Don’t Trade Like Judas

Lots of people sick out there, aren't they? It's crazy. If you're sick, just — you cough too much, you're going to stress people out down the road. I'm just kidding. We love you.

The spirit of Jesus is going to protect us from the spirit of, contagion today. What am I doing at a Catholic church? I've been excited about today. I, as a pastor, when God speaks to you, you want — every week, at about Thursday, when God's just like really convicting you of different things — to say, "This is the most important sermon that I've ever preached." And I don't know if it is or not, but it felt like it on Thursday, and Wednesday when I was just putting some finishing touches on this. And so I say that just to encourage you to lean in for a moment, because I think that if you allow him, God may speak something powerfully to you.

We've been in this series that we've been calling Don't Settle. The idea of Don't Settle — it was provoked in me because I feel like a lot of people are settling. The quote that I always have, it's a paraphrase of the quote, using contemporary language, from C.S. Lewis. It says that when you go up to a kid and you invite him to a holiday at the sea, sometimes he doesn't realize what you're saying, and he finds himself content in a sandbox.

And I think what I do up here every single week — not that I've experienced every joy that comes with following Jesus — but I do, I stand up here every week and I proclaim, or profess, try to provoke in you a desire to follow a vision that God has for your life. And I'll say it frequently, I say it supersedes that view you have for your life, the pathway that your parents set out for you, even the American dream that would be content with a white picket fence and a, nice house, and a certain number of kids, and a spouse that operates at a certain level. Like, that sounds cool, but it's so much less than God has for you. And much of that is rooted in your ability, to accrue wealth. And so this series has been on money.

And I took a different trajectory than I did last year. Last year, we talked a lot about giving, because I felt in my spirit that people needed to learn what the Bible said about giving. But I've been convicted this year to talk to you about money in general — that God wants you to spend, attain wealth, and give in a way that glorifies God first. That it's not just about a tithe, which is an Old Testament standard of 10% to the local storehouse, which we now interpret as the local church, because it's different than it was in the Old Testament. I don't know if you noticed that, it's a little different out here.

Talk about the tithe, and we do that because it's tangible and kind of easy to understand. A tithe means tenth, and so give a tenth of your income to the local storehouse. This is what God says is faith in him in the Old Testament, but the New Testament took it radically forward, said, "Give all that you have." And so in the contemporary United States culture that we live in, I try to meet you where you're at. It's like, well, let's go past the Old Testament, but let's try to figure out the New Testament a little bit. So we start at 10, we move forward.

And I think that's helpful to understand, it's very tangible. But here's the truth: God wants 100% of your income to give honor and glory to him. Now, I'm not asking you to give 100% of your income to the local church — see, I'm not asking. What I am asking is for you to give 100% of your income to God, whether you spend, continue to attain and invest, or you give it. All of it is God's anyways, and you are but a steward.

Let me give you a quick series recap with two points. The first one, it should be behind me: God is the owner, we are simply money managers. I thought I was so clever when I said that, but then I read a Randy Alcorn book after I started this series, and he said it way before I did. You should read that book — I don't even know what it's called anymore, but Randy Alcorn, about money and God, something about that. Number two: since we're just money managers, honor God in the way that you spend, give, and attain wealth.

That's been the heart of this series. And if you remember, at the beginning of this series, I did a little experiment because I said, "High risk, high reward."

Some of y'all still getting it. I made a joke about that last night, had me stressed out. It's a very common phrase — high risk, high — say it with me again. Reward.

And the risky experiment was that I invited someone to take $100 of my money and use it in a way that gives glory and honor to me — which I don't really care about that, but it's an experiment, you get what I'm saying? And so I was — who was it? Lawrence, in this service. It was Lawrence. So I'm going to invite Lawrence up here.

High risk, high—

Lawrence, you in here? What, did he bail? He's just in the back. He was first service last time. All right, I guess we gonna flip it.

Jeff was in the second service. Jeff, I saw you in here. Come on up, Jeff. [cheering]

I'm gonna have to get on to Lawrence about this. I'll put this down, my hands are in my pocket — he's messing with my son's skateboard.

Going to put this away, I took it from him earlier cuz he was fidgeting with it. All right, I got a couple questions here. All right, I wrote this down so I wouldn't screw it up and take too long on it. I invested this money with you to spend, give, or attain wealth in a way that honors me. What did you do with it?

Do we have a microphone for him, guys? It's my fault, I should have planned it. Let's get me a microphone up here right now. We're going to stand real close. What did you do with it, my friend?

I basically — I'm working two jobs right now, so I mean, the money's coming in, but I still have a hard time saving my money up. So I just put the first initial $100 into a mason jar, just on the side of my bed, and then every day I would just cut back on something silly of spending, like eating out, and I would throw like a $20 bill in the mason jar for like the last month, and I just let it build up, and I think it's at like 600 bucks right now. So kind of just did that. I didn't tell him it comes back to me at the — I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Yo, so here's what's cool about that — like, that's so awesome, because when you said mason jar, at first I was like, " oh, he's the — he's the guy who buried it in the dirt." We don't want to do that.

But then what it did was it set in place — it looks like the intensity of this moment, and you thinking about what this was going to do, it caused you to actually increase your discipline in an area that you weren't disciplining yourself. All right, so tell me about that experience. We're going to be close until they get me a mic. Is everyone listening to me? Let's get me a mic, guys.

All right. Yeah, it was good. I've just been working a lot, and just been trying to figure out ways to just keep saving my money. Like, I'm working, but the money is not saving up like it should. So this definitely helped me just to be able to see, like, you don't have to go out and just indulge every day.

There's cheaper ways to go about it. So just trying to save some money, just put money to the side. It's hard nowadays. So when you received the $100, like, tell me what happened in your, like, mind, heart, body? Anxiety.

I just wanted to make sure I stewarded it well. And my initial thought was to do like one of those ornaments, for like a Christmas tree, to go out to like the kids that are struggling or something like that. But it just kind of went to this instead, just kind of switched it up at the end. Yeah, I'm glad it was you and not me, because when I gave the money out, I was like, "I don't know what I would do with this stuff." I was nervous, thank you so much. I was nervous, I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous.

I kind of like standing that close to you, but I'll let you have the mic now. My brother. Now, I was like — there was an anxiety that piped up in you. Is it not working? Oh —

is it on?

Oh, it's beeping. Let me see, oh, that needed to be pushed. Yo, yo. Yep, yeah, it should be working for you. Do you hear me now?

Yeah, just hold it up here, there's a sensor there. And just turn him up a little bit. All right, so there's an anxiety that creeps in. Oh, yeah, big time. When you realize you're going to be held to account for the money that you were given.

And I talked to both of them, and it was so interesting, because we don't feel that anxiety when our paycheck comes in. And I think it's so crucial for us to — I don't want you to feel anxiety, I don't think God wants you to feel — I didn't want you to feel anxiety, I didn't want you to. But the reason I think you felt anxiety, because I felt it for you a little bit — the reason I felt anxiety was because I'm so unfamiliar with thinking about where it goes that it stressed me. Yeah? 100%.

Yep. But tell me the truth on this, because if I'm wrong in my hypothesis — did you feel more settled as week one, two, three, four came along? Just don't just say yes because that's what I'm leaning you to. No, definitely closer to the end, once that mason jar started filling up, and I was like, "Yeah, this is a good idea." I think Matt will be appreciative that I didn't just go to the casino and put it on black or red. —

unless you had gotten what you wanted, right?

No, no, never. Never that. Just kidding. Lottery tickets might get you. No, they won't.

Don't —

Don't go that route. Oh, man. Hey, can we just give it up for Jeff really quickly? Good job. Thank you guys.

What's so beautiful about it — I'm sure God's thought about every potential opportunity, that you could put your money on. The thing is, I would never have thought of that. Exactly. It's like, just put it in a mason jar, and what that's going to do is it's going to curate for you a discipline that you didn't have before. But that discipline enabled you to actually gain money on it.

And you might be thinking, "He didn't really multiply that exact amount." But he did, because he shifted his lifestyle in a way that enabled him to actually keep more of what God had given him. And that really is multiplication. Some of you are starting in that place, you don't even know how to save. But if you see it as God's money, and you look at that mason jar, and you're like, "I got to do what God called me to do" — dude, that discipline itself, five years from now, you're going to start multiplying stuff, because you built up enough, you can actually drop it into like a Vanguard account, and then it's going to earn tons and tons of money, right? You got to start somewhere.

Look at your neighbor, tell them, "Just get started." And give — give Jeff a hand, he's going to head back down here. I'll keep that. Hey, I feel really good about that, dude. So impressed, so impressed. I'd have — I'd have spent it on something.

But you wouldn't have, would you? Cuz you knew you were about to be up here at the end of the four weeks. And here's the thing, and it's not even my sermon — we're all like, "We're going to get to heaven one day, " or Jesus is going to come back, and we're going to enter the new Jerusalem one day, however you view your eschatology, right? Like, we're going to get there one day. And I'm not saying he's going to judge you for however you spend it.

But when I get there, I don't think God's going to judge me, but I want him to look at me like, "Okay, okay, good job." I — I like — he's not like more loving toward me if I do a good job. He's not going to — I don't think he's going to give me like some higher layer or bigger mansion, I don't know what that's going to look like, but I do know I want that "well done, good and faithful servant." I don't want that "wicked and lazy" —

that's in the Bible, I don't want that. And so, no, I thought that was really helpful. I've been excited about you guys and your response to this series. Right before I walked up here, someone texted me and just let me know, like, a lot of you are trusting God in a way that we didn't even know you were going to.

Like, we had no clue. Most of the people who have The first time, some gave above and beyond in a way that we were like, "I, that's crazy." I don't know the exact numbers or amounts, but I'm seeing what God's doing through you guys. And so, I've had a lot of fun during this series. I hope for you it's been helpful. I hope there's been a lot of practical advice, some tools, maybe the biblical concepts can, can stick into your memory, seal into it, and allow you to move forward in your life more effectively.

I think last week I was stressed out because I was talking a lot of money stuff about attaining wealth, but then some people came up to me and they were like, "Hey, hadn't thought about that before." And the fact that you're thinking about it now really means a lot to me. But today, what I want to do is, I just want to— I don't want to talk about me, but I want to share with you what God's been doing in me specifically. Is that okay? I want to put up a word and a definition of that word for a second. When you toss it up, y'all say that word when you see it.

Surrender. Surrender. It's a word that's not actually in the Bible, but several words actually make up to the idea of surrender. Surrender means to give up position of something to another person or power, to abandon resistance or submit to authority, to yield ownership or control. And I didn't actually look up the definition before God gave me my word for 2026.

And what God started me off with was just the idea of, like, I'm a steward. This is not mine. Like, nothing. And my money's not mine, it's His. My kids aren't mine, they're His children ultimately, and I'm called to steward those children.

This church—I might accidentally say, "Yeah, my church, " it's not mine, like, it's God's. It's God's church. Like, all of these people here at this church, we come together. But this church is not yours. It's not mine.

We become the church to God's people, but, like, it's His. Like, we are His bride. We're His. None of this is mine. Your house, your food—like, none of this is yours.

Here's how I know it: you don't get to keep it when you're dead. Because ultimately, you're His too. And we're going to spend eternity with God or without God. I'm believing the people in this room are going to spend eternity with God. And if we spend eternity with God, then it makes the most sense to me to recognize this stuff isn't mine.

"But not mine" didn't feel like a good word for 2026, and so I just prayed about it and I thought about it, and God just made it so clear: "Matt, I need you to surrender everything to me. Stop holding your insecurities, Matt, surrender them to me. Stop holding on to things that you need to let go, Matt, surrender them to me. Stop looking back at your past. I've got a future for you that's bigger than that—surrender it to me."

In my life, God has been teaching me about the idea of surrender: to give up possession to another person, to abandon resistance and submit to God, to yield ownership or control.

I tell people to take ownership all the time. I want you to take ownership of tasks, but you cannot take ownership of what is not yours in the first place. That's your life. That's everything around your life, especially your money—it is not yours, it is His. It's literally handing over what's His so that you can experience something greater.

And God's teaching me to experience Him fully by surrendering all of what I have to Him, because what I keep from Him actually keeps Him from me. What I keep from God keeps Him from me. And you might think, "God can come to me anytime he wants." Of course He can. He's been coming to you. He's been trying to knock on your door, ask you to invite Him in so that He could actually have His way in your life and it would be better.

But you've been keeping the door shut. You've been keeping everything in your own house—the house that you think is yours—and you've been preventing Him from access to it. There are things in each of your lives. It might not be money, it might be kids. It might be the way that you earn your income, or what your job is, might be friends and family.

Whatever it is, whatever you keep from Him keeps Him from you. And for me, I want to surrender everything so that He and I are locked in together. Don't keep anything from Him. This isn't about you. This is my message to myself.

Is more of a testimony, about how God brought me to this place. I'm sorry if I'm slow today, I'm just—, I was tearing up finishing up this sermon on Wednesday. I'll get to that in a second. Let me give you our Scripture for today. It's, it's going to be in Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

We're going to be in verses 14-16. You going to judge me? Maybe, I don't know, we'll see what happens. It'll be on the screen behind me. Verse 14: "Then one of the twelve"—yeah, you know where I'm going now—"Then one of the twelve, the one called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and asked, 'What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?' So they counted out for him 30 pieces of silver.

From then on, Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over."

I'll give you my sermon title, but remember, this isn't necessarily about you, it's about me. Here's my sermon title: "Don't Trade Like Judas."

I, I, I think in my life, I am a lot more like Judas than I would prefer to be. I don't know if you can be honest with yourself for a second, but maybe you're like Judas. The Greek word there in the passage—it's there twice. It says he, at the end, was seeking for a way to hand Jesus over or deliver him over.

And then he tells the Pharisees, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?" The Greek word there is "paradidomi, " from the root word "didomi." I don't know if you know what "didomi" means. "Didomi" typically means "to give." So literally the passage there says, "What are you willing to give me"—didomi—"to give me if I give him over to you? So they counted out for him 30 pieces of silver."

Literally, Judas gave Jesus away for 30 pieces of silver. Now, 30 pieces of silver is significant because in the Old Testament—Matthew knows this, Matthew's read the Old Testament. In fact, of the Gospels, his is one of the most, Hebrew or Jewish of all four of the Gospels.

So he knows his Old Testament. That's why you see a genealogy in Matthew. He really cares about all that stuff from the Old Testament. And there's something that happens in the Old Testament. When the law is given to the Israelites, there are a lot of sundry laws, or specific rules given.

These are not the Ten Commandments, but they're rules, that they are governed by in ancient Israel. And one of the rules is that when someone is gored by somebody else's ox—this is strange, right?—when someone is gored by somebody else's ox, then the price you must pay for that life is 30 pieces of silver. Into the New Testament, and the way that we interpret it now, that was about the price of a slave. So the lowest price you could pay for a human in the ancient world was 30 pieces of silver. Judas traded Jesus—the King of Kings, the Messiah that they had longed hoped for, God made flesh—he traded him for the minimum value of a human being, because he saw silver and couldn't recognize the Savior.

I am just like Judas, because what I see matters so much more to me sometimes than who He is and what He's called me to. And so I, I, I trade Him. Like, I've seen God do miraculous things. Miraculous things. Like, there's no reason I should be standing up here in front of you guys right now.

I'm not even going to give you the sob story because it really wasn't that bad, but I still shouldn't be up here because my trajectory was completely different. Yet, for some reason, God gave my mom the unction to force me to go to church when I was younger. And then eventually, He allowed me to go through various situations to the point where I trusted in Him. It doesn't make sense how that happened, but it happened. And He and I, we locked in.

And by "we locked in, " I mean He locked in and wouldn't let me go, no matter how much stupid stuff I did. And He continued to keep me and bless me and move me forward. No matter who thought that I didn't have a future in Christ, He saw it when nobody else did. And He kept putting me in positions to know and love Him. Even with my money—miracle after miracle, I've seen it.

God has blessed me so abundantly, beyond what I could have asked, thought, or imagined. Then, when I've trusted Him with very little, He blessed me in ways I didn't expect. I'm thinking checks in the mail that I didn't anticipate. None of that happened before I trusted Him financially. I'm not lying, like, it didn't happen.

For some reason, God always blesses me. I've seen miracle after miracle. But then we come to this time every single year, and I forget. We think, "We're not like the Israelites." It's like, God brought them through the Red Sea. If God had done that for me, I would have—I would have not been like the Israelites.

Bull. Miracle after miracle after miracle. Same thing every single year. Never relented, never failed, always blesses. I'm constantly tracking forward.

And for no reason, my income hasn't shifted—my intelligence hopefully has shifted a little bit—but for some reason, my trajectory is this way. All I can do is give Him honor and glory for it. He's performing miracles. So why would I neglect to trust Him, Judas? Why?

What reason does Judas have to trade Jesus for 30 pieces of silver? The Scriptures don't give us a whole lot of understanding of his motivation. I mean, John's just like, "Yeah, that dude trash, " guided by Satan. But that's not the— that's not the full, like, you know, well-rounded character understanding of Judas's, Judas's motivation. But he, three years with Jesus, he saw all that stuff, yet he still traded Him for 30 pieces.

That's me. Because every year at this time, I've trusted Him before, never relented, but I see the silver and forget the Savior, that Jesus was so good to give Himself over for me. Yet I still forget that and give Him over for something lesser, and I settle for it. Just like Judas, I think about the life that follows Jesus, and I compare it to the little thing that I want now, and I hand Him over to receive that 30 pieces. I'm just like Judas, but I'm trying.

Y'all with me on this? I'm trying to be more like Jesus. I'm trying. Like, this is your opportunity today, maybe. I'm trying to be more like Jesus, because He made a different trade.

He handed His life over to the chief priests and Pharisees so that I might be forgiven of my sin and given a new life. I want to be more like Jesus, where I look at this stuff—all the stuff that He's handed me—where I look at this wealth, I look at this money in light of eternity, not in light of this temporal life that I live. And I don't only want to remember that it says money, but I want to give up my life. Not just my money, my preferences, my mirrorless cameras that I still can't get. My impulse purchases, my OCD need for a Robo Rock vacuum cleaner to clean my house so that I don't have to do it 'cause my kids don't do it very well, my incessant need to be different than the rest of my family and break generational curses.

Yes, even my excess income that could have been invested into my Vanguard account, cumulatively, which right now is bearing 14% ROI—I want to give all of that up. I actually looked at this, guys. I know you guys—maybe some of you know about investing, maybe some of you don't. You should learn about investing. You should join FBU starting in January if you don't know anything about money.

It is okay that you don't. They didn't teach us that in school. They totally should have, but they didn't. Learn now. It's okay to not know, what someone else knows about money, but you can start learning now, because once you realize this, you're going to realize how good God is.

But I did it. I looked at it. I looked at what we're planning to give today, and I put it in a calculator, and I did the time value of money, which means I take the current amount of what it is today, assume a certain amount of interest over the next 20, 30 years before I retire, and I looked at what that could earn if my Vanguard account—that I just said is bearing 14 My Vanguard account and then tithe you later. You're like, "Can I do that later?" And I looked at it and I said, "But I've already tithed since I was 23, " my wife and I together. And, I started to look at that.

Guys, if you want to not trust God, just go do the time value of money on the stuff that you would tithe. You think— I, I trust me, I'm going somewhere with this. I calculated all the tithe that we have given since I was 23. And then I did time value of money on that, between 11 and 14%, Matthew. And if it, if it earns 8%, which is about the lowest, some of those are going to earn.

If I stop today, the amount that I've tithed, if we're invested into a Vanguard account at between eight and 14%, if it were 8%, it was $8 million. When I turned 65, 67, if it bears what I'm currently bearing, at 14%, it was $32 million. That was the first time I'd looked at that. That was the first moment in my life that I understood what rich could have been. And then I thought, "Man, Lord, should I be giving all this to you?

Should I be investing it?" That was a whole moment for me. A whole moment. And I was, I was stressing out. I was like, "Have I been improperly investing into Jesus?"

But then I thought for another second, and I looked at all that God's done in my life. I looked at the peace that surpasses all understanding.

I look at my heart that's been guarded, even though it doesn't make sense for it to have been guarded. I look at the wife that he's blessed me with, who loves me deeply. I look at the kids that he's blessed me with. I look at the love that I have for him. I look at the perspective that I have, and it's not because of my prefrontal cortex — it's because of his love for me.

Then not only do I understand forgiveness at a deeper level, but I have a deep connection with him that has shifted every aspect of my life. And I need you to know that, whether it's 30 pieces or 30 million, he is worth more. And so I'm looking at it, and I'm willing to give it up reluctantly, but I'm willing to give it up

because he's worth it. He's worth it. I surrender all to him because he's worth it.

Like, I've, I've been obsessed lately with thinking 40, 50, 60 years into the future, talking about compounding interest and the time value of money. And then God reminded me of this. He'll be 67, man. Like, it's cool. It's good to have that, but like, he'll be 67.

I'm not saying you shouldn't invest, but just remember this: every dollar you surrender to Jesus is also compounding

into eternity. It's going to be a good mansion. Just saying. It's compounding into eternity. It's just a different type of ETF, which is Enterprise Trade Fund.

I didn't think about that part when I wrote this down here. [clears throat] I'll see the ROI one day. But the beauty of this investment is it pays dividends. Right now I am receiving a glimpse into eternal life. Right now I have a perspective that's, that's way different than the perspective of the world.

Right now I'm sitting here with an average, modest income. And I can tell you this: I've got more joy in my life than Elon Musk does. You, you don't have to know the guy to know this. I'm going to see it [clears throat] one day. The dividends are this: he breathed life into our lungs, so I'm going to surrender to him.

He put me in soil that would produce faith in me, so I surrender all to him. He changed everything about me, so I'll surrender all to him. He gives me an incomprehensible peace, so I'll surrender all to him. He puts a roof over my head and food on my table, so I surrender all to him. He gave me a calling and a purpose.

He gave me an amazing Proverbs 31 wife. He put his hand on my children, so I surrender all to him. He gave me people to love me and shape me, so I'll surrender all to him. He lifts me from my depression, my dysfunction. He sees the intent of my heart.

He gives me a field and workers to tend it. He gave me this church. He's building this church. And if I have a season of lack, and my stock in him doesn't seem to pay out, I'm going to remember this: Jesus gave his life over to me, so I'm going to hand mine

to him. And I want you to know this.

This big idea, let it stick with you. It summarizes this entire series. Nothing surrendered in worship to God is ever wasted. Amen. Nothing.

So, whatever you're about to give, if you're going to give, whatever word you're going to put down, whatever intent you have toward him, whatever service you think you're going to offer to him over this next year, whatever small group you're going to join, whatever submission you need to do to your spouse so that you have a better relationship, whatever intentionality you put into your kids, whatever you change in your bank account, whatever you invest later, whatever job you shift, and the way that you treat your co-workers and your bosses, whatever it is, if you surrender it to God, there is nothing wasted in the kingdom. God's not wicked. God's not lazy. He stewards it so much better. And so I didn't say this to motivate you to drop something right here.

I say it to you so that you would surrender all to him. So here's what we're going to do. What I want us to do is, I want, I want us to take a moment in worship. The band's going to come up, and they're, they're going to play a song. And what we're going to do is we're going to, we're going to stand in worship.

Are they coming? Okay, she's here. This is good. We're going to stand in worship. And just like we've done with communion before, what we're going to do is, there's going to be some ushers to release the rose.

And you're going to, you're going to come up, and you're going to have your card. If there's an amount in it, cool. Some of you are going to give online. You have until December 31st for it to go onto this year. You're going to write that amount that God's calling you to give.

But more importantly to me, you're going to write that word that you're believing God for in 2026. Whether there's money in it, I, I just care about faith. So grab that card. Every single person in this room, I don't care if it's your first time, you're believing God for something. So write it down.

Use this opportunity to write that word down. You're going to walk up. You're going to drop it in here. We're going to give you a little commemorative token so that you remember it. You're going to put this magnet right on your fridge.

And every time you pass your fridge and eat something, whether you should eat the thing or not, you're going to remember what God called you to in this next year. And throughout the year, we're going to, we're going to try to remind you of your word. And next year, we're going to come back again. And some of you guys are going to have stories. And I need you to let me know these stories because I want to just revel in the glory of God.

Because when we surrender all to him, he doesn't waste it. He actually works it to your good. So, everybody would stand with me. I'm gonna pray for us. Band will lead us in a song, and they're going to release us by rose.

Just, actually, you know what? We're not going to do, we're not going to do rose. Maybe we will. I don't know. They're going to tell you what to do.

But my thought is, whenever you're ready, you're going to walk up here. It's a six-minute song. You got time. But whenever you're ready, just walk up here. There's going to be two people up here.

If you need prayer, I'm sure one of those people is willing to pray for you as well. Let me pray for us. Father God, we thank you for today. We thank you for this moment of worship. God, my prayer is that we would not, we would not sacrifice this.

We would not adjust this. We would not do anything with this just because I'm trying to reach a number, or trying to fit that 200 goal, and think I want to be one of 20 versus one of 200. No, I, I don't want that, Lord. I want faith. Faith.

To the person who has very little, their faith is going to look one way. To the person who has very much, their faith should look another way. But God, I pray for faith right now in this moment as we worship you. I pray that your hand, your supernatural hand, would guide the direction of each of these people dropping a word and using an amount. God, we love you and we trust you.

It is in Jesus's—