Trusting God's Provision: Faith, Community, and Stewardship

"Long and short of the business meeting this afternoon is, God is good, and as usual, the finances of new life never make any sense, because God just takes care of things. You know, with losing my dad's company, you know, a significant tither was gone in this last year, and yet we ended the year with more money in the accounts than I think we've ever had in my tenure of leading this church. And God's taking care of us. I don't know where the money's always going to come from. In fact, I don't know where things we need for tomorrow are going to come from." [00:01:45]

"The answer is his hand, and he always, always, always provides, and we've watched God do the most amazing things, and we're going to continue to see him do those things. So new life exists to see all the world know his glory, that we would abide in Christ so that we would bear lasting fruit. You know, I got asked earlier, so what's next? We've done the rebranding. We've done this stuff. Like, is there a, and this is my words, but is there a plan for what comes after? And I said, my job is to help all of you be who you're supposed to be in the kingdom." [00:02:27]

"Offering tonight comes out of Leviticus 27, 30. It says, and all the tithe of the land is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord. Malachi 3 .10, bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, that I will not open up for you the windows of heaven and pour out such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it." [00:09:41]

"These commands, the work that God has called us to, guys, it will continue no matter what. But for your lives, you have to step into partnering with God. You don't get to say, God, bless my life. Bless me in all these areas. God, help me in these things. And then ignore him in how you handle finances. You have to honor him. You have to tithe. And I know that that is such a touchy subject. I know that it's so hard to hear someone say, you must do this. But I'm standing not as someone to tell you, you have to do this so that I can pay my bills, God's taking care of that." [00:10:26]

"I'm challenging, I'm declaring, and I'm speaking to you guys. You have to do this because that is how God knows what your heart is. That is how God, he says, test you in this. If you cannot be faithful with money, who will test you? Who will give you heavenly things to be rewarded with? Scripture's really clear. And he says, do it. And it's you give it and you let it go. It doesn't matter, guys. How, and you know, some people say, well, if I have to give to this, then there's accountability to it and I want to know some answers. Nope." [00:11:10]

"one he wants me to be dependent on him i love and my kids i even encourage you to ask them this my kids will say well we want to do something or we want to do this and you know amber and i will say well that's not in the budget my kids will now turn around and look at me and say well i'm gonna ask jesus then they've seen him move finances move in things they they've watched god meet those needs time and again where they now trust it and it gets a little funny because they almost treat the lord like the the piggy bank that they get to go to well god will take care of it god will pay for it but i'd much prefer that than them to go well we can't i don't ever want them to say we can't i want them to ask the lord what he can do and what it could be" [00:12:12]

"we only hit this once a year and i know that it can bristle some in the midst of it but there's a reason why we go through these and go through the scriptures on giving because when that's true anything's possible i love jerry dearman's story where his dad worked in aerospace and was a manager at one of those large companies in california and time after time you know the pink slips would go around and people would get dismissed and his dad wouldn't because the lord would just bless and take care of him but one time he did get handed the slip he got laid off and got sent home and on his way home he just kept asking the lord lord what are you doing in the midst of it and the verses in malachi where after 3 10 it says and watch for i will rebuke the devourer on your behalf so when he got home he showed his wife that his job was gone and not in fear not in frustration not in anything but absolute trust of the lord because they'd watched him do it season after season they prayed they got on their knees in their bedroom they put the pink slip on the bed and they said lord you know we are tithers we stand with you and you promise to rebuke the devourer you promise to rebuke what comes after us he went back to work the next morning because they gave him all the week to finish out and then they were to go home and when he got to work that morning his boss was instructing him to finish packing some things up and doing things and his the boss above them walked in and handed his boss a pink slip and said you're gone and looked at jerry's dad and said you have his job now" [00:15:47]

"when someone stands with the lord in the midst of things and he watched season after season in a very volatile industry if you understand aerospace and how they get big contracts so they hire lots of people and then they go through a slower season so they lay a bunch of people off and over and over and over again they stood on what god was doing and they watched god respond and take care of them so this this is who our god is i want to challenge you to check your heart today to say god i affirm that the tithe is yours that you have this holy sacred part and you know because i've taught on this before that means that the rest the other 90 percent is blessed beyond measure you want to talk about abraham you want to talk about job you want to talk about where those people in scripture solomon where there is an abundance beyond anything you could know it's when we get our heart in the place where we say god you're first and then i will take care of others i will love and i will bless and i will be generous like my father in heaven it changes everything so let's stand and let's declare this today over ourselves over this church over this season ready as i give and" [00:19:06]

"well tonight's going to be horribly practical horribly i hate giving one two three four five sermons do a b c d and i'm going to tonight because you you you really we're going to talk about some of the basics we're going to talk about what god is doing in the earth right now and how you can partner with him join with him step into what he is doing and see a result unlike anything you've ever seen before but i want to i want to share with you something that got posted online um earlier today by chris valetan i think it's not only very fitting um but i think it really is a great way to look at this year as we're stepping into what god is doing it's called the law of divine connections in the epic best -selling book good to great why some companies make the leap and others don't author jim collins if you don't know that was a book that really got popular in the early 2000s about it was research that was done by a think tank on why some companies not only survived but made a change from having a dive into becoming great and enduring again um collins when he wrote the book was not a christian but it took the church world kind of by surprise by how much this book actually impacted some things within our realm and he ended up getting saved after he wrote the book but it says in his research collins points out that the greatest companies get right people on the bus in the right seats before deciding on a destination that seems a little counterintuitive right tell me where we're going tell me why it's important and then i'll decide whether or not i'm going to be a part of it isn't that normal like you want to know what's going to happen how it's going to be and you get to decide for yourself well do i want this do i not want this what he challenged he says this business philosophy student stark contrast to the greatest leadership minds of the time who taught that vision and mission were more important most important ingredients of any great organization but collins makes a compelling argument that mission and vision are the best fleshed out with the people who embrace the same core virtues and culture the truth is most of us are asking what we are called to do when in fact we should first be asking who are we supposed to be with" [00:22:59]

"It's only when we find our people that we can fulfill our purpose. The fact is that our purpose lies in our people. Furthermore, if you can accomplish your mission without other people, I question whether you're even on the right path, which is the story of my own life. And that's what Chris is saying about what happened, that God, every time he tried to do it alone, God would stick him with other people where he had to be in community, had to be connected. But think about that." [00:22:56]

"Love those around you. Love the neighbor who technically in the story was of the enemy. The bad guy. The bad guy. I still, I love the Samaritan being the bad guy. The bad guy. If you haven't seen the kids movie, Bad Guys, in the last few years, you need to watch it. Because the bad guy is the hero of the story. The Samaritan is the bad guy, people. And he does what's right. He loves the person when no one else will." [00:24:21]

"God says, it doesn't matter who you are, where you've come from. It doesn't matter how those things are supposed to walk out culturally. He says, will you love when God presents an opportunity? What if God is simply waiting for us to love, to step into a place where love not only gets to dictate, but it gets to transform the road in front of us? What if the roadblock or the problem or the mountain that you're facing is only there because you're not with the right people?" [00:25:03]