More Than Enough | How To Be Refreshed

I want to challenge you with a thought right off the right off the top, and and it's this.

What if the pathway forward to win in life, maybe it's success, whatever you think winning is, what if it's different than what you thought it was?

Well, what if what if all the things that you've just been taking for granted and the things that you've thought are common sense and the things that you just you've you've got your pathway in life figured out?

What if what if it's different than you thought it was?

What if it's a little bit more counterintuitive than you than you realize?

This is this is a theme when you when you read the Bible, the kingdom, kingdom, the kingdom of God, the kid kingdom principles, it's it's often referred to as like an upside-down kingdom.

Upside down because well, because the the pathway forward isn't maybe what you initially thought it was supposed to be.

I'll just jump ahead to the end of the message.

There you go.

We'll start there.

Let me just answer it for you at the very here.

I mean, we're talking about a story that culminates with a God who says that the way to live is is to give up your life.

We worship a God who claimed to be the king of the universe and yet was dead on a cross.

It's just not what's intuitive.

That doesn't make sense.

This I'm just telling you, and if that's true with the most important question of your life, it's probably true with all the other questions that you and I have in our life.

There's a very counterintuitive, very counter-cultural aspect of following Jesus.

And I and I think so much, I mean, I think generally speaking, most of us want very similar things.

We want to feel secure in our life.

We want to feel like our future is secure, we want joy.

What if the way to access that is different than you thought it was?

We've been over the last few weeks, we've been talking about stewardship.

We're in a stewardship series, and today we're we're kind of we're finishing up our series.

It's been a three-week series talking all about finances, money, generosity.

We talked the first week, we talked all about what are these Bible principles that we we oftentimes will recognize as like that's pretty good wisdom around money, but it's not just like it's not just common, it's actually found in scripture.

These are often Bible principles, and we talked about to be a wise steward, we gotta align our ideas about stewarding, managing our finances.

We got to get our minds, we've got to get our ways aligned with his.

Last week we talked all about tithing.

We just said that's the that's the foundation, that's that's level one.

This week we're talking about generosity and giving.

We're talking about this this value of generosity.

Honestly, if you've been around Freedom Church, this is a value of ours.

It's one of our core values.

We talk about generosity a lot.

This is Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

Look what Jesus says.

He says, The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.

When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought the field.

That doesn't make any sense.

That that is that's a bizarre, that's a bizarre little short story that Jesus would share with us.

That story doesn't make sense.

That's a net loss.

To sell everything, to gain a little treasure in a in a field doesn't make sense unless God's word is true.

And that's that's his point.

It's it's counterintuitive.

It's a kingdom value.

Kingdom values will challenge you.

I don't I don't care what we're talking about.

We don't have to talk about giving.

You want to talk about a kingdom value, a kingdom value will challenge you, and generosity might just challenge you the most.

Again, this is something that the world sees as loss, but that's just not how God sees it.

When when the topic of money gets brought up, God thinks trust.

I think there's a lot of things that go through our mind when we think about money.

What do we think about?

I mean, I some of you are like, man, this is the Sunday.

Of all the Sundays I chose to come to church, it's this Sunday.

We're talking about money.

And you're like, I invited somebody.

I thought it was over last week, you know.

I don't know what you're thinking about money.

You're like, thank God, this is the last weekend.

Maybe next week we can get on to Christmas or something.

Just talk about stop talking about money, you know.

It's like I don't know what goes through your mind when you think about money.

I asked myself that question this week.

I was like, what goes through my mind when I think about money?

And I had a story come to my mind.

It was my my, she's my third, second daughter.

She was six at the time.

She came home from school.

I happened to be there when she got home, and we were standing in the kitchen together, and I was asking her, I'm like, hey, how was your how was your day today?

Tell me, tell me about what happened.

And so she's in the middle of her snack, you know, she just she's kind of just just chatting, just tell me about her day.

And she's like, Oh, my friend, her and their family, they just got a new house.

It's like, oh, okay, great.

Yeah, it's huge.

It's a mansion.

She just starts going on and on about how big their friend's house is.

It's amazing.

Yeah, she asked me when we were gonna get a house like that.

And I was like, oh, okay.

What'd you tell her?

Oh, I told her we were poor.

First of all, how many people have you told that to?

What do you what do you said?

Just right in the middle of her bites.

Just like, nobody, oh, we're poor.

You know, like, okay, well, I'm like, why do you think that?

Why do you think we're poor?

She's like, well, dad, obviously.

Um, she's like, Yeah, I heard you and mom talking, and you said you weren't gonna get a travel trailer because you know, it's just like we wasn't in the budget, we didn't have the money for it.

You're not gonna get a travel trailer.

So I'm like, okay.

The fact that travel trailer is your category for poor proves you're not poor.

This is like, welcome to America.

Like we have a different category for what we're talking about here.

That's what I thought of when I thought about money.

My daughter's mind.

Where's her mind go?

It goes all over the place.

We have all kinds of thoughts that come up when we start thinking about money.

We start thinking about our hard work and how much we've done.

We think about accumulating, we think about protecting.

That's not how God thinks.

God thinks trust.

God thinks who's Lord.

God thinks who gets to who gets to set the priorities moving forward.

I'm just telling you, this is how this is how God thinks.

Money conversations, they feel personal.

I mean, it does.

It's just like, oh, the hair on the back of your neck is standing up right now for some of you.

It's a it's personal.

And I'll tell you why.

Because money's a competing God in your life.

It's the competing God in all of our lives.

But I'm just I'm telling you, it feels personal because it's spiritual.

You can't talk about, you can't talk about money without it feeling.

I mean, this is why we talk about money.

I mean, Jesus talked about it a lot.

He didn't talk about it a lot because he needed it.

He talked about money a lot because he knew the impact that it would have on your life.

He knew what it would do to you.

I would even make the case we you we can't talk about discipling.

We can't talk about growing in faith.

We can't talk about, we can't be, we can't talk about formation and being developed and being formed into the person of Jesus if we're not willing to go to go a little bit deeper on the topic of our money, and specifically around this idea of generosity.

I'm gonna give you through, I'm just gonna run through, I got eight of them.

Eight kingdom principles.

I'm sure it's not exhaustive.

Um maybe for the sake of time, I just kind of cut cut it off at eight, but I got eight, eight kind of kingdom principles around money that are gonna feel they're they're upside down, but they're foundational.

They're foundational.

I'm gonna I'm gonna run through these here this morning.

Here's the first one.

If you want to know why we feel so comfortable even talking about money at random church, I mean this is it right here.

Here's the first one.

It's because God owns it all and he's our source.

I mean, that's just foundational.

That's just square one.

That's step one.

That's that's where we start.

That's the starting line.

God owns it all and he's our source.

I know we think that our jobs are our source.

I know we think the the companies we've built is our source.

I know that we think that that our talent and our gift is our source.

But I got I got news for you.

When that runs out, if it runs out, if that goes away, God doesn't stop being your source.

Like you, you, you, you, what you thought moving forward might not be what you thought it was going to be, but he doesn't stop being who he is.

God owns it all and he's our source.

I mean, this is Psalm 24.

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

I think we forget this.

I think we forget this.

In fact, I'm I'm sharing this one first because if we're gonna talk about generosity and we're gonna talk about our money, this is the key that unlocks it right here for you.

This is it right here.

This is the key.

God owns it all.

I this is not our our first instinct.

Again, this is counterintuitive.

Our first thought most of the time is what do they have and what do I not have?

Well, what where are they and why am I not there yet?

Right?

This is our first thought.

And I'm gonna say this: if you don't get a hold of this idea that God owns it all and He's our source, God will push on you.

He will push on that for toward generosity.

And you'll think, you'll think this, you'll think, yeah, but if I do it, it means I'll have less and they'll have more.

And God goes, it's all mine.

It's it's actually all it's actually all mine.

God's going, this isn't about whether you have less or they have more, it's about whether or not you're willing to trust.

Are you are you willing to steward will?

That's what it's about.

I'm telling you, when we think we're our source, when we think that we're our source, we will tighten the fist.

When you get a hold of understand that God's your source, I'm telling you, it creates open hands in your life.

Here's the second counterintuitive, countercultural idea around Bible idea around money and and generosity, is that Jesus said, our hearts are connected to our money.

I think we've said this every weekend for the last three weeks now.

It's our hearts and money, they're tied together.

You can you can't separate.

This is Matthew chapter 6, when your where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

This isn't just Bible semantics, by the way.

Psychology proves this, sociology proves this, anthropology proves this.

You can look across.

This is not I don't what you invest in, you become emotionally attached to.

You just do what you're consumed with protecting, like that will drive your decisions.

That which you fear the most about losing will become your functional God.

I'm just telling you, where your where your money goes, there your heart is right there.

Our hearts, church, they naturally drift towards self-preservation.

That's like that's instinct number one.

It's like self-preserve.

What do I gotta do to like make sure that things are secure?

We want security.

By the way, I don't think that that's a a bad desire.

I don't think that's a wrong desire, the desire for security.

But no amount of money, no amount of savings, no amount of success can provide the security that that money always seems to promise us.

It just doesn't work.

There's also a stewardship trap to this.

There's a stewardship trap to this.

What do I mean by that?

Some of us we have this idea that generosity is a leftover kind of game.

So for some of us, and especially for those of us who maybe have been following Jesus for some time, we could easily fall into this trap where we confuse our discipline with generosity.

What do I mean?

We get disciplined with our money, and that's great.

That's that's a good thing.

We get disciplined, so we find a way to find some margin, and so we kind of let some go.

And and I and I admit that takes some discipline to get to that place where you have some margin in your life.

But discipline and generosity are not the same because generosity requires faith.

Don't miss these.

I'm not I'm not I don't one doesn't have to be wrong in order for the other one to be right.

I'm just saying they're not the same thing all the time.

Okay, all right.

It's a stewardship trap.

What happens when we elevate the discipline of letting a little bit of money go and kind of pseudo-generosity is we create religious experiences with the little bit of margin that we create through our discipline, but we don't have actual real spiritual encounters with Jesus where he's in our generosity because that only happens through faith.

I hope you see that.

I would even say this.

I mean, we we we kind of hit on it last week.

It's like if I if you haven't trusted God financially, I'm not really sure you've even really trusted God.

I mean, because it'll push you.

And when God, when God, when God begins to push on your finances, I mean, this is why we tuned God out in this whole part of our life.

Because there is just there's nothing, there's not a topic out there that seems to, that seems to like push our buttons more than more than money.

I mean, this is for Beth, even for Bethany and I, we have to ask ourselves, it's like, when was the last time we really had to trust God?

I'm convinced that a lot oftentimes we don't trust God because we take, we take how people are, the inconsistency, the undependability of people, and we project that on the living God.

We go, I know how people are, and we just take that and we put it on him.

And oftentimes, and we don't even do it consciously, I think we just do it subconsciously, and before we know it, it's just like, have we really trusted God?

I got it, I got another story for you.

This is several years ago.

We were at a church event in Alabama, a long ways away.

Alabama.

So here are Bethesda's church event, and it was a great event.

I got to meet some people and reconnect with some people, and and we we get done with this conversation.

Now I'm gonna give you some insight into my home with Bethany and I.

When I'm driving, I'm a good driver, but if I'm talking, that's another story.

We may or may not get to where we are headed if I'm talking, okay?

So she's known this since we were dating.

I've always said my mantra has always been driving's a team sport.

Some of you, this is the source of all your marriage problems, right here, is driving.

So this is how I try to get ahead of it at the beginning.

I just said, driving's a team sport.

So if you're wondering, is he gonna miss our turn?

The answer is yeah, I am.

So you better say something, okay?

That's always been our thing since the very beginning.

So here we are, we're in Alabama, and we're driving home.

We're about eight hours from home.

We get on the road, and uh, we got a fresh start tomorrow morning, and I'm all excited.

I'm like, I gotta wait to tell you about these conversations I had, and I and I re I got reconnected with so-and-so, and this is what he was telling me, and I just and I'm so encouraged, and so we're going back and forth, and I'm telling her all about it, and we have an hour, hour and a half goes by, and I look up and I see a sign, and it says, Welcome to Tuscaloosa.

And I looked over at her and I was like, I don't remember going through Tuscaloosa on the way here.

She's like, We we didn't go through Tuscaloosa on the on the way here.

I had been driving the wrong direction on the highway, the opposite direction, for an hour and a half.

I literally added three hours to an eight-hour trip, all because I was talking and just totally aloof to what was happening around me.

I I'm convinced that that some of us, this is how we think God is.

God's challenging me to do this.

I just don't know.

I don't know.

It's like it's like I don't know if God's really gonna be, is God is God gonna get distracted?

Is God is God gonna get uh consumed with somebody else?

It's like, well, I did follow God that one time, but I'm pretty sure God is in Tuscaloosa and I'm still in North Dakota.

It's like God forgot about me, and it's like God doesn't like that.

He's not that kind of a God.

He's not like a man, he's not like me.

When when God sets out and he asks you to do something and he pushes on something like generosity in your life, he knows exactly where he wants to take you.

He knows exactly what he has in mind for your life, he knows exactly what he wants for you, even though it feels like he just wants stuff from you.

It's not the case.

It's God, he's not like a man, he doesn't get distracted, he doesn't go the wrong way on the highway of your life, and you ending up in a place you're I don't even know how I trusted God, and now I'm broke and poor and homeless.

It doesn't work that way.

And when I say it out loud, it sounds utterly ridiculous, doesn't it?

Because you know it is, because it's a God, he's God, his name's El Shaddai.

Do you know what that means?

It means the God who is more than enough.

More than enough.

I'm just telling you, when was the last time you had to trust God?

That's worth clapping for.

You can if you want, but anyway, I'm just saying that was good.

Okay, here's the next one.

Here's the next one.

Tithing is just the beginning.

This isn't a tithing message.

We talked about that last week.

So if you miss it, you can go back and listen to that.

We we told a whole story of how the tithe tells the story, the gospel story.

You can go back and listen to that.

In Malachi 3, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.

The storehouse is the place.

This is what it meant in Malachi.

This is what it means throughout scripture.

The storehouse is the place in which you are fed spiritually.

That's literally what it's talking about in this verse, that there may be food in my house.

Matthew 23, the tithe gets brought up to Jesus.

Jesus doesn't say, hey, race said, that's old, that doesn't matter.

No, he reaffirms it in Matthew 23.

The tithe, we we talked about it last week.

The tithe is simple, it's basic math.

It's 10%.

It's not some arbitrary number that we make up or what we feel led by the Spirit about somehow redefining what it means.

We don't do that.

The Bible does that for us.

We don't do that to the Bible.

It's basic math.

It's 10%.

I'm glad it's 10%, by the way, because it makes it really simple to teach to my kids.

And I and there's a reason I teach it to my kids, because if I don't teach it to my kids, now it doesn't get easier the older you get.

It gets more hard, it gets more difficult the older you get.

I know we think that.

I know we think like, well, when I get a little bit more, it'll be easier to do that.

That's that's not true.

Did you know that statistically?

This is map, this is statistics.

Statistically, people, the more people earn, the the less generous percentage-wise they actually become in their life.

That's statistics.

I'm just telling people who make under$100,000 are generally, percentage-wise, generally speaking, far more generous than people who make over$100,000 a year.

That's just statistics.

They don't lie.

Okay.

I'm just saying, we think when I make more, it'll be easier.

No, it won't.

Your heart will be harder.

That's just how that's how it works.

So I love it.

It's basic math.

I can teach my kids this.

Why?

Because that's the system that keeps God first place in my heart.

It keeps money out of my heart and in my hand.

Only one God competing for first place in your heart that Jesus addressed anyway.

Money.

It was money.

There it is.

It's counterintuitive.

I know it.

Lots of things are counterintuitive, though.

Forgiveness is counterintuitive.

And I know when you've been hurt badly, deeply, you're just like, I don't want to forgive them.

They don't deserve my forgiveness.

It's not for them, it's for you.

You forgive because it sets you free.

You're generous because it blesses you.

Well, it's a counter.

That doesn't make sense.

I know it's counterintuitive.

It's a kingdom principle, it's a kingdom value.

Welcome to the Bible.

Here's the fourth one.

Real generosity comes from obedience to the word.

Obedience to the to the word.

We say it a lot.

It's an obedience and in overflow.

I mean, again, just give you some insight into my home and Bethany and I's conversations.

We we've had to have these conversations ourselves.

It's like, are we we've been pretty disciplined with our giving and our ability to tithe and give and be generous?

And here we are, we come to the end of the year, and we've we've done this for many years now, and here we are again at the end of the year.

And we're just going, are we being convenient or are we being generous?

Because generosity comes from an obedience.

And I'll even go a step farther, and then I know this pushes against it.

But generosity isn't even real generosity until it pushes against what's what's easy and what's normal and what's convenient.

It's not actually generosity.

It might be a well-disciplined life, but it's not a faith-filled obedience and generosity.

Look at Proverbs 3.

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops.

Then your barns will be filled to overflowing.

There's an obedience there.

I don't, I I never, I've never met any like sincere Bible-believing Christian or pastor for that matter, who preaches the full counsel of God's word and believes that God is some sort of cosmic ATM machine in the sky.

I've never met anybody that sincerely believes that.

Okay.

But God can't be anybody less than who he is.

And when he invites you on a journey of generosity and giving, he doesn't need anything from you.

It's an invitation to partner with him.

There's nothing you can give to him, which means that anything he asks you to do and pushes you to do around this topic, it's not for him, it's actually for you.

I'm just, this is the this is the principle here.

I mean, he's a giver.

That's who he is.

I know we don't get we don't give to get, but he can't be less than who he is.

He's a giver.

He gave you the breath in your lungs, he gave you, he gave you the very life that you're living, and he gave you Jesus.

He gave it all.

And he gave it to you while you were his enemy.

He gave it to you while while you and I hated him.

And yet he said, I'll take the risk and I'll and I'll give.

I'll give everything for you.

Get a hold of this principle.

Get a hold of this principle.

There is nothing that makes you feel more like God than money.

Nothing.

You know this.

Remember, you remember when you first got that big paycheck?

Come on, you remember.

Everyone's got a story, something like that.

That first time you got some, you got some money.

The first time the tax return came in, you're like, oh man, I'm feeling pretty good.

I remember one of my kids piled up a little money, they went to the farmer's market, they piled up a little bit of money.

They were like, oh, I'm feeling good.

I got some money, Dad.

Dinner's on me tonight, Dad.

I was like, let's go.

I told him about how much you can expect to pay that night.

He was like, maybe not.

I felt like I was God, but maybe I'm not.

Nothing makes you feel more like God than money, but nothing makes you look more like God than generosity.

God's a giver.

That's the bottom line.

God's word says it, will I do it?

Because at the end of the day, it's do I trust him or do I trust the voices of unbelief that I give priority to in my life?

We all got those voices.

Every one of us has those voices in our life.

That's why this is the this is why it's a competitor in your heart because there's plenty of voices.

It's countercultural.

Like, well, I'm gonna go work with my family, my brother, my brother-in-law.

I don't know.

They said this.

I know.

Will you follow God's word or will you give priority to the voices of unbelief in your life?

Jesus was clear.

You can't trust both God and money.

Here's the fifth one: the highest level of generosity impacts eternity.

There's an eternal, I know there's lots of causes out there.

Maybe lots of good causes.

Save the trees, save the whales, save the puppies.

I get it.

Okay, I get it.

Real generosity, like the highest level impacts eternity.

I love this verse.

This is Romans.

Look at this with me, Romans 10.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

How then can they call on the one they have not believed in?

And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?

And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

And how can anyone preach unless they are sent as it's written?

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?

This is a theme.

Paul does this.

He goes to the church in Philippi, and he gathers them up.

He has this expectation of generosity, and he says, We're given.

He goes to the he goes to the church in Corinth and he talks about, hey, we're given.

We got some stuff, some business that's going on in Jerusalem.

And he gathers this up and he expects, he expects some generosity.

What are they given for?

I think about our building project.

I think about this building we're we're building right over here.

And it's like, what are we what are we doing that for?

Because if it if it's for us, I mean, we all found a way to fit here today.

We're here.

Our kids are doing great.

They're fine.

8 30 was a little light.

Could have some of you just show up to 8 30 this morning.

It's no big deal.

We can make some little space in here.

If this is what it's for, then we're good.

What are what is that for?

It's for the people who are here yet.

Don't miss this.

Don't miss what I'm saying to you.

It's for the people who aren't here yet.

See, see, just like you, because you weren't here four years ago, most of you.

Many of you have come since we like you you came after the fact.

We only started with 35, so and then there's more than 35 in here, right?

So there's a lot more in here.

See, you came after the fact, and when you came in here, and there's like many of your stories in here.

I was actually just this morning, I was talking to Derek.

He's on our he's on our host team this morning.

I got his permission.

He said, I can say whatever I want about a story.

So here I am telling a story.

He's on our serve team over here.

And you know what he told me after service?

He goes, today, one year to the day, November 23rd, he goes, I gave my life to Jesus.

Right here, Freedom Church.

Let's go.

How about that?

I'm I'm just telling you, I'm telling you, these are why why are we it's for it's for whose not here yet, which means for all of you whose lives have been changed, touched, blessed, challenged, where you've grown here spiritually.

You know what it means?

It means there were people here that loved you before you ever even got here, before they ever even knew you.

And then that's what it's gonna be.

See, when we get to our new space, what that's what it's gonna be.

We're all linking arms together.

It ain't a 35-person launch team now.

We got like a 500-person launch team.

It's awesome.

And guess what we're gonna do?

We're gonna link arms and we're gonna we're gonna step in there, and all these people are gonna show up, and you know what we're gonna say?

We've been waiting for you.

I'm just telling you, how is it that people can hear and call if they don't heard the one to call upon?

And it's like they gotta be sent.

And if you've been reached for Jesus here or anywhere else, somebody sent somebody your way.

People think that this happens out of nothing.

Like it's just like, oh, there it was.

It's like Immaculate Conception, there it is.

It's just like there, and then I heard the gospel.

It's like, no, no, no, no, no.

Somebody put their money where their mouth was, somebody said yes to generosity, somebody said yes, I trust God more than I trust fill in the blank and sent.

And I'm just that's how God, that's how God operates.

The highest level of generosity impacts eternity.

I know there's lots of great causes out there.

I know there's lots of great, there's a lot of great things to get to get uh you know really passionate about, and and and and I get all of that, but um the church in all its flaws is the only vehicle that's that's for the whole family.

I'm not against parachurch ministries, I'm not against that my life's been touched by other ministries that aren't unnecessarily directly connected to a church.

I I get that, but I just say this.

We can be passionate about a ministry over here that focuses on this one group of people, but the church is the one vehicle that God has made where he says, I'm just as passionate about your six weeks, old six-week-old babies as I am you empty nesters, and you grandparents, and you great great-grandparents, like and your students, and your elementary students, and you parents, and and you the like the whole family.

There isn't any other, there isn't any other entity out there like that.

The church is the church changes family trees, the church changes destinies, it's it's it's whole family.

Anything else out there that's that's like that, and that is, by the way, the only thing Jesus is building.

That's his word, not mine.

It's his plan for transforming people and families.

I I know this pushes against the grain, and I and I can I'll tell you why, because money's a god in our culture.

That's why it pushes against the grain.

Money's a god in our culture.

That's why we like to be in control of it.

That's why that's why we just go, hold on a second.

I'll give to whoever I want.

That's fair.

I know you will.

But but we like that because it means we're in control.

I'm just I'm just saying, you know, it's amazing.

All the stories in the Bible, we can read about a Red Sea, we can read about plagues coming out, we can read about Noah and the Ark, and two by two they get on a boat and the whole world's wiped out.

We can read stories like that, we can read about giants, but then we get to money and we're like, I was good with 10-foot people, but money we stumble all over it.

Why is that?

Let me tell you why it's the sixth principle right here.

It's because money's spiritual.

That's why.

Money's spiritual.

I don't think it's that spiritual.

Really?

Why is all the hair on the back of your neck standing up right now?

Because it because you're there's something warm.

Warring on the inside of you, warring for first place in your life right now.

And I'm it's it's money, it's it's spiritual.

First Timothy six talks about the love of money being a root of all kinds of evil in your life.

We already read Matthew.

He says, Your heart, where your treasure goes, there your heart goes.

Money, or I'm sorry, heart, love.

These are spiritual words.

These are spiritual things.

Where your money goes, your worship goes with it.

It just does.

Here's the seventh one.

God supplies seed to sowers, not hoarders.

Seed to sowers, not hoarders.

Don't don't miss this.

I I've when I talk to even people who've been following Jesus for a long time, this is a principle we overlook very easily when we read scripture.

Look at Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9.

He says, Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food.

Those are those aren't the same thing.

Seed for sowing, bread for food.

Seed for sowing, bread for food.

Those are two two different things.

He says, the one who provides both of those will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

This is where we say God God will supply.

God supplies your needs.

That's your bread for food.

And then he gives you seed.

Seed for what?

Seed for sowing.

Well, I don't, I don't, I don't really have a lot of seed.

I know most of us, we have some seed, we're usually just eating it.

We're eating the seed, we live in our seed, we vacation in our seed, we buy a boat with our seed, we got all kinds of seed money.

We just like we just well, we just use it for other things.

So we we got seed for sowing and bread, bread for food.

You've been around this.

This is by the way, what keeps us from doing this, and I get it because the desire for security in our life, it's uh that's a strong desire.

And and when you come from when you come from a season in your life, or maybe, maybe the way you grew up, and you had very little, there's that you don't want to go back.

I mean, I mean I'm I'm just maybe I'll just speak for myself.

I don't want to go to that.

I don't want that in my life anymore.

Right?

But but what happens is is that we lose sight of the countercultural, the counterintuitive way of the kingdom, and we end up doing it our way, and we think that we can create peace in our life through accumulation.

You ever been to the buffet with some kids?

You ever been under the the uh buffet with kids?

Come on, I know you have got lots of, we got so many parents in here.

You've been in the buffet with with your kids.

That used to be like the cheap place to take your kids.

Now it's like, dear lord, my I don't know, is that is that I guess that's inflation.

My goodness, now the buffet is really expensive.

So here we go.

Go to the buffet, you get it, and then you you've been in the line with that with a kid, and they're just like they see something they want, and they're like, whoa, they're just worried.

They're sweating.

They're just like they're gonna take all my food.

And then so what do they do when they get there?

They just start piling up their food.

They got like a giant pile.

You're like, my goodness, man, calm down.

It's called going back for seconds.

But that's not how kids, that's not how kids think generally, right?

They're just like, no, no, no.

If I don't take it now, it's not gonna be here when I get back.

You know exactly what I'm talking about.

And you look at them, you're like, Mike, child, I know you're gonna throw away at minimum a third of this.

Like a third of this is going in the trash.

Like you're not gonna, you're not gonna, you're not gonna eat that, you're not gonna eat this.

I this is how we do.

This is this is why we we we we struggle to see seed for sowing and bread for food, because we're so convinced that our food play has to be higher than it actually is.

We're just like, yeah, but if I don't, if I don't accumulate it and I don't give it, and if I don't get it and I don't store it up, and then then I might run out.

And it's like I'm just he supplies seed to sowers, not hoarders, and I think we do a fairly good job.

I think most of us do a pretty good job of evaluating our storehouse.

I think we need to take a deck, a second check on our on our seed house.

You know, I if you've been at Freedom Church for a while, you're wondering, is this all these people talking about as money?

No, we're in a series on that.

And if for those of you who have been here for a minute, you you know, like on the weekends, we don't norm we don't do like 10-minute giving segments on the weekend.

That's not that's not part of our culture.

I'm not saying that's bad if other churches do that.

I'm just saying that's not what we do.

So when we when we come to the end of a service and we're gonna pass buckets, we're gonna do like we will at the end of the service today.

When we do that, like we're not giving you some 10-minute like emotional spiel about why you ought to give today.

That's not what we do.

And there's a reason that we have that conviction because we're we're convinced that when you get a hold of the life change and the stories that are happening here, that's all you need to see.

I I'm I'm I'm convinced of that.

When you begin to see what's happening in your own life, I think that's motivation enough.

When I I think when you begin to see what's happening in other people's life, I think you'll I think you'll begin to see how God uses your seed, your seed that he gives you for sowing to impact eternity.

Today, right after third service, we have several people.

We're gonna clear out half these chairs on this side.

We'll have full room with lots of families.

We have several people that are getting baptized right after third service today.

I'm just convinced that when you isn't that awesome! Isn't that awesome?

He's not I tell you that because there's a good chance you don't know any of these people.

You don't know any of them.

Maybe you've seen them, maybe you haven't.

You're not gonna know any of them, you probably you likely don't know any of these people that are gonna get baptized today.

Never seen them before.

But when you understand generosity and you understand sowing and you understand seed for sowing, you may not have ever met them, but but because you've sown, you can go, I don't, I don't know you, but I had a part in that.

Don't don't miss this.

I don't know you, but I had I played a part in that.

I don't I don't know all these people we're gonna reach in our new space.

I don't know what the next five years holds for us at a church.

I don't I'm I'm probably not gonna know everybody that comes through our doors, but I had a part in that.

I think when you get that, not here, but here, when you get that into here, I think it's a game changer.

I think it's a game changer.

Seed for sowing, bread for food.

Here's the last one: generous people are refreshed.

Again, they counter counterintuitive, upside down kingdom.

Generous people are refreshed.

Generous people are refreshed.

Proverbs 11, a generous person will prosper.

Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

Isaiah 32, generous people plan.

That's a that's an in plan.

Again, why aren't we doing the 10-minute giving segment?

It's just like, yeah, because because I don't, that's not how it works.

There's an obedience and an overflow to our generosity.

And and I think that I give you again, just give you a window into my wife and I's life.

How do we know?

Because we've been we've been tithing since we were kids.

We've we this has been a regular practice of our our whole life, definitely our whole married life.

And and then we we have the same conversation.

It comes to the end of the year, and we and we talk about giving.

We made, we made, we made commitments with our with our our building campaign uh almost two years ago.

We've by God's grace, we've actually almost completed that.

And so there we started having that conversation.

Were we being generous or we were we just being convenient?

We're just asking ourselves that.

And we come to the end of the year and we plan.

And here's what I mean by that.

Well, this is what it normally looks like.

We've been doing this for years.

She'll come to me or I'll go to her and we'll say, I think we're supposed to give, and we say a dollar amount.

We just go, oh, okay, yeah.

And we and we go back and forth and we chew on that and we pray about that and we think about that.

And here in a few weeks, we're gonna we're gonna come back together and we're gonna go.

Do we still agree?

Do we need to increase it?

Is that the is that the number?

I'm just telling you, generous people plan.

I'm I'm saying you don't just show up, but it's just like, would you like to donate a hundred dollars on your random grocery order today?

That's not what that's not we're talking about.

Generous people, generous people plan and they stand firm in their generosity.

It might feel I know culturally it feels it feels irrational to trust God with your finances.

It feels irrational.

But if God is who he says he is, it's actually the most rational thing you can do to trust God with your finances.

Let me tell you what's irrational.

It's irrational to think that the very same money that is yet to give you peace is somehow going to give you peace when you get a little bit more of it.

God's a good God, He's your source, and there is no invitation from Him that He asks of you that isn't for your benefit and for your good.

It's for you.

I I I've said this before as pastor here at Freedom.

I don't I don't want to I don't want to pastor a 2080 church.

I just don't.

A 2080 church is where 20% of the people give and then 80% of the people feel condemned every time the mut the topic of money comes up.

That's a 2080 church.

I don't want it, I don't want to lead a 2080 church.

That's not that's not it.

I I I what I see and what I want to lead and what I think that God's calling us to is a place where we come in, especially in this next season of our life or our the life of our church.

It's a it's a place where we go, we're arm's length in this together.

New people come in.

I can tell you a story like Derek's story.

You can come and celebrate baptisms after third service day, and you can go, I don't know them, but I had a part in it.

Why?

Because we're not a 2080 church, we're we're in it together.

We're ascending church, we're that kind of a church, we're a generous church.

That's what we ought to be known for.

That's why it's a value of ours.

I'm I'm I'm convinced.

It's a participation thing.

God wants you to participate.

I know it feels like a financial step, but it's not.

It's a faith step.

It just is.

Let's pray.

Father God, help us.

Help us.

I know for many of us, you know, there's there's I know there's several categories of us in in the room right now.

There's those of us that we have, we've been maybe faithful tithers, but we've never thought about tithing as the baseline of generosity, the starting point of our generosity.

And maybe we feel challenged to go beyond that.

Would you would you help us?

There's those of us in the room, I know the whole topic of money is is been pretty much it's off-limits in your marriage right now.

It's an off-limit topic with anybody in your life.

And you may have even regretted coming to church about halfway through this this morning.

I I don't know.

But it's an off-limit topic for you.

And I pray for both of those categories.

I pray for my prayer is Father, help our unbelief.

Help us in our in our in our faith.

Help us help build help us to build our faith.

Let's build our faith.

Help us to help us to put our we want to put our trust in you.

Help us to take a step.

Help us to get a revelation, a revelation for for your freedom that you don't actually just you don't want stuff from us.

You actually want to set us free from the captivity that money has on our hearts.

Help us to be bold to take steps in our giving.

Thank you for helping us.

I pray against a I pray against the cultural pull of self-preservation.

We pray against that.

We say, Father, rebuke that in Jesus' name.

Bring clarity to our financial lives so that we can recognize the cultural pull that would rob us of real blessing, rob us of the opportunity to be people who are refreshed, to be people who are renewed, to be people who say yes to these upside-down kingdom principles.

Help us to recognize that.

Help us to have the discernment to see what through these things and to see what they are.

Help us and give us the boldness to say yes to your ways.

I also want to pray for those of you that have never committed your life to Jesus and you would like to do that here this morning.

This whole topic of generosity is the gospel message.

While we were enemies, while we were opposed to God, he was generous to the point of laying his life down for you and me.

He gave it all so that we might say yes to him and be with him in eternity.

And when we say yes to him, he says, I raise you up to a new life with me.

That's what we do here.

That's what Jesus does.

If you've never committed your life to Jesus and you would like to this morning, nobody's looking around.

Would you just raise your hand and say, Yeah, Pastor, that's me.

I want to commit my life to Jesus here this morning.

Good job, I see your hand.

Good job, I see your hand over here as well.

Any other hands?

Just go ahead and raise your hand up right where I say, I don't want to miss you.

I want to make sure I'm at least see you and pray with you.

Maybe you've uh committed your life to Jesus years ago, but your life just hasn't looked like a you just you haven't been following Jesus, but you want to say yes to him again today.

If that's you, you can raise your hand as well.

Good job.

Thank you, sir.

I see you back there.

Anyone else?

Very good.

Good job.

Thank you.

I see you as well in the back.

Very good.

Good job.

Good job.

Super proud of you.

Just make this prayer your own.

Tell them in your own way.

Jesus, I give you my life.

Thank you for your generosity.

That you would give everything so that I might be with you.

And for that, I give you my life.

Thank you for dying for me.

Thank you for raising again.

I commit to follow you for the rest of my life.

Jesus, thank you for saving me.

I love you.

And it's in your name we pray.

Everybody said, Amen.

Amen.

Come on.

We got a lot of room.

People in the room, I think we can be a little bit loud.

Let's tell Jesus thank you this morning.