Hope Church LV Sermons
In God we Trust?
I wanna put four words up on the screen and they're gonna be words that you are probably very familiar with. They are simply the words in God we trust. In God we trust. Where are those words most commonly found in our culture? That's an opportunity for you to answer out loud. In God we trust, where do we find those words? On our money, right? Now, I wanna give you a little bit of a test to see how aware you are of where that statement is. All right, and I don't want you to look, don't get out any dollar bills. All right, but I want you to think about it. Is that statement? Is it, I don't want you to answer out loud yet, but is it on the front or on the back of U.S. currency? If you think that in God we trust is on the front of U.S. currency, I want you to raise your hand. All right, you can put them down. If you think it is on the back, I want you to raise your hand. Oh, a lot of aware people. Well, you're both right. If you're talking about coins, it's on the front. If you're talking about paper currency, it's on the back. In God we trust. Where did that come from on our money? Well, back in the 1860s, Samuel P. Chase was the Secretary of the Treasury, and it was during the time of the American Civil War that increased religious sentiment began to insist that we designate on our United States currency a recognition of our dependence upon God. The 1850s, 1860s, people began to write in and write letters asking the Secretary of the Treasury and the Department of the Treasury to place onto United States currency some symbol that would acknowledge our deep dependence as a nation on God. And in November, actually November the 20th of 1861, Secretary Chase, having received all of these requests, wrote this little letter that I want you to see up on the screen to Mr. James Pollock, who was the Director of the Mint of Philadelphia. Listen what he said, "Dear sir, no nation can be strong except in the strength of God or safe except in his defense. The trust of our people and God should be declared on our national coins. You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tercest words possible this national recognition." And it was with that that our country began to place in God we trust onto our currency. I want you to say it out loud with me. In God we trust. Actually it wasn't until 19 in the mid 1950s that it actually became a pastor, a law or a legislation that it would be required that it's placed on all of our currency. It happened sporadically from the 1860s to the 1950s. But since 1955, that inscription has been on every piece, paper or coin of US currency in God we trust. Now I want to change it just ever so slightly. Look at it on the screen. In God we trust. Do we really? It's one thing to put that on all of our money. It's one thing to see that on all of our coinage. But do we really trust God? I think the answer to that question for our country is probably found pretty easily. I don't think you could say even though we put it on all of our currency. Our country at large really does not walk in dependence on God. We don't trust God as a nation. But what I really want us to think about tonight is not really our country. I want you to think about you and me. It's people that follow Jesus Christ with our lives. It's people that have given testimony that we've surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ and are seeking to live, to please and to honor Him. Do we really trust God? This week I looked up the definition of the word trust. I want to put that definition up on the screen. It's found in Webster's dictionary online, but here's what the definition of the word trust is. Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of someone or something. One in which confidence is placed. That's what trust is. Trust is the assured reliance, the confident reliance on the character, the ability, the strength or the truth of someone or something. Now think about that in light of the concept of biblical trust. We're talking tonight about biblical trust. Do I trust God? What does it mean when the Bible uses the word trust? Well, I took this definition and I kind of created a definition, if you will, for what biblical trust is. I want you to look at it on the next screen. Biblical trust is to depend with confidence on the character, ability, strength and truth of God for everything in my life. I want you to read that out loud with me off the screen. All right, you ready? Here we go, one, two, three. To depend with confidence on the character, ability, strength and truth of God for everything in my life. Now I want you to think about it as a question. Do I depend with confidence? Do I personally depend with confidence on the character, ability, strength and truth of God for everything in my life? It's one thing to read it on our money and God we trust. It's something else to think about our lives individually. Do we really depend on God? We've just experienced a very difficult year. 2009 was a very tough year for many people. It's a very difficult time. I'll be honest with you. It was one of the most difficult years of ministry that I've ever personally experienced. It was a very heavy year. The challenge is that 2009 faced on two fronts. As a pastor this year, there were two sides to the challenge. First of all, there was the challenge as a non-profit ministry being affected by the economy. Everybody else is feeling that effect but his churches all across the country. Churches have felt that there's been estimation that in the next 12 months, as many as 100,000 churches may close their doors in the United States of America because of the impact of this economy on non-profits in our country. It's had tremendous impact. And so as a pastor and as a staff team, when you're talking about difficult economic times and the decisions that we're making, we know that every dollar that we're making decisions about is dollars that's being invested to see lives changed and transformed in ministry be done in people's lives. And so it made it a very difficult year. But the flip side of that is as a pastor, you also are being sought for counsel by all of the individual families that are being affected. I can't tell you how many times in the last 12 months I've stood in that lobby. And people come out those doors with tears in their eyes, say, "Man, I need to talk to somebody." And begin to describe the difficulties and the challenges and the hurtful situations in their lives because of tooth, we've come through a difficult time, but I want you to hear me say something tonight. You and I can trust God with everything in our lives. Listen to me, you and I can trust God. It doesn't matter what the circumstances are. You and I can trust God for everything in, I don't know if you say, "Pastor, how can I be sure?" Let me ask you some questions. How many of you believe tonight God is a loving God? If you believe that, let me see your hand. Just hold it up for just a minute. All right, you can put them down. How many of you believe that God is a God of wisdom, that God has wisdom? Let me see your hand. Just hold it up for a second. Classroom participation time. All right, you can put them down. How many of you believe that God is a powerful God? Let me see your hand, hold it up for just a minute. Let me look around. All right, you can put them down. Obviously, I can't say this dogmatically because I was just kind of scanning, but I believe, I believe as best as I can tell, everybody in the building, if not everybody, almost every single person just raised their hand and said, I believe God's a loving God. I believe God is a wise God. I believe God is a powerful God. But listen, did you know that the Bible says even more than that? The Bible not only says that God is a loving God, the Bible says in the book of 1 John that God is love. Listen, he's not just a loving God, he is love. Everything we know about love, we understand from the person and character of God. The Bible not only says that God is a wise God, but the Bible tells us in the book of Colossians that in him is all wisdom. All wisdom comes from God. Anything about wisdom that we understand, any wisdom that we have in this life, its source is God himself. And not only is God a powerful God, but the Bible tells us in the book of 2 Peter and also in Isaiah chapter 40, that God has all power. Now, we all just say it, I believe God's a loving God. I believe God's a wise God, I believe God's a powerful God. If we believe that, we believe what the Bible says. Listen, he's not only a loving God, he is love. He's not only a wise God, all wisdom comes from him. And he's not only a powerful God, he is all powerful. Now, if all that's true, let me draw some conclusions, okay? Look at this summary of God's character over on the screen. Since God is love, he desires only the best for us. Since God is love, listen, when you love somebody, you want the very best for them, right? We love our children. We want the very best for our children. Listen, God doesn't love like we love. He is love, everything we know of love comes from God. He desires only the very best for us. Listen, since God is all wisdom, he not only desires what's best for us, he knows what's best for us. It's one thing for me as a parent to love my children and want what's best for them, but as a parent, guess what, sometimes I don't know what's best. I want what's best, and I think sometimes I know what's best, but at the end of the day, I have to recognize that sometimes I just don't know what's best, but listen, God not only loves us and desires the very best for us, but because he's all wisdom, God absolutely knows what's best for you and me, but number three, since God is all powerful, he can bring about what is best for us. It's one thing to desire the best for people. It's something else even to know what's best, but to have the power to be able to bring about what's best, that's altogether something different, right? Sometimes even when I want what's best for my kids and I know what's best for my kids, it's not within my power to make that happen, but God is all powerful. So listen, if God loves us and he desires the very best for us, and not only that he's all wisdom and he knows what's best for us, and he has all power and authority in his hands to bring about what's best for us, if all that is true, I can trust God with everything in my life, amen? I don't think you mean it. Amen? Listen, we can trust him. I know sometimes the circumstances seem overwhelming. I know sometimes the challenges get difficult, but let's stand on the app. Listen, trust is confident dependence on the character of someone or something. Biblical trust is to have confident dependence in the character, ability, strength, and truth of God for everything in my life. Now, I find it very interesting that the place in God we trust is most commonly found in our society, is inscribed on the very thing we most demonstrate a lack of trust in God with. Now, think about that for a minute. Where is in God we trust most commonly found in our culture? You said it at the beginning. What is the one thing that is most difficult for us to demonstrate our trust in God with? Our money in it. I mean, we can trust God with our salvation. We can trust God with our future. We can trust God with our circumstances. We can trust God with our health. We can trust God with our decisions. But money, really? Well, I think we said everything, right? Trust is to depend with confidence on God for everything in my life. You know what word best describes most people's relationship with money when it comes to God, not trust, fear. We're always worried and afraid about money. But as Christians, the Bible says, perfect love casts out what? Fear, we're to walk in dependence. We're to walk in trust. We can confidently depend on God when it comes to our money. I want you to take your Bible and go ahead and be opening it to the third chapter of the book of Proverbs. This weekend and next, we're going to be looking at this subject in God we trust. And then in about three weeks, we're going to launch into a series that's going to, we're going to begin to study through the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to start in Matthew five, work all the way through Matthew seven. It's going to take us about a year and a half to work through those three chapters of that wonderful gospel. We're going to be breaking it up into some different series, but we're going to begin that in about three weekends. But we just felt like as we began this new year in 2010, it's very important for us to understand some basic biblical principles about our relationship to the Lord and our relationship to the things that we own and possess, the money that God's placed into our lives. So what I'm going to do this weekend is build kind of a three part statement. I'm going to give it to you in three different parts. It's going to kind of be a foundation and next weekend, we're going to look at some of these things even more specifically. But I want, we've already been talking about part one of the statements. I want to put it up on the screen first. Here's what it says. I am to trust God with everything in my life. I want you to read that out loud with me. I am to trust God with everything in my life. If you believe that, say amen. Listen, there are probably not any verses in the Bible that more speak to the heart of this issue than some verses found in Proverbs chapter three. When I say Proverbs chapter three verses five and six, how many of you know those verses? Let me see your hand. That's what I thought. A lot of you already know. And those of you that don't know it by the reference, as soon as I read the first few words of it, you're going to go, oh, I know those verses too. Here's what it says. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, right? Now how many of you go, oh yeah, I know those verses. Let me see your hand now. That's what I thought. A whole bunch of it. We all have heard Proverbs three, five and six. I want to put it up on the screen and I want us to read it together. Here's what it says. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Aren't those great verses of scripture, wonderful passage of scripture for us to memorize. Many of you could probably quote that text of scripture. Trust in the Lord with all your, you know what that's saying to us? It's simply saying what we just said in that statement. I'm to trust God with everything in my life. Did you hear the two times the writer of Proverbs used the word all? Trust in the Lord with what? All your heart and do not lean on your own understanding and what? All your ways. You know what the word all means? In the Old Testament it's a Hebrew word. It's a little word and it simply means all the whole and all every single part. When the Bible says I'm to trust the Lord with all of my heart. It means all of who I am. But then he says in all of my ways, the word that that little phrase in all of my ways is the phrase that describes every activity of my life. In the whole of my life and in every single part I am to depend with confidence on the character, the ability, the strength and the truth of almighty God for everything in my life. Then he uses that phrase do not lean on your own understanding. It's a great picture. Have you ever seen anybody do the illustration where they have you stand and fall backwards and somebody's supposed to be able to catch you back there? And they say it's a demonstration of what? Trust, right? You fall backwards and somebody catches you. I thought we might do that tonight, but I didn't trust anybody, so I wasn't going to do that. But what's that a picture of trust, right? In Proverbs 3 when it says lean on your own understanding. In the Hebrew that's a picture of somebody resting all of their weight on something so that it will support them. It's that illustration that we use to teach teen building and to build trust and character. What does he say there? Man, don't lean on your own understanding. Don't look to your own best thinking. Don't try to figure it out on your own. Don't evaluate the circumstances and try to come up with your own solutions. He says, man, rest all of your weight on God, I am to trust God with everything in my life. Now, we all said probably 75%, oh, I know Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. But in the verses that follow Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, he begins to describe what it looks like in some areas of our life to trust God. Now, although we all know Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, don't look at everybody, look at me. As some of you are looking down your bible. Do we know Proverbs 3, 9, and 10? Look what it says, look on the screen. Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce. So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. You see, we're too quick after Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, to close our bibles and move on. He begins to describe for us what it looks like in some areas in our lives to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts. So I wanna build that statement. Here's the second part of it. I am to trust God with everything in my life by honoring him with what he has given me. Read that out loud with me. I am to trust God with everything in my life by honoring him with what he has given to me. There are two phrases that the writer of Proverbs uses to describe what trusting God with my money looks like. And I think this is so important for us right now because so many people right now are beginning to look to their own understanding because we're living in a sense of fear when it comes to money and finances and resources. And these are the times when we really find out where we are on this thing of trusting God and looking to him and living in confident dependence upon him. There are two phrases. The first one is honor the Lord from your wealth. Now, I know what some of you are thinking right now. At first doesn't apply to me. I don't have any wealth. What wealth I had is gone. 2009, gobbled it up. There's none left. I'm glad Pastor Vance is not talking to me tonight. Whoo, I can sit back and just listen and enjoy it. All you wealthy people, he's talking to you. Well, the word wealth here is not a word that implies what you and I typically think of when we say wealthy. It's not the term that, for example, our government may use all those making a quarter of a million dollars and up wealthy. And that's not the kind of term that he's talking. The term wealth here is a term that simply means everything you own or possess. That's the word wealth. And let me give you some perspective on wealth, okay? I'm reading a little book right now called The Law of the Rewards by Randy Alcorn. It's a great little book. If you've never read it, you ought to pick it up. Here's what Randy Alcorn says. If you have sufficient food, decent clothes, live in a home that shields you from weather and own some kind of reliable transportation, you're in the top 15% of the world's wealthy. Out of six billion people plus in the world, if you have sufficient food, decent clothes, you live in a home that shields you from weather and you own a reliable source of transportation. Doesn't even have to be motorized. You're in the top 15% of the world's wealthy. He goes on to say, if you add to that a savings account, two cars in any condition, a variety of clothes and you own your own house, you're in the top 5% of six billion people in the world. We tend in America to use the word wealth in comparison to the extreme wealthy, but in comparison to the six billion plus people that live in the world, almost everyone in America is wealthy. And let me give you another perspective on it. Imagine that you work from the age of 25, I know some of you start, I started working full time, when I was 15, I started working 30 hours a week at 15, so some of us started working way before that, but if you work from 25, all the way to 65, some are working past 65, but we're just gonna use that as a winner from 25 to 65, and you earn $25,000 a year. 25 to 65, I'm not counting interest earned, I'm not counting benefits or raises or social security, any of those things, 25 to 65, you earn $25,000 a year. Do you realize in your lifetime, you will manage $1 million? That's just $25,000 a year? You'll manage a million dollars. For a lot of people sitting in this congregation this weekend, from 25 to 65, your average is gonna be way above $25,000, meaning you can do the multiples on what's gonna pass through your hands. Let me give you some questions to think about. Where did all go? What did I spend it on? What, if anything, that I support with it? What has been accomplished for eternity through my use of all this wealth? Now, when you think about the perspective that there's six billion plus people in the world, and you and I, probably most of us, are in the top 5% of the world's wealthy, meaning that in our lifetime, one, maybe two, maybe for some three, maybe for some four, five, six, eight, or $10 million will pass through our hands. Listen to what Alcorn says in his book, we will be held accountable for what we do in this life with what's been entrusted to us. Someday, we're gonna wrestle with the question, where did all go? What did I spend it on? What if anything that I support with it? What's been accomplished for eternity? With what's been entrusted to me? Well, where does all this come from? Well, Paul writes about this in the book of 1 Timothy, look on the screen, 1 Timothy chapter six and verse 17. He says, instruct those who are rich. Now again, we've already qualified that word, okay? He's not writing to the super-wealth, he's writing to all of us who own possessions, instruct those who are rich in this present world, not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on who? God, in God we trust. Who richly, listen, supplies us with all things. You know what Paul's saying right there? Paul's saying that everything you and I have, all this that's going to pass through our hands, has been supplied, the word supply, there's a word that means to be the cause or to be the source or the occasion of something. Paul says, everything that you and I have is a gift that has been given to us, been supplied to us by God himself, and we are accountable to God for how we handle what's been entrusted to us. Now again, I know what some are thinking, wait a minute pastor, I've worked hard for everything that I earn. What do you mean everything I have is a gift from God? Was it ever crossed your mind who gave you the strength to get up every day and work hard? God did. The children of Israel and the Old Testament got a little arrogant about their ability to make wealth and God spoke to them, look on the screen at Deuteronomy chapter eight verse 11, look what it says. He says, "Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God, "otherwise when you have eaten and are satisfied "and have built good houses and lived in them "and when your herds and your flocks multiply "and your silver and your gold multiply "and all that you have multiplies, "then your heart will become proud "and you'll forget the Lord your God "who brought you out of the land of Egypt, "out of the house of slavery. "Otherwise you may say in your heart, "my power and the strength of my hand made this wealth. "But you shall remember the Lord your God "for it is he who is giving you power to make wealth." You see, ultimately everything that I have has been entrusted to me by God to be used for his honor. That's what the writer of Proverbs said. Look back in your Bible, Proverbs three, verse nine. Honor the Lord with your wealth, right? The word honor is a word that at its root, it simply means to be heavy or to have weight. When the Bible uses the word honor, it's talking about demonstrating worth, demonstrating the heaviness, the value, the priority of something. When the Bible says that I am to honor, it means that I am to demonstrate the worth, the weight, the value of God, I am to demonstrate his value and his honor by the way that I handle the things that he's given to me. One of the ways that I demonstrate trust in God is by honoring him with what he's given to me. I wanna give you a life changing or a life application principle. I wanna give it to you in a statement. Look at it on the screen. Here's the principle. I am to honor God by faithfully managing what I already have for his glory. I am to honor God by faithfully managing what I already have for his glory. The things that God's already given me, that's the word wealth, all those things that I possess. I'm to seek every day to honor the Lord. Now, one of the ways that we do this is by living generously. I want you to go back to that passage in 1 Timothy chapter six. We read it just a moment ago. Look at it back on the screen. It says instruct those who are rich in this present world, not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. But then look what the next verse is. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life in deed. Do you hear what he said? He said, man, instruct those who are rich, instruct those of us who have, to recognize where it came from, and to live, the Bible says, generous. We've talked about this at hope before, if you're new to hope, you maybe haven't seen us do this, but one of our core values as a church family is generous living, and it's rooted in the biblical word generosity, and there are multiple meanings for the word generosity in the Old and New Testament, but one that we kind of wrapped our hearts around at hope is the word generosity literally can mean on your fingertips. I want everybody to take your hands and hold them out in front of you like this, okay? And I want you to wiggle your fingers like this, all right? I know it feels a little bit silly, but that's all right, I get to see you do it, and it's fun, I like watching you do it. Here's what the Bible's saying. One of the ways that you and I demonstrate trust towards God, one of the ways that we honor him is by living with all that we have on our fingertips with a sense of readiness, saying, Lord, whenever God, wherever God, however you desire for me to use these things, Lord, it's right here. Now the problem is for most of us, we don't live like this, we live like this, right? That's different. But the biblical principle of generosity is living like this with a sense of readiness. The Bible says I'm to honor the Lord by being a good steward of what he's already given me. But then look back at Proverbs chapter three, verse nine, he says, honor the Lord from your wealth, and then he says, and from the first of all your produce. Now this particular phrase, we're gonna talk more about next weekend, so I'm not gonna go into it in great detail, but the principle is you and I are not simply to honor God with what we already have, but as God gives increase, look at this principle on the screen. I am to honor God out of my increase by giving first to his work. You see, I'm to honor God with what he's already given me, the wealth that I have. I'm to live with everything I have on my fingertips, saying, Lord, it really belongs to you, I'm just a steward, it's not God, what do you want me to do with my stuff? Lord, it's what do you want me to do with your stuff? But also as God gives increase, he says, I'm to honor the Lord from my wealth, and I'm to give from the first of my produce. So two important words there. First of all, the word produce. Some are thinking, well, it's a good thing, I'm not a farmer, I don't have to get it. No, that's not what he's talking about here. The word produce is a word that simply means income, revenue, anything that increases what I have. The word first is a word that means chief or best. The biblical principle is that out of every source of income I have, I am to give first to the Lord's work. Say, man, that's hard, no, listen, that's trust. God said it, so I just trust it. You see, that doesn't hardly add up on paper, trust. You see, when I begin to live this way, it honors God as the source of all that I have, but it also demonstrates trust in his character and his word. I'm not leaning on my own understanding, I'm trusting in what God says in his word. Listen, this principle means that I don't take care of me first and then see what's left over and say, okay, God, here's what's left over, what do you want me to do with this? No, this principle says I first honor God and then I trust him to provide for me with what he's given. You see where it's rooted in trust? This is really an issue of trust. Do I really trust God? Do I really believe what he said in his word? And we're gonna talk more about that particular issue next weekend 'cause I wanna really help us understand that because there's great liberty and great freedom when you understand that principle. But I wanna give you the third part of the statement. Put that back up on the screen. I am 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. And he promises to always satisfy me with enough. I want you to read the whole statement with me out loud. You ready? Here we go, one, two, three. 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. Go back to Proverbs chapter three verses nine and 10, honor the Lord from your will and from the first of all your produce. Then look what he says, "So your barns, "your barns will be filled with plenty." Now if you think about that, that then really makes sense from a mathematical perspective. Hey, out of the first of what comes in, give it to the Lord and your barns, you'd think, no, I ought to save it all. Then my barns will be filled with plenty, right? No, the Bible says to make sure that I've got plenty, I'm to honor the Lord first with what God's given to me. You know what that requires? Trust, to depend with confidence on the character, strength, ability and truth of God for everything in my life. Some great words there, the word field. The word field means to complete or to satisfy. It's the picture of something that was empty and now it's been filled. The Bible says that when I honor God with what he's given to me, it's no longer my responsibility to make sure that I've got enough. When I honor God, it's his responsibility to make sure that there's enough. You know what that requires? Trust, the word plenty. Then the word overflow, he says your bats will overflow when you want it. The word overflow literally could be translated to burst out, to burst forth to. It indicates the powerful multiplication and spreading of something in all directions. Let me tell you what this all means. God is saying to you and me, trust me. Trust me. Trust me. My wife and I first got married. This was a principle that my dad sat down with us and he taught us this principle that you can't out give God. If you'll honor God with the first and you'll live with everything you have on your fingertips, man, you can trust God to provide. You can trust him to always meet your needs. When we moved out here with a few families, Mike and Jennifer sitting right over here and some other families to come and be a part of starting this church called Hope, we pretty much all, to use a Vegas term, we all went all in. We cast in everything we had and we came out here. So we pretty much invested everything that we had here. Most of us, at least Mike had just finished seminary, but I left a church in Memphis that was taking very good care of my family to come out here and we put everything we had into this work as we began because we just felt like God had called us to come. And about three years into being here, roughly three years, something like that, we got pregnant with faith. My wife got pregnant with her with our fourth little girl, our second daughter, but fourth child and faith was born and our church was still young. We were still meeting, well, we're still meeting in temporary facilities, but it was the first go-around of temporary facilities and this may not be the last one forever. Who knows what we may do in the future, but it was the first go-around. We didn't have any permanent space of our own and our faith was born and when faith was born, she was born with a homangiomas, what they call it, on her face. I didn't know what a homangioma was. I'd never heard of one before, but about 15% of children in the world are born with those. And sometimes on little kids, it looks just like a little red dot and you don't ever really see it that much and it goes away, but for some children, it grows and it becomes a pretty significant tumor. And that's what it did on faith, on her face, on the left side of her face. That tumor grew to about the size of a soft ball. It was a little infant and it closed her left eye and it began to close her nasal passages so that she couldn't breathe. And so we couldn't just wait for it to go away. We had to go through the process of selecting a surgeon. There's gonna be a couple of different surgeries that were gonna be required for her. And so we went through all that process and discovered that the leading specialist working on this stuff was located down in Southern California. He was in the Hollywood area and he actually had been on television doing some of these kinds of surgeries on these major extreme shows. And so we knew that that's where we needed to go to take faith and our insurance was in place and we were gonna be able to go down there, but beyond that, we didn't know really how we were gonna be able to afford all that we were going through and specifically that first surgery down there was gonna require us to stay about a week down in Southern California. And again, we were young church planners out here and didn't have a lot of resources and that though just the expenses for our stay was gonna be about a thousand dollars. And my wife and I, we talked and we prayed and our kids, we talked and just said, you know, we, man, from the very beginning, when we began as a family, we understood, man, we trust God and we just honor him and we just know that God's gonna take care of that. We don't know how, we don't know where, but God's gonna take care of that. One Sunday I was preaching and after the service, I was staying out in the lobby and somebody walked by and just tapping in the shoulder, I turned around and they handed me an envelope and that people, you know, give you notes and different things after the service. I just stuck it in my pocket and didn't think a thing about it and went to lunch, sat down with my family and realized I had that note in my pocket. So I pulled it out, opened it up and in that note was a check and they said, pastor, the Lord just put it on our heart. Now we had not told our church family what all was going on, they didn't know. Only the Lord knew, our friends, Mike and Jennifer knew and some others, but we had not made a big public deal about it. They said, pastor, the Lord just put it on our heart that you haven't needed. We wanna give you a check and in that envelope was a check for $1,000. Let me tell you what I know, you can trust him. You can trust him. When you honor the Lord from your wealth and the first of all your produce, your barns will be filled with plenty and your bats will overflow with new eye. We can trust him. In God we trust. I know, I know some of your living in difficult financial circumstances. The key is to continue to trust him. Trust him and he will satisfy you. He'll fill you with enough. I wanna close with a quote this morning as I was preparing to wrap up the message. I was reading in a little book that I'm reading right now called They Found the Secret. Francis Hevergol is some of her writings are in this little book and listen to what she said. She was a poet and author in the late 1800s. She said, I never find that he fails to respond to trust and the really leaving everything to him is so inexpressibly sweet and surely he does arrange so much better than we could for ourselves when we leave it all to him. (silence) [BLANK_AUDIO]