Closer – Closer through Giving

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

To start this year, we've been asking the question.

Here's the question I want you to wrestle with.

What would happen if I gave God one year?

Like how close could you possibly get to God if you gave him one year?

We started week one and we said this.

Jay Oswald Sanders said, You're as close to God as you choose to be.

And I want you to choose this year to go all in with him and to pursue him in a way that maybe you never have before.

The promise that I've made to you is this that if you will give God one four year of all in, this will be your best year if it's your best year with God.

We started the series with the simple idea from James chapter four.

James said, Come near to God and he will come near to you.

Essentially what James is saying is if you'll take one step towards God, he can't help himself.

He loves to be close to his children.

He will come running after you.

Today I want to wrap up the series with a message that's one of the hardest topics you can preach on.

I want to wrap up the series with one of the most, uh, it's it's one of the most toe-stepping on kind of sermon topics ever.

But here's the thing: if you can get this right, it will get you closer to God than you could ever begin to imagine.

To get us started today, a few months ago, I got one of those dreaded text messages.

Maybe you've had this happen.

It's from Citibank, and it said, Dear Mr.

Burns, please call us at this 1-800 number.

We believe your credit card has been compromised.

And I said, What sketchy websites has my wife been on, everybody?

And um so I called them and they said, Sure, no problem.

Let's look into your account.

And they said, We're gonna read you some of your recent transactions.

Please verify if any of these are true, these are yours or they are not yours.

I said, No problem.

First bill was like thousands of dollars on an international flight to the Caribbean somewhere.

And I said, No, but that sounds awesome, not me.

Okay, great.

Next charge,$787 to Home Depot.

And I'm like, that's obvious, not me, because uh your boy doesn't do Home Depot, right?

I can't do, I can't fix stuff, I make it worse.

Then she said, Well, we got a bunch of restaurants here, and they were all expensive.

It's like$384 to Outback.

I said, not me, but it sounds good.

$217 to Longhorn Steakhouse, not me, but again, sounds good.

And she went restaurant by restaurant and it was so much money.

Then she's like, we have a$67 charge to Chipotle.

I was like, that was me.

Lay off my tacos, woman, you know.

We went through this whole list and I said, I'm so sorry you have to do this.

And the lady said back to me, she said, Oh, honey, we just thought you were eating good.

That's what we thought was happening here.

And this was fun, and it got me thinking about it.

Like, how fun would that be for you if you had like a credit card that wasn't yours and if it wasn't illegal, but you could spend whatever you want wherever you wanted?

Wouldn't that be fun?

Wouldn't it be fun to have no financial pressure and just to do whatever you want, right?

And here's the funny thing that's easy to talk about for us, right?

Because that is other people's money.

Right?

Like it's really easy to talk about other people's money because other people's money isn't real to you.

But there's this funny thing that happens in church that if a church talks about your money, we get all weird.

We get all tight.

We like grab our wallets and grab our purses, and we're like, what are they gonna shake us down for today?

I want to teach you something from the Bible today that is so practical and so helpful.

And here's the funny thing I've observed after 18 years of being a pastor, that a lot of content that we preach on is like a dresser full of drawers.

And each one represents areas in our life that as your pastor, I open the drawer and I teach on it, and hopefully it's helpful.

And here's the funny thing: there's all kinds of topics we talk about.

Like we open the relationship drawer and people are like, yes, please help me.

We open the emotions drawer and people are like, yes, I deal with fear or anxiety, please help me.

We deal with faith and people are like, I want to grow closer to God and I want to learn how to trust Him more.

Help me.

Talk about family people love it because kids are born with no instruction manuals and nobody has any idea how to do anything to help kids, right?

So help me.

We talk about work and people are like, yes, I want to advance, I want to honor God in my work, so help me.

But then it's like you try to open the money drawer, and for some reason people freak out and they want to slam it closed.

Why is it?

I put some thought into this over the years, and I think it's because all the other topics are immaterial.

Immaterial means they're not real things that affect you personally, don't cost you anything.

So if we talk about relationships and we try to help you and it doesn't quite work for you, it didn't really cost you a whole lot.

Same's true with emotions or faith or work or whatever.

But when we talk about money, this feels material.

It feels like something that is yours, something that you've earned, you put your blood, sweat, and tears into, and you've worked hard for it, so it's yours.

So what we say is we say, just keep your hands off of or your mouth, your voice out of my wallet.

Why is this?

I think it's because we're afraid of God getting into this one specific area of our lives.

Now, if I could be honest with you for just a moment, I understand people's apprehension to churches talking about money.

Churches have abused this topic.

People feel like churches are just after their money.

And if I could offer you this thought, this is so important for you to hear.

As your pastor, my heart is for you.

I don't want something from you.

My heart is for you.

I want you to experience God in this area of your life.

I don't need something from you.

And as we're in this topic called closer, I want to make you this promise.

Nothing will draw you closer to the heart of God than getting the area of your money right when it comes to your relationship with God.

And as your pastor, I'd like to tell you a couple things up front to maybe help you just take a deep breath and exhale.

As your pastor, I treat church money with unbelievable honor.

I protect it so much.

In fact, here's what I believe.

I tell our staff this if you waste your money on dumb stuff, you do you.

Spend it on whatever you want.

But if you waste church money, you'll never see me come unglued like this.

Why?

Because this is God's money, it's not ours.

And people get all weird about church.

Oh, the pastor just wants the money or the church just wants the money.

I'd like to share something with you today.

I'm gonna be honest with you, it makes me uncomfortable.

I'm only doing this because my board of pastors and my board of overseers said, Have you ever shared this with the church?

And I said, No, our staff doesn't even know this.

Um for the last five or six years, because God has so blessed a company that I started on the side 10 years ago.

For the last five or six years, I've given my whole salary from the church back to the church.

I'm essentially like working for free.

I'm the lead volunteer at Access.

And this now, this stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

This isn't a clap thing.

This is important for you to hear.

This isn't a clap for me or celebrate me thing.

I just need you to know I so believe this, and I so have seen the blessing of God connected to obedience that that I want this for you.

This doesn't benefit me.

I don't want something from you.

I want this for you.

Some people are like, I don't trust organized religion.

Well, good news, we're not that organized.

Um, but people don't trust pastors.

I want you to hear this.

This is an area I am unbelievably strong on because this matters so much to God.

I want this for you.

You ever heard this phrase, money talks?

Like people will talk about this in like terms of a contract.

Oh, money talks, money tells, money speaks, money talks.

They'll say, show me the money.

Why does this matter?

Here's why.

It's because money tells the story of our hearts.

I could say it to you like this.

If you want to know what you care about, just look at where your money is.

Some people are like, I don't really know what matters to me.

I can tell you exactly what it is.

Go to your bank account, go to your credit card statement, go to your financial ledger, and look because money tells the story of our hearts.

Remember a second ago, I said that many people don't want the money drawer of their lives opened.

Jesus opened it all the time.

He did.

In fact, of the 38 parables that Jesus taught, 16 of them deal directly with money.

Why?

Because money is the chief competitor for your heart.

Jesus wants you to understand this.

If you get this part right, your heart will be closer to God than you could ever begin to imagine.

Jesus talks about it so much.

In fact, if you were to look at money, Jesus talks, and the Bible talks about money five to one over topics like prayer.

Why?

Because it's a competitor for your heart, and Jesus wants to know at the end of the day who has the throne in your heart.

I said Jesus talks about it a lot.

Here's Jesus' words in Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mountain, Jesus said, For where your treasure or your money is, there your heart will be also.

Now we get this backwards, don't we?

We think that where our money is, that's where our heart is going to be.

If you work in business or fundraising, pay attention to this.

Most fundraisers get this completely backwards.

Most fundraisers will show you a sad picture of a child who's malnourished, or they'll show you a picture of a dog who's starving and all kind of mangy and messed up.

And they'll say, if you just give$39 a month, it'll fix this problem.

They're tugging on your heartstrings, trying to get your money.

That's not how it works.

Jesus said, What has your money has your heart.

Now, why does this matter?

This is true.

I know this is true because like I remember when I got not my most recent car, but my previous car, I got this car.

It wasn't new.

It wasn't new, but it was new to me.

It was a Ford Explorer.

And I had spent so much money on it that I wanted to take care of it literally the first day I got this car.

I kid you not.

I got my kids, my boys in the car.

We didn't have Ellie yet.

And I got the boys in the car.

I was like, boys, look at this car.

They're like, yeah.

I said, what should we name it?

And Gavin goes, it's the man car.

And so for years, to the demise and dismay of my wife, my car was named the man car.

And to celebrate the man car, we went and got milkshakes.

I was so excited about this.

And we go get these milkshakes, and we come, and I'm driving.

My son Gavin is sitting in the very back seat.

He's got his cookies and cream milkshake, and I hear him go, uh-oh, oh dad, oh dad.

And I look at him in the rearview mirror, and he's poked a hole through his styrofoam pup with his straw, and there's milkshake leaking out.

We lock eyes in my rearview mirror.

He goes, Dad, look, and he turns it over to show me how it's leaking, and now it just goes all over the car, right?

I lost my mind.

Why?

Not because he spilled a milkshake.

I lost my mind because he just got messy the very thing that I gave my money to.

Right?

Are you with me?

What has your money has your heart.

Now here's the question you have to ask.

Does God need your money?

He doesn't.

He doesn't.

God's not worried about the price of eggs or the price of gas or the price of rent.

God's not concerned about the NASDAQ or the stock exchange.

God's not worried about the price of Bitcoin or whatever weird crypto you're invested in.

God's not worried about any of those things.

The Bible says the streets of heaven are paved in gold so pure they're transparent.

The Bible says that the gates of heaven are made of a Corinthian copper that is exquisite and so expensive.

It says that the gates of heaven are adorned with gems that are so big and pure and beautiful that they're priceless.

God's not worried about any of those things.

God doesn't need your money.

I want you to hear this.

Well, God's after is your heart.

Jesus said, Where your money is, there your heart will be.

And if God knows if he can get a hold of your money, he'll have your heart.

Your money and your wallet and your heart are inextricably tied to each other.

So let me say this to you.

If you would like to change where your heart is, just change where your money goes.

Let me phrase it like this.

If you'd like to get closer to God this year, pay attention to what has your money.

Three verses down from the verse we just read a moment ago in Matthew chapter six, Jesus said this.

He said, No one can serve two masters.

Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

And look what he says.

He says, You cannot serve both God and money.

Jesus says, There is one throne to your heart, and either you will put money in that place, or you will put God in that place, but you have to choose.

Now let me tell you exactly what Jesus did not say.

Jesus did not say, Don't enjoy your life, don't go on vacation, don't eat out at nice restaurants.

Jesus didn't say don't have nice cars or nice clothes.

He didn't say any of those things.

What he said is just pay attention to what has the final say in your heart.

Is it God or is it your money?

Here's the thing.

All of us, myself included, we live with hearts that are competing for the attention.

Is it gonna go to God?

Or is it gonna go to my money?

Here's the question for today.

How can you know if your love for money is competing with your love for God?

And I want to give you two thoughts.

And if you have your message notes, write these down, and maybe we'll sneak in a bonus number three.

Number one, you think that your money belongs to you.

This is a big deal.

In fact, this is, in my opinion, the pinnacle question or problem that people have when it comes to their money is they buy into this lie that I earned it, and I'm the one who put in the blood, sweat, and tears.

I'm the one who worked that side hustle, I'm the one who stayed up nights working to start this company or this business.

It is mine.

What is one of the first words that babies learn when they're little?

Mine, right?

And maturity helps a baby to know that not everything belongs to them.

In the same way, a spiritually immature person says, It's mine, a spiritually mature person says, it's not mine.

It all belongs to God.

In the book of Psalm, David says it like this.

Psalm 24, verse 1 says, The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.

Psalms 24:1

Let me summarize what David said.

David says, All that stuff that you have and all that stuff that you earned, it's not yours, it all belongs to God.

That car you have, it's God.

That clothes, those clothes you have, that belongs to God.

That food you have, that belongs to God, that job you have belongs to God.

And if you want to get even more specific, that spouse you have, those kids you have, that career you have, those dreams you have, everything belongs to God.

Now here's the thing: we get all tripped up and weird about this because we think we're the ones who earned it, we think we're the ones who deserve it.

And when you start to buy into that lie, you start to act weird about the stuff that you have.

Okay, I want you to understand this.

If everything belongs to God, then giving isn't giving to God.

In the same way that if I lent you my car for the weekend, you can't come to me on Monday and be like, Pastor Jason, I love you.

You're so good, you're so fun.

What a great pastor you are.

To bless you, I want to give you this car.

You can't give someone something that belongs to them.

In fact, I'd like to teach you a biblical principle.

When it comes to our money, here is God's command.

And this is so important for you to understand.

This is the entry level to obedience to God when it comes to the area of your money.

Tithing.

That's a word that people get all freaked out and weird about.

Tithing is not a Bible word, tithing is just an old word.

Tithe means 10%.

That's all it means, it means one tenth.

And I'd like to add, biblically, tithing doesn't just mean 10%.

Tithing means the first 10%.

And it belongs to God.

Now, let me try to explain it to you like this.

According to the Bible, anytime there's increase in your life, anytime you get a paycheck, anytime you inherit some money, anytime something happens, the first 10% belongs to God.

Let me try to tease it out like this.

Imagine you did a side job, right?

And you earned$1,000 and they paid you in$10,$100 bills.

You got them all laid out in front of you.

And so you say to yourself, here's what I'm gonna do.

Um, I'm going to take the first hundred dollars and I'm gonna set it to the side, and I'm gonna give that to God.

That's what I'm gonna do.

So you take the other$900 and you set it aside for you.

The first hundred dollars, and you bring it to church with you.

Remember old school church where the offering would come and they pass the buckets?

Remember this?

So imagine they're passing the buckets and you take that hundred dollar bill in your hand and you say, God, thank you that you blessed me to earn this money.

The first 10% belongs to you.

You put it in and you pass it down the row, and it goes person by person by person, and you look down the row, and someone sees that there's a hundred dollar bill, there's a Benjamin in the bucket, and she reaches in, and I don't know why I chose a woman.

Um they reach in and take the money and they put it in their pocket.

Wouldn't you lose your mind?

Because that money wasn't theirs, that money belonged to God.

And when you understand that all of it belongs to God, it changes how you view it.

Here's another imaginary scenario.

Imagine you have a relative who calls you and you're not really close to them, but they're like, hey, listen, I know this is weird, we haven't talked in years, but I'm on my deathbed and I'm putting together my final wishes, I'm putting my will together.

Would you come meet with me?

So you hustle up to the hospital and you meet with them, and they say, Listen, I didn't tell anyone this, I was very private about my money, but I did really well in business, and I've got such a massive investment portfolio that every month I get$100,000 of dividends every month.

And as one of my final wishes, I'm gonna give all of that to you.

I've told my attorney, transfer the bank account to your bank account.

Every month,$100,000 goes into your bank account.

Here's all I want you to do.

I want you to take 10%,$10,000 a month, and there's a charity over here.

I want you to give it to this charity, I want you to do this, and the rest can be yours.

Now, who wouldn't sign up for that, right?

Because your focus in that scenario would be on the 90% that you get to keep for you.

You would be thinking about the$90,000 that goes into your bank account every single month.

Who wouldn't sign up for that?

But for whatever reason, when it comes to the topic of tithing, Christians get weird and they hyper focus on the 10% instead of realizing all of it belongs to God, 90% he allows me to keep.

What a blessing and a gift.

And when I bring God the first 10%, when that comes to God, God even promises to bless the rest of it.

Who wouldn't sign up for that?

Number one is we get all messed up on who owns it.

Number two, this is really important.

One of the ways we know that money's competing for our heart is giving is what you do with your leftovers.

Now remember a second ago I said this, I said that um the first 10% belongs to God, that that's the tithe.

Here's how most Christians tend to treat their money.

Most Christians tend to spend everything throughout the month, and if there's any unexpected bills, they pay all that stuff.

And at the end of the month, if there's anything left over, we say to God, well, here's a little something.

Some people even use the word tithe on it.

They'll give$5 every time they come to church.

And I'm not begrudging you or berating you for that.

That any giving is awesome, but they put the word tithe on it.

Tithe is only tithing when it's the first 10% that goes to God.

And so what a person might do is look at a person who's not really a giver, and they might say, That person is stingy.

That's kind of true.

But biblically, there's a stronger word.

You're not stingy if you don't tithe, you're stealing from God.

Remember the story I told you a moment ago?

Imagine you're at church, you give that$100 bill and they pass it down, and someone reaches in and steals it.

Doesn't that sound terrible?

Like who would do that?

Who would steal from God in that way?

You're ready to get your toe staff done.

Okay.

According to the Bible, to have money in your bank account that belongs to God, that you haven't brought back to him, is the same thing as reaching in and stealing the money.

Because it's taking or keeping for you and for yourself something that doesn't belong to you in the first place.

This is the reason that Malachi chapter 3 is so beautiful.

Malachi 3 · chapter mention

But God doesn't say give the whole tithe.

Here's what God says.

You ready?

He doesn't say give it, he says bring it.

Why does God say bring it?

Because it all belongs to him in the first place.

Here's what I want to challenge you on.

I want to challenge you to trust God because this is a command that comes with a promise.

It's a promise that is attached to a premise.

The premise is bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.

The storehouse is an old word that literally would be the place where you're fed spiritually, which is your church.

After the first service, I had a great conversation with a sweet lady who told me she works at a nonprofit organization.

It requires her to give a lot to the organization and she considers that her tithe.

And she goes, What do you think about that?

And I said, Well, this puts me in a weird spot, but let me say this.

If you were talking about your sister who lived in Kansas or something, and that was the same scenario, here's what I would say to them.

Biblically, it is your responsibility to bring the whole tithe, the full 10%, the first 10%, into the place where you're fed spiritually.

Giving actually happens after we've been obedient in tithing, and that's what I believe our responsibility is.

In fact, I read a stat recently, this is crazy.

Only 5% of American Christians tithe.

But 77% of those people who are tithers give over and above their tithing to their church and to other organizations in form of offerings.

Why?

How is that even possible?

It's because when God blesses, he gives you the ability to do more and more because he trusts you.

So we don't give, we bring back to God.

Number three, this is this is a bonus.

This one isn't in your notes.

But if you're hearing this and you think, man, how do I know that my heart is competing with God when it comes to the area of money?

It would be this is that you think this sermon is stupid.

Okay.

So after the last service, I had another conversation with a person who said to me, She goes, The whole time you were speaking, I was fighting with you in my mind, and I almost got up multiple times to walk out on the sermon.

And I said, Thank you for not.

Can I teach you something so important?

There's a significant difference between condemnation and conviction.

The difference in the two is stark and important.

Condemnation is the voice of the enemy saying, You're never good enough, you'll never measure up, you should give up and throw in the towel.

Conviction, the scripture teaches, is a gift from the Holy Spirit that leads us to change and to repentance.

If you feel like this message, or when anytime you hear a message on giving, you're like, oh, this isn't for me.

If you find yourself fighting, I'd actually like to challenge you and say, maybe that isn't the condemnation voice of the enemy.

Maybe that is for you the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, Would you just trust me in this way?

If you think this message is dumb, let me take you back to the Old Testament.

In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses said this.

He said, the purpose of tithing is to teach you to always do what?

Put God first in your life.

And it's easy for us to come to church and say, Oh, God, you're first.

Oh, God, I worship you.

I love you.

I love you.

Give you the first of my week, the first of my time.

But for whatever reason, it's like 95% of Christians in America are like, except for this area.

Like you can open all the drawers in my life except for the giving and the tithing drawer.

Why is this?

Can I tell you what it produces when you don't trust God in this way?

When you don't trust God in this way and put him first in your tithing, it produces a life that is me first living with a little giving.

And this is the opposite of spiritual maturity.

This is the opposite of growing closer to God.

This is you trying to look out for number one and take care of yourself.

And I just want to say this to you, as your pastorate, it is my desire to see you mature and grow in your faith in a way where it's not just about you, but you live an open-handed life that is about God and others.

So, like when you start to buy into this lie, Jesus has a story.

I told you this earlier.

16 of the 38 stories that Jesus told that are called parables dealt with money.

Here's one, and I'll kind of interrupt it and teach you along the way.

In the book of Luke, Jesus says this, and he, Jesus, told them this parable.

It's a story that has a heavenly meaning to it.

He said, The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.

Pause here for just a moment.

So we meet a man and it says about him that he's already rich, he's got it going on.

But the ground where he plants some stuff yields an abundant harvest.

Can I ask a question?

Like he had some control because he planted the seeds, but does he have much control after that?

No.

It's God who sends the sunlight, it's God who sends the rain, it's God who sends the soil to make it grow, it's God who does all of it.

He's the recipient of it, but like it's really not even about him, it's about God.

And so he thought to himself, what am I gonna do?

I have no place to store my crops.

And if you read this and you're like, well, this has nothing to do with me, I don't even have enough for me.

If you walked into a closet that has clothes in it and you thought to yourself, I have nothing to wear.

If you walked into a pantry that's got lots of food and ingredients and you think, I have nothing really to eat.

If you have a jar at your house that has loose coins that you've accumulated over the years, and you think I just I'm broke, the truth is you are richer than almost everyone in the world.

And then he said, This is what I'll do.

Here's what I'm gonna do.

I've got too much stuff, so here's what I'll do.

I will tear down my barns, and I will build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain, and then I'll say to myself, You have plenty of grain laid up for many years.

Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry.

This is the American dream.

And this is what he thinks life is all about, but then God's so funny, God takes the story and flips it upside down.

It says, and God said to him, You fool! And anytime the Bible says the word fool, you should pay attention to it because this is something you don't want to be.

He says, This very night your life will be demanded from you.

Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?

He says, This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich towards God.

Like, heaven forbid that we're a church full of people who lives just for us, for our stuff, buying more, accumulating more, but we're not open-handed and rich towards the one who gave it all to us in the first place.

Like, if I could step on your toes, I think a lot of Christians, and that means a lot of people here, live with the consumption assumption.

The consumption assumption is the assumption that everything that comes in my way is for my consumption.

It's the assumption that everything I get is for for me.

So let me make this very practical and then we're gonna lay in the plane.

There's really only five ways that you can spend your money.

Let me show them to you very quickly.

When it comes to your money, you can number one spend it.

Number two, you can repay debt.

Number three is you can pay your taxes, number four is you can save it, and number five is you can give it.

Can I show you the funny thing about these?

This is the way that most of us tend to live our lives, and this is even the order that most of us spend our money in.

Let me show you this really simple thing, okay?

Spending it is about me now.

Repaying debt is about me yesterday.

Paying taxes is about me keeping the government out of my life.

Number four, saving it is about me in the future, and number five, giving it is about God and others.

If you were to live any other part of your life this way, would you see it as a problem?

I would.

Jesus said, remember we read from Matthew chapter 6 earlier, Matthew 6, 21.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

12 verses later, Jesus says this.

He says, But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

That means do for God the stuff that he cares about most.

And then he says, and, and here's one of those promises, all these things will be given to you as well.

What are all these things?

You ready?

Whatever you need.

The best way I could explain it is this.

Most of us live with an ownership mentality when it comes to our stuff.

We think I earned it, therefore I own it.

Can I teach you something?

That is a very heavy way to live your life financially.

It's kind of like the difference between owning a house and renting a house.

When you own a house, if the roof goes bad, you have to pay for it, if the AC goes out, you fix it.

If you need new floors, it's on you.

But when you rent something, the weight of the ownership doesn't fall on you, it falls on someone else.

When you can see your finances through God's lens, which is that you're not the owner of it, but you're a steward or a manager of it, when you can understand that God owns it all, here's what it means.

It means when you put him first in this way, what happens is the weight and the onus of ownership falls on him.

And I got great news.

He's really good at taking care of his people.

So here's what I want to challenge you to do.

Instead of living a me-focused life and then a God-last life, I want to challenge our church to flip the script.

Here's what the script looked like for most people in America.

Me, me, me, me.

If there's anything left over, I'll throw God a bone, make it God and others.

I want to challenge you to flip it upside down and go God first and others.

And then learn how to put everything else in its proper place.

For years, here's how I've reduced this to a really simple, portable way to think about it.

Ready?

I want you to give, save, and live.

Give first, save second, live on the rest.

Give first, save, second, live on the rest.

And today, I promise you, during first service, during worship, I was worshiping and my mind was kind of thinking through what I was gonna talk about today, and I thought, this isn't even right because you can't give what doesn't belong to you.

Instead, what if we bring first, save, second, live on the rest?

What does this mean?

It means some of you need to have an honest conversation with yourself, with your spouse, with your friend, with whoever you came to church with today.

Some of us need to reorient our whole lives because we tend to live and we spend, I mean, I read this a couple weeks ago, the average American lives on 103% of their income.

How sustainable is that?

The truth is, all the stuff we buy has no power to bless us.

Malachi chapter 3, it's the only place in scripture where God says, put me to the test.

Malachi 3 · chapter mention

In fact, one last story and then we'll be done.

In the early days of our church, there was this church in Oklahoma that was just leading the way.

They were so innovative and cutting edge.

And they came up with something, they taught a message on putting God first in your money.

And the pastor came up with this idea called the 90-day tithe challenge.

Here was the whole idea.

Malachi chapter 3 says, God says, Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, the place where you're fed spiritually.

Malachi 3 · chapter mention

God says, test me in this, says the Lord.

And see if I won't open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing on you that you can't contain it.

It's the only place in the Bible where God invites us to test him.

People say, I'm gonna test God in this relationship.

Do it, that's fine, but that's dumb.

It's not in the Bible.

Okay.

Only place it's in the Bible, God says test him in the area of money.

So this pastor said, What if for 90 days you went all in and tested God and you put him first?

That means whenever you're paid, whenever there's an increase in your life, the first 10% goes directly to God.

You do it for 90 days.

And at the end of 90 days, if God hasn't blessed you, that doesn't mean it gives you more money, it could, but it could also mean all kinds of things.

If God hasn't blessed you and taken care of you, then the church will give you every penny back.

So for like four or five years, we did this, and after years of people, we had people fill out cards and take a step of faith, and never had a single person ask for a penny back.

But then I was praying about it one time and I thought, I hate that so much.

I hate it because I never want to turn God into a cosmic slot machine.

I never want to make giving into a manipulative game.

I never want to do any of that stuff.

I hope you trust me.

I hope you trust the integrity of our church.

I hope you trust God ultimately.

So what if instead of a 90-day tithe challenge, what if you just said, God, look, I'm all in.

I give you a year.

I said this earlier.

This is not just about money, but about every part of my life.

God, I'm gonna go all in with you for a year.

I love it when people do this.

I'll never forget.

A couple years ago, I preached the message on tithing.

And a sweet lady in our church, she just felt so compelled to trust God in this way.

And so I remember she wrote me and she said, Jason, I'm terrified.

Like I don't know what to do.

And she wrote her first tithe check, full 10%.

And in the memo line, she wrote, I'm scared.

Like 18 months later, and what has happened over and over and over, God has come through and He's blessed.

This message, if I could just be real with you, it's about obedience.

I didn't even get into the blessing of God today.

If you gave me two hours and an open microphone, I could tell you story after story after story of the ways God has intervened and blessed my life.

If you gave me an open microphone, I could tell you the extravagant ways that God has enabled us to give.

And the ways that He's always supernaturally come through in specific, unbelievable, unimaginable kind of ways.

But I don't want to manipulate you.

The series is called Closer.

And I asked the question how close do you want to be to God this year?

A lot of us will say, Oh, I want to be so close to God in prayer.

Oh, it's it's beautiful, it's immaterial.

I want to be close to God in reading the word of God.

Awesome, beautiful, immaterial.

If you want to be close to God, I want you to hear this.

The hardest leap is that leap of faith from where you are to full-on tithing.

I challenge you to go home.

Look at your bank account.

It has the ability to tell you whether or not you actually fully trust and love God.

And if you're not putting God first in this way, I want you to hear me.

I challenge you to get as close to God as you can, to put the onus of ownership on Him, to trust that He's your source and He's your provision, and all the other stuff you buy that is wonderful and good.

It's beautiful, but none of it has the ability or the capacity to bless you, but He does.

So, what would it look like if you and I just made this decision to say, God, I'm all in every part of my life.

Open all the drawers if you want, but at the end of the day, you can have this part of my life and trust him.

Jesus said, where you put your money, that's where your heart's gonna be.

That's what God wants.

Let me end with this question.

To the people in the room, people North Lakeland, wherever you're joining us, that have trusted God in this way, if He's come through for you time and time again, if God has been good and if He's been faithful, can I get a good amen from you?

So would you bow your head and close your eyes all across this place?

Let me pray for you.

God, I pray for a supernatural dose of courage to wash over our church.

It takes unbelievable courage and faith to trust when it doesn't make sense.

But God, I really have experienced this for myself, and my desire is for my brothers and sisters to experience it as well.

You are good, you are true to your word, you are faithful, and you are our provision.

So, God, we want to trust you in this way.

Give us the courage to know you, trust you deeper, to put our money where our mouth is and to say, God, I don't just love you, but I back it up with my action.

God, for some of us, we have to reorient our finances.

Give us the courage to do it.

God, I pray for a church full of people who will say, God, I really believe that you are my source.

So I put you first.

I pray for a church full of people to be willing to take a step of faith and to move from giving to tithing.

It's the hardest leap we can make, but your word says that that's the leap that elicits the blessing of God.

So that's what we want.

We love you, we trust you, we thank you for it in Jesus' name.

Your head still bowed and eyes still closed.

If you're hearing, you say, Jason, I don't even know if I'm right with God.

Maybe this means you've never started a relationship with God, or maybe you just feel like you've walked away.

This moment's for you.

If you need to start or restart, would you raise your hand right now?

This is for you.

Thanks.

Thank you, yeah.

Thanks here's your moment.

If this is you, would you pray this with me?

Say, Jesus, today I give you my life.

I invite you to be my Lord and my savior.

You being Lord means you're in charge and you call the shots, and I'll follow you.

You being my savior means you have the ability to save me.

So, Jesus, today, I believe that when you came and died on the cross for me, you paid for my sins.

And because you did that, now all I have to do is receive your gift of salvation and forgiveness.

So I received that today.

Jesus, thank you that you make me new and you've changed my life.

From this day on I'll follow you.

I love you, and it's in your name we pray, Jesus.

Amen.

Come on, church fam.

We just had people pray to make that decision.