The Table California
The Table is a church family in Arroyo Grande, California. Our desire is to give Jesus His desire...a house where He can be Himself with His family. This podcast hosts the weekly teachings from our Sunday evening gatherings and occasionally supplemental conversations throughout the week.
The Table California
Kingdom Generosity: Beyond Financial Giving
What does it mean to truly live a life of Kingdom generosity? Today we explore the profound impact that generosity has on our lives and how it goes well beyond mere financial giving. Inspired by Jesus' example in Matthew 14, we reflect on his acts of generosity even when faced with personal grief and exhaustion, urging us to consider how we can embody this in our daily lives.
Be sure to listen through to the end to hear Gretchen Ricker give an update on the greenhouse and garden project as well as our current needs.
For more information on THE TABLE please visit:
www.thetablecalifornia.com
So we have been marching our way through a teaching on the Kingdom of God now for quite a few weeks. Three weeks ago, I believe, we began talking about what are the qualities of this Kingdom people, and we began with family. Kingdom people are not just a collection of individuals, but kingdom people know that they are the family of God. We are adopted as sons and daughters into God's family and now we relate to one another not just as church members, not just as occasional see you once a week folks, but we are actually family. Now that doesn't happen overnight. Family now, that doesn't happen overnight. We all have muscle memory of of certain things that church is, or even definitions of that word family. That can be painful, but we, we, we push beyond those things and we try to enter into that realm of okay. We want to be kingdom people. That means we are family. So, lord, give us the grace to walk that out.
Speaker 1:Last week we talked about love. We are a people of God love, not world love, which is emotion driven. It's built on inferior things like passion, lust. It's temporary things like passion, lust, it's temporary. But God love, meaning we have received his love first. So now, what do we do with that love, we give it back to him. Our first response when we realize that he loved us is to give that love back to him, and then the second response is give it to others. So kingdom people are a people of agape love, this God-like love. It isn't just conjured up, it's not emotional, it is actually the revelation that God himself is love and he loves us.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to talk about generosity. Kingdom people are generous, generous, and so, as Lindsay and I have been talking about this, she has so many things that the Lord has showed her we thought it would be good for us to just almost have just a conversation, not just Lindsay and I, but all of us together. We can facilitate the conversation. I know there's specific things that the Lord has shown Lindsay that she wants to share. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to talk about generosity. Kingdom people are generous people. We're going to be in a few different passages, but if you want to go ahead and turn to Proverbs, chapter 11, that'll be a good one to start in. So what we'll do is do you want to share a few things, maybe what the Lord has shown you about this kingdom quality, and we'll just kind of go from there, so we'll just make it conversational.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:She's all yours.
Speaker 4:Wow. Okay, if you've been here for a couple of weeks, you've heard us talk about assignment, which was take some time and ask the Lord what he wants to say about himself to you and then, when you hear from him, go find it in scripture and pray through it until this part of who he is, his nature, his heart, becomes real to you and you can begin to live from this place. So we all took a minute, five minutes, and the thing that the Lord spoke to me was the generosity of Jesus, which was really like I wasn't expecting that, but I thought, okay, this was before, I think, we even started talking about this stuff. So the next morning I got up and I was like all right. So the next morning I got up and I was like all right, god, like where, where do you want me to go in scripture to learn about the generosity of Jesus? And he led me at first to what seemed like a really strange place, but as I sat with it, it began to make a lot of sense, so I wanted to share it with you guys. So Jesus finds out OK, so I'm in Matthew 14, starting in verse 13.
Speaker 4:So Jesus finds out that John the Baptist has just died and he's been ministering. He's told that his cousin, he's told that his cousin, the one who baptized him, this man, has died a horrible death. And so it says now, when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. How often do we hear bad news or we get upside down in life and it's like I have get away, like I have to be by myself, quiet, no interruptions. Okay, so Jesus does this. He gets on a boat, it says.
Speaker 4:When the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. And when, when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said this is a desolate place and the day is over. Now. Send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves. But Jesus says they don't need to go away, you give them something to eat. And they said to him we only have five loaves here and two fish. And he said bring them here to me. And we know the story as it goes from there Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fish.
Speaker 4:But what I wanted to focus on and what the Lord really drew my attention to is that, in the midst of grief and exhaustion of grief and exhaustion, jesus was able to look at a crowd of people, have the type of God compassion on them and heal their sick and minister to them. And then he was given another opportunity to send them away to find their own food and he said no, I'm going to feed them, I'm going to minister to their, to their hearts and their bodies and their bellies. And so as I sat through this during the week, I became increasingly convinced that this idea of generosity is not just like finances is a part of it, but it's a very small part of it. Like finances is a part of it, but it's a very small part of it. Kingdom generosity is a heart issue, and so we can practice this by being generous with our time and our space and our resources. Anything that we feel like is limited. Those are the areas where God is calling us to be generous in those places, and finances are a really easy way to practice. But it's not the best place to end, it's really infinite.
Speaker 4:And so I'm sitting with this, with the Lord, and I'm asking him like, what is the source of Jesus' generosity, what was in him that allowed him to minister to these people when he was in grief and exhausted. So the Lord said why don't you tell this story back to me as if you're Jesus? So tell me what you think you would be thinking if you were there. So I'm going through it and I'm like I would get on that boat and think praise God, I'm on this boat, I'm alone, like I can't wait to get to this quiet place. And the Lord stopped me there and he said that's exactly it, like this is where you're different. Jesus never, never lost connection with the father. He was always anchored into that place and drawing from him. Whereas we go, go, go, go go, we get to the end of ourselves and we think I have to connect with God. I have to, you know, connect to this source, and Jesus was never that way. He was always connected. And so I think part of the heart of generosity is to be connected to the source. That's infinite.
Speaker 4:You know whether it's my time and you know, as we were getting ready for today, I kept thinking. We were hosting people in the house all week. So I'm thinking, ok, when am I going to sit and think about this, you know. And then today I thought, okay, when am I going to sit and think about this, you know? And then today I thought, okay, today's the day. And then, you know, adelaide wasn't feeling well. There were like needs around the house and I'm thinking I have no time. This is what, oddly enough, I have no time. I'm not going to be able to be prepared this what am I doing?
Speaker 4:You know, my head is spinning and the Lord says this is a perfect time to learn what generosity looks like.
Speaker 3:His generosity.
Speaker 4:Like all my words are in Him, all of my time is held by Him, and if we can land in that place, I think we're going to be able to live from a place of faith that he is who he says he is, trust that he's going to show up like we need him to show up, and those two things lead us to a place of rest and outflow you know and.
Speaker 4:I think that's what, as a community, we have to get to that place of knowing Him as our source and not our own finite resources.
Speaker 1:So what would you say is a main difference between kingdom generosity and the world's generosity?
Speaker 4:Well, that's a good question these were not prepackaged questions and the world's generosity Well that's a good question.
Speaker 1:These were not prepackaged questions.
Speaker 4:I wish they were Okay.
Speaker 1:you asked me this, then I'm going to say that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I think the world's generosity would have its source and it would be more like if I took a bottle of water and my source of generosity came from, I might be free with my bottle of water, because I'm saying, if I'm in the world, I might be free with my bottle of water because I'm just inclined to generosity of water, because I'm just inclined to generosity. But when my bottle of water gets low, then I start to conserve, I start to pull back, but I think, as believers connected to the source, we're anchored in an ocean, so it's like a flow that's not diminishing in supply.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 4:I think like kingdom generosity looks like giving without expectation of getting back, because we're not giving from our own source. That's needy the things that I have to give of me. I need affirmation from them. If I give you my time, I want you to acknowledge it. But if I know that my time is connected to God, it's His time, it's not mine.
Speaker 3:So I don't need that.
Speaker 4:I don't need that. If I give you my words, I want to hear wow, that's a really good thing that you said, but if it's coming from the lord, it's his, belongs to him you know james writes that every good and perfect gift comes down to us from the father of lights kingdom.
Speaker 1:People understand that everything that we have is from him, so it belongs to him. So we give out of that place of even if we don't have it, it's his I like that because that's like kingdom people are people of faith, you know.
Speaker 4:So it's like we give because we know who our father is. It's a blessing that we get to give time from a place of lack, yeah, or we get to give heart space from a place of lack because he gets to make up all that space and he loves that, like he loves to show up like that for us. You know he loves for us to be in that position.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it is such a paradox, the idea of like being spent but still having your vats full Mm-hmm, like those two existing in the kingdom at the same time.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's only from the place of that spentnessness and acknowledging that spintness and still giving that your vats are just minimal.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because that's fate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's like my cup overflows from a place of letting it be empty and that's the only way he's overflowing it. So it's like that's why God is rich in mercy overflowing it. So it's like that's why God is rich in mercy. So even when Jesus was spent in his physical emotions, in his grief, he was full of compassion to be able to pour that out, because he was drawing from the ocean, from his bank account, from his spirit, his bank account from his, from the spirit.
Speaker 3:yeah, right it wasn't, it wasn't from that place of, it wasn't a.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a place of poverty, of insecurity, but from that place of fullness and spirit and compassion, and I think that's such a great, a great paradox to see. It's like like, oh wow, when I'm truly empty, I'm actually full, so I can actually give out of that place of faith in the abundance that I have.
Speaker 5:So what I'm hearing is that basically understanding, like having an understanding of who God is. So then, like the ocean is his, we're sticking with the metaphor. So then, like the ocean is his, but we're sticking with the metaphor, so the ocean, the resources are all abundantly his. So is it just when you grasp who he is and where all the resources belong to, that's when, like that's kind of like what I'm understanding, like who he is and what he's capable of.
Speaker 3:You know, what I really saw in listening to Lindsay was self is out of the way. He just didn't count. Whatever he was feeling, it was not acknowledged. It was a pattern of behavior for him to stay in relationship with the Father, so it didn't really matter what he felt, what he thought yeah, he knew that he belonged to the father, he knew that he was the beloved son and that there were infinite resources in the father.
Speaker 1:So, as long as he was connected to the father, there was going to be multiplication. There was going the Father, there was going to be multiplication, there was going to be increase, there was going to be enough. And to just relegate it to money, we miss the kingdom teaching on generosity completely If, every time we hear the word give, we see dollar signs. Because it's time, it's forgiveness, oh my goodness. It's mercy, it's kindness, it's our words, it's service. All of these things are infinite resources that god has. Money is just one small component. Money is something that we can identify very easily and we can put on a spreadsheet and see identify very easily. And we can put on a spreadsheet and see how, how are, how we are generous. But, man, there are so many more things that we can be generous with.
Speaker 4:So, jesus, and it's the area to money where he asked us to test him, and I think it's meant to stir up our fate. If you behave that like I see what you did with money, yeah, but he's after the heart, yeah, you know so, like if. If you behaved that like I see what you did with money, yeah, but he's after the heart, yeah, you know so, like if. If you have faith with this financial thing that you can, yeah, test him with and believe that he's going to give mercy the same way and multiply time like how does?
Speaker 1:he do that I don't know, but he does so let's, let's use mercy as an example of what we mean by being generous with mercy. Mercy is if grace, is God giving you something you don't deserve, mercy is God withholding the judgment that you do deserve. So let's apply that to ourselves. How can we be generous with mercy? Someone does something to us. They wound us, they say something bad, whatever it might be. They do something against us. The world would say eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. You did this. Therefore, I'm justified in whatever it might be. Being generous in mercy is saying I know you deserve me taking you to court and getting the thousand dollars because you dinged my car. I'm just using that as an example. Being generous in mercy is saying you know what Accidents happen, I'll take care of it, don't worry about it. That's generous in finances, generous in mercy, generous in humility, generous in forgiveness and generous in compassion, kindness. That's a witness. Why are you doing this? Because Jesus has been so kind to me, so merciful to me. Now there's the part of you that's going to say yeah, but they're going to walk all over me, I'm going to get taken advantage of. Ah. That's when we start thinking in the flesh. That's when we start thinking like the world. I've got to hold on to my mercy. I've got to hold on to my justice Because if I don't take care of myself, I'm just going to get run all over. Do you see the difference in kingdom perspective and the world's perspective? The kingdom perspective is yeah, you know what they might run all over me and you know what I might run around in a car for a year with a dinged up bumper. So they ran all over Jesus and he said as they did to me, they'll do it to you. Who's your defender, you or Jesus? I want Jesus fighting my battles for me. I want Jesus executing justice on my behalf. I don't want to step into that arena. And so you see where generosity now it touches so many different areas of our life. If we limit generosity to just finances, we miss a huge component of what it means to be kingdom people.
Speaker 1:I want to read that I told you Proverbs 11. I was not lying to you. Proverbs 11, 24, 25. Maybe this will help. Solomon writes this Proverbs 11, verse 24.
Speaker 1:There is one who scatters, yet increases all the more. Okay, this is the kingdom person. Here. They're scattering, sowing seed, giving out abundantly words forgiveness, humility, kindness, mercy, whatever it might be, but yet there's increase, that's coming. And then there's one who withholds More than what is right, but it leads to poverty. See this kingdom of ours. It's upside down. It is 180 degrees different from what we would think. You would think I have to hold on so that I'll have more, but the kingdom is you scatter and then you increase. The more that you hold on with a clenched fist, you actually end up in poverty Again.
Speaker 1:Finances is one thing, but what about forgiveness? If I am tight-fisted with my forgiveness, I'm not going to receive forgiveness from others. If I'm holding on to mercy because I'm afraid people are going to take advantage of me, you know what I'm going to find myself in poverty and famine. When it comes to receiving mercy from others, yes, ma'am. Well, actually, let me finish the verse real quick Verse 25. The generous soul will be made rich and he who waters will also be watered himself. So you see, it's that principle of sowing and reaping that gretchen talked about. Yes, finances, but also our words, also our time, also our hospitality. Oh man, if, if I have them over for dinner, we're not gonna have enough food or I'm not gonna have enough time in the day, thinking like the world. If I'm generous with my hospitality and I host them as if I'm hosting the Holy Spirit, it will come back to you. God will increase time, he will increase the finances, he will multiply in ways that only he can.
Speaker 4:Do any of you guys want to?
Speaker 1:share.
Speaker 4:Yeah, are we done.
Speaker 1:No, I've got a couple more things.
Speaker 4:I just wanted to give practical homework.
Speaker 1:Let's do that at the end. Yeah, that would be a good way to finish up. I wanted to share. Yeah, go ahead, man, I was thinking of that verse.
Speaker 2:I think it's God is not bought. As the man sows, that he will reap, you know, to the flesh, destruction in the spirit, life. I feel like the beatitudes really encompass, like generosity, yeah, it's fullest, because it is like, oh, blessed is the one who does this. What he is sowing, that's what she's also going to reap so like blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is a kingdom so those who are empty.
Speaker 2:They have the fullness of the box of heaven. But I also think, even with the mercy, blessed are those who are merciful, for they shall be shown mercy. I think in that same way it's like yeah, that is a real principle that Jesus outlined, that if I do show mercy to others, myself will receive mercy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so true.
Speaker 2:And then the opposite is true. We see in romans, chapter two, where it's like you who judge.
Speaker 1:Do not do the same things the very same thing that what you're judging others for the same condemnation is going to come upon your head yeah so it's like we we see these principles and action and generosity I remember we were doing bible studies with the kids, and one of the things that we taught them was when Paul says consider others more important than yourself. And so I remember using this illustration of okay, imagine there's five cookies on our table. There's six people in our family. Uh-oh, there's only five cookies. That means there's one short. The world is going to think I've got to go ahead and grab that cookie quick because someone's going to be left out. Well, that's not preferring others and considering them more important than yourself. That's considering yourself. So, in the same way, when we're talking about generosity, the kingdom generous individual sees five cookies and says I'm going to make sure that I'm giving mine to somebody else, that somebody else gets it. So the point would be I know that I'm going to be taken care of because I'm a son of God. I'm a daughter of God. I don't have to grab and get my own like others do. So what we tried to get the kids to do was stop grabbing for the resources on the table as quick as you can, which is what often we do. I've got to grab time. I've got to grab respect from people. I've got to grab justice. I have to grab getting my side of the story clear. I've got to grab justice. I have to grab getting my side of the story clear. I've got to grab these things as opposed to. I'm going to be generous and I'm going to give mercy. I'm going to give kindness, I'm going to give understanding to somebody that I don't understand where you're coming from. I'm going to give understanding and I'm going to trust that, as I do, that my Father is going to take care of me and bring understanding. Increase time in my day, multiply my resources.
Speaker 1:I want to read one more passage of Scripture and then Lindsay can close with some practicals. This is in the book of Haggai. I know everybody knows where Haggai is, so go ahead and turn there real quick. Haggai is towards the end of the Old Testament. I think it's third from the end in the Old Testament. So it would go Malachi, then before that Zechariahah, before that Haggai, before that Zephaniah. So if you go to Zephaniah, keep going to the right, if you go to Zechariah, go to the left.
Speaker 4:He wants a gold star.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm showing off now, aren't I? Haggai actually has two chapters. The historical significance of haggai is so or you could just listen to me, read it and don't even worry about finding it, haggai, okay, it is important to understand the context of haggai. So haggai was a prophet in the time of israel going back to their homeland in Jerusalem after being in exile in Babylon for 70 years. So they've come back. They're wanting to rebuild the temple, they're wanting to rebuild the walls, they have big vision for what God is going to do, because they've come back to Jerusalem and things just kind of stall out. So God raises up some prophets. Haggai is one of those and he says this, beginning in verse 1.
Speaker 1:In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the prophet of Zerubbabel, the son of Shelteel. If anyone's looking for names for their children, seth and olivia, here you go. The word of the lord came to haggai saying this. Verse 2 thus says the lord of hosts saying this people says the time has not come, the time that the lord's house should be built. So god's people are saying you know what? It's not time to the Lord's house should be built. So God's people are saying you know what? It's not time to build God's house. The word of the Lord came to Haggai, the prophet, saying verse 4. Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and the temple to lie in ruins? So God's people had built temple or houses for themselves, but yet God's house was incomplete, incomplete, it was still lying in ruins. Verse 5 now, therefore, thus says the lord of hosts consider your ways. You have sown much and you bring in little. You eat, but you don't have enough. You drink, but you're not filled enough. You drink, but you're not filled. You clothe yourselves, but no one's warm. He who earns wages earn wages to put a into a bag with holes in it.
Speaker 1:But do you see the connection between what we read in proverbs 11 holding on, holding on, holding on and what you have is actually drying up? Verse 8 go to the mountains and bring wood and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the lord. You look for much, but indeed it came to little, and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Who blew it away? Yah, yahweh. Why? Because they weren't generous. They were holding on to what little they had, with clenched fists, and God said even what you had, I blew it away.
Speaker 1:Why, says the Lord of hosts? Because my house, it's in ruins, while every one of you runs into your own house. Therefore, the heavens above withhold the dew and the earth withholds its fruit. For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains. Who called for a drought? Was there a spiritual battle that needed to take place between darkness and light? Did we need to, you know, storm against the demons that were coming? God called for the drought. God called for the famine. I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil and whatever the ground brings forth, on men, on livestock and on the labor of your hands.
Speaker 1:So what's my point? They weren't generous. They had a poverty mentality that told them we've got to hold on, we've got to take care of ourself, I've got to build my house. So the ripple effect of that is God's house was incomplete, god's house was in ruins. And what happened? They didn't have enough. Kingdom generosity looks backwards to what we would think. We sow, we sow, we give, we're generous and we trust that God will do what only he can do. The minute we put our fingers around the resource is the minute we become responsible for bringing increase to that resource. The minute that I take possession of my kindness and my mercy and my forgiveness and my money and my time is the minute that I become responsible for making sure those things increase, making sure there's enough. But if I hold all those things open-handed now, it's God's responsibility. I want him to be responsible of my time and my finances and my words and my forgiveness. Amen.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's good. You know what I love. While you were reading that, I was thinking about. You know, we lived in Iraq for a while and there was so much war that people had this poverty mentality. I have to hang on to these things because I mean, if you're at a grocery store and they have one item left, it's like a fight to get to it. And you know, israel came back out of exile and they had to have felt like nobody's taking care of us. We have to hold on to these things, and so I think we're always, in our own mind, justified in being aware of lack. You know, there's always going to be some way that you can make an excuse for holding on to things. Make an excuse for holding on to things, um, and so I love that.
Speaker 4:This generosity of heart requires faith and trust and rest, um, otherwise it's not going to happen. So my homework is this this is really good. I think I think this is going to be helpful. This is really good. I think I think this is going to be helpful.
Speaker 4:Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where in your life it is difficult to give, and when he highlights those things, let's say, for example, for me. If the thing he revealed to me is time, that I'm not generous with my time, then I say, okay, God, show me in scripture a promise about time one and commit to praying through that. And two, show me where you've been faithful in time so that I can stand on that and have that faith to really dig into it. So if time is mine I'm looking at, teach me to number my days and just pray that. Asking him, lord, teach me, I don't know what I'm doing. Teach me to number my days.
Speaker 4:And if time is my thing, the testimony that I'm going to go back to is you know a time when I was pregnant with Asa and in an airport in Iraq and I was going to miss my flight and I had to go be checked by a doctor to get to my. It was an absolute disaster. I think I had like an hour to get there and time literally stood still. I made it through the whole process, got to the gate and still had 45 minutes, and the process took forever. If you've ever been to a third world country, doctor's visits take a very long time, and so I would go back to that and say, lord, you've done it, I've seen you hold time still and provide for me, so I trust you until you start to live from that place of generosity. So we all have it like we all have space where we're hanging on tightly to things. Um, and I think he wants to teach us how to hold it with open hands.
Speaker 1:yeah, that's good. One last testimony and then we'll wrap up cool. Yeah, I remember when, uh, when the lord called me to go to bible school, we had no money and we were stepping into a season where I wasn't going to be able to work. I was going to be a full-time student, and so not only did we have no money, but we were going into something that was going to limit my time to go work and produce money, and so, rather than holding on to what we had, we thought, okay, we're going into a season where we're going to need more resources. That means we need to give more. So we started giving to more missionaries. We took on more ministries that we supported. It's counterintuitive. The world says stock up, the kingdom says give. And let me tell you, god provided for us in miraculous ways. Within six months, he gave me a business idea that put me through Bible school, that taught me a trade. That put me through Bible school, that taught me a trade that allowed me to be a blessing to other people, give them work as well. So not only did he bless us, he blessed us with a business idea that became a multiplication of blessing for others Within six months. So we've seen this happen over and over. It's a testimony of our lives since we started walking with Jesus. Amen, alright, well, let's go ahead and close in prayer and we'll go ahead and get to eat and everyone says Amen.
Speaker 1:Just a reminder all of these messages are on the website. On the podcast, you can listen back to the previous ones if you've missed any weeks. Just look for the Table California on any podcast platform. You can go to thetablecaliforniacom and that'll take you there. Let's pray.
Speaker 1:Thank you, jesus, that you show us the way that you walked in faith.
Speaker 1:You believed, you trusted, you knew who you were, you knew who the Father was, you were moved with compassion, you knew there was always enough, and so you gave, and you gave completely. You gave everything that you had, jesus, you gave. Lord, I ask that you would give us this grace to be like you, to be generous with what you've first given to us. Lord, remind us that everything that we have is from you, lord, show us ways that we can be generous with what you have given us, generous with our words and our time and our resources and our mercy and kindness and all of these kingdom qualities.
Speaker 1:God, I pray that you would raise up a generous people who look like Jesus and absolutely confound the wisdom of this age. Thank you, god, for raising up a new Jesus people. Oh, we love you, we praise your, your holy name, thank you for this time together, thank you for this meal that we're getting ready to eat and thank you for everyone who contributed to this meal. Thank you for their generosity of giving their, their time, their talent, their treasure, their resources so that we all could eat. Oh, we love you, we thank you, we bless your holy name, amen.
Speaker 6:Okay, so I'm the treasurer for the table, and what the board asked me to chat about is the money stuff. That's where I live, that's what I do for a living and it's my favorite topic. So what I want to talk about I'm just going to walk through a scenario for you, and one of the things, first of all, that I want to make a point of is that when a farmer has a farm and he's growing wheat, at the beginning of the season, he has something he needs to think about. He's got a bag of seed and he's got a growing season ahead of him and he's got a hungry family. So does he put the seed in the ground or does he have his wife ground the wheat and make bread for the family? Well, it's a faith issue, isn't it? Because if the seed doesn't prosper, then the farmer's family is not going to prosper and they most likely will lose the farm, and blah, blah, blah. But what does he do? He puts the seed in the ground. That's a faith act. Don't talk to me that way.
Speaker 1:The neighbor does the neighbor does.
Speaker 6:So what happens is, yeah, the seed grows and over time, it produces a harvest, and he can not only feed his family, he feeds the entire community with the bread that's made from the grain that he grew. Pretty simple scenario. So, taking that to the next step, what I want to talk about is a very simple growth concept. This is growth and this is time. Okay, very basic. And what happens with growth over time? Because we all live life right. So what happens with life over time is it does this, doesn't it? Peaks and valleys through life, the lifetime, and you've got mountains and you've got valleys.
Speaker 6:Isaiah 40 says and I brought it with me, isaiah 43,. A voice cries in the wilderness prepare a way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. So the valleys will be raised up, the mountains will be made low.
Speaker 6:And what does that look like over time? This is this is called a managed. This is managed risk in a financial arena. This is managed risk. This is the stock market right. This is what you achieve if you manage risk.
Speaker 6:So managing risk from the faith-based situation is do what God tells you to do. Give and it is given unto you, filled up, pressed down, shaken together and running over. That's my life verse for my business, and the point of it is, if you don't give, you have to give first, without expectation for return. That's the farmer putting the seed in the ground. He has faith in the fact that the sun's going to rise every day, the rain's going to come, the sun's going to shine and he's going to produce a harvest. But what does he have to do before he even knows that's going to happen? He has to put seed in the ground. So what we're looking at here is this is life. But if we do what Scripture calls us to do, neil has done a beautiful job of walking us through over the last. How long have we been here? Since October, november, in?
Speaker 1:the tent since March here Since October November.
Speaker 6:Yeah. So Neil has been raising us up in this concept of what has God called us to do, what does scripture say we're supposed to do? And my arena is money, and I've been asked to compress an all-day seminar into seven minutes, so I'm going to cut to the chase. We want this for the growth of the church and Neil and Lindsay are here to equip us. We are experiencing a revival in this country, san Francisco. I don't know if you heard, but San Francisco just had a massive Christian outpouring. There was a big LGBTQXYZ event that apparently was appalling. I didn't read the article on that. But then the next week, the Christians came out and paraded down the same street, witnessed on the street. People were coming out of their tents, their homeless tents, and walking with the Christians down the street, and the Christians are taking San Francisco back. That's the belly of beast people. Well, sacramento, I think, might possibly be the belly of the beast, but I won't go there.
Speaker 6:And what Neil and Lindsay are doing is they are equipping us. We are the remnant and what they're doing is we are participating in them equipping us to be ready when that harvest shows up and we step into the field. We have been equipped to come alongside these people and help them understand who Jesus is and equip them to take the next step, to talk to the people that they go back to. So that's what we're doing here. We want to do this. This takes money and I watch the money and we're not making it. Just having this tent on this little piece of sand costs the church a thousand dollars a month. That's a real number, and Lindsay and Neil are not receiving the salary they need and we as the church need to understand that if we do not give, then this is going to go away. If you appreciate what he's doing and I'm just talking turkey, because I don't do you any good if I don't tell you the truth, fair enough, somebody nod Thank you.
Speaker 6:So 10 bucks helps because it's a seed. Don't think well, 10 bucks is not going to be enough. 10 bucks is a seed and what God says is he will grow it if you will give it. So don't give it and think, oh, it's not going to be enough, I can't help. That's a lot of money. Put the seed in the box and see what God does in your life, because his desire is for us to prosper. I could throw scripture after scripture, about the fact that God, god's heart, is for us to prosper, even as our soul prospers. Abraham was a man after God's own heart and he prospered magnificently. He messed up, but God still blessed him because he came back and he prospered. That's God's heart for us, but he doesn't get in the way of allowing us to do what we need to do, way of allowing us to do what we need to do. And I think I've made my point, so I'm done.
Speaker 1:I've done my job and let's do this. Shall we Thanks. I'm going to put the plans here. I'm going to put them up by the house so you can look at those when we have our meal together. But we just wanted to show you again what we want to do out here on this property. You know we have vision for a beautiful garden space that we use seven days a week. We're going to repurpose the greenhouse that we already took down over there. I want to put that right behind where the tent is now. So it's something that's more structural. It's more, you know. You know, weather resistant. Obviously, when the rains come, this is going to be an issue. So this gives you just a general visual of what we want to do.
Speaker 1:Some of the costs break down and the idea was maybe you would want to say you know what? I want to buy one tree, I want to contribute one tree. I'm going to put my name on one of those trees. Well, you can see, right here, a tree is roughly 300. You can give towards that. And I want my name on one of those trees. Well, you can see, right here, a tree is roughly $300. You can give towards that and I want to contribute towards one of the raised flower beds so that we as a church can grow our own vegetables. Well, you can see on there how much that is. So if you want to do that, just scan the QR code. Give towards those. Obviously, you can also contribute to the general costs of being a church. Those are ongoing every month, but we'll put that at the house. Does anyone have any questions about either finances or anything that Gretchen shared? Anyone have any questions? Even if it's like specifics, brass tacks, we can get down to it.
Speaker 3:Yes, charlotte Is the zoning factor, a contemplation, if it's like specifics, brass tacks, like we can get down to it. Yes, charlotte, my obvious question is the zoning factor, uh, contemplation as well. As there a challenge with the zoning of this property versus what you want to do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, is there a zoning issue? No, um, there won't be a zoning issue and thankfully, the owners of the property are kingdom people. They love what we're doing here. They want to see the church succeed here, which is awesome. This is County, county correct.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Anything else.