Reading the Owner's Manual: Part 3 - Giving: Seen or Secret

Well, welcome to Siena and Cypress and downtown in the Loop as well. In digital family, if you got your Bible, I want you to turn to Matthew, chapter six. We're going through the book of Matthew. If you're new to us, we're going through the book of Matthew and we have arrived today. In chapter six is where we are.

And we're going to start in verse one, and we're going to hit a little section there, and then we're going to jump down to kind of the middle section to hit it there as well. We're in a series called Reading the owner's manual. Reading the owner's manual, which is an awesome thing. And on this day that we're celebrating FBA as well, which is so exciting to be able to celebrate that here at the Loop campus. And so fba wonderful in a series called reading the owner's manual.

And so in thinking about that, I thought, you know, let me go get the owner's manual out of our car and just see that thing, since that's a series. We bought this car about four or five years ago, and I found out that we've never unwrapped the owner's manual. And I thought, this is going to work perfect for this series here. Because what happens is you get these owner's manuals, you put them in the glove box, you put it in the back of the car, wherever it is, and you really don't do much with it until you have a sight or a sound. There's a light that comes on your dashboard, you go, oh, what does that mean?

Check engine. I should check this out and see what this is. Or there's a sound that you hear, this little rattling. Think I need to get that checked out. And we do our lives a lot of times in the same way.

We're just cruising along on sights and sounds. If everything's going fine, no need for upkeep, no need to turn in our Bibles. If everything's kind of rattling and rocking and rolling, maybe we need to get a verse of scripture off the, you know, hang on the refrigerator or something like that. So this is a wrapped up owner's manual that we've never opened up here. And this owner's manual here hasn't been looked at.

But let me tell you what, this owner's manual needs to be unwrapped. This owner's manual, he's got a lot of things for us to say and to learn. And so when you look into this owner's manual, we're going to see Some great how to's even in your Bible, it might be just like mine. In chapter six, it says how to give in the first section, then above verse five, how to pray, then above verse 16, how to fast. The first three things.

There are first three out of four things there about how to do something. Well, we're going to look here in this how to and we're going to look at this aspect of giving because it comes in our hearts where we've got to think about giving. We're gonna look at money in those aspects as well. So everybody just get real nervous, okay? Everybody get real nervous and just know we already took the offering.

It's gonna be a very safe spot, okay? But as we talk about these things, we need to know how to handle our money. Why do we need to know how to handle our money? Well, let me give you some statistics from Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey says that money is the number one issue of married couples to argue about.

It's the second leading cause of divorce behind infidelity. For a marriage. Debt at the wedding now is the norm. 86% of couples are getting married with debt, compared to 43% of couples 25 plus years ago. Financial secrecy is one of the conflicts with couples.

One third who argue about money also report hiding spending from their spouse. I think it's probably higher, you know, financial stress getting away from married folks, the general population in mid-2025. So just a couple months ago, 52% of American adults said that they worried daily about their finances. So we've got to learn God's way. We've got to learn the owner's manual of how we're to handle these things, because we handle them all the time.

And it's causing a lot of stress in our families and a lot of stress in our marriages, a lot of stress in our singlehood as well, and stress in our lives. We're worried about these things. So we're going to look here and we're going to see in chapter six, verse one through four, turn in your Bibles. And I want you to see the first two words that Jesus says here in this section of the Sermon on the Mount. Be careful.

Isn't that an interesting start to talk about finances? Be careful. Why? Because of the things I just told you about. Be careful not to practice.

He's going to get specific here. Your righteousness in front of others. Why? To be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven.

So whenever you give, it doesn't say if you give, it doesn't say an occasionally give. It says whenever you give. There's an assumption that the believer in Christ is a generous person. So whenever you give to the poor, don't sound the trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be applauded by people. Truly, I tell you, they have their reward.

But when you give to the poor, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be done in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. First place I want you to write down in your listing guide here is be careful, be careful. Do we give for God's eyes or for man's eyes? Be careful. Do we give for God's eyes or man's eyes?

People's praise is fleeting. It's powerful. It influences our lives, but people's praise is fleeting. Think of all the ways that in today's society we try to impress people. We post everything.

If it doesn't get posted, if a picture doesn't get taken, it's almost like it doesn't count. We want to tell everybody what we're doing. We want to tell everybody what we're eating. We want to tell everybody where we're going. We do all those things and that's fun, that's a great thing.

But all of us, we can also say there feels like there's a little bit of an over posting, isn't there? A little bit of an over declaration and he's saying, I don't want you to over post in your giving. I don't want you to be doing this for men's eyes so they can scroll by you and say, that guy, that guy girl, she's really a righteous person. Now I did a little research here because I thought this would be interesting on oversharing on social media, the four top states of oversharing is West Virginia, New Jersey or three West Virginia, New Jersey and Arkansas are the top three over posting states. Texas was number 12 is what we were out of 50.

88% of parents think that their children share too much online. Texas is number four in sharing about our kids. That's how much we like to brag in Texas, right About our kids. Here come some of them right here. There we go.

Perfect entrance.

89% of people share too much on social media is what people think. 89% of people think that people share too much on social media. But here's what's funny. Nearly half of Americans think it's entertaining when people Overshare. So we don't think they should, but we sure like when they do because we want to kind of get in there and see what's going on.

So he's saying, I don't want you to over share. I don't want you to over declare. I don't want you to be doing this giving for other people's eyes. Now it's interesting in this I'm going to teach you a lot of Bible here. It says, be careful how you practice your righteousness.

They in this culture, the word for righteous and the word for giving to the poor was the same Hebrew word because they equated so deeply giving with righteousness. Because they knew that it took God to do something in you to make us give in a real way. Now, I'm not talking about giving a dollar, I'm not talking about giving five bucks. I'm not talking about. I'm talking about in a real systematic, regular, sacrificial, honoring God kind of way.

He's saying that is akin to righteousness. But I don't want you to overshare it. Now here's what's interesting. This section, I learned this in the study here. In verse two, it says, whenever you give, there's an assumption, whenever you give to the poor, don't sound a trumpet before you like the hypocrites do in the synagogues.

I always thought this was like, da da, da, da, da da, I'm giving, right? That was like a musical instrument. Well, it's not in the sanctuary in the synagogue. We should say they would have this offering that was shaped like a shofar. A shofar is a basically a Jewish horn that they would blow at certain times.

Has a large end and a small inn. So there was an offering. There was 13 of them in the synagogue. And they were shaped like a shofar or a trumpet. There was a big metal opening here, and then it would swirl around to the bottom and it would get smaller.

You know why they did that? So nobody would stick their hand in the offering and pull out. They couldn't get their hand all the way down those, those curves. So what he says is, I don't want you to sound the trumpet. Here's what would happen.

They would take all these coins and they would throw it into the trumpet and clang, clank, clang, clang, clank, clang, clank, clang, clang. You ever been at the grocery store and somebody's doing one of those coin star things and dumping their coins in there? Clang, clang, clang, Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang. And you end up with all those coins coming down, and it makes all that noise. He says, I don't want you to come into the synagogue and to throw it and to sound it like a trumpet, where you're like, I'm giving guys.

And you dump in all your coins, and everybody gets to know that. I want there to be a secrecy to it. There was metal, there was coins. They would cling as they would go down. I want to give you this quote that I found in the research, and here's what it says is this.

They will put it on the side screen. They were not giving but buying. They wanted the praise of men, and they paid for it. Isn't that interesting? What a great way to think of it.

They weren't giving something. They were buying something. Do you see the difference in the heart before the Lord? Giving to the poor is one thing. God honors that.

Buying praise of men is something that God does not honor. Billy Graham put it like this. God has given us two hands, one to receive with and one to give with. So God is working on our hearts. He says, I want you to do this in a way that's before me.

Before me. Let me give you a phrase. The soul of secrecy grows the fruit of intimacy. The soul of secrecy grows the fruit of intimacy. When we think about that, with the soul of secrecy, there's things that are only before us and God.

And so that soul of secrecy grows intimacy in our relationships with God. In your marriage, if you're married, there should be things that only your wife knows. There should be things in your marriage only your husband knows. He's your guy. It's a secret moment in that because it brings intimacy.

She's your girl. He's your guy. Nobody knows you better. And you two are locked and moving forward. To be able to go in that, that's a blessing.

Secrecy is a blessing. Privacy is a blessing, all of those things. And God says, I want you to do this before me, and I want you to do it in a way that honors me. And you're not worried about anybody else. You're just honoring me.

Now, we'll talk in just a minute about some other things, about how we can honor God and people are gonna find out about your giving. Possibly, that's fine. But he says, I want you to know that there's a depth here of a secrecy with me, of intimacy. Give with your right hand so your left hand doesn't know. Don't clang that trumpet with all the coins making the praise of men being bought, but instead give to the Lord in a way that says God, it's between me and you.

So you should do things between you and God that nobody knows besides you and God and develop that intimate, sweet, secret heart with the Lord. Now, to illustrate this, let's have a little bit of fun together. I want to introduce you to a theologian named George Costanza. Okay? Maybe you've heard of him.

I'm going to show you a one minute clip on this giving and see secret giving for people to notice. Let's watch this together. Let me ask you a question about the tip cup, because I had a little thing with the calzone guy there this week. I go to drop a buck in the tip jar and just as I'm about to drop it in, he looks the other way. So then as I'm leaving, he gives me a look like, thanks for nothing.

You got no credit. Exactly. It's like I'm throwing a buck away. I mean, if they don't notice it, what's the point? Number 49.

You know, my last name is Costanza. That's Italian. So you and I are kind of like countrymen. Paisanos. 6:50.

You change. Ah, yes. And I always take care of my faizano. So here's a little something.

Hey, hey. You steal my money. No, no, no, you don't understand. I wasn't trying to take it out. No, I know what you're trying to do.

No, no, no. Get out there. Don't come.

Aren't we all a little bit guilty though of that chip jar type of thing? You want them to see you do that, to be able to have that, be that connection in that. And God's saying, look, I want you to just do things because I see you and I'll see you and I'll reward you and I'll take care of you and you don't need anybody else's praise. You just trust me that I got this thing taken care of. So now what do we do about things like even in our own church, my own heart, I've told you numerous times throughout the years, Kelly and I, we're givers.

We love to give. We give more than a tithe to the church. We love to be able to give. We love to be able to support ministry. Well, if I ruined it by this verse here to say, well, I shouldn't have told you that.

Well, when we do mission projects, our church is very helpful to many different ministries. And so there's literally buildings all over the world that have Houston's First Baptist Church, the sign on the building, not just our campuses and churches type of thing, but all over the world that we gave to that orphanage, we gave to that food kitchen, we gave to whatever it says given by Houston's First Baptist Church. Are we doing wrong by this here in this place? If you go to a gala and you give some money and your name is in the program or your name ends up on a building, have you given wrong because of this verse? Well, Matthew, chapter 5, verse 16 says something really interesting.

Matthew 5:16

It's one of actually my favorite verses. And it says this in the same way. Let your light shine before men so that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. So what do we do with that? Here's what we do with that.

Giving where people know should not be done. Listen to receive their praise. It should be given in that way to be a leader to them, to give as well, see it. So there should be an encouragement that if you are known to give at something, you're doing that as a leadership moment to be able to say, I'm given and let's all do this together. And if we do this together, we can make a huge difference and we want to be inspirational in giving leadership.

Do you see the difference of giving it for men's eyes is different than giving it for leadership? To say, we're all in on this thing. So I think it's important that you know that your pastor gives to the church and doesn't just take a salary from the church and gives over and above to the church. And it's a blessing to us as a family to be able to give. So I don't give that so I can get your praise.

I hope my heart's right with that. Sure, we can all be streaked and stained in sin, but to be able to say, no, I want to give leadership in that. When we have times with World Mission offering or we have a generosity initiative, we'll have an envelope that we'll all pray about and we'll all come forward and we'll lay our envelopes on the altar. And Kelly and I try to be the first people down there to put our offering down there, to be the first ones who give so that we can be leaders in that way. And what an encouragement it is when we see thousands of people step up and go, wow, we're a part of this.

We're going to do this and we're going to make this happen. So our giving with the right heart can encourage others. Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works. Watch. But they glorify your father in heaven, not give you praise.

Glorify your father in heaven. So that's an amazing thing. There's a family in our church, their kid raised money to give money to Cambodia, actually. And they raised this money to be able to feed these kids that were in that area of Asia. And the kids wrote back a thank you note and drew pictures and did all that stuff.

And the family took it and they framed the thank you note and hung it up in the hallway by their child's room. Why? To say, this is awesome. Way to go. Not just gonna hang up your perfect attendance award and your I made the honor roll award.

You're like, we're gonna giving. That's important. Us with our kids, it was always when they were little, they. We had these little banks. You put in 10% into savings, 10% into giving, and then put the rest in your piggy bank that you could spend teaching the blessing of all those things.

I was a sacker at a grocery store. I take 10% of my gifts are my tips. About a quarter a bag in those days. And I'd take that and I'd be able to put it aside. Did God need my $4 out of 40?

No, I needed it. I needed it because it made a difference in my life. See, we give to honor God and to change lives. We give to honor God and to change lives. Our life, we'll talk about in a minute, has changed as well.

But we give to honor him. And this is for you, God. God doesn't need your money. You need to give. Changes our hearts before the Lord.

That's what makes a difference. And so it says, whenever you give. Now look at verse three. But when you give to the poor, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be done in secret. And your father will reward you.

Who sees in secret will reward you. So he's saying, I'm going to take care of you. Trust me. You just honor me and I will take care of you. So we give to be able to change lives.

That's amazing. He says, give to the poor. Now, let's ask a question here. Who are the poor? You think about this verse.

Who are the poor? Our most natural thought is somebody that's homeless, somebody that's impoverished. Okay? That's our most natural thought. And that's a part of this.

There's no doubt. But also in Matthew chapter five, do you remember in the Beatitudes it said, blessed are the poor and sin spirit, for they will receive the kingdom of heaven. So the poor in spirit is all of us. You may have a bunch of money, that's fine. But are you rich in spirit?

I mean salvation in Jesus Christ. And if you've received Christ as your Savior, that's awesome. But we still have not discovered the depths of the Lord. So I would say we're still even trying to gain on the wealth of Jesus to get to know him better. That's why the owner's manual is all open, so that we can learn more about Him.

Paul says in Philippians, not that I have laid hold of it, but I press on to the upper call of Christ Jesus. So I want to find out more about God. So if you will. All of us are poor and we want to see our lives changed and we want to see other people's lives changed as well. Now let me give you some statistics to just, just tell us what we're dealing with.

If we were to look at US wealth. If you have an after tax income of $60,000 or more, you are in the top 1% of the entire world in wealth after tax of 60 or more. If you had a family income of 10,000, family income of 10,000 in the United States, you are wealthier than 84% of the world population. So here's the deal, guys. None of us are poor.

So we've got to understand that the poverty that we battle is not having enough. Jesus saved. He lives in your heart. I'm not saying you get God on installment plan. I'm saying that we walk with God in a way that we develop our Christian walk and we grow and we walk in our place where we discover the wealth and the riches of God as we realize our humility and our poverty what we are.

So we want to change lives. We want to honor God and change lives. Just this week, I got to go do something really cool on your behalf. I want you to know we've been supporting and helping with churches in the state of Maine. I'd never been to Maine.

It's a long ways up there. There were some people I met and they said, yeah, Canada is south of us because Canada actually wraps around. They're like, I don't know how to figure that out. Hang on, wait. So all the way to Maine and we've been helping churches up there.

Maine is one of the most unchurched states in the country. Okay? I mean Think Northeast. So we're talking about poor church poor, if you will, worship poor. They don't have settings like this.

Their churches are like our life Bible studies. And so I spoke at a conference yesterday of about 75 to 80 pastors, and that came from all over the state. 27 churches are in this denominational, the Baptist Convention there, the Main Baptist Convention. And I spoke to 27 different churches, and they totaled out to about 80 people. 24 out of 27 came.

There was 27 churches of our denomination that are part of this affiliation in all of Maine. I bet there's 27 Baptist churches in Katy. Right. I mean, God is doing great things up there. And we just went to just pour in and I poured into those pastors and pastors wives and spoke to them yesterday and had a great time.

We also got there a little bit earlier in the week so that we could be with some church planters there that are trying to start new churches and pastors that are there. And so we spent some time with them and we. We took it. We, you know, took them and their wives out to eat the team I was with so we could pour into them and just love on them and give them a great night and just say, hey, we love you. We know you're here.

We want you to be supported. And so we said, well, you know what? Let's take them on a lobster boat. So we took these guys. Let me show you.

We got here a picture. There's me and a couple of the guys. And so. It's freezing, by the way. They have this thing called fall.

You ever heard of that? It's crazy. It's amazing. These trees, they change colors. It's weird.

So there we are. We're about to. We just got off the boat, actually. There's me and the guy that's in charge of the Main Baptist Convention there. His name's Mike.

And so. So took him. And there's my catch. There we go. Biggest crawfish I ever had right there.

Let me show you what it looked like. Here's the payoff. Oh, yeah, we took them right off the boat and took them to a restaurant and said, man, will you make these into something for us? And then they had to teach us how to open them up and all this stuff and wasn't quite enough cayenne pepper in there for me. But it was good.

It was really good. But we just loved on them and cared on them. Why? Because they don't have any money? No, because the church needs to prosper in places that the church is not prospering because people need a gospel witness.

In places, there's not a gospel witness. It's not about food, it's not about clothing. Yet it is. It's about a giving to the poor, if you will, so that we can speak to people's souls. Do you see it now?

We give out millions of pounds of food through our church a year. We give out tons of clothing a year. We do all of that. We have a tremendous benevolence of helping people with those things. But I just want you to know that these aspects are so great and such a blessing.

There was a persecution in the Roman Empire. It was about 249-252-51-ad and they were persecuting the church. And they sent a Roman prefect into the church. And this man went into the church, Laurentius was his name, and he grabbed this deacon in the church and he said, show me your treasures. The deacon, he thought he was going to find a bunch of gold somewhere.

Show me your treasures. And here's what the deacon said. He said, look at the sick that are being nursed, the poor whose needs are being supplied, the widows and orphans who are being fed here. These are the treasure of the church. I tell you, church, our buildings are not our treasure.

Our stuff is not our treasure. Our staff is not our treasure. Your path making and volunteering is not our treasure. Our giving is not our treasure. Our treasure is the care that we give to the orphan and the widow.

Our treasure is the care that we give to the person that needs to know Jesus Christ as savior. Our treasure is the impact that we make in our city, in our world, in our nation. That's our treasure. Because where our heart is, we're going to see in a minute. So will our treasure be.

And even better said, I should say, where our treasure is, so will our heart be. And so we've got to have the treasure of changed lives. What a blessing. Now, I know when we talk about giving to the church, we like to say it around here. Giving through the church, not to the church.

Some people will be offended. Some people are like, you know, FBA parents, like, you know, how much we pay to go to your school to begin with on this deal. I know life, I get it. But that giving is something that God wants for us, not from us. And unfortunately, throughout church history, not history like recent history of our church type thing, but I'm talking about from church history, there's been churches and ministries that have abused the generosity of people.

So it makes us tighten up we go, well, I don't know. I don't know if we can trust. I don't know if we want to give in that way. I asked, just knowing this message was coming up, I asked our financial team here at the church. I said, could you just give me a few things that I could share with the congregation about how we handle our finances at the church to just say this is how we do it and to develop continued trust.

So let me just give you a couple things here. Every expense is seen and approved by at least three people. My ministry expenses personally, if I take somebody to lunch or I spend something in some way, are approved by the finance committee chairman, which is a layperson in the church. Our annual budget is of both personnel and non personnel, goes through several rounds of review and approval by staff, leadership, finance committee, personnel committee, deacons, and is ultimately voted on by you as a church in church conference. Salaries are changed or determined by one person.

Changed by a group of person or determined by a group of persons. I have a group of deacons that meets with me once a year and determines whether I get a raise or not and things that I can work on and be able to do. Third, our annual financial statement. This is where CPAs. This could be your favorite part of church here today.

This is gonna be your greatest thing that you could ever hear. And for the rest of us, we'll be bored stiff. But you'll like this part, which will be great. I'm kidding. It's really important I don't make light of it.

An annual financial statement audit is done by a top nonprofit accounting firm every year in our church. In addition, we conduct several other internal audits of controls over the. Over the past years, we've done this deep dives into hr, IT purchasing revenue and receipt processing to make sure that our controls and processes are tested and approved by an external third party. Committee members are chosen by church members on the selection committee, not staff members. Members that are on the finance committee and personnel committees.

In these committees, monthly approval by and presentation of our finances is given to the finance committee, the deacon body and the church conference. You're more than welcome to attend at any time. And we are certified members of the ecfa, which is a group we chose to be a part of called the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability to make their standards that we meet that so that we can be a part of it as a third party. You'll see that seal on the things that we're doing now. Say all that to say we want you to be able to trust that God is at work in the church and that things are being handled correctly.

Does that mean you will agree with every purchase we ever make here at the church? Absolutely not. We got 10,000 people showing up every Sunday. You think we're all going to agree on what size TV should be in the lobby to say something or do something? No.

But can we do it in the right way? Yes, we can. So we actually call our budget the Great Commission Budget. We don't call it the operation budget. We don't call it the general budget.

We call it the Great Commission budget because what's in it should be helping us to fulfill the Great Commission Matthew, Chapter 28, which is seeking after the poor, if you will, to be able to minister and disciple and to teach the gospel and all those things, baptizing and to be able to do that. So I just want you to know those things. We honor God, even by organization, even by our transparency, even by our giving. We honor God in all of those things. Now I want you to jump to Matthew 6:19.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention Matthew 6:19

He's going to teach us about possessions. Here we go. Chapter six, verse 19. We've been talking about basically secrecy and transparency even, and accountability and those sort of things. Verse 19 don't store up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust will destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moth and rust does not destroy, where thieves do not steal and break in. For where your treasure is, your heart will also be. Underline it. Big moment. For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be now this is the verse I thought was out of place, but I'm going to explain it to you in a second.

The eye is the lamp of the body. And if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. And if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is the darkness? No one can serve two masters.

Since either he will hate one or love the other. He will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Boy. We're trying though, aren't we?

We want to prove that one wrong. Here's the point I want to give you in your listening guide. Giving changes our life, too. Giving changes our life too. We talked about changing other people's lives.

It says in Luke 6, verse 38, give and it will be given to you a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, it'll be poured over into your Lap when with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Our giving changes us. He doesn't need your money. It's not something he wants from you. It's something he wants for you.

Luke 6:38

And I'm telling you, I started giving when I told you as a sacker, way back when. Our family is on a firmer foundation. We walk with God deeper. It's a blessing to us. I'd be afraid not to give is what I'd be afraid of.

Not afraid to give. And so to be able to say, the firm foundation is given in our family to say we are givers. I told you this before. I don't say it as bragging. I say it as leadership.

We have three people that are going to inherit from Kelly and I. We got two kids. The third child in our will is charity that we're giving away, third party. And those assets, you know, it's all, you know, things get complicated, but all, you know, a big chunk of it is to give to the Lord. You know what happened when our kids, when we told them we were doing that we were adding a third kid, they said, man, that's awesome.

We love it. It's great. Why? Because their whole lives we've been cultivating in them. This is what we do.

This is what we do instead of what? Wow. So giving changes us. How does it change us? Let me give you just some quick things, real quick.

Our treasure changes from fleeting to lasting. Instead of moth and rust. Change lives for all of eternity. Change. Our hearts change from fearful to faithful.

Instead of being afraid, being scared the whole time, I'm talking about this. You can be faithful and say, God, thank you, man. That's awesome. Where would we be without giving to you? Our vision changes from stingy to generous.

Now, I told you I would explain this verse of Scripture, verse 22 and 23. It says, the eye is the lamp of the body. It's light. Your whole body is light. The eye is dark, and the whole body is dark.

How great is the darkness? I always thought that was a misplaced verse. What's it talking about? Is that lust? Is that what?

Here's what it was in Jewish writings. An eye that was filled with light was a generous eye. It symbolized generosity. A dark eye symbolized stinginess. So he's saying, if you're stingy, how dark is it in the rest of your life?

If your eye is filled with light and generous, how light comes through your entire life? In Jewish writings, a good eye represented generosity and a bad eye represented being. Stingy be like Jesus, not George Costanza. Right is another way to say this. Deuteronomy 15:10, Give to him and don't have a stingy heart.

Deuteronomy 15:10

When you give because of this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything that you do. And then fourth and finally, our life's leader changes from money to God, says you can't serve two masters. Can't serve money. And God, our life's leader, our treasure, turns from money to God. So here's what I like to put it like this.

Make sure you don't love anything more than Jesus. And when you love Jesus the most, all this other stuff is going to take care of itself. Remember last week, seek first his kingdom and righteousness and all these things should be added unto you. Matthew 6:33. But when you get something in front of Jesus, then all this stuff's going to be a battle.

Matthew 6:33

And here's the deal. Don't love your job more than you love Jesus. Don't love your car more than you love Jesus. Don't love your family more than you love Jesus. You don't let the sun revolve around the earth.

You have this earth revolving around the sun. He's the centerpiece of the universe. Let me tell you this in this way. I'm not asking you to love your family less. I'm calling you to love your Lord more.

See it, I'm not saying love your family less, I'm saying love Jesus more. And when that happens, these things get swooped up in kind of the current of all of those things. And so you go, man, yeah, this is awesome. I want to be a part of these things. What a blessing.

See, it's not so much about the disciples wealth that Jesus is concerned about. It's about their loyalty. God's not trying to mess with your ledger. He's trying to mess with your loyalty. And so where your heart is, there's where your treasure is.

And so let's make our treasure to be where our heart and that be for the Lord. So that we don't serve God in money. We serve God alone. Let me give you three action points as we land the plane here. Got them written down there in your listening guide.

You don't even have to fill in in a blank. Give regularly and systematically. Challenge yourself in your Christian walk to give regularly and systematically. Most, most people give sporadically when touched emotionally. That's not what God's talking about.

Giving regularly and systematically. So you get paid on the 1st, you give on the 2nd, you paid on the 15th, you give on the 16th. You see, it's regular. It keeps going. That's how everything else works in your life.

Do you just pay your cell phone bill when you feel like it? When you get touched emotionally by the cell phone company commercial? No. Do you spend more on your cell phone and cable than you do on giving to people in need? Give regularly and systematically so that it happens in that way and it makes sense and it becomes a part of your life.

You can start small and grow our church. I personally believe in a biblical tithe that's 10%. And so the first fruits of 10% given to his work through the church that God's doing. If you don't want a tithe, you don't believe in a 10% tithe. Give 14%, it's fine.

It doesn't matter. That's right. We don't mind. But what are we doing? We're spending our lives arguing over 2% and we're scared about our finances and we're worried about our business, and we're like this on our spending.

We're fighting with our wife about this and fighting with our husband about that. And we're trying to act like we're poor. Nobody's poor. That's listening to my voice right now and saying, God, I want to give to you, and I want to give to you in this way. Start small and just grow and watch God provide for you.

He'll take care of you. He will take care of you. I promise you. I'm living proof. And you'll get back and be like, wow, look at what God's done.

And not from health and wealth where you give God and he's going to bless you and you're going to get rich. That message only works in America. You can't preach it in India. And if something can't be preached worldwide, it's not true because Jesus and God are a worldwide God, right? So you may give to God, he may take more, I don't know, but I know he'll take care of you.

Number two, give happily. Well, let me give you a verse on Old Testament for what I just said. Malachi 3 10. Bring the full tithe, the 10th, into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way, says the Lord, and see if I will not open up the floodgates of heaven and pour out blessing on you without measure.

Number two, give happily. Second Corinthians, verse seven of chapter nine says each person should give what he's decided in his heart. Not reluctantly, but out of necessity. Or not reluctantly or out of necessity. For God loves a cheerful giver.

Man, this is awesome. We get to do this. What a blessing. You kidding me? I can change somebody's life or I can get another shirt.

I got plenty of shirts. I want to be able to help and to say, God, you do your work through me. And then number three, lastly, give for God's glory, not our gain. I've hit that four or five times already. We give for God's glory, not our gain.

We're not giving so he can give back to us. We're not giving so everybody can go, hey, everybody. See what I did? Aren't I cool? I'm righteous, right?

We're not giving for all those sort of things. We're giving for God's glory. Because here's the deal. Here's what I want you to know. God's glory wants to give you this before you give him anything.

Jesus Christ, his son, was sent. And it says in the Bible, it says that he who was rich became poor for our sake so that us who are poor can become rich through him. Jesus died on the cross, shed his blood, gave everything for us so that we could be saved eternally. He could live in our hearts. We could go to heaven when we die.

Streets of gold, gates of pearl, all that stuff. And to be. To. Able. Able to say, God, I trust you as my savior, forgive my sins.

He comes and lives inside of me, changes my life. And in changing my life, I wake up and I go, whoa. How could I not give you my life? Because you gave me my life. And part of my life is my resources.

So I want to give it to you, God, and I want to give it for your glory. I want to do some things that, yeah, people may know, but let me do that to give leadership. There's going to be some things I do, Father, before you that nobody will ever know. It's just me and you and, boy, that felt good.

We need it a lot more than he needs it. He owns a cattle on a thousand hills. He can do whatever he wants to do without us, but he invites us to be included. There's a lady, amazing, amazing church lady. They called her the widow with two mites in Luke chapter 21.

Luke 21 · chapter mention

And we say wow to her because she just gave everything she had just for her. And the Lord and God took care of that widow. That's amazing. That's good. So the owner's manual here, you can leave it wrapped up.

Just when the light comes on or something starts to rattle. Go to the shop. You don't need this.

I haven't read it in four or five years. Whoa, look at that. Hey, the Lord is in the house. Man, that is something. Okay, I don't know what to do do with that.

That's fun. Okay, I'm going to bottle flip next. I don't know.

Unwrapped, wrapped. And this should be unwrapped. These pages should be worn and written on and highlighted and tears stained. This is the owner's manual we need. This is the owner's manual we need.

And what he says, be careful about this stuff, guys, because it'll get your heart when you give. You just trust that the Lord's going to do something with it. Father, we come in Jesus name. We thank you. You're amazing.

You're good. You're great. I mean, how could we ever out give you my goodness?

And Lord, we got a lot of nice stuff. And we even pray that that would be used for your glory. Glory. But God, don't let it get our hearts. It's moth and rust.

What's in fashion today will be an embarrassment in 20 years.

We want to live lives that mean something for eternity. We want to help people from Maine to midtown in Houston.

And we need help, God, so help us God, with this. Would you pray just in your own heart? Maybe God spoke something to you. Maybe you're super aggravated and upset with me. Why would that be?

Take it to the Lord.

Just pray with me. Just in the quietness of your heart, this prayer. Lord, I want to follow your owner's manual.

I want to handle what you've given me in a way that glorifies you.

Give me courage, God, to honor you and to treasure you. And let me start this very week in Jesus name, amen.