Hope Church LV Sermons
In God we Trust? Part 2
Last weekend, I reminded us of a very familiar little forward phrase that we see quite often in our culture. And what it was, in, say it with me, God, we trust, right? We talked about in God, we trust, but we changed it just a little bit. Remember, we put a question mark on the end of it, and we asked the question, do we really, do we really trust in God? And we looked up the definition of the word trust, and I want to put that definition back up on the screen, and we created a biblical definition of this word as it's used in Scripture. Look what it says, "To trust is to depend with confidence on the character, ability, strength, and truth of God for everything in my life." In God, we trust. Understanding that to be the definition, can we really say that's true, to depend with confidence on the character, ability, strength, and truth of God for everything in my life. I said last weekend that I find it somewhat interesting that the place in God we trust is most often found in our culture is inscribed on the very thing that we have the most difficulty trusting God with, right? It's written on our money, on our coins, on our paper currency, and yet we have so much difficulty, so much trouble trusting God when it comes to the area of our resources, and so last weekend we looked at Proverbs chapter 3, and we built somewhat of a foundational truth, an umbrella statement, and after that statement we began to draw some life application principles. We drew two last weekend, we're going to look at three more this morning, but I want to give you this statement again, and I want you to read it off the screen with me out loud. You ready? Here we go. I am to trust God with everything in my life by honoring Him with what He has given to me, and He promises to always satisfy me with enough. That's the foundational statement. I'm to trust Him with everything by honoring Him with what He's given to me, and He promises to always satisfy me with enough. In Proverbs chapter 3, we find some of the greatest verses in the Bible on trusting God. He says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, and all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." And then right after those verses, just a couple of verses later, He begins to talk to us about what it looks like to trust God with our resources. He begins to say, "Honor the Lord from your wealth, and from the first of all your produce, so that your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine." He begins to talk to us about trusting God, and we drew two life application principles, and I want to remind you what they were as we're going to continue this morning. Here's the first one. "I am to honor God by faithfully managing what I already have for His glory. I'm to honor Him by faithfully managing what I already have for His glory." In that text in Proverbs, He used the word "honor." The word "honor" is a word that implies demonstrating God's worth by the way I live my life. The way that I manage my resources should be a demonstration of the worth, the value, or the priority that God has in my life. I'm to honor Him, recognizing everything I have is a gift from Him. I'm to honor Him by managing it in such a way that brings Him glory. The second principle we looked at last weekend simply said this, "I am to honor God out of my increase by giving first to His work." He said to give out of the first of, excuse me, our produce. And what we said last weekend is that this means I don't take care of me first and then see what's left over for God. I first honor God and then trust Him to care for me with what He has provided. So trusting God with my resources, trusting God with my money is simply obeying what God says. It's like, "Okay Lord, you said it. I trust you. I trust you enough to obey you and to honor you by carrying out the things that you've instructed me in your word." Now, I'll be honest. It's very difficult in our culture because of the way we view money. It's contrary to our flesh to come to the Scriptures and say, "Okay God, I'm just going to trust you." But real freedom in the area of finances and resources will only be discovered when we really begin to walk and trust and believe what God says in His Word. So take your Bible this morning, turn over to the book of Malachi. Some of you're looking at me like, "Where in the world is Malachi?" Oh, you mean Malachi. Okay, I know where that is, right? It's the last book in the Old Testament. Malachi chapter three, Malachi chapter three, and we're going to continue to pull some life application principles that we can apply to our lives today as it refers to our trust in God and our material positions. Now we're going to build right on what we've already looked at. We've already looked at principles one and two. This weekend we're going to look at three, four and five, okay? Malachi chapter three, beginning in verse eight. "Well a man robbed God, yet you're robbing me." But you say, "How have we robbed you in tithes and offerings? You are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me the whole nation of you. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house and test me now in this," says the Lord of hosts. "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows, then I will rebuke the devour for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground, nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes," says the Lord of hosts. "All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land," says the Lord of hosts. Now what I want to do out of this text of scripture is ask three questions and then immediately give you an answer to the question in a life principle. And then we're going to kind of unpack what that principle really means and how we apply it to our lives. So here's the first question. Why should I give? We're talking about honoring the Lord with our resources and trusting Him and we said last weekend that we are to honor Him by giving out of the first of our produce, out of our increase. Well that begs the question, why should I do that? Well let me give you a principle. Look at it on the screen. Life application principle number three, there is a direct relationship between God's kingdom activity and my giving. There is a direct relationship between God's activity in the world and my giving. You say well what's the relationship? Well let's unpack it with two other statements. Here's the first one. God's activity is fueled by the giving of His people. I want you to say that out loud with me. You ready? Here we go. One, two, three. God's activity is fueled by the giving of His people. Did you hear what the writer said in Malachi chapter three and verse 10? He said bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. The tithe was a principle of giving a portion of what they had. He said bring all of that into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Now don't misunderstand that statement. It's not that God is needy. It's not that God needs us, right? The Bible says in the book of Psalms, God says about Himself. The world is mine and all it contains, right? He owns it all. But you see God has invited, He's actually in this text commanded that His followers give not because He needs our resources but as an invitation to be involved in what He's doing. Do you hear what He said? Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that. That's very important little phrase. So that there may be food in my house. Here's the principle. God in His sovereignty has established the principle that He will work in this world through the giving of His people. God has chosen. Now He didn't have to do it this way. God didn't need us but God has invited you and I to give as a way for us to join in what He's doing in the world. Charles Stanley, many of you have probably heard Charles Stanley on television or the radio. Listen to what Charles Stanley said. God provides for His people through His people. God provides for His people through His people. Let me illustrate it. How many of you this morning would say that in some way you have been blessed by the ministry of this church? Let me see your hand. Just hold it up for just a minute. Don't put it down yet. Hold it up. All right. Now I want you to look around. Okay. You're saying in some way you have been blessed by the ministry of this church. Hold it up. You see everybody? All right. You can put them down. Now listen, if you have given here at Hope, you have a part in every hand that just went up. Do you realize that every ministry that we carry out here at Hope is carried out through the gifts and the offerings that you give week in and week out here at Hope. There's no subsidy. There's no denominational headquarters that's funneling money. Everything that we do as Hope Baptist Church, every ministry that is carried out here is carried out through the gifts and the offerings of the people that attend this church on a regular basis. Here's what that means. What God is doing in the lives of people here in this church over these last nine years since we began. All those hands that just went up that said, man, I've been blessed and I've heard some of your stories, some of your testimonies, some of you have shared with me in emails what God's doing in your life. Listen, every one of us as we give have a direct part in every one of those life change stories. It's a direct relationship between my giving and God's activity. Let me illustrate it a little bit more for you. Over the last nine years as a church family, we have now been involved in planting 10 churches out of our church. In planting those 10 churches, we've also partnered in the planting of 10 or more other churches that are also planted now up and going all across the United States, many of them in the western United States. Did you know that if you take those churches in the last nine years that we've started together, that the collective attendance this weekend of those churches will be over 5,000 people. That's 5,000 people making up local expressions of the body of Christ where people, if you went in those churches this morning and said, how many of you been blessed by the ministry of this church? All the hands in those churches would go up and say, man, God's working in my life through this church. Guess what? Where did the resources come from for all those churches to be planted? You gave. You see, God's invited you to get in on what he's doing in the launching and planting of new churches. And as you and I give, there's a direct relationship between my giving and God's activity in the world. Not only that is hope, we've over these nine years developed partnerships with missionary partners on four different continents around the world. Through those relationships that we have on those four continents, every year we have the opportunity to invest in the training of over 10,000 missionaries, pastors, church planters, and church leaders that are working in over 30 different countries around the world. Many of those countries are what are called closed countries, meaning that missionaries cannot even go into those countries. And yet God has opened the door for us. And we're training over 10,000 leaders on an annual basis representing 30 different countries on four continents. And last year, those missionaries reported over 100,000 people coming to know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Now, no, no, no misunderstand me. I'm not talking about our relationship with our denomination where we give some money there and sponsor a mission board that's seeing over 600,000 people a year come to Christ. That's indirect. I'm talking about direct line relationship with real people, real partners that we're working with on the field that last year saw over 100,000 people come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Now listen, where did the resources come from? I'll tell you where they came from. You gave. Every week as you give, there is a direct relationship between your giving and God's activity in the world. The last nine years, we've started ministries out of this church that are serving in prisons, feeding the homeless, helping families in crisis. One ministry that we launched out of this church is currently facilitating the renovation of inner city schools in 13 cities across our country. Where'd the resources come from? Tell you where they came from. You gave. Here's the point. Everything God is doing through this church is fueled by your giving. Now, it's not that God needs us, but He's invited us. He's commanded us to give because He's chosen in His sovereignty to use our giving to carry out His work in the world. Well, let me give you the second part of this first principle. Not only is there a direct relationship, but secondly, the lack of giving robs God and limits my involvement in His activity. You see, giving is the fuel for God's activity in the world, but also the lack of giving robs God and limits my involvement in His activity. Look back at the text. God says something very interesting in Malachi chapter 3. He says, "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me." The English word "rob" here in this text is obviously a Hebrew word written in the Old Testament. And in Hebrew, there are three different words that we translate in the English steel or "rob," but they have different meanings. For example, one of the Hebrew words that we translate steel or "rob" means to take by violent force. It's the idea of robbery or thievery. Another word is a word that means to take by oppression. It's a word that we would most understand as extortion, extorting money out of someone else. Another Hebrew word is to take by deception. We might most naturally understand that as fraud or embezzlement. The word that the writer in Malachi uses is that third definition. It's to take by deception. It's the picture of embezzling. That's a bad word, isn't it? Embezzlement. It means to take for personal use money or property that has been given on trust by others without their knowledge or permission. Here's the principle. Because God has established that His people give first a portion to His work. To not do that is to embezzle from God. You see, everything I have has been entrusted to me by God. And God has said in His word, I want you to honor me and trust me by giving first a portion of that back as an investment in my activity in the world. And God says when we don't do that, we're taking kingdom money and we're using it for our own personal gain. And that's embezzling. I'm going to say it's one thing to embezzle from a company. That's bad, right? But may you start embezzling from God? And not only does it rob God, listen, it limits my involvement in what He's doing. That's that idea of what He says here, we're cursed with a curse. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. God's going to accomplish His work in the world. But if I don't give, I'm robbing Him. I'm using His resources on my own gain and I'm missing out on the opportunity to join in His activity in the world. God doesn't need us. God doesn't need hope, right? God was going to do on those four continents what He's doing. God invited us to get in on it. Had we not responded and trust and obeyed, it's got to just use somebody else. But we're missing. We're limiting our involvement in God's. And one day, we'll give an account for that. There's a direct relationship between my giving and God's activity in the world. That's why I should give. Here's the second question. How much should I give? Uh-oh. Pastor, I enjoy your preaching. I'm with you most of the time. But I'm a little worried now. What are you about to talk about? I don't know where you headed here. How much should I give? Well, let me give you the principle. God's people have always regularly given a portion of what God has given to them. God's people have always regularly given a portion of what God's given to them. Some people have the idea that it was the Old Testament law, that old crusty law that instituted this idea that God's people have to give a certain portion of their income to God. That's the old law talking. Pastor, we're not under the law anymore. We're under grace. Listen, it's important to understand the law did not institute giving a portion. The law simply included it. Did you know that 500 years before the Old Testament law was given? Abraham and then his descendants after him is grandson Jacob. The book of Genesis 500 years before the law began to give a tenth of everything that they had to the Lord. Wasn't because there was a law that said they had to do it? No. There was a relationship that motivated them to be involved in what God was doing in the world and had a sense of honor and desiring his glory. They began to give a tenth of everything that they had. And then in the law in the book of Deuteronomy and in the book of Leviticus, the law included that principle that for 500 years the people of God had been living out giving a portion of everything that had been given to them to the Lord. Listen to what it said in Deuteronomy chapter 16. Look at it on the screen. Every man shall give his able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which he has given you. That was under the law. Under the law they were required to begin to give a portion of what God had given to them. The minimum of that was 10%. Some aspects of the law called for as much as 23.5% of what the children of Israel had to be invested back in the Lord's work. Then after the law and the New Testament era, Christians continued this practice of giving a portion. Let me show it to you. Look at Acts 11. Acts 11 verse 29. And before we read this verse, let me say this about it. In Acts chapter 11, this group of Christians is the first group of Christians to ever be called Christians. In Acts 11 it says they were first called Christians at Antioch. These people were so acting like Jesus. They said, "Man, there's some of those Christians, Christians." Listen to what it says about them in Acts 11, 29. It says, "And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea." You hear it right there? In the proportion that any of the disciples had means, here's what that literally means, according to what had been given to them. They each looked at what they had. They took a portion of what they had and they invested that back into God's activity in the world. The practice of the New Testament church was to give out of what God had given to them. Here's the point throughout the history of man's relationship with God, not just the law, throughout the history, Old Testament, under the law, New Testament, God's people have always given a portion of what God's given to them as an investment in His activity in the world. So I want to give you a new thought this morning, all right? I wrote it up on the screen so you could get it. I want you to see it because I hope it changes your perspective. Listen to what it says, giving a portion is not a requirement of the law. It is a privilege of the relationship. I don't give because I have to. I give because God's invited me into a relationship with Himself and because of the honor that I desire for Him to have in my life, the privileges that I get to give you say, how is it a privilege? Well, first of all, it's a privilege to be involved. Listen, God, we've said it already. He doesn't need us, but we get the privilege as His children of being involved. When we get to heaven, we're going to get rewards and we're going to be able to celebrate in the glory of all that God's done through our lives and He doesn't need us, but we've got the privilege today of being involved through giving. But also it's a privilege because we get to lay out treasure in heaven. Turn over to Matthew chapter 6, just a few pages in your Bible. It's found in the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to be studying through that starting in two weekends. Matthew chapter 6 verse 19, listen what it says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal." Some people read those verses and think Jesus has an issue with people storing up treasure, but that's not true. He just has an issue with us storing it up in the wrong place. Listen to what Randy Alcorn says, I love this quote. Look at it on the screen. Jesus didn't tell us not to store up treasures on the contrary. He commanded us to store up treasures. He simply said, "Stop storing them up in the wrong place and start storing them up in the right place." Jesus isn't saying it's wrong to invest. He's saying, "Don't make a stupid investment." Isn't that what he said? "Make a smart one." He said, "Don't lay up your treasures where moth and rust are going to destroy where thieves can break in and steal it." He said, "Men lay up your treasure where it's going to last forever." You know what that is? That's insider information. How do we get it? The privilege of the relationship. You see, we know the one who controls the economy, right? And he said, "Hey, let me give you a tip. Everything you store up in this life is going to go away. But if you invest it in a life that is to come, it lasts forever." What is that? It's a privilege. We've been privileged enough because of the relationship to have been given that information so that we can use the resources we have rightly. Jamelia said it this way, "Look at it on the screen. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Then where do I start? Well, people debate about this issue of tithing, is tithing something for New Testament Christians to talk about because that was something that was included as a part of the law. Won't you think about it this way? Read the New Testament. There's not one example of giving in the New Testament that does not go far beyond the tithing. You know, in the New Testament, everywhere Jesus talked about the law, he never minimized the law. He took the law and went what? He said, "You've heard it said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say, 'You shall not lust in your heart.' Because if you lust in your heart, you've already committed adultery. You've heard it said, 'You not commit murder.' But I say, if you have hatred in your heart, then you've already committed murder in your heart. Man, Jesus took the law every time and just went, 'Whoo, right?' Under the Old Testament law, the Jews were required, excuse me, to give 10%. That's what the word tithe mean. It's a Hebrew word that means a tenth. 10% of everything that came in, they were to give as an investment in the Lord. Is that the practice for New Testament Christians? Well, here's the answer. You've got to establish your conviction before the Lord. You really do. I can't be dogmatic today and say that that's where everybody has to start. Let me tell you what I can say. I can share with you my personal conviction. After over 20 years of walking with Jesus and leading church ministry, here's where I am today for my family. For us, the tithe was a starting point. The tithe is kind of like training wheels on a bike. When you get a bike, you need to learn how to ride. You put training wheels on. It teaches you how to ride the bike, right? But once you learn to ride, what do you do with training wheels? Take them off. It's been a long time since my family's had a conversation about a tie. Long time. You know why? Because we live well beyond that now. Because as God used that in our lives to build this principle in, to teach us how to ride the bike, then we were able to grow beyond that and be able to not even have to talk about that anymore because we began to live beyond that. In the arena of offerings and investing and giving generously into what God's doing in our church and in other ministries around the world, you need to find a place that's the starting place for you as you seek the Lord, giving a portion. And I would encourage you that if you can find a Randy Alcorn said it this way, if you can find a gateway to giving that's better than the tithe, wonderful. But if not, why not start where God started His first covenant people? How much? Third question, can I really afford to give? Some people, especially in light of the current economy, I don't know. Can I really afford to practice this principle in my life? Well, I'll be honest with you. I can't afford not to give. I know for you English students, that's a double negative, but it's good theology. I can't afford not to give. Let me show you why. Look at the principle. We do not give to get. However, when you give, you invite God's blessing into your life. We don't give to get, but when we do give, we invite God's blessing into our lives. Let me give you two reasons why we cannot afford not to give. Here's the first one. When you give, God will bless your life. Do you hear what He said? Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house and look at what He said. Test me now in this. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing for you until it overflows. The word poor there is a word that speaks of the image of taking a container and literally turning it upside down, pouring everything that's on the inside out. The word overflows is a word that means I don't have enough room to contain it. I can't hold it all in the box. Here's the picture I want you to see. God's saying, trust me. I've given you everything that you have and you can honor me by taking a first portion of that and investing it in my work as an investment in what I'm doing in the world and God says, if you will, just trust me. I'm waiting to bless you. I'll bless you. Now, that doesn't always happen in the time frame that we want it to happen. This isn't a, I give it this week and I get a check in the mail next week. That's not what I'm talking about. What is about trusting God? Do I trust Him? And the picture is that He is waiting to just pour it. His blessing, His provision, His care. And here's the question we have to ask. How many times has God been ready? You see, the picture is that God's living with everything that He has like this. We look at that, right? We're familiar with this picture, right? Well, this is not us living like this. This is the picture of the Father. The word says that our Heavenly Father is living with everything that He has like this and He's ready. And how many times have we missed God's blessing in our lives simply because we didn't trust Him? What I think I know how best to handle it. Or let me just take care of this. You see, when we give, He provides what we don't have. That doesn't mean that we get rich, but it means He'll provide. That's what He says here, man, I'll pour out blessings. But He not only provides what we don't have, the Bible says, He'll sustain what we do have. Do you hear what He said there? I'll rebuke the devourer so that He will not destroy the fruits of the ground and your vine will not cast off its grapes. He's saying, I'll sustain those things that you do. I believe with all of my heart, if I'm honoring God and living with this principle in my life, that I can trust Him, that even the tires on my car will roll longer than they should have rolled. Say, where do you get that from? It's right here in the text. I think there are ways that God's blessing us we don't even know about, this out of eternity. You hear me share stories out of my own life sometimes and I think sometimes people think, oh, yeah, that's great for the pastor. He got this direct line to the Lord or whatever. I want you to hear a story of a family in our church that wrote me an email this week. They'd been through a very difficult financial time and after last weekend's message, they sent me an email in our church for a couple of years and had a rough go financially. Listen what He says, over that year, God would speak to me through the messages you and the pastoral team preached. One in particular was a segment on generosity. He said, this would probably be one of the biggest turning points in my life. That message convicted me of how I was holding onto my wealth like it was mine, not gods, and giving to God's kingdom first from your produce, then paying everyone else after would actually multiply your produce. This was foreign to me. Since we could barely put five or ten dollars a week in the basket, it was hard for me to think to tithe first, then pay bills. Mathematically in my own mind, it didn't even add up, but that day convicted me that this was probably the only area I really didn't trust God with. That next paid period, before paying bills, like I usually do in my office, I sat with the checkbook open, knowing in my mind there wouldn't be enough and prayed before the Lord. It was extremely hard for me, I admit, but I trusted Him that He would provide. That week, for the first time ever, I wrote a check out to be used for God's work first before everybody else, then begin paying bills. Amazingly enough, it was enough to cover everything. We lived very meagerly, but we survived. The next two years and up to including today, we have almost consistently followed this principle of giving to God first. It's been an amazing two years. I think about the last two years. Within this time, God is more than provided. Not only have I been made full time at my job, my wife has had a major pay increase. We've had a successful investment that's ready to pay off. What's crazy is that we've been giving more than we ever have and actually have been able to put more away into savings than ever at the same time. He says, "Looking back over the past years, I'm still in awe of God's grace and greatness. His fingerprints are all over everything that's happened for our family. I am nowhere near done or finished, and we have a long way to go. But the difference is, I have God on my side, and I lean on Him and depend on Him for His strength and His provision." God says, "Trust me. Just trust me." Not only when we give does it bless our lives, but when we give, God will bless others through our lives. You hear it there? He said, "All the nations," in verse 12, "All the nations will call you a delightful land." You see, God's blessing and provision in our lives becomes a testimony of the goodness and faithfulness of God to the lives of others. That's why the psalmist said it this way, "God blesses us that all the ends of the earth may fear Him." God doesn't bless us so we can sit back and say, "Man, look what God did in my life." No, God blesses us not to raise our standard of living. God blesses us to raise our standard of giving so that we can be even more involved in what He's doing in our lives. In closing, God says something very interesting in the book of Malachi. Matter of fact, you can read Genesis to Revelation, and this is the only time God ever says this. You know what He said? Did you hear it in verse 10? Test me. He said, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house and test me. Test me and see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing until it overflows." Test me. We tend to think of testing God as a negative thing, right? Oh, you don't test God. Matter of fact, in the Old Testament, sometimes the children of Israel, they tested God and God called them on it, right? In the book of Psalm chapter 95, he said, "Man, don't test me like your forefathers did in the wilderness." But you see, that's a different kind of testing God. When we test God the wrong way, it is a test from a lack of faith in what God has spoken and we ask for a sign. God, I don't believe you meant that. I need more. But when we test from a right perspective, by faith in what God's spoken, we trust Him. And that's what He's saying here. He's saying, "Test me. Just trust me and see if I won't provide, see if I won't bless." Now, again, it doesn't always add up on paper the way we think it should, all right? There are preachers and pastors and churches that would take scriptures like this and say, "Oh, if you give some, then God's going to double it and multiply and you're going to get healthy and wealthy and wise and all that kind of stuff." That's not what He's saying. But here's what He's saying, "Trust me. Just trust me and I'll take care of the rest." So here's what I'm asking you to do this morning. I'm asking you to embark with us on what we're calling a 60-day trust challenge. 60-day trust challenge. I'm challenging you for the next 60 days to do exactly what the book of Malachi said. Test Him. Trust Him. When you leave this morning at all the doors, they're going to be people handing you these little cards that look identical to this. It just simply says, "60-day trust challenge. I'm to trust God with everything in my life by honoring Him with what He's given to me and He promises to always satisfy me with enough." I'm asking you to take the next 60 days and be intentional about fleshing this practice out in your life. Now, let me say a couple of things before we pray. If you are already practicing this principle, like many of you here at Hope are, many of us at Hope are already living this principle out. And I'm so grateful and so thankful for the people of Hope and your generosity and your giving. But if you're already practicing this principle, here's what I want you to do for the next 60 days. I want you to be intentional about examining your heart for two reasons. Sometimes we get in this practice of giving and we don't really think about it anymore. It's just what we've been doing for so long as Christians that it becomes removed from our heart. I want you to take the next 60 days and just evaluate it again. "Lord, am I doing everything you want me to do with your stuff? God, it's yours anyway. It's not mine. Examine your heart." See if you're still giving from a sense of joy or because of the last couple of years are now you giving from a sense of fear. I want you to examine your heart and then examine the way you practice it. Take the next 60 days, just be intentional as a family about asking some of those questions. Again, revisiting this in your own heart. But then for those of you here today, maybe you've never practiced this principle before in your life consistently. Maybe give a little bit here, a little bit there, different ministries or whatnot. But you've never practiced this first giving principle, giving a portion consistently. Here's what I'm asking you to do over the next 60 days. I'm asking you number one to seek God about where you should start. Is the tithe the starting place for you? Or is it somewhere else? That's between you and God. That's not for me to say this to you and him. Seek God about where you should start. Then number two, trust him. Bow obeying what he says. Just trust him. Test him, the word says. And number three, I want you to keep a journal of what he does. If you've never practiced this before, I want you to begin to seek God about where you should start, trust him, bow obeying him, and then keep a journal of what he does so that you can look back and seek God's activity in your life. I want to give you one last quote and then we're going to pray. Look at it on the screen by Randy Alcorn. The more you give, the more comes back to you. Because God is the greatest giver in the universe and he won't let you out give him. Go ahead and try. See what happens. Trust in God.