Worship through Giving

And his response was, I guess I'll never be on the worship team at that church. Why? Because you're living in sin? Like, let me tell you, if you're living in sin, worship team's the least of your worries. What should worry you is you're not in alignment and right standing with God. So embrace the conviction of the Holy Spirit and come into alignment so that you can be in right standing and alignment with what he has. Embrace conviction. But reject shame. Because every single time the Holy Spirit is speaking, he's convicting, he's drawing the enemies there, and he's whispering in your ear. And he's bringing shame, which deals with your identity. And what's it trying to do? It's trying to get you to run away from God. Conviction brings you to God. Shame makes you run away from God. And so in the same setting, when the Holy Spirit's convicted, he's right there whispering in your ears. So reject shame. Embrace conviction.

When you look at the understanding this, it's so important to get this, everything is God's and he's given it to you to manage. In Proverbs 24, 1, it says this, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. And this perspective has helped me. Why? Because I am a manager of what God has entrusted to me. If you are here and you are a believer in Jesus Christ, I want you to understand it is no longer your time. It's his time. To manage the time that he has given to you for what? To advance the kingdom of God. If you're here today and you are a believer, it is no longer your talents. He gave you those talents to manage. He's entrusted with you those gifts to what? To see his kingdom advance. If you are a believer, it is no longer your resources. They're his resources that he has given to you to manage to see his kingdom advance.

It's amazing to me how many people do not have a budget. They don't have a budget personally. Like just so you know, Tara and I, we have a budget personally. We have a budget for the church, like budget. Here's what a budget does. It determines where money goes instead of wondering where did it all just go? And God can try to, he'd bless in your finances, but because you're not stewarding it well, it's like holes in the bucket and it just keeps leaking out. A budget determines where your money goes instead of wondering where it all went. If you, a budget tells your money where to go instead of, uh, you know, like if you don't have a budget, I'll say it this way, uh, money plans you and it doesn't plan like very well. So here's what a budget does. It puts you in control, not your emotions or your circumstances. At the core budgeting is stewardship because you're saying, God, it all belongs to you. Help me manage it wisely.

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. Can I tell you when it comes to connection point and I pray that God would use us in bigger, powerful, more mightier ways for his kingdom, I don't ever pray that God would give us more resources. I pray that God would make us more trustworthy so that he could trust us with more resources. Because I know this, if he can get it through us to see his kingdom advance and we've been trustworthy with what he's given to us, he will give more. It's like when you're at work, don't pray for a promotion. Pray that God would make you someone that is promotable and God will take care of it.

I would encourage you to save 1,000 bucks. Get an emergency fund. And this fund is to help you in a moment of crisis. Because I can promise you this, every single one of us will have a moment of crisis. Every single one of us, there's going to be a moment you go out and you're like, why didn't my car start? We just had an incident and I'm not trying to throw my wife under the bus, but her husband, a little impatient, and he backed out of the garage before it fully opened. I know, man, her husband drives me crazy sometimes. $680 later. It's not what I wanted to spend $680 bucks on. But an emergency fund turns a situation like that, a crisis, really into an inconvenience. It is super inconvenient. When you have an emergency fund, though, it's inconvenient. It's not a crisis.

If you're a new believer, I think there's some things that you can learn and grow in. It might be the first time you heard some of this stuff. If you're a seasoned believer, we're going to at the very end of service, we're going to Holy Ghost, we're going to pray, we're going to break things off. I got a text from someone, man, and it was just awesome. They're like, man, that mindset was me to the T, and I'm just glad you broke stuff off. And so I'm excited to jump into this message. Here's what we're going to be talking about today. We're going to talk about stewardship. We're going to talk about tithing. We're going to talk about generosity, and then we're going to deal with some spirits. And I know for some people, they would say this, well, the church shouldn't talk about money. Sadly, that does not line up to the Word of God. And a lot of times when someone says that, it is revealing posture. Because the Bible talks about money five times more than it talks about faith, and five times more than it talks about prayer. It actually talks about money and stewardship more than any other subject outside of the kingdom of God. Why? Because what we do with it and how we handle it matters.

Step number three, save three to six months of expenses. What does this do? It brings financial stability. If you don't have any savings, every issue pushes you back into debt. And here's what the Bible says, Proverbs 21, 20, the wise store up choice food and olive oil, but the fools gulp theirs down. Here's what the Bible says, the wise save and the fools spend all they have. I don't know about you. I don't want to be called a fool. I want to be wise.

When it comes to personal finances, they say this, that 80% is behavior and 20% is head knowledge. I think that is so important for us to understand. Because most people who say they're having financial problems are not having financial problems. They are having behavior problems. Not all, but most. Not all, because I always get an email, no, I'm really like, not all. But most are not managing what God has entrusted to them well. Why is this an important subject to talk about? The number one stress that most people have is financial related. The number one issue most couples fight about is finances. And the number one prayer request that we get is there's comes down to two. It's either health related or financial related. And most people think, well, if I just had more money, if I got more income, and the reality is they do not have an income problem, they have a behavior problem.

The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. I want you to notice this verse does not start out with profit or abundance. It starts out with a plan. The plans. When it comes to this thing called finances, what's your plan? Do you have one?

When it comes to debt, you can wander your way into debt, but you really got to fight your way out of it. And I'm not going to teach you on the debt snowball, different things that we used. Again, you can sign up for the class, but I do want to say this because I always have a conversation with someone. And if you are a business owner, you're like, well, we use debt to grow. When I talk about it, I'm talking about most people, personal life, they're spending money on things they don't need and they're digging themselves a hole.

I want you to understand second Corinthians nine, seven through eight. Each of you should give what you've decided to give in your heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless abundantly so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Notice it says not reluctantly, not under compulsion. Why? Because God loves a cheerful giver. And each one should give what he's decided to give in his heart. That word decided actually means intentional, prayerful, it's settled. It means you've prayed about it. You've heard from God. You're in agreement and it's settled. It's decided in heart. But can I tell you that verse isn't talking about tithing?