Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 We are continuing our study through Exodus and we are, uh, at Mount Sinai. And if you've, uh, bring that over just a little bit more right over here. Very good. Lovely. My, my assistance this morning. Not quite as beautiful as those on prices. Right. But they'll work, right? Yeah. Oh, I appreciate that this morning guys. Hey, listen. Um, thank you for, uh, uh, kind of living, living the journey with us over these past couple of weeks. As I have been, uh, doing weddings in Arizona and taking some time off, it's been, it's been very refreshing to be able to be with my, my family, and I appreciate the, the opportunity to get away. I, uh, last Sunday we actually had a Sunday where we, uh, had a servant Sunday off. And so, uh, if you joined us online, you know, that we were at the village church of Bartlett last Sunday.
Speaker 0 00:00:50 And, uh, we, we know that a lot of our folks here, uh, work tirelessly, uh, relentlessly every Sunday, setting up all of this. And, uh, we just wanted to give them, uh, just a break. And so they, uh, they got a day without pay last Sunday and it was, uh, it was, it was a nice little break. Hopefully you enjoyed the service at Bartlett or wherever you chose to worship, but it is good to be back with you and to be digging back into the story of Exodus. My question for you this morning, as we start off is simply this, all right, I got to read this to be exactly right. Have you ever noticed how we fund things? We love, you ever noticed how we fund those things that we love. Sometimes we're a little low on cash sometimes it's, uh, or we're strapped at times more than others, but we always have a tendency to kind of find the extra pennies that we can to go to Starbucks or, or whatever, whatever it is that you love doing, or buying, buying some flowers you get in the garden planet or whatever it is that you enjoy doing.
Speaker 0 00:01:52 We have a tendency to be able to find ways to fund the things that we love. Now. I brought some things that I love to show you on the platform this morning. These are things that started in my life fairly small, but over time they became bigger. One of the things that I started getting into, uh, as I became an adult and actually at our first church that we started serving at was golfing. Uh, so I brought my golf clubs up here to illustrate that. Now I did not have this bag. When I started off, I went to yard sales and found, you know, beat up old clubs and just started goofing around until one guy in our church named Brian Gensel. And I say his name because hopefully he'll he'll watch this. But Brian started teaching me how to golf. Now, Brian thought he was better than he was. And so like, every golfer does no, actually he's, he's pretty good golfer. And he taught me a lot of the ways to hold the clubs, swing the club. I never took a lesson. Never took one lesson.
Speaker 0 00:02:52 What's that? What's that movie never, never one lesson. Yeah, Ferris, Bueller. They guy always recused though that, um, Brian got me into golf. He got me so much into golf. That for one of my birthdays, he actually made me golf clubs with my name on the, on the grips. I was so proud of those. I actually still have those in my daughters use them a while. Eventually I bought a bag. I started buying clubs and adding to my, my, uh, my, my clubs. I started to improve my swing, starting to get better for, for golfing started thinking I was better than I was and disappointing myself numerous times on the golf course. So I bought gloves. I brought, put new putters. I, I bought shoes. I bought all the things that I needed in order to fund this new passion that I have a lot of balls.
Speaker 0 00:03:37 I bought a lot of balls. My had a tendency to always end up with the fish, which brings me to my next passion in my life, which is fly fishing. Now I did not grow up fly fishing. I grew up in, I used to love fishing, but we went to our church, one of our first churches in Michigan. And while I was there, one of the guys that helped us with the youth group was into fly fishing. His name was Jorgen. Jargon was a great friend of mine, helped us with a youth group, like I said, and, uh, and he would take me a fish. Now I was using a, uh, a spin caster, which those of you that are fishing, you understand the spin caster. And there was a great stream up there that sometimes had salmon when the salmon would run, but it was always full of trout.
Speaker 0 00:04:19 And then again, loving to trout fish with jargon and loved this so much. So eventually I, I took it up myself and he taught me a little bit about fly fishing, but I never got into it until we went to our second church in, uh, Wisconsin while we were in Wisconsin. Uh, one of our attendees named Steve, Steve laugher, good friend of mine. He decided that, uh, he was going to take one day for my birthday. Again, always on my birthday, having a, having a hobby makes it easy on everybody else around you to buy your stuff. Uh, so, so for half a day, he taught me how to fly fish. He got Orvis out there and, and, uh, we had a guide and I took the fly fishing and I didn't have any rods. I didn't, I didn't have any reels. I didn't know what a tip it was.
Speaker 0 00:05:01 I didn't know what a leader was. I had no idea what the flies were for, but over time, as I learned more, I began to add. And so I got a vast and I got boots and I got waiters and I wore them out. And so I bought more waiters and more boots. And I had a tendency to, to fund this new thing. The guy that took us out at the first time for fly fishing, the Orvis guide had like five different rods in the backseat of his car. And I thought to myself, who in their right mind ever needs five different rods? Like you only need one rod. You're just fishing. So guess how many I now have? I actually have five different rods. Yeah, that's right. And because you need a different rod for different streams and different days and different purposes. And if you're a fly fisherman, you know that, and if you're everybody else you're like gone, Craig, you don't need five for five rods.
Speaker 0 00:05:44 Right. I know. I know I was there too. Uh, in fact, fly fishing for me has actually become a bit therapeutic. I'll actually get up way early in the morning. I'll drive four or five hours to spend six hours in the stream and then four or five hours. And, uh, I it's, it's just a therapeutic day for me to get out there and spend some time I'm on the water. You really don't know. I have to look very hard into Craig Jarvis's life to figure out what my passions are, what I love. It's pretty obvious. We have a tendency to fund what we love. It's obvious that I love what I love because it's what I continue to invest in. And for several folks, when it comes to be my birthday or Christmas time, uh, they will give me these different gifts that, that, uh, actually, uh, helped in a, probably in a bad way to continue to fund these things that I love.
Speaker 0 00:06:37 I heard a seasoned pastor say, once these words show me your checkbook. I'll show you what you love. I think he actually stole that from Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 6 21, where your treasure is, is where your heart will be. Also, whatever you fund is what you love. Now, let me take you back to Exodus because we're at the foot of Mount Sinai Sinai, and these folks are thrilled that God wants to live among them. They've just blown it with the calf. You know, the whole calf incident, they had this golden calf that suddenly appeared out of the Coltrane that, uh, that Aaron was talking about talking to them about it. Uh, and then Moses said, listen, you got to understand, God wants to live among us. We have to change. We have to change our behavior. We have to change what we love. And the people were thrilled about that.
Speaker 0 00:07:32 They were actually thrilled and they showed it. And this message today is very demonstrative of the primary way that they showed. They loved the idea that God wanted to be among them. God remember has been meeting with them outside of the camp. He's been meeting with Moses in this tent and the people have been away from him and Moses would come back and his face would shine. You remember all of this and they'd have to put a bag over Moses head. And they said, Moses, just kind of dad hold a mask. First mask, wearing moment in scripture, just hide yourself like that. And we will, uh, w w we don't want to see your face. You're too. You're too shiny.
Speaker 0 00:08:16 They were thrilled at the fact over time that God wanted to be among them. God's presence wanted to be continually with them and listen, God didn't just want to be among them. God had wanted to be in the middle of them. Did you know where the temple was located? The temple was located in the very center of the camp of the Israelites God's presence would have to be seen and recognized at all times, but here's the question. Where would they get the resources to fund the building of God's house? God wants to be among them. He wants him to be once there to be a visual representation that he is among them, but where would they get the resources to build God's house? I'm glad you asked. It's an Exodus 25 in verse one. It says the Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel and that they take for me a contribution for every man whose heart moves in him.
Speaker 0 00:09:15 You shall receive a contribution for me. Now, listen to this. And this is the contribution you are, shall receive from them. Gold, silver, and bronze, blue, and purple Scarlet yarns, fine twin and fine twine, linen goats, hair tanned, Ram skins, goat, skins, Acacia wood oil for the lamps spices for the anointing oil and for fragrant, incense, Onyx stones, and stones for the setting, for the <inaudible> for the breast plate breast, please peace and let them build me a sanctuary that I made dwell in their midst. God is inviting them into a building project. You remember, I did a message on this. So this was, uh, the, uh, the, um, chip and Joanna is illustration, right? This was, this was their opportunity to build a house for God. And he had the dimensions all worked out and he had the plan all worked out. We're going to talk about that actually in a couple of weeks, but God asks them to contribute to the building of his house.
Speaker 0 00:10:13 He even gives them the details of what he needs in order to build the house and all he's looking for in order to do this, we're generous hearts, willing hearts. Whoever wants to be a part of the building project. He's saying you are invited to be part of the building project. If you fast forward to Exodus 35 in verse five, he highlights it. He says, take from among you a contribution to the Lord church. Would you read this part for me? Whoever is of a generous heart. Let him bring the Lords contribution. Listen, I would love to tell you that there's some kind of requirement going on here. It would be so much easier for Moses to go to the people and say, listen, here's the deal. All of us have to be in this together. God wants to be among us. It's a big deal.
Speaker 0 00:11:01 God's going to dwell among us. He wants us to build him a house. So everybody's going to give tens percent good deal. And everybody goes, yeah, cause then I can hold you accountable. If I give you a number, I can hold you accountable. Apparently there's no number. There is no percentage. There's no nothing. God is simply looking for a country. <inaudible> anyone who wants to donate these items is welcome to do so. Anyone who wants to be a part of the project can have a part in the project. Any churches today that require a certain kind of contribution. There are many churches today that tell you that you have to give a certain amount to that church. I'm glad you're sitting down for this next statement, because here it is. Unfortunately for those leaders, this is never taught in scripture that knocked you over. There is nowhere in scripture that the church has taught commanded, promoted.
Speaker 0 00:12:06 There's nothing in the new Testament that tells churches. You must give a certain amount. That's why in our church, we don't send you letters saying, if you don't give this certain amount we're coming, we know where you live. We're coming to find you. We don't bill you. We don't give you a certain amount. We don't visit your home. We don't, we, we, the only reason we hold an account as to what you give is so that we can be good stewards and you can get a tax break. We build a budget with this many dollars. We have no idea what the Lord did. We're to bring in. We simply go on faith. Now you might say, wait, wait, Craig, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I've heard. It's 10%. Where did this whole 10% come from? I'm glad you asked on, uh, the 10% is actually something that comes from the old English.
Speaker 0 00:12:56 When it was translated in scripture, literally means a tithe literally means a 10th. It's an old English word. 10% was what, what was required for ongoing ministry to the poor, to widows, to foreigners in the land. It was meant to support the priests and to keep the upkeep of the temple. I think we have a slide on this in Malakai three 10. It says to bring your tithe to the Lord and don't steal from him in Leviticus 27, verse 30, it says a tie. The fruit or grain belongs to the Lord. The tie is talked about in scripture, in the old Testament, the tithe is talked about, but this was not the same thing as what is what we're talking about here as a donation or a contribution. And the tide was meant specifically for these things in scripture, it was meant to support the poor support, widows support foreigners in the land, support priests and support the upkeep of the temple.
Speaker 0 00:13:54 In actuality, the people of Israel had to give more than 10%. They had to give 10%. That was naturally, but above and beyond that they were called to give sacrifices. They were called to give of the first fruits of their, of their grain and their, their animals. They were called to give way more than 10%. Some estimates on Theologiae decimated was up to 25% of their income was meant to be given to the Lord. This is not taught in the church. This was an old Testament idea as to how the church supported the community, that the temple and all of those things that I just mentioned. Instead, what we follow is the same thing. That's what being talked about here in Exodus with this passage that we're in right now, and this is simply called a free will offering a free will offering is this.
Speaker 0 00:14:46 It is a voluntary religious offering, made an addition to what is required by a vowel, a time or pledge. A freewill offering is freely willed freely given CD with me down in 21 in Exodus 35. And they came everyone. Who's heart stirred in him. Listen to this now. And tell me, tell me what requirements you see in these, what command is in this, because this is all free, well stuff. Everyone whose heart is stirred in him, everyone whose spirit moved him and brought the Lord, uh, Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of the meeting for all its service and for the holy garments. So they came both men and women, all who were of a white church, all whoever willing heart VI, Donna verse 29, all the men and women, the people of Israel whose heart moved in them to bring anything for the work of the Lord that he had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a what church our free will offering free will is freely willed.
Speaker 0 00:15:47 And when you, when you talk about a freewill offering, there's only two requirements for a freewill offering and they have nothing to do with amount or percentages or anything. The only two requirements are these given generosity and give with a thankful heart. Those were the only two things. This is the way that Christians are, are requested to give. Since the beginning of the church in the new Testament, generosity was key in their giving and thankful hearts were a necessity in second Corinthians nine in verse 13, it says they will glorify God because of the submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and all others. See some familiar words in there. When Paul talks to the church at Corinth, he's saying you guys are bringing in these offerings that are blessing all of these different people.
Speaker 0 00:16:40 Bring them in with a cheerful heart, with a thankful heart and bring them in generosity. God loves to use generous people and God loves to use thankful people. So I thought let's take a little detour and figure out how generous we are as Americans who want to do this. How generous are Americans? Now you may think to yourself, oh Craig, you're going to nail us on this. Oh no, this is, I just pulled up. I'm just curious to know how generous Americans actually are. I'm Canadian. So I'm, I got no stock in this. All right. So the general population donated in 2017, $2,514. That means that Americans gave 2.1% of their disposable income come to charity. 2.1%, which people give more, but their averages seem to go down in total 20 of the richest Americans in 2019 gave $8 billion to charity. Now that may number sounds.
Speaker 0 00:17:41 That sounds good, but that is 0.8% of their net worth. Here are the top generous givers that you may not. You may know some of these names. So I pulled up Warren buffet worth $88 billion. I can't even fathom that. Like Warren Buffett is worth $88 billion gave three points, $4 billion to charity. I did the math. That's 3.9%. He's one of the top givers. Bill gates is worth 97 billion. And he gave 2.5 billion to charity. That's 2.6%. So the numbers are very similar, right? As far as percentages, some of those, not at the top of the list, you're wondering who they are. Some of those billionaires out at the top of their list at the very top is Mr. Zuckerberg, dyno. Mr. Zuckerberg, this guy is worth $61 billion. Did he just fly space? No, that's the other guy. That's a, that guy, Zuckerberg. I get them all confused. Okay. Zuckerberg $61 billion donated 410 million. That is 0.7%.
Speaker 0 00:18:50 How about, how about, um, mayor Michael Bloomberg? This guy is popular. I know, but did you know that he's got cash? He is the 10th richest American in the United States. He has $51.8 billion and he gates. He gave seven, 767 million. That's 1.5%, by the way, if you want a totally, totally good way to depress yourself in your day. If you're thinking yourself, I'm pretty happy. I'd like to be depressed. If that's you, all you need to do is go online and find out how much your politics, your favorite politician gives to charity. These people that are telling you to give more, you find out how much they give to charity. It will shock your side right off. I'm just amazed. How do Americans stack up against the rest of the world? I know let's be fair. Well, as far as European nation goes, Americans donate seven times seems as much as European nations and let's throw the Canadians in there.
Speaker 0 00:19:54 They donate twice. As much as Canadians Americans are generous, but you can look at the numbers for yourself. Guess which month has the highest percentage of giving? I bet you December 30% of all charitable giving is in December. Guess which group gives more? Well, I don't want to do this because you'll think what, what, what groups are, I'll tell you, black Americans, more than any other groups, more generous to charities. And it is also noted that if you were an adult and you're giving regularly, your children are more apt to give proof in the pudding. They might say, Craig, I can't really give much. Let's put that in perspective because you're with a bunch of other Americans of other, uh, other people in your community that think the same thing. I can't really give much. How many of you could Venmo me six bucks in the next 10 seconds? Probably most of if you've got Venmo, PayPal, whatever it is, what's in your wallet, what's in your wallet. All right? So if you can get your hands on six bucks in the next 10 seconds, you are richer today than 3 billion people in the world. 3 billion people live on less than $5 and 60 cents a day.
Speaker 0 00:21:10 And I will tell you this, if you donate to an organization, do your research. Some of these organizations that are promoted in front of us, aren't necessarily as generous as they seem. The overhead costs are very high. One of the companies that I love is Ronald McDonald Oregon's organization. They have a very low overhead and they give most of what is donated to, uh, to the charity goes directly there Samaritan's purse, same thing, red cross, not so good. Uh, you can check these things out online on your own. There's a site called charity navigator and it rates these companies from, uh, with stars, one to four stars. You can check it out online, back to the passage. This passage is amazing because I think what is happening here is God is training his people to give in order to teach them how to love. Remember we fund what we love.
Speaker 0 00:22:02 They brought gold and silver to melt and fashion. The foundations in the furniture of the, of the tabernacle. They brought fine, costly linen and yarn for the curtains. They brought find stones for the priestly garments. They brought all the oils and incense for a pleasant aroma. They even brought wood that they were using in their own tents to the house of God, so that he could have a tent, a home for himself, whoever was blessed by God was looking to bless God with whatever he gave to them. These were all things that cost them money. These were all valuable things that they had to give up. Their future would be affected by what they gave away today. But they gave with generous hearts before we get to exactly what happened next. Let's just take a moment and find out what's so noteworthy. What's so visionary about a tabernacle.
Speaker 0 00:22:56 The word tabernacle, as we've already discussed is literally a dwelling place. That's literally the word God wanted to read them to realize he was with them. They could smell it in the incense they gave. They could see it in the curtains. They brought to be woven. They, they could feel it from the heat of the candles that they brought to be fashioned. They could touch the items for themselves. They could look at this house of God. They could, they could see this house of God and there, their sensory input was completely impacted because they could see this was God's house. I think we do have a picture here. Do we? This is where God's house would be right in the middle. And if you missed, if you were so far back that you couldn't see it, that cloud that went above the temple was a fire at night and a cloud by day in every way, God wanted the people in the know he was there.
Speaker 0 00:23:50 He was with them. This was the vision of God. And the people were asked to contribute to the vision. Can you imagine if you had a crappy day and you and, and your kids were just crazy in your, your home is just crazy and you're, you're worried for the outcome. You've got somebody sick in your tent and you're thinking of yourself. There's nobody here. There's nobody for me. I'm all by myself. And you could just peel your tent back and you could look, even if you couldn't see the tabernacle, because you were so far back, you could see the cloud and the pillar of fire, and you could be reminded. God is still with us. This was the vision of the tabernacle. They loved this reminder that God wanted his house right beside their house. And it was this love that they had for this vision, directed their giving.
Speaker 0 00:24:40 Look in verse 29, all the men and the women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved in them to bring anything for the work of the Lord that he had commanded by Moses brought it as a free will offering no twisting of the arm. No guilt, literally bring anything that you can, because everything you bring can be. We used to build God's house, okay? For this vision to be reminded that God is a man. If you're a farmer for a freewill offering later on, if you're a farmer, you could bring food. If you're a craftsman, you can craft something and bring service. But these free will offerings were given as a cost to the person who gave, do you want to know how much they love this project? It's in the next chapter, 36 verse three. And they receive for Moses, all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary.
Speaker 0 00:25:30 They still kept bringing him freewill offerings. How many times? Church, every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task in the sanctuary came each from the task he was doing and said to Moses, the people are bringing more than enough for us to do the work. And the Lord has commanded us to do so. Moses, get this in verse six, Moses gave a command and this word was proclaimed through the camp. Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work and more church. I'm just going to ask you a simple question. How much did these people love the vision that God had cast? How did they, you can answer, how much did they love this project?
Speaker 0 00:26:15 How much did they love it? How do you know that? I loved it a lot because the way they gave we fund what we love. We find what we love in the new Testament. It's still a freewill offering. Did you know that tar church today, second Corinthians nine seven says each one must decide and must give. As he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compassion for God, listen to this. This is good. Let's say together for God, loves a cheerful giver. God doesn't need your stuff. He invites you into the projects. He loves the giver, not the gift. It's the giver. It's the heart that makes a difference. Do you know why God loves a cheerful giver? Because cheerful giving demonstrates a love for God and what he's doing now, are we supposed to follow the pattern of a tie or a freewill offering in the church? I'd love to tell you, God requires a 10th of all your income. I simply cannot.
Speaker 1 00:27:22 Now, if you're looking
Speaker 0 00:27:23 For a place to start and you're thinking yourself, I'm just starting my walk with Jesus. I don't know how much I should give. 10% is a good place to start. You know, you could start there, but in actuality, if you've been walking with Jesus for any length of time, you should probably be giving more than 10%, 10% to the church, some to ministries, some to do you know how many people are starving in this world. We just need food. There's great organizations that you can give too. You can adopt kids. My family and I we've adopted kids for, for decades. We have them all hanging on it. We've helped them with their, their food and their schooling in different countries. And there's different organizations that you can, that you can give to during the year. I would love to tell you that God requires a certain amount.
Speaker 0 00:28:05 Listen, if I could, we could really increase what we're doing here. Right? We could, we could, we can move right immediately into a building. We could finally start making some dent in Carol stream community. We could have a seven day a week product. We don't have to stay here with a setup, tear down thing. If I could tell you, you have to give a certain amount to make it up out of the blue. We could, we could just do whatever we could have projects left and right. We could begin all kinds of the youth. I mean, imagine how youth would have a gym built for them. Bye now was never mentioned for the church only freewill offering and God requires thanks. Forgiving cheerful, giving and generous hearts.
Speaker 0 00:28:48 Second Corinthians eight 12 for if the readiness is there. It is acceptable. According to what a person has, according to what he does not have. Do you know what that means? It means if you have the ability to give, give, as the Lord leads you from a cheerful heart, from a generous life, is there one, one on one correlation between the church and the time? And I go, well, tithers never used for the church. Only actually use two times in the gospel. And both of these times that it's using the gospel were in negative ways instead in that. And that's only in the gospel, which is actually old Testament, you know that right? The church was birthed at acts and forward. There was no church in Jesus' day. Jesus went to the temple, old Testament sacrifices and all that church where we're doing today is not the same thing as what Jesus did in the gospels.
Speaker 0 00:29:34 And so Ty has mentioned in the gospels, not for the church. I want to see what the church was using freewill offerings for while they were using it to support projects in the church, church would ask for money to help other churches in need. They would support local work of the churches and acts too. There were churches that were supporting their community or given to the, the common needs around them. They were, they were supporting local church, pastors and elders. First Timothy five, they're commanded to support the leaders in the church. They were giving to support joint mission and acts four acts 11 acts 19. They were actually bringing gifts to the church and they were saying, okay, here's our gifts in the church. Leadership was deciding how to distribute those where those gifts would be used. Here's what it says in acts four verse, verse 34, there was not a needy person among them for as many were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the Apostle's feet. And it was distributed to each as they had need. It is freewill offering. If you want to get involved, you can, if you want to something so that you can be involved in the project, you can, if you don't, you don't have to, if you hate it, don't do it. God loves a cheerful giver. If you feel guilty, don't do it. God loves a cheerful giver generosity.
Speaker 0 00:30:53 Today. Church church leadership makes up a budget. Like I said, at the beginning of this message, we, we invite the church input. Uh, the ministry directors are right now, hopefully ministry directors working on your budgets. Uh we'll uh, hopefully the they're submitting those very soon and they'll decide what they want that money to be used for next year. Uh, this year, one of the things that John I'm going to pick on John, cause you're right in my eyesight right there, John John is our youth leader. And, uh, John was hopeful that we were able to, um, maybe out of COVID use, use, uh, some money so that we could rent a gym once in a while. Not necessarily that that worked out so well because COVID dis hasn't left us alone, but we, we do a, a budget based on what our faith is going to be all about for the next.
Speaker 0 00:31:40 And we asked the church to be involved for years. We have supported our ministry needs, which has allowed us now to be online. This is because of the generous giving of our church. We have the ability to serve a whole community at Bridgeway who are on a, were unable and are still kind of unable to get out of their, their situation over there, but they can join us every single morning because of your generous gifts that allow us to go online. I had no idea we would be online at this point in our lives, but all of the people that participated so that we could do this, made it happen. And we are online. We supported world missions in Venezuela. We've supported pantry our food pantry in our neighborhood for buying freezers so that they could store their food. We've helped support local outreaches like national night out to bless our school.
Speaker 0 00:32:28 Children are going back to school. We bless numerous folks by helping with electric bills and bills that are outside of their, um, their ability to meet in and outside of our church family. We have blessed people by meeting needs. We've helped provide food for our community at Christmas and Thanksgiving. We've we've we Thanksgiving we've packed eggs together. So we could give during COVID these children, the ability to do, you know, egg hunts in their backyards and bless them and help you bless your neighbors. And all of this takes money, uh, sad to say, but it does. It just, it's a world in which we live. If you've got a project it's going to take some cash. And the only reason we've been able to do it is because we have a generous, cheerful giving church. And I'm pleased to say, uh, that four years into our lives.
Speaker 0 00:33:11 We are, we are seriously in the black, which is such a blessing for three years. We finished, eh, reddish black. We'll call it pink. Uh, we finished in there, but I'm proud to say last year we finished in the black and this year we, we are, we are making some big plans moving forward. The Lord has blessed us now so that we can actually look at moving into a building and having seven days a week ministry having, uh, a proper presence that we can use a building that that will be a sanctuary for our community seven days a week. We're very close to that. Uh, there's, there's some opportunities that are right in front of us. I keep telling you a little bit about that, but you will be brought into the process once we, once we, um, once we make some serious headway, some significant headway and, uh, and we're, we're going to keep you informed on all of that.
Speaker 0 00:33:58 But the only reason we can even contemplate moving into a place so that we don't have to do a setup, tear down situation. We can actually have a presence of the communities because we have a generous giving church. I want to thank you for your giving. Thank you for your generosity. Some of you have, I have have given so that it hurts. And I got to tell you, we are grateful for it is because of you that we continue to serve is because of you that God continues to work in and through us in this community, the future is exciting and challenging. And God's plan is to invite you into his generous giving plan. Remember not all people brought the same thing or the same amount, some brought golden silver, some brought incense, some brought costly cloth, but everything that was brought cost them something, everything they brought was a sacrifice, something valuable.
Speaker 0 00:34:57 They brought it to support what God was doing among them. If you're a follower of Jesus, there's an expectation that you're going to get excited about what God is doing and the way that we can, the way that God knows you're excited about what you're doing is you fund what you love. We fund what we love. Now. This is not a natural thing. The natural thing for us is to fund what we love. This comes natural. I love to fish. So I'm always looking for flies online or some cheap Tippet. And you don't know what that is. That's probably good, but you guys spend a lot of money on fly fish. You spend even more money on golf. You ever look at how much it costs to play 18 holes. It is just going up and up and up. You could spend, I can spend a lot of money on stuff that I love.
Speaker 0 00:35:44 How much do I love what God is doing? You see your treasure kind of directs your heart, where you put your treasure. This is where your heart will be. Also giving like this does not come natural. What comes natural is we fund what we, in fact, we even fund bad stuff easily. Don't we? I mean, look at the children of Israel. How hard was it to get all the gold to bake? Make the golden calf. It wasn't hard at all, right there. If you want to make a golden calf, bring your stuff up here. Let's see what happens. It wasn't. They got a golden key. It's not hard to fund stuff you love. It's not even hard to find stuff that you shouldn't be into, but what takes discipline is learning to fund what God loves, joining what he is doing. It will direct your heart, like nothing else.
Speaker 0 00:36:35 When we learn to love what God loves by funding, what he loves, this is 10 months after the children of Israel have gone from Egypt. 10 months of complaining, 10 months of worrying, 10 months of complaining about Moses and water. They can't drink 10 months. That included a golden calf, 10 months to think. And Moses is dead up there on the mountain, 10 months. And then the 10th month, God says, let's redirect your hearts. If you want give to what I'm doing here, you can, Matthew 6 21, where your treasure is, is where your heart will be. Also, we fund what we love. That's natural. God asks us to fund what he loves. So are you investing in what God is investing in these days? Are you funding what God wants to be funded these days? Here's some questions I have for you. And these are the, so what's number one.
Speaker 0 00:37:34 What kind of a funds razor are you? Which is real. Are you Israelite? Are you most like, are you willing, but unable. I want to give, but I can't give 'em the more, the more that I, the more that I get, it just kind of bleeds through. Learn to be a good steward. Give something to the Lord, direct your heart through your giving. Maybe you can't give now may, maybe you can give more later. I don't know your situation, but don't be willing, but unable. Are you unwilling and unable? Even if I had money, tithing is, is my last priority. I am unwilling and I am unable. Maybe that's you, maybe you're able, but unwilling. I had a church leader once that I found out was going around the church saying, Hey, we don't like what's happening in this church. And the way that we show we don't like what's happening in this church is you have got to stop giving your gifts to the church.
Speaker 0 00:38:34 I had a church leader that said that, yeah, I confronted him. It didn't go well, that is a dangerous road to walk. But fortunately, there are people that live that life. They don't like what the church is doing. So they'll hold back their gifts. They're able and unwilling, maybe you're able and willing. Maybe you do give faithfully, keep giving and maybe you're able and generous. This is the FA this is my favorite one able and generous, always willing, always able, always generous. And your gifts help the Lord's work abound, always willing to abound in the work of the Lord. How generous does God require me to be? While some seasons in life, you may not be able to give as much. That's okay. Remember this as a freewill offering some seasons of life, you can give more that's okay, too, whatever you give, give generously.
Speaker 0 00:39:26 And not just to the church, like I said, there's all kinds of areas we can bless this world in. This is not based on manipulation or requirement. The simple question we need to ask is, am I generous learning to fund what God is loving? Am I generous learning to fund what God is loving yesterday? There was an or two days ago. My days are all blending together. There was an earthquake in Haiti was that yesterday, the day before all blending together. Anyway, there's an earthquake. There's still racking up. How many people have died? It's tragic village church of Bartlett. Our other campus has a church ministry that they support in Haiti in a place called <inaudible>. And I have no doubt in my mind. I I've not talked to Michael, but I have no doubt in my mind that that is going to be a significant aspect of prayer.
Speaker 0 00:40:17 And people in that church are going to give because they love what God is doing in Haiti. They're invested in that work. We fund what we love. We can learn to love what God loves by funding. What he loves. Number two, giving is fundamentally in the new Testament. Giving is fundamental. Our free will offering. Listen, if you give, we're not judging the amount don't judge the amount you give judge the heart that gives it. If you give begrudgingly, God doesn't need paper like bills or just paper with stuff on it. God doesn't need your paper. God needs your heart. So don't judge the amount. Judge, the heartbeat, generous, be thankful and let it show by how much, not how much you give, but how you give, let it show by not by how much you give, but how you give. One day, Jesus went to the temple, illustrate this.
Speaker 0 00:41:10 I love this Jesus, such a hands-on guy. He went to, he took his guys to the temple and they sat there watching people give their offerings. Now I don't know about you, but that would be kind of a fun, little, a little, uh, what do you call it? A, when you take your kids out now, when you take your kids out of the school road trip, what do you, what, what did Jessica, what do you call it? When you take your kids out of school? Field trip. Yeah. Thank you. Gray hair. That'd be a fun field there. So Jesus is the type going to take a field trip. We're going to go to the temple. We're going to watch people, give their stuff. So they sit there and they watch people give their stuff. And Jesus is about to show them an illustration. You can find the story in mark 12.
Speaker 0 00:41:51 A lot of people gave huge sums. Some people gave mediocre sums, but then a widow came. You ever heard about the widow's mite? This is the day this happened. A widow came and she gave money. And Jesus took this opportunity to teach in Matthew 12, verse 41. He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make how much church, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him. And he said to them, truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all. Those who are contributing to the offering box for, they all can contribute it out of their abundance, but she out of her, poverty has put in everything. She had all, she had to live on C church. It's not how much you give. It's how you give, which brings us to the last one. You're the conduit. You are the conduit. God's. People are invited to be the conduit through which God's vision prospers in this world. It is a weird idea that God loves me giving paper money in my pocket so I can prove my love to him. So it's demonstrative of how much I love him.
Speaker 0 00:43:13 I want you to know that our leadership commends you for your generosity. We are expecting great things in the future. Hopefully we get a permanent place in Carol stream. That's what I'm praying for. But the only reason we can do this is because you have been generous and cheerful in your giving. And I want to thank you for that. This is the way God uses you to be a conduit, to reach Carol stream and the world. I don't have the ability to buy two freezers for a food pantry in Carol stream. But together we did that. Just that second Corinthians nine 11. This is one of my favorite verses of all time. Our church in Madison, when I was up there, stop passing the plate. We did a study on freewill offering and we stopped passing the plate because we were convinced that if it's free will offering, we're not going to pass a plate in front of people.
Speaker 0 00:44:05 We're going to put a box in the back and the people want to give, they can give it's between them and the Lord. It's their act of worship. And we are not going to compel anybody by putting a plate in front of them. So we're not going to pass it on, not passing judgment on any churches that do or do not pass a plate. All right, I'm not. I'm just saying when we did a study on this free will offering idea, we were compelled to change the way that we gave. So we put a box in the back and this is the verse we put on the box. Here's it says second Corinthians nine. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce Thanksgiving to God. Don't you love that for the ministry of the service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but overflowing in many Thanksgivings to God.
Speaker 0 00:44:48 In other words, the way you give causes other people to worship God is that great. And you know what happened in our church? The leadership was our giving's going to go down. We're just gonna, we're gonna have to revise our budget in the middle of the year. You know what happened? Giving went up, giving went up. People love, love God. And it shows in how they give, you know what this verse really says. Throw it up there again. If you would, Emma, this verse really says, learn to find what God loves and the outcome will be you. And those around you will learn to love what God loves. Let's pray. Father, I'm grateful for this morning, talking about giving more specifically talking about the way that we give. Thank you that you don't bash us over the head. Thank you that your grace covers so many areas of our lives. Even in the aspect of giving, thank you that you, you, you invite us into the process of what you're doing. You invite us into the plan. We are invited into the room and then we fund what we love. We love you. We love what you're doing through our church. I wish I wish I had more time to have made that list bigger because God, you have, you have used our church in some pretty awesome ways. There's chairs that didn't even exist. Five years ago.
Speaker 0 00:46:16 You've used us to bless people in our community. You've used us to bless people in this church. You've healed relationships. You've healed brokenness. You've brought growth. People have come to know the Lord because we're here. People are starting a new walk with you. We're baptizing people in a public pool. It's amazing to me how you have used our church. And it is only possible because your people love the vision that you've given to us and a funded it, cheerfully, generously. And I'm so grateful for that. I don't know what the future will bring father, you know how much I really would want like a building for us to be in where we could not do the setup, tear down stuff, but we could, we could do more ministry. We could do a deeper ministry into our community, Roski to just fling, open the doors. We don't want to make mistakes, but we don't want to. We don't want to drag our heels either Sophos to walk by faith and thank you that we can even consider it because of the generosity that we've already seen in our church. We love to fund what you love because we love what you love, help us father, to be careful to follow the vision that you put in front of us and not make our own up, but just keep doing what you've called us to do, help us to humbly walk in step with you.
Speaker 0 00:47:35 And so father, I'm excited for what the future will bring and ask that you would help us to be faithful in our giving, learning to love what you love by funding. What you do. I love direct our hearts so that where our treasure is, is where our hearts will be. Also. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
