To start this morning I would love to invite Nigel Onamade and he's going to come up and tell a brief story of generosity. And I'm going to frame it for you after he tells his story. Good morning everybody. Am I supposed to preach? I guess the story started about five years ago when my wife and I decided we were going to sell the home we were living in and either buy a new place or build a new place. And this was just before COVID. And we eventually sold that home.
And Covid, of course, it was in the middle of Covid, and the person who bought the home then rented it back to us. So we were staying in the same home that we built so many years ago. Now, every year, the landlord raised the rents as landlords do. Sometime last year, I think it was August or September, he raised the rents again to $750 a week, which was then putting a strain on our finances and our savings and everything. And of course, coupled with.
Progress payments for the new home and interest rate rises and all that, it was stifling us. Now, I started questioning and saying, God, did you actually lead us to sell that home? And, you know, there was times I was really confused and I was, like, worried, like, look, we can still afford to pay both rent and the mortgage, but it was getting very, very tight. And it still is because the home is not built yet. It's been four years and we're still waiting for the home to be built.
Now, two weeks before Christmas, I get a random WhatsApp message from some young chap in Singapore. We used to live in Singapore. This was 18 years ago. And this kid was 14 years old at that time. And he remembers my wife and myself being on stage serving in the worship ministry. And God told him to bless us. So I'm thinking, really? How is that possible? And apparently God had told him three years before, but he didn't do anything about it.
And God now reminded him again sometime in November, was it December? And he got my contact details from the worship pastor, got in touch with us, I get this random text saying, you don't know me, but I know you. I used to watch you on stage when I was 14. This guy is probably 30 plus now. He says, can I have a video chat with you? We have the video chat. He says, is there anything that is, is there any strain you're going through financially? And I share with him what's going on.
He's like, wow, interesting. After the call, he drops into our account. He asks for my account details, of course. I would say what I would earn in a fortnight. Twice of that he put into the account and that just assured me that God was trying to tell me He will take care of us and I did not make a mistake to sell that house now That, to me, was a massive form of generosity. I was learning how to trust God for my finances, how to trust him, that he would take care of me in every way.
And this guy was, of course, learning how to listen to God. And he was so accurate to have known when to actually obey God and then give that seed. The week after he. gave us that money. My wife and I were here in church and I said, look, I think it's right for us to then tithe the amount for that money that he gave us. And we did that. The very following month, this same guy dropped the exact amount that we had typed into our account again. Because he keeps asking us, is the house done yet?
And I'm like, no, it's not done yet. This last week, he dropped another amount into our account. God is in control. That's all I can say. And you cannot out give God. Thank you. Oh, very good, Nigel. Thank you for sharing. I think I want to just frame that for you in relationship to there's Two sides to the coin of generosity one side is actually giving and the other side is how we receive And so the truth is you can only any of us can only really give to the degree that we have received.
Would you agree? We can't give what we don't have right? And so So, I want you this week, a little bit of homework before we jump into the message, is to consider the question, when was the last time, or can you remember a story where you felt you were so blessed by someone else? And as you do that, give thanks to God, because it's God who has done that. Does that make sense?
Because if we talk about how do we live a lifestyle of generosity, we've got to actually return to the places and spaces in our stories where we have been gracious recipients of moments of generosity. Whether that's financial, whether that's not, it might not be. Does that make sense? So I would love to encourage you to consider that question. When was the last time you received an act of generosity? No matter how big and how small, they're all Important.
So we're here today in Luke chapter 12 from verse 13 and we're going to read this together. This is the story of Jesus talking about the parables of a few things, but we'll get to that. Let's just read it. Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Jesus replied, the man who appointed, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you. And then he said to them, watch out. Everyone say, watch out. Be on guard against all kinds of greed.
Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. And he told them this parable, the ground of a certain rich man yield an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, what shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said, this is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take it easy, mate. Eat, drink, be merry.
But God said to him, you full this very night. Your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself. This is how it will be for whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich towards God. Then Jesus says to his disciples, that was a big bomb moment. Can you feel it in the room? Jesus said to his disciples, Therefore, what's a therefore? We're trying to work out why has he told us this.
He tells us this, because I don't want you to worry about your life, what you will eat, or your body, what you will wear, for life is more than food, and body more than clothes. Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap. They have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. How much more valuable you are than birds. Who of you worrying about worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing. Thank you, Jesus. Doesn't sound like a very little thing.
Why do you worry about the rest? Consider the wild flowers. How they grow, they do not labor or spin. I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you? You of little faith, and do not set your heart on what you eat and drink.
Do not worry about it, for the pagan world runs after such things, and your father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and all these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out. A treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near, and no moth destroys.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Awesome. So Jesus starts out with this phrase at the start of this reading today, watch out. Another way to say that, he says, beware of money blindness. Understand money sickness, and acquire money wellness. Why is he saying watch out? The text starts with this man who comes to Jesus and says, Hey, Jesus, sort this out for me. My brother, tell my brother to divide the inheritance.
Now, this is a younger sibling, and the older brother has received the inheritance, and has probably inherited the entire estate. And the older brother is not sharing the inheritance or the estate with him, and so there's some, kind of sibling, conversation going on, probably not all that positive. And so he comes to Jesus and says, Make my brother divide the inheritance with me.
And now when Jesus refuses, firstly, we must remember that doesn't mean, you know, that we shouldn't, you know, ever go to court to deal with injustice. Sometimes those moments are necessary, but Jesus says here, who, who has appointed me? In other words, he's saying, actually, that's what not, I'm not, I'm not here to do this. This is not my mission. This is not my job description. I'm not here for this. I have limited amount of time, but that's not what I'm here to do.
But when he says something, this moment, he shows that he discerns what's actually going on in this family. The family's being torn apart. Can you imagine? In the next statement, he shows that he understands why it's being torn apart, because the family is being torn apart because of greed. It's money sickness. It's money centricity. It's a materialistic heart. It might be in this man. It might be in his brother. It might be in all of them.
We don't know, but the point is, is he says, watch out, be on guard against all kinds of greed. And in this warning, there's a premise here. There's something that is an assumption that needs to be drawn out. And the premise is, when he says, watch out for all kinds of greed, the assumption is that greed is something that can be hidden from you. You can't see it. It will deceive you. It will fool you.
To put it another way, Jesus is assuming that the condition of money sickness, that blindness to the condition, is intrinsic to the condition. Does that make sense? So, for instance, we don't see anywhere in the Bible where Jesus says, please be on guard for adultery. Well, does that mean somehow, you know, greed is worse than adultery or something?
No, it's, it's both damaging, but here's the tick, you don't actually, you're not, you're not ever unaware that you're committing the sin of adultery. Would you agree? It's fairly obvious something's going on, but when you're in greed sickness, you can be completely You can't see it. Why not? Because greed touches the heart, it moves subtly, it moves slowly, it gets inside, and Jesus is saying, watch out.
So what I want to do is I actually want to summarize this reading that we've read into these two paragraphs very quickly, and I want to speak them in a way that summarizes everything that Jesus has said.
So it says, if you worry a lot about money, okay, or if you resent people who have got money, Or, if you are run off your feet trying to get it, or if you can't give it away so radically that you're not willing to dip into your savings and investments and give to that level, you may, everyone say may, have money sickness. Second paragraph, either you're looking for money to be your security, or you're looking to money to be your beauty. That's an interesting concept, isn't it?
Think about the parable of the the field and the flowers of the field. We can be using money to actually make us feel secure and safe. We can be use money to make us feel beautiful, acceptable. So if you're looking for money for your security, if you're looking money for your beauty, and if you're looking for money to give you things, aka the kingdom, maybe there's a kingdom you're trying to buy for yourself.
Newsflash, if you're a follower of Jesus, you've already been given the kingdom, but you're using money to look for things that only God can give you. You may have to consider, is something going on that I'm unaware of that is hidden to me? Do I have money sickness? Does that make sense to everyone? And also realize that if you see yourself having money sickness, you know what the human reaction is? We always go, oh, I'm not that bad. We always underestimate the impact of it, don't we?
We always do. And that's part of its subtlety, because we'll underestimate How it touches our lives. And Jesus says watch out. Watch out. To watch out, what does that mean? It means to be very suspicious. It means to ask lots of questions. You know, asking questions, being suspicious of everything. It, that's what it means to be on guard, being careful. And Jesus is saying, don't trust yourself with money, saturate, saturate yourself with questions.
Hundreds of questions, here's some examples, don't, you don't really need that. Do you really, really need more? Couldn't you live more simply? Couldn't you give more of your money away? And you ask yourself, and Jesus says, Watch out. Saturate yourselves with questions. Now, as we've gone through this season and today, this is the most prevalent moment in our entire series that you need to watch out. Because what's going to happen in the course of it, it may already be happening right now.
When I started talking, suddenly you're all like, Woo! I'm getting a little bit disturbed on the inside. Maybe there's a sudden reaction of anger. Maybe there's something that's stirring on the inside. Watch out. Watch out, because something is trying to reveal to you that you potentially have money sickness. And the Father wants to lead us all to money wellness. Just because you're reacting, don't go, Oh no, I've gotten it wrong. I'm, I'm, I'm, it's hopeless. I'm a lost cause.
No, no. We need to see we have money sickness and then, Lord Jesus, help me move towards money wellness. Does that make sense? So be aware. Be aware that that's what might be going on. The best question I like to ask myself is how much is enough? How much is enough? You know, as your savings increase, as your salary grows, as your years pass by, as you get older, as the children no longer need school fees to be paid, as suddenly you've got more going on. How much is enough?
But know that if you have money sickness, it'll always feel like you don't have enough. But watch out. If you're not watching out, you're actually being voluntarily blind. I've got a slide because there's an interesting idea about the word In the Bible, the word believe is used 272 times, the word pray is used 371 times, love is used 714 times. Oh dear. Give is used 2, 162 times. Welcome to church.
I've been looking at the Bible and what it says about giving and I'm trying to come to grips with why it feels like Jesus is always talking about giving. Giving. And frankly coming to grips with the fact that why do we at church don't talk about it too much? Here's something personal. And even why I'd feel like I'm a little bit afraid to even talk about it in the first place. Why is that? What's going on?
And as I've kind of analyzed that and looked at that this week, Jesus constantly talking about it, I began to realize that giving is not just some duty that lays along a list of all other duties to be performed as a follower of Jesus, like worship, evangelism, prayer, loving others, helping the poor. No, actually, giving is at the heart of the reason, is at the heart of every single thing a Christian is and does.
See, if you look at the whole scope of the Bible, what it says about everything a Christian is and does, giving is at the very heart of it. Let me show you what I mean. The three cardinal virtues, one way of describing the Christian faith in terms of Christian character, is faith, hope and love. Now, if you can't give, the number one question we must ask is do I have faith to believe that God will really care for me when I give?
If not, this is not just a question of a lack of generosity, it's a question of a lack of faith. Okay, hope. What if we don't give? Hope means the question of where do I really get my value from? Where do I get my sense of worth from? Is it from Christ or is it how we live? The restaurants we eat at, the clothes we wear. One of the reasons we don't give is because of hope. Our hope is located in the wrong location. And so giving is again touching on this picture of hope.
And then there's faith, hope, and love. One of the reasons we don't give is because we lack sympathy, sensitivity in a world that is out of control and the needs are completely unbelievable. There's so much need out of there, out there. We don't even know How much need is out there and sometimes we don't want to look at it because it's kind of like, wow, that's pretty heavy. The needs are so prevalent. And then we say, oh, you know, our capacity to love, we get scared.
We don't want to see the difficulties and so we cut ourselves off from them. And therefore, the only way to build faith, to build real faith, to build real hope, to build, to build real love is giving as a reality check of those things. It's not just one thing to do on a very big list of things to do. It's all of those things. It's not one subject. Oh, when can we get on to the next subject, Adam? Looking forward to next week. Thanks very much. No, it's all the subjects.
Giving is at the heart of all the subjects. Here's how you do it. When you feel like You need to move beyond it, that sense of money sickness. When you want to activate faith, hope, and love, stir that in your heart, you give. Let's take a look at the moment of, of what the Christian faith is, not just what it is, but what it does. It serves God and it serves others. Would you agree? Our Christian faith is to serve God, to serve others.
Now, if you're struggling to believe that everything that you have is a gift from God, then And I struggle to give. There's a question, isn't there? That my love for God is really just lip service or just sentiment. It's not real. How can I say I want to serve others and not be an answer to someone else's needs? Again, it's just a sentiment. It's not actually real. And so giving is not just part of one thing, it's all the things.
And so I think because of that, and the nature of whenever you talk about money, it just stabs at the heart, don't you agree? It just knocks on the heart. It probes the heart. It prods the heart. We find it hard to talk about. Until you put your wealth on the line, there is no reality check to your faith. Oh, welcome to church this morning. The reason Jesus is talking about it so often is because there's not just one subject among many, it's all the subjects. So watch out.
So where should I place my money? Glad you asked. We're going to jump into the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 from verse 18 and it says this. Listen. Then to what the parable of the sower means. So you know the parable of the sower. The farmer sowed his seed on, the path. Sowed his seed on the, and the, and the crows came. He sowed the seed in the rocky place, the weedy place, and then he sowed it on good soil.
And this is one of those parables that he sells, but this, in this moment in Matthew 13, he explains it, and this is the explanation. Listen to what the parable of the sower means. When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.
But since they have no root, they only last a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop yielding a hundred, sixty, thirty times what was sown.
And so the thorns in this parable represent very clearly the deceitfulness of wealth. It's super clear. Now what's interesting is when you research ancient farming practices, the farmer would actually plant thorns on the edge of his crop in order to prevent people from either just strolling through the crop and rooing in it, for, for, prevent animals going in. There was a specific strategic placement of thorns on the edges of the crop. So what does that mean?
Because the image of the soil in the parable is actually representative of our hearts.
Then in your life you are either going to put your wealth, i. e. the thorns, at the center of your heart, and please know if you put the wealth at the center of your heart and you're also putting the Word of God at the center of your heart, what's going to happen is The Word of God in you is going to become unproductive because the worries of life, the deceitfulness of wealth, chokes out the fruitfulness of God's Word. So what does it mean to plant at the edges?
It means that on the edges of the crop, this is where the poor would come. Have you ever heard that word, the gleanings? They would come to the edges of the crop to receive gleanings. And according to the book of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, farmers would leave the edges of their fields unharvested. They would, wouldn't pick up the things that they dropped, the gleanings. And should harvest be overlooked, in that area, they would just actually leave it.
And so when your wealth is kept at the edges of your heart and not at the center of your heart, that's when you can have a productive life. When you strategically, regularly, sacrificially, give cheerfully, you're setting your heart, up your heart to have good soil, producing a crop that yields a great return. Today I was thinking, this morning actually, about some people that I've met over the course of 25 years of doing ministry. And you get to meet all sorts of people in all sorts of ages.
And I've noticed something about people, again, money sickness, you don't know you have it, okay? And I remember there were a couple of conversations I've had, where I'm starting to see that people, oh, over the course of their lives, they've kept money at the centre of their hearts. And so, So, in one example, I met someone who's 90 years old, okay, and at 90 years old, they're saying sentences like, I don't have enough money to live, okay. How old? 90, okay.
And then what happens is, the conversation, because Pastor Adam sometimes just goes there and maybe I shouldn't, so how much is your bank account out at the moment? How much savings do you have? And this has happened more than once. This is why I'm bringing this up. The answer was 2. 2 million dollars. Now, as soon as I say that, I want you to know that I'm not talking about what a bank balance is.
I'm talking about, in light of having that much cash, your heart still says, I don't have enough to live. There's a question mark. Do you agree? Because it's not about, please, this is not a judgmental statement. I don't care how much your bank account says.
What God cares about is the condition of your heart to go, Oh, please, may as I arrive at 90 years old, I never want to be in a place where I look at going, Gee, I've, I've, I want to never say, I've looked at my bank account to get my sense of enough. I want to always go, I looked at Jesus to get my sense of enough. That's what we all want, wouldn't we? But be careful, watch out. This is subtle, this is hidden. This requires more thought. Are you okay out there? So how can we do that?
How can we be different? How can we avoid money sickness? Well, I'm glad you asked. So over my time of pastoring, I've noticed two types of giving and so I want to explain them to you today. First type of giving is called first fruits giving or tithing. The second part, the second type, is called project givers. Project givers. Now, as soon as I say two categories, I don't want you to assume that it's either one or the other. No, I know a lot of people, they're doing both.
Okay, so this is not about making some statement around one is better than the other. No, I want to talk about, I want to give comments to each of these. So firstly, let's talk about first fruit, the tithe. The word tithe comes from the Old Testament term to refer to the first 10 percent of a person's income to be given to the temple or the running of the temple. And this is what the word tithe was used for in the Old Testament.
In the New Testament, it was more of a response than a command, because God was so generously blessing us, His church, through His Son Jesus, through His forgiveness on the cross, through life and life abundantly, that we don't have to tithe, we should Want to tithe.
So if you're placed where you feel like you have to tithe, when you have to give your first fruits, where it's not cheerful, where it's not joyful, it's not a response, but it's like a begrudgingly forced control into something that you didn't want to do. I want to let you know that tithing or giving of your first fruits is no longer an act of worship. It's actually an act of control, resentment, obligation. And when your heart is in this place, newsflash, don't tithe. It's not worth it.
Don't bother. You're doing it for the wrong reasons. Does that make sense? But there may be a hard journey if you feel like, I can't tithe, that you need to go on to assess, oh, do I have money sickness going on in my heart? Having said that, I'm certain that all of us are in different places when it comes to our journey. of giving, of tithing, of firstfruits. But one of the questions I've heard over the years, well, Adam, if the tithe began in the Old Testament, do we have to tithe anymore?
Aren't we under grace now and not under the law? Surely the tithe is like a redundant concept. Now, firstly, Jesus did speak into the tithe, just so you're clear, Luke 11, 42. And it says, woe to you Pharisees, because you give a tenth of your mint and rue and all kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter, yes, without leaving the former undone. In this scripture, it is clear Jesus is endorsing the tithe.
Now, the interesting thing is we consider tithing as something under the law. Tithing was in the Levitical Mosaic priesthood. It was part of that, but it was seen prior to the establishment of any law. Because we read about it in Genesis 14, where Abraham gives a tenth of what he gets to Melchizedek. And later, like I said, in Leviticus, tithing is established as part of God's law. You can read about that in Leviticus 27.
But under the New Covenant, some argue that, well, tithing is just no longer required. And in a sense, they are correct. But, being in a right relationship with God depends not on me fulfilling the law and trying to be perfect in my obedience to the law. It comes solely through faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ to fulfill it. And so, we read about Jesus and suddenly he gets to the mount, the Sermon on the Mount.
And what the sentiment of that sermon is that he is consistently raising the calling. He's consistently raising the standard. He's calling followers to actually live in ways that go beyond the law, not below it. So importantly, by his spirit, he empowers us by grace to meet these high expectations. And so the other question I get a lot is, where does the tithe go? Well, great question. We're supposed to take the tithe 10 percent and give it to the local church, are we? Great question.
If you're asking that question, it's a good one. Well, initially we see Abraham give it to Melchizedek in the tithe. We see the tithe going to the temple in Malachi 3. 10. This use of the word storehouse is being used. Oh my goodness, that's a fun conversation. What does the storehouse mean? Many people will interpret that as the local church. Many people would think differently on that. And some say, when they come and ask me, I tend to go, well, it's a really good starting place.
Like, if you haven't ever given, or haven't tithed, or haven't done a firstfruits journey, and also you're thinking, oh, I don't even know if I could do 10 percent straight away, begin somewhere. Begin. Begin. Because there's a beautiful promise in the book of Malachi that says, God, you can test God in this. So there's an invitation. However, be led of the Spirit of God in this regard. I'm not gonna stand up here and tell you what to do. I'll never tell you what to do.
I'll tell you, here's some things you should think about. But you need to be led of the Spirit of God when it comes to this. But watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Because at the end of the day, God does not need your finances. Giving is actually the way we flourish. Because giving keeps us safe from what? Money. Sickness. Make sense? Deuteronomy 14 23 continues to this, to review this and it says, talks about the purpose of tithing.
Purpose of tithing is that you would learn to revere the Lord your God always. So the tithe, tithe helps us guard our hearts from all sorts of greed. Another way to think about it is the tithe helps us revere God and not revere money. That's such an important posture to hold. And the final most important aspect of the tithe is the idea of giving regularly. Now, many of you have been asking, Adam, how's your back today? Thank you for asking. And I'm pleased to say, it's better.
It's not great, but it's better, okay? So, part of the dynamic of regular exercise, in this case, my cardio system is the best it's probably ever been, I'll be honest. The problem is, my inner core strength is not. And so I have not regularly done enough inner core strength training, and now that I'm running a lot, I did 8km the other day everybody, I'm not bragging, but I am. And, I'm pretty excited about it. But I did 8km in the same day I put my back out.
And what I'm discovering is that I've got to keep my core strength up. So that means what? Regularly exercising your core muscle groups. Would you agree? Now, if that's true for muscle, what's true is in relationship to our capacity to avoid money sickness. If you are only giving like once every year If I just went to the core muscle training once every year, I would be in trouble. I tell ya, especially at 51 years old, right?
So there's this, there's this dynamic of something being systematic to be regular. Because our hearts drift, right? We know when I said I want to get to an old person's age, and you know, I want to be saying, oh, I'm not looking at my bank account to feel like I have enough. I'm looking at Jesus to have enough. Do you know the journey of that is not some linear journey?
Some days I'm feeling like I'm sky high, and then other days I'm feeling like, oh my goodness, not really, no. Isn't life more like this? Which means our hearts drift, if we're not careful. So the regularity of the tithe is so important. Let's talk about Project giving. Project giving is good and right. There's many biblical references to project giving. But I've noticed there's a challenge when people only participate in project giving. Because what happens? Projects come and go.
Anne comes up and tells us all about, I've stood in that river, it's amazing. But so much tension in that area of the world. We heard another project. You may be stirred today. And go, yes, awesome. By the way, if you want to give in to that, let me tell you the mechanism. You give to the Red Door Community Church, and you put on the reference. What are we going to put on the reference, Anne? What do you think? Myanmar?
GAP, G A P. G A P, if you want to do that, you can give to Red Door, mark it G A P, and we will get it forwarding it straight to G A P. Does that make sense? Now, how many times have we got Anne up here to talk about that? Uh Maybe once or twice over the last 10 years, what I'm trying to say is projects come and go. They're not regular in their frequency that we become aware of. So if your only project giving, the regularity of giving is somewhat disjointed. Does that make sense?
And so if your goal, remember what's the goal? The goal is God is not want your finances. He wants your heart to be in a posture of money Wellness. So if you're regularly giving, your heart is being postured towards being well on the inside of your heart. But if you're only project giving every 18 months, be careful, because you might come to a place, and I've heard it said before, Gee, I'm finding I'm not as generous as I used to be.
I remember that last project I gave this amount, but there's no way I want to give that amount now. What's wrong with me? Watch out. Money sickness is creeping in. Many love project giving as well, because let's be honest, paying for electricity, toilet paper, those pesky parking bays, rent, this is just to name some of our Red Door expenses, right? They're not very inspiring, are they? When Anne gets up here, mate, I'm inspired. I want to be a part of that. Where do I sign up?
You know, because they're inspired. And we want to be inspired. We want to engage with things that inspire, are inspiring. But watch out. Okay? If we're only choosing projects that inspire us, sometimes we can drift. And what can happen is our giving can become more about us than it does about surrendering to the Father and trusting Him. Does that make sense? And that surrender is that posture of worship to the King of Kings. That's what, that's what we're after. So be Careful. Watch out.
Now, please don't mishear me today. Oh, Adam doesn't believe in Project Giving. No, no. Adam and Dale have been tithing and Project Giving for over the last 25 years or so. And I promise you, it's the most exhilarating thing, but we've kept the regularity to it. And I trust that today I stand here, humbly before you going, I really hope I don't have money sickness. So I give you permission today. If you see money sickness in Adam, you know how we see each other better than we do ourselves.
Do you know what I'm talking about? If you're married for five minutes, you know what I'm talking about. You need permission. Say, Adam, I think you might be running into money sickness. Oh dear, but please tell me. But wouldn't it be great if you were in a community that had that kind of permission with one another? Wouldn't it be brilliant? Wouldn't it be safe? But if I say that, you go, ooh, that's next level. That's a bit honest. That's a bit intimate. That's a bit, that's a bit tough.
House church, it's meant to be a place that's safe, that's known, you're known, you're seen, and you can talk about these matters. I'd love you to consider talking about that very topic this coming house church. How are we going to acquire money wellness? Jesus in that scripture in Luke 12 gave us, gives us two things. Here are the two things. You need a radical experience of the grace of God and you need to be a member attached in proximity to a radically changed community.
You need a radical experience of God's grace to know that He is your provider. He will not let you down. I'm saying that over your heart today. He is here for you. He loves you. He's with you. He's for you. And you need to be a member of a community that's been radically changed. See, when you see the Gospel through the frame, Oh, I'm trying to get emotional. Through the frame that the Father bankrupted Heaven and He gave. Now, Pancrupted Heaven. Okay, that's pretty big, isn't it?
Let me try and picture it for you. Bar Rijal and I heard this phrase once, the chandelier of heaven. Do you remember that? So God the Father gave his one and only Son. This is, we were hearing this phrase that, that Jesus is the chandelier of heaven. Okay, now picture the chandelier of heaven. Oh, you're struggling. Okay, so imagine the moon and we're gonna hang a chandelier off it. And it's going to be so big that it's literally going to hang over the entirety of the earth.
And it's that massive, that huge. Now, do that with the sun. And do, imagine how big this I'm trying to create a picture of size to recognize that Jesus is the chandelier of heaven, and the Father willingly bankrupted heaven, and gave you and I the chandelier of heaven, and says Receive the greatest gift in all of human history, my one and only son. When you, when the gospel hits and you get that, and then you simultaneously hear, Oh, God wants me to give 10%, your heart reaction will be this.
Please don't miss this. When you, this is when you get the gospel, you recognize the chandelier of heaven. It's not about the chandelier of heaven. It's just an image. Okay, you get it. You get it. You got it. You go, gee, 10%? That's not much. That's a bargain.
When the Gospel hits in your heart and you see that what He's given you is of profound value, that you have nothing to even come close to it, and you're asked to give, what the heart does As it goes, I'm so grateful, because if Jesus had have only given me 10 percent of his blood, I would have been lost. He gave everything. He gave absolutely everything. He gave everything, and he asks us to give in how we can. Because he is our enough.
Today, if you're listening to this and you know that God's got your, God's got your number and He's poking and prodding at your heart today. Today, if I've said anything to mortally offend you, I want to apologize. My heart is not to offend you today. My heart is to inspire you to look up, to not look down, to consider that He is the King of all heaven. And He's not after your money today because He's got way too much for it.
And He wants to bless you, not with money, but with blessings that you would be a light in this world. And to be a part of that, be a participant in that. Don't allow your heart to be offended today. Allow your heart to be transformed by saying, I'm open, I want more of you, God. And so Father, for every single one of us who are in a place where you are prodding and poking today, Holy Spirit come and help us to surrender. Help us to surrender to your way of being, your way of doing.
God, you gave everything. You gave every last bit. And I ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit will come and help us to return to a place of money wellness. A place where money's not telling us what to do, we're telling it what to do. Where it's a tool in the hands of the King. Father, where there's been, in many of us, maybe there's been abuse, maybe there's been control. Even in your church, how people have portrayed this topic.
Where there's been resentment and obligation and bitterness and pain and hurt. Today, Holy Spirit, come. Heal our hearts. Some of us even right now have a posture of defensiveness about this whole topic because you're trying to actually just I don't want to get hurt like that again. Holy Spirit, calm and dismantle those self protection mechanisms and free us up. Free our hearts today. We can't fix ourselves in this regard but what we can do is we can surrender.
And so today we surrender to you Lord. Today we ask Father that you would lead and guide us as well. If we're jumping into the giving journey, Holy Spirit lead us, show us what is that first step, what is that thing we should do, what is that project we should give towards, what is the tithe, what does giving to the church look like? Holy Spirit lead us and guide us. Father we thank you for your presence amongst us. And lead us into spaces of gratitude and contentment in Jesus name, Amen.