time of pastoring, I'venoticed two types of giving and so
I want to explain them to you today.
First type of giving is calledfirst fruits giving or tithing.
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The second part, the secondtype, is called project givers.
Project givers.
Now, as soon as I say two categories,I don't want you to assume that
it's either one or the other.
No, I know a lot ofpeople, they're doing both.
Okay, so this is not aboutmaking some statement around
one is better than the other.
No, I want to talk about, I wantto give comments to each of these.
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So firstly, let's talk aboutfirst fruit, the tithe.
The word tithe comes from the OldTestament term to refer to the
first 10 percent of a person'sincome to be given to the temple
or the running of the temple.
And this is what the word tithewas used for in the Old Testament.
In the New Testament, it was more ofa response than a command, because
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God was so generously blessing us, Hischurch, through His Son Jesus, through
His forgiveness on the cross, throughlife and life abundantly, that we don't
have to tithe, we should Want to tithe.
So if you're placed where you feellike you have to tithe, when you have
to give your first fruits, where it'snot cheerful, where it's not joyful,
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it's not a response, but it's likea begrudgingly forced control into
something that you didn't want to do.
I want to let you know that tithingor giving of your first fruits
is no longer an act of worship.
It's actually an act ofcontrol, resentment, obligation.
And when your heart is in thisplace, newsflash, don't tithe.
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It's not worth it.
Don't bother.
You're doing it for the wrong reasons.
Does that make sense?
But there may be a hard journey ifyou feel like, I can't tithe, that you
need to go on to assess, oh, do I havemoney sickness going on in my heart?
Having said that, I'm certain thatall of us are in different places
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when it comes to our journey.
of giving, of tithing, of firstfruits.
But one of the questions I've heardover the years, well, Adam, if the
tithe began in the Old Testament,do we have to tithe anymore?
Aren't we under grace nowand not under the law?
Surely the tithe is likea redundant concept.
Now, firstly, Jesus did speak into thetithe, just so you're clear, Luke 11, 42.
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And it says, woe to you Pharisees, becauseyou give a tenth of your mint and rue
and all kinds of garden herbs, but youneglect justice and the love of God.
You should have practiced the latter,yes, without leaving the former undone.
In this scripture, it is clearJesus is endorsing the tithe.
Now, the interesting thing is we considertithing as something under the law.
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Tithing was in theLevitical Mosaic priesthood.
It was part of that, but it was seenprior to the establishment of any law.
Because we read about it in Genesis14, where Abraham gives a tenth
of what he gets to Melchizedek.
And later, like I said,in Leviticus, tithing is
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established as part of God's law.
You can read about that in Leviticus 27.
But under the New Covenant,some argue that, well, tithing
is just no longer required.
And in a sense, they are correct.
But, being in a right relationshipwith God depends not on me fulfilling
the law and trying to be perfectin my obedience to the law.
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It comes solely through faith in theGospel of Jesus Christ to fulfill it.
And so, we read about Jesusand suddenly he gets to the
mount, the Sermon on the Mount.
And what the sentiment ofthat sermon is that he is
consistently raising the calling.
He's consistently raising the standard.
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He's calling followers to actually live inways that go beyond the law, not below it.
So importantly, by his spirit,he empowers us by grace to
meet these high expectations.
And so the other question I get alot is, where does the tithe go?
Well, great question.
We're supposed to take thetithe 10 percent and give it
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to the local church, are we?
Great question.
If you're asking thatquestion, it's a good one.
Well, initially we see Abraham giveit to Melchizedek in the tithe.
We see the tithe going tothe temple in Malachi 3.
10. This use of the wordstorehouse is being used.
Oh my goodness, that's a fun conversation.
What does the storehouse mean?
Many people will interpretthat as the local church.
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Many people would thinkdifferently on that.
And some say, when they come andask me, I tend to go, well, it's
a really good starting place.
Like, if you haven't ever given,or haven't tithed, or haven't
done a firstfruits journey, andalso you're thinking, oh, I don't
even know if I could do 10 percentstraight away, begin somewhere.
Begin.
Begin.
Because there's a beautiful promisein the book of Malachi that says,
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God, you can test God in this.
So there's an invitation.
However, be led of theSpirit of God in this regard.
I'm not gonna stand up hereand tell you what to do.
I'll never tell you what to do.
I'll tell you, here's somethings you should think about.
But you need to be led of theSpirit of God when it comes to this.
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But watch out.
Be on your guard againstall kinds of greed.
Because at the end of the day,God does not need your finances.
Giving is actually the way we flourish.
Because giving keeps us safe from what?
Money.
Sickness.
Make sense?
Deuteronomy 14 23 continues tothis, to review this and it says,
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talks about the purpose of tithing.
Purpose of tithing is that you wouldlearn to revere the Lord your God always.
So the tithe, tithe helps us guardour hearts from all sorts of greed.
Another way to think about it is the tithehelps us revere God and not revere money.
That's such an important posture to hold.
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And the final most important aspect ofthe tithe is the idea of giving regularly.
Now, many of you have been asking,Adam, how's your back today?
Thank you for asking.
And I'm pleased to say, it's better.
It's not great, but it's better, okay?
So, part of the dynamic of regularexercise, in this case, my cardio
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system is the best it's probablyever been, I'll be honest.
The problem is, my innercore strength is not.
And so I have not regularly done enoughinner core strength training, and now that
I'm running a lot, I did 8km the otherday everybody, I'm not bragging, but I am.
And, I'm pretty excited about it.
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But I did 8km in the sameday I put my back out.
And what I'm discovering is thatI've got to keep my core strength up.
So that means what?
Regularly exercisingyour core muscle groups.
Would you agree?
Now, if that's true for muscle,what's true is in relationship to
our capacity to avoid money sickness.
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If you are only giving like onceevery year If I just went to the
core muscle training once everyyear, I would be in trouble.
I tell ya, especiallyat 51 years old, right?
So there's this, there's this dynamic ofsomething being systematic to be regular.
Because our hearts drift, right?
We know when I said I want to get to anold person's age, and you know, I want
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to be saying, oh, I'm not looking at mybank account to feel like I have enough.
I'm looking at Jesus to have enough.
Do you know the journey of thatis not some linear journey?
Some days I'm feeling like I'm skyhigh, and then other days I'm feeling
like, oh my goodness, not really, no.
Isn't life more like this?
Which means our heartsdrift, if we're not careful.
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So the regularity of thetithe is so important.
Let's talk about Project giving.
Project giving is good and right.
There's many biblicalreferences to project giving.
But I've noticed there's a challenge whenpeople only participate in project giving.
Because what happens?
Projects come and go.
Anne comes up and tells us all about,I've stood in that river, it's amazing.
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But so much tension inthat area of the world.
We heard another project.
You may be stirred today.
And go, yes, awesome.
By the way, if you want to give in tothat, let me tell you the mechanism.
You give to the Red Door CommunityChurch, and you put on the reference.
What are we going to puton the reference, Anne?
What do you think?
Myanmar?
GAP, G A P. G A P, if you want to dothat, you can give to Red Door, mark it
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G A P, and we will get it forwarding itstraight to G A P. Does that make sense?
Now, how many times have we gotAnne up here to talk about that?
Uh Maybe once or twice over thelast 10 years, what I'm trying
to say is projects come and go.
They're not regular in theirfrequency that we become aware of.
So if your only projectgiving, the regularity of
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giving is somewhat disjointed.
Does that make sense?
And so if your goal,remember what's the goal?
The goal is God is not want your finances.
He wants your heart to be ina posture of money Wellness.
So if you're regularly giving, yourheart is being postured towards being
well on the inside of your heart.
But if you're only project givingevery 18 months, be careful, because
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you might come to a place, and I'veheard it said before, Gee, I'm finding
I'm not as generous as I used to be.
I remember that last project I gavethis amount, but there's no way
I want to give that amount now.
What's wrong with me?
Watch out.
Money sickness is creeping in.
Many love project giving as well,because let's be honest, paying for
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electricity, toilet paper, those peskyparking bays, rent, this is just to name
some of our Red Door expenses, right?
They're not very inspiring, are they?
When Anne gets up here,mate, I'm inspired.
I want to be a part of that.
Where do I sign up?
You know, because they're inspired.
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And we want to be inspired.
We want to engage with thingsthat inspire, are inspiring.
But watch out.
Okay?
If we're only choosing projects thatinspire us, sometimes we can drift.
And what can happen is our givingcan become more about us than
it does about surrendering tothe Father and trusting Him.
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Does that make sense?
And that surrender is that postureof worship to the King of Kings.
That's what, that's what we're after.
So be Careful.
Watch out.
Now, please don't mishear me today.
Oh, Adam doesn't believein Project Giving.
No, no.
Adam and Dale have been tithingand Project Giving for over
the last 25 years or so.
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And I promise you, it's themost exhilarating thing, but
we've kept the regularity to it.
And I trust that today I stand here,humbly before you going, I really
hope I don't have money sickness.
So I give you permission today.
If you see money sickness inAdam, you know how we see each
other better than we do ourselves.
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Do you know what I'm talking about?
If you're married for five minutes,you know what I'm talking about.
You need permission.
Say, Adam, I think you mightbe running into money sickness.
Oh dear, but please tell me.
But wouldn't it be great if youwere in a community that had that
kind of permission with one another?
Wouldn't it be brilliant?
Wouldn't it be safe?
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But if I say that, you go,ooh, that's next level.
That's a bit honest.
That's a bit intimate.
That's a bit, that's a bit tough.
House church, it's meant to be aplace that's safe, that's known,
you're known, you're seen, andyou can talk about these matters.
I'd love you to consider talking aboutthat very topic this coming house church.
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How are we going toacquire money wellness?
Jesus in that scripture in Luke12 gave us, gives us two things.
Here are the two things.
You need a radical experience ofthe grace of God and you need to
be a member attached in proximityto a radically changed community.
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You need a radical experience of God'sgrace to know that He is your provider.
He will not let you down.
I'm saying that over your heart today.
He is here for you.
He loves you.
He's with you.
He's for you.
And you need to be a member of acommunity that's been radically changed.
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See, when you see the Gospel through theframe, Oh, I'm trying to get emotional.
Through the frame that the Fatherbankrupted Heaven and He gave.
Now, Pancrupted Heaven.
Okay, that's pretty big, isn't it?
Let me try and picture it for you.
Bar Rijal and I heard this phraseonce, the chandelier of heaven.
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Do you remember that?
So God the Father gavehis one and only Son.
This is, we were hearing this phrase that,that Jesus is the chandelier of heaven.
Okay, now picture thechandelier of heaven.
Oh, you're struggling.
Okay, so imagine the moon and we'regonna hang a chandelier off it.
And it's going to be so big thatit's literally going to hang
over the entirety of the earth.
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And it's that massive, that huge.
Now, do that with the sun.
And do, imagine how big this I'm trying tocreate a picture of size to recognize that
Jesus is the chandelier of heaven, and theFather willingly bankrupted heaven, and
gave you and I the chandelier of heaven,and says Receive the greatest gift in all
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of human history, my one and only son.
When you, when the gospel hits and youget that, and then you simultaneously
hear, Oh, God wants me to give 10%,
your heart reaction will be this.
Please don't miss this.
When you, this is when you get the gospel,you recognize the chandelier of heaven.
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It's not about the chandelier of heaven.
It's just an image.
Okay, you get it.
You get it.
You got it.
You go, gee, 10%?
That's not much.
That's a bargain.
When the Gospel hits in your heartand you see that what He's given you
is of profound value, that you havenothing to even come close to it,
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and you're asked to give, what the heartdoes As it goes, I'm so grateful, because
if Jesus had have only given me 10 percentof his blood, I would have been lost.
He gave everything.
He gave absolutely everything.
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He gave everything, and heasks us to give in how we can.
Because he is our enough.
Today, if you're listening to thisand you know that God's got your,
God's got your number and He's pokingand prodding at your heart today.
Today, if I've said anything to mortallyoffend you, I want to apologize.
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My heart is not to offend you today.
My heart is to inspire you to lookup, to not look down, to consider
that He is the King of all heaven.
And He's not after your money todaybecause He's got way too much for it.
And He wants to bless you, not withmoney, but with blessings that you
would be a light in this world.
And to be a part of that,be a participant in that.
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Don't allow your heartto be offended today.
Allow your heart to be transformed bysaying, I'm open, I want more of you, God.
And so Father, for every single oneof us who are in a place where you
are prodding and poking today, HolySpirit come and help us to surrender.
Help us to surrender to yourway of being, your way of doing.
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God, you gave everything.
You gave every last bit.
And I ask, Father, that your Holy Spiritwill come and help us to return to a place
of money wellness.
A place where money's not telling uswhat to do, we're telling it what to do.
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Where it's a tool inthe hands of the King.
Father, where there's been, inmany of us, maybe there's been
abuse, maybe there's been control.
Even in your church, how peoplehave portrayed this topic.
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Where there's beenresentment and obligation and
bitterness and pain and hurt.
Today, Holy Spirit, come.
Heal our hearts.
Some of us even right now have a postureof defensiveness about this whole topic
because you're trying to actually just Idon't want to get hurt like that again.
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Holy Spirit, calm and dismantle thoseself protection mechanisms and free us up.
Free our hearts today.
We can't fix ourselves in this regardbut what we can do is we can surrender.
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And so today we surrender to you Lord.
Today we ask Father that youwould lead and guide us as well.
If we're jumping into the giving journey,Holy Spirit lead us, show us what is
that first step, what is that thing weshould do, what is that project we should
give towards, what is the tithe, whatdoes giving to the church look like?
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Holy Spirit lead us and guide us.
Father we thank you foryour presence amongst us.
And lead us into spaces of gratitudeand contentment in Jesus name, Amen.
To start this morning I wouldlove to invite Nigel Onamade and
he's going to come up and tella brief story of generosity.
And I'm going to frame it foryou after he tells his story.
Good morning everybody.
Am I supposed to preach?
I guess the story started aboutfive years ago when my wife and I
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decided we were going to sell thehome we were living in and either
buy a new place or build a new place.
And this was just before COVID.
And we eventually sold that home.
And Covid, of course, it was in themiddle of Covid, and the person who
bought the home then rented it back to us.
So we were staying in the same homethat we built so many years ago.
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Now, every year, the landlordraised the rents as landlords do.
Sometime last year, I think it wasAugust or September, he raised the
rents again to $750 a week, which wasthen putting a strain on our finances
and our savings and everything.
And of course, coupled with.
Progress payments for the newhome and interest rate rises and
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all that, it was stifling us.
Now, I started questioning andsaying, God, did you actually
lead us to sell that home?
And, you know, there was times Iwas really confused and I was, like,
worried, like, look, we can still affordto pay both rent and the mortgage,
but it was getting very, very tight.
And it still is becausethe home is not built yet.
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It's been four years and we're stillwaiting for the home to be built.
Now, two weeks before Christmas,I get a random WhatsApp message
from some young chap in Singapore.
We used to live in Singapore.
This was 18 years ago.
And this kid was 14years old at that time.
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And he remembers my wife and myself beingon stage serving in the worship ministry.
And God told him to bless us.
So I'm thinking, really?
How is that possible?
And apparently God had toldhim three years before, but he
didn't do anything about it.
And God now reminded him againsometime in November, was it December?
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And he got my contact details fromthe worship pastor, got in touch with
us, I get this random text saying,you don't know me, but I know you.
I used to watch you onstage when I was 14.
This guy is probably 30 plus now.
He says, can I have a video chat with you?
We have the video chat.
He says, is there anything thatis, is there any strain you're
going through financially?
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And I share with him what's going on.
He's like, wow, interesting.
After the call, he drops into our account.
He asks for my account details, of course.
I would say what I wouldearn in a fortnight.
Twice of that he put into the accountand that just assured me that God was
trying to tell me He will take careof us and I did not make a mistake
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to sell that house now That, to me,was a massive form of generosity.
I was learning how to trust God formy finances, how to trust him, that
he would take care of me in every way.
And this guy was, of course,learning how to listen to God.
And he was so accurate to haveknown when to actually obey
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God and then give that seed.
The week after he.
gave us that money.
My wife and I were here in churchand I said, look, I think it's right
for us to then tithe the amountfor that money that he gave us.
And we did that.
The very following month, this sameguy dropped the exact amount that
we had typed into our account again.
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Because he keeps askingus, is the house done yet?
And I'm like, no, it's not done yet.
This last week, he droppedanother amount into our account.
God is in control.
That's all I can say.
And you cannot out give God.
Thank you.
Oh, very good, Nigel.
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Thank you for sharing.
I think I want to just frame that foryou in relationship to there's Two sides
to the coin of generosity one side isactually giving and the other side is
how we receive And so the truth is youcan only any of us can only really give
to the degree that we have received.
Would you agree?
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We can't give what we don't have right?
And so So, I want you this week, alittle bit of homework before we jump
into the message, is to consider thequestion, when was the last time, or
can you remember a story where you feltyou were so blessed by someone else?
And as you do that, give thanks to God,because it's God who has done that.
Does that make sense?
Because if we talk about how do we livea lifestyle of generosity, we've got to
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actually return to the places and spacesin our stories where we have been gracious
recipients of moments of generosity.
Whether that's financial, whetherthat's not, it might not be.
Does that make sense?
So I would love to encourageyou to consider that question.
When was the last time youreceived an act of generosity?
No matter how big and howsmall, they're all Important.
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So we're here today in Lukechapter 12 from verse 13 and
we're going to read this together.
This is the story of Jesus talkingabout the parables of a few
things, but we'll get to that.
Let's just read it.
Someone in the crowd saidto Jesus, Tell my brother to
divide the inheritance with me.
Jesus replied, the man whoappointed, who appointed me a
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judge or an arbiter between you.
And then he said to them, watch out.
Everyone say, watch out.
Be on guard against all kinds of greed.
Life does not consist in theabundance of possessions.
And he told them this parable,the ground of a certain rich
man yield an abundant harvest.
He thought to himself, what shall I do?
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I have no place to store my crops.
Then he said, this is what I'll do.
I'll tear down my barns andbuild bigger ones, and there
I will store my surplus grain.
And I'll say to myself, you haveplenty of grain laid up for many years.
Take it easy, mate.
Eat, drink, be merry.
But God said to him, youfull this very night.
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Your life will be demanded from you.
Then who will get what youhave prepared for yourself.
This is how it will be for whoeverstores up things for themselves
but is not rich towards God.
Then Jesus says to his disciples,that was a big bomb moment.
Can you feel it in the room?
Jesus said to his disciples,Therefore, what's a therefore?
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We're trying to work outwhy has he told us this.
He tells us this, because I don'twant you to worry about your life,
what you will eat, or your body, whatyou will wear, for life is more than
food, and body more than clothes.
Consider the ravens.
They do not sow or reap.
They have no storeroom orbarn, yet God feeds them.
How much more valuable you are than birds.
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Who of you worrying about worryingcan add a single hour to your life?
Since you cannot dothis very little thing.
Thank you, Jesus.
Doesn't sound like a very little thing.
Why do you worry about the rest?
Consider the wild flowers.
How they grow, they do not labor or spin.
I tell you, not even Solomon in all hissplendor was dressed like one of these.
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If that is how God clothes the grassof the field, which is here today
and tomorrow is thrown into the fire,how much more will he clothe you?
You of little faith, and do not setyour heart on what you eat and drink.
Do not worry about it, for the paganworld runs after such things, and
your father knows that you need them.
But seek his kingdom, and all thesethings will be given to you as well.
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Do not be afraid, littleflock, for your father has been
pleased to give you the kingdom.
Sell your possessionsand give to the poor.
Provide purses for yourselvesthat will not wear out.
A treasure in heaven that willnever fail, where no thief comes
near, and no moth destroys.
For where your treasure is,there your heart will be also.
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Awesome.
So Jesus starts out with thisphrase at the start of this
reading today, watch out.
Another way to say that, hesays, beware of money blindness.
Understand money sickness,and acquire money wellness.
Why is he saying watch out?
The text starts with this manwho comes to Jesus and says,
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Hey, Jesus, sort this out for me.
My brother, tell my brotherto divide the inheritance.
Now, this is a younger sibling,and the older brother has received
the inheritance, and has probablyinherited the entire estate.
And the older brother is not sharingthe inheritance or the estate with
him, and so there's some, kind ofsibling, conversation going on,
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probably not all that positive.
And so he comes to Jesus and says, Makemy brother divide the inheritance with me.
And now when Jesus refuses, firstly,we must remember that doesn't mean, you
know, that we shouldn't, you know, evergo to court to deal with injustice.
Sometimes those moments arenecessary, but Jesus says here,
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who, who has appointed me?
In other words, he's saying,actually, that's what not, I'm
not, I'm not here to do this.
This is not my mission.
This is not my job description.
I'm not here for this.
I have limited amount of time, butthat's not what I'm here to do.
But when he says something, thismoment, he shows that he discerns
what's actually going on in this family.
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The family's being torn apart.
Can you imagine?
In the next statement, he showsthat he understands why it's being
torn apart, because the family isbeing torn apart because of greed.
It's money sickness.
It's money centricity.
It's a materialistic heart.
It might be in this man.
It might be in his brother.
It might be in all of them.
We don't know, but the pointis, is he says, watch out, be on
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guard against all kinds of greed.
And in this warning,there's a premise here.
There's something that is anassumption that needs to be drawn out.
And the premise is, when he says,watch out for all kinds of greed,
the assumption is that greed issomething that can be hidden from you.
You can't see it.
It will deceive you.
It will fool you.
To put it another way, Jesus is assumingthat the condition of money sickness,
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that blindness to the condition,is intrinsic to the condition.
Does that make sense?
So, for instance, we don't seeanywhere in the Bible where Jesus
says, please be on guard for adultery.
Well, does that mean somehow, you know,greed is worse than adultery or something?
No, it's, it's both damaging, buthere's the tick, you don't actually,
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you're not, you're not ever unaware thatyou're committing the sin of adultery.
Would you agree?
It's fairly obvious something'sgoing on, but when you're in greed
sickness, you can be completely
You can't see it.
Why not?
Because greed touches the heart, itmoves subtly, it moves slowly, it gets
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inside, and Jesus is saying, watch out.
So what I want to do is I actually wantto summarize this reading that we've read
into these two paragraphs very quickly,and I want to speak them in a way that
summarizes everything that Jesus has said.
So it says, if you worry a lot aboutmoney, okay, or if you resent people
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who have got money, Or, if you arerun off your feet trying to get
it, or if you can't give it away soradically that you're not willing to
dip into your savings and investmentsand give to that level, you may,
everyone say may, have money sickness.
Second paragraph, either you're lookingfor money to be your security, or you're
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looking to money to be your beauty.
That's an interesting concept, isn't it?
Think about the parable of the thefield and the flowers of the field.
We can be using money to actuallymake us feel secure and safe.
We can be use money to makeus feel beautiful, acceptable.
So if you're looking for money foryour security, if you're looking money
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for your beauty, and if you're lookingfor money to give you things, aka
the kingdom, maybe there's a kingdomyou're trying to buy for yourself.
Newsflash, if you're a follower ofJesus, you've already been given the
kingdom, but you're using money to lookfor things that only God can give you.
You may have to consider, issomething going on that I'm
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unaware of that is hidden to me?
Do I have money sickness?
Does that make sense to everyone?
And also realize that if you seeyourself having money sickness, you
know what the human reaction is?
We always go, oh, I'm not that bad.
We always underestimatethe impact of it, don't we?
We always do.
And that's part of its subtlety,because we'll underestimate
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How it touches our lives.
And Jesus says watch out.
Watch out.
To watch out, what does that mean?
It means to be very suspicious.
It means to ask lots of questions.
You know, asking questions,being suspicious of everything.
It, that's what it means tobe on guard, being careful.
And Jesus is saying, don't trustyourself with money, saturate,
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saturate yourself with questions.
Hundreds of questions, here'ssome examples, don't, you
don't really need that.
Do you really, really need more?
Couldn't you live more simply?
Couldn't you give more of your money away?
And you ask yourself, andJesus says, Watch out.
Saturate yourselves with questions.
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Now, as we've gone through thisseason and today, this is the most
prevalent moment in our entireseries that you need to watch out.
Because what's going to happenin the course of it, it may
already be happening right now.
When I started talking,suddenly you're all like, Woo!
I'm getting a little bitdisturbed on the inside.
Maybe there's a sudden reaction of anger.
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Maybe there's somethingthat's stirring on the inside.
Watch out.
Watch out, because something istrying to reveal to you that you
potentially have money sickness.
And the Father wants to leadus all to money wellness.
Just because you're reacting, don'tgo, Oh no, I've gotten it wrong.
I'm, I'm, I'm, it's hopeless.
I'm a lost cause.
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No, no.
We need to see we have moneysickness and then, Lord Jesus, help
me move towards money wellness.
Does that make sense?
So be aware.
Be aware that that'swhat might be going on.
The best question I like to askmyself is how much is enough?
How much is enough?
You know, as your savings increase, asyour salary grows, as your years pass
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by, as you get older, as the childrenno longer need school fees to be paid,
as suddenly you've got more going on.
How much is enough?
But know that if you have moneysickness, it'll always feel
like you don't have enough.
But watch out.
If you're not watching out, you'reactually being voluntarily blind.
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I've got a slide because there's aninteresting idea about the word In
the Bible, the word believe is used272 times, the word pray is used
371 times, love is used 714 times.
Oh dear.
Give is used 2, 162 times.
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Welcome to church.
I've been looking at the Bible and whatit says about giving and I'm trying to
come to grips with why it feels likeJesus is always talking about giving.
Giving.
And frankly coming to grips withthe fact that why do we at church
don't talk about it too much?
Here's something personal.
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And even why I'd feel like I'ma little bit afraid to even talk
about it in the first place.
Why is that?
What's going on?
And as I've kind of analyzed thatand looked at that this week, Jesus
constantly talking about it, I beganto realize that giving is not just some
duty that lays along a list of all otherduties to be performed as a follower
(16:04):
of Jesus, like worship, evangelism,prayer, loving others, helping the poor.
No, actually, giving is at the heartof the reason, is at the heart of every
single thing a Christian is and does.
See, if you look at the whole scopeof the Bible, what it says about
everything a Christian is and does,giving is at the very heart of it.
(16:25):
Let me show you what I mean.
The three cardinal virtues, oneway of describing the Christian
faith in terms of Christiancharacter, is faith, hope and love.
Now, if you can't give, the numberone question we must ask is do I
have faith to believe that God willreally care for me when I give?
(16:47):
If not, this is not just a questionof a lack of generosity, it's
a question of a lack of faith.
Okay, hope.
What if we don't give?
Hope means the question of wheredo I really get my value from?
Where do I get my sense of worth from?
Is it from Christ or is it how we live?
The restaurants we eatat, the clothes we wear.
(17:07):
One of the reasons we don'tgive is because of hope.
Our hope is located in the wrong location.
And so giving is again touchingon this picture of hope.
And then there's faith, hope, and love.
One of the reasons we don't give isbecause we lack sympathy, sensitivity
in a world that is out of control andthe needs are completely unbelievable.
(17:30):
There's so much needout of there, out there.
We don't even know How much needis out there and sometimes we don't
want to look at it because it's kindof like, wow, that's pretty heavy.
The needs are so prevalent.
And then we say, oh, you know, ourcapacity to love, we get scared.
We don't want to see the difficultiesand so we cut ourselves off from them.
(17:55):
And therefore, the only way to buildfaith, to build real faith, to build real
hope, to build, to build real love isgiving as a reality check of those things.
It's not just one thing to do ona very big list of things to do.
It's all of those things.
It's not one subject.
Oh, when can we get on tothe next subject, Adam?
Looking forward to next week.
Thanks very much.
(18:15):
No, it's all the subjects.
Giving is at the heartof all the subjects.
Here's how you do it.
When you feel like You need to movebeyond it, that sense of money sickness.
When you want to activate faith, hope, andlove, stir that in your heart, you give.
(18:40):
Let's take a look at the moment of,of what the Christian faith is, not
just what it is, but what it does.
It serves God and it serves others.
Would you agree?
Our Christian faith is toserve God, to serve others.
Now, if you're struggling to believethat everything that you have is a gift
from God, then And I struggle to give.
(19:01):
There's a question, isn't there?
That my love for God is reallyjust lip service or just sentiment.
It's not real.
How can I say I want to serve others andnot be an answer to someone else's needs?
Again, it's just a sentiment.
It's not actually real.
And so giving is not just part ofone thing, it's all the things.
(19:26):
And so I think because of that,and the nature of whenever you
talk about money, it just stabsat the heart, don't you agree?
It just knocks on the heart.
It probes the heart.
It prods the heart.
We find it hard to talk about.
Until you put your wealth on the line,there is no reality check to your faith.
(19:47):
Oh, welcome to church this morning.
The reason Jesus is talking about it sooften is because there's not just one
subject among many, it's all the subjects.
So watch out.
So where should I place my money?
Glad you asked.
We're going to jump into theparable of the sower in Matthew
13 from verse 18 and it says this.
(20:08):
Listen.
Then to what the parableof the sower means.
So you know the parable of the sower.
The farmer sowed his seed on, the path.
Sowed his seed on the, andthe, and the crows came.
He sowed the seed in the rockyplace, the weedy place, and
then he sowed it on good soil.
And this is one of those parablesthat he sells, but this, in this
(20:29):
moment in Matthew 13, he explainsit, and this is the explanation.
Listen to what the parableof the sower means.
When anyone hears the message aboutthe kingdom and does not understand
it, the evil one comes and snatchesaway what was sown in their heart.
This is the seed sown along the path.
The seed falling on rocky groundrefers to someone who hears the word
and at once receives it with joy.
(20:51):
But since they have no root,they only last a short time.
When trouble or persecution comes becauseof the word, they quickly fall away.
The seed falling among the thornsrefers to someone who hears the word,
but the worries of this life andthe deceitfulness of wealth choke
the word, making it unfruitful.
But the seed falling on goodsoil refers to someone who hears
(21:13):
the word and understands it.
This is the one who produces acrop yielding a hundred, sixty,
thirty times what was sown.
And so the thorns in thisparable represent very clearly
the deceitfulness of wealth.
It's super clear.
Now what's interesting is when youresearch ancient farming practices,
the farmer would actually plant thornson the edge of his crop in order to
(21:38):
prevent people from either just strollingthrough the crop and rooing in it,
for, for, prevent animals going in.
There was a specific strategic placementof thorns on the edges of the crop.
So what does that mean?
Because the image of the soilin the parable is actually
representative of our hearts.
(21:58):
Then in your life you are either goingto put your wealth, i. e. the thorns,
at the center of your heart, and pleaseknow if you put the wealth at the center
of your heart and you're also puttingthe Word of God at the center of your
heart, what's going to happen is TheWord of God in you is going to become
unproductive because the worries oflife, the deceitfulness of wealth, chokes
(22:22):
out the fruitfulness of God's Word.
So what does it meanto plant at the edges?
It means that on the edges of the crop,this is where the poor would come.
Have you ever heard thatword, the gleanings?
They would come to the edges ofthe crop to receive gleanings.
And according to the book of Deuteronomyand Leviticus, farmers would leave
(22:43):
the edges of their fields unharvested.
They would, wouldn't pick up the thingsthat they dropped, the gleanings.
And should harvest be overlooked, in thatarea, they would just actually leave it.
And so when your wealth is kept atthe edges of your heart and not at
the center of your heart, that'swhen you can have a productive life.
(23:04):
When you strategically, regularly,sacrificially, give cheerfully,
you're setting your heart, up yourheart to have good soil, producing
a crop that yields a great return.
Today I was thinking, this morningactually, about some people
that I've met over the courseof 25 years of doing ministry.
(23:26):
And you get to meet all sortsof people in all sorts of ages.
And I've noticed something aboutpeople, again, money sickness,
you don't know you have it, okay?
And I remember there were a coupleof conversations I've had, where I'm
starting to see that people, oh, overthe course of their lives, they've kept
(23:46):
money at the centre of their hearts.
And so, So, in one example, I met someonewho's 90 years old, okay, and at 90 years
old, they're saying sentences like, Idon't have enough money to live, okay.
How old?
90, okay.
And then what happens is, theconversation, because Pastor Adam
(24:08):
sometimes just goes there and maybeI shouldn't, so how much is your
bank account out at the moment?
How much savings do you have?
And this has happened more than once.
This is why I'm bringing this up.
The answer was 2.
2 million dollars.
Now, as soon as I say that, I wantyou to know that I'm not talking
about what a bank balance is.
I'm talking about, in light of havingthat much cash, your heart still
(24:31):
says, I don't have enough to live.
There's a question mark.
Do you agree?
Because it's not about, please,this is not a judgmental statement.
I don't care how muchyour bank account says.
What God cares about is the conditionof your heart to go, Oh, please, may
as I arrive at 90 years old, I neverwant to be in a place where I look
(24:53):
at going, Gee, I've, I've, I wantto never say, I've looked at my bank
account to get my sense of enough.
I want to always go, I looked atJesus to get my sense of enough.
That's what we all want, wouldn't we?
But be careful, watch out.
This is subtle, this is hidden.
This requires more thought.
(25:14):
Are you okay out there?
So how can we do that?
How can we be different?
How can we avoid money sickness?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
So over my time of pastoring, I'venoticed two types of giving and so
I want to explain them to you today.
First type of giving is calledfirst fruits giving or tithing.
(25:35):
The second part, the secondtype, is called project givers.
Project givers.
Now, as soon as I say two categories,I don't want you to assume that
it's either one or the other.
No, I know a lot ofpeople, they're doing both.
Okay, so this is not aboutmaking some statement around
one is better than the other.
No, I want to talk about, I wantto give comments to each of these.
(25:55):
So firstly, let's talk aboutfirst fruit, the tithe.
The word tithe comes from the OldTestament term to refer to the
first 10 percent of a person'sincome to be given to the temple
or the running of the temple.
And this is what the word tithewas used for in the Old Testament.
In the New Testament, it was more ofa response than a command, because
(26:16):
God was so generously blessing us, Hischurch, through His Son Jesus, through
His forgiveness on the cross, throughlife and life abundantly, that we don't
have to tithe, we should Want to tithe.
So if you're placed where you feellike you have to tithe, when you have
to give your first fruits, where it'snot cheerful, where it's not joyful,
(26:38):
it's not a response, but it's likea begrudgingly forced control into
something that you didn't want to do.
I want to let you know that tithingor giving of your first fruits
is no longer an act of worship.
It's actually an act ofcontrol, resentment, obligation.
And when your heart is in thisplace, newsflash, don't tithe.
(26:59):
It's not worth it.
Don't bother.
You're doing it for the wrong reasons.
Does that make sense?
But there may be a hard journey ifyou feel like, I can't tithe, that you
need to go on to assess, oh, do I havemoney sickness going on in my heart?
Having said that, I'm certain thatall of us are in different places
(27:20):
when it comes to our journey.
of giving, of tithing, of firstfruits.
But one of the questions I've heardover the years, well, Adam, if the
tithe began in the Old Testament,do we have to tithe anymore?
Aren't we under grace nowand not under the law?
Surely the tithe is likea redundant concept.
Now, firstly, Jesus did speak into thetithe, just so you're clear, Luke 11, 42.
(27:42):
And it says, woe to you Pharisees, becauseyou give a tenth of your mint and rue
and all kinds of garden herbs, but youneglect justice and the love of God.
You should have practiced the latter,yes, without leaving the former undone.
In this scripture, it is clearJesus is endorsing the tithe.
Now, the interesting thing is we considertithing as something under the law.
(28:03):
Tithing was in theLevitical Mosaic priesthood.
It was part of that, but it was seenprior to the establishment of any law.
Because we read about it in Genesis14, where Abraham gives a tenth
of what he gets to Melchizedek.
And later, like I said,in Leviticus, tithing is
(28:23):
established as part of God's law.
You can read about that in Leviticus 27.
But under the New Covenant,some argue that, well, tithing
is just no longer required.
And in a sense, they are correct.
But, being in a right relationshipwith God depends not on me fulfilling
the law and trying to be perfectin my obedience to the law.
(28:46):
It comes solely through faith in theGospel of Jesus Christ to fulfill it.
And so, we read about Jesusand suddenly he gets to the
mount, the Sermon on the Mount.
And what the sentiment ofthat sermon is that he is
consistently raising the calling.
He's consistently raising the standard.
(29:07):
He's calling followers to actually live inways that go beyond the law, not below it.
So importantly, by his spirit,he empowers us by grace to
meet these high expectations.
And so the other question I get alot is, where does the tithe go?
Well, great question.
We're supposed to take thetithe 10 percent and give it
(29:28):
to the local church, are we?
Great question.
If you're asking thatquestion, it's a good one.
Well, initially we see Abraham giveit to Melchizedek in the tithe.
We see the tithe going tothe temple in Malachi 3.
10. This use of the wordstorehouse is being used.
Oh my goodness, that's a fun conversation.
What does the storehouse mean?
Many people will interpretthat as the local church.
(29:50):
Many people would thinkdifferently on that.
And some say, when they come andask me, I tend to go, well, it's
a really good starting place.
Like, if you haven't ever given,or haven't tithed, or haven't
done a firstfruits journey, andalso you're thinking, oh, I don't
even know if I could do 10 percentstraight away, begin somewhere.
Begin.
Begin.
Because there's a beautiful promisein the book of Malachi that says,
(30:13):
God, you can test God in this.
So there's an invitation.
However, be led of theSpirit of God in this regard.
I'm not gonna stand up hereand tell you what to do.
I'll never tell you what to do.
I'll tell you, here's somethings you should think about.
But you need to be led of theSpirit of God when it comes to this.
(30:33):
But watch out.
Be on your guard againstall kinds of greed.
Because at the end of the day,God does not need your finances.
Giving is actually the way we flourish.
Because giving keeps us safe from what?
Money.
Sickness.
Make sense?
Deuteronomy 14 23 continues tothis, to review this and it says,
(30:58):
talks about the purpose of tithing.
Purpose of tithing is that you wouldlearn to revere the Lord your God always.
So the tithe, tithe helps us guardour hearts from all sorts of greed.
Another way to think about it is the tithehelps us revere God and not revere money.
That's such an important posture to hold.
(31:18):
And the final most important aspect ofthe tithe is the idea of giving regularly.
Now, many of you have been asking,Adam, how's your back today?
Thank you for asking.
And I'm pleased to say, it's better.
It's not great, but it's better, okay?
So, part of the dynamic of regularexercise, in this case, my cardio
(31:40):
system is the best it's probablyever been, I'll be honest.
The problem is, my innercore strength is not.
And so I have not regularly done enoughinner core strength training, and now that
I'm running a lot, I did 8km the otherday everybody, I'm not bragging, but I am.
And, I'm pretty excited about it.
(32:02):
But I did 8km in the sameday I put my back out.
And what I'm discovering is thatI've got to keep my core strength up.
So that means what?
Regularly exercisingyour core muscle groups.
Would you agree?
Now, if that's true for muscle,what's true is in relationship to
our capacity to avoid money sickness.
(32:24):
If you are only giving like onceevery year If I just went to the
core muscle training once everyyear, I would be in trouble.
I tell ya, especiallyat 51 years old, right?
So there's this, there's this dynamic ofsomething being systematic to be regular.
Because our hearts drift, right?
We know when I said I want to get to anold person's age, and you know, I want
(32:47):
to be saying, oh, I'm not looking at mybank account to feel like I have enough.
I'm looking at Jesus to have enough.
Do you know the journey of thatis not some linear journey?
Some days I'm feeling like I'm skyhigh, and then other days I'm feeling
like, oh my goodness, not really, no.
Isn't life more like this?
Which means our heartsdrift, if we're not careful.
(33:08):
So the regularity of thetithe is so important.
Let's talk about Project giving.
Project giving is good and right.
There's many biblicalreferences to project giving.
But I've noticed there's a challenge whenpeople only participate in project giving.
Because what happens?
Projects come and go.
Anne comes up and tells us all about,I've stood in that river, it's amazing.
(33:33):
But so much tension inthat area of the world.
We heard another project.
You may be stirred today.
And go, yes, awesome.
By the way, if you want to give in tothat, let me tell you the mechanism.
You give to the Red Door CommunityChurch, and you put on the reference.
What are we going to puton the reference, Anne?
What do you think?
Myanmar?
GAP, G A P. G A P, if you want to dothat, you can give to Red Door, mark it
(33:55):
G A P, and we will get it forwarding itstraight to G A P. Does that make sense?
Now, how many times have we gotAnne up here to talk about that?
Uh Maybe once or twice over thelast 10 years, what I'm trying
to say is projects come and go.
They're not regular in theirfrequency that we become aware of.
So if your only projectgiving, the regularity of
(34:16):
giving is somewhat disjointed.
Does that make sense?
And so if your goal,remember what's the goal?
The goal is God is not want your finances.
He wants your heart to be ina posture of money Wellness.
So if you're regularly giving, yourheart is being postured towards being
well on the inside of your heart.
But if you're only project givingevery 18 months, be careful, because
(34:38):
you might come to a place, and I'veheard it said before, Gee, I'm finding
I'm not as generous as I used to be.
I remember that last project I gavethis amount, but there's no way
I want to give that amount now.
What's wrong with me?
Watch out.
Money sickness is creeping in.
Many love project giving as well,because let's be honest, paying for
(35:00):
electricity, toilet paper, those peskyparking bays, rent, this is just to name
some of our Red Door expenses, right?
They're not very inspiring, are they?
When Anne gets up here,mate, I'm inspired.
I want to be a part of that.
Where do I sign up?
You know, because they're inspired.
(35:20):
And we want to be inspired.
We want to engage with thingsthat inspire, are inspiring.
But watch out.
Okay?
If we're only choosing projects thatinspire us, sometimes we can drift.
And what can happen is our givingcan become more about us than
it does about surrendering tothe Father and trusting Him.
(35:42):
Does that make sense?
And that surrender is that postureof worship to the King of Kings.
That's what, that's what we're after.
So be Careful.
Watch out.
Now, please don't mishear me today.
Oh, Adam doesn't believein Project Giving.
No, no.
Adam and Dale have been tithingand Project Giving for over
the last 25 years or so.
(36:03):
And I promise you, it's themost exhilarating thing, but
we've kept the regularity to it.
And I trust that today I stand here,humbly before you going, I really
hope I don't have money sickness.
So I give you permission today.
If you see money sickness inAdam, you know how we see each
other better than we do ourselves.
(36:23):
Do you know what I'm talking about?
If you're married for five minutes,you know what I'm talking about.
You need permission.
Say, Adam, I think you mightbe running into money sickness.
Oh dear, but please tell me.
But wouldn't it be great if youwere in a community that had that
kind of permission with one another?
Wouldn't it be brilliant?
Wouldn't it be safe?
(36:43):
But if I say that, you go,ooh, that's next level.
That's a bit honest.
That's a bit intimate.
That's a bit, that's a bit tough.
House church, it's meant to be aplace that's safe, that's known,
you're known, you're seen, andyou can talk about these matters.
I'd love you to consider talking aboutthat very topic this coming house church.
(37:06):
How are we going toacquire money wellness?
Jesus in that scripture in Luke12 gave us, gives us two things.
Here are the two things.
You need a radical experience ofthe grace of God and you need to
be a member attached in proximityto a radically changed community.
(37:27):
You need a radical experience of God'sgrace to know that He is your provider.
He will not let you down.
I'm saying that over your heart today.
He is here for you.
He loves you.
He's with you.
He's for you.
And you need to be a member of acommunity that's been radically changed.
(37:48):
See, when you see the Gospel through theframe, Oh, I'm trying to get emotional.
Through the frame that the Fatherbankrupted Heaven and He gave.
Now, Pancrupted Heaven.
Okay, that's pretty big, isn't it?
Let me try and picture it for you.
Bar Rijal and I heard this phraseonce, the chandelier of heaven.
(38:11):
Do you remember that?
So God the Father gavehis one and only Son.
This is, we were hearing this phrase that,that Jesus is the chandelier of heaven.
Okay, now picture thechandelier of heaven.
Oh, you're struggling.
Okay, so imagine the moon and we'regonna hang a chandelier off it.
And it's going to be so big thatit's literally going to hang
over the entirety of the earth.
(38:31):
And it's that massive, that huge.
Now, do that with the sun.
And do, imagine how big this I'm trying tocreate a picture of size to recognize that
Jesus is the chandelier of heaven, and theFather willingly bankrupted heaven, and
gave you and I the chandelier of heaven,and says Receive the greatest gift in all
(38:54):
of human history, my one and only son.
When you, when the gospel hits and youget that, and then you simultaneously
hear, Oh, God wants me to give 10%,
your heart reaction will be this.
Please don't miss this.
When you, this is when you get the gospel,you recognize the chandelier of heaven.
(39:14):
It's not about the chandelier of heaven.
It's just an image.
Okay, you get it.
You get it.
You got it.
You go, gee, 10%?
That's not much.
That's a bargain.
When the Gospel hits in your heartand you see that what He's given you
is of profound value, that you havenothing to even come close to it,
(39:37):
and you're asked to give, what the heartdoes As it goes, I'm so grateful, because
if Jesus had have only given me 10 percentof his blood, I would have been lost.
He gave everything.
He gave absolutely everything.
(39:57):
He gave everything, and heasks us to give in how we can.
Because he is our enough.
Today, if you're listening to thisand you know that God's got your,
God's got your number and He's pokingand prodding at your heart today.
Today, if I've said anything to mortallyoffend you, I want to apologize.
(40:20):
My heart is not to offend you today.
My heart is to inspire you to lookup, to not look down, to consider
that He is the King of all heaven.
And He's not after your money todaybecause He's got way too much for it.
And He wants to bless you, not withmoney, but with blessings that you
would be a light in this world.
And to be a part of that,be a participant in that.
(40:42):
Don't allow your heartto be offended today.
Allow your heart to be transformed bysaying, I'm open, I want more of you, God.
And so Father, for every single oneof us who are in a place where you
are prodding and poking today, HolySpirit come and help us to surrender.
Help us to surrender to yourway of being, your way of doing.
(41:12):
God, you gave everything.
You gave every last bit.
And I ask, Father, that your Holy Spiritwill come and help us to return to a place
of money wellness.
A place where money's not telling uswhat to do, we're telling it what to do.
(41:34):
Where it's a tool inthe hands of the King.
Father, where there's been, inmany of us, maybe there's been
abuse, maybe there's been control.
Even in your church, how peoplehave portrayed this topic.
(41:56):
Where there's beenresentment and obligation and
bitterness and pain and hurt.
Today, Holy Spirit, come.
Heal our hearts.
Some of us even right now have a postureof defensiveness about this whole topic
because you're trying to actually just Idon't want to get hurt like that again.
(42:19):
Holy Spirit, calm and dismantle thoseself protection mechanisms and free us up.
Free our hearts today.
We can't fix ourselves in this regardbut what we can do is we can surrender.
(42:43):
And so today we surrender to you Lord.
Today we ask Father that youwould lead and guide us as well.
If we're jumping into the giving journey,Holy Spirit lead us, show us what is
that first step, what is that thing weshould do, what is that project we should
give towards, what is the tithe, whatdoes giving to the church look like?
(43:06):
Holy Spirit lead us and guide us.
Father we thank you foryour presence amongst us.
And lead us into spaces of gratitudeand contentment in Jesus name, Amen.
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