- So there's a lot of headlines in 2020. Obviously there's a little
virus that went around, and a lot of challenges that people faced. One thing that I'm not sure made the press all the way to you was a pretty historic shift
in the separation of wealth. Check this out, in the last 12 months, the top 1% of the wealthiest
people on the planet have more resources and
assets, check this out, then the bottom 50% combined. - Wow.
- True story. How many wanna be in the 1%? Like you feel like God, that's you, what you've called me into
the 1%, I wanna be rich. And the thing is, rich is
a bit of a moving target. It just keeps kind of moving. Like my very first job,
I was 14 years old, and I was like a dishwasher, a bus boy, I made $2.75 an hour. In today's currency, that's a Dr. Pepper at
a restaurant an hour. That's what I made every
hour, to do pretty hard work. But I actually was pretty thankful for it. Like, I could buy whatever I wanted, and I could work over, like
time and a half was man, what is that, like not much.
(congregation laughing) And then you kind of grow
up and like, okay, $20,000. If I could just make $20,000. And so I'm married Cindy, my best friend, and we were called into ministry. And my very first job as a youth pastor, they offered me 20,000 bucks,
and we were set, people. Like pay all of our bills on time, and go to Taco Cabana once
a month for fajitas for two. That was the dream for us. And then the bar was like, okay, 30, if we could just make $30,000 a year. And a few years later,
we helped launch a church in Memphis, Tennessee. And guess what? They offered us $30,000. And Cindy leaned over to me
right after they made the offer, and she says, "Do you
know what this means?" I'm like, "What, babe?" She's like, "I don't have to work anymore. I don't have to go into that classroom and teach those kids ever
again, we have arrived." But the bar of wealth
and what rich looks like just keeps moving. So Rachel kind of
acknowledged this last week. How much do you need to be happy? The answer? Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. And Jesus, he spoke to
us with a caution on this in the gospel of Luke chapter 12. He said, "Watch out." Everybody say watch out.
- Watch out. - "Watch out, be on your guard
against all kinds of greed, because life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." You have to watch out, you
have to be on your guard, you have to be mindful that you do not get sucked
into the lie of this world, that it is what you do not have that is what you actually need
to be happy and fulfilled. It's a lie. There was this man, this farmer, and he had a banner year, in the Bible, like more produce than
he knew what to do with. And it never really even occurred to him, like who could I help, or
where could I be generous? Or who can I entrust this with? But he decided, "You know
what, what I'm gonna do is to have more than I
know what to do with. I'm just going to tear down
my chintzy little barns, and I'm gonna build bigger ones to store all of this stuff up for me." And Jesus spoke to him
and said, "You fool. This very night, your life
will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you
have prepared for who," say it with me for?
- Yourself. - The object lesson is this, "This is how it will be with whoever stores up for themselves
things for themselves, but is not rich toward God." God was not mad that this guy was rich. In fact, he was a farmer. All a farmer needs to be
rich is rain, sunshine, and fertile soil. Who made the guy rich? God. God wasn't mad that he was rich. The problem was that he
wasn't rich toward God. The good news and bad news today, the good news is you're rich. You're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Pastor Curtis, I don't feel rich. You just talked about
the separation of wealth, and the 1% and the 50%. I'm pretty confident I'm not in the 1%." The paradox though is while
all of this is happening, three billion people on
planet Earth live on $2 a day. And if you compare the
problems that you deal with with the problems that they
deal with, are you rich? Like, think about your problems. Like we have these boxes in our kitchens called refrigerators. They keep our food from spoiling. Like you don't actually have to go kill tonight's dinner every day. Some people do, or harvest it. It'll actually keep it from spoiling, but you open it up and
there's stuff in there. But you say, "I've got nothing to eat." Rich people problems, right? Or you order something from Amazon. And it's literally coming
from across the country. And God forbid, it takes
three days and not two. And you're frustrated, you
have rich people problems. Or you've got this little
device in your pocket, that is more than the mainframe
computers of the 1980s. And you have instant access to everything, and you pull up Netflix, and then the little spinny
circle, it starts buffering. And just remind yourself
when you're frustrated, it's coming from outer space (congregation laughing)
to your phone. You have rich people problems. I want you to say this out loud. This is gonna make some
of you uncomfortable. Say out loud I'm rich.
- I'm rich. - Again, I'm rich.
- I'm rich. - If that statement
makes you uncomfortable, can I ask you why? Why, why is it uncomfortable to say that? I think that Solomon spoke to this in Ecclesiastes chapter 5. He says, "Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and
the ability to enjoy them," Rachel talked about that last week, there's nothing wrong with having stuff. "When he gives you the
ability to accept your lot and be happy in your
work and in your toil," Solomon says, "this is a gift from God." But we're uncomfortable acknowledging that we've
been blessed in this way. You would never be apologetic that God's blessed your marriage, ever. God's blessed my marriage. God's blessed me with physical health. My kids love Jesus. You would never make excuses
for any of that stuff. But when it comes to money,
we get a little bit weird, and we feel like, "Well, I'm a Christian, and I'm not supposed to
have any of this thing." The good news is you're rich. The bad news is what?
- You're rich. - Because the more you have, the harder it is for you to live by faith, because you tend to trust
what's in your hands, rather than the God that
puts more in your hands. It puts us at a spiritual disadvantage. The story of the rich young ruler, young man comes up to Jesus, "What must I do, Rabbi, to be saved?" And the thing just to remind yourself, Jesus knows all things at all times. And so he's like, "Well, you
gotta keep the commandments, all of them," and the rich
young ruler said, "Done, check." Liar, no one has, but that's what he said. And did, Jesus was like, "Okay man, good job, you're amazing. One more thing," he said,
"sell everything that you have, give it to the poor, then
you can come follow me." His head drops. And he just walks away. Jesus asked him for the one thing he couldn't let go of. And he was unwilling to release it. And Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard is it for the rich
to enter the kingdom of God. It's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle, than for someone who is rich
to enter the kingdom of God." If you would just let go. Wealth isn't a problem. The problem is when the
things that you possess now possess you, when
you're a prisoner to them. And so in the rest of our time today, I just want us to talk about
how can we be rich toward God? 'Cause clearly there's a difference in what he said to this farmer. We want to be rich toward God. And so there's some mindsets
that we have to change to move into this divine wealth mentality. And the first is this, we have got to think like
stewards, not like owners. You have to think like
a steward, not an owner. Psalms 24:1, "The Earth is," whose? Say with me, "The Earth is?
- The Lord's. - And everything in it, the
world and all who live in it." It belongs to God, it's all his. We've gotta get that in our mind. So what you watched, mounted
to your wall last night, God's. What you put on to wear
to work today, God's. What you drove to go to
church, it belongs to God. Frankly, you belong to God. Everything in it and all who
live in it belong to God. This is so critical. And if you listen to that, and my encouragement is to
have a moment of self honesty. Do you actually believe that
everything that you have is yours to own? And if you honestly say yes, I get it. That's pretty much where the world lives. My humble question to
you is, are you a tither? 'Cause that's where it changes. Now, some of you just made a decision, you say, "Oh my gosh, he's the guy, and he's gonna talk about this thing." You better believe we
are, because this thing, I'm telling you, this is a
brick wall in your faith. You are stuck until you can
learn to trust God in this area. So, okay, okay, all right.
(congregation applauding) Somebody believed what I'm saying. So I wanna talk about the tithe as though you've never
heard this concept before in your life. And so I'm gonna look
at a text in Malachi. Malachi was a minor prophet,
last book in the Old Testament, 400 years before Jesus
was born in Matthew. And so this is the context,
but what you have to know is that the tithe was actually modeled 400 years before the
Levitical law was given. So it's in the law, but it
actually predated the law. And then Jesus actually reaffirmed
it in the New Testament. So the prophet Malachi says this, he says, "Bring," everybody say bring. - [Congregation] Bring. - I've gotten one word in, and
we're already repeating it. "Bring the whole tithe
into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house." The storehouse is the New
Testament local church, where you are spiritually fed,
Old Testament temple, right? "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house." Then God says something
he has never said before, or has ever said since, he
says, "Test me in this." Wait, aren't we not supposed to put the Lord your God to the test? Yes, except when he says to test him. He says, "In this, I need you to test me." Some of you need to test him. God's saying, "I dare you,
I double dog dare you." "Test me in this, says
the Lord, God almighty, and see if I will not open
up the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing you will not have room
enough to store it." So a couple things about the tithe. The word tithe comes from
the Hebrew word, ma aser. Everybody say ma aser.
- Ma aser. - It's just fun to say. And it doesn't just mean
a 10th of your income. It means the first 10th of your income. And I would argue that
the order of what you give probably even matters more
then the amount that you give. The whole point of the
tithe is for God to teach us to build our lives in a divine order. And in God's world, he has
to be first, you can't be. If you are first, the riches of heaven will actually do more harm in your life than would be a blessing in your life. And so if you would just build your life, the first of your day we're
spending time with the Lord. The first of our week, the Sabbath, we gather together with God's people. And every time you get paid, the first of what our increase is, God, you are going to be first. It's all about the order. And notice that the
first word of this verse does not say that we
give our tithe, does it? It said we bring our tithe. I know that may be a small
thing, but understand, You can only give what you own. The reason it says bring is because it doesn't belong to you. Leviticus says, "The tithe
is holy and set apart." God says, "It belongs to me." And so even if you're not a tither, but the first of your income is sitting in your bank account, that actually is owned by God. But you're possessing it. We bring the tithe, I
think a better word is we are returning, not giving. We are returning what
God already possesses. And when we return the
tithe, here's my whole point, is that moment of worship
declares God's ownership over everything else. And then your mind begins to change. I am not an owner, I am
a manager and a steward of what God has entrusted to me. We see this in our kids. Like I got three boys,
and when they were young, it seemed like we had a birthday
party every single week. Like every week we're going
to a new birthday party. And my kids had no limit of
what generosity should look like in terms of birthday presents. And so I wanted to buy,
like there was a $10 limit. You cannot spend over $10. So that's like a deck of UNO cards, or maybe a goldfish, or I
don't know, something small. A yo-yo, let's get him a yo-yo. And Seth, my youngest is like, "Dad, let's get him a dirt bike, come on." Or, "Can we go to Tractor Supply and pick up one of those go-carts?" For those of you in new country, Tractor Supply is the gift from God to those of us that like tools, and gloves and stuff like that. But here's the thing,
isn't it so much easier to be generous when you're
spending someone else's money? Right, isn't that that
the point of the tithe, is to change our minds
that this isn't mine, this belongs to God. How much easier is it for me to live my life open handed, right? It's just easier. (congregation applauding) You were created to be a conduit of God's blessing and resource,
not a collector of things. It's supposed to come to you,
but then flow through you. That's the way we were
designed to live our lives. Cindy and I started this
adventure of tithing 26 years ago, and I was super, I was not a fan. I was reluctant, I felt
like this was a church scam, and they just want my money. And they found some way to twist the Bible to get at my wallet. And I didn't even give, because I heard some great amazing story of somebody being blessed. It was straight disobedience. I knew I was walking in disobedience. And I reluctantly just
said, "Fine, God," and gave. And I'm not entirely sure he
was excited about my attitude, but it started to shift my mind. And you fast forward to
today, and in my home, our family culture, there is clearly a culture
of God's ownership. We don't own anything, it's all
his, and it's all available. It's one thing when a husband and a wife are unified in money. It's another thing when
a husband and a wife, and the creator of the world
are all on the same page with how to steward money,
that changes your family tree. I'm telling you. And it has become who we are. And church, it's who
God made you also to be. This is fun stuff. So we start with shifting our mind, thinking more like stewards, not owners. Secondly, to be rich
toward the things of God, we have to invest more than we spend, invest more than we spend. And I am not talking
about stocks, or equities, or 401ks, or mutual funds. I am talking about heaven. Heaven, being eternal kingdom
investors, Matthew 6:19, you many of you know this verse, "Do not store up for
yourselves treasures on Earth," spending, why? 'Cause it's all gonna break and go away. "Where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But instead, store up," or rather, invest, "your treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, or thieves don't break in and steal. For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also." The more you invest in the things that matter to the heart of God, the more your heart is gonna
beat for the things of God. Your heart always follows where you give. Every moment of every day,
you have a choice to make, to spend what God's given you, your time, your talent, your
resource, or to invest it. Spend a little bit of time bingeing on your favorite Netflix show. It's not a sin, there's
nothing wrong with it. But nothing's going to happen
in heaven because of it. Take the same amount of
time and get on your knees, and pray for your teenage kids. Pray for your boss that
doesn't know Jesus. That, my friends, is an investment that will have an eternal yield later. Like there's same amount of time, but it's just a different outcome. You could spend your influence building your own brand
or name on social media. Or you could invest your influence to make famous the name that
is above every other name, like same amount of influence,
but different results. You could spend your money
on the next toy or thing, or you could pay a single mom's rent, or give to a local mission partner, or help fund the next Life.Church campus, where somebody's aunt
is gonna get invited, and her hand's gonna go up. There's a difference between
spending and investing. I think that this trip several years back, probably five years
ago, we took our family for the first time ever
out of the country. And we got to this country and
the boys got off the plane, and they saw the money
exchange places everywhere. And they were enamored with the idea of having foreign
currency in their pocket. I begged them, "Please don't, don't do it. Everywhere you go, you can
spend American dollars here. Please do not exchange them
for the other currency." And did they listen? 100% no. All their American dollars
became pesos, all of them. And so we went and had a great week, and we flew back home after
the end of our vacation. And we got home, they're like, "Dad, what do we do with this?" I'm like, "Good luck
spending it, good luck." You've got something in your possession you were super excited to have, and it was of value when
you were temporarily at this one location. But now that you're back
in your country of origin, it is worth nothing. How many of us will we
get to heaven and realize what you spent your life
obsessing and collecting was temporarily worth something there, but is of no value here. (congregation applauding) We have to be investors, because we're investing
something we don't own. We're just stewarding it. And we wanna have the
greatest gain possible. And there's this natural
progression to this. We start with becoming
stewardship thinkers, and then we become
investors in what God owns. And you're gonna wake up one day, and the third reality will be true of you, and that is that you will live to give. It will become the reason that you have breath in your
lungs, and life in your bones, is to find opportunities to give. Proverbs 22:9, "For he who
has a generous eye will be," what, say it with me, "they will be? - [All] Blessed." - The person that just lives their life looking through the lens
of what need could I meet? What ministry could I serve? Where could I be a blessing? They will be blessed. You know, everything that Dave
Ramsey and Rachel talk about, there is a spiritual point of all of it. It's not just to have stronger finances. What do they say? "We're gonna live like no one else now, so that we could live and
give like no one else later." There is any eternal and spiritual why behind this entire series. We just want to be good stewards with what God has blessed us with. I mentioned the Legacy team that I lead. And if I'm honest, every spiritual gift given to Christians, there has always been a place
where that gift can grow, at Life.Church, at a physical
campus, or an online. Leadership gifts can grow,
serving gifts can grow, hospitality gifts, those of
you who love on the people walking into our campuses. But if I'm honest, when
it comes to the gift of giving and generosity, I think it's been a
little bit transactional over the past few years,
where somebody writes a check, and and exercises this gift. And there's a thank you given, but where is the
atmosphere in the ecosystem where not only can they grow this gift, but it's celebrated as an act of ministry, not one of philanthropy. Because any spiritual gift
used in a parallel direction to the agenda of heaven,
is an act of ministry. It is not philanthropy,
it's much deeper than that. And case in point, I'm at the
South Oklahoma City campus about two months ago,
and it's during the week, I'm meeting with the team, and Brian Word, who's the pastor, introduced
me to Carrie and Bear, who are on the Legacy team there, and I had not met them in person. And we just got to talking, and they got to sharing in their story. And I was pretty blown away
by what they had to share. They live for this. They live to give, and God
has blessed them in business. They actually have never had children. And so when they started thinking about the legacy that
they were gonna leave, they're like, "You know, our family, honestly is our church." And so she said, Carrie
said a couple of weeks ago, "We went to our attorney and
we had them rewrite our trust." And they chose to name Life.Church as the sole beneficiary of their estate. 100% of everything. And I was a tad speechless. And she went on to say
that, "If we could leverage what God's blessed us with, even to reach one more
person for the gospel, then we're growing our own family." And I drove home that day. And I was messed up in my head just thinking about
what they just told me. Because see, I've always
believed this thought that when you get to heaven, there's two things you will
no longer be able to do. You'll no longer be able to sin, and you will no longer be able
to reach someone for Jesus. And she said, "You know,
campuses cost money, ministries cost money." And at that moment I realized I don't actually think the
second one is true anymore because the gift that they give when they go to be with Jesus, are going to create campuses
where people will be invited, and hands will go up and people
will now be going to heaven, even after they have
already arrived there. (congregation applauding) That is their legacy. And it's changed a lot about the way I think about my own legacy. I wanna close with this. This is not something that
God is demanding from you. It's something God is inviting you to. Next weekend, we celebrate
the resurrection of Jesus. It's Easter weekend. And I heard this text preached
by Louie Giglio months ago. And I saw something in this
text I'd never seen before. It's not a giving generosity thing. It's really an advent scripture. But something jumped
out at me that I just, I wanna close you with. This is the triumphal entry
of Jesus into Jerusalem, as he's preparing for the end, he's preparing for the Last Supper, and for his arrest and his crucifixion. And in the gospel of Matthew 21, Jesus tells the disciples, "Go
to the village ahead of you. And at once you'll find
a donkey tied there, with her colt by her." Every Easter pageant you've ever seen with the one donkey was straight up wrong. And there were two donkeys,
big donkey, little donkey. "There's a donkey, and
there's a colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, say to them that the Lord," what? "The Lord needs them. (serene music) And then the person who owns and possesses those
donkeys," the Bible says, "will send them right away." In what universe does
God, who made everything, need anything from you? Did he need the five
loaves and the two fish to perform the miracle,
and feed the multitude? He is God, no. Did he need the little copper mite, that the widow dropped into
the offering in the temple? No. Did he need a tomb given
by Joseph of Arimathea, after his crucifixion? Like he could just make a
new tomb by thinking it, he's God, he authored
Mount Everest in a whisper. He doesn't need you. Did he really need a big
donkey and a little donkey to enter into Jerusalem,
to give his life for us? The answer's no. He could have entered
Jerusalem anyway he wanted. I mean, he could've flown in
like Peter Pan or Ironman, whichever generation you're
in, you apply the illustration. He could have blinked his eyes, and shown up in the upper room, without having to hear from the disciples, "Are we there yet?" He could have just shown up to ask you who he made to
borrow something from you that he already owns, to
heal a heart, to save a life, to forgive a sin, to
redeem a broken world, is utterly ridiculous and unnecessary. What is he doing? He is inviting you to be
written into the story. He doesn't need you to tell the story. He is giving you the opportunity to have a part in the story. I mean, think about this folks, think about as he's going into Jerusalem, and they're laying
their cloaks on the road as the donkey makes his way in. And they're laying the Palm branches, and they're shouting, "Hosanna,
hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord." And there's a guy that owned two donkeys, watching all of this happen. And he got to be written in to the story. You and I get to be
written in to the story. And so for those of you who honored God with the tithe for the first time, maybe you're doing that today, God is writing you in to the story. Those of you that give your time to serve in LifeKids and Switch, week after week, every single time you do it, God is writing you into somebody's story. Every time you're like, "I
wanna sacrificially give to help launch the next
Life.Church location," you are being written into the story, and changing someone else's down the road. He doesn't need us, but he invites us. And I just wanna give you
this last encouragement, for 25 plus years, our
mission has been this, to lead people to become fully
devoted followers of Christ. The fully devoted will not happen in you, until you let go of what
you don't want to release. That is where the treasure
of heaven flows through you and God invites you to the
greatest adventure of all time. All of our campuses praying together, Father, we thank you for
your goodness and grace. God, we thank you that you've mapped out how you want us to live our lives, to be blessed so that
we can be a blessing. God, help us just to be
honest with ourselves and with you, about what our next steps really should look like. Just in a moment of prayer, think about everything
that God's given you, your time, your gifts,
your influence, your money, your circle of social connectedness. How many of you would say,
"God, I am 100% willing to offer any and all of it to
change someone else's story." If that's you, would you
just boldly raise your hand, at all of our locations,
and at church online. Just let us know I'm
saying yes God, to you. I'm gonna go a little bit more specific, and I hate to get into your business, but I definitely believe
with my whole heart that for many of you,
this moment of obedience is about to transform
your spiritual journey. How many of you would
say that if I'm honest, my next step is to learn how to trust God with the tithe, and that
is my starting point. Would you just raise your
hand, at all of our locations? Just be honest, if that is your next step. Man, I thank God for each
and every one of you. I wanna pray for you. Father, I thank you for every person who is hearing your voice, and responding to your promptings. God, I pray that you would
empower them with divine courage to take steps that are
so counter-cultural, and to build their lives to the order that you have called us to live our lives. And I know God, that
the blessing of heaven is gonna flow through each one
of these people and families, because of these moments of faith, and ultimately impact
someone else's eternity. As we continue to pray, you
know, I think about faith. All of this stuff takes a lot of faith, to put your belief in that
what you can't tangibly see, to trust God when you have
your bills staring at you, that's faith. I want you to think about faith through a different lens though. How much faith does it take a God to send his one and only Son, to be tortured beyond what
any human should bear, to die a criminal's death,
not for his mistakes, but for yours, and for God to demonstrate his irrational generosity toward you, before a single one of
us had ever believed. Good news and bad news, the
bad news is we've all blown it. Every single one of us
listening to this message have missed the mark, whether
you've missed it by a mile, or a millimeter, it's all sin. And it separates us from God forever. And that the penalty of
God, or the penalty of sin is that we're now separated
from a holy God forever. That's the bad news. But church, the good news is that, "While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us," not to pay a debt that he owed, but a debt that you and I
owed, and here's the thing, it is not enough to just
intellectually know about Jesus or what he did, we each
have to receive what he did for the payment of our own sin. The Bible says, "To as many
as have received Christ, to them he gives the right
to be called a child of God." And so at all of our
locations, at church online, if he's not first, and you've never fully, actually truly surrendered
your whole heart to God, with your life, in this
moment, what do you do? You call out on Jesus, you
ask him to forgive you. And in that moment of
faith, the Bible says, "You will be saved." At all of our locations,
if that's your prayer, I want you to boldly
raise your hand right now. Just lift it up, right where you are. All of our locations, hands going up, saying yes to the grace of
our Savior who loves us. (congregation applauding) And gave his life for us. At all of our locations, at church online, just type right in the chat, "I'm saying yes to Jesus today." We're all gonna pray together with those taking this step of faith. Every voice praying out
loud, say this with me. Father, I need you.
- Father, I need you. - I have sinned.
- I have sinned. - I'm asking you to save me.
- I'm asking you to save me. - Jesus, I believe you died.
- Jesus, I believe you died. - To pay for my sin.
- To pay for my sin. - And you rose from the grave. - [Congregation] And
you rose from the grave. - To bring me life.
- To bring me life. - Fill me now with your Holy Spirit. - [Congregation] Fill me
now with your Holy Spirit. - That I would be empowered.
- That I would be empowered. - To serve you always.
- To serve you always. - In Jesus' name I pray.
- In Jesus' name I pray. - Can somebody go a little crazy, and celebrate the extravagant
generosity of God. (congregation applauding)
