Speaker 1: Listen, you can change the course of the future.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're with me.
Speaker 1: So, for my Lord of the Rings people out there which, by the way, how many of you Lord of the Rings people are out there?
Speaker 1: How many were like I've never seen Lord of the Rings.
Speaker 1: It's way too long.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, right.
Speaker 1: So Lord of the Rings people, somebody tell me what is it that they pursued after?
Speaker 1: And they wanted more than anything.
Speaker 1: They wanted the.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 1: They wanted the ring.
Speaker 1: And the reason why they wanted the ring is because they valued the ring.
Speaker 1: They wanted that ring so much because they valued it.
Speaker 1: And here's what we know about all of us.
Speaker 1: We all have things that we value, right, we all do.
Speaker 1: In fact, can somebody tell me, just for fun, what kind of things in general do people value?
Speaker 1: Money?
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 1: Value money, that's something.
Speaker 1: Car I heard car over here.
Speaker 1: Some people have their cars.
Speaker 1: They love their cars.
Speaker 1: Something else Children yes, they're important.
Speaker 1: Yes, children, what'd you say?
Speaker 1: Did you say tennis shoes?
Speaker 1: Did you say?
Speaker 1: Did you say I feel personally attacked?
Speaker 1: Shoes, that's right, something people value.
Speaker 1: Car we value all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1: Some people value their fishing poles and they value their video games and you know all kinds, and sometimes we think we value certain things, but the reality is we actually value other things.
Speaker 1: In fact, what we can do is if we're honest with ourselves.
Speaker 1: Which can we just be honest?
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard to be honest with yourself, because when we're honest with ourselves, sometimes the honesty reveals some things that are like eh, if we do an honest audit of our lives and we look at where we spend our time, our energy, our thoughts, our dreams, our hopes, our finances, it would show us what we actually value.
Speaker 1: Now, jesus actually said this.
Speaker 1: Because you know he's Jesus, so he kind of like knows things.
Speaker 1: And Jesus said this in Matthew 6.
Speaker 1: He said for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also.
Speaker 1: So, in other words, there's this direct connection between our treasure and our heart.
Speaker 1: It's a reality.
Speaker 1: It's why it shows that I really like shoes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get them on sale, so give me a break.
Speaker 1: This takes us to a story in John, chapter 12, where somebody does something absolutely ridiculous and this woman is rebuked.
Speaker 1: And this woman is questioned because she did something that seemed crazy to people, and the reason why she did it is because she valued Jesus above everything else and she worshiped him.
Speaker 1: And to the onlooker they're like why would you do that?
Speaker 1: That didn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: It was because she valued and worshiped him above everything else.
Speaker 1: This takes us to John, chapter 12, where this woman is ridiculed because she has a heart of worship to Jesus.
Speaker 1: And I can't wait for you guys to hear it this morning.
Speaker 1: If you're ready for it, would you say amen, let's go, amen, amen.
Speaker 1: John.
Speaker 1: Chapter number 12, john 12.
Speaker 1: It says six days before the Passover, jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was the one Jesus had raised from the dead.
Speaker 1: Now I love the last part of the verse that John puts in there, the one who Jesus had raised from the dead.
Speaker 1: It's almost like John's like.
Speaker 1: In case y'all forgot, this is who Lazarus was Like.
Speaker 1: This is the Lazarus which I tell John.
Speaker 1: I say, john, I appreciate the reminder, but I did not forget.
Speaker 1: I know who Lazarus was.
Speaker 1: Previous chapter Lazarus was raised from the dead.
Speaker 1: So Jesus is there in Bethany, this is where he's at, and they had a dinner verse 2, for him there.
Speaker 1: Martha verse number 2, was serving them, which, if y'all know anything about Martha, we know Martha, she's always serving, always vacuuming, you know, come to my house, martha.
Speaker 1: Martha was serving them and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him, reclining at the table with him.
Speaker 1: Then Mary took a pound of perfume pure, inexpensive nard.
Speaker 1: In some translations it says spike nard.
Speaker 1: We also know from Matthew that she had this.
Speaker 1: It was in an alabaster box and she anointed Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair, so the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Speaker 1: Now think about this perfume.
Speaker 1: It was very expensive and the reason being is because it came from a plant in northern India, northern India, to Jerusalem, 2,500 miles.
Speaker 1: So they had to import it to Jerusalem, 2,500 miles.
Speaker 1: No airplanes, no trains, no 18 wheelers, nothing like that, to transport goods.
Speaker 1: They had to get it that far.
Speaker 1: So this is very, very, very expensive and valuable, expensive and valuable.
Speaker 1: Also, let's not just smooth past the fact that she is wiping his feet with her hair.
Speaker 1: Feet are a little bit, especially in this context.
Speaker 1: Feet were dirty because they didn't have any shoes and this day they had sandals.
Speaker 1: This was a servant's job.
Speaker 1: This was like a slave's job.
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't Mary do this?
Speaker 1: And Mary's doing this with her hair?
Speaker 1: So she had to let down her hair, which in this Jewish culture is kind of like scandalous, questionable.
Speaker 1: Like you don't let down your hair.
Speaker 1: But Mary, she valued Jesus so much she is willing to put expensive perfume and wash his dirty feet and let her hair down, no matter what other people thought, because she just wanted to worship him, because she valued him, even though it didn't make sense to people.
Speaker 1: In fact it didn't even make sense to one of the one of jesus's followers.
Speaker 1: Verse four, this is what it says.
Speaker 1: Verse four tells us one of his disciples, judas iscariot.
Speaker 1: We know about that guy, don't we?
Speaker 1: We know about that knucklehead, judas iscariot that's a nice way, that's a nice name to call him too who was about to betray him, betray Jesus.
Speaker 1: He said why wasn't this perfume sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor Denarii?
Speaker 1: What's a denarii?
Speaker 1: A denarii is the plural word of a coin called a denarius.
Speaker 1: So a denarius is a Roman silver coin.
Speaker 1: That was a standard daily wage for a laborer or a soldier.
Speaker 1: So you worked one day, you got one denarius.
Speaker 1: One day, one denarius, day, one denarius.
Speaker 1: Let's think if you sold this you could get 300 of these for the price of that perfume.
Speaker 1: That's some expensive perfume y'all.
Speaker 1: That's some expensive perfume, y'all.
Speaker 1: 300 days.
Speaker 1: That's a year's worth of wages.
Speaker 1: This, this is a lot here.
Speaker 1: This is a sacrifice I can't even buy.
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine buying some type of perfume or fragrance.
Speaker 1: That's an entire day's worth of labor.
Speaker 1: This is 300 days.
Speaker 1: But the thing that when Judas brought this up the knucklehead Judas, he didn't actually care about the poor.
Speaker 1: In fact, that's what the next verse tells us, verse 6.
Speaker 1: It says he didn't care about them.
Speaker 1: He didn't care about this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.
Speaker 1: He was in charge of the money bag and would steal part of what was put in it.
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, go sell that 300, get 300, put it in the money bag.
Speaker 1: That's the real reason.
Speaker 1: This isn't because he's got good motives here.
Speaker 1: And Jesus answered Judas, leave her alone.
Speaker 1: She has kept it for the day of my burial.
Speaker 1: For you, you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.
Speaker 1: Now, this is a unique scene, you guys, this is almost like.
Speaker 1: It's almost like a living room scene.
Speaker 1: People are on the table, they're hanging out out, some people are reclining.
Speaker 1: You got the person over here.
Speaker 1: They're like doing the dishes and getting everything right.
Speaker 1: Whatever you got.
Speaker 1: Uh, you got these things happening and then randomly, you have this lady that's at the feet of jesus and she's like washing his feet with her hair, like imagine this, and she's doing it with some perfume that's a year's worth of wages.
Speaker 1: Why would she do this?
Speaker 1: She could have just been reclining up the chair with everybody else.
Speaker 1: Here's why Because she had this heart of generosity, this heart of worship that produced generosity.
Speaker 1: Now, a lot of times in the American church, when we think of the word worship, the word worship, the word worship, we usually equate it with something that we just experienced a few minutes ago.
Speaker 1: When we hear the word worship, we usually think worship is just music.
Speaker 1: You know, worship, we think the worship portion of the service, the communion portion of the service.
Speaker 1: Okay, now another worship portion.
Speaker 1: Now we have this portion.
Speaker 1: Then Pastor Nick gets up and talks and hopefully he doesn't talk for too long and hopefully he says a funny joke or two.
Speaker 1: But here's the reality Worship, biblical worship, isn't just music, it's a posture of the heart.
Speaker 1: Biblical worship isn't just music, it's a posture of the heart.
Speaker 1: So the word worship actually comes from this old English word that means to ascribe worth or to give weight to something.
Speaker 1: So when I worship something, I'm ascribing worth to this and I'm giving weight to it.
Speaker 1: So I'm saying this has the utmost value in my life, this has the utmost importance in my life, this has the utmost weight in my life, which is why it's possible to worship anything.
Speaker 1: You can worship your hobby.
Speaker 1: You can worship comfort man comfort, that's just so important to me.
Speaker 1: You can worship sports, football season's coming.
Speaker 1: You can worship anything.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Some of you are like okay, worship is a worship.
Speaker 1: You guys do that thing as followers of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Here's the reality.
Speaker 1: Thing, as followers of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Here's the reality.
Speaker 1: All of humans are worshipers of something.
Speaker 1: Worship is not a Christian thing.
Speaker 1: Worship is a human thing, and the question of humanity is not whether we will worship, but what we will worship.
Speaker 1: If we can get that next slide up, I want y'all to see it.
Speaker 1: This is the question is not are you going to worship something?
Speaker 1: No, every person in this room is going to worship.
Speaker 1: You might worship your family, you might worship your hobby.
Speaker 1: You are going to worship something, and the easiest way for me to discover what I worship is well, where do I give my time, my energy, my thoughts, my dreams, my attention.
Speaker 1: Dallas Willard says this.
Speaker 1: He says Christian worship is intentionally turning our minds to God and ascribing to Him all the greatness, goodness and glory that are His glory, that are his.
Speaker 1: It's me recognizing that he is great.
Speaker 1: It's me ascribing the worth that he is due because of who he is.
Speaker 1: Now, what happens in our lives when we do that?
Speaker 1: What will your life look like if you truly worship God?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm so glad that you asked, because I have an answer.
Speaker 1: This is what the Bible shows us happens when we truly worship God, when we're truly worshipers of him.
Speaker 1: What's going to happen in our lives is we're going to have a reverence and an awe for God.
Speaker 1: So we just sang a song holy forever.
Speaker 1: It's this all of Lord.
Speaker 1: You are holy, you are great.
Speaker 1: It's this all of him.
Speaker 1: It's going to produce submission and service to him.
Speaker 1: It's not just like God.
Speaker 1: You're great, you're awesome, but I'm going to live my life how I want to live my life.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: No're great, you're awesome, but I'm gonna live my life how I wanna live my life.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: If we truly worship him, we're gonna say how can I serve you?
Speaker 1: What does my life look like, to serve you.
Speaker 1: It'll produce this.
Speaker 1: It'll produce love and devotion.
Speaker 1: God, my heart is devoted to you above everything else.
Speaker 1: I love you above everything.
Speaker 1: Worship produces obedience.
Speaker 1: Here's a crazy thing Genesis, chapter 22, verse 5.
Speaker 1: I don't have the time to get into it, but God told Abraham to do something crazy.
Speaker 1: Abraham said, okay, I'll obey you.
Speaker 1: And in Genesis 22, when he went to obey God, it uses the word worship.
Speaker 1: He went up to worship.
Speaker 1: What was he doing?
Speaker 1: He was obeying, and worship results in giving.
Speaker 1: It causes us to give, and this is what worship does when we to give.
Speaker 1: And this is what worship does when we ascribe the weight and worth of Jesus, of who he is.
Speaker 1: It causes us to worship him.
Speaker 1: This is why Jesus said it's written worship the Lord, your God, and serve him.
Speaker 1: Only Luke, chapter four, verse number eight, says Because whatever we ascribe worth and weight to is going to determine every other area of our life, which is why Mary said I worship you, jesus, so because I worship you, well, what I'm willing to do is I'm willing to give you a whole lot of this, as I'm willing to give you a whole lot of this, which, if you think about it in the framework of worship.
Speaker 1: Obviously this is a part of that but in the framework of our American minds, talking about this, especially in a church setting, is a little bit unnerving, makes us feel some type of a way.
Speaker 1: Here's why Because for a lot of us, there's a lot of emotions that are connected to this.
Speaker 1: In fact, there's this crazy article I read years ago.
Speaker 1: It's called the Day America Told the Truth.
Speaker 1: This is what they did.
Speaker 1: They anonymously surveyed Americans and they asked them what would you do for $10 million?
Speaker 1: For $10 million, what would you be willing to do?
Speaker 1: And what they found is mind-blowing.
Speaker 1: For $10 million, 25% of people said they would abandon their family.
Speaker 1: See you later, guys.
Speaker 1: Peace out.
Speaker 1: 23%.
Speaker 1: 23% said they become a prostitute for a week.
Speaker 1: 10% said they would withhold their testimony in a murder trial.
Speaker 1: They would let a known murderer walk free.
Speaker 1: 7% said they would kill a stranger.
Speaker 1: 7% said they would kill a stranger and 3% said they would put their children up for adoption.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are like I do that for free, depending on the day.
Speaker 1: These stats are wild, and here's what this shows Is many people have a very unhealthy relationship with money.
Speaker 1: So it shows maybe it's because of our past, maybe it's because of our upbringing, maybe it's just because of just kind of where we are financially right now in our lives, of just kind of where we are financially right now in our lives and what can happen without even realizing it is we can have a worldly view of finances instead of a kingdom, god-centered view of our finances.
Speaker 1: So what the world says when it comes to our finances is it's more blessed to receive than to give.
Speaker 1: God says it's more blessed to give than receive.
Speaker 1: This world says if you give, you're going to run out.
Speaker 1: You won't have enough.
Speaker 1: God says if you give, I'll supply all of your needs.
Speaker 1: This world says what you have is yours.
Speaker 1: It's yours.
Speaker 1: God says, actually, what you have is mine and you're just a steward of what I put in your hand.
Speaker 1: This world says you find your security in how much you have, so trust your resources so you can have security.
Speaker 1: God says no, no, your security is found in me, so you can give because you can trust me and I'm your security.
Speaker 1: Now if we asked ourselves an honest question do we have more of a kingdom-centered mindset or do we have more of a worldly mindset when it comes to our finances.
Speaker 1: What would the answer be?
Speaker 1: You don't have to say it out loud I don't know it's tough because and I'll use this word, we have this word we have been discipled in the ways of this world because, hey guys, we live in it and having a kingdom view of money is really tough.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I don't know if y'all realize this, but like money is not evil, like there's a verse that's often, it's often mistranslated.
Speaker 1: They say money is the root of all evil.
Speaker 1: Money is not the root of all evil.
Speaker 1: You know what's the root of evil?
Speaker 1: The love of money is the root of all evil, isn't that wrong?
Speaker 1: Money?
Speaker 1: Well, money is a tool.
Speaker 1: Money allows us to bless other people.
Speaker 1: Money allows us to encourage people.
Speaker 1: Money allows us to show our worship and our trust to God.
Speaker 1: Which is why, when I look at Mary's life and her generosity, for me and for all of us, it's an example to us.
Speaker 1: Number two, her life is an example to us In Matthew's account.
Speaker 1: This is what it says about Mary this story.
Speaker 1: Wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.
Speaker 1: Hey, this story is going to keep being told about Mary.
Speaker 1: We don't keep telling it and telling it and telling it.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because it's an example to us.
Speaker 1: Now, sometimes, when I think of like generosity, maybe I'll give somebody five or ten dollars or whatever, I'll be like, oh, I feel good about myself, you know, which is a good thing.
Speaker 1: You know, a kid comes up and they're like, will you buy a candy bar from me?
Speaker 1: I'm like, uh.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, world's finest candy bar.
Speaker 1: Okay, what is it like?
Speaker 1: A dollar or something, that's what I remember.
Speaker 1: They're like five dollars.
Speaker 1: Now y'all.
Speaker 1: I'm like, and what is inflation?
Speaker 1: Inflation has hit the world's finest candy bars.
Speaker 1: What's happened to the world, you know?
Speaker 1: And I don't know.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, sure, I'll buy a candy bar.
Speaker 1: And you know I don't have any cash.
Speaker 1: No worries, mister, I take venmo.
Speaker 1: You're like eight years old, what I'm not gonna eat your candy bar.
Speaker 1: Anyways, here, here's $10.
Speaker 1: You know, and I like, you know, I feel good, okay, helped out the kid, right, which is good, it's a good, it's a good.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to generosity at giving an entire year's salary, I don't know anything about that.
Speaker 1: Y'all a year's salary, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about that.
Speaker 1: Y'all A year's salary, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: Maybe some of y'all do.
Speaker 1: Your pastor?
Speaker 1: He don't.
Speaker 1: Here's what I do know.
Speaker 1: Here's what I've learned as I've grown in this area of my life.
Speaker 1: Not to Mary's level, don't get me wrong, but as I've grown in this area of my life, I've learned that I actually can trust God.
Speaker 1: And I've learned that as I give when sometimes it's hard and y'all I'm in a really expensive season of my life right now, like very expensive when I give, some of y'all know I'm like I trust you and I'm showing my trust to God.
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing it's one thing for like a pastor to talk about this.
Speaker 1: You're like, of course, a pastor's gonna talk about this.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are like man, I wish I was sick this morning so I didn't have to hear this.
Speaker 1: But here's the reality.
Speaker 1: This isn't just something that, like I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: This is real, based on what God's word says, and I want to show you guys a video.
Speaker 1: We shot this video a little while ago of a couple guys in our church that had some challenges when it came to their giving which, if you're not a giver, there's some challenges and they talk about the things that led them to learn to give at a 10% level, and then they talk about how God has provided for them.
Speaker 1: So I don't want y'all to take my word for it.
Speaker 1: You don't have to just take the Bible's word for it, although I wish you would.
Speaker 1: I want you to take these guys' word for it.
Speaker 1: So check it out, so you can hear how generosity changes people's lives.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Rob Duggan.
Speaker 2: We've been coming to FCC for 20 years.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Mike Dillbeck.
Speaker 2: I have been coming for the last five years.
Speaker 2: What led me to start tithing?
Speaker 2: We had a eBay business that was making more money than we had ever really made before.
Speaker 2: Literally overnight, the market dropped out of that business and all the while that I was making that money, I kind of felt a conviction I should be tithing on this.
Speaker 2: When it went away, I felt like it was more of a disciplinary act of God, Like I put this conviction on your heart.
Speaker 2: You ignored it, so now I have to take that away from you.
Speaker 3: We were in a very bad financial situation.
Speaker 3: I had a stroke and seven months to the day I was back to work.
Speaker 3: I knew that I wasn't going to do it by myself.
Speaker 3: I can remember very clearly the job that I had at the time was we worked in this backcountry shop and I went to the bathroom and I got down on my knees and I told the Lord.
Speaker 3: I said I'm going to do this, you've got to hold up your end.
Speaker 3: And after that, the next check I just moved the decimal point over, gave my money to the church and, to be quite honest, we haven't looked back.
Speaker 2: The harder part was bridging that gap.
Speaker 2: From the start of tithing into full faithfulness.
Speaker 2: I I can feel the financial impact of giving, but I know that we're going to get taken care of by God.
Speaker 2: It started reworking my heart.
Speaker 3: The challenges were putting trust in somebody or something else is pretty difficult, but he's proven time and time again if you just put your faith and trust in him, you'll reap the rewards.
Speaker 3: It's paid dividends twice over.
Speaker 2: So what I've seen happen in my life since we started tithing was like a heart change.
Speaker 2: God was showing me like, one way or the other, your family's going to be fine, as long as you put your faith in me.
Speaker 3: It started that day in the bathroom.
Speaker 3: We haven't had a financial issue since, and the verse that I would connect to that is Malachi 3.10.
Speaker 3: Bring the full tent into the storehouse so there may be food in my house.
Speaker 3: Test me in this way, says the Lord of armies See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.
Speaker 3: That's what he did for me.
Speaker 3: He kept his promise.
Speaker 2: I think it's important for Christ followers to give financially because it is a step in getting your heart right between you and God.
Speaker 2: God will make sure that you have whatever it is that your family will need.
Speaker 2: God will provide.
Speaker 3: Our church values are to know Jesus and to make Jesus known, and how we do that is through the donations of everyone.
Speaker 3: If we don't tithe, we don't have the money to do what Jesus asked us to do.
Speaker 2: What I would say to somebody that doesn't give financially is, whatever relationship it is that you have with God, I would say it's most likely not fully trusting, and that's something that you can only experience by starting to tithe.
Speaker 2: God's math is not our math, so I just encourage anybody who hasn't tithed 10% to give it a shot and reevaluate two months down the road.
Speaker 2: I would be willing to bet that you're going to be in just as good, if not a better, position.
Speaker 3: When you do give, after you pray, you will have that peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding.
Speaker 3: What he did for me, I could have never done on my own.
Speaker 1: We give because God has given everything to us.
Speaker 1: You're in a that's right, we can clap.
Speaker 1: You're in a church where people have learned this and, if you're new, this is a mature growth principle in the Christian life.
Speaker 1: This is maturing in the Christian life.
Speaker 1: But you're in a room where people have learned this and some of you are like feeling some type of way.
Speaker 1: You're like maybe this is the Holy Spirit and here's what I would encourage you to do.
Speaker 1: I would encourage everybody in this room to take a step in this area with the heart of Lord.
Speaker 1: I want to worship you.
Speaker 1: I want to trust you.
Speaker 1: What's a step in this area?
Speaker 1: With the heart of Lord, I want to worship you.
Speaker 1: I want to trust you.
Speaker 1: What's a step?
Speaker 1: For some of us, it's giving for the first time.
Speaker 1: It's giving for the first time.
Speaker 1: It's not I'm going to give an entire year's worth of wages.
Speaker 1: It's not I'm going to give it.
Speaker 1: No, it's just learning to give, and a journey of generosity begins with giving for the first time and stepping out.
Speaker 1: For some of us, a step that we need to take is to round up our percentage.
Speaker 1: Maybe you do give something.
Speaker 1: Maybe you give 1% or 2%.
Speaker 1: If you did the math.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's to round up and go to 4% or 5% and learning just to take a step in giving, to take a step in trusting God.
Speaker 1: Number three for some of us, a step is radical.
Speaker 1: Giving giving 10% Now, scripturally giving 10% is not radical.
Speaker 1: But let's be honest, in our culture giving 10% is radical.
Speaker 1: It's been called a threshold giving.
Speaker 1: And here's why Because when we give at this level, I really believe things change in our heart, because there's no way you can give 10% without trusting.
Speaker 1: It takes trust to give it that number, at that percent.
Speaker 1: And here's what I would do.
Speaker 1: If maybe you're like man, I want to step up to that level, I don't really know here's what I would do.
Speaker 1: I would give you and we've had many people take this before a 90-day tithe challenge where if you will say I will trust God for 90 days and I will tithe 10% for the next 90 days, if you feel that God has not met your needs, we will give you 100% back, no questions asked.
Speaker 1: That's how much we believe that you can trust God.
Speaker 1: And we've had people take it and not one person has said, hey, god didn't come through, it ain't true.
Speaker 1: Because you can trust God.
Speaker 1: And then number four is relational giving.
Speaker 1: This is Mary's giving.
Speaker 1: This is saying Lord, you've given everything to me, so I want to give in response to this.
Speaker 1: And when you learn to give relationally and you learn to take steps in this area, here's what you're going to discover you can never out give God.
Speaker 1: You can never out give God.
Speaker 1: You think, man, I've given this to God.
Speaker 1: Hey, god's got a whole lot more to give you.
Speaker 1: You can never out give God.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of a story by a guy named David Green.
Speaker 1: David Green wrote a book called Leadership, not by the Book.
Speaker 1: He's a CEO of a place that many of you have been to, especially you, ladies, have been to.
Speaker 1: He's the CEO of Hobby Lob, hobby lobby, and he wrote this book.
Speaker 1: And it's unusual because it's a leadership book but it has an entire chapter about financial generosity, which I'm kind of a leadership nerd.
Speaker 1: So I read all these books and stuff and leadership books don't have a chapter about financial generosity.
Speaker 1: It's like, what does it have to do with leadership?
Speaker 1: Like giving.
Speaker 1: And in the chapter this is what he says.
Speaker 1: He says that when they first started the company, they made the decision they were going to tithe, they were going to give 10% of their profits to Christian organizations, churches and different things.
Speaker 1: They had this commitment to grow in this area and to date now, they give 50% of their profits away 50% as a CEO.
Speaker 1: He has not taken a raise in almost 20 years.
Speaker 1: He said in the book.
Speaker 1: He said what am I going to do?
Speaker 1: Buy a bigger house, another house?
Speaker 1: He's like my house is fine.
Speaker 1: And in the book he says this about giving.
Speaker 1: He says sometimes we avoid giving out of fear that we won't have enough.
Speaker 1: But God often leads in ways that don't make sense.
Speaker 1: He leads us to give up our resources so that we don't depend on them more than we depend on him.
Speaker 1: Now here's the irony of this whole conversation about his crazy generosity is, the more they've given, the more their profits have grown.
Speaker 1: As they've learned to be generous, god has blessed them even more.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because God's math is not our math and we can trust God.
Speaker 1: So here's my question today Will you trust God at his word and say I'm going to take a step in this area?
Speaker 1: I know it's tough.
Speaker 1: I live in the same world you guys live in, but we have a choice.
Speaker 1: Are we going to trust and are we going to worship or are we going to say, ah, just can't do it?
Speaker 1: Hey, take a step, trust God and watch what God can do?
Speaker 1: Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes and I, just I want you to have a moment where you can just talk to the Lord about this.
Speaker 1: I know this can be a sensitive emotional subject and our minds can be all over the place, but would you talk to God about this and, as the Spirit is leading you to take steps, would you follow?
Speaker 1: Let's take some time right here at our seat and just pray and talk to Him.