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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 The truth about money. The part 6, here we go. Developing the spiritual gift of generosity. Developing the spiritual gift of generosity. We have looked at so much about money in this0:11 past 6 weeks of preaching. First, we talked about the government and how the government uses money so many times in the past. And it will in the future, according to the book of Revelation, to control people.0:23 It will control your life if you're not careful. Get this right with God. Get money and your relationship to it right with God so that when this happens, you are protected. How do we do that? First, week 2, we talked0:35 about the tithe comes first. God first in the money that we have been receiving from him. Secondly, how to have it. We talked about how to unpack it after the tithe, 10 percent. Save 10 percent.0:47 Live off the rest. Then week 4, we talked about contentment. 1 of the greatest problems in our world is covetousness. Looking at everybody else's life and measuring ourselves against them. That was week 4. Week 5, last0:56 week, what money cannot do, it cannot validate you, it cannot substantiate your life, it cannot get you to heaven. Only God can do that. Well, this week, we're looking at generosity. Generosity is catching on with1:08 the billionaire class of the world. I I think there's like 300 and some odd number of billionaires in the world. 230 of them signed a recent recently signed a1:20 giving pledge. They were gonna give away their money before they died. Now there's a couple problems with that. Number 1, nobody knows when they're gonna die. Number 2, because of inflation, these people own vast1:32 quantities of net worth net worth. And so ironically, as they have been doing this, giving away money at record numbers, and they have been, None of them actually have
1:43 actually lost anything. Inflation benefits the highest members of the economic spectrum. This is an economic fact. Yeah. Just look it up and do your own research. But none nonetheless, they
1:55 signed on to give away their money. This was started 2014. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook said, I'm gonna give away 99 percent of what I make off of my Facebook shares from now on. 99 percent. And the craze
2:07 caught on. This past year, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, committed to giving 124000000000 dollars away before he dies. His ex wife, Mackenzie Scott, said she will give away half of her 26000000000
2:19 dollars. Warren Buffett has given away 41000000000 dollars. Bill and Melinda Gates are giving away their money. All this kind of stuff's happening. It's a big craze. Everybody's catching on to generosity. And so the
2:29 research started to explode around this idea of giving away your money. And the research proves something that I want you to hear me say, not from a worldly perspective, from a godly perspective. And
2:41 in fact, it's the first thing I want you to write down today. The research proves that generosity does the body good. Write that down. Generosity does the body good. And the
2:53 reason why is because all the research shows that when you give yourself, your time, your money, your treasure to other people as caring for
3:05 other people, your biological response is joy. I don't know if you guys have ever experienced this. But when you give yourself on behalf of others, you get back joy, a
3:17 feeling of euphoria. Well, science tells us that 3 hormones are released in the brain when you give. 3 hormones. And they are called the happy hormones. The happy
3:29 hormones. Hormone number 1 is serotonin is released in the brain because of giving. And serotonin is hormone that actually regulates your
3:40 mood, keeps you level. So 1 of the best ways to keep yourself emotionally level is giving. Incredibly, giving away your
3:52 stuff keeps you emotionally level. And I was just thinking about, this is a serious problem with our world right now. Right? People are talking constantly about mental illness exceeding
4:04 highs, exceeding lows. They call that a mental illness and so they immediately think pop a pill. See the therapist, see the doctor, see the counselor. But what if they practiced the art of giving? What if they did what
4:15 God has actually programmed our biology to do, which is to give away what God gives us because God is a giver and they balanced out their emotional life simply on that basis
4:27 alone. Think about how much we could actually bankrupt this enormous monster that is the pharmaceutical industrial complex in this country where there seems to be a pill for every
4:39 itch and scratch. And instead of turning to pills and medication, we turn to the practices of God to bring balance to our emotions. Man, I just thought maybe maybe for some of you right now, the
4:51 message is over. You know exactly what you need to do with your life. Start giving. Start balancing out your life with generosity. Number 2 hormone is dopamine. That's the happy hormone. Makes your brain suddenly feel
5:02 euphoria and and goodness. And then the third hormone that's released is oxytocin. That's the hormone in your brain that connects you socially to other people. Another huge problem in our society, depression. A third
5:13 problem, isolation. And isn't it amazing how the 3 big emotional mental problems of our world right now could be solved if we get ahold of generosity.
5:26 Isolation, up and down living, mental illness, and disconnection from others. What will heal us? Think it's because God no, don't think. I know. God
5:39 is a generous God. Every good and perfect gift comes from God. Yeah. God, our father. That's James chapter 1. Everything in our lives
5:51 is a gift from God. You are made in God's image. Now that doesn't just mean that you're valuable. That means that you're
6:02 made to live like God. That's how you're made. So here's the thing that some of you, you've never put this together. The more you live like God,
6:15 the more human you become. It's actually kind
6:19 of a
6:20 oxymoron in theory, but it's a very true biblical principle. Humans, not monkeys, not alligators or turtles, humans
6:32 are made in the image of God. That means we're meant to reflect who he is. And if he's generous, we should be Generous. Generous.
6:44 So the more you act like God, the more of a human you actually become. And it's countercultural to everything we're told on every level. If there's a passage
6:56 in the Bible that that deals particularly well with generosity, it is our passage today. And at the top of your notes, you'll see it. It's second Corinthians chapter 8. Second Corinthians 2 Corinthians. That
7:08 means it's the second letter that Paul the apostle says to a church in Corinth in the ancient world. And Corinth is a very interesting church. It's a very interesting city. Very Americanized
7:20 kind of city. In ancient Corinth, people would do 2 things. They would seek pleasure, and then they would seek meaning. And I think those 2 searches go together
7:31 very commonly in the human experience. We seek pleasure. We want to have fun. We want to experience some euphoria in living. We wanna, I don't know, jump off the cliff. Experience
7:44 some kind of great adventure in life. And here's what the enemy does. He plays on that by offering us all of these other destructive practices, whether that be sexual fornication or greed or
7:56 lust or envy or prideful boasting. He offers us all these pursuits that should that that that offer pleasure but don't provide it. And so we go to the club on Friday
8:08 and we wake up with a headache. And everybody's like, what happened to you last night? I was out having fun. Now I'm miserable. Anybody know what I'm talking about? And so again, pop the pills, take care of it, put some
8:19 aspirin in, whatever it is. And so then we wake up Sunday like, well, maybe maybe all that fun is actually not what it's cracked up to be. Let me find some meaning. And so we either go to church or go to school on Monday
8:28 or whatever, trying to find what's life really about. Because I tried the pleasure program and it did not offer me what it it did not give me what it off promised me. And so maybe I need meaning or fulfillment or
8:38 something bigger than my life. And so that was kind of like the American experience. We're chasing pleasure or chasing meaning. That's what Corinth was. They were chasing pleasure,
8:50 they would go to the shrine prostitute temple. They would literally go to a place of worship in their culture to the god of Aphrodite, the Greek god of love, and they would literally sleep with shrine prostitutes and
9:02 then they would inevitably wake up with all the problems that we wake up with when we do the things that we shouldn't do. And then they would probably go to the the temples and they would philosophize about what life was
9:13 really about. America is very similar to Corinth. And Paul had to write not 1, not 2, not 3 not 3, but 4 letters to this church. Do you know why he had to write 4 letters to this church? Because it was 1 seriously messed
9:24 up church. Hot tip for the Bible, if you got 2 letters, you were a messed up church. And Corinthians got 2. Not only did get 2, but they got 4. 2 letters we don't have anymore. The first 1 he
9:36 sent and the third 1 we sent. We have the second 1, that's 1 Corinthians, and we have the fourth 1, that's 2 Corinthians. So he is writing to this church for the second fourth time, but second time in our Bible, to teach
9:47 them about generosity. And what he's doing is he's saying, listen, guys. You need to live beyond yourself. You need if you want full life in God, if you wanna he's
9:59 teaching them what I'm teaching you. If you wanna live a full life in Jesus, it is not lived by what you get. It is lived by what you give. And your life is not defined by what you
10:11 get if you're Christian. Your life is defined by what you give. So with that in mind, let's stand together. Let's read the word together. 2 Corinthians chapter 8, here's what it says. Paul the Apostle writing, he says,
10:22 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. Now interesting thing he does there is he's talking to 1 church about what 3 other churches in a
10:34 place called Macedonia did regarding giving. He says this, For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of
10:46 generosity on their part. For they gave somebody say gave. Gave. They gave according to their means, and as I can testify, beyond their means of their own accord,
10:57 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this they did, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to
11:09 us. Accordingly, we urged Titus, as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything, in faith, speech, knowledge, and all
11:21 earnestness, and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also. And another translation says, see that you excel. See that you excel or improve in
11:33 this grace of giving. See that you excel in this grace of giving. Then he says in verse 8, I say this not as a command, but that you might prove by the earnestness of others that your love is also genuine.
11:45 For you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich. This is God's
11:57 word. Let's pray together. Father, we just thank you for this moment to hear your voice. I ask God that our moment will be saturated
12:09 with your wisdom, your guidance to the fullness of the Holy Spirit. May the words out of my mouth be guided by you. Speak to us, lead us, shape us, make us
12:21 more like Jesus, and help us to see Him. Him and Him only, in His mighty name we pray. And everybody said Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a seat. Generosity does the body good.
12:36 I'm very excited today to share with you some of the highlights of what generosity has done at Waters Church. It's kind of interesting to learn that there's a lot of
12:48 promises in the Bible that are predicated on our actions. What that means is that God offers us promises, but we've got to do something first. So 1 of them is like this. It
13:00 goes like this. Jesus said, ask and you shall Receive. Yeah, Okay. So the promise of receiving is based on us what? Asking. Seek and you shall Knock. Knock the door shall
13:11 be We talked about in Malachi chapter 3 verse 10. Bring the full tithe to the storehouse, predicate, And there will be a blessing given
13:23 to you that you cannot contain. The promise of the blessing that you cannot contain is predicated on your act in action of tithing, putting God first financially
13:35 in your life. These promises are all throughout the Bible. Things that God says, I will do when you do this to God's people.
13:47 Now ironically, 1 of the things, the most common thing in all the Bible that God promises to respond to and bless us
13:58 for is giving. More promises from God are tied to our giving than any other activity in our life. Isn't that amazing?
14:10 Why? Because God is a giver. He made us in his image, and when we give, we are most like God. Waters Church, I'm so excited to say that you are a giving church. You are. You might not know this. And may
14:22 maybe you're new, and maybe you haven't yet gotten to the tithing thing, or or maybe you're still debating about that in your head. I understand because it takes time. You know, Martin Luther famously said there's 3
14:31 conversions of the Christian. The first is to the brain where you realize that Jesus is Lord, then to the heart where you actually follow him and surrender your life. And then the third conversion is the conversion of
14:41 the wallet where you finally say, okay, God, here's my stuff. That's the conversion that you eventually get to. But but but for those of you who have been here for a while, we are
14:54 who we are as a church because of your generosity. We really are. 3 years ago, we started a plan. No 1 could have known what was gonna happen
15:06 over the last 3 years. And I went up to a mountain and I said, we're gonna plant 3 churches. Fall River, Massachusetts, Florida, and Guatemala. And this past
15:17 October, we opened up our Fall River. We call it South Coast. It's actually in Tiverton, Rhode Island, a mile away from the Fall River border. And we opened up the third of those 3 locations. And in 3 years, we doubled
15:28 the number of locations. Waters Church, we're now 1 church, 6 locations, 3 states, 2 countries. Jesus is on the move at Waters Church. It's amazing. But
15:40 all that happened because of you. Because of your giving. You you paid for it. You made it happen. You're in a seat right now, and somebody gotta get this because you don't get it. You think,
15:52 oh, this is what happens. Here's what a lot of people think about the church. What happens is the church needs money. And so what happens is God assigns an angel to pull up in an
16:04 18 wheeler outside the church. And he pulls up pastor knocks back. Come on out. I wanna show you what I what heaven sent. Look at all this money. It's in the back of here it comes. No. That doesn't happen. Now I wouldn't
16:16 mind if it did, but it doesn't happen like that. A church is funded by the people who have faith in Christ. Your giving empowered us to do what we've done over the last 3 years. So I asked
16:27 our creative team to put together a video, and man, I'll you, they nailed it. He nailed it. Oh, this is a what an amazing video to recap the last 3 years. The culmination of years of giving, serving, praying, believing
16:38 God for a mountaintop experience in our church, and we've gotten to there. And I believe that we just gotta kinda relive the last 3 years, and especially this past 12 month period.
16:50 I wanna say 20 22 is the greatest, most impactful year of Waters Church history. And to kinda relive it all, I wanna show you this. Watch.
17:04 It was 3 years ago, this past August, where myself and our video ministry team drove up to the top of Mount Washington, stood on that mountain, I I declared that
17:16 Waters Church were gonna plant 3 locations, didn't have any money, didn't have enough team members, didn't have anybody assigned to who was gonna pastor each church, had
17:27 no
17:30 to
17:40 that. Perspective, to realize how big our God is and to think about what God could do big time through Waters Church. Like going to Florida, planting a church, going to Fall River,
17:52 planting a church. It's time go onward and upward. It's time to climb the mountain with Christ and to believe God for greater things than we've ever seen. Big things are coming to
18:04 Waters Church.
18:12 We're the church. In to church. Generosity. It is truly because of you. You helped us buy the
18:23 building, renovated, and opened the doors. And just since the past couple months, we've seen 31 salvations. We've seen people now sign up to get baptized. I mean, people people are hungry for the gospel, and they're
18:35 being changed all for the glory of Jesus. So thank you. I really truly believe that you have played a major role in this. You are reaching people beyond the walls or whatever building you're sitting at. So thank
18:47 you so much. God bless you. Take care.
18:52 Apollo Beach has seen a 50 percent growth in attendance over the last 7 months and is in the process of raising up new leaders, elders, and small groups in the new year to come.
19:09 2022 was a great year for Waders Church Guatemala. We had 115 salvations. Many of them were prisoners, teenagers,
19:21 abandoned children. We have a pretty good sized construction crew who's done 5 missionary houses. We are in the prisons. We teach bible at Liberty College. We have elderly
19:33 programs, teen programs, children programs, sports programs. We're not just a planted church. We're also a missionary church because of your giving. May Christ be
19:44 glorified through our ministry. May he be glorified through your church campus. May he be glorified
19:52 through you. In Peru,
19:55 our team was able to share the gospel with thousands of people. We also gave out 840 Bibles in their native language, trained 43 new Bible teachers, and entered over 421 new children into the
20:07 discipleship program. Across the world, we partnered with American Bible Society to distribute over 3600 new Bibles to the areas that need it most.
20:22 This year, we broadcast our content to 31 states in the US, but the message didn't stop there. Through the power of technology, we were able to broadcast the word into 35 different countries
20:33 abroad. People heard the message of Christ for 1700000.0 minutes on YouTube alone this year and was shown to over 2000000 people across
20:45 the globe. In addition, our other social channels received 1200000.0 views, creating an unprecedented amount
21:18 their
21:30 community.
21:34 Operation Christmas Child was a great success, providing 400 foxes to children in need this holiday season. We also saw 416 children get sponsored through compassion weekend this
21:46 year, ensuring children in impoverished communities get the care and resources that they deserve. Our action groups were busy this year, engaging in multiple community cleanups and providing over 200 backpacks to the
21:58 homeless in our area. Through partnering with Embrace Grace, we were able to provide a 12 week program for unwed mothers contemplating abortion or seeking spiritual support in our community. This
22:10 year, too soon to be mothers took part, and as a result, 2 precious new lives were successfully welcomed into the world.
22:23 Hi, church. It's Jim over in Woonsocket and I wanna tell you about last weekend. Last weekend in Woonsocket was something we've never done before and it's fantastic called Friends Weekend and that was solely the purpose
22:34 of using our story for god's glory and inviting a friend to church like the Samaritan woman did at the well and you know what? That's what we did. We had the largest crowd we've had here, that
22:46 wasn't a holiday weekend. And guess what? There were salvations like there were every weekend, and 3 of those salvations, I know for a fact, were friends that were invited to church for the very first time. God's on the
22:58 move, I can't wait to see what else he does here.
23:01 Through the course of the year, Waters kids reached over 500 children each weekend with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our new Alpha class
23:13 helped dozens of unbelievers get their questions answered as they navigate their journey, hopefully bringing them to this next step in their walk.
23:20 My life was completely falling apart.
23:23 I was addicted to drugs
23:25 and alcohol. I had nice things, but there was always an emptiness inside. I was living the homosexual lifestyle.
23:31 I grew up in, like, an abusive, like, household. And I remember that first message walking out of out of here and actually singing out loud. That was a that was a really good message. That for me was
23:41 the moment where all that cynicism
23:43 and skepticism and all that kind of armor that I had built around myself was starting to crack.
23:47 It is my privilege to baptize you in the name of the father, son, and the holy spirit.
24:25 Your generosity
24:42 some praise in this place for what he's done. Praise the Lord. Oh, it's good to be a part of a church like that. Isn't it? And
24:54 we are. We are gonna go to South Carolina. Travelers Rest, South Carolina. Josh Viding and his wife are already down there building a house and getting to know the community. And if you're interested in getting out a
25:04 cold and a little bit warmer, but not as warm as Florida, maybe you should go too. But we're gonna start a church down there. Amen? Amen. The best is yet to come. I I wanna talk to you about this topic of
25:16 generosity because I want you to connect the dots. You're sitting in a chair that someone said was worth purchasing so that you could be here today. And now it's your turn to
25:28 pay it forward for the people who are gonna be here tomorrow. Where will God what will God do with your generosity? Let's talk about this 4 about growing in generosity, then we're done. Write this down. Generosity is not
25:40 based on your getting. It's based on grace. It's not based on what you've got. And and Paul talks about this in first Corinth second Corinthians chapter 8. He's telling this church in
25:51 Corinth, look. You gotta hear about these other churches in an area called Macedonia. Said they're so they were so amazingly, overwhelmingly generous. I have to report to you about what they did
26:04 so that it will inspire you to be part of the mission of Jesus in generous giving. And so here's what he says. Look at verse 1. We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God. Somebody say
26:16 grace of God. See see grace the grace of God is the agent by which we do things that we cannot normally do in the human realm.
26:28 The grace of God some of you got this one-sided view of it, where the grace of God is just something that helps you get forgiven of sins. The grace of God takes care of the bad things you've done. But that's just half of
26:40 the 2 sided coin of grace. Grace not only is the power by which God can wipe away your sins and your mistakes, but the grace of God is also the power by
26:52 which he can perform good works through you. It's a 2 sided coin. And he talks about this. He says, the grace of God was at work in the churches in Macedonia. For in
27:04 a severe test of affliction, he says, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of what? How does a church
27:15 just think about how does a church experience a severe test of affliction, extreme poverty, and joy, and then generosity?
27:28 See, in the natural, those things don't go together. In the natural, severe test of affliction and extreme poverty are the recipe for misery. In the
27:39 natural, not having enough is a recipe for terrible times, but not in the supernatural. See, here's what you gotta get, Waters Church. If you're a Christian, if you believe Christ is Lord, if you
27:51 believe that a Jewish carpenter died and rose again, and now is at the right hand side of God the Father, has given you the power of the third person, the whole of the of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit to live inside of
28:02 you. You are no longer just a natural person. You are a supernatural person. And supernatural persons don't do normal things. They do
28:13 super normal things beyond the normal things. And that's what the grace of God is empowering people to do, giving beyond what they should normally give. By the way, the statistics bear out
28:25 that what I'm telling you is true. Every year there's a report on giving in America. The people who give the most are usually, proportionately, the ones who have the least. The highest level of giving in this
28:37 country, regardless of where it's going, the highest level of giving is in the people who make 40000 dollars a year or less. They give on average 12 percent of their income. Skip all the way up to the highest levels of
28:49 income, the 140160 thousand dollars a year people, they give 2 percent. Now amount wise, they give more. But proportionately, they give less. God has given a supernatural grace to
29:01 people with less to give more. And that's exactly what Paul's talking about here in 2 Corinthians 8. He's like, most of the giving came from these churches. They're getting persecuted. They're getting hated, and and
29:12 they're also still full of joy. Like, think about that. When people hate you, how do you have joy when people hate you? The only way you have joy when people hate you is when you truly know that God loves you no
29:24 matter what people say about you. And the only way that you give when you're poor is to know that God is always able to empower you to do beyond what is normal and natural and natural people. We
29:35 are supernatural people, and therefore supernatural givers. Generosity is not based on what you're getting. It's based on God's grace activated in your life. Number 2, generosity is
29:47 an act of ministry. When you give, you serve. That's what ministry is. Ministry is serving. What is ministry and serving all about? Here's what it's about. It's meeting people's
29:59 needs. So this is good. Some of you got to get this in your spirit. Second Corinthians eight:three, he says, They gave not according to their means, they gave beyond their means, and they begged. Look at verse 4,
30:11 begged. They were like, please, Paul, let us be part of this gift. And by the way, the reason why Paul's raising money is because the church in Jerusalem, where the church started, this movement started I
30:23 don't know if you know this. Here we are in Massachusetts right now, 20 22. But 2000 years ago, it started in a city called Jerusalem. Peter preaches, day at Pentecost, 2000 people get saved. That's where the church
30:32 started. Well, that church in Jerusalem was going through a severe test. They were getting hated on and persecuted, but they were also experiencing a regional famine. So so there wasn't anything. The the economy was
30:43 depressed, and the church was persecuted. It was especially hard for Christians because they were kinda like an outcast group. And so Paul goes around the the the Gentile church and says, let's raise some money and help
30:53 out our sister church. Actually, our founding church in Jerusalem. And so he says, look, the churches in Macedonia beg for the opportunity to bring the relief to the saints. Underline relief in your notes there. Because
31:04 relief could also be translated the word is, which is the word we get service from or ministry from. Means servant. It's
31:16 also the word in Greek that we get the church office deacon from. Anybody heard the word deacon? Well, deacon is just a Greek word, for serving. Some of you come
31:28 from churches where the deacons were part of a board and they told everybody else what to do. That's not a biblical view of deaconing. That is a very worldly view of deacon. Deacons are servants. They're ministers.
31:39 They're people who serve and meet the needs of the people. And so this is what Paul says. They beg for us the opportunity to serve the church in
31:51 Jerusalem with a special gift. And I think about this. When you give, you are a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You're serving his
32:03 gospel when you give your money. And then he says this. They did this not as we expected, verse 5. But they gave themselves first to the Lord. That means that they gave first the tithe, and then they gave offering. Now,
32:15 I want to make sure you're clear. 1 very important part about 2 Corinthians 8. 2 Corinthians eight:nine is not talking about tithing. It's talking about offerings. There are 2 kinds of giving in the church.
32:27 Tithing, God first, 10 percent to God's house so that there might be food. What's the food? The word of God in the community. Every church every community should have a gospel
32:39 preaching church. I think about America. Some of you bemoan the state of America. Some of you look at America, what's wrong with this country? I'll tell you what's wrong. The church
32:51 has failed to be the church. It's not Washington's fault, it's not the democrats fault, it's not the republicans fault, it's the church. We are the salt of the earth. And sadly, a lot of churches,
33:02 mainly the ones on Main Street USA, have abandoned the gospel. They stopped preaching about sin. They stopped preaching about righteousness and holiness. They stopped preaching about Jesus. They started preaching about
33:13 being nice and being a good neighbor and not the gospel. Being nice doesn't change anybody's life. The gospel of Jesus changes people's lives. Somebody say, how does this church
33:25 grow in Massachusetts? Massachusetts, everywhere I go. Oh, Massachusetts, very cold area. Very hard to build a church. Not hard if you preach the gospel. Not hard if you tell people they're sinners, they're bound for
33:35 hell, but there's a great savior who came and went through hell so that they go to heaven. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It changes the heart. Sadly, not every community has a gospel preaching church. And that's the
33:46 problem with America. What our mission is at this church is to plant the gospel preaching church as many places as we can so we can see our country saved and preserved. May God have mercy on our country as we plant
33:58 gospel preaching churches. Amen? So they gave first to the Lord. That is tithes. That is the vertical giving so that their church was blessed and there was food for people's hearts in that community. But then they
34:10 decided to give to Paul's offerings for the Jerusalem church. Understand that. Because in 2 Corinthians 9, there's a phrase that people like to apply to tithing, and it doesn't apply to tithing when
34:22 he says each 1 should give what he has decided in his heart. That's not talking about tithing. You don't decide what tithe is. God decides what tithe is. And then it says God loves a cheerful giver. So people say, well,
34:34 I don't wanna give the tithe because I won't give it cheerfully. It's not about tithing. That text has not had nothing to do with tithing. It has everything to do with offering. And it doesn't even matter. If you give
34:44 the tithe grudgingly, God will take it. He's not he's not worried about how you feel.
35:05 Ah, ah, ah, Then God's like, alright, test passed. Now watch me bless your life.
35:17 I've seen it happen. I've seen it happen in my life and many other people's lives. But nonetheless, he is talking here about giving horizontally. The church takes care of the church. We've done this, by the way.
35:29 Again, I always tell you how we give to other churches beyond our means. The 310000 dollars amount that we gave outside of this church, that did not have anything to do with our other locations. That was to other
35:40 churches, other ministries, other community groups that preach the gospel. And by the way, we always do a test. Some of you gotta test this too. Never put your giving where they're
35:52 not preaching Jesus. Never do it. If we don't do it, we have a test. Are they talking about Jesus? Because we don't wanna send anybody to hell on a full stomach.
36:05 This group over here is really getting it. I don't know if this group over here you understand what I'm talking about here? Like, we could feed people, but if we don't tell them about Jesus, they just go to hell on a
36:12 full stomach. Did you understand? It's actually more it's funnier than the way you're responding. But anyway, so we do a test. Every place we put our money, are they preaching Jesus?
36:25 Right? So 1 of the things we do is we fund church plants in other towns that are not water churches. Zenzo Matoga, some of you know him. He's up in Medford, Massachusetts. He planted a gospel preaching church in 20
36:37 16. We said, Zenzo, you're starting. We knew what it was like to start a church. It's hard, it's tough, financially difficult. So we said, we're going to pay your rent for 1 whole year as you start the church. Today,
36:46 that church is over 1000 people. They've seen 10 they've seen 2000 people come to faith through that church. By the way, a couple of months ago, we had a guy come. He wants to plant a church in Providence, Rhode
36:58 Island. And they planted a church this past October. And so far, so good. And we called him into the office. And he didn't ask for it. We just said, we believe gospel preaching churches need to be planted in this
37:08 community. And so we're going to pay your rent for 1 whole year as you start your church. That happens because you guys give. Got it?
37:19 Angels don't pull up in the semi truck. You give and we say, here's God's money. Let's put it there. Let's put it there. Let's put it there, where people will hear about Jesus. So you gotta get ahold of this because
37:31 it'll change your it's an act of ministry. By the way, ministry is not what happens on the stage in church. It's what happens during the week as well. When you walk out of our building, you'll see be the church. What
37:42 does that mean? It means you are the church. Go and be it. The church this is a building. This is not a church. This is a building. It doesn't even look like a church. There's no steeple. The the the roof is flat. We're
37:54 breaking all the rules of architecture when it comes to the church. You're the church. All we need is a gathering place. We get fired up in Jesus. We hear the word of God. Word of God changes our hearts, changes how weShow more
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