I am furrowed like the field, torn open like the dirt And I know the two behave, that I must be broken first I am making for the yield, that you will harvest from this hurt A bite in me, that these branches bury fruit A bite in me low, that I bite in you So I kneel at the bright edge of the garden At the golden edge of dawn, at the glowing edge of spring The moment turns edges gone, and I can see the color green I can hear the solar saw, a bite in me, that these branches bury fruit A bite in me low, that your word take on Re-moving me, branch the bears no fruit in me low As I bite in you, it's no far down from the sky And they don't return, but they water the earth and they bring forth life Give and seed to the soul, bread for the hunger So shall the word of the Lord be where they sound like thunder And it will not return, it will not return for We shall be led in peace, and go out with joy And the hills before us, will raise their voices And the trees of the field will clap their hands as the land rejoices And instead of the fore now, the cycrous tower And instead of the briar, the Myrtle blooms with a thousand flower And it will make a name, make a name for our God A sign everlasting, that will never be caught off As the earth brings forth, sprouts from the sea With so many garden groves into a mighty tree So the word plays justice, justice and dreams To rise before the nations to the end of day As the rain and snow fall, down from the sky And they don't return, but they water the earth and they bring forth life Give and seed to the soul, bread for the hunger So shall the word of the Lord be where they sound like thunder And it will not return, it will not return for It will not return, it will not return for It will not return, it will not return for it You shall be led in peace, and go out with me And the so we're leaders, and the so we're leaders And the so we're leaders, my soul for soot Thus David once in anguish spoke, and thus our diagon Oh it's your chief delight to dwell among your praising saints And yet you hear us groan as well and pity our complete Our fathers trusted in your knee And great deliverance found, but he's a worm despised of men Trauma to life as a single down this weekend, okay Good morning everyone, we are so good to have you all here If you're new here, welcome, if you've been here forever Also welcome, it's just amazing to see you on this wonderful, peaceful Sunday morning If we can all stand together, prepare our hearts for worship And let's get started this morning Good morning, alright Let's get to worship Before that, I want to introduce this song, it's very special Because it's entitled the Lion and the Lamb, which is complete opposite But there's a beautiful thing about Jesus, he's the Lion and the Lamb In power, in mighty, you know, he won the battles for us But another battle the Lamb has won at the cross Jesus humbled himself for all of us, for our regension, for the redemption of our sins So we can have it turn to life in him So I want to encourage you to keep that in mind, to sing this song And also, let's do some clapping, okay? Hey, King James will rock, and every chain And every chain will break, and spoken hearts declare his praise Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah He's roaring with power, and fighting the battles Every knee will bow before him Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was named And he sends off the world, he spuds the chains And every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb Oh, every knee will bow before him So open up the gates, so open up the gates Make way before the King of King The God who comes, the God who comes to save He's here to set the cobs to three Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah He's roaring with power, and fighting the battles Every knee will bow before him Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was named And he sends off the world, he spuds the chains And every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb Oh, every knee will bow before him Who can stop the Lord Almighty?
Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord, he's no one Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord, no sin, no grave Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord?
Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord Almighty?
Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord Almighty?
Come on, let's pray, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Jesus. He won the battle.
And there's what the relationship says. Every knee will bow down before our Lord, King Jesus Christ. So there's nothing to be afraid of. He won the greatest battle.
Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for your love. Our imperfection is not in the way. No barrier.
God. No sin. Thank you, Jesus. You were sing over the wind so, so good.
Before I took a breath, before I took a breath, you with your life. You have been so, so good to me. It says me down fights in love. I could have earned it.
I don't serve it. And that was your fault. Now what's your fault? It's still your love, part for me.
You have been so, so good. You have been so, so good to me. When I've found the word, you paid it all. You have been so, so kind to me.
Jesus, me down fights in love. Peace, the 99. I could have earned it. I don't serve it.
Still, you can't use it away. Honest love, love for me. It says, shout out. There's no shadow, you won't lie up.
Moved and you won't climb up. Come left to me. It's the wall. There's no wall, you won't kick down.
Lie, you won't sail down. Come left to me. There's no shadow, you won't lie up. Moved and you won't climb up.
Come left to me. There's no wall, you won't kick down. Lie, you won't tear down. Come left to me.
There's no shadow, you won't come left to me. Moved and you won't lie up. It's taking this time to just be thankful. Because this love is for you, for each and everyone of us.
It's not just for selected people. It's for all of us. It's for us. It's for God's soul of the world.
Not those righteous Christians only, or the nice ones. All of us, all of us, every person. We're part of that. It's reckless love.
Yeah, it's dangerous because Jesus is not getting anything. He just gave it away. Okay, I love you. I don't know how to return it back, but I love you anyway.
So, Jesus, we thank you. I thank you for this kind of love. This love that you poured out, Lord God, to us perfectly. This is a plane of the cross.
And why are we asked for your love? Because your love's the best, but this world is not loving like you do. So, God, we ask, we ask for your love in this world. Lord, help us.
Help us to capture that love. Overflow in us, Lord God. Because this world doesn't need another manufactured love, Lord God. You want your love.
We want your love, your neighbors, our God for our neighbors, our coworkers. Most people around us, Lord God, especially unlovable. It's strangers because you know that you love the world, you die. Oh, how you love us from the horse to the famous in the tomb.
Because your form does, you made us carefully, because in the end you're all your children. So help me to learn arms like you do. I thought that we were the source of lines that sees the truth. Oh, then when they look in my eyes they would see you.
Even in just a smile. It was beautiful to find us love. So let all my life tell the who you are. And to wonder of your never-ending love.
Not all my life. All that all my life tell the who you are. That you're wonderful. That you're wonderful.
It's such a good father. Let all my life tell who you are. And to wonder of your never-ending love. Not all my life.
All that all my life will tell the who you are. That you're wonderful. That you're wonderful. That you're wonderful.
That you're wonderful. That you're wonderful. That you're wonderful. And to help me to love the whole life like you do.
I thought that we were the source of the lines that sees the truth. Oh, that when they look in my eyes, they wilt to you Even in just a smile, they would feel the farthest love Even in just a smile, they would feel the farthest love Your name is love, you love Jesus What a beautiful name it is What a beautiful name it is The name of Jesus Christ my King What a beautiful name it is Nothing compares to this What a beautiful name it is The name of Jesus What a beautiful name it is What a beautiful name it is The name of Jesus Christ my King What a beautiful name it is Nothing compares to this What a beautiful name it is The name of Jesus What a beautiful name it is, the name of Jesus. I beg your hands with me, have my Father. We declare you King, and we declare that, we put everything at your feet.
We ask that you search our hearts for anything that we're not putting at your feet, Lord. And Lord, we ask you to give us the courage, the boldness, the comfort in the presence of brothers and sisters that we are able to put whatever is not at your feet at your feet, Lord. And Lord, we pray that the love, your love that is present here just infects us, Lord. It becomes our reality, it becomes who we are.
And there's nothing that keeps us from declaring our allegiance to your name as King, Lord. Jesus name, amen. Thank you, all good. Have a seat.
Can I give up for worship team? Thank you guys. That was awesome. All right.
Well, good afternoon, everyone. I can say that now it's out 1207. It's only a good morning. Good afternoon.
For those who don't know me, I'm Jake Ferrari. I'm an elder here at ENCS. It is just so good to see you. When I first got up here, I said, welcome to all who are new.
And I say that again, welcome to all who are new. And welcome to everyone who's been here forever. It is good to see all of your faces this morning at this afternoon. I'm going to catch myself every time now.
Now we're going to enter a moment of fellowship with each other. You are noticing that you're around tables, which if you're new, that might be surprising. But we like to get to know one another. We like to look each other's eyes, introduce ourselves, and get to know another.
So on the screens behind me, you will see some meet and greet questions. We ask you first, if you'll feel free to introduce yourself, or you came from us a little bit yourself, if you don't know each other. And then you pick one of the questions that's on there. What's your go-to coffee order or favorite drink right now here and now?
Or what is one of your highlights from the week? I'll go first. My favorite go-to coffee order is coffee. Done.
OK. All right, get to it. And then after that, Pastor Perry will be up here to introduce you all today's message. Good morning, every nation.
Family. Good to see you. Happy spring. Happy spring.
We made it. Spring is here. Come on, man. I say, when I saw spring was here, the sun's coming out.
I'm like, Jesus, more sunlight in Seattle. Let's go. Excited the sun is out. Anyway, glad to see you all this morning.
Welcome here. Good to see your shining faces. Thank you for worshiping Jesus with me and with us. It's good to be together with God's people, isn't it?
Isn't it a beautiful thing? I think so. I think so. Well, we have been, of last of our weeks, and we've been talking about this theme of belonging.
We've been talking about belonging in Jesus's church. And there's three things we've been asking everybody to pray about. And so if you're new here today, you're going to hear something we've been saying for weeks now to our church body. If you're new here, some of this I might not apply to you.
But for those who've been around for a while, this is what we've been asking folks to pray for. Number one, we've been asking people to simply pray. That God will give us favor and open the door for a better, bigger space. We're currently looking at a space that's near here to consider for our future that would double the space that we have right now.
Give us more room for kids and families and the ministry stuff that we want to do. We're just asking everybody to pray for that. We're just united to pray that God would do that. Praying Ephesians 3.20 and 21 during that moment.
So if you've been doing that, I just want to say thank you. If you haven't yet, join us. Set your alarm and start praying with us. And we're going to be in touch with you as we begin negotiations and talking about this new space.
We're looking at it. Second thing we've asked you to pray for is pray about making every nation church your home church, the place where you call home, the place where you will participate, actively grow in Jesus as a disciple. And lastly, third thing is to pray and commit to support your church family as a monthly partner, financial partner. Next week on March the 29th, we're going to be concluding the Belong study.
And on next Sunday, we're going to give everybody an opportunity to indicate these very things we've asked you to pray for. Like, hey, is this my church home? I'm ready. If I'm not ready, you get to let us know that too.
But you also get to make a chance to inform us of how you want to do giving this year. Because we're asking everybody to let us know what you plan on giving, because we want to be able to plan a budget that is real and not based on imaginary numbers, but on real numbers of our people who say, hey, we're with you. This is what we plan on giving. So that we can build a budget and plan for the future.
Plan for a future move. If you remember Jesus said this way, hey, if you want to build a tower, you've got to count the cost and make sure you could actually do what you plan on doing. And that's going to help us do that. So thank you for praying for that and letting us know.
Next week, we'll get a chance to do that. Sound good? We all good? Belong.
Here we go. All right. Also in the Belong study, as we go transist, we're going to get into God's Word. We have been talking in the last several weeks about the power of spiritual habits.
Everybody say spiritual habits. Yeah, we've been talking about the power of spiritual habits and how they're able, on a regular basis, the little habits and spiritual things that we do have the power to rewire our brains. They have the power to actually reset our sense of identity and belonging. But it also has the power to reshape our loves.
Can we please shut that door up there? Yeah, you're my hero. Appreciate all the fellowship out there. But OK, I've got to be able to hear.
We've been talking about the power of spiritual habits, to shape us. And we've covered a couple of spiritual habits so far that have the power to shape how you love, how you love God, how you love other people. And a couple of those we've covered so far as devotion. We've talked about walking with God daily, being a person that's in the Word, that's praying on a regular basis and connecting with God throughout your day.
We've talked about fellowship, the power of walking with God's people weekly in relationships with other Christians and the need for that. We've talked about service, the power of serving God through serving others, using your gifts, the serve other people. And the power that that is to shape you as a person that loves. Today, we're going to get to this fourth spiritual habit.
And this is a powerful one called the habit of giving or what we call cultivating generosity in your life. I don't know if you've ever heard much talked about generosity or what the scriptures have to teach. But there was a time in my life when I didn't know hardly anything about what I'm going to speak about today. I'm going to tell you a bit about story, and then we're going to get into it.
My wife and I were first married. We got married at 24 years old, pretty young, fresh out of college, fell in love, and got started. And I had the privilege of having several mentors in our life. God gave us, we had elders in our church who also took time to help mentor young couples towards marriage and getting prepared for that.
And we had several couples who were involved in our life. And I'm forever grateful to what they did for my wife and I. They helped us get a foundation for what it means to be married, what it means to build trust and all that. But they also invited us into a financial class.
It was called Crown Ministries at the Time. It still exists by the way. It's online if you want to check it out. They invited us to this financial class for like a 12-week class.
We signed up for it, where we began that we were going to learn about all the things that the scriptures had to say about finances and budgeting and what all that means. And I want to be honest with you guys, when we started that journey and stepped in that class, I had really no real financial foundation wisdom. I didn't get it from my family of origin. Mom and Dad never really sat me down and taught me about finances.
I was pretty much left to myself to figure that stuff out. And when I stepped in, I didn't know about budgeting. I didn't know about saving. I didn't know about spending.
And I definitely didn't understand about giving. I didn't grow up in the church. I mean, if you don't know that. I was a pagan kid.
I was a secular pagan kid who got saved in high school, got to college, began to learn what it means to apologize. I'd heard messages in the church about giving. But I'm most honest. I didn't understand it.
I didn't know why, what it meant. And so we step into this class and I begin to hear this principle that runs throughout the whole Bible. It's called this honor, God with your wealth. Anybody ever heard that term before?
That phrase? Honor, God with your wealth. And I began to wonder, what does God care about my money? Why does He care about my money or what I do with it, or whether I give it or I keep it?
I didn't really know it. I didn't understand that. And our mentors began to share with us. Just walk us through the scriptures.
And there was a scripture one day. I'll never forget it. When I read it, heard the scripture, it changed everything. And I'm going to give it to you here.
And we're going to start with the scripture. It was King David. And King David was praying this prayer after a lot of people had come and given offerings and money and resources to build the first temple that would be in the Old Testament. There was a Jerusalem temple that was going to worship a take place in preaching of the law and teaching what happened and God's people gathered.
They'd eaten at festivals. And only listened to the prayer that He said after everybody had given to this big moment. Put it on the screen for you. Here it is.
He says, Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor. Here it is. For everything in heaven and earth is yours. Let's say it, yours.
Let that sink for a second. Everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom. And you are exalted as head overall.
Everything, which means you're the king. Wealth and honor come from you. You are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to get strength.
Now our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name. When I heard this scripture, I want you to know, my mouth just dropped open to the floor. It was the first time in my life that my wife and I both began to actually think and consider that everything that we had worked hard for and earned saved actually came from God and it all belonged to him. I had never before my life thought, my money wasn't my money.
That it actually came from God and it belonged to him. You could see the coins drop, right? The moment where you're like, oh, my life was forever changed. And from that moment on, Daniel and I begin to learn and study the scriptures and go, OK, if God owns it all, if everything I've worked hard, everything that I have actually belongs to God, it doesn't belong to me.
Then that means I'm simply a caretaker for something that belongs to him. So the question begins to sit with us is if God owns it all, then what are we supposed to do with our resources? If God owns it all, then how are we supposed to be generous? What does that look like with what I do with my money?
And God cares actually a whole lot about it. So this morning what I want to do is I want to walk you through some of the principles that my wife and I began to learn when we were 24 years old, that mentors began to walk us through and disciple us in. And we began a journey then of actually making Jesus the king and leader of our resources and finances. So much so that we sat down at the end of this course and we wrote out, if you've ever heard, we wrote a deed of trust and we literally wrote down on a piece of paper everything we owned, how much was in our bank accounts?
And at the bottom of it, we deeded every bit of it over to Jesus and said it's not ours, it's yours. It was a game changer because it was the first time in my life that I began to acknowledge that Jesus was king over everything I owned. And now I get to learn, well, how do I handle that, right? So I'm gonna walk you through some principles this morning that we learned, we're gonna do a little quick tour, we're gonna do a little bit of the Old Testament, we're gonna do a quick tour of the Old Testament, then we're gonna move forward to the New Testament, we're gonna take a look at some principles that Jesus gave us, possible Paul gave us, and I'm gonna end it with some super practical stuff that you can walk up the door, take home and begin to figure out how do you make Jesus the king of your life?
You ready to go? All right, Jesus, we thank you for this moment, we thank you for your word. God, we do thank you that you have a lot to say about this very important area of our life, which really is close to our hearts, probably more than anything. Lord, I just pray that we'd be open today to hearing what your word has to say, that you would make us generous like you.
Free us Lord from our scarcity of mentalities, free us from our fears and anxieties, and help us Lord enter into the supernatural economy of heaven in Jesus name. Everybody said, amen. All right, let's dive in, Old Testament giving, let's take a look at a quick tour. Before the Mosaic Covenant at Sinai, that God gave on that mountain, human beings have always offered up offerings to God in thanksgiving for what he's given them.
Abel and Cain, this is in Genesis alone, Abel and Cain gave offerings to the Lord from the produce of the land and from the flocks. Noah created an altar and gave burnt offerings in thanks for mercy and safety from the flood. Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils of his victory to the high priest Melchizedek as thanks for rescuing his nephew, Lot. And then Jacob, he declared to give God a tenth of all that God gives him to thank him for his safety.
You see the pattern? This idea that humans, out of their just natural propensity, God hadn't commanded them to do any of this. It's just out of the nature of a human heart to say, God, thank you for safety, thank you for provisioning, thank you for your goodness. And you can see that at the very beginning, giving was a worship and way of thanking God for what you've been given and what God's done for you.
All right, let's move forward to the Mosaic Covenant. By the way, you might want to take notes. I'm going to be teacher today. We're going to put a line up on line in the scriptures.
Here we go. Mount Sinai, so when God made a covenant with Moses and God's people after freeing them from slavery, God began to establish a planned and disciplined structure for giving to God and his people. I like to say it this way, that giving was prioritized as a way of life. And it was structured as planned giving.
And this was God teaching, taking the old covenant saints. And I call this the balance of like analogy. I've been using about spiritual habits. It was like the training wheels of teaching God's people how to honor God with their wealth and recognizing that everything they had came from him.
And so they're giving to God back some of what he's given them as a way of honoring him for that. You'll see that, okay? But God instituted this idea of planned giving as a rhythm and as a spiritual habit to train their love for God, the balance spike. Here we go.
Now some of this may shock you what I'm about to share in the next few minutes. But bear with me, it's true. As part of their covenant agreements, the Old Testament saints, they were commanded by God to honor him with their wealth and they were to give and redistribute from 26 to 40% of their income. Yep.
Some years was last, some years was more. Some people think, I've missed no more Christians who've been in the church a long time think that these are like 10% or something called a tie to whatever. And I'm here to tell you, oh no, no, no, no, no. It was far more than that.
Far more than that. Let me give you a quick overview. 10% of their agricultural produce was to be given to the Levites who were the priests, who ran the tabernacle, ran the temple, taught the law where they worshipped. That was something they did on a regular basis.
The second thing that they gave, 10% goes to the community feast and celebrations. That's called the festival tie. This was another one that they gave money toward a common pot where they would come together and have festivals and celebrations so that people could celebrate God and be together. And thirdly, they gave 10% would go to the poor, what was or the immigrants, it was called a charity tie, their arms.
That one rotated about every three years. So the first two happened regularly. Third one rotates on every year basis. So what you realize is that in the Old Testament, the plan system of giving, that's pretty much what they were giving between 20%, 26% of the 40% of their giving towards God and the people of God.
How are we doing so far? Everybody say, ouch. Or wow, I don't know how you want to go. I mean, I'm like, whoa.
Man, when I learned this and saw this, I was like, oh my God, I was like, what the heck? How do you do that? But they also were called to leave the edges of their field uncultivated so that the poor could come behind and eat and harvest if they couldn't have enough. Now all of this was underscored by this, what we call the first fruits principle, where the first and best of their harvest was meant to be given to God.
So everything of all the 10, 10, 10, you just saw, what they were meant to give the best that they had, the first of what they had, not leftovers, not bringing lame animals to give to Jesus. No, they were meant to give their best to God. Now that's Old Testament, and the way that was done, that system came to an end, right? At the end of the Old Testament, and the restart of the New Testament and the New Covenant, but here we find, let's move to the New Testament and see that Jesus actually expected his followers to follow the principle that's in this in honoring God with our wealth.
And some of you may ask me again, you may say, why should we be generous? Why does God care about our money? What is this all about our time, our talent, our treasure, whatever we may give? And I wanna show you a few of the solid principles that Jesus and the apostles taught, that I learned at 24 years of age, that my wife and I began to put into place and put into practice in our life.
Number one, in Jesus' same experimental amount, he said this, that basically giving draws our hearts closer to God. There's nothing closer to the heart of God than giving. And I'm gonna show you, he says in Matthew 6, do not store up for yourselves. Treasures on earth where maul's in vermin destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where maul's in vermin do not destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal, why?
Next verse, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Giving draws our hearts close to God. Notice Jesus does not say your treasures or finances follow your heart. He says your heart, your emotions, what you care about, meaning, purpose follows where your finances flow, or your resources flow.
Think about someone who buys stock in a company. Maybe some of you have stock, or maybe you have an IRA's or whatever you may do. Here's what I've learned. And I've watched this over the years, as friends of mine would invest.
The moment that somebody invests money in the stock market or in a company, suddenly they care about that company. Oh, they care a whole lot about it. How do I know? Because they're always checking.
They're always checking the market, they're checking the news, they're checking that company. And they're like, and they're praying, Jesus, please help Apple. Please help Elon Musk, please help him Lord. Help him to get it right.
You know what I mean? And before then, they didn't care. But all of a sudden, they're just glued to what's happening. Oh God, please deliver us to this war, because we need our money to go back up.
We've lost money already, right? Y'all know what I'm talking about. Now, why do people do that? Because the principle of Jesus is true.
Your heart follows your money. Because wherever your money goes, where your heart begins to invest, and now you care about it. Think about it, if it goes to the kingdom of God, if it goes to local church, if it goes to missions, if it goes to mercy, if it goes to caring for the poor, guess where your heart goes to the things of God. Okay, so here's what I like to say.
Giving is not just a financial act. It's not. It is a spiritual formation, practice. And it has the power to shape your love and direct your love where it goes.
Here's what I've told me when I was being mentored early on, and it was true. My mentor's asking, hey, if you want to know where your heart is, simply look at the last two to three months of your bank statements. And you will see where your heart really is. Uber may have your heart, guys.
Uber eats may really have your heart. I don't know. Starbucks may have your heart. I guarantee you, but that's literally, go take a look and you'll see it.
I'd be interested to know what is it reveal about your heart. Take a look at it. All right, number two, giving makes us more like God. Why?
Give us. Why be a part and be a generous person? Because giving will make you more like God himself. Here's the thing, God's nature is generosity.
That's his nature character. He is giving. He is good. We sing about it every single Sunday.
From creation all the way to redemption, the story of scripture is divine giving. Listen what he says again and a sermon on the Mount. Jesus says that he, God, causes his son to rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Now we call this common grace goodness. This idea that God is generous and kind to everybody, even if they don't like him or believe in him or serve him. He causes rain, blessing to come to everybody. That's how generous he is.
But he also gave the greatest gift. John 3 16, he tells us for God so loved the world. He didn't hate the world. He loves it.
He so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. God himself did not spare his son. He gave him to us all. And he sowed him into the world that he might come and down across so that we might have everlasting life.
Eternal life, forever, lasting life is God-giver. Oh, you better believe it. This is redemption. God didn't merely feel love.
He actually gave of his best. And here's the truth. Whenever we give, no matter how small or big it is, whenever you give, our money, your talent, your hospitality, your resources, you are imitating God's character when you do it. And also you are becoming more like him when you do it.
People say, man, I want to be like Jesus. I'll go, OK, great. Then join him in being a giver. Because when you enter into this thing called generosity and giving, every time that you're doing it, every time that you make a step out of that your time and your money, your resources, whatever it is, you're being shaped and formed, your love, and your heart are being directed toward the things of God.
And that's how you begin to be formed. Let me show you a couple more principles. Y'all go. Let me give you a couple more, and then we'll get super practical.
Let me give you a third one. Giving is actually the antidote to materialism. Boy, if you want your heart to be freed from scarcity mentality, fear, anxiety over money, I'm going to tell you, one of the best ways to do it is to begin getting and being generous. And I'm not just talking about the church.
I'm talking holistically in your life. Paul tells Timothy, young pastor, to instruct Christ followers, that wealth can suddenly grip you. And it can become the place where you really put your hope or your sense of security or significance. That's the temptation for many of us, is to think that's going to make me secure and significant.
That number might bank a counter or whatever that may be. Listen to what Paul tells Timothy. He says, command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant or prideful, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain. The markets can go up and down.
But to put their hope in God, watch this, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Do you see the giver? It says, God richly provides us with everything we have. And it's for our enjoyment.
God cares about us enjoying life and having things we need. He's not this mean God. He's like, no, no, no. I want to bless you.
I want to richly provide for you. And I just want to point out to you that he says, but here's how you do that. I'll get ahead of myself. Let me say, some of you may look at that go.
He says, command those who are rich. Let me say, I'm not rich. Just not in that category. I'm not one of the oligarchs who owns everything, right?
That we hear about today. You may think you're not rich, but I'll tell you, in 2025, there's a global wealth report they put out every year. And I want to say, if you earn between $10,000 and $100,000 last year, you were in the top 41.3% of the world globally. And there's another 42% of the global economy that make less than $10,000 a year.
So let me tell you, if you're in that category, that first one I mentioned, according to global standards, you're wealthy. You're wealthy. So when I first read the scripture, I was 24 years old, barely making enough to put food on the table of a young campus missionary, and raising support didn't have a whole lot. But I tell you, when I first saw it, I thought myself out of it, I'm not rich.
According to global standards, I was. And so this gripped my heart and grabbed a hold of me. And so I want you to listen to the next scripture of what he says. Here's the antidote to materialism or wealth having you or your heart.
He says in verse 18, command them, Christ followers, to do good, to be rich, how? And good these, and to be generous and willing to share. Oh my goodness. In other words, honor God with your wealth has the power to unlock your heart from money's grip on it.
The anxiety of it, fear of it, scarcity mentality, or the love of it, which we've known, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It has the power to set you free. So here's what I tell you. If you were to look at your spending, it's a good thing to do.
Paul's pray over it. Say, Lord, is there any area here in my life and my spending habits that might need just materialism gripping me and holding me captive? And I need to be set free from it. All right, let's move on.
Couple more. And we're going to get practical. Giving is an investment in eternal impact. Here's another reason.
Why? Why be generous? Why give? Why does God care about your money, your resources, your time?
Well, Paul just want to say on that same very passage that when we give and are generous, they were actually making an investment into the future in the New Heavens and the New Earth. We call this the long-term investment strategy. Really long term. We just read this a minute ago, command them to do good, to be rich and good these, to be generous and willing to share.
But watch what he says next. This blew me away at 24 years old. He says, in this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age. Wait, what?
You're telling me that what I give away now in this life actually has impact in the one to come? To quote a famous gladiator, what you do in this life echoes into eternity. This is what Paul's saying. And he goes, I want to say that he goes, and you're going to want to be generous in this age?
You're going to want to be giving in this age because of the impact it's going to have. But it's also so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. In other words, real life, the quality, qualitativeness of life has more to do in giving than receiving. That there's something to be had in becoming like God in this world.
So what generosity does is it converts temporary resources into eternal impact in the age to come. My goodness, think of it this way. Randy Alcorn, famous preacher, teacher, on finances and money. You can read his books and stuff.
I have helped us even further. But he described it this way. He said, imagine that you when you give in any way, time, resources, finances. He said, imagine that you're transferring money from one bank account to another one.
In other words, you're not just giving it to going away or doing things. He says, no, no, no. You're actually transferring money from one bank account to another bank account. And he says, giving is like transferring wealth from a temporary earthly account over into a heavenly account.
As we heard Jesus say earlier, that can't be stolen from you. It can't be cay. It can't be taken away from you like ours can now. This one actually bears fruit and bears interest into the new heavens and earth.
And here's the way you think about that. Whenever you give, this is what's happening. You're actually investing into kingdom impact. It'll go way beyond your life here.
Think of the impact you're giving towards the gospel. Impact things, whether you're giving towards missionaries or missions or mercy ministry or reshing people from poverty or whether it's locally here in your own local church or whatever. I said this in the last gathering. Your investments here are bearing fruit incredibly.
Of last several years, we've helped plant several churches throughout the Northwest region because the finances that come into this place. We've had a church in Reno. We've had churches in Eugene, Oregon. We've helped plant one in Corvallis.
I'm sorry not Corvallis, but in Gracity Portland. We helped a few years ago. There are churches existing now in the Northwest because of the giving of this church family. They didn't exist before.
You imagine how many lives are being changed right now? Others people who will be in eternity? Be able to walk up and look you and say thank you for giving to every nation church. Seattle because you helped me hear the gospel and be saved eternally.
What you invest here goes way beyond. Campus ministry. We have young people who've been reaching the college campus here. Coming to Christ, getting saved.
Baptized. Out of our church family. Why? Because of faithfulness and giving that happens here.
So when you give, not only here locally, but anywhere. I want you to know. You're moving money from one bank account over into a future heavenly one. You're investing.
It's powerful. Oh my goodness. Lastly, let me finish with this. Giving brings joy to the giver.
This is the fifth principle that God impressed on my wife and his heart. And so rather than money having our heart, we were able to get let Jesus have our heart. And now that he could channel us and enter what we call the joy of giving. You'll hear us say that from time to time.
Enter the joy of giving. Here's why. Jesus said it this way. He said it this way.
He said it's more blessed to give than receive. If you want to increase your happiness and your joy quotient in your life, become a generous person and giver. Start. Jesus is more blessed.
It's the good life. The good life is by giving and receiving. Proverbs backs it up. Man, there's multiple proverbs on this.
There's just one of them. He says a generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Now this isn't some prosperity gospel message as well if you give, then you're going to be wealthy.
Not true. But what it does says is it says what you give away, what will happen is you'll be refreshed. There's something qualitative about joy and meaning and purpose that will fill your life. And there are many studies right now being done, psychologically, sociologically, that show that people who experience more joy who are givers than takers and receivers.
How are we doing so far? All right. Principles of giving. Why?
Why does God care about your money, your resource, your time, and how? Why does he care about giving it away? Because mainly it shapes you to become like him. Now I want to get real practical in the last few minutes and then I'm going to give you time that your tables to reflect and discuss.
How do you practically do it? This was my question. I begin to learn these principles and be like, OK, great. Where do I start?
How do I put this thing together? So hang on. I'm sharing this with you like you've never heard it before. OK?
Paul gave Corinthians, Christian Corinthians, instructions, when he asked him to give this offering one time to the Jerusalem Church who was experiencing famine. And he began to set down principles for them, just like in the Old Testament, that were meant to be these rhythmic ways they're meant to live as the people of God. And we've listened. And though this immediate context, it's a relief offering, these principles rooted down in the Church.
And people begin to pattern their way, similar to the Old Testament, planned giving. And they begin to do it in the New Testament. I'm going to show you how. He says in 1 Corinthians, now about the collection, financially, for the Lord's people, he said, do what I told the Galatian Church to do.
On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come, no collections will have to be made. In other words, they were going to give it later when the time was coming. Here's a couple principles I want to lead you with practically. How do you begin to be a generous person?
Because you've got to start somewhere. Number one, you've got to recognize that giving is a responsibility of every believer, every Christian. It's not just for the wealthy. It is not.
It's for every believer. And you see it because Paul tells all the Corinthians, was a diverse Church. You had rich, you had middle class, you had poor, all over in there. He says, each one of you should set aside a sum of money, every one of you.
And the principle was simply this, that everyone was meant to pray and say, Holy Spirit, how are you guiding me to give? What are you wanting me to do with this? And everybody was meant to spend time with the Holy Spirit, and then come and set that aside and then bring it. Secondly, what we learned here from Paul is that giving should be planter systematic.
This was the early principles. And it's based similarly on the Old Testament ways. Paul instructs believers, hey, set aside money weekly. This was likely connected.
Many theologians believe it was just likely connected to the giving that would happen every time at church when you gathered. Set aside weekly. You get paid weekly. You set aside.
Same idea. But the principle is that giving should be plan consistent, not occasional, and definitely not like impulsive, right, where you feel pressured to give or something like that. Not the way it's meant to be. Here's why it matters.
Why should we plan to give? Well, the Old Testament saints did it. New Testament saints are being called to do it. Here's why, because the regular rhythm of giving, setting aside money to give towards the Lord, the local church, and beyond that, is not a reaction.
It's a proactivity that shapes you as a worshipper. To where you're able to say, when you do that, what you're doing is you're worshipping Jesus. You're acknowledging everything I have is from you. The job I have, the finances I have, whatever I have, is belong to me.
Here, Jesus, I'm giving this back to you. And I'm saying, I'm glorifying your name and saying, thank you for what you've given me. I don't own it. I'm giving some of it back to you.
That's why it matters, because that practice of regular systemic giving, what it does is, as I mentioned earlier, it shapes your love and your heart, and your heart will follow where you get. It'll follow there, which means you'll start caring about that people, that place, those things, the kingdom of God, and that place, your heart will go there. So let's get practical and land this. Here's how you do this.
And this is where my wife and I started, 29 years ago. My mentor said, you've got to build a budget, you can live on. In other words, if you can't build a budget that you can live on, it's going to be really hard to become a generous person. Here's what I had to learn.
We had to first begin learning to not spend more than we make. Principle number one, stop spending more than you make. What that meant is we began to actually budget our money out. We listed out all of our expenses.
We listed out all of our bills. We listed out everything. And we looked at it and we began to plan it. So why?
So that we could save money for a rainy day, because rainy days are going to come. Scriptures talk about saving all over the place. That's another principle. But also, because we wanted to be able to avoid debt, get out of debt, and stay out of debt.
I can't be a generous person if I'm a slave to debt. Yeah, with me. God cares about you. He cares about your whole life.
And he wants you out of debt, free from it. Not a slave to it. And you can get out of it. We got people across this congregation, man, who got not a debt.
Faced it and dealt with it. Talk more about that later. But here's the deal. You can't be generous if you can't learn to plan a budget, where you track your spending.
Where you can look and see where wasted spending is, where you can reduce your spending. Pay your bills. Save and be generous. And I began that journey.
That day, it took some time to learn to put all that together. And we know that. It takes some time to build that into your life and discipline. I thank God I had a wife who supported that journey and cared about putting Jesus first with our finances and bringing ownership and order to it.
At the top of your budget, here's what we learned. Look, God, first. He's not at the bottom of the budget. He's at the top of the budget.
What that means by that is as soon as I got we got paid, Jesus gets paid first. I paid him before I paid my bills. No joke. I'll pay Jesus before I'll pay a medical bill any day.
I'll pay Jesus first. And I think that's the principle. That's the principle of the first fruits I mentioned earlier. It's the first and the best.
I'm going to give it to you. And I'm going to mark it off. And so I'd sit down. And here's what I did.
And now we do digital giving and all this other stuff, or bill paying and all that stuff. And it was a worshipful moment. I would sit down at the beginning month. As soon as I got paid, I remember sitting at my computer.
And I literally opened my hands. And I would say, Jesus, thank you for everything you give me. It's all from you. And it is all yours, not mine.
And I would pray, Jesus, help me budget this, help me steward this, help me care for it. And I'm giving it to you first. The Lord, here's my offering to you to say thank you. It belongs to you.
And of course, when I went to bill pay, and I clicked send and pushed, send the check. I've done it for 29 years. And I'll tell you what man. One moment of giving.
And I would dare say, I think because of our faithfulness, God, that's why God cared us through really tough seasons, hard seasons, where stuff cost a lot. And money was going out. And bills came. And medical stuff.
And I'll tell you what I thank God that I put in first with what I gave, because I was able to be in the safe place to know I'm honoring you with my will first, not anybody else. Let's do the last one. Why? Be generous.
Why? Plan your money. Why? Here's the way he says it, because your giving should be proportional.
In the text, Paul says, in keeping with your income, set aside some money, you're going to plan to give it. It's systematic. Whenever you get paid, you're planning for it. But he says, do it in keeping with your income.
And I love this principle, because it shows you the graciousness and goodness of God. Paul instructs believers, give according to how God's prospered you. What that means is giving should reflect the level in which God's prospered. And the truth is God prospered us at all different levels, doesn't he?
We all have different jobs. We all have different incomes. We know what careers are and all those kind of things. And what you'll notice is two people may give faithfully what the spirit of God has put in their heart and told them to do, and what scripture has got them to do, but they'll give different amounts.
Bob, because they make different amounts of money. Equal giving, but different level of sacrifice. But here's what they do. And here's the principle Paul wants us to get, is to give a proportion of your income.