Build Something Episode 4

so again if you are new with us i've been doing a series called build something and uh i got this one and then one more after this and we've just been looking at um you know kind of what the church is and what zootown church is kind of casting some vision um but also it just kind of spurred in my heart that this last year and it's not letting up that just everything is so negative like everyone is so negative right now and there's so much cynicism in the world that it seems like everyone is tearing something down it's always you know tearing this down or it's political or whatever it is it's always tearing something down and uh and christ is about building something he said build a kingdom and yes he critiqued things yes he challenged things but he never stopped there he always moved humanity forward into something that they can build and so that's what we want to do at zootown church we don't want to be a church of cynicism we want to be a church of truth we want to be a church that challenges um and is and is challenged in our world views and perspectives as well but we want to be a church that builds something and i know that there's crazy stuff going on in the world there's always crazy stuff going on in the world but jesus said the kingdom of god is advancing but he called it a mustard seed he talked so much in seeds and he said like you know you will plant something and sometimes you don't see the harvest right away but it takes faith to know that it is growing so think about it you go you know karis nursery and you buy a seed and you you see it but as soon as you put it in the ground that takes faith like you don't know if it's gonna grow you don't know how big it's gonna grow but you have faith and you water it so that it will so that's how jesus talked in kingdom mindset and i've just recognized everyone is so not everyone but a lot of people are just so caught up in the horrible things that are going on in the world we want to be a church that builds something well recently um this this surprise in my life um regarding uh my wife and you know when you get married you kind of know each other but as you grow together and you get older you you find new passions you find new things and i would have never expected this from my wife but my wife is super into birds now um it started a few years ago we were driving uh up on 93 towards flathead and there was all these owls everywhere and there was like a ton of owls for some reason i don't know if they were getting mice or whatever but she just kept pointing out all these owls and then she moved on to hawks and then to eagles and she just like she has this like spidey sense for birds like she just knows where the birds are and at our house now you know she's even bought binoculars now so she can see the birds again i never would have expected this from her but she's super into birds and recently we have bought a lot of bird feeders around our house we are blessed to have a ton of birds and i do like the sound but here's what our porch looks like from since we bought all these bird feeders so this is fun we got that going for us got the power washer out every day so that's the result but she she loves birds she valued birds so much and that was her passion that she was so into it that she was willing to invest in it she was willing to buy bird feeders and then for mother's day my daughter bought her a solar paneled like little fountain that comes out of the bird bath and i mean like she's set for life now for bird stuff but she got some really cool stuff but she we invested in it we spent money on it we uh you know we we bought things to to kind of elevate this passion for her uh her bird knowledge i'm just gonna call her the bird lady from now on that's what we can know her by but there's another side okay so like you invest in what's important to you you invest you put money down on things that are your passions but there's also kind of this other side that's happening to our society right now as well i have a good friend of mine who is very successful businessman here in town he built his business from the ground up um and it's very very successful and i was talking to him recently and he cannot find people to work i mean we're talking starting out from 16 to 22 bucks an hour starting out he can't find people to work i don't know if you saw this but buffalo wild wings is closing for a month all their state stores because they can't find people to work there's help wanted signs everywhere around missoula montana so let me just say do i think all poor people are lazy no i'm not saying that but it does seem that there was a switch when we got them stemi checks and when now with with unemployment businesses can't compete with the government who's just printing money right my bigger point is you don't value things as much when it's just given to you when you just take it you don't really grow in that i've been told that one group of people that are super doing well are tattoo parlors you cannot get in for like a year to get a tattoo now because they are booked good for them they got to feed their families but it was that stemi check it was that stimulus check now again i'm painting with a wide brush but we all know that when something's just given to you it doesn't really grow you it doesn't grow you and it doesn't plant roots in your life now i say that because in our build series it takes finances to build things and if you've come here for a while and even if you're new with us just to know that i rarely talk about money we don't pass the plate uh for you know i made that decision when we first started this church i don't pass the plate because we want people to give i rarely talk about money and on top of that i didn't talk about it one time all last year during coven because i knew people were stressed and i knew people that that money was a big deal to people and i knew you got your stemi checks and i didn't ask for once i mean that was a lot of money most some people got and i never asked for once i never talked about it because i knew people were stressed and on top of that it built our faith as well as a church when you're preaching to a screen no one's showing up we have no clue who goes to our church anymore it built our faith and trust in god but the fact is jesus talked a lot about money he did so here's the deal the average they say now in america the average christian or person goes to church 1.5 times a month once a month is good attendance now at church i don't know if that means you come to a second one and leave halfway through like i'm not sure if that's how it works but 1.5 times a month is what people are going to church now so that means if if i wanted everyone to hear this message i'd have to preach it four times probably five times in a row i'm not going to do that i'm not going to do that but i am going to start preaching on money once a quarter because jesus talked a lot about it and how it deals with our hearts so let me just say this though generosity being generous is the basic level of following christ it's like one of the first things that you start doing because it spurs your heart when you know god's grace when you know god's love it does something to you and so this is really basic teaching that i'm telling you right now but again i'm not going to do it for four weeks um but i am going to start doing it once a quarter because we're a big boy church now big girl church like we're not a church plant anymore but i want to start positive okay for a whole year our our giving was down 30 30 that's a lot of money and we made it and we cut back a ton because i want to let you know we take money serious at this church ask our staff uh this might be shame but it's okay i'm cool with it i always tell our staff if we're not working harder if we need to work harder i tell them people are giving us giving us their money to work hard they're donating their money for us to do a good job and we're working for the king and we're working for people so let's do the best job we possibly can because we take money seriously but we were down 30 percent but people all year long who didn't even show up to this church because the coronavirus and they're waiting for the vaccine all kinds of stuff gave their money so we survived thank you thank you thank you for making this a predator because most of the time it's out of sight out of mind but people actively gave to this church for a whole year to help us survive one woman in particular i won't say her name but a few weeks ago she came in and she got vaccinated and she was excited to come back to church and she brought a year's worth of giving and handed it to us what a blessing that shows a heart for god and a heart for the kingdom but let me just show you what we did during that year when our giving was way down we did not stop our generosity we didn't go down in generosity we actually went up we gave 1250 to child bridge and now we're going to give more because of the bottle the little bottles we're doing 3 500 we gave to the gospel union gospel mission so just let you know what we do at this church is we don't give money to people at the door asking we send them we support union gospel mission and they actually have background checks and all kinds of stuff through the state and we send people to union gospel mission to get money what we found is if people really need money and they're serious they will make that trip across town to do it if they yell at us and get mad at us there was probably something else going on there so that's what we do we support union gospel 3 500 a year money we gave 15 000 to uncharted international which is our missionary group that goes overseas and your this church actually supported these pastors in belgrade next to russia five hundred dollars to carenet um 500 to fathers in the field which is an organization we support that for fatherless homes where people from our church take them hunting fishing and invest in their life we gave five thousand dollars to death to life which is a suicide prevention organization and they were sending me tons of stories from missoula of people who reached out to them and didn't end their life we gave five thousand dollars to the jaden fred foundation which helps sick kids and their families and we gave six thousand nine hundred and twenty dollars to help pay for people's counseling last year because they couldn't afford it and they were struggling during coven that's a total of thirty seven thousand six hundred and seventy dollars we gave away at this church when our giving was down thirty percent well done well done church so but here's the thing i know as i go through this these aren't fun sermons for me to do either they're not because i know how much money matters and it's like people feel it in their back well that shows it matters that shows it matters to you and some of you are going to think pastor you do not know what i give to you you do not know the kids that i'm supporting all kinds of stuff you're right i don't i don't in 11 years of being a pastor i have never looked at the books once on who gives i have no idea how you give that's for my own heart that's for my own heart and i want to treat all of you equally i really do last year we got our biggest donation in the history of zootown this one family literally paid for that warehouse to be remodeled structurally and i walked up to him and i said thank you very much but i can't treat you any different and he said i'd be mad at you if you did that's not how i roll and i know there's no judgment there's there's there's no judgment here i don't know what you're giving i also see that sometimes within the christian community there can be a fake righteousness like if i can look poor then people will think i'm more righteous and frugal that that's not how it works guys driving an old car if you have to that's one thing but if you if you're doing it to show off that you're just being this frugal christian i think you should go buy a new car good luck finding one by the way but having a nice house all that stuff sometimes there's like this fake piety like look how righteous i am that i don't go out to dinner and i'm like you should go on a date with your wife and go out to dinner so that's not what this is about either jesus loved rich people rich people are demonized in our country right now jesus loved rich people mary and laz mary martha and lazarus were rich and they funded most his ministry he went and ate dinner with zacchaeus the hated one percenter capitalist in his community and he also after the church was born many politicians and governors who were rich became christians and supported the ministry money's good the bible affirms success is wonderful do not hear me say that success is bad it is wonderful and i always say this make as much money as you possibly can on this planet because you can bless a ton of people and you can bless your family there is this one story where jesus told a parabol parable about this worker who was uh he was like a scoundrel but he was good at being a scoundrel and i always like to say too even with scam artists think about scam artists like there's actually an intelligence that kind of goes into that if they would just be using it for good and so jesus gets to the end of this parable and he kind of he compliments this guy for being shrewd and then he looks at his disciples and says remember this the sons of darkness interact more wisely than the sons of light you know what he's saying to you christians be smart do your thing be intelligent be shrewd you got one life here there's nothing wrong with being true with money or making money or being successful it's how you use it so let's just be honest money makes everything better not everything but money makes life more comfortable money takes certain levels of stress down why do we love to celebrate rags to riches stories we love it when someone comes from nothing and they build themselves up we love it we want other countries who are struggling in poverty to do better why because money matters we know that money is good we know success is good but there's a flip to that americans love money and we're trained to love money it's crazy how now you can go to your account and they're like you got to go buy a new car now because you're in a weird tax bracket like we are being trained for this and we do pride ourselves in work meaning you know we work 50 to 60 hours a week and it's like is that good so it has prosperity has cost us now most parents both parents have to work no shame in that my wife works but we almost have to money is the number one reason for divorce still and as i've researched this that this is the jews the jews worked about a 20 to 25 hour work week except during harvest when harvest was around then they had to you know work harder but they would go home around one to three o'clock and spend the rest of their days with their tribe and their families there's something we can learn from that now look i understand we can't change society we can't change it this is what it is but we can use our money wisely and we can influence hearts with the kingdom of god tim keller one of my favorite preachers tells this funny story where he did a whole sermon series on the seven deadly sins and one of those is greed but what he did was he gave his church the layout of which week they were going to be and his wife said to him no one's showing up for greed and he said why she goes because no one ever thinks they're greedy no one ever thinks they struggle with it you know why because we always look at someone with more money than us and say they're greedy greed has nothing to do with how much money you have it's what you do with the money you already have that's the definition of greed so he said no one showed up for his one sermon because no one thinks they're greedy so here's the question i want to ask you guys which which kingdom are you building if you're a follower of christ which kingdom are you actually building it's a trick question because in the scriptures i believe you build both it's at both end meaning jesus said on earth as it is in heaven it's a both and to want to build your family kingdom here but also the kingdom of god they are intricately connected listen to what the proverbs say about this in proverbs 13. the benevolent man some translations say the righteous man leaves an inheritance that endures to his children's children a righteous man is thinking in the future of his grandkids and great cancans but the wealth of the wicked is treasured up for the righteous so building a family kingdom here is not just good it's godly because think about this if you are if you're like i want my family to do well i want my grandkids to do well i want my great-grandkids to do well that means you are having faith and you are planting seeds for something you probably will never see you probably won't get to see your grandkids prospering but you have faith that you've done the right things so that they will that's the kingdom of god that's why jesus talks about planting a seed when you are generous you are having faith that the kingdom of god is going to advance even if you don't see it see my wife and i have this is what i mean by like there's good investments too there's family investments a cabin is a family investment if it's done right my wife and i you're probably tired of hearing about it we invested in an rv about three years ago you if you would have told me when i was in my teens that i would own an rv someday i would call you crazy because i was backpacking in the mission mountains i didn't want no rv that was for sissies now can i get plug-ins somewhere can i get my microwave going right it's kind of like i've confessed this before i used to think people who are snowbirds right if you're from montana and you have a place in arizona and you're gone for four months you can't handle the winter older i get i'm like can i come so i'm changing that that rv was the greatest family investment we've ever made my kids don't know what they got for christmas but they can talk about trips we took two years ago so i'm telling you invest in your your spouse your family this is a good thing my wife and i are giving my daughter two choices you can have an expensive wedding for one day or you can have a house payment or a down payment on a house your choice notice i didn't say easton because some other dad can pay for easton's wedding someday but you have a choice i pray she chooses wisely because that's an investment into her future so that's good it's a both and you want your family to prosper but notice it also says the wealth of the wicked or the wealth of the greedy still gets transferred to god here's one of the issues if if you're not generous most likely your kids won't be generous and chances are that money will not be used for building the kingdom of god and it says no matter what it's god's this is why i i do you know like you know i'm a justice guy there's so much corruption and there's so much greed within congress within our world within our society there's so much of it i've come to the point where i'm just like let him have it because jesus says what does it cost a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul let him have it because they're investing in this place that god is going to take that money and use it for the kingdom of god somehow someway all this corruption all this greed is going to be transferred to the kingdom of god i want to be a part of the ones investing in the kingdom of god so here's the promise of god right in proverbs there's many of them if you invest in your family and the kingdom of god both prosper in advance and i'm not necessarily talking about a figure i'm saying somehow god advances both i personally am excited someday to stand before christ and have him show that money that i thought was nothing how far that advanced someone's life that i didn't even know i'm excited for him to be like look at your great-grandkid building off what you did look at your great-granddaughter building off what you did i'm excited for christ to show us that here's the lie that we often tell ourselves i will get more generous when i'm older it doesn't really work that way it's just putting off the inevitable jesus flipped it jesus said plant the seed now for when you're older so why do people struggle with generosity it's the same reason why every war on this planet always starts fear and resources here's why if you struggle with generosity you're not generous because if they have it you don't and there's this fear that goes with that that i might run out and so i need more this is why every war is happening if i don't get this land then my family's not going to survive that's why every war happens in existence resources but it all comes down to fear they're afraid they're going to run out well the apostle paul had a lot to say about money and by the way the apostle paul never took a check from any of the churches because he said he didn't want to have them owe him something he built tents paul built tents he had a job and he writes this but those who crave the wealth of this world slip into spiritual snares they become trapped by the troubles that come through their foolish and harmful desires driven by greed and drowning in their own sinful pleasures and they take others down with them into their corruption in eventual destruction loving money is a root of all evils money is the root of all evil two that's pink floyd anybody pink floyd anyways some people run after it so much that they have given up their faith craving money craving more money pushes them away from the faith into air compounding misery in their lives so first notice what he says is everything is spiritual when i stand up here week after week we see the flesh but every decision we make actually has a spiritual consequence have you ever gotten a bill in the mail and you feel it way down here it's a piece of paper guys why is it causing so much stress because it's a spiritual thing money is spiritual listen to what one man writes about kind of the american dream everyone you meet always asks you if you have a career are married or if you own a house as if your life is some grocery list but they never ask you if you're happy heath ledger the actor who had everything except he was super ugly other than that he had everything he had money he had good looks he had a family he died of a drug overdose we have been lied to about the american dream and it's crept into the church this is why i pushed so hard about how we view success it's not just i'm so glad all you people are coming back it's so nice not preaching to an empty room but that's not success per se we've made everything about numbers and figures what the hashtag bless culture in our society has done it's proven to me everyone is religious and what i mean is on social media everything's hashtag blust it's always stuff it's always stuff and what that proves is we think and this is a lie we think i'm good with god or you know like like me and god are cool because look at all the stuff i got it's always something have you ever seen someone be like man i totally got over this anger issue hashtag blessed that's we we know that this is who we are like this is proven to me that we are really because that's religion because what it does then is it makes you think well i must be good in all my life because look at my stuff or the worst thing is sometimes it makes us think we're more favored by god than other people because we have more that's that's anti-gospel notice what paul goes on to say he says and they will take others with them what that means is the more you love money the more we love money money comes over relationship which is the opposite of the gospel ask any lawyer how many families have been ruined when the parents die and the inheritance comes in ask any lawyer how many families have been divided because of money the love of money and that's what happens because money takes a relationship here's the other side of it if we're fal if you're follower of christ in here jesus says the greatest among you is the servant that includes your money basically when you're not generous and you love money every person is a person you can profit from so people become a way that you can profit and step besides the gospel way of you're there to profit them now i have a confession to make this is why i tried to break this early on uh i don't want to throw my school under the bus but i do have a master's degree and from bible college and i was taught how to get people's money in bible college i was taught to go take out the rich people for dinner i was taught this stuff and many many many preachers do this i knew that was wrong even in bible college so like i said when that family gave us a huge amount of money i said i will not treat you any different and they said thank you see what this does when you got to pay for the lights and you got to pay for the building you got to pay for the staff it starts where you profit us we all are in a community that profits each other that's the gospel let me show you how serious money is and and this is why i think god gave us this one thing because it it it covers it makes everything equal in a way let me show you there's been a lot of money abuse in church as i told you we take money very serious at this church but we also don't think god's running out of money we don't mind spending money either but i understand you guys have read stories and stories where pastors whatever have done bad things i agree i agree a year ago when the black lives matter movement started i told you guys i support the individual within the black lives matter movement meaning who want social justice and they've seen some things you and i haven't i do not support the organization i who was the leader where was the money going i knew this was going to happen the leader of black lives matter just bought three houses last year three houses you know why this happens in church this happens everywhere because of love of money sees no color and no status it can get us all so we are called to fight it how do you fight it generosity that's why the lord was so serious about money why did paul say this why you know paul wrote this letter he wasn't even there he saw none of this money it was for them it was for them he saw money destroying people's lives and he wants he cared about their souls he cared about their peace and he cared about the kingdom and he cared about their community all of us are taking care of each other is how this goes i love this scene where this rich guy walks up to jesus and he's trying to prove to jesus how good he is he says i've followed all the commandments i've never broken one and i'm like liar anyways but he was rich and in that community in jewish community because of deuteronomy 32 it says if you bless god then god will bless your crops it was this it was this old testament view he thought look at all my money look at all my stuff i'm blessed by god and jesus says if you want to follow the kingdom you should sell all your stuff now pastors have taken that so far to be like maybe you should say all your stuff no if all of us were poor no one would get taken care of that's not what he meant he knew this owned this guy and this man walked away from the kingdom and jesus said this he looked at the faces of disciples and said how hard is it for the wealthy to enter god's kingdom realm god's kingdom realm isn't in the next life he says the kingdom is now he said this rich guy had an opportunity to enter the real kingdom i actually believe he would have gave the guy his money back to enter the real kingdom not later but now but let me shock you real quick okay guys you are rich in this room if you live in the united states of america you are rich you are worth even at your poorest level 10 times more than everybody else in the world i know you're thinking i don't have this i don't have that some of you might be really really struggling i'm painting with a wide brush but if you're born in the usa you're automatically 10 times richer we are rich and jesus knew that it's always going to be dividing our attention and it does i've we've i've been a pastor for 11 years and like i said i treat everyone equally i'm not going to kiss your butt because you got money but i've seen a lot of wealthy people come into this church and not last very long too because usually what happens with a wealthy person is something spiritual happens in their life a divorce uh kids something that their money can't fix so they come to hear the good news and they share it and they feel the relief and they feel the love but that that pull from the world gets them and they leave and they walk away from the faith just as paul said because the more money the more comfort the less you need god and the less kingdom focused you are but you have a choice you can be extremely rich and still follow the kingdom of god very well because it's right here it's right here i'm reading a book right now because i realized how ignorant i was to some of the social things going on in our world so i always one goal that i have is to understand people's stories and where they came from so even as i'm talking about money i don't know your story where you came from but i'm reading a book right now called urban apologetics and it's about the history of the black church in america it's wonderful but i i felt very guilty reading it the dedication that that the black churches had because they needed each other they had nothing the sacrifice that they had to start their churches they just got off slavery and they thought okay we're free and the white churches would not let them in the doors even in the north so what they do they pooled all their money together from slave labor to build church after church after church because they needed each other and they started schools and some of those schools are historic black colleges today that came from churches that's a kingdom focus some of those churches that were built in the 1800s are still over back east and in the south to this day because that church was their lifeblood because they had nothing else i have the utmost respect for the community aspect of the black church they did it they should they modeled to us in so many ways so how did it advance let me just say this for our church generous churches are used to advance the kingdom generous churches take humanity forward the same way the black church took the black community forward we have that opportunity or we can sit and mock the world say everything's going to hell in a hand basket and just blame everybody or we can do something or we can build something let's build something here's my issue with most sermons on money in the church in america again wide brush but i've been here around a little bit we have given in so much to the prosperity gospel and to money is everything that most money sermons you've heard before is always if you give to the church then god's gonna give you money back it's all about stuff it's like that's my problem with the prosperity gospel it's all about what you get i'm sorry that sounds like karma to me you give to us so you get something back that's karma that's not the heart of christ real love doesn't expect a result so the one verse that they always use in these sermons comes from second corinthians 9 and paul is challenging them on their generosity because the jerusalem church was being persecuted and losing their houses and their lives the corinthian church was very wealthy and he said let's help him out so he writes this here's my point a stingy sower will reap a meager harvest but the one who sows from a generous spirit will reap an abundant harvest let giving flow from your heart not from a sense of religious duty let it spring up freely from the joy of giving all because god loves hilarious generosity that's the real greek god loves a cheerful giver god loves hilarious generosity as we're given to the church and we're given the causes we're looking at the world ordinance we're kind of like what are they doing it's hilarious generosity this is have you ever seen a generous person mad i'd like to bless you today generous people are happy people they just are yes god is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace that's important so that you will have more than enough of everything i'm guessing most people have more than enough every moment and in every way he will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do so yes i believe he meets your needs yes i believe he blesses your money but i think this is more than money what's he talk about a harvest he's talking about a harvest he's talking about a fruit he's saying that something grows when you're generous well look at galatians 5 22 but the fruit produced by the holy spirit within you is divine love and all its varied expressions joy that overflows i'll trade money for joy peace that subdues who wouldn't pay for peace patience that endures kindness and action a life full of virtue faith that prevails gentleness of heart and strength of spirit the two greatest commandments that i always talk about because they were jesus's number one commandments love god love people love god love people okay how do you love god with your money you love people with it it does something to you fruit grows in your life when you're generous it grows and so i think this fruit it's more than just getting money like well i dropped some money in the offering plate on sunday i better get a check in the mail from god on monday or you know it's more than that it's it's something in our hearts and in our souls generosity does not just grow the other person generosity grows you it grows you this blew my mind when i read this as you know i study the early church fathers the early church exploded in the midst of incredible persecution the number one quoted verse for 400 years in the church was father forgive my enemies that people who were coming against the christians and they would persecute them when they died the christians would go and pay for the funerals of their enemies that's crazy for us to think about right and people would see that they'd be like wait a minute these people were out to kill you and now you're paying for their funerals and it did something they could see the generosity in action money is something you can actually tangibly feel and see in action and it changed the church and changed the community because they're like holy cow these christians are serious they're living for something different look how paul ends he says the priestly ministry you are providing through your offerings i ain't the only priest guys the bible says if you're a follower of christ you are kings and priests in the kingdom of god so when you are what does a priest do he stands before the people and for god when you are generous you are acting as a priest and they can see the hands and feet of god your offering not only supplies what is lacking for god's people it inspires an outpouring of praises and thanksgiving to god himself when people see you being generous and they see your love for them and your love for god they thank you but they also thank god they thank god they're like thank you god for bringing this person into my life thank you so much for making this person generous it's a way that we honor god but here's the thing generosity works both ways i believe as a part of being the community of believers and being a part of humanity is god makes you have to need help sometimes because it allows you to also depend on other people if you are generous i firmly believe that god will bring people in your life that will help you because we're all going to need at some point this this this has happened so many times to my wife and i a couple years ago we uh uh we had a tax situation as i said i'm self-employed as a pastor we're self-employed i pay i don't i don't pay the seven we pay 15. and uh trump's tax cuts hurt us they hurt us and when we went in uh i you know we kept all our write-offs and stuff and i handed it to our accountant and he said oh that line's gone now i'm like what do you mean it doesn't exist fourteen thousand dollars in write-offs we lost in one year and we didn't know it because the u.s government's weird right it's like how much do i owe we don't know do i have to pay it yes what happens if i don't pay it you go to jail so what do i pay we don't know right it's such a weird thing but you don't mess with the us government and so a couple of friends some friends of ours found out and they blessed us and they paid our taxes just that portion that we miss now my wife and i consider ourselves very generous people and i'm gonna get into that minute but we needed help in that moment we needed help so i think i do think generosity kind of comes around sometimes when you need help as well so here's a confession i have to make because i know this is kind of strong with a lot of people i have american guilt meaning whenever i get blessed i feel guilty about it whenever i get bliss especially materially my mind instantly goes to well why don't they get blessed in china what about africa what about these places and god's always like oh you don't think i'm blessing them too so we don't know what god's doing but i feel bad about prospering in my life but jenny and i my wife and i we've given 10 of every check we've ever made for 15 years and i can tell you that we've lacked nothing we've lacked nothing at this point it's two car payments but christ reminds me of that every time i feel guilty about other people in the world he said scotty you and jenny you are helping you are helping and i know other people you can worry about them but you are helping and i'm telling you my goal is to inspire you too so here's some real talk jesus said a lot about money a lot and he spoke in parables but he did say this this is very serious in matthew 6 he said how could you worship two gods at the same time you will have to hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other you can't worship the true god while enslaved to the god of money it's impossible you cannot you cannot serve god and money but you can serve god with your money and generosity does something it just does and i said at the beginning that things given to you you don't value them you don't value them and you never get deep roots in that if you come to this church week after week or 1.5 times a month and you just get and you get and you get and you never give you do not love this church you just don't am i saying you love god sure i don't know your heart you don't value this place and i gave some figures at the beginning that that's good that's good that we're doing that but friends it's time to grow it's time to grow we are a 12 year old church we're not a church plant anymore we're not a church plant but let me free you okay some of you who grew up in church this might be new to you but some of you grew up with it the ten percent tithe a lot of preachers preach the ten percent tithe you're supposed to give 10 of your income because the old testament told you to you're not a jew i free you from the 10 tithe i would love for it to say clearly you have to give 10 percent it's not a new testament belief it's because in the old testament the jews had a different tax structure they had a different government they had they had totally different thing that is not a new testament principle that has been used by preachers to get your money i free you from that okay free you from it but here's my question why would you not want to that's the question to ask and that's between you and god again i gave some numbers but we can do better we can do better as more and more people come back and you know we look at our christmas offerings and stuff too our easter office offering we gave like four thousand dollars to the jaden fred that's exciting but we had 12 to 1500 people and i'm sorry and i don't say this to shame anyone i'm gonna get in this as i close but grabbing a 10 spot out of your pocket and just throwing it in that's insultingly low for some of these it just is this is about our heart this is about our passions think of the subscriptions you have to hulu netflix all those things think about going to a brewery think about dinners i think you should go do those things i think you should but it's 50 to 100 on a meal now i'm not telling you to not do that but a 10 spot to this stuff is insultingly low and we can do better at this point jesus is waiting he's waiting for us to mature and we need to mature as a church when it comes to giving there is a small group of people paying for all of you and it's time we mature now look this church is about grace it's grace and grace alone i love preaching the glove of god over money any day of the week we are all sinners we are all equal but we can all equally give then too i don't it's not about how much we can all be equally generous we should that's the community you really want to see the spirit move in this church it's when we join each other's spirits together and we take care of each other we think of other people here's what james said about this he says my dear brothers and sisters what good is it if someone claims to have faith but demonstrates no good works to prove it how could this kind of faith save anyone again god gave us a tangible thing to see him work to free us in our hearts so let me give you just a quick example i do believe that you know i hear a lot of people say like why don't you give money to homeless let's be honest if you if you struggle giving money to the homeless it's because you're like well they're not going to use it wisely we don't know that every time but i will say i worked at a gas station and i saw that in action and a lot of those people who are asking for money they actually own trailers and houses and stuff and that's their job asking you for money ask any cop a lot of them are just liars they're not vietnam vets all kinds of stuff but i don't judge all of them okay i don't know their story but we say that like well they're just gonna you know they're just using that money if you come in here every week and you're never generous to us how are you any different how are you any different how many times have we used the grace of god and he keeps giving it and giving it and giving it now look the biggest thing i don't want i'm just being straight up with you what jesus said all kinds of the biggest thing i don't want you to do is feel shame and guilt because that doesn't last it never lasts so don't be digging through your wallet to go put it in the offering today and be like i mean we'll take it but that is not what i'm doing here again think of your subscriptions think is is generosity even on your mind and does it always last is it last after the subscriptions and all that stuff so here's the deal i want you to go home and i want you to look at your finances and i want you to think about it and i want you to pray about it i've relieved you of the 10 tithe i've relieved you of that but it's time we grow and that's the beauty of online honestly i love the online thing it's just it's a monthly thing it's a monthly thing but i don't want you just to get like all weird today and then just start giving because it won't last sit down and look at it and make a decision how much does it cost you of course of course it does but christ said you're paying it forward it is a sign of if you're serious about the kingdom work of god in matthew 6 and is it the only sign no it's not the only sign but matthew 6 he goes on to say don't keep hoarding for yourselves earthly treasures that can be stolen by thieves material wealth eventually rust decays and loses its value instead stockpile heavenly treasures for yourselves that cannot be stolen and will never rust decay or lose their value for your heart will always pursue what you esteem as your treasure whatever you value your heart will follow that and therefore your money will also so let me end with this band you can come on up the reason at zootown we keep preaching this american individualism is because it has squashed generosity it's like it's my money my stuff my thing you're the center of the universe we've all we're all brought up in it our rights our property our this the kingdom of god is the opposite of that our father who art in heaven forgive us our sins it was bryce said it last week that word in greek means y'all it's not about your individual walk with jesus that's important to you it's about the community and we have an opportunity as you town church to show this community everyone can put a co-exist bumper sticker on that means nothing how's that going in missoula that means nothing anyone can put a peace sign up on a hill that means nothing i think it's got good intentions but we as the church have an opportunity to really show this community so here's one of our life mottos me and jenny have even though i have american guilt we don't mind spending money on vacation we don't mind spending money on food we don't mind spending money but we never buy something if our generosity goes down ever we have that same motto at this church we have big dreams in big plans we have a um and we want to it's not just about our building projects some people get weird about building projects like we could spend that money somewhere else well you are the church and if you go out and you share the gospel with someone they need some place to go this building does matter it's a safe place for people to hear the love of god every week no matter who you are or where you come from this matters and so we got a lot of the stuff done it was a ton of money but we want to move forward so we've decided to do here's just some vision we have decided to take that warehouse and actually move the auditorium into that and make it a concert venue here's why because we realize if we're going to spend a million plus dollars for one day a week we want the community to be able to use this church we're going to name it something different too something theater i want the high schools to be able to use it and we're going to get in touch with logjam productions and kettle house and see if we can start doing some concerts out of here and let the community use this church this is going to be the kids in the zoo area this is going to be a pretty sick kids area half of it is going to be the the you know the auditorium and then there's going to be classrooms above you and all kinds of stuff we're going to redo that that's where we're going but that's not it i promise you this if it comes between a building and our generosity to help the community we're picking the community i promise you our generosity will not go down in fact we want it to go up but in order to build something it takes finances and all these prices keep going up i don't know if you've seen lumber lately i couldn't believe it my friend sent me a meme it was funny it said take your wife someplace or someplace expensive for dinner and they were sitting at home depot i saw this meme i thought this was pretty good adding that lumber just tripled the value of your car it's expensive but we have enough people to do this and we need to step up so here's the deal i told you like there's times where the lord's very clear to me and he's been clear to me lately there's something about next fall that's big for our church i don't know what there's something big you guys are the base of this church again this church has gone through a lot we've done basically two church plants in three years because we had a church split and then we just started going just starting picking up and then covet hit and so we're doing a whole new church plant now because we don't know who comes we don't know and we're seeing people come back we have a lot of new people but the fact is you are the base you're the foundation of this church in christ jesus and we can do better and with the giving we have right now and we cut so many bills and everything out to make it last year it was a very stressful year it's time we step up and mature as a church it's time we can do better at this point guys we're stuck we're stuck so many people come up and be like when's the building project done forgive me when are you going to start giving now maybe you do but i'm just saying it it costs money to build this and right now we're stuck and we're ready to move forward something about next fall is big and i want to be ready for it and we have an opportunity to do something in this town so let me end with a quick story about what your generosity does this winter my wife and family and i were sitting in our having dinner and we see this guy come spinning around the corner in a big plumbing truck and it was like a slow-mo action movie it was crazy he just wipes out our mailbox completely destroys our mailbox and i run out and he got nervous like he thought i was going to fight him and i was like whoa all right and we're kind of looking at it and he was like i'm so sorry man i'm so sorry and he kind of told me the story he thought his wife was sick because he saw an ambulance and he goes i will come back and i will rebuild your mailbox and i like i heard the spirit and i was like i just go how about i show you grace and he's like what he goes that's expensive he goes mailboxes aren't cheap which i didn't know at the time by the way but he goes mailboxes are expensive and i was like look we're gonna pay for it i go that's what grace is i go i forgive you well we didn't get on it very fast and i noticed one night when i was sitting there him coming home and every time he came around the corner he would stare at that mailbox because he felt shame he felt shame so my wife had this idea for the mailbox she wanted to you know get new boards so she went and got some new wood about fifteen thousand dollars worth for four pieces of wood and a new mailbox she painted it it looks great it looks awesome and the other day i saw him running around come around the corner and he looked at it and then he waved at me and i was like oh it's my wife who built it so way better why'd we do that it was worth the money to cover this dude's shame it was worth the money for this guy to feel relief from it i don't know what you're given to outside of this i believe you but you're not giving to us you're giving through us and we take money serious but when you give to this place you're helping people get relief it feels good in here guys it feels good back there maybe not for the volunteers but it feels good people need a place to feel good they need a place to feel love they need a place to feel covered they need a place to feel accepted we have some new hires we have to make we can't really do it yet if we all came together and you decided what you're gonna give on a monthly basis weekly basis whatever it is we can do this and i believe in you so let's mature and let's move forward and jesus is waiting for us in the name of the father

Channel: Zootown Church

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Id: hLryphDGhz4

Length: 55min 11sec (3311 seconds)

Published: Mon May 24 2021