Northside Church - Sydney
Family Tithes – Week 2: How Much Should Christians Give?
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Well, before there was Bill Gates, there was a guy called Andrew Carnegie, and he is regarded as about the second most richest person in history adjusted for today's inflation rates. And this guy, Carnegie, at the age of 33, wrote himself a little bit of a personal goal. He wrote down in a bit of paper, somehow it's been preserved throughout history that he said, "Here is his goal, 33 and an income of $50,000 per annum. By this time, two years, I saw I can arrange all my businesses to secure at least $50,000 per annum. Beyond this, never earn. Take no effort to increase fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes. Cast aside, business forever, except for others." Well, it sounds quite noble, doesn't it? A couple of years, 50,000, that'll do me. If you know his story, you can look him up in Wikipedia. Carnegie did hold true to his promise to give. In fact, he gave a ridiculous sum of money. I think it'd be the equivalent of about $43 billion in today's terms. It sounds a bit like David from last week in giving him the temple. But he held true to his note, but instead of it being around age 35, it was at age 79, just five years before his death. Why not earlier? I'm thinking, once you get to $1 billion, couldn't you just stop there? Wouldn't you then go on doing the generous work look, guys, after such good intentions? Why was it so difficult? Last week, we learned this is the reason that money has a power over us. Money has power over us. Without God breaking into your life, you're blinded, like Carnegie was, to his effects on us. And so, as Christians, what we learned last week when we were talking about this issue of money is that we have a renewed, redeemed perspective on the provision and the purpose and the power of money in our lives. You see, God and the gospel changes the way that we view and relate to our money. It's a bit like this. It's a bit like a doctor with a patient. You got the doctor you're feeling a bit sick a bit generally and say, "Doc, I'm not feeling too well, and what's the doctor going to say to you? Well, tell me about your lifestyle, tell me about your sleeping habits, tell me what you've been eating, tell me about what you found in situations like you're saying, "Don't ask me that. That's not your business. Just tell me what's physically wrong with me." The doctor will say, "Well, the doctor's going to say, "Well, it's not just about the physicality. This could be some psychological stuff. It could be living in a house full of asbestos. I don't know what's going on, but, you know, tell me all of it." He says, "Look, I'm not going to tell you." And the doctor says, "Well, I'm sorry, but I can't heal you. We can't do business then." Guys, why is it in a Christian life? We want healing. Everyone's healing in our Christian life. Why is it when it comes to the topic of money? Well, give God everything else. But when he asks in that corner of our life, it says, "Show me what you're doing with your money." You're saying, "Don't ask me that question. It's not your business." And it comes a point in time when God says, "Hey, if that's the way it's going to be, we can't do business together." At least not as far as growth is concerned, this side of heaven you see, guys. We need to give in order to be free, full, God-hard. Jesus said, "You can't serve both God and money. That is you can't come to your dock and say, "I'm not going to tell you everything. This is my business. You see, guys, without giving, there will be no spiritual growth." Why? Because how we use our money is the best indicator of whether really we get the presence of God in our life. What I'm trying to say here is that the key to our growth individually, the key to our growth corporately as a church is going to be whether or not we desire to live lives of radical generosity. When we ask a question, "How much should Christians give?" What we see in Jesus tonight and his interpretation in this application of a fundamental Christian law from the Old Testament is that he assumes that his followers are going to be radically generous. And so, of course, it begs the question, "How do I know I'm being generous?" Well, let's have a look at what God's words says about that tonight. First, we're going to read from the Old Testament way back. Look at that. I've only got like two or three tabs at the beginning of the Bible. Deuteronomy chapter 26, if you've got your Bibles or your iPhone devices, and if you're starting to get ready for the rugby score, just flick across to the Bible app. When you have entered the land, the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it. Take some of the first fruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land. The Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place where the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name and say to the priest, that's the minister, in office at the time, "I declare today that to the Lord your God that I have come to the land, the Lord, the Lord swore to our forefathers to give us. The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. Then you shall say declare before the Lord your God, my Father was a wandering Aramean and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. The Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. And so the Lord bought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He bought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey and now I bring the first fruits of the soil that you, O Lord, have given me. Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. See the principle that we give because God was the one that gives in the first place. And so we turn right back to the other end of the Bible now, into the New Testament. Only a couple of tabs left at the end up here as well. Jesus, having dinner with some religious leaders, says this in Luke chapter 11 verses 37 through to 42. "Jesus had finished speaking of Pharisee invited him to eat with him, so he went and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal was surprised. Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people." Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also, but give what is inside the dish to the poor and everything will be clean for you. Whoa, to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, roux, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. Not sure if you heard Apple released a new iPhone 4S this week. And part of that incredible update was a wonderful new personal assistant, artificial intelligence, a very kind lady that's built into the phone called Siri. And you can ask Siri these all sorts of questions. You can ask Siri what the weather is like. She'll tell you what the weather is like, you can ask Siri to give you a reminder. And so I just found one of these phones and so I asked Siri how much should Christians give? And she said, "Ask Jesus." And that's exactly what we're going to do tonight. You see, Jesus is saying to us tonight through Luke chapter 11 that there is actually a standard for how much we are to give as Christians. And it's called the tithe. You see, Jesus is actually saying there's a standard to see if you're living in generous proportions. He wants us to be generous. How much? How can we know? Look chapter 11 verse 42, he says, "Where do you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, roux, and all other kinds of garden herbs." Now, this is great. You see what Jesus is doing here? I love this. The Pharisees were tithers. That is, they followed the Old Testament law that we read from in Deuteronomy and a law that prescribed that a follower of God was to give one tenth of their annual income into the priest, into the temple. And the whole idea was to give it to the priest so they could support the temple worship. That is just doing church. And so they could support the poor. And since God was the owner of all things and we're just the stewards of his wealth, you know, it was not a bad deal by those standards. The God's perspective on it was, I've given you all this incredible land. So it'd be like being a farmer that gets to lease land for 10% of the value that you're going to earn off it. It's not a bad deal given the price of rents in Sydney at the moment. Now, guys, here's what's intriguing. Here's what's fascinating here is that this was an Old Testament guideline and how does Jesus react to it? How does Jesus regard it? You know, because for years, I don't know about you, but for years, people always, you know, debating, "Well, you know, I'm a New Testament believer. How do I relate to the Old Testament and all those funny, dirty laws?" And there are some interesting laws. I looked them up. The laws in the Old Testament, like you're not allowed to mix your fivers. You can't mix wool and linen together. That's in Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 19. I'm thinking a wool and a linen garment anyway would look horrible. So then there was one about you should grow a beard, which is, "Thank the Lord that Jesus has fulfilled the law because it takes me about six months to grow any facial hair." This is an interesting one that, ladies, if you see your husband in a fight with another bloke, no grabbing them by the private parts. That dead set, that is in Deuteronomy chapter 25, verses 11 to 12. There are some interesting Old Testament laws here, and then we read that against stuff like, "Love your neighbor as yourself in the Sermon on the Mount." We go, "Look, yeah, I can throw away the grabbing bit, but loving the neighbor as yourself, you know, I should obey that." "Look, haven't you guys been there?" We go, "Which one is it? Which one do I don't know? Which one do I don't obey?" You know, I understand where you're coming from now. Here's the funny thing. It's one thing to worry about some of these interesting laws of the Old Testament. But when Jesus himself pulls something that's specific from the Old Testament and speaks about it, then we should listen. And if ever there was a place that Jesus was always doing away with the regulations, right? That's the generalization we have with that. Jesus was always doing away with the regulations it appears like. If there was ever a place where Jesus would loosen the tithe, just do away with it, the temp said, "It'll be here, right?" Because he's talking to the Pharisees, he's having dinner with them, and I don't know if it's just you. But is the Pharisees, is Jesus always yelling at the Pharisees in the Bible? He seems to be the only people that Jesus yells out, "We're woe to you." He's not saying woe to you to the pimps and the prostitutes and the tax collectors, but he yells at the Pharisees, and so why? Because they've turned this law of God into a bunch of regulations that they feel if they could just wrap it all up, they could be saved like that, and he's saying that is spiritual death. You vipers. You're prude of vipers. Woe to you. Yelling at him. And here's a funny thing. Does he say, "You legalists." That whole idea of the tithe, that is funny, duddy stuff, that's old school. Get rid of it. Oh. It's making you guys the other direction. He says, "No, it's not enough." Verse 42. He says, "You're giving the tenth of all your stuff here, including the peppermint and herb garden." That's what I mean. He's saying they are so fastidious that they're going out to the herb garden, they're even giving bits of the herb garden off to the temple. You know, get a bit of peppermint and one in every ten leaves. They were taken off to the temple. He's saying, "No, no, no. The tithe is good, but you're neglecting the love of God. You've got to do more. The tithe's not enough." This is remarkable stuff. Guys, what it means simply is we need to take the tithe seriously. I don't know about you, I've been one of those Christians growing up in the church. I thought, "It's a funny, duddy law. Yeah, if I get somewhere near there, no, no, no, no, no, if ever we hear Jesus talking about Old Testament or we need to take it seriously." How do I know if I'm living generously? The question is, Jesus says to us tonight, "Test yourself. Can you give your money away in biblical proportions? How about starting at 10%?" He says, "Ouch." See, Jesus sees the tithe as a very concrete, realistic way by which we can tell if we're investing for God in biblical proportions, Christians aim for the standards of generosity. But see, Christians also experience sacrifice in generosity. Because Jesus not only affirms the Pharisees in this verse, he's actually affirming them. He's saying, "Good guys, you're tithing. That's good." But he reprimands them. Verse 42, again, he says, "You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone." He criticizes them because they're only giving as much as the tithe and they're not going beyond it. Can you see how radical Jesus is with this stuff? Jesus pronouncing a while on the Pharisees because they're giving their peppermint and all the leaves away. They're doing the tithing stuff, but they're not going beyond the tithe. That is that the Pharisees seem to think that once they had fulfilled the tithe, then they could just walk away from doing Christian community. They didn't have to give in anymore. And as one commentator puts it, "The demand of the Christian tithe can become a dangerous thing for it permits the false conclusion that the problem of money has been met and conquered." I don't know about you, but sometimes it's how I can view the whole money thing and the whole give it to God. God, just tell me how much I've got to give over here, and that's your bit. It's just my bit. Come on. That's how he's worthy. You have control of this bit, but you can't serve both God and money. Look, what it means is that the church doesn't demand, where's the church don't demand how much you're going to give into the church, or into other ministries for that matter. So the church is not about demanding a particular amount of money, but Jesus assumes his followers will go beyond just giving 10%. And he's saying, "Well, what if I can't do 10%? What if that had killed me?" God had already thought of this, thankfully, because when you go back and look at the Old Testament laws, you see that it had set up that there were these regular animal sacrifices to God. The offering was an animal sacrifice because he didn't have your investment in various derivatives, Jerusalem-based derivatives, or fixed interest accounts, or ING accounts. He didn't go down to your local ING store and put it a fixed term deposit. You had animals. And so when you took an animal to the temple to sacrifice it, you were sacrificing your wealth. And so in that sense, what we saw in the Old Testament laws is that the reason they were doing this is to constantly be loosening, to unwinding, you know, when you sort of got to get a lid of a jar and really just make sure it comes off nice and easy. If you leave the lid on the jar too long, it sticks. The reason they were giving offerings to God was to constantly unstick the heart from its ownership over one's wealth. But here's what I love about God. Here's the thing. When the law called for the animal sacrifices, it didn't require a flat-rate offering. There was a sliding scale. And so the poorest of the poor, they would only have to offer up a pigeon. And those who were a lot richer would offer up an ox. And so the offering was based on people's capacity to give. And so a wealthy person could give a gift of 20% of their income. And the reality is that they're not giving anything at all that dips into their living standards. Whereas the person who's only giving 5% of their income, that could mean that there's not food on the table that now. So we've got to be clear here. Jesus says the tithe is very important. But at the same time, too, we see from the Old Testament laws that there was a sliding scale. And what we see that God is not so much interested in a percentage of giving as He is in a level of sacrifice. Jonathan Edwards, he considers this phrase, "Bare each other's burdens in Galatians 6." You know, that one there. And he answered the objection where people say, "Well, I can't afford to give." He says, "Look, if we are never obliged to relieve each other's burdens, but then we find that we can do it without burdening ourselves, how do we bear our neighbor's burdens when we bear no burden at all?" What it says to us is that some of us are called with, we're blessed with it, so we talked about last week an extra capacity to give. Because it could mean an incredible impact if they were giving any more than 2% of what they currently have for this season. Look, I call it the spin-class principle, right? If ever you guys have ever been to fitness first, I used to go and do the spin classes. I'm a sucker for Lycra. There's nothing about that in the Old Testament law either, too, about mixing various fibres and that sort of stuff. Lycra is purely a New Testament believer's garment. And in spin classes in fitness first, they're hilarious things, because you see people in there and they're just sitting up on the bike and they're just spinning away. They've got the iPod in and they're just having a great time, and you see the person next to them, they are sweating profusely. They look like they're about to go green, they look like they're about to vomit. It's the same music, it's the same tempo, they're just loving it. I used to be one of those sorts of people until I met this instructor and she always used to shout out at me, "Run the burn, run the burn!" And the burn was there, she'd be yelling at me and she's telling me to turn it up another quarter notch. It was this resistance meter that did the resistance on the bike, it turned up, suddenly the legs would slow down, and this is starting. It's the spin-class principle God is saying, "When we're giving, you've got to earn the burn." Sometimes, we can treat church like a fitness first spin class guys, we can come in and we can sing the songs, we can be spinning at the same pace, and whilst it's not written all over our faces, there are some people that are given on the verge of vomiting. Yes, it's 10 percent, but there's got to be sacrificed, you've got to earn the burn. Finally, we see guys that Christians, they exhibit the signs of generosity. I was talking to one of my leaders this week, we've just been amazing what God is doing in our groups this week around this issue of money. We only talk about it once a year, but I'm talking to her, she said an amazing phrase that I'll be honest with you, I've been thinking the same thing. And she said, "You know what, Sam, I've been wondering, do I even want to change? Do I even want to look into this area? Do I even want to address this properly because I'm scared? I'm not sure if I want to give up my stuff, I'm not sure if this could mean that I'm low in my living standards. Jesus is asking a lot here, I'm not sure." My response to that was, as God was just showing me through my quiet time, I was like he was saying to me, because I had the same question, he was saying, "God was saying to me, Sam, if I could turn you into the sort of person that was giving away 50 percent of their income and jumping for joy, would you be interested?" And I think he asked that question of each and every one of us tonight, "Would you be interested?" And some of us are saying, "I can't bring it on, I want a piece of that." And other people are saying, "No, that is impossible, 50 percent, forget it, there's no way people can live like that." And yet, the Bible, God has, he's sort of like a master chef, he's one of prepared earlier. And in Luke 19, if you go a few chapters up, you see a guy that I can really relate to, Zacchaeus, he was vertically challenged. That's about as much as where our commonalities lie, he was a short little guy, and if there was ever a guy that understood money, it was him, he was a tax collector, he made his living of hoarding and swindling people out of money. Why is a Jew, all the other Jews hated him, because he turned against his country and was collecting money for the Romans, and he would take a little bit on the side, and say he was also incredibly rich, and he'd done it by swindling people out of money. And so this short little guy hears that Jesus is coming through Jericho, and he climbs up a tree, because that's the only way he was going to see him, couldn't see over the rest of the other people. He was a short guy. And you see the story of Zacchaeus shows us, it shows us what Jesus can do and how he changes your attitudes towards money when he gets a hold of you. You see, if you know his story, look at his actions, Jesus calls him down out of the tree. He says, "The key is to get down out of the tree. I'm going to have dinner at your place tonight." And the rest of the crowd muttering going, "This guy's eating with sinners with a tax collector." He says, "Get down out of the tree. I'm going to have dinner at your place tonight. What was his response?" Zacchaeus is jumping for joy. He says, "I'm going to give away 50% of my money, 50%, not only that, he offers a bit of payback." He says, "You know what, Jesus? I'm going to pay back. I'm going to pay back. I'm going to pay back. Everyone that I've done wrong and I've defrauded. I'm going to pay them back." And you know what, I'm going to pay them back four times. What is really interesting is when you go through and you go, there was actually laws about how much you had to pay people back if you did them wrong and swindled them out of money in the book of Numbers and Leviticus, and it was actually 120%. So the rule said 20%, and Zacchaeus says, "I'll pay back 400%. See this, in other words, his response to Jesus went way beyond his generosity." Well, so way beyond the rules and the regulations, way beyond the requirements. It wasn't just a change in his actions, it was a change in his attitude. First of all, there's a spontaneity about it. He just starts talking about his money. Jesus didn't even ask him about his money. He just starts talking about it. But it's joyful. I love the way that he talks to Jesus about it all. He says, "Look, Lord, look, look, is he trying to show off or something? Is he trying to flash a bit of the cash around? Now when you look into it, it's surprisingly and heart-warmingly like the way a little kid, when they've done a little finger-painting, goes and holds it up and says, "Look, Mommy, look, Daddy, look what I did for you. I did it because I wanted to please you. There was a joy and there was a gratitude when Jesus had got a hold of him and it changed his attitude towards money." What is interesting is that he offers to give away this 50% of all these possessions. What is weird is it shows that these motivations were totally positive. He wanted to do that because what's weird here is he's not guilty about being rich because when you're a rich person and you give away 50% of your possessions, you're still pretty well off in those sort of first-century Jerusalem days, he was still pretty well off, he's probably still rich, but he was positive about his emotions, he wasn't guilty about it, he wasn't begrudging in his giving, he didn't feel obliged to do his giving, why? Because people who get grace move beyond the regulations with joy. That's the signs of generosity now, some of you here might be saying, "Look, Sam, here's what I don't get. Come on. Last week you're talking about the rich young ruler and Jesus told him to give away 100% of his wealth and now Jesus, couple of chapters on, he's telling Zacchaeus 50%, that's half as much and he's okay with that and then he told us at the beginning of the message that the Bible's telling us 10%, which is it, 10%, 50%, 100%, which is it? I'm so confused, here's the point, you're looking for rules and yet Jesus is inviting you into adventure. And you're looking for percentages when Jesus is looking for you to join him on a pilgrimage. What we see in the rich young ruler and Zacchaeus and the reason for all the different proportions is that you and I have the tendency to say, it's how we approach this topic, we have the tendency to say, "How much have I got to give?" Just draw the line, Jesus, tell me how much? When you get the freedom from money by the experience of grace, the way that Zacchaeus did, you'll begin to say, "Look, I can't wait to find someone or some way to bless someone. I can't wait to find a way to bless my community. I can't wait to invest my money for the sake of the kingdom." You'll end up saying, "I'm going to try this as hard as I possibly can. I'm going to follow Jesus." But you know what? Who knows what Jesus is going to do? He could call me to lower my living standards. He could call me to be rich. He could bless me with being rich. I don't know what he's going to do. It could be 50%. It could be 20%. But he's saying, "I'm calling you into adventure and you're sitting around asking me how much." Guys, if you're saying, "Look, I don't know, I don't have that sort of freedom," I know what that feels like. I'm thinking, "I want that sort of freedom to be able to say that." If you're saying it's ridiculous that we're talking about 10%, let alone 20%, let alone 30%. If you're saying, "That is totally ridiculous," then you haven't got the gospel. We're thinking like a religious person. We're thinking, "What great thing have I got to do in order for God to bless me, to make it across the line? So the God will bless me." The other way around, if you're hearing this and you're thinking, "Man, I'm starting to feel guilty about this whole process," then you haven't got the gospel either. We guys, we've been learning this year that the job of the Christian is to always take the gospel and apply it to our heart at deeper and deeper and deeper levels. I forget what the gospel's going to mean for me. Guys, do what Zacchaeus did. Get up in a tree. Not literally. I mean, spiritually, do whatever you can to catch a closer look at Jesus Christ. And when you get up there, Zacchaeus got up there for a glimpse and instead he got an Eiffel of grace. Look at Jesus and what are you going to see? On the cross, you're going to see a God who didn't empty his pockets of his money, but he emptied his pockets of his own son. Why? Because he loves you. Why? Because he wants to communicate to you that of all the treasures in the world, you're his treasure. When you get that, then you can know that you are his treasure. Guys, friend, do you need to see Jesus a bit closer to night? He calls you not into regulations because you're into an adventure. He's the one that's going to work it out, how he's going to explode your heart into radical generosity. There's the generosity equation, like if there's a formula for it, when considering generosity, Christians don't reach for a calculator, they reach for the cross. They look at what God has given them in the person of Jesus Christ in his own son, and they respond to that. You know why? Because willpower is not going to do it. Will power a line is not going to do it. You've got to get up in a tree. You've got to see Jesus. Christians give not in response to regulation but to grace with a spontaneous joy. And if it's not a spontaneous joy, it's a bit like that windows error that pops up. If you're not seeing joy in your giving, it's like that annoying little d-da-da-da system error, and it affords us an opportunity to head back to the Scriptures, head back to the life of Jesus and say, "What part of the gospel am I not getting?" If you have been given freely, then you are freed to give everything freely. That is Christianity. And so the question is how do I become that sort of person, guys, let me finish with this. It's a simple words community. You know what? It could take years to bring yourself into a situation in which you give in biblical proportions. I'm being real about it. It's the V.O. 5 principle. It's not going to happen overnight, but it will happen, okay? But here's the thing. It's a gradual process, and here's the other important one. You cannot trust yourself with this alone. I'm saying that to you. Do not go with this issue of money, go back to your bedroom, all in the quiet. You cannot trust yourself with this error of your life alone because you know what happens when the minute we start thinking about how much we're going to give or the way that we're going to increase our capacity, there's a little self-justification engine that goes off in our heart like a pull pump. It just sort of takes off and we start to feel a resistance. We don't want to give. Oh, I look at it this way. Yesterday I went for a ride with the very beginnings of the north side Peloton, a bike ride that is, Lycra and all. When we did the West Head ride and you get all the gadgets out, your time, how will you go? I went the Saturday before, I did the first leg in 45 minutes. I went with the north side Peloton and drafting and all sorts of aerodynamics aside. I cut six minutes off my time. Do you know what that represents? Almost 20%. I don't know. Some of you get me calculators going. That is absolute. That sort of looks like a yeah, thank you. Look, it wasn't the drafting. What it is is a demonstration of the power and the principle of community to encourage you and to hold you accountable. You see, every time I hit one of those hills at West Head, and it is a hilly bike ride, I can tell you that now, every time I hit one of those hills, if you want to go ride by yourself, the minute you hit any resistance you just want to back off. You don't want to push too hard, but when you ride in community you've got other people there to cheer you on, the other thing is you've got other people there to hold you accountable. Hadn't you slacking off? Hadn't pick the pace up a little bit more, will you? Both encouragement and accountability and guys, whether you are on a road bike or whether you're in Christian community, the teachings of Jesus are like a whopping great hill that's rising in the distance. And you look at the teachings that he has on giving tonight and you say, that is impossible. I'm not going to make it up that. And when we finally butt up against it, everything within us wants to back off, and then you've got a peloton around you in the spiritual sense saying, come on, you can do this. Come on, pick your game up. Guys, it's why we're going through a 20-day study on stewardship. It's why we're talking about it in connection groups. It's why I'm encouraging you to hold yourself accountable to one other person. It's why we encourage people in this place to be committed to a church in the first place. Some people don't want to join churches because they're going to call them to commit. But guys, like the legs of an elite athlete like myself, if you're riding a bike, or whether it's spirituality without accountability, there will be no growth. You cannot trust yourself alone with this stuff. You need community. Are you in community? Let me finish with this. There was a study by Ronzvale and Ronzvale in a book called The Midas Trap that demonstrated that if all of the American Christians would tithe, not only would Christian ministries continue to be supported, but theoretically, there would be enough money if distributed to all the poor in the world to lift them all above the poverty line. The greatest problem in the church at large today is not that Christians don't give. It's that we don't give in biblical proportions. And so in that sense tonight, guys, I'm here to ask you tonight, are you living a life of radical generosity? Are you living a life that aims for the standards of generosity? Are you living a life that's experiencing sacrifice in generosity? Are you living a life that's exhibiting the signs of generosity? Because guys, we can talk about all we want on Sunday about mission, and about gospel, and about saving lives, and about community. We can talk about all about that sort of stuff, but until we enter into the discipline of giving our money away in biblical proportions, there's not going to be any growth. This place is going to look like a fitness first spin class. Guys, we've got to earn the burn, and if you are serious about our growth, if we're serious about our growth individually and corporately as a church, then we have to constantly, not once a year, constantly be looking how the gospel shapes our view of and our relationship to our money. We need to examine how we spend our money. We need to examine why we don't give more than we do. We need to repent of the reasons why we spend so much on ourselves. And then we need to rearrange how much we then go and spend and give. Why? Because if we don't push through the fear, and the pain, and the hesitations, and the spiritual hills, and the resentments, and the examination of ourselves, if we don't push through that, we deny ourselves. We deny ourselves the greater joy. We deny ourselves the freedom. We deny ourselves the opportunity to heal this city in a way that no one else has ever seen. We deny ourselves that in a way that only radical generosity can bring. Let's pray. Father, we have been talking about these last couple of weeks, an issue that's sensitive for so much of us. Father, we pray for those that are in need tonight. Father, we pray for those in our community that are in need tonight. Father, I thank you for the stories that I know behind the scenes in this place. Of Jesus' radical, radically generous community in action. I've seen the stories of the way that brothers and sisters who would otherwise be strangers in this world have come together, and supported one another, and rallied around each other, and given to one another, and encouraged one another. Father, we want to see more of that in this place. But Father, we come to a point tonight. We come before you, Lord Jesus, the ultimate doctor, the healer, with an area of our life that we cling on to Father like a newborn baby clings on to its mother. Lord God, will you help us to let this area of our life go by the power of your spirit? Will you awaken in us a vision for what is possible as a church in this city? Will you awaken in us, Heavenly Father? A vision for a community that is slowly being redeemed and turned upside down because of people who are blessed, who understand the blessing that has come from you, and to simply want to transform this world inside out, starting first with how we spend. So Lord, we recognize tonight that none of this growth and none of this change can happen without your power in our lives for your Holy Spirit. And so in that sense, Father, we repent as a church and as a community of the times in which we've held on, of the times in which we've staked our own claim to the things that you've placed in our hand. But Father, we've become greatly encouraged and uplifted and inspired in the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who came and broke into this world, began to turn itself upside down, not just in terms of life over the top of death, but the way that He turned the dollar upside down so it could be used to heal and redeem a broken, a needy and impoverished world. May we live like Him and we pray this desperately in His name. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]