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Hello everybody Summer's here was hot Yeah, it's hot.

1 Timothy 6, verse 17 and 18.

1 Timothy 6, verse 17 and 18.

So this week, guys, I have this epiphany.

You know, and you get those every once in a while in ministry where, you know, you read the Bible so often and you've gone through it so many times that things start to jump out of the page and you start to see how everything's connected.

And it takes a lot of years and a lot of reading to see how it all fits together.

It is quite an amazing book.

But sometimes...

You read something and depending on what season of life you're in, it jumps off the page and you think, oh man, how could I have missed that all my life?

And the epiphany has something to do with what we've talked about so often.

And it's usually an argument that I use when I'm talking to someone who's atheistic or agnostic or who struggles with being told what to do.

You know, a lot of people just don't want a God who tells them how to live their lives.

It's nothing more complex than that.

But you can't approach them directly.

You have to kind of go into the back door.

So you're saying, hey, let's think about this for a moment.

If God is love, and this is the epiphany.

God, anytime he gives a precept, whatever it is, doesn't matter what, when God says, do this, don't do this, it's never motivated out of power.

It's always motivated out of power.

love.

So if he says, don't do this, it's not because he wants to show you he's big and strong and can tell you what to do.

He's already demonstrated that he's willing to humble himself to the point of giving his own son so that he would not lose you.

So when he gives you a precept, it's motivated out of love because he's the creator designer, right?

So he knows as the creator how life works best.

However, if you're going to live that way, it's going to require what?

Trust.

because it's not going to look that way to you.

You're going to say, oh, here's another restriction.

God's robbing me of all my fun.

No, he's saving you from destroying yourself.

So a lot of people end up sacrificing their future for the pleasure of the present.

So they'll do something that feels good in the moment.

And God says, yeah, you don't feel good for a moment, but ultimately it's going to destroy everything.

Right?

One of the reasons God says don't commit adultery is why?

you're going to destroy so much, your marriage, your children, relationship.

So anytime he gives us something, it's motivated out of love.

So now here's my question to you, and it's going to take us a moment to get to 1 Timothy 6.

Okay, you're going to have some fun this weekend.

Okay, honestly, you're in church.

You've got to tell the truth.

and I'm going to take you down a road that we've been before, and we're going to make a little detour, but we're going to arrive at a place we've never been before, okay?

So number one, first question, are you rich?

Now, I'm not talking spiritually.

I don't want you to be super spiritual right now.

Yes, you know, Jesus loves me.

No, no, no.

I want you to be honest about monetary gain.

I want you to be honest.

Are you materially rich?

Now, If you're not, what's your number?

If I had that number, then I'd consider myself rich.

Now, some of you say, well, it's not so much about the number, Jeff, as it is about my debt.

So I would feel rich if my this covered my that, right?

Then I would consider myself to be wealthy.

Okay, let me remind you of a few stats, okay?

This is much more than a generosity series, believe me.

but it's at least partly that.

If you earn $34,000 a year or more, you're in the top 4% of wage earners in the world.

If you make $45,000 or more a year, you're in the top 1% of wage earners in the world.

Now, granted, that 1% has some pretty wealthy people in it, but you still make the cut.

One billion people, think about it.

In the U.S., we are 6% of the world's population, but we consume 40% of the world's resources.

Okay?

One billion people in the world will not have...

clean drinking water, and therefore will be at constant health risks.

800 million people in the world will not eat today.

300 million being children.

1 billion people or more, one-sixth almost of the world's population lives on $1 a day.

Now, I think of my friends in Zimbabwe.

They depend on the rains and the fields and the harvest in hopes that they will have enough to raise a few vegetables and eat it with what we call milly mill, which is a type of corn mills.

It's called sudza.

It's a corn mill mush.

For most people in the world, meat is a luxury they cannot afford.

So they live on corn mill mush.

and whatever vegetables they can grow.

Now, alternatively, you and I, what do we get to do?

We get to go to this thing called a supermarket, a food warehouse.

And while my friends in most of Africa just are so blessed to get a loaf of bread, we get to go in and choose from how many types of loaves of bread.

Oh, my goodness, wheat bread, full grain, multi-grain, Old Testament bread.

White bread, Dave's bread, which is about like seven bucks.

While millions of people around the world wonder where their next meal is coming from, what do we do?

Come on, let's just be honest.

If we don't find anything in the fridge that satisfies us, we go out somewhere to this little building where they actually cook a meal for us.

It's called a restaurant.

Most people in the world can't fathom that they could just leave and go somewhere else and somebody would make a big meal for them that they could afford.

And like 1 billion people in the world who don't have clean, pure drinking water, they You know what we rich people do?

I love this illustration.

We go and we have them put this thing called caffeine in our water because it helps us deal with all the problems we rich people have.

I've even heard it said that rich women will go into their closet and their closet will look like 30 pairs of shoes.

And I mean, they lie with clothes and they'll look to their husband and say, I got absolutely nothing to wear.

Hundreds of millions of people would give anything just for a house, just for a roof over their heads.

But we rich people, our garages where our cars live would be luxury to one third of the rest of the world.

If they could just have something that nice and that large to live in.

Our cars have a better home than a lot of people in the world.

92%, I found this this week because I have to update this all the time, but 92% of the world depends on walking and bicycles, anything with wheels to get around every day.

Whereas rich people own their own car and sometimes more than one.

Right now, my grandkids, my son, daughter-in-law are living with me until their house is built.

My driveway looks like a developing nation car lot.

I mean.

It's amazing.

Poor people would never understand how there can be four cars in front of one house.

92%.

92% of the world would give anything to own a car.

It just keeps going round and round.

And most people in the world cannot fathom.

that rich people actually get paid for not working.

The idea of a vacation, the idea where you go away for two, three weeks and they pay you while you're not working.

That would be an unfathomable issue for many people in the world.

Do you know, and this is the stat that gets me every time, do you know that we could nourish and feed the entire world for about $20 billion a year?

And that's what Americans spend on ice cream in one year.

Folks, it's not a problem with the lack of resources.

It's major mismanagement.

Now, like me, I know that many of you did not grow up considering yourself to be wealthy.

I was one of those kids, three brothers, four people living in a two bedroom house, double bunk beds.

I could never go on school trips because my parents couldn't afford it.

Anytime I needed athletic gear, my mom had to go down to sports brummet shop and lay it away and pay until it was paid off.

We never went out to eat.

Too expensive.

Very few clothes, maybe three or four changes of clothes at the most.

Mom was constantly doing laundry.

no air condition.

And then in 1985, I went to Africa for the first time and I realized I was rich.

As I met a lady on a mat near a hospital called Teredzi Hospital and realized that most people live their existence in a one room hut on a dirt floor.

They have no cars.

They walk miles to church and to school.

They live off their gardens.

They often go hungry when there are droughts and they have no access to medical care.

So when I compared my life to their lives, I realized I was not poor in any sense of the imagination that I have a great life.

Now here's the question, and I'm talking to us.

You understand?

Why then do I not feel fortunate?

Why do we, who live in the West, struggle with this?

Why would there ever be any discontent in my life or in your life?

You think I'm beyond this temptation?

Really?

I would say that I am, but some of my friends are in the audience and they know me.

I'm gonna just tell you the truth.

I want better vacations.

I've been to Honolulu, that wasn't good enough.

I wanted to go to Maui.

That wasn't good enough, I wanted to go to Kauai.

Now I wanna go to the big island.

I want better golf clubs, one that actually work.

I want better clothing.

A couple of weeks ago, I invited a friend to play with me at the club that I belong to.

It's an honorary membership in case you want to know.

I got there and my locker was empty.

I usually leave some shorts and a golf shirt there because you can't play unless you have the proper attire.

But I couldn't pull out and I didn't have time, so I had to go into the pro shop and buy a pair of shorts.

The only thing they have is Travis Mathis.

Don't tell my wife.

$60 it cost me for one pair of shorts.

I put them on and I thought, man, these things fit well.

Oh, the lust of the eyes, oh, it just all came out.

I want more free time.

I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it.

And the reason is because I, like you, still have the old man that I brought with me into my relationship with Jesus.

And to further complicate things, the Bible, when it uses the word rich, oh, this is a lifetime of etymology here.

When the Bible uses the word or the concept of rich, you know what it means?

It refers to anybody who has anything beyond basic shelter, a room, a roof over your head, one meal a day, and a change of clothing.

Basic shelter.

If you have more than bread and vegetables, you're able to buy meat.

If you have a closet filled with clothes, according to the Bible's definition of rich, that's you.

That's you.

Now, the question is, why are we so blessed in this nation?

Well, you can say all kinds of things.

You say, well, we're founded on Judeo-Christian principles.

Well, that's a long time ago.

So why are we blessed?

And here's the answer I've come up with.

I have no idea now.

But I know that in Acts 17, it says, from one man, he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth.

And he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.

So our souls were beamed down to this place right here in the United States of America.

Why?

I don't know.

But then I realized that this is the epiphany that I'm asking the wrong question.

The question I should be asking, the one that's now dominating the end of my life because I'm in the fourth quarter is this.

Since I have been blessed, what now?

Am I accountable?

Is there some sense of responsibility?

Where to from here?

Now what?

One of my favorite authors is Philip Yancey, and he wrote a book called What Good is God?

And in the book, he tells the story in April 2007, he was asked to speak to the student body at Virginia Tech after a Korean student fired 174 rounds at faculty and staff, killing 32 people and finally himself.

Yancey said he struggled to find the words to encourage these students in the midst of their pain, but he decided he was not going to give any platitudes.

He was going to speak it as it is.

And what's really cool about his speech, there weren't any real superficial answers, just honest dialogue.

But just a month before, I think, it might've been a little longer, he was in a car accident.

So when he spoke to them, he had to wear a neck brace.

Barely survived the accident.

It almost killed him.

For seven hours, Yancey says that he was trapped in his car.

It had rolled down an embankment, but it was in a secluded area, and he just lay there on his back because he couldn't move.

He was bleeding.

He was injured, but he couldn't move, hoping that someone would stumble upon him, find him, and rescue him.

And this is what he writes.

He says, As I lay there, I realized how much of my life focused on trivial things.

During those seven hours, I did not think about how many books I had sold.

or what kind of car I drove, or how much money I had in my bank account, all that mattered boiled down to this, what have I done with my life?

And then he said, the next question was, what now?

And he's not talking about heaven and hell, he's talking about what now, what do I do after this?

Now, I've got good news for you.

God answers the question.

Here is the Bible.

Okay, this is not Jeff, this is the Bible.

The word of God.

and here's what it says to you and me and everybody else.

Paul writes the young pastor, Timothy, and says, command those who are rich.

Now notice, it doesn't say give them the nice little suggestion.

It says you go and you tell them.

This is a command to those who are rich.

Who are the rich ones?

You and me.

That's us.

In this present world, not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain.

So he said, be careful that you don't start to get your security from how much you make or the houses or cars, because at any given moment, the economy can turn, and we've been on a long run here, and you can suddenly find yourself without all those things.

And if your hope is in that, your identity will be destroyed.

If your hope is in God, your identity goes on.

But to put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Great word here in the Greek.

Basically Paul is communicating to Timothy that true joy, centralized joy can only come from God.

It can never come from anything material because anything material is temporary, but God is eternal and your soul knows very well.

Command them.

Look at that again.

Two times, command.

Tell them.

You go Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.

Now, let's look at a couple of the words just quickly.

First of all, notice again, one more time, it's not a piece of advice.

It's a command.

Right from the Bible, do good, the first part of that, command them to do good.

is agatho ergeo, which is a, it's not good action.

It's more of a general overarching good.

Do the ultimate good.

So it's not feeding the hungrier, clothing the poor, or good acts of kindness, which we'll get to.

This is ultimate good.

And the word basically says to you that if you want to do ultimate good, simply reflect the nature of God.

Be holy for I'm holy.

And the nature of God includes two things, sacrifice and generosity.

At the core of God's activity to humanity, sacrifice and generosity.

In fact, staggering generosity.

In Ephesians 5, we're told, follow God's example.

Another translation will say, mimic or be imitators.

As dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

So to do good and then to be rich in good deeds, that is to abound, abundant, to be generous.

The word generous here, very interesting word.

because it refers back to the heartbeat of God.

It's the word eumetidotus, which is a word that means liberal bounty.

It's a staggering generosity.

That means when you're so generous, people can't hardly believe it.

It's the same word used, sorry, not the word, but the idea used in Matthew 18.

where there's a king and a servant, and the servant has this incredible debt.

In fact, the number used would be like you and me saying a gazillion.

You know, there's really no number.

The debt is so great, and he's arrogant enough to tell the king in order to borrow time to pay it back, hey, give me time and I'll pay it back.

There's no way he can pay it back.

There's not enough years left in his life to pay that kind of debt.

And we're told that the king who represents God, the servant represents you and me, forgives the debt.

Now, that is not generosity.

That's staggering generosity because in that culture, what should have happened is the servant, as well as his family, and his family that is not even born yet, his children and his children's children would go into slavery to pay the debt.

That's how it worked.

God, in staggering generosity, forgave the debt.

That is the word that describes Jesus'attitude toward you and me.

And we're told that believers are to act toward others with the same generosity that God has given us.

So what did God give us?

his own son.

That's pretty generous.

What he treasured the most, what he loved the most, what was most precious to him, he gave that away.

Now, here's the question.

What is, and I'll ask you one question, you were honest, let's keep it going.

What do we treasure the most in the American West?

Stuff, money and stuff.

Marketers continue to tell us that we will be happy if we buy their product.

right?

Lust of the eyes.

And there's more and more stuff coming out all the time.

Don't you love the iPhones?

I mean, I'm going to sell you this, but I want to make sure it's obsolete.

So you have to get this one.

And then I'm going to make sure that's absolutely, I got you for the rest of your life because you think you can't live without it.

I can't believe how many times somebody comes up to me and says, hey, Pastor Jeff, look at this man.

You got to get this man.

You can't live without it.

Yeah, I can.

It's either an Apple watch or the latest gadget or designer clothes.

You can't live without it.

Not that there's anything wrong morally with any of that, but to tell me that I can't live without it?

Christ followers, you are given a direct and clear command in Scripture.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous.

Command them to do good, not be good.

That's in other parts of the Bible.

Command them to do good.

So you and I are expected to leverage our resources for something greater than ourselves.

He expects us, he expects you and me not to be average in our good deeds, like helping a lady cross the street or giving some money to the homeless, some loose change or mowing the neighbor's lawns or donating what you don't want to the church rummage sale.

All of those things that we do, that's just, that's poor people good.

Rich people good is different.

By the way, yesterday, here we go again.

So study break is getting closer and closer.

And every time study break gets close to me, I have this ritual I go through.

I go to my closet and I take anything that I'm not wearing and I fold it up and I give it away.

Now, is that really generosity for me?

I'm giving something away I don't want.

In fact, it's actually helping me.

I want to get rid of it.

So I take all that, empty the closet.

and sometimes, now don't, come on now, it's Pastor Jeff, he loves you, but sometimes people will call me in the church, and they'll say, I got a bunch of stuff I want to give away.

What they mean is, I got a bunch of stuff I want to get rid of.

Can you come and get a truck?

So we buy a truck, don't we, Michael?

We rent the truck, go get the stuff, and we're doing you a favor, because you don't want it anymore.

Yeah, we take it, and sometimes we can use it, sometimes we can.

but even that's just average people good.

That's not rich people good.

Rich people good is taking something that you really think you can't live without and going and living without it or giving it away.

When the command is given to be rich in good deeds, the message is be extravagant in good deeds.

And it basically means to leverage my stuff for the sake of the world in a way that only rich people can.

because rich people have extra time and extra money.

I know you don't think you do, but only 8% of the world, you know, can take Saturday and Sunday off.

Only 8% of the world has Saturday and Sunday.

The other 92% live from day to day.

Vacation days, holidays, that's unfathomable to the poor, but commonplace to the wealthy.

And yet the stats tell us that the more expendable time and income that you have, the less percentage you give away in service to others, the less extra time and income you have, the greater the percentage you give away in service to others.

Therefore, the more you have, the less generous you become.

Now, why is that true?

It's amazing.

And here's the answer.

Pastor Jeff told you he's going to be honest.

Here's the answer for us, you and me.

It's because once we become rich, we've got competing options.

We now have the means to use airline travel points and go see the world, to own a second home in a getaway, to drive over to Las Vegas and gamble every weekend, to go to Palm Springs and play golf, to go to the beach.

We got more means now.

Rich people have so much extra time and stuff that they have to think about, how am I going to enjoy myself?

God says the problem is your thinking's all wrong.

You're asking the question, how can I fill up my extra time by doing something that's going to bring me pleasurable satisfaction and enjoyment?

God says you have extra time and extra resources for a reason, and I want you to ask yourself, how can you leverage your time and resources for something other than you?

How can you be rich in good deeds?

Now, let's take a pause just quickly.

Let me push back here.

This is hard, hard to take, but people are going to say, Jeff, I don't have extra money and extra time.

You're wrong.

I don't have those things that you're saying that I have.

Well, can I tell you why?

According to the latest Forbes report, just honestly, can I tell you why?

One, you're living above your means.

because you think you deserve everything you want, and you live and get things that you don't have the money to get.

And so you put yourself in bondage and major debt because you think you deserve all these things, says Forbes.

Second, you can't distinguish between a want and a need.

You can't distinguish between what you want and what you need.

And as a result, you're in debt up to your ears because you've been sucked into a world system governed by Satan that is meant to distract you from the ultimate goal.

He's got you.

But where a Christ follower is concerned, our simple motto, and this is where the epiphany came in.

This is it right here.

Jesus says, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

and I have come to believe that this is the very reason that God instituted the tithe.

It's not just about the temple tax or provision for the Levites who operated the temple or about simply meeting the needs of people or the poor.

God, when he institutes any precept, it's to save you from yourself.

And he instituted the tithe.

Because most people will say, boy, I really want to give, but I just don't know how I can pinch another dime.

Well, that's been the problem from the beginning.

We claim that God provides everything, but we live as though he gives us very little.

God has his mission in the world, his kingdom, which is eternal.

We have our mission in the world, our kingdom, which is temporary.

He institutes the tide to pull us back into his mission.

And like all precepts, it brings life.

Now, I got to do this quickly, but I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it because some of you are new and some of you need a refresher course.

What are you talking about the tithe?

Well, the tithe is used all through the Bible and you go beyond the tithe when you get to the New Testament.

Here's what it means quickly.

Number one, tithe means 10, 10th or 10%.

It's used 41 times in the Bible.

It's not an obscure biblical concept.

It's a common concept with common understanding.

It means or describes the immediate gift of 10% of your income at your first opportunity.

It's off the top, not off what's left over.

In the Old Testament, they didn't have monetary system like we do.

So what they would do is bring the tithes of grain and cattle and money.

And in Deuteronomy 14, if a person lives so far away from the temple, and it was a major hassle to get all the tithes and the cattle and the crops to the temple, this is what they were instructed to do.

Immediately convert the cattle and crops to cash and bring the money to the temple.

Why would you do that?

Because God knows the human heart.

If you withhold it, you're going to run out of money sometime.

You say, oh, I got the tithe bag over there.

Let's raid God's money.

So there's great wisdom in do it immediately.

It's the idea of first fruits, not what's left over.

It belongs to God.

And the tithe is off the top of what God places into your hand.

Not after you pay your bills, not after you pay your credit card.

off the top of what God places in your hands, because God and his purposes in the world come first.

Proverbs 3, you knew I was going to read this sooner or later.

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops, then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

It's the first tenth, it's the very first fruits, it's the very best of the very best.

Tithing is also a universal principles.

For those of you who are Bible scholars and you're still leaning toward, oh, this is an Old Testament tax to the nation of Israel.

Jeff is kind of stretching it here.

Just remember the tithe did not originate with the law.

It did not stop with the law.

It was established before the law.

It extends far beyond the law.

Abraham, hundreds of years before Moses brought tithes.

to Melchizedek, Cain and Abel, all the way back in Genesis 4, 4, we're told Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord, but Abel brought fat portions.

And the Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favor.

So the assumption is that Abel brought the best of the best while Cain brought what was left over.

They both gave something, but one gave the best, one brought whatever's left over.

And as I've said before, G.

Campbell Morgan calls that sacrilege.

You and I think of sacrilege, of taking something that is sacred and using it in a profane way.

But there's another way to define sacrilege.

That is taking something that means absolutely nothing to you or little to you and giving that to God.

Leftovers.

Tithing is a thermometer of spiritual vitality.

Jesus said, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also, that your money is going to go toward that which you value the most.

If you value the kingdom of God and Jesus'work in the world, your budget sheet's going to reveal that.

Can't hide it.

Tithing is the starting place for New Testament giving.

The starting place because both the Old and the New Testaments use two words, tithe and offering.

What's the distinction?

Well, the distinction is a tithe is what belongs legally to God off the top of everything.

It means 10th, the first 10% of everything God places into your hand belongs to God.

And that's why he says in Malachi, will a man rob God?

Yet you robbed me, but you ask how do we rob you in tithes and offerings?

The offering, the tithe is the 10th of your total income.

The offering is what you give above and beyond that, which means that a lot of people have never given an offering because they've never given a tithe.

And then in the New Testament, remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

So the assumption is that someone who loves the kingdom of God is going to sow generously so that they might reap a great harvest.

Here's the point.

The tithe is the poor man's cross.

This is the epiphany.

When people say, I can't afford to give, here's what they're really saying.

I can't afford to give without burdening myself.

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

Galatians 2, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

You can't bear anybody's burden without taking some of that burden onto yourself.

Jesus'message, look at the burdens of the world.

You need to give until some of the burdens of the world are falling on you.

That's what Jesus did.

Pick up your cross and follow Jesus means, at least to some degree, bearing the burdens of the world and taking them upon your shoulder.

No greater burden exists in humanity than helping those who are far from God come near.

That's why the purpose of one and all church, where God has called you, is generosity with a C.

because it is our mission to transform this city and to bring people far from God near to God, to bring businessmen and women far from God near to God.

yes, we want to be rich in good deeds, so we have God's pantry to meet the monetary needs of people, food, clothing, shelter, counseling for addiction, whatever it is, but primarily we exist to help people far from God come near to God, which means there is no greater investment that you could make.

As I said before, God gave me a wonderful gift called anxiety disorder.

because now I don't care about my kingdom.

My kingdom takes too much energy and effort, and I'm too old now for that.

I just want to build his kingdom now.

Don't care if anybody ever knows my name.

Don't care who knows me or who doesn't.

What I do care about is when I leave this place, that whoever comes after me, has a great ministry to continue to transform this city for the cause of Christ.

And so that's my question to each of you.

What are you doing with your life?

What are you doing with everything God has given you?

Please don't misunderstand.

Vacations are good.

Good golf clubs are fine.

But it's the same thing I've always asked you.

Do you spend as much in the kingdom of God than you do on yourself?

Do you know that we are told, and guys in the back, you're going to have to tolerate me here for it because I missed the section.

I want to get back to it.

So just sit tight.

I'll get back.

The Forbes report that I mentioned tells us, this is amazing to me.

Now this is recent.

78% of Americans live above their means.

78.

60% of the 78% make over $100,000 a year.

So you're making over $100,000 a year.

and you still don't have enough.

And 40% of the 60% live paycheck to paycheck.

But then the Forbes magazine tells us why.

One, lifestyle inflation.

As our income increases, we spend more.

Rather than increased income, investing more in the kingdom of God, we just keep spending more and more and giving everything we're told we have to have.

You look around at your life, I promise you, what you need is, oh man, my goodness.

Most of the stuff you have, you don't need.

That's why your garage is filled with junk.

And the second thing Forbes says because of social pressures.

Significance is tied to the external look.

So you believe the lie that you've got to have nice clothes, not just nice clothes, but designer.

They've got to have the name on it.

You can't just have a purse.

You've got to have Louis Vuitton.

You can't just have clothes.

You've got to have Travis Mathis.

I don't even know what the good stuff is.

I just wear what my wife buys at the Goodwill store.

And I look okay.

but I do spend money as my buddy Rick will tell you on the best golf stuff.

That's what I saved my money for.

So I take a good look at my bank account.

Am I investing in the kingdom?

Is it my real and true love?

And then finally, we're told that again, Americans cannot distinguish between needs and wants.

You know, a need is food.

A want is fast food.

And it's gotten expensive.

And as I said before, it's might be fast, but it ain't food.

A need is clothing, but a want is designer clothing.

And now we're buying them for our kids.

We don't want some parent to think my kid is wearing something that's less than.

Oh, what a great thing to teach them early in their lives.

A need is recreation.

I do believe there is a place for recreation, but golf is a want.

Now, I say that because golf can be one of the most expensive hobbies.

It can be.

and I want to put myself on the platform, and I'll tell you that's why.

The question I ask myself is, am I investing as much in the kingdom of God?

I should be.

I mean, you should be investing tenfold as I so easily part with money for a dozen of the best golf balls or for a new drive, whatever it is.

See, golf is not a sin.

It's not immoral.

It's a recreation.

It depends on what place it has in my life.

And you have to ask that same thing about the clothing you wear, about the memberships you have, about the car you drive, all of it.

That's my question to each of you.

What are you doing with your life?

Eugene Peterson says, and this is the epiphany, birds have feet and can walk.

Birds have claws and can grasp a branch securely.

They can walk, they can cling.

but they were made to fly.

And until they fly, they're not thriving.

They're not truly living.

The grace and beauty of all of it, of all it is to be a bird is missing.

What a tragedy.

And so it is with humans.

We can stockpile, we can hoard, we can latch on and cling to our wealth, but we were made to be generous.

And until we are, we will not know what it is to be human.

The grace and beauty of all it is to be us is missing.

Now, enjoy your life, but not to the exclusion of your calling.

And so here's my action points for you that I never get to give.

It's simple.

Number one, don't walk out of here and say, man, that was a great sermon.

Well, I'm convicted and do nothing.

get a budget, sit down with a financial advisor and count the cost and say, I want to give a 10%.

I want to give the first fruits to God.

Therefore I'm going to do a budget.

And then I know how much I can spend on other things because this is what I'm giving to the kingdom of God.

So that when I die, I've invested the very best of what all God has given me into something that really matters.

If you walk out of here and don't do a budget, you'll never do it.

I know that because I've lived it.

Get a budget.

And then the peace of mind you're going to have when you know there's a plan and you're giving God what belongs to God is going to be out of this world.

Second, distinguish between wants and needs.

And if your wants are keeping you from tithing, sacrifice your wants for the sake of other people's needs.

You got it?

because Jesus himself said it is very difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

But what is impossible with man is possible with God.

Budget.

distinguish between wants and needs, and then receive the blessings that come.

Malachi 3.10, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.

Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room to store it.

Now see, here's the deal.

Okay, man, I love being old.

I love being old.

I do.

Because here's what congregations think when a pastor talks about this.

Oh, my goodness, another pastor trying to manipulate me into giving.

Is that what you think I'm doing?

Then you're right.

Absolutely.

I've tried all the other things.

Oh, I just want to be nice to you, and you should give because this is a great vision.

You better give because the Bible say, okay, transparency.

This is the epiphany.

This is the best way to live life.

It is the best way to live life.

And the Bible says, I don't know of any other way to say it, that when you honor God with this, the windows of heaven open, and he pours out his blessing on you.

I don't know what it's going to be.

I wish I could tell you every dollar you give God, he's going to give you 10.

That's not the way it works.

If I believed that, I would give everybody a dollar when they came in the door to church every weekend.

That's up to God.

I just know that that is the truth of Scripture.

Now, just quickly, can I ask you something?

Has God been good to you?

Come on.

Come on.

Hey, you know when you die, you're going to go to heaven, and you're going to live in eternity with God, and it's going to be so awesome that...

the deepest words of the Apostle Paul and the Revelator John, and just can't come close to what you and I have to look forward to and what God has provided for us.

And this life, man, I'm 60 this year, and where did life go?

Where did it go?

They say the older you get, the faster it goes.

Yeah.

But I'm okay with that now.

I'm okay with that.

I've made my peace with that.

I'm going to be with Jesus.

I'm going to be with my mom.

I'm going to be with my dad.

Primarily going to be with Jesus.

He's taking care of you.

Stop worrying so much about aging.

Stop worrying so much about how you feel.

Stop worrying about that.

Don't focus on you.

That's another distraction.

Focus on the time you have left and what you can do in the kingdom of God while enjoying the pleasures of life that God has given you.

give him the first fruits.

Father, thank you for, oh, you've been so good to us.

It's amazing what you've done and what you've given.

And sometimes how we forget it is embarrassing.

And you put up with us.

You tolerate so much of what we do and our attitudes, but you still love us, that nothing can separate us from your love, that he who did not spare his own son.

will surely give us and does give us all good things.

Open our eyes this weekend.

We are the rich ones who have been commanded to be holy, to be generous and sacrificial for the sake of the city.

and bringing people far from God near.

In Christ's name, now everybody's head.

Amen.

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Let's go as we always do with one hope, one life in Christ.