The Habits of Generosity (Open Handed - Week 2)

What if trusting God with your finances could unlock deeper peace and joy than any purchase ever could? In this compelling message, Matt shares a vulnerable story about accidentally over-tithing and discovering that God cares more about our hearts than our money. Drawing from Scripture and personal experience, he explores how biblical giving isn't about meeting budgets—it's about developing life-giving financial habits that free us to experience God's abundance. Whether you're wrestling with tithing or seeking spiritual growth, this transformative message reveals how trusting Jesus with your resources opens the door to lasting soul satisfaction. Don't miss this opportunity to discover the surprising connection between generosity and spiritual vitality.

Transcript

I said in the first service for that music playing, I feel like I'm supposed to dance up to the podium, but I'm not going to. You don't want to see that, but maybe I'll do it next service if you want to stay. So I'm not a bad dancer. So, hey, I always tell people I always put my Bible up here because it slides off the podium. And this morning, I'm going to add another prop on top of it.

The Bible's not a prop, but I'm going to put my wallet there because we are talking about money today. It's not an infomercial. From the announcement, this is kind of separate thing. So some of you might think, oh, no, I hate talking about money in church. And so I can close my eyes for 10 seconds if you want to leave, but don't leave.

So.

But I have a what would you do? Situation. What would you do? So I. From an early age, my parents taught us, my brothers and I, to be financially giving to the church.

And the term that's used is tithing. Tithe actually means 1/10. And we'll talk about that in the sermon. Some but giving a tenth of our income back to the church or Christian ministries. I was a math major, so I know how to do 10%, right?

So about 20 years ago, I was working through. And my wife and I had always tithed working through my finances, and I was, like, trying to figure something out, and I realized I came across this horrifying fact. I was giving more than 10% for five months. I was like, how did I do that? And it ended up being $200 more each month than I was supposed to give based on the 10%.

So it was $1,000. And when I realized that, I told my wife, I said, what should we do? I was like, well, I don't know. Where's those offering boxes? Can I get a refund?

Right? It was a weird reality because I was like, is there a customer service window for God? You know, what do I do with that? But you get the tension. I probably felt like, well, I don't mind being generous, but I gave more God than I meant to.

So. All right. And I won't tell you how I resolved that, but I resolved that in a good way with God. But it was kind of like when it comes to money and God and church, as a friend of mine says, when it comes to money, things get funny because money has a direct line to our hearts, and somehow God likes to get involved in that. But in really good ways.

So we're doing a series called Open Handed. And today we're going to talk about what I'm going to call open handed, life giving financial habits. But open handed because we're not going to clutch our money. Last week, Tom Ellsworth, the four parts of it were how do you have a, have a heart behind it? Today is habits.

Next few weeks is health and hope. But today we're talking about the habits, financial habits. What does that mean? And yes, of course, if you're going to be financially wise, you should spend more than you make and avoid debt and save for the future. But today I want to specifically talk about the habit, the financial habit, the life giving financial habit, the open handed life giving financial habit of giving to God.

And what does that look like now? Like I said, when it comes to money and church, things can get kind of uncomfortable. Things can get really kind of weird. There's reasons we've had to not trust churches and ministries. And again, this is not a money for Sherwood Oaks thing.

This is more about your heart. I'll talk about that. But I'll tell one other story about money, which I want to make sure you understand this too. So years ago I worked at a church and we had a custodian and I talked to her husband one time and they didn't go to church. They didn't go to our church.

He was probably, they didn't go to church at all. He was probably 70 at the time. And I'll just call him Bob. And I said, Bob, you go to church anywhere. And he was, you know, let's grew up in, oh no, I don't go anywhere.

I said, why not? He said, well, I'll tell you why. When I was 15 years old, I was sitting in a church offering. Plates passed by, offering was done and the pastor said, you young man, didn't give. We're going to pass it again.

He said, I've never been back to church since.

And maybe you have a story like that. You're not going to get that here. You're not going to get shame, you're not going to get guilt, you're not going to get embarrassment. God doesn't do that to you. But we won't either.

So I'm just saying that too. This is not about guilt. This is not about shame. I mean it was really when I told this man, Bob, I said, I'm really sorry that happened. Cause it's not the way of God, right?

But again, we're talking about money and it can emote issues like anxiety and distrust and sometimes shame, sometimes fear, frustration. I pay bills. You pay bills. Why does God want my money? Right.

And I'll say this up front, too. Make sure you understand this. Sherwood Oaks does not need your money. I think it's spent wisely here. And, yes, we need your money.

But you understand what I'm saying. God doesn't need your money. It's all about your heart. This sermon is about your heart. It's not about bank accounts and budgets.

Yes, I think the church uses the money. Well, yes, the church needs money in that sense, but this is not about money. We need more. It's more about God wants your hearts. All right, so we're gonna look at a passage today.

First Corinthians, 2 Corinthians. I'm sorry, chapter nine. It's Paul writing to a church in Corinth about collecting money from them. So it is about money and God and church. So we're gonna.

It's 2 Corinthians 9, 6, 11. And I just put up here, Paul writes to the church in Corinth. Paul was up in Macedonia, the northern part of Greece. This would have been, like, 20 years after the time of Jesus. He was writing to these Christians in Corinth, and he said, I'm coming to get a collection money because the church in Jerusalem is really having hardship.

People are having hardship, and they need money. And I'm asking you to give money for them. It's kind of a ministry money thing. So it was a money ask. And it's like, maybe they were uncomfortable, but they had offered to give him before.

We know that Paul had talked to this church before. But I'm just gonna read the part of the letter to you because this was how, if you were the Corinthian church, somebody would have read this letter where Paul is reading about asking them for money, asking them. And this is what he says. So he starts off chapter nine by basically bragging about them. You guys have been really good in giving, and I brag about you to people.

But then he writes this. He talks about the gift they need, a financial gift for this church in Jerusalem. And then he says, just remember this. This is from 2 Corinthians 9, 6. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

All right, Think generosity and money. 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. All right, Again, you're the church, and Paul's reading this Somebody's reading this letter to you. Don't give reluctantly.

Don't give under a compulsion. Don't give grudgingly. For God loves a cheerful giver. God's able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need and you will abound in every good work. Then Paul says it's written.

He quotes the Old Testament. They freely scattered their gifts to the poor and their righteousness endures forever. So this was kind of a gift to the poor in the church in Jerusalem. Now he, God, now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread and food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.

And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. So you can imagine when that letter's being read to the Corinthian church, there might have been a little discomfort. Jerusalem church needs our money. They're poor. Yeah, it's the poor in the church.

This was a gift for Christians who needed financial help. So this is second Corinthians. So that's a letter Paul wrote 20, 30 years after the resurrection. What we're going to look at today is, okay, this whole idea of money and financial habits, it's in Second Corinthians. But we're also going to go back and see what did Jesus say about money and financial habits?

Because Paul would have known that. He would have been writing out of that context. We're also saying what are the Old Testament say about financial habits? What does God say about our financial habits? So to understand Paul, because he would have built on Jesus who would have also built on the Old Testament.

So we're going to start with the Old Testament. What does the Old Testament have to say about money, life giving, financial habits for people like you and me in the Old Testament? Well, in the old testament, tithing, 1/10 was something that was expected of their agricultural animals or crops. 1/10 had to go back to God. And to say it was expected, it's like it was just, it was part of the norm because they knew it was what God wanted for them for their well being.

And that would go to the priests because the priests didn't have regular jobs. They needed so food and things like that. It also would go to the poor. It would also go to, to help fund significant religious festivals that God wanted them to celebrate. So people were in the habit of giving 1/10 of their animals or crops and that was a repeated principle throughout the Old Testament.

But there's a time in the Old. There's one situation where God was a little bit. I'll just say miffed, if I can use that word about God, because the people were kind of not too enthusiastic about giving. And it's in the Book of Malachi. So put that up on the screen.

Book of Malachi was written about two and a half thousand years ago, 500 years before Jesus. And this is God talking to his people about their financial habits. All right, you're going to read the part of God. I'm going to read the part of the people who are a little bit whiny and maybe not giving what God wanted them to give. All right, so I want to start you out.

But I'm going to read. When I read the people's part, I'm going to read with a little bit of emotion, because I think that's what we would be like if God's having this conversation with us. So start out, you guys. You're God. One, two, three, here we go.

You.

How can we return to you God when we've never gone away?

Why have I cheated you?

Stop cheating God. Then. What does God say?

Notice this? God is not saying, I want to test you. He's saying, put me to the test. I mean, there. I mean, maybe you've had conversations like this with God about money.

I have. And maybe that's what this sermon's about. How do you have these good conversations? What do you mean, I'm cheating? Well, you haven't given me what I'm asking of you.

And God's not like this. He's not a God that we have to appease or he's gonna get ticked off at you. But there's something about giving, even at this numerical level, one tenth, that's really good for our souls. It's a measure. It's a mark of health.

Right? I had to go to the doctor this week and I had my blood pressure taken. It was. If they were to say, oh, your blood pressure is 200 over 120, I'd probably be dead, I guess. I don't know.

But if they said that but I said, well, I feel healthy, they'd be like, yeah, but the numbers don't say that, right? The numbers mean something. So you might say, I feel generous. And I think most of us probably are. But sometimes generosity needs a number to kind of see where you are.

Cause it's, again, not that God needs the money. I'll say this again. God doesn't need your money. He needs your heart. He wants your heart.

So God wants you to test him with your money.

Uncomfortable silence. Right, Crickets. God wants you. God wants me to test him with my money. And one of the things he says, he says this to them.

He says, test me in this. And then he says this, and if you do, I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in. So try it. Put me to the test.

So God's not saying, put me to the test just so I can get you a checkbox in the giving section. He said, no, do it and you'll see what I will do for you. And God's not promising increased numbers in the checking account. What he's promising is increased life in your soul. Just test me, I will pour out abundant blessings on you.

Yeah, it might result in some, but we don't do it for that. But God's saying, I want to bless you. I want to fill your soul with my life. Sometimes when we put God to the test, that's what we need to be thinking. He's not saying, put me, you know, put me to the test.

Cause I'm mad at you and I want you to peace, make a peaceful offering to me. It's not God. He says, put me, trust me. He's basically saying, trust me in this. So Paul would have known that.

All the Old Testament Jews would have known that. So that was life giving, financial habits in the Old Testament. Paul would have understood that. Let's look now at life giving, financial habits, in the words of Jesus. Jesus talked a lot about money, uncomfortably so.

He says, guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own. He said, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God. Wherever your treasure is, their desires of your heart will also be. He says, you can't serve both God and money.

And then he talks about, he told the story of this woman who gave like her last remaining pennies to the offering. And a rich Pharisee gave some portion but bragged about it. And God said her heart is better than his heart because she gave all she had. So Jesus says those things. Then you might say, and I might say, well, does he talk about tithing?

Doesn't he? Is this a New Testament? He does talk about tithing, but he talks about it. So there's a situation where the Pharisees, Pharisees, they were the arrogant ones, the super religious ones. And again, we can all be.

I can be like a Pharisee. You can be that way. But they were saying, look at us. We tithe our income. We tithe our crops.

They even would tithe their little spice plants. One tenth of that goes to God. They were meticulous about financial tithing. Animals. They were meticulous, but Jesus kind of rips into them.

They were tithing, all right? And this is what he says. Go to Matthew 23. All right? This is what Jesus says to the Pharisees who are bragging about their meticulous financial tithing of everything they own.

Right? Read this out loud with me. All right? This is from Jesus. All right.

One, two, three. You should tithe. Yes, but do not neglect the more important things. One more time. Jesus to the Pharisees, Jesus to us.

You should tithe. Yes, but do not neglect the more important things. The more important things he said to the Pharisees are, you're missing it when it comes to mercy and justice. Yeah, you're giving your income, you're giving a tenth. You're hitting the standard, but your heart is not healthy.

Cause you're bragging about that. That becomes your. He says, you're not treating people with kindness. You're not. You're not treating people with mercy.

You're arrogant. But it doesn't negate the fact that Jesus says, yeah, I should tithe. It's kind of a mark of health spiritually, but it's also good for our souls. And maybe. And if you don't, which sometimes I know people can understand, will be pushed.

I don't know about the tithe thing. Well, the New Testament standard is more like, all right, because remember that Jesus talked to this rich young ruler who had all this money, said, jesus, what do we need? What do we need to do to get kind of the life beyond life with you? And Jesus said, well, you need to sell how much all that you have and give to the poor. All.

What happened to one tenth? Right? You know the song we sang this last week? All to Jesus I surrender all to Him I freely give. Let's join a rousing song of one tenth.

To Jesus, I surrender 1/10. To him I freely give. Right. I surrender one tenth. Right?

So the New Testament standard is it all belongs to God. But there's something about this tithe or some kind of proportionate giving that is really, really, really life giving for our souls. It's not about being life giving to anybody's budget. It's life giving for. It's Us, it's for our well being, right?

God wants you to test him with your money. Now this. So that was. So Paul to the Corinthians was writing, but they would have understood the Old Testament principles of tithing. They would have known the Malachi passage.

They would have known what Jesus said about tithing. So Paul's now saying to them, in this case, the money was supporting the church in Jerusalem, but he's talking to them. And Paul, I'm going to highlight one line from the passage I read when I read from Second Corinthians. He said, each one of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, which means it's a conversation you have with God, because that's where God has the conversation with you. It's not a conversation you have with your financial advisor about how much to give.

It's. It's not a conversation you have with the church budget people about how much to give. It's a conversation you have with God. And you decide in your heart with God what he's asking you to do. And frankly, if I'm honest with you, that's a little bit of a fearful conversation to have with God.

What do you want me to give? Again, knowing that the tithe is kind of the biblical standard. But there's sometimes God may want more and sometimes he's wanted more of me and I'm just like, I want my thousand dollars back still, right? That kind of thing. But other times, there was another time in Corinthians.

So again, Paul wrote to the Corinthians in First Corinthians also about collecting money for another church, another ministry. And he said, each of you should set aside a sum of money on the first day of the week according to your income, kind of proportionate to what you make. But it was kind of this, the sense that Paul says from First Corinthians of the passage we read in 2 Corinthians, there's an intentionality about giving kind of a regular proportionate to your income. But he also says, but give cheerfully, not grudgingly, and God can get you there. Sometimes it feels like, wow, I mean, if I did this week, I looked at how much money my wife have given to ministries over the X number of years.

It's cars. Cars and vacations, a lot of them, right. Some of you who give regularly, it's like, but I wouldn't trade what God's done in my heart for any of those things that I could have bought with money, right? And maybe you're the Same. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but there's times I've had these wrestling matches with God.

But another part of this passage in Second Corinthians, what I should love, he says, and God, God will provide generously all that you need. Put that up on the screen. I think we have it on the verse. All right, this is what Paul's saying to them. He's asking them to give, and then he says this.

Read this with me. And God will generously provide all you need. One more time on that one. And God will provide generously all you need. I didn't read it right, sorry, third time.

We'll do it correctly, and God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need. And you know, at the end, come next, and you'll have enough to share with others. Wow. If I give, God's promise is he will generously provide all you need and you'll have enough to be generous with others.

See, the promise God made to Abraham way back in the Old Testament was, I'm gonna bless you. And through you I'm gonna bless others. So we don't follow Jesus to get blessed by him. We follow Jesus because he blesses us spiritually in our hearts so we can bless others. We are the redemptive team of God's plan to change the world.

So he says, God's gonna provide all you need. And maybe you're like me. It's like, I know that's true. I mean, Psalm 23, Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Alright, another translation says this way.

And I like this translation. The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need. Say that with me. The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need. Now imagine yourself paying bills, looking at your checkbook, bank statement.

Say it one more time. The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need. I actually say that out loud times when I'm feeling stressed about paying bills or figuring this out, paying kids, college tuition. Some of you have young kids at home. You're figuring out, how do I make all this happen?

What's it gonna look like in 10? Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need. All that I need to have like top tier vacations and cars. No, all that I need to have the fullness of life and peace and joy in my soul. Yes.

Isn't that what we want? Don't you want that more than upper tier vacations and cars? Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need. Lord is my shepherd, I Have all that I need. I find myself repeating that to myself when I'm feeling most stressed about money.

But another situation I thought I like to look at when it comes that God will provide all we need. You might remember if you've been around church for a while, any church. In the Old Testament, when the Israelites were freed from Egypt, they had to wander through the wilderness. They had no food. So God does this miraculous thing where he rains this bread like substance called manna on the earth and run the ground.

And they're supposed to go out every morning and collect a basketful that will last them how long? One day. One day. Except on the Sabbath they can go out and collect two days. If they collect more than one day's worth, what happens?

The extra goes rotten. God says if you collect more than one, then the rest is going to go rotten. Now please don't judge me, right? I'm quite sure I would have been one of the Israelites who would have been like, hey, in case it doesn't show up tomorrow, I'm going to collect some extra and I'm going to freeze it. And please tell me, some of you, I know some of you would do that with me.

Yeah, it's a great idea. What's a freezer, right? But I know I would do that. I would have been one of the ones that would have been like, what if tomorrow doesn't show up? What if the next day it doesn't?

Why can't I gather more? Well, the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need today. Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need tomorrow. Lord is my shepherd. But.

But God, can I get a little bit extra? There's times I used to pastor another church and there were times where I thought if we had too much money in our savings, that God may make it rot unless we gave it away. I don't mean that in a mean way, but I just felt like God wants to be generous. Same thing with personal money. Maybe God wants to be generous.

So saving for a rainy day is a great idea, but sometimes saving for a rainy day may be out of control. I know I've done this out of control and out of wanting to make sure I have more manna in case God doesn't show up tomorrow. And like I said, please don't judge me. I'm hoping some of you feel the same, have that same tension you feel. All right, so the question of the morning is this, will you trust Jesus with your money?

Not, will you trust your financial advisor? Not, will you trust the pastors and elders of this church. The question is, will you trust Jesus with your money? And do you believe that he is most, most, most, most deeply committed to the life and peace and joy in your soul? And he knows how much money can stand in the way of that.

And he also knows how much money you can be freed from that. And so your soul is fully alive. Right. I don't. Like I said, I don't regret the money my wife and I have given.

Some of you probably given way more than me. But I'm saying I don't regret it cause it's been good for my soul. But again, the question is, will you trust Jesus? Will you have that conversation? Will you ask him?

And again, and I'll say this too, I've said this in the early service, Sherbert Oaks doesn't need your money. I do believe it's spent well. Yes, we'll take it. It'll be spent well. If you're in one of those.

I don't trust the church, which I get it. Some people realize, give to another church in Bloomington for three months, test God that way. I'll give you names to churches, Lighthouse Church, the church where Sherwood Oaks. Give to somewhere else. Test God that way and then bring it back.

Sherwood. I'm just saying, if you're concerned this is some kind of money grab, give another church for a year. Just cause God wants your heart. He doesn't want your money, he wants your heart. But that's God's design for how he gets our hearts.

So it's not about money grabbing here, it's about God wants your hearts. All right, so will you trust him?

So to get at this, I'll finish with this. So like I said, there's. In the Old Testament, there were different kinds of offerings. They had to give the tithes. So they would often burn.

They would often give a lamb or a calf or an ox and it would go to the altar and it would burn enough so they could cook it and the priest could have that meat. Or the poor could have the meat and the skins would go to the poor or the priest for clothes or whatever. Or they would, you know, burn oil or food. But they would also give it. It would have some purpose.

It would serve the priests, the poor. But there was one offering called the whole burnt offering that always has intrigued me. Because that whole burnt offering means what it says. I have this perfectly good lamb or calf or ox, which in those days, that was a bank account. Their money was their livestock.

And God wants Me, in certain situations, to put that on the altar, and it all goes up in smoke. I mean, nobody gets to eat it. Not the priests, not the poor. I mean, I want to feel good about my generosity. Well, why are you bringing.

Why aren't you? Just ashes. Can't eat ashes. And I thought, what is God getting at with that? Why would he ask you and me to give a perfectly good asset and totally destroy it?

Trust. He wants us to trust him. Cause it feels good. At least if somebody got it, I can give this. But at least I want somebody to enjoy it.

The guy's like, no, I just want you to give it all to me. And it's going to be ashes. I was like, oh, okay. Okay. Trust.

So I talked about this years ago at another church. So what I did was I. If I can get it out of my pocket, $20 bill, it's a real one, and it's mine. I didn't pull this out of the church offering. God still owes me a thousand, but that's different, right?

So. And what I did was I burned it in front of the church. My money. Somebody told me recently that's against the law. So I'm not going to do that.

Right? Plus, I'm concerned about fire alarms going off. But it was a weird thing for me because I thought, okay, nobody gets the benefit from this, but God wants a sacrifice. So instead. And I'm saying this not to be shown, because God wants me to do this.

I have a perfectly good $10 chick fil a gift card. Or. All right, now I have everybody's attention right now. I'm not gonna burn it. It's $10.

I have the receipt. I mean, I'll prove it in the first service. I cut up one, right? All right, I'm gonna do the same with this one. And you might be like.

And if you're gonna try and piece them together, they're all over the place. So you can't do that, right? So it's a whole burnt offering of, like, a chicken. I mean, I love my Chick Fil A closed on Sundays, but I love my Chick Fil A, right? So it's like I'm gonna.

And I'm not gonna save the receipt and go back to Chick Fil A. And if somebody gives me a Chick Fil A card to replace it, I will give it away. I'm just saying I'm not doing that for that reason. But it's like, this is $10. That is unspendable.

Again, if you try to come glue it Together and you actually make it work. You owe me ten bucks. Right? So. But it's like, okay, what's the point?

Trust. I completely destroyed $10 of usable income for somebody. Nobody benefits from it. Or do they? Maybe it's really good for my heart and it probably warms God's heart.

Now he's not, oh, way to waste for me. But he's asking us, will you trust me? See, he's not asking us to make whole burn offerings today. But I thought, when I looked at the whole burnt offering thing, I thought, he's getting at something. He's getting at the deepest part of our hearts.

There's no feel good. There's unappropriately feel good. If I give for the church, which is good, or missionaries or hope that we have the video about or given to the poor, that's really. Because I see people can benefit from it and there's a trust involved there. There is.

But when I just. When God asks us to totally give it up and nobody benefits except the heart of God and my heart, that tells me God ultimately is after our trust. That's what he wants. He doesn't want your money, he wants your trust. And he knows money is in the way of that.

Will you trust Him? Some of you might be in situations of life right now where you're like, you don't understand my finances. I don't. You don't understand all my kids need. And my kids are in college.

I do understand that. I have four kids. So I understand. But it's like, will you trust him with your money? Because ultimately are you trusting him with your soul?

That's what he wants.

Romans 8.

Paul says this. If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he didn't spare even his own son, but gave him up for us all, won't God also give us everything else? I mean, if he. If he gives us.

If he gave up Jesus, why won't God take care of all your needs? If he takes care of the sparrows? But if he gives us Jesus, of course he's going to give us all that we need to flourish in our souls full of life, peace and joy. Of course he is. And that leads to the part of the service where we have a response time.

Because, yeah, part of the response time is you want to put money in there. But the response time is really more about we remember Jesus, his life and his death. And we remember he said, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, remember me, remember me, remember I gave myself for you. And will you trust me that I will give you everything you need to flourish with life, joy and peace? Will you trust me?

I did this. So it's not simply about, you know, take it to heaven after you die. This is about trust. So when you take this in, and we'll come up while we're singing, you take this in. When you take this bread and juice into you and Jesus says, remember me.

I just want you to maybe remember today that Jesus can be trusted with your life, with your money, with your family, with your friends, with your marriage, with your kids. He can be trusted. This is a trust thing. There's no more. There's nothing you can give God that is more precious to him than your trust.

What a Christmas gift for God. I trust you. I trust you. There were years ago. And I'll finish with this.

I was, oh, 25 years ago, I was in a situation where I thought, okay, God, I don't need to trust you anymore. I've got a house, got the mortgage payment under control. Health insurance, life insurance, cars, four kids. We're making it. We're doing it.

I read this book called Ruthless Trust. And I said, God, I really don't have to trust you. I got it. But then I said, but I want to trust you more. I want to.

So, God, whatever you have to do to make me trust you more, then do it. That's a scary prayer. And God sent my wife and I through a couple years of. Not marriage, but in life and moving jobs and changing. That was, like, challenged everything about trust.

And it was a rumbling two years, but not traded for anything because something had got deeper in me, trusting that God will take care of all my needs. I have everything I need if I trust God. So I'm just challenging to be the same way. All right, so as we start seeing you come up, take communion, maybe there'll be people on the sides to pray. Maybe you just ask the person who's praying, hey, I just want to trust God more.

You know what you mean? You don't have to give all the details. They'll pray for you. And then maybe if you're somebody who's like, I don't. I've never bought into this Jesus thing, but if he cares that much about my soul and trusting him, I want to be in.

So maybe that's what you talk to, a prayer. I want to follow Jesus. Why would you not follow a guy who's so much for you? Let me pray. So, Jesus, we.

We love you. We love your words about money. We hate your words about money, but we love you. And we love the fact that you love us more than we can ever imagine. And you want the fullness of life, your life in our souls.

And you know that it has to pass through our wallets. And we sacrifice our wallets to you, our bank accounts to you, because we want joy and peace and the fullness of life more than we want more money. We say that. Maybe we don't always believe that, but I think at the deepest of our hearts, everybody here wants that. I want more peace and joy and fullness of life than I want more money.

And that's only through you, Jesus. And we love you. And we ask this all in your name. Amen.