A Biblical Vision For Your Money

Hey, come on. Let's give him a shout of praise. Woo! Hey, if you're a [music] fan of Jesus, why don't you just tap your neighbor on the shoulder?

I don't care how hard. Give him 60% [music] tap right here. Tell them, "Let him be your one thing. " Let him be your one thing.

Man, if we could just make him our one thing, I wouldn't be stressed out about this sermon today. I'm just being real. I I wouldn't be wondering [music] um like Gideon who's about to go up to battle and he's got I think someone told me it was 33,000. I said 22,000.

I screwed it up earlier. It's 33,000 people and some of them self- selected on their way. You can have a seat if you want to. I saw some people got tired.

You said it was 33, Ethan. 32. 32. God, I added one just to make it cooler.

I don't want to add anything to the scriptures, though. Oh, someone's going to leave the church for that, too. I'm just kidding. Ain't nobody leaving the church today.

Amen, somebody. I mean, you're going to walk out, though. You got to do that. Otherwise, we'll be in breach of lease, and we'll have some issues there.

Um, but sometimes I feel like Gideon, who's about to go up to battle, and he's got 32,000 people. Um, and a lot of them self- select. Uh, down to about uh there's a couple self- selection moments, but let's just say it's down to about 3,000 people. And God says, "I really need 300.

" I don't know if it's the amount of trumpets they had uh on inventory. Uh but God said, "I need 300 people, not 3,000 people. " So, he sends 3,000 people or the 3,000 people to like a a little watering hole. Some of them eat like this or drink water like this and then some of them stick their face in the water.

And for some reason, the one that stuck their faces in the water, they didn't get to go to battle. Uh but the 300 did. It was 300 people blowing trumpets. Sometimes I feel like if Jesus was our one thing, I wouldn't feel like Gideon.

Um, and I I I feel like every single person in the room is ready to receive God's word. Are you ready to receive God's word today? All right. Don't get mad at God about his word.

You can get mad at me about my words, but if they're God's words, don't get mad at me either. You know what I'm saying? We're going to be in a new series starting today. Who's excited about this new series?

Uh, y'all y'all tell me my new s our new series. Don't settle. All right. It's about spending, though.

So, if you don't have the money, don't go buy these shirts and get into debt on these shirts. I'll give you my sermon title really quickly. It It's called this, a biblical vision for money. A biblical vision for money.

Um, y'all y'all know last year we did it. I called it a giving series. I called it a giving series. I don't know.

Sometimes a challenger just like to trigger people. It's about giving, guys. This week, this this month, I want to talk about money in general. And I'm going to break that down in a few different ways.

It's not all going to be about giving. Um, but a huge component of it starts with giving. If you're going to honor God, if he's your one thing, if you're going to honor him with your money, the starting place of that is to offer him not just your life, but also the first fruits of whatever your harvest of wealth is in this world. Biblical imagery always says harvest, but we don't think of it as a harvest.

Unless you're one of those people who live here in Buckeye owns land and has harvest periodically, most of us think it as a paycheck. We're called to honor God with every bit of our wealth. And so, while I'm going to talk about giving quite frequently over the next five weeks, I'm going to talk about money in general, your spending habits. Mine, too.

I'm going to talk about how you attain wealth, invest, save, and then we'll talk about generosity. And and as I get closer to this, last year we had some good friends of mine actually leave the church during this series. about week three is like when you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit on you um and you know you're not going to change any of your behavior, what else you got to do? You don't want to keep sitting through it for another 3 weeks.

And so that was the transition a lot of people made last year. And it really it kind of broke my heart a little bit. I mean I still refer to it in conversations with my wife because cuz when your friends leave um because of a faith conversation that they need to have with God, it becomes really difficult. There are sometimes where I say the wrong thing.

Um, and I go back in my time with God and he reveals to me where I screwed up. And then sometimes he reveals to me that sometimes people just aren't ready uh to take that step of faith. And while I screwed up plenty, this was one of those times where people left because that step of faith um it could be triggering. It could be stressful and it could be frustrating um when you're in a place under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and you just don't feel like you can trust God financially.

So, I I sent a text out last night to somebody uh just asking them to pray for me, and I didn't ask for this, but they gave me a response, and I actually appreciated the response. Told them I was going to share it today. Um I just told them to pray for me because I'm we're starting this finance money series. And here's how they responded.

They said, "I did not personally like sermons about finance for two reasons. " This is in the past. The first is most of the time we're struggling and the pastor is asking you to give more and more so they reach more to the kingdom. Then they'll post that they received a million dollars so they can build some new pavilion.

That happens. Um we're in setup tear down mode. Um if we did build a pavilion it'd be for the school, not for us. So it' be outreach but that'd be cool when we can get a pavilion one of those days.

I don't know. I don't know if we need one. Uh the second reason and I think the more important one uh second reason this person would feel uncomfortable is because I was not doing what God has called us to do that is to give and give generously stemming from my personal this was stemming from my fear and lack of personal faith like that's why it stressed me out and we this was last year they did this for the first time they said this a year- end offering is something we do to thank God for what he did in the past year then also at the same time We start to meditate on the change that we want God to make in our lives over the coming year. We do an offering to stay within the rich tradition of those who came before us.

In Proverbs, we're called to give the first and the best of our fruits. This kicks off the start of the new year where we are faithful to God. It's a step that brings us into the new year. The year end offering hopefully will give you that deeper faith in Jesus.

Speaking from this person, they said, "I can tell you this. Jesus is the best investment we will have. He outperforms the S&P 500, outpaces inflation, uh is higher than any 401k. If you need it more simple, like I did, why do you trust in God with your eternal salvation, your spouse, your kids, yet you can't trust him with some artificial green paper?

I didn't say this. He did or she. At Orbit, we believe that you should give between 10% and everything because Jesus paid it all. I challenge you to ask God to give you something, a word or a phrase, and as you bring an offering, he will show up maybe in ways you can't even anticipate yet.

I thought that was a good word. I didn't say it, but you was a good word. I'll talk to you guys about like the tithing and stuff like that. Um maybe a little bit today, but definitely um in probably week I'm not going to tell you which week.

[laughter] In the coming weeks, we're going to talk about giving. I want to hear about his advice on spending and attaining wealth. Maybe not so much on giving. Yeah, I'm not going to tell you which week is which.

Um, but I want to give you my hypothesis. Uh, this is directly from my relationship with God and my reading of scriptures. And then I'm going to walk you through my proving or testing of this hypothesis in the scriptures. And then I'm going to give you a couple principles and conclusions that I think will be helpful for you.

So you can think of this as an introductory message for the remainder of the series which will culminate on December 7th. It's the Sunday where we're all going to come together with a word that we're believing God for and our faith in regard to our finances. I'll talk about that in a little bit. We're going to do that on December 7th.

There's actually going to be um some of our kiosks right here and we're going to come like all together line up and drop. You see those cards you have on your seat? Uh those are like offering cards, but they've also got a place for the word that you're believing God for. Whether there's an offering in the envelope or not, I want you to bring a word in faith on that Sunday.

So mark your calendars, December 7th. It's going to be it's a really amazing uh worshipful moment. But without further ado, I'll jump into my hypothesis. Here's my hypothesis.

It'll be on the screen right here. [sighs and gasps] Here it is. God cares. This is my hypothesis.

I got to prove it through scripture. I don't want to just tell you something I've been told from a young age when I turned 15. They told me immediately. I was like, I don't make an income.

So, I ignored it until I turned 23 and then I started to actually understand it. But God cares about how we steward or manage money. And there are four specific pockets that I'm talking about today. I'll probably blend a couple of them over the few weeks.

God cares about how we spend our money. God cares about how we save or invest our money. God cares about how we attain wealth. And God cares about our level of faith through giving.

That's my hypothesis that God cares about these things. [sighs] I think our vision is clear. We desire to help people find peace and develop purpose by revolving around everything around Jesus. And so it should be no surprise that everything includes money.

I don't think it'll be a surprise. I think when you look at Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook around this time every year, especially this year, it seems surprising. Um, but God cares about how you steward stuff. I'm going to keep saying manage and steward.

I'm going to interchange them just in case you don't you're not familiar with the term steward. God put something into your hand. Everything that you own is in your hand, but it's not yours. It's all God's.

Look at your neighbor. Tell them. If they got a necklace, be specific. You might tell them that necklace.

I'm just kidding. Look at them. Say, "Hey, it's not yours. You're not motivated about this.

" Cuz you're scared. The person sitting next to you, he's like, "I pulled up my bootstraps. I broke generational curses. I got a job.

Then I started a business. I made some money. Made some good investment decisions. I spent my money more wisely than my entire family did.

I got rid of the credit cards. And then I got them again because I'm so good with my finances and I need points. " You're scared that your neighbor's going to say all that stuff in their own mind when you tell them it's not yours. But I need you to know it's not yours.

It's God's. God created every living and inanimate thing on this green earth. And the green cash that's in your wallet is his too. You are but a steward, manager, custodian.

You don't like that. Uh custo guardian. You like that better? Guardian.

I'm a warrior. Everybody likes warrior. I'm a warrior of the faith with my wallet. Let's go.

That's my hypothesis that God cares about these things. So, what I want to do is I'm going to break down a couple scriptures and I'm going to start with the scripture that really I've read it a million times over. But it it kind of blew my mind what God was trying to do in my spirit. And it happened earlier this month, which only a couple days ago apparently.

So, like God was teaching me just this last week and I had to radically shift the direction that I was going in this message. Uh, and Carz was super happy with me when I gave him all these scriptures on Thursday. [snorts] I'm just kidding. He was he was he's a great he's a great servant of Christ Jesus.

That's what he is. Um first script is going to be in Matthew chapter 26. I'll read it to you. You might be familiar with the story.

It says this starting in verse 6. While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume or oil depending on the translation which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. Indignant means frustrated, baffled, confused, uh negatively pondering what was happening.

They said, "Why this waste? " Verse 9, "This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor. " Aware of this, what they were thinking, because Jesus could perceive thoughts better than anybody, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a wasteful thing.

No, it doesn't say wasteful, does it? What? What does it say? It says a beautiful thing to me.

The poor you will always have with you. Uh, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

Now, I believe it's Luke and John who both have differing stories of this situation. I'll give you a truth from the text in a moment, but I I need to break down what God did in me as I was reading this passage. I I don't even know where it came from, Hannah. Like, I wasn't going to preach on this, but I I don't know if like the Lord deposited something uh that just I ruminated on long enough and then I read it again and again and again.

And God taught me this that when you look at what happened, I've been taught from when I'm young, don't spend your money frivolously. Anyone else been taught that? Just say, "Yeah, I agree with that statement, by the way. " Don't hit me the wrong way.

So, I've always read this passage and tried to view it through my lens of being frugal with your money. And I've always kind of empathized with the disciples a little bit. I've even not like fully taught this text, but made jokes about this text. Like, y'all got to go easy on Judas a little bit because John tells us it was Judas who was ultimately indignant.

And he says, "This money could have been sold and given the proceeds given to the poor. " That's what Judas says. So, every time some of y'all are like, "Hey, y'all should have spent this money on the poor. " Just remember it might not be Jesus leading you to that.

It could be you could be being like Judas. I shouldn't have said that. Uh, but G Judas said that it's a logical deduction that hey, look at all this stuff. It is wasted on Jesus's body.

Uh this was an act of worship performed by this woman, but he saw it as waste. And sometimes people see what we do in the church as waste, but really for us, I don't know. When I bought this LED screen, I didn't do it just cuz I wanted more LEDs to put together every Sunday. I got it cuz I wanted people who came in for the first time, didn't have their Bible, uh and didn't have any knowledge of what God was going to teach them to be able to see, uh visibly what was happening uh in front of us.

If we had a projector screen, the lighting, because you wouldn't be able to see us if we didn't have lighting. And so the lighting would shine onto that projector screen and you wouldn't be able to see anything. So we thought intently about how worship could be improved when we bought this superficial thing. We don't need it.

I want to be clear. We don't need it. Um but I've seen people hop on Tik Tok, Instagram or Facebook and say all these churches with their LED screens. I don't know why other churches bought it, but I know why we bought the LED screen.

And someone will come in and say, "You should be giving all that money to the poor. " The first thing I want to ask is in my flesh. You know, when your first response is in your flesh, first response is in the flesh. It's like, I just wonder, I wonder if you gave any money to the poor this year.

I'm pretty sure the people I see on Instagram, Tik Tok aren't doing it. I'm just I I could be wrong, though. They could be just like donating half their income uh to Starbucks when they click the tip. I don't know.

Sorry, that was too harsh. I'm not me. I didn't mean to. I'm so sorry.

that was my flesh. But then as I thought longer on this passage, it's like there is a time to spend money on what looks to others maybe is wasteful or superficial. This is not permission for you to go on a shopping spree right now as we get closer to Christmas. But that's what blew my mind.

It's like I've been taught to save, Lord, but but here this woman spent tons of money. And it's not like it was just intuitive. Like the people didn't even know he was about to die. He had told him several times, but they were missing the picture.

This woman, I don't even know if she knew he was about to die. Maybe she was like perfectly perceptive, but my view of the text is that this woman had this oil and was like, "He needs a little I perfume or oil like this. Jesus needs some of this right now. So, I'm going to take it.

I'm going to pour it on him as an act of worship. I'm going to use my hair. I'm going to clean it up a little bit. " Um, just I don't know, just lathering his body up in in oil and perfume.

It's a weird conversation, but Jesus said, "This is a beautiful thing. " Why? Because it started with worship. That's what she did.

This is a beautiful thing that this woman did. But my logic was saying, "No, that seems wasteful. " And this this flipped every assumption I had about money on its head for me even this week. Like some of this I have already understood.

But like what was stressful to me is it's like, "Oh my gosh, it's not just trusting God with 10% and then stopping. It's asking God how he wants me to continually be generous. It's not just attaining wealth for the purpose of uh pursuing the American dream and having retirement one day so I don't have to be stressed financially. I can be financially free when I'm 60 and can't hike up a mountain, you know, like that.

Like I'm not talking mess about it. I'm just hopefully I can. I'm just I shouldn't have said that comment. But but then it's it's also spending.

It's like don't just not spend frivolously. It's be intentional in your conversation with God about everything that you spend. Yeah. And it needs to be something that adds to your worship or somebody else's capacity to worship, not something that is just frivolous and pointless.

So when it comes to our spending, the way that we attain wealth, and the way that we're generous in the way that God calls us to, when it comes to all three of those things, there is no black and white answer. It's complex. I need you, you might need to close your eyes for this and tell yourself this. It's okay to be complex.

Jesus told the disciples when he when they walked out into an agrarian society and people were actually going to let them in their house because the culture of hospitality was so strong that if they didn't let them in their house uh then they would be like you know shunned by that community. It was in some ways super super black and white for the disciples as they went out on their initial missionary journey. But Jesus told them this. He said be wise as serpents innocent as doves.

That's complex guys. And when it comes to your money, looking for the simple way out will always leave you wanting in your connection with God and in the proper application of the wealth he's handed you, not to own, but to utilize to the glory of God and the benefit of those who need to hear about God. That's what all of our money's for. And if we never think about it, we're in trouble.

That's the first passage. It it blew my mind. So here's the truth from the text. Very simple.

Spending isn't always wrong. Spending on superficial things isn't always wrong. Spending on things that other people would consider waste isn't always wrong. This is not permission.

This is not permission. This isn't the time for you to ignore your text from your husband or from your wife and then post it on TikTok and say, "I'm sometimes you just got to move on with your day and ignore your husband's text about finances that you spent too much on. " This is not one of those times. But sometimes God will call you to spend in a way that seems extravagant to somebody else or wasteful to somebody else.

Say sometimes though. Sometimes. Sometimes though. Sometimes.

I'm trying to help us be smart. Uh but but it's not it's not black and white. Here's the second text I want to give you. It's in Matthew chapter 25.

Uh we'll be in verses 14 kind of through the end of the passage, but I'm going to skip around a little bit just to keep it shorter. You may have heard of it. It's a parable of the uh bags of gold or uh talents. Verse 14, Matthew 25 again.

It will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more.

So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money. Just so we're tracking, what did the person who got one bag of gold do? He buried it.

Good. Verse 24, I'm jumping ahead. Then the man who had received one bag of gold came to the master and said, "Master, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you have not swn and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I will say that word with me.

A is up there. " So I was afraid. Y'all afraid to say it with me? So So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground.

See, here is what belongs to you. His master replied, "You wicked, lazy servant. " He called him lazy. Wicked sucks, but it's lazy.

Come on, man. I'm just kidding. They're both bad. So you knew that I harvest where I've not sown and gather where I've not scattered seed.

Well, then you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers so that when I returned, I would have received it back with interest. And it's interesting cuz he says you should have done this, but the other two guys, they had like multiplied it. They had doubled the amount. So, one thing that you could add there within the syntax of the Greek, he said, "Well, then you should have at least put my money on deposit with the bankers.

" Here's your truth from the text. Saving isn't always right. It's from the text. Passage number three, Luke chapter 16.

Oh, Luke chapter 12, sorry. Luke chapter 12 16- 21. And he told him this parable. The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.

He thought to himself, "What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. " Then he said, "This is what I'll do. I'll tear down all the barns I currently have, and I'll build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.

And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, "You fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you.

Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich toward God. " It's an interesting thing, right? It's like he called them like what did he say?

He said lazy and wicked in the last one. He called them fools in this one. God didn't always use this language. Jesus doesn't always use this language when he talks about certain things, but in the money ones, he always does.

It's a strange thing that God does. Here's your truth from the text. Acrewing wealth isn't always good. Here's another one.

Love it. Um, hold on. Yeah, here it is. Scripture is Mark 12:es 41- 44.

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put. This is in the temple. And watch the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.

Is that cool? Rich people throwing in large amounts. I hear about that all the time. I haven't seen it, but I've heard about it.

It's like I hear all my other pastor friends, they talk about, "Oh, we got a million dollar donation. " I'm just like, "That's it's great for you. " Um, but rich people can do that. That's cool.

Um, I think they should. I think with whatever wealth you have, you should honor God with it. But here's what it says. It says that it says that he was watching the crowd put money into the temple and many rich people were throwing in large amounts.

Verse 42, but a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the other, not just a couple others, all the others. You see the uh the metric there wasn't amount, it was faith. Verse 44, they all gave out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty, she put in everything.

All she had to live on. The truth from the text is this. Giving isn't always faith. [snorts] Giving isn't always faith.

I mean, you can give a large sum to a church. You can give a lot to the poor. But if it has nothing to do with your worship of God and deeper connection with him, then it's not faith. is philanthropy, which isn't bad.

It's not bad. You should totally do it. I went to school and looked at statues uh in college because of philanthropy. [snorts] Y'all don't get it.

Uh you know that the statue cuz some dude donated a lot of money 60 years ago and I got to look at it every week cuz he was a big donor. Anyways, never mind. I don't care about all that. Next passage, it's going to be in Luke chap 16 13-15.

This is the last verse I'll give you today, guys. No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Now other um other gospels and other translations uh might say mammon. Mammon is kind of like a demigod or semigod or full-on god uh that was considered uh to be like operating back in the day. And so when God says mammon, he's saying it's not just a thing, it's a god to you. He says you cannot serve both god and mammon, which is money brought to the highest degree where it leads you rather than you controlling it.

Right? Verse 14. The Pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. It's not just Judas.

It's Pharisees, too. We're just talking about Jesus's words on money. Don't sneer at me. Sne don't be a Pharisee.

Verse 15. He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. " Meaning, what your hands do doesn't necessarily impact what your heart does. What people value highly is often detestable in God's sight.

And again, you see in this moment, just like in the first passage, what God viewed as worship, Judas and some of the disciples viewed as waste, in this place, it says this. Often what people value highly is detestable or wasteful in the sight of God. Here's your truth from the text. Actually, I'll give you a couple principles.

First thing I want to tell you with God and money, if it controls you, it's your God. If it controls you, it's Y'all are killing it today. I appreciate you got love it. I'm going to do it myself internally if you don't do it.

The rocks will cry. [laughter] It's so dumb. All right. Think about the things that might control you.

It could be your spouse. None of you toxic males. I know you don't have that. But but your spouse could be could be controlling you.

Um I'm not just talking about men being controlled by women. I'm talking about the alternative. Your spouse can control your kids. They might be your God.

I mean, if God calls you to do something and your excuse is it's nap time, that might I'm just You should to You should totally have naps. All the single people up here, Amen. And I'm like, they don't know who I'm talking to out here. You got to have naps.

It's a healthy thing to do. You're a great parent if you give your kid naps. But if God calls you to do something that would that would that would require you to make an adjustment to your schedule, you should do that. You can't figure it out.

I figure it out. Uh, kids living in other countries don't have normal stuff, but they're happier than our kids. You know what I'm saying? Like, they'll figure it out.

But your God could also be money. What happened to me this this week is my my my wife, she she pays our bills. The way we say it is I'm intelligent with money. She's disciplined with money most of the time.

And so, she pays our bills. I heard some of the income, too. Don't like judge me for it. Um, and she she pays bills apparently.

She pays them at 4:30 in the morning cuz she woke me up by like Matt Matt Matt Matt Matt at 4:30 in the morning. I was about to wake up, but it's still 30 30 minutes before my alarm hits. You know, I was a little frustrated. She said, "Our mortgage went up by $300 a month, and it's October, November.

" So, I was like, "Hey, it's probably just an escrow thing. No big deal. I'll check into it later. Let me go back to bed.

" Bye. That's how that went. And then she said, "No, I'm I'm" She woke me up again. and she said, "No, I think this is what it's going to be a monthly thing.

" And so then I'm freaking out. I'm like, "Well, we can't afford that. " So I started looking at it and I realized it was a homeowner's insurance thing. My my point in that for about 45 seconds, I money controlled every aspect of how I was thinking and feeling.

Money, lack thereof, fears of the future, and then God got a hold of me. It it the luxury I have is that I'm prepping for a sermon on money. So So I have reason, oh, what's God doing here? What's God doing?

Oh, money was my god in that moment. And I looked at Hannah and did what you should never do. I said, "M Hannah, don't let money be your god. " [laughter] I I did say it like that, but then I I broke it down as any good husband would do on a good day.

But if it controls you, it's your God. And what we're doing is we're allowing rather than God having authority over every aspect of our lives. We're allowing money to control our schedules. Um, the way that we do things with our kids, the way that we do things with our spouse, uh, the way that we're generous or not generous, the way that we spend, the the way that we do everything, [clears throat] we're allowing money to rule over us.

And if it rules over you, it's your God. If it controls you, it's your God. But money is not a god. It's a thing.

Yahweh is God. Amen. And so if if you were to give this series a purpose, it is to help you get to the place where Yahweh is your God, his presence is your drive, and money is just a thing that you utilize to give honor and glory to him. You rule over it.

That's what God called you to do in the first place. He created Adam and Eve, and he says you have authority over creation. And money, it's a created thing. Sometimes they're creating way too much of it.

You know what I'm saying? Uh inflation, I know, not cool. But just like that person said, God's faster than inflation. Let's go.

It's a good word. Principle number two, this comes from all of them, but specifically from the first one. When it comes to spending, attaining wealth, and generosity. If it isn't worship, it's waste.

If it isn't worship, it's waste. Now, I break that down over the next couple of weeks. Um, but you might be immediately thinking, "Hold up. There are things I spend money on, but I'm not I don't worship.

" You [snorts] should be worshiping God when you make the decision to buy a house because you bought that house in order to glorify and honor God, right? When you spend money on your kids, shouldn't you be thinking, "How do I honor God with this? And how do I honor God through parenting by buying this thing and helping them get to that place? " Right?

When it comes to your investments and savings, I I I like to trigger people sometimes. Y'all know this about me. And I I triggered a a church staff member one time because I walked up to him and they were talking about how they didn't have any money. And I I just stopped as a jerk.

I shouldn't have done that. I said, "You know, I think I want to be ultra wealthy. I'm a pastor, man, so people don't like that. " And I had to break it down cuz she just sneered at me.

She wasn't a Pharisee, but she looked like one for a second. And and she was like, "How dare you desire money that deeply? " I said, "Hold on, hold on, hold on. " I said, 'N no, I don't desire money.

I desire to multiply the thing that God gave me and he's given me money. So rather than sit here judging people who have tons of wealth because they multiplied what God handed them, I'm going to put my feet to the plow and figure out how I can be smart with my money so I can get to the place where I can glorify God more and more with every single bit of the superficial resources he's put in my lap. That's what I want to do, right? Uh, so when it comes to all these different areas, God wants us to honor him.

And so, let me give you my big idea, the fulfillment or the conclusion of my hypothesis, and then I'm going to break a few more things down. I ain't done yet, y'all. Chill out. Big idea.

Worship God in the way that you spend, save, attain wealth, and give. Serious title: Do not settle for less than God's way. Don't settle for less than worshiping God. Don't settle um for the thing that everybody else does, so you're going to choose to do it.

Uh I'm scared to say this right now because I haven't talked to my wife about it. Um but it's not going to commit us to anything, I swear. But I was just thinking, I was like, did you look at our interest payment on our house this year? Did you look at it?

That's crazy. And it's just going to banks. It's crazy. I'm not saying we're going to get rid of the house.

Don't hear me saying that. Uh, but what I am saying is I'm thinking intently, trying to be wise as a serpent, innocent as a dove, worshipful in the way that I appropriate every iota of my finances, everything, spending, earning, giving, every bit of it. That's the big idea. And I'm going to break this down over the next couple of weeks.

And I think to tie in to what I'm going to be breaking down over the next few weeks, this idea of really stewarding money the way God's called us to. It's not just a giving series. It's a spending series. It's not just a spending series.

It's a earning series. It's about all of the above. I'm trying to help you. I'm trying to listen to what God says uh and allow you to hear it enough that you apply it to your life and see the fruit of the harvest that comes when you trust God financially.

That's what I want us to see. So, I'm going to do an illustration. Here's an illustration. And and I was I was really nervous about it.

I thought a long time about the illustration. And so what I'm going to do is I am going to uh give someone in the room $100 of my personal money, not the church's money, just to be clear. Uh it's not play money is is is is cash. I say cash, it's going to be zel because who carries cash anymore?

Uh unless you're doing Dave Ramsey method, which is super healthy for you. Keep that money in the envelope, but just don't bury them in the sand. Make sure you put it to work. You know what I'm saying?

A and I want you, whoever receives $100, I want you to do one very clear thing with it. And don't hear this the wrong way. I'm not comparing myself to God. I'm doing this as an illustration that I think will help you a little bit.

I want you to honor me with the cash that I am handing over to you. I say I'm handing it. I'm I'm entrusting you with it for the next four to six weeks. Do you know they say low risk, lowward reward, high risk, high reward.

This is a high-risisk illustration, but could be a high reward illustration, not just for you guys seeing the illustration, but who knows what'll happen. I tried to convince my wife. I told her, I said, "I need to give $200 away in service today. " And she's like, "What?

" And I tried to convince her. It was like a whole sales pitch. I was like, "Yeah, but what what if they really do something great with it? " You know, who know?

It could be an investment. Uh maybe they get the next bit of Bitcoin or something like that. But sorry, it's a joke. But but here's what I want you to do with it, and you can choose.

You can use it or spend it. You you can invest it. You can give it. But the point is do it in a way that it's my money, right?

So, it's God's money that he's given to me and I'm trying to steward it by giving it to you, right? Like try to honor honor me with it. It It's weird. I know it sounds weird.

Um but it's an illustration because everything that you have, whose is it? It's God's. And I bet you've never thought for about two seconds about the fact that every single thing you own is meant to be put toward the purpose God has, not your own thoughts, desires, and feelings. Amen.

It it's it's what he's called us to. And so that's what this illustration is. I bet some of you are wondering if I'm just going to randomly pick somebody and you just felt your heart rate elevate from about 60. Let's say you're healthy at 60 and it jumped up to about 112.

You're like, "Please don't call me. Please don't call I mean, some of you are like, "I don't even know Matt and I don't even know what he likes. I don't know what would honor him. I don't know if I should spend money, invest money, or give money away.

" And and you're like, "I I don't even know what I would do. " In fact, when I started thinking of this illustration, I was like, "What would I do with it? " I started to think, it took five minutes. It took about five minutes, but God started to give me some ideas about what I could do to intentionally honor God with my money.

But in this case uh as the experiment uh to honor me with what I've given you. Like how many of you have felt that tension in the room? Just think about it, right? Like what does it mean to honor somebody?

What do I do with it? And in four weeks I'm going to check back with this person and I might not do it publicly. It just depends. That's just it's a risk.

It's a risk. I'm going to check back with this person and we'll see what they did with the $100. I'm not looking for them to like impress me. Um, or even just lavish me with something good.

Uh, I was just going to give you a point. I I I'm not a gifts person, just FYI. My wife buys me something, I'm like, you you spent what on this thing that you bought me? That's so great of you.

It costs a lot of money. Um, but I'm looking for you to do what God leads you to do with it. And if you understand the heart of what is meant by this illustration, so I won't I'm not going to call on you randomly. I would stress you out because you don't know me like that.

I was going to call you Jake. Jeff, do you mind? Yes, sir. You want to do it?

You don't have to. You sure? Okay. Jeff's one of my favorite people.

Push-ups. No, no push-ups. No [applause] push-ups. I got to go with say people I know, but I I don't know what you're going to do.

I don't know how you spend your money or anything like that. Hey, I don't have cash. It's Oh. Oh, you don't have to take care of me.

Don't take care of me. God doesn't need our help. I don't need your help. Uh, I'm not God.

It's It's weird. It's getting It's getting complicated. Point is, I'm gonna sell that to you. Actually, Hannah's gonna sell it to you.

So, give her your zel information. She's gonna sell it to you. Um, do you want to sell you $100 or $90? 90.

As a joke, guys, as a joke. No, Zel 100. Zelund. We'll do it.

Unless you Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Give it up for this guy.

Hey. Hey. I didn't think about it until this morning, Ethan. Matthew.

I didn't think about it until this morning. Well, I thought of the illustration before this morning, but I didn't think about it. It's like, man, what if they like invest into Bitcoin, a different kind of Bitcoin, not the one that's $1,000 a thing, Ethereum, whatever. Who cares?

All right. Hey, have fun with that. But let me bring it to to the whole goal of this illustration. The whole goal of this illustration is very simple.

It's to help you start stewarding the resources God has given you. Cuz I believe a couple things about this. I I believe that when you steward the wealth that God has placed in you wisely through spending, through the way that you earn, and through the way that you're generous as God calls you to, that that is your pathway to your best life. And I don't say that tongue and cheek.

I mean it. There are people in this room who have experienced the blessing of trusting God financially and they would never go back. I challenge you to find me someone who's trusted God financially in all the areas. And I promise you that I can't promise.

there's some some people in there. Um, but I I I challenge you to find me somebody who regrets trusting the Lord in that way. Uh, so that's that's one thing I want us to do. I want us to steward well because there's a blessing that comes from it.

Number two, there's a purpose that God has for your money and it's not for nonchalant frivolous things. It's for the kingdom of God to be expanded. That's the per that's the purpose of our money. He gave us breath and life to love on us so that we would worship him.

So let's worship him in this way by doing well with what he has entrusted to us. And again the series is called don't settle. And I want to introduce more fully the year- end offering to you guys today. There are multiple parts to the year- end offering.

Uh the year- end offering is it would be on the screen. I just I wrote it out to be super clear. It's almost credle if you will. The year end offering is an act of worship.

It's a moment to put God first, loosen money's grip on our lives, and trust him with our future. My wife and I have done this since 2017. We started, I think, tithing. I don't know how old I was, but we got married.

The year we got married is when we started. I waited I waited a while. I was 15 when I became a Christian. So, I just waited a while till I got income.

And then when we got married, my wife was like, "You better. " And so, I said, "Okay, we'll start doing this. " and we started tithing and we got used to it. And so in 2017, I was at a church that threw out this idea of a year-end offering.

And to me, it was like, some of y'all know the feeling of trusting God financially for the first time. Some of y'all know the feeling of increasing to the tithe for the first time. Some of y'all know the feeling of giving a a big amount for the first time. That's that is what this year end offering is for me specifically is it's a time where I can intentionally reccalibrate my mind and rather than letting money be my God, I force it to loosen its grip by taking a step of faith and believing God for something in the next year while also bringing faith in the form of a financial gift to the Lord.

So that's what the year end offering is. First, it's belief. It's faith. It's it's prayer.

It's it's time with God where we are intentionally seeking his will for our life. See, a lot of you have different situations going on in your life and God's trying to do something through every single one of those scenarios. It might be a family situation, could be a job thing, it could be something random that I'm unaware of. Whatever it is in your life, these situations God is trying to use so that you would learn more about him, lean on him, and have more faith in him.

And so, what you're going to do is you're going to look at your life situations. You're going to ask God, God, what are you trying to do in my life? What do you want to do through my life? How do you want me to shift or change?

And this question is going to reveal what God's trying to do in some of those situations. And what you're going to notice in these situations is a theme in your life. For me, last year, the theme in my life was momentum. God was teaching me what it was like.

We had launched the church. What is it like to actually start moving forward as a church? Faith doesn't stop just because we launched. Faith needs to continue.

So for me, God was like, "You need to take active steps of obedience that I can bless, but it's hard for me to bless acts of obedience that you haven't taken yet. " And so I said, "Momentum for me is taking steps of faith. " It was that that genuinely like like it literally led me to start talking to the team about this Easter egg drop that we did. And so I started talking to the team about Easter egg drop.

I said, "I know it's going to be expensive. Eggs candy is expensive. It's going to be I don't know if anyone's going to show up to this thing. It's going to cost a little bit to market.

I don't know if the school's going to say yes. And then we took a step, started planning it. Where' we get a helicopter from? And we found a helicopter.

I'm not going to step off this. It's no big deal. Um, and then we were like, "Oh, yo, it takes way longer to fill eggs with candy than we thought it did. Takes forever.

" But then we get to that day, a lot of faith steps. And then if y'all remember, 7,000 people came. That was cool. And anyone on the guest experience team knows for a fact that most of the people who are showing up for the first time heard about us through that Easter egg drop or came to the Easter egg drop.

For me specific, this is me. This is not necessarily This is me. That word God gave me has played out so beneficially in my life. So you're going to look at your situations, figure out a theme, and you're going to boil that down, funnel it down to a word or a phrase that you're believing God for in the next year.

these cards on your seat. You see that place? That's where you're going to write that word and we're going to bring it here together on this thing right here. You'll be able to write your word and we'll be able to pray over them as a staff and as a leadership team.

But the second part of this, it's not just uh believing God for a word and not taking any action steps is we're going to believe God when it comes to bringing the first fruits of our harvest back to him. Because all of these things that we'll talk about, spending, attaining wealth, and giving, all of them are important. But there's one that God very clearly commands us to do consistently, regime, regimentally, regiment, regimentedly, I don't know, uh, consistently. There's one, and we typically call it the tithe.

But what we're doing this year end is we're breaking it down into three specific pockets or buckets. The first is some of you have never trusted God financially. I want to encourage you to start praying about that step right now. What does it look like for you to take your first step in trusting God financially um by bringing your harvest, a portion of your harvest, the first fruit of your harvest back to uh the house [snorts] so that it could be used for the purposes that God has.

Uh I don't know what percentage that would be. Um but for you, it's going to be your first time. It might be scary, but I'm believing God's going to bless that faith step. Some of you, you've done that before.

Uh other pastors, not me, they're more bold. They would say, "You've maybe been tipping God, but you haven't been tithing, right? " I I didn't They said it. I just heard it and I'm shouldn't recycle stuff.

Y'all are stressing me out on the front. I like it. I kind of like it. It feels kind of good, you know.

But God But God called us to at least do the rudimentary practice of the Old Testament. That's a direct quote from St. Augustine. If you like St.

Augustine, he's someone that both Catholics and Protestants like pretty pretty frequently. And he says this um God has called us in the New Testament to give all that we have um for the purpose of his kingdom. All he said all that's what the early church did. He said all New Testament generosity is all.

Um but he said since that's really difficult thing to do our general practice is to at least start with the base level rudimentary practice of the Old Testament and that's the tithe. The tithe is 10% of your first fruits or income to the local church. That's what God calls us to do. So, some of you have trusted God financially, but you haven't increased to the percentage tithe that he's called you to.

And that'll be scary for you. I know some people in the past two weeks who have done that, and they're they're excited about it right now. It's a faith step for them, but there's also a little fear that can come along with that. And as God gives you a word, he's going to give you uh which step you should take.

And then the third one is for those of us who are consistent uh with our tithes and our offerings. We're used to doing this, but I need you to know God has called us higher upward calling. If y'all remember Philippians, higher. God has called us to move forward in faith doing all that he's called us to do.

And just because you hit the Old Testament uh standard doesn't mean you shouldn't push forward to New Testament radical generosity where we continue to increasingly trust God with the wealth that he has placed in our hands. And if you go look at all secular data, you're going to see this that one of the pathways to greater wealth is an abundance mindset that stems or creates generosity in you. You go go look at it. Go look at the secular world.

You look at how to get rich. You don't have to look at the Lord's way. How to get rich. Be generous is one of the things on the top five.

That's what it says. But God said it first, didn't he? He knows that the way to loosen the hold that mammon has over us is to trust him. Be it the first time, be it the first fruits, or be at the radical generosity u that he called us to.

So, you're going to have a word, you're going to have a phrase, you have all the info that you need. I would encourage you strongly to take that with you. You see it behind me as well. All that data that you should have.

You're also going to receive something in the mail this week. Why? Because we wanted to make sure everybody got it. U and I've got a letter for you guys that that I wrote.

I don't remember what it says exactly, but our posture for you is is not this. And I want to be so abundantly clear. The posture is not to get a big lump at the end of the year so that we can pay staff next year. That's not the goal.

The goal is not for me uh to to feel good and take it easy since we have more people trusting Jesus financially. The goal is not for me to feel better to do things when it comes to the business. And just in case anyone's new here and they don't know my heart and posture, the goal is definitely not for me to go buy another house for myself or a jet or two jets or any of those things. The goal of the year end offering is not is not so the church grows.

It's not so the church has solid income. It's not any of that. It's so that God's people would be faithful. So that you would experience the joy that comes with trusting him financially.

It's so that you would experience life abundantly. and you just don't if you don't do it, you don't know what I'm talking about. And I want you to taste and see how good he is. It's always so good.

And my job, this is part of the job. And I I I don't hate this part of the job. I love every aspect of it, but some of them I have a difficult relationship with, if that makes sense. And this is one of the parts of the job I have a difficult relationship.

We say we have five Gs at our church. These are kind of your general pathways to growth and connection to God. gather, attendance, come to church, grow, read your Bible, start to pray, uh you know, develop into a leader, uh go make disciples, all that stuff. Group, small group, uh go, which is serving or going out into the community, exposing yourself to to to the different pockets so that you'll know what God wants to do in different places.

And then the fifth one is give, gather, grow, group, give, go. And here's what I want to tell you. I'm going to preach on all five of them. And I'll make a covenant with you right now.

Just because you don't do all five and you're starting with one or starting with three or four, even if you're not ready to do the fifth one, I'm still gonna love you. God still loves you. God's still making waves in your life that'll increase momentum toward him. You're still doing great.

But this is also part of it. So, while I'm not going to judge you or get frustrated at you, if you're like four out of the five, please, please, please, from the bottom of my heart, I beg you, don't get frustrated at me for talking about the fifth one. And if you're one of those, cuz we had a we had several people leave last year, and I wasn't like rude about it. It's just when the conviction of the Holy Spirit comes on you and you get to the third or fourth week, you're done.

And the conviction of the Holy Spirit hurts when you've already chosen the other direction. And so I want to encourage you, even if you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit and you've decided in your spirit that you're not going to do that just yet, keep pursuing God in other ways. I'm believing that one day God's going to reveal to you this very truth that he does way more with your investment or with your money than you ever