Breaking the Cycle: Honoring God with Your Finances & True Generosity

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ti’heasha Beasley (00:00):
Seven.

Pastor Carlton McCarthy (00:02):
Big smile.

Pastor Brent McQuay (00:09):
Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of
Between Sermons, where we get to continue
the conversation. I don't know why Taisha's
laughing already.

But show it again today.

This is just an indication of how
much fun we're gonna have today talking
about everybody's favorite subject matter. But before
we jump into that, my name is
Brent. I'm the lead pastor of Disciples
Church, and I get to host this
lovely conversation as we take the monologue
from the stage on Sunday and we
turn it into an actual conversation. And,
you know, maybe we should have, like,

(00:42):
coffee or something. Make it feel, like,
a little more natural.

I almost made tea, but, you know.

Yeah, something we can do.

Coffee. I'm down for that.

All right, we'll do something. We'll figure
something out. But as always, I am
joined by the one and only Taisha.
How you doing? That was the.

That was the weakest.

That was the weakest. Woo.

That was.

Was that a sigh or day?

What's going on?

It's 9:30, so I don't know. It's.
The day has begun.

Okay. Wow.

I told you guys, I feed off
of your energy, so I've got all
the energy.

The joy of the Lord.

The joy of the Lord.

Carlton and I are gonna play, like,
dodgeball later or something.

We gotta burn off somebody with the
rocks.

No, I'm doing good. It's a good
day. It's Tuesday, so just blessing the
Lord for the day. Nothing. Nothing deep.
I'm on here with my favorite people.

I feel like you're, like, bracing for
impact. Like, it's like the car just
hit an ice patch and you know
you're gonna hit the rail and you're
just like, every time.

Yeah, but it's like two seats are
occupied by.

It's like you have an adverse opinion.

Okay, you're right.

We haven't even started the discussion yet.

Can we hit restart? Can we do
that?

Let's do it. All right, cool.

Let's do that. Guys. We're gonna hit
restart.

Hey, everybody, welcome.

No, I mean restart from how you
guys treat me, because I've gotten as.
How. Yeah, people are watching the show
and they're like, every time you're on
there with Pastor Carlton and Pastor Brent
together, it's a good show. We like
it. But they always attack.

You not attack.

Have they ever said we were wrong
and you were right?

They always say they're on my side.
They never say who's right or wrong.
I think they just really.

We're getting our information from the same.

Source this is actually a great. Yeah,
this is actually a great principle. In
scripture, there's a lot of things that
are said by what is unsaid.

You know what? We're starting already. All
right, let's jump into the topic. So
we can't stay there. But I'm excited.
Pastor Carlton shared an amazing message. I
actually re watched it this morning, so
I heard it three times now. So
do I get, like a gold sticker
or something?

Three times?

Yeah. Oh, twice in service, twice on
service.

So, yeah, that would be your third
gold star. Well, no, actually, he gave
out two in the first service. I
think you only gave out one.

Star second service because they weren't responding
well.

So I guess that would be maybe
four. Maybe, maybe five, depending on. Did
we rebroadcast the nine or the 11,
right?

The nine. The 11.

11.

Okay. You only got four stars.

Yes.

So the worst of the two.

Yes, it was good. And really?

Yes.

What?

The worst?

No, I agree. I, I, we. Well,
let's just get to the top of
that. Break down the.

I think both were good.

But, you know, when you have already
said something, I can't take it back
in your head. No, no, I'm talking
about the sermon.

Okay.

When you do it a second time,
it used to be where the second
service was better for me.

Yeah.

But now it's like, when you said
it already, I have to make sure
that I don't think I've said this
already. Where am I in my notes?

Yeah, Yeah. I used to always say
my second service. So back when we
did three services, I knew 8:30 was
always gonna be rough because I'm still
waking up. So it was the people
in the room. And then that 10
o'clock when we did the 10, that
was always gonna be the best. And
part of that was just I had
my amen corner there.

Yes.

The people that were ready to, like,
I don't know, like, start waving things
at you and throwing a shoe and
like, like, they were at the 10
o'clock and then the 12 o'clock was
like people that were like, I don't
even know if I like Jesus, but
you know, I'm already awake. I might
as well go to church.

I had to encourage the 11 o'clock
service to respond, but I felt like
Pastor Jerry on the stage, I'm preaching.

Better than you responding. No, but what's
funny, though, is sitting there listening, actually
thought your Delivery at the 11 o'clock
was better. No, like, I thought that
there was you, you, you cut out
a few things. You got straighter to
the sum of the points. Like it
was a little bit more refined.

Yeah, I think. Yeah.

This is great.

Remembering nine pages of content is difficult,
Right? I don't know how you do
it every week.

I have a laptop.

Oh, that's true. Yeah. You have a
technique. Yeah, I had a laptop, too,
but I'm like, I don't know. It's.
It's. Yeah. Anyways, we can get into
how to memorize a sermon later.

Should we turn this podcast?

Right. I'm like, stage left. Not the
new things. Guys are having a moment,
so I start back. So you talked
about tithing. Wait, did I miss the
question?

No.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, we talked about tithing.

Yes. You talked about tithing.

Tithing, yes.

And that is a difficult subject to
talk about. So do you think it's
difficult for.

You to preach or no, because you
preach the facts. Okay, okay. And many
people will say who's fact. But I.
You know, the infallible word of God
is the word of God. So, yeah,
it just depends on how you're educated
on that particular topic. And so the

(05:43):
more education you get on that topic,
the more confident you can be in
teaching that topic and receiving that particular
topic. So I think one of the
things about tithing. And I addressed this.
I don't know if you want me
to go here.

Yeah, no, go.

But I addressed this in the sermon,
is that tithing is a biblical principle.
And a lot of people stick tithing
under the law of Moses and keep
it there in bondage under the law
of Moses and say, you know, Jesus
came to fulfill the law.

We're mixed fabrics now, so.

Right, yeah. So why. Why do we
have to tithe? Because I'm eating bacon.
Absolutely. Yes. Right. I don't have to
put a rail on my balcony. You
know, just, you know, weird things like
that. All of 600. And I don't
know how many laws there are.

Yeah, yeah, I forget now. Yeah, I
had that number in my head at
one point.

It's like we keep some of these
things in the bondage of the law
of Moses when we need to realize
that a lot of these things that
are in the law are also outside
of the law and can be practiced
apart from the law. And tithing is
one of those things. Tithing is found
in Genesis and other parts of the
Bible where people tithe outside of the
law of Moses. And therefore, it's a

(06:52):
biblical principle as well as it being
in the law. But we practice it
as a biblical principle outside of the
law.

And I think a lot of people,
the issue is, it's almost like that
pendulum swing thing that happens where it
was like, some people were so dogmatic
with tithing that it became abusive. And
so people were like, well, that abusiveness
with the tithe is not healthy. It's
not right. So I'm gonna go to
this opposite extreme and say, well, we

(07:21):
just disregard all of. And I think
that the, the reality is, as Christians,
like, there, There is a happy medium,
like, there is a space in between
where we can recognize that it's a
principle for our lives, for our good.
And really what Jesus is doing is
he's. He's trying to teach us to
be generous. And it was part of
a law to force this habit into

(07:43):
people that would hopefully eventually be written
on their hearts, because that's, I mean,
that's the whole point of Christ.

Right, Right.

The. The law that was written on
tablets is now written on our hearts.

Right.

And so this the interesting thing for
me, and I don't know where we're
gonna go with this conversation, but interesting
thing for me is as a pastor,
I've had people object to the tithe
all my life, like online, in person,
like, just come to me with all
their reasons why the tithe is not
required. And I've never had a single
person object to the tithe while claiming

(08:15):
to be generous and giving more than
10%. So.

Right. Because the tithe would be. Would.
Would be in that.

So, so their, their definition of generosity
was I give when I can, when
I want, when I have extra. And
so their generosity was like 1%, 2%.
It's like you're. You're failing to even
meet what the standard was to set
up generosity in your life. Like, it
just never made any kind.

Of sense because generosity goes beyond what's
expected or beyond the standard by definition.
By definition. So you don't even have
an established standard or what's expected of
you to even get into the realm
of being generous.

When I go out to eat, I'm
not being generous with my server when
I pay my bill.

Right.

Like it was expected. It was 24.95.
So I give him 24.95. I'm generous.
No, no, you left that man zero
dollar tip.

Right.

That's the opposite of generosity. You just,
you just met the requirement of your
bill.

Yeah.

And I would even argue probably not
since you didn't tip, but.

Right.

Are you guys good tippers?

I try to be.

Okay, you've had define good tipper. A
tip was expected.

So you are not generous.

No, I mean, I tip the culturally
accepted percentage. 20% or twice your tax.

Yeah.

If you can't do math, well, you
buy the books. So there you go.

Okay, so there is this perception. Is
generosity only found in when you're being
generous to the church, or is it
other areas in your life you could
use your money to be generous and
pay your tithes. Like, where is that
line?

Oh, absolutely. Everywhere in your life. Like,
if you're generous to the church, but
you're not generous to your neighbor. I
think you've missed the point. So I
think that it is a principle for
how we live, not how we do
church.

Okay. In Deuteronomy, part of the tithe
was to go to the poor. And
so that was outside of the church.
Like, they had a practice of having
a set amount of money that they
wanted to use to take care of
people. And Old Testament, New Testament, I
think that's a practice that we need

(10:29):
to have today. Certainly.

Does Disciples Church have something set in
place to take care? You mentioned in
your sermon, like the widows, the orphans?
Do we have something set in place
for that?

Oh, yes. So here at Disciples, I'm
glad we do this question.

Hopefully I still have a job afterwards.
Do not put me on the spot.

No, yeah, that's a good question. And
maybe people don't know it. We had
our business meeting Sunday. And you know,
I forgot to mention this. Where were
you, Taisha, to ask this question then?
But I'm here now. The church, we
tithe 10% of our revenue. On top
of that, we go far beyond the

(11:14):
10% in our revenue to give towards
missions. And so whether it's local or
international, we have a budget of 10%
of our revenue. But then we have
special projects. We have random phone calls
into the church or emails that we
get from our missions partners, you know,
when. When they have needs. But we
regularly out give the tithe in our

(11:38):
budget, in our financials. And so, like,
if anybody ever saw our income statement,
they'll see that our missions expenses is
far greater than our missions income. So
we go above and beyond. We are
extremely generous church. So we don't just
rely on whatever the 10% is that
that comes in for missions. We. We
go far beyond that. And one of

(11:59):
the examples that I gave was pads.
PADS is an organization that gives emergency
housing for people and we feed them
every month. And since 2009, I said
that we fed over 6, 000 people
that, you know, not just giving them
money, but we have a group of
People that actually come into our kitchen

(12:19):
and cook.

Wow.

We go grocery shopping for the people.
We bring the food here into the
church. We cook on Sunday, and then
we deliver it to them and feed
them.

That's awesome.

Meals.

Yeah.

So we operate a personal care pantry.

Personal care pantry? Yep. We operate a
personal care pantry where every week, people
can come in and get toiletries and
personal needs. They get prayer. And then
we also route them to other needs
that they may have that we partner
with other organizations who are better able
to handle those needs. Hope center partnered

(12:53):
with Blue Cap Food Pantry, and so
the Hope center produces produce for the
community, and they partnered with Blue Cab,
and they were able to give away.
They gave away to 7,130 people. Pastor
Moy gave me the numbers. I just
wanted to be sure of the numbers.
They keep track of the records. 7,130

(13:15):
people were fed through that partnership. So
that's fantastic.

Which I love what the Hope center
is doing in that regard, because, like,
I used to run actually two different
food pantries, and fresh produce was always
the hardest thing to be able to
give to people, just because the shelf
life isn't there and people aren't donating
it. So I would have people come
in and be like, man, don't you

(13:41):
have any, like, lettuce? No, but I
got a back of macaroni and cheese
in a box. Yeah, like, it's just.
It's hard. And so I love that
the Hope center is coming in and
not just doing a food pantry, but
doing the specific thing that is lacking
in a lot of pantry pantries.

Yep.

Yeah. That's awesome. I was just sitting
here thinking, like, pastor Brent, you've done
everything you like. I've read two food
pantries.

I'm like, what if you go through
his ministry career, thrift store, food pantry,
finance department, children's ministry for, like, a
week, you can put it on your
resume.

Yeah.

The funny thing is, I guess, funny
to me, but, like, one of those
food pantries, I was so thankful for
the fact that I was working the
food pantry because I was actually receiving
from the food pantry, too.

Like, oh, wow.

Like, it was a season of our
lives where we did not have money
for groceries. And so I'm literally, like,
giving out food, and I'm, like, checking
the stock in the back. Oh, man.
I really hope that box of Mac
and cheese is still there by the
end of the night, because I'm hungry.

Oh, wow.

And so, yeah, it was. It was
one of those where, you know, at
the end of the night I was
able to take a bag for myself.

Wow.

Nice generosity.

That brings me to another question that
a lot of people will argue when
it comes to giving. How do I
give from, like, a place where I
don't have. So how would you encourage
people who are part of the body
of Christ to give what they have
and do it joyously? Because if we
only got $10.

Yeah.

And you're telling me to give 10%
of that $10.

So the.

How does that look?

That'd be a dollar, Right.

Just doing the math for you.

We want to have that dollar could
go towards a box of macaroni and
cheese.

Yes. It sure could equate macaroni and
cheese. Yes. And I. And I think
that people want to put the cart
before the horse kind of in a
way where they need to have the
joy before the practice. And I think
if you don't initially have the joy,
have the practice, and the practice will

(15:49):
bring you joy. But how do we
get to the practice if we don't
have enough to give? And when we
say enough to give, what we're really
saying is that we have all these
other things that we want to take
care of. And therefore, from this pool
of things that we have to take
care of, there's not anything left over
to give. And, you know, there are

(16:10):
some cases where people absolutely have nothing.
But in America, here in Illinois, at
our church, I think a lot of
people experience that they have things that
they want to prioritize to take care
of above tithing, and therefore they don't
have anything left over to give. And
I think that comes from a place

(16:31):
of trust. Trust in God. Do you
trust God that he's going to take
care of you and your bills? I
mentioned this in the sermon. When you
have the understanding that everything you have
belongs to him, then you can pray
for God to be responsible for those
things. Okay, God, you've given me the
principle of generosity and tithing, and I'm

(16:52):
going to practice that principle now because
I recognize that everything I own belongs
to you. You now have to take
care of all the stuff that's left
over. So giving needs to be the
priority, and everything else needs to be
what's left over and not reverse. And
we get there through trust.

That's good.

Yeah. I think there's. There's also some
practical things to solve your perceived lack
problem. And that's where financial coaching and
that horrible word budget comes.

Absolutely, yes.

I remember I was working with somebody
that was struggling financially. They weren't able
to Cover their bills. They were asking
me for help, and I. So I
just sat down with them and discovered
that they had an $800 car note,
a $200 cell phone bill, and $150
Internet bill. And I'm looking at them
like, you don't have a money problem.
You have a budget problem. Like, you

(17:46):
bought a car you can't afford, you
pay way too much for your cell
phone, and you don't need that Internet
or that TV.

Right.

I think it was AT&T. Like, it's
like there's some things that you got
to fix your system. You sell the
car.

You got Max Internet with two. Two
devices at home.

Yeah, yeah. And. And you're using it
to stream Netflix while you're also playing
for hbo Max. And it's like you're
not even watching it.

Right.

You're paying for something you're not watching.

Yes.

Let's. Let's stop that.

Yeah. I asked my family just about
every week now. They're tired of me.
When was the last time you've watched
that platform?

Yep.

And so now they're like, come on.
I'm watching a show right now. You
know, I haven't watched it in a
couple weeks, but I plan to.

We finally got trimmed down a little
bit. The problem is, at one point,
the stuff Soul wanted to watch was
on one thing. The stuff Jaden wanted
to watch was on a different thing.

Yeah.

Bennett wanted to watch because the soccer
was on a different thing. And I'm
like, man, by the time we, like,
we were so happy when we cut
cable. And then all of a sudden,
I, like, added up all these little
things. I'm so mad.

That is so true.

Yeah. But budgeting is an issue because.
And then there's the unknown expenses that
you have, because you will do your
budget, and you'll come away with having
disposable income left over, but then you'll
look at your bank account and you're
broke. So one thing that I tell
people to do is I say print
the last three months of your credit
card statement, your bank account statement, and

(19:20):
your Amazon orders.

Amazon, Amazon.

And I say, get a highlighter. And
if you don't have a highlighter, this
is the only thing I want you
to ever buy on Amazon is a
highlighter. And I want you to highlight
the nonsense.

What is categorized as nonsense?

Things that you absolutely do not need
and that you cannot show for.

Well, that's subjective when it comes to
women. Because we need everything.

No, but, like, if you've had the
Expense and the thing is gone. And
this usually has to do with food
or experiences or entertainments. And also you
may have that thing under the cupboard
in your kitchen that you haven't seen
in three months. And so I tell
people, print three months of your statements
in Amazon orders and highlight the nonsense.

(20:05):
And after you highlight the nonsense, and
if you're married, give it to your
spouse and be transparent with them. Like,
look at it together and say, okay,
well, you have a Starbucks habit. I
didn't know you were going to Starbucks.
Every time you went to work. But
you highlight the nonsense and you do
the math on it. You add everything
up and you average it out for
the month. And I guarantee you, you
will have more money than you ever

(20:27):
thought you had. Because you have these
compulsions, you have these habits, you have
these perceived needs that are not needs,
but actually wants. You have a drive
to fulfill pleasure. And what it is
is just nonsense. And when you highlight
the nonsense and you do the math
on it, you realize you have more
money to be generous, to have opportunities

(20:48):
to give. Now you can actually listen
to the Holy Spirit when he speaks
to you and say, hey, now is
the time to give or to do
something for the kingdom because you brought
order into your finances.

That's good.

And everybody's budget's gonna look a little
bit different depending on where they're at,
you know what your income level is.
And that was one of the things
that, like, my wife and I had
to grasp early on was like, look,
we don't have appetizer budget, right. But
there was a season in our lives
where we didn't have eat out budget.

Right.

Like, we didn't have money to just
go out to eat. Like, we had
rice and beans money.

You don't want to live beyond your
means.

Right. And so then all of a
sudden, we got to the place where
we could afford to actually go out
to eat every once in a while.

Yeah.

And then all of a sudden, I
got like the first bill and I
was like, yeah, no, we're never doing
appetizers.

Oh, my goodness.

It's not a thing that we do
in our house.

I'm have to take my sister out
to eat some abs.

But it's just fine, like, recognizing, like,
where are you?

Yeah.

Because a lot of us, we try
and go beyond what we can actually
afford, and then we say we have
a money problem. Yeah, you don't. It's
not a money problem. It's a spending
problem.

That's good.

Finances symptom of another problem.

Yeah.

And what happens is when you don't
have order in your finances or you
don't have self control, a fruit of
the spirit, then you at least to
dishonoring God in an area where he
wants you to practice. Practice. And that's
giving.

Yeah, yeah. So before we continue, I
just have one question. If I'm stuck
on an island, am I giving enough
for you guys to come rescue me?

Yeah.

So that was a joke in his
sermon about the two people stuck on
the island. And the guy, he gave
a hundred thousand dollars. And so he.

Well, you gotta set it up though.

Okay, okay, tell your joke. Tell your
joke here. Okay, tell the joke here.

All right. Two guys are stranded on
a deserted island. One guy is pacing
back and forth because he thinks they're
going to die. There's no food, there's
no water. He's terrified. The other guy
is sunbathing, right? He's taking in the
warm sun, the cool breeze of the
ocean. He's completely relaxed. The guy that's
pacing looks at the guy sunbathing. He

(22:53):
says, aren't you scared? Aren't you afraid
that we're going to die? We're stuck
out here. And the guy sunbathing says,
I make $100,000 a week and I
tithe faithfully to my church. I guarantee
my pastor will find me.

I love it.

So, yeah, I'm sure if you make
enough money and tithe enough, your pastor
will find you.

So that's why I asked the question.

I can with 100% honesty say I
have no idea how much anybody gives,
right?

Absolutely.

Not a clue.

Wow, that's awesome.

That's good. Internal control, segregation of duties.

I don't want to know.

I don't need to know without the
giving. Will you guys come look for
me?

I don't know, man.

We'll dial 9, 1, and if you
don't come back, we'll dial 1 again.

We'll hold a prayer meeting, right?

Oh my goodness. A prayer meeting. Put
my picture on the screen.

We've got so much faith in David.
David will find you. Yeah, we just
trust David.

That's what I was gonna say. You
guys are gonna say, first of all,
why is it David looking for you?

One of those Too many cooks in
the kitchen. Like we're all looking. Like
we're just getting in each other's.

There's at least two people that love
you more than.

Than we do.

God and David.

Oh, gosh. They're gonna.

They're gonna take care of it. Your
son.

My son will come Praise God. I
think that's good. But I like how
you. You talked about honoring God, and
I think that's a really important principle
that a lot of people leave out
when they think about tithing. I will
say there has been fear in my
life in the past. Not here at
Disciples Church, because you guys teach me

(24:31):
correctly.

Okay.

But in the past, it was like,
if I didn't give, everything in my
life was going to break down and
I was going to be cursed with
the curse. So you have robbed me.
Yes, let's talk about that and give
some biblical background and context to that.

Sure. I don't want anyone to have
fear that they are cursed with a
curse, for you have robbed God. It
is in the Bible. That's a scripture
in Malachi, chapter three, verse maybe 10,
verse nine, maybe. But God has grace.
And it's not grace to allow you

(25:11):
to not do something, but it's grace
to guide you on a journey towards
Him. And I think that's what's important
is that it's. It's not just fear
because we have a loving father who
loves us and he understands, you know,
the. The journey that we have in
our hearts to get closer to him
or to. To learn more about how

(25:33):
to get closer to him. He says,
return to me, and I will return
to you. And I love that because
there's a promise there that he will
return to me. It's. It's not authoritarian
or a dictator or someone who is
like, these are the rules that you
have to follow. No, in his grace,
he wants to come towards us and
bring us closer to him. He wants

(25:54):
to hold our hand through this journey
of learning how to give and learning
how to honor Him. And so I
don't think that it's a place that
anyone needs to be in fear. There's
consequences when you know what you should
be doing and not doing it. And
I think that those are just spiritual
principles that we have to understand happens.
And there's promises and blessings that come

(26:16):
when we do, when we are obedient
to the word of God. But it
should not be out of fear. It
should be out of love. And we
have to be confident that God loves
us and wants to take us on
the journey to get closer to him,
especially through giving.

That's good. Yeah, that's good. Anything? No,
it was great.

Okay, there you go.

So as we start to land this
plane, but not 100%. I know you
do a lot of coaching. What are
some practical tips you give to the
people you coach to increase in Their
generosity and giving.

I think the first thing that we
do when we do coaching is something
that people, like most of the people,
have not done, and that's write down
their expenses. A lot of people need
to even write down their income, which
is this, like, one line item. And.
And a lot of people don't even
know how much money they make.

Wow.

And it's surprising how many people just
receive a paycheck into the. In their
checking account and just spend the money
and nothing's written. And when it becomes
visual to you, you have, like, an
awakening. You almost say to yourself, well,
I don't need you, Carlson, anymore, because
I can visually see where my money's
going. And. And, like, a lot of
people have great aptitude, and they're very

(27:34):
intelligent, and they can structure their budget.
Like, once they see it on paper,
it seems like they have an epiphany.
They know exactly what they need to.

Do because it's not hard math. It's
addition and subtraction, right?

Absolutely. It's very easy math. But the
starting point is, like, 80% of the
problem. Like, they just need to write
it down. Once they write it down,
9 out of 10 of them have
it together. And they almost say, why
did I waste my time coming here
to see you? But it's. It's the
encouragement and it's the practice of actually
writing down your budget. And once you

(28:08):
write it down, you see. You actually
see how much money you have. And
now you say, why was this so
hard for me to allocate tithing when
it's right there? The first line item
in our budget plan here at DC
Is tithing, and it's an automatic percentage
of the gross income. And so when
you come into a budget with Carlton

(28:30):
and I give you your final number,
it includes tithing. And so it depends
on, you know, who I'm coaching. But
a lot of times I don't even
bring it up. And I'll say, this
is how much money you have left
over for disposal income, to increase your
retirement or to add to your savings
or to maybe, like, start that. That
hope or that dream that. That you

(28:50):
have for yourself. Or, you know, maybe
you need to move some things around.
And we. We start moving things around,
and it. And it works all the
while. Their tithing was there the entire
time. And it's like, you see, we
made a perfect budget for you that
you're pleased with, that you're happy with,
and tithing is included in it. And
so it's just beautiful when people actually

(29:13):
see what it looks like, but it
starts with writing it down.

If I could jump in there. I
think one of the things that I've
noticed working with people and you do
this way more than I do, but
I've worked with a few people on
their budget. That's how many people will
come with a budget that's not actually
realistic? Like, because it's in their head,
they're like, I'm only gonna spend $100
on eating out.

Yes.

And then they print their last three
months statements and it's like, okay, on
average, you spend $800 eating out, not
a hundred.

Yes.

Right. And so like, I think that
there's. In some people's minds, they don't
even look at their bank statement. They
just think through, okay, I know my
car note's about this, and my thing's
about this. And you know, we will
only eat out this much. And. And
so they make up their budget without
any actual data.

Right.

And you need to actually get the
data.

And they end up lying to themselves.

Oh, 100%.

I get so many people who say,
I'm never eating out again. I said,
after this class, you're gonna go eat
out. You're gonna leave here excited, and
you're gonna reward yourself by going to
get something to eat. So let's not
lie to ourselves. Let's actually put it
in the budget.

That's good.

And like, now there's another question that
you have to ask. Is it a
problem?

Right.

Because you could add it to the
budget and it could be a problem.
It could be a problem for your
health or your relationships. Like whatever that
thing is. That line I demands that
you have a habit of doing like
that needs to be examined. But like,
let's not lie to ourselves. We go
out to eat, we go buy lunch
when we're at work. We're not packing
leftovers all the time. Right. Lashes.

Okay, first of all, I said nails.

Yeah, but, you know, you want to
be real with yourself. You want to
live life and you want to make
your have your budget reflect that. Now,
within your budget, again, I say there's
probably some issues that you have to
talk to yourself about. Always tell people,
take yourself out for a cup of
coffee and bring your budget with you
and discuss with yourself your budget and

(31:10):
find out those areas that you have
problems in.

That's good.

That needs to be addressed.

You're actually really good at this.

He is.

Oh, no. Wow. I've only been doing
it for 20 years.

I never used you. Me and David
never used you. Okay.

So, like, working through my. My very
first personal budget, I realized that I.
I left out two things from my
budget that now I make sure I
always keep in there. And one was
fun. Like, I had budgeted everything, but
there was no line item for, like,
you're.

Never going to the movies. Right.

Like, there was. There was. There was
literally no fun. So was I spending
money on fun? Absolutely. I play video
games. The new game came out. I'm
like, yeah. And so I was just
robbing my budget for, like, other things.
It was like, well, I don't need
clothes this month. We're just gonna. You
know. And so I was just rob.
And it was like, I finally. It

(32:06):
finally dawned on me. I'm like, I
could actually just budget fun.

Yeah.

Right. And have a good time. And
then the. The second thing that I
was missing in that first budget, and
actually I was missing for a long
time, was actual generosity. Like, I was
always under this. Like, well, whatever I
have, like, I'm gonna give first. So
Ties and missions was always, like, first
and foremost. But just pure generosity wasn't

(32:30):
actually a line item on my.

Right.

And so it was just kind of
like we did when we had or
when there was some opportunity.

Sure.

But when I started adding it to
the budget, then it becomes intentional.

Yeah.

Now I'm actually looking for opportunities to
give that money away.

That is so good. You guys are
dropping so much knowledge here. I think
you're increasing people's lives.

I hope so. I always say that.
Do you have room in your budget
and in your life for the Holy
Spirit to move? Right. Do you have
room in your budget for the Holy
Spirit to tell you, I need you
to pay for that person's gas, or
I need you to go buy that
person food? Or there's a special offering
coming up at church that I need
you to be ready for? And so,

(33:14):
like, do we have. Do we have
room in our lives for the Holy
Spirit to tell us, hey, don't go
do that thing that you plan to
do today. I need you to go
minister to this person. I need you
to go visit this person. And so
we always have to structure our lives
to be ready to be moved by
the Holy Spirit when necessary. And our
budget is part of that.

Yeah. When we worked in Blue island,
coming off of the expressway to get
to where we worked, there was just
always homeless people. It was just that
intersection was like, that was where they
would go. And so we started keeping
in our vehicle cash. I'm not a
cash person. I hate cash. Cash Is
evil. It's dirty. It's gross.

You don't have an emergency 20.

If I give somebody cash, that means
they're gonna give me change back coins.
I hate it.

Okay, tell us how you really feel.

But Mark of the beast.

But then. But then I realized, like,
every time I got to that intersection,
I was telling people no, because I
don't carry cash. So we actually. We
had, like, a little sun visor and
a little spot. And so we started
keeping cash in the van just so
that we could be generous on that
corner. And then we even put together
some homeless packs.

Wow.

Little wow.

Ziploc bags with you.

Went above and beyond.

It was like, we just threw in
stuff that we found it online. Like,
it was like, things recommended for homeless
communities. So it was like toothpaste, toothbrush,
deodorant, and socks and something else. I
think it was like, granola bars and
beef jerky or something.

Like, it was just.

We just kept it in a little
baggie. And so we pull up that
corner, and here you go.

Wow.

That's amazing. I love that.

That doesn't happen until you start getting
intentional with it.

Right, right, right. Whoo.

This is top tier information, guys. Like,
I wish I had it 10, 20
years ago.

Okay.

It's never too late to start now.

You have it now. So guys watching.

Seriously, somebody be watching this with, you
know, $50,000 worth of debt and just
a messed up financial system. Start today.

Yeah, man. Okay. So anyway, I'm over
here, like, taking notes and, like, man,
I think me and David do a
really good job at being generous, but
we're always, like, just pulling from place
places. But if we put it in
the budget, like, it'll just be something
we can give more freely.

And what I love telling people is,
like, when you make a plan for
something, it doesn't remove the ability to
be spontaneous.

Yeah. I was going to say sacrifice
still needs to be a part of
it as well, because you could have
a plan for something. Something. And what
you're telling God is God. I prioritize
your will over the plan that I
had. You could have money budgeted for
entertainment or for something for clothes. And
the Holy Spirit will still speak to
you about giving. And it's like, sacrifice
still needs to be a part of

(35:53):
it, because you can have a budgeted
amount for generosity, but then what the
Holy Spirit is calling you to do
may go beyond generosity and may go
into sacrifice. And we have to be
ready for that.

That I feel the Holy Spirit in
this conversation. Some of the Production team.
We all. We are feeling this man.
God is speaking. And I really believe
this is going to really bless a
lot of people. And it's a good
time to talk about our finances at
the top of the year. It's a
way to realign with our first love,
get our things together and in order.

(36:26):
So as we land this plane, what
are our takeaways? We haven't done this
in a while. Have you noticed, Pastor
Brent? We haven't done, like, the great.

I don't notice anything.

Oh, gosh.

Takeaways.

I'm just here for the fun.

He's here for the vibes, the fun.
So we. We like to do one
takeaway for our audience from the sermon.
And we used to do, like, a
contest with it, but Pastor Brand always
wins, so we're not doing that anymore.
So let's just give a takeaway from
the message. What was one thing that
we could just leave our audience with
today?

Yeah, my takeaway. And it was part
of the story that I told. My
takeaway is that when you are in
a habit of dishonoring God, hardship comes.
But here's the takeaway. When you find
yourself struggling financially or your circumstances are
just. Just not good, they're bad. What

(37:20):
happens is unrighteousness tends to show up,
and you have to make a choice.
Sometimes our morals fail when our circumstances
are bad and we have to watch
for it. God told Cain, sin is
crouching at the door. When things go
bad in your life and you are

(37:41):
upset, sin is ready to take over,
and you have to be mindful of
that. And so it's important for us
to honor God for all the biblical
principles surrounding that. But it's important for
us to honor God because the moment
that we move away from God, the
closer we get to unrighteousness and sin.
And I think it was really important
for us to understand that it's not

(38:04):
just black and white. I pay my
tithes or I don't pay my tithes.
I'm obedient to God or I'm not
obedient to God. When you're not obedient
to God and you dishonor God, you
start to have weird choices. Temptation of
sin starts to rear its ugly head
because you're slowly moving away from the
presence of God or the covering of
God and into a place where your

(38:26):
morals could fail. And I think it's
really important for us to understand that
we need to get back in line
with God's heart, because outside of God's
heart is a realm of Unrighteousness.

That's good. That's really good.

Love it. I had to pull out
my notes because you said something and
the way you had phrased it.

You took notes?

Yeah, I always take notes.

Look at this moment. Zoom in on
this moment.

Why would I not take notes?

His face was like, did you think.

I was just playing with my phone
the whole time you were preaching?

I thought you were taking notes, taking
care of business, taking notes, running a
church.

There might have been some business in
there. There might have been like, hey,
Reuben, why is that slide not up?

I mean, you're running a church with
a couple thousand people, you know.

No, no, I was legit taking notes.

He had like, okay, go ahead.

But he was like.

He took notes.

I sent you the whole sermon.

You did? Yeah. I've got. I didn't
even need to take notes. I've got.
I've got your printout.

Oh, my gosh.

But no, the thing that I love,
just the way you articulated. So it
wasn't necessarily that it was new, but
it was just. It's one of those
things that drives me crazy. But you
added such a beautiful way of phrasing
it that simply, that generosity is not
transactional.

Right.

And I think that I got a
real beef with the whole prosperity gospel
movement and people. And when people come
in and they're like, yeah, I'm going
to give because I need to get.
And they're like, I'm going to give
God my 10 because I really need
a thousand, but I ain't got a
thousand.

Right.

So I'm going to give the 10
so that he gives me. And it's
like, you are treating this like he's
a slot machine.

Right? Right.

And it's just. It just bothers me.
I think it bothers God, too. I
don't know, but it definitely bothers me.
But this idea that generosity is not
transactional, we aren't generous so that we
can get.

Right.

And I think the moment that we
make generosity all about ourselves and what
we get out of it, we're completely
missing the heart of God and the
whole point of it.

Right?

So generosity is, man, do it. Do
it when nobody sees it. Do it
blind. Do it out of goodness of
your heart. Do it without expectation. Do
it because it's the right thing to
do.

Yeah. If there's any transaction, it's love,
Right?

Yeah.

God blesses us because he loves us
and he's a good father. And we
should bless the kingdom because we love
our brothers, we love the people around
us. And we want to share that
love that God has for us with
everyone.

And I can tithe every two weeks
of my entire life. And if God
never blesses me, me financially, as a
result, I am totally okay with that.

Great.

And I'm going to be as generous
as I possibly can and sometimes go
even beyond what I can do and
suffer the consequences of it, because it's
just. That's what we're called to do.

Because as disciples, we. We love our
neighbors.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So generosity, it's not about what I
get. It's about what I give.

Yep. Sweet.

So beautiful. You know what, you guys,
they redeemed themselves.

Oh, I forgot about that. We need
something to end with that.

Makes it just give us something controversial
that we're going to be like. No,
Tyisha, that ain't it.

No, I mean, I agree with everything
you guys are saying. I felt the
Holy Spirit on it like it was
just a very convicting message. Not just
for myself, but I actually heard people,
like, come up to me and say
it was a convicting message. So I
think my takeaway is just that I'm
excited to be a part of a
ministry that believes in generosity, that believes

(41:44):
in giving and that. And we do
it, and we practice what we preach
here. And so that was an encouragement
to me. So when me and my
family, my household give, we know that
it's being used to build the kingdom.
So that was my takeaway. See, they're
all being nice today. Yay.

We still got, like, we Got no
time, 6 hours left in the day.

So you guys hear. Heard that here
first throughout the day. I'm gonna get
bullied. Not just on the show. No.
Well, we had an amazing time on
this show. I will encourage you to
go watch that. That sermon that Pastor
Carlton preaches on our YouTube page at
we Are Disciples Church. If you're not
following us, I know we did a

(42:26):
lot of transitions over the last couple
of weeks. Please follow us on social
media. And we are Disciples Church, and.

Yeah, don't. Don't break the lead. Come
on.

I'm not. Are you talking about the.
The new podcast? Yes. Come on. So
we are excited. Yes. You're missing it
because you are not on ig. Okay,
so can you join so that people
can actually leave their comments?

And she just wants more followers.

I do want more followers. We're trying.
Join me. I'm. I'm making a personal
ex. As we are trying to grow
our personal Instagram page for between sermons.
So you can find us now on
Instagram. At between sermons. Look us up
like the page, follow it. A lot
of you guys come and tell me
how much you love the show. Let

(43:10):
us know online as well. Leave us
a comment, share the page like subscribe
and we will see you guys next
week. Until then, I play. I pray
God's blessings over you. I dropped the
ball there. It was about to be
good and.

Then I dropped it.

May the Lord watch.

You may lift up his countenance upon
you and give you peace.

Amen.

Amen.

Go in peace.

May the Lord watch so we don't
kill.

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