Before You Give God Money, Watch This

2026, everybody. (audience applauding) It's a season where we grow our faith, where we grow our gratitude, and ultimately where we grow our generosity. And I'm so thrilled, so thrilled you're here to kick off the season with us. In fact, I wanna do this, I wanna pray for us as we step into this season together, knowing that God wants to do something special in your life, and then He wants to do something through your life, and there's nothing better. Look at me, everybody, before we pray, you gotta get this, there's nothing better in the world than letting God work in you and then letting work through you. There's nothing better than that in the world, so you gotta step into this now and lean into it. It's gonna be a special time for you and your family, I believe it, believe it's a special time for our church. Can't wait to see all that God's gonna do. Let me pray for us as we step in together. Father, now we lean into you and we've worshiped you with all we have, we held nothing back 'cause you hold nothing back. And we receive everything you have for us today. Our hearts are open now to receive your word, we know you wanna speak to us, and we don't step into the season lightly. We step in holy ground now. We believe that you're gonna move in our midst.

We believe you have something specific to say to us, and then God, we're excited to see how you're gonna use us to advance your mission here on the earth. We love you, we worship you, we give all the glory. Let's do your name to you today. It's in Jesus' name, we pray. Come and let the church say a big, amen, amen, amen. Glad you're here, please be seated. We gotta jump in. This season of Heart for the House for us is, it's our annual tradition. I know maybe you're looking around the church like I didn't think you have traditions in this church. It's not a very traditional church. You might be right about that, but we do have this annual tradition. It's part of our rhythm. It's built into our culture. It's part of the spiritual calendar of our church. And if you stick around here for more than 11 months, you're gonna see it again. We call it, we call it Heart for the House, and every year I'll lead you on a journey, a journey that is meant to increase your faith, and a journey that's meant to advance God's kingdom in a way that honestly would never be advanced without it. And a Heart for the House that always culminates the same way every single year. And I wanna make sure you know about this in four weeks. Put it on your calendar.

Our Heart for the House Give Day is Sunday, November 22nd. It's a Sunday you absolutely do not wanna miss. It's always one of the most special Sundays where we advance the mission of our church. And it's always an above and beyond gift that we give on that day. So it's not what we usually give. It's not, so many of you are so incredibly generous on Sundays like today and every Sunday. But this is an over and above gift. It's more than what we usually give. And it funds a special initiative for our church. So like it's how we started our Virginia Beach campus through Heart for the House. It's how we funded our Indian Creek Correctional Center campus years ago through Heart for the House. It's how we sent our church planters, Pastor Corey and Ashley Heist, a planet church in New York City last year. It's funding special initiatives that advance that advance the mission. And every year we grow a little more. And every year we give a little more. And every year we become a little more like Jesus. And every year our faith gets a little bigger and our impact gets a little larger. And I really never want that to get old for us. I never wanted to get old in my heart or in your life. And so today we say hello again to Heart for the House. Hello again, come on, say it with me.

Hello again, come on every voice, say it. Hello again, that's what we say today to Heart for the House. Hello again, I hope you don't say, oh, it's you again. I hope you don't say that. You know what I'm talking about? Oh, it's you again. Like we're about to step into this season where you're probably gonna spend some time with family, family get together, family dinners, family gift exchanges, family Christmas parties. You're gonna spend some time with family. And there's some family. And you can't wait to say hello again. There's some aunties and some uncles, some nephews, some cousins. Come on, you get together with them. You're like, I cannot wait to say hello again. I haven't seen them in six months, eight months, 12 months. I cannot wait to say hello again. But there is one person in every family, every family. when you see them. You again? (congregation laughing) You again? Like really, it really is, you got invited, after you acted a fool last year, you showed back up, come on, how many of you have somebody like that in your family? Are you again, person? Raise your hand, come on, I want to know,

I want to look around, look around, look around, all these people with their hands up. We've got people like that in our family, you again. By the way, if you didn't raise your hand, you might be the you again, person in your family. I'm just telling you that. I hope today, it's true, it's true, and now you know it's true. Today, I hope when you hear me say heart for the house, you say hello again, not you again. I hope that your heart is postured for a spiritual journey that we're gonna take together. One that ultimately culminates in generosity, but a spiritual journey that has us fired up on the edge of our seat, ready to receive more hungry, not the midst of single week, desiring to see what God wants to say in us, and then to watch and see what He wants to do through us. And I hope you're involving your kids. I hope you're making a family affair. Hello again, to heart for the house. And I'll be honest, I don't want that just for you. I want it for me, I want it for me. I've been walking through seasons of heart for the house for 11 years. This is our 11th year of doing heart for the house. And I hope and pray that I am as ready for it this year as I have been in the 10 years before. I want us to have a hello again attitude. And I started searching the scriptures,

really trying to find an example of how I want us to respond to the season we're in of heart for the house. And I found a great example. We're gonna do a little Bible study today, okay? Everybody, a little, y'all okay with that? A little Bible study. Little Bible study doesn't mean you gotta get quiet though. You can still be loud for a Bible study. You can still be fired up to getting God's word. And so I'm gonna take you on a little journey. I've got an example of a church in scripture that responded like I hope you and I will respond as we kick off heart for the house with hello again. And the scripture I'm about to show you is from the Apostle Paul. He's writing to the Corinthian church. And he's asking them to give. He's about to take up an offering. And he's gonna send that offering from the church at Corinth back to the church in Jerusalem to help those in need. And you're about to see this. This isn't the first time he's done this. This isn't the first offering that Paul has taken up from this church. Hello again? Or here we go again. And he did it last year. He's gonna do it this year.

And he's not only doing it for this church, but he actually took up an offering from another church that he's gonna tell this church about. So he's writing to the church at Corinth. He's gonna send the money from Corinth to Jerusalem, but he's gonna use as an example to the church at Corinth an offering he took up at the church of Macedonia. And you're like, that's a whole lot of different places and a whole lot of different churches. My point is this, Paul's taken up a lot of offerings. I just want you to understand it. Like he's taken up a lot of offerings. And maybe you're wondering why. Why is he taking up a lot of offerings? Well, two reasons. One is there's a logistical reason that I think we can all understand. And that is, this ain't free. Okay, hello? Y'all understand that, right? This is not, hey, okay, let me qualify. Admission is free. They didn't, why are y'all looking at me like that? (congregation laughs) They didn't charge you to, did they charge you to get in today? 'Cause if they did, we got a shady usher we need to talk to. And I want my cut. I'm just gonna tell it like that.

Okay, so they didn't, it's free to come in. Like, it didn't cost you anything to get that donut or that handful of mints or, you know, to check your kids in to We World or Kid Crazer 45. There was no cost to it today to you. It's free to come, but it costs something to do. And the mission is costly. And there, so there's a logistical part. This is why, this is why Paul's taken up an offering 'cause there's a logistical part. But there's also a spiritual part. 'Cause money is spiritual. In fact, the quickest way to someone's heart is through their wallet. Did you know, I had this neighbor of mine years ago, years ago after, right when we were starting. He had no interest in church whatsoever. And yet I would invite him all the time. And so on occasion, he would come. On occasion, he would actually give into my invitation and he would come, and it just so happened on the random Sundays where he would show up. Those were the exact same random Sundays where I was either teaching on money or we were like in a heart for the house kind of season. And it just so happened. That's how it, that made it wasn't planned that way. I didn't know when he was gonna come. And this happened maybe about three or four times over the course of a couple of years.

And finally, after the last time, he said back to me one day out in the yard. He said, "Hodges, every time I come to that church, "just feels like you try to put your hand in my wallet." (congregation laughing) I thought about it for a minute. I said, "No, no, no, I'm not trying to put my hand "in your wallet. "What you're feeling is Jesus trying to put his hand "on your heart 'cause money is spiritual." And Paul makes that point as he's taken up this offering, he's not just taken up an offering for logistical purposes. He's actually taking up an offering because it's the way to someone's heart. And he's gonna use now the Macedonian church to inspire the Corinthian church to get ready to give. He's gonna, I don't know, maybe he's gonna use a little healthy competition, you know? He's gonna say, "Hey, this church did a really good job given. "What about you?" He's gonna inspire a little healthy competition. And now that you know the context, I want you to see the attitude they have toward giving that I think is the attitude we should have as we say hello to heart for the house again. Paul starts by saying this. Paul says, "And now, and now brothers and sisters." And I want you to pay close attention to this, brothers and sisters because in the church, we are family, we are family.

Look at the person beside you and say, "We are family, "we are family." Look at me, that means you gotta stop treating them like strangers and you gotta start treating them like family. You're like, "Yeah, that's my husband, "that's my wife, of course we're family." Well, I should have had you look somewhere else then. 'Cause the person in front of you and behind you's family too, we're family in the church, brothers and sisters. We are family and Paul says, "Look at it, "we want you to know about the grace." And if you're following along in your scripture, you might underline or circle that word grace, the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. That little word grace gets translated in a couple of different ways in this passage, but the original word is the same. It's Paul's word, this is it, it's Keras. That's the word grace in the original language of the Bible of Greek, that's the word. And it means God's undeserved or unmerited favor. That's how we typically define grace. It is something God offers to us that you can neither earn and you certainly don't deserve. How many of you are grateful for God's grace today? 'Cause I am, 'cause I didn't deserve it. I don't earn it, and yet he still gives it. But there's another meaning behind this word grace, and it's really what Paul uses as he talks about grace here. The other meaning of the word grace

isn't just God's undeserved or unmerited favor. It actually also means this. It means a divine enablement. A divine enablement, so maybe you've heard this phrase. There's a grace for that. There's a grace for that. That means there's a divine enablement for that that sometimes God supernaturally gives you with the strength to do hard things. There's a grace for that. That sometimes God gives you a grace to walk through a season that God gives you a grace to carry a weight, that God gives you the grace to deal with a difficult person, that God gives you the grace in a season of your life, and it's a divine enablement. It's not something that on your own you could do. It's not something that on your own, you have the power or the strength to handle, but God gives you a grace for that. And what Paul is gonna say in this passage is that the church at Corinth has a grace of giving on their church. In fact, I'll show you really get to this in a moment, but let me just skip down to verse seven so you can see it because Paul ends verse seven and he uses that same word again, but this time he connects it with giving. There's a divine enablement toward giving. He connects grace and giving. And that's really the first thing I want you to see

about this attitude from this church that I want us to have in our church. It's a hello today that I think we should say. I think we should say hello to the grace of giving. Hello to the grace of giving. That means that we step into the season with a mindset, not that we've got to give, but that we get to. There's a grace, there's a grace of giving. This isn't, oh, we got to do this. No, no, there's a grace for it. There's not going to be, look at me, you got to know this, there's not going to be any twisting of the arms. Okay, there's not going to be any pressure to participate, there's not going to be any lock the doors and shake them down and pass the offering plate again. There's none of that here. Okay, this is not pack your bags, we're going on a guilt trip. Okay, there's, in fact, Paul will later say there's no compulsion to give, which means this. We can enjoy this season, we can say hello to heart for the house again, joyfully. 'Cause we realize we don't have to do this. We actually get to do this. We get to. And if you want to be a part of it, that's going to be awesome. There's a grace for that.

And if you don't want to be a part of it, that's okay too. There's a grace for that. Do you get it? It's going to be okay. I remember in the earliest days of our church when I would teach about money, there was always such attention in the air. Some of you remember it, y'all, y'all, y'all, I mean, some of you have been with us for 20 or more years and you know in those early days when I teach about money, people tense up. Like women would grab their pocketbooks a whole tight. Like you didn't know really what to expect. We were new and you weren't quite sure the level of trust that you could have in this house. But I hope after 23 years, I hope you understand that nobody would ever stand on this platform wanting something from you. If I ever teach on giving, if we step into the season of Heart for the House, this isn't, I want something from you. I want something for you. And there's a grace. There's a grace for that. So relax, relax. This will be, I think, the most fun four weeks we've had in a long, long time in church. Just relax, smile a little bit. You're with family for goodness sake.

So Paul says, we're brothers and sisters. We're on a journey to discovering what God wants to say to us. And then in the end of that journey, we get to give something back to him. How awesome is that? It's pretty awesome, I think. (congregation applauds) There's a grace, there's a grace for that. God loves a cheerful giver. There's a grace, a grace for that. I feel like we're David in the Old Testament who prayed, who am I and who are my people that we could ever give anything back to you God 'cause everything we have came from you in the first place. So there's a grace, a grace for that. Paul says there's a grace of giving. I want us to have an attitude of receiving the grace for it today that as we step into this season, we're stepping into a grace filled season to watch and see what God wants to do in and through our hearts and our lives. Now keep reading 'cause what Paul does is he says, he says about these Macedonian churches. He says, hey, there's a grace for that. And then let me show you verse two. He describes it and he says, in the midst of a very severe trial, there, that he's talking about the Macedonian church now,

they're what, they're overflow, overflowing joy and their extreme poverty. It welled up in something. It welled up in rich generosity. Think about that. There's a grace for that. So just because there's a grace for it, let me say it this way, don't expect it to be easy to do it. There's a grace for it, but it doesn't mean it's gonna be simple. It doesn't mean it's gonna be easy. The people in the Macedonian church, they were paying a price. They were in a severe trial. They were going through it. Gas prices were high there too, I guess. Grocery prices were through the roof for them too. Times were tough. And yet look at the scripture, look at what it says. It says, "It welled up." It welled up and rich. Generosity. I think that's a beautiful picture. It just, generosity just welled up in them. It just welled up in them. Here's the word picture and I want to help you get it. Imagine this, imagine you got a can of soda. I thought about, I thought about actually demonstrating this, but I thought the folks on the front row get enough of my spittle. They don't need a lot of my overflow of my diet coke.

But if I were to take a can of soda and I were to shake it up, and then I were to pop open that can of soda, it would have welled up in the can that it just sprays out when I pop the top, right? This is the way Paul is describing the church in Macedonia. He's like, "Hey, they're getting shook up right now. "They've got extreme poverty. "They've got some overwhelming circumstances. "The people at the church of Macedonia, "they're being shaken up right now, "but it's welling up in them. "And what spewing out of them is remarkable. "It's called generosity. "It's getting shook up and it's welling up. "It's coming up out of them. "The church just sprayed out generosity "even beyond what they were able to give." And I think there's a reason why. And I think it represents the attitude. I hope you and I will have number two. I hope you'll say hello to number two, the stretch, the stretch of faith. The stretch of faith. It's not easy, but giving is a tangible means by which God stretches our faith. It's a tangible means. You feel it. You feel the stretch.

Faith is a muscle that has to be stretched in order for it to grow. Let me tell you something about God. God cares about faith. In fact, in one part of the Bible it says this. It says without faith, it's impossible to please God. So one of the things I know God wants to do right now in your life, you're like, "Hey, what's God up to in my life?" Here's one of the things God is always up to in your life. He's always trying to grow your faith. He's always trying to make your faith bigger. How does he grow or make your faith bigger? You got to stretch. You got to stretch. It's one of the reasons I love the season. The season we call heart for the house 'cause it's about saying hello again to the stretch. Maybe it's got a little too easy for you to worship God. Maybe it's got a little too easy for you to follow him. Maybe you got a little too comfortable over these last few months or since this last time last year. And I want to stretch again, stretch again. That was the attitude of the Macedonian church. We're stretching, we're stretching. And it's welling up in me generosity. We were on the first night of family vacation this past summer and I saw my son, Braden, who by the way is, you know, a big boy. Braden's a strong boy.

Like Braden has, Braden played baseball his whole life. He's a college athlete and so he's thicker than me. All right, can I just tell you he's a big boy and Braden, first night of family vacation, Braden opens this little app on his phone. It's a stretching app and he gets down in the floor, it starts doing all these crazy yoga poses. I'm like, what is going on? At first I made fun of him 'cause that's how you show your love to your son. And then he's like, dad, come join me. Come join me. Now I had stretched ever. And so I didn't realize this. Y'all, I'm just gonna tell you honestly. I didn't realize this. I can't even touch my toes. I'm just gonna be honest. I can't stop judging 'cause most of y'all can't either, but I'm just telling you, I can't even touch my toes. And there I am, my son who's bigger than me, but he's striking yoga poses like he ain't nobody's busy. He's stretching, putting his hands and palms down on the ground. I'm like, what is going on? How did you become so flexible? He said, dad, I've been doing the stretching app every day. And every day I stretch. And it's not convenient. It is not easy and it hurts a little bit, but every day I stretch.

And the more I stretch, the stronger I get, the more flexible I become. The more I do it, the stronger and more flexible I become. And I think that's the way it is with our faith. That God actually wants to stretch your faith to make you stronger. But the only way God stretches your faith is for you to step into seasons where you actually invite him to make things a little uncomfortable. Step into seasons where you actually invite him to use the challenge, to use the difficulty, to use the opportunity to stretch you beyond what you're able. By the way, this is why Heart for the House is a four-week journey, not a one-week journey, because stretching takes a little time, and if today was the kickoff and the culmination of Heart for the House all in one day, here's what we would all do. We would all look at our bank accounts and we would all give what we are able to give today. There would be no stretch. That's what we'd all do. But the beauty of Heart for the House and the journey we're actually on, what we learned from the church at Macedonia is they didn't just give what they were able to give, Paul said they gave beyond their ability. Beyond their ability. Can you put the verse back on? I want to show it to him. It says, "I testified they gave as much as they were able," and then he says this. Look at this. He says, "And even beyond their ability," they gave more than they were able. They gave beyond their ability. How do they do that? They stretch their faith. If I were to ask you to give right now to Heart for the House, what much would you give? Just think about it.

How much would you give? $100? We could do this like an auction. Who's got a hundred, a hundred, a hundred, a hundred. What would it look like for you to give a thousand dollars though? If I were to ask you how much you could give right now, some of you be like, "I can give a thousand dollars right now." Okay, awesome. That's great. What would it look like for you to give ten thousand dollars? Now, I'm asking you to stretch right now. That's what I'm doing. I'm asking you to stretch beyond your ability. Don't just think about what you're able. Think about beyond your ability, dream about what's beyond your ability, ask God to speak to you about what's beyond your ability, shake up, and see what spews out, and if generosity spews out, it's going to take some faith beyond your ability. You give ten thousand dollars? What would it look like to have a hundred thousand dollars, a heart for the house? I know, but there are some people in here who right now, based on their ability, could give a hundred thousand dollars. What would it look like for you to give a million dollars? Let's stretch, let's stretch, let's go for it. See, see, faith doesn't grow in comfortable places, ever, ever. It only grows when you are uncomfortable. And the thing that Paul's saying to this church at Corinth as an example is, hey, the church at Macedonia, really uncomfortable, really uncomfortable, and yet, really extraordinary because their faith grew, and something welled up in them. All those extreme trials and poverty, it welled up in rich generosity that they stretched their faith.

So we're saying hello to the grace of giving. Relax, there's a grace for this. There's a divine enablement. God's going to help you do whatever He calls you to do. There's a divine enablement, but there's a stretching that we have to do. On our part, we've got to be willing to stretch our faith to go to uncomfortable places. How do we do that? I think that's the next part of the Scripture. Let me show it to you, because Paul says this, verse 4, he says entirely on their own. They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in the service to the Lord's people. Now, Timah, they begged Paul for an opportunity to give an offering. That's my kind of church. They begged God. They said, hey, Paul, can we have an opportunity to give back to God? They urgently pleaded, verse 5, and they exceeded our expectations. They gave themselves, what's this word everybody? Oh, that was only three people. What's that word right there? First. They gave themselves first of all to the Lord. And then by the will of God, also to us. I think that little line is probably the secret sauce to the whole thing. First of all, they gave themselves to the Lord. That's really what the season of Heart for the House has always been about for 11 years. For 11 years, we've made it very clear. This is not about how much money you give. It's about how much of yourself you give to God. It's really not about, hey, today, make a commitment and decide how much you're going to give. No, no, no.

It's about today. Seek God and ask Him what He wants to give yourself completely to Him year after year, time after time. It's always been saying hello again to number three, saying hello again to our surrender to the Lord. That's what Heart for the House is about. Hello to the grace. Yeah. Hello to the stretch. What a surrender, surrender. We say yes to Jesus first. Before you give God your money, give Jesus your heart, give Him your life, give Him your everything. In fact, I love this quote. It says, "If one first gives himself to the Lord, all other giving is easy." Come on, have a minute, that's true. You give yourself first to the Lord, all other giving. Oh, that's easy. I can give to anybody, anything. If I've given myself first to the Lord, God, I surrender it all. Everything you would ask of me, even beyond my ability and my answer is going to be yes. There's something about Heart for the House, at least for me, that is a real reset. It's a reminder in a season that typically feels a whole lot about stress and a whole lot about expectations and actually a whole lot about greed and a whole lot about materialism and a season that demands a whole lot from me. Heart for the House has always been a reset for me that everything I have belongs to God. If you're a parent, listen, I really, really encourage you to model the way of this for your family in this season. That like I'm leading you on a spiritual journey of Heart for the House, parents, this is your opportunity to lead your kids on a spiritual journey of Heart for the House.

And in 5, 10, 20 years, your kids will have as part of their rhythm, the same thing that's built into my rhythm and your rhythm if you've been around here for a little while. It's this rhythm of worship during a season that's really hard to worship because there's so many outside influences and outside voices and commercialism and materialism demanding so much from us. No, it's an opportunity to come back to the Lord, to surrender all that we have to Him and surrender often means sacrifice. In fact, when our kids were little, I would remember gathering them together and maybe it was for Heart for the House over the last 11 years or before that. It might have been for one of our expansion initiatives or capital campaigns and we'd gather around and we would talk to our kids about the journey that Tabitha and I had been on to try to understand what God was saying to us about giving. Sometimes we'd help them see, hey, and to give that amount, we're going to have to change some things in our family, we're going to have to give up Netflix. Yeah, but we're going to take the money that we usually spend at Netflix and we're going to give it back to God to help do whatever the project was that we were doing in that year or, hey, we're going to actually not go out to eat next month and instead of going out to eat next month, we're going to take that money. Our kids are like, oh, we're going to take that money and we're going to give it back to God. We're showing our kids that, hey, sometimes it takes some sacrifice to surrender to God because everything we have is is. We belong to Him and it wouldn't take long for us to do that and our kids would jump on board. You know, hey, they start thinking about things they could change, start thinking about things they could give up. We talk about things that we could sell on marketplace. and before you know, our kids are going up to their room, getting their piggy banks and getting something they can sell. It's usually something cheap

or something that belonged to me in the first place. But they were catching on to the spirit of generosity that when you get shaken up, something wells up in you and it's generosity. And the way that happens is, hey, I'm gonna surrender to God. I'm gonna surrender to Him all that I am. And sometimes that means sacrifice. It's our attitude. And I'm just gonna say to you that some of us are holding on way too tight to earthly things. This is a season to loosen the grip. To loosen the grip, watch what happens when you loosen the grip. Your hands go open and when your hands are open, you're ready to receive more from God. So we say, hello to surrender. That's what the Macedonian church did. And Paul's saying, look at this Macedonian church. There's a grace of giving on their life and they stretch their faith and they surrendered everything to God. And now Paul turns it and he speaks directly to the Corinthian church. And look at what he says, verse number six. He says, so we urged Titus just as he had made, just as he had earlier made a beginning to bring also to completion. He says this act of, there's our word again, this act of grace on your part. And he says this, but since you excel in everything,

in other words, Corinthian church, you're good at a lot of things. You're good in faith, in speech, in knowledge and complete earnestness. And in the love we've kindled to you, see also that you excel in this, in this grace of giving. So don't just be good at all the other stuff. Be good at this too. And then he says, and I'm commanding you, but I also wanna testify, I'm not commanding you, but I wanna testify the sincerity of your life by comparing it with the earnestness of others. And then he preaches the gospel. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich. That's the gospel. Jesus didn't have to. He didn't have to, y'all, but he did. He did for your sake. For your sake, he chose to go to the cross. He didn't have to, and it wasn't easy, and it wasn't simple, but he had a grace for that. So Paul says, and he gave up everything. He surrendered, that's what Paul says. He actually set the ultimate example of giving. It's not necessarily the Macedonian church setting the example.

It's Jesus himself who set the example. He set the example of surrendering everything. He became poor, so you could become rich. And Paul's not talking about money here. He's talking about rich in love, rich in blessing, rich in life. If you don't know Jesus today, you need to know this. Jesus loved you so much he gave up everything for you. That's how much he loved you. He wants to make you rich. And then Paul says this. He says, and here's my judgment about what's best for you in this matter. Last year, in other words, hey, we've done this before. Hello again, we've done this before. Last year, you were the first, not only to give, but also to have the desire to do so. Paul says this, this is why I chose the whole passage, honestly, 'cause I wanted to get to this verse in our last four minutes and 33 seconds. I wanted to get to this verse. Paul said, now finish the work. Would you say those three words with me, everybody? Finish the work. Come on, say it one more time. Finish the work, Paul says, so that your eager willingness to do it be matched by your completion of it according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has,

not according to what one does not have. So God's not concerned today with how much you're giving. God's concerned about your desire, your willingness, your heart when it comes to giving it. And this is why in the very next chapter, Paul says that God loves a cheerful giver, but notice Paul says you're not just given to start something, you're actually given to finish it. And that's what we're doing with this year's heart for the house offering. We gave for the last three years to start something. How many of y'all know what I'm talking about? We gave for the last three years to start something. In Newport News, they know what I'm talking about. Okay, 'cause listen, three years ago, our landlord at our Newport News campus told us they would not be renewing our lease at the end of 2027, which means we had to start shopping. down payment on this building in Newport News. She's a gentleman. She everybody. Stu Hodges knows how to pick them. I look for the ugliest one. I look for the ugliest one. What you can't see though is that that building is actually set in the hub of the center of the city right in the midst of all the activity that sits on a property where there's development all around it that it sits on on more parking than what you've ate the parking lot is worth more than we paid for the building but you can't see is that it sits directly across the street from Patrick Henry Mall right beside God's second favorite restaurant God's first favorite restaurant Chick-fil-A everybody knows God's second cracker barrel come on everybody and you started giving because because we need to start something but what we started three years ago is time to finish y'all we got to

finish this thing in fact let me show you where we're at in the project progress that building has now been transformed into this building yeah it looks so much better we're getting so close in fact show them a show show them a picture of the lobby we're working hard toward a a February grand opening yeah we are in Newport News and that's why we need to say hello to number four we need to say hello to finishing to finishing the work finishing the work this was their attitude Paul said hey Corinthian church you started giving but now you got to finish it you got to finish it and that means that on November 22nd we're gonna we're gonna give to provide the money to finish that building and make it operational but you understand this already you are you already know this because because we aren't finishing a building we're actually finishing a place where people far from Jesus and his church will start something in fact show them the show the picture of the auditorium because in this room in this room people start a relationship with Jesus in this room they'll start to understand how valued they are and how much God loves them they'll start to find meaningful community with brothers and sisters like Paul described they'll start to discover their purpose and living it out and we're giving to finish a work so that the real work can actually finally be started because somebody's gonna be baptized in that building and somebody's family is gonna be reunited in that building and somebody just say yes to Jesus in that building some son or daughter is gonna find purpose in that building all the attic will be set free and lives will be changed in that building that's what we're saying hello to y'all we're saying yes we will finish God what you called us to start we'll finish it we'll finish it but we finished it with the attitude the attitude that says my goodness yes there's a grace there's a stretch yes there there's there's surrender and finally we're gonna finish it because you've called us called us to it these are the four words can you put them up on the screens so everybody can see them I just want everybody to get these four words giving there's a grace for it there's a there's there's stretching for it

there's a surrender for it there's finishing it these four words describe the posture that the Macedonian church had that the Corinthian church had that Jesus had and I pray it's the posture we have as we step into heart for the house 2026 do you receive the word today everybody I hope you do I'm ready for it come on bow your heads close your eyes I want to pray for us today God I believe you're stirring something in our spirit it's just getting started but there's a grace on this house for generosity and giving we we we we step into it today there's a divine enablement so stretch our faith now we surrender all we have to you so that we might finish what you call this to start with heads bowed and eyes closed today there is that one verse in the middle of this sermon that preached the gospel to you that Jesus gave up everything for you so that you might become rich in him and if you've never once said yes to a relationship with Jesus now is your chance to do that so I'm gonna lead you in a simple prayer inviting you to give your heart and life to Jesus today your life will never be the same would you say Jesus I want to know you I want my sin forgiven by you I want to live my life for you so come into my life and be my to respond to you in faith. Do a work in our lives that only you can do. We'll give you all the glory and praise and honor in Jesus' name. We pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Come on, everybody. Thank God for his word today.