GROVE WOMEN LIVE // We are Family // Week 3

Good morning, ladies, uh, and those of you that uh hop on.

Uh today it is Thursday, September 3rd, and I just want to start off by saying I am so sorry about Tuesday and messing up our normal schedule.

It was me, my fault.

Uh, our staff does a planning retreat once a year, and I knew it.

I knew it was gonna be on uh this Tuesday and did not for a second think about uh the conflict between Grove Women Live and that retreat.

So that is my bad.

I apologize for that.

I am so uh thankful to any of you that pop on on Thursday, and we will be back to our normal Tuesday, 7:30.

Next week, Lori will be with you and she will be talking about our final G in this series, We Are Family.

Uh, today we're gonna talk about give.

Next week, she's gonna talk about Go.

And what I think is so cool is Go is a perfect topic for her.

She actually works part-time for one of the ministries that we are going to um uh put out there as someplace to um go and support.

So, anyway, I don't want to give away too much of her, whatever the Lord's gonna lay on her heart, but um we will finish this series next week.

What a great series it's been.

We've been talking about what a family of God does, how we act like family together.

So, week one, we talked about how important it is for us to gather together in corporate worship.

Um, and then week two, we talked about growing, and that needs to look a couple of different ways.

We can grow as an individual, we can grow in a group, we need to try to do both because man, the more that is poured into us, the more that we can pour out to others.

And that's where we're gonna uh kind of park today is pouring out to others in uh in the ability to give.

So we're gonna talk about that third G give today.

So I'm gonna start us off in prayer and then we are gonna dive right in this morning, gals.

Here we go.

Father God, thank you.

Uh, everything we have is yours.

And so as we think about this G word, this uh way to give, um, Lord, I just pray that today you open our hearts and minds to maybe thinking about this in a different way.

Um, Lord, if there are barriers to us being generous, um, then knock those down and show us how to uh fight against those barriers.

But Lord, I know that you love it when we have hearts that are full of generosity towards um others.

And and you don't need it from us, but you have given all to us.

And so um give us a heart that wants to give back as much as we can.

Lord, I thank you for those that pop onto this live, and I thank you for those who will listen later.

And Lord, I just pray it's a great Thursday.

Thank you for your love, thank you for your son Jesus.

It's in his name I pray.

Amen.

All right, so uh, you know, a lot of people, and this is funny, we're going through this series at our home church, Lori and my the church that we attend, Hager Grove Baptist Church in Independence, Kentucky.

And and listen, we hope to every time we pop on here, like it's not about our church, it's about just connecting with you, it's about uh sharing who he is, it's it's about sharing our experiences, our experiences with um with how God has worked in our lives.

Um, so it's not about Hickory Grove today.

But in our church, in every church, I think, when the topic of money comes up, I think people have all kinds of weird like reactions to it or triggers.

Some people may be triggered by it.

Um I cannot remember, I grew up in church, I cannot remember a lot of sermons being about giving, but I do remember it's just something I knew that my family did.

And what's so crazy now, like looking back on my childhood and even like uh, you know, my teenage years, uh, my parents did not have money.

Like I know that now.

I didn't know that um to the depth of which I know it now, but man, we never had money.

And um my dad, we lived in Indiana, he lost his job.

He was in the trucking business uh industry and that tanked in Indiana.

And so he was without work for years.

My mom was a stay-at-home mom, she had to go back to work, and she supported us on like$5 an hour, a family of five.

Um, and so there were tough, tough years.

But one thing that I remember um is my mom and dad always, and sometimes they would fight, like let's just be real.

Sometimes they would fight over it.

But my mom was determined that it didn't matter how much or how little we had, they were always going to give back to God because he had given his her faith in him was so strong, it was probably strong enough for the rest of us.

Uh it it and it had to be um in some of those really, really lean years.

So I know even today, my mom and dad talk about like even in those dark years, they never stopped tithing.

They always gave to God.

And, you know, now we were actually having this conversation last week.

I was with my mom and we were just talking about all the all the tough years that they went through.

Uh my dad kind of sunk into depression and then couldn't work because of just, I don't know, like it was a mess for a while.

And then we moved here to Kentucky and things got a little bit better, but it took a long time.

Like I can remember needing money for cheerleading and my mom being like, I don't know where it's gonna come from, but we're gonna do the best we can.

And I don't know.

So, anyway, to hear my mom talk last week about just they've always been faithful in tithing to a church or to something.

Um, it it really impacted me because now they are both retired and the Lord has provided for them to, I don't know, like I'm just so overjoyed for them that they have this life now that I mean they have been blessed and they they can enjoy so much of life and they didn't get to do that for so many years because they just didn't have the means um to do it.

And so I'm just so thankful for that example in my life.

I know that my mom was probably faithful because her parents, it was important to them that they tithed um faithfully.

So I have I have an example of that.

Um, and so I think that probably whether or not I I'm an in-church or I'm a, you know, and forget, forget this morning that I am a minister in a church.

Like I'm separating that today.

Um, and I'm just talking about my own personal experience.

Um, but I think that no matter what church I would attend today, I would feel compelled to give based on the example that's been given to me.

And I know that that is not everybody's example.

And so some people may hear the word tithe or hear a church talk about money and think, ah, they're just trying to steal my money.

They're just trying to take it, they're trying to.

And a lot of churches have done a lot of really awful things over the course of history with people's money, but I don't want to talk about that.

That's not what we're gonna talk about today.

We're gonna talk about our own individual hearts and are they postured to give and be generous.

So that's what we're gonna talk about today.

Um, I am gonna, I love the way I'm actually leading a group through a resource right now called Rooted.

And what Rooted is, is it kind of it shares with the believer seven rhythms that we're supposed to be in as disciples of Jesus Christ, as followers of Jesus Christ.

And so those seven rhythms are daily devotion, being in his word every day, prayer, repentance, sacrificial generosity, serving the community, sharing your story, and worship.

And I love the way that Rooted puts um giving, how they explain what tithing actually is.

And so I'm just gonna read you this little example.

Oh, you know what?

I don't have the book that I have it highlighted in.

Ah, that's funny.

You know what?

There's always something.

There is always something.

Yeah, that's okay.

I wrote it down.

All right.

So what Rooted says, they put it really well.

They said, God doesn't need our money.

Tithing is a way for him to raise up people with surrendered hearts.

And that's what it's all about.

That's what being generous is all about.

When our hearts are surrendered to him, then we have this.

I mean, we are compelled to give back not just to him, but to others because we have been given so, so much.

And I'm here to tell you, like, as a believer now, for goodness, I was saved at seven, so I'm 51, you do the math, a lot of years, uh, more than 40.

Um, I can tell you that as I have grown in my faith, um the things I think about are how I can be generous to others.

How can my life be generous?

Um, how can I be generous with my time and my effort and what does that look like as I'm older and maturing in my faith?

So I do think that this is one of those things that um it kind of grows on you.

You mature into it um based on just the condition of your heart.

So we're gonna talk a lot about the condition of our hearts this morning.

So um, as I was thinking about this, our pastor on Sunday, he made a statement and I loved it.

He said, So if I'm a follower of Christ, generosity is not an option for me.

Um, it's like I said, one of these rhythms of following Jesus.

So if you're a believer, being generous is not an option.

And so if you don't have a generous heart, that's a problem.

And I think that some of the things we're gonna talk about today, I don't know, maybe will help um shed some light in an area that maybe you need to spend some time with the Lord on.

I don't know.

So I thought of three different questions that I hear a lot and I also have asked myself a lot over the years about tithing and about being generous.

Tithing actually goes way back to Abraham and the book of Genesis, the very beginning of the Bible, and it it talks about how Abraham took the first fruits of what the you know, what had been produced on his within his land and property, and he gave it to the priest at the time.

He gave 10% of the first.

So that is kind of a theme through the Old Testament of just giving back what God has, you know, given you the best that you have, 10% of the best that you have, give it back to God, and you can keep all the rest.

And so that's where it kind of comes from is way back in the Old Testament with Abraham and uh the priest Mikhail Zedek at the time.

Um, but like I said, it's always been an example for me.

But so today I came up, I thought of three different questions that I myself have asked and other people have asked me when it comes to tithing, when it comes to giving.

Okay, so the first question I thought we kind of wrestle with this morning is does it have to be money?

No.

Now, I do think that there comes a point and a time where um we do need to give of our actual financial resources because again, it goes back to that surrendered heart.

And if our heart is surrendered to Jesus, then we know that everything that we are that that we get is actually his and it's a blessing for us to be a blessing to others.

So I think that that comes again with maturity and with growing in our relationship with Jesus, we learn um over the course of time that what we have isn't ours.

Okay.

Um, so I do think that there needs to come a point where it does have to be, it doesn't have to be, but it it could be should be um our our finances.

It should be a part of our finances should go back.

Um and and I don't that can look different for different people, um, but I do think that at some point, if we're not prompted to give financially, then then I don't know, there's there's a heart issue there.

But it doesn't have to just be money.

Um, and I want you to hear me say that.

I know, like, yes, my parents, we were very, very poor and they figured out a way to give.

I know that's not possible, or at least maybe it doesn't seem possible in this moment, and that's that's okay.

Um, there are other things that we can give until we get to that place where we have surrendered our heart financially.

And, you know, I don't know.

I guess this could have been another question, and I don't know if I can dive in in the next 20 minutes on this question, but like, does it have to go to a church?

Can it go to a charity?

I don't know.

I feel like this is something that when we are really seeking the Lord's guidance, then he will show us where it needs to go.

Okay, but saying all that, it doesn't have to just be money.

I think that the Lord really wants, when He wants our whole heart, then He wants us to be generous, not just with our money, but He wants us to be generous with our things, our stuff.

You know, we have so much in this country.

Most of us just have rooms and closets and filled with things that we don't need, we're not using, aren't you know, we are not benefiting from.

So I think that he wants us to um be generous with our things.

I think he wants us to be generous with our time.

And that, whoo, that is a sticker, right?

Uh, because man, we are all sometimes running around like chickens with our heads cut off, right?

And um I I think he definitely wants our time.

Um, he wants us to spend time with him.

He wants us to spend time um loving others um in response to our love to him.

So I think he wants us to be generous with our time.

I think he wants us to serve others.

I think that when we are in low spots and maybe when we don't feel like we have much to give, there's always someone we can love on.

There is always someone we can serve.

There's always someone that we can put before ourselves.

And that is the example that Jesus gave us.

So that is um, I don't know, I think that that's another way that we can give.

And then one more way that I think that we can give is we've all, and I know some people don't believe this, but man, I believe it with my whole heart.

We've all been given gifts and abilities, and he wants us to be generous with those gifts and abilities.

He doesn't want them hidden or not being used.

Um, and and I know, especially as women, sometimes it's very hard to think about ourselves as having, you know, gifts and abilities and talents.

You know, we just do the things, we figure out the things, we, you know, make the things happen.

And sometimes we forget that we've been uniquely gifted in certain areas and ways.

And I think that, you know, Jesus wants our hearts, and when he wants our hearts, he wants us to be generous with everything that comes with us, including our gifts and talents.

And this is a strut, this has been a struggle for me to figure out like what I'm really gifted at.

I mean, people tell me things that I'm gifted at all the time, but I think sometimes the things that people tell me I'm gifted at are just things that the Holy Spirit has enabled me to do for such a time as this.

Um, but I mean, I do, I do think that one of my gifts is um or abilities, I don't know, or something that I I see um that's unique to me is I see when people um I don't like people being left out of a circle.

Like I, I if if some if I'm in a circle and somebody's on the like I will move my body to make sure that people um and I do think that that's that's a way that he's gifted me to kind of see people.

I don't want anybody um to feel left out.

Um, I want everybody to have connections with others, and that's probably why I do the job that I do because I have that heart and passion for people to be part of something.

Um, but we all have these gifts and abilities and and and we're not supposed to just kind of sit on them.

And I don't care how old you are, I don't care how young you are, I don't care um if you are completely mobile or you're not, I don't care if I like I don't care what your circumstance is, you have something that only you can give the world.

And I know that he wants us to be generous with that.

Um, somebody in your sphere of influence needs what only you can give.

Um, and I think that that's that's when we see the kingdom of God here on this earth is when people live those gifts and abilities out and are generous with that.

Um, so does it have to be money, not just money.

Um, we need to trust him with our finances, but it can also be stuff, time, gifts, and abilities.

All right, question number two how much does it have to be?

I hear this question all the time, and I'm not a pastor.

I mean, I I'm a minister of discipleship and I try to help people connect with others, but I would say that probably there are a million ways to answer this question.

And honestly, again, I'm gonna go back to how the whole the Lord guides your heart, how he leads your heart in this is the right way.

That's the right way.

There are some people that preach that it should be 10% off the gross, there are some that that preach that it's 10% off the net of what you earn.

There are people, I mean, like there are all kinds of versions of what is appropriate to give.

What does that 10% include?

And again, it's between you and the Lord as to what that looks like.

What I love is again, I'm gonna read a little portion of how Rooted explains this 10% out.

And I would say that the way that they explain it is 10% on the gross is like the ultimate goal for that 10%.

But then once we get there, like there's no limit.

That's the whole point of this, is that there should not be a limit on the generosity that we give.

That's why it's so important for us to, you know, not have debt and not, you know, be a slave to things with our finances so that we can just bless.

And and there doesn't have to be a cap to it.

And I'm learning this too, y'all.

Like, I, man, I I want to pay off my house so bad so that I have resources to be more generous with.

Like, yes.

Anyway, I think that the ultimate goal for the 10% would be based on the gross and then beyond that.

Like, let the Lord lead beyond that.

And that's that's the the end all be all, right?

Is beyond that gross 10%.

But if you can't do that, and if you've done, if you're not doing anything, I want to read what Rudig calls the tithe challenge.

This is so, so good.

And I don't know, some of you may have never heard this, um, but I want to read this and and and share this with you.

One place that suffers most when we don't trust God to meet our financial needs is our giving.

Consider a tithe challenge.

Increase your current tithing level by one percent.

If you tithe 5% right now, the challenge is to trust God with one more percent and begin tithing 6%.

If you haven't stepped into tithing practice at all yet, begin with 1% and give in to it to his church.

If you are already at 10% or more, move past that by 1%.

I love that very easy um thought of just if you haven't started, start small.

If you're already doing it, try to up it by 1%.

Like honestly, it the amount, I don't think it ever matters to our Lord.

What matters is that we have a heart that wants to give because we've received so much.

That's the whole point of this word give.

That's the whole point of tithe, is having, like I said in the beginning, that surrendered heart to Him.

So I think that the hardest part for people is not like figuring out gross, net, how much, blah, blah.

The hardest part for people is going from nothing to something.

I think that that's the hardest part is moving from nothing to something.

So I hope that that encourages you that starting with very little, man, what God can do with just a teeny tiny bit, but it's attached to a heart that's surrendering and trusting God with it.

Oh my goodness.

Like what he can do with that would blow our imaginations.

I believe that.

I really truly do.

It doesn't, how much does it have to be?

That's between you and the Lord, and it doesn't have to be any certain amount.

It's just the heart posture.

That's what he's after.

Okay.

All right, so does it have to be money?

Not just money.

Does it how much does it have to be?

There are lots of ways to look at that.

But moving from nothing to something, that's where he wants us.

That's where he wants us to begin.

Okay, the third question, this is kind of where ah, I wanted to spend a little more time because this has been like real in my life.

And I think it's especially a big deal for women.

What if I feel like all my life is is giving for others?

What if all I feel like I do is give, give, give, give, give, give, give?

That is real.

And there have been seasons in my life where I have felt, and honestly, like my heart probably was not in the place that it needed to be because I felt like I all I did was give, got nothing in return, um was tired and exhausted, and had a bad attitude when I did have to give.

So if that's how you feel that you are giving everything you have and it's not working, it you're not giving anything back, you're not getting anything in return.

Like, listen, I know that that is real.

That is real in relationships, that is real in sometimes jobs, that is real in all kinds of ways.

Okay.

But like I said, when I have been in those moments where my attitude is more about me and what I'm not getting in return, that is when I have realized how far I am from Jesus.

We've said this in many different ways on this live.

You cannot give from an empty cup.

You will not feel generous if your cup is empty.

And the only way to fill that is with Jesus and being close to him and walking with him and learning about him in his word and talking to him as often as possible, letting him uh speak in to you through people and through scripture.

Like that is the only way to fill up that cup so that then our attitude doesn't have to be crap.

Our attitude can be: okay, I realize how much I've been saved from.

I realize how much has been given to me, I realize how blessed I am.

Now I'm in a position where I can give and give generously.

Maybe it's money, maybe it's time, maybe it's resources, maybe it's, you know, your gifts or abilities, whatever.

Um I believe that, and I think I I mentioned this in the beginning, but the crow, the, the closer I grow to Jesus, the more I want to give because I understand it.

You know, like it makes sense to me.

It doesn't, it didn't make sense to me all um all throughout my life because I was living a walk with, I mean, I was more Christian than follower of Jesus.

You know what I mean?

There's a difference, by the way.

We can all say we're Christians and believe in God, but actually following Jesus and doing the things that He did and He's called us to do, that's a completely different story.

And you can say you're a Christian and you can do good things, but until you are following Him, until you're, you know, doing those rhythms that I mentioned earlier, I don't think that generosity becomes such a big deal until we get there, until we're growing in that relationship with Him.

You know what I mean?

And so I would just encourage you, like if you if you find that you prickle a little bit when somebody talks about giving, like I would challenge you today to dive in a little deeper on why you prickle to that.

Why do you prickle to that?

Why, why does that trigger you?

Is it and and I would almost bet, and I'm not a better, I'm not a gambler, but I would bet that it has something to do with how close or how far you are with Jesus, on why you prickle when somebody talks about giving more.

And and I can only say that because I've been there.

Like I remember a season, a couple of seasons actually in my life where I was so empty that you asked me to do one more thing, and I like just no, get away from me.

You know what I mean?

And it's nobody's fault but my own that I got into that place.

And I'm so grateful and so thankful that Jesus loved me enough to pull me out of that and bring me back to him and say, okay, let's dust off and let's try this again.

Walk with me, be with me, come near to me.

I will come near to you.

Um, I want to read to you a couple of verses, and I, these have been some of my favorite verses for a very, very long time.

And I just I love the way that this kind of frames giving, that word give.

Um, it's so good.

I'm gonna read from 2 Corinthians chapter 9.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

I'm gonna read verses 6 through 9.

And this is actually the new living translation.

Uh no, it's not the new living translation.

This is the new international version.

And this verse sounds different in different versions.

So that's why I wanted to read it in the NIV, because I love the wording that it uses.

So 2 Corinthians chapter 9, starting with verse 6, this is what it says.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

Remember this.

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able, and here it is.

This is my favorite.

I've memorized this verse for a long time, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Now, I don't know about you, but getting to a place where in my heart I know that God has given me all grace, that I have all I have all that I need in all things at all times, so that I can abound in good work, that sounds pretty good to me.

Doesn't that sound pretty good to you?

Yeah, I don't know.

That's why we give.

And I can tell you this.

I'm gonna kind of end on this little story of a time that I feel like I was asked by the Lord to give, and I did not do it.

So many years ago, I am pretty sure I was just a mom of two and they were little.

I may not have even had my second child.

Um, honestly, it may have just been my oldest Drew.

Anyway, he and I were driving.

I don't know where we were going, I don't remember.

I don't know if we were coming or going, but I do remember this.

I remember seeing it was cold, and uh, I saw this woman walking um in Florence, and I felt prompted to stop and give her a ride.

I know, like dangerous, single, you know, or a woman alone, blah, blah, blah.

I but I felt it in my spirit.

I felt it.

I felt compelled to stop and give that woman a ride.

And I did not do it.

I passed her.

And I, man, it just like the guilt overwhelmed me so much so that I turned around and I went back to try to do what I was called to do.

And um, and when I went back, and like she was walking in this parking lot, okay?

So it wasn't like there was and it was it, there wasn't a store.

It was just this open parking lot.

And I, it did not take me time too much time to like turn around and come back.

But I kid you not, when I came back to pick her up, she was gone.

Like she had vanished.

And I don't know.

I don't I honestly have no idea if she ducked into I I don't know.

I have no idea.

I just know that I felt so compelled to pick her up.

I didn't do it, I passed her, I turned around to try to do it, and she was gone.

And that has stuck with me, and here's why.

There is a verse in the Bible, and I should have pulled it up and I didn't do it.

But there is a verse, I think it's in Matthew, where it talks about when you take care of the least of these, you take care of me.

And um, you know, and and I don't remember who it is that Jesus is talking to or if it's a parable or whatever, but and he talks about um, you know, they say, when did we see you in the prisons?

And, you know, when did we, and he said, when you do for the least of these, you do for me.

And I remember somebody telling me that we never know when, you know, like an angel is in disguise, or, you know, like I don't know.

And so that has messed with me, like since then.

And it's probably been three decades since that moment happened in my life.

But gosh, I I just remember after that being like, okay, Lord, I messed up on this one, forgive me for this, and I will try to not miss another opportunity.

And to my knowledge, I haven't since then.

If I have felt prompted um to come alongside of somebody or to, yes, I've even had to pick another stranger up, and it was a wild experience, but the Lord worked it out.

And, or if I've been prompted to give of what I have, if I've been prompted to, you know, like I I've tried very hard since that day to not miss the opportunity because of how it weighed on me.

Um, that maybe I missed a really great opportunity to love somebody and be faithful to him.

So I don't know if that makes any sense to you at all, or if it matters to you at all.

And we're past time now, so I need to wrap this up.

But here's what I know when we choose to give and our heart has a pure motivation for that, he blesses that beyond what we can think or imagine.

He just does.

Because ultimately, what he wants is not our money, it's not our time, it's not the stuff we have.

He has all of that.

He doesn't need us for that.

What he wants is a people who is completely surrendered to him and trust him with everything they have.

That's what he wants, and that's the goal for us.

When we talk about give, that's the goal.

So um, I hope that this was helpful to you.

I hope that this encouraged you.

And listen, I get that the hardest part is just figuring out the starting point.

So if that is you today, I'm gonna pray over that right now, and then we're gonna go and try to be a very generous people who loves Jesus.

And if that pricked you, spend some time with Jesus today and let him cleanse that heart so that then you can be closer to him and feel what that feels like to want to be, to be compelled to be generous.

Okay, all right.

Let me pray over all of our next steps now and let's get on with our Thursday.

Father God, you are such a good, good God.

And even when things around us don't feel good or don't seem good or don't look good, you are good.

And at the end of the day, at the end of it all, the only thing you want is not what I have in my bank account, is not what I am able or capable of doing, is not the stuff in my closet.

What you want from me is my heart completely surrendered to you.

So, Lord, help me.

If there is something in me that is not surrendered today, help me surrender that to you so that I can give more freely and be more generous with the things that you have given me, Lord.

Thank you most of all for giving us your son Jesus for his sacrifice for me.

Thank you for that.

It's in his name I pray.

Amen.

All right, my friends.

Go and make this a fantastic Thursday, and we will be back live next Tuesday at 7 30.

Bye.