Potted or Planted: Give

It's good to be with you this morning. If we've never met, my name is Josh and I'm glad you're here. And we got a lot to cover today, so I'm just gonna get right into it. Is that all right with you? Alright.

Well, last week we started this series called Potted or Planted? And we began with this simple but really challenging question. Am I, in the context of this gathered church here, this local gathered church, Whitewater Crossing, am I potted or am I planted? Am I just sitting in a pot on top of the soil, never really all in? Am I spindly and needy and spectating and consuming, or am I truly planted, roots down deep in the soil, intertwined with others and growing strong as a rooted, participating contributor.

If you missed last week's message, I can't encourage you enough to go back and listen to it because it was foundational for the rest of this series that runs all the way through the end of November. It's so important that we are using this common language together. It's foundational to these several next messages. So if you missed it, please go back and listen. Last week we had two challenges.

The first was to commit to being here. You did it. Well done. Well done. You can clap for yourself.

To commit to being here for as many Sundays as you can be between now and the end of November, which is the end of the series. The second thing was to learn one person's name and then this week when you saw them again, greet them by name. How'd you do? Not so good. Good.

I heard a few. I was about. I learned a lot more than one name last week not to pat myself on the back because I was about to, ah, 75% today for remembering. So if you were one of those people, you were part of the 75%. So.

But those were the two challenges last week. Here's why. Because we cannot grow as a community together in faith as planted people here at Whitewater, if we're not here and if we don't know each other. And so I'm calling you to join us in these challenges. Still, it's not too late.

Commit to being here as many Sundays as you can, at least between now and the end of November, and get to know one person's name each week so you can greet them by name. It makes all the difference in the world. And out of last week I had some great conversations. People really challenged by what they heard, really convicted that. Some people said, I have been potted in the church my entire life.

One person said, I realize I've just got a giant pot and I've been bouncing around from soil to soil over the last several years, and it's time for me to get planted. One person said, I used to be planted here, but after a season that we went through and some things that were done and said, I was really hurt and wounded by that, I realized I've been potted and it's time for me to bust that old pot and get planted again. And so I'm so encouraged by that. And I love how God is using the simple imagery of pots and plants, of roots and pots, to challenge us and encourage us and call us to more and call us to grow. Now, today, in this potted or planted context, we're going to talk about something that can feel really personal really fast.

And if today is your first week, lucky you, you got here. On Giving Week, we're going to talk about what God has to say about us being fully planted people in his church in the context of. Of giving. Now, don't fret, don't worry, we'll get into it together. It's going to be really good.

But before we panic and before we run out, I want to pray for us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we declare that you alone are worthy. We sang that. Worthy, worthy, worthy, you are worthy.

And God, today we're going to remind ourselves of your worth, that you are worthy of everything that we are and everything that we have. And I pray that you'll translate, Holy Spirit, these words that come out of my mouth today, that they would be words of life, that they would be words of truth, that you would use them to challenge us. You'd use me as your mouthpiece today. And that ultimately I'll glorify you by what I say and that you will be glorified by what we all learn and do because of it. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.

Now, I know that some of us, the moment we hear giving or money, we immediately start to look for the exits or we start to think, who does this guy think that he is? This preacher that has a lot to gain by this conversation, who knows nothing about my life and nothing about my finances. And he's going to stand up here and tell me what to do with my money. I totally understand it. Some people think pastors should never talk about money.

It's like talking about politics at the Thanksgiving table. You just don't do it. But I am absolutely, deeply committed to talking about what the Bible talks about and teaching about what The Bible says. And the Bible has a lot to say on how we view our stuff and our money. In fact, Jesus himself talked about more about money and possessions than almost any other topic because he knew that how we view money and stuff reveals what's truly in our hearts.

So for me to be the pastor of this church and not talk about money would actually be for me to neglect your hearts. And I'm not willing to do that because I actually love you too much for that. Now, by the way, I'm not going to be talking about my perspective. I'm going to be talking about what the Bible has to say about this. And take a breath.

I'm not gonna be asking for a big special offering at the end of the thing. You're not gonna see new pictures of this great big building that we're gonna be building next month. None of that's coming. Okay. The whole goal of today is to ask, what does the Bible say about this?

And that should challenge all of us. So when we look at what Scripture says about money, it is always framed cover to cover in the context of stewardship. It's always in the context of stewardship. This begins in Genesis. God creates this Garden of Eden, and he puts lots of stuff into it.

He places abundance in this garden, and then he gives Adam and Eve the job of working to cultivate it, to enjoy it, to make it fruitful. The role from the beginning, even before sin enters the scene, is stewardship. Stewarding what belongs to God by caring for it, cultivating it, and making it flourish. And just like when we stay in an Airbnb or we rent a car, or we rent a kayak to float down the river, for that matter, there are standards, expectations, and guidelines from the owner that we borrow it from for their home, car or kayak. How it should be treated, how it needs to be returned back to them.

And it should be no surprise to us then that the one who owns the entire world, the owner of everything, also has standards and expectations and guidelines when it comes to the things that he entrusts to us. This stewardship model, established in the beginning in the garden, continues through scripture. If we fast forward just a little bit, we meet Adam and Eve's sons, Cain and Abel, and they are working to multiply what God has given them, access to the resources that God has given them. So Cain farms the soil. Abel is a shepherd.

He keeps sheep. They work with the resources God's given them. And from their work comes increase. And from that increase, we see the very first time in The Bible that an offering is given to God, we don't get the conversation of how God instructed them to give, but we do get God's response to that. And it gives us a pretty good understanding of, of what God desires from our giving.

So Genesis 4, 2. Now, Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering, fat portions, from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel in his offering, but on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favorite.

So both brothers brought something to God. Yes, they worked for it, but they had no power to actually produce the increase that came. God's the one who designed germination. He also designed conception. He's the one that miraculously turns grass into growing sheep.

That's crazy. And he designed that Cain and Abel could only work with the opportunities and the resources that God had already given to them. So why does God look with favor on Abel's offering but not on Cain's offering? Well, the writer of Hebrews gives us a clue. Hebrews 11:4.

By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. Abel brought the firstborn and the fat portions, the most valuable parts, before he even knew what the rest of the flock would produce. To give those away was for him to say to God, God, everything I have comes from you. I trust you to provide what's next, and I'm going to give you my first and best. Cain, on the other hand, simply brought, it says, some of the fruits of the soil.

Not the first, not the best, just some. Abel gave in faith. Cain gave what was convenient to give. So let's pull this into the potted and planted language. Cain had a potted mindset.

He believed he was the owner rather than the steward. This is the danger of the potted life. Potted thinking. We convince ourselves that our ability, our grit, our cleverness is what earns us everything that we have. And once we believe it's all ours, then we hold it tightly.

We see others as threats who might come and take what we've worked for. And we see God as too demanding. And the call to give is a burden. This is the attitude that comes so naturally for us. One of the first words toddlers learn.

We all know this when they start to begin to play with others. The word is mine, Mine. Our human instinct is to hoard and protect what we believe is ours. We're all in some way like gollum from Lord of the Rings, clutching the precious little things in our pots. And just like Gollum, the more tightly we hold what we think is ours, the more it deforms us.

Tolkien said it this way. He said, the desire to possess is a kind of death. The more you hold on, the more you lose yourself. The potted mindset says, since my resources are limited to what I can produce on my own, I can't afford to give them away. If I let go, I might not have enough for myself.

It's scarcity thinking rooted in fear. That was Cain's posture. But when we're planted, when our roots are actually deep into God's resources and into the strength of his community, we draw nourishment from the soil and from others. That's actually much greater than we could ever supply on our own. And out of his abundance, we grow.

We're steady, resilient, and fruitful. Again, not for the primary benefit of ourselves, but for the primary benefit of others. The planted mindset says, I didn't produce any of this on my own anyway, so I can give it away freely. I didn't get me here, I can't keep me here. I have faith that the one who provided has endless resources and will provide again.

It's abundance thinking. It's rooted in faith. That was Abel's posture. And this scene with Cain and Abel gives us a big clue as to what God is looking for. When we give.

God wants our first and best, and he wants us to give it in gratitude and faith. He wants our first and best given in gratitude and faith. Proverbs 3, 9 says, Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops. Malachi 1 rebukes God's people for bringing blemished offerings. That just means they're not the best.

There's something wrong with them. Jesus himself praises the widow. She just gave two small coins. He praises her not because of the size of her gift, but because of the size of her faith. God wants our first and best given in gratitude and faith.

So why does God want this? This is so important. This is what needs to break over in our heads for us to understand this the right way. Why does God want this from us? It's not because he needs it.

Psalm 50, verse 9 tells us, I have no need of a bull from your stall or goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine. And the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. He's like everything from the largest animal to the smallest thing is mine already. If I were hungry, I would not tell you.

For the world is mine and all that's in it. God doesn't need our stuff. God doesn't need our money. God wants our first and best given in gratitude and faith. Because he's interested more in what he wants for us rather than what he wants from us.

He's more interested in what he wants for us than what he wants from us. Anything. God gives us standards, expectations and guidelines for because he loves rules. It's not because he's narcissistic. It's not because he's trying to withhold something from us.

It's because ultimately he knows what's best for us and very specifically, what's best for our hearts. For God, it's all about our hearts. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 6. He says, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal. Why?

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Your treasure flows in the direction to that which is its God. God's far more interested in our hearts than our dollars. So in our modern context, then, how do we steward God's resources well and give our first and best in gratitude and faith? What does this look like for us?

The increase of our labor is a paycheck. So how much exactly do we need to give back to God in order to satisfy him that we have given enough? And for many of the church, we believe that should be a tithe. So what about the tithe? What about the tithe?

A tithe is simply a tenth. It's 10% of the increase. And a tithe is the principle and standard of giving. All throughout the Old Testament, Abraham brought a tithe to the great priest Melchizedek. Jacob promises God a tenth of all he receives in numbers.

And Deuteronomy, the. The Israelites brought a tithe to the Levites, and the Levites brought a tithe to the priests. And there are other examples of this too. No doubt this is the standard in the Old Testament. But that's the Old Testament.

Aren't we a New Testament church? Well, when it comes to a tithe specifically, there's nothing in the New Testament that tells us that we must tithe. There are no mandates, no commands, no instructions. Paul doesn't give any commands or instructions in any of his letters to. To the churches.

Even when he's talking in the context of giving the one place that we should look in the New Testament for a standard here actually comes from Jesus. He mentions the tithe in Matthew 23:23. Here Jesus is actually rebuking the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his day. And he's rebuking them because their hearts are are still broken even though they are tithing. They're still broken even though they are tithing.

Matthew 23:23. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin. He's like you tithe the smallest things and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others you blind guides straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. Now, I don't think that Jesus main point here was about tithing.

I don't think it was about whether a tithe was good or bad or right or wrong. But don't miss that. He says, yes, you should have tithed and you should have done these more important things that you neglected, like justice and mercy and faithfulness. Again, it's ultimately about their hearts. And just like Jesus says with lots of other things from the law, from the rules, he says, there's more to this than following the rules.

Oh, you thought it was just about not murdering? Well, check. I win there. I say to you, if you have hated your brother, then you've already committed murder in your heart. He says, oh, well, you thought it was just about not committing adultery.

Well good for you. You didn't commit adultery. I'm telling you, if you have lusted after someone, then you have already committed adultery in your heart. For Jesus, it's always about our hearts and Jesus don't miss this. Jesus never calls for something like less than what the law requires.

He always calls for something more than what the law requires. So how do we know how much to give? And where should that giving go? In a world with thousands of good causes, can we give to whatever stirs our hearts? Or do we have some obligation to give to the local church?

Well, when we zoom out on scripture cover to cover the broadcast, the broad pattern in Scripture is that out of one's increase, a portion of that increase is brought to God through human spiritual leaders. That's not my standard. That's the Bible's standard. Across the pages of Scripture, the place these gifts were brought were the tabernacle, the temple, the apostles feet and eventually to the church. The biblical pattern is that we bring our gifts, tithes, offerings to the spiritual leaders of the local church and give through the church.

That's the model. Paul's words to the Corinthians help explain this. First Corinthians, chapter 16, verse 1. Now, about the collection. For the Lord's people.

Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with their income, saving it up so that when I come, no collections will have to be made. Then when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. Paul says that their giving should be regular, that it should be planned and set aside beforehand, not. Not at the last minute, not figuring out on the spot what they should do, but planned ahead of time, that it should be in proportion to their income, and that it would be brought to trusted spiritual leaders for them to distribute it.

Now, I know some of you will argue that not all spiritual leaders can be trusted. I understand that. I'm not trying to be mean. But if you do not trust the spiritual leaders of the church that you attend, whether that's Whitewater or anywhere else, then you have an obligation to go to those leaders and call them out on the things that you believe they're not trustworthy in. Or you have an obligation to go to a church where you actually trust the leaders.

I'll move on.

Paul says in Second Corinthians, remember, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

He first reminds us of kingdom economics. Sow generously. Reap generously. Sow sparingly. Reap sparingly.

But then he says that we should give what we have decided in our hearts to give. This word is on repeat. It's all about the heart. We should never give under compulsion because God loves a cheerful giver. Again, it's all about our hearts.

The Puritans used this phrase. They would say, God loveth adverbs. God loveth adverbs. Verbs are what we do. Adverbs are how verbs are done.

And their point is that how we do something is even more important than what we do. So how we give is just as, if not more important than what we give. But just like Jesus does and calls us beyond the law in every other way, it seems that the tithe is actually just the starting point for the New Testament church. If we're asking the Bible what it says about a standard of giving in the New Testament church, there's several examples of God's people going well beyond what we would have known to be a tithe. Acts 2:44 all the believers were together and had everything in common.

They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had a need. Acts 4:33 and God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. From time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet and it was distributed to anyone who had a need. I think it's an easy argument to make that the New Testament standard isn't a tithe. It's actually beyond a tithe.

It's a radical generosity rooted in faith, never given under compulsion. So if someone asks me, Josh, do I have to tithe to please God? I think the best answer is that the tithe from the beginning has been a great way for God's people to set aside their first and best and give of their increase back to God with gratitude and faith. A tithe can be really good, but it can also be a major stumbling block. And it can be all kinds of bad too.

If you don't know how much you should be giving, then do. Ask. Ask God. Ask God. I believe that he will be faithful to encourage your heart with how much he wants you to give.

So ask and then give what you've decided in your heart to give with gratitude and faithfulness and cheerfulness. But let's get super practical. Let's say you go, yeah, okay, I buy all of this. Josh, I hear what you're saying. I hear what the Bible is saying.

I want to give my first and best in faith and gratitude. But when I look at my finances, there's really no wiggle room. There's no wiggle room. Or maybe my offering would be so small it just would. Wouldn't even matter.

Well, first I want to let you know that when we built this year's budget starting July 1, we built the budget with margin in it. We didn't say we'll think we'll spend X dollars. So let's go ahead and spend all those dollars. We said what if we didn't have to spend that. And what if when God provides opportunities in front of us to get out of debt or to be generous, we could step into those because of that margin?

Well, first hear this. Whatever God has entrusted to you, no matter how small it is, he is asking you to give a portion of it back to him in gratitude and faith. And you can honor God with a very small amount. It's not about the amount. It's about the heart behind the amount.

Just like the widows two copper coins, they outweighed the large gifts of the wealthy because they're heart was fully surrendered. But for some of you though, the reality is heavier than that. Maybe you've lost a job. Maybe you've been recently divorced and your finances are just in upheaval. Maybe you got medical bills that have piled up.

Maybe you feel crushed under the weight of debt. If that's you, I want you to hear this first. God says sees you. God sees you. He knows your situation.

He knows what's going on in your life. He knows your struggle. He knows your pain. And I promise you, he is not standing over you with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face disappointed in you. That's not the kind of God that we serve.

He wants freedom for you, not shame. He wants freedom for you. But I also want to gently speak to another group of us. Some of us aren't in financial hardship and struggles because of tragedy or our circumstances that are outside of our control. Some of us are just here because we've been chasing the wrong things.

We've believed the lie that cramming more stuff into our pots will eventually satisfy us. We've said yes to every shiny thing that the world has to offer us. And now we're buried under a mountain of debt. We've got a lifestyle that we got to keep up. There is no margin.

In fact, there's negative margin. Well, Proverbs 22:7 says it very clearly. The borrower is slave to the lender. And many of us know that really well in our lives right now. And if that's you, I'm not here to shame you.

I want you to experience freedom. Because God doesn't want you to be chained to debt. He doesn't want you constantly anxious, constantly overextended. That's the number one reason that people say they don't give. And because I care far more about your heart and your future than I do about you writing a check or dropping $100 in the box, I want you to take a step towards Freedom.

One of the best tools I know for this is a program called Financial Peace University. It's helped countless people in our church, family, and all across the nation crawl out from under the weight of debt and learn to live generous lives. We want to share a video story with you now about this.

My mom had mentioned that life. A lifelong friend of hers was in a situation where her car was in terrible shape. I mean, it was old. It was old. Like, I don't know how, probably from the 80s, you know, this was an old car.

It wasn't safe to drive anymore. She told me that she had been having nightmares that she was driving and the floor fell out of her car. She just didn't have enough money to buy a new car. And we thought, well, you know, we're trading in this fit. It makes better sense for us to give that car to her when we had to get another car to be able to transport my mom.

So we were really thankful that we were in a position where we could do that for her. Hopefully gave her a sense of security that she could get to where she needs, not be a burden on anyone else. As I found, taking care of my parents through their end of life, for me, that's part of the. The best part of this. I mean, there's all kinds of advantages to managing your money appropriately and being cautious and frugal, but to be able to help somebody and it just brings such great joy.

By default, you get to learn a little bit about living, growing up in a depression, when you have parents that grow up in a depression. So I saved a lot of money. I didn't necessarily know what to do with it, or I saved the money that I had. Let me rephrase that. I didn't save a lot of money.

Starting out. I made $2 a yard at the Westbrook Village Mobile Home park, mowing lawns there. I had gone into the military first. Spent six years on active duty. Money was tight back then because he was in school.

I was working pretty early on. We had a choice. I remember there was a neighborhood pool and she wanted a pool pass. And we did not really have the money for that pool pass. And her neighbor friend across the street would go every day.

And I knew the importance of that. And I can remember dreading that envelope coming. Did not have a lot of financial savvy. I am not good with numbers, you know, so. But he had always been a saver.

And he just started listening to Dave Ramsey on AM radio and it made sense to him. He's very number Oriented and engineer. And I'm like, you know, out here, my desk at work, all the papers, when we do have newspapers, they're lined up pretty square. So I just pitched it to Kelly. He's like, hey, I'm listening to this guy.

Let's talk about this. It's something that we could collaborate on together, even though we think very differently about finances. First one's $1,000 in the bank. Your debt snowball. Getting rid of your credit card debt, and then working on an emergency fund where you're looking at three to six months of your living expenses.

So we weren't there. We just grew on that. It's not like we dived in headfirst and said, okay, we're changing everything. We didn't. We just did little things.

And what. What we realized is we noticed that with the little things that we did, positive financial things were happening.

We had a couple bumps here and there. You know, I thought I needed a Ford pickup truck. Well, I really didn't. Two houses we shouldn't have bought. We should have just stayed put where we were.

But we got through those dips when we. When we made mistakes. It does work. I mean, if we can do it. We didn't have anybody.

We didn't start out with any money. We didn't start out early. Neither of us had big jobs at the time. We just took little steps, little steps. And we would gradually build and build and build.

People will not understand because it's different. And they'll say, well, that's silly, or whatever. There were people who questioned what we were doing, and we would do no heat, no AC months where we did not turn on the heat or the AC, regardless. And people at work tackle him, and they'd say, john, got the heat on yet? And he's like, man, you know, it's no heat.

No AC month. No, we do not have the heat on. And he reused his paper lunch bags when he went to school. He was in college. And he would reuse the same bag over and over, and I would be like, dude, throw away that brown bag.

And he's like, it's perfectly good. So, like, this shirt, Goodwill, right? $4.95. And I got a 10% senior discount, so I got 49 cents off this thing. So, you know, that makes me feel good even now.

If you look around our house, we tend to be very minimalistic. If we do want to. If we're thinking about changing something or change, we always look around to see what we have that we can use first, you know, I'm really was really nervous about this, and I just hope that somebody can get unburied. Right, right. Just unburied.

Because it's horrible to be buried in debt and worry. And it's tough. It's tough. So for us, it was Financial Peace University. That's what worked for us.

That's what resonated with us. You just get to learn a little bit more because you have some folks that have lived through it that are instructing you. And then you can talk to people going through the class and just understand where that or what's worked for them, what's not worked for them. You know, budgeting's tough. It's not easy.

And that gives us the opportunity to be generous. And being able to be generous has helped us to just experience God's joy and, and help others at the same time.

If you're ready to get out from under the weight of debt, I can't encourage you enough to sign up for Financial Peace University. You can find it on our events page, whitewatercrossing.org events. It starts next Sunday and will meet from 10:30 to 12. Which means if you have kids, they can be in Whitewater. Kids, while you're in Financial Peace University, we want to make it as simple as possible for you to step into this new journey of getting out of debt.

Now let me address another group of people. Those of us who have been entrusted with much, with much. Some of us are doing pretty well financially. God has opened doors, provided opportunity, and entrusted us with abundant resources. But if we're honest, maybe some of us, our giving hasn't matched what we've been entrusted with.

Jesus said in Luke 12:48, from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. And from the one who has been entrusted with much, from much, more will be asked. Now, I'm not saying having a lot is something to be ashamed of. I'm not calling for wealth redistribution. I'm not saying that vacations or cars or boats are selfish.

I'm not. I'm not saying that we shouldn't invest and multiply what we've been given to make sure that we give an inheritance to our grandchildren. In fact, that's exactly what, what the Bible calls us to do with what we've been given to. But we would be fools not to pay attention to Jesus words when he says it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a wealthy person to enter the kingdom of God. There's something heavy in that statement.

God doesn't entrust us with much just so that we can buy more and eat more and play more and build bigger pots. He plants us in his soil and in the soil of the church so that we can produce fruit that blesses others. The potted mindset. I earned this. I'll protect it.

It's mine. The planted mindset. Everything I have comes from God. It's not mine. It's already his.

So if you're one who's been blessed with much, I just want to invite you to take a fresh look at what it means to be planted in faith, to trust God enough to give your first and best, not reluctantly, but joyfully, and give in accordance with your blessing. And to all of us, to all of us, whether we're in a season of plenty or a season of struggle, the call is the same. It's the same. Let's be planted in our giving. Let's sink our roots deep into God's provision, into his faithfulness, and into this community of his people.

And let's trust that he is the true source of everything, and everything we need will come from him, and that we're supposed to steward these resources with generosity and faith, to give our first and best in gratitude and faith. Now, there's so much, so, so much more to be said on this topic. I can't even possibly cover it in one sermon, but I want to close with my favorite story of giving in the Bible. It's actually found in First Chronicles, chapter 29. So King David is raising money for the temple, and he gives abundantly out of his own wealth.

And then he calls the people to give money and physical resources to help build the temple. And they bring so much that it overwhelms him. And he has this prayer to God, this thanksgiving prayer to God. And I love what he says. Remember, this is the king that says this.

1st Chronicles 29:10. Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our Father Israel. From everlasting to everlasting. Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the and the majesty and the splendor. For everything in heaven and on earth is yours.

Yours, Lord, is the kingdom. You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you. You are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.

Now our God, we give you thanks and praise, your glorious name. I love this humility, he says, but who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this. Everything comes from you. And we have given you only what comes from your hand. That is a beautiful picture of the planted life.

That's the heart that God is looking for. When we give, we're not losing anything. We're simply returning to God what he already owns. So let's be planted. Let's give our first and our best.

Let's trust God with our resources so that our generosity results in thanksgiving, blessing, glory to him and worship. So just ask. Just ask God. And then whatever you've decided in your heart to give, give it cheerfully. Give it cheerfully.

That's the call. Not for me, not for this church, not to keep the lights on, but for him. To give him glory and honor and praise that's due to Him. Will you pray with me?

God, this thing that we don't like to talk about, well, we like to talk about it. We don't like it when other people talk about it.

Help us to release our grip today to trust you, Holy Spirit. Heal the wounds in us from those who have leveraged this to our harm.

Heal the broken pieces in us that are clinging so tightly in fear and scarcity.

Lord, just open our eyes. Open our eyes to see the abundance, the abundance that you've given us. Break these chains of debt and materialism that are so prevalent in us.

You are the great Creator. Everything we have comes from you. And we have given you only what comes from your hand. In Jesus name, amen.