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Hey, hey, hey, I'm so glad that you're in church this weekend.

It's the best place to be, mainly because it's air-conditioned in this auditorium.

Luke chapter 19, Luke chapter 19, a famous passage, verse 1.

You know, the thing about pastors is they all have their favorite stories and favorite illustrations, and you've got to really watch yourself, because as you get older, you forget.

whether you've told that story or illustration or not.

And then you get a little older and you don't care whether you've told that story or illustration because you like it.

But there are some stories, illustrations, books that have impact on your life as a pastor and you just never forget it.

So it's always coming back.

And one of my favorite, just little examples, and I think it represents our condition in the West, is that little story about the Indian father and mother, Indian meaning from India, And the little boy watches his father get up every morning.

This is so crucial, guys, where we are right now.

He watches his father get up every morning, and his father kneels before this mantle.

And there are these two little statues.

And if you know anything about Hinduism, you usually have, the statues are usually a mixture between a god and a man or a man and an animal.

So that usually represents, I think there are 330 million gods in Hinduism alone.

So it's hard to keep up with them.

But this...

This little boy sees his father every day get up in the early in the morning and he kneels down and he prays and he speaks to these idols and then he goes off to work.

And on one occasion, before the father was going on a long business trip, the boy went to his father and said, Dad, why do you kneel down and talk to these statues and pray to They're just statues.

They're nothing.

They can't see anything.

They can't hear anything.

And they definitely don't have a sense of volition to where they can actually accomplish anything.

Of course, the father smacks the boy.

boy on the head, it says, that's blasphemy.

Don't you ever speak those words again in this house.

His father goes away and then his father returns.

And when his father returns, he looks at the statues on the mantle and one of them has been crushed.

And there's a stick in the hand of the other one.

And the father comes to the son and says, what's going on?

Who has desecrated our mantle, our idols in our home, our gods?

And the little boy said, well, it's obvious, isn't it?

The one statue got mad at the other statue and smashed it.

And the father, of course, says, don't be silly.

That statue can't see, can't hear, can't do anything.

And the little boy said, that's what I've been trying to tell you.

Okay, so it's one of my favorite illustrations because it reminds us that we all have idols.

You know, a book that really convicted me was a book written by Tim Keller called Counterfeit Gods and I'd never thought that I had any idols.

I mean, I don't live in a country like India.

I don't have these mantles and idols in my house.

and yet he reminds you that, oh yeah, man, we all have idols.

It's something.

We worship something.

And then I like to, the reference I often make is the Ernest Becker's book, which has had a huge impact on me, primarily because, well, he won a Pulitzer Prize, but he also was a secular atheist.

And as a secular atheist, he tells us that America's in danger.

This is back in the 70s, because it's God is quickly becoming sex, money, and power.

And he says in the book, that man has to trust, serve, and worship something.

Of course, when I was in seminary, you have to take a lot of classes in philosophy to understand how thinking over time has evolved and then how to contextualize the Christian message of the gospel into that kind of philosophical thinking.

And one of the men we're forced to read is a guy named Frederick Nietzsche.

And he wrote a long time ago that with the absence of God, growing in Western culture, that we would replace God.

He didn't, guess what, out of the three, Nietzsche said the day would come when we would replace God, not with sex or power, but with...

Money.

Now let me read a quote.

What induces one man to use false weights, another to set his house on fire after having insured it for more than its value, while three-fourths of our upper class indulge in legalized fraud?

What gives rise to all of this?

it is not real want for their existence is by no mean precarious, but they are urged on day and night by a terrible impatience at seeing their wealth pile up so slowly and by an equally terrible longing and love for these heaps of gold.

What was once done for the love of God is now done for the love of money, for the love of that which at present affords us the highest feeling of power and a good conscience.

And so there have been innumerable writers in our culture today.

who continue to point out that the culture of greed has been eating away at our souls and our country, so that now we're on the verge of economic collapse.

You know, that's been a message for like 30 years now, that what would ruin us would actually not be sex or power, but ultimately would be greed.

And so now, we're accused of being thieves and gluttonous.

Target and Walmart lose half a billion dollars every year to theft.

Stay with me here for a moment because I think you'll have your eyes open the way I did this week in some of my research.

Retailers in America lose $100 billion a year due to theft.

And this is often referred to as blue-collar crime.

But that's not where the big crime is.

The big crime in this country is white-collar criminal activity.

People who already have what blue collar people think they want will make them happy.

Still more than blue collar theft.

They still even more.

And in a matter of fact, according to Forbes, white collar theft.

happens, when it happens, it's committed by, 7% of it's committed by women.

Now I say that to show you how pure and righteous women really are, because that's such a small percentage, they're the smallest.

Women usually don't do this, and there's a reason for that.

When it comes to white collar theft, big theft, three-fourths are white males.

62% own their own homes and have a college degree.

94% are unique to their families.

In other words, there's no criminal activities in their family.

They've chosen.

So you can't say, well, it's hereditary.

They were taught that.

No, they did it in and of their own volition.

One third of white collar crime is from CEOs and executives who have the highest salaries.

So they have the big house and the big neighborhood and they still, it's not enough.

One half of all corporate fraud is from executive level positions.

The guys are in charge of making the biggest bucks.

Now here's the question I have for you.

What do you think you would do if you were your CEO of a major corporation, you got money, your kids go to private school, you're in the best communities, you drive the best cars.

Would you, most of us think, oh, if I got there, I would think I've arrived and I would be happy and content.

No you wouldn't.

Chances are high that you would not say that, that you would be thinking like this, how can I get even more?

We in the West are addicted to money and we can't see it because greed is almost impossible to see in your own life because there are powerful psychological, sociological dynamics at work.

And one of those is everybody lives in some kind of an economic bracket.

Everybody in the room, you're in some kind of bracket.

Here's the thing though, you always want to graduate to the bracket above yours.

You're never content, whatever the bracket is, to stay where you are.

You want more.

So once you can afford to live in these particular neighborhoods and drive this car and your kids go to this particular school and participate in this kind of social life, you find yourself surrounded by quite a number of people who have more money and stuff than you do.

So you no longer compare yourself to the rest of the world, because if you did, you'd realize how rich you are.

You compare yourself to those in your bracket.

And you always want to get to the bracket above.

and you can reason and think like that no matter how much or how little you live or have.

And as a result, they tell us that most Americans define themselves as lower to middle class.

Only 2% of the entire population consider themselves to be upper class.

But the rest of the world is not fooled.

When somebody visits here from another part of the world, they are staggered.

to see the level of materialistic comfort you and I, the majority of Americans, have come to view as a necessity.

Got to have it.

Can't live without it.

So the bottom line...

The social analyzers of our day tell us that Americans are just downright greedy.

That's our idol.

And Jesus talked much more about money than he did about sex.

You say, oh, I'd never know that.

You talk about the other more than you talk about money.

Well, that's because I'm scared of you.

Everyone should begin with a hypothesis.

Everyone in America should begin with this hypothesis.

and that is this, greed could be a problem for me.

Now, I'm going to jump right to the end as if we were ending this message, and I want to tell you the conclusion at which I've arrived in my ministry years, and that's this, greed surrenders to generosity at the point of true conversion.

greed surrenders to generosity at the point of true conversion.

Now, go back to Luke 19.

Let's let the Bible do the talking here.

We're introduced to a man by the name of Zacchaeus.

And let's say it together.

Zacchaeus was a wee little man.

and he's a tax collector.

He's actually, according to the text, a managing director of the IRS.

In Luke 19, 1, Jesus entered Jericho, was passing through, and a man by the name of Zacchaeus, he was chief tax collector and was wealthy.

He's climbed the ladder.

I don't know if you heard about the guy, again, one of my favorite illustrations.

He had a guilty conscience because he had cheated on his taxes the year before.

So he writes a letter to the IRS and he says, quote, I have not been able to sleep because last year when I filled out my tax return, I misrepresented my income and closed this $500.

If I still can't sleep, I'll send you the rest.

So Zacchaeus is the chief tax collector.

He's the guy, the IRS.

He receives the letters.

and we're told that he lives in the high-rent district of Jericho.

By the way, that's where the wealthy lived during Jesus'time.

A couple other things you need to know.

He's viewed as a traitor to his people because the Romans levied oppressive taxes to transfer the wealth from the Jews to the Romans.

That's how they got you.

They just taxed you to death until everything you own, they own, and then they kept you uneducated and in poverty to rule over you.

It's the Marxist way.

Now, what's interesting is this is the history of the Jewish people almost from day one.

The Jews have had a way of accruing wealth only to have it stolen.

1938, the Jews were forced to register their wealth so that the Nazis could systematically steal it.

In fact, non-Jewish historians tell us that the Jews, unintentionally of course, funded one-third to one-half of the Holocaust.

$25 billion stolen from the Jews.

That would equal $525 billion in today's currency.

Now, in the days of Jesus, the only wealthy people that lived in Palestine were the Romans and their collaborators.

So Zacchaeus is a collaborator.

He actually helps the Romans to steal the money from his own people.

So the way it worked in those days is you would bid on tax collecting.

As a Jewish person, you would go to the Romans and say, I think I can get $5,000 a month for Rome out of this, out of my people.

And they would say, okay, you're the highest bidder.

Anything you get above and beyond, you get to keep.

So Zacchaeus could go and try to collect 10,000, 5,000 belongs to him.

These guys get wealthy very quickly.

In fact, I go back, we read stories now.

One of the things I did when I was in Israel the last time was I got to attend the Holocaust Museum, which is a museum like no other museum in the world when it comes to genocide.

Six levels, six stories.

And as you go through there, you start to realize that there were many Jews who collaborated with the Germans.

Did you know that during the Holocaust?

To turn in their own people and report business owners for the sake of staying alive and getting wealthy, getting rich.

Books, volumes are written about the lives of these people.

Of course, then you have a guy like Oskar Schindler who puts his life on the line to save people who don't even belong to his own tribe.

Zacchaeus was one of those people, which explains in verse 3, he wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree.

Now, here's my question to Zacchaeus.

Why is it necessary to climb a tree?

Just go through the crowd to the front, kneel down, and you can see everything.

Well, you know the reason why, right?

They would have knocked him around like a metal ball in a pinball machine.

If they saw him, oh, they're not going to let him take front row position.

In order to contextualize, think about this.

Think about the Dodgers winning the World Series, and there's a parade, and you go to see it, and a Giants fan comes all the way through and tries to take front row position.

What are they going to do to him?

he's going to get punished.

And so that's how they felt about Zacchaeus. So what does he do?

The Bible tells us he climbs a tree.

Now, this is a pretty big deal in traditional cultures, because in traditional cultures, it was not about freedom and rights.

It was about honor and dignity.

a grown man would never climb a tree ever.

This story doesn't do it for you and me because we don't get that.

But Jesus'audience, man, they get it.

They understand this story.

You would never do that.

Folks, let me contextualize it again for you.

That's like Donald Trump coming to town and Hillary Clinton climbing a tree to see him.

Okay, that's pretty good contextualization, isn't it?

That's just not gonna...

So whatever's happening in Zacchaeus'life, whatever's happening in his life, there's desperation.

Now, why is he desperate?

Well, let's go again.

I wouldn't want anybody to sing a song about me and say, Jeff Vines was a wee little man and a wee little man was he.

I would not want, I don't think any man would want a song written about them with those words.

You wonder what kind of life Zacchaeus had.

He was short, small.

Did people look down on him?

Were they condescending to him?

Was he ridiculed, belittled, bullied for most of his life?

And did this drive him to prove that he mattered, that he was a big man, that he would show the townspeople that he has power?

Because man, if you want to show the hometown crowd that you have power, being a tax collector would definitely do it.

Because when you go to their door, you can say, you owe me what I say you owe me.

And if you don't deliver, the Roman guards will be here within the hour and they'll punish you.

I have control over you.

See how big I am.

I control whether you live or die.

Hey, have you ever gone back maybe to your hometown?

Some of you maybe grew up here, but you ever gone back and okay, let me just not say that I have.

I went back when I was 30 years old and there was a, there was a guy.

that was just one of those arrogant punks who bullied everybody and act like he owned the world.

And you'd think because I'm a Christ follower, I would have mercy and grace, but I was in my late twenties and I hadn't gotten there yet.

So I went back home and I pulled into the service station right downtown Elizabethan, you know, where all the action's happening.

And I started to pump the gas and out came this person.

I don't want to use their name because you never know who's watching.

Out comes this person.

He's going to, it's back in the days when you actually, they pumped your gas.

and let's use a fictitious name, Charles, what are you doing while I work here?

Man, there was something in me that said, yeah, you do.

Who's the boss man now?

You know, it's just, oh, the terrible hatred and jealousy and envy that's in all of us is probably only matched by the greed that is in all of us.

Something happened to Zacchaeus and he felt like he was getting the ultimate retribution.

The problem is money had become his idol and it gives him that sense of power and his significance and he worships it because of what it can do for him.

But if you take away that position and you take away that money and power, he knows all he is is a wee little man.

who's a scared little boy on the inside that is afraid that if he doesn't have his money, he won't matter, that there's no power, there's no significance, there's no reason for living.

So I'm suggesting to you that Jesus tells the story because of the context, because it's just not working for Zacchaeus.

even though he has all the money and the power, it's not working.

It never does.

The death cloud still hangs over him.

He knows that he's not going to be able to take it with him.

And he's strongly Jewish.

So he would have a passion for the rabbis and for their teaching and their explanation of what happens after we die.

He probably has no friends because he's betrayed everyone.

They hate him.

His own family would have rejected him.

His own family would have said, you've You're a traitor to us.

You're not welcome in this home anymore.

If you ever watch the Jesus movies, or not Jesus, what's it called?

The Chosen, you'll notice that Matthew's relationship with his father is very strange because he's a tax collector.

He's betrayed his father and the people of his nation.

And so we're told, think about this.

He hears about this rabbi named Jesus and the word on the street about Jesus is he's a pretty big deal.

He might be the most important rabbi ever.

And this rabbi, word on the street again, is that he loves everybody, prostitutes and tax collectors, that he's actually kind to strangers, that he loves the unlovable, and that he actually eats and has meals with sinners.

So the drama, Jesus comes along, he's coming to town, and there's a crowd of mainly respectable religious people.

all of whom will feel superior to prostitutes and tax collectors.

but instead of addressing them, giving them his attention, this rabbi singles out the most notorious center in the crowd.

Don't you love Jesus?

Oh, this is cool.

He doesn't talk to the other rabbis, doesn't talk to the professional religious people, zooms in right on this tax collector outcast that's sitting up in a tree, and he says, we all know it, Zacchaeus, you come down, for I'm coming to your house today.

Right?

We sang that song.

what would that have done to Zacchaeus?

Suddenly, I think the reason Jesus tells this story is because Zacchaeus, and this is not a parable, by the way, this is an actual historical happening, but the way, the reason I think the Holy Spirit inspires this to be in our text is to remind us of how Jesus loves people who are far from God much more than we do.

and how Jesus was willing to choose the least virtuous person to enter into a relationship and to come to his house in order to teach Zacchaeus that there's an acceptance and a belonging that comes by grace, not through money, power, or position.

whatever happens in between the lines, it works.

Because verse 8 says, Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I've cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.

Every time I read that, I think, why would he do that?

I mean, seriously, why would he do that?

We're not given the details, but what we do know is to give 50% to the poor is far beyond the 10% required by the Mosaic Law.

he's off the charts generous.

And then he says, I'll give back four times what I took from others.

That's 300% interest.

That's far beyond the 100% that you're required to give back.

And of course, when he says this, Jesus responds by saying, today salvation has come to this house.

Now notice, salvation does not come to this house because he gave to the poor and returned what had been stolen.

That would be work salvation.

Salvation had already come to the house of Zacchaeus, and his perspective on his money was proof of that reality.

You see where I'm going with this?

Money no longer controlled him.

It wasn't his God.

He realized then and there, I can live without this.

So Zacchaeus meets the real Savior, and as a result, immediately, he finds forgiveness and hope and belonging and security.

It's that famous line, why do you care what the peasants think about you when you have the love and acceptance of the king?

suddenly everything he's always really wanted happens in his relationship with Jesus.

Dr.

Tim Keller in Counterfeit Gods says, Zacchaeus went from accruing wealth at the expense of people around him to serving others at the expense of his wealth.

And do you know why?

Because greed surrenders to generosity at the point of true conversion.

It's a cause and effect.

It happens because you've met Jesus.

In...

this story, I believe Jesus is describing a dynamic.

Now, follow me here.

Aren't you glad these generosity sermons are shorter?

Because you can't take much of this, okay?

But he's describing a dynamic that in my early ministry, I just kind of couldn't get my head around.

But now that I'm older and been around enough people, it's pretty clear to me, something happens to you when you meet the real Jesus.

that's why I've said a thousand times, I gave up manipulating and trying to coerce people to give a long time ago.

Now I'll still tell you about the needs, but I know in my heart, generosity is only gonna come when you've got a transformed heart.

So if I give you Jesus, more than I try to ask you to give, Jesus is the one that will transform your heart.

so that you see the light of life, and then generosity becomes cause and effect.

So I'm sitting around the table with somebody this last Sunday afternoon, and this is a person who's very generous.

And he said, you know, I like the series that you're doing, but I just can't understand why people can't get this whole idea of generosity.

I said, well, what do you mean?

He said, well, for me, God, even when he wasn't blessing my business like he is today, the thing that I understood from a very— young age when I first became a Christian is, I looked at the world out there and I thought, wow, I get to give to something that matters.

That's always been my attitude.

I get to be part of something that's good.

I'm going to heaven.

I'm with Jesus.

Eternity's real.

I get to be, God lets me.

invest in something that really matters.

I always talk about my friend, Mike Taylor, who passed away last year, who was with Air New Zealand.

And Mike was the first chairman of board of elders at the church that I pastored in New Zealand.

And Mike, man, Mike was the epitome of generosity because Mike worked for Air New Zealand.

And Mike said, I got all I need.

I got a basic house.

I drive a basic car.

I don't need anything else.

So every promotion I get and everything I get on top of this is going to the kingdom of God.

and that's exactly what he did the rest of his life.

I mean, we had to tell him, maybe you should buy some new clothes.

It's okay to buy some new clothes, but that was his attitude, and it was contagious on everyone because money is temporary.

Jesus is forever.

Now, I want you to notice what Zacchaeus, I love the story and I love breaking it down.

I learn new things every time I read it.

I want you to notice what Zacchaeus does not do.

Zacchaeus does not stand up and say, oh, Jesus, you've made such a big difference in my life.

Now, how much do I have to give?

In fact, if you read the book of Luke, you'll come to Luke 18, where Jesus tells the rich young ruler, give everything away.

And then in Luke 19, he tells the tax collector.

nothing.

The tax collector just stands up and says, I'm going to give 50% of everything I have to the poor.

And then in Luke 11 verse 42, he says, woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a 10th of your mint, rue, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God.

You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

So if you're a new disciple of Jesus, follower, you might come to this with the attitude.

So what is it?

How much do I give?

Do I give 10% like the tithe in Luke 11?

Do I give 50% half like Zacchaeus?

Or do I give all of it like the rich young ruler?

And if that's your question, you're still asking the wrong question.

It means you're still approaching God religiously.

You're still asking the question, if I'm going to follow Jesus, why do I have to give up?

When your heart is transformed by the gospel, you won't be phrasing the question like that.

You'll be saying, man, I got everything.

How much can I give away for something that's outside of myself?

And no pastor can coerce you or manipulate you in that area.

He can inspire you for a moment, but it'll only last for a moment.

The dream of my life has been to pastor a church where everybody asks that question.

and it's between you and God, but your relationship between you and God is one of God, you've blessed me so much.

How can I downsize and not want for so many things that aren't needs, but are just desires so that I can invest in something that really matters?

I did another little bit of a reading this week, and I, in the past, I always kind of read the articles that talk about the average in America, and then I started to realize, you know, we Californians, hey, did you notice how I said that?

We Californians.

I'm no longer a Tennessean.

I'm a Californian, man.

I'm going to die on California soil.

So I'm a Californian.

And so here's the question I have, since we are unique and special people, what's the average Californian's life like?

That's what I want to know.

Because we're very different than Oklahoma or Florida or New Jersey or wherever.

We're Californians.

All right.

Here's the truth about average Californians.

we spend $1,500 eating out on average every month.

Now, hold on.

You're going to say, whoa, now this is the average.

There's some wealthy people in California, okay?

So you've got to take the ones who are spending, I mean, you know, $500 bottle of wine up in San Francisco.

This is the average of California because Californians have a lot of money.

I don't think you realize.

they spend an average of $500 a month on couch entertainment.

Couch entertainment is when you're sitting on the couch and watching Netflix or Hulu and you're having potato chips.

It's all the package combined.

You'll average and some of you are thinking, no way, you need to get rocket money.

You know what that is?

I put that app on my phone and I was embarrassed because it'll track everything you spend and tell you what you spend it on.

I think there's a little man in there.

and he's just irritable because every once in a while, I feel like every once in a while, he said, really, you're spending money on coffee again?

Mind your own business.

So $500 a month on couch.

All right, we spend, on the average, $550 on alcohol a month.

Man, I am glad I don't drink.

I can't afford that.

But on the average, now remember, you've got to take the high and the low.

We spend $250 a month on coffee.

Now, unfortunately, I know that's true.

You say, Pastor Jeff, really?

Well, okay.

I have a latte every morning.

Five times 30, what is it?

That'd be 150.

Do you think that's the only coffee I have?

Oftentimes I need another one in the afternoon to put up with you people.

And so, no, I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

But rocket money doesn't lie.

Rocket money doesn't lie.

But here's the big one.

On the average, Californians spend somewhere around $18,000 a year on non-essentials.

Now, a non-essential is anything you don't need.

The total?

we're told that most Californians have somewhere, and I saw this too, so I know we don't live in the most, but on the average, Californians, $20,800 a year of expendable income.

I guess that's why we see traffic going to Vegas every week and traffic going to, what is it out there?

Mon, Mon, Palm Springs.

Aren't you glad I don't know the name just like that?

Oh.

this may not be accurate of you, may not be typical of you, but the issue is, I guarantee that you have more expendable income than you know.

I guarantee that it would shock you how much money you spend on things that are not neat.

And please, Pastor Jeff, you're telling me I can't have any fun in my life?

Not at all.

Here's the way I approach this.

You can have as much fun as you want.

But take a good look at how much you spend on things that aren't necessary.

Would you not be willing to invest at least that much in the kingdom of God?

That's all I'm saying.

So if I'm going to spend $250 on coffee, boy, I better at least spend $250 on things that really matter in the kingdom, at least.

The person who has genuinely grasped, and this is what years of ministry have taught me, and I think it's why I got such a peace about it.

is that the person who has genuinely grasped what Jesus has done for them does not ask, what do I have to give to be right with God?

But ask the question, man, what can I give away?

In what areas of my life can I downsize?

My home, my coffees, my movies, all the non-essentials.

How can I downsize my luxuries in order to invest in something that is greater?

Zacchaeus got it and he got it quickly.

Look, Lord, I get it.

I now know everything belongs to you.

All of life is a gift.

All of life is grace.

I mean, you're the most gracious rabbi I've ever met.

I want you to know, Jesus, you got my heart.

Because you have my heart, I know that money is not my God.

These are the two epiphanies that I've had in my ministry that I wanted to share with you this weekend.

Epiphany one, I shared last week that the tithe is the poor man's cross.

that when I hear people say, I can't afford to give, here's what they're actually saying, I can't afford to give without burdening myself.

We said this last week.

But you can't bear Christ's burden for the world without burdening yourself.

Generosity includes sacrifice.

Sacrifice, you give up something.

You say, are you telling me that only Christians are generous?

Not at all, but I can tell you this.

There are a lot of people who are extremely generous in your eyes, but it's costing them nothing.

I mean, if I'm Bill Gates and I give away a billion dollars, I got 25 billion more.

You see what I'm saying?

Generosity in the Christian community requires some sense of sacrifice.

Giving up something you love for something that you love even more.

And picking up your cross and following Jesus, at least to some degree, means bearing the burdens of the world and taking them up on your shoulders.

And there's no greater burden than helping somebody far from God come near.

You know, every time I go through a giving series, I make a long list and I say, look at all that one and all is doing.

And the reason I do that, I'm hoping I can inspire you, but you know, it never works for very long.

So yeah, there's a lot of good happening around here.

There's revival among our young adults.

There's God's pantry that's feeding and clothing.

There's addiction counseling.

There's ministry happening right now all over the world.

as a result of what One and All does, there's no doubt about it, we are discovering pockets all through Europe, all through the South Pacific, of young adults who are coming together and connecting with our media.

And there are people who are being impacted and influenced by the messages that come from this stage all over the world.

And it's only growing.

But the reality is, I just don't think that by trying to inspire you or trying to guilt you into giving ever has any real appeal.

that until you have a changed heart, a transformed heart to see Jesus as he really is, you might give for one, two, three weeks, but it won't be a habit of your life.

And that's the second epiphany.

No amount of vision casting or storytelling will transform your heart.

Stories and challenges can touch your heart, but they'll never transform it.

Direct appeals do not work either because the deep idols of our heart have to be dealt with at a heart level.

Now stay with me because some of you are thinking, man, this makes sense, but what am I to do?

Stay with me.

The only way to have your heart changed at a heart level is through faith in the gospel.

What does that mean?

When Paul wanted the people at Corinth to give, do you know what he did?

he didn't try to inspire them with a great story, and he definitely didn't guilt them because he was a man of faith and grace.

When he wanted people to give and be generous, he recapitulated the gospel.

2 Corinthians 8-9, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

Paul says, has your heart been melted by the simple reality that Jesus had infinite wealth?

And had he held on to it, we would have died in our spiritual poverty.

And if you continue to hold on to your wealth, thousands of people around you will die in their spiritual poverty.

Will you follow the way of the master and have your heart melted by his sacrifice so that in turn you begin to sacrifice for others?

Behavioral compliance to rules without a complete change of heart will be superficial and fleeting.

So that, what did Paul do in recapitulating the gospel?

The solution to stinginess is a reorientation, reorientation to the generosity of Christ in the gospel, how he poured out his wealth for you.

See, that's how a person is transformed from greed to generosity.

When suddenly the light is turned on and they realize, wow.

Jesus could have said no.

You do know that, don't you?

The reason Jesus was baptized was not because he was a sinner.

He was baptized.

That was his consecration and saying to the Father, I have grown in wisdom and stature, Luke chapter 2.

I am now in full comprehension of the call on my life.

to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world.

In his humanity, just like us, he grows in wisdom and stature.

And when he was baptized, he's saying to the Father, I give up my life so that those far from you can come near.

And that's why the Holy Spirit descended like a dove.

and a voice from heaven cried out and said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

Why is he pleased with his son?

Because his son is receiving the call of the father to die to himself and live for the father.

That is the call on your life and mine.

When Jesus is in the garden, remember what we said?

He's coming face to face with the fact that he's about to be abandoned.

He is abandoned by the father.

so that God turns his face away from his son, so he'll never have to turn his face away from us.

In that moment, he could have said, he said to the father, this is my will, let the cup pass.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

And the Bible says the angel strengthened him, and he went up with a resolve.

And at that point, he becomes quiet and resolved.

He doesn't defend himself.

He's led like a lamb to the slaughter because he's intent on dying to himself and living for the will of the father.

and the curtain in the temple that separated us from a relationship with the Father did not tear in two in the garden.

It did not tear in two until what?

The death of Jesus Christ into your hands, I commit my spirit.

Please listen to me.

This is one of the most important things I think I will ever say to you, and I love the fact that we've all grown up together.

You know that that I've been here now for almost 17 years, 18 years, and together you've watched me grow in my relationship with Jesus.

I've watched you so that now we have this relationship where I can just speak into your lives because you know that I love you and you know you're saved by grace through faith and you know Jesus died for you and you're good to go.

Okay?

It means I can say things like this.

What you need.

It's not more giving talks.

What you need is more of Jesus.

Just more of Jesus.

You know, the church went through a stage where we put the box at the back.

All churches did this across America.

We said, you know what?

We don't want to turn people off.

So we don't want to talk about money when new people come.

So we're going to put a box at the back.

You know how many churches have a box at the back now?

Almost zero.

Do you know why?

Because we realized we haven't been teaching Jesus.

because when you teach Jesus, you can put the box anywhere you want, and people will get to it, because your heart has been changed.

Now, let me end like this.

Man, I can't believe I thought this was going to be shorter, but I got one illustration.

This is important.

How many of you know the name Andrew Carnegie?

Andrew Carnegie became one of the most wealthy men in America when he founded a steel company, U.S.

Steel.

it went on to be the most profitable business enterprise in the world at that time.

I want you to hear something.

It's a little bit disjointed because he was writing in his journal, but I want to read to you something that Carnegie wrote to himself when he was first starting out.

Here's what he said.

Man must have an idol.

The amassing of wealth is one of the worst species of idolatry.

No idol more debasing than the worship of money.

Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately.

Therefore, should I be careful to choose the life which will be the most elevating in character.

To continue much longer overwhelmed with business cares and with most of my thoughts wholly upon the way to make more money in the shortest time must degrade me beyond hope of permanent recovery.

I will resign business at 35, but during the ensuing two years, I wish to spend the afternoons in securing instruction and in reading systematically.

So he has this incredible insight into his own heart that his idol is greed.

And if he's not careful, he'll go beyond the level of recovery where enough will never be enough.

Now, can I pause and ask all of you a question?

How much is enough for you?

When is it enough?

And you'll say, well, that's easy, Jeff.

I want to have everything I want.

But you will never have everything you want, ever.

When do you draw the line and say, you know what?

I've got enough.

Everything I do from here on is going toward the kingdom of God.

Here's the problem.

Carnegie knew his own heart, but exactly what he feared happened to him.

Do you know his story?

No matter how much money he made, he wanted more.

He treated his employees as a means to his ends.

He gave them low wages.

The best houses those steel workers could afford were crowded and filthy.

He worked them long hours.

Every two weeks, they were required to work a 24-hour shift, after which they were given one day off.

That's it.

And their typical shifts were 12-hour days on floors that were so hot they had to nail wooden platforms under their shoes.

Even though Carnegie knew that money was an idol of the human heart, he did not know how to root it out.

Okay, here's the epiphany.

It's because you can't root it out.

It can only be replaced by something more powerful.

You cannot root out greed.

You can't.

Something has to come in that is more powerful and compelling than the greed before you ever become generous.

That's the way it is with all idols.

You can't root them out.

They can only be replaced.

And here's how you replace it.

When you have a true revelation of Jesus and you stop and you take a breath and say, man, I complain a lot, but you know what?

I got food.

I got a house.

I get to play golf.

I got coffee.

I have so much and I'm going to heaven.

You know what?

I'm at the point now, everything above and beyond this goes to the kingdom of God.

Let me tell you, when that's real in your heart, you don't think God hears that, whoa, whoa, angels, got somebody down there who's serious.

Gotta send some more cattle their way because everything on top of what they have, they say they're gonna give to the kingdom of God.

Woo, woo.

You don't think God does that?

generosity is proof that you have a relationship with Jesus, especially when it requires sacrifice.

Okay, Pastor Jeff, I love Jesus.

I'm grateful for salvation.

I know everything good comes from the Father above.

What do I need to do from here?

I'm glad you asked.

I'm glad you asked.

You might've heard this before.

Budget.

Until you get intentional, it's not going to happen.

Until you walk out of here and you get a financial advisor to sit down and you say, I want to give, I want to tie to the kingdom of God.

You're not going to do it because you'll get to the end of the month and you won't have it because you're greedy.

just like me.

And you're not going to deny yourself anything that you want.

You do it up top or you won't do it at all.

It's in your court.

Distinguish between your wants and needs.

Have you heard that one before too?

Sit down, think, I want this.

I need that.

Do I spend just as much money on the kingdom of God as I do on the things that I really don't need, but just desire?

And third, whatever you do, follow Jesus'example.

Give up your monetary wealth that you may save the spiritually poor.

That's what Jesus did.

You know what?

When I, in the early years, when I would study these passages like this passage and then Matthew, oh, I'm pretty sure it's 25 where he tells the parable of the gold bags.

And then he does the parable of the separating the sheep and the goats.

I used to look at that and think, man, this sounds like work salvation to me.

This sounds like unless I do this, this, I'm not saved.

And then it started, like I told you, then all the story, all the scriptures come together and you start to realize, no, what Jesus is simply saying, show me somebody who claims to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus and I'll show you somebody who understands that their talents and abilities come from me and they invest them in the kingdom of God.

It's a test of authenticity, man.

so now you have a chance to take a good look into your life and find out where you are.

Father, it is true that every good and perfect gift comes from you, and we are grateful.

We are thankful that every once in a while, you've got to kind of slap us around a little bit with truth, but we know that you love us, and we know that you've saved us, and we know that we're headed toward eternity, and that we are saved by grace through faith, but I pray that anywhere in this room.

Are those listening to my voice at all of our campuses at Rancho, Westco, Upland, and across the world, that if there's any situation where generosity, sacrifice is not present, that you would give that person assurance of your love and grace as you did Zacchaeus, that you would melt their heart and give them a Jesus revelation so that their heart will be transformed.

and so that the natural byproduct will be generosity.

Greed surrenders to generosity at the point of true conversion.

In Christ's name we all sin.

Amen.

We have so many resources there for you, like our daily devotionals, our conversations, podcasts, as well as the sermons, and to know what is happening here at our church so you can get plugged in.

We hope you have a great rest of your week, and we'll end as we always do with one hope, one life in Christ.