Sermon

Why Money Matters | Pastor Matt Keller

Next Level Church Podcast

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. Well, listen, we are in this series all through the month of

  2. February here that we're calling from here to there.

  3. Everyone say from here to there. Come on, say it with me.

  4. Say from here to there. Yes.

  5. And we are talking about how we honor God with our finances.

  6. Woo. Now, here's what I know.

  7. I know that for some of us, we're like, uh oh, we're talking

  8. about money. Maybe you're new, maybe again,

  9. maybe you're here because someone that you love is getting

  10. baptized and you're like, wait, they didn't tell me we were

  11. talking about money. Let me just tell you, you're

  12. safe. Everything's going to be OK.

  13. The truth of the matter is, as we're discovering, God has a lot

  14. to say about our finances that is helpful for us and God is for

  15. our finances. And so the whole idea of this

  16. series, as you can see in the graphic behind me, maybe you can

  17. pull out camera team so everyone can see this.

  18. Yes, is is this idea that we all start somewhere a here, but

  19. God's got a there that he wants for us.

  20. And that place of there is a place of hope.

  21. It's a place of purpose, It's a place of perspective, It's a

  22. purpose. It's a place of of greater

  23. meaning and significance for our money that matters every single

  24. day. And so today I want to continue

  25. with that thought. And before we we turn to the

  26. word of God, let me ask you a question.

  27. Have you ever stopped and thought about when money first

  28. made you feel something? Stop and think about the first

  29. time money made you feel something.

  30. Here's here's what I mean when when you and I think about

  31. money, often times we think of dollars and cents, right?

  32. Or we think of transactions, right?

  33. Or we think of like, you know, tap technology, right?

  34. Like that kind of there. We think of budgets, right?

  35. Or, or bills we have to pay. OK, but but I want us to see

  36. something there's that's deeper going on in us because money

  37. makes us feel something. Have you ever stopped and

  38. thought about the when, when money first made you feel

  39. something? Let me give you an example, an

  40. illustration of that. Maybe as a child you heard your

  41. parents say to you, we can't afford that and it made you feel

  42. something. Maybe on the other side of that

  43. it was. But when you were a teenager and

  44. you got your first job and you worked for two weeks and then at

  45. the end of two weeks you got your first paycheck, anybody

  46. remember how you felt like, how you felt like strong?

  47. Maybe you felt empowered in that moment, right?

  48. You felt like I've accomplished something, $3.26 an hour.

  49. Feeling strong, taking over the world, baby, right?

  50. Or, or maybe some of you have memories even as I'm talking

  51. about this, of your parents listening to them fight or argue

  52. about money as you were growing up.

  53. See, no matter when it was, all of us didn't just experience

  54. money and learn how to spend money.

  55. The truth of the matter is, every one of us growing up

  56. learned how to feel about money as well.

  57. And see, it's those feelings that actually shape our

  58. decisions, They shape our attitudes, and they shape our

  59. approach to money, sometimes even more than facts about

  60. dollars and cents. And So what I want to talk about

  61. today is why our money matters. I want to talk about why our

  62. money matters. And according to the Bible, what

  63. our money is in our life. So that's what we're going to

  64. talk about, why our money matters and what money is.

  65. Before we turn to God's Word one more time.

  66. Come on every location. Let's pray together.

  67. Father, I thank you. Father, I thank you for today.

  68. I thank you for what you're up to in our midst.

  69. God, we thank you and we celebrate life change and

  70. baptism that we're going to get to experience and see first hand

  71. in just a few minutes. And now, Lord Jesus, we turn to

  72. your word and we apply it to this all important area of our

  73. personal lives called our money. I pray that our hearts would be

  74. open. Lord, I pray people would not

  75. hear me today, but they would hear you speaking through me.

  76. Holy Spirit, have your way speak God, we your sons and daughters

  77. are listening in Jesus name we pray.

  78. And everyone who agreed with that prayer said a many.

  79. So Amen. So here's what I want to do.

  80. Maybe I want to write this down. I want to, I want to talk to us

  81. today about the four things really that that the Bible says

  82. that our money is that according to the Bible, our money matters.

  83. And the reason why it matters is because of these four things.

  84. Our money matters because #1 the Bible says that our money is a

  85. tool. Everyone say a tool.

  86. The Bible says that our money is a tool.

  87. OK, let me ask you a question. How many of you have ever heard

  88. someone say money is the root of all evil?

  89. Anybody show hands? Come on.

  90. Every location. Keep up.

  91. Yeah. Money is a root of all.

  92. Yeah, we've all heard that. K Can I tell you something

  93. that's not in the Bible? Some of you right now are like,

  94. hold on, brother. I think it is when my dad was

  95. spanking me, he was quoting that verse.

  96. OK, well, sorry about that. He he got it wrong.

  97. OK, watch this. According to the Bible, money is

  98. not good or bad. Money is neutral.

  99. In other words, it's it's a tool.

  100. Let me show you. Let me show you First Timothy,

    1 Timothy 6:10

  101. chapter 6, verse 10. This is the verse actually that

  102. is misquoted so often when people talk about this idea of

  103. well, money is the root of all, all evil.

  104. Look what the Bible actually says.

  105. The apostle Paul writing to his spiritual son Timothy, who is

  106. pastoring at the church in Ephesus, he writes to him and he

  107. says for the look what it says, love of money, not money.

  108. The love of money is a a root of all kinds of evil.

  109. And then Paul kind of double clicks on and he says some

  110. people eager for money who have who have seen this tool called

  111. money and used it for themself, eager for money.

  112. They've actually wandered away from the faith and they've look

  113. what it says Pierce themselves with many griefs.

  114. In other words, if we use the tool wrong, we can actually do

  115. harm to others and ourselves. Let me see if I can show you

  116. illustrate this. OK, so this is a hammer.

  117. Everyone say hammer now watch this hammer is actually really,

  118. really old. This is my dad's hammer.

  119. And so dad, I think you're at the Cape Coral location today.

  120. I got your hammer and I'm not going to return it.

  121. Sorry. It's mine now, 50 years in here

  122. we go, right? This is my hammer.

  123. Now watch this. This hammer is a tool that we

  124. can use for either good or bad, right?

  125. Like right now, if I take this hammer to my iPad, that's bad,

  126. right? Or if I take it to this podium,

  127. that's, or if I could walk over to the drywall, the sheetrock, I

  128. can punch holes. Why?

  129. Because I can use this hammer for bad.

  130. But the opposite is also true. Every single day here in

  131. Southwest Florida, we see amazing, strong men and women

  132. who are part of our trades here in Southwest Florida who use

  133. hammers and tools like this, right, to build incredible

  134. things. They build houses, they build

  135. roads, not as fast as we like them to, but they build roads,

  136. right? They build skyscrapers, right?

  137. Which, by the way, can we just thank all of the men and women

  138. who every single day go out and work in a trade somewhere here

  139. in Southwest Florida? We appreciate you.

  140. We honor you today. We thank God for you.

  141. Thank you for using tools like this that I have no idea what to

  142. do with, but you do. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a

  143. tool. And everyone's saying money is a

  144. tool. So watch this every day.

  145. You and I either use money to build something great or we use

  146. money to tear down our lives. Does that make sense?

  147. Let me show you this Scripture. Lee Proverbs chapter 13, verse

    Proverbs 13:11

  148. 11. It gives us an illustration of

  149. this and we see this pattern all throughout Scripture.

  150. Proverbs 1311 says this dishonest money, in other words,

  151. money that is used in the wrong way.

  152. Look what it says dwindles away. In other words, it doesn't build

  153. anything great. But the Bible says whoever

  154. gathers money, in other words, uses the tool of money,

  155. approaches the tool of money in a good way.

  156. Whoever gathers money look little by little, even just a

  157. little bit at a time, even just little baby steps at a time,

  158. makes it grow. In other words, build something

  159. great. So the first question I want to

  160. ask us today, church family, is this, how am I?

  161. How are you? How are we using the tool of

  162. money in our life? Are we using it as a force of

  163. destruction to punch holes in our life, break stuff, or are we

  164. using the tool of money as a force of construction in our

  165. life? So here's my challenge.

  166. Ready. Let me let's get super

  167. practical. I challenge you to take the next

  168. two weeks and keep track of every single thing you spend

  169. your money on. And then at the end of two

  170. weeks, I look at all of those accounts, look at all those

  171. receipts, so to speak, all the ways you spent your money, big

  172. and small, and ask yourself the question, Did how I use the tool

  173. of money over the last two weeks build something even little by

  174. little greater in my life? Or did how I spend my money

  175. actually deconstruct or or or tear down what I'm hoping for in

  176. my future in my life? Do you see it?

  177. Money is not good or bad. Money is a tool.

  178. Come on, look at the person sitting next to you and tell

  179. them money's a tool. OK, watch this.

  180. Our money. We're talking about why our

  181. money matters. First of all, because it's a

  182. tool #2 our money matters because money is a vehicle.

  183. Everyone say vehicle. In other words, the reality is

  184. when it comes to our money, money will take us somewhere.

  185. Money is taking us somewhere. We hit hit on this a little bit

  186. last week, but it it bears repeating because according to

  187. Scripture, money is leading us somewhere.

  188. And to illustrate this, the first was my the hammer that my

  189. dad gave me. See what I did there?

  190. He gave me long time ago. The second illustration I have

  191. is this little Matchbox car, which happens to be a Porsche by

  192. the way. Soon as I opened this up, I'm

  193. like, Oh my goodness, like the doors open.

  194. This is, this could be the nicest car I ever owned.

  195. So I'm going with it. Come on, somebody see, money is

  196. a vehicle. So we actually went to the

  197. Christ Fellowship Conference over in West Palm Beach this

  198. week. A team of us went over and so

  199. Sarah and I actually took off Monday night.

  200. We're, we're leading a freedom group here at the church this

  201. semester and there's hundreds of us going through freedom as we

  202. celebrated a few minutes ago. And so we took off about 9:00.

  203. As soon as our freedom group got done, we were here at our Fort

  204. Myers location. And so both of us had driven

  205. separately to work that day. And so I jumped in her car and

  206. we left my car here. And so then we took Sarah's car

  207. over to West Palm. And so we were driving her car.

  208. Then we came home Thursday afternoon and as we drove home

  209. Thursday afternoon, we didn't come back to the church to get

  210. my car. We just stopped at the house.

  211. Then I woke up Friday morning and wanted to go somewhere,

  212. somewhere really important, the Minnesota Twins spring training

  213. practice, because I have to watch the players and get

  214. baseballs because that's my thing.

  215. And only in that moment Friday morning did I realize, Oh, no, I

  216. don't have a car and I don't fit in this one.

  217. See, money is a vehicle. And so thankfully my

  218. mother-in-law was going to get her car washed.

  219. And so she dropped me off at my car.

  220. And then I went to the Minnesota Twins stadium and watched them

  221. practice. So it's all good.

  222. I know you're a word. You're like, wait, how does the

  223. story end? Did he make it?

  224. I did not walk from my house. It was like 7 miles.

  225. And I'm I'm not going to do that.

  226. OK, here's here's the point. Our money is like a vehicle.

  227. Let me show you Jesus talked about this Matthew chapter 6.

    Matthew 6 chapter mention

  228. He's this is the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus is, is engaging

  229. literally thousands of people, teaching them about all kinds of

  230. things, areas of their life, including their finances.

  231. And in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says this in verse 21, he says

    Matthew 6 chapter mention

  232. for where your treasure is there your heart will be also Another

  233. translation actually says for where your treasure is there,

  234. your heart will follow. So watch this.

  235. The Bible makes it clear Jesus is teaching now and he's telling

  236. us that where where our money goes.

  237. So our heart travels or follows with it.

  238. See, money is a tool, but money is a vehicle.

  239. So let me ask you a question. What direction is your money

  240. moving you? Because whatever direction your

  241. money is going, your heart is following it.

  242. So if your money is leading you in a direction that's away from

  243. the things of the Lord, then guess what?

  244. That's where your heart is going to go too.

  245. But if we make AU turn, see what I did there?

  246. Hey, that's not easy. I spun the car while making EU

  247. turn. I don't get nearly enough credit

  248. for this. But if our heart, our money is

  249. leading us toward the things of the Lord, then guess what?

  250. Our heart is going to follow that.

  251. Do you see it? So watch, Money according to

  252. scripture is a tool, but money is also a vehicle.

  253. And some of us, how we're handling our money has been

  254. moving us in the wrong direction for far too long.

  255. And God wants this to be the year.

  256. Come on somebody, we're already 7 Sundays into 2026.

  257. That's crazy. We're already a month and 1/2

  258. in. But guess what?

  259. Good news, there's still 10 1/2 months to go.

  260. Let's go. Some of you, you need to make

  261. the decision that this is going to be the year that you decide

  262. to leverage the vehicle of your money for Kingdom things, for

  263. God things, for family things, for your better future things

  264. and let your heart follow that. Others of us, we've only been

  265. using our money as a vehicle for ourselves and we think the

  266. reason why we have everything we have is just for us.

  267. But the truth is God has so much more for you.

  268. Money is a tool #2 Money is a vehicle.

  269. Where is your money driving you? Here's #3 #3 according to the

  270. Bible, money is a tool. It's a vehicle.

  271. But #3 money is an invitation. Everyone say invitation money is

  272. an invitation for God's blessing and protection on our lives.

  273. So I mentioned that Sarah and I and the team we went to to

  274. Christ Fellowship conference over in West Palm and pastors

  275. Todd and Julie Mullins, who are the the lead pastors of Christ

  276. Fellowship, one of the greatest churches in America.

  277. They're just incredible pastors, incredible leaders, and they

  278. become incredible friends to us. We would say the pastors, Todd

  279. and Julie are our pastors. And so we love them.

  280. We're so thankful for them. So about a week ago before we

  281. took off for the conference, we got an e-mail and the e-mail was

  282. an invitation and the invitation said, hey, Matt and Sarah, we

  283. would love Pastor Todd and Julie, would love for you to

  284. join them both before both of the evening services at the

  285. conference next week. Would love for you to join them

  286. at a special invitation. Only dinner, Ina.

  287. So guess what we said yes. You know why?

  288. Because that's awesome. And so instead of our dinner

  289. being ordinary, no offense to the rest of the team who went

  290. and had wonderful dinner. I'm sure it was wonderful.

  291. Wherever you were. Applebee's.

  292. Whatever it was, I'm sure it was great.

  293. OK, we, we got to go at 5:45 both of the nights to a small

  294. invitation only dinner. And can I tell you the

  295. conversations we had were incredible.

  296. We got to to be with Pastor Julius who pastors Watoto Church

  297. in Uganda, who literally is rescuing thousands and thousands

  298. of orphans. They have over 3000 orphans in

  299. on property now, right now that they are investing in and

  300. helping raise. It's incredible.

  301. We got, I got to have a whole conversation with him.

  302. I got to talk to Pastor Rich Wilkerson, junior for about 20

  303. minutes and talk before dinner and just have conversations

  304. about the impact he's making. I talked to another pastor who's

  305. starting a group for pastors in his city out West and got to

  306. have a whole conversation with him and tell him what we were

  307. doing with our relational network and how what we're

  308. learning about pastoring pastors.

  309. Why? All because I responded to an

  310. invitation. We'll see.

  311. Money is a tool. Money is a vehicle, but #3 money

  312. is an invitation. You want to see how?

  313. Let me show you. Malachi Chapter 3 verse 10 says

    Malachi 3:10

  314. this, this is the last book of the Old Testament before God

  315. goes quiet for 400 years and then Jesus arrives on the scene.

  316. Malachi chapter 3, the Bible says this, bring the whole tithe

    Malachi 3 chapter mention

  317. into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.

  318. And then the Lord says this, test me in this and see, look,

  319. if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour

  320. out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to

  321. contain it or to store it. OK, time out.

  322. What's going on? Here's what's going on.

  323. God is offering every one of us as His sons and daughters an

  324. invitation. And here's the invitation.

  325. He says if you sons and daughters will look at your

  326. finances and take the 1st 10%, the first one out of 10 of all

  327. of your increase, if you'll put me first in your finances, then

  328. God says I've got blessing for you.

  329. As a matter of fact, it says He has so much blessing for us.

  330. He's going to open the windows of heaven, the flood gets to

  331. heaven. He's going to pour out so much

  332. that we won't even be able to contain it.

  333. Come on somebody, what an awesome invitation.

  334. But wait, there's more. Verse 11, most of us when we

  335. preach this, most preachers, we usually stop at verse 10.

  336. We just kind of stop right there and go.

  337. But there's blessing, there's blessing.

  338. That's the invitation. There's blessing.

  339. Look at verse 11. He continues on and he says, I

  340. will prevent pests from devouring your crops and the

  341. vines in your field will not drop their fruit before it is

  342. ripe, says the Lord Almighty. OK, what's happening?

  343. OK, this was an agricultural community.

  344. And so so they would have understood exactly what this

  345. prophetic word meant. Essentially, here's what it

  346. meant. If you and I respond to the

  347. invitation to put God first in our finances, guess what?

  348. He not only blesses us, but he protects us.

  349. Oh, I got another prop. Let's go.

  350. I don't just got Matchbox cars, I got umbrellas.

  351. And in the morning I'm making waffles.

  352. Such a great place to put a Shrek quote right there.

  353. Actually, it was donkey in the movie Shrek.

  354. Church family, watch this. God offers us an invitation in

  355. his word and he says, sons, daughters, if you'll trust me

  356. and put me first in your finances, I will not only pour

  357. out so much blessing on you that you can't contain it, but I will

  358. put a hedge of protection around you.

  359. I will put a covering of protection over you.

  360. Church family, watch this. The love of God for us is

  361. absolutely unconditional. But the blessings of God,

  362. according to the Bible, are absolutely conditional.

  363. They're based on how we live, how we respond to the invitation

  364. God's given us. So let me ask you, have you

  365. accepted God's invitation to blessing and protection?

  366. Are we living under God's protection or are we living

  367. exposed, hoping it doesn't rain? But anybody who's lived long

  368. enough in their finances knows like Southwest Florida in the

  369. summer, it's going to rain. Amen.

  370. Do you see it? Do you see it?

  371. God says, listen, money is is is a tool.

  372. Money is a vehicle. Money in your life is an

  373. invitation to God's blessing and protection.

  374. And here's the last thing I want to share with you.

  375. Money is a method. Everyone say method.

  376. Money is a method. And here's what it's a method of

  377. for sending treasure ahead to heaven.

  378. According to the Bible, money is one of the main methods God uses

  379. for us to actually send blessing ahead for all eternity.

  380. That same place Matthew chapter 6 Jesus the Sermon on the Mount

    Matthew 6 chapter mention

  381. is teaching this hillside full of thousands of people and

  382. before he says what the verse we quoted verse 21 where your

  383. treasures there your heart will be also if you back it up two

  384. verses. He actually speaks to this look,

  385. I want us to see it. Matthew chapter 6 verse 19 says

    Matthew 6:19

  386. Jesus talking and he says do not store up for yourselves

  387. treasures on earth where moth and vermin destroy where thieves

  388. break in and steal. Instead, look what Jesus says,

  389. but store up for yourselves treasures in say where it is.

  390. Say the word heaven, where moth and vermin do not destroy, where

  391. thieves do not break in and steal.

  392. Now here's the verse again. Look at verse 21 for where your

  393. treasure is there your heart will be also.

  394. So in other words, he's saying to us, if you'll use and

  395. leverage the vehicle of money and, and for my kingdom's sake,

  396. and you can, you can actually send it blessing ahead for all

  397. of eternity. Jesus is saying eternity is real

  398. everybody. And one of the greatest ways to

  399. keep eternity in mind here on earth is to aim and prioritize

  400. our finances there, not just here.

  401. Our salvation is in Jesus alone. Yes, but how we are rewarded

  402. when we get to heaven is directly connected by how we

  403. stewarded what God put in our hands here on earth.

  404. Later on in Matthew 25, Jesus, it tells a parable, which a

  405. parable is basically a story with the Kingdom principle

  406. attached. And in Matthew chapter 25, he

    Matthew 25 chapter mention

  407. tells this story. He sets it up and he says there

  408. was a master who who was very wealthy and he gathered his

  409. servants together and he said, I'm leaving on a long trip and

  410. I'm not going to be back for a long time, but I'm leaving you

  411. with some resources. And I want you to take those

  412. resources and I want you to leverage them and use them and

  413. invest them. Because when I come back one

  414. day, I'm going to ask you what you did with what I gave you.

  415. And so the master leaves and to 1 he gave 5 bags of gold.

  416. Jesus tells us. Then to another he gave 2 bags

  417. of gold to another one bag of gold.

  418. Then the master left and each of them went to work and the one

  419. with five went to work. The one with two went to work,

  420. but the one with one got scared and and he just, he just buried

  421. it in the ground in the backyard.

  422. And then the Bible tells us that after a long time the master

  423. came back. Look.

  424. Verse 19, After a long time, the master of those servants

  425. returned and settled accounts with them.

  426. The man would receive 5 bags of gold, brought the other five.

  427. So he had doubled it. Master, he said, you entrusted

  428. me with 5 bags of gold. See, I've gained 5 more.

  429. Verse 21, The master replied, well done.

  430. How do you like your steak? Well done?

  431. That's not what he's talking about here.

  432. The master replied. Well done, good and faithful

  433. servant. You've been faithful with a few

  434. things. How many think 5 bags of gold is

  435. a little more than a few things? You've been faithful with a few

  436. things. I'll put you in charge of many

  437. things. Come and share your master's

  438. happiness. The story continues that the man

  439. with two had invested his wisely and got a return of two more.

  440. And so he brought back four to the Master and then the one with

  441. one, he buried his. And so he only brought back what

  442. the master had given him. He hadn't gotten any return on

  443. the investment. And the masters took his and

  444. gave it to the one with 10. What's the point of the story

  445. that Jesus is teaching us? He's teaching us that, listen,

  446. money's a tool, money's a vehicle, money's an invitation,

  447. but money is a, is a method. It's a trust that you and I have

  448. been given by the Master, and He wants to know what are we doing

  449. with what He's given us. When I think about this idea of

  450. being entrusted and getting a return on our investment, my

  451. mind goes in three directions. The 1st is with our time.

  452. How are we using our time to make a difference in the lives

  453. of others? Second is with our talents.

  454. In other words, each one of us have been given gifts and

  455. talents, abilities to to leverage, to use to make a

  456. Kingdom impact. And then lastly is what we've

  457. been talking about, which is our our treasure, the money that

  458. God's put in our hands. So according to the Bible, our

  459. money matters because it's a tool that we can use.

  460. It's a vehicle, it's an invitation to, to blessing and

  461. protection and it's a, it's a method.

  462. So, So what do we do with this and worship team?

  463. You can come back and join me. What do we do with all of this?

  464. Well, I, I would say three thoughts for us, some of us, you

  465. need to decide to do money differently from now on.

  466. You need to decide to do money differently from now on.

  467. Money is a tool. Is our money building something

  468. great or is our money tearing us down?

  469. Decide to do something different.

  470. Do do life, do do your money differently.

  471. Some of you, you, as we talked about last week, you weren't

  472. raised. You don't you have the full

  473. understanding money's a vehicle is, is our money moving us where

  474. we want to go? And listen, I get it.

  475. Some of us you're, you're, you're living under piles of

  476. credit card debt and other things.

  477. Can I just tell you it's going to, it took a while for you to

  478. get into this position. It's going to take a little

  479. while for you to get out of this position, but today is the first

  480. day where you get to move and get started moving in the

  481. direction of God's blessing and favor on your life.

  482. Let me mention it again. Last week we had an amazing

  483. response to our My God, My Money class

  484. nextlevelchurch.com/finances. Listen, if, if you're, if you're

  485. struggling with finances, if all of this is like new to you and

  486. you're going, man, I don't understand.

  487. Or maybe you're just kind of looking at your financial

  488. personal world, financial world and you're going, I don't even

  489. know where to start. You can register at your

  490. location. Spring, we're going to have my

  491. God, my money classes. We had over 150 people

  492. registered just last weekend alone.

  493. There's there's a list. Get on that list.

  494. I don't know how much space we have left, but get on there.

  495. Go there right now. You can scan that QR code.

  496. Go there right now. Why?

  497. Because we want to help you. Money is a tool.

  498. Money is a vehicle. I get where God wants you to go.

  499. Some of us need to make the decision today that from this

  500. point on, I'm going to do finances differently than my

  501. parents I saw, than my grandparents I saw.

  502. No, no, no, I'm my friends. I'm going to do my finances the

  503. way God wants me to do it. I'm going to do it differently.

  504. That's a decision some of us need to make.

  505. Secondly, some of us need to get under God's protection.

  506. We need to get under God's protection.

  507. You've been living unprotected in your finances.

  508. How do we do that? The way we do that is by putting

  509. God first in our finances. Malachi says the tithe, which is

  510. the first one out of 10. And of course, some of us hear

  511. that and we're like, hold on, Pastor Matt, 10% of my all my

  512. increase. Like, how can I do that?

  513. Like that's crazy. Then here's what I would say,

  514. start somewhere. Start somewhere like like like

  515. going to the gym. You don't start at £200, you

  516. don't start at £50. You start at 10, then you start

  517. at 20, then you go to 25, then you go to 30.

  518. But start somewhere. Teenagers, listen, Sarah and I

  519. started tithing when we were teenagers.

  520. Teenagers, some of you, you need to make a decision today.

  521. Your next step is I'm going to decide today to start putting

  522. God for. I'm going to give $10 every two

  523. weeks to the Lord. I'm going to return the tithe to

  524. the storehouse, the church where I'm being fed.

  525. If you've never given there, there are there are hundreds of

  526. people who are part of next level church and you love what

  527. God's doing here, but financially you've never taken

  528. that step. Can I tell you this is one of

  529. the greatest steps of faith you can ever take?

  530. Grab an offering envelope in the back of your chair.

  531. Take a step, give something today.

  532. Some of us, we've never automated our giving.

  533. See, in our world today, I, I get it.

  534. It's all digital, right? And we as your church, we have

  535. made it easy for you to be able to automate your giving.

  536. You can set it up recurring. Some of you, you, you give every

  537. once in a while and the Lord is speaking to your heart today

  538. saying son, daughter, I want you to get consistent one time a

  539. month or twice a month. Matter of fact, I, I want to, I

  540. want to, it's so easy. Let me show you this.

  541. OK, ready. So, so we got some screenshots.

  542. Check this out. So if if you when you go home,

  543. you go to nextlevelchurch.com/give or just

  544. go nextlevelchurch.com, click on the button give.

  545. It's going to take you to this page that says we live to give

  546. and then it's going to give you an option.

  547. So whatever your location is, then you just click on that.

  548. So E let's just kind of click on that.

  549. OK, we click on that. Hey, oh, so close webs.

  550. Awesome. OK, so then it's going to lead

  551. you to this page. You simply enter the amount up

  552. at the top and then there's a drop down menu that says you can

  553. give by credit card, ACH, Apple Pay.

  554. Come on, somebody that's easy, right?

  555. Cryptocurrency for all you cool techie people Awesome.

  556. OK, you can give crypto that's all stocks.

  557. You can do that. In case you click on that then

  558. it says give one time or set up recurring.

  559. Then you simply click on this one, which is give recurring.

  560. Then it's going to say what frequency do you want to do

  561. that? Every week, every two weeks?

  562. And you just click on one of those, OK.

  563. And then when do you want to start?

  564. And then down here it says what funds?

  565. So there's the tithe fund, there's Kingdom builders.

  566. You just choose one of those. So tie this first.

  567. And then Kingdom builders is above and beyond that, right?

  568. So you click on whatever fund you want, then you click on the

  569. button next ready. Here we go and it's going to

  570. take you to this where it says enter your mobile number.

  571. As soon as it you put in your mobile number, guess what

  572. happens? It takes care of the rest.

  573. It texts you. It's super easy.

  574. It will literally take you less than two minutes.

  575. And if it takes you longer than that, just find a teenager and

  576. they'll help you. Why?

  577. Why am I going? Why am I like, why am I

  578. belaboring this? Here's why.

  579. Because God wants us to live under his protection.

  580. I just wanted to pop that open one more time.

  581. God wants us to. He has so much for us

  582. financially and we as your church family, we want to help

  583. you take that next step. Last thought, what do we need to

  584. do? We need to see great, the

  585. greater meaning in our money. God wants us to see the greater

  586. meaning in our money. Let me pray for us.

  587. Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for your word today.

  588. God, thank you that Lord, we don't just learn about money,

  589. God, we, we know that money moves us, that there's feeling

  590. attached to it. And so, Father, right now many

  591. of us are feeling a whole bunch of different ways about this

  592. message. And Lord, I pray that you would

  593. speak to us, God, I pray that you would, you would, would stir

  594. us, God, because each one of us have a next step that you want

  595. us to take. Lord, for some of us, you are

  596. absolutely rearranging right now the, our mental thoughts, the

  597. way we think about our money, the way we think about our

  598. finances. And God, I thank you for that.

  599. Father, I pray that you, God would speak to us.

  600. Some of us, we need to, we need to, to get online today before

  601. the sunsets and we need to set up recurring.

  602. Why? Because you are the priority and

  603. we want to live under your protection.

  604. God, thank you for how you're speaking to us, how you're

  605. leading us. God you, you have an invitation

  606. for us to get in on and Lord, we thank you.

  607. So God, I pray blessing over each of these, your sons and

  608. daughters today. May we honor you as we're moving

  609. from here to there, that place of hope and purpose and meaning

  610. in our finances like we've never experienced before.

  611. We pray this in Jesus name and everyone at every location who

  612. agreed said.