The Church of Eleven22 - Abundant Treasure - Live Abundantly: Wk 5

Episode Date: November 5, 2023

God is first. We bring to God our first and best because He first loved us by giving His best in Jesus Christ.   -   We are walking through the second year of a discipleship journey called the 10:10 Life, rooted in John 10:10. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." Be challenged by all that God continues to call us to, put your yes on the table and take a step of obedience. We should leverage everything God has given us, time, talent and treasure, all for His glory and invest in forever instead of storing up treasures on Earth. It will require us to sacrifice time, comfort, resources, certainty and other “life as usual” things to invest in eternal things that never fade. One of the most important things that the gospel compels us to is generosity. Jesus did not withhold generosity at the cross and we respond by not withholding from Him. Whether you are new to this journey, staying faithful through it or deepening the commitment of generosity the Lord has called you to, leverage everything God has given you for His glory and be obedient to the doors He opens. It is time to live in the fullness of life that God has for us. Find out more at 1010life.coe22.com

Amen, amen. Church, will you please stand for the reading of God's word? Today we're reading from Proverbs 3, verses 1 through 10. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments for the length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. bind them around your neck write them on the tablet of your heart so you will find favor and good success in the sight of god and man trust in the lord with all your heart do not lean on your own understanding in all ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths be not wise in your own fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your fats will be bursting with wine. May God add blessing to the reading and the hearing of God's word and Dr. Paul before you go. Thank you for reading. Thank you for who you Thank you for being the personification of what we're talking about in Proverbs. An older man giving wisdom to a younger sons and daughters. And we love you more than we have words. I love you more than I could express. I'm a better man, a better pastor, and a better dad and husband.

Because of you. We love you, Dr. Paul. Thanks. I love you too. All right. You're going to be seated. If you got your Bibles, we're going to be in Proverbs chapter 3. As we go there, though, you need to grab your 10-10 life catalog.

Turn to the very back page in that little slot and you need to grab your commitment card because that's what we're going to be talking about today. We've been talking about it for the last five weeks for hopefully at this point you were ready. And if this is the first week, you showed up in a minute and you're like, oh no. I came on the money week. Yeah, you did. It's going to be awesome. Okay?

You're going to get into it. A couple of things. You need to grab this. This is your commitment card in about 45 minutes, 50 minutes. We'll get into it. I'll give you some explanation on how on what we're going to do there. If you are at our Columbia campus or at our Duval Women's campus or at our Union campus, then you have a commitment card too.

Yours looks a bit different. It's not so much about finances as it is about prayer, and your campus pastor will walk you through that. And if you're worshiping with us online, then our online host right now will give you instructions on what you do with your commitment card. And what we've been doing here is we started this whole journey about a year ago called the 10-10 life. It's rooted in John chapter 10 verse 10. This is going to be a review for so many of us. That the thief,

the enemy is a thief, and he only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus says that I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. And the whole thing that we're dealing with in this two years is our goal, our number one goal, is that every single person that

considers 1122 their church, whether it's here in Jacksonville or it's in Jessup or it's in Clay County or wherever you are around the world, if you if you're at 1122 or that you would tune your ear into the good shepherd because he's good and what he has for you is abundant life and abundant life is found in him and the good shepherd speaks to his sheep and it is our prayer that you would hear the voice of the good shepherd and do whatever he tells you to do and for some of you for many of you that is to take a next step of

obedience it could be a step of obedience to join a disciple group to serve here at the church to sell everything you have and be one of our 100 missionaries that's going to go and take the gospel to unreached people group. It could be to serve in one of our ministry partners around the city and around the world where you're going to fight for life from womb to tomb. But whatever it is, for some of you, for the very first time, you're going to trust God with your resources, with your first and best.

But knowing that whenever we take a step of obedience in the direction of the good shepherd, it always leads to abundant life. Because that's what he has for us. And then in this series, we started that a year ago. This series called Live Abundantly. We're studying through the book of Proverbs. And what we found is, this is about 30 years of ministry,

that about 10 years ago or so it became very popular to say this, Jesus plus nothing equals everything, which is true in regards to salvation. It is not true in regards to how you live your life. Anybody knows some people that love Jesus while all their heart, and they sing with their hands up, and they move at the right parts of the sermon, you know?

but their life's a dumpster fire. It's because they lack this thing called wisdom. And the Bible says, in James, if you lack wisdom, you should ask for it. Jesus says, if you love me, you won't just feel the feels about me, but you will obey the things I have commanded you. The Proverbs talks a lot about wisdom, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the wisdom is living in God's world, God's way. That's what wisdom is.

and the reality is is that you do live in God's world, whether you believe it or not, you live in God's world. And if you try to live in God's world your own way, it won't go good for you. And so what we've studied in the book of Proverbs is certain landmines that we have seen people just derail their life in. And so we talk about sexual immorality, we talk about friendships, we talk about work, and we have saved the best for last. Today, we're going to talk about money. Money. Why? Because money has spiritual power, does it not?

Money has the ability to tear apart things that you thought would never be torn apart, right? Anybody knows some families? And they used to love each other. And then Nana died, and there was some discrepancy over Nana's will. And now those families don't do Thanksgiving together anymore. But everybody's in Sunday school this morning. You don't what I'm talking about? Anybody knows it, but don't pull them.

Anybody to know some people? And you were best buddies, and you made it through high school together, you made it through college together, you made it all these years, and then a couple of dudes started a business together, and then when money got involved, now these two people don't even talk to each other anymore. You see, if you do money the world's way, it leads somewhere, and the only place that it leads, according to the Bible, is that there's a thief.

He wants to steal, he wants to kill, and he wants to destroy. You see, money is a tool. It's just a tool. And what we're supposed to do is love God and love people and use money to that end. The moment we begin to love money, then we'll begin to use people and use God to that end. And so, the Bible gives us a warning. Proverbs chapter 3, what Dr. Paul just read, my son. The reason I had him read every week is because when I read through it,

the Proverbs, and I hear an older guy teaching younger people. I think, I think generally about our elders, and I think practically about Dr. Paul. When Dr. Paul's in meetings with me, he's got this crooked finger, and he points it at me. And he's 89, so he don't give a, he don't care what you think. So he just points it at me, tells me what to do. That's why I love it. He says, my son, do not forget my teaching, but lay your heart, keep my commandments for length of days and years of life, and peace, they will add to you. Listen. If you're a little defensive because we're talking about money, I need you to know this. God's word didn't want anything from you.

He wants peace for you. God himself doesn't want or need anything from you. He wants peace for you. This church, we don't want anything from you. We want peace for you. Me as your pastor, I don't want anything from you. We want peace for you. Let not sadfast love.

and faithfulness forsake you and bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Does anybody not want that? Is there a person here that does not want favor and good success in the sight of God and man? It's a good thing to want that. You know what Jesus calls that? The abundant life.

This is what he wants for you. Now, if you've been around Bible study for a minute, or if you have a grandma, you know this next verse. Very, very famous verse. This verse has been on more coffee cups than anything else, right? Posters, calendars, very famous verse. Some of you have crocheted this verse on a pillow or however you do that. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And the ESE says, do not lean, but I have to say lean not, because that's how we all memorized it back in NIV.

You don't even know about that. Trust the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your path. Very, very famous verse. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. We talked about this in the book of James. Remember that? Seems like 100 years ago. It was summer. Remember in the book of James? James said, listen, man, there's two ways to do life.

There's God's way and there's the world's way. This is what Solomon is saying here. He's saying, trust in the Lord, because the Lord has a way of doing life. Wisdom is living in God's world, God's way. Do not trust in your own way. Do not trust in the wisdom of this world. If you follow the quote-unquote wisdom of this world, it will lead to death and destruction every single time.

and when he talks about money, this is what he's going to talk about next, he's going to talk about money. He's going to be very, very careful. The world has a way when it comes to money. The world is going to tell you more is mine. The world is going to tell you that the tighter you hold on

to the things that you own than the more safe and secure and satisfied you'll be. You see, the problem with it is that we have an enemy and he's a liar. And every time he speaks, He only speaks lies. And let me tell you the primary lie that our money tells us. It's very personal.

Our money looks at us and says this, if you love me, I'll love you back. And you go, hmm, who don't want to be loved? That's what it says. If you love me, I'll take care of you. If you love me, not only will I keep you safe, but I'll keep you happy. And it is the lie that the world.

tells us. And so, after this very, very famous verse, very famous, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lead not on your own understanding, but all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your past straight. Very, very famous verse. The very next thing, the first application that Solomon makes when it comes to either your wisdom or his wisdom is white. You should know this, because for 10 minutes I've been setting it up. It's money. So why would money be the very first application that he makes? Maybe it's because Jesus says this. Jesus says no one can serve two masters. He'll hate one and be devoted to the other.

He says no one can serve both God and money. Money has spiritual implications. There's no greater competitor for the human heart than money. And then here's what he says. Honor the Lord with your wealth. Now we see that as regular old Americans, and we go, well thank God he ain't talking about me because I ain't wealthy I got some really great news for you there's a there's a single-digit people at all of our campuses right now that you will not follow

into this category but do you realize that the starting teachers salary in Duval County the starting teacher salary now listen if you're a teacher I'll ever see on the news is how you don't get paid enough and I'm not arguing whether that's right or wrong based on COVID and our experience of trying to teach our own children, you should get hazard pay. So I'm for you all the way. Very few of us are qualified to try to raise a new generation. Holy moly. Anyway, the starting teachers' salary in Duval County,

if you receive that, that puts you in the top 1%. It's actually better than that. It's like top 1 half of 1% of wage earners in all of the world. Isn't that crazy? That means that, historically speaking and globally speaking, you're wealthy. That's right. It would be like if you were six foot eight

and I looked at you and said, man, you're tall. And you're like, well, I'm not tall. I'd be like, you may not be smart, but you're tall. Because if you're six, eight, you're in the top one percent of tallest people in the world. You understand? You see, the problem when it comes to wealth

is that most of us are rich or wealthy. We just don't feel like it. And most of us feel really generous, but we're actually not. That's a really tough combination. The average Christian in America gives about 2% to charity. That doesn't even count like gospel giving. There's gospel giving and there's good giving.

And most Christians feel very generous, and the reason you feel generous is when that chick with the puppies on TV starts singing in the arms of the angel, you feel sad. And you're like, how generous am I? Honey, I am so generous. Are you going to do anything for the puppies? No, I just did it. I felt it in my heart.

because I'm a generous human. All right, listen. It doesn't say feel things. It says do things. Verse nine, honor the Lord with your wealth. And with the first fruits, underline that in your journal or underline that in your Bible.

Even if you're using our Bibles, underline it so the next person that looks in your Bible realizes this is important. Got it? And with the first fruits of all your produce, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine. Hear that, Baptist?

God wants to busts, your vats with wine. I don't even know how you bust a vat with wine. I love that. I think some of you tried to do it during the Georgia, Florida weekend, but that's a different sermon. All right, now, here's what I want you to see. God wants to bless you. God's dream for you is an abundant life. God's dream for you is full barns and vats bursting with wine. But God's dream for you is an abundant life, not an abundance of stuff. That's just it. God's dream for you is an abundant life. So why does he say that the way that we honor the Lord with our wealth

is with the first fruits of all your produce? That word first fruits is the key to understanding this. If you go to Genesis 4, this is the very first time there's an offering or a sacrifice made to God in all of the Bible and all of human history. And here we're going to get some clues as to how we honor God with our finances. Genesis chapter 4 says this, and Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain saying,

I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. Singled ladies, that is not a verse to be memorized. That's not what that means. Verse 2, and again, she bore his brother Abel. Now, Abel was the keeper of sheep, and Cain, a worker of the ground. So, Abel worked with animals. Cain worked with plants. Verse 3.

In the course of time, underline that. In the course of time. Cain brought to the Lord. Lord an offering, underline that, of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. So you got two offerings. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. Well, the question is why? Why? Is it because God likes meat more than vegetables? Well, that's obvious. He obviously likes meat more than vegetables.

Pastor, why do you say that? Let me ask you this. What vegetable was unleashed for consumption after the resurrection of Christ? There wasn't one. They're all the same. But you know what was unleashed for consummation after the resurrection of Christ?

Bacon. Think about that for a second. You want to know what the abundant life is? Bacon. It's not all that's included, but it is included. When Jesus pushed up on his nail pierce feet and says, it is finished. Guess what? We can eat bacon. You ever think about how good God is? You want to see a picture of the redemptive power of the blood of Jesus? Look at a pig.

Would anybody look at a pig and go, I bet that thing, that dirty thing with the mud making the funny noises that doesn't have like a beginning and the end, it's just like a football with a face? I bet that thing right there, I bet that thing is the most delicious thing on the planet. Only through the blood of Jesus, will we know this? Not only do we get bacon, we get pork chops, we get barbecue, we get ribs. You see what I'm saying? Anybody getting hungry yet? You know how you make bacon better?

Rab it in bacon. It's a fact, man. So is this why? No, it's not why. The reason that he accepted Abel's and not Keynes is this. because Cain brought an offering in the course of time and Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. Do you see the difference?

You see, Abel honored God with his first fruits. This is very key, that first fruit offering is the only way that you can give by faith, and the Bible says it is impossible to please God without faith. You see, it doesn't even say how much. Very well, it could have been that Cain brought more, but what Cain did is after the heart, Cain brought in everything that he harvested

and with a sharp pencil and an Excel spreadsheet and he went through it all. And then when he gathered up and made sure he had enough for himself, then after he had taken care of himself, he took his leftovers and said, here you go, God, take my leftovers. And God don't do leftovers. And Abel, who worked on commission,

here's the thing about first fruit offerings when it comes to animals. You don't know how many you're going to have, right? And so you don't wait, and count them up to see if there's enough at the end. Here's what Abel does. Abel says, Abel understands that God is first. He understands that God can be trusted.

And so he takes his first and his best, and he brings it to the Lord. And he says, I trust you with all of my life. So I'm going to bring you the first fruit of what you have given to me. That's the difference. And then look what happens. So Cain was very angry. Why? Anger is most often rooted in fear and control.

and that's what Cain wanted. Kane wanted control, and its face fell. And the Lord asked Cain a question. Says, Cain, why are you angry and why has your face fallen? You know what would Cain would say if he was being honest? The reason I'm down is because I love stuff more than I love you. I trust my ability more than I trust you. I want to have more than I want to bring to you.

And if that's the way you live, then you will live the life of Cain. You will be angry and you will be disappointed all the days of your life. And so God still makes them of this offer. If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. And guess what? Sin ruled over him. and the place that it was exposed was not in his church attendance, was not in his prayer life, was not in his Bible reading.

The place where it was exposed was right here, that he did not honor God with his first fruit. So I want to talk to you about how to do well. How do you honor God with your finances? If you're a note taker, you're going to love this because I've got three truths and one response. So you can write these down. Three truths, one response. Truth number one is this. What we're going to talk about here is the character and nature of God.

Truth number one is this. God is first. If you want to understand the gospel, if you want to understand everything about living in God's world, God's way, this is the foundational truth that you have to understand about the holy and true God. You see, God is first. This is how the Bible begins. In the beginning, God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the heaven.

the earth, that he was not created. There is no, nothing, no body before God. God is the beginning. God is the creator. God is first. And think about this. He speaks everything into existence. And then he looks around and he wants to create image bearers, human beings, to be in

relationship with him, not because he's needy, not because he's wanting, but out of an overflow of God's love for God's self, God creates image bears that we would be a co-creator with him. We talked about this last week. and we would give and receive love like he does. And so he creates the very first man, Adam, is his name in Hebrew. We get the name Adam from it.

He gathers together the dust of the earth. He breathes the ruah of life into the very first man. And the very first man opens his eyes. And the first thing he sees is the face of his heavenly father. He has faced to face with his creator. And then God says, it's not good for man to be alone, gives him a helpmate, gives him a wife. And then on the very first day of their life,

the very first full day of their life. After God had given them this commandment to subdue and cultivate, to be fruitful and multiply, do you know what they did on the very first day of their life? Do you know what they owned or had possession of at that point in their life? They had nothing, nothing. They didn't even have clothes. They didn't even need them.

All they had, all they had was themselves and they had time. And I can imagine Adam is thinking, all right, boss, what are we going to do tomorrow on our first full day? We've got so much to get done, right? He's like, oh, yeah, we've got so much to get done. So what are we going to do? We're going to plow the field. We're going to pick some grapes.

What are we going to do? He goes, here's what you're going to do in the first day. You're going to Sabbath. And I bet Adam and Eve are like, but we ain't even tired. We just got made an hour ago. And he goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But here's the thing, man. You're not resting from work.

You're resting for work. And I need you to orient yourself in such a way that I am first in your life. Because if I'm not first in your life, the whole rest of your life is going to be disoriented. And so what they gave to him was their first, the first day, and the only thing they had, because he is first. You see, Adam and Neve, they knew that the Lord was their shepherd and they shall not want. This is not just an Old Testament concept. I want to give you lenses to see this from the very beginning to the very end of the Bible.

John chapter 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. in him was life and the life was the light of men. A bunch of years ago, we spent two years on this verse, Colossians 1, 15. He, talking about Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body of the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

He is before all things. The problem is, and I know this to be true in your life because you're a human, is that every single day these things try to crawl their way up into the place of preeminence in our life. Do they not? We spent two years on another verse, Deuteronomy 6'4.

It says, here, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. That word one is achad. It doesn't mean number one on a list of priorities. is like God is the paper on which you would write your priorities. And you shall love the Lord of your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. That when we see God for who he is, Achad, one, first,

then the normative natural response of those created by him is that we would love him with all. You see, this 10-10 life journey is just building on where we have been before. That God is first. And what's the first voice in your ear? the voice of the enemy in this world? If so, he only wants to steal, kill, and destroy?

Or do you have your ear tuned in to the preeminent voice of the good shepherd? You see, I don't even know how to rightly say this sentence. Because God is first, there's just some things that God either can't do or won't do. I don't know if you ever thought about this. There's just some things that either God can't do or won't do. Like God has never been confused. He's never, like, in your prayer request, he's never been like, could you say that again?

I'm not picking up what you're putting down. Never, ever, ever. He always understands. The God never gets tired. The God's never surprised. Isn't that great? Guys never popped up and be like, what in the name of me is she doing now?

He's never done that. You know what God's never done? God's never looked around heaven and be like, you know what I just thought of? Never. Because all of the thoughts have already been thought that will ever be thought because he is omniscient. He knows all things.

God never changes because he's immutable. You know what? That's good news when it comes to your salvation. You know what this means? It means. It's not like you got saved, it saturated, and then he saw you at Georgia, Florida, and said, never mind, give it back. Didn't see that coming. That's not how it works. And God doesn't do second. Why? Because he is first. This next statement will either be the most comforting thing you've ever heard or the most dangerous thing you've ever heard. God will be first in your life. He will either be first as your judge or your Savior, but he will be first. because truth number one is God is first. Truth number two, because God is first, he loves first and he went first.

You see, God can only act out of his own character in nature. The reason that all sin must be judged is because God is just. The reason that God loves is because God is loved. The reason that God is gracious upon us is because he can't help but be gracious because he is grace. and because he is first, he loves first, and he goes first. Romans 5-8, but God, again, N.I.V. 84, but God demonstrates his love for us in this while we were yet still sinners. Christ died for us. I like to memorize it that way because this is a little Baptist trick here. Romans 5-8, God demonstrates. You already got the most of the verse, done, okay?

How many of you are glad that God is not like a scorekeeper just waiting until you get to the fourth quarter? or maybe overtime to see if you win or not. No, he's not waiting for you to get your act together, but God demonstrates his love for us while we were yet still sinners in the act of sinning, still super cool with it. Before we ever thought about coming to church or getting our life straight now, before any of that,

God initiated his love towards us. In this, he sent Jesus on a rescue mission for you and me. John 316, you know this one. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, whoever believes in him should not perish but have an everlasting life. For anybody that would say you love God, here's what God says about your love. 1 John 410, in this is love, not that we have loved God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin.

And propitiation means a payment that. Satisf, oh, my heart is warm. Good job. You see, because God's first, he goes first. He loves first. He's an initiating God. He's not waiting to see what you write down on your commitment card to see whether he loves you or not. He's already demonstrated his love at the cross. So far so good, right?

Everybody's into this. You're like, oh, this is a good sermon about money. We're not even talking about it yet. Just talking about the character and nature of God. That's where it begins. Truth number three. According to the Bible, what we do with our money displays and even directs our hearts. according to Jesus, according to the scriptures, from beginning to end.

If you want to see, do you really love the Lord? Don't check your quiet time. Don't check your church attendance. Don't check how much you serve. Don't check if you sing with your hands up or not. All those are wonderful things. But the Bible is going to tell us that our money displays and even directs our hearts. Like your checking account, your savings account, doesn't lie.

Why, if you were to put on these preeminence of Christ lenses and read through the sermons of Jesus, then you're going to see this all over the place. In fact, some of you're like, why do we always have to talk about money? We don't always talk about money. We're in the fifth week of the series, the first time we talked about it in five weeks. If you don't want to talk about money, guess what? I got terrible news for you. You would hate the teaching ministry of Jesus.

One in three verses from Jesus was about money. That's 33% for some of you math wisdom. I teach on it. We're in the single-digit percentages every year I should probably do it more. And when Jesus is on the sermon on the mount, okay? He is going to teach mostly about money. Matthew chapter 6, verse 19.

Jesus says this, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. You see, one pathway leads to an abundant life, another pathway leads to an abundance of possessions. And the reality is, I don't know if you know this, I've checked it again this week, the death rate in America hovers right around 100%. And you know how much of it we're going to leave behind? All of it.

Every single bit of it. And so Jesus is saying, why do you act like we're going to live here forever and you're trying to stork up all your treasurer? here. It's all going to stay here. You realize that. And listen, man, I get it. Stuff and money has spiritual power. Like you ever get a new shirt and just feel better about yourself? You're not better. You just got a new shirt on. You ever get some new pants and you're like, ooh, you just feel good? Here's what's crazy, all right? Those fancy pants you have on right now that you just had to have, all right? You realize when you die, your kids are going to hold them up and be like, and they're going to giggle because the seasons have changed, right?

Look at these tight, high-wasted. I don't know what we're going to be wearing one day, all right? And they're going to take your pants, ready? And they're going to give your pants to us. And we're going to sell your pants in Hope's closet for $3. And here's the damning part of it all. And somebody else that you don't even know is going to be wearing your pants and they're going going to look better in them than you did.

Say la. man. You want me to do the same thing with golf clubs? No I'm not going to I just bought a pair. All right so, let's sit. That's the reality, okay? So he says, and here's this statement that tells us that money displays and directs our heart for where your treasure is there your heart will be awesome. Something goes first and your heart doesn't go first, your money goes first and then your heart follows your money. We see this all the time. There's a guy on our staff on Maxwell, his wife's Rebecca Maxwell. She's gonna help us preach in three weeks or something.

She's on the podcast this last week. They're very smart human beings. They're Georgia Tech fans. They grew up in and around Atlanta. They went to Georgia Tech. You gotta be really smart to go to Georgia Tech. Really smart people go to Georgia Tech. Even smarter people graduate from Georgia Tech.

You understand this? They're not good at sports, but they're really smart. Their son, who's very smart, did not go to Georgia Tech. Their son went to FSU, Florida State University, okay? Yeah, welcome back. Welcome back, guys. I'm not sure we all been for two decades, but glad you're back.

Welcome back to relevance on the weekend. So, now, they're my neighbors. The Maxwell are my neighbors. If I go over to their house on a Saturday, they don't have on the bumblebee colors from Georgia Tech. They got on to Seminole collars doing this thing. Why? Because they've been writing checks going down I-10,

and it didn't turn 75 and go north. It just kept going all the way to Talynastie, and then now their hearts had followed. That's where JP wants to go. It could happen to me. We all hate the gators, so I'm fine with it, okay? I'm fine with it. You can be both in there. Why?

Because something goes first, and where your treasure is. You want to love Jesus? Direct your treasure towards him, and Jesus promises that your heart will follow. Matthew 624, same sermon. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Of all the things he could have said there,

money is the number one competitor for the human heart. God doesn't want your money. He wants your heart. What's you going to do? Give God $50. He's got it all. If he wanted your stuff, you'd be a greasy spot in my seat and all your stuff would still be his.

You realize that. Whether you think it's yours or not, it is already all his. He wants your hearts. Let me ask you. Does he have your heart? Are you bringing him your first and your best? Or are right now you're justifying, your inner lawyer has risen up in your brain

and you're trying to justify while it's okay for you to hold on to it. Matthew 633, but seek first, there's a word again, the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. You know what he's talking about when he says seek first? Again, sermon on the mount, he's standing on a mountain. And he's talking about the worries of this world,

that we try to meet with dollars that we make. That's what he's talking about. And when it comes to money, I've told you this a million times about many things. This is Old Irish Proverbs. For every mile of road, there's two miles of ditch, right? And what the enemy tries to do, when it comes to resources,

twist it in the one of two ways. I told you the lie of money is this, if you love me, I'll love you back. And you go, okay, how will you love me? And money lies back and says, I will bring you security and I will bring you satisfaction. And when we begin to put our hope in money for security or satisfaction, we have put our hope in the wrong thing.

Because when it comes to money, most of us fall into one of two categories. They're savers and there are spenders. Any savers in the house? If you're a saver, would you please raise your hand? Okay? See that? That's how it always goes. All right?

They just kind of write their eye. This is as high as I go. There's no need to raise it any higher. You can see this from here. Okay, are we done? That's a saver, all right? Now, is there anything wrong with saving? Absolutely not.

The book of proverb says that we should, we should steward our resources to the point and save and invest them to the point where we can be a blessing to our children's children. So there's no problem with saving. You should save. You can't actually save. You just keep it until you leave it.

You realize that. But we'll use the word say. You should. You should invest it to bless your grandchildren. The problem is not in the saving. The problem is when you put your heart. hope there for your security, because your money can't keep you safe. Here's what I mean, savers.

You're crossing into dangerous territory when daily, multiple times a day, you log on to one of your many accounts, and there's an arbitrary number there. And if it's over that number, if the little green mountain's going, it's going up, it's going up, you're like, ah, all is well. And if it's red and going down, you're going, oh, no. Because here's the thing, it can't keep you safe and secure. I don't care how much money you have in the bank, one phone call from the doctor, one visit from the highway patrolman, and everything falls apart, right?

And so Jesus says, remember, they're on a mountain, and then he says, consider the birds. Now, listen, I don't know how it works. I've been there a bunch of times on the mountain where Jesus preaches. I don't know if birds are randomly flying by or the creator of the universe is like, cue birds, and birds fly by. And he goes, look at the birds. And everybody looks at the birds.

And he goes, do they have a savings account? Everybody's like, no. He goes, doesn't God take care of the birds? Uh-huh. Don't tell Peter, but Jesus says, you know you're more important than the birds? They're like, oh.

Jesus is saying, come on, man, at least have more faith than a bird. And trust him. Seek first him in his kingdom. And he'll take care of. of everything for you. Now, how many of you are spenders? Yeah, all right, see?

That's how it always is. Usually somebody's like, where do we win? You don't win nothing, okay? Because you're sitting there going, you get them, pastor. My saving good for nothing, husband only lets us go out on triple coupon Tuesday won't do nothing.

All right. Yeah, see, normally what happens is the Lord has a spender and a saver fall in love with each other, so you can fight about it the rest of your life, all right? Not at my house. We got two spenders. We just can't agree on what to spend,

You know what I'm saying? I'm like, how many shoes are enough? She's like, how much camo is enough? I'm like, woman, what? Hey, hey, hey, how many guns you need? I'm like, I'm an American bike. So anyway. So is there anything wrong with spending?

No, not at all. In fact, Paul tells Timothy, God has given us everything we have to enjoy. So you should, you should eat fine meals and go on sweet trips as long as you can afford them. You should do things that stir your affectionate to the Lord. The problem with spending is when we begin to put our hope in it

and think that some stuff is gonna satisfy us. It never will, man. If people were the most stuff were the most satisfied, then wouldn't the most content place on the planet be Hollywood? And it's a dumpster fire, an absolute dumpster fire. Why? Because when you put your hope for satisfaction

in temporary stuff, it's never going to satisfy. This is why we call that the cul-de-sac of stupidity. Not because stuff is stupid, because you're stupid. Me too, man, me too. And we think some more of the same stuff is going to do for us what the last stuff didn't do. And listen, I get it, I can get into it.

For my birthday, my friends gave me a Kuyu gift card for $100. You don't know it's the biggest sale in the history of Kuyu right now. Kuyu is really fancy camouflage. That's what it is. You're not even supposed to see it. And I got on with my $100 gift card. It cost me $500.

It did, man. I was like, I'm gonna get some pants. I'm like, well, I'm gonna hunt with no shirt gotta get a shirt, what if it gets cold? Gotta get a coat, right? Gotta have a hat, one, but look at this, they'll see me from a mile away, like a beacon. About three days later, the algorithm hits.

I'm like, does your belt match? Sure doesn't, got me another one, all right? So, now, because you know, you're like, never know, I might kill the bug of a lifetime, be on the front of a magazine, don't look like an idiot with mix-mast camo. You gotta do that, so, all right. So to the spenders, Jesus,

Jesus says, look at the flowers, look at the lilies. How much cuckoo they did they buy? How much did they spend at Lulu? Oh, are we getting personal? They ain't even got on clothes, man. And has not God clothed them with more splendor than you can imagine? Come on, can you have more faith than a flower?

So seek first. The kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. So God is first. Because God is first, God in love's first. and God went first. Truth three is your money, our money displays and even directs our hearts.

Based on those three truths, here is our response to God on how we honor him, love him, worship him, with the resources that he has given us. Is that we bring to God our first and our best. The Bible says it this way, Malachi chapter 3. This is the last prophet of the Old Testament. He says this. The nation of Israel has been in exile.

They've moved back into Israel, into Jerusalem. They've been there about 100 years, and they've already screwed everything up. And so in the book of Malachi, God has six problems with the nation of Israel, and the way they're handling finances is one of them. Malachi 37, from the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes

and have not kept them. Just in case you're a little slow on the uptake, he's not just talking about Israel. Anybody else here turn from God's statutes and not keep them? He's talking about us. And then this unbelievable invitation from the holy sovereign king of the universe.

He looks at the nation of Israel, he looks at his church, he looks at his people, and he says this, return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. You realize we don't deserve that invitation? Remember James 4.8, we talked about it this summer? God makes this unbelievable promise, if you will draw near to me, I will draw near to you. So no matter what you've done,

or how many times you've done it, or how much you have rejected God, he gives this invitation, would you just come back to me, come back home, return to me and I will return to you. And then you ask a very legitimate question, but you say how. How will we return to you, God, in our hearts? Go to church more, pray more, read your Bible more.

He doesn't mention any spiritual disciplines. God immediately goes after the number one competitor for the human heart. He says it in verse 8, will man rob God? He's talking about money. Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. And you say, how have we robbed you? Have you ever robbed God?

I mean, I know we don't pass a plate here, and we'll tell you why in a little while, but have you ever had a plate going in front of you? be like, ooh, free lunch money. That'd be clearly robbing God. You're like, I wouldn't do that. What God is talking about here is, if something belongs to God, but is in your hands,

God says, that belongs to me, and you were stealing from me. And God is first, and God loves first, and went first, and what we do with our finances reveals what's first in our lives. And if what's first and best in regards to your finances is still in your possession

instead of his possession according to the Lord, he says that you're robbing God. It's pretty scary stuff. Well, man robbed God, yet you were robbing me, and you say, how? How have we robbed you? And he answers it in your ties and contributions. Now, when the Bible talks about tide, it talks about it. Before the law, it talks about it all the way through the end of the Bible, end of the Bible.

Tide means 10%, but it doesn't just mean 10%. It means the first and best. And so according to the script. we are to bring our first and best to God. And the reality is this, is that we all tie towards something. Every single one of us, we take the resources that we have been given, and we take our first and our best, and we put it into something, and we are trusting that that thing will either bring us satisfaction or security.

For some people, it's savings, for some people it's education, for some people it's a home, for some people it's cars, and for some people it's the Lord. And the reality is, is that your house and your education and your sales, you're a cannot do for you what only the Lord can do for you, which is ultimately secure you and ultimately satisfy you. And so that's why he's saying the first is mine. Now, I always will have somebody, and they say to me, well, isn't the tithe

an Old Testament concept? And I go, yep, you're right. So because of the covenant of the New Testament, because of the grace of Jesus and the blood of Jesus, you no longer have to stop at just 10%. You can give it all. You can give it up. Jesus did not tithe his blood, he gave it all.

He gave it all. And you just gotta be honest. I've never had the person have that conversation with me that was trying to give more. They were just trying to keep more. And so if that's the case, just tell God, you know what, I want more for me and I don't trust you with it. And good luck with that. He has grace, but I hope he'll grow you up.

And so he says, bring to me what's first and what's best in your ties and your contributions. He says, you are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me the whole nation of you. And then he says, bring the full tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. By the way, we don't take up an offering because the Bible says bring. How do you get, there's two words in the English language that we have to use just for communication purposes, but I don't love them. Generosity and giving.

How do you give God something? It's all his. How can you be generous to God? Now, the Bible says be rich towards God, but how can you be generous to God when it's all his. My daughter sitting over here, and if she was like, Dad, I want to be so generous to you this year for Christmas, I'm going to buy you a new boat. Whose money you think she's going to use?

Hers, she ain't got no money. That'd be kind of crazy, right? And then for her to be like, look how generous I am. I took my dad's money and bought my dad something with my dad's money. What? Okay. And what do you give God if I let you borrow my truck? And then three weeks later, you came back and you said, boy do I have a gift for you and you gave me back my truck I'd be like mm that's not

what that means you're just bringing me back what is mine so the Bible says bring back to God the full tie then the storehouse that there may be food in my house in the old covenant it was actual food in the new covenant the food is the feeding of the sheep that we make disciples that make disciples that make disciples that's what we do and then he says and thereby put me to the test says the Lord of hosts if I will not open up the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need, not want, but need. And he says, you could test me on this. You could test me on this.

You see, the reality is, if you tithe, will you be blessed? Yes. First of all, in the natural, the moment you learn to live on lesson you make, naturally, you will be blessed because you'll always have more than enough. You realize, God can do more with your 90 than you can do with 100%. and every single person lives on a percentage of their income. You should know what that is. In America right now, it's usually about 108%.

That's why everybody's upside down. And there is a natural blessing when we learn to live on less than we make. But I'm just telling you, I've seen it, I can't tell you the number of times. I've seen it and experienced it in my own life that when God, when we are obedient to him, he puts some super on that natural. And it just begins to break loose some things in the heavenlies. And then God says, wouldn't you test me on this? Listen, there's this old preacher in California named David Jeremiah.

Some of you might know who he is. So, preach it on the radio and stuff. I like to listen to him. And he says, he uses this illustration. Good, he's old, so he can say whatever he wants. He's like, Dr. Paul. Say whatever he wants. I can't wait to the day.

I know I look old, but I'm not old enough to get there yet. I can't wait to the day where I can just say whatever I want. You think it's shady now. You wait, give me about 20. Woo! Buckle up. All right. So, he was teaching on this passage,

and this couple in his church comes up to him and says, pastor we want a tithe but we don't know if we'll have enough at the end of the month and so we're afraid and he goes okay I'll tell you what why don't you at the first of the month write your tithe check give it to me and then I'll keep it on my desk and if you have enough then I will cash it and if you don't have enough then I'll give it back to you and they said you would do that for us and he took the check and he said no I wouldn't do that for you and he tore it up gave it back to him and said why do you trust me more than you trust God I didn't say it because I'm nice, but he said it because he's old and he don't care and he tells the truth. But it's true, isn't it? This is what it comes down to. Do you trust God?

Do you trust him to meet all of your needs? Paul says this in 2nd Corinthians 9. He was taking up an offering there. And Paul says, the point is this. Whoever sow sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Then this next verse is, to help you determine how much you determine to give.

Like, what is first and best mean for you and your family? At this point, you should get your card because we're almost to that point. And then he says, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion. By the way, that's why we don't pass a bucket around because I don't want you to feel obligated to give under compulsion.

And I know, like, 80-something percent of you give online, and I know that bucket will come by, and you'd be like, I give all right. You'd want everybody to know, so we just don't do that. For God loves a cheerful giver. That word cheerful, the root word is where we get the word hilarious. God loves a hilarious giver. Can you imagine you'd be walking out of here

and somebody's walking by one of the giving boxes and they're like, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. They'd be like, what is wrong with that person? Nothing is wrong with that person. That person is free from the grips of the material things of. this world on their life and they are free to be a conduit of the blessing and grace of God. They're not a cul-de-sac trying to hold on to it all themselves. You get that?

And that's what God wants for you and me. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency and all things at all times you may abound in every good work. So grab this. Grab this card. You see, here's the whole point. We bring our first and best back to God because he first loved us by giving us his best in Jesus Christ. See, the reality is you look at this and we have a tangible expression of our love towards God in our pursuit of the abundant life. I don't want you to respond generously to a sermon. I want you to live a life of generosity in response to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so grab this card. We need your name, address, email, all the things down here. And at the top, there's a few options. One says I or we would like to make a 12 month commitment to the 10-10 life and the amount of. So if last year you weren't around for the 10-10 life or you weren't able to make a commitment or for whatever reason you didn't,

then we want you to jump on where we're going in this pursuit of the abundant life and write down your 12-month commitment there. Next, if you go down and you made a commitment already to the 10-10 life, then you got two options. For some of you, you just, want to reconfirm and affirm that you're going to finish strong. Okay? I know life is tough and the moment, just trust me, man, the moment you get involved in this kind of stuff, the enemy, he only

wants to steal, kill and destroy. The last thing in the world he wants you to do is take steps of obedience in the direction of the good shepherd because he's a wolf and he's trying to kill you and everything good and godly in your whole life. And so for some of you, maybe got off track and you're saying, you know what, I'm going to promise to finish strong. And then there's a third category. This is where and I are. And you're saying, listen, we made a commitment last year, but this year we want to increase our two-year commitment. And there you would write down what the total would be for the two-year commitment. And for us in my house, this was a conviction that we had from the Good Shepherd that we were not only going to be first and best, but most. Not just first and best, but most.

Because if money actually displays what is first in your life, if I handed anybody my financial, according to the Bible, you would see what I love. And you would see that I love my family and I love taking them places and make memories with them. You would see that I love camo. You would see that I love boots. You would see that I love pillows and home goods. And you would say, what is that?

And I would say, I don't actually love that, but I love the person that loves that, so we buy a lot of that, okay? But you know what you'd see, that we love more than anything else? That we love Jesus, and we bring more to the Church of 1122, than anything else we put money towards in our whole life. So what does this look like for you? There's two ways you come up with this number. One is reason.

You can get a calculator and a pencil and an Excel spreadsheet and figure out we can do a little less of this and a little more of that, and reasonably we could come up with that number. That's one way to do it. But what this whole 10-10 life is based on is this, that we would hear the voice of the good shepherd and do what he says.

So the other way is just revelation. That's how Gretchen and I came up with what we think God is bringing us. And I'm just telling you, man, there's some things that are going to have to happen in our lives in order for us to be able to fulfill the commitment. But we think this is what the good shepherd was telling us to do. Now here's the crazy thing when it comes to,

anytime you talk about Jesus and money, this weird thing happens in the human heart. And I think it's rooted in what Jesus said, no one can serve both God in money. Way back in the 1900s when I was in high school, and I got saved, I started going to youth group. I'd never been to youth group. And I showed up to youth group.

I was a senior in high school, thought I was awesome, had a sweet mullet, oh, those were the days. And show up to youth group, freshly saved, and the first thing that we did in youth group is play games. They were enamored with games, like little kid games. And the first day we were there, we're playing musical chairs.

And I think I'd probably played as I was a little kid, but I hadn't played in a while. And we're walking around the chairs, and I'm counting on my, hey, wait a minute. minute here. There's 20 kids and 19 chairs. Somebody's in trouble, but it wasn't going to be me. I'm not the most athletic guy on the planet, but as a senior linebacker in high school, I was at this youth group, and it was not the most athletic children in the state that was at my church. You understand what I'm saying? And so there we go, and I had a strategy, man,

I had a strategy that even if I didn't get there first, that mass times velocity equals, that's my chair. You understand? I mean, I could bump a little seventh grader to the children department, you know? Well, sure enough, I'm dominating because that's what I do. I have the spiritual gift of competition, which S. Lewis says was the greatest sin, so I probably need to deal with that. Anywho, I'm dominating. And not only was out there for Jesus and camaraderie and fellowship, but for the, you know, the cutest girls in our town went to this youth group. And so I was there, and I knew that the moment I won this, that it would be so impressive to all the girls. Because girls are impressed by nothing more than dominance in meaningless games against people

that are far left talented than you. Right? So he comes down to me and there's one other girl. There's one chair and we're strolling around the thing. And here's the thing, man. Again, I'm not the greatest athlete either,

but she's not an athlete. She doesn't look like one, she doesn't shape like one, doesn't talk like one, she's not. And she was like a freshman and I was like, I got this. And here we go.

We're circling, we're circling, we're circling. And when the music stopped, I used the same tactic that had gotten me to this place and with everything I had, left cheek, hard, as fast as I could. I was going to dominate her.

And right in that moment, she scooped the chair up and put it under herself, and I went crashing to the floor at the amusement of everybody there at the youth group. Ha! Here's why I tell you this. When you start talking about God in money,

there's only one throne for the human heart. And even in the redeemed heart right now, there are two realities that are circling that chair. And it's faith and fear. If you allow fear to take the throne of your heart, you will come crashing down on your butt, and the enemy will just laugh at you. And if you invite faith to take a seat in the human heart, God will grant you the ability to tune your ear to the good shepherd and do whatever he says.

And when you do that, you will march towards abundant life. So I want us to take this card. if you're here with your spouse, this would be a good time to pray once again about it. And I want you to do three things. I want you to pray. Listen to the voice of God. Pray. And I want you to think, God, what are you asking us to do? And I want you to write down a number. And then you're going to stay right there. I'm going to give you two minutes to pray about this and to write it down. And then I will come back. Don't get up. Don't leave. And I will come back and give you some instructions on what to do this. So think, pray, write. Ready, go.

All right. If you would stand to your feet, put that. card in your hand. We're going to consecrate these unto the Lord. As I was praying, here's what I thought about. You know the story, the event of the little boy with the fishes in the loaves? Can you imagine what it would be like to be that kid? He looked at 5,000 men, about 20,000 people, hungry, and he began to think, what is this little bit going to do? And he got a firsthand experience of what, when we take hours and put it in the hand of Jesus and see what what he's going to do. And it must have been really, really cool

to see God take a little bit of fish and a little bit of bread and feed 20,000 people. But Jesus said that he's going away, but we should be glad because he's going to send the Spirit and we, the church, are going to get to see exceedingly more than we ever hoped or imagined and do even more than Jesus did. You know what this is?

This is bread and fish is putting in the hands of Jesus. And we're not just going to get to see people get fed, man. We're going to see lost people found. We're going to see dead people come to life. We're going to see missionary sent to the ends of the earth. We're going to see babies be born. We're going to see senior adults to end well for the glory of God. We are going to see the miraculous, not because of us,

but because he would use ordinary average people like us to turn the world upside down. Amen? So, as we're going to pray and then you're going to bring this card, we've got baptisms right here in the front. We've got them in the middle and we've got them in the back. So you just kind of like an airplane. Just figure out which one's closest to you and bring it. And as you do, I want you to pray for the miraculous.

Because if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. Raise your card high in the air and let's pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything. God, we thank you that you first, you're preeminent, you go before all things. God, we thank you that you loved us first, you went first, that while we were yet still sinners Christ died on the cross for us. God, may this be an act of worship that we've been honor you with our first fruits. and by faith would we bring you first and best. And God, we believe and we know that miracles are going to happen in this place and around the world

because that's just who you are. You are the miracle-making God. God, we love you and may this be an expression of that. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So, church, we're going to respond. As we sing and as we pray, we're going to bring our cards. You can drop them here in the middle or at the top.

Let's respond.