"Strapped" Week 2

In Week 2 of Strapped, Pastor Jake dives into one of the most talked-about — and misunderstood — topics in the Christian faith: tithing. What does the Bible actually say about giving, and why does it matter in our everyday lives? Whether you've been tithing for years or have never considered it, this message will challenge the way you think about money, generosity, and trust in God.

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SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast, where we're all about equipping God's people to change their world. We're thankful you're here, and we're praying that this message encourages you to love God, love others, and love the world more fervently than before. Now, let's get to it.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Well, listen, I'm glad you guys are joining us now for week two of a series that we have titled Strapped, where we're talking about biblical principles of how to manage our finance. And you guys, some of you might be here for the very first Sunday, and you might be cringing on the inside because you came to a Sunday where the pastor is talking about money. So I'm gonna apologize a little bit for that because you know it, if it's your first time here, we don't talk about it every week, but we do talk about it some. Um and this might be confirming one of your biggest frustrations, which is one of the top three reasons people don't come to church, is because they think they just want my money. Well, I you don't know me, you don't know Manna if you're new here, but I can tell you that is just that's just not us. That's not our heart. Um this is this is not a we want something from you message. This is absolutely a we want something for you message, and I hope you get that by the end of this. In fact, if I could sum it up, we want you to go from financially strapped to financially free. And if you'll follow some of these principles that the Bible has, you will get there. I promise you. So last week, I actually I gave you a heads up, I told you, listen, there's not gonna be an ask at the end of service just to lower the temperature in the room a little bit because people get tense when you start to talk about money. They start to grab their wallets and worry. So I told you last week, don't worry, there's no big ask at the end. This week I'm gonna do the exact opposite. Some of you are laughing uncomfortably. But here's what I'm gonna tell you. This is gonna be the lowest risk, simplest, easy to participate in risk that you've ever been invited to do at church. It's gonna come at the very end. I'll explain it, and it's kind of different. It's a little crazy. In fact, I was trying to think of a way to draw a parallel between what we're gonna we're gonna ask and something else, and I just couldn't. So you're gonna have to wait till the end. So, regardless of the sensitivity on this subject, I'm gonna go there for a couple reasons. Number one, I'm gonna go there because it's part of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, to manage our money well. Right? The Bible talks about it. I told you last week, like 10% of the verses in the Bible almost are about finances. In fact, Jesus, 16 of his 39 parables, were about money. It's kind of crazy. That's a lot of space for the words that we have of Jesus. So that's one reason we're gonna talk about it, because he did, and we want to do what he did. The other reason is because this discipline, if you get it, will actually liberate you in so many ways and help you walk in financial freedom. And that's what I want for every single one of you. That's what I want for me too. And so our series gets its name from this idea that most people aren't stingy, they're just strapped. They just don't have enough money at the end of their month. And so last week we talked about the condition of our hearts. And the big idea was God doesn't need your money. He doesn't. He's got he doesn't need money. God doesn't work that way, but he does want your heart. And so we illustrated it by discussing the principle of stewardship. Jesus actually told us, he said, you can't love money and love God. It's not possible to do both at the same time. And so money and materialism, wealth, it can capture the throne of our hearts. And we don't want anything other than Jesus to sit on the throne of our hearts. Amen. So if you guys, if you guys have some time, I encourage you. If you weren't here last week, go back and watch that message. It helps you understand how we are not owners, we are simply stewards. So today what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna teach you another principle. Next week, we're gonna get into all kinds of practical stuff. We got some cool tools we're gonna give you. There's a link on our website that's gonna point you to some things on budgeting and investing. We're gonna talk about what the Bible has to say on all those really neat principles to help you manage your money better. But before we get there, first we have to get another principle in place. We talked about stewardship last week. This week, we actually are going to talk about the principle of the first. So I'm gonna show you biblically how we put God first in our finances. You break that spirit of materialism over your lives, and we're gonna practice good stewardship. So the big idea, if you're if you're taking notes, the first thing you want to take is the order in which we do things matters. Do you guys agree with that in general? Yeah, okay. So so, like for instance, um we all put on socks this morning, unless you're wearing flip-flops, like my daughter, my wife there. Um, most of us put on socks. When you put on socks, did did do you go sock, socks, shoe, shoe? Or do you go sock, shoe, sock, shoe? Who does the sock, sock, shoe, shoe? Okay, most people. Who does sock, shoe, sock, shoe? Weirdos. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So so I go sock, sock, shoe, shoe. That now, now the order, you could kind of do those either way. It doesn't really matter, right? But none of you went shoe sock, did you? None of you did that. You would be super weird if you did that. In fact, this is even more important when you think about when you're making something. So I am not a chef by any stretch of any imagination. I am no chef. But I make some really simple things really, really well. Like, for instance, pancakes, or as we call them, because my daughter JL used to call them panta cakes when she was little. So when I make my panta cakes at how at our home, um, there's a way you do it. So you take the flour and you take the baking soda, you take the salt and the sugar, and you mix all that together, and my secret ingredient is a little bit of cinnamon. Put the cinnamon into and you mix all the dry ingredients, and then you get the liquid ingredients, which is vegetable oil and an egg or two eggs, and then my other secret ingredient, just so you know, is a little bit of vanilla, right? So you put that in two, right? And you mix all that together, and then you make the pancake there on the griddle, and then you put all the good stuff on afterwards, right? It works. It's pretty easy. Now, there are some steps that don't really matter. Like if you just kind of pour all of it in the thing and mix it all together, you might get some clumps in your sugar and some clumps in your cinnamon or whatever, but if you mix it really well, you can get those out. But I bet none of you mix all the stuff except the egg together and then cook it and then put the egg on top, right? Wouldn't work, would it? That would be a really, really weird pancake. In fact, it probably wouldn't even be called a pancake because the order in which you do it matters. In fact, another thing that I'm amazing at, um, you know, don't be too impressed, is mac and cheese. I make really, really good mac and cheese. My kids, it's kind of bizarre. They always like when they want easy Mac, they don't want mom to make it, they want me to make it. You know why? I just follow the instructions. Like, that's it. Literally, that's it. They're like, no, Dad, you do something special. I'm like, yeah, I do, I do. Something very, very special. Just follow the instructions on the back. Super easy. So the principle of first is really important. And here's what I want you to take away from this is when we put God first in our lives, everything else will tend towards order. If God goes first, everything else in our lives tends towards order. The opposite is also true. When God is not first in our lives, everything tends towards disorder. When you don't put God first in your marriage, guess what? It's gonna be messed up. When you don't put God first in your health, in the way that you take care of your body, your body's probably not gonna feel super good. You put all kinds of weird stuff in your body you're not supposed to. You don't put God first and honor him that way, it's not gonna look good. You put God first in what you put in your mind. Your mind is gonna be healthier and more whole. The same is actually true of our finances. This principle of the first, it's found all throughout the Bible. Matthew chapter 6, we were in that chapter a lot last week. I'm gonna read more this week. It says this Jesus talking, he says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. He's saying this in the context of material needs, even wealth. He's saying that if you put wealth and material needs before the kingdom, that's gonna be bad. But if you put the kingdom first, God's gonna take care of you. He's gonna provide all your needs. He loves you. You're gonna get all the rest of it. We actually see the principle of first all throughout the Bible. So many examples. The very first offering we have Cain and Abel, Cain brought an offering in the course of time. Abel brought of the first fruits, and God's like, wow, Abel, that's actually what I really that that's honoring. I appreciate that. You see in Exodus chapter 13, you have the law, and the Lord says to Moses, we can read this together. It's on the Sky Bible here. It says, Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine. Notice, he says, it belongs to me. The first of anything that opens the womb. Any animals, any people, they're mine. And when it came to animals, um they they they treated them a little bit differently than they treated children, right? Not sacrificing kids. That's that's not what the Bible's teaching. You actually would redeem your kids with an offering. In fact, they wouldn't sacrifice things that were unclean. There were clean animals and unclean animals, so like a camel or a donkey would be an unclean animal. They wouldn't sacrifice those. They would take clean animals like lambs and they would sacrifice those in place of the unclean animals. That's really important. We're gonna come back to it later. But the principle here is the first was sacrificed or given to redeem the rest. So you give the first to redeem everything else that comes after it. It's really important. You see it again when the people of Israel go into the land of Canaan, this principle of the first, there was a city that they were gonna attack. Some of you guys know it, it had walls around it. They walked around the walls, marched around the walls multiple times for multiple days. Anybody know the name of the city? Jericho! Fantastic, yes. They marched around Jericho, and then on the seventh day they busted their jars and shouted and blew the horns, and then the walls fell down, and they marched in and they took over. And what God said about Jericho was, Joshua 6, verse 19, all silver and gold and every vessel of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. They shall go into the treasury of the Lord. He said, Everything from that city belongs to me. And you might say, Well, that's not that's not like a portion of it, that's the whole thing. Well, the reason is because that was the first city. It was the beginning of an entire conquest that they were about to make in the land of Canaan. And so he said, The first city belongs to me. Don't take anything out of it. Give me the whole city, because it's the first. You see this? It's in Proverbs again, Proverbs chapter 3, verse 9 and 10. He says, Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your produce. Then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. Anybody want vats bursting with wine? Wouldn't be bad. So, so God's is always the first part. And you might say, Listen, Pastor Jake, I'm gonna tell you, God is not first in my finances yet, but he is first in my heart. Like he really is. I would challenge that ever so gently, and don't get mad at me for saying this, Jesus said it. If you're mad, it's because Jesus said it. He said this, Matthew chapter 6, verse 21, where your treasure is, where your money is, there your heart will be also. So we can say all day that Jesus is first in our hearts, but if he isn't first in our finances, he isn't first in our heart. You always find these two together. In fact, I think it's interesting. Like we trust God with salvation, right? We trust him to save us, but we don't trust him with something as simple as our money. Does that seem a little backwards? It's it seems odd. If you really think about it, I'm trusting you to save me from an eternity in separation from you, but I don't know if I'm gonna trust you with this $5 bill that I've got. That's a little bit backwards. So, how do we apply this principle? What's the way that we actually actually apply this principle of the first? There's a way that we do it, it's called the tithe. It's by practicing the tithe. And if some of you are cringing even more now, you're like, oh my goodness, pastor's gonna talk about tithing. Just just track with me here, all right? We're gonna land someplace really, really good. So the tithe, it's it's if you're not a church person, you may have never heard it, or you may have heard it and think it just means an offering. There's actually a definition of the tithe. It's really, really simple. It just means one tenth. That's it. Some of you might not have known that. You might have thought if you put $5 in the offering plate that that's your tithe. And don't worry, they're gonna be doing something behind me now, but I'm gonna keep talking. Because I'm good at talking. So tithe just means a tenth, and you see this tenth done throughout the Bible. Um, in fact, it's it's actually the first tenth that you see the people delivering. So throughout the Bible, practice of giving the first tenth to God when they would have a harvest, they would give the first tenth to God. When they had animals, they would give the first tenth to God. When they would go to war and they would attack a city and they would win, they would give the first tenth to God. We see that it actually became a law for the Hebrew people. You see that in Leviticus, that there's all this discussion about how you give the first the tithe that you get to God, but it predates the law too. So this is a principle that was in the Bible before we had the Levitical law from Moses. Abraham, when he actually went to rescue his nephew Lot, he won this big battle. And what you see Abraham does is he goes and he gives a tenth of everything that he got to the priest Melchizedek. It's a fun word, Melchizedek. Say that three times without messing up. He gives it to Melchizedek, who was the high priest of the Lord in the city of Salem, which eventually was Jerusalem. Jacob did the same thing. Again, predates the law. You see it in Genesis chapter 28. He gave a tenth of what he had to God. And we actually see it described in the New Testament as well. Jesus actually validates and talks about the tithe in Matthew chapter 23. So the tithe is actually a practical application of the principle of putting God first in our finances. And so, when we say putting God first in our finances, it's not about being legalistic, okay? We're not saying like um if you didn't give God the first tenth of your paycheck and you go out to eat and and then you you you use some of the money that that came in first and you didn't give it to God, it doesn't mean you're cursed, okay? Doesn't work that way. That's not how it works. There's a way that that it's about your heart and your heart's priorities. So um it might feel like God's twisting your arm. If it does feel like that, it's probably because your perspective is wrong. Something I did one time in a message. Do we have any more? Bring you guys bring out the rest of it. Yeah, you gotta load this thing up. It doesn't make sense if it all isn't out here. Yeah. Just keep stacking it up. Just load it up here. Yeah. We got a lot of produce. Some of you are getting hungry. So there was there was one time we were talking about this, and I had, I I said, anybody here got a hundred dollar bill? And I had people raise their hands. And I I pointed to a guy say, Oh yeah, come here. Come up here. Can I have it? And he was like, sure. Like, cool, thanks. Put it in my pocket. I kept on preaching, kept talking. And I'm like, hey, some of you are getting nervous because I got a hundred dollar bill in my pocket that belongs to Steve over there. And then I just ignored it and just kept talking some more. And then I came back to it again. I'm like, some of you are really worried that I'm gonna keep that hundred dollar bill. Guess what? I am. I'm gonna keep it. And I'm not kidding. I'm really gonna keep the hundred dollar bill. And I wasn't kidding, I did keep the hundred dollar bill. The problem, though, with the people who were getting upset was they didn't understand the perspective. They didn't realize that I had given him the hundred dollars. And I had said, that's mine. I want you to use that at a certain point. I'm gonna tell you how to use it. And when I want it back, if I want it back, you're gonna give it back to me. Right? That's the way that it works when it comes to the principle of the tithe. So, so if you remember, last week we talked about how everything that we get comes from God. There's a lot of watermelons out here. Everything comes from God, it's all his, right? So, so the way it works is the way the principle of the first works is when I see my watermelons that I'm harvesting out on Belvidere Plantation down in Caroline or Spotsylvania County, which one belongs to God? All of them. Which one do I give to God? The first. Not super complicated. So I'm gonna take my first, and I'm gonna say, God, this one's yours. Do not roll off. And then I come over and I'm like, oh my goodness, the potatoes are starting to grow. Which one do I give back to God? The first. Really simple, right? And now, I don't know any watermelon or potato farmers, but I do know people that get a monthly salary. So my monthly salary. God gets the first portion of it. It belongs to you, God. Maybe you're doing some side hustles on Facebook Marketplace. Not a lot, but it's something. God gets the first. Or maybe I trade in Bitcoin. God gets the first. Maybe you work on commission, right? When you get a commission, God gets the first. Maybe you work on bonuses. Bonuses are the same thing. God gets the first of my bonus. Maybe you sell something, like you have a big house sale and you make a ton of money off of selling your house. Guess what God gets? He gets the first. So you take the first, the first 10%, and you give it to God. That's literally what God has asked us to do. I think I got one more thing over here that I haven't given God the first of. Oh, I got two more. I got an orange and an apple. So we give God the first tenth of everything. So we see that there's there's two tables here, right? This is our table, this is God's table. Alright? This is the way that God actually arranged it. And why did God create the practice of the tithe? Why did He do that? He created the tithe to teach us to walk by faith, actually. So it takes faith to give God the first. It doesn't take faith to give God what's left over. It doesn't take faith to eat all of this and have my parties and do all my things and say, what's left? Oh, there's one watermelon left, I'll give it to God. Or there's half a watermelon left, I'll give it to God. Or even there's three watermelons left, I'll give them to God. It doesn't take faith to do that. It takes faith to give God the first. In fact, um the Hebrews, they had this interesting process that they would do. So they would, they, they really wanted to make sure that the first fruits were given to God. So as they were harvesting, what they would do is they would take a reed of grass and they would tie it around the first bloom or the first blossom of any of the fruit that started to produce from their trees. They wouldn't take it off the tree. They would just uh identify this belongs to God. That's what they would do. Then they would wait until they were full grown, and then they would gather up all 10% of what they had, and they would have a big procession. A lot of times villages would get together, they'd do it all together, they'd have a big ox cart. Sometimes they would decorate the horns of the oxen with gold because this was a worshipful celebration, and they would take the first 10%, the first tithe, and they would bring it to Jerusalem to celebrate and give an offering to God. And you might you might look at this and you might say, like, this is super silly. Why would God give me all of this and then ask me to give back 10%? That seems inefficient, doesn't it? Like, we can be honest. Doesn't that seem inefficient? Like, give me 10 things and then just ask me to give you back one. I I personally I can agree and I can relate. In fact, more than most, I can probably relate. Because my paycheck comes from the church. And I'm supposed to give 10% of my paycheck back to the church. Wouldn't it just be easier if the church didn't have to pay the Fuda Suda and all the taxes and everything on it? And they just kept it? That would that would make more sense, wouldn't it? That would actually rob me of the opportunity to express my gratitude to God and worship God by giving him my tithe. I would never do that because it would steal my chance to actually worship God and show that I trust him with the rest of the 90. And see, people get frustrated with the tithe a lot of times. They say it's not fair. I just want you to look at this picture, if you can, for me. Does this seem fair? All of this belongs to God, and what he's saying is just give me back. This. Return that back to me. What you're going to discover is that God and 90% of your income can do way more than you and 100% of your income. Every single time. In fact, you might think this is an insensitive question, but it's a question that I have asked people before. When they're struggling financially, what I will ask them is, I'll say, So, so how does your giving, what's your giving look like? That's not because we need money. Our church is super financially healthy. We don't need money, and I don't need money. I don't get commissions off what people give to the church. That's not the way that this works. Okay? Like, I don't know how you think church works, but but nobody gets into being a pastor to get rich. Right? At least not in the faith stream that I walk in. That's just not how it works. Um, but I'll ask him, like, are you tithing? And the reason is because the tithe is a material representation of your faith in God. Jesus' little brother James, he wrote my favorite book in the Bible, James. And one of the things that he says is he says, Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Because you could say, I have faith in God that He's going to take care of my finances. This is a material representation of showing, God, I actually trust you with my finances. That's what tithing does. You're leaning in and saying, Lord, I'm showing you my faith by my works, by giving to you. What people often do when they struggle with money, one of the first things they do is they don't cut their savings, they don't cut their eating out, they don't cut their Starbucks or their gym memberships, they don't downsize their car. What they do is they go over to God's table and they're like, I think I need this. Oh, you know what? It's gonna be hard this month. Um, I think we're going on a trip. And they take it back. And before too long, what they're showing is they just don't have any faith that God is gonna take care of them. I just I want to encourage you. Don't touch God's table. Like, don't touch it. If all of this is his, don't touch his table. Don't do that. Because God's table, it's not about the number, right? That's not the thing. It's about unhitching your heart from a bank account. God doesn't need your money. God's not thinking like, man, they stole my pineapple. What am I gonna do this month? That's not the way God works. He doesn't need your money. In fact, it's an area that the Bible actually gives us permission to test, God, and it's an area, it's a really challenging area. I'm gonna read you a passage. It's a it's a troubling passage when it when you look at the table set up like this. Malachi, it's the last book of the Old Testament. He says this. He says, For I the Lord do not change. Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return? And God's response is, Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, How have we robbed you? Like we would all say that if we're not giving, right? God, I'm not robbing. How did I rob you? I can't go up to heaven and steal from you. How have I robbed you? And he says, in your tithes, in your tents, and your contributions, you're cursed with a curse, for you're robbing me, the whole nation of you. And see, God can call it robbery because none of this was ever theirs to begin with. It was all his in the first place, like my friend. If he just got up and walked out with my hundred dollar bill, just because I didn't ask for it back, or I didn't have a chance to, or just because I had given it to him at some point and he leaves, would that be robbery? It's not a trick question. It would be robbery, right? And that's what that's what this verse in Malachi is saying is God's saying, I give you all of this, yet you rob me. Why would you do that? And again, it's not because God needs your money, it's not because you're depriving him of his necessities. What he's saying here is, you're proving you don't trust me. You're proving you don't trust me. Why? Why would you do that? Verse 10 says, Bring the full tithe, the full tenth into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. And thereby, this is the only place in the Bible it says this, thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. You say, Well, what about if my car breaks down? What about if I could just get a crazy bill that I wasn't expecting? My AC breaks, something like that. He responds to that. He says, I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it won't destroy the fruits of your soil, and the vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. He's like, Look, I'm gonna take care of you. I'm gonna make sure that your needs get met. The devourer's not gonna be able to rob you. And see, tithing is it's not a deviation from financial freedom. It's actually the first step towards financial freedom. Again, God doesn't need our money, he wants our hearts, and according to Jesus, if he has our wallet, then he's got our hearts. Again, it's not Pastor Jake, it it's what the Bible says. And some of you will say, listen, Jake, to be honest, like I'm gonna tell you, the tithe was a part of the old covenant, and I'm a new covenant believer. And I can respect that, and I actually appreciate and I sympathize with you because I'm the same way. In fact, in the Old Testament, it's crazy. They didn't even give just 10%, they did it three different times. So they would date, they would take 10% and give it as a Levitical tithe. Then a later time in the year, they would take another 10% and they would give it as a festival tithe, really cool tithe, by the way. I can share that a different day. And then every three years, they would do a third tithe, which was for the the welfare and the poor in the country. So they would give 23 and a third for you math majors out there, 23 and a third percent every year of all that they had, they would bring to the storehouse to the priests. And they would say, This is for the kingdom, this is for whatever you guys use it for. So, if you say, look, that's an old testament way of doing things, we live in the New Testament. I agree. What did Jesus do with all of the Old Testament laws? He said, You've heard it said, don't commit adultery. Here's the barrier. I say to you, don't even look at a woman with lust in your heart. He elevated it, didn't he? You've heard that it was said, don't commit murder. I tell you, if you have anger in your heart without a cause, you're basically guilty of murder. If you call your brother a fool, you're in danger of the counsel. Jesus took all of the elements of the law and said, these are just like baselines. There's a generosity that I want you to have in a way that you should live that is beyond what the law, the basic requirements of the law, uh would tell you. So I would tell you, as a New Testament believer, I believe in radical generosity. In the New Testament, what you see happening is people selling their homes and laying the proceeds at the apostles' feet and saying, use this to provide for everybody. Everybody shared their common need. They would just they would live with each other, they would provide for each other. That's the way it worked. So 10% isn't God's, 100% is God's, and then he asks me to trust him with the 10% just to show where my heart is. The problem I have with a lot of people saying that they don't believe that the tithe applies today is um they don't say it because they feel a biblical conviction to give more. They say it because they don't want to give anything. And when you say that, it breaks my heart. Not because church needs your money. Church doesn't. It's because money has their heart more than God does. That's so sad. I I personally believe that the tithe is the start point. You're never gonna be able to afford to tithe until you actually start to tithe. Never gonna be able to do that. Um for me, the tithe in general, it's always just been about obedience. It's always been about just God told me to do it, so I'm just gonna do it. Um and I will tell you that walking through the preparation for this message, I'm super reluctant to give a personal story in this area. Um, partially because you guys are super uncomfortable with me talking about money. You're very quiet today. Might ask you to stand up and do jumping jacks or something. I don't know. But um what I what I really don't want is by sharing a personal story, I don't want it to sound like give to God and then you get something back because that's not why we give to God. We give to God to uncouple our heart from the love of money. So we we show God, we tithe to say we trust God's provision, we do it because we're grateful, we do it as an act of worship, all of those reasons we do it. So, like I said, I have a New Testament view of money. God doesn't own 10, 20, or 50% of my income. He owns 100% of it, and he tells me what to do with it, he tells me when to do it with it. And so I'm gonna share a quick story with you guys and you guys online. Um, and I hope, I hope you will not misunderstand the point that I'm trying to make. But I just share it to help you understand where I come from when it comes to this and where Daniel comes from as well. So um, you guys know I get my income from the church, right? I'm a pastor, kind of makes sense. Um, I do get a small check from the government. I did not retire from the military, but I was way too close to artillery tubes without hearing protection, and so um, I don't hear so good. Um, my wife says that that's just convenient, but um, yeah. So I get like a small check and I busted my ankle one time, so I get a little bit of a disability. Um so our income is really primarily from the church. Other than that, Danielle has a business as a therapist, right? Um so Danielle and I were tithing off of my income. We're we're giving, um, we're giving off of my income that comes in from the government, we're giving off of her income. Um but at the end of 2024, we decided, we felt like God was challenging us to do something even above and beyond. And you guys know, if if you've been here for a while, we have a reach out celebration at the end of every year where we give above and beyond our tithe to missions, outreach, church planting. We give, the church gives to that stuff anyways, but we want to supplement it and kind of plus it up. And so Danielle and I actually decided that we were gonna give another 20% of my income. We were gonna give that to the rock. Not just 10. We're gonna give another 20%. And I'm not gonna move all this stuff over because it'll take me too long. Um, but that was the number God gave us. So it's his money anyway. So if he tells us that's what we're gonna do with it, we're like, okay. He says, jump, I ask how high on the way up. That's just how I work. Um, same time, Danielle was actually, her business was really small. She was trying to kind of grow it. And so we had taken a step of faith because we felt like God wanted her to expand her business into Fredericksburg. So we signed a lease in December on a bigger facility in Fredericksburg. It would have been her second location. And um, she's working to hire more therapists. Simultaneously, she said, Man, like as we step into this new season of the business, I feel like God wants me to give 50% of my profits this year to the church. Like he wants me to take half of it and just give it. Whatever that number is, right? She's like, okay, huge commitment, right? We're just gonna trust God because He He gets our money. Again, I haven't told anybody this story. Um so life happens. January of that year. Her she has insurance providers that that you know pay for clients that come to visit. Her biggest group of clients, the insurance provider for them, just stopped paying. We noticed it in December, but it persisted into January, into February, into March, into April, like tens of thousands of dollars that was supposed to pay for her therapist, was supposed to pay for the facility. Um, simultaneously, in February, my daughter, who's now affectionately named T-Bone, was driving my truck. Guess what happened? Yeah, not fun. A month later, my son totals his truck. In May, we have a water line burst in our house and flood our entire basement. You might be like, Jake, this doesn't actually sound like a good story. Yeah, it doesn't. It wasn't good. Um, and I'm gonna tell you, in that moment, this table started to look very appetizing. Like, ah just take this and put it back over here. It gets really, really tempting. So Danielle and I, we we we met, we prayed, which I encourage you as couples, pray with your spouse about this. Like, ask God what what he wants you to do. It's his anyways. We prayed, we're like, did you really say this, God? This is kind of crazy. And it's been a crazy year. Um we just decided, like, no, God said it, we're gonna do it. And so in the middle of the year, we fulfilled our rock commitment. Again, biggest rock offering we've ever been able to give. And I was so excited to be able to do it. It was it was worship. It was like, yes, God. And man, sometimes when it hurts, it even makes it that much better. It's like, no, God, this doesn't have any part of my heart. Simultaneously, what happened was while other practices were closing down because the insurance provider wasn't like it was all over the internet. There were congressmen that went up to Capitol Hill to deal with it. It was crazy. Danielle's business did a turnaround right after that. Clients started calling off the walls. She got more people reaching out wanting to come on. And she had multiple lines of business that opened up that she wasn't, she wasn't expecting. The business really, really started to expand. In fact, um, we had to bring on somebody to to be an admin assistant for her to help with with billing and everything else. It was a dramatic shift. And so we had actually set a number. While we had said, hey, it's 50%, whatever, whatever she makes, God gets 50%. She had set a number in her heart, like, I want it to be this number. And at the beginning of the year, when all that stuff started happening, we're like, there is no way that's gonna happen. But you know, by the end of the year, this table grew quicker than we could have expected, and she was able to stroke a check to the church, to the Lord, just give it away. That was exactly what she she was hoping, exactly the goal. Yeah, it was cool. And I again I share that. Um it's a little vulnerable, but I share that because we don't touch this table. We just don't touch it. It's God's. And whatever He tells us, that's what we put there. It's his. And where we start is with the tithe. And I I want you to all experience that level of trust, that level of liberty when it comes to your finances. So I told you there's gonna be an ask at the end. Easiest ask, all right? Super easy, super, super easy. Wait till the end so you don't get sticker shock, all right? I want you to take a 90-day challenge. I'm gonna invite you to do a 90-day challenge. If you've never done this before, if you've never trusted God with your finances, I want you to take three months and trust Him. So here's here's the here's the deal, here's the ask. For 90 days, give a full 10% of your increase. Full 10%. Side hustles, investments, dividends, Bitcoin, I don't know where you get your money. Wherever you get it, take a full 10%, and and and then you give it, number two, to God through the local church. You don't designate it, you're just like, God, my hands are off of it. I'm giving it to you. In the Old Testament, they would bring it to the priest, they would bring it to that place. We don't have that. The closest thing we have now is the local church. So 10% to God through the local church and do it for 90 days. Only catch is you can't give anonymously. You got to put your name on it. All right. Don't just put money in the in the back. If you do this for 90 days, and at the end of 90 days you say, I don't feel more financially free, Pastor Jake. I don't feel like this has actually been working out. You said that this was gonna work this way. God says to test him in this, so I just want to lean in and be like, okay, we're gonna help this happen. We're gonna put some training wheels on right now. If after 90 days you you don't feel liberty, we will give you every single penny back. And I'm not saying that as like a like a um a gimmick or anything else. I I promise you, we will give you every single penny that you've given to the church in those 90 days. As long as you put your name on it, don't be coming and saying, we gave $30,000 to the church. Like I was born during the day, but it wasn't yesterday. So that's that's the ask. Not because we need money, our church is healthy financially. We always, always operate under budget. We we're we have really great people that help oversee how we do things. This is for you. It's not that we want something from you. Amen. I told you. And they would give the first to redeem the rest. All of this, actually, it's so amazing. All of it is actually a picture of the gospel. You know, God doesn't ask us to do anything that he that he didn't already do. Who was Jesus? His firstborn. What did God do with Jesus? He gave. He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believed in him would not perish, but have eternal life. In fact, in Romans, it says this in Romans chapter 8, verse 29, it says, Those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. See, you and I are unclean. I don't know if you you you think you came from the factory clean. You didn't. Every single one of us, when we arrive, we are unclean. But God gives the clean to redeem the unclean, right? The the camels and the donkeys that that the Hebrew people would have, they wouldn't sacrifice them, they would sacrifice clean, pure lambs. They wouldn't bring anything with the blemish to God's house, only the pure things. And they would sacrifice those to redeem the rest. That's literally the gospel. You and I are broken, you and I are unclean, we are in desperate need of a savior, and we cannot make an offering to redeem ourselves. So God sends his only son, his firstborn, and he redeems all of us, and he sacrifices himself for us. This giving, this is really just about that. Like you can think about it that way. This is about the gospel. Everything in the word, everything, all the law, it all points to Jesus. And that's what I want for you. I want you, I want you to understand that. I want you to just see him in all of this. Can I pray for you? Let's bow our heads. Lord, I thank you for your word, God. I thank you for the the freedom that you want us to have from any kind of thing that might bind us. And so, Lord, I pray that for everybody here, that they would be financially free, that they would be liberated from the bondage of materialism, Lord. I pray, God, that you would um show them how faithful you are, Lord. That when we put you first, God, you you can always be counted on. Doesn't matter how little we have, doesn't matter how much we have. We trust you, God, with our first. We trust you with our best. You trusted us with your first and your best, Lord. And you died for us.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

Thank you for listening to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast. If you would like to connect with us, you can find us on the web at manastafford.church or download the Mana Church app to listen to our new episodes as they become available. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast. We would also love to meet you in person. If you are local, our services take place each Sunday at 10 a.m. We pray you have an amazing week and we'll see you next time.