Everyone Has a Next Step… in Their Giving | Pastor Chris Kouba

Grab your Bibles, open them up with Mark chapter 12.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 12 is where we're going to be.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

And please grab your journals.

Hopefully you were bringing your journals.

If you do not have a journal with you today, would you just kind of raise your hand and let us have the opportunity to make sure to get one of these to you?

Just keep your hands up.

We got folks that are going to be walking all around and get these to you.

We want to make sure that you use these journals.

You have the opportunity to use them and take notes.

Page 17 is where we're going to be today in this message series.

Page 17, again, just keep them up.

I promise you we'll get those to you here in just a moment.

And uh we certainly want to walk through uh this with you today.

Um, I do want to welcome all of those who are joining us online.

We've got a bunch of folks that would stream every week, watch our services, as well as those who are joining us on the Pando app all over the place.

Uh let's give them a hand and celebrate all of those that are there.

Let's keep our hands up, we'll get them to you.

Keep them up, keep them up.

Yep.

We got a few more right here if we can.

Perfect.

Uh, we will get them to you in just a moment.

Uh Hillary and I made a really bad decision.

Uh uh, we actually is a bad decision in terms of what we said.

It wasn't a bad decision to what we did.

We actually moved into another home uh about a year ago, not quite a year ago, uh here in the area.

And whenever we moved into the house, our decision was that we were gonna make sure uh that we did everything that we wanted to do to the house right away, because you know how this goes.

Whenever you move into a house and you have intentions of doing something, and then you look up five years later and it looks no different than it did whenever you first kind of moved in.

And so we we decided that we wanted to make all the changes we wanted to make, get the furniture the right way, get the the paint colors, whatever else.

It wasn't a lot of remodeling, but we had to do some things to the house to kind of make it our own and ours.

And so we we kind of rushed hard and hit the date and we accomplished the goal, and we were so pleased, and we looked at each other, and here's the decision that we made that we regret.

We said to each other, we will never do another thing to this house ever again.

Like we're done.

A couple of weeks ago, we're sitting in the living room, we're watching television, and Hillary goes, You know this rug's not gonna work, right?

It's like, what do you mean?

I'd not notice, I mean it's not working at all, but I wasn't gonna say that.

She's like, you know, this is not gonna fit, and you do also know that the coffee table that we have in here isn't the right size for the room.

We're gonna need to switch that.

And I'm like, well, you know that patio chair you got outside?

I don't like that either.

I just want you to know that.

And we look up and all of a sudden we got all this project list of stuff that we're wanting to do, go and do to kind of change or fix the house.

And you all know what that looks like if you're a homeowner in this room, that you should never say that you're done with your house.

Because something's gonna happen to the house that's gonna have to cause you to then think about it differently, or maybe what you thought was in style right now is not gonna be at some point.

And even though it looks fine to you, at the end of the day, you're gonna have this desire to want to go and change it.

You never arrive if you're a homeowner.

You're always fixing, changing, improving, replacing something.

How about with the issue of parenting?

I remember whenever we had our first child, uh Caitlin, and she was uh born, and we just thought if we can just sleep for eight hours, we will have arrived in parenting.

Like that's the whole goal of life is to do that.

And then sure enough, started sleeping longer, and then guess what happened?

She became a toddler.

And then we realize there's a whole nother level of stage of parenting that we got to deal with, and then she became a preteen, and we realize there's a lot of drama that goes along in the preteen years, and then we realize there's the teenage years.

Now we've got four teenagers in the thick of those teenage years, and what we've realized is this is that when it comes to a parent, what happens is that each new season brings different challenges and opportunities, but you never arrive as a parent.

You're always still the parent.

And it may look different, but there's never gonna be a place whenever you're like, I'm good.

In fact, I would say the parents who struggle the most are the ones who think that somehow they're finished parenting.

They gotta realize it's an ongoing process.

Think about professional athletes.

One of the things that professional athletes do is they work so hard to make it to the NBA, to make it to Major League Baseball, to make it to the NFL.

They go and they get there, they get their name called on that draft day, they can play for that team, but guess what?

They don't stop training.

They in fact train more.

They, in fact, put in more work, they continue to work on their shot.

LeBron James, 41 years old, been in the league for 22 years.

You know what he still does?

He still works on his shot.

He still watches game film, he still makes sure to meet with a trainer to work.

Why?

Because here's a principle I want you to write down that is so important in all of life.

Growth isn't a destination, it's a direction.

Growth isn't a destination that you arrive to, it's instead a direction.

We're in the middle of a sermon series that we started a couple of weeks ago called Blueprint, and we're trying to figure out how do we build a life?

How do we build a church?

Like if you were to look at the plans before you're gonna build something, it's important that those plans communicate something to you so that you know what it is to build, what the steps are that you have to take.

And we've walked through a number of weeks of this, and today we're starting to begin to build the actual walls of the house.

And here's what I want you to see.

You may all be at different stages of the building process, and that's okay.

But what I want you to discover is this this principle is true about never arriving, and we do it, we say it in a different way here at the United City.

This is one of our core values.

It's this everyone has what?

A next step.

Like we really do believe that.

Like we believe all of us are on a journey, all of us are on a path until we get to heaven to be with God and we are fully glorified.

At the end of the day, we're all in the sanctification process if we're believers in Jesus.

We're all in process, we're all being worked on.

Which means this is that you can grow in your prayer life.

So we're gonna talk to you about prayer.

You can grow in your evangelism, you can share your faith with others, you can always grow and do more in that.

So we want to talk to you about what that looks like.

We want to talk to you about what it looks like to read God's word and to put God's word in you.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of standing right here and literally doing the funeral for one of my heroes, Coach Neil Quillen.

Coach Quillen was a longtime football coach here in the Umble area and just an unbelievably gracious, incredible man to me at a personal level.

And Neil Quillin, one of the things I got to talk about at his service was that he'd read through the Bible 16 times and he was on his 17th trip when he passed away.

What does that show you?

He loved God's word and didn't think that somehow, once he read it, boxes checked, and then he's done.

He knew that there's always more to learn, there's always more to grow.

Here's what I want to talk to you about today.

I want to talk to you about how this same principle is also true when it comes to your finances.

When it comes to your money.

Here's the main takeaway from the message today: it's this everyone has a next step in their giving.

Everyone has a next step in their giving.

What I want you to see is that the issue of finances is not one where it's like, okay, fine.

I'm tithing.

I finally decided to do it.

That's I'm good.

That's that's not how you think about it.

Or I've given for the first time.

Okay, fine.

Like I've given.

Like all you guys ever talk about is money.

All you guys ever care about is money.

Fine, I did it.

Somehow I'm no first of all, this isn't about money.

We're gonna see this is about your heart, but you can't separate your heart from your finances.

And if we're gonna be faithful to you, what we want to do is talk to you about the whole council of God.

We want to talk to you about all that God's word speaks about.

And so when it comes to this specific issue of money, what I want to show you is a passage in Mark chapter 12 where we see two different people giving two different amounts, and Jesus has a radical reaction that shows us some things that we should key in on as it relates to how we should think about our money, which ultimately leads to thinking about our hearts before the Lord.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

Would you stand in the honor of reading of God's word?

Mark chapter 12.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

I want to read verses 41 through 44.

It reads, and he sat, this is Jesus, the one that he is he, he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box.

Many rich people put in large sums, and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.

And he called his disciples to him and said to them, Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box.

For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.

You may be seated.

Verses 38 through 40, the headline in my Bible says, Beware of the scribes.

It's basically Jesus calling out the scribes who it says, Devour widows' houses.

The religious leaders are exploiting the people they were actually supposed to help.

They were exploiting the people who are the least.

Then Jesus follows that in verse 41 through 44 by actually noticing a widow.

The exact person who it was taken advantage of in the previous passage is now the model of true faith.

That's very intentional.

Let me set the scene up for you.

What you see is that Jesus goes into the temple treasury.

The temple treasury would have 13 trumpet type looking receptacles, and all of those would be how they receive the offering.

Let me just stop for a quick second and make a little quick plug.

I want to plug the Israel trip that I'm taking at the end of the year.

I'm leaving the day after Christmas, uh, and we're going to take on a 10-day trip to go see the Holy Land.

Let me just tell you something right now.

You will never be able to hear what I just described in Mark chapter 12 the same way if you've been to Israel, because you immediately begin to think of that temp that treasury.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

It's a life-changing trip.

I think every believer should go at some point.

I'm telling you, it one just validates your faith in every way.

A little side plug, would love to have you consider going with me.

I'm actually going to do an interest meeting.

I'll talk about it in a couple of weeks, uh, that you can find more information out about it, but little plug for that trip, okay?

What you see then is Jesus goes into the temple treasury.

He's sitting there amongst all these receptacles, and it says, Some rich men come in.

How do we know that they're rich?

Well, maybe by reputation, maybe they're rich just because of the fact that they've done some things in the past, or maybe they were well known, or maybe we know that they're rich because they bring in these sacks that are like full of money and kind of clang them down so they prepare to go and put them into the treasury.

It's then contrasted by a poor widow.

And look at the the description that comes that's said of her.

She brings two small copper coins which make a penny.

The word penny is the Greek word lepta, the smallest, most worthless coin in all of circulation.

To give you a perspective, a denarius was a day's wages, a lepta was one sixty-fourth of a denarius.

Basically, it was nothing by any economic measure.

But watch what Jesus does.

He doesn't call attention to the wealthy donors, he doesn't commend them.

He doesn't, he instead calls his disciples over and says, This, truly I say to you, that poor widow has put in more than all of those who are contributing to the offering boxes.

Now we learned a few weeks ago that God's really bad at math, right?

That basically we learned that 90 is greater than 100, which doesn't add up in our system, but somehow adds up in his economy.

And so what we know is that God will say things that on the surface don't seem to make sense to us, which is why it's required that we have faith, stepping out to believe in these things in order to experience what he also says goes along with it.

Here it doesn't make any sense because he says there that this woman who gives two small coins gives greater than all of the rich people with all of their bags of money.

How and why?

Look at verse 44 again.

For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything that she had, all that she had to live on.

Here's what you need to understand about the story things are not as they seem.

What looked insignificant was presented as a model for greatness.

What looked impressive was presented as expected.

I want to show you three truths.

Write these things down, beginning on page 17.

Write these things down.

Three ways that you can take a next step in your giving, three principles that can help you.

Okay?

Number one is this God sees what you give.

God sees what you give.

Look again at verse 41.

He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting the money into the offering box.

Jesus is in the temple and it says he sat down in a very specific spot.

The Greek language there doesn't just mean that it was kind of like random, like, oh, just this looks like a good seat.

I'll sit right here.

He sat in such a way where he would have like prime viewing to see what everybody gave.

And it implies that he's sitting there watching what people are giving.

Okay, PC, what does this mean?

Does this mean that God checks my bank account?

Yeah.

Like I know that you have to have like an authentic authentication, whatever, uh two two-factor authentication or whatever it is, and you gotta text your spouse and she's never paying any attention whenever you text her and you need the code within five minutes, and then it goes.

Is that just me?

That's just a little sore spot in our house.

But uh, it's one of those kinds of things, like you know, like you you gotta have your password and it has to make you change your password.

And I've changed my password so many times I don't even know what the stupid password is in the first place, which makes you have to change the password again, and it's just on and on and on this whole process to get into your bank account to be able to see it.

Can I please tell you God doesn't need your password?

And he's not gonna get a code that he's gonna have to remember so that you can get in.

He sees it.

And I don't say that to scare you, I say that as an invitation because God cares about your heart.

So he's watching, not to catch you, he's watching to care for you.

Because he wants to invite you into a relationship where you're not just operating based upon what you've got, but you're operating based upon what you can give and see what he's got.

That's what he wants you to experience.

And so this invitation is one where God is leading us and calling us to respond to him in such a way where we we respond and see what it is that our hearts are revealed by what we give.

This implies that we give anything, and that's not a good assumption.

There's so many folks who give nothing to anywhere, much less a church.

Did you know that the national averages for people who give, no, not in believing outside of the church, just anybody out there, giving to charitable causes is 2%.

2%.

If you put the church in there, you want to know where the church is at?

2.7 percent.

What does that show us?

We don't believe anything different than the world does.

And now I realize this could be because of maybe maybe you you you've overspent, maybe you're in the middle of debt, maybe you're in the struggle.

Maybe you're listening to me talking about this and you're like, dude, there's no way we can talk about giving anything because I'm in so much, I'm trying to figure out how to get out of all the craziness that I've got myself in.

Please hear me.

We got a booth out in the lobby today about Financial Peace University.

You do not have to do this alone.

Like, we want this whole series is something for you, not from you.

And so we want to help you, we want to guide you, we want to walk through this because here's the thing: God can restore the years the locusts have eaten.

If you've screwed it all up, God can fix it.

But he's not gonna fix it unless you go to him.

But know this he sees, he watches.

So some of you he knows that you maybe give occasionally.

Some of you maybe he knows that you you give sporadically.

For some of you, he sees that you give regularly, but then you feel like you're kind of done.

And what I want you to know this is that he sees what you give and he sees what you keep.

There's a direct link from your wallet to your worship where you spend your money shows what you're most passionate about.

What you spend your money shows what you place your trust in.

What you spend your money shows what you think will fulfill you.

Second Chronicles 16, verse 9.

2 Chronicles 16:9

It's one of my favorite verses in all of the Bible.

For the eyes of the Lord look to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

God is not asking for money because he's not sure how he's gonna make the budget next month.

He owns a cattle in a thousand hills.

I read it this morning in my time with the Lord.

Psalm chapter 50, verse 10.

Psalms 50:10

It's a reminder.

God has everything.

Like he is not worried about paying the bills, he doesn't need some large donors to make sure to mine the gap.

That's not what this is about.

But instead, what I want you to see is that God desires that we love him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And you cannot do that apart from this area, which is most people find themselves in bondage to, which is their finances.

Jesus teaches in Matthew chapter 6 that you should give in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

This widow is somebody who gave unannounced and unapplauded, but guess who saw it?

Jesus did.

And that's what matters.

God is watching, not because he needs your money, but because he wants your heart.

So here's my question.

I'm not gonna do this.

But if somebody did and they looked at your bank account for the last three months of spending, what would they conclude is the most important thing to you?

Because God is looking.

He's not trying to judge you, but he does see what you give.

And he longs to invite you into a different way of living.

I want you to write this down.

Number two, the second thing you need to know that can help you take a next step in giving is number two, God measures by sacrifice, not by size.

God measures by sacrifice, not by size.

Jesus said that this widow gave more than everyone else.

Clearly not an amount, but certainly in sacrifice.

Let me show you why this matters.

The wealthy donors, the Bible says here, the rich people, gave out of their abundance.

Let's just talk for the sake of conversation.

And I hope this isn't um it's uh it's easy math.

That's why I chose the number that I did, okay?

Let's just say you have a hundred thousand dollars.

That's what you make a year.

Let's just grab that because it's easy to do 10% of that, is$10,000.

Okay.

$10,000 is a lot of money.

It's a lot of money.

But it means that you still have$90,000 in order to live on.

For some of you, you're in a position to where honestly you could give away 20, 30, 50% of your money and be fine.

Like you could be totally fine.

It's not about the percentage per se, as much as it is talking about the type of response that he gave, because he's comparing this rich person who's given, yes, some money, that's a lot of money, but it's not that much money to him.

Compared to the widow, who it says she gave all that she had to live on.

She didn't give out of her surplus, she gave out of her substance.

And here's what's stunning: Mark uses the word all or everything.

She gave everything that she had.

The rich gave out of their surplus or their abundance.

Two different worlds describe, two different words describing two different approaches to giving.

Now, here's the thing: no financial advisor would ever tell this lady this was a smart move.

I got two coins, I want to give it to the church.

So, financial advisor that would be wise to say, hey, give one to the church.

I get it.

But you should maybe keep one to eat.

Like you should maybe keep one to live on.

But what happened?

This woman wasn't trying to play games with God.

She was instead stepping out in full faith, saying, God, I'm giving you complete control of everything in my life, and I'm trusting that you will take care of me.

Second Corinthians chapter 9, verse 6 and 7 says this.

2 Corinthians 9:6

Remember this, the point is this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Ask this question: Are you truly sacrificing when you give?

Does your giving imply that you believe God will not only meet your needs now, but that God will meet your needs later?

Do you believe that God will increase your level of income so that you can increase your level of giving?

This is when giving becomes a joy.

When you give and you trust God and you see Him increase your ability to give even more.

Randy Alcorn, in the one of the best books I think that's ever been written about money, besides the Bible, in his book, Treasure Principle, says this.

God gives us more money than we need so that we can give generously.

Let me say this clearly.

God weighs not the size of the gift, but the significance of that size in proportion to your giving potential.

A.W.

Tozer said it this way.

He said, In God's sight, my giving is measured not by how much I have given, but by how much I could have given and how much I had left after I made my gift.

Let's kind of go there.

What percentage of your income do you give?

Not what percentage do you spend.

On eating out or entertainment or your car payment or your hobbies.

I'm not judging those things, but I am asking: is your giver giving sacrificial or is your giving safe?

Does it require faith, or is it just kind of what's left over?

Proverbs chapter 11, verse 24 and 25 says, This one gives freely yet grows all the richer.

Proverbs 11:24

Another withholds what he should give and only suffers want.

Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and the one who waters will himself be watered.

We want you to experience the superabundant blessings of God.

Let me just ask this question.

I've been getting a bunch of folks that have reached out to me and have told me they have a story like the Kimballs, they have a story like Todd, where they operated in God's economy and God showed up in their lives in profound ways.

If that is you, would you raise your hand so we can see it?

If that's your story, you're like, man, God's done some crazy stuff in my heart.

Like he's getting some crazy provision.

Look around.

There's people all over that are raising their hands.

They're each individual stories that if you trust God, you will see He comes through.

We don't just see, I know the Lord will provide.

What do we do?

We live it.

We live it.

And the only way you can live it is if you have to trust.

You have to actually give it.

You have to actually experience the Lord's goodness.

Overwhelming.

You cannot outgive our God.

I'm telling you.

I've tried, it doesn't work.

He just keeps giving you more and more and more, which allows you to give away more and more and more.

Third thing I want you to write down is this you never arrive and you're giving.

You never arrive and you're giving.

There's implied here three different levels in this story.

The wealthy giving large amounts, the widow giving small amounts, and then there's an implied that there's some people that give nothing.

Here's what's amazing.

Jesus doesn't condemn the wealthy for giving large amounts.

He does notice the widow sacrifice, but he doesn't condemn the rich for giving out of their abundance.

The issue is not that they didn't give anything, it's that they could have given a lot more.

Having more means that there's always a next step available.

Luke chapter 12, verse 48 says this when someone has been given much, much will be required in return.

Luke 12:48

And when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.

The wealthy in our story weren't wrong to give large amounts.

They just had the capacity to give more.

God's expectations are proportional to what he has entrusted to us.

But if you give more, that means that you're more committed, right?

And if you give less, that means that you're less committed, right?

No, Jesus teaches something different.

He teaches that giving is measured by the sacrifice for you than it is the amount.

That's why I want you to take your booklets out and open them up with me to page 27.

Page 27.

First of all, as you turn there, let me just show you really quickly what page 24 has some resources.

Two of these resources right in the lobby today.

One of those is financial peace.

We want to put you in a position to where if you're struggling with this, you're in debt, you're just finances are a wreck.

Man, come talk to us.

Like we want to walk with you.

Financial peace is where you need to be.

You can go to the booth out in the lobby today.

If you're already tithing and you're like, man, I'm already given to the Lord, and so I think I'm good.

We have a group that's called the Vision Team that basically exists.

You're self-selecting to be a part of it, where you basically say, Hey, I want to know about opportunities that are above and beyond what's in the normal operating budget that I can give towards so that the mission of Christ can go forward here at the United City Church.

You be a part of the vision team.

We'd love to sign you up.

Uh Bruce Poole will be out there who oversees our vision team and would love to talk with you about this.

Uh, you can also set up recurring giving.

I know some of you like to think that you're here every single week, but guess what?

You're not.

Okay.

And you know what how I know that?

Because I know where you sit.

All right.

I do.

You all sit in the same spot every single week.

So I know when you're here and I know when you're not, okay?

Uh and so I don't want to encourage you.

Like, don't let your attendance be the only thing that measures your giving, but instead let your recurring giving be something that's there.

Look at the next page, it gives you a bunch of different resources.

The bottom one has that one right there, the treasure principle, the book that I mentioned to you.

I think is the best book ever about finances right there.

Just want to encourage you, and there's a bunch of different resources as well.

But go to this page, page 27.

Next week is commitment Sunday.

I'm gonna ask you to mark where you believe the Lord is leading you to commit to going forward related to your finances.

Okay.

Um, why are you gonna make it do that?

Because I I think there's something that is sacred about you making a public commitment.

That's why we we do public next steps.

That's why we do a public invitation.

That's part of the reason why we do that.

Spontaneous giving.

Some of you, what you need to do is give for the very first time.

Praise God if that's what God leads you to do.

Man, that's awesome.

Some of you need to move this next stage of continuous giving, where it's not just like you've given one time, but instead, you kind of like are making this a little bit more of a pattern of your life.

The next one is priority giving.

This is whenever you give maybe a specific percentage.

Maybe you begin to live off of that 90% and you begin to give God 10% and you you change your giving in such a way where it's also automated.

This is becomes where it's not just like if I think about it, but it becomes something that's a priority.

And so I'm gonna rearrange the rest of my life around me making this a priority.

For some of you, you need to do the strategic giving.

This is when you give above uh your 10%.

This is whenever you give above and beyond to the things of God.

This is whenever you respond to various things.

You give opportunities that we have made available to you or other things that you may hear.

This is where Hillary and I are.

We love being in this category right here.

We're we're hoping this year.

When I say hoping, meaning we're already working towards it in a big way to try to get to 15% of our income is given away.

Like 15% off the top.

10% to the God's church.

We give another percentage to the vision team.

We've got a God fund that we've set up that basically just allows us to bless folks along the way.

We sponsor a compassion child.

We got a couple of the pregnancy center.

We give a couple of different places that we are passionate about.

And what I found is this this is where you get to be a cheerful giver.

Super fun.

Like it's a great place to be.

And I don't tell you that to like brag, I some might tell you that to be accountable.

Like I want to be able to, you'd ask me and be like, hey, how's that going?

And I have to, uh yeah, I don't just want to have good intentions.

I actually want to do good follow-through.

Okay.

But this is whenever you begin to strategize your giving.

How can I give even more?

What does this look like?

Legacy giving.

Todd talked about this last week.

He had a business, he had a company, he was making a lot of money, God was doing some great things.

He was able to sell his business.

He talks about it in his book, and set up Hope Legacy Collective, which exists to go and bless other nonprofits.

He allowed his giving to multiply into the future.

For some of you, what God wants you to do is to ask for God's wisdom and blessing on your life so that you can make way more money and do exactly what Todd said last week.

He thought that he was going to be called by God to be a preacher, and instead, God calls him to be a businessman who could do more for the kingdom of God than he ever could do from the pulpit.

Folks, I think some of you, what you need is a God-sized vision to crush it into your business, to do well in your company for kingdom causes.

For you to be able to live for things, to live in that way where you begin to think that how can this giving, how can the resources God has given me go way beyond just me?

Folks, next week, what we're gonna do is we're gonna ask you to answer this question and bring it forward and come and commit before the Lord.

But let me just ask you right now, where am I?

Ask this question of yourself.

Where am I?

And what's my next step?

I'm not asking you to compare this to some family that's sitting next to you.

I'm asking for you.

For your family, for your spouse.

The enemy's gonna want you just to blow this off.

I'm asking you to actually pray through this.

Have some conversations, engage with each other and talk through where we are, and more importantly, where do we think we need to be.

Second Corinthians 9, verse 10 and 11.

2 Corinthians 9:10

It says he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

You will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

Notice the cycle in this passage.

What you begin to see is that number one, God supplies.

Then you see that you sow, then you see that God multiplies, then God begins to increase your capacity, and then it leads you to give more generously.

Folks, what I want you to know is this most of us want number three before we want number one and two.

God has already given you plenty.

All you gotta do is sow it.

If you sow meagerly, you're gonna reap meagerly, but if you sow bountifully, then you're gonna reap bountifully.

God's gonna multiply, He's gonna increase your capacity, and then He's gonna allow you to give even more.

You never arrive when it comes to your generosity.

You know, we found out that a house is never truly finished.

There's always maintenance, there's always improvements, there's always additions.

Parents never stop growing and never stop having to be the parent.

Athletes never stop training in the same way.

Generosity isn't something that you check off and you move on.

It's a lifestyle of building, of growing in your trust of God.

So let me just ask the question.

When was the last time that your giving required faith?

When was the last time that you gave something where you thought, I don't have no idea how this is gonna work out, but I trust God?

Todd last week talked about the debt that he had as a company.

What he talks about in the book, and what he I don't think he had an opportunity to share in the in the service, was that he made a commitment to a building campaign here at this church.

And he had no idea how it was all gonna work out.

But he knew God was leading him to do it.

And what God ended up doing is not only providing enough to be able to cover what he had pledged for the building, but God also then began to make him on a journey that led him to think, I don't want to stop at a building.

I want to continue to fund ministries more and more and more as I go forward.

And it led to a lifestyle of compounding trust in the Lord and provision from the Lord.

What is God leading you to do?

Next week's commitment Sunday, we're gonna ask you to commit, but I want to ask you, make the commitment right now.

Pray through it this week.

God, where are you pulling me towards?

Where are you leading me to?

What do you want to do in and through me?

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes all across this room?

For some of you, your issue isn't in your giving, it's in your receiving.

Second Corinthians chapter 8, verse 9 says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 8:9

You see, this widow was a picture of the gospel.

She didn't give part of her offering, part of what she had, she gave all of it.

God sent his son Jesus to come down to this earth, not to pay for most of your sins, to see if he could kind of make a dent in the debt that you owed.

The Bible says he gave everything, he sacrificed himself.

And by sacrificing himself on that cross, he paid the penalty that we owed.

He then rose from the dead and invites us into this relationship.

And the relationship is this we get to become rich, and he takes what we bring to the table, which is nothing.

It's the greatest exchange in all of history, and it can be yours today.

Just pray this simple prayer with me right now.

Dear God, I want your riches.

I bring nothing to the table other than my sins.

But I believe that you died on a cross for those sins, that you rose from the dead, and right this moment I receive you into my life to be my Lord and to be my Savior.

Continue to keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed.

If you just prayed that prayer with me, I want to invite you.

In just a moment, we're all gonna stand up.

That's gonna be your visual cue.

Everybody stands up, just step out from where you are and come forward.

If you're in the balcony, we're gonna have people at the bottom of these steps of the balcony.

If you're in the front, we're gonna have people at the bottom of the front of this service.

Go tell someone, I just gave my life to Jesus.

Others of you need to come and join the United City Church.

God's leading you to be a part of this church, not just to be on the fringe, be on the outskirts, to be all in.

Would you lead the way today?

Your coming is gonna help encourage others, I promise.

Maybe some of you need to be baptized like this one that we saw.

This is your public next step.

Would you come and let us schedule and talk through your baptism?

Others of you may need prayer today.

And I get it, man.

When you talk about money, it's just uncomfortable.

Like I feel it.

I don't feel it because I'm nervous about talking about it.

I feel it because I know how much conviction it has brought in my own life.

Greatest issue of struggle that Hillary and I have had in our entire marriage have been finances.

The enemy just wants to mess with you on this.

And I would tell you this: what we realized is that it was never really about money.

It was always really about what the money revealed in our hearts.

And that's where God began to work on us and has allowed us to come to some unity whenever we've begun to trust Him and realize that God's got this.

Maybe for some of you, you're in the middle of that journey.

One, I would just tell you you're not alone.

But two, let us pray with you, let us help you.

Maybe you've got a need.

We want to come alongside and pray with you in that as well.

Father, in Jesus' name, I pray that you would move in these final moments.

Lead people to life changing decisions today.

It's in the name of Jesus that I pray.

Amen.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We can't wait to see you next week for any of our services at 8 30, 10, 11 30, or Espanol at 1 o'clock.