A Trust Fall | Chad Bruegman

♪ I'll praise in the valley, praise on the mountain ♪ ♪ I'll praise when I'm sure, and I'll praise when I'm doubting ♪ ♪ I'll praise when I'm numb, praise when surrounded ♪ ♪ This praise is the water my enemies drowned in ♪ ♪ And as long as I'm free, come on, I've got a reason to praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ Come on, everybody. ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ And I'll praise when I feel it, and I'll praise when I don't ♪ Come on. ♪ I'll praise because I know that you're still in control ♪ ♪ My praise is the way, come on, sing it, it's more than a sound ♪ ♪ Because my praise is a shout that brings Jericho down, hey ♪ ♪ And as long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ Come on, everybody. ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ Sing, I won't be quiet. ♪ I won't be quiet, my God is alive, how could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ My God is alive, how could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ I'm gonna praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ All right, let's sing this. ♪ I'll praise because you're sovereign, praise because you reign ♪ ♪ Praise because you rose and defeated the grave ♪ ♪ I'll praise because you're faithful, praise because you're true ♪ ♪ Praise because there's nobody, all right, come on, everybody, I'll praise... ♪ Sing it out. ♪ Praise because you rose and defeated the grave ♪ ♪ I'll praise because you're faithful, praise because you're true ♪ ♪ Praise because there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ I'm gonna praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪

Everybody sing it. ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ Sing, I won't be quiet. I won't be quiet. So how could I keep it inside? And I won't be quiet, my God is alive. How could I keep it inside? Oh, I won't be quiet, my God is alive. How could I keep it inside? Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Praise the Lord. Come on, hands up. Praise the Lord. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Whoo! Let's give it up for Kori. Welcome to church. If you're walking in and you need a space, if you guys have a space next to you, let's make room for those that are coming in. And let's keep on singing. Oh, my gratitude And I could sing these songs As I often do ♪ But every song must end ♪ ♪ And you never do ♪ Come on, everybody. ♪ So I'll throw up my hands and praise you again and again ♪

♪ Cause all that I have is a heartache to bear ♪ I know. ♪ And I know it's not much but I've nothing else fit for a king ♪ ♪ Except for a horn singing hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I've got one response, I've got just one move ♪ ♪ So with my arms stretched wide, I will worship you, I will ♪ ♪ So I'll throw up my hands and praise you again and again ♪ ♪ Cause all that I have is a heartache to bear, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I know it's not much but I've nothing else fit for a king ♪ ♪ Except for a horn singing hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ All right, let's sing this. ♪ So come on my soul, don't you give up on me ♪ ♪ I love you so, cause you've got a lion inside of those laws ♪ ♪ Get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ So come on my soul, don't you get shy of me ♪ ♪ Lift up your song, cause you've got a lion inside of those laws ♪ ♪ So get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ So come on my soul, don't you get shy of me ♪ ♪ Lift up your song, cause you've got a lion inside of those laws ♪ ♪ Get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ So come on my soul, don't you get shy of me ♪ ♪ Lift up your song, cause you've got a lion inside of those laws ♪ ♪ Get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ So get up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Get up, get up my soul, oh praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh praise the Lord ♪ Come on everybody, sing it out. ♪ So I'll throw up my hands and praise you ♪

♪ Cause all that I have is your hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I know it's not much, but I've nothing else to proclaim ♪ ♪ Except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Amen, what a great start. We're gonna sing one more song together this morning. And I would just like to share with you one of my favorite Psalms. I love this Psalms. It was written by a man named Asaph, a very interesting name. But he's so real. In Psalm 73, he talks about his anger. He talks about a lot of emotions that he feels. He feels that life isn't fair. he asks God why do good things happen to bad people like why is life so unfair and he gets caught up in all his emotions and he's upset but my favorite part is everything changes when he gets into the presence of God his whole perspective on life changes and he says this then I realized that my heart was bitter and I was all torn up inside now I know we just sang about gratitude but it's so beautiful because at the end of the Psalms he says I realized there's nothing better than to be with God than just to be near God and if you find yourself if gratitude was an easy song for you to sing or if it was a hard song for you to sing I want to let you know that everything changes when you're in the presence of God your mind is supposed to be focused on God and that's what we're supposed to be focused on because there is nothing better than to know Jesus than to know God that's it and that's all there is nothing better than him and so if your heart is broken if you feel torn up

inside we're in church you're a great place to be in so during this next song take some time with the Lord talk to him let him know why you came and let's keep singing I'm caught up in your presence you I'm caught up in this never and I'm not here for blessings Jesus you don't owe me anything and more than anything that you can do I just want you and I'm sorry when I've just gone through the motions and I'm sorry when I just say another song so take me back to where we started and I open up my heart to you and I'm sorry when I've come with my agenda and I'm sorry I forgot that you're enough so take me back to where we started I open up my heart to you and I'm caught up in your presence I just wanna sit here at your feet and I'm caught up in this holy moment I never wanna leave and see I'm not here oh I'm not here for blessings cause Jesus you don't owe me anything and more than anything that you can do I just want you I just want you and nothing else nothing else

nothing else will do I just want you and nothing else and nothing else nothing else will do come on sing it I just want you and nothing else And nothing else, nothing else will do, no. I just want You. And nothing else, nothing else, God. And nothing else, oh. Nothing else will do, no. I just want You. And nothing else, and nothing else. Come on, sing it out. And nothing else will do, no. I just want You. And nothing else, nothing else. And nothing else, oh. Nothing else will do. And I'm caught up in Your presence. And I just want to sit here at Your feet. I'm caught up in this holy moment. I never want to leave. Oh. And I'm not here for blessings, no. And Jesus, You don't owe me anything. And more than anything that You can do. I just want You.

Come on, let's sing that together. I just want You. And nothing else, and nothing else. Nothing else will do. I just want You. And nothing else, and nothing else. Nothing else will do. I just want You. Hey, let's do this. We're going to jump right in. So let's welcome the other campuses into this moment with us. Missouri City, Pastor Chad and all you guys over there. I hope you're having an incredible time of worship. Downtown campus, West End, Pastor Abe. Hope you're having an incredible morning. And I just want to say, Pastor Abe, if you're watching this right now, I just love you, bro. And you know what that's all about. And then, of course, everyone that's watching with us online, we are super grateful for technology and glad that you get to be with us as well. And then at every campus, let's let these men hear us. All of the men at our God Behind Bars campus, the Rams unit. We love you, gentlemen. So grateful. Such a privilege that we get to worship with you gentlemen every weekend. Before we get started into the message today, I just have one announcement for all of our campuses. And it's this. You've maybe already heard from emails and stuff. But next weekend, everybody say next weekend.

Next weekend, we will not be here for service. If you show up, you're going to see a sign on the door that says, Sorry, sucka. No, it won't say that. That's why they don't let me write the signs. It'll be very cordial and very nice. We do this twice a year. We take two weekends off. And it's a bit of a step of faith. But it's one that I am deeply convicted as a leader that we are supposed to do. And it's for this reason. We have an amazing group at every campus of staff members and volunteers. And by the time you all get here every Sunday, they make this thing run and look so easy. But I promise you, it is not without a lot of blood, sweat and tears and passion. And so what we try to do is a couple seasons throughout the year, we just give the land some rest, the soil some rest. We let them do their thing. And so here's the good news. Some of you already know this. Some of you don't. This right here is not the church. The people sitting in here are the church. This is just brick and mortar. This is a beautiful blessing at every campus so we can gather and encourage each other in Christ Jesus. However, the church is you. And so you can have church anytime, anywhere that you are. So what we challenge you to do on these weekends is a couple things. Number one, be with the people you love most, man, unapologetically.

Find a way, whether it's 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, two hours, whatever you guys want to do to worship God together. You don't have to be a theologian to talk about God, to open up the Bible. You don't have to have a great voice. If you're the one at home leading the worship, do what you got to do. Another thing you can do is this, and I love this. There are so many incredible churches around the Houston metro area. And I love our bubble here at River Point West End, but it is a bubble, make no mistake about it. And there are some amazing forms and expressions of worship all over. It's a great time sometimes to just get out of the bubble for a minute and go see how other churches are worshiping Jesus and be a part of their church for a weekend, if that's something that interests you. Or just go play golf, go to the lake, go shop, do whatever you wanna do. God loves you, he's on the throne. We won't be here next week. And so yeah, that said, I'm gonna jump right in today because I wanna cover as much as we can. We're starting a two week little mini series. It'll be over three weeks again because of the not being here next week part, but just a two week mini series. But it is so important to us as disciples of Jesus what we're gonna talk about. It is so important, not just to that, but to the lifeblood of this church now

and this church moving forward. And I'll start this off by asking you this. This was particularly big in the 90s, but if any of you, whether it was at work or in your organization or maybe it was at church or at a youth group or maybe even at a school, did any of you ever participate in a trust fall? You remember those good exercises, good old trust fall? Yeah, I did as well. Didn't go well, but we won't go there. I wanna do this. I happened to see an incredible video of a trust fall exercise that's gonna teach us, I think, a whole lot. And so I decided to start this message off. We're gonna watch that. Step up here on this chair. You're gonna close your eyes, all right? And then everybody fill in and we're gonna ask you to fall and then they will catch you. So you have to trust us. I'm gonna count to three. Just relax and fall, okay? One, two, three. No, wait, no, no! I love it. It doesn't get old to me. I watched it probably 20 times this week just for myself and then I said, you know what? Let's play that this weekend.

Okay, so at every campus, if you're the note-taking type, you can go ahead and title this week's message a trust fall because we're about to go on one for the next two weeks and it's a big trust fall. All issues of trust demand all kinds of faith, but I think this one might be at the top of the list. I'm calling it a trust fall because we're gonna talk about what I believe to be one of the hardest, if not possibly the hardest part of our life that we have been asked to trust God with. It is a beautiful one, but it is a hard one and you know what it is for the next two weeks that we're gonna take a trust fall on? It's this thing right here. Now, most city in West End, I don't know what's going on over there, but I just heard a bunch of low-key groans over here. The minute I pulled this out, I heard this, mm-hmm, oh, okay. Now, if you wanna get up and leave, I know, Texas megachurch pastor pulls out the dollar bill. Here we go again. I'm just asking you guys to stick with me. I'm asking you guys to trust my heart as I do my best to talk to you about the heart of God. I won't get it all perfect. I won't say nearly as much as what needs to be said in two weeks, but I promise you two things. I am going to boldly and unapologetically as disciples of Jesus talk to us and remind us

about the principles the kingdom of God have given us when it comes to this issue of financial stewardship. You've often heard it said this, money makes the world what? Money makes the world go round. And it's really true, right? And the reason I think this might just be the hardest issue, the biggest trust fall you will ever take in terms of you being a disciple of Jesus is simply this, money spills over into every other arena of life, which means every other issue of life that comes with trust, man, it's money. Let me give you an example. Have you ever been in really precarious, difficult financial seasons as a husband and wife with kids, like you don't know how you're gonna pay the bills? Have you ever noticed how quickly you can get into a fight about anything? And the tension in the house just seems to be greater. The triggers seem to get quicker and stronger. Do you know what's happening underneath is that you are having to bear the weight of the subconscious pressure of the bills, of life. How are we gonna pay for this stuff? You're not getting in all those fights because your marriage just got worse. You're getting in all those fights because you're carrying all this pressure, why?

Because money makes the world go round. It spills over into every arena of life, man. This is why Jesus talks about money more than almost any other subject in the Gospels. And let me remind you, He doesn't talk to us in terms of how to get rich quick. He doesn't talk to us about money very much in terms of what's in it for you. Do you know what He spends most of the time talking about money about? Warning us about the day. of getting it wrong, about the dangers of mismanagement, of poor stewardship, and what we get called back to all throughout the word of God, not just even from Jesus, is that man, when it comes to this thing right here, you are going to be asked over and over in different seasons of life to take a trust fall. Because I promise you this, the more you study the kingdom principles about how God originally designed us from the beginning of time to leverage currency for his glory and for your good, you will see that those kingdom principles are not practical, they spit in the face of what culture has taught us in terms of what you should do with this green piece of paper right here. I find it interesting that the one phrase famous on the dollar bill here in America is what? In God we what? Trust.

So let's take a trust fall for the next few minutes. I'm gonna go first to the book of Proverbs. If you're new to the scriptures, the book of Proverbs is famously known as the book of wisdom. And I've spent so much time in the book of Proverbs over my life because Lord knows I need so much. I am a knucklehead by default. And it's practical wisdom, and there is so much that's said about the issue of money in the book of Proverbs, but this one won't say a word about money, but it says everything about the stewardship of money. It says this, this is a well-known verse if you've been in church very long. It says trust in the Lord, trust fall coming, with what? All of your heart. And remember, nothing spills over into every arena of your heart more than this. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and then here's the hardest part of this principle right here. If you're gonna do that, you cannot lean on your own understanding. Because since birth, culture has given you a system of understanding that oftentimes spits in the face of the kingdom and what it was originally created to do. This is part of being a disciple of Jesus, a practitioner, is looking at culture,

looking at nations, looking at the systems that we were born into, and then going, God, where is that misaligned with how you originally designed us to live as human beings? We can't trust with our heart, with our mind. We trust not in our own understanding, and then here's what he says for us to do. In all your ways, simply submit to him. Submission is an act of trust. And the degree with which we trust the person that we're submitting to is the degree with which we will obey. There's gotta be trust there. In other words, when it comes to obeying God, you have to at some point in your discipleship journey with him, come to realize that he truly is good. That he is for you, not against you. That nobody on planet Earth, even your best friend or spouse, has your best interest in mind more than God. It's to God's glory that you thrive. You realize that, right? That's why when we sinned in the garden and thriving all of a sudden became very problematic, we see God in the person of Jesus Christ going to the utmost extent to bring back an ability, an opportunity to live life to its fullest. In all your ways, submit to him, and then here is where he puts the burden on himself. This should give you freedom. This should help build trust,

because we get to take him at his word. We get to lean into this promise, and then he says, he promises he'll make your path straight. Jesus said the exact same thing as King Solomon in the gospels. In fact, April read it last week in that amazing sermon she gave to us about worry. In Matthew 6.33, Jesus says it this way. He says, trust in God with all your heart. Nope, that's what Solomon just said. Come on, brain, let's go. He says, seek me, when? First, and seek my kingdom first, and what's he promise? Everything else will be added unto you. You wanna talk about a trustful verse, right? Seek me first, and my kingdom, and everything else will be added unto you. King Solomon doubles down in the next chapter in one verse, and he says this. He says, above all else. Isn't that a big statement? He's saying this is the issue of most importance. What he's gonna say next, above all else, guard what? Guard your heart. He says, for out of it, every issue of life flows. I always tell you guys this. The kingdom of God is an inside-out proposition. The kingdom of God is always about the guarding and tending of your heart first,

and from the health of your heart will flow the issues of life. And I will say this boldly. In my 20-some years of pastoral ministry, no issue of the heart needs more tending to, or guarding, than the issue of how we view, and therefore, how we steward. word, our money. So I wanna do this really fast. I wanna do what we've been doing all year and we're not gonna quit doing it. I wanna do what we call around here, if you're visiting with us, we call it Edenology. This is where we go back to the first three chapters of Genesis because my belief is this, all of life's wisdom can be found in the garden. It is not complicated, the system God created. We get the whole system in its perfect form in the first three chapters of the Bible. The only thing that's complicated about it is obeying it. Trusting, right? So we're gonna do some Edenology and we're gonna start in Genesis two real quick. And I did this, I wrote a parable this week and I wasn't planning on doing that. I was planning on preaching from the exact scriptures April preached from last week and the woman just messed me up. And so I came this direction and I just sat down and in a moment of what hopefully might be some inspiration

we'll see in the next few minutes, I wrote a parable based on Genesis two and three. And I title it this, the parable of the 10 trees. Now I'm gonna do this for the sake of our talk today and you could really apply this to any issue but we're talking about stewardship for the glory of God and for your good financially. And so I've got 10 $1 bills here and we're gonna call this the parable of the 10 trees and what I'm gonna ask you for a minute to do is to just picture with me and the Bible doesn't say how many trees were there so stick with me. I'm gonna say when Adam and Eve were created and there were no other humans yet, God gave them in the Garden of Eden 10 trees. Could have been a thousand, could have been a million, could have been a trillion, doesn't matter. He gave them let's say 10 trees that would be more than enough sustenance and enjoyment for just two people. Then he'd say be fruitful, multiply. And then I imagine millions and millions of trees as millions and millions of people were born, why? Because trees give us what? Sustenance, trees give us what? They give us oxygen. So he starts with 10 trees and he looks at Adam and he tells Adam in Genesis 2 before Eve's invented, he says, Adam, I need you to know something

about these 10 trees. Here it is. All of them, Adam, are mine, not yours. Which sounds kind of like a buzzkill in the moment. Okay, God, chill out, right? I'm just happy to be here. All of them are mine, not yours. But then I picture God, this is how my parable storytelling works, I picture God going, but I, not Michael Scott, Adam, am the world's best boss. And here's what I mean by that. Although they're all mine, I created them for you. And how you derive joy and life from them brings glory to me. So Adam, yes, these trees are all mine, these 10 trees, but here is the mandate that I am giving you. You and Eve and all of the creation that will come from you, I want you to manage it. I want you to operate it. I want you to steward it. I want you to cultivate those trees. I want you to take the seed from the fruit in those trees and in the vegetation, and I want you to harvest, I want you to sow seed into the soil that I gave you, and I want you to plant more, and as more people fill the earth, I want more and more and more. And trust me, Adam, there is going to be more than enough for everyone if you simply do it my way.

But Adam, one thing, one thing. There's one of the 10 trees, the 10th tree, that I want you to not even get near. I don't even want you to look at it. I'm giving you no stewardship over it. You are to treat it as if it does not exist. You are to live off the bounty of those nine trees, you and Eve, and again, I'm telling you, those nine trees will be more than sufficient. He says, when you start to mess with this 10th tree, it's going to have adverse effects. So Adam, please stay away from it. And then we know what happens in Genesis 3. A serpent comes onto the scene. The devil is who it represents. He's more crafty than any of the other wild animals. We know Jesus said the devil is a liar, that when he speaks, he speaks lies. It's his native language. We start to see him subtly and craftily start to speak subtle lies and get Eve to buy into lies. So he creeps up on the tree. For whatever reason, Eve got too close to the tree, and he's kind of like, what's up, Eve? She's like, is that a snake talking to me? Okay, whatever. He's like, what do you think of this fruit? Look how beautiful. It's almost like he's tapping into that feminine beauty and spirit.

You women, how much you just appreciate aesthetic beauty, right? God gave you that. And the devil knows it, because he knows God good. So he starts getting her to look at the thing she was never supposed to get near, and she starts to look at it. And he says, well, why don't you have a bite? And then she answers rightly. She says, oh, we can't eat of that talking snake. Because God said, do not eat from this tree, for surely when you eat of it, you will die. of it, you will what? You will die. The last and the worst curse that we have to walk through as humans is death that came because of sin, right? You will die. And then the devil, what he loves to do, this is his first shot, every time he makes melodrama out of God's holy commands. He goes, surely you won't die. That's crazy talk, Eve. You think this good God of yours that you love hanging out with in the garden, he's really like that? He goes, surely you won't die. He goes, in fact, you are going to actually when you eat of this fruit, you know what you're gonna get?

More of God, which he knows isn't true, but you know what he knows about Eve? She loves God. And who wouldn't want more of God? See, he's preying on something that's been an issue with humans since the beginning of time. There's something in us that screams for more. I gotta have more. Life won't be complete until I have more. If I don't get this next thing which represents more, then until then, I'm gonna be discontent. I'm gonna be ungrateful. I'm gonna be in a constant state of worry and fear. And if I can't get that thing in my own ingenuity, I might have to start throwing some people off the ladder to get there faster. Or I might have to start breaking some rules of common morality and sense to get there a little faster. He says, surely you won't die. And then Eve goes, yeah, you know what? He's probably right. And then here's what happens. It says when she saw that that 10th tree was good for food, let's stop there. When she saw, because we're gonna see a theme here, that it was good for food, Eve is just being practical right here. Hey, these nine trees have been amazing. And this 10th tree is as beautiful, if not more than those.

You mean we could have more of this amazing stuff and we could be more like God? Who wouldn't want to be more like God? And I say she looks at the practical first because the biggest mistakes I've made when it comes to financial stewardship is moving God's way out of my life because it didn't practically make sense on paper in that season. I started looking at everything needed. I started getting really practical about it. And I said, surely God doesn't want me to continue to do it this way. Surely not. But then you know what it says next? Then it says the fruit was pleasing to the eye. So she saw that it was good for fruit and then it was pleasing to what? The eye. Do you remember what the New Testament tells us about this whole Christianity thing? We live by what? Faith, not by sight. Why? Eve shows us exactly why in the Garden of Eden. Faith is when you trust God. For Eve it would have been, I'm not going anywhere near that 10th tree because nine is more than enough and we are more than content

and we are more than grateful. And guess what, devil? That tree isn't mine to make that kind of decision about. That's God's. He didn't give it to us to manage. He didn't give it to us to use. He didn't give it to us to leverage. He didn't give us that one of the nine trees. So I'm gonna stay away from it. But she saw, she's starting to live. See, here's what happens. The minute Adam and Eve partake from that tree, here's what ended up happening. They started serving the trees instead of the trees serving them. And the same thing is true with us in every arena of life. All of a sudden, the trees became the master and Adam and Eve became the slave. And it was never supposed to be like that. They were always supposed to be over all of creation. And then at last, she sees that it's desirable for gaining. Again, more, more, more. And then all of a sudden, after they eat, God comes in the garden, has a conversation with them, and what do they lose? Tree number 10. But that's not how it ends. You know what else they lose by default of sin entering the world? They lose tree number nine.

That's called the tree of life. And now these eternal beings know that their days are numbered. You wanna know my theory about one of the craziest reasons we get so sideways with the almighty dollar is because we have this constant reminder that death is inevitable. You know what we've been told from birth? Life's short, live hard, have a blast, fulfill every last dream, sponge every last drop out of every day of life because you're going to die. Eat, drink, and be merry was the Greek philosophy for tomorrow we die. Can I just correct that statement, that well-meaning statement? Life is not short. Life is eternal for everyone. Life on this side of the grave, thank God, because we have eternal life. to have something better awaiting us is short, yes. But we get to live for an eternity. We don't have to live in the mindset of, I've gotta do all these things culture has taught me I have to do in order to have a funeral where everyone goes, what an amazing human being. No, you have to live faithful to God. The only accolade we're gonna receive when we get to heaven is simply this, well done, good and faithful servant.

That's it. So God asks us in every compartment of life, including this, to take a trust fall over and over and over and what gets heaven enamored that the world doesn't give much credit to is simple faithfulness. Heaven is enamored by faithfulness. So not only do they lose tree 10 and nine, and I'll wrap this parable up, but I'm into it right now, okay? The Bible says this, now trees eight through one that you still have left Adam and Eve, now they're problematic. Now they're tainted by losing those two really important trees. The Bible uses a word that I don't like to use, but I'm gonna say it what it says. Now there's a curse over those trees. The rest of the eight. Remember God said Adam, because of eating from that tree, now when you go to cultivate and steward and reproduce and enjoy, it's gonna be through thorns and thistles and through the sweat of your brow. So not only do we now have death making us look at the trees differently, because now we gotta get everything we can from every tree, even if it's expensive, other people eating from the trees because life is short, but not only do you have that, but now you also have a scarcity mindset.

Now there's trees reproduction, now your work's gonna be harder. So when you combine the fact that life is short and you combine that with the fact that it's gonna be harder to get from the trees what you were originally supposed to get to the trees with easy, now all kinds of crazy comes in with humans. We're fighting over trees, we're going to war over trees. He who has the most trees win. The country or the government that hoards the most trees will forever stay on top, even if it's at the expense of countries or nations without less trees. The person with the most trees wins in the end. That's what we've been taught. So you find a way, I don't care how you get there, to get the most trees on planet Earth. And next thing you know, we've completely lost the point and all of a sudden we've lost the blessing on these eight trees that we have left. But the good news is, is we have every minute of every day to jump right back into God's way of doing it and getting back into the rhythm with him. So I'm only doing this in week one. And I'm begging you to please, in two weeks from now, come back, because we're gonna title the message A Trust Fund. Not a trust fall, a trust fund, and we're gonna talk about vision for Riverpoint and West End Church moving forward.

I've got a message on my heart about that that I'm super excited for, because I think it's gonna galvanize us together in terms of everything we do, including our giving, including our sacrificial worship-centered giving. So please don't miss that. But we can't give that message before we do what I'm about to do for the last few minutes we have together. Because you will never take the trust fall with your finances that God asks you to take over and over and over again. You will never be able to do it if you do not, at some point, come to a deep-seated conviction that what I'm about to tell you, it is the bedrock principle about financial stewardship according to God, and it is this. It's all His. I wrote in my notes, it's easy to amen that in church, but it's hard to practice, but West End, most city, none of them said amen in here. So it's just hard, period. I thought in church, everyone would be like, amen, it's all His, but then on Monday, you look at things and go, no, I better take this into my own hands. I'm not kidding, though, that may sound too simple or too small of an idea. Until you believe, I'm not talking about intellectually, until it goes from here to here,

that everything in life is His, I am at best a steward, but God gets glory when we are okay being stewards and not owners. And when God gets glory, you get help. When God gets glory, He funds what you need. I'm telling you, a revelation of that is a game-changer in terms of financial and kingdom-minded stewardship. It's all His, and secondly, by default, how we steward it It's nothing smaller, it's an issue of worship. Money is such a practical talk on most levels, but not in this room, not in the arena of the Church of Jesus Christ. I can't think of many more beautiful forms of worship than when we take this thing right here, the almighty dollar, and we really do live by in God we trust. Can you think of many more sweeter forms of worship than the thing that makes every other arena of life go round is something that you submit tree number 10 to him and say, God, I'm gonna believe that the nine trees of the 10 you've given us to manage are more than sufficient than if I get scared and dabble in tree number 10. I'm gonna trust the story. I'm gonna trust what we've seen from history after that story happened in Genesis three. And it's not gonna be easy, but this is my worship to you, God. This is my offering to you, God,

because this is how we pay bills. I said this a couple months ago talking about baseball. Remember I told you I went to Dick's to buy my son his first bat, and I hadn't bought a bat in 10 years, and I saw how much it cost, and we walked right out of the store, and my son didn't have a bat. Heard a guy the other day online going, I used to get so mad at those parents at our baseball games when they were yelling at their kids and yelling at the team. I'm like, they're 10 years old, back off. He goes, and then I found out how much it costs to play baseball. He goes, now I think they don't yell at them enough. $350 bat, and you strike out twice looking. You're grounded, right? Like, life, man. Like, you can't minimize when you walk in generosity. When you fund things that are bigger than you and yours, and you genuinely in your heart do it for the glory of God, trusting that his system always works in the end because his promises are true every single time. When you can have that kind of trust, you wanna talk about sweet, sweet worship to God. This isn't some transactional, practical thing so we can keep the church doors open and so the kingdom of God can advance with all of the resources we need.

Of course, that stuff should and could all happen, but do you know what the biggest issue is about this? God wants your heart. So he says, give me the first of your portion. That's a big statement. God, I'm a single mom. Easy for you to say. He says, no, no, no, trust me. No one will be a father to that fatherless child more than me, trust me. Give me your first, give me your best, and then watch what I do with the rest. And that takes so much trust. That is such a profound act of holy worship. And so I just wanna show you a couple verses. When I say it's all his and it's an act of worship, the psalmist wrote this, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it, right? Even more importantly, the psalmist in Psalm 50, he gets more extensive. He fleshes this out and he uses the current currency of their day at the time, Israel's time, to talk about it. God says this, listen, this isn't the psalmist writing, this is the psalmist prophetically speaking on behalf of God. So hear God say this. He says, listen, my people, and I will speak. I will testify against you, Israel. Uh-oh, they weren't doing good at the time.

Long story. He says, I am God, your God. Now, he starts by encouraging them, right? Because there was one thing they were still in the midst of their idolatry and rebellion and dysfunction, they were getting right. He says, I bring no charges against you concerning what? Your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings which are ever before me. Now, let me stop there before we go to the next verse. The sacrifices and burnt offerings were cattle that they would bring to the temple on a consistent basis and God commanded them under the law back then, it had to be your first piece of cattle and it had to be your best. Whether it was a bull, a goat, a sheep, a lamb, a pigeon, a dove, we want your purest, most spotless animal, right? Like God, you're asking a lot. And you know what's even crazier? If you're new to the Bible, at some point you start to read it, you're gonna get to this point where you start to read about the sacrificial system. I'm 20 some years into reading the Bible and every time I go over any part of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, I have this conversation. Really, God? That's like graphic. That's hard to imagine.

I'm looking at my beautiful dog and how much I love my dog and I'm going, you put your animals on the altar? Could you imagine being under the sacrificial system back then and thinking, God, it's our honor, I guess, to put this goat on the altar and have it burn up into nothing, but do you know how much meals we could get from this bowl? Do you know how much meat we could get from this for our family, practically speaking? God, we're gonna obey you, okay, but this makes no sense. And God goes, trust in me with all your heart, Israel. Lean not on your own understanding. I get it, it doesn't make sense. I get it on paper, it's practically stupid. But if you will lean not on your understanding in all your ways, just keep submitting to this system because I know some things you don't. And trust me, I will direct all of your paths. It goes on to say this. God says, and I add this part first, God says, Israel, don't get it twisted. I have no need of a bowl from your stall or of goats from your pens. For every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills, they're mine. I know every bird in the mountains and I know the insects in the fields and they are mine. To which they would have said, then why do you keep telling us to give them back to you? And then you just burn them up into nothing.

And you know what the lesson is that we know now all these thousands of years later? God was going because I needed your hearts more than I needed anything on this earth from you. I can make something out of nothing. If I wanna provide, I will provide in ways you can't even imagine. But here's where I get limited in my provision is when trust isn't a part of the equation. I need you to take this trust fall. Keep putting the bowls, keep putting the goats on the altar in light of how impractical and silly it seems. And trust that I can do more with the rest of the cattle that you keep than the first and the best one that I asked you to give. Because in doing it, it will make sure that creation like it did in the garden never becomes an idol again. It will make sure when you give your first and your best, this will never be an idol. April said it last week. Jesus' quote, you cannot serve two masters. You can only love the one and hate the other or hate the one and love the other. And then he says, you cannot serve both God and what? Money. That's a big statement, y'all. I thought he would have said the opposite. You cannot love both God and the devil. He says, you can't love both God and money. You know why?

Because the devil will probably leverage this more than anything in your life because it makes this current fallen world go round to do more damage. This is why Jesus, or 1 Timothy 6.10 says the root of, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Watch out. When this thing gets sideways and twisted, watch out, listen to what God says next. And we'll wrap it up here. He says, if I were hungry, he's trying to make the point here, I love this. He goes, if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you, Israel, for the world's mine and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? No, it goes on to say this. So keep sacrificing your thank offerings to God because I'm using it to turn your heart back to me, to sober you up to your idolatry, to the adventures and missing the point that you've been missing. So keep doing that and call on me then. After you've done that, call on me in the day of trouble and what? I will deliver you and then you will do what? Because I delivered you in the day of trouble. You will honor me. You see the process? Everyone's winning here. And what's beautiful where you should get so much freedom

in the trust fall, especially when it comes to something like this, is God says, look, keep sacrificing, keep worshiping me with your first, your best, and then call on me in the day of trouble because I'm the one who will add everything unto you. I'm the one who will direct your paths. And I will what? Deliver you. The burden's off of you on that. Either God's a liar or this is true. And then he says, when you see me time and time again, prove faithful when you take that trust fall and don't know how it's gonna turn out or if I'm really gonna catch you or not. When you do that and you see me deliver you, catch you, take care of you, you're going to get deeper. You're gonna get more mature. Worry is gonna have to try a lot harder to get the best of you. Peacelessness and anxiety and joylessness is gonna have to work a lot harder to get to you because you've tasted and seen that the Lord is not only good, he's your deliverer in times of trouble. He just says, stay connected to me in your heart and he uses currency, human currency throughout history as one of his chief tools and mechanisms to continue to get us to guard our hearts,

to keep us. on the right path. And so I want to wrap up with this. Everyone at every campus, in your seat backs in front of you you should see something like this. A ticket, it looks like a blue ticket. Pick that up real quick. We're gonna start taking this issue of fiscal stewardship more serious than I've taken it since I've been here. I had to do a little repenting to God because in the two years of me being here so far I have grossly underplayed my hand when it comes to the teaching of this stuff. I had a lot of plans, some of it was innocent but I'll be honest with you as a pastor, you want to know why some of the reason I underplayed my hand the last couple years? Is because I want you to like me. And I'm sorry. I like to be liked. It's not a bad thing. But you know what's more important than a pastor needing to be liked? It's a pastor who wants the best for his people even if it means you temporarily aren't liked as much. And over 20 some years, you know when I got liked the least? When it was the money series. You know when the most people walked out? During the money series. Do you know when the people that loved me before that

didn't quite know if they loved me anymore? During the money series. And so the little Chad who loves everyone to like him underplayed my hand. I'm not up here raising money. We're not about to build something. We're not going into a campaign. God wants our hearts. And I'm just gonna do a re-up on a trust fall. And we're gonna have an opportunity right now to do that. And here's how we're gonna do it. If you see these, it's got a QR code for how we give in this modern era, 2026. And then it says, I'm in. And you're gonna have about six minutes or so from now. We're gonna go a few minutes over. I apologize, but this is too important this week to hurry this moment. So if we, as much as you can, stay reverent until we close, that would be beautiful. But I'm gonna do something moving forward with our church. We're gonna get a little old school in this area because I have my, at the Richmond campus, I have my mom and dad here today visiting me. I always get teary when they're here. Sorry, that's on me. I'm good, life's good. I just really love my mom and dad. You guys know that. You hear me talk about them a lot.

And I was a knucklehead in church because we were ministry kids. We had to be there every time the doors were open. And you can only ask so much of a kid. Just be nice to the pastor's kids. And so we had the pews back then. And I was one of the kids, there would be preaching going on, and our church was small, and I would somehow lay on the floor, and they'd let me because I'm young. But then eventually I'd start crawling down like six pews in front of them, then pop my head up and be like. My dad would be like. As soon as we get home, and then the song starts, he's like, oh, I love you, Lord. Come on, man. Come on, dad. Come on, dad. But here's where, and this is nobody's fault. This is just the evolution of currency. Everything's automated now. And so we can give, even if you already have taken trust falls, and it's a conviction of yours, what we've lost is this. There would be three, four worship songs while I was Pentecostal. So about seven songs in,

my mom would oftentimes sit down, get her purse out, and during that beautiful song, she'd start writing a check. Week after week after week after week. Year after year after year after year after year. And I didn't fully appreciate what was going on in that moment, but it was special now that I'm where I am now. I learned from it. I drew from it as an adult. I eventually started following in their ways, but what she was doing was she was writing her first and her best that week. And we had everything we needed, sometimes even a little more, but we were middle class, sometimes lower middle class, but I always thought we were rich because the house was full of love. And I now know what it would have cost them to do that week after week faithfully and consistently. And I don't care, my mom's got a beautiful voice. I don't care how beautifully she sang. I don't care how powerful her heart was attached to those words. I now know what I didn't know then. When she sat down to write that check, that was the most beautiful expression and the most sacrificial.

that was being put on the altar that day for her and my dad's heart, for the blessing of our home, for the provision of our home. My dad could sit here and tell you 30 hours of stories of how God has time and time and time and time and time again, specific stories came through for us, the Brueggemann family, when we didn't know how things were gonna come through. And his simple answer, he might be, oh, quit being so spiritual. He would unapologetically say, I'll tell you exactly why, is because for every financial thing we got wrong, we didn't invest the best, we may not have saved the most or done the best with all of that. We weren't big money people, but I can tell you this, we obeyed God in this particular trust fall and God has given the Brueggemann family a thousand times more than we ever deserve. I promise you that. I promise you that. And some of you didn't grow up. In fact, many of us, we have so many people that are newer to the faith in the last several years, I know, cause we baptized you. So many of you didn't grow up with that model.

So this is like foreign to you. You hear this language and you're like, man, that's tough. Can I tell you, I get it. Please hear the merciful heart of God. And please hear me say this more importantly, God gets it. He doesn't need anything from you guys. That's what we read in that Psalm. He's trying to say in poetic old school language, I don't need anything from you. I do this sacrificial system because I want so much for you. Do you trust me? I don't want something from you. I don't need anything. If I want to eat Israel, I won't ask you. I'm good. I instituted this because I want so much for you. And if we don't hold the human heart accountable to stuff like this, this will drown God out in a heartbeat. And we all deserve better than that. And so I'm gonna ask every single person at every campus, we're gonna play a song and we're gonna go old school like we used to at my church. And we're gonna start doing this once a month as we sing as an act of worship. We're going to take an offering, pass buckets, except you don't have to drop anything in there, it's symbolic. And we're gonna do what I used to see us do at our old little church.

After the check was dropped, sometimes we'd grab hands and the pastor would pray over families and pray over their finances and pray over protection and pray over the blessing of the home. Thank God for these beautiful acts of giving and pray that God in return would affirm those acts of giving with protection and trust and hope and provision and all the things that we get so crazy about and need. We're gonna start doing that again and we're gonna do it today. What I'm gonna ask is this, those of you who are ready today, like you feel it, you know God's speaking to your heart to take a trust fall. And what do I mean by that? I mean, you're ready to say, God, even if it's 10 bucks a week or five bucks a week, here's what the Bible says in the New Testament, do it within keeping within your income, not Bob's down the road who's loaded. Well, I can't give what Bob gives, but if someday I ever can, boy, I can't wait to give to God and give to the church. Don't worry about Bob. The Bible gives you permission. It's in what's responsible for you. If that's five bucks a week, 20 bucks a month, single mom who's getting by, I wanna say, just don't give anything at all, just take care of yourself.

And if you do that, we're with you, we'll help take care of you. But with God saying, no, no, no, single mom, take the trust fall, because it's not about the five bucks, it's about the heart and you watch what I do for you. You watch me be a father to the fatherless. You watch me put a blessing over your home. You watch me in how I take care of you vocationally. You watch me give you a supernatural grace to be the mom and the dad in that family or single dad. The same thing applies to you. I could go on and on, but what we're gonna do today is you're not dropping any money in the buckets as we sing this song and move forward. You're simply saying, amen. Maybe your heart's not ready. Maybe you're wrestling through some things. Good news, two weeks from now, we're gonna have one more of these. But what we're not gonna quit doing is A, talking about it as an issue of discipleship and B, we're not gonna quit stopping and incorporating something as big as this into times of worship. We're gonna start having moments where we teach for a few minutes every Sunday, at least once a month, and we grab hands together and we pray blessings over our homes and our families and our kids and our future kids and our marriages and our future marriages, okay?

So if you've got this, as the ushers start to pass, we're gonna have people at all campuses singing a beautiful song. I ask that we stand. in a state of worship because this is beautiful worship. And when we get done, I'm gonna come up and we are gonna pray a prayer of blessing together and then I'm gonna get you out of here. We went longer than we normally do. If you're visiting with us, we usually get you out of here a little sooner than this, but this was just a really overdue and important thing. And so thank you. Also, if you're visiting with us, please know this talk was not for you. I hope you were blessed by it. I hope you were challenged by it. I hope you took something beautiful from it. I hope you felt more than anything the presence of God here, but this was not for you. This is for people who call River Point Church their home. And so we're going to do this. We're going to stand and I'm just going to, like I always do, pray a blessing, but I'm gonna pray specifically a blessing over our finances. I wanna challenge you to do what I remember as a kid families doing in our church. If you're with your spouse and you didn't fight too much on the way here,

would you grab their hand, sign of solidarity and unity? If you're a single and you might be sitting next to someone that looks good, would you grab their hand? Let's make some stuff happen. Come on, come on. I'm kidding, don't. Security will have to take over. Don't do that, sorry. But I mean this, man. This is an act of sacrifice that makes heaven smile. So let's boldly pray the blessings of God over our lives right now. Jesus, I thank you for every single person that took a trust fall today. God, I thank you as much for the person that wasn't ready yet today. I thank you for their honesty, God. And I pray you would work on their hearts in their timing and however they want. But God, for every one of us, God, whether we drop something in the bucket or not, I pray blessing over our households. I pray blessing over our marriages. I pray a renewed blessing over our jobs and vocations and occupations. I pray a renewed blessing over our financial difficulties that so many of us have. God, I pray that you would make a way where they thought there was no way. God, I pray for promotions that are being needed

in the name of Jesus. Raises that are being needed in the name of Jesus. God, I pray for things to work. God, I pray for the spirit of generosity to rise up in all of us so that we can do more to help all of us who need the help the most. God, I pray blessings over our children, our future children, over our singles, over future marriages and future jobs. God, I thank you that we have the privilege to come here week in and week out and get strengthened and encouraged and take that trust fall not alone, but together again. So God, we speak the blessing over every single person here and at every other campus. God, it is for you that we continue to do this. And in the name of Jesus, we do it. And everybody said? Amen. God bless you, thank you so much.