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Hey, Prairie Lakes. Welcome. Uh, we're really glad that you're here as, uh, the beautiful month of May, uh, continues on. Thanks for joining us. It's good to be together. Hey, last weekend, pastor John kicked us off in a series we're continuing in, uh, this weekend series is called, with All Your Strength, with All Your Strength, okay?

Um, Jesus said, of all the things God told us to do, there was, there was one that was the most important. It was to love him and love our, uh, love one another with, with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of our strength.

Okay? But, um, so Pastor John took us off last week. There's this wonderful Bible project video that explains all this, but it's something really fascinating about this word, strength Loving God with all of your strength. Um, it, it, it actually has a pretty broad meaning. Okay?

It's the, it's the Hebrew word mayo, uh, which literally means very or much. So last week, pastor John just kept like, Hey, love God with all of your muchness. You know, um, so, so pretty cool. But, but it's got a few different aspects.

We have a, we, we've got a lot of different kinds of muchness, each of us. And, uh, and so that's what we're unpacking in this series. Last week, pastor John talked about, uh, loving God with all of our relational muchness, or our relational strength and influence.

Uh, this weekend we're gonna be talking about loving God with our financial strength, um, next weekend, talking about how do we love God with our mind, or all of our, all of our mental energy, mental strength. So, um, again, there's a great Pable project video last week that Pastor John showed.

Take a look at that. It'd be great. But this week, as we continue to talk about loving God with all of our muchness, again, we're gonna be talking about how we can love him with our, with our money, with our financial strength. Now, um, some of you probably are already saying to yourselves, now, this is gonna be short.

'cause uh, I ain't got a lot of financial strength. You know, um, or, or maybe this, like whatever financial strength we, we did have at one point. Um, we just don't have as much of, and if you're feeling that, that you probably have pretty, pretty good reasons for feeling that it's real.

In fact, um, here's, here's some stats, um, based on the consumer price index. Uh, this is just kind of three year prices of some of the basics, some of the staples, right? Cereals up 21% over three years, milks up 40%, breads up 23%.

Household energy is up 23%. Um, my kids are in prime cereal eating years. You know, I think, I think there's a VP at General Mills that has a picture of my daughter with the words, thank you, underneath hanging up in his office, okay? 'cause she fills that thing up to the brim every single morning.

I mean, it costs more to just eat breakfast with the lights on than it ever has before, right? Okay. It just does. Um, and, and so I think at the very least, man, it's just, it's important to acknowledge, 'cause we're talking about money at a time when it's just, it's super expensive just to live just is okay.

And the news kind of gets worse because this is not the only trend that's kind of challenging for us, uh, especially when it comes to loving God with all of our financial strength. Let we throw something else at you. Okay? Here's a chart of, of just charitable giving.

And we're, we're not just talking about, uh, people giving to church only, but churches are included in charitable giving. And this one has everything to do with, um, uh, giving by generation, okay? Giving by age. And here's, here's what we'll see.

72% of our elders are given to someone to somewhere 72%. But what you'll notice is the younger, you get boomers, 64%, you know, gen X, which is, I'm kind of right here, 58% millennials are beating our Gen X. I'm gonna, I'm gonna say I'm a millennial in this one, 61%, but, but look at this, okay?

The younger you are, only half of Gen Z is, is given, okay? Um, and so that's another trend that's kind of challenging. And by the way, we're seeing all of these trends, um, impact our church. Um, uh, we are seeing, and we have for the last three or four years now at Prairie Lakes, the last three or four years, we've seen a decline in the number of people who are giving.

And here's the odd thing, okay? So in the same years that we're seeing a decline in people giving, we're seeing an increase in people coming. So that's kind of crazy as well, right? So, listen, if you're just, if you're keeping score, uh, it, it, it costs more to just live.

Number one. Um, the younger you are, the less likely you are to give number two. Um, and number three, there's less people who are giving to Prairie Lakes. Number three. So, shaping up to be a pretty like, uplifting message this weekend.

Mm mm bet you're excited, right? Okay. Okay. Well, listen, um, truthfully, sincerely, I think it's gonna be pretty uplifting. Um, because those aren't the only things that are true. Uh, there's something else that is also true, and that is this, many of us do give, many of us do, uh, we don't care that our bologna sandwiches are costing more.

We give, uh, we might complain about how we're being gouged and we are, but we give, uh, some of us are 27 and we give, some of us are 72, and we give, and it just doesn't matter what the rest of the world is doing because this is what we've committed to do.

And that is encouraging, that's just encouraging to me to watch, you know, we're just, some of us are loving God with whatever financial strength we have, big or small, you know? Um, and, and lemme just, lemme just say this humbly to you as well, and I'm, I'm, I'm proud to, to say this, but just humbly, um, my wife and I are in that group.

We're we're givers. Um, in fact, Aaron and I tithe, okay? We tithe, uh, here's what that means. Here's what a tithe is. Tithe, uh, if you were gonna tithe it, it's giving God the first 10% of what I earn.

That's what a tithe is. Alright? So before Uncle Sam gets his cut, and he always does, right? Okay, before he gets his, um, before we pay our mortgage, before we pay our car payments, before we pay our student loan, before we pay our grocery bills and our utility bills, and before we pay into our investments, and before we pay for our vacations and our subscriptions, and now our prescriptions, um, and whatever Cookie Dough magazine, coupon card fundraiser that our kids bring home, right?

Okay? Before any of that, before any of that 10% of what we earn goes back to God in the Tin Council. Um, that's, that's a tithe. Now, if we took that 10%, we made it a pie chart, okay? And you just looked at where does the tinks tithe go every single month.

The vast majority of that tithe has and does go to Prairie Lakes, okay? That's how we do it. Um, and now some of it does go to other, like kingdom kind of opportunities that, that we give towards and people we give towards.

And plus, occasionally there'll be a need that comes along that we feel like called to give towards, and we will. Um, but my, my point is this, okay? Aaron and I are just two of the many around here who have decided that we're gonna love God with our financial strength by tithing.

Um, now why am I telling you this? Well, um, obviously it's because I want you to know that I'm better than you. I mean, right? Like, that's why, right? And of course, not of, of course, that's not it. Um, is it because that, I want you to kind of feel guilty if you don't.

No. Uh, is it because I want to, I wanna, um, manipulate a few dollars onto you, and I'm just gonna throw Venmo up there and you can give No, no, that's not why I'm telling you any, any of that.

Okay? Here's, here's why I'm telling you that Aaron and I tithe. Here's, here's why I'm telling you, I, I'm, I'm telling you that we tithe because I really want to tell you why. That's really what I wanna tell you today, okay? Why do we tithe? Why do we do that? All right?

I, I, essentially, I wanna share our giving story with you. Um, and so, um, and so I'd like to share this story, our giving story by using, um, kind of like developmental language or a developmental metaphor. Meaning when did our story start?

What was like, if, if our, if our tithing story had a childhood, how would it begin? And then as it's matured, how has it gone on? Okay? Um, here's some, here's some, here's some basic, or like, like early in our journey reasons for why we, we tithed and, and, and, uh, here, here, here's where our giving story would start, okay?

We start with the kind, kinda like this phrase we tithed because dad said, so that's really where our giving journey starts. Dad, dad said, so, and this is true for Aaron and I on, on, on two different levels, okay? First is a very literal earthly level.

Both of us grew up in homes where mom and dad modeled this for us. We both were blessed to grow up in, in families where church was a thing. It was a, it wasn't just a thing we, we showed up to. It was a thing that we gave tours.

So there was this, we just watched our parents do this, and there was this expectation that we would as well, okay? Um, so it was true in our earthly families, but not only that, Aaron and I give because our heavenly father told us to, we believe God. God, our father in heaven told us to. Okay?

Um, and, and I wanna just walk through some biblical, I don't know, passages where it kind of explains what a tie this. So, so God first instructs his children to, to, to do this, to tithe way back in the days where pretty much everyone did ag, where everybody was a farmer of some kind raising crops or raising animals.

Take a look at, at, at, at Deuteronomy 1422. Okay? Um, here's what God says. Be sure to set aside a 10th of all that your fields produce each year. Okay? So there it is. That's the first 10%. That's, that's a tithe of, of the harvest for them. Now, here's the next kind of more interesting question.

What were they supposed to do with this when they set it aside? That's where it gets kind of fascinating, okay? Because there are a few different ways God instructed them to give this tithe away. Take a look with me. Numbers 18, we'll be looking at verses 21 and 24.

Okay? Here's what he says. He goes, I give to the Levites. Now the Levites are the priests. Um, they're, they're the pastors of the day. He says, I give to the Levites, all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting.

And this was happening during the time before they had a permanent temple. They had this tent of meeting called a tabernacle, and it was where they did the sacrifices and where they worshiped. Okay? So, so I'm giving them the tithe and return for the work they do as, as priests, I give to the Levites as their inheritance, the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the Lord, okay?

The Levites were the priest. They were, they were the pastors of that day, so to speak. And so, so just get this, God's people were to provide for God's house. And the people God had called to take care of it through the tithes.

They were just supposed to give it to the pastors of the day. And it just, it cared for them. It helped, you know, gave 'em food to eat. You know? Um, now that was one way. This is not where this stops. Um, God's people were supposed to do even more with this tithe besides just drop it off at church.

Okay? Take a look at this. This is from numbers 18. Now, verses 25 and 26, the Lord said to Moses, speak to the Levites. So the pastors, and say this to them, Hey, when you receive from the Israelites, the tithe that I give you as your inheritance, when you get it, you must present a 10th of that tithe as the Lord's offering, which is what Aaron and I do.

Like, we take your tithe, and then we give a tithe ourselves. You know, so even us priests or pastors, like, we're not exempt from tithing. We're not, back then it was a sacrificing a 10th of the grain or animals they were given.

But there's even more to this thing than just that. Back to Deuteronomy. Now, same passage as we read before. But look now at what comes after, okay? We read this first, be sure to set aside a 10th of all your fields produced each year, but get this, I love this, by the way.

Eat the tithe. So eat it, eat it, right? Uh, eat the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your olive oil, the firstborn of your herds and flocks, and eat it. Enjoy it together in the presence of the Lord your God, at the place he'll choose as a dwelling for his name.

Okay? So eat it together. This wasn't some transaction, okay? And it wasn't just some sacrifice. This was a potluck. It's like the first church potluck right there. You know, they gathered as a family and they enjoyed the fruits of the labor, and they enjoyed what God had provided together.

It's like a tithe, potluck. God doesn't want them to just, I don't know, write a check. He, what he wants 'em to do is really participate in this family together, funded by, resourced by this tithe, okay? And, and, and get this, I am not trying to be weird about this, okay?

Think about if you, if you lived back then, how, how, how would it feel if you came to this gathering and you didn't have anything and you just sat and you just ate? Feel weird, right? 'cause you, you're not like participating in the life of the family like everybody else is.

You're just kind of sitting and you're just kind of enjoying what everybody else is giving. It'd be so weird. And yet, how many of us love the church that we are part of, and we, we enjoy it and we're invested in other ways, but we're not giving in the same way that everybody else is giving, right?

That's part of the reason that God has us do this, is because everybody has equal skin in the game. You know? Now, listen, even, even cooler than this tithe, potluck picture is, take a look at this later on in the same chapter, okay? Deuteronomy says, at the end of every three years, now, bring all the tithes of that year's produce.

And instead of giving it to the, to the church, store it in your towns so that the Levites, again, who have no allotment or inheritance of their own, so that the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless, and the widows, in other words, the most vulnerable in your society.

So all of them who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord, your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. So every three years, the part of the tithe that was food was essentially brought to the nearest towns food bank. So that, again, the, the people who are working in God's house, but not only them, everybody else in need was cared for.

That was the purpose of it, you know? So, okay, summary. Why do we tithe? We tithe because God, uh, because dad said so, right? And why did he say so? Well, to care for the people who are doing God's work as their job, number one, but they also tithe.

Don't forget to play your part in enjoying together what God has provided, number two and number three, to care for those in need. That's why we tithe according to our dad in heaven. You know? And so that's the most basic reason Aaron and I do.

Okay? In fact, I'm kind of up in the game here, and I, I, I know, but, but I, I want you to, to get this now, God is so serious about this practice, okay? He is, he's serious. It's not a suggestion, it's a command. And here's why. Um, he challenges his people.

And here's what happens when they don't do it. And he, and, and he challenges them through the prophet Malachi when he says this, okay? He says, will a mere mortal rob God, yet you robbed me. So he levels this accusation against his people.

And then they go, well, how are we robbing you? How are we doing that, God? And he says, well, you're robbing me in tithes and offerings. And he's like, you're not doing it. You're, you're under a curse. You and your whole nation, because you're robbing me, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.

So he is talking specifically about that every three years, right? Because what's Scott upset about here? Is he upset that he doesn't have enough? No, no. He's upset that other people don't have enough, because the people who should be giving aren't right.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. And then he says this, okay, test me in this. Now, listen, we're gonna read this. There are people who, who grab this verse and kind of twist it, and they make it into like this thing called the prosperity gospel, which says, if you give, God will give back to you.

And they make it, they make it a selfish thing, okay? You, you, you understand the context. Now, God's upset that other people aren't getting what they want. And so he says this, test me in this says, Lord of my, and see if I won't throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to share it.

He's not talking here about like individual prosperity, and I'm gonna get rich if I give to church. It's ridiculous. He says this, Hey, listen. If you have a fear that you're not gonna have enough, if you start giving, trust me, trust me, if you start being generous in the way that I'm commanding you to, I'll open up the floodgates of heaven.

I'll give you so much, you won't even know what to do with it. And again, right? The point is, the point is individual prosperity. The point is generosity for the sake of others. That's his target, right? Okay.

And Aaron, and I would te we would testify to that. We would say, I mean, like I said, we've, I mean, we've, we've celebrated, uh, 18 years. I think that's right. It is right? 2006. Since 20 24, 18 years, we celebrated 18 years in April, which means that, um, we've been tithing together for, for that long, which means that we tithed as couples who were in their twenties and making nothing and had way more on the wrong side of the balance sheet than the right side.

And we would testify that that would, there'd be years where we, we did that, and God came through. He just did. You know? And there's a lot of us that would tell stories like that, you know? So, okay, that's the most basic level.

That's why we tithe at the foundational, most kind of, kind of foundational level of, of, of this journey of ours. Why do we give? We, we, we give, because Dad said, so we give because Dad said so God said so. And he's got really, really, really good reasons for saying so.

Okay? Now, as we've continued to grow in this journey, we would add this reason to our giving story. Why do we tithe? Well, because of what Dad did for me. We ti because of what God has done for us, um, this reminds me of Zac, he's story. So I'd love for you to turn with me to, to Luke chapter 19.

Luke chapter 19. It's in the New Testament Now, Matthew Mark Luke's third book in the New Testament. It's this beautiful story of this man named Zacchaeus. Okay? Um, so Luke 19 will be in verse one. Uh, let's start reading together.

We give because of what God has given to us, uh, Jesus entered Jericho and he was passing through, uh, and a man was there by the name of Zacchaeus, and he was, he was a chief tax collector, and he was wealthy, okay? And I know we've explained this probably a million times, but again, if you're new, I'm, I'm gonna explain it again.

So, so he's, he's traveling through, again, the, the, the nation of Israel. But the nation of Israel really doesn't have it's only identity at this time. They don't have their freedom at the very least. Um, they are conquered by the Roman Empire.

And so what the Roman Empire would do was it would raise up people from each individual kind of geographic location, and they would say, okay, are you an Israelite? Great. You're the guy that's gonna collect taxes from your people, and you're gonna make sure they give us what we demand of them.

So you can imagine, right? People like Zacchaeus were not very popular. And, and a lot of times they were unscrupulous because they had the whole Roman empire, uh, empire and army at their back. And so they can say, you're gonna give, uh, your, your, your tax share, and you're also gonna give me mine.

And that's what he did. And he was very good at it. He was very wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was. But because he was short, he couldn't see over the crowd. Now we know how Zacchaeus his story ends. You know, I think we're gonna see Zacchaeus in heaven. I'm sure Zacchaeus does not appreciate that Luke continued to for, for 2000 years.

Now we know that Zacchaeus was short, which I love, right? So, so Zacchaeus climbs this tree, right? So he ran ahead and he climbed a sycamore fig tree to see Jesus since Jesus was coming that way. And when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and he said to him, before Zacchaeus does anything right, here's what Jesus says.

Come on down, climb on down. I'm, I'm staying at your house today. He invites himself over. So he, so he came down at once and he welcomed him gladly. And all the people saw this in the beginning to mutter. He's gone to be the guest of a sinner, right?

Because Zacchaeus was right. Zacchaeus hadn't, he hadn't changed his life. Like he hadn't gone a different direction. Jesus is enabling sin. He's, he's associated with someone who, who's just going the wrong way and who's done horrible things.

But Zacchaeus stood up and he said to the Lord, look, Lord, here and now I give half my possessions to the poor, and if I've cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. And he had cheated a bunch of people out of a lot, right?

So, okay, couple things here. I I, 'cause it's, for some of us, this is a very familiar story. We just don't even think about it, right? So, so don't miss this. Jesus loves Zacchaeus before he repents and turns anything around.

He loves him. While he was still going in the wrong direction, while he was still a sinner, while he was still sinning, the only thing he had done was climb a tree. So before Zacchaeus makes this declaration, Jesus says, come on down, let's hang out.

And then Jesus gets judged for doing that, going soft on sin, because everyone wanted Jesus to give Zacchaeus what was coming to him. But what Jesus gave him instead was an invitation. And when Zacchaeus receives this grace from Jesus, this wonderful gift of kindness that he did not deserve from Jesus, this, this, this grace that was freely given from Jesus, what does he do?

What does that kieu do? He gives back, right? Jesus loves Zacchaeus before Zacchaeus loves Jesus. And once Zacchaeus receives this gift of grace, what does Zacchaeus do? He gives, He gives. This is why we give, this is why we tithe.

We, we tithe because of how much God has given to us, especially in his son Jesus, and especially, especially through his church. Okay? That's why we do it, which leads us to our, our our third reason for giving.

Okay? We give because Dad said, so we give, we give because of what Dad did for me. And we give because we wanna be like dad. See, Aaron and I, we've got kids of our own now we do. And we know they're watching us. Okay? By default, our kids look to us as their models.

That's just how it works. And a huge part of what we want them to see in us is what it looks like when, when two people are striving to be imperfectly, for sure, but striving to be like their heavenly father. And, and, and I wanna be careful with this one.

'cause I, I think as parents, we are, we, we carry a bunch of guilt already. We already feel like we're not doing it right. We can do it better. Okay? Yeah. I, I I got it. I got it. But just if you could allow me to just, just, I wanna step around this weird guilt and shame we have for a second.

Maybe shift your perspective a little bit. Just, just let me, let me gimme the grace to just say this to you. Okay? Some of us are trying to provide all the opportunities in the world to our kids, and we carry this really, this guilt or the shame that we're not doing enough.

Maybe we need to stop trying to provide all the opportunities for our kids and instead provide them more examples of what it's like to be obedient. Maybe, maybe, maybe we need to worry less about whether they're in all the things.

Um, and instead focus more on modeling the right things. Because I think, I think although it's not our intention, I think we're creating some pretty selfish people. We're creating people, these little people that think it's kind of all about them.

And we're doing it for the best of reasons, because it's not our intention to do. Nevertheless, what are you modeling? What are you modeling to them? What, what, what part of giving and generosity and church and tithing and, and, and, and sacrifice and know what part of that are you modeling to them?

I mean, here's what we want for our kids. Here, here, here. Here's what Aaron and I want for, for Jude and Ellie, okay? We want them to become adults who, who, who don't think it's all about them. Uh, we, we want them to become people who are generous with their time and their generous with their money, and their do it for the sake of others.

Uh, we want them to be invested in a church that is trying to reach the Zacchaeus of the world. We want them to grow into adults who lead themselves in that way. And so the best way that we know how to help them become that is to model that for them right now.

And, and it may work and it may not, but if, if they're gonna want to be like God later, we as their parents have to want to be like God now. And we want them to watch us strive to be obedient as we become generous like God tells us to and like God is with us, so that when they become adults and they decide for themselves what kind of people they want to be, they might do the same.

Okay? We tithe because we want our kids to see what it's like to want to be generous. Like God is generous. Okay? All right. Last one. Last one. This is the best one now, and probably the, the furthest along in our giving journey, we tithe because it brings us joy and it makes an impact.

We've got 20 years now almost of doing this together. Um, 20 years of, of, of giving God the first 10% of what he's given us. And over those 20 years, we've not only watched the amount that we give grow as our careers have gone on and we're making more money or whatever, right?

But now we've got 20 years of firsthand knowledge of the impact it's had. And like I said, most of our giving has gone to Pray Lakes. And so here's what we've seen over the last 20 years. We've seen our tithe help launch 10 campuses, 10 churches, not just one 10.

We've seen our tithe help literally hundreds and thousands of people step across the line of faith, get baptized, and take steps in their faith. And people, for the most part, maybe never would have. We, we've seen our tithe get invested in teams that go clean up tornadoes and, and, and, and go build houses and, and go break cycles of poverty in Jesus' name and, and transform entire communities in Kenya and, and Guatemala.

We've seen our tithe, our tithe do that. We've, we've got 20 years of experience now of watching God bless our tithe in a no matter church. And in a time where it seems like more people turn their backs on this practice or start to grow cynical and selfish and inward focused, boy, we've never been more committed to this mission and vision of ours.

When we give to Pray Lakes, we're literally giving to eternal impact. 260 people have come to Jesus in four months just at Pray Lakes. That's worth my 10% and a whole lot more, right? And it brings us such joy to know that our sacrifice of obedience through this tithe means that our part of earth will start to look a little bit more like heaven as lives are changed as stories are rewritten, as people across the nation and the world and our state are loved on and cared for in Jesus' name.

We started the year by asking this, what if 2024 was the year where we experienced the kind of church that only God could have imagined? Listen, That only happens when God's people decide to be, be obedient and given the way, God given the way God tells us to.

Okay? So I want you to be encouraged. I want you to be challenged. I want you to feel ashamed. No, I want you to pray with me here, um, because we have an opportunity to take a step of obedience and let me pray us to that end.

Okay? Father in heaven, thanks, uh, for your word. Uh, thanks for this beautiful thing, um, that you've given us an opportunity to do. God, I I, I know for some of us, this feels like it's daunting. You know, like, how can we possibly do it?

God, remind us that, you know, we, we can start anywhere. Uh, God, for those of us who are kind of giving ourselves a little bit of a pass, challenge us. For those of us who are, who are just feel guilt and, and shame, um, show us your grace. After those of us who need faith.

Give us faith, thanks in advance for what you're gonna do. Jesus, you let me pray. Amen.