Giving - Week 2

Amen.

Listen, guys, we're I worship when I worship went long

today because sometimes the presidence of the Lord just shows

up and he has his way.

Amen. Amen.

So I can't do I can't do my message full

justice today by launching it right now, because everybody's gonna

miss lunch if we do that, and I don't want

to do that.

So what I want to.

Do is just just kind of touch on what I

was gonna preach today just a little bit, but not

go into the to the depth of the message. So

if you have a Bible, go to Matthew chapter twenty three.

Matthew chapter twenty three. We're gonna read there starting in

verse twenty three. Let me pray, Father, I just thank

you for your mercy and your grace. What I thank

you for who you are and all that we can

be in you. What I pray that today you would

I open our ears to hear and our hearts to

receive your word. That you would comfort us, that you

would strengthen us, that you would guide us, that you

would show us your principles. Lord, we love you, and

we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen, Amen, and amen.

You know when we're talking about giving. There are things

that we need to understand. Some things God claims, some

things God establishes, and some things you choose. I want

to quickly go through this and we'll go into greater

depth next week. But you know, sometimes God speaks and

he asks for things. I don't know if you've ever

had that happen in your life, but God will ask

you for something.

God will move on your heart.

He'll say, hey, I want you to do this, I

want you to give this. I want you to turn

that over to me, whatever it is. And those things

are referred to in scripture as dedicated things. Those are

things that God has asked for. And when God asks

for something, we don't really have a say in it.

And you realize that there are other things that we

don't really have a say in that we should be doing.

That it's not a voluntary obedience where we're doing something

and we're being obedient. But there's some baseline faith things

that we're supposed to do that God calls us to,

like prayer, say Amen, like studying the Word, like sharing

your faith. Those basic entry level things that we don't

really have a say in.

God just says do them. He doesn't need us to

weigh in.

He doesn't need us to listen when it comes to

sharing your faith. I've had so many people say, you know,

I was the other day. I went to the store

and I was asking the Lord. There was this lady

there and she was crying, and I was asking the Lord, Lord,

should I talk to her? Should I go and minister

to her?

What should I do? Lord?

And you know, and I know what's supposed to because

she walked away.

Listen, you don't have to pray and ask God.

If he wants you to witness to somebody he wants

you Okay, I will go ahead and take save you

the time he wants you to. If you stop and pray,

the answer is going to be yes, Yes, go witness

to that person.

He's never gonna say no.

There is no person that God wants to go to Hell,

and He may use you to make the introduction to him.

So always be obedient, Always be looking for those opportunities.

Dedicated things are those things that God speaks to us,

and we give those things and listen to me, there

is no there is no financial gain, there is no return,

there is no blessing associated with those things.

If God asks for it.

You give those things us because God asked for them.

It's just one of those moments where we go from

glory to glory because we've stepped into a whole nother

level of obedience.

And God did this all throughout scripture. He asked for things, and.

People gave them or they didn't, and they reaped the consequence.

They reaped the con rept that's not even where they

reaped the consequences of not being obedient, because obedience has consequences,

you know.

We see that. The biggest, the biggest.

Real, most flambuoyant story we see about this is when

Israel went into the city of Ai and they defeated Ai,

and God's instruction was, don't take anything from the city,

utterly destroy everything, and do not take any spool, don't

take goals, don't take clothes, don't take anything. And then

Aching and his family they went in and they took

things and they hid them in their tent, and God

punish them severely because of their disobedience, because those were

dedicated things that God said.

Those belong to me, they're not yours.

You can't have them. Obedience is important to the Lord.

Obedience is greater than sacrifice. So there's things that God claims,

and then there's principles. There's processes that God establishes those

things like tithe that is a process that is established,

We set in those we walk into those things. We

understand those things, and here is here's something that's happening now.

Listen.

I don't have a problem with anybody questioning anything.

Come on, somebody. You don't even have.

To believe the same thing I believe to be a

thriving part of our faith community. There's lots of people

that don't believe the same things I believe that are here,

and that's okay, because if.

We can agree that.

Jesus died for the sins of.

The world, and that he rose again, and that.

He is seated at the right hand of the Father, Listen,

we can ride into battle together. It don't matter what

else you believe. Amen, I will line up with a

water pistol and storm hell with you. If we can

agree on those three things, that's all it takes.

But there are some things.

That God establishes, not that determine whether we go to heaven,

not none of those things, but how we function in

the rest of our relationship with Him. And the other

principles that he establishes. And there is a huge move

right now, especially on social media and areas where because

let me just let me let you guys in on something.

When you are following people on social media, even me,

if you don't know me and people are following me

on social media, they should dive deep to see if

what I'm saying is truth. Amen, When you're following people

on social media, here is the least that social media is.

You need to say something new or shocking to keep

people following you and attract new people to follow you.

When it comes to the word of God, if somebody

is saying something new, it's dangerous. If somebody has found

a new truth, stay away from it because there is

nothing new under the sun. The principles of God have

been in the hands of mankind for a couple of

thousand years now, and we need to understand that people

are not finding new things. It should be old information

applied in a modern way. Amen, there is Scripture does

not mean different things to different people. Scripture only means

one thing, but the application may be different in the

people's lives, but it means the same thing.

And there's this huge move right now.

Because there's a lot of people that are disenfranchised and

just kind of.

Just worn out by the church.

Because I'm gonna be honest with you, the church doesn't

adapt quickly. We lag behind. We're normally not up front

as far as cultural relevance and pushing the threshold and

architecting the future.

That's not something the church is good at. We're kind

of a.

Ship that steers slowly, Amen, and as a result, we

hit a lot of icebergs. We do because we steer

the ship slowly, and people just kind of get tired.

And there's this huge.

Push right now, and people won't admit it, but it's

a push against the organized church, and it's a push

that says, Hey, first of all, the church is not

the church because we're an incorporated entity, and the church

back then was not incorporated, right because that didn't exist.

Amen.

There was no tax incentive back then. There was none

of that stuff back then. Yeah, that's just like I

don't wear a long flowing robe today because it's just

not relevant today.

That's just not what we do. Amen, doesn't mean I'm

less like Jesus.

And there's this big push that tithing is not a

real thing, that tithing is not real, that it's not something,

that it's not an institution that we should be part of.

As a matter of.

Fact, tithing is abusive, is now the general thought from

people on social media. And they make this statement, and

up until not long ago, I agreed with them tithing,

that Jesus never talked about tithing in the New Testament.

And I've read this passage of Scripture. I don't know

how many times I've read this passage of Scripture, and

probably in the light of those things, I've just seen

something in it that just stands out. Let's read Matthew

chapter twenty three, starting in verse twenty three together. It says,

woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay

tithe of mint and a niece and Cuman and have

neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy

and faith.

Now listen, these you ought to have done, he says.

Listen, you should worry about the greater things, because these

other issues.

Are entry level issues.

You should worry about justice, You should worry about the

weightier issues.

You should put a lot of your.

Focus on those things and not worry about the other

that's just obedience. Do you realize that these other things

they take some effort, They take some they take us

initiating ourselves into the issue when we're helping people work

through problems, when we're trying to operate in forgiveness. Do

you know it's not easy to operate in forgiveness. It's

pretty easy to swipe your debit card. And he says, listen,

you ought to do the way to your things. He's

not diminishing the new things. What he's talking about is

a group of people who had completely reduced their faith

to just a series of rote actions and ceremony.

And he says, serving.

God is not just about that, but it is about

that also, And he says, you ought to have done

those things without leaving the others undone. He says, yeah,

you should focus on the big things, but do the

other too.

And what is the other he was talking about.

He specifically is talking about tithing. He says, you should

do that, but don't do that in lieu of the

weightier issues of the kingdom. Jesus himself says, those are

entry level things. We should be doing those things. I'm

calling you into that covenant with me. Continue to do.

Those things.

Blind gods who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.

Woe do you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, For you cleanse

the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they're

full of extortion and self indulgence. Blind pharisee, first cleanse

the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside

of them may be clean. Also, woe to use, scribes

and pharisees hypocrites, for your like whitewashed tombs, which indeed

appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's

bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear

righteous to man, but inside you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

On the issue of tithe, this is where Jesus rests.

We should do it, but we should not.

Do it as a sign of righteousness. We should not

do it as an outward sign that we're better than anybody.

We should do it because.

He's calling us into it, but we should move on

from it and go to the weightier issues of the gospel,

or we are hypocrites.

We can't just do those entry level things.

It's time to step up and step out and be

the people that God is calling us to be. So

Jesus does indeed address tithing in the New Testament, and

he says we should do it.

Amen. So there are there are.

Things that God claims, there are things that establish that

God establishes, and then there's things that we get to choose.

There's things that we choose.

In the area of giving.

We read the scripture last week in our introduction to

this series, and it says, listen, let each give as

he purposes in his heart. Offerings are all about what

you purpose in your heart and what you decide to

give to the Lord now without going deep into next week.

And I know that I've got us off the schedule here,

but worship and tithing go hand in hand. Offerings and

praise go hand in hand. Tithing is an extension of worship,

Offerings are an extension of praise. We're going to talk

about how those things marry together and what those things

do next week. But I just want you to know

that God does address it without tying it to the

order of Melchisedec and the hoops that we used to.

Jump through and everybody's life.

I don't know what Pastor said he's something about some

guy and priests, and nobody died.

Somebody died, everybody died. I don't know.

Jesus just came right out and he addressed it. So

that should settle it in your heart. And the benefits

of tithing are immense. They go beyond anything you could

ever imagine. And we're going to talk about those things

next week. Amen, listen, I know that some of you

here today probably don't fully grasp what happened in this

worship experience, that there were things that happened, and people

marching and people shouting and just repeating the same song

over and over and over again, and you know, and

you just don't understand what happened.

You know, I'm gonna be honest with you. A lot of.

Times, we don't know why those things happen either. We

don't know why those things happen either other than the

Lord just chooses to pour out his spirit on flesh.

And when the Lord pours out his spirit, we respond

and we react in all different kinds of ways. Because see,

matter and individuals matter, and conditions of heart matter, and

trials and tribulations matter, and situation and circumstance matter, and

all of those things matter, and it's a response to

the spirit. And here's the reality. The reality is that

God was in this place this morning. He was in

this place this morning, and it's undeniable. It's undeniable that

the Spirit of the Lord was here. And I know

the Spirit of the Lord is everywhere all the time,

but sometimes he chooses to be a little more present.

We call that his manifest presence. And when he's a

little more present here than he is in other places,

we just choose to be so thankful and give him

thanks for that.

And maybe in that moment, maybe in that.

Moment, as the Lord was working and moving, you felt

something in your heart. Maybe you felt something that you've

never felt before, something that you've felt before but you've

pressed down. You just felt the Lord calling you to

a new place, calling you to a relationship with him.

And if you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus

with your life, you've never asked him to forgive you

of your sins, you've never asked him to be your lord.

But today, somehow in your heart, you just know that

that's what He's asking you to do. I want to

give you an opportunity to do that every head bowed

and every eye closed. If you're here today and you

would say, Lord, I need you. Lord.

I know I'm a sinner.

When I'm far from you, But today, in this moment,

I want to bring my life to you so you

can wash me clean. If that's you today and you say,

Pastors thive, pray for me. I want Jesus to save me.

If that's you, just slip up your hand and say,

that's my pastor. I want to meet Jesus today. I

want to give him my life, given my heart.

To hell. I want to follow him without looking back.

Just slip your hand up and put it right back down. Amen. Amen, Amen, Amen.

Father, I just pray for every heart and every life.

I asked that you work it, move like only you care.

Father.

We give you glory and honor and praise in Jesus' name. Amen,

Amen and amen.

Everybody staying with me.

As the band scenes, we're gonna get ready to baptize

some people. M