Biblical Wisdom For Building Wealth

And this week, I think one of the biggest limiters on many of the people in this room is that you thought you had a cap, but you, you serve a God who's unlimited, Amen. Somebody, Amen, . And you've been looking at your life- the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years- and you said, "Here's my limit". And I'm not saying there aren't capacity limits, but it's time for us to raise those in the name of Jesus, because the spirit of God has power in and through each one of us. If God is authoritative, his spirit is in us.

If we have trusted in Jesus and been forgiven of our sin, then we can live a life beyond our present level of imagination and creativity. So what I want to talk to you about today is what it looks like to make some money. I'm going to give you a couple quick perspectives, on making money. Check these out. Number one: you got to keep this in mind: God is the treasure.

Money is a tool, . My wife agrees with it. I talked to her about it this week. How about y'all? Money or God is treasure, .

Money is a tool. Let me simplify that. Money is not a treasure, . Money is a tool that you can utilize to encounter God, who is ultimately beneficial. Amen, .

Another perspective I want us to have on money is that we're called to leverage money, not love it or hate it. Doesn't say money is the root of all evil. It says the love of money is the root of all evil, Meaning if someone has money and they're not controlled by it and it's not their God, and they seek to utilize it in a way that glorifies and honors their creator rather than themselves, then possibly that resource is something that is beneficial to our lives. I think we've been either one or the other. Some people love money way too much.

I'm included in that group. I've grown and learned over the years, but I still love money too much. Remember that, like we had that six-hour drive from Zion National Park yesterday- Seven hours, I don't know how long. What we talked about the whole time- Money. It was miserable at first.

We mean my wife and I- we have to learn to talk about money because we have to align our perspectives to Christ Jesus And sometimes she's right, Sometimes I'm right, sometimes neither of us are right, Sometimes both of us are right And it's a perfect conversation. But sometimes we're in arguments because money's hard, It's so easy, It so easily takes over your life. But we're called to leverage it, not to love it or hate it. If you hate it, that means it has too much power over your mind. If you love it, that means it has too much power over your mind.

That is a perspective I would love for us as a church to keep. The third one: consider attaining wealth for the glory of God. I might have told you guys this before. I think I have-, yeah, I definitely did it in the first week. I, I don't need to be rich.

I don't need to have like a, a Model S, text Tesla. I, I don't need that G Wagon. Though Someone gave it to me, I'd sell it cuz optics. You know what I'm saying? People don't want pastor driving around in the Gwagon.

Right, Like I don't need money. That's my point. I, I don't need money. Not too much of it. But, I think when God hands me money, I should utilize it.

Well, don't you think?. Remember the parable of the talents: If I bury it, this is not a well done, good and faithful servant. It says: "You wicked and lazy servant, I try to be wicked or lazy with the resource God has handed me. So what do I do?

I take it and I multiply it. I want you to consider this. Maybe you've never considered it before. Maybe you have lived a life with perceived limits because somebody told you weren't smart enough or good enough or capable enough to earn a little bit more than you currently earned. Maybe someone told you that that job that you don't like going to right now is the only job you'll ever have for the rest of your life.

Or maybe you tell yourself that because you think if you take a big step of faith into the direction God calls you, then you're going to lose the very thing that provides for you. But you need to know that God is your sustainer, not your paycheck Sustainer salary. I don't know why I had to eliterate it. It totally ruined my point. Those are a few biblical perspectives.

So I'm going to give you my sermon title. I'm going to give you, from Proverbs 31 today, some biblical wisdom for building wealth. Biblical wisdom for building wealth. We'll start with the first point. I'm going to dive through this because I got a lot to cover.

Point number one: building wealth biblically requires a vision for the future. If I were to ask you to raise your hands, I'm not going to. I don't want you to embarrass yourself in either direction. If I were to ask people in this room to raise their hands and tell me whether they think three days ahead, three years ahead or 30 years ahead, most of the time most of the people in this room would say "Three days I'm thinking about today". We have this natural default position to not plan ahead but to think about what's happening right now.

But to do what God calls you to do in anything, but especially when it comes to money. You need to plan ahead. Amen, . Building wealth in a biblical fashion requires a vision for the future.

Check out this text. It's talking about the woman, but it's the personification of wisdom. Check this out. She considers a field and buys it Out of her earnings. She plants a vineyard.

I, I, just I was. I was going to preach the whole sermon on this passage, but I had some other stuff to talk to you about. I had one sermon to talk about: attaining wealth When number one. Here's what you, Here's how you know that this is a personification of woman, Because in the ancient world it was not custom or or normal for the wife in a relationship to go buy all the property. This would happen once in a while, But here's how we know he's talking about the personification of wisdom.

What is he saying? It is wise to consider purchase and then, when you get money from it, invest it again. She says she considers a field, buys it Out of her earnings, she plants a vineyard. What a wise person who would do that. I could break this down so many different ways, but I'll give you a little bit of advice that I think stems directly from this passage.

Someone tell me what these are?. They're sunflower seeds. What do you do with sunflower seeds? Huh, .

Be confident. Huh, . Eat them. Y'all eat them Like, swallow them and everything.

. You know what I should do. Right, I'm going have to. I have to. I didn't think about this part.

I didn't think about it. What are you supposed to do with seeds?. No, not sunflower seeds.

Seeds. It's an interesting thing. I did a deep dive into the history of sunflowers And it's an interesting thing that happens. Sunflowers historically were essentially wild flowers that when you plant a seed, it grows into a-.

Sunflower. Sunflowers are like borderline pretty. Some people think they're really pretty, but not not too much, But they're still sunflowers and they're really cool. It's interesting. If you take one of these seeds, I'll get rid of them in a second, I promise.

Maybe someone can bring me a cup. If you take one of these seeds- not one of these, but a sunflower seed- and you plant it, did you know that it's going to sprout forth into a sunflower? And do you know how many seeds that sunflower produces?. Thousands over over time, thousands of seeds over time.

And I was thinking about it in terms of how we invest the resources that God has given us, or what we do with the resources that God has given us. Everything God's placed in your hand is meant to be planted or assigned to a specific thing. It might be planted. Thank you so much, ASMR. I was playing with y'all.

Seeds are meant to be planted, And what God has handed us in terms of a resource is a seed meant to be planted. It might need to be planted into something that provides a roof over your head. It might need to be planted into your family. It might need to be planted into a high yield interest account and then into an investment account that earns 8 to 12% interest over time, It might need to be planted. Your resource right now in your finances is meant to be planted somewhere, But what we end up doing is because we- This is what happens- It just gets stuck in your teeth.

All the resources God's given you. It should be planted, but now it's just stuck in your teeth And since they roasted it, it can't be planted anyways. What happens is God gives us a resource and we're chewing it. We just take it immediately and say "Seeds, and we chew it". And God's got to be looking at us, sometimes from heaven when we get that bonus at the end of the year or when we get that a little little amount for that month.

We've been praying for that promotion, Finally got that promotion. We get a couple hundred extra a month- Maybe we get a couple thousand extra a month, depending on how good we've been doing- And we take that and we say, "I can buy a TV now". Just chewing. You're taking the seed that God has blessed you with and, rather than investing it so that it would multiply, because you're not thinking about the future, you go buy that thing on Black Friday. You're chewing seeds And every seed that you chew by the time you have assigned it to something that you're going to spend, on something so insignificant, its capacity to multiply is gone.

You, you chewing seeds. I'm going to, I'm going to move on, because I think you get the point: You're chewing things that should be planted that would multiply thousands upon thousands. I did the time value of money because my wife and I are in this process where we're really trying to, not be rich but attain more wealth with the resources that God has given us. Not to be rich, but to be smart or wise. You look at the time value of money.

I was doing this with my son. He said: he said "I want $5 million when I graduate high school" And I'm like you, crazy. But then I was like what if I had 5 million? I'd probably spend it all. But if I had 5 million and I put it in the bank for 40 years so that he could inherit it at some point, you know what it would become on a, on a 10%, 282 million, If you just sit it there and leave it, just nothing.

Just leave it. Seeds planted producing more seeds, And many of us, we just receive it and we chew it and then we spit it out, and then we live in a way that we're frustrated constantly because we don't have enough resource, But God's like: "No, I gave you resource, You just didn't plant it, You chewed it". And so here's some advice. Number one: plant seeds, Don't chew them. Number two: invest in, don't impulse spend.

Let me break this down, because I'm not saying you shouldn't buy anything. Wife [snorts] and I talked about this a while back. We talked about this two weeks ago in the church. When God gives you a resource, there are going to be times where God calls you to spend, But what I'm saying is: invest in, don't impulse spend. Impulse spending is when the marketing's so good that it convinces you need to buy something that you hadn't thought about before.

You saw the marketing. You know what I'm talking about. It's like that robo rock, Hannah, That it's $1,000. It's $699 off, It was $1,700. I wasn't going to buy anything, but I saw it.

The marketing was really good and my house is not always clean because I got two kids who can't figure out how to clean their stuff up, So I need that Robo Rock vacuum cleaner Also. I'm going to. I'm going to Israel at some point next year, right, And we're talking about this long-term trip to Japan we're going to go to. You know what I need? I need a camera, And but I shouldn't get a cheap camera.

I got to get the expensive camera because I need it to last 15 years. You know what I'm saying, Don't you? You can't get a crap camera. You got to get a good camera, And so you got to get a good camera. Can't be a DSLR, because that's old school, The techn is gone.

So what do you do? You got to get a mirrorless camera. You can't just get any mirrorless camera. You got to get a full-frame mirrorless camera because the AS APS-C cameras, they're fine, but they're not getting low light And I want the church to be able to use it once in a while so we can transfer lens lenses once in a while, and all that stuff. So I got to get a good lens that the church could utilize too.

That one's a little bit more expensive, but I got to get all that stuff. Right, It feels right, but it's not right, because my flesh is guiding me. It's impulse spending rather than intentional investing. This is Christmas for some of you. I got to get something that makes me feel good about the kids, Even though they're going to throw it in the trash the next month or I'm going to take it to Goodwill the next week.

I got to get something because it made me feel good to buy it. But this isn't about you. It's about getting something that not only will they enjoy, but they will benefit from. So have you prayed about the Christmas gifts you're going to buy your, your kids? Are you just buying, buying, buying, buying because Amazon's so accessible?

Invest in, don't impulse spend. This is all from the Scripture. She considers a field. It didn't say she went and bought a field just off the cuff. She considers a field and buys it.

I could talk to you about the savings required during that period of consideration. I could talk to you about all of the thought process and I could talk to you about the conversation she would have had with her husband in the process of consideration about that field. I could tell you about all of the surveys she probably did on that field. I can tell you about the digging she sent one of her servants to go do in order to see if there was any resource on that land that would have been beneficial or if it was just deserted land. She considered it And many of us, we live our lives without any real consideration.

And I'm telling you, research on the product is not the only consideration necessary. Research on your future might be a little bit more necessary. Because if you purchase this now, what does it prevent you from in the future? Someone you can go home right now. Take the $3,000 it would cost me to get started on a decent camera, put it into the bank at 8% interest and see what happens in 20 years with it.

You'll realize the amount of seeds that you, you, you lose because you're chewing. Third piece of advice: risk now and not later. Risk now, not later. When you spend now, you're risking your future. When you invest now, you're risking in the present because it takes a little bit of cash out of your income but it prepares your family for the future.

Risk now: Take that money, assign it to something- And I know you got you feel poor right now, And that's okay, It's Can. Can we just take a deep breath through our nose and out our mouths? Wouldn't you rather be poor now than broke later? I would. I'd rather eat ramen noodles for another two years, knowing that in 10 years I'm in a position that I can be generous as God calls me to do, That I can do whatever I want to in retirement.

I'm not talking about all of these like superficial goals in life. In fact, as you trust God financially and as you start doing the things he calls you to do, you are actually reducing the power that instant gratification has over your life. Because you're choosing to invest Now, it's a risk because you can't go buy that TV. It's a risk because you can't have that thousand truck payment. It's a risk because you can't put it on layaway.

Do they do that anymore? No, It's a firm payments, isn't it? It's just 0% interest. It's not going to hurt me at all, but you're going to be paying for it after you enjoy it.

You lose all motivation. Risk now: Invest it into something that is valuable, not later. Point number two: building wealth biblically requires excellence. This is a big shift in topic, really quickly. Building wealth isn't just about changing the way that we spend and investing into the proper things so that over time It'll provide for us incremental income that will be helpful for us during times of difficulty in our retirement and even potentially legacy giving to our kids once we pass, is not just about putting money where it should be so that it would earn something passively.

It's about changing your mindset toward how you operate every single day, Because building wealth biblically requires excellence. Check out the Scripture, Proverbs 31, 17-19. She sets about her work vigorously. Her arms are strong. Oh, I'm, I'm going to go slow.

Also, there's too much seeds in my. You know what happens? The residue of the seeds you chewed are stuck in your life. That car is raggedy cuz. You had it for eight years or five years or four years, but you the leather's ripping, but you still got a payment on it.

And just, I'm not saying you should go buy a car with cash. I'm just saying: think about this kind of stuff, Consider the field before you go buy it. Come on, All right, She sets about her work. Say that word with me: . Vigorously- It might be a big word Vigorously- in intensely Like, in a crazy fashion.

She's like: "No one's going to work harder than me". She says about her work vigorously. Her arms are strong. This is why I was talking about wisdom. You know her arms are strong for her tasks.

She sees that her trading breaks her even at the end of the month is profitable And her lamp does not go out at night. [snorts]. Now I got. I got to break down some of this ancient agricultural world for you a little bit. When it says her lamp does not go out at night, do you know what that means?

It means that throughout the night she's hopping up and checking on it to make sure she needs to. If she needs to pour more oil in it, she can. She is constantly vigorously. She strengthens her arms for the task. She looks at her investments to see that the trades she's making are actually beneficial and profitable.

She's asking questions about the homeowner's insurance. She's like: "I've been paying for it, I hadn't been looking at it. Maybe I need to go reassess and see if I am paying for things that I shouldn't be paying for. She's checking it out to see if this is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night.

In her hand she holds the daff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. In other words, she is working hard, She's developing skills, She is becoming excellent. Many of us we say: "I'll never earn this much". You know why? Because the moment you say you'll never earn this much, you, you're putting yourself in a mindset that is limiting, And that limiting mindset will prevent you from becoming who God called you to be: .

You won't make that money because you think you won't make the money. Or you won't make that money because the thought process that led you to thinking you would never make that money is the exact reason that you don't do well at work. It's that mindset. It's like I'll work until 5, but then I'm gone. They better not call me when I'm off of work.

And the question I always ask people: well, did you work while you were at work? Because if you going to fault someone for 15 minutes at the end of the day, then I hope you spend all your minutes during the day doing the right thing. It's about excellence. Here's some advice. Number one: work hard.

Everybody. Look at your neighbor. Say: "Work hard, Work hard, Do do everything in your life diligently as unto the Lord, Whether eating or drinking. Do all things to the glory of God. It shouldn't be your boss that gets.

Your best metric Should be God. And since God is everywhere at all times, we should constantly be doing all that we can to become excellent. Work hard, But B- but I might blow someone's mind in here- Working hard doesn't necessarily make you rich. You should work hard, but working hard doesn't necessarily make you rich. That's why the person who didn't get the promotion is frustrated.

It's like man, I, I, I work so hard, harder than that other person. But you ever heard the phrase work smarter, not harder? That's a true biblical truth, I think. I think it's biblical. I'm trying to think of different places to do it.

If you come up with one, let me know. But I think it's interesting because we serve a creative God and God came up with some very creative ways to get things done. He realized that it was his loving kindness that would lead us to repentance, rather than him complete con, constantly bombarding us with, with different tasks and tools and all this other stuff. No, he loved us and was patient with us. He's creative in the way that he thinks about different things.

He got creative and you got to get creative, ingenuous, if you will. So you got to work hard, but you've also got to. I put it here. I said: don't chase money, cuz if you work hard, then you get the paycheck. You work overtime, then you get the paycheck, then you get the promotion, Even if you didn't deserve the promotion.

Then you keep working hard and you're not getting the results you're looking for, but at least you're still getting the paycheck. But you're limited at some point because you chased money and not mastery. Chase mastery over money. I- I think that's what joy has found. You know, what makes me lay awake at night, guys, Is not about whether I'm going to get paid.

It's about whether the time I spent during the day helped me bring something better to you all. It's about. It's about whether what I did that day produced something that gives honor and glory to my creator. It's not about money, It's about man. How do I, how do I get better?

Some of you who know me, you know this about me and I got plenty of problems. But there's one thing that I know, It's when I didn't do it to my best, it ruins my evening. I'm working on that, Don't get me wrong. I'm trying to just do my best. But you at work, at home, whatever it is, if you ever want to get to the place where you start accomplishing and even attaining wealth that you're looking for, don't chase the money.

Chase the mastery of whatever it is. You'll learn that people, people- get promoted because of mastery, not because of just commitment. People move into different management positions because of mastery, not just because of commitment. In other words, if you're not developing a skill and you're just working hard, you're going to be perpetually limited. Let me break it down a little bit more.

If you think by using your hands and not your brain you will ever become what God wants you to be, you're sadly mistaken, Because God wants all of you, not just hard work. He wants the Mary's and the Marthas, People who will sit at his feet and worship, and the people who will work hard for him. Don't chase money, chase mastery. Also, solve bigger problems. People who make more money solve bigger problems.

It feels so superficial to talk about this in front of you all, but I felt convicted of in the Lord to really just give you some things that I've learned and I've seen from Harvard Business Review and all the articles I've read and every leadership book you're gonna. You're going to find: If you solve bigger problems, you will receive a bigger paycheck. You're like Matt's, just trying to teach me TO GET RICH. NO, I'M TRYING TO teach you to honor God, And it just so happens that when you honor God with excellence, by working hard, by continuing to increase your creativity and by solving bigger problems.

That blessing continues to overflow. It's just science. It's just biblical wisdom. She worked vigorously. She looked at her trades to see if they were profitable.

She's trying to figure out what it takes to get where she's supposed to be. And many of us, we sit here as the victim. It's just never going to happen to me. It's because my parents didn't raise me the right way. It would have been nice if my parents had gone to college, because then they could have taught me, to go to college, and I'd have probably gotten more scholarships and I'd have known how to talk to different people and I'd have had better social skills.

It's not my fault, It's my parents' fault, But I need you to know that in Christ Jesus, all things are possible, And so you can break the generational curses rather than blaming your family, and you can move into a place where you're not as limited to a job that will never amount to much in the long run. The more problems you solve, the more you're going to be necessary at your place of employment. So solve bigger problems, Man. That's one of the biggest struggles that that I have as I'm developing leaders too. Is it's like: like, can you solve big problems or do you need people to spell it out for you every time I get it?

People are different, But the bigger problems you solve, the more capable you are of attaining wealth. I just I'm, I'm being real with you. This is hard for me. I don't know why it feels so superficial. It's not, It's spiritual, But any point.

Number three: building wealth biblically requires generosity. I put biblically: Building wealth biblically requires generosity. If you look at a Harvard, there was a Harvard business art business review article put out several years ago that took all of the most wealthy people, at least in their peer-reviewed study. They took, all of the most wealthy people in our country and they lined them up and asked them a bunch of different questions and as they were asking them this, they found that a high percentage, in fact, like I think it's like 90 to 95% of all of those ultra wealthy people found themselves extremely generous. Not that they thought they were generous, but that factually, the data showed that significant portions or percentages of their income went out to generous pursuits.

And if you talk to a person who is ultra wealthy, they're going to tell you that generosity is a part of their process of success. There are like 10 million reasons. I could give you why, but I'll give you this Scripture right here, Verses [snorts] 20 and 21. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household, for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

And this advice I'll give you kind of summarizes what I think they found in this study as well. Number one: greed. Keeping your money, hoarding your resource, is a fear response, but generosity is a faith response, Meaning if I'm scared I'm not going to have it, I'm going to hoard it and keep it. But if I know I can make more of it, I'm going to be generous and sew it into other organizations, other people, be it churches or be it organizations that do something. I appreciate When I know that I'm doing what God calls me to do and I'm faithful to him.

I'm not fearful of any lack. Generosity is a response that comes after you have trusted God and learned what he is teaching you to learn when it comes to your money. Number two: blessing falls into the open hand but bounces off the closed one. That's just common sense, right? Blessing falls into the open hand but fall bounces off the closed one.

You see the difference. If God wants to drop something in your lap, then you have to have a posture of receiving rather than a posture of constricting or hoarding. This is what I've learned in my own life: that the more I trust God, the more he bust open floodgates in my life. And what's crazy? And you're thinking he had to just put this somewhere and he put it into the attaining wealth because he wanted me to pay attention until he got to talking about generosity.

No, here's what I've learned. I've invested stuff. I have I. I have, learned how to spend less. In fact, I've learned how to attain income.

My wife keeps telling me to write a book. I don't know that anyone would read it, but maybe I get some passive income from it. I have learned how to earn income. I have learned how to save and invest income. I need to be better at both of those things.

But there is one thing in my life that, as I have continued to do, God continues to bless, And it is trusting him with the resource he's given me. It's almost as if that is a better investment than investing it into the stock market. It's almost as if it's a better investment than me going and finding that high-paying job. Haven't you seen people with all the money, they spend it all or they hate it all. But when I trust God with it, he provides for me financially, but he connects with me spiritually, emotionally, like I have a relationship with him.

That's what generosity has done for me. And so this last point in the advice: generosity helps us reassign value. When I trust God with the first fruits, this is me saying: "God, I trust you first, I don't trust the government, but I have to give to it second, in taxes". Sometimes I tr- you know I'm not going to talk political, but you know what I'm saying- right, Like I'll spend it as well as I or God will, And then I sign the rest of it so that I don't waste it all on impulse purchases. Generosity, starting with it, helps me reassign value in my life And I wish I could tell you something that I've decided with my wife, but I'm going to wait until next week, to tell you what God has given to us.

And instead I'll kind of close with two specific things. First, I hope you have a piece of paper or a phone so you can write this stuff down or just take a picture of it. I'm going to give you 10 quick tips to build wealth, because I'm trying to be pragmatic over here at Orbit Church. You ready? No, .

Yeah, You ready, Caleb's ready, All right, cool. Number one: spend less than you earn, Amen, . Number two: automate your investments. If you don't know what automation is, you should. You should know.

Automation It means I'm assigning it, Meaning, if I have a 401k or a 403b and they offer a match, I'm going to automatically give that match to my organization so that they can invest it plus another three or four or five or seven 7% into it. I'm automating my investments Why? Because if it comes out first, I can't go spend it on something dumb, right, Right, Okay, cool. Number three: pay off debt. Pay off debt Debt is, Oh my gosh.

I think about my mortgage right now and I just want to get rid of the house, but then I'll have a better option. So anyways, debt frustrating. Number four: create an emergency fund so that you don't go into debt down the road. Number five: increase your skill, not just your income. If you never invest into yourself, you're going to wonder 20 years from now why your income is only incrementally better than it was 20 years before.

Number six: invest now. You say, "Well, when I get, when I get this done, when I get this done, when I get this? No, invest now. If you're 20, 21 years old, right now, invest. I don't care, I don't care how little it is, Start investing right now.

The one regret I have in my 30s about finances is I wish I would have invested in my 20s at a deeper level, Because if you invest in your 20s, you're going to get to this place when you're older, where it's going to like in that year- between 30 and 40, it is going to like multiply like crazy. It'll significantly increase your wealth And you know what You're going to be able to love. Go, love God freely, without being constrained, and you're going to be able to these seeds, Goodness gracious. Number seven: diversify your portfolio. Go to financial peace.

We could talk more about that. Number eight: build relationships. The best things that have ever happened in my life started with a conversation with somebody who loved me or I love them. Number nine: be strategically generous, And I'll just- I'll just be honest with you. If you don't know where to be strategically generous, the Bible gives you an Old Testament standard called the tithe to start it.

Number 10, : think in decades, not days, Otherwise you'll get to the decade portion and you'll lament all the days that you wasted. This is just about attaining wealth. I could keep going, but I'm not going to. What I want to do is I want to, if I may, I want to help you understand how this connects spiritually. If you haven't, if you haven't been able to track with that, the way that God calls us to live- he says that we're called to be the fragrant aroma through Paul, Like the way that we smell, act, operate, think, the way that we look to the rest of the world should be something that is filled with peace and works as unto the Lord.

So, when it comes to attaining wealth, I want to give you some practical feedback, because some people don't really have a lot of financial experience or background. I wish they would teach us that stuff in school rather than calculus. I ain't even used it. But I need you to know that in every area, especially our finances, our worldly wealth, God wants us to utilize it in a way that glorifies and honors him. So why am I talking about attaining wealth?

Because I don't want you to bury it in the sand, Or they don't talk about this in the parable of the talents. I wish they had a fourth. One Said he took that talent and he went and wasted it on a lottery ticket. But that's not in the Bible, That's just an example. But that's what many of us do.

We're not even burying it, We're spending it, We're chewing it. But God wants us to plant it so that we can produce something over the years of benefit. And as I've been thinking about all these different things, the only way I could even teach this to you is I had to expand the limits of my mind and what God could accomplish through me, through my family and through this church. And so, as we've been praying about this, what it looks like to just be wise. I read that verse again.

I don't know if you're able to toss it up, but it's that Proverbs 31:16. It says: "She considers a field and buys it Out of her earnings. She plants a vineyard". I don't know if this is the Lord, indigestion or ADHD or just creativity in general, but when I read she considers a field, my first thought wasn't about a physical field. It was about something the Lord had already started to place in my spirit.

Proverbs 31:16

And if you look around, Buckeye, there is something you see frequently. What is it?. Fields [clears throat]. You see them physically, but this is a mission field.

Amen, . Like this is. This is a mission field. I came out here because they told me there were 10 to 12% of people in the entire West Valley who go to church, which means there's 88% of people who don't know their left hand from their right. But if you want to be real about it, the people that go to church on average go one every six week, once every six weeks, Which means there's probably some portion of that 12% who doesn't have saving knowledge of Jesus or who's living limited because they don't really know Jesus, even though they've confessed with their mouth that Jesus is Lord.

There is a field and I've been considering that field. Not all these fields, though. Consider those a little bit too. I considered the field and I realized that I've been chewing the seeds God's called me to plant.

I've been chewing them. Don't hear me saying that we don't steward the finances. Well, we, we've only hired three staff and we're running. We had 450 people last week at the church. We only have three staff members, which is below the national average.

So we're not mis stewarding funds, but I'm thinking through decades, not days. And how do we not just reach people week to week, but how do we have a vision that goes 10, 20, 30, 40 years into the future? And if we're going to be here 40 years from now, what that's going to require is deeper roots. So I want to talk to you about the future of Orbit Church. There's a slide behind me.

As we consider the mission field in the West Valley, we need to deepen our roots to reach people for decades, not days. And those roots in the future require us to start thinking in the present. They require seeds, And some of y'all been asking: "Hey, what's this year end offering going to go to". And I, I just I didn't have clarity from the Lord on it, initially, but the Lord's been working, I think.

And, Carz, he said something initially that I just couldn't stop thinking about. And then, some other people started asking me questions And then I had a mentor of mine. He said he said: "Every sermon, you need to start teaching in such a way that you incorporate stuff that's happening this week, but also stuff that's happening 10 years from now. You got to cast vision for permanence".

And so as we come together next week, you're praying about the word you're believing God for in the future, You may be coming with an offering above and beyond the tithe, an offering up to the tithe for the first time in your life, or an offering for the first time in your life. Whatever it is, I believe God's going to bless your faith And I don't want it to just go into the normal budget items. I want it to go into the future. I want this year- end offering to be a seed planted that deepens our roots and establishes permanence out here in the West Valley. So if you go to the next slide, I want to talk to you about what this is going to go to.

The proceeds from the year- end offering will go toward establishing more permanence in the West Valley. These funds set us up to act quickly on the acquisition of a midweek space for youth, young adults, small groups, midweek events, counseling toward permanence. I don't have a place. I've been asking around. I'm in this process where I said "I don't have a place", But Jesus looked at me and he said: "Have you looked".

And so now we're looking, We're trying to figure this out. But I'm like: "God, I don't have the bread, I don't have the fish, I don't have the loaves". He said: "Keep looking". But I, I'm, I believe in God, but I'm, I'm, I'm interested to see what happens when I've looked and exhausted what I end up with. What we end up with It might be five loaves and two fish, but how many of you believe God can multiply five loaves and two fish?

So I don't know what it's going to go to. My strategic mind says that when you have 30 plus kids meeting in Carz, Gaggin's house, K and Maggie's house, when you have 42 young adults meeting in Kaye and Breckan's house, when you have staff who are about to start coming over to my house every day for office hours, they going to hate that They go, but it's good. It's good, though, Chris, It's good. Kayle's not here. I'll tell her later.

My strategy says that this is a step in the direction of permanence. I don't know what God's going to provide. He may provide exactly what my strategy shares it. He might provide exceedingly, abundantly beyond it. But I wanted to tell you where we're thinking.

We're thinking in the future, not just in the present, So that, as you pray about how God's called you to sew seed into this field. God might give you some direction, since you know where we're headed. I know, I've just I've gone just well, I haven't gone over yet, but I'm I'm about to go over and I- I'll wrap this up. But these funds from your end offering, mixed with our other reserves that we have built up for this kind of thing, will set us up if God drops a miracle in our lap. I don't know if you've ever thought about that.

It's like I, I don't have a building. Well, that's a terrible plan, Matt. It's like you know what's terrible When you have a building but not the funding, . And so I just want us to be ready to act as soon as God drops the miracle. You might say: "This is us planting a seed of investment into the future without knowing what God's going to do, but believing he's going to do it", .

And so that's what we're going to do, And since I think tangibility like is helpful, as a staff and lead leadership team started to pray and I asked a lot of people for their advice, the way I asked them was: hey, what's a number that you think would operate as a good faith goal for this year- end offering as people give through December 31st. And I started out with like what? What do you think people could even trust God? With Like what would take a little bit of faith from people. And they gave me a number and I was honestly surprised at their faith.

Maybe they have a little bit more faith in the future than I do sometimes. And I heard it and then God convicted me. He was like: "Matt, you got to have more faith. Stop with this limited mindset that thinks in terms of days and not in decades. Stop being scared to be bold in front of the people that I've called to help seow seed so that we would be established permanently in the West Valley.

Stop being stressed about it. Recognize I'm a God that has no limits and I'm a God who can multiply five loaves and two fish for 5,000 people. If it's it, whatever comes in I can use. He says: "So have faith, because people in this room have faith". And so we started praying about what a good goal tangible number would be And as you pray, I just wanted you to know kind of that tangible goal that we think makes a lot of sense.

You don't know this, but we have about 150 to 170 families regularly attending. If you expand that to all the people who consistently attend once or twice, maybe three times a month, versus every week, we probably have way more there. There's a large group of people on our list of people that we connect with and pastor throughout the week that you don't see every single week. Here There are a lot more people than you think And, as we just looked at the average attendance and said, "Hey, what would be a little bit of a faith step for people in this room where we landed as a tangible goal for you to pray about, that when we all come together this next week and throughout the next month? I've never done this before.

I'm a new pastor. I the tangible goal that I'm believing God for that, if 150 of you- families- could simply catch a vision". Some of you catch more of a vision. Some of you just take a step of faith. Some of you just ultimately have faith and allow God to do something with whatever you're able to provide him.

This is not a campaign. If we come up with more, come up with less, it's not like we want a campaign. This is a faith offering. It's simply going toward permanence. So, whatever I give you in a second, if we don't hit it big whoop, I'll care that people had faith.

But because tangibility is helpful, I'm going to give you our tangible goal. It's going to be right behind me. Go and toss it up for year end. You know, this feels so weird. Feels weird cuz, I know how easy it would be, but I also know where we land monthly, And so it's going to take faith from every person in the room to get to that tangible goal.

But I don't know if it was the team being just extra zealous or just me having a lack of faith, but when we sat together on Tuesday and I gave them that number, they were like: "But that could easily be done if just the families in our church trusted God with a little more than the tithe for one month". I mean, if 150 families gave $1,000, that would be 150. If 300 adults that are attending today, but the 450 people that were here last week, but the 900 people on our roster and list, that's crazy. If any of them had any modicum of faith, we would get there. And so I think the team felt like we were called to have a faith goal that goes beyond our tangible goal.

If we don't hit it, indigestion. But if we do, it was the spirit of the Lord, . And so that's our tangible goal: 150,000. But here's our faith goal. So you're, you're clapping, and I'm grateful that you're clapping, but this isn't for you to hope somebody else trusts God.

This isn't for you to say, "Oh man, I want to be significant in that $200,000 number, so I'm going to give more than I planned on". This is simply knowing where we think God's leading this church. And your role now is to pray to God for a word over this next year and to give as he calls you, to give in faith, believing that God will do so much more than you would ever do with it in the first place. And as you leave here, I don't want you to leave here thinking they're just talking about money. This is not a campaign, unless you consider it a faith campaign, where you're believing God to, to bust open floodgates when you trust him.

Financially. This is just a year- end faith offering. We'll do a campaign in the future at some point. I'm sure land's expensive buildings are expensive. I don't have any plans for that.

I just want you to be faithful now, And for those of you in the room, maybe you don't have a relationship with the Lord, So this kind of falls on deaf ears a little bit, or angry ears because of how I just articulated that I want you to know that because of what Christ Jesus has done in my life, I confidently and boldly approach his throne, And this is just part of that process for me and for those in this church who have followed Jesus. But if that's not you yet, that's okay. My number one goal for you is to have faith in the first place, And so if you are someone who wants to trust in Jesus, I just want to give you an opportunity. We're going to do it very simply and shortly. Today I've taken us a little bit longer, but if that's you and you want to take a step toward God for the first time, please fill out the connection card on your seat, But I'm going to lead you in a prayer really briefly.

If everybody would stand with me, I'll dismiss you right after this moment. Heavenly Father, we thank you for today And I thank you for every person in this room. I thank you for the ones who were amped and excited about what we just talked about, And I thank you for the ones who were angry, filled with stress and frustration about the thing I just talked about. I pray that right now, everyone in this room who doesn't have a relationship with you would confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, Believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead. I pray that they would be saved and subsequently sanctified so that they continue to honor you with their lives.

I don't care about worldly riches. I know some of that follows, but it's not a point A to point B thing. But following you is something that's worthwhile. God, we love you and we trust you. It's in Jesus's name that we pray.

All God's people said: if that was you, please fill out a connection card artifact. Can we celebrate those who?