Pop Quiz | Pastor Chris Kouba

Hey, it's good to see you.

So glad that you're here.

And uh for those of you that are guests, I want to add my word of greeting to David's earlier.

My name is Chris Kuba.

I have the privilege of being the lead pastor here at United City.

And as you can tell, we're under construction.

Uh so I just want to give you a heads up that that's going to be the case for quite a while as we expand our worship center.

We actually, you may not be able to tell it yet, but we've already started the construction out on the north side as well.

So there may be a little bit of a change in parking patterns and things like that.

And just work with us.

Uh, we appreciate in advance uh because it's exciting, though, to see what is happening.

The wall's right over there.

It's supposed to be out this week.

It's gonna feel like a construction zone, okay?

But we're gonna get through it, it's gonna be great, and we're certainly very excited about what is happening here at United City.

Grab your Bibles, open them up to Matthew chapter 25, Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention Matthew 25 · chapter mention

I want to welcome all of those in the correctional facilities or those that are traveling on vacation, those joining us online.

Let's give a hand for those who may be on the other side of the camera and been able to join with us.

I'm actually headed to Lynchner uh prison this Tuesday night.

I'm gonna be doing a Bible study there, which is a local prison here in our area.

And many of them watch us on Pando, that's gonna be pretty exciting to be able to see them.

I'm doing some traveling here coming up as well, and I just love it that I get the opportunity to still connect with United City online.

I just want to encourage you, as you may be in and out, that you still connect with us online.

It's definitely an avenue to be able to do that.

That being said, if you're sitting at home right now, just kicking your feet up and you could be here, and nothing like being in the room.

I just want to encourage you to be a part of what God is doing here at United City.

I want it all just to take back and visualize for me, like you're back in school.

I know some of you students are like, oh, I just got out of school.

The last thing I want to think about is being back in school.

But I want you just to visualize for a second that you're all in a classroom.

You're talking with your friends, you're hanging out, you're getting ready for the class to start.

The teacher walks in and she puts her sack of papers down and they say, Everybody put your stuff up, grab something to write with.

It's time for a pop quiz.

That feeling that you get when you hear those words.

It's not usually one that is met with, oh, this is awesome, this is great, this is exciting.

It's usually groans, it's usually disappointment.

And it's not like the teacher didn't tell you that the possibility was there.

In fact, they actually told you that you would have pop quizzes along the way.

You may have studied along the way, you may have taken notes along the way, you may have read up on some things, but you are not nearly at the place where you would feel comfortable being tested on your retention of the material.

The teacher begins to remind you because you can she can just tell across the board, and it's not really an exciting thing that she just announced a pop quiz.

She reminds you that the purpose of a pop quiz is not to fail you, the purpose of a quiz of a pop quiz is not to disappoint you.

A purpose of a pop quiz is to ensure that what you are doing is gonna make you ready for the final exam when it counts the most.

The goal would be that if you do well on the pop quiz, then you could say, okay, well, I'm retaining the information, I'm studying in a good way, and so therefore I just need to keep doing what I'm doing.

On the other hand, if you fail the pop quiz, the idea is that you begin to make adjustments.

Adjustments in how you're studying, adjustments in how you're reading, adjustments in your activity, because it reveals to you you may not be as ready as you thought you were.

This morning, we're continuing in our sermon series, we're doing this summer called taboo.

We're looking at the topics that you usually don't talk about in church.

And we're gonna poke the bear.

We're gonna go there where we're usually not supposed to mention that.

And so far, we've talked about things like the authority of the Bible, we've talked about abortion, we've talked about spiritual warfare, we've talked about LGBTQ and gender issues, upcoming.

We're gonna be talking about mental health, we're gonna be talking about forgiveness, we're gonna be talking about politics, and we're actually gonna be talking about the end times.

I already am ready, though.

I feel it, I know it's gonna happen.

The most controversial topic all summer is the one I'm gonna talk about today.

Money.

Let me talk about money.

Now, some of you are thinking, well, I thought this was you bringing up stuff that you never bring up, and you talk about money all the time.

So what's the deal?

Well, this just shouldn't be a taboo topic.

And I would just tell you up front a couple of things.

One, we've already passed the offering plate and we're not gonna pass it again, okay?

Take a deep breath, all right?

Also, I want you to know this.

We're doing a great position as a church financially right now.

We're not like in dire straits, and so this was like a well, we need a money talk to make sure that we can end the year, okay?

That is not where we are at all.

We actually are not in a bad spot in any way, shape, or form.

We're in a really good place.

Uh I really want you to hear me say this to you.

My goal in this message is not what we can get from you.

My goal in this message is what I want for you.

I really do want you to see what we're gonna talk about as a pop quiz.

And I want you to evaluate.

Because the last thing that I would want you to do is to go to the final exam and realize you actually weren't nearly as on track as you thought you were.

On the other hand, I believe that if you have a pop quiz and it shows that things are going well, man, keep going and enjoy that.

But if you find that you are lacking, it allows you to course correct mid-course so that by the time the final exam shows up, you're ready.

Here's the evaluation question that I want you to consider today.

If every church member was just like me, what kind of church would this church me?

If every church member was just like me, what kind of church would this church me?

We're gonna begin reading in Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

Let me set it up for you.

This is a series of parables that are all designed to prepare you for the final exam.

And in Matthew chapter 25, the one we're gonna look at in verses 14 through 31, it has like what I would call, it's like a pop quiz.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

It's a test along the way to make sure that you're good.

And so it asks you to kind of evaluate a little bit.

Let's begin reading in Matthew 25, beginning in verse 14.

For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.

To one he gave five talents, to another, two, to another, one, to each according to his ability.

Then he went away.

The word talent in the New Testament was always used as a measuring stick to determine how much money something was worth.

It a lot of times was used as like a silver was that was the main way a talent was measured, but sometimes it was gold and sometimes it was copper.

But what I want you to see in this passage when it references there is one, that it gives talents to different people according to their ability, meaning everybody doesn't have the same.

But if Jesus was to give this illustration today, it would be like him saying this he a man went off to a far-off country and he gave one person one million dollars, another one two million dollars, and another one five million dollars.

The point is not necessarily the difference between what he gave out, the point is for you to know it's a ton of money.

Like it's a lot of money.

Like everybody's getting loaded here, like everybody is getting hooked up with the amount of money that they have received.

Look at what he says then in verse 16.

He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.

So also he who had the two talents made two talents more.

But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.

Now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents, here I have made five talents more.

His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You've been faithful over a little, I will set you over much.

Enter into the joy of your master.

It goes on to say that the one who had two talents also comes and he brings the two talents plus two more that he had made, and the same response was given, Well done, good and faithful servant.

It says that the one who had the one talent didn't do anything with his money.

He didn't lose the money, but he didn't invest the money, and so he came back and he says, Look, I thought you were a really hard, mean man, and so therefore I did not invest it, but I did give you back what you have.

And he says, he rebukes him, and he gives the one talent that he had, takes it away from him, and he goes and he gives it to the one who has ten talents.

Then verse 29, skip down and look at what it says.

It reads, For to everyone who has, will more be given, will more be given, and he will have an abundance.

But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

What I want us to consider today is this is United City Church is gonna be a one-talent, a two-talent, or a five-talent church.

We know that God has blessed us individually, and we know that God has blessed us collectively.

The very fact that we've got the project going on in the north, and we got this project going on right here, and they're both already paid for, and the AC is on shows God's been really good to us.

Like we got a real lot of good things that we can celebrate, and so therefore, we know we have been abundantly blessed, but the Bible says to whom much is given, much is required.

There's a very important principle that I want you to see that comes out of this parable in Matthew chapter 25, and it's this responsibility leads to rewards.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

Responsibility leads to reward.

Responsibility in this passage is presented as two ideas.

One, I manage my money, two, I invest my money.

What does it mean to manage my money?

Well, let's talk about it first of all.

Managing your money means you don't live outside of your means, you live within a budget.

You don't spend more than you make, right?

I don't put myself into debt.

That's managing the money.

But we notice that the one who has the one talent, he just managed the money.

He buried it and he didn't lose it.

And then when all of a sudden the servant comes back, that's not enough.

It implies that it's not just about managing my money, it's also about investing my money.

What does investing mean?

Well, I would tell you, I believe the biblical principle suggests that investing your money that God gives you means that you respond by tithing and by giving of your resources to the church as well as to other things.

Now, you may be saying, Well, how do you where do you get this?

I want everybody to take out their phones, and I want you to do me a favor, and I want you to take a picture of this QR code that's gonna be on the screens.

As we have with every message in the taboo series, we've provided you with resources that you can double-click on if you will.

Meaning, I'm gonna introduce some things to you, and you may be like, I don't know if I agree with all that.

Where are you getting it from?

This is where I'm getting it from, okay?

It's gonna give you two books by Randy Alcorn that I think are the best books ever about personal finance, much less biblical finances, okay?

I want to encourage you about that.

There's also on there a link to a uh an organ uh class that we're gonna be offering this fall called Financial Peace University.

I want you to earmark that because I'm gonna reference it later in the message.

Uh, we also have a bunch of different links to a couple of great websites that can help you put together a personal budget, manage your money, all of those types of things.

On this resource, though, it references a message that I gave earlier at United City Church called anything but that.

And I'm not gonna really necessarily go into like my biblical view on tithing and why I believe that's the case and why I think tithing should be the training wheels of your generosity, not the not the ceiling of your generosity.

Uh I go into why that's the case and explain it and all of that.

So I'm gonna just assume for the sake of conversation we're on the same page there.

And if you disagree with me, go to the website, go to the go to the link, and you watch it there.

But what I want to talk through is this whole idea of what it means to be able to be someone who is a giver.

Because, and I talked about it in the message, is that a lot of people when it comes to giving, if they even do it, they either view it as like a tip or they think a tithe is just giving something to the church.

And what God says is that your tithe, 10% of your gross income, should be the training wheels that leads to a lifetime of giving.

To where God doesn't just get 10% so that you can do whatever you want with the 90.

You give him 10% so that he can help you manage the 90.

And it becomes this idea where I get to become a generous giver.

2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 7.

2 Corinthians 9:7

Here's the description.

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

God doesn't want you to be a begrudging giver.

Oh, I gotta do this.

He wants you to be a generous giver.

I hear people say to me all the time that they don't give to the church because they give to other places.

I'm not trying to get you to not give to other places.

I just don't want you to rob the church while you do it.

I instead want to see you give to the church and give to other places.

That's the goal.

Then it basically begins to compound and build on itself that you begin to be in a place where you aren't trying to get more and more and more.

You instead are trying to give away more and more and more.

But here's the irony of the situation.

What is the principle that I told you about?

Responsibility, if I manage my money and I invest my money, leads to reward.

Here's what I want you to see.

If you want more money, then you need to be responsible with your money and you need to invest your money by giving it away.

And it leads to more money.

The one who had five added five more.

The one who had two added two more.

The one who had one didn't lose it, but didn't invest it.

And what happens?

It gets taken away.

It's basically this principle that God says can I trust you with these things?

If I can trust you, then I'll give you more because you've proven yourself trustworthy.

Folks, what I want you to see is I've never met any one person ever in my entire career, and I've never heard of anybody else in any other career turn down a raise.

Everybody wants more money.

Everybody wants more stuff, everybody wants more reward, everybody wants more things.

And I want you to see that if you want to get more, the way that you do that is by being responsible.

And here's what more also means.

Look at Matthew 25, verse 21.

Matthew 25:21

His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much.

Enter into the joy of your master.

The result of obedience in this area is joy.

It's pleasure, it's fullness.

This is the goal.

So let's evaluate what kind of church is United City Church.

I want to have today a family meeting.

I don't know about you, but at our house, whenever I tell Hillary that we're gonna have a family meeting, she hates it, I hate it, and we both dread it.

Because we know what that means.

That means we're gonna look at the numbers.

And we don't like the numbers because the numbers are honest, the numbers are real, the numbers expose us.

I can't talk about what I wanted to do, what I hoped to do, what I wished I would have done.

It's just right there for all of us both to see.

But we as much as we hate it and avoid it, we also know how necessary that it is.

And so, what I want to do is have a family meeting.

Let's think through how, first of all, we are being responsibility, at least to rewards.

Let's first of all evaluate are we being responsible?

As a church, we are responsible for managing our money.

We do this by setting and operating within a budget, which this year in 2024 is$5.1 million.

That is our budget.

It was approved at the beginning of the year.

That is helped set by not only our staff team, but as well as our stewardship committee.

We have a stewardship team that meets every single month, that's voted on by the church, and they help to make sure that we stay within what we have agreed to spend in our budget.

Meaning we don't just get an idea and be like, I know it should really, we should all of a sudden do this and then go and do it without any sort of approval.

We instead walk us through the stewardship committee and they help guide us to ensure that we are spending within our means.

In addition, our church has decided a strategic way that we are gonna set our budget each year at 90% of the previous year's tithes and offerings.

The reason that we do that is because we don't want to feel the pull like naturally I feel in my own home where I know I don't have the money, but I really, really want it, and I'll figure out how to get it later.

We don't want to spend more than we make.

And so therefore, we as a church budget at 90% to ensure that we are able to live comfortably within our means and show financial stewardship.

In addition, I want you to know that we as a church tithe, we give away 10% of our money, literally, what 10% of what comes in immediately goes out the door to local, national, and global missions.

Let me explain to you what that looks like.

What that means is that we have given this year$50,000 towards church plants in Las Vegas, in Puerto Rico, and in Fort Worth.

We have given$15,000 to help support church plants in the city of Houston, and most of those church plants do not speak English as a first language.

In addition, over the next few months, we're gonna be giving$25,000 to a church in Costa Rica through a ministry called ICM that's gonna help build a church at a place that has been meeting for 19 years but hasn't had a building, and you, United City Church, paid for it.

It's gonna be going up here just in a short amount of time.

This last week, a few days ago, we as a church gave$15,000 to Houston Welcomes Refugees, which is a ministry designed to help tell people about Jesus to the thousands of refugees who are coming in to Houston every single year.

Our missionary friends just stood up here on stage and they gave just a beautiful prayer and a beautiful challenge.

We gave them just a few months ago, besides just the fact that we support them through your cooperative program giving that helps support all efforts of Southern Baptists.

They are an international mission board, they are on the international mission board and they are part of that.

But we also gave$10,000 to help each unreached people groups in India.

And I'm gonna encourage you not to just send money, but we want to encourage you to also go.

Can I tell you?

I echo his prayer tenfold.

That we would see people in our church, in this congregation, that are listening to this message today, they would not feel more compelled to give just money, but they would give their lives and they'd go to India and go join the work that they're doing.

I want you to know though, this is the kind of stuff that we get to be a part of.

In addition to this, we've got a vision team of people who've said that I want to give above and beyond.

They volunteered to do part of this to help support the vision of what God is doing here at United City.

The North Side Project was paid for by the vision team.

When I go on Tuesday night to Lynchner Jail and I go and preach to those guys that are back behind bars, I'm gonna see many of them who recognize me from watching our services on the Pando app, which was prayed for by our vision team.

God allows us to be able to do incredible things through the ministry of this place.

This is some of the ways that we manage our money.

But how do we as a church invest our money?

Do the people of United City Church give?

Do the people of United City Church tithe?

I want to show you behind the curtain some and let you see the numbers.

Our church received$5.6 million in 2023.

Within that number are some pretty exciting things that we should absolutely celebrate.

One, I would tell you that we added over more than one new giver every single day in the year 2023.

Our participation is radically up from compared to what it was before, and we are very excited about how many of you are participating and being a part of what God is doing here at United City Church.

In addition, our budget last year, or our giving last year, was 10% up than it was a year ago.

And what's exciting about that number is that last year was one of the most highest historic years of inflation ever.

And here we are giving 10% more than the year before.

Can I tell you what's exciting?

Is right now, today, in 2024, June 30th, we are 10% ahead of where we were last year, which was 10% ahead of where we were the year before.

Praise God for that.

Let's celebrate in every way.

Let me explain a little bit about what that 5.6 million means.

We had 1,168 giving units who gave to United City Church last year.

A giving unit would be me and Hillary are one giving unit.

My daughters would be two separate giving units.

So there'd be four giving units.

If four of us in the house gave, Hillary and I would be one, my daughters would be their individual one.

Meaning you, you are it's not like a family.

It's instead, it's it's whoever gives, you Are part of a giving unit, but if you're a couple, then you're considered one giving unit.

1,168 giving units in last year.

25% of those giving units gave over$5,000, and that represents 83% of our overall tithes and offerings.

There's a rule that you kind of hear about a lot of times in church, the 2080 rule, that 20% of the people do 80% of the work.

In our case, when it comes to giving, 25% of the people give 83% of the money.

Okay, so it just kind of gives you some context here.

All right.

12% of the folks who gave last year gave between$2,400 and$5,000 for the year.

12%.

Okay.

Next group that I want to focus in on is the 63% who gave less than$2,400 for the year.

Less than$2,400.

Okay?

That's$734 giving units.

And the average gift out of those$3% was$528.

Not one time for the year.

$528 for the year.

This kind of shows you where we are.

Now, let's break this down a little bit, okay?

Take a look at this list here.

I want you to see this is a list of some median household incomes in our northeast area.

This represents Dayton and Crosby and Huffman and New Caney and Cleveland and Umble and Taskasita and Kingwood and Summerwood and Fall Creek and areas of Northeast Houston.

I mean, just kind of all of our area, right?

Just kind of put all of those up there.

That's a median household income of those areas.

Okay?

I want to just grab, for the sake of conversation, the lowest number on this list.

Okay?

$48,000.

Which, statistically speaking, majority of the people in this room have a median household income much higher than$48,000.

Let's just grab that number for the sake of conversation for discussion today.

Okay.

$48,000.

If you were to tithe off of$48,000, it would mean that you would give$4,800.

You got the math?

Some of you are like, this is why I hate family meetings.

I'd have no idea what you're talking about.

Am I in trouble?

What am I supposed to do different, right?

You know, kind of a just think about this.

63% of our people give an average gift of$528 when the lowest tithe of the lowest area in our church would be$4,800.

What does this tell us?

I think this tells us that we didn't do very good on the pop quiz.

Now, the good news is the final exam's not here yet.

But the point of the pop quiz is that you would be able to look and see how I am doing.

Like, do I need to course correct?

Do I need to adjust?

Do I need to change things?

Let's just think about this.

We as a church this year have averaged right at 2,000 people in attendance.

Which first of all means this that we have a lot of people who call United City their home who don't give anything.

Who don't give anything at all.

And out of those that actually do, the average gift for 63% is$528.

Now, let's let's begin to kind of think this through a little bit and let's just consider, let's just assume out of that 63% that seven it represents 734 giving units.

Let's just say 500 of them are adults, just to round number.

500 are adults.

If they alone raised their giving to the lowest number of the lowest area in our church or in our region and gave it that level, our budget would increase$2.1 million.

$2.1 million.

38% increase.

And that doesn't even account those who are in that 12% category, who, by the way, are right at that number and most likely could be more.

Now, why do I tell you this?

Man, you're being really legalistic.

I promise you, I'm not trying to be legalistic.

That's not my intention and my goal with bringing this up, but I do want us to be honest with ourselves.

I do want us to ask the hard questions.

Here's my point: as much as we love our church, as much as we love the ministries that it offers, the worship and the preaching, and the fact that our kids are taken care of and all the various things, all of that is great.

I just got to imagine, though, if God isn't looking down in Northeast Houston, where a church is on every single corner, and he's not just saying, Is there one of these churches that will actually live and believe the way that I tell them to live and live that out individually so that we can experience it corporately?

Because he's holding back, waiting for someone who he can bombard with blessing.

Who he can say, I'll give them more, they can handle that.

You can trust them with that.

Are we gonna be a church?

That's a one-talent, that's a two-talent, or a five-talent church.

Please hear me.

If we just take what we receive and we take what we have and we just do it, and we don't lose it and we don't mismanage it, it's gonna be great, but it's not gonna be what God wants.

He instead wants us to be a people individually and a people collectively who say, God, what do you want to do?

Because we are ready to sacrificially give, not out of a place of begrudging or anger, but instead out of a place of joy because we want to see you move.

See, the Bible says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The reason why we bring this up isn't because we're trying to fundraise, it's because we want your heart in this thing, not just your money.

We want you to be so bought into the mission and the vision of what God is doing here because you long for it, that you invest in it.

God has your heart.

Folks, let's just think about this.

What does it mean to have more?

Well, what I would tell you is I think, first of all, it means that we fix and finish this campus that we're on right now.

We not only get this project done out here, but we get the one that we're adding on the front finished, we get this facility done, and then we start figuring out where else, God, do you want us to go?

I do not believe one second that God desires to just keep us here at 19901 and do all of this ministry from this location.

I believe wholeheartedly that God desires for us to go beyond these doors and beyond this place to wherever He may lead.

When I tell you, it means that we're gonna be planting churches, not just here locally in Houston, but planting churches all over the place so that people will not just be sent out of here having worked here and then go plant a church, but we're sending teams and we're sending people and we're sending resources to go along and help be a gospel witness to places we're needed desperately, including other languages, even in our city.

What I believe this means is that this is a residency program where we see people coming here to United City Church to be raised and trained up to learn what it looks like to be effective in ministry so that they can be sent here or other places and be involved in active ministry as we go forward.

And the United City Church is known as a place that trains the next generation.

What I firmly believe is this is that more means we don't just go and to camp like we just did and see God move, which is an amazing thing.

We're gonna have a chance to celebrate it more next week.

But we take four times the number of kids to campus we just did this past week.

And we do that because ultimately there's no reason whatsoever anybody can't go, because the answer is always yes, to get kids in front of hearing the gospel message of Jesus Christ to change their lives.

That's what we care about, and that's what we're all about.

It's seeing more baptisms like we just saw.

Ten baptisms we've seen today in the life of our church, and God desires to do even more if you'll just find a people who can trust Him.

Who can live in such a radical way that they say, God, you can choose us.

We'll do it.

We're ready.

So there's a group of people across every single divide to live united in Christ.

What do we do?

First thing is this grade your paper.

Grade your paper.

You know what I hated most about pop quizzes?

Is then they'd tell you to grade your paper and then they would say, and pass it down to the left.

Because if I did not study and if I was not ready, I had to just show off the fact that, yeah, I failed this pop quiz.

I want to just go ahead and ease all of your minds.

We're not gonna ask you to pass your paper down to the left, all right?

We're not gonna pass it in, take it up.

That's not what we're gonna do.

But I do want you to be honest.

Grade your paper.

How are you doing?

How are you managing your money?

How are you investing your money?

Some of you are like,$48,000?

That's so much money.

I don't know how I'll possibly.

I'm not even close to that.

And I would simply tell you, grade your paper.

If your paper is a lot less than$48,000, but you're tithing and you're giving where God has blessed you and provided for you, praise God.

Put an A on your paper and you can pass it down.

You can be proud of that.

It's not an issue of amount, it's an issue of faithfulness.

So grade your paper.

I want you to see this is not about trying to get you from one category to the other category to the other category.

It's just a matter of how has God blessed you and what do you need to do in response.

For some of you, you may look at your paper and you may see that, man, you're doing really well.

And here's the thing: you know it's been a lot of fun doing it.

You know, whenever you experience the joy of the Lord and you respond and see how He's blessed you and your life and the fact that you can give, man, you just love it.

You're just grateful that God's done that for you.

Maybe some of you, though, you look at your paper and you're like, oh, man, I am nowhere near where I need to be.

Can't change something unless you own it.

So I would just simply ask you, sit in that.

Don't make excuses and don't make all the rationalizations and all the things that naturally are creeping in right now, but instead, just own it.

It's okay.

Like just say this is where I'm at.

Ask the question if every church member was just like me, what kind of church would this church be?

Second thing I'd tell you to do is to take a next step.

Is to take a next step.

What I love and what I hope comes out of something like this is that for some of you, the next step that you're about to take is you're about to give for the very first time, and I can't wait.

I'm so pumped for you.

I really am.

Not because of what the church gets the money or whatever.

Forget all that.

I'm telling you, I'm just personally excited for you because I know that whenever you do what God calls you to do, He makes it fun.

He's gonna allow you to experience blessing and obedience.

And I just I I for some of you, your next step is to give for the very first time.

For some of you, your next step is you gotta get out of debt.

You're like, man, there's no way that I could possibly give.

How in the world am I supposed to give with all this debt?

I can't afford to give.

And I would simply tell you this: you can't afford not to give.

If you honestly think that you're gonna be able to get out of the mess that you made without God's help, good luck with that.

On the other hand, if you want to bring God in, you do what he's called you to do and you just wait and see what he does.

I've seen story after story after story after story where God begins to provide for people to help make up for the mistakes that they've already made.

Are there consequences?

Is it tough?

Absolutely, but it also allows them to put their priorities right, and guess what?

Not only do they get out of debt, they find themselves at a place of living generosity.

What this means is that for some of you, you need to get involved in Financial Peace University.

It's gonna be meeting on Wednesday nights, August 16th, I believe is the date.

Uh, and I want to encourage you, you need to go and learn not just how to give, you need to learn how to live in God's economy overall with your finances if you're in debt.

Let this be something if the QR code gives you the input to be able to do that.

For some of you, what you need to do is you need to move from tipping to tithing.

It's the training wheels, it's the beginning point.

And I don't want to sit there and act like$528 is not great.

It could be huge for some of you, but for a large majority of you,$528 is just tipping.

You're nowhere near where you need to be.

And so I want to ask you to make a commitment today to begin to make the adjustments and make the change.

Is it gonna be hard?

Absolutely.

Is it gonna be worth it?

Absolutely.

I promise you.

Which leads ultimately to the last thing, which is this experience joy.

Experience joy.

The whole goal of your finances isn't that you reluctantly and have to obey.

The whole goal is that you would have more.

You'd have more talents, you'd have more blessings, you'd have more resources to give, you'd have more things to give away.

And ultimately, it's that you would enter into the joy of your master.

Please hear me.

The result of obedience in this area is joy.

It's faithfulness.

You would begin to experience a life that is not filled with anxiety and comparison and lack of contentment that the world offers you, but instead you would operate with the way that God says, which is one where you trust him, where you believe in him, you do what doesn't seem to make sense by giving away in order to give more.

And you experience joy.

I want you to know this: God is the author of joy.

He is the one who desires for you to have it, and I want you to see the way that he modeled it for you was by being the ultimate giver.

Bible tells us that all of us are sinners and all of us fall short of God's standard.

And that God graciously saw our condition and didn't just say, Well, if they just work a little harder, then I'll I'll accept them.

Instead, he sent his one and only Son, Jesus, to come down to this earth, to walk this earth, to live a perfect, obedient, sinless life.

He died a sacrificial death on a cross.

He rose from the dead, and he gives us the opportunity, not because we've earned it or deserve it, but the chance to receive eternal life as a gift.

He wants to give that to you today.

He wants us to remember the gift because we leak.

We forget.

He's given us two primary ways to remember this.

One is through believers' baptism.

We just saw four that got baptized, and we got to see the fact that they were taken underneath the water and they were raised up out of the water.

It represents the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It's a testimony of his gift.

On the other hand, we are told that we are to take of the Lord's Supper together.

We are to take of the elements that remind us of the body which was broken and the blood which was poured out on our behalf.

This time I'm going to invite our men to go ahead and come forward as we prepare to receive the Lord's Supper today.

I want to ask that you just grab the elements, if you would, please.

Those of you are members of our church and those of your believers in Jesus.

Just grab the elements, and if you'll just hold them, we'll worship together, and at the end of that time, we will take all of the elements together.

Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2 says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Hebrews 12:2

For the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising its shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

He is full of joy, and he wants to give that joy to you.

And the joy comes when we realize how much he has given to us.

He gave of his life on that cross.

And he was with his disciples in the upper room.

He took the bread and he gave it to each of them.

And he broke it.

And he said, As often as you eat of it, do it in remembrance of me.

He then took the cup, which was filled with the fruit of the vine.

And he said, This is the blood of my new covenant.

As often as you eat of it, drink of it.

Do it in remembrance of me.

If you would bow your head and close your eyes, please, with me.

Do you need joy today?

For some of you, that joy, if you're a believer, is only going to come by you being obedient.

Not just saying what you hope to do, wish you would do.

But you've got to take that next step today.

And we encourage you to do it.

Others of you, your next step today, though, is to take a first step.

That's to experience the joy that comes with a relationship with Jesus.

He died on a cross for you, he rose from the dead, and he desires that you would have new life.

Just our last service with somebody who gave their life to Jesus.

If today you came here on a message that in theory is about money, please hear me.

It's not about money, it's about joy.

God wants you to have joy that comes through a relationship with Him.

You give your life to Him.

In just a moment, our team is going to be up front.

They're going to be on the sides.

And I just want to encourage you if you want to receive Jesus today, you come forward and let us pray with you.

I want to make sure you know when you leave today that you have the joy of the Lord in your life.

Others, if you need to come and join United City Church, we're not a perfect church, but we are a church who seeks to be one that God would say we want to be blessing them.

We want to be a two-talent and we want to be a five-talent church.

And so if God is calling you to be a part of a church like that, you lead the way today.

By your coming, you're going to help others.

Maybe some need to take their next step in baptism, like these four that we saw today.

Man, what an encouragement.

All morning long, it's been amazing to be able to see people taking their next step, going public with their faith, declaring that God has changed their life.

If that's your next step, I want to invite you to come.

Maybe some of you need prayer.

Maybe you're thinking, man, my finances are a wreck.

It's a mess.

I don't know what I'm going to do.

And I just want you to know you don't have to do it alone.

We want to come alongside of you.

We want to ask God to intercede in your life and in your situation.

So I just want to invite you to come.

Let us pray for you.

Maybe you've got another need of some kind, maybe a relational need, maybe a financial need, maybe a medical need, whatever it may be.

We just don't want you to walk alone.

We want to pray with, we want to pray for you.

God, I pray you'd move in these moments we have left.

Lead people to yourself.

In the name of Jesus, I pray.

Amen.

Would you stand?

And as you stand, our team is up front, ready to receive you as God is leading you.

Come right now.

Come on.