Trust Fund | First Things First; Giving Your First to God

Well, good morning, church. How is everybody today? Come on, anybody glad to be in the house of God? Yes. And how many of you parents are glad kids are about ready to go back to school? Come on, y'all give God some praise for that, right? It's so good to have everybody here today. Of course, here at Lakewood Ranch, we have those also that are watching online in our county jails. Let's see, Sarasota County, Hardy County, Polk County, and Manatee County. Come on, can we welcome those guys in all of our other locations as well? Good to have you guys with us, yeah. So, today we're beginning a new series, it's two weeks. And for those of you that maybe are new, what a series is, is just we take multiple weeks to kind of hone in on a particular topic. And today we're starting a two-week series on finances. And you may say, come on, we got a couple of people saying, whoo-hoo, all right. So, let me just, can I take a moment, though, and just, I did some research, obviously, and I wanted to see what's the state of people's lives and understanding of what's going on in regards to finances. Listen to this. This is new information from this year. It's the number one source of stress today in homes is financial pressure, the number one stress.

Listen to this, 69% of Americans say that financial stress, it affects their sleep, and they actually, because of that, are even dealing with depression. In other words, what things like this are telling me is that money is not just a math problem, it's an emotional problem. And so, listen, I'll dig in here a little bit more. Ninety-one percent of Americans say the reason why they're feeling so much stress, it's just inflation. I mean, it's just, it's out of control. That gas prices, which, you know, result in goods costing more money, so people have to charge more, and it's just kind of this ripple effect, and no one seems in control. And you don't know tomorrow if gas prices are gonna be up 25 cents or whether they're gonna stay the same. And so, it's causing all of this insecurity in all of our lives, and as a result of that, it's put Americans in a really bad spot. Listen to this, four out of 10 Americans would struggle with a $500 surprise. In other words, they wouldn't have cash reserves in order to handle a $500 emergency. Well, guess what? Tires blow out. Air conditioning breaks. In Florida, how many of you know you gotta have air conditioning? Come on, somebody. It's hot. It's almost hot as hell, so. We can preach on hell.

I'm gonna take it outside. Preach on hell. Everybody's gonna get saved. Okay. Four out of 10 Americans, like, are surprised when something happens, a medical bill. Even this, 26% of Americans skip medical care because of cost. 18% of Americans are dealing with debt regarding paying off medical bills. And most Americans, in other words, we're not getting ahead. We're actually recovering from the last emergency so we can get ready for the next one that's gonna arrive. That's the kind of cycle. I mean, I could go on. There were pages of things from the Federal Reserve of the condition of what's happening in America in finances. And listen, I say this all the time around here. Bayside is a Bible-based church. How many of you guys thank the Lord that we don't just moisten our fingers and stick it up in the air? We're not reading the newspaper to see what we should preach on newspaper. Like, do we even have newspapers anymore? Okay. You're not reading, you know, news feeds on your social media to figure out what to preach. We're preaching the Word of God here. This is a Bible-based church and we believe that all truth is derived from that. And I say that all the time and I'm thankful.

I think we do a good job of preaching around here on spiritual topics and spiritual things. But I have to repent to you today. I had to do this one other time in our church and I actually, for some reason, I don't know why, I think it's some insecurity in me, but I have a hard time preaching and teaching on finances. You know, we talk about money, but I don't teach on it and I don't preach on it. And this, you know, God got a hold to me years ago when there was a financial crisis in 2008, 9, and 10 during that time. Same thing. It's like, Randy, the Bible says, Hosea, look at this, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Look at that verse. My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Randy, the reason why people at Bayside are struggling is because you're not teaching them what my word says about this topic. I had to repent for that back in… 2008 or nine, and I'm doing that again to you today, church. As your pastor, I have not done a good job at all on teaching on this particular topic. So would you please forgive me, but from today, I'm changing that. I'm gonna teach you today. I'm gonna give you the knowledge. I'm gonna give you the information and what the Bible says regarding finances. And listen, but let me be very clear.

I don't have a prescription for a spiritual, I don't know what you would call it, a spiritual like a Ozempic. I can't just give you a shot and take away the financial weight of what you're dealing with. I also, I don't have a peptide shot to give you today either that's gonna all of a sudden magically boost your revenue to where all of a sudden it overcomes the difficulties. But what I do have is I have wisdom from the Bible. Everybody say amen to that. And the Bible is loaded with principles and things that we can learn and insights regarding finances. 40% of the parables that Jesus taught were on possessions and money. And so we're gonna cover that today. And once again, I apologize for not teaching on that. And, but I wonder why even do we find ourself in this state that I just told you about just a moment ago? Why would we even find ourselves in a situation like that? And it's because we have the wrong view of money. We don't have the right lens to look at it. I was in my office last week studying in my house and some of our grandkids come by, came by. Ruby and Margo came by the house and they're three in one, right? So they come by the house and they wanna see me. They come in Poppy's office to see me and I'm talking to them and all this stuff.

And then, and somehow for some reason sitting on my desk is a dollar bill. And so I don't even know why it was there. And so I just, I grabbed it and I go, hey girls, look at this. Poppy's got a dollar here, let me give it to you. And I expected them to go, whoa, thank you Poppy. When I was three years old, a dollar would have changed my life. And they were like, thank you Poppy. They kind of dropped it on the floor. They didn't even care. And thank God for my daughter-in-law, say what she goes, well, they actually think it's like a ticket or something. Because money is digital. Like they don't, they've never seen a dollar before. Everything's done digital. And so they were like, they think it's a ticket. Like, you know, you give somebody a ticket so you can get into something. That's actually money it costs to do all those things. And I thought if they knew what this could do, this could buy them some candy. They can go have some ice cream or at least, you know, a half of a scoop. A free sample maybe, or something like that. I don't know. This could go towards a princess dress or something. But what they didn't know, they had the wrong view of money.

They didn't understand the value of that. And they also didn't understand that the dude that they were talking to had enough money to buy them all the ice cream they wanted or whatever princess dress they wanted, right? Which you think about it though, by the way, I had the wrong view of money too. Because I'm like, well, it's just a dollar. What's the point? That's the wrong view as well. Every dollar is important. And if we don't look at dollars as important, then we'll manage our dollars improperly and we'll find ourself in a situation just like we have. I don't know if you guys agree with that, but that's the truth, right? So here's what we're doing. We're doing an all-out blitz on the financial pressure. So I'm preaching on it for two weeks. And next week, which is August, what is the date? August 16th at 5 p.m. at all of our campuses, we're doing a financial workshop. Food is provided, childcare is provided. You just have to sign up, okay? So we're ready for you. All of our campuses, five o'clock. We're gonna give you training. We're gonna give you tools. We're gonna help you write a financial vision for your life. Like what is it that you want to see in your family,

in your own life financially? You're gonna write that vision out. Because where there is no vision, people perish, okay? So we're gonna give you a vision. And then we're gonna create a plan to help you go live in financial freedom. Don't wanna miss it. Sign up for it, August 16th, 5 p.m. You can go on the app and sign up for that under events. And register for that, you don't wanna miss it. Okay, everybody take out your Bible to Malachi chapter six or click to Malachi chapter one. Sorry, Malachi chapter one. It's the last book in the Old Testament, by the way, if you wanna know where to go. So kinda almost in the middle, a little bit more than the middle of the Bible, and you'll find it there, Malachi. Or go to Matthew and just go left a little bit, all right? So let me tell you what's going on, right? It's, so it's roughly 400 years before Jesus comes. And this is the last thing that God says to the Israelites. They go into this season of the silent years, if you will. doesn't say anything for like 400 years after what we're gonna read right here, and then all of a sudden Jesus is born. By the way, I don't know if you're in a silent season right now, and you feel like you're not hearing from God and you're not getting direction, I'm gonna just prophesy to you right now,

God's about to speak to you. So position your heart, prepare your heart, open your spiritual ears to hear what he's saying. It may not be what you expect, but turn your spiritual ears on, amen? Raise your spiritual spidey senses, if you will, okay? Because some of you, I feel like you're in a spiritually dead season, and God wants to breathe life. Somebody say amen. God, please do that in Jesus' name. Even today, right now, speak life, breathe life, give direction, give wisdom in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, that's just free. I know God, that just dropped, that wasn't even in my note, so there you go, all right. Malachi, so the Israelites had just returned to Jerusalem from exile with the Babylonians, which, by the way, just so you can get a reference, they were in exile in Iraq, what is modern-day Iraq. And they come back and they go to Jerusalem, they rebuild the temple, and life seems to be doing okay. Outwardly, if you were to look at them and go, wow, things seem to be going pretty well, but there was this, really like a spiritual cancer kind of eating away at the inside of them because they had subtly allowed other things to take precedence over God, right? When they were in exile under Babylonian rule, God, we'll do anything, just get us back.

And then they come back, and all of a sudden, there's this complacency that starts happening. All of a sudden, they start realizing they're struggling economically. Their harvest, the things that they're plowing and working and trying to harvest, it's struggling. Inflation is hitting because there's lower amounts of crops, so things are costing more. They're dealing with a lot of the same things even that we're dealing right now. And they had this attitude, they're like, God, we obey you, we even go to the temple in worship. God, why are you letting this happen? Why are we facing all these challenges? I submit to you, it's the questions you ask, whether they're out loud or whether they're silently. God, I don't understand. I'm a Christ follower, I'm a Christian. Why are these things, why are you letting them happen to me? That's what we're gonna study today, and I'm gonna bring some insight, some wisdom, and some understanding. Okay, so let's pray. Would you close your eyes, all of our campuses? I'm gonna pray for all of us here, and I'm also gonna pray for some of the prayer requests that have come in online regarding finances through our app. God, I thank you for your word today. I thank you for the opportunity that we have to hear from you.

God, please help me to communicate what you wanna say, and God, please help Randy, like even my own insecurities about teaching and what people will think. God, I pray that you would help me to not be in the way, but God, you speak your words today. You have wisdom, you have understanding, you have the resources to help us to understand the stress that we're dealing with, to help us overcome that, so please, Lord, today, would you bring peace? God, would you bring strength in everybody's life that's out there today and help us receive your word, and even for Jill, Lord, at Lakewood Ranch Campus, I'm praying, God, that you would do things that only you can do. She's looking for a steady job, and she's mentally struggling, and she's constantly challenged every day. I pray, God, as well, that you would answer that prayer. I pray, God, for Janie at Bayshore Gardens. God, she's lifting up her financial situation, that you would open a door, God, and make it able for her to be able to provide for her and her family, and God, also for Senna. God, thank you, God, for provisions to help her be a good steward of what you've given her. Everybody who's here today with a prayer request for their finances, I pray you would meet it and work on behalf of them.

In Jesus' name, amen. Come on, everybody, give God some praise. Right. By the way, I love our new app. It's interactive. It's not a static place to go. You can read scriptures there, make comments, see what other people are learning from scriptures, submit prayers. I'm on there all the time. All of our staff, all of our leaders, everybody's on there all the time, praying for all of those things. What an incredible time to have interaction with your church, Monday through Saturday, and not just on Sunday. I highly recommend you download the app. So, here we are, dealing with stress, similar to what the Israelites were doing back in Malachi, and what is the first thing that God wants us to understand in regards to this? Malachi chapter one, verse six. A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. If I am your father and your master, where are the honor and respect that I deserve? You have shown contempt for my name. Write this down, here's our first thought. Financial peace begins with honor. Now, my tendency today is I have so much stuff

I wanna say is to go fast, but I'm just gonna go until the Lord tells me to stop, okay? So we may be here till one o'clock. All right, three of you. Lock the doors. That word honor, kavid, is the Hebrew word. It actually means to give preference to something. And we understand this word honor. You think about it when you see somebody that is in military. I don't know about you, but I see the Marine Corps or a T-shirt or something military. I just wanna stop and honor them, say thank you so much for your service. That's what honor, giving preference to them. I like how Delta does it. You wait to get on the plane, they let the military on first. That's showing honor. As a matter of fact, real quick, would we just honor all of those that have served and are serving our military? Yes, our civil servants, police and sheriffs and all of them. Come on, yeah, let's give it up. Let's show some honor to them, church. Yes. Think about it. We show honor like that,

you don't know where they served, how they served, when they served or what they did. All you know is I should show them honor because the freedom I live in is because of what they've done. Right? And God is saying, well, wait a minute, you're not showing me honor. In fact, he says you're showing contempt. It means to think lightly of something, to actually show little value towards something. You see, the Israelites were crying out to God when they needed help. And then once he did it, they no longer were crying out to him. They were showing contempt. Oh, they were honoring him when they were in trouble. Oh God, please get us out of exile. God, please solve this problem. And then as soon as he did, they started showing contempt, gave little value to him. And listen, Jesus said it this way. These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. So my question then is, if honor is the most important thing we could do in regards to our finances, then how do I actually even know if I am honoring God? I write this thought down.

Honor means I give my first and I give my best. Honor means I give my first, I give my best. Here we go, continuing Malachi 1. God says, but you ask, how have we ever shown contempt for your name? You have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. Then you ask, how have we defiled the sacrifices? You defile them by saying the altar of the Lord deserves no respect. When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn't that wrong? And isn't it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor and see how pleased he is, says the Lord Almighty. Go ahead, beg God to be merciful to you. But when you bring that kind of offering, why should he show any favor at all? Asks the Lord Almighty. How I wish one of you would shut the temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered. I'm not pleased with you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not accept your offerings. But my name is honored by people in other nations from morning until night. All around the world, they offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name is great among the nations,

says the Lord Almighty. But you dishonor my name with your actions by bringing contemptible food. You are saying it's all right to defile the Lord's table. By the way, when we're reading this, first of all, God's not necessarily talking about animals and sacrifices. This is their modern day currency, okay? This is what we would, like the dollar I was talking about. And so that's really what he's talking about. But he says on here that their sacrifices were worthless. Isn't that interesting? Worthless. He also says that I'd rather you shut the door to the temple. In other words, God doesn't want us simply to go through religious ceremonial duties. Ticking a box. I went to church. Aren't you proud of me, God? I put some money in there. Aren't you proud of me, God? We're not doing God a favor by attending and just tipping God a little bit. And God is saying, I'd rather you not even come with that. Why is that? Because God looks at the heart before he looks at the sacrifice. It's not what you give or how much you give, it's the heart that you give it. We all know the story of the woman, the widow,

who gave one little mite, and it was her offering was greater than the others because she did it from a heart of worship, whereas the others did it as a duty to God. How do you know if your heart is in the right place? I'll tell you this. Write this down. My priorities speak about my heart. You know, since the beginning of time, God has been trying to communicate to us that he wants to be first in our lives. So right, we had Adam and Eve and they had two sons, Cain and Abel. And you can see from how they gave their sacrifices to the Lord that God looked at one favorable and one was unfavorable. Here we are in Genesis chapter four. Says, now Abel kept flocks. He was a shepherd. Cain worked the soil. He was just a farmer. Notice these words, in the course of time. This is Genesis four, verse two. In the course of time. Everybody say the course of time. What happened, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But look at Abel. He brought fat portions from some of the first born of his flock.

The Lord looked with favor on Abel in his offering, but Cain in his offering, he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it. The difference isn't what they brought, it's when they brought it. Cain did it whenever he gets around to it. Like God, if I decide to bring you something, I will. Whereas Abel gave some of the first. It's all about priority. You see, we can't bargain with God. He's either first or he's not. Well, he's either first or Ricky Bobby, you last, right? Okay. It's true though. If you're not first, then God, he's last and he wants that place. It's a dishonoring him. Our priorities show what we really honor. And isn't it interesting that it's even mentioned here to Cain that look, sin is crouching at your door, but you must master it. In other words, you must have control over that. And the only way to overcome, to have control over temptation and sin in your life

is God has to be highest priority in your life. He is almighty. He can do anything, but he can only do everything if you put him in the right place. If God is leftover, then that's what you're gonna get. You're gonna get left over God. But if God is first, you're gonna get the best. That's why Jesus said this, no one can serve two masters. Either you'll hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. What he's talking about here is things that you trust in. And if you don't trust in God and have him first in your priorities, what ends up happening is you start despising God, and actually you'll despise other people that you see the blessings of God on. Because Cain got to God in the course of time, but Abel honored him first, it stirred up this spirit of anger inside Cain, and he actually even murdered his own brother. You and I can't serve God and serve possessions. God has to be number one in our lives. And so you cannot serve or yield or give priority to two things. It's either one or the other. Everybody say amen. Amen. And so here's the next thought. My first leads to God's best.

So in Malachi, it continues this. It says, return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty. But if you ask, how are we to return? We're a mere mortal robbed God, yet you rob me. But you ask, how are we robbing you? In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse, your whole nation, because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much of a blessing, there will be not room enough to store it. I'll prevent the pest from devouring your crops. And the vines in your fields, they will not drop their fruit before it's actually ripe, says the Lord Almighty. Then all nations will call you blessed. Everybody say blessed. Blessed. Say blessed. Blessed. For yours will be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty. Everybody say return. Return. Return, not because you want God to do something, but it's a return of the heart.

Remember, God wants your heart, and your priorities show where your heart is. It kind of reminds me of my daughter, Emily. Her dog, his name is Bella, and she's a golden doodle, and we have Boudreaux. Amy and I have a golden doodle. We call him Boudreaux. I know, isn't that so funny? Problem with him, these golden doodles, they're so smart that Boudreaux is smarter than the Boudreaux that I tell jokes about, literally. But anyway, Bella is one of those dogs where she won't listen. If you let her out to eat, she goes, and she's barking and carrying on. By the way, if you are an Amazon driver, or a UPS driver, you come to my house, I'm so sorry if Bella's there. Because she will chase them like to the neighbor's front porch and they're like backed up here and she's like after that I don't know what happened We got her when she was like a year old but something happened with a UPS driver And she is triggered every time a delivery person shows up. Anyway, even if there's no delivery person out there She's just out there doing her own thing and we just like calling her to return Bella. Come here She Doing whatever she wants to do now if you say Bella treat. Hey all sudden what? And Then she'll return Because she wants the treat I'm not teaching this stuff because I want you to come to the Lord so he can bless you I'm teaching this because I want you to come to the Lord because he needs first place in your life and

When he is first place in your life, then he does take care of all these things. He's a promise maker He's a promise keeper church He doesn't say things and not fulfill him, but I'm telling you this because the Lord wants you to return He's really speaking about your heart Trusting him which means this write this down tithing is a trust test Now some of you may not even know what tithing means like pastor Randy you speak in Greek to me Well, actually that is true. It is Greek. Okay, it actually means to put God first It means 10% but it's the first 10% Mean God chose that in honoring him That we should surrender the first 10 to him and you go. Well, why did God choose 10? I don't know I'll ask him when I get there Maybe he thought 10% was fared, you know equity everybody whether you make 50 or 500 thousand dollars a year It's you know, it's the same but I do know this that in the Bible that the number 10 represents Season or it represents testing. Okay, you guys ready? We'll play a little game. Okay, you ready for this? How many plagues were there in Egypt to the Pharaoh before you let the people go? Everybody say 10. Okay. I'm gonna help you out for a minute. All right, there was 10. How many commandments are there? Okay, all of our campuses you guys not answer and how many commandments were there? Jacob in the Old Testament. He had his wages changed how many times? Okay, you guys are getting this. All right, Daniel was tested. How many days or how many times? Wasn't 10 days. Okay. There were how many lepers that Jesus tested and he healed all of them. How many of them were there? With the virgins that didn't have any oil in the lamp. How many were there? And how many disciples were there? Hey, you guys I was just making sure you were paying attention. Yeah So it's very clear that that 10 is an important number to God and And it doesn't just mean 10. It actually refers to the first 10 Let me read a few scriptures to teach you this Exodus chapter 13. The Lord said to Moses consecrate to me every Firstborn right the first offering of every womb among the Israelites belong to me You are to give over to the Lord the first Offspring of every womb all the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord

It goes on to say in Exodus 23 19 Bring the best of the first fruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God Proverbs 3 honor the Lord with your wealth with the First fruits of your crops then your barns will be filled and overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine It's a trust test. In other words, it's giving God the first Before you even know what's going to happen with the rest of the month That's trusting God. You also understand that Jesus says that without faith it is Impossible to please God But you cannot please God unless you are doing something in faith. You're taking steps of faith You're trusting God in an area that you're concerned about and that's why giving God the first shows God I trust you for the rest. In fact, the first is the one that has the blessing If you give God the first it causes him to multiply the rest. In other words the blessings in the first It's not in the let's just wait and see if we can do something for God. Oh, okay It was the end of the month that worked out. We didn't have any tires or air conditioning issues Let's just put a little bit in there. That's that's not where the blessing rest It only rest when you're giving God the first Amy and I have been doing this since even before we were married But obviously as a couple we have been doing that We used to write a check and it was the first one we wrote. Thank God for tap features and transactional giving It's set up every month the first dollar that comes out of our account. It doesn't go to penny Mac It doesn't go to Target. It's not going to Publix It's not going anywhere else, it's going to the house of God because I know there's a blessing that is attached with my faith by giving God first place. Everybody say first place. First place. Bayside has been doing this since the beginning of the church. We raised money to start the church, first thing we did. We didn't secure a building, we didn't buy equipment. No, we gave it away to missions, we sent it away.

We didn't keep it for ourselves. And listen, I think that that's something for us to realize even in the Israelites when they went into the promised land, the first city they conquered was Jericho. They kept nothing for themselves. Well, Achan did. Anyway, you don't wanna know what happened to him. But the first city actually belonged to God. And he's saying here, and it's to test me in this. I love this because that word test means to prove genuine. You don't use cash very often, but sometimes if you are using cash, I forget how long ago it was, I was at a store or somewhere and I was paying for something and I had a $100 bill and I gave it to them and the first thing they do is hold it up into this light to look and see if it's counterfeit or not. They wanna test to make sure that it's genuine, right? When's the last time any of you had a $100 bill in your hand? Raise your hand if you did. Okay, everybody take note and go talk to them right after service because that might be the Lord's answer to your stress. But when we test God, it's proving that he is genuine, that God can do what he says that he's gonna do. And so he says, but be careful that you're not robbing me. That word rob actually means to spoil. You know, when you and I keep something that is not ours, it actually spoils.

In other words, what you think it'll bring you in pleasure and provision, it actually spoils and it doesn't. In other words, you can negotiate with God all you want, but you're spoiling God's blessing when you don't honor him and put him first. God has a way of opening things that can't be opened when we choose to honor him, put him first. Proverbs says, there is a way that seems right to someone, but in the end, it leads to death. Now, here's what you need to know through all of these principles. Let's finish with this thought, write this down. God's plan is for you to flourish. Now, it is interesting though, right? Because God says in this verse that he talks about a curse. And I've heard some people sometimes teach this and talk about this concept, that God is gonna put a curse on you if you don't. That's not what God is saying, by the way. You need to understand something. This whole world that we live in is cursed. Why? Because of Adam. How many of y'all can't wait to slap him in the mouth when you get to heaven? But you had it perfect, okay? And you messed it up. But let's all be real. We would have chosen the same thing. It's in a person's heart.

So what I'm teaching you is counter intuitive. It's to trust in self and not God. We've been dealing with this since the beginning of time. Here's the problem though. Adam sinned and it brought a curse on the land. Like there were thistles and thorns. In other words, the land, the earth, it's gonna be a difficult place. There's gonna be problems. There's gonna be hurricanes and fires and droughts and floods and all of these things. Then he also said there's gonna be death, spiritual death. Adam didn't physically die, but he spiritually died. We also know that there was emotional and relational pain related to that. In other words, a curse came on the earth. And we're living under that curse because of what Adam did. Here's what God is saying. When you choose to trust me first, then my desire is then that I can remove the curse so you're not living under it. You're actually living above it. Jesus already paid the price of the curse. He paid for your sin. He paid for all that. The Bible says in Galatians that Jesus became a curse so that we could be free. So Jesus has removed the curse, but we have to honor God so that God can remove it from us. So it's not dictating our lives,

but the hand in the favor of God is doing that. Somebody ought to say amen. So the promise, let's go back and read these two verses again. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much of a blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I'll prevent pests from devouring your crops. The vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it's ripe, says the Lord Almighty. Then all nations will call you blessed. Everybody say blessed. For yours will be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty. I like that. God is saying to test. So I want to give you an opportunity to test the Lord. In fact, I'm gonna give you a 90-day challenge to test the Lord. Here's what I want you to do. For the next 90 days, I want you to begin to practice this idea of honoring God first. Give Him the first part of your day, the first part of your week. That's why I think it's awesome that church is on Sunday. With your resources, your finances, give God the first of that. Try it for 90 days, and here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna lay this out there. I didn't run this by the team,

so I'm probably gonna get in all kinds of trouble. But, I'm the big dog, so, no. No, I'm really in trouble, by Amy, so. But I'm gonna do it anyway. I want you to try this for 90 days. The end of November, okay? If you've done this for 90 days, honoring God by putting in the first, and your life is not any different at all, I will let you record a video, and you can tell the whole church, I tried all this God stuff, principle stuff, and honoring Him by the finances, and it's bogus, it doesn't work. I'll let you do that. Maybe you wanna write out your face so people can't see, or you can write it, and I'll read it, okay? But, if you try it for 90 days, and you see God in your life in a way that He hasn't been, then you also have to write, send me an email, or shoot a video saying, church, it really is true. God's word works. I believe God will show you that it works, okay? I know I'm going out on a limb, but I feel pretty good about this place where I'm hanging out at, okay? So, let's test the Lord and see, and see that He doesn't work in ways in your life that you can't do when you're spoiling the blessing that God has,

because we're not honoring Him with the first. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Let's pray. God, thank you so much for the privilege that we have to hear your word today. Now, I know, devil, that your plan is to come and to rob it and steal it right away. Good news is, devil, we preached on this a couple of weeks ago. We know that you wanna bring weeds in our life, problems in our life, to try to choke out the word of God, but I'm gonna tell you right now, devil, you're not gonna have your way anymore. Every person that is under stress, every person that is concerned and worried about their finances in the future, from this day forward, we say, God, we will trust you first. And God, we're gonna just depend on your word, that it always accomplishes what you say, and it never returns void. In Jesus' name, amen. Come on, church.