How to Honor God with Your Finances | Matthew 6:31–33; 2 Corinthians 9:6–11

What does the Bible actually teach about money, giving, provision, and financial blessing? Pastor Chris Teien explains why Christian generosity is not a formula for getting rich, but a response to the grace God has already given us through Jesus Christ.

God gives us abilities, opportunities, income, possessions, and resources that can be used for His purposes. As believers learn to put Christ first, give cheerfully, pray about their needs, and practice wise stewardship, they can trust God to provide what they need and use their generosity to bless others.

IN THIS MESSAGE

1: RECEIVE GOD’S GRACE BEFORE SEEKING HIS BLESSINGS

Everything begins with our relationship with Jesus. Salvation cannot be earned through giving, keeping religious rules, or doing more good than bad. Grace is God’s undeserved favor given through Christ. After salvation, believers have opportunities to serve, give, and do good works that honor God and may result in eternal reward. (John 1:16–17)

2: PUT CHRIST’S KINGDOM FIRST AND TRUST GOD TO PROVIDE

Jesus tells His followers not to live consumed by worry about food, clothing, and tomorrow. Instead, we are to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness and trust our heavenly Father to know what we need. Putting Christ first includes participating in His purposes through prayer, discipleship, service, and supporting the work of the church. (Matthew 6:31–34; John 15:5–8)

3: BECOME A PIPELINE OF BLESSING TO OTHERS

God does not provide resources merely so that we can continually increase our own standard of living. Paul teaches believers to give willingly and cheerfully, trusting God to provide enough so they can continue doing good and being generous.

The goal is not prosperity for its own sake. God can provide more resources so that believers have more opportunities to meet needs, support ministry, help others, and produce thanksgiving to God. (Proverbs 28:20; 2 Corinthians 9:6–12)

4: GIVE FREELY UNDER GRACE RATHER THAN LEGALISM

Giving a tenth appears before the Mosaic Law and became part of Israel’s law, but Christians live under the grace of Christ rather than the Old Testament legal system. The principle of generous giving remains important, but God looks at the heart rather than merely the percentage.

A tenth can be a helpful starting point, but Christian generosity is not limited to ten percent. Each believer should prayerfully decide what to give and do so willingly, faithfully, and cheerfully. Giving is an act of worship, not a payment made to purchase God’s favor. (Genesis 14:18–20; Genesis 28:20–22; Matthew 23:23; 2 Corinthians 9:7)

TRUST GOD WITH WHAT HE HAS GIVEN YOU

Money itself is not evil, but Scripture warns against the love of money. Instead of allowing possessions to control us, we can learn contentment, pray about our needs, practice wise stewardship, reduce unnecessary debt, and use what God provides for purposes that matter eternally. (Hebrews 13:5–6; Proverbs 11:24–25; Hebrews 13:15–16)

BE ENCOURAGED

Faithful giving is not a guarantee that God will make you wealthy. It is an opportunity to trust Him, worship Him, participate in His work, and bless other people.

Put Christ first. Handle what He has given you wisely. Pray about your needs. Give with a willing heart. And when God provides, thank Him and look for ways His provision can flow through you to make an eternal difference.

Helping you understand and apply God’s Word. Find sermon transcripts and more Bible teaching at Well.faith. Learn more at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.church. Questions or feedback? Email wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

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Chris T 0:16

So it's days like this that I am extremely thankful. So I'm extremely thankful that all I had to do today is roll up into the parking lot, get out of my vehicle, and walk into this warm building where everything was set up and ready to go. So in my past life, when there was no building to meet in, we met at the school and we showed up with our trailer early in the morning. And on days like this, I needed to get there early, up to an hour earlier, so that the equipment could thaw out. Because if you plugged it in when it was all frosty, sometimes the amps would blow up or we'd lose microphone cables and all sorts of things. And it's such a blessing to be able to be the pastor of a church with a warm building that you just show up, do church, turn the stuff off, go home, come back and do the same thing again with all the other exercise. However, it was probably fitter then. I need to get back to that fitness thing, but nonetheless, this passage in John that we're going to look at today has always intrigued me. So it's always intrigued me what the grace of Jesus brings into our life. And sometimes when I share a message, it's a lot of my thoughts. And a lot of times, that's a lot of Bible commentaries all put together. And today I just have a bunch of Bible commentary information to make sure that I get it right, to make sure that it's not just my personal opinion, but it is the opinion of Bible scholars and great men of God. But how God can bless your finances. This message is not applicable to somebody that's not a believer in Jesus Christ. So if you're not a born-again child of God, if you haven't received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, these promises most likely don't apply to you. But for people who are in Christ, for people who are in the church, this is a very important message that I think would give encouragement to those who are faithful with their finances, and encouragement to those who are on the fence wondering what they should do. Real quick, the Bible has a lot to say about finances. So there's about 40 verses on baptism, 350 verses on faith, 275 verses on prayer, 650 verses on love, and 2,350 verses on finances, material possessions, and wealth. So in Deuteronomy 8.17, it says, You may say to yourself, My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me, but remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms this covenant which he swore to your ancestors as it is today. There are particular promises given to the Israelites and given to God's chosen people back in the Old Testament, and they're particularly for those people at that time. And there's other promises that are universal promises that reveal what God thinks and how he works. And whether we're under the old, since we're past the old covenant and under the new covenant in Jesus, we're not under the law, but still it is God who can give us the ability to produce wealth that can provide for us, that can help us from day to day. So in John chapter 1, verse 16, for of us fullness we have all received. This is out of the New American Standard Bible, for of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Our the undeserved favor, the grace, God's riches at Christ's expense. All that Christ has done and is doing is grace to us. And another Bible version, the New Living Translation, translates this From His abundance, we have all received one gracious blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses, but God's unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. And out of his abundance, the sum total of all that is in God. In Jesus dwelt all the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, all the abundance of God. All that Christ is, the very fullness of his being, is given to us who believe. All his love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, temperance, we are complete in him from his abundance. The term grace for grace means that he gives grace upon grace enough to meet all of our needs. No matter the circumstances, it is one blessing leading to another blessing, new wonders drawing upon one's consciousness every day, fresh experiences constantly springing into one's life. So a literal translation would be receive grace upon grace, or receive the grace of Christ rather than the grace of the law. But we are promised that when we're in Christ and we're doing his will, that he will provide for us. And it's not by the law. The law was a list of things that the Israelites were supposed to follow to try to please God, though they never could measure up because they're sinful and God was holy, is holy and perfect, is holy and perfect. And so Christ redeemed us from the law. Instead of having to keep all the rules, we have an opportunity to receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior. He comes into our life. We are positionally righteous before God, but then we have opportunities to do works. We have opportunities to do good, and that leads to reward. So there is grace, blessing, and reward. So grace comes through Christ. It's undeserved, and he just showers God's love upon us. He treats us in a way that we don't deserve to help us to live this life and just shows us so much favor in the forms of blessings. So blessings is when God puts his favor upon our life, when he does things that we don't deserve, with and this, I'm gonna expand this out over the next few weeks to talk about how God can bless our finances. And then next week will be how God can bless our timeline. So that's from birth until you go to meet Jesus, birth to death until the time you go meet Jesus. So we've got timeline, and then we're gonna talk on the 20th, we're gonna talk about the church. So how God can bless us in the church. And so those will be good. Thought there was one more. So I'll think of it in a minute. But nonetheless, we have a relationship in Jesus. And I in December was going through John chapter 1, but had put a little Christmas spin on it to make it Christmassy, but it's still the same truth. So on December 3rd, I talked about how Jesus existed before Christmas, how Jesus existed before the incarnation, how he coexisted with God and was active in creation and communicated God's will in ways through to us and chose to come to serve and to save us. And then December 10th, I talked about how to be an authentic, an authentic child of God by believing in his name, receiving Christ, becoming a child of God, being reborn from God. And then December 17th, I talked about experience the true light of Christmas, that Jesus is the light of the world, and the light overcomes the darkness, and the light illuminates Christ followers' lives and shines in believers' hearts. And it was meant to be shared. And on the 24th, I talked about experiencing the gracious blessings of Christ because Jesus lived among us to show us how to live and to set us free to live forever, and that John the Baptist's life purpose was to prepare people to meet the Savior, and that gracious blessings overflow from Jesus, and love and faithfulness flow through Jesus. And you can read all of that in John chapter 1 through 18, or you can go online and watch the videos or listen to the audios for December, because that's what I talked about, and the outlines are actually on the website below it. The last point of December 24th was the mysteries of God are revealed in Jesus. And they are mysteries. They are mysteries as to why God would choose to love us, why God would call us to know him, to live for him, to serve him. So why God would call somebody like me to serve him in full-time ministry. So it wasn't an expectation. My parents weren't in ministry. It wasn't an expectation. It was a surprise. Even to me, it was a surprise when somebody said, Have you considered going into full-time Christian ministry? And I'm like, You don't know me very good, do you? And but God takes us when we're humble, when we're available, when we're usable, and he can do amazing things in this adventure of the Christian life as we follow after him. Back to grace. Grace, the gift of God, as expressed in his actions of extending mercy, loving kindness, and salvation to people. And grace is manifested in Jesus Christ. So reward was a significant part of Jesus' teaching, especially in the Sermon on the Mount. So we're actually in the next adult Sunday school class that we do in the that's the fellowship hall back there, in the front hall, as I call it. We're going to do the Beatitudes next. But nonetheless, reward was a significant part of Jesus' teaching. Beatitudes that God would come upon all people who exhibited certain moral characteristics, and beginning with Paul, the idea of reward, especially as it relates to salvation, is seen drastically in a drastically different light. No longer is salvation considered to be the result of an individual having done more good than evil in life. So salvation is not earned, but given by a loving, beneficent beneficence. I hate that word. Loving God. The idea of reward does not disappear. Reward results from good done after salvation is attained. And then Paul talks about how we will be rewarded for the works that we do in this life because we have a relationship with Jesus. And that is the most important part of our Christian life is that we are not living the book as a list of rules. We are not searching the book to make a checklist as to, you know, what we need to be careful to do that's right, what we want to make sure that we don't do what's wrong. Instead, we spend time in God's Word to find out what God's heart is on the issue so it transforms us from the inside out so that we choose to lovingly make the right choices, so that we choose to pursue God, that we choose to act in faith, that we ask for opportunities to do his will, that we look to see where God is moving and how he can use us because we are living lives thinking not about just today, but all eternity, and the things that we could do here today that might make a difference in building God's kingdom and having that relationship where we pray. Praying is talking to God, but we pray for our needs, but we also pray for our fears, we pray for the things we're excited about, we pray for other people around us and their needs and their opportunities, and so we have this conversation, and it is a good thing, especially when we see miraculous answers to prayer. And so the law was given through Moses, and that kind of set people in the right direction to do the right things to please God, but it was totally fulfilled through Jesus. That grace and truth and blessing came through Jesus. Jesus said in John 15, 5, that I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be disciples. Isn't that the most wonderful benefit ever to not only know who God is, to not only have fire insurance so that we are guaranteed eternal life in the right place, but to have an opportunity to be in relationship with Jesus Christ, to know who the Savior is, that he knows our name, that we remain in him, and his words remain in us. And as we ask in prayer, we have confidence that he will hear. So his answers may be no. His answers might be great, great request, but not yet. Or it might be yes, that is definitely yes. We're gonna do that. We're gonna participate in God's purposes. And when you spend your life, when you look back on your life and you think about what how did you spend it? What did you do with it? How did you make a difference in the world? When you come to your last days, when I visit you in the nursing home and they haven't injected morphine into you yet or whatever they're gonna use to dull the pain because your next step is to go be in the presence of Jesus. And we're still talking about faith, and you're talking about your life to be able to look back and say, maybe I didn't do everything perfect, but God was so faithful to me, and I'm so glad that he used me to do this, and I'm glad that I invested into that. And one, I won't say who, but one saint from this church shared with me how he helped these people and helped this organization and helped this person here, and he had this list that he shared about what he did to be a big financial help. And then he said to me, I wish I would have done more. I thought, man, that is just, I hope I always remember this moment because that was inspiring. That was wonderful. Participating in God's purpose means that our needs are provided for when we put Christ first. So in Matthew chapter 6, 31, don't worry, saying, What shall we eat, what shall we drink, what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But first, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. So when we put Christ first, when we seek his kingdom and his righteousness, so we're thinking about the things that matter to God. We're thinking about the fact that we're supposed to go out and make disciples. So we're supposed to share our faith with other people, help lead them into a right relationship with Jesus Christ, help them to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ as disciples. Jesus is also baptizing them, which means we put 750 gallons of water in the tank if the lake's not open, nice, warm, clear crystal water right there. And we baptize people just as we were instructed to baptize believers. Jesus was baptized and we're to baptize others. And we, if we're part of the local church, do what we can to help provide for and to support and to serve in the local church so it will continue to be here as time goes on. Churches go through life cycles. They start with great excitement. They're often very effective in evangelism. They lead lots of people to Christ. Then they often grow and then sometimes they plateau. And if somebody doesn't do something, if the church doesn't take the mandate to make disciples seriously, the church will decline and die. Or it can restart and then start making a difference in the community, evangelizing, discipling, filling up with new people, and it can be a great thing for the people in the church that will have it. You know, I was at one particular time at church, not this church, but somebody said, Well, we're gonna go to another church because this church is getting too big. I'm like, seriously, it's not that big. Well, no, it was a good size when we first came, but now it's getting bigger. That's crazy. We should glorify God and the opportunities that we have, and if God fills these seats with people, we should do what we can to minister to them, to pray for them, to help them to grow. But so we're thinking about Christ in his kingdom, we're supporting Christ in his kingdom financially, prayerfully with our time and our resources, and we're putting them first. Then we have this promise because we're doing this, that everything that we need will be given to us as well, because we are putting him first, and that is a good thing, that is a great way to live. So C a pipeline to blessing others. Proverbs 28:20 says, A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished. So you and I have an opportunity to be part of what God is doing and to invest in his kingdom and also to be a blessing through others through giving, through giving of our resources, of our money, of our of our tithes and offerings. So in 2 Corinthians 9, 6 it says, Remember this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. God doesn't want your grudging gift, he doesn't want you to go, all right, God, here you go. Instead, he wants you to be excited, he wants you to have faith in what you're doing is the right thing, and that you are probably making some kind of sacrifice as you give that gift, because as you give it, that means that's gonna be less that you can put in your savings account or to spend on the things that you want. And so that type of sacrificial giving that comes with great confidence. God loves that. God loves a cheerful giver. And for that person, for that cheerful giver, for that Christ follower, and by the way, you can totally short circuit this if you're like gonna give money but still live in sin. If you're gonna have unconfessed sin in your life and be outside of God's will, don't expect God to bless the money that you put in if you're not living right in Christ. But for the cheerful giver who's living a right life in Christ, it says God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written, he has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and also bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed, and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way, so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people, but also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God, because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and everything and everyone else. And in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his undescribable, indescribable gift. So you will be made rich in every way. So what? So that you can increase your standard of living? No, probably not. So you can increase your standing of standard of giving. You will be made rich in every way, so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. So we so when we give, it can make a difference, it can make an eternal difference. So when you give to this church, it not only helps keep the lights on and helps the church move forward, but it also provides for missionaries and ministries. And I hope that we the giving trend was like it was going down, down, and then this year it started to go up a little bit. So last year, 2023 was better than 2022. But wouldn't it be great if we could move out of survival mode as a church and to get really proactive about outreach and evangelism? And I think it'd be delightful if we could have another pastor on staff and we could do a bunch of things that we can't do when we're in survival mode. And so that only comes as people get serious about following Jesus and get serious about giving. So again, you'll be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. As you give, often God provides even more so that you can give even more. In Christ beyond the law, so before the law, Abraham says he gave 10% to Melchizedek to worship God in Genesis 14. And before the law was given, Jacob vowed to give a tenth. He said, he made a vow to God. This was a time, a crisis time in his life where he was doing a restart. He's like, I don't know how this is going to turn out, but I want to right now and right now tell God that I'm going to commit to him and put him first. And he says, If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey I am taking, and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear, so that I return safely to my father's household, then the Lord will be my God, and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and all that you give me, I will give you a tenth. And Genesis 28 22. So then the law laid out a tithe, a tenth, and Malachi talks about how people had drifted from. God and God calls them back and says that you're robbing me by not tithing and then gives a promise. It says, Test me in this. Says it says, verse 9, you're suffering under a curse. The whole nation, you're still robbing me. Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way, says this is the Christian Standard Bible. 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. I will rebuke the devourer for you, that you will that it will not ruin your produce of your land and your vine and your field and not fail to produce fruit. So we have this thing that was for the law, for the Israelites for that time. And I think that through Jesus we are set free of the curse. So I don't necessarily think that this command here has teeth on the new for the New Testament Christian. So I think we're beyond that. We're under grace. But I do think it shows God's heart and God's ability to bless you when you give. I think there's a principle, a standard there that is a good idea of giving. And if you like look at Financial Peace University, Dave Ramsey or Crime Crown Financial Ministries or all those, they will tell you that giving is a good idea, that giving a tenth is a good place to start, and that you're not locked into just a tenth, but you can give even more. And some people will look at their lives and say, okay, it's not how much am I going to keep for myself, but it's how much can I give back? How much do I need to live on and how much can I give back? And so they are generous when it comes to giving. They are free to worship. They are not held back from the types of giving that they give. Jesus, when asked about tithing, the New Testament doesn't talk a whole lot about tithing, but when asked about tithing, the Pharisees, they paid their tithes, but they were not generous. Their heart was not in the right place. They were not cheerful givers. So Jesus in Matthew 23, 23, says, What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you're careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. Jesus says in Matthew 23, 23. So God sees the heart. God loves the giver in the way they give. There are so many anti-tithe books out there, and so two things is one, if people don't want to give, they're not going to give. So it's a heart thing, and so you can't force it. And so the believer can choose to give a little or a lot, and it's an act of worship. But we're in a spiritual battle, so Satan's gonna do everything he can to try to cut off funds so the church can't move forward. So some people say, oh, God will God will just miraculously provide for the church. Well, he might, but usually he provides for the church, to the people in the church. And like I mentioned before, a former Baptist church that I was going to when I was like in ninth and tenth grade, it's not there anymore. So there is an office complex and then a culverts restaurant where that church used to be. So it is no longer there because people didn't provide for it, and it just faded away. And it would be sad to see this church fade away. John 4 24, God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth. So this church was built on the backs of tithers and generous givers, and they have given us a great gift because I found I wasn't able to find the most recent number, but I found an insurance estimate from 2018 where they listed the property to cost to rebuild this building at $3 million. So where I was before, I always wanted to build a church. I had a $750,000 building plan, but by the time the Metropolitan Council got ahead got a hold of it, it turned into a $2 million building plan. But to have a building like this that's paid for and to be able to worship in it is a great gift that they, the people who have gone before us, or maybe there's still a couple of you that are here that helped build this. I know one person was here when they put up a power pole and cleared the parking lot. That's all Ken started the story of the church there. Here, I think built in 1977, if that's right. Is a great gift. So that's been 35 years, I believe, that this building has been here. And it is a great thing. But nonetheless, we worship. And as we worship, our money shows what we think of God. So the world asks, what does a man own? And God asks, how does he use what he's been given? If we belong to Christ, it's logical that everything we have truly belongs to him. And Jesus said that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also and disturbed treasure in heaven, not on earth, in Matthew chapter six. So that we can be free from worry. So we can be free from worry again in Matthew chapter six. It says that passage that I just read before, that don't worry, saying, What shall we eat or what shall we drink? That when we put first his kingdom and his righteousness, he will provide everything that we need, and that is a great gift. But we're not supposed to be focused on money. So money is not bad, money is neutral, but the love of money is evil. Hebrews 13, 5, keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? So we follow the Lord, we live for the Lord, and we give to the Lord, and we are free to give. And as we give, we are told when we're being generous to give, and it will be given to you, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap, for with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. In Matthew, and in Luke 6, 38. There's many other verses that talk about how God is faithful in giving. But I was reading the van we use Vanco, church giving. When you give online through our realm system, it goes through Vanco, and they're actually located right next to the Mall of America. So they're this company that takes care of churches and schools across the nation located in Bloomington. But they had a statistic, a bunch of statistics they came out with giving. And so of all the churches, churches of all kinds, Baptist churches, Catholic churches, Lutheran churches, Presbyterian churches, all the different churches, 5% of churchgoers actually tithe, give 10%. Out of 247 million U.S. citizens identifying as Christians, 1.5 million people tithe. 77% of tithers give more than 10%. If every Christian tithes, 10%, faith organizations would have an extra $139 billion each year to do ministry. The giving preferences of those who tithe are evenly split between online giving and traditional giving. And so we used to say that your gift is tax deductible. But I was talking to an accountant the other day, and I also read some uh research from another tax site that said currently, with today's tax structure, the standard deduction is so high that only 5% of people actually itemize, so that only 5% of people actually realize a tax deduction for their giving. So at this point, to get a tax deduction is not a motivation to give, nor it never should have been. It says the average giving amount per churchgoer is $17 per week. That's $73.67 a month per giver. That's $884 a year per giver. U.S. Christians collectively make $5.2 trillion annually, nearly half the world's total Christian income. And then it says the majority of church givers have zero credit card debt. And I thought that was real interesting that they have little credit card debt. And so in this 40 days of financial generosity, Brian Kluth tells the story of a college student, a graduate student who recently got out of school, got into credit card debt, and had a big pile of bills. He said, I looked at the mess I had created and I knew I was in trouble. Suddenly there was a desire in my heart to write the first check to God's work, a 10% tithe. What? Give 10%? Am I crazy? I don't have enough now. If I give 10%, I will have even less. But I knew God was calling me to trust him. With shaking hand, I wrote the first 10% check to God, and then I prayed for wisdom on what to pay next and how to get by until the next paycheck. God was faithful. He helped me continue to give while guiding me to be become debt-free within two years. God taught me that little becomes much when God is in it. And there's many stories of people that have been faithful to give, faithful, and God has helped them with their finances. So as we invest in praying, because we should pray for our needs. Again, time goes so fast. As we should pray for our needs, for instance, God has been faithful to my wife and I in couches. When we moved from Chisholm to Bell Plain to start the church, we needed a large sectional because we were going to start the church in our house, in our living room. We were going to have people over for groups. And we prayed for a couch. Went to the furniture store. It was too expensive. Found someone on Lake Minnetonka in this big house that overlooked the lake. And in their sitting room, they had this big leather sectional. And the lady sold it to me for it's like $150. And so we used that until we wore it out. And then we prayed again for another couch. And my wife was looking on Craigslist and I looked at one and that wasn't it. And she said another one popped up. And so I raced out there, and I was the first one to get it. And I got this custom Italian leather sofa and love seat from one of the Minnesota Viking scouts. So I always wondered what famous people sat on that couch. And then I sold it to, years later, I sold it to a pastor of another converged church that I didn't even know, he just answered my ad of another converged church who's in charge of Behold Israel. And then when we were getting the next couch we needed, turns out a worship leader from another big church down in the cities had posted an ad and sold it to us. And God has provided these wonderful Italian, nice leather couches that are thousands worth brand new, thousands of dollars for hundreds of dollars, because we prayed and we asked, and I felt that God was rewarding us for being faithful with our finances. And there's so many promises for giving. We're trying to make a new brochure on finances and giving and all the different ways that you can give. And I'm gonna run out of time. But nonetheless, we can trust and we can ask. Matthew 7, keep on asking, you'll receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you'll find, keep on knocking. The door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives. Everyone who seeks finds. And everyone who knocks, the door will be open. So we pray, we seek, we give, and we have all of these promises. We praise the Lord for what he's doing. We thank him. We are grateful. And then we have all these different promises. Hebrews 13, 16 says, Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. So Proverbs 11 24 says, One person gives freely yet gains even more. Another withholds unduly, yet comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. And so many verses on giving. Some people have figured out that they want to invest in God's kingdom more than a tenth, and they give in many different ways. They give by donating stock, they give faithfully, they give personal property, real estate, they designate the church in their life insurance policies and annuities, in their wills in estate planning, and so many different things are available. And I share this with you because I have been giving faithfully for many years, and when I first started, it did not make sense. But then as I was faithful to give, God gave back. And I'm not telling you that you have to give. So John D. Rockefeller, years ago in the 1839 to 1937, said, I would have never been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary, which was to $1.50 a week. Once one person said, You should give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving. But on right now media, there's lots of resources. So there's videos that you can watch to help you get on a budget. Crown Financial Ministries, Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace. If you struggle with credit card debt, the Consumer Credit Counseling Agency can be helpful. Sound Mind Investing can be helpful. Brian Kluth is an evangelical free church pastor who actually I actually called him and talked to him before I came to this church to ask him if it'd be a good idea. So I have a bit of a rapport with him, but he's got some great resources also. But we want to do all that we can to glorify God with our lives, with our time, and with our resources. Hebrews 13, 15, through Jesus. Therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that openly profess his names, and do not forget to do good and share with others, for with such sacrifice God is pleased. So the worship team can come forward. Lord, I know that people in church don't always like to hear about finances or giving, but Lord, I pray that you would, if it's your desire, that you would move their hearts to test you and to see if you don't provide for them, if you don't bless them, if you don't help them as they give. Lord, it's an act of worship, and you have given us so much. The bread, all the things in the beginning of John chapter 1, that Jesus is and is done for us and with that is worthy of our giving. We pray that you would bless the giver. We pray you'd bless our church. We pray you'd bless us as we go from here. We thank you for this time. Lord, show us how we can serve you more and glorify you more. And we ask us in Jesus' name. Amen.