The Habit of Generosity | Game Plan Week 2

We got one more shout of praise. He's so worthy. He's so worthy. Thank you, God. Come on. What an unbelievable day. I want to welcome to Faith Promise. No matter where you're joining us from, we are together. Whether you're live at a campus, if you're watching live or later online, God Behind Bars, Wynn Community Gatherings. What a special season we're in as a church. This first week of 21 days of prayer, we have had over 750 people on average at 6 in the morning praying. Is that not special? That's special. That's special. There's a pastor up in New York that said something that always stuck with me. He said, if you want to see the power of a church, don't check the attendance of Sunday. Check the attendance of the prayer service. And listen, if we checked out at Faith Promise, God is moving. I want to invite you to join us this week at 6 at 9 o'clock on Saturday. But God is just moving. And what I love is that God is inviting us to move and to win with Him. So I want to encourage you. In this series, God has given us opportunities to join Him. And I pray that you are jumping at every opportunity that God is putting in front of you to work and to win with Him. So in this season, we're taking some time to look at God's game plan and to make sure that our life is aligning with God's game plan. See, in God's game plan, old habits still win new battles. And I just pray that you would receive that in your heart. Old habits. In God's game plan, old habits still win new battles. And last week, we talked about the habit of serving. And so many, hundreds of you were obedient and went to Next Steps last weekend and started your journey of serving. And this week is step two of Next Steps. So I want to encourage you, at 12 o'clock after the service, join us for Next Steps. Discover your purpose. See all that God has for you. See, in this time, this is a pivotal season of the year. So we're taking some time to build our lives around God's game plan. For this school year and for the rest of this calendar year, we're holding ourselves accountable to looking at God's game plan and asking ourselves, are we living these habits out? Because godly habits make God's game plan a reality in our life. Now, can we just be honest in church today? Some of us are habit people and some of us are not habit people. Like, let me ask you this. I

want you to raise your hand on campuses if you put your keys in the same place every day. Okay, thank you. We call those Christians. Okay. Or you've got the other set of people, like my wife, who she comes in, like Wilton Stilt Chamberlain, and just gives a hook shot to her keys out somewhere. See, some of you guys, your houses are lame. You have Easter egg hunts one time a year. We have it every single day. Where's mom's keys? Where's River's shoes? Val doesn't have any underwear on. Like, we're living a party over there. Okay. So listen, whether you like habits or you don't like habits, habits are what's called a fact of life. And you cannot like a fact of life if you'd like to, but if you like it or not, doesn't change the fact that it is a fact of life. Now, you could be like a kid. You ever seen when kids are little and they cover their eyes and like, well, if I can't see you, you can't see me? You know what I'm talking about? And it's cute when a little kid does it. Can I just let you in, adults? It's not cute when adults do it, okay? If an adult says, well, if I can't see my responsibilities, if I don't look at them or think about them, then they can't see me. That's just not the case. And today we're gonna press into a sensitive topic. So before we do, I just want to ease us into it. So, like, you have a responsibility to God to take care of your body. Your body. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, it says that your body is a temple. Now, my dad, every night when he eats his nighttime ice cream, he says he's growing the temple for more of the Holy Spirit. But I don't think that's how it works, okay? I'm just gonna let you know. I don't think you should go that route, okay? I don't think that's how it works. But let me ask you, when it comes to how you care for your body, are there habits that you are hiding from? Because that's a big deal. We shouldn't be hiding from our habits. What about your relationships? I mean, relationships are the most dynamic, alive, loving things in our life. Yet, even though they can be complex and a lot of stuff going on, they are still held together by our habits. So, let me ask you about your relationships. Do you have a habit of showing up for the people that you love? Do you have a habit of having intentional, spiritual, intimate conversations with your spouse, your friends, your kids? Like, making

real conversations, not just the high-and-by surface stuff. Do you have a habit of putting people in front of your phone? Do you have those kind of habits? Are there habits you're hiding from in your relationships? I wanna stop real quick right here and just talk about a habit we have at Faith Promise. It's all a part of church history. All the way back when the church started in Acts chapter two, the church has had the habit of gathering in groups. At Faith Promise, we have groups. It's how we really love people well. And so in a couple weeks, we're gonna talk about the habit of groups. And hundreds, if not thousands of people will join groups. But first, something that we need for that is we need people who will lead groups. Now we have a bunch of great group leaders, but can I just encourage you, there's a card in your seat, and I wanna ask you specifically, is God calling you to lead a group? Is God calling you to make space in your life? I know your life's busy. I know you have stuff going on. But hey, can I tell you when a church stops growing? A lot of people think a church stops growing when attendance stops going up. That's not when it stops. A church stops growing spiritually, financially, and numerically whenever it stops having groups for new people, for new people to come in

and be equipped to win their world. So can I ask you, listen, if you've been here for a while, if you've been here, you know the culture, and you're growing, I know you're not perfect. If we only let perfect people lead groups, there would be no groups, right? And so I wanna ask you, is God calling you to lead groups? Because here's what we're not gonna do at Faith Promise. There's a real issue in church culture that whines about the world. We are not whiners here, we are winners. Lot of Ws there, but we are not whiners, we are winners. We are not victims, we are victors. And so we don't complain about the generation coming up. We don't complain about our world. We equip people to win our world. And one of the main ways we do that are through groups where you take the rest of the service and where you pray, is God calling you to lead a group? Is God calling you to make a way? If you have a healthy marriage, would you make a way for young people who just got married or even people whose marriage is in a hard time to have a group? If you have healthy kids, if you have kids that are following the Lord, would you make a way? Please, ask the Lord. Even if you would consider it, I want you to fill out this card,

put it in the bucket when it goes by you, and we will talk more about it. Hundreds or thousands of people will look for a group in a couple weeks. Will they find seats for souls at Faith Promise? I pray that they do, but that is something that we lead together. Now, when it comes to relationships, for some reason, we have this odd deal where we like our relationships to be led by feelings. Right, we like to kind of go with the flow when it comes to relationships. We want to be kind of loosey-goosey, like a rom-com or like a notebook movie. We just want to be led that way, but that's not how real life works. I think we all know that our feelings, that they're too fickle to lead our lives, to lead our relationships. Can I just ask, are there any husbands gathered at church today that you've been in trouble for something you did in a dream? Oh, we're lying today at church? Okay, okay, I got you. I see how it's gonna be today. All right, it's happened to me. Right, okay, let's do this. How many of you have been upset? You've been sad, mad, frustrated, and you're not even quite sure why?

I know it's happened to me, right? Why would we let something as fickle as our feelings lead our relationships, lead our lives? Feelings don't lead our relationships or lives. Our faith does. Habits are what run your life when you don't feel like running them. Feelings are a terrible head coach. Godly habits lead the way into the freedom that he's called us to have. Can I just tell you, look, we should be in the trust tree for a second. Some of y'all lied to me a minute ago because your wife is sitting there that you got in trouble in a dream. That's fine. I'll be honest with you today. Listen, Rachel and I, we have been in seasons that we're so busy, whether it's school or church or whatever, where we have scheduled intimacy. Now, I think my in-laws are at this service, so I'm not gonna go into detail, okay? But we have scheduled. We've scheduled who instigates it because it matters to us, and so we're gonna keep that habit right. I don't put it on my work calendar. I don't need people to know why I'm running home. That's none of their business, okay? But habits matter.

Actually, I wanna give you just really a one-time offer here. If you will register for men's conference, I'll do a breakout on scheduling what we'll call marital cardio, okay? But seriously, men, I just wanna take a moment. You cannot miss men's conference. You've heard it said, and it's just statistically true. It's biblically true. You will be most like the five people you spend your most time with, and you might have some great people that you spend time with, but do you spend time with spiritual people? Man of God, do you have somebody that pushes you on how you're treating your wife, on how you're doing in puberty? on how you're doing this stuff. We need godly men in our life, and you're gonna find godly men doing godly things like men's conference. I love this statement. It's true for everybody, but let me push y'all men. Successful men do consistently what unsuccessful men do occasionally. It's something godly men do consistently is they take advantage of opportunities to grow, like men's conference, like weekends, like servings, like group. You cannot miss it. We have a Navy SEAL company who's awesome.

I want you to invite people that don't know the Lord to Friday. We're gonna have hundreds of men saved. We're gonna see a movement in men of God in East Tennessee and beyond. And so, listen, today, even during this service, go to the app, sign up for men's conference. It's gonna be amazing. Now, the reason that I'm beating the drum of habits as we get going today is because, listen, when we follow habits, it helps keep the main thing the main thing. It helps us know what matters most in our life. And listen, if you want God's game plan in your life, then you have to have godly habits. It's just how it works. And so the habit of God that we're gonna push in today, it can be sensitive, but I pray that it's not sensitive at Faith Promise anymore. I pray that we can just live in freedom. But this is a habit that the devil, I would say fights most, not just at Faith Promise, not just in the current era that we live in, but as far back as we can look in human history, this is something the enemy has attacked. The habit for today, I want you to think about this way. In God's game plan, God is habitually in our finances. In God's game plan, God is habitually in our finances.

It's a habit to put God in our finances. And the devil fights it so hard because he knows the power that can come in and through our lives if God is in our finances. But listen, if the devil can get God out of our finances, it would like be getting, it got getting tackling out of a football team. It would be like getting the habit of dribbling out of a basketball team or the habit of hitting out of a baseball team. Those are all habits that are essential for those teams to win games. And the habit of having God in your finances is key to you winning the world with Jesus. It was, I don't want you to take my word for it, even though I believe it and my budget lives by it, my life lives by it. I wanna look at what the head coach has to say. I'm not the head coach of your life. You're not the head coach of your life. If you're a Christian, then Jesus is the head coach of your life. And I wanna take a moment and look at the largest teaching that we have from Jesus. The most complete teaching we have is in Matthew called the Sermon on the Mount. And that's Matthew five, six, and seven. And in chapter six, right in the middle, right in the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, we see Jesus break down finances

better than any ESPN analyst ever could break down a game plan. So if you have your Bible, will you go to Matthew chapter six? I hope you have your Bible in some way. But if you go to Matthew chapter six, and I'm gonna read you verses 19 through 24. And again, this is so good. Matthew chapter six, verses 19 through 24. Let me read this to you. It'll be on the screen as well. But in verse 19, it says, "'Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth "'where moth and vermin destroy "'and where thieves break in and steal, "'but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven "'where moths and vermin do not destroy, "'where thieves do not break in and steal. "'For listen, 21 is massive. "'For where your treasure is, "'there your heart will be also.'" It's very unique right here, what Jesus puts in this teaching in verse 22. He says, "'The eye is the lamp of the body. "'If your eyes are healthy, "'your whole body will be full of light. "'But if your eyes are unhealthy, "'your whole body will be full of darkness. "'If then the light within you is darkness, "'how great is that darkness.'"

Listen, verse 24. "'No one can serve two masters.'" Not some people. It says, "'No one can serve two masters. "'Either you will hate one and love the other, "'or you will be devoted to one and despise the other.'" That's intense language. You cannot serve both God and money. I wanna break this down and look at what Jesus is teaching us in these three segments of the Sermon on the Mount. The first one we see in verses 19 through 21, it's so clear. It says, "'Do not store up for yourselves treasure "'in the wrong place.'" Can I just ask you right there where you're at, where are you storing your treasure? What matters most to you? In the game plan that your life is currently following, what points are you counting? What makes you feel successful? What makes you feel good? Now, think about it this way. If you are a die-hard. Christian, then you're also a Tennessee fan. And so think about this way. That's mostly a joke. It's like a 73% joke. So listen, if let's just say a UT ball player or whatever team you like, if they care more about their stats than the score, is that player gonna keep getting the ball? No. Are they gonna keep getting playing time? No. They're gonna get corrective action. If you're more worried about your stats than the score that matters, there's gonna be an impact

on your life, on that player's playing time. Let me show it to you this way. I'm having some kiddos come out here and help me. And this just helps us see it. This just helps us see it in a really clear way. Y'all coming out here? Maybe. Every time. Remember earlier when I said my wife just, whoo, I don't think they're coming. We'll give it a minute and see. Hey! Come on out here, buddy. Ah! Is there another one? He's coming! This is the life that I live, guys. You okay? Okay. You stay right there. Stay right there. Okay. Okay. Get it together. Hey, dude. I heard you smacked. I heard you smacked your rear end last service. Don't do it. Just let him go. Okay. Okay, guys. Think about it this way. These are Rachel's kids if you haven't met them. Okay. So, so let's just do this. I'm gonna give you guys some money. We all live in the same house. I mean, you give you guys all the same amount of money, right? Here you go, buddy. And here's what we're thinking. What's happening is we've got some people coming over the house and we want to bless them. We have people over all the time. We want to bless them. We want them to enjoy it. But hey, I want you, I want, this is what I want. I want you to have the joy of helping to bless these people. And so will you give me some of the money back that I gave you to bless these people? Will you give me that, buddy? Oh, you're gonna be extra generous. Hey, wait! Okay. Okay, he's good. He's gone. Can I have some money to help bless these people, please? Okay, thank you. Thank you. Extra generous. Will you guys bless the two kids? Y'all love on them. Thank you, guys. Here you go. Here you go. Now, the vagabond that ran away early, okay? That's Rachel's third child named Baller, okay? But hey, you know what? You know, it's interesting. Help me finish this statement if you know it. Whenever you talk to a kid about something and they say, but I bought it with my, my own money. They don't have any money. You kidding me? Those kids are homeless without me. They are homeless people. I live in my house sometimes, okay? River has literally, I'm not gonna tell you that. Never mind. What are y'all called? DCS? Hey! These, all they have is what we gave them. They open the fridge. They have the audacity. They have some snack drawers to call them their snacks. And I'm like, you have nothing! Right? And you're like, oh, kids, they do that. They do that. And so, we do the same thing. Have you ever heard, this

is something normal in our society, where we say, I'm a self-made man. Really? You were there? You picked your parents? You were there when they made you? Gross. You were there whenever you were, you decided what gifts that you would have? You were, you decided what mind you would have? You decided what time in history that you would be born in? You decided where that you would be born? You did all that? No. You didn't do any of that. I didn't do any of that. You're not a self-made person. You're just like me. You're a Psalms 139 God-made person, God-designed person. Every single thing. You can give God some praise if you want. Everything that we have, He gave us. And whenever we try to close our fists around something that He gave us, we're the kid running away saying, it's my money. Can I tell you something about this habit? It's hard to believe, and it's hard to receive. This is not for God. This is for you. This is for me. This may shock you, but God's got the electric bill in heaven. He's okay. The streets of gold are just fine without your money, but there's something else after your heart, and it is the God of money, the God of greed, what the Bible calls mammon, the dark. It's just, it's the reality. The reason that God sets up for Him to habitually be a part of our finances is because He doesn't care about your money. He cares about your heart, and when we won't let Him inside of our finances, it shows where our heart is. Can I ask you, where is your heart? You know, something interesting, when Jesus is teaching right there in Matthew chapter 6, in between those two spots of money, He talks about our eyes. He talks about what your eyes see. It brings light into your body, and I was just asking Lord for some wisdom on that, and it makes total sense. What impacts your habits more than what you look at? Nothing. What you look at impacts what you think about and all that kind of stuff. Some of you guys, y'all can't kick pornography. You just think, like, I'm broken, I'm perverted. No! You scroll through Instagram and you look at those women with barely any clothes on, it's your eyes. Your eyes are leading your heart to what you will lend your treasure to. I believe that Jesus put that deal about our eyes right in there because our eyes are guiding what we lend to. How does what you look at, how does what

you look at shape where your money goes? How? Some of you guys think, well, I just, gosh, I want to bass vote so much more than I want to impact the kingdom for God. Or maybe you wouldn't say it, but you believe it. What do you look at more? You looking more at God's Word? I think bass votes are so funny. It's just a sparkly, it's like a, it's like a, I don't know, I'm not talking about it. Some of y'all get up and walk out. Listen, your eyes are leading where you're lending to. We have to process that, and I want to ask you about what you look at. What you look at, does it fill your life with life or with lack? What you look at, does it fill your life with provision or with poverty? What you look at, does it fill your life with anticipation or with anxiety? We can check what we care most about what we're lending to by what we look at. God's game plan has you living in freedom, right? That's why, and Jesus cares a lot about this, that's why Jesus is so intense in verse 24. It'll be on the screen, but let me read verse 24 to you one more time. It says, no one can serve two masters. Either you will hate one and love the other, you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve, you cannot love both God and money. Listen, you can't serve two masters. Can we just get super real? And listen, I know sometimes people get weird when we talk about money. I'm praying for freedom for Faith Promise. It's not funny, it's not weird, it's just what God says. It's not like anything else that God says. And if God says it, it goes. If it's a godly habit, then we want it. But the reason it gets so challenging when we talk about money is because God starts pushing on the starting lineup that you set up for your life. For a lot of us, our treasure is the starter in our game plan and not God. And that should get our attention. The reason that it causes some pressure, the reason that Jesus uses intense language like love and hate, devoted and despised, is because whenever he starts pushing on the starter or the guide for your game plan, it's a visceral response. I don't think there's any Christians at Faith Promise today that you would say that you hate God or that you despise him. I really don't think that. I don't think you'd come to church if that's how you felt. But can we be honest right now? 90% of Faith Promise doesn't tithe. And so this is a lot. Most of us at all of our

campuses, most of us, you're feeling this right now and you feel that you're in disobedience to something that God has called you to do. Does it feel more like hatred or more like high fives? Feels more like hatred. And if we continue to be disobedient, you continue to turn your back, you might not say that you hate, you might not say that you despise, but I think we've all heard, your actions are speaking so loudly I can't hear what you're saying. This is challenging. Do you know why it's challenging? Our world is not built this way. Our world is built to follow the master of money, not the master of the universe. Listen, I want to make it really clear. Jesus, he didn't need your money, he wants your heart. But you know, if you look at all of Jesus's teachings, that 15% of Jesus's teachings are about money. Why? Is it because Jesus was trying to buy a nice horse or buy a nice mansion? No, Jesus was a nomadic evangelist. He traveled around. He did not have a place to lay his head, but he looked out at people who were in bondage to money and he begged them to live in freedom. Just like today, the Holy Spirit is begging you. I don't get a raise if you tithe, but can you imagine everything that God's doing? Can you imagine there's 13 campuses right now, there'll be a thousand people baptized this year. Can you imagine what God could and would do if more than 10% tithed? I think that it would blow our minds. I think we'd have to add services. We'd be throwing up campuses and churches faster than we could imagine. If I was the devil, I would attack it too. He's coming after us. And Jesus, from the beginning of his teaching, shows us this is what he's after. And I gotta be honest, I felt super convicted when I was preparing for this, that I don't teach on it enough. If it's what the enemy's using to attack your family and your future, we should talk and pray about it more. So I just, because this promise so matters. A little later, it's a great verse to memorize.

A little later, in Matthew chapter six, Jesus makes a promise in Matthew 6.33. And he says, seek first the kingdom of heaven and all these things will be added to you. Seek first the kingdom of heaven and all these things will be added to you. Do you know why your life feels so heavy right now? You are trying to produce this something only God can provide. It doesn't matter how smart you are. It doesn't matter how hard you work. If you try to produce what only God can provide, it's gonna eat you up. And I know there's some weight right now. And it's not guilt or condemnation, it's an opportunity to grow. But can I tell you why it feels heavy? There's such a clear passage when it comes to tithing. In the last book of the Old Testament, it's funny, it's the book right before Matthew, but it's in the Old Testament, it's in the book of Malachi. And he says this, and this is maybe where you find yourself. And listen, it's okay, God has grace. But he says this in Malachi chapter three, verses eight and nine. Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, how am I robbing you? You're God. You're robbing me with tithes and offerings.

You are under a curse, a whole nation, because you are robbing me. This is, listen, the Bible sets it up where when we decide we're gonna keep the money that he gave us, it's called robbing God. And listen, whenever we, when we follow what God tells us, the tithe. The tithe is what the Bible sets up where we give the first 10% of our income. When we give the first 10% to God, that's called the tithe. And whenever we do that, we are inviting God into the other 90%. I don't know about you, I would rather have 90% with God's blessing than 100% without it. I really would. It may sound crazy. It's just the life that I've gotten the privilege to live. And God is inviting you into it. And you may think, well, I don't know where to start and I haven't tithed in so long. I've never done it. What am I supposed to do? Listen, there's grace. Here's what God says in the next verse. In verse 10, Jesus, or God says this, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing

that there will not be enough room to store it. God says, test me in this. God says, test me in the tithe. Nowhere else does God invite us to test him in the tithe. It's another moment that shows how unique finances are, how unique what the enemy wants to do. God says, test me in this. Test me and see if I won't take care of you. Please stop trying to produce what only God can provide. I'm telling you, he has you. Test him in this. That is such a big promise from God. Again, what he's saying is test me in the tithe. Your first 10% of what I've given you anyway, give it to my house so that more people can come into my house. This is a big, big deal. And listen, I know there's a lot of stuff rattling around in our heads right now. Would you test God in this? Do you know part of the reason why this feels so weighty is because you are trying to take a test in owning your finances that is only meant for God. Can you imagine if I took Valor, the goober that ran away with the money, who's six, if I gave him like a calculus test, do you think he'd do very good? No, do you think he'd feel like a failure? Do you think he wouldn't even be able to read some of the words?

And that's how a lot of us feel when it comes to our finances, because you're trying to take a test that was meant for God Almighty. You are trying to produce what only God can provide. If you've ever made money, if you ever had relational loss, you know that no matter how hard you work, you cannot produce what only God can provide. And so this weekend, I want to invite you into the habit of tithing. Before we take a moment, and before... Something unique that we've done in this series is we looked at heroes of the faith, who've, wherever the habit is we're talking about, they've done it last week. We talked about George Mueller, who's just a great guy in church history. And this week, I wanna talk about a hero in a little more recent church history. Miss Adelaide is a fourth grader at our Blount campus. And I got this text message from our kids director at Blount and I wanna share it with you. One of our fourth graders, Adelaide, did something out of the box for her Win Your World Challenge. Their challenge was to bring an offering to church this past Sunday. Her grandmother texted me about and asked about the different ministry partners that we give to.

Adelaide wanted to know so that she could share where the money was going as she went door to door selling lemonade for money to bring an offering to FE Kids. It was a really cool moment for the other kids in 45, that's fourth and fifth graders, to see that they don't have to have a job to find creative ways to be generous with their time, their money, and their things. It's a fourth grader looking at God's Word and saying, well, if it says it, then I'll believe it. As we take a moment to prepare, and there's a card just to make it super clear because I know the enemy wants to make this confusing and weighty. Listen, it just doesn't have to be that way. In one side of the card says you set the speed of the vision. God has given us a vision here straight from the Bible to win the world of Jesus by equipping Christ followers to win their world. But on the other side of that card, it shows that we get to set the speed of the vision by our obedience. And I wanna ask you, will you obey? Will you obey with a tithe? Will you start your way that way? And it gives just some math there for you. It used to help you see what 10% would look like, but then it also asks for commitments. And I believe this is a commitment we don't make someday

or next Sunday. I'm praying this is a commitment that we would make today, that we would test God in the tithe. Something that I'm praying for during this series, I'm praying for 300 families that would make tithing at Faith Promise a reoccurring habit in their life. Last weekend, we had 13 who said, hey, I'm gonna do that. And I'm so proud of you if you're one of those families. So we have 287 left and we could smash that in this service alone. We could blow past that. But again, that's just something that I'm praying for. I want you to ask God, God, what are you calling me to do? I think we've seen in his word that he is gonna take care of us if we will trust him to do it. I just, I beg you for that. Hey, before we, while you fill these cards out, I wanna offer you one more. Genuinely, it's a gift. We have something that we've made called My God, My Money. And it's a group, if you feel like your money's out of control, maybe you treated money like it was your God for so long, and you just need some help. And listen, can I just tell you, some of us, we wonder why our marriage is in trouble. It's because you're going to your friend that's been divorced three times for marriage advice. Some of us wonder why our finances are in trouble.

You're going to your friend that was paycheck to paycheck. These groups are led by people who understand financial freedom, who understand God's provision. It can help you get there. So if you've lived for a while where your God is your money, join these groups. We're gonna launch groups here soon. Join these groups led by people that we trust. It's a great opportunity. And so we're about to just pray. I'm gonna pray for our offering. And there's a bunch of ways you can give at Faith Promise. You can do it reoccurring. That's what me and my family do. It's the first thing that comes out of our check. And again, that's what I'm asking you to pray about doing, making this habit of tithing a part of your life. And after I pray, the buck's gonna pass. If you want to tithe in there, or if you tithe another way, that's fine. But I also want you to ask to put this commitment there. We want to pray for you. If you need help, we want to follow up with you. But listen, we would be a terrible church, and we would not teach the Bible if we didn't attack the God of greed. So we're gonna do it. And you're gonna live in freedom. You're the kind of church that can lead the way

and not get funny when it talks about money. But you can have your life led by faith and not by feelings. Before we bring our tithes and put these in there, let me just pray for us. God, we love you, and we need you. We need you right now, God. This is a spiritual moment. This is a spiritual thing. For us to obey in this, God, we're not gonna be able to do it without you. So we need your help. Right now, people are on the fence, and I pray that they would test you in this, that they would bring their tithe into your house and watch you bless, not just financially, but just across the board. So God, we love you so much. You hear me pray. Amen, amen. Guys, we can go ahead and pass those bugs. Can I tell you what's happening right now? So for me and my wife, you know money's never really been an issue for us. And when I say money, I'm not saying that we haven't been poor, we've been pwned, okay? Like a lot of people have. I'm saying that tithing's never been an issue for us. Do you know why? Because of my parents and her parents.

So hey, parents, what you're doing right now, some of you guys are choosing to break the generational curse of the God of greed for your kids. And I just want to tell you, I'm proud of you. I want to tell you, God is so honored. That's amazing. You can do it and you will do it. Hey, before we sing one more song and just honor God for this day at church, I want to tell you why we're generous. And can I make you a little uncomfortable? I probably already made you a little uncomfortable today. Can I tell you something that's making me uncomfortable right now? There's a huge push in America right now of the Islamic faith. And I'm watching it and I'm praying about it, ask the Lord, like I'm, and you've probably seen some of it too. I read some stats this week that in America right now, that Muslims are more generous to mosques than Christians are to church, that they actually give more and they serve more, which I'll be honest with you, that rocked my world. Do you know why it rocked my world? Not because it's a religion versus a religion, because the reason we're generous is because Jesus was so generous with us. Like they don't have that. Muslims are, they believe that they're trying

to work their way there. We, as Christians, we're going to heaven. What it says in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, that it's a gift by faith that no one can do it. It's a gift from God that Jesus came and died on the cross to pay for our sins. We should be so generous because Jesus is so generous with us. And so that's the reason that we give, but maybe you've never received the generosity of Jesus. It says in Romans 5, 8, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Have you ever received the gift of Jesus's generosity where he died for your sins and offers you salvation? Maybe you've been in church your whole life and you've never started a personal relationship with Jesus. Today is the day. And so we're going to pray a prayer. It talks about it in Romans 10, 9, that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, that he's going to save us. And we get to walk with him, not just on Sundays, not just someday, but every day. If you're ready to start a personal relationship with Jesus, will you just bow your head and close your eyes with me? We're going to pray this prayer out loud as a family. At Faith Promise, nobody prays alone. So let's pray this out loud. Say, Jesus, I know I've sinned, but I know you came and died on the cross

to pay for my sins because you love me, because you want me. I believe in my heart and I confess with my mouth that you are my savior. Be Lord of my life. With heads still bowed, eyes still closed. Hey, I'm going to count to three. And if you gave your life to Christ, I want you to shoot your hand up. So bold, so straight. Listen, the enemy doesn't want you to take this step. He doesn't want you to grow, but God's got growth for you. I'm going to count to three. I want you to shoot that hand up boldly. All right? If you've made that decision to walk with Jesus today, let's just be honest about it. Let's be bold about today. On the count of three, one, two, three. Go on, shoot that hand up. Awesome. Wow, hands up. Just give a second, get these out. Raise them up high. Raise them up bold. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. It's the best day of the rest of your life. Praise God. Awesome.

Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. Awesome. Faith promise. Can we celebrate with the people that gave their life to Christ today? Amen. Hey, before we worship, before we worship, if you need prayer, we'll be up here for prayer. But I'll remind you, next week is a baptism week. Baptism. And here's a commitment we made to each other last week that we were all gonna help our one take one step, that we're gonna help take one step to be more aware of what God has. And we made a commitment that I was gonna live in such a way to move your one, one step. You are gonna live in such a way to move my one, one step. We're gonna move them forward together and see them join Team Jesus. Can I give you a cheat code? Listen, this is probably the best thing that you have, but y'all get to use it once. If you haven't been baptized yet and you know that you've given your life to Christ, that you should be baptized, next weekend, I want you to go ahead, it'll be on the screen, schedule your baptism or just let us know and we're gonna do it and invite all your lost friends. You can invite your Nana who goes to church, that's fine.

But more importantly, invite your friends that don't know Jesus. Let them experience you representing that you are a new creation, that you're loved by God, that your life's been transformed. And just let them be in the experience and I believe they're gonna join you in the grace of Jesus. So next weekend, I'm praying we see hundreds of people saved and baptized. Let's all move our one, one step closer to Team Jesus. Will you stand as we prepare to give God just one more song of worship. If you need prayer, our prayer teams are up front for healing, for boldness, whatever you might need. We would love, love, love to pray with you, to pray with your family, but just before we go out and win our world, let's pray, or let's praise God for, He's so worthy, God, we love you. And right now, as we prepare to worship you, would you just, would you just galvanize our hearts to be obedient, and whatever you have to say today, that we would obey. Because you are God, and we're not. So hear me pray, amen. Let's worship.