The Not-So-Hidden Practice That Changes Everything: Giving | Bil Cornelius | 7 Hills Church

So I was talking to your pastor, and I just, like I always do, I say, hey man, I'm honored to come. Thank you for the invite. You know, how can I help you? Like, where are you at with the church? What do you need? And he said, here's what's going on. Our people are so great. And I knew that already. I said, oh, I already know you have great people. We were talking about how God's really put his hand on the church so much that you had to add a fourth service. Praise God, what a wonderful problem to have. You're having to have all these services again. I love it. That's wonderful, actually. And so, we were talking about that a little bit, and he said, you know, God's really moving. I said, well, how can I help you? He said, well, you know, normally we have some moments where we get to share, and we just take a time to talk about generosity and giving, but because of some snow days and some other events happening, we haven't had that time. And he goes, but I'm not gonna ask you to do it. I was like, no, no, no, I'm great with that. I said, Marcus, I'm fine with that. I love your people. I've been around enough. I'm not just a guest preacher.

I'm just Uncle Bill coming through. That's all that's happening right now. You know, I've been around a long time. And so, I've been with you guys and seen your church just grow and thrive. Every time he comes and shares at our church, Church Unlimited, he always says the same thing. He says, I feel like I'm with my people. I said, I feel the same way when I'm with yours. I mean, I feel like there's a kindred spirit here. And I said, I'd be honored to share about generosity. I said, in fact, I said, please let me talk about that because, number one, it's close to my heart. I really believe in it. I've seen it. I've grown up in a home with a father and mother who have modeled generosity to me. So, I know the difference it can make in your life, in your marriage, in your family. My sister and I both, in our families, we honor the Lord with the firstfruits of all we have. And I've seen God's hand firsthand. And so, I said, please let me share. And I'd be honored to do it. So, I wanna talk today about giving. And the reason why I wanna talk about number one is because it's just that moment where church has to focus your efforts and say, we want to do what God wants us to do. But more importantly, I want you to hear my heart

when I say this. I'm not trying to get something from you today. I'm trying to get something to you today. Because generosity does not take anything from you. It gives something to you. And so, I'm excited to talk about this. But I wanna show you something in scripture. If you've got your Bibles, you can turn to Judges chapter six. Because there's this guy named Gideon who did all these great things for God. He was not in a good place, though. We tend to look at these great leaders in the Bible and think, wow, look at all God's done through them. And they must have just been these mighty, amazing people. But actually, most of them were scared to death, didn't feel confident, didn't have a lot of self-confidence, didn't think they were gonna do anything for God. But God put their hand on them and God did great things. So, Gideon was one of those guys. Gideon was literally hiding. He was in hiding. When an angel showed up to talk to him, the reason he was hiding is because Midian, the Midianites, Midian had come in and taken over Israel. They enslaved them, they took all their crops, they stole everything from them. So, Gideon was a farmer, like most people

in Israel's culture back then. And he had his land taken from him, his crops taken from him. He was just trying to scratch enough together to keep eating and keep his family eating. That's what he was doing. He was literally hiding in his wine press. It's just a cave where you make wine. And so, he was literally hiding, trying to have lunch. An angel shows up and the angel says to him, mighty hero. That's the first thing he says. Hey, hello, mighty hero. And so, another translation is mighty warrior. And so, I love that. The guy's literally hiding. And he's like, hey, you over there hiding, you're a mighty hero. He's like, seriously, there's nothing about me that looks like I'm a hero right now. But I love how God does not speak to us as we are. He speaks to us as he knows we can be. So, God always is gonna talk you up because he knows the potential that he put in you. And so, he speaks to you not as you are, but as you can become. And I wanna share the same way today with you about someone who is generous. We oftentimes miss this,

but I wanna show you a key scripture here. Right after the angel of God told Gideon, you are gonna be used by God to set Israel free. He's literally hiding. When you hear this, like, nothing in my life says that I'm gonna do anything great other than the voice of the Lord. But how many of you guys know that's enough? That's enough evidence. And so, the voice of the Lord spoke to him, said, you're gonna do this. So, what does Gideon do? He does what every great man or woman of God does. It's the first chasm we cross. It's the first step. It's the first base of the bases we run to become a full Grand Slam home run follower of Christ. He gives. Let me show you this scripture. It says in Judges chapter six, verse 18. He says to the angel, don't go away until I come back and bring my offering to you. He answered, I will stay here until you return. Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with a basket of flour, he baked some bread without yeast. Then carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot,

he brought them out and presented them to the angel who was under a great tree. So, right at Rathabat, we see his offering is very specific. In fact, anytime you have a scripture that's real specific and you don't understand, this is when you wanna lean in and do the work of saying, what does every single word mean? And your pastor is great at this. So, I'm gonna try to channel my best Marcus Mecham. I'm just, I'm gonna do my best. I don't have the guns he has, I'm trying, I'm trying to, I wish I was as big as he is, but anyways, that's okay. I love your pastor until we go work out, then I don't love your pastor, because I'm sore for two weeks after that. But anyways, but he's so good at breaking down the scripture, you know? Don't you love that about him? I mean, he just like, he gives you insights, and you're like, what in the world? I will listen to a sermon from him, and I'll call him up afterwards, and I'll be like, bro, I went to seminary, I've never heard what you just said. Where did you get this stuff? I mean, he's just so good at getting into the Word. But I want to break down, as much as I can, like your pastor would, this exact sacrifice,

and what it represents. If you're taking notes, the first thing I want you to write down is, before victory came, he gave. How many of you guys have someone you look up to, the way they walk with God, the way their marriage is anointed, the way they raise their kids, you're just, how many of you guys are thinking of someone that you're just like, man, when I grow up, I want to be like them? How many of you guys have someone like that in your mind? I promise you, that person is a giver. Time and again, they're generous people. If you drill down into their personal life, I happen to know this about your pastor, he would never have me say what he gives or what not, but I know, because we talk about things like this, he is very generous. And so, he gives far more than the average pastor, not just person, but pastor. I mean, he loves this place, he believes in it, he invests personally. And so, he's not doing what he's asking you to do, he is doing it. And so, I love it about your church. You know, can I just tell you about your church, in case you didn't know this? You know your church fed 50,000 people last year? What?

That's unbelievable. I mean, you should be so proud of the fact that your church last year gave $4 million to missions. Who does that? A church that cares about the kingdom of God. It's unbelievable. And so, that's the kind of church this is. And so, because of that, I love the way he is. And like I said, you know, years ago, he picked me up in a beat up truck, and I was like, I love this guy. I mean, he's not about himself, he's about others. And so, but I wanna break this down. Here's how he would break this down, so let me break it down for you. So, Gideon gave a very specific offering to God. First of all, he gave a goat. A goat was of great value. That tells me that this was a sacrifice. Remember, he lost all his crops, all he has is a few animals left, and he gives one of his best animals? I mean, that's a huge sacrifice that he gave. Much like Jesus, the only time we ever see Jesus point out anyone's gift, was when he was standing by the offering box, and he saw a widow come up and put a widow's mite in, which was basically a penny. And he said, look at this one, look what she just did. She gave more than all of us.

So clearly, it's not about the amount, it's about what? It's about what kind of sacrifice it is for you. And so, Jesus pointed out the widow's mite, it was a sacrifice. So, in the same way, Gideon gives a sacrifice, right? And so he gave a goat. Also, he gave unleavened bread. Unleavened bread is, all throughout the Bible, you hear this phrase, like, be careful with sin, because sin is like leaven, it gets in the bread, and it spreads out everywhere. So unleavened bread represents something that's pure. So when we give, we're supposed to be sacrificial, but then also, it's a pure gift, which means that when we give it, there's no strings attached. We're not saying, well, I give a lot around here, so I need you to do this, and then you should do that. No, no, no, we just give freely. We just trust the Lord with it. Now, that doesn't mean giving blindly. You know, I love the fact that today, you've been handed a card on the way in that gives you access to see where the money goes. Like, you can see, this is the budget, this is where the money goes, this percentage, that percentage. And by the way, I looked at the percentages, and I'm, I was shocked. I, normally, people say about our church,

I can't believe how little you spend on staff, meaning that the percentage of money, most of it's going to missions and ministry, and not the staff. You guys beat us. In fact, you whooped our butt. Can I say that in church? Can I say butt in church? I don't know, anyways. I was like, man, so it challenged me, honestly. Pastor Evan, I saw your budget, and I was like, ooh, we need to do a better job, we need to tighten things up. So I love that you guys are kicking our tail, which means more money is going to ministry, which means your staff is incredible. They're all wearing multiple hats. Can we give it up for some people who work hard for the Lord? I love that, I love that. So, but, so he gave a goat, that represents sacrifice. Unleavened bread is purity. And then flour was used. What does that mean? That means daily supply. Lord, we trust you with our daily supply. All the bills, we trust this all in your hands. That's what that means. And then broth, broth is something you pour over the whole thing. That means that when you give to God a tenth,

he pours his blessing over the rest of it, over the other 90%. I'd rather live with 90% blessed than 100% not blessed by God. Make sense? And so that's what the broth was, it's a completeness. And then there was an urgency. He said, don't leave here until I come back and bring you an offering. And then he gave the offering under a tree. What does that mean? That means it was private. So this may surprise you, but there's people around you that give probably more than you ever dreamed, but you're not gonna know that because they're not gonna tell you. They're just doing it. The Bible says don't let your right hand know what your left hand's doing when you give, right? And so what that means. is that we're not doing it for show, we're just doing it between ourselves and God. And there's people that give shocking amounts of money, especially compared to what they make. I just wanna tell you, I happen to know for a fact, like in my church, I know this is the case, I'm sure it's here too, there are people that don't just give 10%, they give 20, 30, 40% of their income to God. I have a friend that reversed tides.

He gives 90% away and lives on 10%. Oh, and by the way, he lives very well on 10%. Well, if I had that kind of money, I'd do it too. No, that's why he has that kind of money, because God can trust him like that. And so God has blessed what my friend has done in an amazing way. So having said that, I love that he gave this offering, it's very specific. Before God gave him victory though, God, before God brought victory in his life, he was a giver. And so I just wanna challenge you, are you sort of running the basis in the Christian life? You know, I'm in a small group and I'm worshiping and I serve and I do all these things, but did you touch first base? Because you may get around to the home plate and be like, I scored, and the umpire's gonna be like, no, you didn't, you didn't touch first base. First base is, I'm a giver, I'm generous. We tend to miss it, but all of these stories in the Bible talk about this, in fact, I wanna show you, if you have your phone, pull your phone out real quick, I want you to take a picture of something. I wanna show you, this is just a cursory list of a handful of people in the Bible who all gave offerings before God did something big. Noah, the first thing he did when he got off the ark, when they were literally restarting the whole world,

the first thing God did, he said, we're gonna start this whole thing right, bring an offering. So Noah built an altar and gave it to the Lord. Abraham, before God blessed him with offspring, which was a big promise of God, right? Before that, Abraham brought an offering. Did you know Abraham brought a tithe before there was the law? When people say, well, I don't wanna talk about tithing, that's Old Testament, you know, the New Testament, we don't have the law anymore. First of all, that's not true. Number one, Abraham gave an offering, excuse me, he gave a tithe before Moses brought the law. So the tithe is before the law, in the law, and after the law, did you know that? And so that's what Abraham did. David, when they were in trouble as a nation, he gave and it turned the whole nation around. And so generosity opens the hand of God to move in your life. And then Solomon brought 1,000 offerings. And then God said to Solomon what? He said, what do you want? Just name it, just what do you want? Wouldn't it be cool if God showed up in front of your house and said, hey, what do you want? How many of you guys would be like, you'd have something real specific.

There's like a single woman on the third row going, a man, that's what I want. Right? And then all the married women are like, yeah, I asked for that. God brought me like an elephant gift. I don't know what happened is he brought me someone. Anyways, but the truth is is that if we were asked, God, you know, if God said whatever you want, what would we say? Solomon said, give me wisdom. He said, what do you want? You want fame, you want money? He goes, no, I don't need any of that. Solomon said, give me wisdom. And God said, because you asked for wisdom, I'm gonna throw in the fame and the money. Isn't that crazy? And so it's amazing how God does that. But I wanna point out that Solomon did not get that kind of request from God until after he gave. Why? Why could God say whatever you want? Because God knew what you want is what I want. So you can ask and you're gonna hear a big yes because how do I know? Because I see you holding everything loosely. See, when you open your hand to God, when you outpour to God, God can outpour to you. And that's exactly what he did.

And so all throughout scripture, in the New Testament, the people gave themselves to the Lord. They were so generous. In fact, they were so generous in Acts chapter two, they sold properties and gave all the resources to God. It's crazy. And everyone's need got met. And of course, the ultimate, what, is Jesus. Romans 5a says, but God demonstrated his love towards us by giving us his son. You know why the tithe is so important to God? Because Jesus is God's tithe. He gave his first fruit to save us. It's incredible when you think of it that way. And so I just wanted to show you this pattern of giving. And real quick, here's the thing. Offering precedes outpouring. Sacrifice precedes the supernatural. And generosity precedes breakthrough. Some of you are asking God to do great work. How many guys want God's fire to fall on your family? Right, I want God's fire on my marriage, on my kids, on my grandkids. I want God's fire to fall on our church. I want God's fire to fall on my life. I want God's fire to fall on my investments. How many guys are like that? That'd be great. Lord, could you fire that up? Could you light up on fire my investments,

my real estate holdings, or whatever it is that you're doing in your business, your career? But we forget this. If you look at scripture closely, when fire came down from heaven, it didn't come on the person. Fire came down on the sacrifice they made. So God's like, give me something to bless. So if you're not bringing a sacrifice, don't expect the fire of God. It's really clear. And so that's how God wants us to think. He's like, Lord, I want to offer something to you, right? So what did God do in Gideon's life? Let me just go real quickly over. So I wanna show you what God did. God gave, after Gideon gave, God gave him moral victory. Did you know Gideon tore down his father's Asherah pole? That means his father had some habits that were not godly, and so he had to tear them down. And so I just wanna talk to the men in the room for a second if I can. Let me just say this to all of our campuses, men, there's some habits you got from your dad that are not good, and God wants you to sacrifice those. So I'm very thankful that my father sacrificed some unhealthiness from his father so that I didn't have to. Do you know why giving is not hard for me? I grew up in it.

I just think it's normal. But it wasn't normal for my dad. Tithing was hard for my mom and my dad at first. Why? They didn't have parents who did it. But because they overcame that, and they tithed and gave offerings their whole life, it's easy for me and my sister to do it. So if it's hard for you, go ahead and overcome it so it's not hard for your kids. So if you become a giver, it'll be easy for your kids to be givers. It really does make a huge difference. You know, my father, by the way, I just lost him a month ago. So it's kind of sensitive me talking about him a little bit, but he's a very godly man. And my dad, when he retired, his highest earnings, this is in the late 90s, was $56,000. So no one's gonna argue that my family was wealthy. But my dad, just God's hand was on him. He gave to every building campaign, every offering, annual offering. He tithed, I mean, he just, that's the way he was. Him and my mom, just so generous. And my dad, when he died, he left my mom and the kids 10 rental houses all paid off. And his highest income ever was $56,000. So it just shows you what God can do. In fact, my dad, I remember early 2000s,

my dad's already retired at this point. They had moved down to Corpus where we live. And the market just fell apart. I mean, just like caved, very similar to what crypto just did, right? Just like cut in half. I called my dad, I was like, dad, I know you're living off of whatever you have. Are you okay? And he goes, we're great. I was like, but dad, the market, you saw what happened, right? And he was like, yeah. I was like, well, did you get hurt? He goes, no. He goes, six months ago, the Lord told me to pull everything out, so I've been sitting on cash. What? He was, yeah, I just put it all back in. Now it's all rising up. He like doubled his money. I'm like, dad, you're better than Warren Buffett. I should have been asking you this whole time. Why? Because God's hands has been on him. And so God is just blessing me, He's taking care of my mom. And they had lean years, but he was never not faithful to God, even in lean years.

Isn't that cool? God just always did that. So a couple of things. God gave Gideon moral victory. He had to tear down the Asherah pole. By the way, let me just explain that. They had veil worship, and Gideon's father was into that. Veil worship, they would build these houses, and inside the houses, they would build all these Asherah poles, and these women would come and dance on the poles while they're taking off their clothes, and then people would come and lay their cash at their feet as an offering. It's a good thing it doesn't happen in America anymore, right? This is a very popular religion today, isn't it? Isn't it funny how we think we're so advanced when things are really about the same as they were back then? And so that's what Gideon had to tear down. So maybe for you, man, you got to tear down that Asherah pole, that lustful side of you to say, God, I don't want that. I don't want to pour that into my kids. And so he tore that down. He got moral victory. He also had spiritual empowerment.

It says the Lord came upon him. Judges 6, 34. So the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. The Hebrew word suggests that he was wrapped in power. That's pretty amazing, right? He had the power of God in him. Also, God gave him leadership authority. You know, you're a better leader when you're invested yourself. And so he was a man of sacrifice, and so he summoned an army, and God brought him an army. And of course, then he was faithful through refinement. What'd God do? God said, you have too many men, Gideon. So let me wean it down from 32,000 to 300. And that scares us. We're like, oh, there's no way. But you know what? Gideon was already making sacrifices, so he saw the Lord already come through. So he's like, we'll be fine. He was scared. He was nervous, but God spoke to him. He said, no, no, you got this. And so then after that, God gave him a strategic victory when 300 men conquered 135,000 men. Isn't that amazing? What I want to remind you, let me go back to the very beginning.

It all started with a gift. It all started by saying, God, I want to give to you. Years ago, we were building a big building, very similar to this one. And our church was small and growing a lot. We're in five, six, seven services a weekend, very similar to what your church was before you moved into this facility. And we were just making it work, and we were raising money as much as we could. But I felt the Lord, I knew it was like, well, if I'm gonna lead people to give, I gotta sacrifice too. And I said, God, what do you want me to give? And the number God told me, I was like, God, I don't have that much money. I don't know how to do that. But I just felt the Lord say, this is the number. And so I felt like God was telling me to give a six-figure gift over three years. I was like, Lord, I. We don't have that kind of money." So I did the math. I was like, well, if I speak out this many times and all that goes to God and this is much we're going to give above and beyond, I just kind of did the math on what we could do. We had a little bit of real estate, so I could give all the cash flow for three years. And then what I thought was, I was like, Lord, if I don't get to that number, we'll sell our house, give all the proceeds, and then just start over again with a new mortgage. So that was my plan, right?

And so we had this 12-unit and an eight-unit apartment complex in a real small town that we bought for very little money. I think I paid $300,000 for one of them and $250,000 for the other, roughly. And so we had this investment, and we bought it years earlier. And about a year into the campaign, I get a phone call, and some guy says, hey, do you own the apartments in Three Rivers, Texas? I was like, yeah, that's ours. And he said, I'd like to buy them from you. And I was like, well, they're not for sale. He goes, I'll give you $350,000, and it's just for the 12-unit. And I said, no, I bought it for $325,000. Well, I'm not trying to sell. Thank you, though. And he goes, OK, $400,000. I was like, did he just go up $50,000 in, like, 30 seconds? So I said, no, they're not for sale? You know, I was kind of starting to debate in my mind, like, I said, no, they're really not for sale. He says, I'll give you $450,000. And I was like, bro, what's going on? Why are you offering this much money for these? So I said, I'm not going to sell it. Thank you, though. So I hung up. I called a buddy of mine who works out there, and I said, hey, bro, what's going on in Three Rivers? Because it's about an hour and a half from us. He said, you haven't heard? I said, I have no idea. He goes, Bill, you haven't heard?

I was like, no. What's going on? He said, Bill, they just found the second largest oil discovery in American history right underneath Three Rivers, Texas. I had no idea. So as the leases rolled out, we were able to release everything, and we went from making about $1,000 to $1,100 a month to making $8,000 a month cash flow for one year, and we paid off $100,000 gift in one year. All I did was give God a yes, and He created the how. If you'll trust God, He will open the door. Guess what happened the next year? It went back down. It's okay. I wasn't in it for that anyways. I was like, Lord, you made a way? Great. And then we sold them a couple of years later. It's fine. But the point is, is that God will make a way if you give God your yes. He will provide a way. So just want to encourage you. He specializes in finding ways for you. So real quick, I want to show you what's called levels of giving. This is also a not hidden secret. It's all throughout the Bible. But I just want to give you the five levels of giving real quick, and just challenge you to do whatever the Lord leads you to do. I'm not here to tell you what to do. That's between you and the Lord. But here's what the Bible says.

There are five levels of giving. The first level is real simple. It's just give something. Scripture says in Proverbs 3, honor the Lord with your wealth, with the best part of everything you produce, and he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with wine. So the first thing is just give something. And I know some of you right now are hearing that maybe insulted, like, why would you say that to me? But there are people around you who've never given a single gift. And so I just want to challenge you just to give something. And here's the thing. Going from giving nothing, giving something, is not a financial barrier. It's an emotional barrier. Because somewhere you had a friend or family member, or maybe a belief system even you've had that said, oh, I'll never go to church. Maybe you even have someone tell you that'd be stupid to give to church. And so when actually it's the exact opposite, is that when we give, we're impacting eternity. And again, I'm not saying every church is doing good with their money, but I know this church is. So I would be the first to tell you, are there shysters out there? Oh, absolutely. Are there televangelists and, you know, people that build people? Yes, there are. You just happen to not be the church that does that. Just as good soil you're sowing into. And so I've seen the budget. I've seen the inside. And you can see it too. They just gave it to you.

So you can look and see for yourself. And so I just want to encourage you to know that I would say, yeah, you're giving is not supposed to be public, but that's not because you're giving blindly. No, you know where you're giving, but you just don't necessarily tell all your neighbors what you're giving. But I want to encourage you to go from zero to something. Jesus said where your treasure is, your heart is, right? So just go pull up your bank statement and say, what did I spend my money on this last month? Because that's where your heart is. Oh, wow. My heart is with Whataburger. I didn't know that. But my heart is with Whataburger. Or Chipotle, right? My heart is with Chipotle. And so, but wherever you're giving your money to, but that's, it's really true. So where your heart is, your treasure goes. Every woman knows this, that if a man won't spend money on you, he's not into you. I mean, I'll just say right now, you know, when guys get cheap, they're like, oh, man, we can't go on that vacation. And you're like, why? Because you're still paying off the boat you bought. That's why. So where's your heart, right? And so what you give towards is really where your heart is. So give something. The second level is give regularly. It says in First Corinthians, it says every Sunday, each of you make an offering and put it in safekeeping.

Be as generous as you can. Every Sunday. That means that we're supposed to give regularly. So give something and then give something. regular. Maybe you say, well I've given something before but I don't do it regularly. You know how you can set that up? Just go online. I love automated giving because it means I'm automatically blessed. That every time I give it's automated so I make sure I don't miss. That's one of the things I love about that. And so I want to encourage you to do that. Just say, you know, I'm just gonna do that. And so it's funny because some of us are more faithful to our Netflix membership than we are to our church membership. So I just want to challenge you, especially young people. Young people tend to think that I'm here to ride on the coattails of those who are making the bills. But actually, you know, I just want to say to young people, that's you. You need to grow up. And part of growing up is maturing and saying, I need to make it happen. I need to be counted on. And so I'm not trying to insult you, but I just want you to know, if you're babied your whole life spiritually, you will never really receive the meat that God has for you too. So you have to grow in your faith. I really want to challenge you. So just look, what are you spending on Hulu, Netflix, what are you spending on all these things? And just say, you know, I don't want to spend more on my entertainment than I do on what fills my soul. And so I want to challenge you to set that up. So give regularly. The third level is tithing. It says in Malachi chapter 3, bring the full tithe in the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Thereby put me to the test. This is the only place God says to test me. In fact, other scripture God says, do not test the Lord by God. But God says, this one area, I'll let you test me. Wow, why? Because God knows how sensitive money is to us. Why is money so sensitive to us? Well, I bet you're probably going to go to work tomorrow. And I have a feeling if your boss called you today and said, hey, love to see you tomorrow at work. By the way, we're not going to pay you anymore, but we still want you to come into work.

I bet you'd be like, yeah, by the way, you can take this job, right? I'll stop there, right? But you'd be like, I don't think so, right? In other words, I come and I give you two weeks of my life, and then I get a little pay stub back. I get a paycheck back. So the reason we're so sensitive about giving a portion to God is because we're really giving our lives. Because we gave a portion of our life to get a portion back from that company. So when you give a portion to God, you're saying, God, I'm giving you a portion of my life. That's why it's so sensitive to us, right? Ten percent sounds like a lot. It says, bring the full tithe. See that there's food in my house. Thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts. See if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. So God will bless you if you give. That's not why we give, but it's a product of our giving, is that we get to live blessed. Now, some of you right now are like, that man's crazy. He just said give 10% of my income to God. Are you crazy? Do you know how much 10% is? For some of you, you're like, that's $100,000. You know? Well, that means you're making a million dollars. So, I think you can probably spare it. Or, man, 10%, our family makes 100 grand combined, that's $10,000. I know. So if it's hard for you, if the money seems really big, let me pray for you right now. Lord, I pray right now that you lower their income to a level where 10% doesn't seem like a lot. Ten percent is ten percent. It's the perfect equation of fairness, is it not? And so as your income grows, so your tithe grows. So I just want to challenge you. And it's funny, we make out 10% like it's a big number, but let me just ask you, if you got a paper, I know we don't really read papers much. Let's say you got the paper, you know, because the only time we ever get the paper is like, what, there's the big Black Friday sales, right? Labor Day sales, right? Like when there's like a big sale, you get so you can get all the ads, right? So how many of you guys would open that up and you saw an ad and it said, best buy, 10% off everything? You'd be like, I'm not even going to get up in the morning for that. Isn't it funny how 10% seems so big a church and so small at Target? So I just want to challenge you that it's actually very doable.

And by the way, did you know that Jesus actually said to be generous? So when he said that, in Matthew 23, he said that, which I think it's cool that it's Matthew 23, because I don't know if you know the number 23 means abundant blessing. Did you know that? Michael Jordan's number. I think he's abundantly blessed. Would you agree with me? Probably doing okay. So anyways, but Jesus said, what, he said, be generous. He was speaking to a 99% Jewish audience who already tithed. So what he was saying was, no, no, you're not even generous yet until you give above the tithe. In fact, actually, the Bible never says to give a tithe. The Bible says to bring a tithe because the tithe is actually not ours. It's God's. We're just bringing back to him a portion. And you say, well, so 10% is God's? No, 100% is God's. 10% is what he asks of us, right? Years ago, I took my daughter to a movie, and she likes her dad to load her up, man. So we got the popcorn, you know, the big old huge bucket that looks like you can wash a small dog in it later, you know what I'm saying? We had that popcorn, a bunch of drinks, you know, and then I got her Skittles and, you know, chocolate this and whatever, we just had all kinds of food, right? So we're sittin' at the movie, enjoyin' it, you know, I look over and I see her eatin' her Skittles, and I just reached over and I grabbed a few. I went to reach for it and she immediately goes, uh-uh. I was like, she goes, dad, those are mine. I said, that's funny, I'm pretty sure I just bought those for you. So that's funny that you're now gonna get stingy with what your father just gave you. And so I'm pretty sure since your father opened the door for you to have that, that you could give

a portion back to him. So when we tithe, again, some of you are like, well, hold on, I worked hard, I put myself through college, I used my brain or my body to make good money. Who gave you that brain? Who gave you that body? God did. So who are we to not bring a portion back to the Lord? God will bless that. Yeah, let's give it up for the tithe, praise God. Yeah. So the next level, there's two more levels, actually. The next is called tithe and offerings. Second Corinthians nine says, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. The word cheerful means hilarious, you're like, there you go. That's how we're called to give, hilariously. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, he is distributed freely, he is given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. You know, your church does a lot for the poor. You know, your pastor's got a heart for students in really struggling homes.

You know why? It's because your pastor came from a home like that. So God always does this, your misery will become your ministry. And so I just met a very sweet lady earlier, and she was telling me about her ministry to people who have experienced church hurt. Well, you know why she ministers to that? I already know, she's been hurt. Tell me where you're hurt, and I'll tell you your future ministry. Your misery becomes your ministry. So Pastor Marcus was pretty broken as a kid. He was a champion wrestler, but that's all he had going for him. His family was a mess. So he has a real heart for students. He had a youth minister find him, I know you know his story, and led him to Christ, grew him in the faith, and he just sat with him at lunch table. And so that's why you guys give away thousands of backpacks full of goods, because you're not just giving a backpack, you're giving hope to kids who do not have the same home life that you provide for your kids. What a gift, what a blessing. I love that. I love that about your church that you do those kinds of things. What church gives $4 million to missions and outreach?

Seven Hills. Four million! That is a massive budget for a church, and that's just what you give away. Praise God, that's incredible. So tithes and offerings is the next level. There are people that give far beyond the tithe. And then the highest level of giving, we call it leveraging your life, this is tithe plus planned offerings. Here's what that looks like. Look what the scripture says. It says in 2 Corinthians 9, it says, And so I thought I should try to get to the brothers to visit you ahead of time. Did you catch that? This is planned, this is ahead of time. They will finish the plans for the large gift you had promised, and it will be ready as a gift that is freely given, it will not be given by force. And so those who are the highest level, level five giving, are those who bring the tithe, they are moved by the preacher's sermons to give above and beyond. You know, when the missionary comes in town, you're the ones who give to that, that's amazing. The causes, even beyond the church, you give to those things, but then you leverage your life and you say, I'm gonna plan in advance so I can give larger offerings above my tithe

and do that my whole life. There are people that do that, as crazy as it may sound. In fact, I wanna speak right now to the 20-something year old couple who's listening right now, and you think, Lord, I wanna be that couple one day. Start now, start preparing. If you will begin to say, God, I want to be someone who leverages my life, I wanna be one of those old men, old and gray one day, that's making Seven Hills happen. If you make that commitment to God now, with the little earnings you have now, you are strapping your career or your business or your investments to a rocket, and God will launch you into orbit faster than you can imagine, because you're now making your life not about yourself, but about impacting the kingdom. That's the highest level of giving. It's not just about money, it's not just money, it's not just your business, your influence, your time, your estate planning, your real estate, your investments. You're creating kingdom cash flow. When someone does that, if your spirit is exploding, why does that say that? Then God has given you a. calling for this. And God will do greater and greater things through you. Please do not be the one that says, I'm just gonna quit and work for the church one day.

No, stay in the business world. We need you doing what you're called to do, to raise up. We need an army of people to take over the marketplace for the kingdom of God. That's what we need. This is where you stop asking, how much do I give? You start saying, how can I leverage my life for eternity? So here's a question I want to ask you. Are you focused on impact or accumulation? Which one? Impact or accumulation, because you typically can't have both. You know, I just want to say, too, that the reason I'm talking about this, and some people have a real issue with a preacher coming into town and talking about money, and I get it. But I really believe the reason why you have an issue with it is because there's only two things you can't do in heaven. There's only two. All the things the Bible talks about, all the things it says to do, Jesus said over and over at the end of his sermons, go and do likewise. Two things you can't do when you get to heaven. You can't give and you can't witness. Witnessing's done. Who's saved is saved, who's not is not. You also can't give, because the Bible says

there's no more sorrow, there's no more heartache, there's no more need, all needs are met, there's nothing to give to. And so, why am I surprised that the devil wants to get two areas that you always are resistant to? Being a witness, which I want to challenge you, bring someone next week. I love the Illustrated Sermon, that's brilliant. Bring someone next week. And number two, bring an offering, because those are two things you cannot do in heaven. It will be too late. But it's not too late now. Leverage your life. Here's my challenge for you. Look at Judges chapter six. It says, the angel of God said to him, place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, pour the broth over it, and Gideon did as he was told. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. The angel of the Lord disappeared. God did a miracle right in front of him, but the miracle happened after the gift. Some of you are praying for God to do a miracle. I'm not suggesting you're buying a miracle because you're not. I want to be real clear.

You know what giving really is? Why did God do great things through David, through Solomon, through Abraham, through Deborah, through Ruth, through Boaz, through all these great men and women of God, all throughout scripture, through John the Baptist. I could go on and on. Why did God do great things to them? They were all people of sacrifice. So what's giving really about? It's about surrender. It's about surrendering your life to the Lord completely. Zig Ziglar once said, you don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. So here's my challenge. What's your step? Maybe your step today of faith is to say, I'm just, for the first time, I'm just gonna give. I'm just gonna give something. Maybe for you, the first step is to say, I'm gonna give something again. I'm gonna give regularly, I'm gonna set it up. Or maybe you say, you know what? I've just been piddling, I've just been tipping God. I wanna tithe, I wanna give a full 10th to the Lord. Or maybe you say, God, I wanna leverage my life. I wanna give above and beyond my tithe. I want you to bless what we're doing in such a way that I can literally leverage my life

for the kingdom of God. If you'll do that, watch what God does for you. I love missionaries and mission work. We do missions all over the world, just like your church does too. Here's a great story of a guy named Del Tari. He's a retired missionary now. He was a missionary in the Sub-Sahara Desert. The Sahara is a really hard place to live because they only have four months of water a year. So you have to raise your crop in that four months and then live on it another eight before you get to plant again. He tells a story, because he was a missionary there, that these families would plant their crops, and it was mainly sorghum and milo that they would plant. And then they would eat on this, and they would have two meals a day after the harvest for about three to four months. But then about six to eight months in, they'd cut it down to one meal a day because the granaries were emptying, there was less to eat. And by the last month and a half before they could plant seed again, they would be down to about half a meal a day. And you could hear, he said you could literally hear babies crying themselves to sleep because they were just so hungry. People walked around emaciated, and it never failed to happen.

Some little boy would run into his mom and dad's hut, into their home, and say, daddy, daddy, daddy, I found some seed, have mommy cook it up so we can eat. We're so hungry. And the father would say, where'd you find that? Daddy, it was out in the barn. He goes, go put that back, son. And the father, with tears in his eyes, would say, we can't eat that. That seed, that one satchel of seed is what's keeping us from starvation. That seed is what we have to plant for the harvest for next year. And about a month after that, they would do the unthinkable. They would take the only seed they have left, and they would. literally throw it away by sowing it into the ground. They would give all they had left for the harvest. Del Tarr says he now understands what it says in Psalms 126. We sow in tears so that we can reap in harvest time. Maybe today is hard for you. You're like, pastor, this is the worst time in the world for you to be talking. You don't even know what's going on in my life. I don't, but God knows. I have never heard anyone say, I started giving because I just had so much money left over. No, no, you give because you say,

God, I've been trying this on my own and it's not working. So I might as well trust you. I might as well give you, I might as well tithe. Did you know the average American gives 10% of their income to MasterCard every month? You're already tithing. But you know what? MasterCard's not gonna call you up and say, thank you for giving that. I'm gonna make sure we bless you in return now. No, you're blessing them. They're living off of your dysfunction. So God, I'm just gonna do this. I'm just gonna sow in tears so that I can reap in joy the harvest this creates. Would you bow your heads with me? Every head bowed, every eye closed. Maybe you're here today for the first time and you thought you were gonna hear a message on Jesus and you thought, man, what? I don't understand. I don't wanna hear about giving, but do you know that we give and we talk about giving for you? You are the harvest. God gave his son because he wanted you. God gave the very best. He gave his first fruits, his own son. Jesus died for your sins. Then he rose again from the grave,

proven that he's God. Now he waits for you to receive him. You can pray this prayer and you can receive Christ in your life right now. We're gonna pray it together across all four campuses. You can just say this out loud. If you never received Christ, we're gonna lead you in this prayer. Just say, dear Jesus, I realize I need you. Thank you for dying for me on the cross. And I know you rose again. Please come in my heart. Be my Lord, be my Savior. I repent of my sins. I put you in first place. Thank you that you gave your life. Your head bowed and your eyes closed. If you just gave your life to Christ, no one's looking around. Would you hold your hand high if you just prayed that prayer for the very first time? Just hold your hand high. No one's looking around. Thank you. Right here in front, thank you. We see your hands all over campuses. Thank you. Hold those hands high. Praise God. Praise God for you.

You just gave your life to Christ. Hold those hands high. Thank you. Praise God. Thank you. We have a little something we're gonna give you. Just hold your hand high. No one's looking around. God's moving right now. Wow. Praise God. God's moving. In the middle of a message on giving, people are getting saved. Praise God. Praise God. Hold those hands high. Thank you. All of our campuses, hold those hands high. We praise God for you. You're in our prison ministry. Thank you. We see your hands raised. Praise God. Those online, you can let us know in the text. Let us know that you raised your hand too. We praise God for you. Every head bowed, every eye closed. If your prayer is, I'm already a Christ follower, but Pastor Bill, I'm gonna be honest with you.

This is a hard message for me. Could you be missing the fire of God in your life because you skipped first base? Just go back and say, God, I've been wanting you to bless me, but I haven't become surrendered. And I know giving does that. It makes me surrendered. So I'm gonna choose. I'm gonna become a giver. I want your fire in my life. And I wanna know I'm making an impact for eternity. So God, leverage my life. Leverage these funds. Pastor, all I have is a penny. That'll do. That'll do. All I have is a $20 bill. That'll do. What's God leading you to do? Just obey him. Lord, we love you, God. We thank you that you've called us to be faithful to you. Thank you, God. We don't skip scripture here at Seven Hills. And your word's very clear. We want to obey you in every area. Thank you for your word and your truth today. In your name we pray. And all God's people said, amen. Thank you for letting me share.

Amen. Amen. Amen.