Morning. How we doing online? Good morning. Thanks for logging on. Let's do some church. All right. It's been a crazy week. Hasn't it been a crazy week and a crazy year. And I just want to remind you as Christians, we are not called to be give in and be overwhelmed by anger or fear. Okay? That's not what we're called to. And if you've been following along with us these last couple weeks, we've been talking about prayer and we do want to be a people of prayer. We have a lot to pray about, but hopefully that's just true of us that we are people that are constantly going before God and we're casting all our cares on him because we have this great news that he cares for us and we want that to be true of us at Veritas, that we are a praying people. So if you missed those two messages last week or the last couple weeks, go back on and watch them. Jordan taught last week and then Nathan the week before that. And Jim, just so encouraged by the future of the next generation. When we look at the next generation leaders we have in our church and to excited to see them continue to do ministry here and beyond. And I'm just encouraged by that. And there's a lot to do and we always want to be a church that runs towards the chaos with the good news of the gospel, not away from it. Amen. All right. All right. Next week we're going to jump back into our book study of First Corinthians. If you've been with us in the fall, we're marching through 1 Corinthians. We took a break for Advent. We talked about prayer. We got today. And then next week we'll start back into our book study of 1 Corinthians. So super excited about that. Looking forward to it. But today we're gonna talk about money. Woo. Really excited. If you're new here, what's normal is sometimes I'll just be preaching a message and somebody will just yell out, talk to us about money. And I get emails all the time like, when are you gonna tell us what to do with our money? So today's that day. I'm glad that you came. Welcome. Buckle up. This is where we're going. But normally, like once a year as a church, we'll talk about money. Traditionally, we don't talk about it too much at Veritas, probably to our detriment. I think we overreact against the stereotype that all the church wants is your money and we don't pass A plate, there's boxes in the back. But we don't bring much attention to them. In all honesty, we would probably pull back too much of it because the Bible has a lot to say about the issue of money. But it's what the Bible says or the way that it talks about money that should concern us the most. Because let's be honest, we live in a very materialistic society, we live in a very consumer driven society. And we don't think we really understand the reality of the dangers of that. Like, if we lived in the jungle and like going outside meant there's poisonous snakes and wild animals, like we would kind of be on alert for that. But living in our society, it's like going out knowing that we're gonna be bombarded by magazine covers and commercials and songs and everything, kind of pulling us to get and to buy and to grow. And you need this, and you need this. And there's billboards like, you can't drive a car without getting advertisements in front of our face. We don't understand the dangers or maybe we don't take serious enough the precautions or the threat of a consumeristic world that we live in. Because when the Bible talks about money, it says things like, hey, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Like, you look at our world and you think, you know what? In our world there are all kinds of evil, right? Well, he's saying like, you trace that back, you're gonna find a love of money, like a greed and a covetous of money. Or one time Jesus was talking to two brothers who were fighting about money, fighting over an inheritance. And he just said, hey, watch out, watch out. Be on your guard against all kind of covetousness. Like, you gotta watch your heart. Like, it's dangerous to kinda navigate in a minefield in here. Don't misstep, you're gonna get blown up. Like there's a real danger to it. And in fact, one other time Jesus said, it's easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than a rich man into heaven. So that's not comforting. And then another time he talked a parable. And the parable's literally called a rich fool. And you read the parable and it's about this guy who had a really good farming year. And he's like, well, I just need more barns to store more grain so I can live my life in luxury. And all of us would be like, that guy scored the jackpot. That looks awesome. And then Jesus like, well, he's an idiot, right? And it's like, okay, are we missing something then when it comes to money and managing, like, are we not being wise in this? Another time. Jesus says, hey, you can't serve two masters. And you'd think like, oh, I know where you're going. You can't serve both God and the devil, right? Cause that's kind of the opposite. But he doesn't. He says, you can't serve both God and money. You're like, why are you saying that? It's almost like God's saying, hey, the greatest competition for God, for your heart or your heart is not the devil or other things, it's stuff. It's money. That. That's what you would love more. In fact, in Proverbs 30, there's a guy who's writing and he's like, hey, give me neither poverty nor riches. I get the poverty part. But he says, give me neither poverty nor riches. Like, he's looking. It's like, I wanna feed my family. I don't wanna live in poverty. But I look over here at the riches and I see the problems and the traps and the things there. It's like, I don't want that either. And the reality is there's dangers there as well. And as Americans, we have some big money problems. And I'm gonna assume that those money problems don't just exist outside those walls, that those are represented in this room as well. And for those people watching at home, like, we deal with life in a very consumer, materialistic world, and perhaps we don't know the dangers that are around us. The money stress is a leading cause in divorce. In 2020, household debt went over 14 trillion. 14 trillion. That's not like government debt. That's like residential homeowner debt. And the thing is, all these issues, they're not even really about money. There's a deeper issue underneath that. Cause debt's not really about debt. It's about coveting. Like, I can't wait. I need it now. Like, I gotta get it now. And money management isn't just about money. It's a reveal of our priorities. Like Jesus says, where your treasure is there, your heart will be awesome. And what he's saying is like, hey, you tell me how you spend your money and I'll tell you what you really care about. And listen, you may not be excited to talk about money today because it is a window into our heart and it can sting when we look at ourselves and see what we see there. But here's what's true for all of us in this room, no matter how much money you make or how little money you make, or whether or not you even believe in God, what's true for all of us is we want financial health. We've felt money stress, and sometimes we think, like, I know what my money problems are. I need more of it. That's my problem. But no, it's not. It doesn't fix the issues. Every economic bracket feels financial stress. We all tend to live at the highest means possible. So what does it mean to be financially healthy? And hopefully we can get some principles today that apply to everybody, even poor college students right in the front row here. Take notes. Someday you will make money. We will come knocking at your door. All right? But no matter how much money you make or even whether or not you believe in God, if you're here, the good news is the Bible has just really wise advice for how we handle money. But we're going deeper than that because the issue is, like, how should a Christian handle money? Because for the Christians in this room, and I'll let you self identify here, if this applies to you, we cannot be the followers of Jesus. We're called to be and have financial and health in our life at the same time. Like, one is gonna pull against the other and prevent that. So how should, as Christians, we handle money? Or let me phrase the question this way. How should a mature disciple handle money? That's part of our mission statement. We wanna raise up mature disciples. So if that's the case, how should a mature disciple handle money? And we're gonna get back into our book study next week. But today it's just like, as one of your pastors, I just wanna talk to you about a very important issue that is more dangerous than you may realize. And we wanna go there. And you might be thinking, well, why are we talking about this now? Why are we talking about this now? I mean, in the middle of, like, coming out of lockdowns and a global pandemic and layoffs and, like, it's tight. Like, why are we talking about this now? A couple reasons. One, it's been on the schedule for a long time. Change is hard for me. Two, like, there's no bad time to make good decisions, right? There's no bad time to make good decisions. And when times are tough, that is the most important time to have your financial life in order. And two, when you look like there's so much evil going on in our world, there's so many other issues. Like, why are you picking this issue? Well, because it's the root of all other kinds of evil. The love of power and greed and coveting makes us mistreat people and come to all kinds of bad conclusions. It's like, well, let's get to the root of a lot of problems in addressing this problem. And addressing this problem will be the most. Might be the most personally convicting and painful to you, but it might be the most. Bring the best remedy to the other problems that we have. Amen. Okay, some of you said amen. Some of you are like, I'm still gonna wait to see what you have to say. So let's do it. Let's say it. Let's go there. I'm gonna give you three biblical principles around the issue of money management. Then I'm gonna give us a key to healthy financial. Biblical financial management. And you're like, sweet, we get keys today. It's gonna be a good day. And a key to that. And then I'm gonna end with three challenges for us to walk away with. So principle number one, work hard to provide for yourself and your family. That's not that controversial, right? We're getting there, right? Principle one, work hard to provide for yourself and your family. The Bible speaks of work as a good thing. And there are many proverbs that talk about the benefits of hard work and how they lead to success or wealth and how laziness leads to destruction or poverty. In fact, here's one of them. This is Proverbs 10, four says, a slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. It's like, listen, if you're gonna be lazy, guess where that's gonna lead. And if you're gonna work hard, guess where that's gonna lead. And he's connecting those two. In fact, Jesus was talking to Luke 10, and he makes this statement. It says, a worker is worthy of his wages, or laborer is worthy of his wages. And it's interesting that he uses the word worthy like he's worthy of his wages, like he deserves it. Like there's a correlation between a person's work and their worthiness to their wages. It's good, right? Or just to pay a worker for how he's worked. And there's a correlation between how he's worked and the wages he gets. You work this many hours, then you're worthy of this much pay. You work this many hours, you're worthy of this much pay, right? And if you bring this value to the company, you're worthy of this much money. If you bring this value, you're worthy of that much. Like there's a connection. And it's just to pay somebody for doing more for doing a good job, and it's just to pay somebody less for doing a bad job. That's a justice issue. And he's saying, listen, it's worthy to pay a worker for his wages or how his wages go. And work is a good thing, and working hard is a good thing. And we're to work hard and we're to be diligent and work to provide for ourselves and for our family. I say family too. Cause this is what Paul says in First Timothy. He says this. Which one do I look at? Oh, here we go. Honor widows who are truly widows. Now the context. He's given instructions to churches to take care of widows. But he's like, well, some widows maybe not aren't truly widows. What does he mean by that? He says, but if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and make some return to their parents. As in, what should happen or what's godly is that those people take care of their parents or their grandparents. If, like a widow has family, then what is the right thing to do? If is for not the church to be responsible for them, but the family to take responsibility for them. And that's a godly thing to do, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. And then you go down to verse eight, and he says this. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. So he's saying, listen, if you don't take care of your family, that is not a God honor. Like, you don't understand God. Like you got you. This is a basic application. So principle number one, like, listen, working hard to provide for yourself and your family is a godly endeavor. Now principle number two, plan ahead to provide for yourself and your family. So principle number one, work hard to provide for yourself and your family. Principle number two, plan ahead to provide for yourself and your family. And there is wisdom in saving money. Now, I would guess that most, if not all of us here don't live day to day, even if we do live paycheck to paycheck. Like, that's just kind of how society for most of us functions. We don't live day to day, but we may live paycheck to paycheck. But you don't get paid every day. Most people get paid monthly or every other week or weekly. And you may say, like, okay, I got paid, but I'm not going to get paid again for another two weeks. But I want to eat in five days from now. So I got to make plans, like, how do I make this money last? How do I plan ahead to provide for myself and my family? And then there's things that aren't planned for or unknown, we'll put it that way. Like the car breaks down, right? The air conditioner breaks, the heater breaks, or some kind of expense comes up. And then you have retirement. Which, by the way, isn't necessarily a biblical concept. I mean, if you're a Christian, you're on mission until you die, then retirement's amazing, right? But until then, we're on mission. But you're gonna age out of your ability to work. And we have the ability to put away for retirement and do that. So how do I plan ahead for that? How do I stay on top of that? Planning ahead is a good thing. In fact, Proverbs 21:5 says this. The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance. But everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. Basically, if you're just trying to live in the moment and live for now, not planning ahead, that is not gonna end good. It's gonna end in poverty, it's gonna end in destruction. But if you have plans, you're a diligent worker and you're making diligent plans, that's gonna lead to abundance, that's gonna benefit later on. There's wisdom in our savings, even a blessing to future generations. This is Proverbs 13 says this 22, the first part of verse 22, A good man. So this is a good thing. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. The way that you handle money could be a blessing to your kids and your grandkids. And if that is the case, that is considered a godly thing, that is an honorable biblical thing. That if we could handle money with enough wisdom that not only you are provided for, your kids have something and your grandkids have something, that's something. The Bible says, yeah, good job that a good man. Who does that. So when you look at the first two principles, like work hard, work is a good thing, work hard to provide for yourself and your family, take care of your family, but also don't just take care of your family. Now think ahead, plan ahead to provide for yourself and your family. So you get the first two principles Nothing too controversial there. And then we get to the third one, and let me tell you, this is be proactive in generosity. Be proactive in generosity. I mean, nobody's really against generosity. We all kind of like at least the idea of it. We like being on the receiving end of generosity. But honestly, everybody in our society would celebrate the idea of being a generous person. A lot of times we tend to think about generosity in reactive ways. Like, if something comes up and a need arises, then I should be able to meet that need, right? If I'm home watching TV and Sarah McLaughlin starts singing about orphan puppies, like, should I do something about that? Or feel the heartstrings tug? But it's like something that. Do we react to that? But the principle we're applying is don't just be reactive. Like, we're called to be proactive in our generosity, to plan on it, to budget for it, to take initiative in it. That we don't want to be people who just react to things now. We want to be prepared and able to react to when things come up. And things will come up. And in order to be ready when things come up, the first two principles are really important. Have you worked hard and are able to provide for yourself and your family? Have you planned ahead where you have some cushion and some margin? So when things come up, you're able to be generous to other people? We should be ready to react and to be generous to others. But I'm talking about proactive generosity that it is planned and it's built in. And this is where money management gets uniquely Christian. It gets uniquely Christian. Cause remember, the question that we're really asking is, how should a mature disciple handle money? How should a mature disciple of Jesus handle money? And as Christians, we're called to be generous. I say called. We're commanded to be generous. It's a command. We're commanded to be generous to the poor. We're commanded to be generous to each other. Like within. When you live in community. We're to take care of each other. We're to meet each other's needs. And even those two things from an outside world, it's like, yeah, that makes sense. But. But let's get even more uniquely Christian. We are called and commanded to honor God financially. That's like. That sounds kind of weird. Like, what do you mean, honor God financially? I think he's doing okay. I mean, I think he would want me to have this. That's why he gave it to me, right? Like, I think he's fine. Like, he Owns the cattle on a thousand hills like he made the planets I think he can cover his bills. I think I'm gonna take this one. I'm in more need. Like, what do you mean? Like, honor God financially. Why does God want our money? Like, this is kind of an odd concept. Yet throughout Scripture, there's commands to God's people to make offerings to God. Now, there were societies that didn't always have a cash society, but what was valuable to them? Animals or offer? They would make offerings to God. And then when you did have money, they would make money offerings to God. And this is commanded. Like, why? Now? There's a certain sense of giving that's practical that we can get our minds around. Like, we need to give to the cause of Christ. We need to give to advance the gospel in this world. We need to give to ministries. So ministries are able to do ministry to people. Like, how much ministry can you do with $100 worth? Right? It's not hard math. I don't do hard math. Right. But it's like, you can get your mind around giving when there's a practical end to it. I'm giving money to this missionary so they can go to this place and spread the gospel there. That makes sense. But a command to honor God with our money goes beyond just kind of the practicalness. It's a call to worship. It's a call to honor God with our money. Listen, because as Christians, Christians, we use money to show that money is not our God. God is our God. As Christians, we use money to show that money is not our God. God, God is our God. When we're generous towards God, specifically in an offering, it's saying like, God, you are my source of joy. Not the things that this money can give me. God, you are my source of provision. Not just this money that I trust you like God, you are my security, not just this money. And when you even think about those three examples, you kind of be like, well, I mean, I need to pay my bills, right? I need to buy some food. I need to, you know, I need to plan ahead for retirement. Or I would think I would have a lot of joy going on that vacation. But to express in our giving, no. God, like you ultimately are my source of joy. More than this, I would rather have you than that. Like God, ultimately you're my source of security. Ultimately, I know all my provisions come from you. Like, when we're generous towards God, we express those things. And it's an act or declaration of worship that you're worthy of this like, we trust you, we value you, and we are commanded to honor God financially. This is Proverbs 3, verse 9. Honor the Lord with your what? Well, some of you are like, I don't want to say that. I don't want to say it. You know who you are. Honor the Lord. This is the second chance. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce. First fruits. Like, that was kind of saying, the first thing that comes like, this is a way that we express the value of God in our life. Then this is in Malachi, chapter three says, this from the days of your fathers. You have turned aside from my statues and have not kept them. He's, this is God rebuking them from their rebellious ways. He says, return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how shall we return? Now, this is interesting, because God is calling people to repent who seem to not know they need to repent. They're like, what do you mean, return to you? What are we doing wrong? We don't get it. And he tells them, will man rob God yet you are robbing me. But you say, how have we robbed you? He's like, God's saying, you're robbing me. And they're like, what do you mean we're robbing? How are we robbing you? We don't get it. Cause he's saying in your tithes and contributions. Now, what they were doing. I'll read this to you in a second, but give you a little context. They were giving offerings. It's not that they weren't bringing anything. It's just what they were bringing was pathetic. So they would. In chapter one, it says, you're bringing me, like, blind goats. And if you're a farmer, you're like, well, we're not gonna get much for that at the meat market. Why don't you just give it to the temple, right? We'll get rid of it there. That'll count as our offering. And God's like, you wouldn't even give your governor that. But you're insulting me like, you're robbing me of that. He says, you are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me. The whole nation of you bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test. This is mind blowing. God's like, daring them to be generous towards them. Put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no need more need. He's like, I dare you to honor me first. See what happens when you put me first in your life? And he's calling them to be generous to God, to express a value and priority to God. Like in Psalm 3 when it says, you know, to honor God with your wealth, with your first fruits. And he's talking about giving to church to make an offering. Now, we don't talk specifically about that. I don't remember if we've ever talked specifically about this, but let me give you an illustration to help you understand church giving. This is, this is. We got this from, I think Cornerstone developed this. If you're not familiar with our church history, Cornerstone is our grandparents. They planted a church that planted us and kind of leaders in our network. And they put this out and they called this the giving Ladder. Don't ask me why it's called a ladder when it looks like stairs. Maybe they're slow in aims like that. But here we go. It kind of like charts out different stages or places of church giving. Like, you have a non giver, you come, you attend, but you don't give anything. You have a first time giver. You've never given before, but it's like, hey, you know, we had a great year, here's a gift. Then you have a regular giver. It's like, we don't really know what we give, but every time we come, we put something in the offering box. Then you have percentage givers where it's like, okay, we give a percent of our income. We've kind of factored that in. And then you have tithers. If you remember what the passage we read in Malachi, he says, bring the full tithe. What does that mean? Well, literally it just means a tenth. And there was, in the Old Testament, it was commanded that God gave instructions to his people about how to handle money. And he asked that they would give a tenth to the temple. Now, a tenth did not represent all of their giving. A faithful Jewish family would probably give away about 30% of their income a year. Just a tenth of it was designated to go to the temple. Other percentages went to, like the poor and different needs in their community. But he said a tenth, like the full tenth, the full tithe needs to go to the temple. So they have people that apply that biblical principle of saying, we're gonna be tithers, we're gonna give 10% of our income to God and through the church. But then you have above and beyond that, you have generous givers. These are people that's just like, we're gonna go beyond a tenth. We're gonna try like, hey, this year we're gonna do 11%, then we'll do 12%. We're 13%. We're gonna try to grow in our generosity and honor God in that way. And then you have sacrificial givers. These are people who are making lifestyle choices in order to give more. They're saying, you know what? We could live there, but we're going to live here. So we can give more. We could do this, but we're going to do this in order that we can give more. Like, they're making sacrificial choices on purpose in order to be more generous givers. And just, I mean, for a checkup or a report on how we're doing, we were below. We didn't raise our budget this year at all because going into lockdowns, we don't know what's going to happen in the economy. Let's stay liquid and responsible and not make any jumps in that. We were like 90% of our budget or 10% behind budget. We had some generous givers, and now we're at budget. We're at 100% of our budget to date. So thank you for that. People are like, do we clap or do we not clap? Thank you for doing that. My family is clapping loud. So we have some just really generous people in this church that we're extremely thankful for. It's interesting when people say, how are you doing financially? For a church our size, our budget's not really that good. For a church our age, our budget's really good. Like, when you say, like, oh, how big? You know, what's the size of your attendance? You know, we tell them, okay, well, what's the size of your budget? Like, oh, that's not really reflective. But you say, oh, well, we're only six and a half years old. It's like, oh, wow, that's really impressive. So there's a little bit of factors to consider in that we have. Most of our people are right here. About 10% of our people are probably right here. About 10% of our People pretty much float most of the ministry in church. The quietness is appropriate. Okay, we have some room to grow here. But this is not a message just on giving to the church. This is a message about how do mature disciples handle money. How do mature disciples handle money? A mature disciple works hard to provide for their family and themselves. A mature disciple plans ahead to take care and provide for themselves and their family. And a mature disciple is proactively generous. Now, here's the trick, guys. All of those things can exist in your life and you can still have financial unhealthy. Like, you can live and save money, and you can give money and still be financially unhealthy. Because here's the key. The order in which you put those things, the order in which you apply those principles, those three principles that we talked about is crucial. Here's how most people approach and tend to live. They live, then they save, then they give. Like, I get my money and I'm gonna make my lifestyle choices. I'm gonna say, like, well, we can live in this house, we can drive this car, we can take these vacations. And then they'll say, you know what? We need to put some money away too, and we need to save. And then we'll make some giving decisions. Like, is there some left that we can be generous with and contribute to other people? And a lot of times it's like, we need to make these decisions. And, yeah, we really have to. Or, I want to make these decisions. We need to make these decisions. And then I really wish we had more to give, and it's genuine. It's like, I wish we had more. And if we had more, I'd love to give more. I'm just not in a position to do that. And we think we have a money problem. If I just had more money, I would be more generous. But we don't have a money problem. We have a priority problem. We have a priority problem. And that kind of lifestyle or money management is driven by. By prioritizing lifestyle, prioritizing lifestyle. And it's often driven by coveting. But modesty, hear me now. Modesty for the Christian is not just about clothing. Modesty for the Christian is not just about clothing. We should be content in simplicity. This is what Paul says in First Timothy. He says this, but godliness with contentment is great gain. Like, if you can be content and godly, that's a really good thing. For we brought nothing into this world and we could not take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content. Basically, Paul is saying, like, I didn't bring anything in and I can't take anything with me, but if I can feed myself and I got some clothes to wear, I'm good with that. Now, he put a pretty low bar, but he's saying, this is what I'm content with. But those who desire to be rich desire not being rich, but desiring to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare that's like a hidden trap. Like, you may not think desiring to be rich is dangerous. You're like, what's wrong with that? Everybody does that. There is a snare in that desire, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money, not money. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves and kind of get into all kinds of trouble. Listen, desiring or prioritizing lifestyle over everything else, it's dangerous. It's dangerous. When your priority in your money management is to live in this house and to drive this car and to have that phone and to do all those kind of things, like, that's your main goal. That's dangerous. And he says it leads to all kinds of troubles. Guys, hear me out. It is a biblically commanded endeavor for you to work hard and provide for yourself and your family. But feeding your family doesn't mean going out to eat every night. You tracking with me on that? Like, as Christians, we should work hard and we should provide for ourselves and our family, but we should not prioritize. We should not financially prioritize lifestyle. Now, most people live kind of function. Live, save, give. Some people take this approach, Save, live, give. Like, maybe if you're talking to a secular money manager, they might say, like, this is your priority, right? I would love for you to be generous, but you got to think ahead. You got to plan for your future, right? And I'm like, well, you're talking to a pastor, so I think you should plan for eternity. But he's saying, save. You know, you got to take care of yourself. You're going to make those, and then you can make lifestyle choices. And then it's a good thing to be generous. But greed can express itself in savings as well. The other order of things says, I prioritize myself now. This one just says, I prioritize myself later. In fact, Jesus rebukes excessive savings in the parable of the rich fool. When he had such a good year. And he's like, I'm gonna tear down my barns and build bigger barns and store more stuff, and then I'll just live my life in leisure. Jesus rebuked him. He's like, that's foolish. This excessive savings is foolish. Cause then he died. And he's like, you missed your opportunity to be rich towards God. You just Prioritized yourself later. You missed it. Now, guys, it is biblical wisdom to plan ahead for yourself and for your family. But the financial priority of a disciple of Jesus Christ is not retirement. It's not retirement when we live in either of those values, whether it's save, live, give, or live, save, give. If give is at the end, then what we're doing is saying, God, you are welcome to my leftovers. You are welcome to my leftovers. But here's how I think we're called to handle money as mature disciples. Give, save, live. I'm going to make my generous decision. I'm making my giving decisions. Let's see that. I'm gonna make my generosity decisions. I'm gonna plan ahead, and then I'm gonna live on the rest. I'm gonna make giving decisions, then I'm gonna make saving decisions, and then I'm gonna live on the rest. That's the way that we should handle money. In fact, when the Old Testament talks about first fruits, that's what they're talking about. Give your first fruits to God. This is how you honor God. And a mature disciple prioritizes generosity, plans for the future, and is content in simplicity. And here's why I say content in simplicity. Because if you're gonna make giving decisions first and prioritize giving, then you're gonna plan for the future and make saving decisions. Content and simplicity is saying, like, okay, I'm gonna yield to the lifestyle that this allows me to live. If after I make my giving decisions and saving decisions, it's like, oh, this is the house I can afford. This is the car I can drive. These are the type of vacations that I can take. I'm going to be content in those. But I'm going to let my priorities dictate my lifestyle, instead of greed dictate my lifestyle. And you might say, well, is it wrong to have a really big, nice house and drive a really nice car and have the newest iPhone all the time? Is that wrong? Maybe, maybe. I mean, if you're prioritizing generosity in your life and you're being wise and saving ahead and you're able to do those things afterwards, then no, it's not wrong. But if you have those things because you prioritize those things and you're still able to save some money, and at the end, you're still able to give something, yeah, it's still wrong. It's still wrong. Cause the order matters. The order matters. It's declaring the worthiness of God. Because even in Malachi, they were giving Something to God. And he was still saying, hey, stop robbing me. Honor me with your first fruits. Express the priority of me in your heart. Because one of these declares the priority of God in my heart, and the other order declares the priority of myself. So here's the application, guys. Let's get practical now. Okay? This is how you should order your finances. I'm gonna make giving decisions first. Then I'm gonna make some saving decisions, and then I'll be content on living on the rest. This is how I'm going to order my life. And listen, I'm not even telling you what to give. I'm just telling you, like, this is how you should think through priorities in your life and making decisions. So let me give you three challenges here. Even if you don't end up doing it, would you. Here's my challenge. Would you, if you're married, do this with your spouse? Sit down, and you're like, we know how much money we make. What if. What if we made a budget that prioritized giving our generosity? We said, hey, this is how much we want to give to our church. This is how much we want to give to this organization. This is how much we want to give to this. Like, we want to be generous people. I would even challenge you to, like, for fun, kicks, and giggles, do it at a tithe. Like, let's just do it, and then let's make some decisions. Like, what do we want to say? What do we think is responsible to put away for retirement and other savings? And then say, well, what's left? Could we live on that? Like, what would our lifestyle look if we lived on that? And if you can't, at least you know the choices that are in front of you. At least, you know, like, well, if we did that, if we did what we're called to, we couldn't live in the house we were living in. Maybe we couldn't drive the car we're driving. Maybe we couldn't take the vacations we're taking. But at least, you know, what's the competition when God says, you can't serve two masters. And to quote Jesus as your pastor, I would just say, watch out and be on guard against all type of covetousness. Covetous. Cause you may not think it's wrong, but it is a snare, and it'll spring a trap and lead to all kinds of evil, even the wrecking of your faith. So that's challenge number one. Just play it out. Just do it. See what it has. Have fun with math. There you go have fun with math challenge number two. Let somebody else in on this. Let somebody else in on your finances. And that may, like, raise a flag, like, no, I mean, Jesus said on the Sermon on the mount, don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing when it comes to giving. Okay, timeout. We take a passage that was meant to guard us against pride, and we use it to protect our greed. That is not the intent of that passage. And I'm not saying, like, wave it in front of everybody, but find a trusted Christian friend. Say, like, hey, here's my finding. Here's how I handle money. What do you think? Am I being generous? Is this honoring to God? Like, let somebody into this part of our life? If we're serious about following Jesus financially, then we need accountability. So find a trusted friend and let them into that. And the last one, I would say, if you go back to that giving ladder or giving stairs, whatever, you know where you're at or at least figure out where you're at, and ask like, what would it look like to take a step? What would it look like to take a step? And how do we do that? How do we grow as generous people? How do we grow as generous people? Because here's our hope for us that we would not fall victim to the traps and the snares living in a society that's consumed by materialistic, consumeristic mindset. And if you think you're not in danger of that, if you think that's not a threat to you, then you are an idiot. And we need to have our guard up, and we need to push back against that by practicing a discipline of generosity. And I hope for all of us that we would steer clear of those traps. And I hope for us that we would be biblically financial people. We would work hard. If people could say about Veritas people, they're hard workers and they take care of themselves and their family. They're wise, they save money, and they've created margin in their life. When things come up, they're able to help other people. And they are proactively generous. Like, they don't just always react. I mean, they react when needs come up, but they're proactively generous. And with our money, we use money in a way that says, God is not our money. God is our God. Like, that would be true of us and church. Do you know why we can be so generous? Because God was first so generous to us. Look at Ephesians, what Paul says in Ephesians chapter one, it says in him, in Jesus we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the what riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. He is rich in grace. And how did he treat us with that grace? He lavished it upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things to him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Him. We have obtained an inheritance of an inheritance from God that we would be with God forever. That we've been adopted into his family, and we've been adopted into his family means we reign with Christ and we have inheritance with Christ. So how foolish it is for God's people to be stingy, not generous. And that generosity has to flow from the gospel and understanding. We don't have to hoard out of fear. God is our provider. We don't have to spend foolishly chasing after happiness. God is our joy and has been secured in Jesus. And when we understand the gospel, it will position us to be the generous people we were called to be. Amen. Amen. So as we worship, I want to invite you to partake of communion. And if you confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then this is an illustration of God's radical generosity to you. And would that motivate us to be generous people? Let me pray. Father, we love you. And we know that you first loved us and displayed that love to us when we didn't deserve it, when we were caught in our trespasses and sins. But yet your grace is your generosity to us. You are rich in mercy and you lavished it upon us. We see that clearly in the cross. Help us understand all that we have in you. A future treasures in heaven that won't rust or can't be stolen. And in light of that truth, lead us to be generous people, joyful, generous people, sacrificial, generous people that you would be honored and pleased by. We pray this in your name. Amen.