You are invited to examine where your treasure lies today, knowing that God desires your heart above all else. Whether you are responding to the call of salvation or seeking to grow in generosity, trust that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Take a moment to pray for clarity and let your faith guide your next steps in obedience.
That's false, and I'm gonna prove it to you. Now some of you are like, woah. That's blasphemy. No. That's false.
And it's preventing you from believing that God is good because you're holding the bad things that's happened in your life against him. Stop. The enemy did those things. The enemy came to "steal, kill, and destroy", And then he's blaming God, and you're believing him. Watch this.
Jesus I mean, God said God said, it's not God's will that anyone should perish. Y'all know what scripture I'm talking about? Anybody know where that is off the top of your head? Watch. Let me show you what I do when I when I don't know where scripture is.
I Google it. I don't have the whole thing memorized, guys. Watch. It's not God's will. 2 Peter-3:9.
Let's go to 2 Peter-3:9, just because let's let's go on a little detour here. 2 Peter-3:9. Watch this. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Question. Does everyone come to repentance? But God wants everyone to come to repentance. Does everyone come to repentance? No.
Some people die and go to hell because they choose their own way. And Jesus wants them God, the father, wants them to come to know him, but his will is not happening in their life. Why? Because they have a choice. God is a good God, and he's a loving God.
And because he's a loving God, he gives people a choice. So God is not forcing all of the the junk in your life to happen. Stop blaming him. Does that make sense? Yeah.
Amen. Does that help you guys? He loves you, and he's good. You can trust him. Those of you that that maybe you're like, woah.
Hold on. Once again, I'm just gonna I wanna read this 1 more time because there's people at me that are like, you just went against everything I've ever believed. I'm I'm not making fun of you. "God loves" you. God cares about you, and he wants you to know that he's good.
And you're not gonna approach a God that you think is sometimes bad and sometimes mad at you, and sometimes good. You're gonna run from him. You're gonna believe that he exists, but you're not gonna believe that his plan is best for you because you think that he at any moment might strike you with lightning. But when you believe that he's a good God, that he trusts you and his plans for you are better than your plans for you, you'll approach him in every aspect of your life, and you say, God, no longer what I want, but you want. I'm laying down my life because I realize that it's better to live for you than to live my own way.
You can't do that unless you believe he's good. Second Peter three:nine. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. His will is that everyone comes to know him, and sadly, some don't. His will Jesus Jesus prayed, our father who is in heaven, hallowed be be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What is his will in heaven? Like, Jesus Jesus himself taught us to pray that God's will in heaven be done on earth. That's his will. His will is that we experience a relationship with him.
We experience heaven on earth because we're in relationship with the king of heaven. That we experience that goodness. Now we don't because sin's in this world, and sin's ripping us to pieces because we let it. He's already conquered it. We can believe him.
We can trust him, and we can move forward in his goodness. Thank you, Jesus, for your goodness. And Lord, I just I pray that your truth rips down every stronghold and every lie that's preventing people from running to you because they didn't believe that you were good. Lord, I pray that we receive your goodness as little children with faith. In Jesus' name.
Amen. Okay. That was a sidetrack. Mark let's go back to Mark-10. Watch this.
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him, fell on his knees before him, said, good teacher. He asked, what must I do to inherit *eternal life*? Why do you call me good? Jesus answered, no 1 is good except God alone. We just proved that God is good and Jesus is God.
Now here's the crazy part. When we gave our life to Jesus, 2 Corinthians-5:17 says that we are new creations in Christ Jesus. The old is gone, the new is here. In John-1:13, it talks about us being born as children of God. Children not of a natural descent or human nature, but born of God.
Meaning God's natures implanted inside of us as a new creation in Christ Jesus. Let's go to second Corinthians. 2 Corinthians-13:5. 2 Corinthians-13:5. See if we it's coming.
There we go. Watch this. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do not do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in the world?
Is that what it says? No. What does it say? In you. Christ Jesus is in you.
Right? Who's good? Jesus is? God. Yes.
And who's in you? Jesus. God. Yeah. He's in you, the Holy Spirit.
He's in you. So now we can understand. Let's go back to Luke-6:45 says, a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart. Then we can read that, a good man brings good things out of the God stored up in his heart, because there's no 1 good but God. And we, because we've given our life to Jesus, have God in us.
So we say a good man brings God things out of the God stored up in his heart. Amen. Follow me? Now how does that happen? What is the process there?
Let's go to Philippians-2. I'm going somewhere with this, guys. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. There we go. Philippians-2.
It says, verse 12 and verse 13. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed everybody say obeyed. When do we or who do we obey? We obey him. He's not talking about obeying Paul.
It's as you've always obeyed God. Not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence. When do we obey God? Not just when the pastor's around. Not just when we go to church so that everybody can see us.
That's religion. That's junk. No. We obey out of relationship because we love him. We obey him because we trust him.
Because we trust what he says about us. What he says for us in every area of our life is better for us because we've gotten to know him and got to know that his plan is good, and he is good for us. So we follow him in radical, amazing obedience. Why? Watch.
Continue because continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Listen to the the message monsters and fear back on podcast. We talked about God being love, and and so this translation is out of, like, this worshipful respect and awe. Right? A deep sense of awe and wonder.
There's a just a tidbit. There's a a part in that message where I talk about Jesus himself quoting the Old Testament and changing the word worship to fee I mean, fear to worship. It's amazing. Okay. Anyway, so why?
Be for it is God who works in you to will and to act and to fulfill his good purpose. Another translation says, for the 1 who works is God. Like another name for him. He is the 1 who works. And what is he doing?
He's working in you, developing in you the desire to will and to act, and the ability to carry out his good purpose, to carry out his goodness. He's placed his goodness in you and has given you the desire and the ability to carry out his goodness. What do we do? How do we work it out? Like, working out what he's put in us.
How? As you have always obeyed, both in my presence and all the more in my absence. Why? Because your relationship with God is not predicated, is not based on me or on just on Sunday morning. Your relationship with God is a personal thing that impacts every aspect of your life.
And so what are you doing when you obey? You're working out what he's placed in you. His goodness in you, in your obedience, is becoming fruit in your life, is becoming results in your life, in every area of your life. So other people see your actions, and they're like, wow. Why are you doing those good things?
Man, that's amazing. Nobody does that. Why would you pray for those people? Why would you bless your waitress in that way? She didn't do anything to deserve that.
She was a terrible waitress. Man, God's grace, God gave me what I don't deserve, so I give people what they don't deserve. I'm just responding to what God's done in my heart, and it's impacting the world around me because he led me to do that, so I'm being obedient in the moment. Next thing you know, are seeing Jesus in me, and they're picking a fruit and getting and eating the seed and becoming Christians too. You get it?
His goodness through our obedience in relationship works out what he's the finished work that he's done in us outside of us, and the more that we grow in our "relationship with him", the more we people see Jesus through us in every aspect of our life. Isn't that awesome? Okay. So giving is a major part of that. Why?
For God so loved the world that he gave. God is a generous God. Therefore, God is if God is in you, you are a generous person. You might not believe that about yourself yet. You just need to grow in your understanding of who God is and who he is in you, because you're being transformed to be an imitator of God.
And in your life, you will become more and more generous as you grow in your relationship with him. It's just real, man. You'll grow more and more to bear the fruit of your father as you in every area of your life as you grow in relationship with him and learn to trust him in every single area of your life. That's amazing. So practically, like, real talk, what does New Testament giving look like?
What does it look like in our in our lives? Let's go to first Corinthians. 1 Corinthians-16:1. It says, now about the collection or the offering. Right?
Now about the collection for the Lord's people, do what I told the Galatians churches to do. Now Paul's speaking to the Corinthians, so it's like he's told multiple churches to do this very same thing. On the first day of every week, which is a Sunday, each 1 of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income. Okay? So on the first day of every week, so there's consistency.
Set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income. It's proportional to your income. Okay? Consistency and proportional. Saving it up so that when I come, no collections will have to be made.
Consisting consistency and proportional. What do I mean? Some may give $50 consistency consistently, and that's 50% of their income. Wow. That's like radically generous.
Some may give $50,000 consistency consistently, and that's 1% of your income. God doesn't look at the amount and treat it as the 1 who gave $50,000 is any different from the 1 who gave $50. He looks at the attitude of the heart. Are you walking in obedience to me out of relationship, or is it this obligation in this religious junk? Let me show you.
In Mark, watch this. This is pretty crazy to think about. Mark-12:41. It says, Jesus, now this is Jesus, Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put, and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Jesus is watching people drop in the money and watching how much they they put in.
Many rich people threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came and put in 2 very small copper coins worth only a few cents. Today, worth only a few cents, like a couple of pennies. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. Here's the key. They gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, but put in everything Wait, sorry.
They gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything all she had to live on. What was she doing? She was trusting God. Is it saying it's better to be poor? No.
That's not at all what it's saying. Money is a good thing, but it's a terrible God. It's saying no matter if you're poor or you're rich, our giving is a posture of the heart, not the amount. Sometimes God will ask us to give more than we think is possible to see if we're gonna trust him, if we really believe him at his word. The more the more amount that we think is possible, maybe $5 or maybe $5,000,000.
The $5 gift may carry an equal amount of faith for someone that the $5,000,000 gift carries for another. God knows. He's the 1 speaking to us and challenging us to grow in our trust and our love for him, our understanding of his love for us. Our walking in obedience is letting his goodness in our heart come out and impact the world around us. Watch this.
2 Corinthians-8. Just let this wash over you because this is amazing. And now this is Paul talking. And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. So there was this big need.
There was like this famine in the time in Jerusalem, and and and the churches weren't just giving to take care of their city, they were also giving giving to take care of the global church. I want you to know that we as a church, we give 10%, as a church, of everything that comes in 10% of everything that comes in, we give out to church planting. Why? Because I believe just like this, and not just taking care of the local church and the local city, but I believe that we are connected with the body of Christ, and that is a big deal. So shoot, for the past 8 months or so, every month, 1010% of what you guys give, what comes into real church, 10% goes out to planting this past fall, we were a part of planting 28 churches throughout America.
You guys were. Okay. So check this out. Verse 2, 2 Corinthians-8:2, in the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. They didn't they even though it hurt, they trusted God and wanted to be radically generous because God gave to us.
For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability, entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in the service to the Lord's people. I don't know about you guys, but I wanna be like that. Man, I wanna be the church that or, hey, We see another church planting in the city, and they're struggling. I wanna say, hey. Let us help you.
And they're like, no. No. We're we're gonna help you because people helped us. Because we're radically generous because God's radically generous. And in doing that for them, we're teaching that church to be radically generous.
How cool would that be? It's gonna happen. Verse 5. And they exceeded our expectations. They gave themselves, first of all, to the Lord, which is what we do.
And then by the will of God, it was relationship. It was following his will, following what he was telling them to do, also to us. So we urge Titus, just as he had earlier made in the beginning made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. Verse 7, but since you excel in everything real church. This is to you too.
This is to us. Since you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in the love that we have kindled in you, and you have. I mean, I hear people all the time. They come to Real Church for the first time. They hadn't been in 6 or 6 months.
They come back or and they contact me and say, pastor, your church loves well. You're like, when I when I walk in your church, I just see and experience the love of Jesus. Like, that that's you guys. That's the dream team. Like, you guys are amazing.
You excel. So in faith and speech and knowledge, in complete earnestness, in the love we have kindled you, see that you also excel in the grace of giving. See mean, I want to excel in the grace. What is grace? Getting what we don't deserve.
We realize it comes from him. Excel in the grace of giving. Why? Because where our treasure is, there our heart is also. 2 Corinthians-9.
I'm just gonna read a little bit here. This is straight from scripture. Okay, guys? Let me just tell you real practically. My wife and I, like, what do what do we do?
We've made it a point from the beginning of our marriage 13 years ago, And really, I was taught as long as I've I've grown up. Just make it a we we've made it a point. Our consistency is we don't we don't give every the every Sunday of the month. We give the Sunday after each paycheck. And we've just made it a habit to give 10 of what comes in because we're trusting God with that.
That's our fallback. That's what we do. And then sometimes God will challenge us, move on our hearts to give more, and I won't do that just by myself. We're because we're 1, husband and wife. We do it together.
We walk in peace together. We discuss it together, and we walk in obedience to what he leads together, and then we just move forward. Sometimes we give over and above to the church. Sometimes we give over and above to to whatever. I'm not telling you that to brag on me.
I'm telling you that as an example. As your pastor, hey, I'm trying I'm I'm helping to lead you in in moving forward in your relationship with Jesus. Okay? That's why real church does what it does as far as giving 10% to other ministries. Because, man, if if we are excelling in the grace of giving, if if we learn to do that, man, we need to be an example as a church body to do the exact same thing.
Amen? Okay. So 2 Corinthians-9:6. Watch this. This these these are some amazing promises for us.
Remember this, whoever "sows sparingly" will also reap sparingly. Meaning, if I sow like, I plant some corn in the ground and I just throw 3 or 4 kernels, I'm probably only gonna get 2 or 3 stalks back. Right? But if I throw hundreds and hundreds of seed in the ground, I'm probably gonna get hundreds and hundreds of stalks back. Right?
It's just a principle. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever "sows generously" will also reap generously. Now here's the key. Remember, this is not a high pressure situation. Our trust is in God.
Real church has everything that it needs. Like, God God has been radically generous and amazing. We are a self sustaining church, and we're able to bless people. It's a wonderful thing. I'm teaching you this because where your treasure is, your heart is also.
And I want us to grow in our understanding of who he is so that our heart is more and more with him in every aspect of our life. Amen? Okay. Watch this. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly.
Everybody say not reluctantly. Reluctantly, just to be very specific, is in an unwilling or hesitant way. The Bible says don't give in an unwilling or hesitant way. If you are unwilling and you're hesitant, I would rather you not give. Right?
Watch this. Or don't give under compulsion. Compulsion, being forced to do something. If you've been forced to give in the past, it was wrong. If you've been forced or manipulated into giving in the past, it was wrong.
We won't do that ever. And if you feel forced, don't give. Okay? That's scripture. Why?
For God loves a cheerful giver. What is cheerful? It's like, oh my gosh. I trust your will for me in this area more than my will. Man, I can't wait to see what happens.
Thank you, God. I'm excited about what you're gonna do with this because you're gonna take it and you're gonna multiply it, but not only that, watch, and God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, everybody say all things. All things. At all times, everybody say all times. All things.
Having all that you need. You will be abound be able to abound in every good work. Not some good works, but every good work. In all things at all times. There's so many times, I think, that we're so scared to be to to let his goodness flow out in the area of our finances.
We don't trust him, and because we don't trust him, we don't give him control of the finances. It's his will to be in control. So we take that control. And now all the stress and anxiety and pressure's on us, instead of releasing control and trusting him with what he says and letting him carry all the stress, anxiety, and pressure because he was made to do that. We weren't.
Well, actually, wasn't made but he, you you get what I'm saying. Somebody will come out. You said god was made. No. No.
That's not what I meant. Alright. Anyway, as it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor. Their righteousness endures forever. Now verse 10.
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food alright. What what is that? Seed to the sower and bread for food. Like, wheat. If you think about you think about making bread, it comes from a kernel of wheat.
Right? Where does where does the seed for wheat come from? The same kernel. Right? You take the kernels off the wheat, and you you grind them into bread, or you take those kernels and you plant them in the ground.
Both are seed, and both are for bread. If you if you if you you take an apple off a tree, an apple has some seed in it, But it also has meat to eat. I take the seed out, the seed is for sowing seed, and the meat is for eating and enjoying. Everything that you have been given, God has given you both seed and meat. He's given you some to sow and some to enjoy.
Man, eating an apple is good. It tastes good. It makes me feel good. It's awesome. It's wonderful.
Man, God blesses you to enjoy what he's blessed you with, and he's also blessed you with some seed to sow. Why? He who supplies seed for the sowing bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. As we give out, God sees us trusting him so he knows he can trust us. Right?
And so he blesses us so that we can give more, so we can spread his goodness more and more in that area, whichever area we trust him in. Okay. Enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. Verse 11, You will be enriched in every way. Man, that's an amazing promise right there.
We don't wanna hear that. But it says, you will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. What would that be like, guys? Like, really, what would it be like to be generous on every occasion? I'll just be real.
My face not there yet, but, man, I want it to be. I wanna be I I I wanna just say, man, be moved and just on every little every occasion, just be radically generous because of my trust in God that he's gonna do what he said he would in this word? What if I trusted him that literally? Man, I'm growing. 1 day, father, help my unbelief.
And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people, but is off also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God because of the service by which you proved yourselves. Others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ and for your generosity in sharing with him and everyone else. As you guys give, what's gonna happen? You're sowing.
That what you're sowing into is gonna reap a harvest that's going to be able to bless many other people, but also you're gonna reap more seed and and and a harvest to be able God's blessing you through it. That's amazing. Ain't that cool? Okay. And in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace God has given you.
Verse 15, and here's the end of it, and we're done. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Whose gift? All all that you have is his. You're just a steward.
You're just someone who is taking what he's given you and saying, God, where do you wanna use this? You've given me these gifts and abilities. I wanna steward what you've given me well. Right? Because I trust you with what you've given.
It's his gift that he wants to give through you, and he wants to use you as a part of those things in every aspect of your life. That's amazing. We get to be a part of it. It's so cool. Alright.
God loves you. I'm I'm done with the message. I don't have anything else. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, really. So let's just do this. How many of you guys would say that you learned something today in the area of giving? Few people? Good.
How many of you guys would say you want to grow in the grace of giving? I'm I'm man, I'm in. Well, let's just do this. Let's just pray. Father, I thank you for who you are, and I thank you for loving us.
And I just ask you to teach us what it means to walk with you in this area of our life. And shoot, in every area of our life. Teach us what it means to trust you in every area of our life. Lord, we praise you. Father, we want to know you more.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have eternal life. If you've been listening let's just keep your heads bowed and eyes closed. If you've been listening and you're like, man, I don't know God in this relationship that you've been talking about, but I want to. I just I'm here today. I've been seeking after hope, and, man, I I need to know God personally.
I want to experience him in the way that you're talking about. I wanna have a relationship with him. If that's you, would you raise your hand? I see you. I see you.
I see you. Anybody else? I have 2 or 3. Anybody else? Alright.
Would you guys just look up at me? Though not not everybody. Sorry. Just the people that raised their hand. Everybody else look down.
Okay. I just wanna have personal conversation. Do you believe that God loves you? Just shake your head yes if you do. Big yes so I can see you in the back.
Yeah? Okay. Do you believe that Jesus died for you and rose again? Yes or no? Yes?
Yes? Okay. Are you ready to surrender your life to him? Yes? Alright.
Well, we're gonna pray. Alright? And I want you to pray this with me and mean it with everything you have. See, Jesus paid the price for all of your past. Right?
But he also paid the price for all of your present and your future too. Jesus has forgiven you completely, and now it's just time for you to receive it. And in a moment, in this moment, you're gonna be born again. God's gonna give you a new heart and the ability to follow him, but also he's gonna make his residence in you so you can grow in a relationship with him. Isn't that cool?
You believe that? You wanna experience that? Let's pray. Just close your eyes right now and say, Jesus, I've been living for me, but I choose to live for you. I don't know what that means.
Help me. Forgive me. Thank you. Make me new. I want to follow you.
I invite you into my life. I just say this right now, I receive you. Thank you. Now everybody in here say this, thank you for "forgiving me". Thank you that I'm yours.
Thank that Thank you that I'm new. Teach me to hear you more clearly. Everybody as well, because we wanna grow in the grace of giving, say this. God, I ask you teach me to give. You are generous so I am generous.
Show me specifically how you want me to "walk this out" in my life and help me to obey. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. I'm just going to dismiss you guys.
If you just gave your life to Jesus, please check on there. You gave your life to Jesus. We wanna contact you and get you into a foundations group. If God moved on your heart today and you're like, man, I wanna give today, you can. We have opportunities to do that online.
You can do it in text. You can do it in the giving boxes. But if you're like, kinda feel obligated and unsure, don't. Just go home and pray about it and follow his leading. Okay?
Because, like, this is relationship. Right? So does that make sense? God bless you. Thank you for coming.
Let's grow in his in in him, and I love you. Have an amazing week.
Thanks for listening to The Real Church podcast. If you have questions, comments, or would like to get to know us, be sure to check us out on social media by searching real church clearwater or visit us online at www.realchurch.us. If you'd like to play a part in what we're doing, you can do so right where you are. Your prayers are powerful and effective. You can also be a part through giving.
Go to realchurch.us and click the give button. Whether you're praying, giving, or serving with Real Church, you are playing a part in every life being changed. Thank you. Until our next podcast, be blessed. We'll see you next
time.