More Than Enough | Week 3 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

I don't know if there's any any, like, overly competitive people in here that are like me you would identify as being overly competitive. Like, you wanna win at things that matter zero. Like, that that's me. Right? I often I'm the guy that shows up to coach my son's t ball team, and they're like, yeah. We don't keep score in this league. I'm like, no. We're gonna keep score. Right? Like, there will be a winner and a loser at the end of this thing, playing my kids in checkers. And I've I've never let them win in anything. Right? Because you've got to learn that nothing's handed to you in this life, and I'm gonna teach you this stuff. Right? And I've I've just learned that, like, I it it really isn't even so much that I like to win. I just despise

losing. Like, there's nothing about it. So when I join things or people invite me to play, like, oh, it's a softball league we're starting. We just play for fun. And I'm like, I have fun when I win. So if we're not gonna win, I I'm telling you, you just don't want me on the team because I'll be the guy that are like, is that pastor Daniel, like, cussing the dude out in the outfield? And I'm like, yeah. Because he sucks. And why is he on my team? You know? Like, I don't truly,

if I could turn it off, I would turn it off because it has gotten me in a lot of trouble over the years. But there was one time in particular I was thinking about this week in preparation for this message where it has to be over a decade ago. But

I was a youth pastor in San Diego, and I used to do this thing at my house with our student leaders because we would, you know, kind of teach and equip the the upperclassmen to pour into and lead the new freshmen and sophomores. And so we had a a group of the student leaders at my house, and we're, you know, doing worship and ministry stuff at my house. And at the end of this thing, one of the new students that was there, ironically, his name was Daniel. He was a, you know, he was a bigger dude, but he just meant he talked more trash than anybody I've ever met. And somehow, you know, him and I have been kind of John back and forth over the last couple weeks, but somehow at my house, he's like, man, I could smoke you in a race. And I just was like,

excuse me? You know, like, the audacity in my own home in front of my student leaders. And so whatever, you know, however we get there, I'm not sure, but all that comes out of my mouth is, man, I will I'll smoke you right now, and I won't even change out of my house slippers. I'm literally wearing house slippers,

and I'm like, let's go right now. And next thing I know, we're in the middle of the street. We've shut it down, blocked cars off to set up a race with me and Daniel. My daughter's like four. We're talking about it last night. She was crying because she just was like, it was so overwhelming. It's raining outside.

So we've got a kid that's literally in the middle of the street with hands out. You know, whoever touches the hand first wins the race. And, you know, there's music playing. The students are there. Everybody's kinda cheering us on. And three, two, one, you go. And I'm thinking, if I just jog, I'll be able to beat this guy. But he was dude, he was quick for a big dude. Right? And so all of a sudden, I realized, like, I got a full on sprint. And I've I've realized the older I get, the less my body likes to full on sprint. You know what mean? Like, what used to be easy is now incredibly difficult. So I've gotta literally run as as hard as I possibly can in house slippers on a street that's raining in San Diego. But eventually, you know, I'm the one that tags the hand first, and I win the race to the glory of God. But the problem was

the problem was is just as difficult as it was to get to full speed, it was even more difficult to slow down from full speed. Right? And so all of a sudden, like, three steps after I slap the hand and win the race, one of my slippers comes off, and it, like, trips me up in my feet. And it's that moment where you realize, like, oh, I'm I'm going down, but, like, I'm not down yet. I've got three steps before I hit the pavement, but I'm for sure hitting the pavement. Your life is flashing before your eyes. Like, that that whole thing is playing out. And just for full context, k, the road that we're running on is, like, the nastiest

gravel road that you can picture, like chunks of gravel that are like the size of the quarter just everywhere. And eventually, full speed as a grown man in house slippers, I just completely

eat it. I slide on my hands. Eventually, I go down to my shoulder. I'm sliding on one side. I get up, my hands are ripped up, my shoulders ripped up, my hip, my knee and somehow my ankle was bleeding. How do you cut your ankle in a race? I don't know but I did. And I stand up and I said, I just smoked you, right? Like I won.

Walk inside, and I'm, like, limping at this point. You know, I think I broke my wrist, and my wife's just looking at me like, was it worth it? I'm like, you better believe it was because you'll he will not challenge me again.

And over the next couple weeks as you go through the healing process, you have to come to the realization of, like, man, why do I care so much about things that just don't really they just don't matter all that much. Right? And I'm I am guilty of it. I can tell you a thousand stories like this. And the reason that I that I start there is it's a it's a visual representation of, I think, so often, the mistake that you and I make in this life is we we win,

but we win at the wrong things. And sometimes we are well, it's not that we're not winning in this life, but we're winning at things that truly, they don't really actually

matter. And my my greatest fear is that there's going to be a lot of us, the scriptures say, that get to the end of our life, and we realize that we were we were playing the wrong game. We were winning at the wrong thing. And so our heart today is to try to lean in to go, God, how do we win at the things that really actually matter with the limited time that we've been given on this earth? Right? This life is but a vapor.

And how do we make sure that what we're winning at are things that really truly actually matter? That's what Paul addresses in this letter in second Corinthians. He's talking about the church in Macedonia, and how they won at the things that really mattered. I'm praying

that what was true about them would be true about us as well. Here's what the story says in second Corinthians chapter eight verse one. It says, and now brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.

In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in in rich generosity.

Now again, Paul tells us some things that are really interesting about the Macedonian church. He said God gave them a particular grace. You've got to remember any conversation that we have connected to giving and generosity is fueled and funded by this thing called grace that we'll talk about in a second. But what this grace did for the church in Macedonia

is it gave them the ability to walk in what the Bible says is overwhelming joy and generosity in the middle of a season. Did you notice how he described it? That was described as a severe trial and extreme poverty. How could we be people who walk through severe trials and sometimes even extreme poverty,

but be marked by overflowing joy in in rich generosity? See, I think that's the invitation of of real faith, Not religion,

not checking the box of religious duty, but beginning to understand what God wants to do in us and through us. I understand that some of us sitting here today are walking through some some difficult trials.

I know some of us are sitting here going, man, I'm I'm walking through a season that I would say feels like extreme poverty. And yet here's what I believe the scripture invites us into. The the opportunity that is set before all of us this morning

is to learn God's heart that will begin to produce out of you overwhelming joy and rich, rich generosity, whether or not the government can figure out how to balance the budgets or not to the glory of God. Right? Verse three, for I testified

that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability. I just wondered what it would look like to live a life of generosity,

that we don't just give within our ability. We actually give beyond our own ability. That's kingdom. That's kingdom generosity. And they were doing it entirely on their own. Again, this is just a reminder. I'm not here to heap a bunch of judgment onto you and to get you to emotionally give out of some weird compulsion that you feel this morning. That is not the heart of God. And the dangers is if you feel your way into giving, it's really easy to feel your way out of giving. Notice that the church of Macedonia,

they gave entirely of their own volition. It was because God was speaking to them and working on their heart. That's our goal this morning. Verse four says, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in the service to the Lord's people, and they exceeded our expectations.

They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. Again, this is an important distinction for us. We give through the local church. K? We give to Echos. If you're a part of Echos Church, we we give to Echos Church. But we don't give because we're in love with Echos. No. No. We give because we're in love with God. We surrender our lives first and foremost to God. And when people say, man, Echoes has changed my life. It's it's restored my marriage. Like, I I love hearing that stuff, but I'm also quick to remind people, Echoes didn't change your life. God changed your life. Echoes didn't restore your marriage. God did it. But notice how God always does it through the local church. But we give ourselves to God first, and then God asks us to give ourselves to a local body. We've been asking this whole time, look, and I'm not saying you have to give here, but you've got at some point buy into a body of believers where you are so in love with the vision that God has given that church that you're willing to invest there. But don't don't just fall in love with the church. Fall in love with God first, and then and then get plugged into

a church. Verse six says that,

so we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But since you excel in everything he's telling a church, you guys are crushing it in all of these areas, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in the love that we have kindled to you, see to it that you also excel in this. Since you're killing it all of these areas, but make sure you also excel in the grace

of giving. I wanna talk to you this morning about what it would look like for you and I to be people who excel in the grace of giving. And so often, we don't connect the word grace to giving. See, we hear giving and we think we think conviction, we think condemnation,

oh, church just wants my money. No. Giving is an act of grace. It's fueled by, it's funded by grace. And grace is this thing that we often just connect to the the beginning of our relationship with God. And again, if you're you're new to church, you're like, hey, what what is grace? Grace is this idea

that you and I, before we had a relationship with God, we were actually a train wreck. The Bible says that we we have made a mess of our life, that we don't have the ability to clean ourselves up. And so the idea of a religion that says, hey, just just get your life figured out, struggle through the pornography problem, stop drinking,

surrender to the the, you know, lust and greed issue that you have, then come back to church. Like, that day is not coming. But God, through his his loving kindness, he extended the olive branch to us. It says that God actually became

one of us. Jesus put on skin and bones. We'll celebrate it in a few months. When when he was actually Emmanuel, he became God with us, and he was born into a manger, and he lived the life we couldn't live. He died the death that we deserve, and the penalty that he paid on the cross, it actually made a way for us to be reconciled with God. But you can't earn that. You have to receive it by faith. It's an act

an act of grace. But so often, we think that's kind of where grace stops. And then we take over from there. It's like grace that opens the door of faith, but it's us that brings it to completion.

You look at the scriptures, you'll begin to realize that grace is actually the thing that gets you in. It's the thing that sustains you the whole time, and it's the only reason that we'll ever get to heaven one day is because

of God's grace. If you're taking notes, this is kind of the the best biblical definition I can give you for this idea of grace, is that it's the divine assistance given to humans for their salvation or sanctification. It's interesting to me when Paul was talking about the church in Macedonia that excelled

in the grace of giving. Notice he uses one word five times, grace. It's fueled by grace. It starts with grace. It's finished with with grace. You and I need to begin to realize that grace is the thing that we need more than anything else in this life.

When you begin to realize how gracious and kind and patient God has been with you, our natural position, our natural heart posture begins to change over time.

When you begin to realize it's like, oh, I I can't earn my relationship with God. He's never asked me to. I I can't fix these problems. I can't fix my marriage. I can't fix this stuff. But God, in his kindness and in his love, he's made a way for me to be reconciled with God. What begins to happen is that generosity is the overflow of God's genuine work in your life.

That is, we're gonna have a conversation around generosity. It's gotta we gotta start by having a conversation around grace. Because most of the time, the reason that we don't give is because we don't understand how much God has given to us.

And the reason we're so tight with our finances is because we have a very limited view

of how good God has been with us. And the truth is that the longer I've been in a relationship with God I'm I'm twenty years into this faith thing, and I feel like I am in more need of God's grace today than I ever was the day that I walked in the doors of the church.

What's amazing if you read apostle the apostle Paul who wrote the majority of the New Testament, every one of those letters, he starts with an introduction. He's introducing himself to the church that he's writing a letter to. His very first letter, he he addresses as the the apostle Paul. He says the chief apostle Paul is writing this letter to you. What's amazing is you watch this progression, this journey of his life. By the last letter he writes, he's introducing himself to the church, not as the apostle Paul,

but he says this is Paul, the chief of all sinners. And there's something that happens as you go on this journey with God where you begin two things begin to simultaneously happen in the heart of a believer as you begin to be infatuated

with how good and how gracious God has been, is over time you have a more elevated view of God's holiness and majesty and his goodness. And you begin to realize how how good God is and how separated we are from him. And as much as you have an elevated view of God, you simultaneously

have a lower view of yourself. And when I walked in the doors of church, man, the chasm was wide between God and I. But I'm sitting here today, twenty years in, and I've I've cleaned up a lot of the mess of my life. But I see the chasm between me and God today being a thousand times more than it ever was before.

That's the invitation of grace, of beginning to realize, man, you you could never earn this thing,

that God loves you in spite of you, and that'll never stop. It doesn't matter how many times you choose to go back to the thing that you swore you would never go back to. God doesn't stop loving you. And the reason that we get so weird talking about grace in church is because the the religious leader would say, well, you can't say it's all grace because if you say it's all grace, then people will just they'll do whatever they want.

Have you read the book of Romans? Paul was trying to articulate to a bunch of people who are stuck in a religious system of trying to earn their approval from God, and he reminds them, guys, it's all grace.

It always has been. The law was just practical application of how to thrive under God's leadership, but this entire life was fueled by grace. But he knows the logical question is coming. Well, if you tell people it's all grace, then they'll just go and do whatever they want. He says that's not truly understanding

grace. He says, no. No. No. Grace is not a license to sin. Grace is actually the thing that frees you from the bondage of sin.

The best illustration that I can give you to kind of articulate this is just because I stood at an altar almost twenty years ago with my wife, and we made a commitment to each other in sickness and in health to tell death do us part, that we are committed to each other, and we are in covenant with each other. And my wife is one of the best humans you'll ever meet on the face of the planet. And I'm convinced. I I pray that it is never reality, but I I'm convinced that even if I had an affair,

my wife probably would not leave because she's that incredible of a human. She loves me, that she's that committed to the vows that she made me. But just because I know that she might stay and that I technically can hold her to the letter of like, well, you made a commitment to me. We're in covenant to each other so I can do whatever I want.

No. It's just like grace when you realize, man, how how much you love this person and we have this freedom. I would never wanna hurt her that way. That's what Paul is saying is that the reason we've gotta understand grace is because it's the it's the thing that fuels this whole journey of faith.

And religion will try to come in and try to get you to just check the boxes of faith. I'm telling you, if we're gonna have a conversation around generosity, we've gotta start by having hearts that are encapsulated

by grace because it is the thing that fuels this whole thing. And I'm just convinced that when you understand what God has done for you, that you won't be able to help yourself but let his goodness flow through you. When you realize how good God has been to you, generosity will be the natural overflow.

So the scriptures say the goal of this life is generosity.

Again, I saw a pastor do this years ago. It was a really helpful illustration that helped me kind of articulate this idea. What does it look like for us to excel in the grace of giving? Well, we gotta start by understanding that generosity is the goal. It's potentially the greatest indicator

of the condition of our soul is how open handedly we are with our our finances. But you gotta also understand that generosity is not our default. Our default, the starting point for humanity

when it comes to our finances is this thing called greed.

Greed is the starting point for all of us. This is the natural place that our hearts will gravitate back towards. I said it last week that when we stop finding satisfaction in God, we'll just find satisfaction in stuff. And I don't know why it is this way, but we were born into sin. And there's something about possessions that we just like that validate us as humans. And it's not wrong to have possessions, but you've gotta be careful because if you're not, your possessions will begin to have you. And our default is is greed. That's our natural gravitational

pull. And just like everything else in this life that is worth it, you will not just stumble your way to generosity. You'll have to fight to get there. I tell every couple I do premarital counseling with, if you're trying to honor God and you're trying to get to the marriage, you're trying to get to the altar with your purity intact, I'm telling you, you're gonna to fight like hell to get there. You won't accidentally stumble to the altar with your purity.

Just like when you start your marriage, you will not accidentally build a marriage that honors God. You will not accidentally raise kids that glorify God. You will not accidentally build a business that honors God. You will have to fight to get there because your natural gravitational pull is back to greed.

I don't know what you hear people when they debate like, hey, are kids are they born sinners or do they choose sin? That's a massive indicator to me that that person has never had kids before. Right? I'm like, you just people that have kids don't debate this. Right? We know that they're just born sinners. They're evil little children that come out of the womb that way. Right? I didn't groom them, but somehow their default answer is no in mine. Right? Like, there's just something about us. Because of the world that we live in, our natural gravitational pull is to greet. But then typically, the first step towards obedience

when it comes to our finances with God

is a lot of us eventually will move to a place where we start to we tip God. And and I'll be honest with you. For years of my life, this is where I lived. This was this was the platform that my life was built on when it came to finances in God. I would, based on how I was feeling, how the service went, how my emotions felt, how I felt like the bank account looked, I I would give God just a tip. Right? If the service was good, if the worship songs I liked, if the pastor was funny but, like, not too funny, then I go, okay. Here's a couple bucks. I'll throw it in the bin. I feel better about myself.

And then I started to read the scriptures. I started to realize, like, oh, this idea of money matters a lot, that God cares a lot about this because our hearts are connected to it, and God wants our heart. And so you you can't live here. It's okay to start there, but you can't live there. What we've been asking everybody to do, not because it's our idea,

but because it's what the Bible says. Paul says in first Corinthians that what we should all do, the natural progression, how do we excel in the grace of giving, is we move out of greed. Eventually, we go to just giving God occasionally. The first step of obedience is to become a percentage giver.

Paul says that every single one of us should set aside a portion of our income in keeping with our income. He says, take a percentage of your income and set it aside every single week and give that to God. And eventually, our goal should be to get to a place of what I've been talking about this whole time. Eventually,

the goal as we excel in the grace of giving is getting to a place where we're tithing. Now, again, if you haven't listened to the last two weeks of this series, go back and watch them. Did a whole message on what tithing is, how it applies today, and it's a principle

of God's people bringing a tenth of their income back to God. And, again, I know for some of us, 10% of our income feels like an insurmountable goal, so just start

somewhere. And what the Macedonian church was excelling in, what Paul is talking about is that once you've settled this in your heart and you've learned how to make tithing a part of your regular rhythm, where we can begin to excel in the grace of giving is moving into what I call spirit led giving.

Again, just for clarity, tithing is really where obedience starts as followers of Jesus. The rest of this is generosity. And people will say to me, again, know it's well intended. They'll go, man, I'm I'm operating in generosity because I tithe every week. I'm just here to remind us, tithing is not generosity.

Tithing is taking 10% of what God has given us, and we're returning it back to God. It's already his. We're just giving it back to him. Generosity and spirit led generosity is above and beyond the ties. But again, all we do is we okay. Here's kind of the goal, the progression of generosity.

How do we make a decision to try to move up the ladder to some degree? Here's how we've tried to make this really simple as a church over this series. We've asked people again, we did a comprehensive study of our church. We're we're a young church, but we're also a large church.

A church of our size in the area that we live in compared to the average income. We've realized that the church collectively we know each person individually might give more than this, but the collective average is that we give about 1.7%

of our income. So if we can get the entire church to go, look, let's just start from moving from here to here and become a percentage giver and everybody increase our giving by 1%, it will effectively increase our bottom line by 50%. We try to make it really simple. We've been showing this graph every single week.

Here's how simple it can start. The average income in here is $50,000 per person. Household income is $100. And so that breaks down to, if you start at 1%, it's an additional $9.62

a week. Right? So we've been asking everybody in the church, make a decision to move to the right. Wherever you are on this thing, just move one to the right and watch watch what God will do. And for some of you who are already tithing,

this is where we start to step into spirit led generosity. It's a commitment my wife and I has made have made where we, again, probably fifteen years ago wrestled through like, okay, tithing is the floor for us. How do we begin to operate in spirit led generosity?

I wanna share with you a story that I got this week from a lady that just man, I think it encapsulates so much of this heart. She said, hey, pastor Daniels. Church Sunday spoke to me to my core. I'm bawling my eyes out as I send my first donation.

I live paycheck to paycheck, and I work so hard. I have a full time job and a part time job, and sometimes it's still not enough to pay the bills. I made a promise to myself after church on Sunday that I was gonna start giving. And I don't know how things will end up, and I know I can't start at 10%,

but I will have faith that the Lord will help me through these hard times ahead. I'm also somebody who gets government help, and as you may have heard, it's already been put on hold this month. I have a three and a half year old and a nine month old. I'm terrified, but I'm praying and praying for strength.

God won't let me fail. I pulled up her name in our system just to check to see. She gave us $30.42. And I look at that and I go, man, that blesses God's heart.

It reminds me of a modern day story of the widow's might, a woman who came to God and gave her very last to God, and that was the offering that blessed God's heart. And and this is why this thing matters. It has nothing to do with the amount that we give.

So many of us, we pat ourselves on the back because we we can write a big check. But the truth is is it really actually isn't big if we're talking about proportion to our income. God doesn't care about the amount.

What he cares about is the sacrifice because what he's after isn't even your wallet in the first place. He's after your heart. And I'm telling you, even even my natural mind, I read this, and part of me wants to respond back to her like, wait. Maybe this isn't a good time to give. Wait till, like, the food stamp stuff get figured out and then try it again later.

Because in my mind, that's what makes sense. Then I'm reminded what the scriptures say, that there's a way that makes sense to man, and in the end, that's what leads to death. And maybe what she just did is maybe she just unlocked financial blessing beyond anything that she could ever possibly imagine.

And what God is often waiting for is for us to take the first step of faith. You know the scripture say that without faith, it's impossible to please God? And obedience is what unlocks the provision of heaven?

And God cares a ton about our giving. And this is the beautiful thing, is that generosity has nothing to do with the amount that you give. It has everything to do with the amount that you give in proportion to your income. So the question is, how much are you giving in proportion to your income? Because

that's where obedience starts.

And I just have to say this again. Because of where we live, I know people that are in our church. And I believe that people in our church have a supernatural gift from God of earning money. And that's an amazing thing. It is a it is a blessing from heaven. But I'm telling you, if you look throughout the scriptures,

almost every single time we see somebody that has the gift of earning, they also have the gift of giving. And if you don't learn the gift of giving, the gift of earning becomes it starts to become a burden

and not a blessing. And my heart is just for you to walk in the blessing and the favor of God. But you've got to start. You've got to start by getting God's heart when it comes to generosity and stewardship.

We've been asking the church for three weeks to make a decision. Just start by giving something. Make it make it figure out a percentage, start there, and watch what God will God will do. I was praying, thinking, hey, maybe 50 people starting new giving would be amazing to see. And I'm encouraged to report to you today, we're two weeks into this thing, and this is the number of people who have already started. We have 100 new people that have started a recurring donation for the first time. And that's a big deal. Okay? We can cheer for that. Right? That is 100 people

who said, look. I'm willing to start somewhere. Maybe I don't get to tithing tomorrow, but I can start somewhere. And watch what God will do with that obedience. I just wanna show you what this equates to for a church like us. K? This is $25,000 a month that equates to $300,000 a year.

It's a big deal. I think about what God can do with that type of investment. And, again, if you're just an investment person,

I'm not saying that Echoes is better than other churches, but I do think that God is doing something unique through our church right now. And if all you're trying to do is get riches in heaven, which is I think part of what we're supposed to do with this life,

I think the greatest investment you can make is into this thing right here because for some reason, God has breathed on it. I was just last week in Chicago with a bunch of church planters from around the country,

they were collectively doing the total. And between the other five churches that I was with, they had, like, 60 baptisms in their churches in this last year. You realize our church has had almost 10 times the amount of baptisms in just the last ten months.

I don't say that again to say that we're better than these other churches. But maybe God is doing something unique right now that we need to pour some gas onto the fire,

and you get to be a part of the miracle story that God is writing. So I have a couple questions for you this morning as we wrap up. The first one is if you were to look at this thing and just go, hey, look, this is the progression of growing in the grace of giving, where do you stand on the generosity ladder today?

Where would you say? Just honest assessment. Okay, where are you? We're actually going to get into groups, or we're going to start with the tipping people over here. No, could you imagine? That'd be crazy. You're like, I would for sure lie. Right? Zero judgment,

zero condemnation. Just go, hey, where are we? Right? We got to just start by saying, hey, where are we? And then secondly, what's the reason behind my current standing on the generosity ladder?

Why are you there? I'm telling you, man, I lived here. I was a student pastor for a couple years, and I was still just tipping God. I did not understand God's heart for generosity. I think the reason that some of us stay stuck and we don't grow and excel in the grace of giving, for some of us, it's just a lack of discipline. I talked about that last week. For a lot of us, it's an income problem. It's a spending problem. We live in the most consumeristic

culture in the history of the world. 10,000 advertisements a day, they say, that we will see. And I just want to tell you right now, in the name of Jesus, you don't need whatever's in your Amazon cart. Okay? For some of you, that's all you need. You can go home.

For some of us, it's not a lack of discipline. It's really a lack of faith and trust. If I was honest, this was me for a long time.

I just didn't trust that if I gave God a percentage of my income that there would actually be enough to take care of stuff. And I felt like it was a noble thing. I'm trying to provide for my family. I've got to pay for my kids' future, college stuff. And I just I could not get myself to go to the place of trusting

God. For some of us, that's why we're stuck there. For others of us, it's a lack of understanding about the reality of eternity. This is something that I wish I had an hour to break down with us. But you know what's crazy is the Bible talks so much about this idea.

You realize that that heaven is not like a socialist economy.

What I mean is that it's not going to be a universal experience. It's the same for all of us. The bible says that what you do with the life that you have on this side of heaven will determine what your experience is in heaven. Jesus talked about this over and over and over again while he was on this earth. Jesus talked more about money than he did about heaven and hell combined.

And what's amazing to me as a pastor, I sit at funerals, and people say this at every funeral I've been to. They go, man, they are hearing. He's hearing. She's hearing today

the words that every believer wants to hear at the end of their life. And you know where I'm going. They just they're hearing today as they enter into the pearly gates. Well done, my good and faithful say it with me. Servant.

We hear it all the time. The goal of this life is to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant. You realize the context in which that verse is found in the Bible? It's on the back end of Jesus telling a parable about how you manage your money on this side of heaven.

And depending on what you do with the resources that God has given you will determine whether or not you hear, well done, my good and faithful servant. Jesus actually doesn't say that to all of the people in his example.

He says that some of them were obedient and trusted God, and they heard, well done, good and faithful servant. And he actually takes the money from the person that has the least amount, and he gives it to the person that has the most. Why? Because they were the most faithful steward with what God had given them.

I only say to say that I think sometimes we have we have no idea how big heaven really actually is. And sometimes if we truly actually believe that eternity was real, it would change how we lived on the earth today. Rick Warren says that when you live in light of eternity, I'm telling you, your values change.

You begin to realize I'm not storing up treasure here. My value, my worth is not found in the possessions that I have here, but I'm living for an audience of one. I'm living for the kingdom that is yet to come, and I know that on that day, the goal is to hear from my heavenly father, well done, my good and faithful

servant. But more than just an arbitrary hopeful prayer, I actually know the behaviors connected to getting me to that place that I can do today. For some of us, the reason that we are not progressing in the the giving ladder is because we have a lack of understanding about the love of God. And hear me in here.

Again, also understanding that we live in a culture in community that is very heavily x LDS. We can be we can be mistaken to think that we give to get the approval of God. And I'm just here to remind us, we don't we don't give to gain heaven.

You can go to heaven without ever giving a dollar. I've been unapologetic in saying that every single week, but what I'm trying to get into your life, what I think God is trying to get into your life is heaven's realities

today. We give. We get in alignment with God not to get to heaven. We do it to open up heaven's provision on our lives today. But it starts by understanding how deep and wide God's love and his grace is for

you. Again, I could tell you the story of dozens of people in our church that live this out, but I just wanna share with you a video of a family that embodied these principles so well. Take a second and watch this video. I'm Troy Hunt and this is my wife, Christie. We've been married since 2004.

We have two kids. Love attending Echoes. We've been here since the start of the church and really looking forward to seeing what God's going to do. When we started dating, I had never thought about tithing or giving to the church. I just didn't think about it. I thought my money was mine. How much do I have? How much can I spend? But I never put it in the spiritual context or any obedience to the Lord. We were driving to church one day and she just says to me, well, aren't you gonna tithe? And I'm like, literally was not offended at all. I just was surprised. I'm like, yeah, I should. We literally I think we immediately turned into the ATM. I pulled out some cash and

started tithing from that day. And we've been faithful tithers and givers since that that point. Tithing is an opportunity for us to trust a faithful God and I guess it just made sense because I mean if we can trust God with our eternal salvation we can certainly trust God with everything

on this side of heaven. We believe that the Lord calls us to have an open hand with everything. But specifically,

our our finances is that God can put in and God can take out. And if I have that open hand, God can bless it. But if I have a closed fist and holding and controlling my money tight, God can't bless that in or out, or he's gonna work on me till I have an open hand. And I think we've always had that dialogue in our marriage and in our financial conversation and our stewardship of our resources because it's more than just finances. It's it's your home, it's your children, it's your vehicles,

it's it's everything that God has entrusted you to. It's your job. My wife's a school teacher. It's the kids that God's entrusted to her. She's stewarding those children. We take that seriously.

Mhmm. And so in all aspects, we try to live our life with an open hand and allow God to do what God's going to do just with the the little bit that we feel that we have to offer. God calls us to give our first fruits. And I think that's one of the approaches that we have always had towards giving.

So we don't look at our bills before we give to God. We give to God first, and then we take care of the things that God's called us to take care of. So when real tension comes up financially, what we've given to God is already given to God, and we don't look at those things before

we do what we're called to in obedience first. 2016 time frame, when I was laid off from my job, I had no income. I had no on the horizon, there was no promises, nothing that I was gonna be home for we don't know how long. But that was a time that really challenged us not being employed.

We had to to to look at the finances, how we were gonna pay these bills, and you start prioritize certain things. Am I gonna go to Starbucks? Am I gonna pay the car bill? Am I gonna buy this at the grocery store? And that really challenges our our conversation at home, but it's below the line of the tithe.

So now our giving above and beyond changed. We obviously didn't have additional gifts to give to special circumstances, but our tithe always stayed true to the church. That's what we believe God's called us to do, and he will take care of the rest and he has proven that to us over and over. We always

have the money to pay the bills. We always have the money to feed our family and that's not because of what I did or what Christie did. It's because of what God has done in him taking care of us and he has continued to do that. What God can do with a little bit of money could turn into a ministry that saves someone's

soul for eternity. So when we give to the church, we're not just giving money. We are giving towards the sharing of the gospel, and that is what God had calls us to do. We are called to go out and share the gospel. And if God would use my house or my car or my talents or my gifts or my treasures or my finances

for that purpose, how blessed are we?

Come on, man. It's so good. I should've just let them teach this message. You know what I mean? Like, you guys just do it. And here's what I love about what they share over and over and over. It's just the heart of generosity. They made a commitment

that I'm going to excel in the grace of giving, that this this is the floor. And I don't move from that because I understand that's what keeps me under God's blessing and God's provision. So the last question I have for you this morning is what steps do you need to take to move up the ladder and excel in giving?

Again, for you and your wife, maybe for you and your husband, this is this is something new. It's a conversation that you haven't you haven't had before. And I just would encourage you. Make a decision this week to go, like, let's pray about this. Let's let's talk about this. That this this matters. So my wife and I try to do when it comes to big decisions like this is we'll we'll commit to praying separately for a couple days.

We'll fast. We'll seek God's heart, and then we'll come back together. I'm telling you, sit down and just go, hey. Maybe we can't start at 10%. Maybe that sounds crazy. But where can you start? And both of you ask God, God, give us a specific number. And then when you come back together,

whoever has the bigger number is the most spiritual one, and you go with that number. Alright? God will bring unity. And I'm telling you, when you begin to realize that it's all grace, that God loves you in spite of our disobedience,

God loves us even when we're in rebellion. God loves us as much when we give as much as he does when we're not giving. It begins to change our hearts. I'm telling you, one of the greatest gifts that I want for every single

man that's here leading a household is to be freed from the burden of feeling like it is your sole responsibility to provide for your family. I lived and operated under the crushing weight of that for years and years and years thinking that it was all mine.

You realize that that was the curse that was put on Adam in the Garden of Eden? The curse for women is men is is not gonna be fun when you give birth to kids. Right? But for men, it was that you're gonna have to work and toil for the rest of your life.

And you're gonna think that your value is in being able to provide for your family, and it is a holy burden that we have. But when you start doing it apart from God's provision, it becomes an unbearable

burden that you can't carry. I'm telling you one of the greatest gifts that God has given me as I've gotten into alignment with God with my finances, is that when things get really stressed and when things get really difficult, I'm reminded that man, God loves my family more than I do.

And putting food on the table is really actually God's responsibility. And I can tell you, my kids have never missed a meal. We've never been without a house. It doesn't mean we've always had all this crazy stuff. Man, God has always met our every need, which is the promise of scripture.

My hope and my prayers, and when they're writing the story of Echo's church in a hundred years, they would recount the people that went first. You realize we're the ones that are building the foundation. We're laying the foundation of what this thing will be to our kids' kids, to our grandkids' grandkids.

My prayer and my hope is that they would go, man, those were people that were marked by excelling in the grace of giving.

Something unlocks inside of our soul when we get in alignment with God in our giving. I'm praying that you would be a person who excels in the grace of giving. Amen? Let me pray for you. Father, God, I thank you. God, I thank you for every single person that's here this morning. And God, I know that money

is such a a tricky subject because, God, we grew up in homes where money was, you know, not not always stewarded well. And God, a lot of us got our view of money by growing up with parents that that didn't really do a good job taking care of it. And God, we grew up stressed,

and we felt like it was our responsibility and our our burden to figure stuff out. And father, I just see you in heaven calling your children back to you, inviting you inviting us into a relationship of of safety. Well, God, you can be our provider. You can be our provision,

and that we would walk as the scripture say from grace to grace, from mercy to mercy. Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you that you sent Jesus who is the tithe of heaven. God, you sent your first. You sent your best in Jesus to ransom us. Would we never lose sight

of the fact that it's because you loved us, because you gave first, that we get to love and that we get to give. So father, would you use our lives? Would you make our lives bigger and bigger? And remind us that God it's the stingy whose life gets smaller and smaller. Help us walk in generosity.

In Jesus name, all God's people said. Amen and amen.