As Jordan mentioned just a moment ago we are in our missions month and we’ve been talking about our greater things campaign, and next Sunday will be our pledge Sunday. So next Sunday, everybody will be getting a pledge card. And so I want you to be prayerfully considering what that amount that you decide to give is. But here’s what I want you to know. If you are new to our church or if you would not consider this your church home, this is not for you. So this is really for those of us in the room that say, this is my church. This is my church home. I’m going to participate and I’m going to be a part of it. And we want everyone to be part, our, our goal for our church people is a hundred percent participation. And that goes all the way down to the kids level.

This is a really cool picture that, that Mike and Molly Carville sent me. These are not my kids. These are their daughters. And this is Quinn. She’s nine, and this is Remi. She’s five. They did a bake sale. You can see they’re greater things. Piggy bank right there, that’s the piggy bank that we’ve given out in the kids area, and they raised $58 for greater things. And that’s, that’s the heart is we want equal participation, everybody getting involved because we, we want to pass on the vision of what this is about to future generations. Now, here’s the challenge is that when we talk about money in church, it gets complex. The reality is talking about money at church can make us uncomfortable, and money tends to be one of the only things that does that. Like you never have someone say, well, I kind of get tired and every time I go to church, it feels like they’re talking about prayer.

You probably have never heard somebody say, man, not another sermon about the Bible. I get so sick and tired of those. But we have that feeling there. There’s almost this internal gut response when you say, oh, great, the pastor is going to talk about money, and yet if we don’t talk about money, we’re, we’re not doing a good job of walking through scripture. Why is that? Be because of this truth. How I spend my money is equally important to my spiritual life as prayer or reading the Bible. But generosity is a spiritual discipline. And just like any other spiritual discipline, we have to practice it and we have to intentionally learn about it, and we have to intentionally participate in it. And so we are going to talk about money. Last week we talked about gratitude because I think generosity is the overflow of gratitude in our hearts and our lives.

But as we talk about money, we wanna talk about it in a biblical way. So there’s two myths that I wanna dispel about money. You hear these myths at church sometimes. So one myth about money is that money is evil. And sometimes you, you come to church and you hear people talk and you just walk away saying, well, money’s just a bad thing. It’s terrible, it’s awful, it’s bad. And that is not true. That idea, that concept falsely comes from this verse right here in first Timothy chapter six, verse 10. It says, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Now that that can be translated a few different ways. It can just say, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil or the root of evil. But notice the distinction is not saying that money is a root of all kinds of evil.

It says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Now, why he gives us the explanation right afterwards, he says, it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. Now, in the Greek, this word pierced is the same word in the Greek that they would use to describe that metal stake that goes through a pig when they’re putting a pig over a fire on the skewer. That’s that word pierce. And so Paul is saying that the love of money can cause us to wander away from the faith, and not just that, that it can become like multiple of those metal rods piercing through us. That’s a pretty big visual image of the danger of the love of money. You see, the author of Hebrews rep repeats, repeats this same sentiment.

They say, keep your life free from the love of money. Be content with what you have for. He has said, I’ll never leave you nor forsake you. So the author of Hebrews is saying that the love of money is this dangerous thing because it can cause us to always be looking ahead and not be content grateful for right where we are and exactly what God has given us. But then the author of Hebrew takes it one step further and they say, because ultimately our contentment is tied to our faith, our contentment is this idea that I am trusting that God will never leave me nor forsake me. So he’s gonna provide for me each step of the way. So my generosity is overflowing from a heart that is saying, I’m going to have faith and trust in God. Now, scripture talks about money. It definitely doesn’t say it’s evil.

It actually talks about it in really healthy, positive ways. Look at what it says in Proverbs chapter 21. Proverb 21 5 says, the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. There’s lots of knowledge just like this throughout the entire book of Proverbs, throughout really the entire scriptures, old Testament and New Testament, that this has just given us some common sense that we should be diligent, that we should invest, that we should look ahead to the future. And if we’re not, if instead of that, instead of having foresight with how we spend our finances, if we’re just hasty, it says that we will come to poverty. And so the Bible doesn’t say that money is evil. It doesn’t say that it’s good or that it’s bad. The Bible says that money is something that is given to us from God and can be used as a blessing.

But there’s a danger if we make it an idol, if we make it the ultimate thing in our lives, if we love it, it can be treacherous. Now, the second myth about money that you hear sometimes in church or you hear maybe if you’re watching a televangelist on tv, is they would say something along the lines of this, that giving it to God will make me healthy and wealthy, and that ain’t true. So here’s what I want us to all be on the same page about. If you decide to give any money to our church or give any money to the giving campaign, it doesn’t mean that 10 times that amount is gonna end up in your bank account next week. It doesn’t mean that you’ll always be healthy and all the problems in your life will go away. And now the idea comes from some different scriptures.

Look what this proverb says about money. It says, honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all of your produce. Probably if you were gonna summarize the biblical worldview of how we should use our finances, how we should use the things that God has given us, it’s this that we should honor God with all that we have with our wealth, and with the first fruits of all that we produce. That’s this idea that we see in scripture over and over it. It means that we don’t give God the leftovers that we are giving God the first fruits of our life. And then there, there is this, this promise that comes with it, that if we do that, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine. Now, if you didn’t have the rest of scripture to look at, and you only had this verse and you were trying to interpret it, it sounds like this verse is saying that if if I honor God with my wealth and give him my first fruits, then the result of that is that he gives me a whole lot of stuff that sounds really grave.

The problem with that understanding of this verse is the rest of scripture, it doesn’t line up with that. And so the best way that we should interpret scripture is that we need to look at all the scripture around it and say, is that what it means? Or, or could it mean something more nuanced? Really what the verse is trying to tell us is that if we honor God, there will be this blessing. But it’s not talking about necessarily a physical blessing. It’s a spiritual blessing. How do we know that? Because of the life of Paul, Paul loved God in a way and lived with a deep spiritual richness in his life in a way that you and I will never come close to. Paul truly walked with God. He got caught up in the third heaven, got a vision of heaven. He had experiences and walked with God in ways that, that I will strive to be anything close to that.

And yet I know that I will never get there. And yet, Paul, who I believe was very faithful with his finances to God writes about his life. And second Corinthians, and he describes his own life by this, he says, five times I received in the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes les one three times I was beaten with rods once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked a night and a day was a drift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness. Do you see a theme about danger in his life? Danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night in hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure. You don’t hear many prosperity.

Gospel preachers use that as a verse, say, Hey, hey, send me a hundred dollars. And you too could have a life that looks just like Paul. Not very compelling. And yet Paul was godly. So what was the blessing? If it wasn’t health? If it wasn’t wealth, what was the blessing that Paul received by giving the first fruits of his life to God was a spiritual blessing. How do we know that? Because of the writings of Paul. Paul, despite all of this talks about living a life of abundance, a peace that passes understanding joy in all circumstance. How can you have joy in the midst of all of that? Well, it’s because of his relationship and the depth, the intimacy he had in his walk with God. And that’s what’s available to us if in all of our areas of our life we’re putting God first.

So, so ultimately, when we get to church, we talk about money. Here’s always the debate. He, here’s the big question that we wrestle with. How much do I give now? Now what’s interesting about this question is this really the only topic in the church that we wrestle with. So you’ve never heard somebody make this argument. They say, well, in the Old Testament it talks about prayer like that. But I don’t think we need to pray that much considering the teachings on prayer in the New Testament. I, I mean, pick a topic inside of scripture, but for whatever reason, money makes us a little awkward and uncomfortable. And so what we’re, we kinda wrestle with this idea? Well, how much is the right amount? And so probably you, you’ve heard this idea of tithe, which comes from the Old Testament tithe is 10%. And then you’ve probably heard people say, well, that’s, that’s not a biblical New Testament idea.

And most of the time when people are making that argument, they’re making that argument in order to give less money. I, I’ve never heard someone say, yeah, hey, the tithe is abolished. We should give 90%. Like I’ve never heard that argument. And so, so what then is the amount I, I remember when I was 15 years old, I started my, my first job I worked at a church. So the first about 10 months that I worked there I didn’t have, I, I was 15. I I didn’t have a car. I wasn’t 16. So my mom drove me work, drove me home from work. And so I would work about 15 hours a week. And I worked all day Sunday, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and then Wednesday nights. And I remember getting my first paycheck. I, I would get a paycheck once a month. And I remember getting that first paycheck, it was for $440.

And I remember just feeling like I was the richest 15-year-old on the planet with a check for $440 to just that for inflation. It’s like $7,000 today, <laugh>, that’s not real. That’s just, but it felt like it. And, and so I, I took that $440 and I remember going to cash and I didn’t have a bank account. So I cash at the bank. And I, I mean, I was just, I was just, my mind was blown. I I never had that much money. And I remember it was very easy. I took $44 of that $440 and I took it to church the next Sunday when they passed the old school offering plate. It wasn’t a, it wasn’t a bucket, it wasn’t a basket. It was that gold plate with the, the, the velure at the bottom of it. <Laugh>. And they passed that bad boy around. I remember taking my $44 and putting it into that plate and feeling feel really confident and good.

And it wasn’t, it wasn’t even a debate that it was just how I was raised. If this is who, what you’re supposed to do, what goes back to God and to the church. And then I remember my mom saying, okay, we’re not gonna cash your checks every month. We need to get you a bank account. And we talked about getting a bank account, but 10 months go by and I still hadn’t gotten a bank account. And we stopped cashing checks, which means every one of those cash or every one of those checks was going into a drawer in my room. And eventually I got a call from the business office guy at the church, the accountant, and he says, Hey, Kurt, we’re trying to balance the books. We’re off by $4,000. You know why we’re off by $4,000? Because you have not cashed a single check that we have given you.

You gotta cash the checks, man. And, and so I remember gonna, my mom said, Hey, I gotta cash the checks. And so we go and we create a bank account. Now I’m 16 years old, and I, I remember getting a bank account. I, I thought I was the coolest person in the world. And I put that $4,000 into the bank account and I said, okay, what’s 10% of $4,000? That’s $400. And I remember thinking to myself, oh, that’s, that’s harder to get. 44 was pretty easy. Like I could say, yeah, I can get $44, but when it was $400, I was thinking that’s, that’s one whole check. Like of all these 10 checks, that’s like giving one whole thing. And and I eventually did it, but can I tell you that it was painful. It was harder to give that than it was the amount before giving sometimes can be challenging.

And there’s this myth that we have that, well, I don’t give because I just don’t make enough. If I made more money than I would give, and yet the studies would say that’s not true as a percentage, the more money that we make, the less that we give. I worked for 15 years in Houston at Second Baptist Church for a guy named Dr. Ed Young, a amazing pastor, grew a huge church did amazing things for the kingdom of God. He’s, he’s still alive. He’s 88 now. But he was really great. No, I’m talking about money. ’cause He just didn’t intimidate him. And I remember one Sunday he preached about money, and after preaching about money, somebody ran up to him and caught him. And he was the pastor of a really big church. And, and, and the, the main campus, there were some really affluent business people that were there.

And one of these guys catches him and runs up to him and says, Hey, can I talk to you, pastor? He says, of course. Yeah. What, what can I talk to you about? He goes up to him, he says, Hey, here’s, here’s the problem. You, you talked about tithing today and you encouraged us to tithing. He said, I, I can’t do that. And Dr. Henry said, okay, why’s that? He said, well, I just make too much money to tithe. He said, if you knew how much money I made and knew how big that amount was, you would know that it’s just unreasonable for me to give that money to God. And I’m just wondering, what should I do about that? And Dr. Young said, Hey, no problem. He said, let me pray for you. And Dr. Young prayed this prayer. It’s about two sentences. He said, heavenly father, I pray for this man.

I know that it’s impossible for him to tithe because he makes too much money. And so, Lord, I pray that you would allow him to make less money, therefore it would be easier for him to tithe in Jesus name. Amen. And he walked away and the man said, wait, that’s not what I was asking for. But the more that we make, we think this can be easier. Oh, you’ve probably prayed a prayer like that. Hey, God, help me win the Powerball and then I’ll give you a big chunk of that money. I mean, probably after taxes, not pre-tax, but I’ll give you a big amount. And, and the amount becomes this thing that we get hung up on. What’s the right amount? Should I give this percentage or that percentage? But really, you’re right, Jesus doesn’t give us a specific, a specific percentage or amount.

He does something further. You see, the one thing we do about money is we try and minimize it in the New Testament compared to the Old Testament. But that’s not what Jesus does about anything. Jesus takes the ideas of the Old Testament and he makes them harder in the New Testament, he talks to the Pharisees and he says, Hey, hey, you’re, you’re doing these things and not doing these things, and you think that you’re presenting yourself as godly as a result. But he says, God is looking at your heart. He’s looking at your intent. He’s looking at the purpose behind your actions, which is where we get the famous story of the widow’s might. And Luke chapter 21 and says, Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins or, or in the Greek, its two mights, which is the, the smallest measurement of, of, of finances that they had in the first century.

And he said, truly, I tell you, this, poor widow has put in more than all of them and explains why for they all contributed out of their abundance. But she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on. See, see, Jesus says, a, it’s not about the amount, it’s not about the percentage. It’s about the heart. It’s about the intent. It’s about the purpose. It, it’s not about the dollar amount I give, it’s about the heart behind why I give probably the best place that unpacks this idea of giving is in Second Corinthians chapter eight. If you’ve got a Bible, I encourage you to turn with me to Second Corinthians chapter eight. If you don’t have it, you can follow along on the app. You can also look on the screen. This is Paul writing and he’s writing to the church at Corinth.

And here’s what he says. He says, we want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. Now, pause for a second because this is one of those things that, that we lose in translation. That first century reader would understand that Corinth is in a different physical location than Macedonia. These were two different cities. Macedonia was north of Corinth. They, they’d kind of be considered competing cities with each other. So it’d be like Paul writing a letter to us in Denver and saying, A church of Denver. I want you to be aware of the church in Salt Lake City and what they’re doing. So he’s creating this compare contrast. And now in describing the churches of Macedonia, here’s what he says, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed and a wealth of generosity on their part for they gave according to their means, as I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part and the relief of the saints.

And by the way, that’s never happened to me. I’ve never had come somebody come up and say, can I just beg you? Can I please just give some money to the church? That that’s not been my experience. But that’s the experience of this church at Macedonia. It says that they’re begging to take part and he says, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urge Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech and knowledge, in all earnestness and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also. So here’s what Paul does, is he compares the church of Macedonia to the church of Corinth, and he’s using what he sees as really positive attributes of the church of Macedonia to, to really kind of try nudge Corinth to be more and more like them.

And so here’s how he describes the churches of Macedonia. He says that they have an abundance of joy plus extreme poverty. And the result of that is a wealth of generosity. Now, unpack that for a second. In your mind, it doesn’t say that they were super rich and because they were super rich, they gave a lot of money. It actually says the opposite, that they were poor extreme poverty, but because of an abundance of joy, those two things together combined to overflow with a wealth of generosity. He also says they gave according to their means, they also gave beyond their means. But it’s this idea that they weren’t looking at anybody else and deciding to give according to that person or that person that it was individually them looking at what they had and deciding based off of their means, what’s the right amount that I should give?

And then also they saw giving as the favor of taking part. That’s, that’s the idea that we as a church should see giving us, we get so uncomfortable about money. And yet here’s the scriptural idea and concept of money, is that we should get excited that, that it’s a favor on our behalf to be able to participate in what God is doing by giving to different ministries. So that’s how the Church of Macedonia function. But then he compares that to the Church of Corinth. And what does he say? He says some positive things. He says, look, you excel in faith and you excel in speech, and you excel in knowledge, but you do not excel in giving. Have you ever thought about that phrase? Have you ever asked yourself, do I excel in giving, giving? We don’t typically frame it that way. When we talk about our money, we, we frame it that way.

In almost every other area of our life, like with our kids, we’re constantly have this measuring state, well, how good are they at math? And how good are they at sports? And how artistic are they? And how kind are they? And yet there’s this spiritual element of do we excel in generosity or not? Even inside the church, we tend to think, well, I excel in my prayer life and I excel in my time alone with God, and I excel in these different parts of my relationship with God. But do we excel in generosity? And, and it’s hard, it’s challenging. And I would argue that it’s more challenging in our country and our culture and our context than it would be even in a poor country, because affluence makes it easier to fall, fall in love with money and affluence makes it easier to fall into the trap that both the author of Hebrews and Paul warn us against, that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

It can lead us astray. That’s why Jesus says that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And now I want you to unpack that for a second. If you’ve ever seen a sewing needle there, there’s sewing needle. There’s this very small hole at the top that you put through the thread. Is it physically possible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle? And most of you would say, well, no, it’s not physically possible, but it is. It’s just not gonna be alive when it’s done with the process <laugh>.

It could happen. It would just be really, really painful to get it there. And that’s what Jesus is pointing out to us about our finances, that, that if we give sacrificially, the reason that we’re doing that is to fight against this urge and this tendency to make God the idol of my life. Paul continues in Second Corinthians. He goes on to say, I say this not as a command. And that’s an important part of giving. It is never feeling that, oh, you’re gonna be guilted into giving. There’s a compulsion to give. We’re gonna lock the doors. We didn’t collect enough money the first time through. We’re gonna pass the offering plates a second time. That that’s not a spiritually healthy way to give. It’s not this command. But instead, we should give to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine for, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you, by his poverty might become rich.

He’s saying that as Christians, we should be the most generous people on the planet. Why? Because we know that all that we have is a free gift, the grace of God, of what he has done for us on the cross. And that posture in my heart and my life should cause me to overflow with generosity to everyone around me. He says, and in this matter, I give my judgment, this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work, but also to desire to do it. Just unpack for a second. He, he’s saying, you being generous, benefits who benefits you, benefits the person who’s participating in the generosity. Why he says so that your readiness and desire, and it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have for, if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.

So we’re giving from our means for, I do not mean that others should be eased in you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness, your abundance at the present time should supply their need so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness as it is written. Now, he’s gonna quote from Exodus 16, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Now, if you flip in a Bible to Exodus chapter 16, it’s a whole chapter talking about manna. It’s when the Israelites were roaming around in the desert, they didn’t have food. And so God would provide quail in the evening and he would provide manna in the morning. But there’s this whole chapter, because he’s very specific on what they’re allowed to do with manna and what they’re not allowed to do with manna, that God said, you can’t collect more than what you need for one day.

The one exception is that on Saturday, they could collect for both Saturday and Sunday, or excuse me, on Friday, they could collect for both Friday and the Sabbath or Sabbath for Saturday. But if they collected, if you’re one of those people that says, well, hey, what if it, man, that doesn’t show up tomorrow, we need to collect for the next 30 days. If they tried to do that, guess what? That man, it would rot. It didn’t work because the hard behind it was this, that God was saying, I want you to trust me. And so I’m only gonna provide what you need for the day. I’m not gonna provide enough for tomorrow, because tomorrow you’re gonna have to wake up and you’re gonna have to trust me again. But, but in that chapter, it says that there was enough manna not just for the people that collected it, but there were some people that physically were not able to go out and collect manna, and there was enough left over for them to eat as well.

It was this picture with total reliance on God of enough scarcity was not there with the manna. There was always enough because of this trust and reliance on God. So biblically, when you unpack Old Testament and New Testament, how then should we give? There’s three key things I think, in how we give that the ways that we give include giving out of an abundance of joy. I think we’ve lost our screen. Oh, there we go. There’s three ways that we should give. We should first give out of an abundance of joy just like we saw the first church did, that we should give according to our means, and we should also give sacrificially and now giving out of an abundance of joy, that that’s this attitude of our heart. That if I really can understand what God has done in my heart and through my life, that I worship God through my finances, just like I worship God through everything else, that it’s an abundance of that joy.

I shouldn’t give out of guilt. I should give because I feel like I have to or I’m forced to. Then we also have to give according to our means. And what does that mean? That means that what we’re expecting, my 6-year-old to give is different than what we are expecting our 12-year-old to give. And that amount is different than what my wife and I are expecting to give, because we give according to our means, what God has given us and equipped us to give. And then this is the hardest part that we give sacrificially. That’s what we see Jesus teach. And what does it mean to give sacrificially? It means that if it’s not in some way, shape, or form affecting my life or my lifestyle, it’s not sacrificial giving. It’s hard as a pastor to do a giving campaign. And it’s not because it’s hard to talk about money.

I I actually think it’s kinda easy to talk about money. There’s plenty of scripture to back it up. It’s hard to do a giving campaign because if you’re gonna preach authentically and genuinely, it means that you’ve gotta practice it as well. And so if you do a lot of giving campaigns, it means that you yourself have to give a lot and participate. And so my wife and I are having these conversations because we, we more than tithe to the church because we feel like that’s the right thing for us and our family. And this given campaign doesn’t mean that we’re gonna stop giving to the church and instead just give to the campaign and said, no, we will continue to, to make those offerings. And then in addition to that, we will make this financial gift. And here’s the truth. I, we could give a hundred dollars and it wouldn’t change our life whatsoever.

We wouldn’t even notice giving a hundred dollars. Truthfully, we could give, give a thousand dollars and for us, it wouldn’t make a difference in our lifestyle. And so when we prayerfully consider what is that right amount, it goes back to us weighing this question of what are we giving up in order to make this happen? What, what’s that thing that luxury that we really maybe we’re saving for or desiring or wanting, that we’re willing to give up in order to give sacrificially? And here’s the thing about giving. Nobody’s ever gonna know how much you give. I won’t ever know. You could give $0 and not participate, or you could give a million dollars. And it’s not gonna change your relationship with me one bet because I won’t know. I don’t know the difference. It won’t be public. So we don’t give four accolades. We don’t give four others.

We give purely between us and God as an act of worship. There was a pastor in Dallas back in the eighties that called Dr. Young. He’s from a really big church in Dallas, and he called Dr. Young and he said, Hey, Edwin, help me walk through this giving campaign. He said, I’ve got this big challenge. See, this pastor was incredibly wealthy because he had inherited a whole lot of money. The best business to be in is the inheritance business. And so he had, he had been really successful in that business, and he said, Edwin, I I am probably the richest person in my congregation. And so I’m just trying to figure out how to teach about sacrificial giving while also myself being in the position that I’m in. And Dr. Young said, well, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. He said, the good news is you don’t have to worry about the financial campaign.

He said, I am confident that your church is capable of giving the exact amount that you need for it. He said, okay, well that’s, that’s good to hear. He said, what’s the bad news? He said, the bad news is if you give sacrificially to your campaign, you will no longer be the richest person in your congregation. He was trying to point out that for that pastor, Hey, you’ve got to not just talk about, you’ve got to live it and act it out. And although we’re we’re talking about this, this capital campaign, and next week, we’ll, we will, we’ll show pictures of the building and what we’ll do a, a virtual tour of the building and we’ll talk about the, the actual finite details of it. But really the heart of it is what would it look like if we as a church, as a congregation, became a church like the churches of Macedonia?

Well, what if we got to a point where we said, okay, hey, this is enough. And instead of saying, well, well, what’s the minimum amount that I can give? Instead, I say, well, no, I’m gonna give outta the abundance of joy in my heart. What if the world looked at us and said, man, there’s just something about how they live. They’re just so exceedingly generous all the time that they’re not so wrapped up in their wealth and their money and the next toy and the next thing, but instead they money has no hold on their heart and they just give it away so freely. What would it

Look like? What could God do in and through a congregation that lived that way? But that’s hard. Just like it’s hard for a camera to go through the eye of a needle, but man, what if, what if we raise up a generation of youth and teens that had that mindset that out of an abundance of joy, we all get freely? Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, as we unpack hard topics, talking about money, talking about things that make us uncomfortable, Lord, I just pray that, that it would, that message would come across with grace and compassion. Lord, I know that everybody here is in different circumstances, each person is in a different place with their finances, a different place, both materially but also a different place in their heart. And Lord, I, I pray that the message will just be from you. That it’s not about amounts. It’s not about elevating myself or lowering myself. It’s just about worshiping you out of the abundance of joy for what you’ve given me as we go into pledge week next weekend. God, I pray that you would honor it. You would bless it. You would glorify it. I’d be no guilt, no compulsion, but we would be a congregation that gives freely for you and for your glory is the name. Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.