May 4, 2025 • 56 mins
Money talks—but what is it saying about your heart?
Tackling one of Christianity's most challenging topics, this episode dives deep into the spiritual significance of our financial decisions. Drawing from Matthew 6:21, we explore how our use of money serves as a mirror reflecting our true priorities and values. Far from a typical "give more" message, this conversation reframes tithing not as losing 10% but as returning what was always God's, while genuine giving flows from a transformed heart that can't help but express generosity.
Through powerful stories and practical demonstrations, we distinguish between tithing (a foundational act of obedience) and giving (an overflow of love and worship). Witness a moving moment when the congregation surprises a faithful family with financial support, exemplifying how a giving community becomes the hands of God. The only scripture where God explicitly challenges us to "test Him" relates directly to tithing—a divine invitation to experience supernatural provision firsthand.
The episode shares raw testimonies of God's faithfulness during financial struggles, including how the church nearly closed during COVID but experienced miraculous provision. We explore the difference between treating church contributions as investments (expecting returns) versus sowing seeds (trusting God's timing and purposes). Whether you're financially comfortable or struggling to make ends meet, this message offers a fresh perspective on aligning your resources with your faith.
Ready to move beyond financial fear into spiritual abundance? Join us for this transformative conversation about money, meaning, and the mystery of God's provision when we honor Him first.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank
you Jesus, thank you Jesus,thank you Jesus.
Father, right now, I pray thatthe hearts of the people sitting
(00:23):
in this room are softened, thattheir ears are opened and
prepared to hear.
Lord, I know that the word thatyou have set upon my heart is a
word for today and, lord, Ithank you for that.
But, lord, know that I am goingbecause you have already gone
before me.
Lord, I trust that the wordsthat will be spoken today will
(00:46):
be directly from you and not ofme.
Father, god and Lord, I thankyou for the anointing that's
going to rest, for the movethat's going to happen on the
hearts of those who are sittingin this room.
Father, I thank you and Ipraise you for just how
wonderful you are.
Praise you for just howwonderful you are.
(01:08):
Lord, we come not seeking yourhand today, but to seek your
face, that we might findourselves in fellowship with you
in the most genuine way,because, lord, that is what we
are truly after.
Father, I thank you for theclassroom workers and for the
(01:28):
students.
Lord, I pray that you move justa mighty, mighty way inside of
those classrooms today.
Lord, I thank you and I praiseyou, I give you all the honor
and glory in the mighty name ofJesus, and the church says Amen,
Amen, amen, amen, name of Jesus, and the church says amen, amen
(01:52):
, amen.
I'm going to walk you throughthe lights real quick.
Is the center button lit up?
Okay, hit the blackout buttonfor me.
Hey, we got lights.
Did you hit the record buttonon the podcast thing?
So we're good.
Did you hit the record buttonon the podcast thing, so we're
good?
I know half the congregationjust left.
Hey, roger, real quick, onceall those kids are kicked out, I
(02:13):
need you to do a real quickcount for me on the number of
adults that are in the room.
Just adults, okay, so don'tcount.
Courtney, sorry, I didn'trealize she was still in the
room, courtney.
Courtney, sorry, I didn'trealize she was still in the
room.
Well, I know, I know.
(02:33):
Listen, you've got plenty oftime.
I'm not going to need it rightaway.
This is one of those Sundaymornings that just about any
pastor well, I shouldn't saythat many pastors dread this
Sunday morning, and here's thereason, because at some point
(02:59):
you have to give a message thatyou know you don't want to give
because it makes peopleuncomfortable.
I know that I am called tooffend not to offend the flesh,
but to convict the spirit.
And I'm here this morning and Iam hoping and when I said that
I'm believing that God is goingto go before me this morning, I
genuinely believe that.
So much so I got here at 6.30this morning to pray over each
(03:22):
and every one of these chairs.
To pray over each and every oneof these chairs, because I
believe that the people sittingin those chairs are going to
need to be on the same page withme this morning.
I'm going to need you to be inagreement with me this morning.
Now here's the thing.
Some of you may be visiting forthe first time, or maybe you've
only been here a couple oftimes.
I want to tell you something.
I'm not talking to you thismorning.
Now you can hear the messageand it is for you, but if you
(03:46):
have a storehouse that you go toregularly, this message I'm
speaking it on their behalftoday.
Okay, thank you, jesus.
We're all in agreement.
Can we shut that back door,pretty, please.
I don't know why that'sdistracting to me, but it is.
Today is the dreaded tithingmessage Right Like?
(04:09):
It makes people uncomfortable,but you guys need to understand
it and the importance in it.
Amen, okay, see, praying overyour chair has worked.
Everybody's in agreement thatwe need to understand the
importance of tithing, right,okay?
So then, I need you to justbear with me this morning as I
deliver this message, because Ipromise you this is not from me,
this is from God.
(04:30):
I'm kind of thankful my wifeleft.
The reason I am is becausesometimes, when her and I talk
about these things, I lose abunch of money because she just
gives it away and I always think, can you imagine what we could
have done with that money?
And she says, yeah, but can youimagine what God can do with
that money?
I don't like that logic, right?
(04:53):
It's hard to compete with God.
He's omnipresent, he knows yourneeds before.
I don't like that.
Amen.
Can we agree on that?
That it's hard to trust Godwith our finances?
Only some of us are okay withthat.
Hey, listen, if you areconfident, trusting God with
your finances is good for you.
I sometimes wonder what wouldbe different if I didn't give
(05:17):
the way that I did, if I didn'ttithe the way that I did.
But I want to do something realquick.
Hey, look, I went to the bankthis morning, got a little bit
of money.
Anybody want some?
Dylan, how much you want?
(05:38):
Buddy, how much does it fixyour car?
$1,000, enough, $1,000, enough.
Come here.
Oh, I am joking right now, butyou're going to come here anyway
, because here's what I'm goingto do.
(05:58):
I'm going to give you $10, $100bills.
Now, these are fake, but I'mgoing to give them to you and I
need you to hold on to it for mefor just a minute.
Okay, because then I'm going tohave you do something with it
in a minute.
Anybody else need some moneytoday?
Okay, how much do you need?
All right, you want $500?
(06:22):
.
Hopefully that will be enoughto get him through the rest of
the course.
There's $500?
.
There's $500 for you?
Okay, you hold on to that.
You're just going to keep that.
I know it looks real, don't?
If you guys go and spend that,I want you to know it says copy
on there.
It is fake.
All right, you try to spendthat.
That's on you.
Anybody else need money today?
No, you can go back to yourseat.
How much you need?
$3,600.
(06:53):
I'm not going to have enough togive it to you in $100 bills.
So how about I just give you abig old stack of money.
I don't even know how much isthere.
How much do you need?
I'm not going to be able togive that to you, so here I'll
just give you that.
What do you need?
$500 for.
You don't even pay bills.
She's going to Florida.
She needs spending money.
(07:15):
Jenny, I'm going to just giveyou the rest of this.
All right, I need you guys tojust hold on to that money for
me for just a second.
Okay, now, I just gave awaythat whole stack of money.
It's not real, but I just gaveaway that whole stack of money
freely.
That was easy to do because itwasn't real money, right, it's
(07:35):
pretty easy to do when itdoesn't mean anything.
Jamie, I need you to come uphere for a second.
I need you to help me withsomething.
Yeah, yes, right now.
Yeah, yes, right now.
So, as Jamie's coming up here,he must work for the government
(07:56):
because he comes at his own pace.
We know that money can be asensitive subject, but not
because money can be a sensitivesubject, but not because God
needs our money, but because ourmoney reveals our hearts, right
?
So money is not sensitive totalk about our finances with
people, because it's our money.
But when we talk about money,it reveals our hearts.
And when we start to reveal ourhearts to people, it gets real
(08:19):
very quickly, doesn't it?
Matthew 6, 21 says I've got ithere.
Wherever your treasure is,there the desires of your heart
will be also.
What does that mean?
That's where your heart isgoing to be.
(08:43):
Wherever your treasure is, thatis where your heart is.
If all of your money is tied upin your car, I can probably
guess that you love your car.
Is that a fair statement?
Courtney's not in here, but allof your money is tied up in
chickens.
I can assume you love chickens.
Amen, I can assume you lovechickens.
(09:03):
Amen.
If your money is tied up inworldly things, then we know
that you love worldly thingsAmen.
But when your money is tied upin the kingdom, then we know
that you love Jesus.
Now, I'm not saying that if youdon't give to the church or if
(09:25):
you don't give to a ministry,that you don't love Jesus.
I'm saying that if we followthe money trail, we know where
our hearts are at Amen.
Jamie, I've got an envelope with$10.
I want to give it to you, but Ineed you to give me back $1.
Are you willing to do that?
I'll let you keep the othernine, but I want one back.
You'll do that for me.
(09:54):
Okay, do that for me.
Just give me $1 back.
That's a $1 bill.
Yes, that's correct.
Yes, I want it back.
Now, why do I want this $1 back?
It's 10%.
Was it hard to give me that $1back?
Because you're walking awaywith $9, right?
No, no, no, no, no, no, I'mgood.
I'm good with that $1.
But see, I actually haveanother $50 that I want to give
you.
But when I give you this $50,I'm going to need $5 back.
(10:19):
Are you willing to do that?
I appreciate that, but I wantto give it to you.
See how easy this is.
This is such an easy game,isn't it?
How about 500?
If I give you 500, okay, well,I'm going to give it to you, and
(10:40):
then I want you to give me $50back.
I think you can handle that,right, he's already got the idea
.
You do 10%.
Look at that $50 bill.
How easy was that?
I got one last one for you.
It's $1,000.
Will you give me $100 of thisback?
I'll give you the enveloperegardless.
I'm not going to make you giveme $100 back, but if I give it
(11:11):
to you, will you give me $100 inthe back?
Okay, how easy was it for you tohand me that money this morning
?
Because it was free money,right?
That money was not really yoursto begin with.
I gifted it to you, right, andso it was easy to turn around
and give me a small portion ofit back because it was found
(11:32):
money.
Can we understand that?
Tithing is the exact same way?
Every dollar, thank you, youcan sit down for a minute.
Every dollar.
Was he trying to get my moneyback?
Was he Every dollar that youearn?
(11:53):
And I know that you might goout and work for it, but you're
earning that money because ofwhat God has given you, and the
word asks us to give him a tie,which simply means a tenth, one
tenth of whatever you earn.
He wants it in return.
(12:13):
It's not because he needs yourmoney.
I'm going to tell a story andI'll try not to get emotional
for those of you who weren'there during this period, and
I'll try not to get emotionalfor those of you who weren't
here during this period.
First of all, I didn't sign upto pastor a church through COVID
.
Is that fair?
(12:33):
When I signed up to pastor.
I signed up to pastor athriving church.
Was it my second year?
I mean my first year.
It started, but by the time wewere in our full-blown second
year, we weren't even allowed tomeet in the building.
You guys were watching my binLaden terrorist videos while I
stood up here on a stage with ablank wall trying to figure out
how to live stream and how to doall of these things so that you
(12:54):
might be able to get the wordin your own home.
It was awful and let me tellyou, if you thought it was bad
to watch, you should have beenhere preaching it.
It was miserable.
Roger would sit there in theback with his mask on.
Pastor Holly might be here withher mask on, and we're trying
to and we're like why can yousee up his nose Right?
They were terrible and we hadnever live streamed before.
(13:15):
But we knew that if we didn'tdo something, the church
wouldn't survive.
I don't mean this building, Imean the body of Christ.
Because they were.
I'm not saying they were tryingto, but we would have been
separated for so long that wewould not have been able to be a
unified body any longer.
And it was hard and it wasscary, and yet I did it.
And when we got through the endof that season, my wife and I
(13:39):
were sitting at home and we wererunning the church finances and
we realized there was no way wecould pay the electric bill
that month.
We are fortunate not to have amortgage on this building.
This building is paid for.
The ministries that came andhave gone before us took care of
all of those things.
Do you know how much it coststo operate this building, not
including paying any people, butjust to run the building Gas,
(14:00):
water, electric insurance it's$4,000 a month.
You know how much our electricbill is alone $750 a month to
operate this building.
And so there is an expense thatgoes with having ministry in a
(14:21):
building.
Can we turn the air on, please,lord Jesus?
Yeah, yeah, give me some ofthem $100 bills back.
What I know is that God saw usthrough that.
I remember the Sunday morningthat I had to tell you guys that
(14:42):
we were going to lose thisbuilding.
We cried in the prayer room howhard it would be to walk away
from this.
Now I'll tell you.
At the time I was like, hey,you know what I just got through
a year of absolute torture.
If we lose the church, we losethe church.
Because my spirit was tired atthat point, we walked into that
(15:03):
prayer room and I said you know,this is just the way that it is
.
It's where we are.
We came out of that prayer roomon fire.
We hit this sanctuary yellingand screaming and we were
believing that God was gonna dosomething great and somehow, in
three months, we raised $25,000.
Praise God, praise God.
We put together fundraisers andwe did all of these things in
(15:27):
order to save this building Amen.
Now can I tell you that thatmoney doesn't last very long,
because I don't know for any ofyou who have ever counted tithes
and offerings at this church,it's never consistent.
On Easter Sunday, we had ahundred people in this building,
a hundred people.
On Easter Sunday, our tithe wasunder $1,000.
(15:48):
There are Sundays we can comein here with 40 people and have
$4,000 or $5,000.
Figure that out.
What that tells me is we arenot consistent.
What that tells me is that wedon't understand the importance.
I will tell you there are someof you sitting in this room who,
when you are unemployed, youare tithing.
(16:09):
There are some of you sittingin this room when you've got
nothing left in the refrigerator.
You're still giving.
You are still tithing becauseyou know that you cannot outgive
God.
But there are some of ussitting on our hands saying I'm
too afraid to give up what Ithink is mine, and I need to
tell you it was never yours tobegin with.
(16:32):
It was never yours to beginwith.
God gave it to you so that youmight bless others, pay your
bills, make sure you got gas inyour car, but you need to be
blessing other people, amen.
The word tithing simply meansone-tenth.
(16:56):
Tithing is giving 10% ofwhatever you earn back to God,
not because he needs it, butbecause it acknowledges that
everything we have comes fromhim.
Amen.
My health comes from him, mygood looks come from him.
(17:19):
Okay, getting deep in here,folks, getting deep in here,
lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy, malachi,3.10,.
Bring all the tithes into thestorehouse so there will be
enough food in my temple.
If you do, says the Lord ofheaven's armies, I will open the
(17:41):
windows of heaven for you.
I will pour out a blessing sogreat you won't have enough room
to take it in.
Try it, put me to the test.
The only time God says try it.
Test me.
Listen, he is a mighty, mightyGod and there are a lot of
things I will not test.
I am willing to test hisblessings all day, every day, if
(18:04):
he tells me that he will openthe windows of heaven have got
to be opulent, they have got tobe huge.
I can imagine wheelbarrows fullof money just pouring out of
there.
Good health, prosperity, favorin the workplace, all of those
things just being poured outupon me and I thank you, lord,
for that favor.
I thank you, lord, for thatfavor.
(18:27):
I don't want favor with you, Idon't want favor in the flesh, I
want favor in the heavenlies.
Amen.
And I am willing to do whateverit takes to get that.
If that means cutting off myarm to save the rest of my body,
I am willing to do it.
I am willing to lose 10% sothat God can continue to bless
me, amen.
(18:48):
Tithing is a test, amen.
It is our.
It is a test of our trust andwho God is and what he says he's
going to do.
If God tells you he's going toopen the windows of heaven and
pour out a blessing, don't youwant to find out?
I want to find out.
I want God to look at me and gooh, you're really going to do
that, huh.
And I'm going to say, yes, I am, because I know you're going to
(19:11):
do better.
I will continue to test thatmindset as long as I can.
Now here's the thing.
Sometimes I test it and I getdisappointed.
Is that fair to say?
Sometimes God says give and Igive, and I don't feel like what
I expected to see happenhappened.
I hear it.
(19:35):
He says stop what you're doing,write a check.
I write a check.
I hand the check off.
Six months later I haven't.
God, why did you have me dothat?
What was the?
What was the point?
And then one day you wake upand everybody in your house is
(19:55):
sick.
You think you're gonna loseeverything because you've lost
your job, whatever might happen.
And then God, god says nottoday.
And all of a sudden everybody'sstarting to feel better, real
fast.
How many of you guys have beensick this year?
Not my house.
I am blessed and highly favored,and I'm claiming that because
(20:19):
that's what I want in my liferight Now.
I'm not saying that I amblessed and highly favored
because I give above and beyond.
I'm saying I am blessed andhighly favored because I believe
it Now.
I'm not saying if you got sickyou ain't blessed and highly
favored.
I want to be clear.
I want to be clear but I won'tproclaim that sickness in my
life because I want God to dosomething great with whatever
little I have right, and if myhealth is all I've got today,
(20:46):
then I am going to be blessed init.
Amen.
My home I want my home to beblessed beyond compare.
I want my children to beblessed beyond anybody else's
children.
Listen, I know we all love ourchildren dearly and some of us
have some real snots of kids,right.
Hallelujah, thank you, jesus.
But let me tell you that Istill want my children to be
blessed and highly favored.
The only way to do that is tospeak it, to test God by saying
(21:11):
I am going to believe you forgreater than what I've given you
, because I know that you canand I know that you will Amen
than what I've given you,because I know that you can and
I know that you will Amen.
Tithing is not about losing 10%.
It's about honoring God withthe first 10%, not just off the
bottom, not what's left over.
Right Off the top, off the top.
(21:36):
How many of you guys keep abudget.
How many of us on the top lineof that budget says giving, says
tithe.
Listen, we don't even see ours.
Because we know that thatbelongs to God.
At the first of every year, wegive above and beyond because we
know that it is the first fruitof this year and, lord, I want
(21:59):
you to have more than anything Ihave ever asked for.
I want to continue to pour intoyour house.
Listen, we don't always justgive to this house.
Every year, my family and I'mnot bragging.
I want to be very clear.
I am not trying to brag on whatmy family and I do.
I just want you to understandthat sometimes we look at things
a little bit differently.
I'm also going to tell yousomething that's going to get me
(22:20):
in trouble, probably in a week,but that's okay, I don't mind.
Every year at Thanksgiving, mywife and I find a family in need
and we donate in an entireThanksgiving dinner.
Do you know what that costs us?
Less than $100.
But there is a family thatwould not be able to have a
thanksgiving dinner if itweren't for us being willing to
(22:41):
do that.
How many of us are willingenough to to step out in faith
and go out into the world andlook for somebody who is hurting
or in need and help to liftthem up.
Not many of us.
We want to help in the house,right, because we know you, it's
easy.
All of those things that's notwhat god has called us to do.
We are to love the unlovely andto help those who cannot help
(23:02):
themselves.
I am so excited about what Godis doing here because I'll tell
you, you know, there are someSunday mornings I wake up and
I'm like God, I know you'regonna be there, I know you're
gonna be big.
And then he shows up, biggerand better than I thought he was
going to, and I always trustthat there's a reason for that
and I think that he has led usto this moment for a reason.
(23:25):
But now, see, I need to talk toyou about something else,
because sometimes we get wrappedup in tithing and we think that
tithing buys us favor, amen.
So when I give 10% to thechurch, I have an opinion.
No, you don't.
(23:46):
God does.
That's the only thing thatmatters in this house.
When he casts a vision, when hesends a vision, whether it's to
Pastor Roger, pastor Holly ormyself when he sends that vision
, we move forward with thatvision.
We look for confirmation and wemove forward.
We don't sit around and waitfor everybody to be in agreement
with us.
We pray that everybody sees thevision that God has.
(24:08):
Amen.
We treat our tithe like aninvestment.
We expect a return, right?
How many of us expect?
How many of you guys dabble inthe stock market, marcus?
I know he does Not anymore, hedoesn't.
We, some of us, dabble in thestock.
(24:28):
You ain't looking at yourstocks right now, are you?
No, because that make you throwup.
Right, so did mine.
But I'm still lower thananything I put in there right
now and it doesn't feel goodbecause right now it's not so
little on the iffy side.
But let me tell you somethingwhen I invest in the kingdom,
I'm not looking for a return onthat investment because I'm not
(24:51):
investing.
Do you know what I'm doing?
Pastor Holly knows what I'mdoing.
Pastor Holly knows what I'mdoing.
I'm sowing.
I'm sowing seeds that I maynever reap the harvest from when
you give 10%, every Sundaymorning you drop your 10% in the
offer.
You don't come to me and ask mewhat that money went to pay, do
you?
Do you know why you don't askme that?
(25:12):
Because that's sowing.
You don't always see theharvest.
But some of us take our moneyand we put it in the plate and
we say that's an investment,because the money that went in
here this one's a little light.
Anybody got some cash.
None of that fake money either.
Sometimes when we put money inthere, we expect God to bless
(25:32):
our finances because we havegiven financially.
It doesn't always work likethat.
This is not an investment thatyou get back 10% just because
you put in 10%.
Now, sometimes you do.
Sometimes God blesses youabundantly.
I'll tell you.
You know, when God sent us on amission to buy a house the first
time, my wife and I had a plan.
We wanted four bedrooms, atleast two bathrooms, a garage.
(25:57):
We wanted all of these things.
We had a list.
We walked into that house inDover and we went.
This is the one, and this thinghadn't been updated since the
1970s.
It had green carpet.
It had mint green walls, it hadpeach walls.
It had these I'm not going tosay they were ugly, but they
were really ugly curtainshanging all through the house
that were floral print, right, Idon't know how didn't have a
(26:19):
garage.
It had one tiny little closetof a bathroom right.
And God said this is the one.
And we said we agree, we boughtthe house.
I don't know what we werethinking.
Covid hit, house pricesskyrocketed.
We sold that house and had ahundred thousand dollars in
equity.
It was the only reason we wereable to buy the house we live in
now house and had $100,000 inequity.
(26:39):
It was the only reason we wereable to buy the house we live in
now.
But that was because webelieved what God was calling us
to do in that moment.
Right, I stopped trusting myown decision-making when we
started to seek his face in thedecisions that we were about to
make in our lives.
That was a financial blessinglike I had never seen before.
When that money came, I was like, is this for real?
Like did they make a mistake?
(27:00):
I called the real estate agent.
I'm like are you sure he's likedude?
Yes, I'm positive, stop callingme.
And he blocked my number.
I knew that God was up tosomething when we bought that
house.
We just didn't know what it was.
I kept telling Alyssa I wasgoing to die in that house, we
were going to live there forever.
I was never moving again.
And then God said, yes, you are, and he lit this fire that I
(27:22):
could not contain.
How many of us see God's handwork like that?
But we can't admit that it'sGod working like that.
We want to go.
Oh well, that was just good luck.
I'm going to tell you I havenever had good luck a day in my
life.
Never had good luck a day in mylife.
Mel, mel, I don't know.
(27:42):
We won't call it luck.
She is blessed and highlyfavored, but that woman wins
every drawing she puts her nameinto.
I haven't figured that one outyet.
It's true, she is blessed andhighly favored.
You can call that luck if youwant to, but I'm not willing to
do so right Now.
Here's the thing.
So, everybody that got stacksof money today, everybody that
(28:03):
borrowed money, here's what Iwant you to do.
I want you to use that todaybefore everybody leaves, and I
want you to bless other peoplein this congregation.
Okay, it's not yours to keep,sorry.
What I want you to do is I wantevery person in this room,
before they leave here today, tobe able to walk out of here
with some amount of money.
(28:24):
You give them, whatever youfeel led to give them, but I
want you guys to keep that moneyand I want you to pray over it
and I want you to say, lord,show me what I'm missing in your
word.
Lord, this is an item ofactivation.
I don't care if you stick it inyour mirror at home or tape it.
Don't spend it.
You will go to prison.
(28:45):
Do not spend it and I'm sayingit on the podcast, I'm not
liable for this.
All right, yeah, exactly.
You guys are going to betelling everybody.
Our pastor gave it to us.
I want you to pray over thatbecause I need you to understand
how important it is to beblessed and highly favored, but
(29:08):
to be able to bless those aroundyou.
Amen To bless.
Because there are some peoplesitting in this room too proud
to ask for money, too proud toask for help, but they're
sitting there thinking, man, Iwish I would have taken some of
that man, I wish I would havetaken some of that.
How many of you guys play thelottery?
Some of us.
Terrible investment.
You bet on the horse yesterday,on the yeah, you lost, didn't
(29:31):
you?
What were your odds?
Five to one.
Not terrible, but terrible.
She walked away with nothing.
Right, he walked away withnothing.
But can I tell you something.
Five to one odds in the kingdomare pretty darn good, because
I'm telling you that God isgoing to do something great.
All right, now I'm done withtithing.
(29:51):
I need to talk about somethingelse.
Are you guys okay with that?
We need to talk about giving.
Some of you are wonderfulgivers but you're terrible
tithers.
Is that fair, right?
That's the kind of person thatwalks up and puts $10 in the
offering plate, but they made$3,000 this week.
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We don't want to admit that, dowe Not?
Many of us want to admit tothat.
That is giving.
That is not tithing.
There is a difference.
Giving is anything beyond that10% right?
So if you drop less than 10% inthat offering plate but you put
less than 10% in there, you'relike well, but I'm a giver, I'm
not a tither, I'm a giver.
(30:35):
Listen, you're living outside ofthe will of God.
Is what you're doing right?
Living outside of the will ofGod is what you're doing right,
because God calls you to give10% first.
Everything else you give isabove and beyond.
It is a free will giftmotivated by love, compassion
(30:56):
and generosity.
Generosity is a big word.
I probably couldn't even spellthat generosity.
How many of us considerourselves to be generous people.
I give of my time, I give ofall of these things.
But when I see that homelessman standing on the side of the
street, I say if I give himmoney he's just going to go buy
booze.
Right, there's a song that sayswhat if Jesus came back like
(31:20):
that?
What if he was takingattendance by the number of
people that gave him a dollar?
If you gave him a dollar, youinherit the kingdom of heaven.
If you give him nothing, youreceive nothing.
That can't be your 10%, butthat can be above and beyond.
That is what we consider giving.
(31:41):
2 Corinthians, 9, 6, and 7.
Remember this a farmer whoplants only a few seeds will get
a small crop, but the one whoplants generously will get a
generous crop.
You must each decide in yourheart how much to give, and
(32:01):
don't give reluctantly or inresponse to pressure, for God
loves a person who givescheerfully, cheerfully.
Giving is voluntary, it isjoyful, it is an overflowing
heart, amen.
But tithing is joyful.
It is an overflowing heart.
Amen.
But tithing is obedience.
(32:23):
Giving is an act of worshipfullove, amen.
I hear everybody's checkbooksrustling right now.
I'm kidding, everybody's justchomping at the bit to just give
above and beyond.
Some of you, hopefully, aresitting there going.
I didn't give 10% this morning,lord.
(32:45):
I need to change what I'm doing, because here's what we want to
break down.
Tithing is returning 10% to God.
Giving is anything above andbeyond.
Obedience and trust is whatcomes out of tithing.
Love, generosity and compassionare part of giving.
Malachi 3, leviticus 27 tell usexactly what we need to
understand about tithing.
(33:06):
And then, when we talk aboutgiving, it is encouraged through
the entire New Testament, theentire New Testament.
Tithing is faithfulresponsibility and giving is
cheerful spirit led generosity.
Tithing is the foundation.
Amen, tithing is the foundation.
(33:33):
I don't know.
I don't know if it's just myheart attitude, if it's just my
heart posture to be able to beso willing to give because we
have been blessed so abundantly.
Listen, there were times whenmy wife and I and even before my
wife and I got married, when Iwas in previous relationships,
you know, I was writing on apack of ramen what day of the
(33:55):
week I was allowed to eat itbecause I didn't have enough
money to buy groceries.
Right, I was too young to know.
I was too stupid to understand,if we're being honest with each
other, what it meant to budgetyour money.
You know, I live in a $600 amonth apartment, but I only make
$1,000 a month, can't afford acar payment.
Put gas in the car or buygroceries right, we've been
there.
Buy groceries, right, We'vebeen there.
(34:19):
Some of us been there.
Some of us might still beliving in that that's a problem,
right.
But at the end of the day, wehave to understand that when we
give our 10% first, god willalways bless us.
My heart posture has alwaysbeen that if God will bless me,
then I will give him whatever heneeds in order to do so.
Some of us sit here in fear ofwhat we will go without.
(34:40):
I promise you you will gowithout nothing.
You will go without nothingBecause God will provide it.
God is not after your money, heis after your heart.
This church is not after yourmoney.
(35:00):
This church is after your heart, because Jesus Christ is the
foundation that we stand on.
If Jesus wants, you wants yourheart, that's what we want too.
But in order to get to yourheart, we have to operate a
building.
Is that fair?
We can agree to that.
If you guys want the air onright, you guys remember when
(35:22):
the air conditioner broke in thegym Cost us $5,000 to replace
that air conditioner.
Any of you that were over therewhen that air conditioner was
broken?
It was hot right, it wasmiserable.
It was muggy.
Nobody wanted to be over there.
What we did, was it the murdermystery or the crime solvers
night we did over there with NewYork Holy smokes.
(35:42):
That place smelled like a gym.
Everybody just over there justsweating.
It was like being in a sauna.
It was disgusting.
We want certain things and wewant the church to be
comfortable, but, man, we don'twant to give to the church so it
can be comfortable, can becomfortable.
(36:08):
Blessings follow those who aregenerous.
You can't outrun them, youcan't.
You know, ray Porter said to meone time I'd gotten a flat tire
and he called me and he said Igot an air pump, I'm going to
bring it over to you.
I'm like, oh no, don't worryabout it, I'm going to get
something else.
I mean, I got another plan.
And he goes you aren't going tobring it over to you.
I'm like, oh no, don't worryabout it, I'm going to get
something else, I'm going to getanother plan.
And he goes you aren't going torob me of my blessing.
Listen, dude shows up at myhouse with this air pump and I'm
like I appreciate it, but Imean, there's a screwdriver
(36:29):
sticking out of the sidewall.
That ain't going to help me atthis point, right.
But he knew, and he, that hewas giving of his own, free will
, joyfully, willingly, happily,because he knew that he was
going to bless somebody else.
Amen.
And I'm sure Ray was blessedbecause of that.
How he was blessed, I don'tknow, that's between him and God
(36:51):
, but I can assure you that hewould have been blessed.
Since that happened, our livesoverflow with purpose, not just
possessions, right.
If you're always worried aboutwhat are you going to buy next,
you've missed the point.
You're worried aboutpossessions, you're worried
about things, you're worriedabout the tangible, you're not
(37:12):
worried about the purpose.
Giving is not about what Godwants from you.
It's about what God wants fromyou.
It's about what god wants foryou, for you, what does god want
to have happen in your life?
There are some of you prayingfor some pretty big things to
happen in your life today.
Amen.
I know I am, I know I am, but Iknow this too, if I don't
(37:35):
continue to believe what god hastold me and if I don't chase
after his own heart, thoseblessings may not come.
Those blessings may not come.
Both tithing and giving arevital parts of a vibrant faith,
of being a good steward of ourfinances.
Tithing is the floor, not theceiling.
(37:57):
That should be the bare minimum, not the maximum.
Giving is a heart posture, amen.
That's where we're testing yourheart.
It's not just a transaction outof your wallet.
This is you giving from yourheart.
Amen.
When we give, we reflect thenature of a generous God who
(38:19):
gave his very best to us, jesusChrist on the cross.
If that was only 10% of whatGod would do, lord have mercy.
We are blessed and highlyfavored.
Even in the valley, you areblessed and highly favored.
You know, listen, we've been.
(38:40):
The young adults have a Bibleplan that we're reading.
It's the Bible in 365 days, andI love it, even though
Stephanie gives me terrible crapabout not always being on top
of it.
But anyhow, she's like well,you don't have anything else to
do, I'm gonna fight her in theparking lot.
That's what I'm gonna do.
But we were in Job and you knowI don't think we give enough
(39:08):
time to the book of Job.
Now we get to the part wherehe's scraping off his boils with
an old piece of clay and we'relike that's gross right, and we
kind of stop there.
We don't get into the back andforth that he has in all of
those 452 speeches that he gives, but it's important to
understand that Job, even inthose valleys, is saying that my
(39:29):
God is still good.
I may be miserable in the flesh, but my spirit is still healthy
.
Because of who God says I am, Iwill not change because I'm in
a valley.
I will still give praise to God, amen.
Some of us are living in avalley today.
(39:50):
Some of us have been living ina valley for a long time.
Some of us don't understand whywe can't get out of the valley.
I'm going to ask you a simplequestion Are you tithing?
I know that sounds silly andpeople are like oh, you just
want my money.
Listen, I don't care about yourmoney.
But I'm telling you, my lifechanged when I started to tithe.
(40:13):
My life changed even more whenI started to give Amen.
Here's my challenge for youtoday.
Oh, I'm sorry, I have one morepassage of Scripture that I need
to read.
It's John 3.16, and I know thatnone of you know this one.
It says For this is how Godloved the world.
He gave his one and only Son,so that everyone who believes in
him will not perish but haveeternal life.
(40:34):
For God so loved the world.
Amen For God.
So loved the world.
Amen for God so loved the worldthat he gave his one and only
begotten son that whosoevershould believe in him should not
perish but have everlastinglife.
Thank you, jesus, foreverlasting life.
I'm going to tell you right nowI stand on the solid rock of
Jesus Christ.
I believe that Jesus is who hesays he is, that when he walked
(41:07):
the earth he did all of thethings that he needed to do.
Jamie, can you come back uphere with your envelopes for
just a second?
I believe that we serve a churchand the church serves the
congregation and our communitygreatly.
You know we talk about theEaster egg hunt.
It's one of our biggestcommunity outreaches.
I don't know that we've evergotten a physical person to show
up to church after an Easteregg hunt, but that's okay,
because we're sowing seeds thatwe may not ever see right.
It's not an investment, it'ssowing right Hallelujah.
That costs us about $5,000 plusevery year to do that.
(41:27):
It's a lot of money, but youguys come through every single
year and make it happen.
That is a blessing to ourcommunity, right?
We get to preach the gospel toall of those children.
We get to see all of thoseparents, and some of it is
reconnection for us.
There are some of those peoplewho have attended church here
before in the past and go otherplaces or are no longer church.
(41:47):
That is a time of reconnectionfor us so that we can tell them
that they are still loved.
But I believe that we serve thechurch wholly.
I believe that we serve thebody of Christ wholly, not just
the people in our house, but thepeople elsewhere.
Now, jamie, you saw that allthat money was fake, right?
But so here's the thing I wantto exchange it for you.
(42:08):
Can I have that back?
Will you give that back to me?
I've got something for you, butthis isn't just for you, it's
your entire family.
Okay?
Inside of this envelope is acheck for two months' worth of
rent.
This church last week knew thatyou guys needed a little bit of
(42:31):
extra help.
You know you just got a newbaby right and it's hard to
bring home a new baby and haveto worry about money and try to
figure out what you're going todo.
This church decided that wewere going to cover two months'
worth of rent for you guys, sothat is for you and your family.
We love you guys and we thankyou for your service to us.
Right, that is giving amen.
That is above and beyond.
(42:54):
Now I need to explain somethingto you.
We didn't just do this becausewe're like, oh, they had a baby.
Do you realize how much theyserve this body?
Sis is on hiatus from the techbooth and if you turn around and
look, she's standing in thetech booth.
I couldn't keep her away with astick if I wanted to, right,
and I appreciate that.
How many of you have evercalled Jamie to help you work on
a car?
Amen, right, and every time hedoes it willingly.
(43:17):
This man works third shift andhe still finds time to come and
support us.
Amen, I'm telling you that weare blessed and highly favored
because of people like this, andwe wanted you guys to be
blessed as well.
All right, thank you so much.
You can sit back down.
Guys, I need you to understandsomething.
This message wasn't justwritten because I wanted you
guys to understand about tithing.
(43:38):
It wasn't written so that wecould give them money.
The Bible tells us not to do itin a boastful way.
I needed you guys to see theimportance of the contribution
that you make to this ministry.
When I send out a call to saythat we need to bless a family,
you guys show up.
But now I've got a new call.
Are you ready?
I've got a new call.
It has been on my heart for along time.
(44:00):
Some of you know this, some ofyou do not.
Some of you buy this vision,some of you do not.
That's okay, I don't need youto.
I just need you to understandthat it is what God has called
in this house.
I wish Beth were here becauseI'd love to poke fun at her a
little bit.
I had this vision it's probablybeen Holly.
What three years ago At leastthree years ago For greater,
(44:28):
that something bigger washappening in this building.
At Easter we realized at 100people, this sanctuary is full.
There's no room to move.
I can't even pray for you guysbecause you hit the floor and
you're knocking kids out ofseats Right, because you hit the
floor and you're knocking kidsout of seats Right.
God called me to beginsomething that I knew was a
Goliath of a challenge.
It was huge.
(44:50):
He had told me that we weregoing to move out of this space.
We're not selling the building,everybody can take a deep
breath, but we are going to movefrom this space to the other
side of the building.
Now, as I said earlier, thetithes in this building are not
consistent.
They're always a littleupy-downy.
(45:11):
Told you guys, I'd get you.
I promised it was.
On the podcast last week therewas a whole bit about upy-downy
I was fixing a garage door.
I'm not going, I'd get you.
I promised it was on thepodcast last week there was a
whole bit about Uppy Downy I wasfixing a garage door.
I'm not going to get into it, Iknow, I know.
(45:34):
Here's what I know.
Was that what you were going topoint out earlier Was the Uppy
Downy?
Yeah, yeah, god has called us tobe greater.
God has called us to reachpeople that have never been
reached before.
I love this building.
We've been blessed to have it.
Some of you have been acrossthe other side of the building
(45:57):
and you've noticed that there'sfresh paint, that the stage
looks different.
All of those things are goingto come to pass in a season, but
here's the problem.
The money's just not there.
Our church has never been flushwith cash.
When my wife and I took overthis ministry, there was $3,000
in the checking account.
I think today we've got about$20,000.
(46:20):
It's not a lot of money itsounds like a lot, but one
offering under $1,000, wehonestly can't operate the
building.
There's not enough moneyflowing through the building.
And so today I want to challengeyou with something I want to
say.
If you have never tithed, Iwant you to take a step of faith
(46:40):
and start tithing, amen.
If you have never done it, Iwant you to take a step of faith
and I want you to start tithing.
And if you're tithing already,I want you to ask God what and
where are you asking me to giveabove and beyond?
Can you pull up my slide for mereal quick, please?
This is a big ask, guys.
(47:04):
We are going to start a capitalcampaign for the building.
Our goal is to raise $10,000.
$10,000 will finish the otherside of the building for us.
But I want to tell yousomething Council has agreed to
match, dollar for dollar,whatever our congregation can
raise, meaning we have money setaside for different things that
(47:26):
happen in ministry, if thischurch can raise ten thousand
dollars, they will, out of thegeneral fund, give us another
ten thousand and we will havetwenty thousand dollars to make
repairs to this building.
Twenty thousand dollars.
We don't need twenty thousanddollars, but we do need a new
air conditioner on the otherside of the building.
Again, it's not quite brokenyet, but we're going to get
there.
We know that we need a bufferfor what God is doing in this
(47:46):
place.
We are putting pressure on thisbuilding every day.
We are literally bursting it atthe seams.
I can't tell you how many timesI've been electrocuted by light
switches that aren't groundedproperly I'm not joking that
aren't grounded properly.
I'm not joking.
This building is in disrepair.
It was built in the 1980s.
It was added on in the 1990s.
This building has not seengreat repair for a very long
(48:07):
time and I'm telling you that ifwe don't do this at some point
we're going to find ourselveswithout, and I know you guys
don't wanna be that way, amen.
Now I did some quick napkin math, roger.
(48:27):
How many adults are in thisroom right now?
61.
I did my math at 60,.
I was guessing.
If 60 adults in this room wouldgive $200, we could raise
$20,000.
Now, $200 might sound like alot of money.
Right, break that down over thenext six months.
How much money do you need togive every month for the next
six months?
It's nothing.
It's less than Connie's coffees.
It is, I promise you it is.
(48:49):
Let's do the math.
Let's just do it real quick.
I brought my phone with mebecause I think you guys need to
understand the importance ofwhat it is that God is going to
do in this place.
So we said $200.
It's $33 a month.
Listen, it's like I'm givingyou a sales pitch.
(49:11):
For only $10 a day, for only$10 a day, right?
$33 a month?
$33 a month.
$33 a month.
If every adult in this buildinggives $33 a month over the next
six months, we can put $20,000into this building.
Do you realize what $20,000 cando for a building like this?
(49:33):
We don't need a new roof yet,thank you Jesus, but when we do,
it's going to be a lot morethan $20,000.
And I don't know about you, butI ain't got the money to write
that check.
Amen.
Anybody want to pay for the newroof when it comes time?
I didn't think, so I'm callingyou to action today that money
(49:54):
that you're going to get fromthose people who took it.
I want you to pray over it,lord.
What is it that you would haveus do, lord?
I need you to open my eyes totithing Lord.
I need you to open my eyes togiving Lord.
I need you to show me, help me,lead me, guide me, direct me,
(50:14):
father, god, amen.
Did you hear what I said?
60 adults, $200.
I'll give my $200 right now.
I don't have a problem doing itbecause I know that what I'm
doing is serving the kingdom.
It's not about this building.
It's not about moving asanctuary, it's not about any of
those things.
It's about being positioned togrow when God says move, it is
(50:36):
being about.
It's about being positioned tomove.
When God says move, I'm readyto move.
Amen, my heart is on fire forwhat comes next in this house,
for what comes next in ourcommunity.
Listen, we had that beautifulmother-daughter brunch.
I leaned into Holly and I saidwouldn't this be nicer if it had
carpet in it?
And she said it's coming, it'scoming.
We're believing that together.
(50:57):
Now, listen, I'm going to tellyou.
I know there's some of you thatwas praying against that plan.
That's fine, pray against it,whatever.
God's bigger than you, and Iknow it, and I know it.
And when God gives me a visionit's not just something I go.
Oh yeah, let's do that.
I go back to Holly and Rogerfor confirmation.
Listen, I want to.
Just I'm going to let you guysgo.
I promise One more thing.
(51:18):
One time I was telling Bethabout it and Beth said to me
she's like that's stupid, that'scrazy, it's never going to work
.
Like well, what are you goingto do with?
What are you going to do with?
I said, listen, god's given itto us Slowly but surely.
And one day she walked in thereafter some work had been done
and she goes I see it.
Sometimes you have to see it toget it.
(51:39):
I'll show it to you.
You tell me when.
I'll walk you through thatwhole side of the building as I
pray.
Listen, I prayed over every oneof these chairs this morning.
I hope your butts are nice andanointed today Because let me
tell you, I believe that youguys have to hear and see what
God is doing in this place inorder for you to be able to be
activated, is doing in thisplace in order for you to be
(52:03):
able to be activated, amen.
Yeah, you know what.
We almost did it for EasterSunday because we'd already set
up the chairs for the Easter egghunt, and I said I don't think
I'm ready for that stress justyet.
Here's the problem we don'thave any sound equipment over
there.
If we did that, we would haveto take one whole week where we
move this entire sanctuary tothat side of the building.
It would be a huge undertaking,even if it's just setting up
the other chairs, but all of thesound equipment, all of that
(52:25):
would have to move.
It is a huge undertaking.
Listen, I love you guys so much,but I need you to understand
that God's will comes in time.
It comes in time and I know, Iknow, I know I know over the
next six months we're gonnaraise more than enough money to
do this.
I believe, I genuinely believe,that there will be an abundance
(52:46):
of money flowing through thatproject.
Listen, if you wanna give tothat specifically, you grab an
envelope and you just writeoffering or, I'm sorry, building
on that envelope and you dropit in there, all right, we will
keep track.
Building on that envelope andyou drop it in there, all right,
we will keep track.
And on that slide, this will beon the announcements every week
.
Every week, you'll have anupdate on what we raised for
(53:07):
that.
I will tell you that there wasa family in our church who
donated $5,000.
Now that money is being setaside by council in order to be
able to double whatever it isthat we raise.
Okay, so we already have agreat start to this project.
But I'm telling you God is doingsomething good, he's doing
(53:32):
something big, and it'ssomething I don't even begin to
understand.
I don't know how he's calledsomebody like me to lead a group
of people as wonderful as you.
I don't.
I can't figure it out, becausesometimes I look at you and I'm
like what is wrong with allthese people?
And then I look at myself andI'm like is there something
wrong with me?
That's what it is right.
I know that God has called eachand every one of you here for
this season.
Each and every one of us aregoing to build the kingdom
(53:54):
together, amen.
I thank you guys for justcontinuing to believe in that.
I want to do communion realquick.
Yeah, here, hold on, come uphere.
You have to come up here.
No, you have to come up here.
Come on.
No, that's okay.
Check one, two, testing one,two.
(54:14):
Does it work?
You don't look a day over 21.
Thank you, amen, amen, amen,amen, amen, amen.
(55:46):
Just another thing that Don hadshared with me.
You know she started, she tookfinancial peace university not
because she needed to get out ofdebt, but more because she
needed to understand.
She wanted to be able to teachher grandchildren and her
children what it meant to saveand to invest and all of those
things.
And she told me that, you know,she was able to put money into
her savings account and then,all of a sudden, that money just
wouldn't stop growing and shewas like Pastor Michael, I need
(56:07):
to give something to the churchbecause God just keeps giving it
back to me.
Let me tell you something youcannot outgive God.
You can't do it.
It's impossible.
It is completely impossible.
you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank
you Jesus, thank you Jesus,thank you Jesus.
Father, right now, I pray thatthe hearts of the people sitting
(00:23):
in this room are softened, thattheir ears are opened and
prepared to hear.
Lord, I know that the word thatyou have set upon my heart is a
word for today and, lord, Ithank you for that.
But, lord, know that I am goingbecause you have already gone
before me.
Lord, I trust that the wordsthat will be spoken today will
(00:46):
be directly from you and not ofme.
Father, god and Lord, I thankyou for the anointing that's
going to rest, for the movethat's going to happen on the
hearts of those who are sittingin this room.
Father, I thank you and Ipraise you for just how
wonderful you are.
Praise you for just howwonderful you are.
(01:08):
Lord, we come not seeking yourhand today, but to seek your
face, that we might findourselves in fellowship with you
in the most genuine way,because, lord, that is what we
are truly after.
Father, I thank you for theclassroom workers and for the
(01:28):
students.
Lord, I pray that you move justa mighty, mighty way inside of
those classrooms today.
Lord, I thank you and I praiseyou, I give you all the honor
and glory in the mighty name ofJesus, and the church says Amen,
Amen, amen, amen, name of Jesus, and the church says amen, amen
(01:52):
, amen.
I'm going to walk you throughthe lights real quick.
Is the center button lit up?
Okay, hit the blackout buttonfor me.
Hey, we got lights.
Did you hit the record buttonon the podcast thing?
So we're good.
Did you hit the record buttonon the podcast thing, so we're
good?
I know half the congregationjust left.
Hey, roger, real quick, onceall those kids are kicked out, I
(02:13):
need you to do a real quickcount for me on the number of
adults that are in the room.
Just adults, okay, so don'tcount.
Courtney, sorry, I didn'trealize she was still in the
room, courtney.
Courtney, sorry, I didn'trealize she was still in the
room.
Well, I know, I know.
(02:33):
Listen, you've got plenty oftime.
I'm not going to need it rightaway.
This is one of those Sundaymornings that just about any
pastor well, I shouldn't saythat many pastors dread this
Sunday morning, and here's thereason, because at some point
(02:59):
you have to give a message thatyou know you don't want to give
because it makes peopleuncomfortable.
I know that I am called tooffend not to offend the flesh,
but to convict the spirit.
And I'm here this morning and Iam hoping and when I said that
I'm believing that God is goingto go before me this morning, I
genuinely believe that.
So much so I got here at 6.30this morning to pray over each
(03:22):
and every one of these chairs.
To pray over each and every oneof these chairs, because I
believe that the people sittingin those chairs are going to
need to be on the same page withme this morning.
I'm going to need you to be inagreement with me this morning.
Now here's the thing.
Some of you may be visiting forthe first time, or maybe you've
only been here a couple oftimes.
I want to tell you something.
I'm not talking to you thismorning.
Now you can hear the messageand it is for you, but if you
(03:46):
have a storehouse that you go toregularly, this message I'm
speaking it on their behalftoday.
Okay, thank you, jesus.
We're all in agreement.
Can we shut that back door,pretty, please.
I don't know why that'sdistracting to me, but it is.
Today is the dreaded tithingmessage Right Like?
(04:09):
It makes people uncomfortable,but you guys need to understand
it and the importance in it.
Amen, okay, see, praying overyour chair has worked.
Everybody's in agreement thatwe need to understand the
importance of tithing, right,okay?
So then, I need you to justbear with me this morning as I
deliver this message, because Ipromise you this is not from me,
this is from God.
(04:30):
I'm kind of thankful my wifeleft.
The reason I am is becausesometimes, when her and I talk
about these things, I lose abunch of money because she just
gives it away and I always think, can you imagine what we could
have done with that money?
And she says, yeah, but can youimagine what God can do with
that money?
I don't like that logic, right?
(04:53):
It's hard to compete with God.
He's omnipresent, he knows yourneeds before.
I don't like that.
Amen.
Can we agree on that?
That it's hard to trust Godwith our finances?
Only some of us are okay withthat.
Hey, listen, if you areconfident, trusting God with
your finances is good for you.
I sometimes wonder what wouldbe different if I didn't give
(05:17):
the way that I did, if I didn'ttithe the way that I did.
But I want to do something realquick.
Hey, look, I went to the bankthis morning, got a little bit
of money.
Anybody want some?
Dylan, how much you want?
(05:38):
Buddy, how much does it fixyour car?
$1,000, enough, $1,000, enough.
Come here.
Oh, I am joking right now, butyou're going to come here anyway
, because here's what I'm goingto do.
(05:58):
I'm going to give you $10, $100bills.
Now, these are fake, but I'mgoing to give them to you and I
need you to hold on to it for mefor just a minute.
Okay, because then I'm going tohave you do something with it
in a minute.
Anybody else need some moneytoday?
Okay, how much do you need?
All right, you want $500?
(06:22):
.
Hopefully that will be enoughto get him through the rest of
the course.
There's $500?
.
There's $500 for you?
Okay, you hold on to that.
You're just going to keep that.
I know it looks real, don't?
If you guys go and spend that,I want you to know it says copy
on there.
It is fake.
All right, you try to spendthat.
That's on you.
Anybody else need money today?
No, you can go back to yourseat.
How much you need?
$3,600.
(06:53):
I'm not going to have enough togive it to you in $100 bills.
So how about I just give you abig old stack of money.
I don't even know how much isthere.
How much do you need?
I'm not going to be able togive that to you, so here I'll
just give you that.
What do you need?
$500 for.
You don't even pay bills.
She's going to Florida.
She needs spending money.
(07:15):
Jenny, I'm going to just giveyou the rest of this.
All right, I need you guys tojust hold on to that money for
me for just a second.
Okay, now, I just gave awaythat whole stack of money.
It's not real, but I just gaveaway that whole stack of money
freely.
That was easy to do because itwasn't real money, right, it's
(07:35):
pretty easy to do when itdoesn't mean anything.
Jamie, I need you to come uphere for a second.
I need you to help me withsomething.
Yeah, yes, right now.
Yeah, yes, right now.
So, as Jamie's coming up here,he must work for the government
(07:56):
because he comes at his own pace.
We know that money can be asensitive subject, but not
because money can be a sensitivesubject, but not because God
needs our money, but because ourmoney reveals our hearts, right
?
So money is not sensitive totalk about our finances with
people, because it's our money.
But when we talk about money,it reveals our hearts.
And when we start to reveal ourhearts to people, it gets real
(08:19):
very quickly, doesn't it?
Matthew 6, 21 says I've got ithere.
Wherever your treasure is,there the desires of your heart
will be also.
What does that mean?
That's where your heart isgoing to be.
(08:43):
Wherever your treasure is, thatis where your heart is.
If all of your money is tied upin your car, I can probably
guess that you love your car.
Is that a fair statement?
Courtney's not in here, but allof your money is tied up in
chickens.
I can assume you love chickens.
Amen, I can assume you lovechickens.
(09:03):
Amen.
If your money is tied up inworldly things, then we know
that you love worldly thingsAmen.
But when your money is tied upin the kingdom, then we know
that you love Jesus.
Now, I'm not saying that if youdon't give to the church or if
(09:25):
you don't give to a ministry,that you don't love Jesus.
I'm saying that if we followthe money trail, we know where
our hearts are at Amen.
Jamie, I've got an envelope with$10.
I want to give it to you, but Ineed you to give me back $1.
Are you willing to do that?
I'll let you keep the othernine, but I want one back.
You'll do that for me.
(09:54):
Okay, do that for me.
Just give me $1 back.
That's a $1 bill.
Yes, that's correct.
Yes, I want it back.
Now, why do I want this $1 back?
It's 10%.
Was it hard to give me that $1back?
Because you're walking awaywith $9, right?
No, no, no, no, no, no, I'mgood.
I'm good with that $1.
But see, I actually haveanother $50 that I want to give
you.
But when I give you this $50,I'm going to need $5 back.
(10:19):
Are you willing to do that?
I appreciate that, but I wantto give it to you.
See how easy this is.
This is such an easy game,isn't it?
How about 500?
If I give you 500, okay, well,I'm going to give it to you, and
(10:40):
then I want you to give me $50back.
I think you can handle that,right, he's already got the idea
.
You do 10%.
Look at that $50 bill.
How easy was that?
I got one last one for you.
It's $1,000.
Will you give me $100 of thisback?
I'll give you the enveloperegardless.
I'm not going to make you giveme $100 back, but if I give it
(11:11):
to you, will you give me $100 inthe back?
Okay, how easy was it for you tohand me that money this morning
?
Because it was free money,right?
That money was not really yoursto begin with.
I gifted it to you, right, andso it was easy to turn around
and give me a small portion ofit back because it was found
(11:32):
money.
Can we understand that?
Tithing is the exact same way?
Every dollar, thank you, youcan sit down for a minute.
Every dollar.
Was he trying to get my moneyback?
Was he Every dollar that youearn?
(11:53):
And I know that you might goout and work for it, but you're
earning that money because ofwhat God has given you, and the
word asks us to give him a tie,which simply means a tenth, one
tenth of whatever you earn.
He wants it in return.
(12:13):
It's not because he needs yourmoney.
I'm going to tell a story andI'll try not to get emotional
for those of you who weren'there during this period, and
I'll try not to get emotionalfor those of you who weren't
here during this period.
First of all, I didn't sign upto pastor a church through COVID
.
Is that fair?
(12:33):
When I signed up to pastor.
I signed up to pastor athriving church.
Was it my second year?
I mean my first year.
It started, but by the time wewere in our full-blown second
year, we weren't even allowed tomeet in the building.
You guys were watching my binLaden terrorist videos while I
stood up here on a stage with ablank wall trying to figure out
how to live stream and how to doall of these things so that you
(12:54):
might be able to get the wordin your own home.
It was awful and let me tellyou, if you thought it was bad
to watch, you should have beenhere preaching it.
It was miserable.
Roger would sit there in theback with his mask on.
Pastor Holly might be here withher mask on, and we're trying
to and we're like why can yousee up his nose Right?
They were terrible and we hadnever live streamed before.
(13:15):
But we knew that if we didn'tdo something, the church
wouldn't survive.
I don't mean this building, Imean the body of Christ.
Because they were.
I'm not saying they were tryingto, but we would have been
separated for so long that wewould not have been able to be a
unified body any longer.
And it was hard and it wasscary, and yet I did it.
And when we got through the endof that season, my wife and I
(13:39):
were sitting at home and we wererunning the church finances and
we realized there was no way wecould pay the electric bill
that month.
We are fortunate not to have amortgage on this building.
This building is paid for.
The ministries that came andhave gone before us took care of
all of those things.
Do you know how much it coststo operate this building, not
including paying any people, butjust to run the building Gas,
(14:00):
water, electric insurance it's$4,000 a month.
You know how much our electricbill is alone $750 a month to
operate this building.
And so there is an expense thatgoes with having ministry in a
(14:21):
building.
Can we turn the air on, please,lord Jesus?
Yeah, yeah, give me some ofthem $100 bills back.
What I know is that God saw usthrough that.
I remember the Sunday morningthat I had to tell you guys that
(14:42):
we were going to lose thisbuilding.
We cried in the prayer room howhard it would be to walk away
from this.
Now I'll tell you.
At the time I was like, hey,you know what I just got through
a year of absolute torture.
If we lose the church, we losethe church.
Because my spirit was tired atthat point, we walked into that
(15:03):
prayer room and I said you know,this is just the way that it is
.
It's where we are.
We came out of that prayer roomon fire.
We hit this sanctuary yellingand screaming and we were
believing that God was gonna dosomething great and somehow, in
three months, we raised $25,000.
Praise God, praise God.
We put together fundraisers andwe did all of these things in
(15:27):
order to save this building Amen.
Now can I tell you that thatmoney doesn't last very long,
because I don't know for any ofyou who have ever counted tithes
and offerings at this church,it's never consistent.
On Easter Sunday, we had ahundred people in this building,
a hundred people.
On Easter Sunday, our tithe wasunder $1,000.
(15:48):
There are Sundays we can comein here with 40 people and have
$4,000 or $5,000.
Figure that out.
What that tells me is we arenot consistent.
What that tells me is that wedon't understand the importance.
I will tell you there are someof you sitting in this room who,
when you are unemployed, youare tithing.
(16:09):
There are some of you sittingin this room when you've got
nothing left in the refrigerator.
You're still giving.
You are still tithing becauseyou know that you cannot outgive
God.
But there are some of ussitting on our hands saying I'm
too afraid to give up what Ithink is mine, and I need to
tell you it was never yours tobegin with.
(16:32):
It was never yours to beginwith.
God gave it to you so that youmight bless others, pay your
bills, make sure you got gas inyour car, but you need to be
blessing other people, amen.
The word tithing simply meansone-tenth.
(16:56):
Tithing is giving 10% ofwhatever you earn back to God,
not because he needs it, butbecause it acknowledges that
everything we have comes fromhim.
Amen.
My health comes from him, mygood looks come from him.
(17:19):
Okay, getting deep in here,folks, getting deep in here,
lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy, malachi,3.10,.
Bring all the tithes into thestorehouse so there will be
enough food in my temple.
If you do, says the Lord ofheaven's armies, I will open the
(17:41):
windows of heaven for you.
I will pour out a blessing sogreat you won't have enough room
to take it in.
Try it, put me to the test.
The only time God says try it.
Test me.
Listen, he is a mighty, mightyGod and there are a lot of
things I will not test.
I am willing to test hisblessings all day, every day, if
(18:04):
he tells me that he will openthe windows of heaven have got
to be opulent, they have got tobe huge.
I can imagine wheelbarrows fullof money just pouring out of
there.
Good health, prosperity, favorin the workplace, all of those
things just being poured outupon me and I thank you, lord,
for that favor.
I thank you, lord, for thatfavor.
(18:27):
I don't want favor with you, Idon't want favor in the flesh, I
want favor in the heavenlies.
Amen.
And I am willing to do whateverit takes to get that.
If that means cutting off myarm to save the rest of my body,
I am willing to do it.
I am willing to lose 10% sothat God can continue to bless
me, amen.
(18:48):
Tithing is a test, amen.
It is our.
It is a test of our trust andwho God is and what he says he's
going to do.
If God tells you he's going toopen the windows of heaven and
pour out a blessing, don't youwant to find out?
I want to find out.
I want God to look at me and gooh, you're really going to do
that, huh.
And I'm going to say, yes, I am, because I know you're going to
(19:11):
do better.
I will continue to test thatmindset as long as I can.
Now here's the thing.
Sometimes I test it and I getdisappointed.
Is that fair to say?
Sometimes God says give and Igive, and I don't feel like what
I expected to see happenhappened.
I hear it.
(19:35):
He says stop what you're doing,write a check.
I write a check.
I hand the check off.
Six months later I haven't.
God, why did you have me dothat?
What was the?
What was the point?
And then one day you wake upand everybody in your house is
(19:55):
sick.
You think you're gonna loseeverything because you've lost
your job, whatever might happen.
And then God, god says nottoday.
And all of a sudden everybody'sstarting to feel better, real
fast.
How many of you guys have beensick this year?
Not my house.
I am blessed and highly favored,and I'm claiming that because
(20:19):
that's what I want in my liferight Now.
I'm not saying that I amblessed and highly favored
because I give above and beyond.
I'm saying I am blessed andhighly favored because I believe
it Now.
I'm not saying if you got sickyou ain't blessed and highly
favored.
I want to be clear.
I want to be clear but I won'tproclaim that sickness in my
life because I want God to dosomething great with whatever
little I have right, and if myhealth is all I've got today,
(20:46):
then I am going to be blessed init.
Amen.
My home I want my home to beblessed beyond compare.
I want my children to beblessed beyond anybody else's
children.
Listen, I know we all love ourchildren dearly and some of us
have some real snots of kids,right.
Hallelujah, thank you, jesus.
But let me tell you that Istill want my children to be
blessed and highly favored.
The only way to do that is tospeak it, to test God by saying
(21:11):
I am going to believe you forgreater than what I've given you
, because I know that you canand I know that you will Amen
than what I've given you,because I know that you can and
I know that you will Amen.
Tithing is not about losing 10%.
It's about honoring God withthe first 10%, not just off the
bottom, not what's left over.
Right Off the top, off the top.
(21:36):
How many of you guys keep abudget.
How many of us on the top lineof that budget says giving, says
tithe.
Listen, we don't even see ours.
Because we know that thatbelongs to God.
At the first of every year, wegive above and beyond because we
know that it is the first fruitof this year and, lord, I want
(21:59):
you to have more than anything Ihave ever asked for.
I want to continue to pour intoyour house.
Listen, we don't always justgive to this house.
Every year, my family and I'mnot bragging.
I want to be very clear.
I am not trying to brag on whatmy family and I do.
I just want you to understandthat sometimes we look at things
a little bit differently.
I'm also going to tell yousomething that's going to get me
(22:20):
in trouble, probably in a week,but that's okay, I don't mind.
Every year at Thanksgiving, mywife and I find a family in need
and we donate in an entireThanksgiving dinner.
Do you know what that costs us?
Less than $100.
But there is a family thatwould not be able to have a
thanksgiving dinner if itweren't for us being willing to
(22:41):
do that.
How many of us are willingenough to to step out in faith
and go out into the world andlook for somebody who is hurting
or in need and help to liftthem up.
Not many of us.
We want to help in the house,right, because we know you, it's
easy.
All of those things that's notwhat god has called us to do.
We are to love the unlovely andto help those who cannot help
(23:02):
themselves.
I am so excited about what Godis doing here because I'll tell
you, you know, there are someSunday mornings I wake up and
I'm like God, I know you'regonna be there, I know you're
gonna be big.
And then he shows up, biggerand better than I thought he was
going to, and I always trustthat there's a reason for that
and I think that he has led usto this moment for a reason.
(23:25):
But now, see, I need to talk toyou about something else,
because sometimes we get wrappedup in tithing and we think that
tithing buys us favor, amen.
So when I give 10% to thechurch, I have an opinion.
No, you don't.
(23:46):
God does.
That's the only thing thatmatters in this house.
When he casts a vision, when hesends a vision, whether it's to
Pastor Roger, pastor Holly ormyself when he sends that vision
, we move forward with thatvision.
We look for confirmation and wemove forward.
We don't sit around and waitfor everybody to be in agreement
with us.
We pray that everybody sees thevision that God has.
(24:08):
Amen.
We treat our tithe like aninvestment.
We expect a return, right?
How many of us expect?
How many of you guys dabble inthe stock market, marcus?
I know he does Not anymore, hedoesn't.
We, some of us, dabble in thestock.
(24:28):
You ain't looking at yourstocks right now, are you?
No, because that make you throwup.
Right, so did mine.
But I'm still lower thananything I put in there right
now and it doesn't feel goodbecause right now it's not so
little on the iffy side.
But let me tell you somethingwhen I invest in the kingdom,
I'm not looking for a return onthat investment because I'm not
(24:51):
investing.
Do you know what I'm doing?
Pastor Holly knows what I'mdoing.
Pastor Holly knows what I'mdoing.
I'm sowing.
I'm sowing seeds that I maynever reap the harvest from when
you give 10%, every Sundaymorning you drop your 10% in the
offer.
You don't come to me and ask mewhat that money went to pay, do
you?
Do you know why you don't askme that?
(25:12):
Because that's sowing.
You don't always see theharvest.
But some of us take our moneyand we put it in the plate and
we say that's an investment,because the money that went in
here this one's a little light.
Anybody got some cash.
None of that fake money either.
Sometimes when we put money inthere, we expect God to bless
(25:32):
our finances because we havegiven financially.
It doesn't always work likethat.
This is not an investment thatyou get back 10% just because
you put in 10%.
Now, sometimes you do.
Sometimes God blesses youabundantly.
I'll tell you.
You know, when God sent us on amission to buy a house the first
time, my wife and I had a plan.
We wanted four bedrooms, atleast two bathrooms, a garage.
(25:57):
We wanted all of these things.
We had a list.
We walked into that house inDover and we went.
This is the one, and this thinghadn't been updated since the
1970s.
It had green carpet.
It had mint green walls, it hadpeach walls.
It had these I'm not going tosay they were ugly, but they
were really ugly curtainshanging all through the house
that were floral print, right, Idon't know how didn't have a
(26:19):
garage.
It had one tiny little closetof a bathroom right.
And God said this is the one.
And we said we agree, we boughtthe house.
I don't know what we werethinking.
Covid hit, house pricesskyrocketed.
We sold that house and had ahundred thousand dollars in
equity.
It was the only reason we wereable to buy the house we live in
now house and had $100,000 inequity.
(26:39):
It was the only reason we wereable to buy the house we live in
now.
But that was because webelieved what God was calling us
to do in that moment.
Right, I stopped trusting myown decision-making when we
started to seek his face in thedecisions that we were about to
make in our lives.
That was a financial blessinglike I had never seen before.
When that money came, I was like, is this for real?
Like did they make a mistake?
(27:00):
I called the real estate agent.
I'm like are you sure he's likedude?
Yes, I'm positive, stop callingme.
And he blocked my number.
I knew that God was up tosomething when we bought that
house.
We just didn't know what it was.
I kept telling Alyssa I wasgoing to die in that house, we
were going to live there forever.
I was never moving again.
And then God said, yes, you are, and he lit this fire that I
(27:22):
could not contain.
How many of us see God's handwork like that?
But we can't admit that it'sGod working like that.
We want to go.
Oh well, that was just good luck.
I'm going to tell you I havenever had good luck a day in my
life.
Never had good luck a day in mylife.
Mel, mel, I don't know.
(27:42):
We won't call it luck.
She is blessed and highlyfavored, but that woman wins
every drawing she puts her nameinto.
I haven't figured that one outyet.
It's true, she is blessed andhighly favored.
You can call that luck if youwant to, but I'm not willing to
do so right Now.
Here's the thing.
So, everybody that got stacksof money today, everybody that
(28:03):
borrowed money, here's what Iwant you to do.
I want you to use that todaybefore everybody leaves, and I
want you to bless other peoplein this congregation.
Okay, it's not yours to keep,sorry.
What I want you to do is I wantevery person in this room,
before they leave here today, tobe able to walk out of here
with some amount of money.
(28:24):
You give them, whatever youfeel led to give them, but I
want you guys to keep that moneyand I want you to pray over it
and I want you to say, lord,show me what I'm missing in your
word.
Lord, this is an item ofactivation.
I don't care if you stick it inyour mirror at home or tape it.
Don't spend it.
You will go to prison.
(28:45):
Do not spend it and I'm sayingit on the podcast, I'm not
liable for this.
All right, yeah, exactly.
You guys are going to betelling everybody.
Our pastor gave it to us.
I want you to pray over thatbecause I need you to understand
how important it is to beblessed and highly favored, but
(29:08):
to be able to bless those aroundyou.
Amen To bless.
Because there are some peoplesitting in this room too proud
to ask for money, too proud toask for help, but they're
sitting there thinking, man, Iwish I would have taken some of
that man, I wish I would havetaken some of that.
How many of you guys play thelottery?
Some of us.
Terrible investment.
You bet on the horse yesterday,on the yeah, you lost, didn't
(29:31):
you?
What were your odds?
Five to one.
Not terrible, but terrible.
She walked away with nothing.
Right, he walked away withnothing.
But can I tell you something.
Five to one odds in the kingdomare pretty darn good, because
I'm telling you that God isgoing to do something great.
All right, now I'm done withtithing.
(29:51):
I need to talk about somethingelse.
Are you guys okay with that?
We need to talk about giving.
Some of you are wonderfulgivers but you're terrible
tithers.
Is that fair, right?
That's the kind of person thatwalks up and puts $10 in the
offering plate, but they made$3,000 this week.
(30:13):
We don't want to admit that, dowe Not?
Many of us want to admit tothat.
That is giving.
That is not tithing.
There is a difference.
Giving is anything beyond that10% right?
So if you drop less than 10% inthat offering plate but you put
less than 10% in there, you'relike well, but I'm a giver, I'm
not a tither, I'm a giver.
(30:35):
Listen, you're living outside ofthe will of God.
Is what you're doing right?
Living outside of the will ofGod is what you're doing right,
because God calls you to give10% first.
Everything else you give isabove and beyond.
It is a free will giftmotivated by love, compassion
(30:56):
and generosity.
Generosity is a big word.
I probably couldn't even spellthat generosity.
How many of us considerourselves to be generous people.
I give of my time, I give ofall of these things.
But when I see that homelessman standing on the side of the
street, I say if I give himmoney he's just going to go buy
booze.
Right, there's a song that sayswhat if Jesus came back like
(31:20):
that?
What if he was takingattendance by the number of
people that gave him a dollar?
If you gave him a dollar, youinherit the kingdom of heaven.
If you give him nothing, youreceive nothing.
That can't be your 10%, butthat can be above and beyond.
That is what we consider giving.
(31:41):
2 Corinthians, 9, 6, and 7.
Remember this a farmer whoplants only a few seeds will get
a small crop, but the one whoplants generously will get a
generous crop.
You must each decide in yourheart how much to give, and
(32:01):
don't give reluctantly or inresponse to pressure, for God
loves a person who givescheerfully, cheerfully.
Giving is voluntary, it isjoyful, it is an overflowing
heart, amen.
But tithing is joyful.
It is an overflowing heart.
Amen.
But tithing is obedience.
(32:23):
Giving is an act of worshipfullove, amen.
I hear everybody's checkbooksrustling right now.
I'm kidding, everybody's justchomping at the bit to just give
above and beyond.
Some of you, hopefully, aresitting there going.
I didn't give 10% this morning,lord.
(32:45):
I need to change what I'm doing, because here's what we want to
break down.
Tithing is returning 10% to God.
Giving is anything above andbeyond.
Obedience and trust is whatcomes out of tithing.
Love, generosity and compassionare part of giving.
Malachi 3, leviticus 27 tell usexactly what we need to
understand about tithing.
(33:06):
And then, when we talk aboutgiving, it is encouraged through
the entire New Testament, theentire New Testament.
Tithing is faithfulresponsibility and giving is
cheerful spirit led generosity.
Tithing is the foundation.
Amen, tithing is the foundation.
(33:33):
I don't know.
I don't know if it's just myheart attitude, if it's just my
heart posture to be able to beso willing to give because we
have been blessed so abundantly.
Listen, there were times whenmy wife and I and even before my
wife and I got married, when Iwas in previous relationships,
you know, I was writing on apack of ramen what day of the
(33:55):
week I was allowed to eat itbecause I didn't have enough
money to buy groceries.
Right, I was too young to know.
I was too stupid to understand,if we're being honest with each
other, what it meant to budgetyour money.
You know, I live in a $600 amonth apartment, but I only make
$1,000 a month, can't afford acar payment.
Put gas in the car or buygroceries right, we've been
there.
Buy groceries, right, We'vebeen there.
(34:19):
Some of us been there.
Some of us might still beliving in that that's a problem,
right.
But at the end of the day, wehave to understand that when we
give our 10% first, god willalways bless us.
My heart posture has alwaysbeen that if God will bless me,
then I will give him whatever heneeds in order to do so.
Some of us sit here in fear ofwhat we will go without.
(34:40):
I promise you you will gowithout nothing.
You will go without nothingBecause God will provide it.
God is not after your money, heis after your heart.
This church is not after yourmoney.
(35:00):
This church is after your heart, because Jesus Christ is the
foundation that we stand on.
If Jesus wants, you wants yourheart, that's what we want too.
But in order to get to yourheart, we have to operate a
building.
Is that fair?
We can agree to that.
If you guys want the air onright, you guys remember when
(35:22):
the air conditioner broke in thegym Cost us $5,000 to replace
that air conditioner.
Any of you that were over therewhen that air conditioner was
broken?
It was hot right, it wasmiserable.
It was muggy.
Nobody wanted to be over there.
What we did, was it the murdermystery or the crime solvers
night we did over there with NewYork Holy smokes.
(35:42):
That place smelled like a gym.
Everybody just over there justsweating.
It was like being in a sauna.
It was disgusting.
We want certain things and wewant the church to be
comfortable, but, man, we don'twant to give to the church so it
can be comfortable, can becomfortable.
(36:08):
Blessings follow those who aregenerous.
You can't outrun them, youcan't.
You know, ray Porter said to meone time I'd gotten a flat tire
and he called me and he said Igot an air pump, I'm going to
bring it over to you.
I'm like, oh no, don't worryabout it, I'm going to get
something else.
I mean, I got another plan.
And he goes you aren't going tobring it over to you.
I'm like, oh no, don't worryabout it, I'm going to get
something else, I'm going to getanother plan.
And he goes you aren't going torob me of my blessing.
Listen, dude shows up at myhouse with this air pump and I'm
like I appreciate it, but Imean, there's a screwdriver
(36:29):
sticking out of the sidewall.
That ain't going to help me atthis point, right.
But he knew, and he, that hewas giving of his own, free will
, joyfully, willingly, happily,because he knew that he was
going to bless somebody else.
Amen.
And I'm sure Ray was blessedbecause of that.
How he was blessed, I don'tknow, that's between him and God
(36:51):
, but I can assure you that hewould have been blessed.
Since that happened, our livesoverflow with purpose, not just
possessions, right.
If you're always worried aboutwhat are you going to buy next,
you've missed the point.
You're worried aboutpossessions, you're worried
about things, you're worriedabout the tangible, you're not
(37:12):
worried about the purpose.
Giving is not about what Godwants from you.
It's about what God wants fromyou.
It's about what god wants foryou, for you, what does god want
to have happen in your life?
There are some of you prayingfor some pretty big things to
happen in your life today.
Amen.
I know I am, I know I am, but Iknow this too, if I don't
(37:35):
continue to believe what god hastold me and if I don't chase
after his own heart, thoseblessings may not come.
Those blessings may not come.
Both tithing and giving arevital parts of a vibrant faith,
of being a good steward of ourfinances.
Tithing is the floor, not theceiling.
(37:57):
That should be the bare minimum, not the maximum.
Giving is a heart posture, amen.
That's where we're testing yourheart.
It's not just a transaction outof your wallet.
This is you giving from yourheart.
Amen.
When we give, we reflect thenature of a generous God who
(38:19):
gave his very best to us, jesusChrist on the cross.
If that was only 10% of whatGod would do, lord have mercy.
We are blessed and highlyfavored.
Even in the valley, you areblessed and highly favored.
You know, listen, we've been.
(38:40):
The young adults have a Bibleplan that we're reading.
It's the Bible in 365 days, andI love it, even though
Stephanie gives me terrible crapabout not always being on top
of it.
But anyhow, she's like well,you don't have anything else to
do, I'm gonna fight her in theparking lot.
That's what I'm gonna do.
But we were in Job and you knowI don't think we give enough
(39:08):
time to the book of Job.
Now we get to the part wherehe's scraping off his boils with
an old piece of clay and we'relike that's gross right, and we
kind of stop there.
We don't get into the back andforth that he has in all of
those 452 speeches that he gives, but it's important to
understand that Job, even inthose valleys, is saying that my
(39:29):
God is still good.
I may be miserable in the flesh, but my spirit is still healthy
.
Because of who God says I am, Iwill not change because I'm in
a valley.
I will still give praise to God, amen.
Some of us are living in avalley today.
(39:50):
Some of us have been living ina valley for a long time.
Some of us don't understand whywe can't get out of the valley.
I'm going to ask you a simplequestion Are you tithing?
I know that sounds silly andpeople are like oh, you just
want my money.
Listen, I don't care about yourmoney.
But I'm telling you, my lifechanged when I started to tithe.
(40:13):
My life changed even more whenI started to give Amen.
Here's my challenge for youtoday.
Oh, I'm sorry, I have one morepassage of Scripture that I need
to read.
It's John 3.16, and I know thatnone of you know this one.
It says For this is how Godloved the world.
He gave his one and only Son,so that everyone who believes in
him will not perish but haveeternal life.
(40:34):
For God so loved the world.
Amen For God.
So loved the world.
Amen for God so loved the worldthat he gave his one and only
begotten son that whosoevershould believe in him should not
perish but have everlastinglife.
Thank you, jesus, foreverlasting life.
I'm going to tell you right nowI stand on the solid rock of
Jesus Christ.
I believe that Jesus is who hesays he is, that when he walked
(41:07):
the earth he did all of thethings that he needed to do.
Jamie, can you come back uphere with your envelopes for
just a second?
I believe that we serve a churchand the church serves the
congregation and our communitygreatly.
You know we talk about theEaster egg hunt.
It's one of our biggestcommunity outreaches.
I don't know that we've evergotten a physical person to show
up to church after an Easteregg hunt, but that's okay,
because we're sowing seeds thatwe may not ever see right.
It's not an investment, it'ssowing right Hallelujah.
That costs us about $5,000 plusevery year to do that.
(41:27):
It's a lot of money, but youguys come through every single
year and make it happen.
That is a blessing to ourcommunity, right?
We get to preach the gospel toall of those children.
We get to see all of thoseparents, and some of it is
reconnection for us.
There are some of those peoplewho have attended church here
before in the past and go otherplaces or are no longer church.
(41:47):
That is a time of reconnectionfor us so that we can tell them
that they are still loved.
But I believe that we serve thechurch wholly.
I believe that we serve thebody of Christ wholly, not just
the people in our house, but thepeople elsewhere.
Now, jamie, you saw that allthat money was fake, right?
But so here's the thing I wantto exchange it for you.
(42:08):
Can I have that back?
Will you give that back to me?
I've got something for you, butthis isn't just for you, it's
your entire family.
Okay?
Inside of this envelope is acheck for two months' worth of
rent.
This church last week knew thatyou guys needed a little bit of
(42:31):
extra help.
You know you just got a newbaby right and it's hard to
bring home a new baby and haveto worry about money and try to
figure out what you're going todo.
This church decided that wewere going to cover two months'
worth of rent for you guys, sothat is for you and your family.
We love you guys and we thankyou for your service to us.
Right, that is giving amen.
That is above and beyond.
(42:54):
Now I need to explain somethingto you.
We didn't just do this becausewe're like, oh, they had a baby.
Do you realize how much theyserve this body?
Sis is on hiatus from the techbooth and if you turn around and
look, she's standing in thetech booth.
I couldn't keep her away with astick if I wanted to, right,
and I appreciate that.
How many of you have evercalled Jamie to help you work on
a car?
Amen, right, and every time hedoes it willingly.
(43:17):
This man works third shift andhe still finds time to come and
support us.
Amen, I'm telling you that weare blessed and highly favored
because of people like this, andwe wanted you guys to be
blessed as well.
All right, thank you so much.
You can sit back down.
Guys, I need you to understandsomething.
This message wasn't justwritten because I wanted you
guys to understand about tithing.
(43:38):
It wasn't written so that wecould give them money.
The Bible tells us not to do itin a boastful way.
I needed you guys to see theimportance of the contribution
that you make to this ministry.
When I send out a call to saythat we need to bless a family,
you guys show up.
But now I've got a new call.
Are you ready?
I've got a new call.
It has been on my heart for along time.
(44:00):
Some of you know this, some ofyou do not.
Some of you buy this vision,some of you do not.
That's okay, I don't need youto.
I just need you to understandthat it is what God has called
in this house.
I wish Beth were here becauseI'd love to poke fun at her a
little bit.
I had this vision it's probablybeen Holly.
What three years ago At leastthree years ago For greater,
(44:28):
that something bigger washappening in this building.
At Easter we realized at 100people, this sanctuary is full.
There's no room to move.
I can't even pray for you guysbecause you hit the floor and
you're knocking kids out ofseats Right, because you hit the
floor and you're knocking kidsout of seats Right.
God called me to beginsomething that I knew was a
Goliath of a challenge.
It was huge.
(44:50):
He had told me that we weregoing to move out of this space.
We're not selling the building,everybody can take a deep
breath, but we are going to movefrom this space to the other
side of the building.
Now, as I said earlier, thetithes in this building are not
consistent.
They're always a littleupy-downy.
(45:11):
Told you guys, I'd get you.
I promised it was.
On the podcast last week therewas a whole bit about upy-downy
I was fixing a garage door.
I'm not going, I'd get you.
I promised it was on thepodcast last week there was a
whole bit about Uppy Downy I wasfixing a garage door.
I'm not going to get into it, Iknow, I know.
(45:34):
Here's what I know.
Was that what you were going topoint out earlier Was the Uppy
Downy?
Yeah, yeah, god has called us tobe greater.
God has called us to reachpeople that have never been
reached before.
I love this building.
We've been blessed to have it.
Some of you have been acrossthe other side of the building
(45:57):
and you've noticed that there'sfresh paint, that the stage
looks different.
All of those things are goingto come to pass in a season, but
here's the problem.
The money's just not there.
Our church has never been flushwith cash.
When my wife and I took overthis ministry, there was $3,000
in the checking account.
I think today we've got about$20,000.
(46:20):
It's not a lot of money itsounds like a lot, but one
offering under $1,000, wehonestly can't operate the
building.
There's not enough moneyflowing through the building.
And so today I want to challengeyou with something I want to
say.
If you have never tithed, Iwant you to take a step of faith
(46:40):
and start tithing, amen.
If you have never done it, Iwant you to take a step of faith
and I want you to start tithing.
And if you're tithing already,I want you to ask God what and
where are you asking me to giveabove and beyond?
Can you pull up my slide for mereal quick, please?
This is a big ask, guys.
(47:04):
We are going to start a capitalcampaign for the building.
Our goal is to raise $10,000.
$10,000 will finish the otherside of the building for us.
But I want to tell yousomething Council has agreed to
match, dollar for dollar,whatever our congregation can
raise, meaning we have money setaside for different things that
(47:26):
happen in ministry, if thischurch can raise ten thousand
dollars, they will, out of thegeneral fund, give us another
ten thousand and we will havetwenty thousand dollars to make
repairs to this building.
Twenty thousand dollars.
We don't need twenty thousanddollars, but we do need a new
air conditioner on the otherside of the building.
Again, it's not quite brokenyet, but we're going to get
there.
We know that we need a bufferfor what God is doing in this
(47:46):
place.
We are putting pressure on thisbuilding every day.
We are literally bursting it atthe seams.
I can't tell you how many timesI've been electrocuted by light
switches that aren't groundedproperly I'm not joking that
aren't grounded properly.
I'm not joking.
This building is in disrepair.
It was built in the 1980s.
It was added on in the 1990s.
This building has not seengreat repair for a very long
(48:07):
time and I'm telling you that ifwe don't do this at some point
we're going to find ourselveswithout, and I know you guys
don't wanna be that way, amen.
Now I did some quick napkin math, roger.
(48:27):
How many adults are in thisroom right now?
61.
I did my math at 60,.
I was guessing.
If 60 adults in this room wouldgive $200, we could raise
$20,000.
Now, $200 might sound like alot of money.
Right, break that down over thenext six months.
How much money do you need togive every month for the next
six months?
It's nothing.
It's less than Connie's coffees.
It is, I promise you it is.
(48:49):
Let's do the math.
Let's just do it real quick.
I brought my phone with mebecause I think you guys need to
understand the importance ofwhat it is that God is going to
do in this place.
So we said $200.
It's $33 a month.
Listen, it's like I'm givingyou a sales pitch.
(49:11):
For only $10 a day, for only$10 a day, right?
$33 a month?
$33 a month.
$33 a month.
If every adult in this buildinggives $33 a month over the next
six months, we can put $20,000into this building.
Do you realize what $20,000 cando for a building like this?
(49:33):
We don't need a new roof yet,thank you Jesus, but when we do,
it's going to be a lot morethan $20,000.
And I don't know about you, butI ain't got the money to write
that check.
Amen.
Anybody want to pay for the newroof when it comes time?
I didn't think, so I'm callingyou to action today that money
(49:54):
that you're going to get fromthose people who took it.
I want you to pray over it,lord.
What is it that you would haveus do, lord?
I need you to open my eyes totithing Lord.
I need you to open my eyes togiving Lord.
I need you to show me, help me,lead me, guide me, direct me,
(50:14):
father, god, amen.
Did you hear what I said?
60 adults, $200.
I'll give my $200 right now.
I don't have a problem doing itbecause I know that what I'm
doing is serving the kingdom.
It's not about this building.
It's not about moving asanctuary, it's not about any of
those things.
It's about being positioned togrow when God says move, it is
(50:36):
being about.
It's about being positioned tomove.
When God says move, I'm readyto move.
Amen, my heart is on fire forwhat comes next in this house,
for what comes next in ourcommunity.
Listen, we had that beautifulmother-daughter brunch.
I leaned into Holly and I saidwouldn't this be nicer if it had
carpet in it?
And she said it's coming, it'scoming.
We're believing that together.
(50:57):
Now, listen, I'm going to tellyou.
I know there's some of you thatwas praying against that plan.
That's fine, pray against it,whatever.
God's bigger than you, and Iknow it, and I know it.
And when God gives me a visionit's not just something I go.
Oh yeah, let's do that.
I go back to Holly and Rogerfor confirmation.
Listen, I want to.
Just I'm going to let you guysgo.
I promise One more thing.
(51:18):
One time I was telling Bethabout it and Beth said to me
she's like that's stupid, that'scrazy, it's never going to work
.
Like well, what are you goingto do with?
What are you going to do with?
I said, listen, god's given itto us Slowly but surely.
And one day she walked in thereafter some work had been done
and she goes I see it.
Sometimes you have to see it toget it.
(51:39):
I'll show it to you.
You tell me when.
I'll walk you through thatwhole side of the building as I
pray.
Listen, I prayed over every oneof these chairs this morning.
I hope your butts are nice andanointed today Because let me
tell you, I believe that youguys have to hear and see what
God is doing in this place inorder for you to be able to be
activated, is doing in thisplace in order for you to be
(52:03):
able to be activated, amen.
Yeah, you know what.
We almost did it for EasterSunday because we'd already set
up the chairs for the Easter egghunt, and I said I don't think
I'm ready for that stress justyet.
Here's the problem we don'thave any sound equipment over
there.
If we did that, we would haveto take one whole week where we
move this entire sanctuary tothat side of the building.
It would be a huge undertaking,even if it's just setting up
the other chairs, but all of thesound equipment, all of that
(52:25):
would have to move.
It is a huge undertaking.
Listen, I love you guys so much,but I need you to understand
that God's will comes in time.
It comes in time and I know, Iknow, I know I know over the
next six months we're gonnaraise more than enough money to
do this.
I believe, I genuinely believe,that there will be an abundance
(52:46):
of money flowing through thatproject.
Listen, if you wanna give tothat specifically, you grab an
envelope and you just writeoffering or, I'm sorry, building
on that envelope and you dropit in there, all right, we will
keep track.
Building on that envelope andyou drop it in there, all right,
we will keep track.
And on that slide, this will beon the announcements every week
.
Every week, you'll have anupdate on what we raised for
(53:07):
that.
I will tell you that there wasa family in our church who
donated $5,000.
Now that money is being setaside by council in order to be
able to double whatever it isthat we raise.
Okay, so we already have agreat start to this project.
But I'm telling you God is doingsomething good, he's doing
(53:32):
something big, and it'ssomething I don't even begin to
understand.
I don't know how he's calledsomebody like me to lead a group
of people as wonderful as you.
I don't.
I can't figure it out, becausesometimes I look at you and I'm
like what is wrong with allthese people?
And then I look at myself andI'm like is there something
wrong with me?
That's what it is right.
I know that God has called eachand every one of you here for
this season.
Each and every one of us aregoing to build the kingdom
(53:54):
together, amen.
I thank you guys for justcontinuing to believe in that.
I want to do communion realquick.
Yeah, here, hold on, come uphere.
You have to come up here.
No, you have to come up here.
Come on.
No, that's okay.
Check one, two, testing one,two.
(54:14):
Does it work?
You don't look a day over 21.
Thank you, amen, amen, amen,amen, amen, amen.
(55:46):
Just another thing that Don hadshared with me.
You know she started, she tookfinancial peace university not
because she needed to get out ofdebt, but more because she
needed to understand.
She wanted to be able to teachher grandchildren and her
children what it meant to saveand to invest and all of those
things.
And she told me that, you know,she was able to put money into
her savings account and then,all of a sudden, that money just
wouldn't stop growing and shewas like Pastor Michael, I need
(56:07):
to give something to the churchbecause God just keeps giving it
back to me.
Let me tell you something youcannot outgive God.
You can't do it.
It's impossible.
It is completely impossible.
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