Your Heart Goes Where Your Money Goes (And That's Either Great or Terrifying)

I'm glad we're together today in this space. My name is Mark Cummins. I'm the pastor at Church of Hope. And if you're a regular attender, welcome. So glad that week after week, we join together in this space. And if by chance, this is your first time, I'm really glad that we're beginning our friendship today. Understand that this broadcast literally goes around the world for free. See, we believe that life's at its best when people discover hope in Christ. There are people who give generously so this broadcast can be reached across every continent. If you've never given, I would invite you today to give. You can go to our webpage, hopeinOcala.com and drop down on the giving bar and give a one-time gift. Or you can give generously beyond just today. And if God's blessed you, help us as we give hope around the world. But for now, I want you to open up your heart and your mind. Let Jesus speak to you. Because what I believe is that when we open up our minds and let Jesus speak to us, life doesn't become perfect and all the problems don't go away, but you experience his presence in you, with you, and for you. Open up your heart. Let Jesus speak to you today. Peace.

Thank you. Have you ever caught yourself doing the right thing for the wrong reason? Maybe at work. You did the right thing, right? You went in early, maybe you stayed late, worked through lunch, but you're kind of hoping people would notice, that your boss would notice, and absolutely no comment from him or her at all. Maybe it's with the family, right? It's a holiday weekend and you decide, I'll let them pick the movie that we're going to watch, the restaurant we're going to go to. It's the right thing, right? You're kind of giving them the choice, but then no one's really grateful or recognize you at all. Have you ever caught yourself doing the right thing, but for the wrong reason? Maybe it's not you wanting someone to see you. Maybe it's like doing the right thing, you're saving your money, you've been working hard, kind of holding it for a rainy day, but then the savings begins to feel like a trap. Like you start worrying, wait a second, I got this, but what if I don't have enough? What if the economy goes cray-cray? What if the war never ends? Wakes you up at two o'clock in the morning. The good news is that no matter where we might be today, that Jesus sees us stuck.

Jesus is for us. He wants us to get to higher ground. He wants us to experience a better life. Too many times we look at God or look at Jesus and think that somehow he's against us, he's mad at us, but that's just not true. He wants better for us. That's why in your copy of God's word, we're in Matthew chapter six today. We've been going through what some people call the Sermon on the Mount. Basically, it's Jesus' first sermon, and he's trying to set the disciples up then and now to experience a better way of living. The gospel of Jesus Christ is life at its best. And so we've been looking at some topics like anger. What do you do when you're angry? What do you do with all those emotions, right? We wanna take somebody out. Lust, right, when that temptation, baby, hello, I wanna get after it, and it's like, what do we do with those emotions? How about a marriage, and a marriage that you thought would go the distance, but then it doesn't, and all of the tangled up, mixed up emotions and pain of divorce. And then we talked about conflict last week, about retaliation, and then today, it's not lost on me, but this topic, and particularly, I know we've got some guests in the house,

and I'm really glad that you're here. We're celebrating the baptisms. You're like, man, I came to hope today, and the topic for today is about generosity and money. You're like, oh, great. I came to church on this day, and the old boy up there just talking about money. Deal, and it's not lost on me, I get it. Some of us, right, we've been around churches and it's just like, it's really wonky, it's weird when it comes to the money space, or you've been taking advantage of somebody, right, financially, and it's like, ah, I don't wanna do this. If we can park all of our previous experiences and just lean in and see, what does God have for us? What does God want in our lives? He wants you to have a better way. So let me show you from scriptures, Matthew chapter six and verse one. He starts off with this warning. Hey, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, right? The question, have you ever caught yourself doing the right thing for the wrong reason? Because if you're trying to get your bad boy from them, Jesus says, fine, that's where you'll get your reward, not from God. And what I want you to know this morning really is just one thing, and then I'll give us two action steps that we can apply this week, right?

Because I want you to win. I want you to win in following after Jesus. And if you're not a follower of Jesus, I want you to really win by starting to follow Jesus today. Not following a Baptist, not a Presbyterian, not a Catholic, not a pastor, not your Meemaw, your Pawpaw, your parents, but following after Jesus. Motives matter. They matter. A motive is the seed of every action. We can do a really good thing, right? If you're in a relationship with a significant other and you're doing something for them, but somehow they question your motives, phew, it all blows up, right? Because the good thing that you were doing, like, if you think you're getting credit for it, like, eh, no, that ain't happening. Why? They think that your motives were less than best. See, motives are to generosity what roots are to trees. Eventually, they determine the fruit. And so here's the idea from God. God is not just looking at what you do. He's looking also at why do you do it? It's not just what we do, okay? What's the why? What's the motive? What's the reason?

Go back to your Bible. Look at verse two. As a response to this, he says, "'When you give to the needy, "'sow no trumpet before you, "'as the hypocrites do in the synagogues "'and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. "'Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.'" Now, I know it's not like we walk around with a trumpet in our back pocket and we do something nice. We see someone on the side of the road. They're asking for a little bit of money. We get them a cheeseburger. We try to help somebody out. We give a little something to a nonprofit. Our kids' school is taking up a collection. There's a GoMe Fund because somebody lost something in the fire, and it's not like, okay, I'm gonna give to this GoMe Fund. Wait a second, let me get out my trumpet. Do-do-do-do, right? Everybody, look, that's not what's happening in our lives. But contextually, what they did back in the day is they had these big metal tin containers. And they had no, like, paper bills. It was all coins. And so these Pharisee dudes, right, they would take the coins that they were gonna give, they would hold it in their hands, they'd get a little height,

and then they would slowly drop it in the tin, making all kinds of noise for everybody to, oh, look at him, look at her, look how they're giving. Is anybody in this space old enough to remember, like, back in the day, maybe you went to church, and, like, they had these gold offering plates. They'd cray-cray. And, like, at a certain time during the service, these guys in suits, they looked like the mafia. They'd walk down, and I kid you not, they would stand down here, you'd have, like, the prayer, and then someone would play the piano or the organ, and then the mafia guys in the suits would start passing the gold offering plate down. And there it gets in your hands, and it's kind of like, okay, what do I do now? And the mafia guy's looking at you. Right, and it was like almost hot potato, how quickly could he get to the plate to the next guy, right, kind of thing, right? And the person next to you, they understood, so they tried to get it to you, get in their hands and pass it down. Well, I was a young pastor up in Ohio, and there was this guy I'd never seen before, about four rows back, and the offering's going, there's the mafia guys looking at him, there's the gold plates, and, you know, some of those gold plates, those gold. plates if the church was a little bit kind they would put like the little the

velvet lining on the bottom so you didn't hear it as bad right well this plates going down this old boy I don't know exactly what bill he took out but he took out a bill and he put it in the plate and then the person next to him just kind of naturally kind of grabbed to keep it going and I kid you not out loud while the little pianos playing while the mafia guys are standing right there the old boy goes wait a minute I need to make change it's like I only had a 20 but I need a 10 and a 5 back kind of thing right and so Jesus is saying hey listen motives matter here go back to your Bible look at verse 3 but when you give to the needy do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing what does that mean so that your giving may be in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you he's talking about motives and we all have a problem we live in a world that's built on image management financial security social media our culture rewards us tells you that your net worth is your self-worth that you need to be about building a brand an online presence a portfolio a resume a reputation and people need to know about you they need to be able to find you so you can make the deal along the way and what happens is to our souls very quietly there's a division there's duplicity and Jesus is gonna speak to this he says I get it you feel stuck because there's like dual loyalties you want to love me but you also need this money in this cash we love God on Sunday and we serve money Monday through Saturday not because we're a bunch of evil people now not at all but because we're human beings and nobody taught us that this duplicity this split mindset it literally is killing us slowly but Jesus does he leans into this space and I want you to know something I get this I understand this a lot of times right you're doing the right thing but sometimes for the wrong reason like like as a pastor right it would be the right thing to go to the hospital and visit you you have a boo-boo you're in there we want your boo-boo to get healed and so the pastor shows up prays over your boo-boo so you can go home right that's the right thing but the wrong reason might be well I don't want them to be mad at me I don't want them to criticize me I don't want to get an email to say Mark you really don't

care about me I was in the hospital I had a boo-boo and you didn't come and pray over my boo-boo right and so I would go do that but you see how under the radar quietly in my heart there's this there's this tension a mental calculation of I'm gonna do this and I should get this kind of return for this and and we feel caught we feel stuck it's important that even when we feel stuck feel caught when we don't show up our best self that we always remind ourselves I was talking with somebody after the second gathering because when you talk about God and you talk about money it's easy for guilt and condemnation begin to kind of get in on us right you've heard a pastor heard a priest or somebody but here's the deal in Christ there is no condemnation like God didn't send Jesus to shame you you can't find that anywhere in the Bible God didn't send his son to condemn us on the contrary he sent Jesus to save us he wants us to have our best life now and he wants us to be with him in eternity forever that's why the Bible says in James chapter 1 that a double-minded person is unstable in all their ways and so that's what's happening here Jesus saying hey listen you got duplicity and so he wants to bring us back to a single-minded purpose it's the problem that we all have particularly when it comes to money we have this love-hate relationship and if you're a Christ follower you want a relationship with God you're trying to grow that you want to know him more you want to have faith but then it's like okay but I got the bills coming and I'd like to move out of this neighborhood I'd like to get into that house I'd like to get this car compared to that car I like to take this vacay compared to that vacay how does this all work together see the reward that you seek reveals the God that you serve whatever it is that's not judgmental it's just a reality whatever the reward is that you're looking for On the other side of that is ultimately the God that you're going to end up serving. I put together a spectrum of sorts of four categories where I think we often find ourselves, right,

when it comes to money. The first category, greed, like no one wakes up and says, hey, listen, I champion myself, I'm a greedy person. Like, you don't sit with somebody and say, hey, I'm greedy, no, we don't say that because it feels less than best, and I would suggest that it is. But greed basically says, hey, it's mine, I worked it, I earned it, I sweated for it, it's for me and it belongs to me, right? Culture will tell you that like, hey, you deserve more, and listen, you need a bigger house, you need a faster car, you need more SUV along the way, so there's greed. Next to that would be what I call the prosperity gospel. This is where things are kind of funky in the church space. There's this idea that, hey, listen, you give a little bit to God on a Sunday, God's going to make your whole world look perfect on a Monday. It's this quid pro quo, it's this, I'm going to do this for God, and God's going to do this for me. That's less than best, it's not biblical. And then the third, which I think a lot of us find ourselves in this quadrant, is what I would call the ROI. A lot of business leaders would be here, a lot of people would be like,

listen, I want to make sure that my money's going to a good cause, I want to make sure that the church isn't squandering it, I want to make sure there's nothing being taken advantage of here, right? So you're looking for the return on investment. You look to see what's happening, oh yeah, look what's happening. Like here at Hope, right now, our friends who are in God Behind Bars, we are streaming into prisons all across the state of Florida, and you're like, oh man, that's cool. We get to come alongside guys and gals who've made a less than best decision, but we're going to invest in their lives so they can discover hope in Christ. Or like the whole Bible translation, maybe that's important. You're like, oh man, every year, man, Hope is translating the Bible into one or two different languages around the world so that people can have the Bible in their own language. That's a good ROI, like they're going to be able to hear God in their own language. I want to be a part of that. That's ROI. Some people are excited because in Africa, right now, we have an orphanage where boys and girls who are discarded,

they go and they are loved and they're cared for. In that same little village, we have a medical clinic. Anybody can walk up into that space and receive medical care and attention. You have provided, you have given. You're like, that's an ROI. I want people. In that very same town, we have created in the surrounding villages, we have dug wells so people could have clean drinking water. That's ROI. And I would tell you that that's good. I'm thankful that you give to those causes, but I would also say out loud, that's not the highest level of giving. What I would suggest is that the main reason to be generous and to give is because Christ is your reward. That's it, you have a vibrant relationship with Jesus and you want him alone. That is your reward. That's my savior, that's my purpose. It's not a denomination, it's not a pastor, it's Jesus. And God gets this tension in our lives. That's why one out of every six verse in the Bible deals with money, possessions. Starting in the Old Testament, you can start scrolling book after book, after chapter, it goes on and on and on and on. Verse after verse after verse.

Because God's trying to get your money, not at all. God gets this tension of money. He gets this pressure point. He knows what it's like to be us, where we feel like, my goodness, I've got more bill at the end of the month than I do money and I don't know what to do. Culture will try to convince you, just go make more money. And some of you make more money, but you still find yourselves lacking. So what do we do? The first thing is we just gotta know that our motives matter. God's not looking for you to give because someone's pressuring you, because a pastor's talking about it. He wants you ultimately not to give because it's an ROI that you'll get something that somehow that God will look, oh, look what they gave and I'll do this for them. No quid pro. God wants us just to give because he, Jesus, is our reward. So the most important question to ask now is this. How do I do it, Mark? What are two. that I, we can take right now, this week, in trusting God in this area of finances and experiencing a higher ground, experiencing life better.

Because the question you got to ask yourself right now is, how is what I'm doing working? Am I satisfied or is there perhaps another level of living? Here's what God would say. First thought to write down is this, stop acting like the owner and start living like the manager. And I get, I get the pressure point and we'll get there. The pressure is not, wait a second, Mark. I went to work, I did the sweat. I'm the guy who took the risk. I get that, but notice what Jesus says. Look, look at verse 19. He says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. We get that stuff wears out. We're always seems like fixing something at our house or with our truck or whatever it might be. People break in. We have cameras on our house. We pay now for surveillance, but we don't want our stuff stolen. We get that. Verse 20, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth or rust doesn't destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy,

your whole body will be full of light. What's this, what's he talking about eye and light? We'll get to that in a minute. Notice when he says in verse 24, no one can serve two masters. This is this tension that's in us. For either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. And then perhaps the most misquoted verse in all of the Bible, you cannot serve God and money. He's speaking to that divided devotion. The Bible does not say that money is evil. Nowhere. Money is a great tool. Money opens up doors for you. Money gives you choices. When you have the money, you can buy the kind of truck that you want to get. You can get on the airplane and go visit somebody. Money gives you choices and money gives you options. And when you have it, you feel the freedom of those choices. And when you don't have it, you feel the bondage. He never says that money is evil. What he does say is this, money is a terrible God. When you make money, you're God. When you're pursuing it, you're trying to please it. When you want more of it, you never arrive because money as a God will tell you every single time,

that's not enough. I need more. See, generosity is not about what leaves your hand. It's about who owns your heart. That's what it's about. Following Jesus is about not what's leaving your hand. It's rather what, who owns your heart. See, giving is not about making a name for yourself. It's all about making much of God. And here is the tension and here's a problem this morning. We like the verses in the Bible that talk about God's love for me, my forgiveness of sins, that Jesus died on a cross, that he became alive again, that when we die, we're going to go to heaven. We love those kind of verses, right? That's what we want. The question that you've got to ask for yourself is will you love all of God's word? You see, all 66 books are God's word and the temptation will always be the cherry pick. Oh, I like that. I like that, oh, that verse, he died for me, I ain't got to go to hell. I like that verse, check that up. I'm going to believe in that one. But then there's other verses that say something that, ah, I don't know, ah, that's a little heavy. I'm not sure I really like that.

See, what I have to say means little in your life. What I will promise to do is point you to God because what God has to say has a lot to say in your life, but you've got to choose on how you apply God's word. Let me see if I can illustrate. Notice Psalms 24, the same God who wrote John 3, 16, God so loved the world that gave his one and only son, died on the cross so that you could have forgiveness of sins, he also wrote, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and. those who dwell therein. God's saying that he owns everything. He owns you. He owns the house. He owns the earth that's under the house. He owns everything, the stars. I mean, God owns, that's what that verse, he owns everything. See, the battle isn't between giving and keeping. It's between worship and ownership. We think it's between, okay, I'm gonna give this, and then I can keep this, and I can do this. That's not the battle. The battle is, who are you going to worship, and who do you believe owns the stuff? Let me see if I can illustrate this. I realize that a lot of times today, right, we don't care a lot of cash, because you got your Venmo, you got your Apple,

got all that kind of stuff, right, it's all digital. Some of us older dudes, it's still kind of like kind of caring cash. So let me ask, does anybody have some cash in their pocket? Anybody got cash, you got some cash? Come on, I got two hands in a pocket. Come on, see what you got. See how good the week's been to you. Wait, wait, is there anything else in there? I don't want no debit card. How about some of the little side pockets? Sometimes you fold stuff up. Oh, there ain't no cash down here? You got no hidden stash? Linda, I promise you, I don't, in her purse, she's got like these hidden pockets, and she got real money. All right, so we got a 10, got a 20. We got three singles. It's been a tough week, baby. We got, that's actually good. We got 33 bills, right? Now, does this money belong to Mark or belong to Andrew? Now, don't get all spiritual wonky funky on me now. Come on, just because you're in church. Who does this money belong to? Whose wallet did it come out of? Andrew, it's Andrew's money, right? Now, a lot of us think that we're kind of generous, right? Somebody, somebody can illustrate this.

So, Andrew, will you kind of just stand right here? Right, right here, all right. So watch this, and then tell me is, what I'm about to do, is it generous or not so much? Hey, Andrew, man, I got $33 I'm gonna give you. Here's, here you go, Andrew. Is that generous? Why is that not generous? It's his money. I just gave him his own money. I wonder how many of us, that's the same mindset with God. God says he owns it all. So then we come and we bring in what belongs to God and we give it so that people discover hope in Christ. And we're just kind of like, yeah, I'm pretty good today. I was generous towards God. I gave him 33 bones. I mean, it's like, I'm good, right? Not so much. Put your hands together for Andrew. I'm gonna get you a raise, man. Again, another tension point in God's word, Proverbs 8 and 18, but remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth. Do you believe that? Like, do you believe that he gave you the ability to go to school and get that degree? That he gave you the ability in that interview to get that job?

Now, I'm proud of you. You made the sales this week. There's no doubt you had your PowerPoint presentation. There was a client who had a need. Your company has a product and you brought them two together and you made the deal. But let me ask you a question. Was it you who made the deal or was God the one who gave you the ability to connect your product to their need? Now, I know some of you, you're out working in the field, right? You're construction and so you're on a roof and you're roofing or you're putting up a wall, you're working in plumbing, you're working in electronics or someplace, right? I get it. You're working with your hands. You're sweating. I mean, it's crazy, right? I get you working hard. Did God give you the health to be able to go do that 10, 12 hour day? See, this is a mindset. It's a perspective of changing. Stop acting like the owner and start living like the manager. Stop living like the owner of God's resources and start living like the manager of God's mission. God's got a mission.

He wants everybody to discover the same hope that Angelica experienced in Jesus Christ. God wants the whole world to experience in Jesus Christ. The hope that Brooke and Ryder experienced in Jesus Christ. That's not just for Brooke and that's not just for Ryder. He wants the whole world to experience in Jesus Christ. world to discover that God's not mad at them. On the contrary, God is madly in love with them. So we've got to stop acting like we're the owner of God's resources and we start living on mission with God. And here's the second, the last thing I would tell you. Starts with knowing something, your motives matter. God's looking at what we do, but he's also looking at why we do it. We move from ownership to management and here's the last thing I'd tell you is this, is we give with eternity in mind, not just today in view. We give with eternity in mind. Now I get it, we're humans, we're kind of stuck in this day and so we think about today's activities and what we're going to do this afternoon and then if God gives us tomorrow, we've got to be to work and then if we're going to have a July 4th, 250th anniversary of America celebration, I get all that, but today's the only day that God's given us to truly live. And so we have to focus ourselves to see that there is an eternity, that there is coming a day where I will take my last breath. I mean, life is so fragile. If we got on an airplane and flew down to Venezuela,

we would see how fragile it is. In a minute time, their cities are flattened. To this moment, 70,000 people are still unaccounted for. My friend Frank, who would come to our Tuesday night Bible study, right? Frank's in good shape, Frank's a young guy. His heart goes into cardiac arrest. He finds out that he's going to have to have triple bypass surgery. Life is fragile, we have to see eternity. Notice again how Jesus puts perspective in verse 19. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. He's saying you got to examine where your treasure really is. These are painfully direct words. See, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. He doesn't say where your heart is, your treasure follows. It's just the opposite. The money goes first, then your heart follows. Your calendar goes first, then your heart follows. Your bank account goes first, your attention go first, then your heart follows. And when it comes to giving, I think sometimes we have really good intentions

and people ask valid questions. They'll ask me all the time, say, hey Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark. So if you're going to give to God, like, okay, so do you give based on your net? Do you give based on the gross? And like, if you have investments and your investments are kicking off a return, do you give on the return as well? I mean, and I think those are valid questions. But I also think we have to ask ourselves, what's the motive? Is it really about kind of figuring out what I'm giving? Or if we got honest, I'm really trying to see how much of this can I keep? Or people say like, hey Mark, Mark, Mark, that whole tie thing, that's the Old Testament. That's the law, man, this is the New Testament. This is about Jesus, we're free in Christ. And I would tell you, you're right, we are free in Christ. But the tithe actually predates the law. It was there even before reflecting the generosity of God. You know, I was thinking this week, particularly when we think about, okay, what can I keep? How much do I have to give? We're kind of looking at it as a transaction. I'm really glad that Jesus didn't look at us as a transaction. Like think about it, Jesus did not tithe his blood. He poured out all of his blood, he was all in. He said, I love you this much, I give everything. See, the tithe isn't giving God a percentage of your income,

it's giving what's best and first in your life. Why, because God gave first. We are modeling God back to what God did for us. God gave us his son, God committed his love towards us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You know, in the U.S.A., we've got a problem, and when I say it, it might hit you a little bit wrong, but it doesn't make it any less truth when we think about the whole world and all the people in the world. See, in the U.S.A., most of us are rich, but we don't think we are. In the world today, four out of five people, their only thought is to find clean drinking water and food to eat. In the U.S.A., most of us are rich, but we just don't think we are. What's also true is most of us are not generous, but we think we are. I know some people who maybe make 30, $35,000 a year, not a lot of money by some people's standards, but they are really generous. I know some people, 100,000, 200, 250, 300,000. Occasionally here and there, maybe tip God. It's not about equal gifts. It's equal sacrifice. That's one reason why here at Hope, maybe you've noticed, you've looked at the card that's in front of you and the chair back. That one thing we do, and some people think,

oh my goodness, how can a church do something like that? We actually offer a 90-day challenge, 100% money-back guarantee. When you trust God with your finances, when you trust God, what I know is God doesn't need your money. What God is after is a relationship with you, and that when you trust God with your finances, when you trust God, I just promise you, you will experience Him in a fresh, new way. You will see His presence and His power in ways that you've never seen before. Look back at your Bible. Look at verse 22. To all the marketers in the house, these words will look familiar to you. This is marketing 101. The eye is the lamp of the body. That is marketing, baby. Make it shine. Make it sparkle, get out that credit card. Make it shine, right? The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then, the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? In financial speak, we get that right, that when you feel overwhelmed financially, that's a really dark spot on the inside.

When I talk to couples who often have ended up in divorce, when you get past all of the hurtful words that have been said, the emotional hurt, maybe infidelity, when you really get to the crux of the matter, somewhere along the line, there was a financial pressure point. That's that darkness. So I got a question for you. What if the Messiah influenced you? What if the Messiah influenced your giving as much as marketers influence your buying? Can you trust God that much? Talk about going to a whole nother level. We get influenced, it's the eye, what we see, we see it and it's the ad that pops up on the algorithm of your social media and you see it and oh my goodness and oh, it's a 4th of July sale and it's a Father's Day sale and it's a back to school day sale and it's a Tuesday no reason sale. It's like, hello, give me, everybody wants your money. But what if the Messiah influenced your giving as much as marketers influence your buying? See, this is how it all winds down. Paul's writing to a young guy named Timothy. He's trying to set him up for a better life. He's trying to set him up for higher ground. And he says it this way. He says, as for the rich in this present age,

charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up for treasures for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Jesus says, your heart follows your treasure. So place your treasure where you want your heart to live. Many of us in this space would say that when we die, we're putting our hope that we wake up in a real place called heaven. Maybe you haven't made that prayer yet. My hope is in just a moment when the team comes and we sing that today you'll trust Jesus as your savior. But to many of us in this space, we would say that our future is with God in heaven. So what God's saying is like, think about how you're spending your time. Think about how you're spending your money. Is it just on this earth where things get lost, get broken and get stolen? Or are you giving financially so people will discover the same hope that you've discovered has a name and his name is Jesus. See, the first gift, the tithe, isn't about God's finances. It's about your faith. Can I really believe that God's got me? Can I really believe that if I trust God with my money,

this same God that I'm trusting with my soul, can I trust this God with my money? The first gift, the tithe, it's not so much about your finances as much as your faith in God. You know, the applause of people is temporary. We all like people applausing us, but the approval of God is eternal. The applause of people is temporary when like, you know, someone asked you, hey, could you help out with this nonprofit organization? Hey, this GoMeFund, it feels good, right? Yeah, I'll come along, I'll help you with that. Or like inside the family space, like, hey, we're gonna go on this vacation, we're gonna have this trip. I mean, it feels good, right? When you're doing something financially for somebody else, you're like, man, it feels good. But we have to remind ourselves that it's temporary. The applause of people is temporary. The approval of God is eternal. And to those of us who are Christ followers, as we give to all these nonprofits, and we have a lot of nonprofits in our community, so grateful for them. You can go to our webpage, see all the long lists of nonprofits that as you give an offering, as you give your tithes, that we give to the nonprofits.

But as you give to nonprofits on your own, an important test always is to ask, how are they leading people to Jesus? See, I don't want anybody to be hungry in Ocala, Florida. I don't want anybody to walk around and not have clothes or be cold in the winter. I don't want anybody to sleep in the woods. I want people to have housing, right? I want people to have access to medical care. All that's really good, but watch this. If all we do is feed somebody on earth, but they never discovered Jesus as their savior, they have a full belly on earth, but they miss out on heaven in eternity. Or they have clothes on their back, they have shelter to live in, they have access to medical care. But when they take their last breath on this earth, they have no hope of heaven. We have to combine the two. It's an end also, but you've got to ask the question. You've got to make sure that people are getting to Jesus. See, every dollar spent is a vote on what matters most to you. That's not a judgment for me. That's your own priorities. It's your own value system. I would encourage you this week to do a spiritual audit. God says that we should examine ourselves. We should stop and look and say, what's happening?

And this is not a guilt trip at all. It's a God trip. Spend some time with God and kind of see and do an audit and see how am I really living? What's happening? I have on my phone, I was looking in the mirror and I thought I was eating clean, right, nutrition, but I kept kind of seeing something different in the mirror. Mirror don't lie. And I had this portion of my body that was on the sides, they called love handles. They kept growing and Linda kept having more and more love handles. And I was like, man, you might like them, girlfriend, but I don't like them. And so I started plugging in what I was eating into this app and it showed me like what's a carbohydrate, what's a fat, and what's protein. And stuff that I thought that was really healthy, it's like, oh my goodness, I might as well could have had a Snickers bar for that. They call it a protein nutrition bar. It was the same as having a Snickers bar. So when I began auditing my nutrition, I began to change. If that's true for something like nutrition to my health, more true in auditing our own life. It's you and God. Motives matter. It is the seed of every action, and God's not just interested in what we do. He's interested in why we do it, and my hope is that you do it because Christ is your reward.

This week, will you trust God enough to stop living as an owner and start living as a manager? And then give with eternity in mind. I feel like a lot of us, it can feel like a real struggle in being generous, right? There's just a lot of bills, a lot of bills to pay. You know what I'm talking about? There's stuff to pay. All of a sudden, kids need braces, need new tires. Life's expensive. Hello. And so I'm not trying to meddle in anybody, but I do think that sometimes there are ways in which we can find a little something. Like if you have the want to, you'll always find the way to. If you have the want to for whatever, you'll find a way to. So if you want to honor God financially, here's just some suggestions. I don't mean to meddle at all. Just forgive me. But here's just a thought. In the morning, instead of swinging through that coffee shop, just make your own coffee. You go from five bucks to 45 cents. I mean, it's ... Here's another thought. It's okay. Who doesn't like some entertainment? Maybe just cut out one of those streaming online platforms, right? I know you're saying, Mark, you're meddling a little bit. I'm just trying to show you how, without making more money, we think, I got to make more money to trust God. I think sometimes we got to learn to manage the money that God's already given us before we're going to have more money. I can tell you, this is a Mark and Linda thing. You might say, well, great.

That's not my thing. But I can tell you, one of our superpowers, compounded over 37 years, is we just haven't eaten out a lot. I mean, you know, if you eat out, it's a major cha-ching to eat out. We've just kind of saved that, and that's allowed us to trust God. I don't know what your best next step would be in that space, but if you ever want to, you can get to real fast. I'm glad we're together today in this space. My name is Mark Cummins, and I'm the pastor at Church of Hope. If you're a regular attender, welcome. So glad that week after week, we join together in this space. If by chance this is your first time, I'm really glad that we're beginning our friendship today. Understand that this broadcast literally goes around the world for free. See, we believe that life's at its best when people discover hope in Christ. There are people who give generously so this broadcast can be reached across every continent. If you've never given, I would invite you today to give. You can go to our webpage, HopeInOcala.com, and drop down on the giving bar and give a one-time gift. Or you can give generously beyond just today. And if God's blessed you, help us as we give hope around the world. But for now, I want you to open up your heart and your mind. Let Jesus speak to you, because what I believe is that when we open up our minds and let Jesus speak to us, life doesn't become perfect and all the problems don't go away, but you experience His presence in you, with you, and for you. Open up your heart. Let Jesus speak to you today. Peace.