Thank you, Joe. Good morning. Man, what a great morning already. Amen? Amen. Amen. Just feel really encouraged by the Lord this morning. I hope you do as well.

We are in our final, final week in our series on stewardship. And so now that's a great reason to begin to applaud, right?

And oh my goodness, Jason, you and Paula have to move because I can't see you through the tree over there now. So yeah, I looked over there and I can't see your beautiful face. There we go.

Yeah. No, just Paula. Just Paula. Just kidding. Sort of, sort of, sort of. It's our, it's our final message. Three, it's a three-part series we're doing on stewardship. The title of the whole series is called Stewardship of My Life. Okay? Stewardship of My Life.

We'll kind of rehash a couple things. I won't go into a lot of detail, going over everything. But we looked at stewardship. Most people think stewardship and they think money. No, no, no. Stewardship is much greater than that.

It is, it is, money just touches the tip of the iceberg on the whole situation. Today's, today's message is entitled, How Much Is Enough?

I know you guys are going to be super excited about this. How much is enough? And I think it could be argued that the entire Bible, from an applicational perspective, is really about stewardship.

You could probably make that argument. Managing what God has placed in our hands. And so, stewardship does not begin with our checkbook.

Stewardship does not begin, it doesn't begin, it doesn't begin with our abilities. It doesn't begin with our talents. Okay?

The first, the first step in stewardship is, it starts with our lives. Our lives. The giving of our life.

We have to answer the question. That's the first question we have to answer is, whose life is it to begin with? Okay?

Whose life is it in any way? Am I the proprietor or am I just the steward? Am I the manager of all that's being placed in my hands?

You have to start with that first life-altering question. You know, taking your hands off of your life.

And that's where we began in week one. We talked about, it's the giving of your life. The giving of your life. That's where it starts.

Last week, we talked about leveraging. Leveraging the resources that God has given you, that God has placed in your hands. Okay?

And we walked through the parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25.

5. Leveraging what God, not just using it, but leveraging for the kingdom of God, what God has placed in your hands.

Each one of us has been given gifts and talents and abilities.

And so, today I want to talk about the sole issue of cultivating a generous heart.

Cultivating a generous heart.

I would say that giving is not so much the issue in the Bible.

Generosity is the issue.

Generosity.

There are people that can give, but they're really not generous.

Or they can give for the wrong reasons.

Or they can give for alternative motives, right?

Okay?

So, this is a quote.

I'm going to read something to you.

It's a little bit lengthy, but stay with me because I think it's important to where we are going this morning.

There's a quote by John Wesley that says,

Money never stays with me.

It would burn me if it did.

I throw it out of my hands as soon as possible, lest it finds its way into my heart.

And there's an ongoing article that I read.

It said, considering the following story of John Wesley.

His perspective was changed as a result of something that happened to him while at Oxford.

Wesley had just finished buying some pictures for his room

when one of the chambermaids came to his door.

It was a winter day and he noticed that she only had a thin linen gown to wear for protection against the cold.

He reached out into his pocket to give her some money for a coat and he found that he had little left.

And it struck him that the Lord was not pleased with how he had spent his money.

He asked himself,

Will thy master say,

Well done, good and faithful steward.

Thou hast adorned your walls with the money that might have screened this poor creature from the cold.

O justice, O mercy, are these pictures not the blood of this poor maiden?

Perhaps as a result of this incident, in 1731, Wesley began to limit his expenses so he would have more money to give to the poor.

He records that one year his income was 30 pounds and his living expenses were 28 pounds.

So he had 2 pounds to give away.

The next year his income doubled but he still lived on 28 pounds and gave 32 pounds away.

In the third year his income jumped to 90 pounds and again he lived on 28 pounds and gave 62 pounds away.

The fourth year he made 120 pounds and...

the highest standard of living. He began this practice at Oxford and continued it throughout his life. Even when his income rose to thousands of pounds, he lived simply and quickly gave the surplus money away. One year his income was slightly over 14,000 pounds and he gave away all save for 30 pounds. He was afraid of laying up for himself treasures on earth. So the money went out in charity as quickly as it came in. He reports that he

never had as much as he never had as much as he never had as much as 100 pounds at one time. When he died in 1791 the only money mentioned in his will were the miscellaneous coins to be found in his pockets and his dresser drawers. Most of the 30,000 pounds he had earned in his lifetime he had given away. As Wesley said,

I cannot help leaving my books behind me whenever God calls me hints, but in every other aspect, my own hands will be my executors.

John Wesley's royalties at one time gave him what today would be an annual income of $160,000 a year, yet he lived as someone who made an income of $20,000 a year.

Sound radical? Why? Isn't it perfectly in keeping with the scripture? Your plenty will supply what they need. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.

2 Corinthians 8 and 2 Corinthians 9. Perhaps you'll never be as radical as Wesley. I'm certainly not, but his example inspires me and makes me reevaluate my lifestyle and giving.

That was the article that I read. Now, I'm not that way. I would like to be just like John Wesley. I will just go on and say I'm not that.

And I think we don't need to get too granular about exactly what he did because I think life is meant to be enjoyed. Absolutely. There is a freedom in that.

But I also think that we need to take a serious look about how we use the resources in our hands, what's being placed in our hands, okay?

Generosity means to live sufficiently and to give extravagantly.

You hear me on that?

Generosity means to live sufficiently and to give extravagantly.

Now, there's a lot of wiggle room in what sufficient means, okay?

And, you know, we're not here to tell people what sufficient, what sufficiently is for you.

And I don't want to be a hypocrite and sound like a hypocrite because I'll be honest with you.

I did not buy my clothes at the Salvation Army thrift store, okay?

That's not where I got them. I'll confess that to you.

My wife bought them somewhere else and it was a really nice place and that wasn't it.

I get that. I get that.

I'm with you on that, okay?

But at the same time, we need to understand what is sufficient.

What's sufficient?

In other words, I think every Christian needs to make the critical decision, and this is the critical decision.

How much is enough?

How much is enough?

And I'm not saying that we all should cap our lifestyles.

I mean, if God is convicting you of that, okay, yes and amen.

But sooner or later, we have to say to ourselves, sweetheart, let's get off the treadmill.

Let's get off this treadmill of more, of the world telling us I need more stuff.

And my life is not going to be completed until I get this.

And that knew this, that knew that, that, you know, gosh, we could fill in the blanks for hours here, okay?

But, and, and, and, if God does give me more, does that mean that I, that I ought to increase my lifestyle?

Or when God gives me more, maybe, maybe God's saying, Curtis, you're fine right here.

You're okay.

And I'm blessing you with more so that you can, you can give more away.

You can give more away.

That's something when, when couples come to me for premarital counseling, eventually I talk to them through that about, as, as God blesses you and the years go on, and you have a, your, your, your, your, your living gets blessed and you make more money, that doesn't mean that you have to incur more debt.

It doesn't mean that you have to, you have to keep up with the Joneses or the Smiths or the Williamson's, whatever.

Joe's like, don't keep up with me.

You know, that, that's not, that's not what it means, but truthfully, honestly, most of us in this room here this morning, we, we really.

because I allow it in my household. Every time my wife brings down the ladder that goes up into the attic, I'm like, holy cow, where do we get all this stuff? How did we, if we ever move, we are hiring someone to move us. If that is you today, okay, if that is you today, okay, you have too much stuff. And some of us admit it openly without shame. Yes, I go to the stuff mart and I get as much stuff as I can. There we go. If you've ever seen Veggie Tales, that's one of the best ones, okay, with Madame Blueberry, okay?

Check it out. Check it out. Great theology on that thing. Alright, we're going to be in 1 Chronicles. 1 Chronicles chapter 29. For those of you who haven't broken the page back that far, it's right before 2 Chronicles. You can find it, okay? But I want, just right after 2 Kings, I believe, okay? But there's a great story in 1 Chronicles chapter 29 of generosity. Generosity. And that's where we're going to land this morning, okay? First, a little bit of a back story. In 1 Chronicles 29, David has an

in his heart to build this temple for the Lord. But God comes to him and says, Hey, buddy, you know what? I know it's in your heart, but I'm not going to let you do it. You've got a little too much blood on your hands, okay? I know I told you to go to some of these battles and all this, but you're not going to build it. I'm going to let your son build the temple. So your old business in your administration is going to be the first business of order in his new administration, okay? This whole building of the temple.

But what the Lord did do through David is he prepared for the building of the temple. So he comes up with these detailed plans of what the temple is supposed to look like. And not only did they come up with these detailed plans, but he also raises the resources for the temple.

He's not even going to build it, not going to see it, but he's going to be responsible for raising the resources of the temple. So Solomon just has to supervise the plan. All the money, all the plan, and the resources are already in place.

And so when we come to 1 Chronicles 29, this is a remarkable story of lavish generosity. Just lavish generosity. There are several ways you can approach these scriptures in this passage.

And in this passage, I see that generosity in this passage is based on three critical decisions. Three critical decisions. Now you say, well, wait a minute. Generosity and decision?

Shouldn't generosity just be a natural response? Well, yes and no. Yes and no. You have to decide to be generous. You have to decide to be generous. There are three fundamental decisions that you have to make.

And I think this passage bears this out. And we're going to see that generosity is released through the people of God in here.

All right? The first thing is this. We give from what God has given us. We give from what God has given us. And I think that this is remarkable.

David has called all the people together. And they have a plan for the temple. And it's been released. And now it comes time to give.

Everybody knows what the plan is. And now it comes time to give. Verse 3. Let's pick it up.

But verse 3 says, Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the holy house, I have a treasure of my own, of gold and silver.

And because of my devotion to the house of God, I give it to the house of my God.

We know that David was an extraordinarily wealthy man, okay?

But he says right here in this passage, Out of my own personal treasure.

Now, out of what's been given to him, he's going to give to the vision of the house of God.

Now, just a couple of observations I want to make on this.

First of all, our giving should underscore what's most important to us.

Our giving should underscore what's most important.

That's always the truth. Always the truth.

How we use our money tells the truth about what we value.

How you use your money, how I use my money tells the truth about what we value.

We spend our resources on what is important to us at that moment and at that time.

We absolutely do.

Whatever it is that our giving reflects what's most invaluable to us.

And I'll give you just a little bit of hint here.

David. Not only, I think the main reason why David is called the greatest king of Israel of all time is that, and this is the bottom line of leadership as well too, okay? Leadership never has to do with a position or with a title or with a box. Leadership in the Bible means that you are a portrait of the desired destination. You are a portrait of the desired destination. David realizes, listen,

I'm not going to ask these people to do anything I'm not willing to do myself. I'm going to hand over my treasure. I'm going to hand over all this thing. If that's what God wants, then I'm going to lead the parade. I'm going to show these people. I need to take what God has given to me and I'm going to push it on the table. David's generosity was lavish and it served as a model to the people. It served as a model and as a catalyst for the generosity of the people.

Also, I think leaders will never see open-handed giving from people if they're not willing to lead in that way themselves. They will never see it. If a leader wants someone to bleed, they have to be willing to hemorrhage. And that's tough. That's tough. But it's a reality. But David gives all of his treasure. And you'll see in a moment, you'll see this in a moment, but he doesn't

give an amount to the people. And he doesn't ask them to give of their own treasure. He doesn't say that. I only need you guys to give all your treasure. There's no guilt trip that he lays on them or anything like this.

And David simply says, I have a treasure. I got this treasure and I'm not asking you to do as I say. I'm asking you to do as I do. I'm laying it out here. Okay. And so here's my stuff. It's on the table. It's on the table.

And I want to encourage you today. If you lead, okay, if you lead anything, ultimately your skills is not what's going to be that's going to win the day. If you lead in anything, it's going to be your character. That's what wins the day. That's what wins the day. Your character wins the day.

Who you are. Not your ability to articulate and to dream and have all these visions and these plans and all this stuff. Your character gives credibility to your leadership.

This is what's happening with David here in this moment. Also in this verse, it indicates to me that giving from what God has given to me, this also declares my stewardship.

If I give from what God's given, it wasn't mine anyways. So I'm declaring my stewardship by giving to this stewardship is something that you do. It's not just something that you talk about. All right. You know, I can give you the how to's all day long, but at the end of the day, stewardship is something that you do. I can lay out a class all day long and tell you all the, all the things to follow. If you want to be a good steward, but if you're going to be a good steward, you got to do it. You've got to follow.

You've got the giving of your life. That's the first step. We talked about last week. Now we're going to leverage the resources that God's given us, but we're going to leverage it. How? Out of a generous heart. We're going to have a generous heart. So David's willing to pay the price with his actions. And in doing so, his actions become even more eloquent than his words ever could be. You see that? You could talk. Okay. I'm just going to let. Don't you know people like that?

That their actions just really speak of who they are, speak volumes of their character and who they are. David's exam. You know, we've said this, we've said this over and over within this series, but listen to me.

God owns it all. God owns it all. God owns it all. And what David is saying here is if God really owns it all, you'd better act like he owns it all.

You'd better act like it. When you, well, we'll get into that in a minute. Listen. And that's what, that's why John Wesley wouldn't let it stick to him.

Because he knows it would become an idol to him. Generosity is not about the amount that you have either. It's never been. Generosity is about giving freely from what you have.

What? You are so tight-lipped and tight-armed and tight-wad. Thank you, Terry. The second decision that we've got to make, I want to show you this morning, in this passage, is that you give this way, willingly. Willingly, okay? So David gives out of his own treasure. Verse 5, it says,

"...and for all the work to be done by craftsmen, gold for the gold things and silver for the silver things, who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to the Lord?" The juxtaposition of those words are very, very important. Look at that. Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself to the Lord? David takes himself out of the equation. He takes himself completely out of the equation.

He says, "...who's going to give willingly and consecrate himself to the Lord?" First of all, David's saying, first of all, we have to give from a holy, dedicated heart. H-O-L-Y. Holy, consecrated unto the Lord. Holy, dedicated heart.

And following his own sacrificial giving, David challenges the people to do the same.

And David says, when you do this, when you give, do it as unto the Lord. Don't do it as to me, the king.

You know, here at Rhema Community Church, I want to compel you to give.

To give willingly. Do it unto the Lord. Don't do it because I'm asking you.

Don't do it because the pastor says so.

Don't do it because you are doing it as unto the Lord.

Lord, that's why you give, right? Willingly.

Consecrating you. Yes, yes.

You know, David's like, yes, I want to be an example.

But, you know, don't do it because I've done it.

But do it because you are aligned with God's heart.

And God is compelling. God is speaking to you.

You give from your heart, not your checkbook.

You give from your heart.

But you also, you also don't give because you can.

Now, what do you mean by that?

Well, I've been guilty of this before, too, where somebody has asked,

hey, Brother Curtis, I'm going on this mission trip.

I'm going to be doing this.

And can you, can you give to that?

Uh, yeah, I'll get back with you on that.

Then it becomes two weeks before the mission trip.

And I'm like, oh, gosh, I forgot.

I'll stroke a check for, there's a hundred bucks.

I got, I can, I'll look at one of my checks.

Jill, can we do a hundred bucks?

Okay, let's do a hundred.

I gave.

I gave because I could.

Okay?

That wasn't, there was no sacrifice in that.

This is no sacrifice.

That's what I, that's what we had to give.

But when you, when you're asked to give, when you give willingly,

you stop.

You pray.

You ask the Lord.

You consider.

You consider, okay?

And you, and you give out of a holy heart.

Not out of your account.

Not out of your account.

You give out of your account.

That's not sacrificial.

I know we can afford this.

Hmm.

There's nothing sacrificial about that.

So David says, I want you to give willingly.

But also under this banner, he's saying,

you respond to God, not to pressure.

Respond to God, not to, I love the fact that David takes the pressure off.

He says, I know you guys don't have the same treasure I have.

I realize that.

I know you guys can't do what I've just done.

Okay?

I just want you to give willingly.

There are no guilt trips here.

David's not laying a guilt trip.

And that's, that's, that's shown to us throughout the scriptures.

Um, repeatedly.

Second Corinthians.

Chapter 9, verse 6.

The point is, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give, must give, as he has decided in his heart.

Not reluctantly or under compulsion.

For God loves a cheerful giver.

God loves a hilarious giver.

That's what that verse means.

It's hilarious.

It's like, ha ha ha, I ain't got it, but there it is.

I, I can't out give God anything anyway.

How are we going to make it?

I don't know.

Ha ha ha.

When's the last time you gave hilariously?

You know, seriously.

That's what, that's, that's what this means.

If you have to frown, if you've got to frown.

to giving, okay?

If you don't,

and I hate,

well, if you don't give,

if you don't give to the ministry today,

all these things are going to fall apart.

The ministry's not going to make it

unless you start giving.

What was the old guy at Oral Roberts

that locked himself up in the room

and God was going to take him

if I'm making somebody mad?

I don't mean to,

but I was just crazy.

Just crazy.

If you don't,

I'm going to die.

If you don't,

yeah, you're going to die

for different reasons, okay?

Wow.

God compels us to give.

He doesn't beg us to give.

He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

And the reality is,

if you don't give,

guess what?

He's going to raise,

if this is what God's doing

and you don't give,

guess what?

He's going to raise up ten more people

that will.

That will give willingly.

And again,

it's never been about the amount.

Stop that, people.

And I don't like,

I don't like when pastors

start counseling people

and they come and say,

well,

I've never really been a faithful giver,

so, you know,

now how do I get started?

And the pastor said,

well, just start with 3%,

start with 5%,

we'll get there.

No, no, no.

The Bible says

that we tithe,

that's tithe, okay?

We've said that it's 10%.

If you want to get technical about it,

the Jews did it,

that's 30%.

They gave 30%

of what they owned.

And here in the church today,

we've got to beg people

to just pay attention

and tell them every,

if I don't tell you,

I'm serious,

if I don't remind,

if we,

Joe,

somebody,

the churches are in the front

and in the back,

please,

if we don't remind you of that,

I'm telling you,

finance committee,

you tell me,

our offering is like,

but if I remind you every week,

it's just,

we're right here,

we're right here.

Every once in a while,

we go,

praise the Lord,

but Curtis didn't say anything that week.

Oh, man.

It shouldn't be that way.

It shouldn't be that way.

Maybe we should start

passing the churches around,

make you real uncomfortable,

Randy built like six,

so he can build some more of them

if we need to.

There we go.

You all break them

or we'll fix them,

okay?

Gosh.

But David lays the issue on the table.

I want you to give willingly

and respond to God

and not to pressure,

but I think there's another

little implication here

because what we need to be,

what we need to be,

David knew what needed to be done

was the will of God.

That's what I'm trying to say.

He knew it was God's will.

God wanted this temple to be built

and he had the assurance in his heart

that God was all over this

and he also knew

that if God wanted it done,

then God was going to pay for it.

God was going to pay for it

and the issue in giving,

and again,

this is a leadership thing,

giving is a response

to the vision.

Giving is a response

to the vision

and should always be

a response to clarity.

That's why it's the job

of the church leaders

to know clearly

where God is leading the church

and what God's saying

about what needs to be done next

so that when we give an appeal

to God's people

that this is the will of God,

then we have rising up

in the hearts of the people of God,

the spirit of God

that says,

and the people of God say,

oh, that's right.

They say this is the vision.

I can see that.

I'm being affirmed by that.

And we are compelled to give

based upon the mission,

based upon the vision.

That's why without vision,

people will perish.

That's why churches falter

and flounder.

They don't really have any vision.

We're just existing.

We've got this stuff

and we're just existing.

And please,

please listen to me

all this carefully.

Over the last year,

we've realized leadership,

we needed to make some changes.

We need to reassess some things.

We needed to make some

different adjustments.

We had to get reorganized

with some thoughts.

Some people have left

and some new people have come.

And so all of this

has led us to Vision 21.

If you weren't here

when we rolled out Vision 21,

our three-year ministry plan,

there are brochures

in the back right there

that tell you

who we are as a church,

all the ministries

that we're a part of

and where we're going

in the days ahead.

And we feel affirmed

by the Holy Spirit

that these are the moves

that we needed to make.

We knew we needed

to make some changes.

So you know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, what we believe and where we are going and what's important to our heart, what God has called us to. Is anybody with me? That's why we do these things. I talked to Angel this morning. We talked about the pastors that when they preached, they started getting the, ha, this, and so on. Maybe I need to start doing some of that now. Yes. Y'all wake up a little bit. Bobby says no? No. Okay, sorry.

Oh, gosh. But that's why we painstakingly, I'm sorry, Casey, I just embarrassed you, put together Vision 21. So you would clearly understand what God's calling us to do outside of these walls, outside of this campus. Yes, in this campus. Yes, minister to the needs of people here. But beyond this, if you think this is all there is, you are so short-sighted of who God is.

You are so short-sighted. And it's given. And the people rose up and they gave. And the people rose up and they gave. Because God had spoken. There was a call to direction. There was a call to vision. There was a call to movement.

When we give to what God is doing. When we give to what God is doing. We experience freedom. There's freedom in that. I hope you sense that. I hope you've experienced that. Freedom does not come by hoarding what God has given us.

Freedom comes by releasing what God has given us. Because we have a giving God. Our theology is anchored in a giving God.

God. He has given so much to us. He has sacrificed so much for us. And He continues to do that day by day and moment by moment for each and every one of us.

God who poured out all of His grace and His mercy and His love on us.

Also, we give without reservation or without regret.

Look at verse 9. I've lost my page. Wow. Okay, here we go.

Verse 9.

Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly.

For with a whole heart they offered freely to the Lord.

David the king also rejoiced greatly.

Look at that expression. Whole heart.

Whole heart. Whole heart. Whole heart.

They gave without reservation or regret.

This is right. This is right.

I'm going to give to this.

I'm all in.

With what I have, I'm all in.

I see God in this.

The search for true happiness cannot be found along the path of self-gratification.

It will never be found along the path of self-gratification.

If we are the center of it all and everything is about me, me, me and better, better, better, better, better,

how long is that going to last?

Self-gratification and true happiness are a contradiction in terms.

They are such polar opposites.

In fact, the accumulation of stuff can have the tendency to entrench us in selfishness but also drain us of any compassion.

When you are so entrenched with your stuff in your little world, you have no compassion for anybody else around you.

Gosh, I've seen that so much.

I've seen that so often.

It's not an either or thing, okay?

God gives us great freedom.

Listen, David was a wealthy man.

Abraham was a wealthy man.

There were times in Paul's life when he had tons of resources.

I mean, he says in the Word,

I know what it is to have plenty and I know what it is to have nothing.

So he knew what it was.

So it's not a condemnation on the amount that you have.

It's the whole attachment issue.

The attachment.

It's all mine.

It's mine.

It's mine.

It's mine.

It's mine.

And when that's your heart, you absolutely become a warehouse and a museum.

That's what you are.

A warehouse.

That's problematic. The third decision that we make is we give as an act of worship. It's an act of worship. And this is found in David's prayer. David is blown away. So good. He's blown away by the response of the people. He's absolutely blown away. As a matter of fact, the people gave

too much. Oh, Lord Jesus, let the today be the day. Ha! That our people gave too much. Oh, I'm embarrassing my wife. But in all seriousness, when is that happening today?

That the pastor says, all right, met with the elders and the finances. You guys, please, you guys are just killing us. We can't keep up with all the funds that are coming in to do God's work. But I'm telling you, I'm telling you, in this room, there are so many resources. There are countless resources. If you would just let God arrest your heart and be subject to Him and only Him and let it start there.

We wouldn't have to put together brochures. You'd be putting together brochures for me. Guess what? And then we need to tackle this ministry. And then we need to go over here. And over here in Africa, we need to, amen, let's go. Let's go. Let's do it.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let

And I want you to see this in verse 14 because what he's saying here is that giving, this is what giving does.

It humbles us and it fills us with gratitude.

Don't you ever sense that in your life when you give?

You're like, it's so humbling that God would use me to be a blessing to someone else.

My heart is overflowing with gratitude.

Thank you, Lord, for using my two pennies in the scheme of things.

Verse 14.

But who am I?

But who am I, David says.

And what is my people?

What has got in the end of them?

I got nothing, God.

Look what you're doing.

Look what you're doing.

That we should be able to thus to offer willingly.

For all things come from you.

And are of your own.

Have we given you?

The light comes on in David's mind.

And in so many words, he realizes that what has been given to us, what we've given, you gave to us to begin with.

We're just kind of like giving you back your stuff.

Thanks for letting me hold it for a while, God.

I know you've got a need for it, so there you go.

There you go.

David said, you gave to the vision.

You gave to the vision.

You had already placed the resources in the hearts and the hands of the people to take care of what you called us to do.

What you called us, whenever God calls you to do anything, he has already provided the resources.

The scripture says God has already equipped us for every good work.

He's already equipped us for every good work.

So the question is, will you release the resources that he has provided?

Because he's provided the resources through you, you, you, you, you, me.

Will you release it?

You can be assured, even in this little church, that if God has called us to do so,

through your people. Look at what you did. God, you are amazing. You are amazing. You finally got the heart of Kansas. And look what, see, look at that. I'm just kidding, Kansas. I just had to pick on somebody else over there. And you were way over there. Look what God's doing. Look what God did in our midst. Gosh, wouldn't that be the, that's the perfect testimony for our church. Look at what God did in our midst.

In our midst. In our midst. How's it in our midst? Because we just say, he is Emmanuel, God with us.

He's with us. Verse 16.

Oh Lord, our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is of your own.

This almost sounds a little bit redundant, I know, but I think this verse implies

has a little bit of implication in here, that we ought to be unattached pilgrims.

We are unattached pilgrims and we're kind of just traveling through this world.

And as we're traveling through this world, we're declaring the permanence and the glory of our great God.

Permanence and the glory of our great God.

You can, you can, you can feel this in terms of how David's responding.

The one who is permanent, okay, and what, you know, and what he had, what he wants done is eternal.

What God wants done is eternal, okay?

And the job of every believer is to use the temporal to transform into that permanent and eternal stuff, okay?

God wants us to use the world's resources to transform those kinds of things and make them into enduring eternal stuff

to make an impact for the glory of God, for His glory.

He wants my bank account to look like treasures in heaven.

He wants your bank account to look like treasures in heaven.

How I spend my money is to reflect where I am going and not where I am.

How you spend your money is to reflect where you are going and not where you are.

How I leverage my resources is to reflect what God wants done, not just with my personal happiness, okay?

Not just with that.

The pilgrim mindset is all the way through the scriptures.

We're traveling through this place one time, one time you get a chance to get it right to serve the Lord here on this earth.

You don't come back as a caterpillar or as a bird or as a whatever and try to do it again, okay?

One time, you know, Peter, 1 Peter talks about this.

He says, we're pilgrims, we're sojourners.

We're just traveling through here one time.

And he calls us, and I know it sounds cliche because Christians say this all the time,

but only what we give him will last.

Only what we give to him will last.

You know, isn't that what Jesus says in Matthew 6, 19 through 21,

don't store for yourself treasures on earth where moths and rust can destroy and thieves can break in and steal, right?

But store for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal.

And most people, when they quote that, they get verse 21, they get it wrong,

and they represent verse 21 wrong, saying that where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.

That's not what the scripture says.

The scripture says, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,

because I'm telling you, your heart follows the money.

Your heart follows it, so did you give it to God or not?

Did you realize that you are just a steward of it?

Or are you trying to be the owner, the proprietor of it all?

So we need to give to that which is eternal, for his glory, for his name's sake.

All right, let's just land this plane, and I want to just give you five things.

I'm not going to put them on the screen, just listen,

just five things that I think would help you cultivate just and generate this generosity that we're talking about.

The first is, and I mean this with all my heart, if you're single, do it.

If you're married, do it with your spouse.

But at some point, I believe all of us.

It is yours. Help me to be a good steward of it. I give it all to you. We give it all to you. It is all yours. We sign it over to you. Second, when you receive resources, make sure that giving is your first decision. Bless you. Make sure that giving is your first decision. Third, get out of debt.

Get out of debt. Get out of debt. Now, I'm not, I disagree with some, and you know, I've read the scriptures, and debt in the Bible is not entirely sinful. You know, I'm not saying it. The Bible never represents that. But by and large, death is unhealthy on a personal level. It's unhealthy because you restrict yourself. How many times, when you get to a point where you hear about something, or you see a need, it's like, man,

man, I would love to be able to do this. I would love to be able to help this person, this situation. I just don't have the margin. The reason you don't have the margin is because you've overextended yourself somewhere along the line.

Get out of debt. It's something that we're focusing on as a church now, too. Get out of debt. Can you imagine the ministry?

I think our, we, we, our expenses for our mortgage for this is, it's, it's not as much as some. But for us, it's, it's a decent amount.

But imagine the amount of ministry we could do if we had zero, Zippo. Holy cow. Kansas wouldn't have to raise up any more support.

We'd support her forever until she finds a boyfriend over there or whatever, a husband, whatever. Yeah, there you go.

We could buy you one. That's what it is. We could buy you one.

Sorry, Kansas. Did I really just say that? Somebody stopped me. Yeah.

I'm kidding. On Facebook, I was kidding. Kidding.

In all seriousness, number four, number four is keep your heart open to needs. Stay sensitive to the Spirit.

The Lord, the Lord puts us in pathway of people that are in need a lot. Keep your hearts open to that.

And you know what, you may, they may, somebody may be going through something and you may not have the resources

to help them out of their jam or whatever. But you know what, helping, keeping an eye on that

can be something as simple as a card in the mail.

How about a meal for you and your daughter, your family here this day?

How about, I can't take care of everything, but here's a Walmart card for 25 bucks.

I just, I just love you. I know you're going through some hard times.

I don't know everything, don't need to know everything, but man, God has just really put

you on my heart and I just, just, no, no, no, I don't want anything on the DL.

If you want to do it on the DL, do it on the DL.

Some of you are really good at that. You bring it to me and you go, I don't want anybody to

know, but pastor, give this to so-and-so because I know there's a need.

Okay. So I don't take credit. I don't take credit. I tell them, somebody other than me,

because I'm obviously not that sensitive to your needs. I'm just kidding.

But keep your heart sensitive to those needs. And lastly, lastly, and we're going to go

into communion, but we're not, we're done here this morning. And lastly is this, and

it's kind of right where we started. Come on up, worship team.

Is we need to begin to answer the question in all seriousness. Stay with me. Stay with

me. Here's the question. How much is enough? How much is enough? I haven't always been obedient,

but I've always been touched by the Lord and moved when I've been to different places in

the United States and to third world countries on mission trips. And just to see in the eyes,

in my eyes of the everyday life of certain people, how they have so much of nothing. And yet I'm

overwhelmed by the joy that they have. They don't know.

This is our series on stewardship. We've rolled out vision tours.