Return Policy | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

We're so so glad that if you're here with us today, and I can sense in the atmosphere that God is already moving amongst us.

I really want to speak to us.

If you're if you're new here, we're involved with you.

My name is Keith, and my wife Mary and I have the privilege of serving as the lead pastors here at Celebration.

Orlando, we're genuinely so glad you're here.

So whether you're joining us in person, if you join us online, enter our family house, listen to the podcast.

We just want you to know the flag that you're that you're loved, that you're valued, that you're seen, and that you're also praying for.

And I'm also excited because we're promoting to week two of our annual series called All Hands.

And our All Hands series is a series that we typically share around this time of year, and it's centered around, as the name would imply, the part that we all play in contributing to God's kingdom.

More specifically, we often say here that we're an all-hands church.

And what I mean by that is that we're a church, I believe that all of us have a part to play in God's kingdom work through the local church.

And so each year we share around three different ideas when it comes to being an all-handed church.

It's around our time, it's around our talents, it's around our trailer.

How can we utilize what God has given us in an effort to partner with and support God's vision for his local church?

Last year, when we introduced this idea of being an all-handed church, it was centered around the idea of being generous as it relates to our accounts, us serving in the house of God together, us all playing our part, and we've seen just our community of serving teams grow as a result of that.

This year we're zeroing in and focusing on what does it mean to be generous as an all-hands church as it relates to our treasure.

Next year and maybe time, each year it may change a little bit differently, but there's some things that God has put on our hearts that we want to zero in specifically on.

We believe that we're all called to play a part.

And our theme scripture for this particular series is found in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 7.

2 Corinthians 9:7

What it says here is that you must each decide in your heart how much to give, and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure, for God loves a cheerful giving.

We have a statement that we say right here that's connected to our values, which is we demonstrate the love of God.

We believe that God's love needs to be demonstrated.

To say that you love someone is a great entry point, but at some point you have to demonstrate it.

And so we believe that one of the ways that we can demonstrate God's love to others is through our generosity.

We don't believe that this is a statement, but we believe it's our kingdom, our cause.

When Paul was writing this letter to the church of Corinth, ironically, again, divine irony, the church in Israel was under oppression.

They were dealing with financial straits.

So as Paul was going to these very churches, he was preparing them and saying, hey, we need to raise an offering to help that church over there because they're struggling.

And so he wrote this letter saying, hey, when I get there, I don't want to make you guys feel like I'm trying to manipulate you.

I don't want to make you guys feel like I'm trying to switch your arm into doing something that you don't feel on your heart to do.

So before I get there, begin to make a decision in your heart.

Because God loves when we have a healthy response to what it means to be generous.

He loves a cheerful giver.

It doesn't mean that he doesn't love those who don't sharefully give.

It just means that he loves a cheerful giver.

You can do it that way you will.

He loves when he understands that we have a heart for others because it ultimately activates what's in our hand.

Because generosity just starts with our heart.

So last week we talked about Nehemiah.

And as I mentioned earlier, Nehemiah, he's 800 miles away, literally living in a palace, but when he hears about the suffering of those who are hundreds of miles away from him, people that he's never heard, people that he's never met, but when he hears about it, it touches his heart and activates his hands.

So if you missed last week's message, I want to encourage you to go back and check it out.

But now I want to fast forward into the text I'm going to share with us today.

We're going to be looking in the book of Ezra, chapter 1, verses 5 and 6.

Ezra 1:5

To give you context, Ezra and Nehemiah have a little bit of an overlap in the timeline because, as we mentioned last week, that the children of Israel were in captoon.

We see this rhythm, this theme that emerges when we understand the biblical narrative, and ultimately what happens is God is always trying to create boundaries and standards for his people to live up to.

And naturally, in human condition, we get to a point where, yes, I see what you're saying, God, but have you ever been at this or we're negotiating with God?

Like, I see what God says, but.

So the children of Israel consistently lived in a place of, yeah, God, I know you're saying this, but we want to do it this way instead of that way.

So after result of that, they found themselves in captivity.

Away from God's blessing, away from the promised land that had been issued to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

As a result of that, they're now living in Babylon, but then a new king comes in and he says, the children of Israel can go back to their land.

But the land has been neglected for 50 years.

They were invaded by Babylon, and so Jerusalem as itself was the city was torn apart through the war.

The temple was torn down and bripped apart.

So the people were coming back, but they had nothing to come back to.

It was a complete mess.

This is what Nehemiah here is that breaks apart.

So now three waves of people come back to Jerusalem to restructure it and honor God through.

The first group that goes back is a group that's responsible for rebuilding a temple.

Now, if I'm looking at it from a very practical perspective, just being completely real with you, I'm thinking that if I'm in bondage and I'm able to go back and I'm able to rebuild and re-establish my cultural identity and my responsibilities to my family, you would think the order would be, let me get my house in order, and then we'll go ahead and build a temple.

But what God says is I'm sending you back to put my house in order first.

Because God understood that if my ways are not the center of your life, you're going to continue to drift away.

So the first responsibility that was given was to Rubbabel, where he led a mission to rebuild the house of God.

Starting here at verse number five, it says this.

Then God stirred the hearts of the priests and the Levites and the leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of the Lord.

And all their neighbors assisted them in giving articles of gold and silver, supplies for their journey and their livestock, and they gave them many valuable gifts in addition to all the voluntary offerings.

Flipping over to Proverbs chapter 3, looking at verses 9 and 10.

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

They don't come up on the screen, but I just want to kind of use this as a little bit of a booking for what we're going to be talking about.

The Bible says, honor the Lord with your love.

And with the best part of everything you produce.

Somebody say best part.

Say it with your chest.

Say best part.

Alright, best part of what you produce.

Then he will fill your barns with rain, and your baths will overflow with good wine.

Who doesn't want your bats to overflow with good wine?

I know I know everything.

But I want to back up a little bit one of the key words that the text starts with.

It says honor.

Honor.

Honor the Lord with your resources.

That word honor, when you look at it in the Hebrew, is the word kabbat.

It's spelled K-A-B-A-D.

Kabbat.

And it means to give weight to, give appropriate weight to.

Ultimately, what the text is communicating is that we want to make sure that we're giving appropriate weight to God in the area of our finances.

Let me continue in a different way.

So my wife and I, she's probably valid in England, but today is our data version.

We've been together for 28 years as well today.

28 years.

So as you can imagine, at being together for 28 years, that we have an amazing relationship that's had highs and lows.

But watch this.

When she's talking to me about something, I give weight to her words.

That when she comes to me and we're having a conversation and she's saying something, I weigh her words because our relationship and our closeness allows me to respond to the words because I give weight to them.

It doesn't mean that if a stranger comes into my life, I don't listen.

But you always have to consider the source.

When I hear things, I'm like, well, I give weight to what my wife is saying.

Happy wife, happy wife.

I give weight to what she's saying.

I measure it and I make sure I respond accordingly.

Does that make sense to us?

What the scripture is saying is that when God is talking to us about how to manage our resources, make sure we're giving him proper weight in that area of our lives.

Make sure that we're giving God weight value when it comes to that idea of our finances and our resources.

Because the truth of the matter is, there's a lot of different voices that are telling us what to do with our money.

There's a lot of different voices that are telling us how we need to support our resources.

And the question always comes down to who are we getting weight to?

The word of God or our feelings, our culture, or any other of those things.

Today I want to talk to us about the importance of prioritizing God in the area of our resources.

And I'm going to title today's message, Return House.

Let's pray and let's be in the Lord.

I think for the privilege of being able to come and gather in your name.

Even the time we recognize that at this exact moment there were churches in Israel that would have been gathering, but they can't, because they're dealing with warrior, this chaos, and this uncertainty.

So Father, we we empathize and we connect to them.

So we never want to take it for granted by looking down in your name and say, God, I spur in the next moment that you give us open eyes to see you above all of us.

I pray that you give us open ears to hear you above all of us.

And I pray that we have open hearts to receive what it is that she wants to do to bring transformation into our lives.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Well, one of the things that I will just be completely honest with you guys, one of the things that I am not good at is I am not good at when I purchase something, it returning to the store, it just doesn't meet the needs that I have.

I don't know what it is.

Like I like I genuinely think like there's like some kind of psychological thing I need to talk to my therapist about.

Because in my head somehow, I've related that if I purchase something and it doesn't satisfy the need, that somehow I failed in life.

I don't know why, but somehow my hand I've got to the store, I stood in line, I passed the register, I gave my money, I've got it from, and when I got home, it doesn't work.

Now I've got to go back to the store, stand in line, or something like that.

To me, this is a whole lot of that's all things like, how do I still have systems?

How do I get here?

I bought something that I bought was going to work, it's not working, and then now I've got to find a way to get it back.

So literally in my home, most of my decorations are things that I just never returned back to the store and I had to repurpose and find something else to do with.

Just real talk.

My daughter, on the other hand, she has a PhD in returning things.

She will order things, buy things, return things, order things, buy things, return things, order things, buy things, wear things, return things.

Okay, so she'll she is masterful at it.

So she'll often um joke with me and make fun of me because I don't.

So I remember a couple months ago, um, she was sitting back at the house and she's like, hey, I'm about to go out and I'm gonna run some errands.

Like, very cool.

And so she looks over, she sees in this like little corner in our room, like this bag that's filled with these pillows that they just didn't work for our home, but it was sitting there like literally like almost two months.

So she looks up and like, can I do it?

I'm like, no, no, I was like, I mean, I was going to, I never got a room, so I said I was going to, I never had a little car, but I came in the area.

The once up I did walk into the store and they might have like 10 people in it, I'm gonna talk about that.

Like, so I was like, what is not going to do it?

She's like, this is ridiculous.

I said, plus, here's the thing.

I think I can't return it.

I think I've had it for like two months at this point.

She said, no, I know the return policy, so I believe you can absolutely give your money back.

I'm like, okay, well, we'll have that.

So she takes the bag, she goes into the store, and she outbreaked her hair, she calls me up.

She's like, hey, um, you didn't have the receipt.

I'm like, okay, it's cool.

They gave you some credit stuff.

No, like I know the return policy.

I was able to talk the lens that I used to work at the store, and they were able to put the money in my account.

I spite my card money in the account of life.

Girl who are a magician.

So I loved it.

I loved it.

Fast forward, a couple of weeks later, she calls in, she's on her way home, and she says, I think that I'm on the way home.

Um, do you want me to stop at Chip Fillet and get you something to eat?

And I said, Listen, the answer is always yes.

Like, I don't care about cooking, I don't care what's going on, the answer is always yes, like, yes, absolutely, bring me home, some chip late.

So she goes and gets circulated.

Her family's a great, like, spontaneous family moment.

We sit down at the table, Caleb comes downstairs, we're all sitting there and having a good like 30 minutes of laughing and we're chilling getting caught up.

And so now everybody's about to go back into their separate corners of the house.

But as the mayor is getting up, she gets up and she dabs the receipt, and she just kind of slides over like that's gonna leave this right here for you.

Yeah, go to a restaurant, and like when they're like, hey, don't hurry up.

But they're actually saying, hurry up and leave other people in the seat.

Like, don't you have a restaurant?

That's where I say, hey, you know.

Um, she slides like that's gonna leave this right here.

So when she's saying that, I open it, I look at it, I'm like, what is this?

She said, Oh, that's that's the receipt for the food.

And I look at her like, oh, okay, cool.

And she's like, so um, that um is$42.

And she said, Listen, I know that you're busy.

I just want to let you know you can give you my cash app, then you'll follow me.

So if you got the cash, I'll take it.

I'm gonna let you know that I realize how busy you are, and I'm connected to all digital platforms where there's currency involved to meet the convenience of your life.

And I said, Are you expecting me to pay you back?

She said, Yeah, I went and I paid for it.

And I said, wait a minute, let's provide something.

You went to the store and returned a product to the store.

Correct?

Yes, that I did.

How much was the credit that they put into your bank account?

It was$130, Dad.

Did you give me that$130?

No, that I didn't.

I said, so as far as I'm concerned, you didn't pay for the food with what was yours.

You paid for what was mine.

You didn't pay for it, I did, and I allowed you to achieve the tickers from the return.

Don't talk right on your nails.

I honestly believe, because I used to believe this, that when I would come into the church and I will hear a pastor talk about the importance of prioritizing God in my money, or I would hear restless about hiding, I honestly used to think, God, I'm giving you this money, you should be thankful.

God, I'm going to give you 10% of what is mine.

And I think years ago, God gently tapped you on the shoulder and said, You are not giving me 10% of what's yours.

I'm letting you keep 90% of what's mine.

You have a very unhealthy perspective of the way that resources work in your life.

If you only can understand, I am the one who gave you everything that you have.

And when you give to me, you're not actually giving, you're simply returning in partnership with the vision that I have for my kingdom here on earth.

It radically shifted my perspective, but I understood that when we are generous in our resources in the household of faith, that we are not giving, we are returning.

See, the Bible talks about the importance of putting things in their proper order.

We put things in their proper order.

See, when David was given this burden to try to build the house of God, the Bible says that he goes through this expensive effort and he puts his own resources into it.

He really leads a building campaign.

And when he's about to present this offering to leave for his son Solomon, in 1 Chronicles 29, it says this.

But me, who am I?

And who are these people that we should presume to be giving something to you?

Everything comes from you.

All we're doing is giving back what you've been given to us through your generous hand.

David understood that even though I'm using my resources, they're not my resources, they're your resources, and you simply entrusted me with them.

That is what stewardship is really all about.

Now what we tell you, you are giving us ours, we're returning what's his.

That's ultimately stewardship, and it's all about putting things in their proper order.

Matthew 6, 33 says this, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things will be provided for you.

That these things that he's referring to are the things that are often a source of stress and anxiety when we're talking about our resources.

But what Matthew is instructing us in the words of Jesus, he's saying, but when you have things in their proper order, it's going to produce a result.

So I like to say it this way: that when order is restored, blessing is released.

That when we have things in their proper order, there's a blessing that comes with it.

Because wherever there's no order, there's chaos.

Let me hear you see this way.

You guys, if you've been around any period of time, you know that one of my biggest weaknesses is shoes.

I'm confessing it before y'all now.

I I've loved shoes ever since I was in middle school.

Like I just love my shoe game, it's crazy.

I'll challenge anyone any day.

But like my shoe game is great.

I love shoes.

So I love that.

So for me, when I'm getting dressed in the morning, I'm always saying to myself, which shoes am I going to wear with that outfit?

So what I'll typically do is I'll be dressed and then I'll have like a collection of shoes that I'll lay out.

Like, okay, which one accentuate the outfit the most?

I'll put a couple of shoes on, I'll do the prison clothes in front of the camera, I'll do a couple of stuff, and I'll say, okay, which one of these is the best one that's going to go with that outfit?

Now the thing is, typically when I do that, um, I don't have a lot of time because I'm not sure the right thing.

So what ends up happening is I'll leave the shoes over here and then I'll go about the day.

Now that may happen for two or three days.

And then what ends up happening is inevitable, then my wife will walk over on my side of the bed, like, who do you want on those shoes?

And I'm like, they're not in their business because they're on my side of the bed.

I'm like, I'm not seeing them.

You have them on my side of the bed, right now.

Okay, 28 years ago.

So end up with no effort to get my ticket, she'll move the shoes from my side of the bed and she'll put them inside of our closet.

But she won't put them in any box, she'll just put them on my side of the closet.

Like, okay, maybe that will prompt him to do it.

But I have a very strict regular.

I deploy my shoes on Fridays.

That's the days that I put my shoes back in the room that I have, but her days are every day.

So you know we have this, we're unequally open that area of our lives.

So what she'll often do at the point of like when she's really frustrated, I think she does it on purpose.

She'll start to put the shoes back.

So guess what she does?

She's just gonna put it back in the right boxes.

So when I'm going to open up my box, and I'm gonna put all these new short ones that I got, I'm putting her easy there.

I'm like, wait, you're crossing brands, you don't do that.

Like, sometimes if the bees in there ain't like boxes, it's pure anarchy.

And so now I gotta own, I gotta empty all the boxes up, I gotta look all around and try to figure out where things are supposed to be because boxes, things are not in the right place.

It's out of order and it creates chaos.

That's a ridiculous illustration of what happens a lot of times when we don't have our resources in a proper order.

They're not in the right boxes, so the end of happening is a little bit chaotic.

You're wondering where things are and where things are not supposed to be, but because we haven't put things in the right order, we're not experiencing the peace that's often supposed to come with that.

As I was preparing for this message, I began to do a little bit of research about the area of anxiety and stress and worry.

Many of you guys know that they and I are in school for professional counselors, so I had to do a report on anxiety and worry and how that's the most that's the most valuable disorder that there is, and then I began to drill down deep into it, but I was quick to discover is that for Americans, there are three things that are the biggest triggers of our anxiety and our stress.

Here's the areas.

Number one is our personal finance.

Number two, job security.

Three, the state of the economy.

These three things are often the sources of the biggest stress, burdens, and depression that we have as Americans.

Personal finances, my job security, and the state of the economy.

And then when we watch news and just on social media, they understand that, so they feed the fear that causes us to have deeper anxiety, stress, and subitious cycle because we have got things out of order.

But it's so interesting that the Bible paints a completely different picture when it comes to resources.

There are over 2,000 scriptures in the Bible that talks about resources.

And all of them are positive, and the only ones that are aren't are dealing with greed and when money has a hold on your heart.

So, how is it that when I look at what God's word says about resources, but I look at the anxiety that often comes, what's the disconnect?

I think it's often because we may not have things in the proper order.

I want to say something so as to kind of set the tone of where we're going for the rest of this message.

I want you to hear me.

God's love is unconditional, but his blessings are dependent upon our obedience.

God's love is unconditional.

God's love is for you.

He is for you.

But the blessings that come from it is often contingent on our obedience.

One of the words that I think have the biggest ability to set the tone for our lives in Scripture, I want to try to write down some really big Greek word.

You ready to write it down?

It's two letters.

If.

If.

The Bible has a lot of promises, but on the back end it often says, if.

Watch this, look at your comments.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will heal the land.

That means that I want you, I want you for our blessings.

I want to do some things if my people who are called by my name will do their part.

If you are willing in a People done.

We don't want to set the word, you will find it.

You don't think for it, it also says how things working and after that for me to tell the first if we are willing to do our part.

So yes, today we are talking about finance.

How do you buy this?

I think that this would be one of the most important messages that we hear to hear if we have a proper perspective.

Let me speak to us really quick about the text that we just came from.

The Bible tells us that the children of Israel, they were in Babylon, they were not back being sent back to Jerusalem and tried to re-establish their lives.

And then there's this beautiful thing that takes place after the world of God.

Rebuilds the temple, then he might bring another group of people back.

They're working on the city.

They're also now responsibility to not present God's word to the people again.

They've been away from things about over 50 years, so entire generations have been born and they straight away from God's wings.

So this is why I love the Bible so much.

Because we see an evolution and the way that God engages people in a context of worship.

See, back before we had ability to worship God, God would engage with prophets.

He would engage with people out in the wilderness.

But then the temple came and the temple was torn down.

But now when they came back to Israel, this is where we see worship in the way that we worship God.

What happened is Ezra had led people back that were in worship leaders.

So they started off the gathering with singing worship songs.

So they're all together singing worship songs.

Then Ezra got on a platform.

It literally says it's in Nehemiah.

The Bible says they built a platform so that Ezra could stand up in front of the people and project his voice so that everyone could hear him declare the word of the Lord.

That's the first time that preaching takes place in the Bible where there's a gathering of people.

We see that God is shifting the way that he gets involved in people's lives.

I want you to gather at a central location.

Let's have a moment of worship.

Let's have a moment where we give and let's hear what God's word is.

It's a beautiful moment where we see a shifting in the way that we engage God.

But then it gets really good.

From there, the people hear the word of God collectively and they all respond and repent and say, we're absolutely going to do what God says we're going to do.

We're going to align ourselves with his principles and the best practices.

We're going to do everything that he says.

Amen?

And wouldn't you have it?

A few years later, they begin to drift from God once again.

That they begin to interact with other nations and they begin to incorporate the language of culture.

They begin to integrate the philosophies of culture.

And every time they do it, they're drawing themselves further and further away from God.

And now we have this weird hybrid of a kingdom environment that is culturally influenced.

It's been compromised because they're allowing the filters of the world to work its way into a kingdom context.

And now instead of them bringing their lives up to God's standard, they're lowering God's standard to match their lives.

So now we see that God begins to send in prophets once again to say, listen, you guys got to get this right.

If you don't get it right, you're going to find yourself right back into a place of bondage because you're not doing things God's way.

So now we see the prophet Malachi, and Malachi is given the responsibility of coming back and challenging the children of Israel because God's word had given these explicit instructions on the way that he wanted them to treat foreigners, on how he wanted them to treat one another, on how to manage debt, that God literally built in an ecosystem where bondage would never be perpetually passed down to bloodlines.

Like you can go and look at the sabbatical and jubilee years, where God would say, I'm creating a system that even if people are not financially stable, that if there's a moment where there's a reset button where no matter what season of life you're in, there's still hope for you.

God literally lays all this stuff out for us and we continue to throw it away.

God continuously had a heart for the poor and the underprivileged, and they were throwing it away.

So Malachi comes up and says, Man, look at the injustice that you guys are extending to one another.

You're putting people in prison, you're treating people terribly, you're keeping them in bondage, you're lording your money over them.

Like, look, like we gotta knock this off.

This is not what God wanted for us.

So now when Malachi confronts them, he has given them an ultimatum.

And then he comes to them in Malachi 3.

You can read all of Malachi because it's really an indictment on the behavior and the compromise that is found in the kingdom context.

But then he begins to zero in specifically when it comes to the resources.

At this time, the temple had been neglected.

At this time, the people had stopped coming to the temple, the priests were corrupt, and we see all this chaos that's happening in the temple.

It was no longer a safe place.

So then God speaks through Malachi to the people of God, and this is what it says in verse number eight.

Will a man rob God?

Yet you have robbed me.

But you say, In what ways have we robbed you?

In tithes and offering.

You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation.

So here's the response: Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house, and try me in this, says the Lord of hosts.

And is watch if I don't open up the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that you won't have room enough to receive it.

God is challenging them, He's He's compelling them, He's He's talking to them, and He's like, Man, like, would you ever rob God?

Absolutely not.

But He's like, But you actually are, because you're not giving weight to me in the area of your finances.

He could have He could have referenced any point.

He could have said, You're not praying enough, you're not reading my word enough, you're not doing enough things.

The one thing that God said that you're robbing me of, that you're not prioritizing me in, is in the area of your resources.

You're not prioritizing my words, you're not prioritizing my community because it's through those things I'm able to express those things.

Would you rob God?

Now I I want to say something very clear.

The Bible says in this text, it says, you are cursed with a curse.

And quite honestly, when I was being raised spiritually in my beginning years, when I would hear this passage read to me, it was always through the framework of fear.

So it would be said, like, okay, would a man rob God?

Well, no, of course I'm not gonna rob God, but you're robbing me of my tithes and offering, and you're cursed with a curse.

So, what that meant, the pressure that it put on me as a young believer in Christ, I genuinely felt that when I was struggling with being faithful in my tithe, that anytime something bad happened to me, it was because I didn't tithe.

Has anybody ever experienced that before?

Like I would go outside, and if I got a flat tire, like, man, God's wrath, I didn't tithe.

Like, I'm on my way to work and I get caught at a red light and I get there late, man, it's because I didn't tithe.

Like, I began to look at every bad thing in my life through the lens of God's reaction to me not tithing.

Let let me let me shut that down right now.

You are not cursed if you don't tithe.

Jesus became a curse, so we never have to experience that.

I want to free us up right now.

This is not gonna be a text that we're gonna use to manipulate and foster us into a place of fear that makes us feel like we have to do it.

Paul said we don't do it that way.

What I want you to understand though is that if we're not in partnership with God, what ends up happening is we're not under the umbrella of his blessing.

It's the same thing with the children of Israel.

I think I used this illustration last week that it's raining outside and there's an umbrella, and we have an option.

Either I will stay under the umbrella, I still maybe get wet, but I'm still covered, or I can choose not to, and I'm gonna get completely wet.

When we are in partnership with God and we're doing our lives God's way, we're under the umbrella of God's blessing, and there's something that comes from it.

Or we can live outside of that, and there's a consequence that goes with that.

It's not a curse, it's just the reality of what happens when I choose to live my life on my own terms.

So let me speak plainly when I'm talking about what it means to tithe.

That word tithe means 10%, but it's not just a tenth, it's the first 10% that you're giving to God through the local church.

You're giving to God through the local church, you're giving to God through your local church.

I want to continuously say that because I've had conversations with many people in many of my years of pastoring, and they'll say, Hey, I don't tithe to the church, I tithe to varying nonprofits.

I think it's beautiful that you feel compelled to do those things.

Once again, you're choosing to redefine God's word.

That's not what he says.

He says, You give to me through the local church.

Absolutely, you should give to nonprofits.

We do as a church, Megan and I give to at least four different ones personally.

We do that, but my tithe goes to God through the local church.

I don't get to redefine that.

You don't get to redefine that.

It's when we choose to give the first 10% to God through our local church.

Now I want to give us a couple of principles and then we're gonna wrap up because I know that y'all want to get out of here.

It's okay, it's okay.

Lean in because I believe that this can absolutely change our lives.

Um, and if I haven't mentioned it, the eagles are four and oh.

Okay, so here's the first thing.

Here's here's the first thing.

They're playing at four o'clock.

So, okay, so watch this.

Number one, number one, stay with me, stay with me.

Tithing is returning to God what's already his.

It's not giving, it's returning to God what's already his.

Watch.

When God uses the word, will a man rob me?

No, of course not.

What is he talking about?

The only way someone can be robbed is if you're taking something that belongs to someone else.

That's what robbery is.

Like I'm taking something that belongs to you and I'm taking it for myself.

So the premise that Jesus is helping us to understand is that when we are robbing God, when we're tithing, we're ultimately just simply returning to God what already belongs to him.

I remember talking with a friend of mine, and and because of the way that his business is set up, he doesn't he doesn't tithe every week.

He's a business owner, and because he's a business owner, that ultimately covers his expenses, and then he pays himself quarterly.

But when he pays himself, he tithes off of what he pays.

Y'all, y'all catching me so far?

So when he tithes, it always is like a pretty decent amount because he's he pays himself once every four months.

And so when he first time I saw it, I was like, okay, like I see it comes in, and I'm like, okay, wow, like okay, this is great.

I give him a call.

I'm like, hey, thank you so much for um your generosity, man.

I saw I saw your your tithe come in.

Just thank you so much for your generosity and partnering with the church.

I just kept saying your generosity.

And he said, hey, miss, I want to let you know that's not generosity, that's obedience.

I am not giving, I'm returning.

I'm simply returning what already belongs to God.

So this is not generosity.

Generosity will be when I give above and beyond that.

But right now, I'm just being obedient.

I'm returning to God what already belongs to him.

When we withhold our tithe, ultimately what we're saying is, I'm taking what belongs to God because I think I can do better without him.

Here's the second point.

Here's a second point.

Tithing empowers your local church.

So the first thing is tithing is simply returning to God what's his.

The second point is tithing empowers the local church.

I kind of alluded to this, so I won't spend much time on it, but the text says, bring the full tenth to the storehouse.

That's talking about the house of God.

Now, again, I realize that we live in a world where we have incredible organizations that are doing some amazing work that have kingdom expressions.

We partner with several of them here in the city and globally.

So we feel a responsibility to partner with experts who have a heart and a passion for that.

But what the Bible defines as making sure that we are tithing in the house of God is because there are people that will literally come to the church when they're in their most darkest and deepest moments.

What ends up happening, and just can give you guys a little bit of insight behind the veil of ministry, that what often happens is there are literally organizations, people that you pay your light bill to, all these different organizations that when you are unable to do that, they will often send them to churches to see who can help you come up with the money for said resources.

God's vision for the local church is that in the community it is seen as a place that you can go to to get support and resources when you most need it.

But our ability to do that is only directly connected to the generosity and the obedience that is in our church.

Every single week.

Um, Hope, who's on our staff, she filters through emails and phone calls of people that are reaching out to us, not only of folks that are in our church, but people that are in our community that are coming in and saying, Hey, do you guys have any resources?

So we have a set fund called benevolence that we have set aside to help people so that when those needs arise, but it's limited because it's all percentage-based and connected to the giving in our church.

This is what God is saying.

I want people to look at the church as a place of hope.

I want the people that are in the community to say, Hey, I was out and I didn't have any money, and those folks wouldn't help me, but I went to this church that I Googled and they were able to help me pay for said thing.

And we do that every single week because we're able to do that because of your faithfulness.

But I also want to be very practical for a moment because I do know that as we see in the times of Nehemiah, as we see in the times of Malachi, that it says that the temple had gotten corrupt, that the leaders had gotten corrupt.

And unfortunately, all of us at some point have seen scandals that have taken place in the church that makes us feel a little uncomfortable about giving in the church.

What's it really going to?

A couple of weeks ago, we did our family talk where we sat down and gave us explicit details about how we manage our money.

And if you have questions about that, we'll be glad to answer it.

I don't I don't have the time to get into it, but this is what I'll say just to kind of to summarize this so we can move on with the rest of our service.

First and foremost, that our our finances go undergo an extensive third-party audit that's outside of us.

That report is available that you can see that a third party comes in, looks and makes sure we're in compliance with nonprofit laws, with state laws, and with our governance.

So that's one thing that we have.

The other thing, I just feel compelled to say this I have literally no say over what my salary is.

I wish I did.

It would be a little bit more.

Okay.

Um I have no say.

There's those there's a separate board that determines that.

We have these checks and balances in place because we know it's uncomfortable for me to sit back, like, hey, you know what I should be making, that's unhealthy.

So we have checks and balances that prevent that from happening.

We have we have board oversight that looks over our budgets.

In fact, we're looking at our budgets now, and it should be getting approved next month for next year.

So, what I want you guys to understand is that we function in such a way, we make it available to the church because we do want you to believe that where you're sowing and investing, that it is absolutely good ground.

Stay tuned for our next family talk where we'll be sharing our updates on resources, inclusive of our building that God is leading us to get.

Okay, here's a third, here's a third thing.

Tithing invites God's blessing.

Where there's open hands, there's always an open heaven.

God says these words, like, listen, if you can, if you can test me in this area, watch and see if I don't open up the windows of heaven that you won't have room enough to receive it.

I don't want to manipulate you.

I don't want to give you this idea that, hey, if I give, I'm going to get.

That's unhealthy in the kingdom.

What I am helping you to understand is that when I am in partnership with God's vision, he does respond to it.

I don't get to determine when that response comes.

I used to be a part of different communities, and maybe you have as well, where in these moments when we're talking about resources, it's called a tithing challenge.

And a tithing challenge is because God says, of all the things in my word, test me in this area.

Test me.

God doesn't ask us to test him in anything, but that's the one thing, test me.

If you give, if you're faithful, test me and watch if I don't respond.

So a lot of times what the church will do in order to kind of get us to step out in faith, will say, Hey, we're gonna set up a 90-day tithing challenge.

You tithe for the next 90 days, and if you don't see God's blessing, we'll return your money.

I get it.

I've seen it, I've seen people motivated by it, and I think in the years that I've seen it done, which was over 10 years, I think only three people ever have come back and be like, Yeah, give my money back.

Because for the most part, when you step out in faith, God responds to faith.

But what I want to make sure I'm not doing is I don't want to create an ecosystem where we believe that our faithfulness is transactional.

I don't get to determine when God's gonna respond to you.

I just want to lead you to do what God's word says with no other incentive than just simply being under God's blessing.

We believe fully that when we sow into God's kingdom, he does respond to it, though.

He may do it next week, he may do it next year, he may do it by the time you leave the doors, but God always responds to faith.

I want you guys to hear this and hear it from my heart.

You can do nine, you can do much better with 90% with God's blessing than 100% without.

You can do far more with 90% with God's blessing than 100% without.

Point number four, let's let's Gary wrap this up.

Tithing is an act of faith.

There will always be a measure where it's gonna require you to step out in faith.

There will always be a moment, a challenge, a twinge, if you will, that you're gonna feel uncomfortable because it's requiring you to step out in faith because it's uncomfortable.

But when you express your faith, we know that God responds to it.

The Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please God.

There's gonna be moments that's gonna require us, challenge us to step out in faith.

Amy was up on platform uh a couple weeks ago and she shared her challenge with tithing.

And she ultimately said, But I trusted God.

I stepped out in faith, and God responded to it.

That whenever we choose to be obedient to God's word in that area, it's going to require faith from us.

And it's not about an amount, it's about our willingness to test God's word and trust that he's going to respond to it, which leads me to my fifth and final point.

Tithing requires trust.

It's gonna require faith, but it's going to absolutely require trust.

Let me give you some some quick context.

God's desire from the very beginning, from when he created Adam and Eve, was for us to trust him.

I want us to run wind time and go back to the Garden of Eden.

In the Garden of Eden, here's what the Bible tells us is that God presents them in the garden.

It's beautiful.

They have all types of food, everything is at their disposal.

And God says, Listen, you can have whatever you like.

All of these things are available for you.

Here's the one thing: draw a boundary around this.

This tree right here is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

What God was saying is if you participate in this, what you're going to do is you're going to cross the line, and now you are making up what is good and what is right on your own terms.

You're defining it for yourself.

What I'm asking you to do is to trust me when I tell you what's right and when I tell you something's wrong.

Go and do what you will with that.

Fast forward, the one thing, the one thing, man, you got one job, one thing that they were called to not do, they chose to do it.

Because in our human nature, there's something inside of us that makes us believe that God is holding out on us.

In our human nature, there's something inside of us that makes us believe.

I know that God's word says this, but this is how I feel, this is what I think, this is what culture says.

God's desire has always been for us to trust Him, to take Him at His word, to not define good and evil on our own terms.

Scriptures over and over again, so don't trust your own heart.

Don't trust it because we're gonna define things.

Don't trust your own mind because we're looking at things through a very narrow lens.

God has an eternal perspective and he's gonna tell us to do some things, and God's word says his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts, that we're not on the same page, and so we have to align ourselves at a place where we simply say, God, I trust you.

It's uncomfortable, but I trust you.

It doesn't make sense, but I trust you, and it's in that space that we see miracles take place.

When we tithe, it reveals what we place our trust in.

Here's the real here's here's the real thing.

I've been doing this a long time, and every time we have these conversations, there's moments that I empathize.

I remember sitting in the seats and and looking at my budget, and I'm like, man, I I can't I can't afford it.

I get it.

But here's the truth we often say, I can't afford to tithe.

That's not true.

Because we're tithing somewhere, we're just not choosing to tithe to God.

We're tithing to when we go out to restaurants, we're tithing to when we go and get coffee, we're tithing to we're tithing to the bank, we're tithing to our loan, we're tithing to our car payment.

The first 10% is going somewhere, we're just choosing not to give it to God.

What God's word is challenging us with is can you just put me first?

Can you reprioritize and put me first and watch what I do as a result of that?

We don't give out of abundance, we give from a place of trust.

As we close, I want to share that I I remember when when I came into full-time ministry.

At the time, I was working in a school system, I was an administrator, and and I wouldn't say that we were bawling, but I was bawling adjacent.

Like the people next to us were bawling, and I was in the same neighborhood with them.

So as far as I was concerned, we was getting close to it.

So we weren't we weren't bawling, but I remember when I got my job offer that when a C when a CFO handed me the job offer to come into full-time ministry, she started off with an apology, like, I'm sorry, this is the best we can do.

Because she knew that what I was making in the school system, I wouldn't be making in ministry.

And when I opened up the letter, it was it was a$30,000 pay cut.

$30,000.

I didn't have the financial margin to take$30,000 backwards.

But I knew that God had begun to stir my heart into going into full-time ministry.

So God said, Keith, I don't love you anymore or any less if you do this.

But what I want to ask you is, do you want to stand in my presence and say that you didn't do what I called you to do because I couldn't afford you?

It changed everything.

And I said, I trust you.

We stepped into that space, we took it.

Then God opened up a door for Megan to come on staff full-time.

And still, together, our salaries together was still less than what I made at the school system, but oddly enough, we brought home more.

Now, this wasn't witchcraft, it wasn't anything weird.

The truth of the matter is the benefits for the church were cheaper than the benefits for the school system, so that was how we were able to make up the difference.

But I never would have seen that if we didn't step out and trust God.

Sometimes I think that we're waiting for everything to make sense, but we just won't see it until we step into it.

Some of us are saying that I can't afford to tithe, but the reality is we can't afford not to.

It's from this place that I know that God will bless me.

What I know is in this room, there are typically two responses.

There's ones that will recognize I hear what you're saying, I'm in agreement and I'm gonna align myself with God's word, and there's the other side that resists it.

Yeah, I hear that, but and one of the biggest debates that I've seen, and this is one of the things that kind of divides Christians, is how do we view the tithe?

Do we have to tithe?

Is that an old testament practice?

Is it New Testament?

What is God really requiring of us?

So let me do my best to speak to those of us that have those questions.

Do I have to tithe?

We don't have to do anything.

We don't have to come to church.

We don't have to serve.

We don't have to worship.

You don't have to read your Bible.

We don't do any of these things from a place of have to.

We do it because we get to.

I get to.

I get to serve.

I get to go to the house of God.

I get to, and as I do these things, these strengthen my faith.

But at a very practical level, I think that we have approached tithing the wrong way.

Because as I've been preparing for this message, I've been doing a deep dive into generosity through the lens of the Bible.

Here's where we have missed it for years.

We've often said that tithing is 10%.

But when you break down God's word from the Old Testament perspective, they didn't just give 10%, they actually gave more to 30.

10% went to the to the to the to the priests, another 10% went to the poor, and another 10% went to the festivals that they held.

30% was the standard for an Israelite back in the Old Testament times.

We typically talk about the 10% that goes into the house of God.

In the New Testament, it wasn't just the 30%, it was more like 50% and more.

They gave more.

So my question is yes, you don't have to tithe, but when Jesus shows up on a scene, he never requires less of us, he requires more of us.

So let me free you up.

Tithing is just the entry point.

That's literally just the beginning.

That's the starting point.

That's just the beginning of what it means to be a person that lives with kingdom generosity.

And what stewardship says is, God, everything I have is yours.

And because of what you've given me, I want to be faithful.

And as God sees that we're faithful, I can trust you with more.

And as we're faithful with that, I trust you with more.

And then we become conduits of God's blessings.

The very first thing that God says to Abraham, as I'm going to bless you so that you can be a blessing to others.

That has been passed on to us.

And I want to be a person that God can trust with more, because the more that God can trust me, the more that He sends through me, and that all things go up.

What I want to encourage us with is in this moment, here's a couple of things I want us to do as we talk about time.

Start.

Start today.

Start.

Be specific.

This is what I'm going to start to do and be consistent.

I'm going to do this this frequently.

When we don't put it into those patterns, it's easy for us to talk ourselves out of it.

Start today.

Be very specific about what you're going to start doing and be consistent, and that becomes a standard that we live our lives by.

We're going to go into a time of just reflection and giving, and we're going to wrap up.

We always do tithing and giving as a part of our worship expression here at celebration, but I wanted to talk to us about this so that we have a moment where we can just be thankful.

Every Sunday we have a moment where we sit and we're thankful for what God has given us.

We have a 45-second countdown clock, and maybe you never understood the reason for that.

That's because we're thanking God for giving us the resources that He trusts us with.

But in addition to that, we're also seeking God's wisdom on what he wants us to do with that.

And what I can assure you is that when we genuinely seek God about God, how do you want me to steward my resources?

I have not seen one time yet where God said, keep it for yourself.

I haven't seen it in scripture.

And we're going to talk about that a little bit more in the weeks to come.

But in this time, as we go into this moment of reflection, let's celebrate the goodness of God and the fact that He gives us resources.

But let's also be in prayer about God.

Do you want me to partner with the vision of your local church?

God, how do you want me to participate?

And I assure you that He will speak to us, and our only response is to be obedient.

Lord, I thank you so much for your word.

I thank you for this opportunity to have these weighty conversations and teachings that are rooted in your word, but they will produce fruit.

So, God, I pray for the person that is that is struggling, the person who looks at their budget and they just have enough money to be broke.

So genuinely looking for them to give 10% consistently.

It doesn't even seem like it's a reality.

Father, I don't want them to feel condemned.

I want them to have peace.

But Lord, I pray that you can challenge them to reorganize their budget in such a way that maybe they have to make some adjustments.

When I came into full-time ministry, I cut off cable and other things so that I could prioritize God and God bless us as a result of that sacrifice.

What do we need to make adjustments in so that we can be in alignment with God's word and his will?

So as we have this time of reflection, Lord, speak to us.

Stir our hearts so that way it can activate our hands.

In Jesus' name.

Thanks again for listening.

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