Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:05 My name is Michael fueling the lead pastor here at the village church. And before we jump into the message, I just need a moment. My brain and heart kind of have to do an emotional 180 here, but I have some exciting news for you. The last year has been a little nuts, right? Feel right to anybody else. Good. So village church, we have been working for over the last year, year and a half on something that you know, and we know as village church digital. So if you've gone to our website, it says coming soon, well, this Wednesday they're coming soon sign ends. And we're finally able to launch those shirts, digital and I'm most of you don't know what it is. So I want to take a moment and I want to bring you into what we have been working on. If you have not noticed so much of the world has gone down a much more digital route.
Speaker 0 00:00:55 People are actually going to training less in person, and they're going to learn and more and be trained on digital platforms. Churches all across America are actually having a much harder time hosting things like Sunday schools or trainings that are every single week. And so what we saw over the last couple of years is that moving down the digital path for training is a very, very necessary thing to do. So we have been working in creating multiple, hundreds and thousands, actually over the last couple of years of resources that will bless you and help you make disciples. So let me give you an illustration of what this might look like. You are here. You're a part of village church, and you're thinking to yourself, I really want to go deeper on a subject on tithing. I want to go deeper into subjects on spiritual gifts on apologetics.
Speaker 0 00:01:43 And so you can go to village, church, digital and search any word. And there are tons of resources that it pulls from that will help you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Maybe you are discipling somebody. They're a brand new Christian and they've got lots of questions. Well, you can go into our search engine and maybe you're like, Hey, like five years ago or three years ago, pastor Mike or pastor Craig preached a sermon. And all I remember is these words, well, you can search every word of every sermon that we have ever given for like years. Maybe you're like there is a Q and a podcast on a subject. Where do I find that super duper duper, duper, duper precedent. There goes, it all comes up right in front of you. It could be about a specific resource or subject. So let me give you a little bit of insight into what you're going to find a village church.
Speaker 0 00:02:30 Digital. Do you guys remember the village church, Q and a podcast? You guys remember that we recorded over 700 episodes, which are all going to be accessible on village church, digital. We also we've revamped this. It's now called village church Q and a. Amanda Diaz is my co-host and we've already finished recording the first fifth 50 episodes of season one. They're getting up and ready to go. As of Wednesday, the first 25 we'll release. We go through all different kinds of questions about Christian life, big questions you're asking. And so we're very excited about that. That's on a YouTube platform. It's also on podcasting. You can also find a written version of all of it. And so that's there for you to just grow in and search and, and grow as a disciple of Jesus. We're also launching another show. It's called village church, mental health.
Speaker 0 00:03:16 It's by bringing, fueling my wife and talking about the mental health issues that have come up in this world. It's about the convergence of theology and mental health. Have you noticed that? I don't know, maybe there's more mental health issues happening recently, anybody. Okay, good. Also another show that we are launching this Wednesday is called the <inaudible> sermon Q and a every single Monday after our messages, pastor Craig, pastor Alex at Alliance, Bible church and myself, we go into the studio and we record the top two, three biggest unanswered questions from our sermon. And so we've been doing this all the way back for, I think, four or five months now. So on Wednesday, actually, you'll be able to go back. If you see one of our sermons, you'll also be able to see all this sermon Q and a back a few months, especially through this Exodus series at the end of the service, I'm going to tell you the questions that we're going to be launching this Wednesday for this week's sermons.
Speaker 0 00:04:09 We'll save that for then. We're also launching what we call village church courses. These are discipleship courses that are digital and on the go. So let's say you are a brand new Christian or you're discipling a brand new Christian, and you want to go deeper into spiritual warfare. So you'll follow and take the course how to fight spiritual war. Maybe you're working with a brand new Christian and they don't know where the Bible came from. So you can take the course, where did I get my Bible from? Maybe they don't know how to pray. You can take the chorus. How do I pray? And so we're launching courses late summer fall. And then every month we'll be releasing probably another course, probably every month or two and other course to help you grow spiritually. Those that's some of the new content that's going to be coming up there as well as you're going to find all of our sermons from village church, east and Carol stream, all of our sermons from village church of Bartlett, as well as all of the leadership training that we do will be recorded and posted by the end of August.
Speaker 0 00:05:05 On top of that, we have village church articles where people, men and women from village church are writing. Disciple-making helpful content to help you grow in your walk with Jesus. Can you tell this is no small feat, right? And behind the scenes have been an incredible crew of men and women who have worked to build an infrastructure that makes it as easy as humanly possible for you to know what you want and to find it as simply as possible. So we're very excited. If there's any way we can serve you or content you would like created that would help you grow in your walk with Jesus. Those shirts digital is made primarily by leaders from village church, for you, our friends at Villa shirts. So also on top of that, we know is that most people, as they come to village church, they are spending months and months and months watching and engaging online before they even step a foot into our doors.
Speaker 0 00:06:00 So we want to make some content accessible for them. We have multiple people who have not been able to walk back through the doors of our church because of physical issues. We want to be able to serve them. Many of you are doing Bible studies and you're doing some studies with people at work or in your neighborhood. And you know, they are never going to walk through the doors of a church. So this is simple content that you can literally on your cell phone, copy paste, send them, Hey, check this out. I'd love to process this with you. And so there are so many ways that we believe this can serve you as you follow Jesus. And as you help make disciples who are going, growing and overcoming. So that's going to be launching Wednesday as teaser episode. We released one teaser episode about whether or not Christians should have tattoos or not.
Speaker 0 00:06:46 That came out. That's not fellowships digital. Now that's a pre-release. And then tomorrow I think it's tomorrow or Tuesday, we're going to be releasing this question. When is it okay to disobey the government, anybody excited to listen to that one, it's going to be a trip and I encourage you to watch and or listen to it. And so that's just the tip of the iceberg of what's going to be coming. And our goal again, is to love and serve you really well in this arena. Sound Greenville church. Yeah. Awesome. All right. Very good. All right. So let's shift gears. I want to talk about the Bible now. So this morning, could we talk about tides offerings and fundraisers? Yeah. Anybody excited about that? You're like, oh, this is, I know most of you are like, oh man, he's going to ask for money. I'm actually not going to ask for a dime today. But what I want to do is I want to share with you what I think might be some surprising news about ties and offering that probably most of us in this room are not aware of. Did you know that the new Testament, nowhere, not one place commands Christians to give 10% to their local church. Some of you were like, oh, thank God.
Speaker 0 00:08:05 Let me be really clear. I wish it did because, so what happened if it did number one, literally there would be millions and millions and millions of dollars that we could serve our city. We could not have to run fundraiser, building campaigns. We could do evangelism events. We could play at church after church. We can make sure everybody has everything they need. I mean, gosh, what you could do be, be crazy. I mean, if that were a law across America and the globe, the church would be the most well-funded organization outside of the government. Right. And be crazy. Number two, it'd be a lot easier to preach because most pastors are like, oh, what are they going to think of me? If we talk about giving, they're gonna think I just want their money, but I don't. Well, some do, but I don't, you know, like that whole thing.
Speaker 0 00:08:48 And I could, I could just preach like tithing as if it were stealing or murder with that kind of clarity. Right. That would be a whole lot easier. So what does the new Testament command Christians to type while not going to tell you right now, I'm hoping to answer that by the end of the sermon so that you stick around with me now, in order to understand new Testament tithing and offering, you have to understand this well, we understand, and what the Bible teaches in the new Testament as ties and offering they're based on a very specific kind of old Testament offering. And it's the kind of old Testament offering Moses used to fund the building of the tabernacle. It was called a free will offering a free will offering. It's a voluntary religion just offering made in addition to what is required by a promise or duty, let's go back to the old Testament.
Speaker 0 00:09:48 Freewill offerings were usually given in one of two ways. It was either an animal because it was an agrarian culture. And this was high value, especially if you want to do, I don't know, eaten live. That was number one. Number two, it would be materials that you would bring that were typically materials that your family worked with in your family's occupation. So if you were a pottery maker, then you might bring clay or you might make some pots. And for the whatever you're funding in that specific freewill offering, maybe you are a cloth maker or a clothes maker. And so you're going to bring different materials that people make clothes out of, depending on what you did for a living that would often predetermined the kind of offering freewill offering that you would bring. Now we've got to go back in time because most people think that they had some kind of coinage in say 1300 BC or 13th century BC.
Speaker 0 00:10:43 They did not. In fact, the earliest coins that we find are about seven 70 BC in China. So this idea of coinage was not a thing in the 13th century BC, or at least as far as our archeologists have been able to find, you'll hear words in the old Testament, like a shekel, but a shekel did become a coin. But before that it was a unit of measure. It was a certain amount of something that you would bring. And so you don't have coins and people typically traded goods and services, and here's how you knew you were rich. You had a lot of things that people would pay for. So if you had things that people would pay for, then you had a lot of money and power and access, et cetera. So freewill offerings are really useful to God. They're useful to God for multiple reasons.
Speaker 0 00:11:27 I gonna highlight two. Number one is when the people give a freewill offering, it is a snapshot for God into the hearts of the people because we, we fund what we love doing not. And so as offerings are taken, particularly in usually for specific projects, God would be able to, he would be able to see very clearly where the hearts of the were were at. But the second thing that it would do is it would also fund big projects. So for example, the tabernacle funded by freewill the temple fund funded by freewill offering the rebuilding of the temple funded by freewill offerings. And so there were major projects throughout the old Testament that were funded, not by the regular quote unquote taxes given to the temple required by law, but through this above and beyond freewill offer and where the vision would go to the people and the people would go home and pray, and then they would bring whatever they wanted to bring free will offerings were honestly such a great insight into people's heart and Amos chapter five.
Speaker 0 00:12:35 What happens is the Jews are rebuked for their freewill offerings they're giving, but here's what they do. They come in and they start bragging to each other about their freewill offering. By the way, should you brag about how much money you give to anyone anywhere out of personal private generosity? The answer is not at all. That's actually arrogant and dumb. And yet, for some reason, the Jews kind of lost sight of the main things and they would be bragging about their freewill offerings and God single-handedly rebukes them. The first free will offering, we actually see in scripture technically is the golden calf. And so they freely willingly. He gave to this disgusting <inaudible> idol. That was from the land of Egypt because it made them feel like they were close to God and open up your Bible is Exodus chapter 25. We're going to actually go back and forth between Exodus 25 and 35.
Speaker 0 00:13:27 And I'll have most of those scriptures on the screens today. And so this morning we're going to do actually is we're going to look at Moses's fundraising campaign for the tabernacle. And then we're going to learn quite a bit about the new Testament style of offerings, tithes, fundraisers, et cetera. And I think we have a lot to learn here. Some of you are new to the Bible. You don't know what a tabernacle is. Very simply a tabernacle is a tent. And for ancient Israel, the tabernacle would be a tent that they would build where God's presence would physically be. And so this place would be the singular place in the entire world where you could be near the physical manifest presence of God. Now, if I were to ask you what percentage of the book of Exodus is devoted to the building of the tabernacle?
Speaker 0 00:14:14 What would you guess before I studied this, I probably would have told you 5%, maybe seven. Now I've read Exodus a bunch of actually talk through it and why my brain goes to that number. I have no idea. Well, actually 32% of the book of Exodus is devoted to the building and the funding of the tabernacle. I mean, this is a huge monstrous theme in the book of Exodus. This was a Sunday school class. We'd probably spend two to four months looking at each aspect of the tabernacle one by one by one. So this morning, I want to show you three principles about freewill offerings, and then we're going to apply them to number one, free will. Offerings are willing is that blow anybody's mind right now they're willing. Look at Exodus 25 verse one.
Speaker 1 00:15:01 The Lord said to Moses,
Speaker 0 00:15:05 Speak to the people of Israel that they may take for me, a contribution from every man. Heart moves him. You shall receive the contribution for me. So this vocabulary here is going to be essential because free will offerings here. Me cannot be coerced or manipulated. And if you ever sat in a sermon and felt manipulate to give coerced, to give ceases, to be a freewill offering at that point, it appears by the way that all the way back 1300 BC in before it was not uncommon that freewill offerings and pegging cultures or manipulated, or they were coerced, but the people of God are going to do something very different. I can only imagine Moses is quandary right here. God's like, and we get to build a tabernacle. And Moses thinks to himself, this is going to be really expensive. And they've already given all of their freewill offerings just recently to build this idolatrous, disgusting golden calf.
Speaker 0 00:16:12 And Moses is probably thinking, God, that's a great idea, but do you know these people because their heart loves the presence of idols more than your presence. And God's like, no, I really want you to do this. And this is going to happen. And there's a wonderful spiritual law that every spiritual leader eventually learns. And it goes like this. God always funds his vision in his time. So let's say the Lord wants something for village church. Do you think that your stubborn heart is going to stop God from getting what he wants or mine? Probably not. If you want someone else, well, the Lord is just way smarter than all of our stubbornness. If the Lord has an agenda, the Lord kind of gets his agenda done. He's got a way about him. And I have watched, and you have watched spiritual leaders, use coercion and manipulation to try to extort people for as much money as they possibly can.
Speaker 0 00:17:12 And you and I both know this does not bring God glory. In fact, what we see in the new Testament is that our offerings, our tides are patterned not after law offerings, but after the freewill offering. And I want, I want to show you this and I'm going to keep reading. And then I want to show you this in the new Testament, this principle, I think, needs to be expanded. God always funds his vision in his time through the willing generosity of his people, willing generosity of his people. Fast forward, 10 chapters, exit is 35, 25 is God telling Moses about what's going to happen with the tabernacle. 35 has got actually into the people and then getting the offering chapter 35 verse 21 1. And they came everyone who's heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved. Tim, do you hear coercion or manipulation? Not at all. And they brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of the meeting, the tabernacle and for all of its service and for the holy garments, verse 22 says this. So again, both men and women, all who were of a willing
Speaker 1 00:18:23 Heart.
Speaker 0 00:18:25 I want to jump to the new Testament. I'm going to show you one of the most helpful passages on generosity, tithing and offering it's in the book of second Corinthians chapter nine, verse seven. And the context here is that Paul is taking an offering for struggling Christians in Jerusalem, but he shares a bigger principle of generosity and tithing. And here's what it says. Second Corinthians 9, 7, 9, 7, each one must give, as he has decided in his heart was this mean, you go home, you see a need, you meet that need after you personally go and you pray about it. It might be more than 10% under 10%. God may not even think communicate with you in 10 percentage paradigms. It might be something else, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. People think God wants your money. Can I just be straight with you?
Speaker 0 00:19:24 God does not need your money. God doesn't want your money. God wants your heart. And wherever you send your money there follows your heart. And so God wants your heart to be invested in the kingdom. And when you think about your resources, your time, your talents, your treasure, and you begin to invest those in the kingdom. Whether it's a Bible study, whether it's missionaries, whether it's your local church, it doesn't matter what it is when you invest your money in the kingdom. Guess what happens to your heart? Your heart grows in love for the kingdom of God. Most people think pastors are God's desperate because pastors are desperate. That's not the case. What God wants is for your heart to be for him and his kingdom on this earth. And if you take all of your excess money and vested in yourself, what will be your heart devoted to yourself? So God, that was the way we're made. He's not desperate just because some pastors and spiritual leaders on TV act desperate. What God wants is coerced, unmanipulated, willing
Speaker 1 00:20:29 Your heart. There's a
Speaker 0 00:20:32 Church down south. And he has no down south, like funny things happen, right? Like they're different sometimes. And the more rural you get, the more trippy it can be. And so I lived down south for a while. I loved going to different kinds of churches. I love the cross-cultural experience. And I took a group of students through church once and it came time for the offering and the band got up and they played this really upbeat, like Jivey song. Everything was happy. And then that was done. This guy, he like starts walking down and he's got this envelope and he's waving his hand and I'm like, what is happening right now? And then all my students look at me into like, what's happening right now. I'm like, I have no idea. And he's waving. And then there's like this big cauldron, like bucket at the front of the church.
Speaker 0 00:21:10 And so I seen it. I didn't know what it was for. I thought it was kinda like witchy. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. But so anyways, I, he walks up and he drops it into this cauldron as he does that. Well, applause, yay, whatever another person gets up and they've got some cash, you know, they put it in and the other person has a shag and everything. I'm thinking, this is really, really socially coercive. Like this is not right. And I imagined, this is what growing out of my brain one dude had an envelope and I imagine it's like completely empty. Ah, yeah, anyways, don't do that. But I went there and I'm thinking to myself, like this is manipulation and social coercion and it's not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing. And there's so many things about it that I was like, you know what I understand.
Speaker 0 00:22:00 I understand why most Christians think don't like sermons on tithing because the pastor's acted desperate or manipulative or coercive. And I think Moses sets this really great pattern for us. And then Paul repeats it, which is tell the people the need, let them go home and pray and let them do what they want. And that if it's really from the Lord, the Lord will fund his vision in his time to the willing generosity of the people. Here's the second principle of freewill offerings. Freewill offerings have a clear what, why and how now God would spend quite a bit of detail on axis telling the how, but look at chapter 25, verse three, he tells them the, what he says, this is the contribution that you should receive from them. Gold, silver and bronze, blue and purple and Scarlet yarns and find twined, linens, goats, hair.
Speaker 0 00:22:58 Like I imagine someone's like, I've got to go to Tony goats, just pick up the hair and bring it. And this is amazing. Go tear. Okay, good tanned Ram skins. Very specific appreciate that. Goatskins Acacia wood, which is beautiful. If you ever go to my house and see the wood on our first floor, it's Acacia wood oil for the lamps spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant, incense, Onyx stones and stones for setting for the <inaudible> and for the breasts, peace and love this God's funding everything. It's not just the building, but it's also the ministry. And then verse eight tells us the why. Let them make me a sanctuary, a house for worship. Why that I may dwell in their mints? What does God want presence with his people? And when his people are near him, the result is transformation. What God wants his presence and transformation.
Speaker 0 00:24:00 And he is prioritizing this. And that's what all of this is about. So when Moses cast the vision, he says, here's how it's going to happen. Here's what you need to bring. And here's why we're doing it. Don't you? The transparency don't you just love like that pay. It's as simple as this, here's the what? Here's the, when here's the, how, here's the why. And this is what you should expect, that when you give your freewill offerings, you should have a very clear semblance of what it goes to. Can we just take a moment here and maybe appreciate the gravity of what God is asking Moses to do right now? This tabernacle would be when God's presence entered it, the single most important place on the entire globe, this would be the most, most important place where the presence of God dwelled. Nobody could be any closer to God than they were closer to the, I have an apple and God would uniquely dwell amongst this people so that if you to be a part of the family of God, you had to be connected to this nation, this family of Israel and this John's out something I think very, just an important value is we think about offerings and tithing and fundraising, and that God loves places, spaces, and experiences that measurably help people connect with him and flourish spiritually.
Speaker 0 00:25:28 So when you're thinking about the kingdom of God, and you're thinking about ties and offerings are freewill offerings, your money, your time, your talents, your treasures, your resources. I know that that God loves places and spaces and experiences and ministries where people can connect with him and flourish spiritually. It's why the local church I think is, is one of the most important places in the entire world, because it's the primary place where we have spiritual family, but doggone it. We have missionaries and we, we just love and we support them. And we have so many things going on locally and globally, you have partnerships and people you're really excited about. And what we want to encourage you to do is to say, listen, find what God is doing and support it. Figure out how to support it. Go home and pray and say, God, what do you want me to do?
Speaker 0 00:26:17 10% is a ridiculous number because for some, it is far too low for some, it is far too high. Given what is going on in your life. At some point, you've got to get rid of this 10% thing and go before the Lord and say, Lord, what do you want me to do to give in such a way that it builds your kingdom and that my heart will follow this. So help me open my eyes to what's around me, help me figure out what's going on in my local church, in my community with missionaries, with ministries all over the world, got to want to build your kingdom. All right, number three and freewill offerings. Freewill offerings are according to prosperity, not percentage, meaning God is not going to ask you to do something unreasonable or impossible. When it comes to freewill offerings. Look at verse chapter 35, verse 24 says this.
Speaker 0 00:27:10 Every one who you could make a contribution. There's an impact here in the inverse. Not everybody could. Some of you here, you would love to give some of your, you have the gift of generosity. Your entire brain is wired and you are looking for ways to accelerate what God is doing in different places. And yet maybe a family catastrophe, maybe a series of just really difficult things. Maybe you just have a job that doesn't pay a lot and you've got 14 kids, but there could be a million reasons why you want to, but are not able to, or at least to the level that you want. But your heart is just wired for generosity. I can't tell you why or what or how, but here's what I know. I know that sometimes in any community, it is not a sin to not be able to do what you wish you could, because life is happening all around you. But I want to come back to this sense that most people believe God is desperate because pastors on TV, or maybe your pastors that, you know, act desperate when it comes to giving. And I just want to come back to this again. And again, I want you to hear me say this. God is not desperate. God wants your heart. And he knows that whatever you give to your heart will follow.
Speaker 0 00:28:36 So it, again, it appears that there were swindlers in the old Testament, there were swindlers in the new Testament. There's swindlers. Today, let's go to the new Testament. Second Corinthians chapter eight, verse 12. Paul says, he says for if the readiness is there, it is accepted double. According to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. Do you guys see that? Look, if you don't have any money, God's not going to say, give me a whole lot of money that you don't have. That's actually not the way freewill offerings work free. Will offerings come from your prosperity? Okay. They come from the money you have not the money. You do not have the same principles found in the book of acts chapter 11. I'll just put the text on or the verse on the screen. I'll read this to you. It's an interesting story about the beginning of the church.
Speaker 0 00:29:27 It says now in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of the names agribusiness stood up and were told by the spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world. This took place in the days of Claudius. So the determined every one, according to his ability to send a relief to the brothers, living in Judea, and they did so sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and saw assault because he says again, God always funds his vision in his time, through the willing generosity of his people. Now, are you curious how it all panned out? The tabernacle got built, but in essence, 36 is one of the most hilarious paragraphs in the old Testament. Let's just listen carefully. This is great. Moses called Bezalel and a holy app. These are the project managers for the building of the tabernacle and every craftsmen and whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose hearts stirred him up to come do the work.
Speaker 0 00:30:31 And they received from Moses, all the contribution that the people, the Israel had brought for doing the work of the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning. So all the craftsmen they'll have like this meeting who are doing every sort of task in the sanctuary, all of them, they came each from the task that he was doing, listen carefully. They go to Moses and here's what they say. The people bring much more than enough for doing the work. The Lord has commanded us to do, is that a layers where you kind of expecting we don't have enough. And so they actually have to stop their work and saying, tell the people to stop being so generous. We have more than enough. It's better. So most gave command. He has to have like some executive Fiat here and word was proclaimed throughout the camp.
Speaker 0 00:31:26 Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution to the sanctuary. When you love your pastor to get up and say for the rest of the year, no more ties and offerings. We cannot count all the money coming in. We are deeply inconvenienced by all of the checks that are being sent to the church. It's so good. I love it. So it gets better. So the people listen to this, the people were restrained from bringing they're like, we're not gonna stop, like no more for the material they have. That was sufficient to do all the work and more alright. Before we get to the it's, let's just do a time of introspection. There's no guilt. There's no shame. I'm going to ask you a simple question. I'm going to put some categories on the screen. And then what I want you to be able to do is just kind of place yourself.
Speaker 0 00:32:16 And then when you go home later, maybe tonight or tomorrow morning, I just want you to talk to God about wherever you are at here. All right? Which Israelites are you most like option one is you are willing to give. I'm not talking to just local church. He's just willing to give, to support the kingdom, but you're unable. So maybe you've had this like desire, but maybe there's a lack of resources. Maybe there's been something that's happened in your family. There's a lot of reasons why this is maybe you're married to a non-Christian who won't let you give him. And that's a whole different category of generosity here that you got to work through. Here's category. Number two, you are unwilling and unable. So you're like, even if I had the money, I wouldn't right. I'm trusting you guys. I don't trust anybody. I spend money on myself. Okay, cool.
Speaker 0 00:33:06 Number three, able and unwilling. I mean, I could, what am I giving you my money? I mean, I got a lot of money and I just, I eat out. I go on big vacations. I'm not giving you that. Right. You're able, but you are unwell. Maybe you're unwilling for good reasons. Last time I gave you money, you weren't trustworthy with it. Why would I give you more? Right. So maybe there actually is something legitimate there. Number four is you are and willing. You have access beyond meeting your minimal provisions. You prioritize the building of the kingdom. It's through your local church. Maybe it's through missionaries or nonprofits. You support, you prioritize investing in God's kingdom and you are keeping things moving and able to function. Because as you know, without resources, none of this happens. You guys know that, right? Like this requires resources to happen.
Speaker 0 00:34:03 There's a fifth category here and you are able and generous. The reason can I put this as a fifth category is because some people truly do have the spiritual gift of generosity and giving, and you are not just willing to do whatever the Lord asks you to do. But like you live with eyes wide, open looking for opportunities to accelerate what God is doing. Like you're like, oh, I see that. You want to make sure that you use your time, talents and treasures to push things forward. You have an incredible place in the kingdom of God. And you often are the biggest encourager for other people to start giving. In fact, whenever you preach on giving, do you know who the one group of people are that loves when pastors preach on giving it's those with the gift of generosity? They're like, yeah. So like I had this guy come up to me after the first service.
Speaker 0 00:34:53 He's like, oh, that was, I just, I love it. And he says, he says to me, he goes, man, when you have the gift of generosity, this is a private thing. I know the guy we've talked about our spiritual gifts, whatever. So longtime friend, and he says, no one will ever know the kinds of things that people with this gift do. It just lives in secret. And it's so true, but it is an accelerant for the kingdom of God and really practical ways. And so maybe that's you, maybe you have this spiritual gift and you live with eyes that are just attentive, looking for ways to further what God is already doing in different places. It's a beautiful gift that is so helpful to the church. So take those, take those. And maybe you just ask yourself, where am I at on this? I don't say this with some like rebuke you, but like probably everybody in the room fits in one of these categories. Right? I was talking about some. So what's I want to say it again, probably beat this dead horse here, but your heart will love that too. Which you freely give, why would God fundraise like this? Well, he could have made this law, right? But God's a genius. He doesn't just want forceful obedience. What does he want? He
Speaker 1 00:36:03 Wants their heart.
Speaker 0 00:36:05 And he wants to be present with them. And the freewill offering is the most genius strategic way to go about getting everything. God really, once there some of you in this room and you are absolutely 100% devoted to Don Shumaker and her ministry, because you have gone to Haiti with her because you have supported financially, because guess what happened when you gave what happened? Your heart followed multiple people in this room have been to Haiti. Some of you, I like three, four or five occasions or more with village church to be a part of our sister church. And guess what guess where your heart is today? Your heart is in Haiti because you know that earthquake was very close to our sister church. And your heart is there because you have invested in the kingdom of God in that place. This is just a rule.
Speaker 0 00:36:56 Your heart follows what you invest in. And so God is looking. All of us is saying, listen, invest in building the kingdom. And I'll say this just myself. If you, for a moment, think we want your money. Give it to a different local church. I just want your heart to be invested in building the kingdom. Because when you do that, your heart will come alive. And that is what God wants for each and every one of us. Here's my second. So what for you, may you experience may your experience at village church, be healing and confidence. Building.
Speaker 0 00:37:30 Many of you are burned. You are jaded. You do not trust. I understand that trust is not something you asked for. It's something you earn over a period of time. Amen. May you see where your offerings are going here? May you see God's people built. May you see the fruits where you take your time, talents and treasure. May you be freely open and available to talk to any leader and ask any question you want, may you not receive a defensive spirit? May you not experienced from our pulpit coercion, desperation or manipulation? May you hear honesty? If there are hard times, we talk about it. If there's vision and it's, we believe it's from the Lord, we talk about it. We cast out vision to you. You go home and you pray about it. And then you do what the Lord moves you to do. And you do it willingly
Speaker 1 00:38:25 And freely and
Speaker 0 00:38:27 Cheerfully. Whether you're here for a month or you're here for 30 years or more, my prayer for you is that whatever pain you've had over watching coercion, manipulation and desperation, that this will be a place of healing for
Speaker 1 00:38:41 You.
Speaker 0 00:38:42 It's not. And don't worry. I'm not about to ask for money. So just take that out of your brain. I'm not going there. I know some of you are like, here he goes, he's prepping for it. We were going to do this fall vision dinner. We have vision dinners usually every year, but we talked about where we're going and what some of the major obstacles are between here and there. And if you haven't noticed village shirts has changed a lot over the last year and a half. And we're just trying to help keep even our facility up to handle what actually is happening here on a Sunday morning and throughout the week. And so we were getting ready to like share with you about church planting. We're getting ready to share with you about a building expansion on the south side and a parking lot expansion, different things.
Speaker 0 00:39:21 And, and you know, we just, we postponed it until may because we were like, you know what? We just don't feel like we have clarity yet on what the Lord is doing. We're watching these things move. People are just emerging from COVID. We just need more time because we wanted to do was steward. Anytime we stand before you and say, Hey, here's what we think God is doing. We want to make sure we take the time to pray about it. That we're not presumptive about it, that we're patient about this and that we're actually able to see, here's what we see God doing. Do you, you should be able to see what God's doing. If we see it, the move in that direction and help invest in what God has already doing. And so we postpone that because we want to steward all of you really, really well.
Speaker 0 00:40:00 We also recognize this is a season, a geographical space where there's a lot of pain and hurt around giving here's my third. So with Jesus, the future is exciting and challenging. Jesus is building his church everywhere you go. He's building his church at Alliance, Bible church. He's building his church and churches all over the world in this community. And the city, Jesus is up to something. And I'm telling you, whenever you invest in the kingdom of God, he is moving. He is saving. He is drawing. He is at work, even though the world is nuts and crazy. And it's getting more challenging to navigate your personal convictions, but God is moving period. And it is not just through this church. He is moving in neighborhoods and in Bible studies and in other churches, it is amazing. And I'm telling you, when you invest in the kingdom of God, you will see fruit because God is saving and transforming. And we get to this morning baptized two college aged girls who are just in love with the Lord and God is moving their life. Just two small examples of what the Lord is up to. Not village church per se, but globally.
Speaker 0 00:41:10 I want to take a moment as we end here and I want to just pray for each one of you. My ending point is not so give that's not my ending point. I did not want this sermon to be ending with some coercive, manipulative, next step, where I asked you to give that'd be fine, if that was true in rail, but that's not what I wanted. What I want to do is just encourage you with this. I'm gonna encourage you to look at your life, ask yourself, which is real, that you are and see to give God as much glory as you can, as you invest in his kingdom, wherever he plants, you sound good. Let me pray, Lord. I am thankful for Jesus, for your provision, for your sovereignty, for your mission, you are relentlessly all over the globe, building your kingdom and saving people. And here in this space, the village church of Bartlett or in neighborhood Bible studies or in ministries that we're a part of you are just working in. It's amazing. Despite what happens culturally, you're at work. So we love you. And we just want to be a part of whatever you're doing. So God, I pray that you help each one of us give you glory with how we think about our time, our talents, and our treasures, as we think about freely willingly and generously building your kingdom, where you plant us, we love you. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Villa church, not a man.
