Praise God for that story. Awesome. Awesome, guys. Obviously, a shout out to our Northeast campus where the duels are over there. But man, what an incredible story of generosity and how it fuels the mission going forward.
Guys, we're going to be in Proverbs chapter 3 today.
So if you have a copy of Scripture, you can turn with me to Proverbs chapter 3. And I think this story really just flows right into what we're going to talk about today, which is as we begin to give our time, talent, and treasure, God really pours out his blessing in terms of abundance. And that doesn't mean a financial return all the time, although it could mean that, but it also just means the ministry going forward and the blessing that that is. Let me, I wanna give you guys one quick announcement that ties into that video. And that is that we have a class that starts in the end of September called Envision.
All right, and this is very important, especially if you might be newer to Mercy Hill. If you want to understand what makes our heartbeat kind of go fast and what permeates our culture, you probably are going to need to understand God's heart for the nations, all right? And what he is doing among all peoples and all tribes and tongues. And so you just got to know what God's heart is for the world because that really gets you to be able to understand what our heart is as well. Envision is a class that teaches you about God's heart for the nations.
and you know, at Mercy Hill, I think one day there's gonna, you know, we came and planted this church. One day we're gonna be moving on. I promise you for me, when I move on, I'm gonna look back and the number that is gonna matter to me the most is gonna be the amount of people that we were able to send out as missionaries. We have a big goal at Mercy Hill by 2032 to see 500 missionaries sent out from this place. We've seen well over 200 now.
All right, and so it just is part of our culture and I really hope that you guys maybe will check this class out and learn about God's heart for the nations, his missionary heart. I know sometimes at Mercy Hill, it's like it feels like big and multi-side and you're talking about first-time guests and 160 people at the weekender and all that stuff. And we celebrate all of that. But one of the reasons we celebrate it is because it all trickles down into sending. Guys, we had 65 people get baptized last week.
Okay, I know, praise God, 65 people. And the ratio we have seen over years at Mercy Hill is, It's 10 to one, baptisms, sent ones, okay?
So I get so fired up. 65 people got baptized. That means 6.5 people here in a few years, I don't know who the half of a person is gonna be, okay? Is going to go, they'll be sent out to the mission field. And that just is, it thrills our hearts.
It also takes 10 first-time guests to get to one baptism.
So when we talk about seeing hundreds and thousands of people come, man, we're doing that math in our mind about getting people to the field.
So you guys check out Envision. you can sign up on our website. All right, Proverbs chapter three is where we're gonna be this morning. And I'm really excited about this. I love Proverbs three, five, and six.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart. You know, don't lean on your own understanding. That kind of idea, it's very much a popular verse in Christianity. We're gonna talk about that one, but we're gonna use some of that to set up Proverbs three, nine, and 10, which talk about giving of our wealth. And I think our wealth and money, yes, but also in relationships and in talent and in time, okay?
we're in a series right now called Grow, if you're newer. And the Grow series is basically this. There are four turns in the Christian life that if you will commit to them, you will end up seeing growth in your life. If God's going to grow you, this is how he's going to do it.
Now, it's not the only four things that you ever do, but it'll take you a long way.
So, you know, for example, I was reading this article from John Cena in this bodybuilding magazine, because that's obviously what I do in my spare time, right? And he said, hey, being healthy comes down to four things, diet, exercise, sleep, and water. And here's the thing, we all hear that and we're like, man, we all kind of know that. We all know it. There's a thousand books you can go by.
And if you just start asking chat GBT about everything you need to do, there'll be a thousand things you need to do. Don't it pretty much just about all boil down to four things, diet, exercise, sleep, and water. You understand? Financial health is the same way. Dave Ramsey for 30 years has been preaching this.
there are a thousand things you can do, but you know what will take you a long way? No debt, make sure you have margin, invest in your retirement, those types of ideas. Be generous, have a budget. I mean, if you just do these simple things, it'll take you a long way. That's how we talk about the Christian growth in terms of our flywheel.
And it comes from Acts chapter two. I know you guys are in Proverbs three, stay there. I'll just throw this on the screen real quick, okay? Acts two, 46 and 47 says this. day by day, attending the temple and breaking bread in their homes, gather, group.
They receive their food with glad and generous hearts, give, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added, there was a mission component, go. The Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved.
So at Mercy Hill, we have something called the growth flywheel. We think it grows the church and it grows the individual believer and it's gather, groups, give, go. Is that all you will ever do as a Christian? No. Does it take you a long way down the road?
Yes, it does. We say at Mercy Hill, you jump in the stream, you will move in the current. Today, we're gonna get into the third turn, the give turn. And here's the big idea. We honor God by giving him our best, not giving him what's left, not giving him the rest.
We honor God by giving him our best, our first. Guys, I don't know about you guys, summer starts in our house when the first watermelon shows up, okay? And it ends in our house right about now when the last watermelon for the year has shown up. I don't know if you guys like fruit in the summer, fresh fruit. I want you to think about a big bowl of fresh fruit.
You get all cut up, bring it in, and what happens? Everybody starts coming out of the woodwork, right, to get some of that fruit. And what do we do? What do we all do? We all look in that bowl, and we pick out the best pieces.
Man, we pick out the ones that are the juiciest, the ones that are cut the right way. Man, the ones that are not all bruised and soggy and all that stuff. And you let all the little vultures pick over it for like, you know, half a day. And what's left is the stuff that's soggy. It's the stuff that's small.
If it's a watermelon, it's the stuff that got cut too close to the rind. It's got the little white stuff on it. Nobody wants that, right? And that's what's left at the very bottom. And here is the whole point, I think, of Proverbs 3, 9, and 10.
Are you giving God what is the choice part or do you give God the leftovers? In terms of your energy, in terms of your time, in terms of the way he's gifted you, your talents, honoring him, and yes, in terms of our wealth.
Now here's what we're going to do. I'm going to teach through Proverbs 3, 5 through 8 just for a few minutes for this reason. I want us to understand the pattern. The pattern is God is calling us to something and then blessing us. Calling us and then blessing us.
And then when we get into three, nine, and 10, we're going to see the call to generosity and the blessing of God. All right?
So let's start in verse five. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Don't you understand what it's saying? Trust in the Lord, not yourself.
He'll make your path straight. All right?
It's a calling and a blessing. Verse seven, eight, same way. Do not be wise in your own eyes. fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Here's the blessing.
And it will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
Now from Proverbs 3, 5 through 8, here's what we understand we're being called to. Don't trust in your own understanding and rationality as if it is the firm foundation. Instead, trust and fear, that fear word is kind of the idea, not being afraid like running away, but fear, awesome reverence. Fear the Lord.
Okay, fear the Lord in the way that you fear the ocean. The ocean is beautiful. The ocean is fun. The ocean is vast and it can be very scary as well. There's a reverential awe that I give it, right?
Same way with God. Fear him and trust in him, acknowledge him. That means know him. Know him with all of your ways, everything that you do, know God in it. Know God in your work.
Know God in playing sports. Know God in the way you work out. Know God in the way you parent. and he will be what? Refreshment for your flesh, healing for your flesh, healing for your bones.
It is a calling and a blessing.
Now, Proverbs 3, five really attacks, I think what is so ingrained in us. Man, we are modern, individualistic American people. And you know what that means? It means we trust our rationality. We're analytical, man.
You know, we know, we line it up in our mind and that is what we trust. And I'm all for that. If I, you know, I'm an analytical person, maybe you guys are as well. You're a rational person, I'm all for that. Use you know use the brain that God gave you I get it But here the thing that has turned now in our culture into what I would say is an irrational trust in rationality It's sort of an irrational trust in science.
You see the mocking signs that now say, in science we trust, meant to replace God, right? In science we trust instead of in God we trust. Here is the problem with where we are in an overconfidence of trusting our rationality, our intelligence, our reason, and yes, science itself. And listen, I'm not dumping on science, okay? I love science.
I love medicine. I take an inhaler every day. I'm grateful for it, all right? Scientific advancements, great. You know, with our kids and our medicine and all that, that's fine.
But what I am saying is there is an overconfidence in trusting these things as if they are a firm foundation. Christian, if you have ever been condescendingly talked to by someone who says, well, no, no, I have no faith. I just trust my own reason. Really, you trust your own reason. Yeah, ask them one question.
Have you ever changed your mind? Have you ever changed your mind? Because science changes its mind all the time. Science, by definition, it changes its mind. That's what the whole enterprise is about.
How many of us trust our rationality and yet we can look back and we can say, well, I used to think about it this way, but now I think about it that way.
Well, what kind of a firm foundation is that, right? If you have ever changed your mind, that is something showing us it's not a place to build your life. Science does this all the time. Change this mind. I mean, is Pluto a planet or is it not a planet?
Okay, let's just, you know what I'm saying? Are eggs good for you or are they bad for you? Depends on the decade. Used to be bad, now they're good. Used to be, you know, it's all that kind of stuff.
Did you know less than 100 years ago in this country, they would put cocaine in cough syrup? I bet it worked. probably worked, right? It's just like, man, this ever-changing, ever-progressing idea that I'm grateful for, especially with a special needs child who needs medicine and that kind of stuff, grateful for it, but it is ever-progressing. It is not a firm foundation.
We are called in this passage not to trust what is always changing, but to trust in the Lord who is never changing, One who has always been and will always be. You know, this is a little bit of a side note here. I'm just gonna brush through this really quickly. But I think it's an important thing to note. Guys, I know the shock waves went through your home like they went through my home this week when Charlie Kirk was assassinated, right?
Shock through the nation, shock through your home. Guys, there's a political side to that. Man, I'm not a political commentator. Every one of us have political opinions, okay? I have political opinions.
And by the way, I think all of them are right. And you do too. And that's fine. And you know what? We can agree to disagree on a bunch of stuff because that stuff is, you know, most of those things are not clear line scripture, you know, like we think they are.
A lot of them are opinion-based. There are things that are very clear. You think about abortion, you think about the definition of the family. I mean, these are just Bible. But a lot of other stuff is not exactly Bible, okay?
It's kind of like, man, we have opinions on it. We can agree to disagree on a lot of that stuff. That's not what I'm engaged in. It's not even why I bring it up. I bring it up because whether you agree with his politics or not, there was a guy on campus that was sharing the gospel with tens of thousands of college students.
And he just did. And, man, he had the opportunity, whether you agree with him or not, he had the opportunity to weave in Christian values, Bible. And when I say gospel, I mean like Jesus, blood, cross, resurrection gospel, okay? And he was willing to do that. And here's the thing.
I don't know all the motivations. We don't know this stuff yet. But I just think it's a good moment for the Christian church to realize, man, are we ready for what could be coming? Are we? Because we have the opportunity right now to say, we need in our kids and in us to build a faith, to build resolve, to build courage, to build a church that withstands whatever is coming.
We have lived in this little bubble in our nation. And listen, I am grateful for it. And I pray to God it continues. freedom. We can worship and we can talk about Jesus.
I want that to continue more than anything, continue to be a beacon of light to the world and all that. But it is an anomaly. When you think about the rest of the world, when you think about where Rachel and them shot that video, because I've been, all right, Christians there face persecution like crazy. Are we going to be ready for that?
Now, the reason I bring this up is I'm wondering if our young generation, the young people in this country, I want, you know, we understand. Guys, there's this big, there's a turning right now of Gen Z. They're coming back. They're coming to the faint. I mean, we see it on college campuses everywhere.
Some of it, I wonder, is if they're realizing that science and rationality is not a foundation to build your life on. Good? Yes. God-given? Absolutely, in terms of his common grace.
But maybe not something you build your life on. Maybe something that we need to build our life on as much deeper than that. And Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. And what? What does it say?
And he will acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. Verse 6, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. This is the blessing, this is the call and the blessing. The call is trusting God. The blessing is we will be ones who have a straight path before us.
You know, I think many Christians, they, instead of acknowledging God and spending all their time acknowledging him and trusting in him, we're asking him to show us what the straight path is. And that's not what this is about. This is about acknowledging him in everything that you have and then trusting that whatever path he has you on is gonna be straight. You know, I think many of us, like for example, we got kids going off to college and you got kids going to college and we're like, which college do they go to? And the kid's trying to figure it out and you're trying to get God to spell out the college name in your Cheerios or whatever.
And all it ever says is, ooh, okay, It's not really doing it for you. And listen, instead of begging God, show me the college. Listen, here's a radical thought. What if God don't care where your kid goes to college? What if God cares about who they are when they get there?
Does that make sense? What about, you know, we think about this idea of marriage and who do I marry? And is this the one? Is that the one? Is this the one?
Is that the one? And it's like, you're begging God to reveal to you. And it's like, man, what if it's a little bit like, man, God's like, hey, you got freedom in this. You know, I'm not necessarily, it's not like you're some decoder ring trying to figure out my will. It's like, my will for you is laid out in the Bible.
Do they love Jesus? Are they following Jesus? Are they going to run after him the rest of their life? Is that who they are?
Okay, well, maybe they're the one. They just became the one.
Okay? You know, and like, let's just get on with it. That's kind of the idea here. Trust him and let the path be straight.
Now, here's what it says too in verse seven and eight. And I know you're saying this, I thought this was about generosity. it is, but you got to see the connection. Call, blessing. Call, blessing.
Look at verse seven through eight. Do not be wise in your own eyes, but fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Healing and refreshment is the blessing that comes from fearing God and what? Not being wise in your own eyes.
This is as simple as we look at the world and we think, God, I got this, man. I don't need the wisdom of scripture. I've just I've got it, I'm gonna go do my own thing. Then we can't figure out why our life is in such shambles and in such a wreck, right? Instead, what we need to do is say, God, I fear you in the way that a child fears a good father.
It's a reverential awe, it's a respect. It's like, man, I know that that is the one, that's the dude in the house that will bring discipline if something is wrong, but I'm still waiting and dying for him to get home to throw the baseball. It's that kind of relationship, okay? And we fear God in that way. And then when we do, what happens in our life?
there is blessing that follows it. You know, my kids are not unlike probably a lot of your kids or you when you were a kid. Every one of them at some point has been told, do not touch that electric fence. And guess what they did? Right?
Got busted. And it's hilarious. You know, I mean, it's, you know, you, it's so funny, but, but they all do it. And we are, we are, we are the exact same thing. We are the exact same way with God is saying, Hey man, don't touch that fence because bam, you're gonna get God.
And instead, what do we do? Many times, we go, but if we would listen, that's what it's saying. Don't trust your own. Instead, trust what the Lord is calling you to do and to see, and when you trust him in that way, what happens? Healing and refreshment come into your life.
This is true in our families. It's true in our individual lives. It's true in our communities. Guys, I want you to think about what is being said here. We live in such a victim culture Y we live in it always somebody else fault It never my fault My wife was a teacher for 10 years and it was so funny It was like you know we have there be problem kids in her class, and it did not matter.
It was always her fault, right? It was always the school's fault. And it's like, when is somebody going to tell that family that little Johnny just needs to get his hind end tore up one time? And they've never done it. But it's everybody else's fault, right?
And so we kind of put the blame on everybody. And I think about that even culturally, man, in our most broken societies, broken families, broken communities. I want you to think about how the Lord's wisdom would be healing and refreshment to the bones. I want you to think about this with me. You go to the most broken city, the most, wherever.
I don't care. Listen, it might be rural Appalachia somewhere. It might be a downtown somewhere. It could be one of the statistics on fatherlessness and drug abuse and alcoholism and family breakdown is very similar in those two environments, okay?
So you could go to either one of them. And here's what I would call you to do. Think about this for one minute. If you said, what is the Lord's wisdom? Because it will be refreshment to you.
If you just said, I can do three things of God's wisdom in this community, what would happen in one generation? If every adult worked full-time and if they weren't working, they were looking. And if they couldn't find it, they were volunteering, okay?
So they have full-time work, full-time employment, full-time job, full-time volunteer. You're getting up, moving, contributing to the world. Second thing is the community itself decides we make a pact with each other. We will not abuse any substance, whether that's food or alcohol or drugs. And the third thing is we will not have sexual relationships with anybody that we are not married to, husband and wife, okay?
You tell me if any community did those three things, and let me throw one more in. Man, we won't divorce, each other. If we did those four things, what would happen in one generation, even in the most broken communities that we have? You understand what I'm getting at?
Now, if God's wisdom is healing and refreshment for them out there, what are the areas of our life that we're bucking his wisdom right now? And can we not see that we're missing out on healing and refreshment that is going to come from, you know, from his hand? Wisdom is life by God's design. And when we live it that way, we experience the healing and refreshment.
Now, okay, now we get into verse 9 and 10. And I just want you guys to see, I'm trying to do the best I can. A call and a blessing, a call and a blessing. Verse nine, honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce. Verse 10, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine.
Do you see it? There's a call. Man, honor God with your wealth and then there's a blessing. Abundance will come into your life. Honor the Lord with your wealth and see his abundance.
Now, some of us right now, and I haven't pushed on this, I'm gonna say it now, okay?
Some of us at our campuses, some of us right here at the Ridge, it's like, man, I don't like talking about money in a church. I don't like all the dealings of it. And I know there's budgets and it's too business-like and all this kind of stuff, all right?
So here's what I wanna make sure you hear. And all you can do is decide if you believe me or not. But I'm gonna tell you what it is, all right? I'm about to teach on generosity with our wealth. If that bothers you, take everything I'm gonna tell you and apply it by giving to the local pregnancy network.
Okay? Take everything I'm gonna say and give to Baptist Children's Home or give to Hannah's Haven. All right?
Because I don't want you to have the crutch that you don't like, that I'm trying to talk about money so that it ends up being about Mercy Hill or something like that.
Now I pray that one day, if you become a generous person, that you would find us a worthy partnership, you know, and that kind of thing. But if that's not where you are, don't hide behind that because I'm gonna get full stop, take what I'm saying and give somewhere else.
Now, if you're still bothered, that probably means we got a stingy heart issue and a hit dog will holler. Because if I take away the church and money and now you're still bothered, well then, okay.
So let's just pray, man, that God will do some stuff in our heart today, all right?
Now, here's what it says. Let's walk through this. Honor God with your wealth. What's funny is he doesn't say give God your wealth. He says, honor God with your wealth.
Very simple, listen, very similar to parents here. What does the Bible say in Exodus 20? Honor your father and mother. You know what that means? It means that we honor them by obeying them.
What the Bible is saying here is we honor God by our giving. Honoring is bigger than giving. Giving is a way that we get at the bigger idea of honoring. Honoring means to give weight to something. Honoring means to look at it and say, man, that's heavy to me.
I attribute worth to that. I attribute worth and weight. You ever have somebody at work? Hey man, maybe you're an influential person in your work environment and they say, hey man, I really need you to throw your weight behind this. Get behind it.
I need you to throw your weight in with this thing. What are they saying? I need you to attribute worth to what I'm doing and throw your weight behind it. That's kind of the idea. And when we throw our weight behind it, when we throw our money behind it, when we say that this, you know, behind what God is doing and we say, God, I honor you with my wealth, it displaces other things that would want to compete with what we have now honored.
All right, so for, you know, just as an example here, last summer, I went to J.H. Ranch with my oldest daughter. It was so fun. Man, just a great time, me and her to connect. And it's like an adventure place.
And they have this blob. I don't know if you guys have seen like a blob. It's like a huge air pillow, okay? And you get on one side of it and somebody jumps off this platform. When they hit it, it shoots you up into the air.
So she was begging me to do it, wanted me to do it. I said, okay, fine. I get on the thing and I look up.
Well, here's a picture. I look up, y'all, there's 600 pounds of man about to jump onto that block. I mean, these two guys right here, both of them, one cheeseburger away from three bills.
Okay, both of them, all right? They jump off the thing and hit it. I'm on the other end, you can't see. look what happens to me.
Next slide. I don't think you can barely see me. I mean, they're going to zoom in one time. I mean, I'm like 15 feet in the air, just flipping, flipping. But I did, look, look at the splash.
I did stick the landing though.
Okay. I stuck the landing. But we've, we've used that illustration multiple times because this is what, oh, it's a tough concept to try to understand. But, but you know, the glory of God is a weighty thing, even linguistically. It's weighty.
The idea is that when the glory of God is in your life, it's other stuff on the blob is getting kicked out. And this is what we're supposed to do by honoring God with our wealth. That is true. We assent to it being true. We declare it to be true.
We honor, we heap upon God the worthiness and the honor that is due him because of the weight that he brings by our giving. And that's what it's calling us to do here. And guys, I want you to think about honoring God with your wealth. That means money. Yes, I think it's what it means here, actually.
And so we need to do that. We call people to tithe at Mercy Hill, but that's not just that. Do you give to other ministries? If your child just went off to college and has found an incredible church that is pouring into them, maybe we want to give to that church too. You know, I mean, there's a lot in this with giving, but it's not just that.
It's also thinking about our time and our talent. You know, thinking about our volunteerism, thinking about how we use our giftings. Guys, some of y'all, you know, think about Hurricane Helene, okay? As soon as the hurricane happened, devastating Western North Carolina, what happened? This church, other churches in our community, absolute mobilization.
People going out, if you had a military background, if you could, you know, just, if you were just one of them dudes that can do stuff, you know, you know, this is, Hurricane Helene is what taught us that like, you know, one redneck is worth 100 PhDs in a crisis, okay? You know, and so, you know, you have, that's really true. It's really true. And, you know, you were out there, man, you're driving equipment, you're doing stuff, you're, man, we had rescue teams that were, man, local churches were mobilizing out there, and we had maps, and hey, man, this community hasn't been touched yet, and people are bringing them food and wine, and it's just, that's not about money, but it's about our wealth. You understand?
It's like, it's the wealth of experience that God has given you. It's the wealth of abundant energy that he's given you. It's a wealth of relationships that he's given you. I think about this church, you know, and I know our other campuses that weren't affected by this as much, but guys at the regional campus, you know, whatever it was, two years ago now, man, we were just slapped out of room. And this building was still another year from being done.
And so what happened? 500 people say man I move for the mission They go to the regional North campus which wasn a campus it our student ministry you know but they create a campus over there regional north 500 people week in and week out There no staff really over there I mean it was I mean very minimal staff It was almost all volunteer-led. That's what we're talking about. Wealth, man, being one who gives our first and our best. I think about, you know, Proverbs 3, 9 again.
Look what it says, honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce. Yes, I think in context, this is talking about temple worship and that kind of thing and what we're supposed to do in the Old Testament. But for us, it's just a clear question. Are we bringing God what is first in our life? Think about the bowl of fruit.
Which is it? With my energy, with my relationships, with my talent, with my money. Am I giving him the choice fruit that says, God, I'm giving you the best because it signifies everything in my life is yours. Or is it like, hey, if there's something that's left over?
Well, guys, we're going to see an incredible motivation here, all right, in verse 10. The motivation is going to show us in verse 10, there is a call to give, but then there is also a blessing that follows it. And look, let's just read it. Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine.
Okay, all the Baptists just got really uncomfortable, okay, with a wine. But you understand, right? What is verse 10? Verse 10 is saying, this is the blessing. The blessing is abundance will come into your life.
Does that mean money? It seems like it's talking about money, but it doesn't just mean money, right? It means there's an abundance that comes into our life whenever we are one who gives.
Now, I want to tell you what is the greatest bit of abundance. I mean, we give knowing that there is an abundance in heaven. Think about the greatest motivation for why we would give our first and best?
Well, number one, it's because Jesus Christ came and showed us that God was willing to give us his first and best, right? God is not calling us to give anything greater than what he gave to us. I mean, he gave us his son to come and to live the life that we didn't live in sin. You and I deserve separation and hell from God because of what we have done, our rebellion, man, the way that we don't acknowledge him with all of our ways. And yet Jesus came and lived life for us, a sacrificial lamb.
He ended up dying a death that we deserve. And through his resurrection, we can walk in the newness of life now and have the abundance. You want to talk about filled barns and vats of wine that are full. What do you think heaven is going to be like? And we get all of that because of what he has given to us.
And then as if there needed to be more, okay, I don't know there needs to be, but I look at verse 10. And I'm like, guys, it kind of seems like what the duels were saying in that video is sort of what God is talking about here. There is some kind of God's math thing that happens when we are generous. When we give, God does stuff for us. Look, Proverbs are not promises.
I understand that. They are generally wise sayings. It means that I'm not saying this is an ironclad, you give this, God's going to do that. That's not what it's about. But generally speaking, I think that we can expect and believe that abundance will come into our life when we are generous people.
You know, when we are willing to give. I'll give you a story. There was a guy, there's a guy in our church named David, a good friend of mine who got saved later in life.
Okay. And, and because of that, there were things in his life he was learning and the give thing was hard for him. You know, I mean, he's older Christian. He's, he's learning how to give. And you know, he, he, he thought, man, God, you own the cattle on a thousand hills.
You don't need my money. You know, that was sort of just as he was growing in faith. Here's what happened. He owned a CPA firm. You know what he saw over and over and over?
He kept looking at people's taxes and he's like, man, I just could never get away from the fact that the generous people, it seemed like God blessed them in crazy ways. I mean, it's just, you know, Rabbi Daniel Lappin wrote in his book, Thou Shalt Prosper. It's a personal finance book. It's not even about, it's not even about God or anything. It's, I mean, it's come from kind of a Jewish background, but the point of the book is how you can grow your personal financial wealth.
And one of the chapters is all about, and he says like this, the mystical alchemy of money, where giving charity jumpstarts wealth creation. He goes through and does a ton of research on how generous people end up. I'm just telling you this, it's God's math. You can trust it or not, but there's another motivation here. Not just the gospel of what God has given us, but what he promises he will do in terms of, yes, we understand what he's going to do in heaven.
But generally speaking, it seems like he's given us some real thoughts around abundance that will come into our life now if we give. And I'll tell you this, as a church, I've seen this to be true. Guys, as we, as a church, as a body across all of our campuses and all of that, as we give, it seems like God pours out his abundance upon us more and more and more. Isn't that true? I mean, I've seen this for 13 years.
I think what we see is as the church gives more, God opens up more ministry. Guys, the first year's budget for Mercy Hill Church was $150,000. That was for the year, okay? I mean, right now our church will take in a million dollars a month.
Now, what has God done in that time?
Well, you see people sowing into the ministry and then what do you see happen? I don't know, a couple thousand baptisms, bunch of churches getting planted, 200 missionaries sent out all over the world. You see what I'm getting at? It's the, you can say it like this. The vision is gonna go about as far as the generosity takes it.
Something about what is happening here. You give of your wealth and God pours out his abundance upon our church. Let me give you a quick example of this. This is Clay and Caitlin. 12, 13 years ago, they got baptized.
They're on the right. They're the couple that's on the right. They got baptized at Mercy Hill and they were college students. They were driving from Elon University to Burmill Park, north in Greensboro, okay? And they were coming and man, they ended up getting baptized, walking with Jesus, following Jesus, jumping into the flywheel.
13 years later, this was last week, that's a picture of Clay baptizing his daughter. Amen. Praise God, right? Two college students that aren't even married and 13 years later, man, they're getting a chance to baptize their child. You know what I call that?
I call that filled barns and vats filled with wine. Does that make sense? We keep sowing into the ministry and what we learn is that our capacity to give ain't nothing like God's capacity to give. Our capacity to receive is less than God's capacity to give. I mean, he can give more than we can even take in.
So here's the call, here's the call. Give God your best. That's it. Man, give God your best. You know, in it all.
Maybe today what's pulled on your heart is the time thing. God's given you gifts. Man, you have a background that would help on the weekends with a security team or parking team or a teaching gift that would help if you would jump in with student ministry or kids ministry or, you know, there's so much thing. Maybe lead a community group, whatever. It's a time thing.
God's calling you to do this. You know, maybe it's a talent thing. You know you have some gifts that you can bring to the church, but man, it's just, listen, after COVID, the most precious commodity to Americans is time. And we do this with it. You know, and maybe God's calling us to do this.
Maybe it's with your wealth. Like I said, maybe it's giving. Maybe it's something you need to think about. We use a tool here called the generosity journey or the generosity ladder. And I want us to just end by everyone taking a look at this and just saying, hey, where are you at on this?
All right.
Some of us have never given anything and we'd like to hide behind, I don't like church and money, but I've already given you the out. Do you need to give an initial gift? Do you need to give it to the pregnancy network? Do you need to give it to Baptist Children's Home? You know, or maybe it's here.
Maybe you want to sow in here, but we have initial giver, man.
Somebody who's never given, but they give for the first time. Second thing is a consistent giver. We're giving monthly or quarterly or something like that. The third thing is an intentional giver. That's where we would put the tithe.
Now I want to put my cards on the table. At Mercy Hill, we believe that is a step everybody needs to take. a 10%, man, I'm gonna give 10% of what God has given to me signifying that he owns it all. But some of us might not be there. It's like, hey, we gotta take other steps first.
Okay, well, let's start taking some baby steps.
Some of us might be in that sacrificial giver camp where it's like, man, I'm giving beyond the tithe. And then some of us are praying that God would build our life into a place where we can become a legacy type giver. And man, I would just call you to do this. Hey, here's the application of sermon today. Give God your best.
Look at that. Where am I? can I start to take a step in this direction? Let's pray. Father, we come before you right now and Lord, we just ask God that you would pry our hands off of our time, talent, and treasure.
Allow us to sow them into your kingdom so you tie our heart up in your mission. God, let us be generous people as we have seen your generosity to us. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
