90 > 100 | Pastor Chris Kouba

The best advice I've gotten about money is spend it while you got it.

Alright, the best advice I've ever gotten about money is just to spend it as fast as you can.

The best advice I've ever gotten about money is spend more than you make.

The best advice I ever got on money was to double it at the casino.

Best advice I ever got about money was take care of your wants first and your needs later.

The best advice I've ever gotten about money is if you see it, you buy it.

You buy everything.

All of it.

You want it, you get it.

The best advice I've ever gotten on money is whenever you come across a large sum of money, just put it all on red.

My father and mother have told me to gamble with all my medicine.

Alright, the best advice about money is if you want to be rich, buy expensive things.

The best advice I've ever gotten about money is never, under any circumstances, should you ever have a joint bank account with your spouse.

Don't let your spouse know where your money is going.

Best advice I've ever gotten.

Man, that's awesome.

Hey, real quick before we get going, uh, I want to make sure everybody gets a journal.

We should have had a journal in your seat.

Grab your journals, wave them up at me so I can see your journals.

These are gonna be your friends for the next three weeks.

So I want to encourage you to keep these, to bring these back.

Anyone not have a journal?

Would you raise your hand?

We want to make sure we get one to you.

Uh anybody, anybody at all?

Okay, sweet.

Well then uh a few of you right here, uh, we can get you one, but we want to make sure that you keep these, that you bring these, that you bring these to your life groups.

If you're not in a group, this is a perfect opportunity for you to jump into a group and you can use this as some help for discussion.

This is also some things that you can go back to and begin to uh look at some of the material that is going to be presented in this.

And so I want to make sure that everybody gets a copy of the journal.

I do want to make sure uh to uh protect all of the innocent, those who are in the video.

Uh we asked them the question what's the best advice you've ever received about money?

Wrong answers only.

So this isn't necessarily a reflection of what they actually believe.

Uh so I want to give you a heads up on that.

Uh however, here's the problem.

Some of you, that's the advice that you actually did receive when it comes to the topic of money.

Grab your Bibles, open them up with me to Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

That's where we're gonna spend uh a little bit of time.

We're actually gonna kind of jump all over the place today, but I want to talk about money because here's what I've discovered is that most people don't really have a clue when it comes to how you're supposed to do money.

Maybe you're fortunate and you're you're great, and that you had a family that passed down some really good money management principles and that you kind of really understood all that goes along with all the aspects of money management.

But for most people, what I've discovered is it's kind of a trial and error deal.

I try some things to see if it works, and then when it doesn't, I try to figure out some other way of doing it.

And there's no real like discussion about money.

And what's also weird is that like as you're growing up, you tend to like at some point either realize, oh, my family actually has a lot of money, or you realize, oh, my family doesn't have very much money at all.

And then whichever one you fit in, you kind of realize everybody's not like not like me.

Things are a little bit different.

And what we've also discovered is this is that when you look at the vast landscape of most people that are out there, it's a mess when it comes to how they handle their finances.

You look at how much debt there is, you look at people living paycheck to paycheck, you look at people never seemingly able to get ahead, and we can all say we need some help when it comes to our finances.

That's what we're gonna do for the next three weeks.

Above and beyond is the name of the series, and we're gonna be looking specifically at what God says about money.

I know some of you are thinking, oh, great, I invited a guest today of all days, right?

And I would tell you, hey, we go there.

We have a core convictional value at United City Church that says the Bible speaks.

And God speaks about this topic more than any other thing that He talks about.

So, in light of that, we feel like we should maybe at least do a series every now and then that actually speaks to what God says about the topic of money.

And that's what I want to do.

I want to let you know.

We at United City Church, we are transparent about our finances, we are open about what we spend our money on and what we our money goes to.

And you are more than welcome to ask any questions along the way.

I want you to know that.

That being said, that's not the primary goal of this series.

The primary goal of this series is instead to challenge you on what do you do with your personal finances?

What do you do as a family?

And are you living in God's economy?

Let me walk you through what this is gonna look like for the next three weeks, okay?

This week is gonna be the what.

What does God say about money?

Next week is gonna be the why.

Why should we do what God says about money?

And the third week is gonna be the how.

How do you actually do this in real life?

I'm gonna ask you to take your journals out, and I want you to open them up to the last page of that journal.

I want to take you uh to show you where we're headed, okay?

Straight up, this is the goal in two weeks.

All right.

We're gonna all go to this page right here, and we're gonna spend some time in the service, not only walking through this, but we're asking for 100% participation that you would make some type of next step when it comes to your finances.

Okay?

Let me walk you through what some of these are.

Okay.

First one is to give for the first time.

For some of you who's never given to the church, who's never given to a 501c3, never given to a charitable organization, the very idea of you making a gift of any amount of any kind feels like an above and beyond step.

And we want to tell you, if that's you, man, I hope that you get in and jump in the deep pool.

Because I would tell you, there's a lot of room down here and it's awesome, and this could be a big, huge step for some of you.

And so I just want to encourage you, if that's your step, maybe that's the case.

Many of you, it's gonna be moving from tipping to tithing.

We as a church, uh, 75% of the money that we receive in our church, okay, last year, was under$5,000 for an individual household.

$5,000.

If you were to take the lowest median household income of the area that is the lowest amount in all of Northeast Houston, that number is$50,000.

If you look at the little sheet to the to the left, you notice there what a tithe looks like.

Uh if you were to actually tithe off of$50,000.

Here's the reality: most people make significantly more in household income than$50,000.

So what this tells us is that there's 75% of the people that give to United City are tipping.

Awesome.

Thank you for the tip.

That being said, we would love for you to move, we're gonna talk about it today, what it looks like to move from tipping, though, to tithing and being able to experience an entirely different level, not only of your faithfulness and your obedience to God, but also your enjoyment of Him.

Okay?

Let's go to the next one there.

Set up recurring giving.

For some of you, here's the thing: you have the intention to give, you have the desire to give, you just get to church and you forget.

Or maybe you're not there one week.

Or maybe you find yourself doing, you're spending all the money and doing all the things, and then at the very end of the month, you're like, well, do we have enough money to give?

Setting up recurring giving takes that equation out of the uh takes that question out of the equation.

It immediately just allows you to immediately to give and set up, you need to set up recurring giving.

This is for you, some of you, you need to increase giving above and beyond the tide.

This is what Hillary and I are gonna do as a result of this series.

This one right here.

Right now, our family currently gives 12% of our money away.

12% of everything that comes in the door, we give away.

We give 10% to United City Church.

We gladly, joyfully, excitingly do so because we love what God's doing in the midst of this church.

We also give 1% to other various ministries and organizations outside of that, above and beyond.

Uh, we give to Compassion International and a number of other different places that we help support.

We also have 1% of our money that we set aside for what we call the God Fund.

This is basically money that's set aside so that if we have a generous impulse, if a family needs dinner and we want to go give it to them, we don't want to say, do we have money in our grocery budget this month to get it?

We do it.

It's a yes.

It's an automatic yes.

So we've set aside resources for the sole purpose of doing that.

As a result of this series, the Cuba family is gonna move from 12% to 13% of our income giving away.

And that 1% we're gonna go and give to what's next there, which is called the vision team.

The vision team is a group that people sign up to be a part of, like a serve team, where they don't set the vision of the United City Church.

They instead determine how fast we're gonna get there.

They help know about needs and then see the opportunity to meet those needs through the resources that God has given to them.

If you turn over one page in your journal, you're gonna notice there's a ton of different resources.

I want to make sure you're very familiar with this page right here.

But you can also learn more about the vision team on this page right here.

Okay?

This is where we're going.

In two weeks, we're all gonna have 100% participation asking you to check what your next step in your generosity journey is and to come and to turn in that tear off at the church.

Some of you are like, man, I'm for sure not coming in two weeks.

I can assure you of that.

Like I'm missing.

That's fine.

We'll take it the next week, okay?

That's pretty no problem.

Uh but we do want to ask that this would not just be an inspirational thing, but this would kind of change you.

But let's go back to the first part of this, which is the what?

What does God say about money?

The principle that I want to introduce to you today, you can look in your journal there towards the very beginning, the very first uh or second or third page there, it looks like this, so you can take some notes.

The principle that I want to introduce to you today is this 90 is greater than a hundred.

God can do more with your 90% than you could ever do with your 100%.

Let me say it again.

God can do more with your 90% than you could ever do with your 100%.

If you try to operate in God's economy and you do it by looking at a spreadsheet, it will never make sense.

No one ever sits down and is like, I gotta do what?

I'm gonna give this much money away?

There's no way this adds up.

But what I want to tell you is when it comes to God's economy, it's not primarily a decision of spreadsheets and numbers.

It's primarily a decision of the heart.

Let me show you a verse that tells you why.

Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 through 21.

Matthew 6:19–21

Listen to what it says.

It says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

That's the key verse.

This is not a discussion about money.

Some of you are like, Man, why are you bringing up money?

And why do you like this?

Isn't that because I love you and care about you, and I want you to experience a relationship and a walk with the Lord that goes to a different level, and it will never happen apart from this topic.

And so, because of that, I want you to experience God's economy that is different than the world's economy.

If you were to sit down with any economic advisor in our world, you're to basically talk to some conference or some kind of thing that are out there, there's a bunch of different things that you can do.

They're gonna tell you a version of this economic strategy.

Let's walk this through, okay?

First thing they're gonna tell you is it's all about earning.

It's all about earning.

You need to make as much money as you possibly can.

You need to go to school and get educated so that you can be more uh able to make more money.

You need to go get furthering education, you need to go and get trades, you need to do everything you can to advance yourself because the goal is the person who makes the most money wins.

And in fact, you're basically told, you may not be told this explicitly, but you're definitely told this uh subconsciously, that your value and your worth is determined by the number on the right side of the check.

The bigger the number, the bigger deal you are.

And so, because of that, whatever you gotta do, if you gotta switch jobs, if you gotta switch careers, your job is to make more money.

And then when you make more money, the second thing you do is you spend that money.

You spend that money, this is the fun part, right?

This is the part where you buy what we need and we buy what we want.

Okay?

This is the part whenever we go and we we we take, you want to earn more because you want to spend more.

Have you ever received a raise and struggled to figure out what to do with the money?

Never once.

Most of you probably already have spent that money prior to the raise actually showing up.

In fact, there are entire industries that are designed to try to get you to charge it or to spend it and then figure it out afterwards.

But the whole idea is this the more I earn, the more I get to spend.

But then we want to be responsible.

So financial advisors would then tell you the third step, which is you gotta save.

You gotta save.

There's different perspectives on this.

Some would say you gotta save three to six months of living expenses, some would say that you need a rainy day fund, some would say that you need just basically a basic emergency fund.

Some of you are all into saving, and you would simply say this: I'm saving to make sure that if things go bad, then I am ready.

The problem is that when is it enough?

You just keep saving and saving and saving and saving for what?

And ultimately, here's the problem when it comes to financial models, particularly with the world.

Most people, most Americans, stop right here.

They don't go any farther than these three steps right here.

But what ideally you would do is you would go down to the next step if you have some left over, and that is to invest.

This is when it gets kind of fun.

This is whenever you put your money in the stock market, you put your money in real estate, you put your money in a mutual fund or some other type of vehicle that a financial planner can help you with to be able to allow the money that you have not just to be something that you spend, but instead something that you invest so that your money begins to make more money.

It's a great thing.

Most people don't even think about this though because they've messed up on the first three categories.

And then if you have anything left over, here's what the word would tell you to do You should give.

You should give.

Did you realize that the average American gives only 3% of his income to charitable organizations?

You think, okay, well, the church has got to be way more generous because they know Jesus and they know what God's given to them, and all of that must be way better.

The church is 3.8% to charitable causes.

What does this tell us?

This isn't a bad model, but it doesn't work.

It doesn't work because of so many people who aren't able to get all the way to the end, and then in light of that, they find themselves dissatisfied and they don't find themselves fulfilled.

I want to read to you the words of Haggai chapter 1, verses 5 through 7, and ask you to do these things.

Haggai 1:5–7

It says here, now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways.

You have sown much and harvested little.

You eat, but you never have enough.

You drink, but you never have your fill.

You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.

I just described many of your financial situations right now.

Like I'm putting all this work in, I'm putting all this effort in, but it's just not working.

Look at what it says, and he who earns wages does so to put them in a bag with holes.

Do you feel like you're working like crazy only to feel like something seems to be leaking at the bottom, and it's like nothing's ever getting ahead, nothing's ever adding up.

Thus says the Lord of hosts consider your ways.

What I am asking you to do is to consider do you operate by the world's economy?

Or would you consider another way, which is God's economy for your finances?

In order to do that, I need to introduce you to a concept that is called tithing.

Tithing.

You may have heard of the word tithing before.

Tithing is something that for the Israelite, the God's chosen people, and for the early Christian, was as normal and as natural as anything they had ever done.

It was not something that needed an explanation.

It was just, of course, that's what you do.

There's many places where the word tithing is listed in God's word.

Let me mention one to you in a Leviticus chapter 27, verse 30, which says this every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, it is the Lord's.

Leviticus 27:30

It is holy to the Lord.

Notice it's comprehensive here.

Everything in the land, whether seed or fruit, belongs to the Lord.

The word tithe actually means tenth part.

Today we confuse it because we use the word tithe to represent anything that we give.

So for example, if we kind of like empty our wallet out into the offering or the salad bowls whenever they get passed, right, then we kind of think that's the tithe, right?

Or maybe we give 2% of our money, or maybe we give 6% of our money, and we say, oh, that's our tithe.

But the word tithe literally means tenth part.

For the Israelite, and then for the Christian, the assumption right off the top is that the full 10% of their money goes immediately to the local church or their context, the local tabernacle or the local priest.

It was just a normal, natural thing that you do.

In fact, so much so that to not do it would be considered robbing God.

Let me show you a passage that tells you about that.

Malachi chapter 3, beginning in verse 8.

Malachi 3 · chapter mention

It says this Will man rob God, yet you are robbing me.

But you say, How have we robbed you?

And your tithes and contributions.

You are cursed with a curse, but you are, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

For an Israelite and an early Christian, they would have never asked many of the questions that I field quite a bit when it comes to the topic of money.

Questions like this Hey, if I give 7%, is that good?

And I'm like, I mean, I don't know.

Do you want is Robin God three percent like a good thing?

Is that a bad thing?

I don't, I don't, I don't it wouldn't be a it wouldn't be a question.

Or this question do I tithe off the gross or do I tithe off the net?

It was super simple for the Israelites.

Whatever comes in is whatever goes out.

So therefore, I I give I always say this do you want a net blessing or do you want a gross blessing?

It's up to you.

But at the end of the day, it's all about this mentality that simply says this.

It wasn't debated, this was a natural way of living.

And here's what's crazy God says, if you don't do this, you're robbing him.

On the other hand, in the same passage, he says, but if you question it, test me.

This is the one area of scripture he says, Hey, just try me.

Just see what it looks like.

Just just throw it out there and see what ultimately happens.

You're robbing me if you don't do it, but test me and see if I won't pour out the windows of heaven upon you and provide for you in such a way where you'll be able to not ever question whether this is something that you should do.

It's pretty interesting whenever you think about this, because uh I know for some of you, this has turned into like a legalism thing.

Maybe you had a pastor when you were growing up, and man, they just harped on this or they just spoke about it so angry and so mad, and and it just it just kind of everything you time you hear about money, you just kind of cringe just because it brings conviction and guilt, but it also is just it was presented in such a way that just feels harsh.

And I would tell you, I'm so sorry that this biblical principle was presented that way.

But the presentation, even if you didn't like it, doesn't change whether it's true.

Ninety is greater than a hundred.

Here's what I want you to see for the Israelite.

In fact, whenever they whenever they heard this, what it would have meant to them, there was actually three different tithes in the Old Testament.

Let me let me walk you through this, okay?

Three different tithes.

One, there was the tithe of 10% to support the local priests and the Levites.

This was basically uh giving to the local church, the local tabernacle, ultimately the local temple, and then ultimately in the early church, it was giving to the local church.

This is our context now of tithing to the local church.

It's where that would be presented.

Another tithe would be the sacred festival.

So remember, Israel was like a nation state.

So it was not just a spiritual community, it was also a kind of government community type thing.

So because of that, you had people that were like elected who had certain roles and officials to be able to function and to carry out the needs of the people.

And so, just like in our government today, we pay taxes so that they're able to do the services and the festivals and the activities that are necessary for us to do.

Okay?

Another one would be this number three to support orphans, widows, and the poor.

This tithe was only done every three years.

The other two tithes were done every single year, meaning this essentially the Israelite would give 23% of his income away.

10% to the local church, and then 13% to call it the government.

It's the same concept for us of tithing to the local church.

Now, if you give more than 13%, some of you are like, 13% sounds awesome from a tax bracket.

That sounds great.

You can deal with that with your local officials and you can figure all that out, right?

That's why we vote, that's why we care about what we do.

But the point being is that the principle, Jesus says it himself give to Caesar, what is Caesar's?

Give to God, what is God's?

You give to the church, and you give to the government.

It's part of what we do as a part of a taxpaying citizen, and this is how this whole thing is designed and supposed to work.

But there's this con.

Now I know some of you are thinking, well, the tithe is in the Old Testament, and we live under grace, we don't live under law.

The tithe was presented long before the law was ever in place.

Tithe is something that is a natural, normal process of all of God's word.

Turn with me over to Proverbs chapter 3.

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

I want to show you another passage that teaches this that 90 is greater than 100 principle.

Proverbs chapter 3, verses 9 and 10.

Proverbs 3:9

It's a great passage of scripture to memorize.

Proverbs 3, 9 and 10, it reads like this: Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce.

Then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

This is the idea of firstfruits.

It's a recognition that I know where that I know where all of this stuff I have comes from, and I'm giving it back to the Lord because I recognize that He will sustain me and He will bless me.

Tithe denoted the amount, firstfruits represented the nature of the offering.

So I'm not giving God the last 10%, I'm giving God the first best 10% of all of my resources.

So it's a willing, glad thing, not a reluctant have to thing.

Let's go back and talk about the difference because this right here is what radically changes the idea of God's economy versus the world's economy.

Okay, God's or the world's economy, remember, it says this you earn, then you spend, then you save, then you invest, and then if you have anything left over, you give.

Here's what God's economy says.

First thing you do is you give.

It's the first fruit.

The very first thing you do is you give.

Here's what this does.

It changes everything in your life because, first of all, by doing this, it lets me realize where I got this stuff in the first place.

And that's because God gave it to me.

And so, in light of that, because I know that, I recognize that, I believe that, then I'm gonna trust him for what he says, and so therefore, the first check I'm gonna write or the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to tithe, I'm gonna give that back to the Lord because I want to make sure that I'm not hesitant or I'm not gonna try to somehow keep it to myself.

But I give and that changes everything.

If it allows me to the next stage to where when I earn, I'm not earning to find a identity, I'm not earning to find my value.

I instead can realize that I get to live out God's calling and purpose in my life in whatever it is that I do, and I get paid for it.

So it doesn't matter where I work, what matters is what did God want me to do here?

Because He's the one who gave me the job in the first place, and so therefore, God, what do you want this day to look like?

What do you want this opportunity to look like?

It gives purpose and meaning that isn't defined by the number on the right side of the check.

It's not bad to have that number on the right side of the check go up, but it's really bad to be defined by it.

And so often, whenever that's the number one thing, that's exactly what happens.

But when I start with God, it puts that into perspective, which then leads to the next one, which is spending.

Here's what I want you to see.

It's not bad to spend money, it's bad to spend more than you have, and it's bad to try to spend in such a way where basically you want to try to find your identity by all the stuff you get, but instead, whenever you start with God, then you can have blessings and enjoy them and feel guilty about them.

On the other hand, it could also be times when you don't get the blessings that others may have, but you're not defined by it.

It's okay.

I don't have to have that.

I don't have to have that nice little house, I don't have to have that kind of car, I don't have to have this.

Why?

Because at the end of the day, I know God gives me what I need, and I'm fine with that.

It allows you to move to a place of contentment instead of living in a life of consumerism.

Then the next thing would be saving.

Saving is important.

Again, there's strategies for this: three to six months, emergency fund, whatever it may be.

I see so many people though who save, save, save, save, save with no purpose, saving for a rainy day instead of believing and trusting in the one who sends the rain.

You should save, but you shouldn't save to the point where you then do not allow yourself to be generous to whatever God leads you to do.

Then it leads to the last thing is you begin to invest.

And you know what you do in invest?

Again, all the things we talked about, you begin to put your money working for itself, and then here's the beauty.

Whenever you begin to invest and your money starts making stuff, you know what's gonna happen?

Because you started with giving in the first fruits at the very first thing, you know what you're gonna see?

You're gonna see all of that money that you're getting because of your investing as new opportunities to give.

It becomes contagious.

It becomes a desire, it becomes something that is so exciting to be able to be a part of and exciting to be able to do.

But it all starts with the first fruits, recognizing that what I have is from God and giving God the best of what I have.

I give God the best and the first, not the rest and the leftover.

Let me get practical.

This is what Hillary and I do.

Uh, we have automated giving set up the first and the 15th of every month.

Whenever we get paid, we automatically go and send that checkout of our tithe.

Why?

Because we never want to look at the end of the month and say, do we have enough money to give?

That's not a question that ever comes up in our house.

And I want to take away the temptation for it to come up in our house, so we just automate it.

We prioritize it and we automate it.

For some people, I know whenever they get a paycheck, that immediately they get on their phone and they immediately go and they give right away.

Maybe you have a reminder that pops up and tells you about this.

I'm not trying to get legalistic.

That's not my point.

But what I am trying to tell you is this when you embrace this principle, what you'll begin to discover is that tithing doesn't become the destination.

It's not the it's not the ceiling of your giving, it becomes the floor of your giving.

Meaning this, when I start giving 10%, then guess what?

I'm gonna try to figure out how to give more.

I'm gonna try to do a little bit more.

I'm gonna try to see how God can can push us and be able why, not because I'm trying to like somehow impress God, but just because it's awesome, like it's enjoyable, like it's fine.

I get to see God begin to do things in and through our lives, and I don't want to stop there.

And what God begins to do is He not only changes the amount, he changes our perspective.

Can I tell you what my goal in life is?

By the time I die, I want to give 25% of my money away.

25% of my money immediately out the door.

We're 12 and moving to 13.

And I would tell you this because here's what we've discovered.

It's awesome.

It's absolutely incredible.

And I want nothing more than for you to be able to experience the joy that comes with living a life of generosity.

I know what some of you are thinking, there's no way I could do this.

You have no idea how much debt we are in.

You have no idea how much baggage we've got, and this has been an area of difficulty in our lives.

I want you to take your journals out and go to the very, very page that we just looked at.

I want you to move one page in to this resource page looks just like this.

If your immediate reaction when I talk about this, is there's no way.

At the very top, there's a class with a QR code right there that starts in three weeks called Financial Peace University, and you need to be a part of it.

We don't want you to feel guilty, we want you to be empowered to live what God calls you to do.

And so if you're like, I don't even know what you're talking about, or you're like, dude, we are in so much debt, there's no way.

Can I just tell you the freedom that God desires to give you, but it's not gonna be about you just hoping it gets better.

You're gonna have to take an action.

So this is it.

In three weeks, you need to be in this class and be a part of it.

Some of you are like, you don't have a church background at all, and you're like, people do this?

It's like 10%?

Are you serious?

Are you kind of doing the math in your head the whole time and you've been like, that's a lot of money.

I know.

It's a lot of money.

But I would also tell you this yes, not only do people do it, but they would tell you there's no other way to live.

The people that are gonna get mad at me are the ones who don't tithe.

The folks who tithe are gonna be like, you preach it, man.

This is awesome.

Because they've lived it and they know this works.

Like it's an actual thing that works.

And so, because of that, what I want to I want to ask you, if you don't have a church background, like would you test God?

Like, try it and see what He does.

And try it and see what may come up.

Some of you, here's what you've done.

You along the way, you tithed and you gave, and then things got tight all of a sudden.

Yes, and expenses come up that you weren't expecting, and you do what you kind of always have done.

When things get tight, you grab the controls, you bring it back in, and you're like, okay, God, I'll handle this now.

I'm not sure I can keep trusting you with this.

I'm gonna go ahead and take over from here.

And you've gotten out of the habit, and here's what I would simply tell you it's not working.

But instead, live in God's economy and maybe make that step which you know you used to do, but now you need to make that step and go back to that place.

Tithing is not about a number, tithing is about a mentality.

God, I believe you or I don't.

God, I'm gonna follow you or I'm gonna talk about following you, but I'm not really gonna do so.

God can do more with your 90% than you could ever do with 100.

Take a look at the screen.

I grew up in church, kind of the same that we go every Sunday.

Parents were strong believers.

I wouldn't say it was a priority, but we were there, right?

Or I was there.

I grew up in church.

I grew up going to a private Catholic school.

My mom was a believer, uh, my dad not so much.

We would come to church, we'd come to the message, we'd listen to the message, we'd go home.

We were definitely on the fringe, uh.

And I mean that's just the terms that I'd use for it.

But we just felt convicted, the both of us.

The first step was financially, right?

And it was after a message that we listened to here in church, and it was just us back and forth.

We weren't putting anything extra into the church or our faith, our time, right?

We were sitting there looking at us, looking at how we were pull this off, and we're like, oh my goodness, there's no way.

How do people do this?

How are we gonna handle this situation?

And uh, but we were like, how do we feel?

You know, they say that's the first step.

So that was the first thing for us.

In June, I chose to get baptized.

And so I think for me, that was just claiming my faith and our new journey of being all-in and claiming it for myself and owning it and wanting to be an example to our kids.

Tithing is my best investment that I've made because it has moved into so many different parts of our lives.

Uh, what we're thinking, the way we talk to each other, relationship.

We started putting money above worldly things.

We started giving our money first to God, and then our actions and our thoughts started to follow that, and our faith followed as well.

Once we started getting into this, the the doors just flung wide open.

I'd say four or five months after we started doing all this, dedicating our time, everything else, is all the job opportunities and career opportunities that I was looking for opened up.

You just start looking at it through this lens of spending your your time and money putting God first in all these things, and everything begins to follow.

Whether it's the way you treat your kids, the way you you know, you talk to your wife, the way you talk to people at work, and just the way you treat people in general, it all starts to follow once you make that first kind of major commitment.

And it was the best investment we ever made.

At first, you you wouldn't think that.

And then it was like, oh my goodness, you're just giving away all this money each month.

And then all of a sudden it starts coming up in your life, and you start seeing it, and just the changes that happens to you.

We had family members tell us that that was a terrible idea to tithe from our savings account.

Yeah.

So if you tell them all just from your savings account.

Oh we had we had family members who tried to convince us to take our tithe money and invest it in something else, because I guess they didn't think that that was as important as yeah.

100% worth it.

Best investment we could have made.

You know, the first few months, you know, you definitely feel tested by God.

You know, you feel tested in what you're doing, but eventually it starts to pay off, and you just it changes your demeanor, the way you think about things, it changes your heart and changes your heart, yeah.

Yeah, best way to put it.

This is what happens, this is what happens when you trust God.

It changes your relationships, it changes your perspective, changes your past, changes your future, it changes your family.

It changes your joy.

Folks, there's so many people that are just like the Braxton and Kayla, who came every week to our church, they went to a life group a couple times, they sat in here and then they left.

And praise God for that.

But there's more.

There's more.

And they were dating the church and they liked what they experienced, but they never had the DTR.

You know what the DTR is?

They define the relationship conversation where they go home and they're like, Are we into this?

Like, is this a thing for us?

Or are we just kind of doing the dance?

And when they decided to jump in and move from the fringe and instead move all in, it started with finances, but it didn't stop there.

You want to know why?

Because this is not a financial conversation.

This is a joy conversation, this is a lifestyle conversation.

This allows me, somebody who gets to give to United City Church, we're baptizing 16 people today.

I don't know all of their stories, but I get in on that.

And when you give to United City Church, when you're faithful to be a part of this, it's not about a fundraising deal.

It allows you, when you see someone up on that baptistry, man, your heart just starts beating a little bit faster.

You want to know why?

I got to be a part of that.

I got to be a part of that story.

I got to fund that person being able to have that experience at that youth event so that they can meet Jesus and their lives could be changed.

Can I tell you how we are changing generations simply because of blow-ups and activities that we do in youth events to be able to get people to come hear about the gospel?

And I don't know about you, but there is no earthly thing that I could ever buy that's worth that.

And so, folks, I tell you this not as a judgmental thing and wanting you to do, I tell you that because, man, it's the best.

It's the best.

There is a cheerfulness.

We're gonna talk about it next week.

We assume that when you give, it leads to having less.

And what you will discover is that giving always leads to more.

Leads to more joy, it leads to more happiness, it leads to more fulfillment, it leads to more money, it leads to more blessings, it leads to more opportunities to give.

For some of you, you need to take that step like the Queest did and move from the fringe and get in the game.

For some of you, you need to join United City Church.

This needs to be the place that you plant the flag where you're gonna serve, you're gonna be, and you're gonna give.

You need to do that through membership.

Would you lead the way today?

I'm telling you, your coming is gonna be an inspiration to others.

Others of you need to come and you need to make a decision to actually do something.

You don't need two weeks to wait.

You know what you need to do.

I'm gonna put a little thing on the screen here with a QR code.

Here's the deal: you don't have to wait two weeks to make a decision to make a commitment.

Do it right now.

Change your giving.

Do whatever you gotta do.

Like, there's no reason for you to have to wait, but instead, delayed obedience is called disobedience.

If you know what God's calling you to do, you do it.

Others of you though need to take a first step.

Let me just tell you something.

You will never outgive God.

God in his mercy and his grace in his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to die a death on a cross for your sins and for mine.

He gave his life on that cross, he rose from the dead three days later, and he gives you the chance not to pay you back because you deserve it, but instead his free gift of eternal life.

He offers to you to receive free of charge.

All you gotta do is turn from your sins and turn to him.

That's you today.

Would you come forward and let us talk with you and pray with you so that you can leave here knowing you have a relationship with Jesus?

Some of you need prayer today.

Maybe you need to be prayed with and prayed over.

Maybe you've made a mess of this.

You're not the only one, I promise.

But I can assure you of this, you also don't have to be the only one doing it alone.

You can instead allow God's grace and provision to overwhelm you.

Father, I pray you'd take these moments that we have left, lead people to you.

Thank you for being such a good, good God, a gracious God, one who meets all of our needs and then some.

Thank you, Father, the way that you speak to us in these moments.

Let us be responsive to the Spirit in this time.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Would you stand up?

Our team is at the bottom of these steps in the front.

Please, no one leaving unless you're making a decision.

But if you've got a decision to make, step out boldly.

Come forward.

Let us talk with you.

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 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2.