I Have Decided To Live Generously | Pastor Adam Peterson

Before we jump into the message, let me look into the camera. Welcome our online family, wherever you're joining us from. Man, there are a lot of you. I got on there and looked during the music time. Man, there is a lot of you. And so I don't know if it's spring break, maybe you're not feeling well, or you just told somebody about it. We're so grateful for you to be here today. And then come on, help me welcome all the men and women in the correctional facilities. Let's go. Come on, you can do better than that. Yeah. You are our church family. If you didn't know, we stream into hundreds of prisons across the country, and we welcome so many people joining us, we're so glad that you are along for the ride. This series is 12 weeks in. We kicked it off at the beginning of the year. And what we said is this, we're making some decisions, and the decisions that we make, they're either gonna push us closer to God, or they're gonna actually take us from God. And so 12 weeks in, we've been talking about decisions like, man, we're gonna put God first. Okay, that's all right, we didn't get an amen for that. I'll go back and preach that one again. That was about 11 weeks ago, so maybe you forgot about it.

We're gonna put God first. Yeah, there we go. We said we're gonna make a decision to be the church, meaning we're gonna get plugged into the body of Christ, and we're gonna be connected here. We talked about how we're gonna walk in obedience to the things of God. We're not gonna compromise. We talked about how we're gonna walk by faith and not live by fear when all of the things around the world are spinning out of control. And today we're gonna talk about something, and as I give you the topic for today, maybe you're gonna get mad at the topic. Maybe as I tell you what I'm gonna preach on, you go, man, I don't want you to preach on that. Or maybe you're gonna get mad that I didn't preach on it earlier. Maybe you're gonna be like, whoa, bro, why did you wait 12 weeks to finally preach on this? Come on, today we are making this decision. I have decided, come on, to live generously. Yeah! Woo! Woo! Yeah! Money, money, money, money. Money! Come on. And now here's the reality.

I know when you preach about money in church, everybody gets in their feelings because you're not gonna tell me how to spend my money. We're gonna talk about that. But let me just say first and foremost, one, if you're a first-time guest, I actually think you picked the best Sunday ever to come to our church. Because I think what you're gonna hear today is us talk about money in a way maybe you've never heard it talked about before. And if you're a member of Rise Church, what a great Sunday for you to be here to get excited about investing financially in what God is doing in our church, in our city, and around the world. Now, here's what I know. The only people that don't get excited when somebody preaches on money is people that don't give. And that's the very reason I need to preach this today is because this is one area in your life where you have yet to trust God. And I'm not here to beat you over the head. I'm not here to yell at you today. I'm not even here to give you my opinion today. The Bible talks about money more than any other topic in the Bible. And so I'm just here to tell you what God says. And if you're like, well, I don't like what you're saying, I'm just the delivery guy.

Take it up with the guy that gave me the message, okay? You wanna get mad? You wanna get offended today? Get mad at God. He's the one that said it. But here's what I'm telling you. You gotta make the decision. Do you wanna be a generous person? Odds are if I put a microphone in your face right now, told you to stand up on this stage, you would say, I want to be generous. I don't think a single one of you would go, nope, wanna be stingy. I wanna be selfish, I don't wanna bless anybody. Every single one of us wants to be generous. And here's the reality, you ready? If you're a follower of Jesus in here, we serve a generous God, can I get an amen? So if our God is generous, then we should what? Be generous people. So let's just start today, have a little bit of fun. You are at Rise Church, we're gonna laugh, it's gonna be a good day. Come on, here we go. Let's start by just clarifying some things about God, church, and money. Here's the first one, you ready? Money is not evil. It's not.

The Bible clearly tells us this in 1 Timothy, it says this, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Not money itself, but when you love money, when you, here we go, when you love money more than you love God. Well, how do we know if we love money more than we love God? If you ain't given. If you're not giving to God and trusting him with the money he's asked you to give, then that just means that you're elevating money more than you're elevating God in your life. And if that offends you, good. That's what the word of God is supposed to do every once in a while. Correct us, rebuke us, teach us, and encourage us. So the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. So what happens is when we love money more than God, we get this evil root that grows on the inside of us. How many of you know not all roots are healthy? I got some weeds in my yard right now. I pull those bad boys all the time. They grow right back because there's some unhealthy roots in there. The love of money gets an unhealthy root in your heart where you lean and cling to money more than you do God. And so he goes on to say this, that when you do that, when you get that root in you, some people eager for money, love of money,

they actually causes them to wander from the faith. Meaning at one point they were choosing to follow God, but now their love for money has them wandering from God completely. And now they've pierced themselves with many griefs, meaning your love for money, when it's greater than your love for God is actually gonna cause more harm in your life. And I just love you too much as your pastor who's trying to lead you to Jesus. Again, these aren't my words aren't gonna change your life today. The word of God will. The Holy Spirit will. And I just wanna save you from as much grief and as much harm in your life as possible. Thought number two, just for clarity purposes, God doesn't need your money. Rise church doesn't either. If I gave you a peek behind the curtain of the financial situation of our church right now, you would be blown away. We are an open book to the finances in our church, by the way, just so you know, if you ever wanna got kind of like a sneak peek behind the curtain, we are an open book. Now, we're not gonna tell you how we spend every dime in this place. You don't need to know what the salaries are of people and staff and all the things.

But here's what I'm saying. If you wanna sneak peek, you wanna know, it would blow you. If you saw our savings account right now, you'd go, how? And let me tell you, can I tell you how? Generous people. Right. And you're sitting there going, but I've never given in this church. Yeah, the generosity of the few has allowed us to be in a so healthy place. So not only is it the generosity of people in our church, but the stewardship of how we manage and handle the money in this church is incredible and it's top notch. I'm just telling you, like if you showed me a sneak peek of your bank account, we probably wouldn't be blown away right now. But I'm telling you, our church is in such a healthy place. And again, I don't mean this to offend you. We're in such a healthy place with only about 25% of the people in our church actually giving. So if I went one through four, one out of four right now, three of you wouldn't give. Isn't that insane how God has been good to us with the minority, but what could he do with the majority? And so this isn't something to make you feel guilty. It's why we're not gonna take up another offering this morning and be like, hey, if you didn't get it the first time,

here, we're gonna run it again. I'm just saying, this is an invitation to go, God, you're changing lives in this church. So the good news is we're paying all the bills, all that coffee you drink, we didn't get it donated, we bought it. And you can, we're not gonna ask you when you get that cup of, did you give? Because you don't get a cup of coffee unless you give here. You all feel that air condition right now? We pay for that. I'm just saying, everything that you're experiencing with never giving, you can keep it. You can keep experiencing it. You are welcome here. But the invitation we wanna extend to you, the invitation that God is extending to you is invest in his kingdom. Can I get a better amen? All right, so our church doesn't need your money. You better believe God himself does it. God's not stressing up in heaven going, I need that 200 bucks that they said they were gonna give me, man. God's good. All right, Bible verse, you ready? Not on the screen, but in the Bible. That in heaven, you ready? There is no JEA bill that God's like, I don't know how we're gonna pay for this thing.

Jesus illuminates heaven. The light that shines from him illuminates all of heaven. Okay, and then the Bible says that in heaven, we will walk on streets of gold, meaning if God needed a little something, all you gotta do is just chisel out one little paver. One block of gold, you know what I'm saying? So God's good. He's really good. He does not need your money. He wants your heart. And your money and your heart are connected more than you will ever know. And it's almost like the God of heaven and earth knew, there is one area where these people are gonna have a hard time trusting me more than anything else, and so I need them to be able to give me their heart because when I have their heart, I have all of their life. And your money is connected there. Thought number three, just for clarity, you ready? Your money isn't really your money. You're like, what are you talking about? How's it not my money? I worked for it, I earned it, they gave it to me, the paycheck said my name on it. It's no, no, no, no, no, you ready for this? Psalm 24, verse one, come on, if I haven't offended you yet, here it is. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

So if the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, that means you belong to the Lord and your money belongs to him as well. Imagine this, you ready? Imagine this, I walk up to you after church today and I look at you and I go, hey, I'm in a bind. My car broke down, can I borrow your car for a couple days? And because you love me, you look at me and you go, of course, pastor, anything for you, I love you, keep it as long as you need it. I use it for a couple days and when I'm done with it, I come back to you and I go, hey, how you doing? I'd like to give you something. And you're like, what do you wanna give me? And I go, I wanna give you a car and I give you your car. And I go, here, this is just my gift to you. You'd look at me like, what are you talking about? You're not giving me anything, that's my car. You're just bringing back to me what belongs to me. You're just returning to me what belongs to me, that's your money. It is not yours, it has never been yours and when you give it to God, you're not giving it to God, you're just bringing back and returning to him what belongs to him. Oh yeah, here we go. He's put it out to you on loan. And the fourth one is a pretty big deal. God is pretty serious about how you manage his money. Raise your hand if you're the cleaner in your house.

Like when it comes to cleaning, you're the one that cleans. Raise your hand if you are not the cleaner. You know I don't do a great job. How many of you know you should be doing a better job cleaning? All right, very good, very good. So every once in a while, Saturdays at the Peterson household, we're like, hey, everybody's in on this, we're cleaning the house, okay? And it's not my idea, it's their mom's, but whatever, we're doing it, okay? And so we're cleaning the house and we have three kids, three kids. Can you imagine if my wife and I look at our three kids and we look at them and we go, hey, we're all gonna clean, you're gonna do this, you're gonna do this, you're gonna do this, and we go, all right, let's go, break. And two of my kids get up immediately and they just start unloading the dishwasher, sweeping the kitchen, cleaning all the things that we told them to do. And one of my kids, there's always one, right? Just sits on the couch and does nothing. How many of you know? Right? You're like, wait a second, we're all doing this, why are you not contributing and being a part of it? There's a story in the Bible in Matthew where Jesus says there's this master who goes away,

but before he goes away, he gives some money to this guy. And then he gives a little bit less to this guy and then he gives a little bit less to this guy. The one he gave the money to over here, man, he handled it great. Took it and even made more money. This guy he gave a little bit less to, handled it great. Took it and actually made a little bit more money. But this guy who got the least amount did nothing with it. When the master came back and found out he did nothing with it, this is what he says to him. You wicked and lazy servant. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. God has blessed you. He has given you things. And he expects you to take what he has given you and use it to be a blessing to somebody else. This is how God works unlike most anything else in the entire world. When God gives you something, it is meant to be a blessing to you, but it is never meant to just stay with you. This is the gifts of the Holy Spirit that in the inside, every believer in Jesus Christ, every follower of Jesus, you have been given a gift, but it's not for you. It's for you to use that gift to serve other people. Finances are the same thing. God says, I'm gonna bless you, but you're not supposed to keep all of that for yourself.

Take it and be a blessing to somebody else. And if you don't manage what I'm giving you, you are wicked and lazy. And I just love you way too much. Like way too much to not pastor you and challenge you. Because the last thing I would want for you is to stand before God one day and he look at you and go, you were wicked. You were lazy. I blessed you. Look at all the blessings I poured out and you didn't do anything with it. We are blessed by God to be a blessing to others. So let's go. Let's be the church of Jesus Christ. Come on, people, let's go. Now, let me give you a couple of verses that have to do with money that maybe you didn't know had to do with money. Again, we're just talking about the word of God here. If you're still offended, get a map. Look at him, all right? He says this in Hebrews 13, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. This is God looking at you going, I'm not walking out on you, I'm not abandoning you, I'm not gonna leave you hanging. Did you know this is a money verse? We love quoting this verse all the time. God's never gonna leave me, praise God.

Here's what the full context says. Keep your lives free, again, here it is, from the love of money, not money itself, the love of money. And come on, some of y'all just need this next part. Be content with what you have. Stop comparing yourself to everybody else, be content, because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. This is God looking at you going, let me be your provider. You know, he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. That means he can be your provider today, he'll be your provider tomorrow, he'll be your provider the next, he will always be your provider. Just stop loving money more than you love him. Because he's not gonna leave you hanging. He's a faithful and good God. Here's another verse, come on, bet you didn't know this one had to do with money. Maybe you heard this one, that one day you're gonna stand before God in heaven, and he's gonna say, well done, good and faithful servant. That's a money verse, that's a money verse. The only time this phrase is ever said in the Bible has to do with money. It's in that same text of Matthew, where he's talking about gave some money to this guy, gave some money to this guy, gave some money to this guy. The first two guys who took the money and managed it well, he says, well done, good and faithful servant.

Hey, you've been faithful with a few things, guess what? Now I'm gonna put you in charge of many things. Meaning I gave you a little bit, you were faithful with it. So I'm gonna, I know I can trust you with more. Some of y'all want more, and God's like, I'm never gonna give you more. I can't trust you with more. You hold your money like this, how can you expect to ever receive more? Well, it's mine, okay, well, then you, that's all you're ever gonna get. You hold it like this, it's yours. Now, if you wanna give me more, now I'm positioned to receive it. And I don't know about you, man, but I wanna stand before the Lord one day and Him look at me and go, I blessed you, you used what I gave you to bless others. I'm gonna give you more, I'm gonna give you more. To bless others, you leveraged your life for eternity, well done, well done. That same chapter, this is the same chapter where he said wicked and lazy to one, he says well done to the other. The only time I ever wanna hear the words well done, other than that, it's medium rare, you know what I'm saying, come on. Holla, if you're eating steak well done, just stop, just stop eating it, okay? Well done, well done, well done.

Because you were faithful with the little I gave you, now I know I can trust you with more. And if you're still not offended, you're like no, I've been offended since you said generous. Okay, all right. If you're still not offended, here we go, you ready? Leviticus, Old Testament, a tithe, we're gonna come back to that, of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, where does it belong? It belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy. A tithe, 10% belongs to the Lord. It's his, everything that you own, it's his. Is he asking for all of it? No, he's asking for a tithe, 10%. And it's almost like God knew we weren't gonna be good at mathin', like our math was gonna be a little off, so he's like, I'm gonna make it as easy as possible for these jokers, all right? 10%, meaning you make $1,000 a month, your tithe is $100 a month. You make 2,000, it's 200. You make 5,000, it's 500. And if you're calculating your income right now, and you're going, oh dang, that's a lot of money. That's kind of the point. If you're calculating 10% of what you make right now, and you're like, there is no way I could give that.

If I give that much, I'd have to reorder all the way that I spend everything else over here. That's the idea. God, you're first. And I'm gonna change how I'm living and how I'm spending my money so that I can put you first in my life. Because that's the only place you deserve to be is first. And so if you're like, oh man, I don't even know how I could do that. That's great, that's a great place to start. Now we're gonna do a fun illustration. And it's gonna take a little while to set up. I got a couple guys that are gonna help. The band's gonna help over here. Anybody else that wants to jump in, thank you so much. Yeah, perfect, perfect, perfect. It's gonna take a little while to set up. So just talk amongst yourselves for a little bit. And I did not come up with this illustration. This was something I saw from another pastor. They did this, and I just thought, man, this is incredible. So we're gonna go all the way over here. Fantastic. Fellas, just bring it fast and furious. Make it happen. There we go. Come on. Very good. All right.

And I don't know if we have some mood music or something that we can play. In the meantime, that'd be awesome. Yeah, there we go. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Yeah, just gonna throw these out right here. Perfect, just take them out of the bag and start setting them here at the front. Awesome. We're gonna set up a little, what I call a Rise Church Farmer's Market here. There we go. Fantastic. Awesome. Very good, very good. Yeah, perfect, perfect. These can all line the back right here, Evan. That's great. Yes, there we go. Woo. Gotcha. All right. Yeah, just talk amongst yourselves right now. Y'all can come around them over here. Just come around. That's it, that's perfect, that's perfect. That's great, yeah. Got it. Right here on top is perfect. Perfect.

Yeah, just throw them all on here. Just, yeah, just anywhere. Don't even hesitate. Perfect, perfect, perfect. There we go. Awesome, awesome. Y'all give it up for these guys right here. Thank you. We got more? One more pepper. Yeah, there we go. All right. Here we go, Sam, you'll take that. Perfect, thank you. All right. So what we have here is we've got 10 pineapples. We've got 10 heads of lettuce. We've got 10 clusters of bananas, 10 bell peppers. We've got 10 cantaloupes. Raise your hand if you like cantaloupe. Weirdos. No flavor in a cantaloupe. We've got 10 cucumbers, 10 lemons, 10 sweet potatoes. That thing is massive. That's gonna be a good one tonight. 10 peppers or tomatoes. Oh, 10 onions. Okay. Did I miss one, anybody? 10 oranges, good call, good call.

I think I got the lemon over there. Yeah, we need an orange. That's gonna be great. Fantastic, 10 oranges. All right, here we go. This is the tithe. I can't tithe, because if I tithe, I won't have anything. Are you sure about that? It looks like you're doing all right. Here's the struggle, because I live in it. I live in it with you. At the end of every calendar year, in the mail, I get a giving statement from Rise Church telling me how much we gave to Rise Church. We're a nonprofit. You can take that as a tax write-off for your taxes, okay? And if you're sitting there going, I didn't get a giving statement, okay? Could have been a fault on our own. Could have been a you thing, okay? I get that giving statement, and I look at how much our family gave, and this wrestling match starts. And the wrestling match goes like this. Man, look at how many more trips we could have gone on as a family. I could have probably got a new car. My wife and I could have gone on a lot more dates,

and eaten out, and all this different stuff. And this wrestling match in me starts. And if I'm being 1,000% honest, this is just your pastor being real with you for a moment, okay, I look on and go, oh, man. Because sometimes I look out at people, I'm not talking about you, I'm just talking about people in general, and I wonder, how do they afford that? Like, literally, you ever thought about that? Like, you look at somebody else, maybe it's on social media, or maybe somebody you work with, or whatever, your neighbors, and you're just like, how do they afford that? And can I just be real with you? The first thought that pops into my head is, I don't know if they tithe or not. Now, I'm not judging them, because they may tithe, and God's just blessed them, and all the good things, and I'm not trying to be critical, although I have that in my heart sometimes, too. I'm just looking on going, I wonder if they're tithing. Because I know what I can afford based off of what I give, and so that wrestle match in me, starts, my flesh starts to go, oh, man, look at all the stuff. that I'm giving up because of what I'm giving. But it does not take much longer for the spirit of God to just rise up on the inside of me and go,

oh no, no, no, no, it's not about what I'm giving up, it's about what I'm giving to, the kingdom of God advancing. And you know what I'm giving, you know what I'm giving to? You. You. And the next service that's gonna be sitting in here, and the first service that was here, and the hundreds of kids that are in Rise Kids, and the students in this house, we're giving to make an impact in the community, the city, and the world that we live in. God behind bars, when people give in this house, they're giving to you. We love you, you are our church family. And what has the Lord asked of you? I mean, you okay going without one pineapple? Because you get to keep nine of them. You okay going without one cluster of bananas? Because you got nine of them over here. Can we just be real for a moment? God's good. He could have said 30%. He could have said 50%. He looks on and he goes, hey, I don't need it, but there is a portion of your heart that's connected to your money. And I need you to start giving so that portion of your heart can be connected to me, and not your money.

And I just love the goodness of God, because sometimes you look at this and you go, well, wait a second, though. I mean, I can do more than that. Because I mean, because my life's been blessed. And yeah, I could keep this, but you know what? My life's been blessed, and so I'm just gonna do a little bit more. And God's like, oh, you're gonna do a little bit more. Well, that means I can trust you. That means I can put more back on this table. Because I know when I put more back on this table, you're just gonna put it back over here on this table to be a blessing to others. Okay, the moment you start going, no, I just want it all on this table. Well, how selfish is that? And none of us want that. There's not a single one of you in here that go, I don't wanna give God anything. I don't wanna give God anything. No, we all wanna be generous. Now, the tithe is 10%. For some of you, that's gonna be impossible for you to do right now, impossible. You're in debt. You're barely paycheck to paycheck right now. What I would say to you is, start somewhere. Every single one of us has something to give. And if you're like, well, what should it be?

Don't ask me. The Holy Spirit is your guide. And sometimes that number he puts on your heart is gonna make you feel uncomfortable. It's supposed to. Well, that's gonna stretch me a little bit. That's the idea. So that you go, God, I'm gonna have to trust you. And God goes, I love it when you trust me. Amen? Evan, you can come up and join me. One verse in closing. 2 Corinthians 9, seven. You must each, what? You have to decide. Is it you or God? You have to decide. Is it yours or is it all his? You must decide in your heart how much to give. And if you wanna argue with me, if you're here and you're like, well, I know the Bible, you know, kind of thing. And you're like, the law talks about the tithe and we don't live under the law. We live under grace. Praise God for grace, right? You know what grace actually says? You should give more than the tithe. So go for that. If that's what you wanna argue, go for that.

And praise God if you do. But each of you must decide in your heart how much to give. And here's the thing that God would say. Don't you dare give reluctantly. He'd rather you not give at all. Matter of fact, don't give in response to pressure. That's why we're not taking up another offering right now. Thought about it. Thought about it like, I'm gonna preach this great message. They didn't give. Let's take up another offering. Biggest offering ever, right? We're not doing it. Because I don't want you to give out of pressure. You know what I want you to do? I want you to take this word. I want it to get good, healthy roots in your heart. I want you to pray about it. And I want you to come back next Sunday ready to give. For some of you, you're gonna give for the first time ever. Some of you are gonna come back the first Sunday in April and you're gonna go, we're gonna put God first this month in our finances. Guess what? Easter Sunday, what a great time to start. Don't give under pressure. Don't you dare. And don't give reluctantly. Don't give begrudgingly.

Don't go, oh, I guess I'll do it. Don't just throw cash in the bucket because you feel guilty. Don't do that. Do that. Why? Because God doesn't love it when you do that. He loves when a person gives cheerfully. This is the backwards, listen, hold your applause. This is the backwards kingdom of God. That doesn't make sense. You're telling me that when I give my money away, I can actually be happy about it? I don't like giving money away when it's buying something for myself. I don't like Target. Like, I don't wanna give you my money even though I'm getting a shirt I like. I don't wanna give you money. Cheesecake Factory, even when I'm getting some of that sweet bread that y'all got. Texas Roadhouse, come on. I don't like doing that. But there is this backwards way that the kingdom of God works that when I give my money away, I can actually go, ooh, that brought joy to my heart. Because that's what God does. Not too painful, right? You're doing pretty good over here, right?

Let's pray. Your word is good. It does correct. It does rebuke, it does challenge us. But it also encourages us. God, we wanna be generous people. What you've called us to. Change our hearts. Trust you for it. Amen. Can I say this in closing? I'm actually gonna go ahead and invite our prayer team to come and take their place. Here's what I wanna say in closing. You walked through the doors of our hearts and you walked through the doors of our hearts and you walked through the doors of our church today. And I'm so glad you're here. You're watching online today. Hopefully you didn't tune out when we talked about money. God brought you here today. It's not an accident. Don't walk out of here offended. Don't walk out of here angry. Don't walk out of here mad. Walk out of here challenged and uplifted and ready to trust God in every area of your life. And let me just say this. You know why we wanna be generous people? Because we serve the most generous God on the planet.

Okay? Listen to me. God generously gave his son, Jesus. Jesus generously gave his life on the cross for our sins. He generously shed his blood so that we could be forgiven. And it is not lost on me that somebody came through the doors of our church and you don't know Jesus. And I'm up here talking about money and I'm doing this illustration with fruit and you're like, this is great, bro. I'm searching for real life. Guess what? Even on a Sunday where we're talking about money, Jesus can change your life. And we're so glad you're here. Today you wanna put your faith in Jesus for the first time ever. You see these people right here? They would love to come alongside you and tell you what it looks like to begin a relationship with Jesus and how easy it is. It's faith in him alone for what he has done for you. I love being your pastor. My wife and I love leading you. You are some of the most generous people that we have ever met. But I think there is a level of generosity that the Lord wants to explode in this house. As we've been a blessing to our community, but there is a greater blessing

that the Lord is calling us to. And we're all gonna be a part of it. So let's go. So let's go. Let's go. Amen. Come on, can we celebrate God in this place? Hey, we love you, Rise Church. You are dismissed.