Messy Money

Welcome to Cross Church. My name is Tyler and I serve as campus pastor right here at Cross Church Elmarrage. And I want to welcome you to service today. Before we get started, I want to make you aware of a couple of ways that you can connect with us today. First, if you have a phone with you, you can send a text message with the word crossurch, no space, to the number 9400. Or if you'd like to use the cards that are in the seat back in front of you, we've got three cards that'll direct you on ways that you can connect this week. The first is the new card. If you're new to Cross Church over the last few weeks, we would love to connect with you. Take some time to fill out that card during our service today and drop it in one of the black boxes and then we'll follow up with you this week with some more information. The next card is the next card. Take some time to use that card if you're interested in taking some next steps in your faith journey. Things like baptism, joining a group, or even serving. And then lastly, and I believe most importantly, is the prayer card. And I want to guarantee you that if you take time today to fill out that prayer card, all of those come to me and I get to pray over each of them individually. So if you've got things big or small going on in your life, please feel free to share those with us. We'd be happy to pray over them. Hey, as we get prepared for some God-honoring worship, I want to encourage you to go into service today with an expectant spirit. We know that God will do big things in our midst. And so, I want to encourage you to enter this time with an expected spirit. Now, let's get prepared for some God honor. [Music] [Music] I'm stepping Everything [Music] like that's what it's all about. I can lift it out. [Music] That's what it's all about. [Music] [Music] another cate. That's what it's all about. [Music] That's what it's all about. [Music] We're going to pray for each other all the time. We're going to follow us. I'm going to outip it out. That's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. It [Music] [Music] Awesome job. Oh my goodness. Give it up again for these kids. Great job, kids. Great job. Uh, so we had BBS last week if you didn't know. Uh, these kids did amazing. We had over 60 kids come to VBS. Uh they raised a ton of money. We have 60 pounds of coins. Uh not British pounds, but actual pounds of coins. Um so they did awesome. They brought a ton of friends. We saw a lot of decisions uh for Jesus and uh kids signing up to be baptized on our baptism next on June 22nd. Uh so it's awesome. Awesome. Uh cool. Want to go over some few quick announcements for you all. Uh we talked about the cards already in the video, but want to just talk through that a little bit more. Uh so we have our new card. If it's your first second time here, we'd love for you to fill it out so we know that you are here. We'd love to connect with you there. Uh and then the second card is our next card for you that feel God is calling you to whatever is next. Whether it's joining a Bible group, joining our summer series, uh baptism, uh giving, serving, whatever that is, we want to help you get to whatever God has for uh next for you. And then the prayer card. So please make sure you are filling that out. We want we would love to see everyone fill that out. We want to pray for you. Uh we are praying church and so we want to lift up uh the lift you up to the Lord and whatever it is that God has on your heart. So make sure you fill that out. A couple announcements. We have our summer series uh starting this Wednesday uh from 6:30 to 7:30. Uh so I know schools take a break during the summer. We do not. Okay. We want to help you grow in your walk with the Lord during the summer as well. So we have men's group, we have women's group, uh we have youth group, and then uh if you're not in one of those categories, we can make sure we fit you in one of those categories. So, please make sure you come uh fill that out. It's every week uh happening here. Okay. Uh next one, June 22nd, uh we have baptism. Uh so, if you haven't been baptized yet, if you feel God is calling you to stir in your heart to do that, uh we would love to chat with you about that, get you signed up, uh and get ready to go. There's going to be some kids there as well. Uh so, if you haven't been yet, uh we can have that conversation. So, again, baptism is just an outward expression of an inward decision that you've made to follow Jesus. Uh so, if you have questions about that, you can come talk to someone at the tent. or or Pastor Tyler or whoever you would like to. We'd love to chat with you about that. Uh this weekend we actually had uh the cross church uh golf uh tournament uh collective. Uh so there were some actually teams from Elmari that were there. Uh we had actually representation from all four uh cross church teams. And so we raised money for missions and planting churches uh in Arizona. They were able to raise over $6,000 uh for that. So uh it was awesome. Yeah. And uh actually an Elmarrage team won the whole tournament uh which is really cool. Yeah. So there was a first place team from Elmarrage and there was a last place team from Elmarrage. I'm not going to tell you which team I was on, but it wasn't the first place team. Okay. But it was a it was a fun day. Uh it was a great time to see a bunch of people out there. So it was amazing. Uh and it was cool to to have the heart, right? We want to see uh we want to make Jesus known. We want to see people grow. We want to see more people here. And so that is an opportunity to do that as well. That leads us to our next thing here. So giving uh we want you to give you an opportunity to give back to the Lord for what God has given you. Um so we're just going to take a little bit of time. We have some prompts on the screen uh behind me. Take about 30 seconds. Uh if you've already given throughout the week, awesome. Thank you for your generosity. Uh and so you can just pray for God would uh move with the giving that is uh happening here today and that we would see more more people here to make Jesus known Can we all stand together? Let's all sing. His mercy is more. Praise the Lord. His mercy is more. Stronger than darkness, new every morning. Our sins they are many. His mercy is [Music] what love could remember. No wrongs. We are omnion all knowing he counts. Not their thrown into a sea without blem. Our sins they are many. His mercy is more. Praise the Lord. His mercy is more. Oh, [Music] stronger than darkness, new mourn. Our sins, they are many his mercies. [Music] What patience would await as we constantly? What father so tender is calling us home? He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor. Our sins they are many. His mercy is mine. Praise the Lord. His mercy is one. Stronger than darkness. New ever more. Our sins they are many. His mercy is oh [Music] his mercy is [Music] what riches of what riches of kindness he lavished on us. His blood was the payment. His life was the cost. We stood the dead. We could never abore. [Music] Our sins they are many. His mercy is more. Oh, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. His mercy is more [Music] stronger than darkness through the Lord. Our sins beyond many his mercies. Praise the Lord. [Music] His mercies mine. Oh, [Music] stronger than darkness, new every morning. Our sins, they are many. His mercies is great. Our sins, they are many. His mercies. Oh, his mercies. [Music] We introduced this last uh the song last week. It's just about the Lord's provision. Look at the flowers and all of their beauty. [Music] I don't have to wonder. You know what you're doing. [Music] So why would I worry at all? You're faithful to serve. Everything I need. Everything I need. My father has it. My father has it. Every single time the Lord will provide. My father has it. My father has it. My father has it. Sing. Look at the sparrow. Look at the sparrow lacking for nothing. [Music] No fear of tomorrow and what it will bring. Oh, you are enough. If I have you, I have enough cuz your love will satisfy. [Music] Everything I need. Everything I need. I know my father has it. My father has it. Every single time the Lord will provide. My father has it. My father has it. My father has it. to seek first the king and its treasures. Everything else it will be haded. All that I needed. I know the Lord will provide. I know my God's name. He gives us blessings of blessings. I'm still believing. I know the Lord will provide. Oh, seek first the kingom and its treasures. Everything else it will be added. All that I've needed. I know. I know the Lord will provide. I know my God's not. I know my God's not emptying. He gives us blessings upon blessings. I'm still believing. Oh, I know the Lord will provide. Oh, everything I need, everything I need, everything I need, I know my father has. My father has it. Every single time, the Lord will provide. My father has it. My father has it. Everything I need. Everything I need. I know. My father has it. My father has it. Every single time. The Lord will provide. My father has it. So seek first the kingom and his treasures. Everything else is will be added. All that I needed. I know. I know the Lord will provide. I'm confident and I know my God's not emptying. He gives us blessings upon blessings. I'm still believing. I know. I know the Lord will provide. I know. And I know the Lord will provide. I know. And I know the Lord will come by. [Music] Yes, Father, you are provider. You have everything that we need. And we are so grateful for all that you do. Father, would you open up our hearts right now as we um will hear your message? And I just pray that we would be able to follow you. Jesus name we pray. Amen. Well, hey, good morning and welcome to Cross Church Elmarrage. My name's Tyler. If we haven't got the chance to meet you, I would love to connect with you. If you're relatively new in the last few weeks to Cross Church, I'll be outside underneath the tent after service. Would love for you to swing by there so that we can connect, hear a little bit of your story, but also talk about maybe some next steps that might be right for you. Hey, if you got a Bible, today we are going to be in the book of Malachi, chapter 3 to start. We'll kind of flip a couple of different places, but that is at least where we will start. Um, we're in the middle of this series that we're calling family less of the mess. Now, here's the deal. Um, there are lots of aspects to family that can be messy. Amen. Some of you are looking at your spouse or your kids like, "Don't do that right now." All right? But there is often mess around our families. And here's what we're going to do today. Um, we are going to talk about money. Now, here's the deal. Um, when we begin to talk about money, um, if I can just be honest with you, sometimes that feels like a four-letter word, something that we don't want to talk about. When we want to begin to talk about money, it's easy for that to be a little bit of a sore subject. For some of us not having enough, for some of us not knowing how to manage what we do have, here's the conversation today. When it comes to money and motives, there are a million people online, on Tik Tok, and everywhere else. Your brothers, your friends, your cousins that are going to tell you how to manage money. But the opener for us today is this. All of those people should not be our source of truth around the topic of money. If we want to understand what and how to use money, we should first look here to God's word. And I believe that scripture is very clear in calling us to this standards. As we talk about money, it's easy for us to understand that it's talked about everywhere, right? Uh as a matter of fact, here's some numbers to remind you about the fact that money is everywhere or there isn't enough of it at least. 36.21 trillion. That is how much as a nation we are in debt to who for what? I have no idea, right? But I know that we owe a lot of people a lot of money, right? I can't even wrap my head around that much money. 36 trillion dollar. Here's some more helpful information for us today. Uh recent studies would tell us that 57% of people in this country are living paycheck to paycheck. That is to say this, if next week or next month's paycheck doesn't come in, these people cannot pay bills, cannot get basic essentials. So, for us, this conversation is deep. It's obviously huge. Um, this is one that some of us have to live with. The average used car payment is over $500 nowadays. That is a lot of money to get back and forth to the places that you're going. And here's another one for you. The average American across the board is in debt, not including their home, over $100,000. If we could just be real, this sort of pace, this lifestyle is not sustainable. And what I believe we'll find today is that as followers of Christ, there is a different and better way for us to live. A life that has margin, a life that has impact, and ultimately a life that involves us managing money God's way. We're using this key thought to begin our time together today. It's this. It's guided us through this whole series. If we want less of the mess, we need to look to the book. The Bible is the source of truth. The Bible is the source for our lives. It is the instruction manual. It is the hope and encouragement for us today. And while it gives us deep spiritual guidance, it also can tell us how to manage our money. And so, here's what we're going to do. We're going to jump into Malachi chapter 3. I want you to begin reading with me in verse 7. Verse seven, it says this. Since the days of your fathers, you have turned from my statutes. You have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of Armies. Yet you ask, how can we return? Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. How do we rob you? You ask. by not making payments of the tenth and the contributions. You are suffering under a curse. Yet you, the whole nation, are still robbing me. Bring the full tent into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way, says the Lord of armies. See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure. I will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not ruin the produce of your land. Your vine and your field will not fail to produce fruit, says the Lord of armies. Then all the nations will consider you fortunate, for you will be a delightful lamb, says the Lord of Let's pray as we dive in today. God, I pray today specifically you would give us wisdom. You would help us to understand what your word has to say for our lives. And God, I pray that you would also give us the courage to live out the principles we see in the scripture today. All this in your name. Amen. Uh, anybody Chick-fil-A fans out there today? Come on. Can we be real? Um, I got to be honest with you, though. This is bad because it's Sunday and you can't go eat Chick-fil-A after we talk about it. All right. So, I'm just going to apologize. All right. Um, but here's this principle that we're beginning with talking about money on. And it's this principle of margin that we don't live to the end of our limits or even past our limits, but we need a little bit of margin. Um, one of the things that Chick-fil-A is famous for outside of the best chicken that you can get in fast food, right? Arguably, is being closed on Sunday, right? There's a song about it. Closed on Sunday. You're my Chick-fil-A. Right? Here's the moment. Chick-fil-A is very, very successful. Now, I think there's a reason for that. It's the way that they do business. But let me illustrate it to you this way. Chick-fil-A annually, all of their stores, this doesn't include mall stores. All right? Apparently, that's a whole different world, they make each store an average of $8.7 million. All right? So, if we have like 500 Chick-fil-As, we could pay off the national debt. That's We'll get there. Um, $8.7 million is the average income for a Chick-fil-A annually. Now, my head goes to this and says, "What if they were just open one more day a week? If they were just open one more day a week, could they just be more successful?" Here's the number, though. Their competitors in the same space, stores, chicken, fast food, very similar, they average $1.6 million annually. That is a steep drop. But what I think it illustrates for us is this. The understanding that when we give ourselves margin and we live life the way that God instructs us to, there is a more successful, a better way to live. And it may not involve more money, but it does involve a better life when we do things the way that God instructs us. And so for today, I want to walk through a few different ways we can understand money. The first thing that we see that pops out of this text is a tenth or it's sometimes called a tithe. You may have heard of one of the other. Now, here's this basic principle that it seems assumed in this text. Maybe you're joining us for uh church maybe for the first time, the first time in a while, and you say, "Hey, pastor, quick timeout. What is the tenth or the tithe?" Here is the basic concept in this understanding of having margin in our lives of having a little bit of spa space a little breathing room. The tenth or the tithe is a basic command where we are instructed to use 90% of our income and to give 10% or the first fruits of what we've been given back to God to say thank you for what he's entrusted us. Now, here's what I don't want you to understand. The tenth or the tithe as. This is not an extra bill where you're just paying to keep some lights on in a church building. What it is is you and I giving God back a portion of what he has first given to us in order to say thank you. The understanding being that the tithe isn't a have to, but is a thank you. As we look at our money, it is easy to see the tithe or the tenth as a requirement or a checklist item. But scripture instructs us to be cheerful givers. And then this conversation flips in Malachi 3 where this group of people who isn't giving the tenth are in a really honest way are being told that they are robbing God. Now, if you maybe have been giving faithfully to the church for years, it's easy to sit back and think, well, what if I just stopped for a little bit or what if I took a month off? What could I do with that money? That's a normal reaction. But here's what we find. God has instructed us to do this. And when we don't do with our money what God has called us to do, we are robbing God. And this is heavy, weighty stuff. Now, here's what scripture doesn't encourage us on here or it doesn't outline for us. The exact dollar amount. This is from two cents to 200 cents all included in the tenth. And so, I want to walk through this. The first thing that I think we need to understand about money as we look at Malachi 3 is that money is a resource. Money is a resource. Uh it's all throughout scripture. It's one of the common sort of uh misunderstandings about money. U people often say around the church or even in the church that money is evil. You might have heard that before. But here's what scripture actually tells us. 1 Timothy 6:10. It is that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. So let's check our understanding at the door. The money itself is not evil. Money is simply a resource. However, it is the love of money that is the root of all. When we begin to talk about money, understand that money is simply a resource. Money itself is a resource. I would put it in the same category as time, which is another resource that we have. Both of which we probably all feel like we don't have enough of, right? We don't have enough time. We don't have enough money. It would always be better to have a little bit more. I would put our skills and our talents in there that are resources that God's given us that we have to manage well. But understand money is a resource. And now I would build on that. I think the big idea under this idea that money is a resource is this that money is a morally neutral idol. It is easy to look at money and think that it will solve all of our problems. But in the words of some great theologians, more money, more Okay, I see some of you have listened to something. All right. All right. We're good. Here's the deal. More money, more problems. Right? It's this understanding that we think it's going to solve problems, but it doesn't. It is simply a resource. Money in and of itself is a neutral item. Therefore, if we understand this, it is the fact that money being a neutral item in the hands of a person can be directed to do really incredible awesome things or money can be used to do terrible things to be wasted. We talked about raising money through our kids at VBS and I got to tell you 60 pounds is a lot. All right, but here's the money that our kids raised at VBS. And uh if you go and ask our kids today, you'll know that the boys won the coin competition. All right, they're very excited about this. This was awesome. Um I was reminded of a powerful principle when it came to money this week. We shared a need that we were going to give our money to and our kids really bought into it. As a matter of fact, even my own kids were in the truck with me saying, "Dad, are there coins in there? Can I have those? Can I have those?" Yes, absolutely. Right. I think one of my favorite stories is a kid named Leo. And Leo showed up on day two or three with an ice cream bucket full of coins. All right. And we're trying to like quickly have the co kids give their coins and he's just like dumping and dumping and dumping. I'm like, "Do your parents know?" Like, "Are we good?" Like, as he stole all the coins in the house, and then he does the same thing the next night. And I'm like, "Okay, you got a lot of coin. Where is this coming from?" But he's given his coins. And he was so excited about it. But I was reminded of this powerful principle. We're going to share honestly the fact that money is a resource. If I had those couple of dollars back that my kids put in here that were sitting in my truck, the way that I viewed that resource in my truck of about $2 of coins is I got a Circle K drink waiting for me. Can I just be honest with you? You know what my kids saw when they saw that money through a different lens? They saw it as a resource. They saw it as an opportunity to have kingdom. Thought, "Oh man, how convicting." We understand that money is morally. It is up to the person who is holding the money to direct it as to where it goes. Understand first that money is a resource. The second thing I want you to see today is this. Money is a revealer. Money is a revealer. As you write that down, let me remind you. Scripture tells us here that this is about robbing God. These are very intense uses of language. Money is a revealer. It reveals how we see things. It reveals who we worship or what we worship. One of the things you'll find in Malachi 3 is that the reference here is to the Lord uh Lord of armies. And what we'll find here as we look at another text in a minute is that it is God who is the creator of the universe who has given us the resources that understand this. Money is a revealer. Let me read for you out of Genesis 14. I'll begin down in verse 18. So there's this guy Melzdc, which if you're naming a child soon, what a cool, right? That is a strong name. Good luck in kindergarten, but that's a different conversation. Melzdc, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was a priest to God most high. Check that language. God most high. He blessed him, that is Abram, and said, Abram is blessed by God most high, creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has handed you over to your enemies. And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. Verse 21. Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the people, but take the possessions for yourself." But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have raised my hand and an oath to the Lord God most high, creator of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that belongs to you." So you can never say, "I made Abram rich. I will take nothing except what the servants have eaten." We'll pause there. In Genesis 14, this understanding that we find is a money is a revealer. Abram is put into a situation. He is being blessed by Melzdc who's speaking over him, God most high. As a matter of fact, it would go on to say, creator of heaven and earth. Check this out. When it comes to money, money is a revealer of what we worship. Often times, here's what happens. The creator and sustainer of all things, the creator of all money, of all income, that is God himself, gives us the creation, which is money and things. And what we do in response is instead of worshiping the creator, we look at the created things and we worship that. And we say, "God, so thankful that you blessed me, but I'm going to put my value into a new vehicle. God, you've blessed us and given us all these things. And so to say thank you, we're going to go out to eat tonight. Make that our big thing. And what I want you to see here is that those aren't bad things in and of themselves. But what we find is that money is a revealer. It reveals our hearts. Because here's what happens in this text with Melzdc. He's having this conversation with Abram. And when Abram is saying, "I'm giving back the 10% or the tithe to God." Here's what happens. While he's saying, "I've been faithful to God. I'm doing what I said I would do." King Sodom says, "How about we turn your money in a different direction?" You know, that's not too far from what happens on a daily basis. If we aren't intentional and careful with our money, there are thousands of commercials or ads or billboards that tell us exactly And we have to sit back and say, "Okay, some of those things may be good, but some of those things may be us just living in excess that is unnecessary." And what we're saying here is this little phrase that Abram uses that we could all repeat. When tempted to live in excess, to step into extreme debt, to do all of these things, Abram says, "I've raised my hand in an oath to the Lord, God most high, creator of heaven." To step back and say the words that we sang earlier. Everything that you and I need, Father has. We don't have to do it all on our own. We have to manage well what God's given us. Understand this. Money reveals where our hearts are at. Big idea is this. Money and treasures show what we our money and our treasures show what we value. The things that we hold tightest are the things that we hold dear. As a matter of fact, we talked about this golf tournament earlier yesterday. Uh 60 golfers came through between all of our churches. As a matter of fact, it's been incredible to see all that God's doing. Between all four of the churches in Arizona, in our collective, there were over 400 kids at VBS this week. Incredible to see all that God's doing. Yesterday, over 60 golfers came out and played and we got to raise a bunch of money. But here's what happened. The people that were at the golf tournament could have gone to any golf course on any day of the week, but they said, "No, we're going to play in this tournament for this cause for making Jesus." Check this out. It reveals our value. And so we have to keep ourselves in check on a consistent basis to say the things that we have, do they own us or do we own? As a matter of fact, are we managing well what God has put us in charge of? because our money and treasures show what third thing that we see is money is a reward. I'm incredibly passionate about this. I think this is something that we should be very um honest uh about. Money is a reward. Now, I know as we talk about this, there gets to be, hey pastor, where you headed with this? Like, where are we going with this? Here's my belief. Proverbs 13:4 would say it this way. The soul of the slugard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. Proverbs is rich, pun, with instruction about money. We are instructed so much as we are physically able to to get up and work. That work is good for us. It isn't always fun. Amen. But it is good for us. We are instructed to get up. It is not supposed to be a surprise if we don't work and get nothing because we're instructed to work in order to eat. We are supposed to get up and work every day. I'll never forget the first real job that I worked. Um I got to work for a guy who had a wakeboard tower shop. Now I could go on for days about uh things that I learned while working there. My first, like I said, real job over the summer. Um, so there was a bunch of different things that uh happened at this place. Um, there was the wakeboard tower shop. So, one of my big responsibilities and a couple of guys I worked with is we did a lot of metal work and it was hot in the middle of summer and humid and we worked inside, we worked outside. We would bend corners. We did a little bit of welding and polishing and packaging. And our goal was to build up as much supply as possible so the orders could be filled throughout the summer and the rest of the year. We worked hard doing that. Um, but the guy I worked for was a real entrepreneur. He had a couple of different things going on. I'm not sure how successful they were, but he was trying. All right. Um, the other things that he had going on, he also had a peach orchard. So, I got to work in the shop doing all the metal work. Also had the little peach orchard. And so, I got to learn how to pick peaches, how to package them up, and other people will go and sell them. So, this whole thing. So, I got to learn about picking peaches, um, which are probably the best fruit. We're going to be honest. All right. So, I got to learn this. The other thing that he did is he had a little hobby ranch with some cattle on it. So, we got to go and learn about real hard work in the middle of the heat, moving hay and checking on cattle and all these different things. I'll never forget what really changed for me that summer. All right. To this day, I'm a big fan of a gas station. Anybody else just love a good gas station trip? Like, I might be a couple minutes late, but I'm gonna hit KT on the way. We're gonna grab a drink, a snack. We're gonna make it worth it. All right. So, here's the moment. I'll never forget that summer because that was the first summer that when I would walk into the gas station, I'd be reminded of what it took to get the things I want. Money is a reward oftentimes for our work. And as we hold it, I remember looking in the gas station. Okay, that energy drink or that drink or that hamburger or whatever is equal to about one and a half hours of work in the shop. And I'm sitting back thinking, is it worth it? Sometimes the answer was yes. But oftentimes the answer was no. All right, I want to save it. It's not worth it. I don't want to give up the time that I've worked so hard for to get this resource. Understand this. Money is a reward. There's a connection to us working hard and having money when we are able. I believe it's true of this big idea that money often comes as a result. What I wanted to put there is money only or always comes as a result of work. But I understand that sometimes doesn't always work. Gifts happen, different things happen. But understand it this way. Most often money comes as a result. And so here's the encouragement. If you are able to get up, go to work and do it all for the glory. Colossians 3 would tell us to work as if we are working to do everything. It is our job and our responsibility to work hard to live with integrity in the workplace because ultimately money is a reward. Now, here's the thing I want to be honest about because I think oftentimes we look at people that have more money as if they have more value, right? Uh but here's the deal. When it comes to the kingdom, we don't have higher moral value or a lower value based on the number of zeros in our bank account. Okay? So if you come here today with $1 or $1 million, we're glad that you're here and you are still valuable no matter where you find yourself. Money doesn't define you. But understand, we do have to manage well what God has given. We understand that money is a result of what we work for um most times. But understand this as well. Scripture teaches us very clearly in multiple places that we are to live with margin. That is to say that we need to take the Sabbath like Chick-fil-A does take time off to give us space. But when it comes to our money, we live on 90%. understanding it this way that when you and I as followers of Christ live on 90% and give God 10% back we're saying God with you and the 90% we can do more than ourselves alone with the 100%. This is about an aspect of worship. It's an aspect of trust. When it comes to us giving our money back to God, we have to see the fact that money is a reward. And when we choose not to give back to God, the Bible's clear that we are robbing him. As a matter of fact, not only do we rob God, I believe we also rob ourselves. Let me tell it to you this way. When we give, there is absolutely a positive impact. When you see that your generosity goes to making Jesus known, when you see churches planted, when you see vacation Bible school happen, when you see young moms in our community supported, all of that for the glory of God, then you realize that it is value. If our money reveals what we value and where we spend it, then I believe the question we have to ask is how are we spending our money? What are the things that we are worshiping with our money this week? And the encouragement for us is that money is a reward, but honestly, money often comes as a result work. The fourth thing I want you to see here is this. Money is a responsibility. Now, we'll park here for a moment. I want you to see this. Money is a responsibility. One of the words that's used in the Bible is stewards or stewardship. Now, you may not have heard that word before. So let me um put it to you in a modern day context. One of the best ways that we can understand that is this. We are to be managers of the resources that God's given. Time, skills, also money. We should manage well what God has given us. We have been entrusted with our situation. So we have to be careful in our personal lives. We need to manage well what God's given us. In your workplace, whether you're the owner or not of the business, in the professional setting, you ought to be a good manager of what you are overseeing. And in the church context, we as a church have to be responsible and good managers for what God has entrusted us with. That's why we don't leave the air conditioning at 73 all week. All right? When there's not people here, we crank it back up, right? Otherwise, APS would take all of our money, right? And that wouldn't be wise. is we have to be very strategic with how we use money. As a matter of fact, one of the ways that scripture talks about this is in Luke 14:28. It tells a story of a man who's going to build a tower. And before doing so, it's this whole understanding that we have to count the cost of the project before we start it. You and I need to count the cost of what we're getting ready to do in our personal lives so that we're prepared for the move, for the new job, for the house, whatever the case may be. We have to prepare for what God's calling us. Check this out. As a church, we're getting ready to step into this season. We are doing Luke 14 right now. We've talked about this. It's no secret that someday, Lord willing, we want to see another building on this campus. And not just so that we can have bigger doors or better music or whatever, but so that we can see more kingdom impact on this campus, so that we can see more kids at BBS, right? More chaos, all of these things. We want to see God do more. And so before we do that, we're counting cost to say, "Okay, how much is this going to cost? What are we going to be required to do?" We're going to sit down and put in the leg work and get multiple bids and prepare for this because it is important that we count the costs before we start process. Uh the big idea here is this that money is a tool that can be used to do big things. Money is a tool that can be used to do big. As a pastor, I get to sit um in my office and talk to a lot of people. And uh it is so cool to see stories of how people have been generous or how people even with uh no recognition are generous towards others. They would say, "Hey pastor, I don't want anybody to know this. It's my favorite line to hear. Hey pastor, I don't want anybody to know, but could could you give this to so- and so? Or could you meet this need? Or could we provide for this?" It is so cool to see the way that there are people that are not doing it for the This is not the person who's bringing out their checkbook in the middle of the church and making sure everyone sees how big of a check they're writing. It's the people that are saying, "God's blessed me and I want to support the mission and vision of the church that I want to give back to God of what he's um also this reminder that in our hands, money can do evil, but we have to be very mindful and weigh consequences of our actions. It reminds me of the way the right tool in the right person's hands. Very powerful. About seven or eight years ago, we were preparing for eight or nine years ago doing math uh for the arrival of my first daughter. And in doing so, uh I met my next door neighbor. His name was John. And he was a landscaper. And John was a landscaper. And and kind of hit it off. And I was kind of looking for a little bit of on my day off uh things to do that were productive. And so I know that having a kid is expensive. You guys know that. So expensive. And so I was like, I could pick up some side work. So I started landscaping with my neighbor on my day off on Fridays. And we started landscaping. And you know, he was getting older and looking to kind of transition. So he taught me how to do the thing. And I eventually got to do it on my own. But what I learned in that moment is that John taught me a lot about landscape. Going into it. I didn't even take care of my own yard. But he was patient and he taught me. He taught me everything that I needed to know. In doing so, he taught me about a tool that's called a hula ho. It's got a green handle and it's kind of a sort of a squareish rectangular shape and it has a specific purpose. The purpose of this specific tool is to get underneath the rocks that are in most yards and to take out weeds at the root so that the entire thing gets out and the rocks don't get disturbed. And I will never forget my first few weeks with him and I was taking this tool and I was I made a mess of it. I just trying to pretend and hit it harder and no, I had to learn the technique. The tool was the exact same tool. I'd give it back to John. He'd take it and in one smooth motion, he'd get up under the rocks and he'd take out all the weed. And what I learned eventually is how to be the right person because the right person with the right tools or the right resources can have a huge impact. My encouragement to you today is to be the right person to write. To take what God's entrusted you, to give him all the glory, to look to his way as better, not to the newest Tik Tok account that's telling us how to live life understanding God's way better. As a matter of fact, it reminds us of another place in scripture where someone paid the ultimate price and it it didn't call or it didn't cause impact financially but spiritually. If you have a Bible, 1 Corinthians 11 is where we'll turn as we prepare to observe communion. It's this idea of paying this ultimate heavy price. And in 1 Corinthians 11 is the story of the first Lord's supper where Jesus takes the communion elements that are at the chair that you're in. He takes those elements, he's speaking to the disciples. I think it's so helpful for us to be reminded of this as an extension of our worship. the fact that when we consider this, it's just a wafer and some juice, but it is a reminder in 1 Corinthians 11 that it is all about what Jesus did for us on the cross. He paid the ultimate price. No dollar sign associated. He paid our ultimate sin debt. Wiped it out completely. So, as we prepare to observe communion, let me read for you out of 1 Corinthians 11. It tells us this. Verse 24. Jesus is sitting with the disciples. He took the bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance." Continued in that moment the same way. He also took the cup after supper and said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance. Let's pray. God, we come to you and God, we're thankful for the reminder the fact that you paid the ultimate. God, my prayer today specifically is you would help us to have the courage to worship with our words, but also with God. God, I pray that while there may be steps for us to take, that each of us will work to getting closer to trusting you what we are. God, as we sing this song, holy forever today, I pray that you remind us goodness that we sing these words that they would be truth words of. Let's stand and worship. [Music] Thousand generations falling down in worship to sing the song of ages to the all who've gone before us and all who will sing the song of aes. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. All thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. Your name stands above them all. And the angels cry, "Holy, all creation cries, holy, you are lifted high, holy, [Music] holy forever. [Music] If you've been forgiven, if you've been redeemed, sing the song forever to the man. If you walk in freedom, if you bear his name, sing a song forever to [Music] sing the song forever and amen. And the angels cry, "Holy, all creations, holy, [Music] you are lifted high, holy, holy forever. Do your people sing holy to the king of kings. Holy you will always be holy. Holy forever. [Music] Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. Above all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. Your name stands above them all. Your name, your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above all above all those name. It's all ours. Your position. Your name stands above them all. And the angels cry. Holy all creation, holy [Music] you are lifted high, holy, holy forever. Your people sing. Holy to the king of holy you will always be holy. Holy forever. [Music] You will always be holy, [Music] holy forever. [Music] Hey, thank you guys so much for joining us today. Hope you guys have a great week. We'll see you guys next week.