All right, so here we are in, uh, we're going to close out our No Dough, No Bread Finance Series today.
And I know some of you are thinking, finally, it's time for the church to stop talking about money. But hey, we're going to have a good time today.
Here's the thing, though. I've got a little bit of a problem. I feel like the redheaded stepchild today, uh, because we brought in the leading voice in finance from a kingdom perspective a couple of weeks ago, Joe Sangle, and he dropped so many amazing truths on us, including this one: if you have no margin, you can have no mission. Because if you can't say yes to God when you're a slave to debt, right?
So Joe Sangle just blessed us. And then last week, we had our very own in-house Joe Sangle in the form of Carlton McCarthy, our executive pastor, who's been leading our church's finances for over a decade now. A guy who has forgotten more about finances than I'll ever be able to learn.
And he dropped some amazing truths on us as well, including this nugget: if you have no investment, you can have no harvest. And if you eat the seed instead of putting it in the ground when you're praying for rain, all you get is a muddy mess.
It's brilliant stuff from both of these guys. And then here I am, like, hey, I didn't write any bestselling books on finance. I don't have a finance degree. Nobody comes to me asking for investment advice. Like, it's just not something that happens. I'm just a guy with a Bible.
But that's what I love about God's word is that it always has exactly what I need. And so today, we're just going to stick to the book, if that's all right with you.
And we're going to look at a story found in John chapter 6. It's actually found in all four gospels. In fact, this is the only miracle, other than the resurrection, that's recorded in all four gospels, which is pretty significant. I think it should cause all of us to kind of lean in and pay attention to what happens in this story.
And so this message today, and really this Bible story, I believe is for those of you in the room that are looking at your budget and you're looking at all the things that you need to do and want to do, and your budget's looking back at you with one eyebrow raised, like Carlton's financial adviser looked at him when he said he wanted to retire at 50. Like, it's going to take a miracle to make this thing work.
Well, when you're in need of a miracle, isn't it great to know the one who invented miracles? And so as we look at this miracle, it's not really a money scripture, but it is a provision scripture. And I believe that there's a truth that we're going to see here that applies to all of us when it comes to needing a miracle, looking at your finances and saying, "God, without your help, we're in trouble."
So we're going to turn to John chapter 6, verse 1, and it starts, "After this." And when you read "after this," what does it make you wonder? What happened before this, right?
And so what happens before this is Jesus sends out the 12 disciples in groups of two to go and put into practice what he had been teaching. It was their chance to operate in the giftings and in the things that he told them to do. And so this is their practice time.
But while they're out ministering, at the same time, John the Baptist is killed. He's beheaded. And so the disciples end up returning to Jesus after a little bit of time, and they tell him everything that happened while they were journeying. And they also bring him the news of John the Baptist.
And it says that Jesus, after hearing the news, decided he needed to go to a desolate place for some rest. And so that's where we pick up.
After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.
And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
Now, we're going to pause here for a second. It doesn't explicitly say it here in John, but how do you know what does Jesus do when he goes to a mountain? He prays.
I know Pastor Chris answered first, and it gave you all the confidence to agree, but yes, in scripture, when you see Jesus go to a mountain, it is to pray. And so even though it doesn't explicitly have that phrasing here, by record of everything else scripture says about Jesus and mountains, we can safely assume Jesus was going to pray.
Now the Passover feast of the Jews was at hand. Lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?"
He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. How do you know that when the all-knowing God of the universe asks you a question, he is not looking for information? It is a test, which means you need to think before you speak.
Okay, but Philip didn't get that lesson yet. So Philip answers him, "200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little."
And so 200 denarii was about eight months' wages for an average worker at the time. And somebody actually did the math of what you could purchase with 200 denarii as far as bread goes, and it would be barely enough to feed 10% of the crowd.
How do you know that's going to leave a lot of people upset?
But then it says one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish."
He's got a little Lunchable, right? Because barley loaves, you probably don't know this, but historically, barley loaves was food for the poor. The rich or the wealthy would have white bread; the poor would have barley loaves.
And so this was not a well-off kid coming with his surplus. This was a poor kid coming with his little sack lunch that Mom packed for him.
It says, "But what are they for so many?" Five barley loaves, two fish, what are they for so many?
And I don't know about you, but I've looked at my budget sometimes. I've looked at my income, and I've looked at my outgo, and I've said, "What is that for so many?" I've got three kids to feed, and this paycheck ain't going to cover.
Anybody ever been there before?
And Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about 5,000 in number.
And this number is just counting the men, but we safely assume there were women and children there. We know for a fact children were there. Why? Because it was a little boy's lunch, right? Like, so by default, that means there were more than just grown men there.
And so theologians will estimate around 20,000 people may have been in that field, all looking at Jesus, waiting for him to feed them.
And Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks—pause right there—what is giving thanks? Prayer, right? He's about to eat, so he's got to bless it. He's got to pray. Remember that for later. Also remember that he prayed first, too.
He distributed them to those who were seated, so also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost."
Don't you love it when God shows off? Like, he didn't just give them enough to tide them over till they got home. Like, I've done that with my kids sometimes—like just give them a little something to appease them until they can have a full meal.
That's not how Jesus operated. There, he gave them so they ate until they couldn't eat anymore, and there were still leftovers.
In fact, it says they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
That sounds like Thanksgiving at my mom's house—12 baskets of leftovers.
I'm telling you, when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!" Exclamation point. As if this was a great sentence.
And some of you have read that thinking, "Yeah, but this is a heartbreaking sentence for me." Because he says, "This is indeed the prophet," but is that who Jesus was? No, he's not the prophet; he's the Messiah.
But they missed it. See, they see this miracle of provision, and they think about Moses and the manna from heaven. Maybe they thought about Elisha. Elisha did a similar miracle where he fed a hundred men with 20 barley loaves.
And they're looking at Jesus, and they're saying, "He's another Moses. He's another Elisha. He's just another prophet sent by God to bless us."
In fact, the very next day, they go looking for Jesus so they can get more bread, 'cause Moses gave manna every morning. So they were expecting more bread from this new prophet, totally missing who he was.
And I just want to pause right here, 'cause what happens in that story is Jesus confronts them, and he says, "You're missing the point. It's not about bread; it's about me. The bread isn't the provision that you're chasing after; I'm the provision. I'm the one you're supposed to be chasing after."
And I've got this conviction that if Jesus leaves me hungry and he leaves me just broken, and he doesn't answer a single prayer that I pray, and he doesn't do another thing for me, I'm okay. You know why? Because he died for me so that I can live, and that right there is more than enough.
And so I just want to challenge you today before we go anywhere else in this message: who is Jesus to you? Why are you chasing after him? Are you chasing after him just because he gave you bread one time? Are you chasing after him just because he makes you feel good about yourself sometimes?
Or are you chasing him because he is the Messiah? He is the bread of life. That apart from him, we are dead in our sin, but in him, we have forgiveness and we have eternal life.
They saw a prophet, and they missed the Messiah. Today, don't miss who Jesus really is. It's not about the bread; it's about the bread of life. It's about Jesus. Don't miss the point today.
So our story continues. Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, once again showing they didn't know the point, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
And John just ends it there, but Matthew and Mark are telling the exact same story, and they add two words to the end of this sentence: "He withdrew again to the mountain by himself to pray."
And then Luke kind of shifts it all around. He ends the story, but then he starts the next story with, "Jesus was praying alone," and then he continues from there.
And so from all gospels, we see what does Jesus do after the miracle? What did Jesus do at the beginning of the miracle? What did Jesus do in the middle of the miracle? Remember that for later.
Okay, so when I was training for ministry, I guess is the best way to put it, I was in an internship at a church in Colorado. And there were like a hundred of us, all in our early 20s, all of us passionate about God, passionate about the Bible, and always together.
So in our free time, we would have, I guess what I would call debates. It was more like, you know, passionate conversation arguments, I guess. But we would always argue about stuff that we couldn't prove—like stuff in the Bible that the Bible just kind of leaves hanging. Like, there is no right or wrong answer.
So we would just argue about stuff. Like, so in the creation story, it says that Adam named the animals. And so we would argue about how long would that take him? Like, how much time did he have to spend naming the animals?
And so then that conversation actually devolved into another argument that we had. 'Cause when we read that Adam named the animals, all of us, I think all of us instinctually think that means that he saw an elephant and he said, "That's an elephant." Like he was naming the species of animals.
But the Bible doesn't actually tell us that. It just says he named them. So it's equally possible that an elephant walked by and Adam looked at it and said, "Steve. He looks like a Steve to me."
Anybody else ever think about these things? Just me?
But we had some passionate arguments about what happened in the garden. But one argument that we had that lasted—I remember it distinctly—it lasted over an hour. We were arguing about this miracle, about this story, and we were arguing when did the bread and the fish multiply? At what moment?
So was it when Jesus gave thanks, then all of a sudden it just, like, exploded into, like, five loaves turned into, like, five million loaves? Like, when did it just happen? Was it like, um, you know, like the slight-of-hand magicians that have, like, the handkerchief that they just keep pulling out of nowhere?
Like, was it a slight-of-hand thing where, like, Jesus just, like, gave out a piece of bread and then a piece of bread, and we're like, "Have no idea where the bread's coming from," but he's still just pulling it out? He reaches behind Judas's ear, he's like, "I got a fish. Here you go."
Like, slight-of-hand magic happening? I don't know. We're wondering, was it that they put it all in a basket, and then the basket functioned like—you remember when Elisha is with the widow and she has a jar of oil? And as long as she's pouring it, it never runs out?
Was that like, was that a basket of that where, like, you just keep pulling bread and fish out? I got a lot of people saying, "Yeah, that's what it was." Let's argue about it, 'cause I don't know.
So we had this argument for an hour, and here the conclusion we came to was, "I don't know. I wasn't there."
But there is something that we do know about this story, or I feel confident in saying that this miracle required two things to happen: Jesus had to do something, and this little boy had to do something.
And I think today we play both parts. We're supposed to do what Jesus did, and we're supposed to do what the boy did.
See, if Jesus doesn't pray, then how are five loaves and two fish going to feed 5,000-plus people? It ain't happening—not with leftovers.
If the little boy eats his own Lunchable instead of giving it to Jesus, what does Jesus multiply in the miracle? There's nothing to multiply.
If there is no prayer, there is no miracle. And if there is no obedience, there is no miracle.
And so if you're in need of a miracle today, here's what I want you to get. Because you may be like, "Why are we talking about a Lunchable here?" Here's the principle that I want you to get: if you are in need of a miracle, whether it's financial or any other kind, you must pray and obey.
You can't get the miracle without prayer and obedience. You need to pray and obey.
So I think that there are four categories of people when it comes to this idea of pray and obey. Four categories of people. See if you can find yourself on this graph.
I feel like in a finance series we should have graphs, right? Right? I don't have any numbers, though, so I'm really failing. But instead, we got this line graph.
So a vertical line—this represents prayer. So top is prayer; bottom is no prayer. Right? So pointing to God—God good, prayer good—down, Satan, devil, no prayer bad. Okay, just keep you with me. You're tracking?
All right, the horizontal line, we've got obedience on this side, and we've got disobedience on this side. No offense to this side of the room; that was unintentional.
Okay, so where do we find people on here? So the first category is people that won't pray and won't obey. And I was trying to find a nice way to put this, and I couldn't, so I'm just going to be honest with you. If this is you, if you find yourself in this category, you are what I would lovingly call a bum.
And if I offend you today, I apologize; that's not my intent. But if it quacks like a duck, it looks—if you're not willing to do the things you're supposed to do and you won't even ask God to help, you're a bum.
I'm making a lot of people angry; this is great. All right, so let's continue. We're on a roll; let's keep going.
All right, so people that will pray but they don't obey. Oh man, these people, they are personified by the phrase, "Lord, bless this mess."
And some of you have that sign in your house, and now you're like, "I got to throw that thing away before Brent comes over."
But you're quick to pray, but you're slow to actually do the things you're supposed to do. Can I just tell you that prayer is not a substitute for hard work?
You're like the kid that doesn't want to study for the test, but he prays when he sits down at his desk that he gets an A. It's like the person that swipes the credit card and prays that God will bless you, and then you keep—man, that add-to-cart button on Amazon is worn out, and you keep clicking it and keep praying, "God, you better help me with my finances."
It's like going to work late every day, doing a poor job the whole time, and then praying God gives you a raise and a better job. It's like the person that has no budget, just spending money, and hoping and praying that the money is there, and when it's not, crying to God about it.
No obedience to God's instructions to be good stewards. No obedience to God's instruction to work as unto the Lord. No obedience to God's instructions to use wisdom. Just out there acting foolish and expecting God to make up the difference. Good luck with that.
All right, got one more group to upset. This is the don't pray but obey people. This is the people that I'm not going to God with my finances, but I'll do all the things the Bible tells me to do.
I'll do the things that the world tells me to do to have solid finances. So I'm in obedience; I'm doing the right things. But can I just—it's really only partial obedience because scripture tells us to submit all of our ways to God.
So if there's an area of your life you're not submitting to God, then that's not really obedience. And it says, "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything."
And so you're not praying about this thing. You're not praying about everything. And it even says you don't get what you want because you don't ask God.
Are you actually asking God for the things that you need, or are you just counting on the credit card or the debit card or the paycheck to be able to give you the things you need? So you don't bother asking God.
That's not very good obedience to me. God says no prayer, no miracle.
Now maybe you're saying, "Brent, this is your pushback." You're saying, "But Brent, I don't need a miracle in my finances. I'm good. Like, I make good money. I work hard. I budget well. I keep my spending in check. I'm good. I don't need God in my finances."
I'm just going to push on you in that process with two things.
Number one, I believe that any area of your life that is not submitted to God will end up fighting for the place of God. That's why scripture says you cannot serve two masters. You can't serve God and money, right?
And so when I go to my finances as my provision, I'm no longer going to God as my provider, and that's a dangerous place to be in.
And so even when you don't need God to show up in your finances, you still go to him as an act of submission to say, "You know, some of us say, 'You know, I'm going to take my money and make my budget for what I want to do with it,' but prayer is saying, 'God, I'm returning to you what is yours, and I'm asking you what you want your servant to do with your money.'"
That's a paradigm shift and an act of submission.
The second thing that I would push on you is that there may be some things that God wants to do in you and through you that he can't do unless you have more than you need.
And so you've got enough right now, but maybe God needs you to have more than enough so that you can actually become the answer to somebody else's financial prayer.
You may not need a miracle, but you might be a boy with a Lunchable that God wants to use to feed thousands.
And here's the catch: if you don't pray, you don't know about it. You miss it. Don't be that guy.
All right, our last category: pray and obey. And this is where we all want to be. This should be where we live as people of God—prayer and obedience.
We pray and obey. I do my part, and then I ask God to do his. I do what I can do, and then I trust him to do what only he can do.
And I can say humbly—this is not brag—I can humbly say my wife and I, we've lived our entire lives in this category: pray and obey.
And what we've learned is something that I think you need to get today because some of you are frustrated with God because you feel like you're doing this, but you're not seeing blessing, and you're still struggling.
Can I just say doing this doesn't mean you don't still struggle? Doing this doesn't mean there aren't hard times. This is just the appropriate way to go through life, to process through this.
And when we do this, we are relying on God even in the hard times.
And so my wife and I, about two years into our marriage, we moved to South Bend, Indiana, to work for a church there. And things were going great until, in a simultaneous moment, we bought our first home—yay!—and we took a significant unexpected pay cut.
No, anybody ever been there before? Like your expense just skyrocketed and your income just plummeted at the same time? Well, that was us.
And so we were in this category still. We were being obedient to everything we knew to do. We still put God first in our finances every single paycheck. We put him first.
We lived generously even above that. We got on a budget. My wife hates the word budget because of the time of that budget.
Like our budget now is a lot more fun than the budget then because the budget then was basically, "Don't do anything. Like, don't breathe. You can have water if it's free." Like, that was the budget we were on.
We cut things out of our lives. We cut cable before cutting cable was cool, right? Like, we cut things out of our lives that we didn't need. We started cutting things out of our lives that we probably did need.
We sacrificed everywhere we could. I went out; I bought a little bicycle from Walmart so that I could ride a bike to work to save money on gas, even though that was an hour-long trip—hour-plus trip on bike.
That's when I learned that you need to bring a change of clothes 'cause you get to work really sweaty, and nobody appreciates that.
And we were doing all of these things, and guess what? Still wasn't enough. There was still—we were still looking at what we have and what we need, and they just don't match.
And so that's when I got a second job. And so while working for the church during the day, I got a job with a member of the church who had started a company, Mr. Fire Safety, and we were cleaning restaurant exhaust systems in the middle of the night.
So kitchens with industrial stoves and grills and all that, the smoke and the vapor that goes up in the ductwork is actually grease. And so when it gets in the ductwork, it cools and then it solidifies back into grease, and it creates grease fires.
And so if a kitchen burns down, most likely it was because they didn't clean the grill or the ductwork properly. So it's actually mandated by the government for people like me to come in and pressure wash it for you, and so that's what we did.
So my typical day was to ride my bike to the church, work 9 to 5, get back on my bike, ride it home a little after 6:00. I would have dinner with my wife; we'd hang out for a bit. Then I would take a nap, and if we had a kitchen to clean that night, then I would get up and head out around 11:00, midnight to go pressure wash grease out of a dirty kitchen until about 3:00, 4:00 in the morning.
Then I would come back home, and I would take a shower. I would take a nap if there was time, and I would take another shower with degreaser because that's nasty.
If you ever saw this show Dirty Jobs, my job was an episode of Dirty Jobs. Like, nobody wants it.
And so I get back on my bike and ride into my real job. That was hard work, and guess what? It still wasn't enough.
And we're in this category; we're doing all the right stuff. And we could have easily gotten bitter at God. We could have easily gotten mad at God that, "Man, look at what we're doing," and yet it's still not enough.
But instead, we just prayed. We said, "God, we've done everything we know to do. We've gone as far as we can go. I need you to make up the difference."
And time after time after time after time, that's exactly what God did. And we lived, and we struggled, and we fought, and we worked hard. We did all of this stuff, but we also saw miracle after miracle.
I can't tell you how many times, you know, we were just sitting at home, no food, and hungry, and somebody would just drop off groceries for no reason. He said, "I felt like God was telling me to do this. I don't know why."
CU, you guys are fine 'cause nobody knew—not really.
I don't know if you've ever had this conversation, but my wife and I, there were some times when there was no money and there was no food. So we'd look at each other, and we'd say, "Well, I guess we're fasting today."
So like, I'll be honest, like a lot of my fasting was not a spiritual decision; it was a financial decision. But we'd be in that moment of we have nothing, and then the phone would ring, and one of our students from the youth ministry—we were youth pastors at the time—one of our students would be calling us saying, "Hey, a bunch of us are on our way over to your house to hang out. Hope you're home. Don't worry; we're bringing pizza."
You know how humbling it is when the kids you're supposed to be caring for are actually caring for you, and they don't even realize it?
There was one time I remember where we were literally—we were in tears of just the struggle, and I said, "Even if Jeff, the guy that runs the business, even if he called me right now with a kitchen for us to clean, I have no way of getting there. We have no gas in the car. We wouldn't even be able to make money if we had an opportunity to."
And right as we're having that conversation, the phone rings, and it's Jeff. He says, "Hey, I got a kitchen for you to clean."
And my heart broke. And then he says, "It's actually out by you, and so I'll just pick you up on the way, and they're paying cash with this one, so there'll be cash in your pocket when you come home."
Now, does that mean I could buy a fancy car and we could, you know, live it up, eat in? No, like it was still struggle, but God provided time and time again.
At the same time, my wife and I were going through the immigration process for her, and if you've ever gone through that, you know it's expensive and it's crazy.
And so there were three different times we needed an exact dollar amount that—in order for, like, the filing fees or the attorney fees—and we were so short that there was no way we were going to get the money. Three different times, three different miracles, God provided the exact dollar amount that we needed in a different way each time.
Three totally unique miracles, and we experienced that over and over again.
So I just want to caution you that just because you're living here doesn't mean it's easy, but this is still the right place to be. It's better than any other place on that category.
And I got to this place where I realized that obedience requires some hard work. That's what obedience really is; it's work.
In fact, I fell in love with this quote by St. Augustine. He said, "Pray as though everything depended on God; work as though everything depended on you."
And this kind of became my life motto: like I'm going to work hard, and I'm going to pray hard, and I'm not going to neglect either side of the equation. I'm going to do both.
And so let me break this down. Working hard—you know what that means? Working as though everything depends on you means working hard.
And that means you show up on time. It means that you are helpful at your workplace. It means that you have a positive attitude while you're working because you're working unto the Lord.
You don't have to like your job; you don't have to like the people on your job, and you can still have a positive attitude because you're working unto the Lord.
You can be the solve problems for your employer instead of being a problem for your employer. That's what it means to work hard.
And when one job isn't enough to pay the bills, start cleaning restaurant exhaust systems in the middle of the night.
But you work hard.
The second thing you do is you make smart financial decisions. Smart financial decisions means you get on a budget and you stick to the budget.
Okay? And if you don't know how to do that, Google Joe Sangle budget, and there's tons of resources there. Call the church; ask to talk to Carlton. Carlton would love to walk you through budgeting. It's like his passion in life—budgets. It's going to be great.
But here's what you need to know: this is my advice for you. Having a budget is like having a Bible. Having it doesn't do you any good; you have to use it for it to make a difference in your life.
Okay? So get the budget and use it.
And then making smart financial decisions—the second thing that it means is—it's kind of a deep thought, so bear with me—stop spending money you don't have.
This is my deep financial advice for all of you today.
Okay? So work hard, get on a budget, and stop spending money you don't have. And right there, you can solve a lot of your financial issues.
Okay? So when I want something but I don't have the money for it, I have one of two options.
Number one, I can get over it.
Okay? So Brent would love to own an Aston Martin DB7 Vantage Coupe. Like, that is just like—it's a classic; it's just a beautiful car. That is not in the budget. That ain't never going to be in the budget.
Okay? So what do I do? I get over it. I climb back in my Chrysler Town and Country minivan that's paid off.
Okay? Come on now. No car note is a good thing.
Second option—okay, second option is I don't have money for this thing, but I really want it. What can I do? Save.
Yeah, thank you. Save for it. Like, I really want to go on a vacation with my family. We don't in the budget right now. Every paycheck, I'm going to put aside some money till we have enough money to go on that vacation.
This is the brilliant financial advice that I have for you today.
But those are smart financial decisions. A dumb financial decision would be swiping your credit card and buying things that you can't afford to impress people you don't even like.
Okay? So make smart financial decisions.
And then number three, I would say put God first. And I think that this plays into hard work because I'm not going to ask God to bless something that I have not submitted to him first.
Okay? Why would God—if I'm not trustworthy with what God has already given me, why would I expect God to give me more?
So I need to get this thing right first.
Now, putting God first is the Old Testament principle of tithing, and there's this big controversy over whether or not tithing is a New Testament command.
And there's people that get all passionate about it and argue that it's not, and I'm totally fine with that. Totally fine. Whatever your interpretation of scripture is around the tithe, no big deal to me, as long as you have a correct interpretation of what the New Testament does command.
You know what the New Testament does command? Generosity.
Thought experiment for you: is generosity giving more or giving less?
Oh, isn't that interesting?
And so I'm fine with you saying tithing is not a New Testament command; it was only for the Old Testament in the same way that murder—"Thou shalt not murder"—is just an Old Testament command. It's not applied in the new.
It's not. Jesus said, "Don't get angry at somebody."
Right? In the same way, adultery is not a New Testament command. Jesus said, "Don't look at a woman with lust."
Another thought experiment for you is, is it harder for you not to kill that guy or just not be angry at him?
It's harder to not be angry, I hope, right?
Man, I don't know all of y'all. What's harder for you to do? Not sleep with somebody that's not your wife or not look at somebody inappropriately?
Okay? So clearly what Jesus calls us to is greater than what the Old Testament calls us to.
And then we get to tithing, and we say, "Well, just give whatever you want." That's generosity. That doesn't make any sense to me.
If Jesus elevated every one of those commands to a heart issue, then I want to make sure that it doesn't become a heart problem for me and that I submit my finances to God so it doesn't try and take the place in my heart of God.
And so for me, this is my personal conviction: I don't think generosity—which is the command in the New Testament—I don't think generosity begins until 11%. Up until then, you're just being obedient to the bare minimum.
So take it or leave it.
That's so work as though everything depends on you. Work hard, make smart financial decisions, put God first.
But guess what? You're not done working because you still need to pray as though everything depends on God.
Prayer is part of what you're supposed to do. And we pray because we need God to step in. We need him to do what only he can do.
Maybe that's just to give you wisdom on how to budget or how to plan out your finances or what to purchase or what not to purchase.
Or maybe you find yourself in a place like Saul and I were in where you're like, "God, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do. I'm doing everything right, and it's still not enough. I need you to provide. I need you to get me through this because without your intervention, I'm not going to make it."
And so we pray. We say, "God, I need your help."
In fact, Edwin Harvey said that prayer—a day without prayer is a day without blessing, and a life without prayer is a life without power.
And so prayer is saying, "God, I need your blessing, and I need your power in my life. I need your blessing, and I need your power in my finances because there's not enough bread to feed everybody unless you show up."
The only question that I have as we close is when should you be praying? Where in this process should you be praying?
1 Thessalonians 5:16: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
Some of you have been asking for what God's will for your life is. Might I present to you God's will for your life? Pray without ceasing.
You know what that means? That means we cover it in prayer.
And what I love about the story that we read today in John chapter 6 is that that is how the miracle is framed. Jesus goes off to the mountain to pray before anything happens.
Right in the middle of the need and the miracle, what does he do? He prays. He gives thanks. The miracle happens, and what does Jesus do? He goes right back up to the mountain to pray again.
He sets the example, so we just follow it.
And so pray as though everything depended on God. We're going to pray first. That means before the paycheck hits my bank account, God and I are going to have a conversation about this money and about the needs in my life.
We're going to pray through. That means in the middle of the issue, in the middle of the need, I'm going to go to God, and I'm going to ask him for help, and I'm going to keep on praying.
I'm going to pray through until there is a breakthrough, until there is a miracle scene. I'm going to keep on praying.
But we're not going to stop there 'cause we're going to pray last, too. After the miracle happens, we're going to celebrate, but we're going to go right back to God and say, "Thank you, God. Thank you for the blessing in my life. Thank you for what you—I didn't know I was going to get through that, how I was going to get through that month, and you provided. You did a miraculous thing in my life. Thank you, Jesus. God, you gave me an opportunity to make an investment, and I would have missed it if it wasn't for you. So thank you for opening my eyes to see that opportunity. God, thank you for what you've given me."
We pray last.
So we pray and we obey. It means we do the stuff that we can do. We work hard, we make good smart financial decisions, we put God first, and we cover the whole thing in prayer.
That's what we do. We pray and obey.
You know what God does? God then shows up and does the unexpected.
For Saul and I, I didn't expect God to provide by giving me a second job cleaning kitchens, but he did. I didn't expect kids to bring me pizza, but they did.
Right? He does the unexpected. He also does the unachievable. If any—we had sat down with a financial planner at that time, they would have said there is no way to make what you make and what you need to spend match. This does not work.
And yet God did it.
There are things that we couldn't achieve on our own. God provided, and he does the unbelievable.
Wish we had time to tell you all of the crazy stories of miracles, of things God provided in the craziest ways for my wife and I.
And we saw things that literally are unbelievable. And it wasn't just financial stuff. I mean, we saw miracle after miracle provision from God that you can't put a dollar amount to—all because we lived our lives in this place of we're going to pray and we're going to obey.
No prayer, no miracle. No obedience, no miracle.
And so as we close today, that's what we're going to do. We're going to pray, but then it's up to you to go and obey.
And maybe there's something that we talked about today that you're going, "Man, I haven't been doing that well." This is your reminder to do it—to actually obey, to put in the hard work, to do the things that you're supposed to do, and to pray.
So let's cover this in prayer.
Father God, we just thank you because you are such a good, gracious, loving God. And that even in our needs, even in the struggle, even in our worst moments, God, you show up in mighty ways.
And so today, we are just so thankful for your provision up to this point, but we recognize right now for the people in the room that are in need of a miracle today, that God, you would be the miracle worker that they need.
God, that you would show up right in the middle of their need, right in the middle of their circumstances, that you would do something that is unexpected, that you would do something that's unachievable, that you would do something that's unbelievable for us, that we would just be in awe of you and your provision.
But God, we're not going to sit back and wait for you to do something. We're going to take action. We're going to do what we're supposed to do and then trust you to do what only you can do.
So Father, right now, I just pray for conviction in the room. I pray that your Holy Spirit will begin to point out the things that we've been doing wrong, the things that we haven't been doing.
Bring us back into a place of alignment with you where we can confidently say, "You know what? I am praying, and I am obeying, and now I'm expecting a miracle."
So Father, we put it all into your hands today. In Jesus' name, amen.
Let's worship together. Can you stand to your feet as we close this service out in faith? Let's decree; let's believe what we're saying.
on Nov 20, 2023
