God’s Money Test | The Blessed Life: Week 2

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Last week on The Blessed Life.

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- So I just want to be real clear on this: This is not a campaign.

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No campaign.

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Not release your sphincter, relax your sphincter.

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Rain forests are what it is like to live the blessed life.

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The blessed life is understanding where it is that the most moisture from God is.

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The blessed life is about understanding, understanding is where do I go to sense God more?

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It's more blessed to give than receive.

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So when I am a giver, there is moisture, there is a presence of God.

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He is a giver and so I have to be a giver.

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And we know what has our heart based on what we're giving ourselves to,

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based on what's on our calendar

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and based on our credit card statement or our bank statement.

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Take an inventory of what God has blessed you with.

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What is God done in you?

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Because I promise you, you might not have all that you want to have.

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But I promise you, you have more than you could have on your own.

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He's been forming you.

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I believe you have been in a construction process where God has been working on you

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and doing something for you for a long, long time

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and in you for a long, long time.

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He wants to mold your heart.

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He wants to develop your heart for the purposes that He has for you.

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- Well, hey, I'm Lena Schuler, I'm the Crossroads Anywhere Community Pastor,

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and we're so glad to have you joining us for church today from anywhere you might be.

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We're in a series right now called The Blessed Life that we kicked off last week.

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And I just felt so refreshed and invigorated

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to be more generous after experiencing last week's service.

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I don't know about you, but man, it just felt good

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to think about the ways that God has been faithful

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and the blessings that He's given me.

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And it made me want to be a giver like Him.

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And so I know that there's so much more He has for us in this series.

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I'm excited to experience it alongside of you.

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And before we go any further, we're going to spend some time worshipping together.

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And this is a way for us to declare to God that we're thankful

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for the ways that He's blessed us and to prepare us to receive something good

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that He wants to give us in the rest of this hour.

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So why don't you sing with us?

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Well, we're going to sing a new song together.

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We introduced it last week, but it does this.

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It tells a story about a God who comes down to us

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and a God who has power like no one else does.

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Thank you, Lord.

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Yes, he does.

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Thank you, God.

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When we stand here,

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some of us wrecked by shame and worry and doubt.

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And for those of us who know You, we know that You're a God with kindness,

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deep, deep kindness and power that comes down to us to lift our heads up,

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to break out of the mess and step into life.

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Thank You for giving life so freely like You do.

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I pray all this because of You, Jesus. Amen.

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It's a sweet, sweet time.

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Thank you for singing with us, bringing your heart into the place.

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Hey, let's make this big place feel a little smaller right now.

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Turn to somebody you've been singing with and give them your name and smile.

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- Well, my hope for you is that this week

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you actually get to experience the God who overcomes

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maybe in a fresh new way that you have your head lifted up

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and God meets you in a powerful, refreshing, joyful way this week.

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You know, maybe in the midst of that time you were multi-tasking just now.

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I see you doing the dishes at home.

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I see you because I am you.

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I have totally been there.

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And, you know, there are ways for us to worship all week long,

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not just in this one hour experience.

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And so if you want to worship through Crossroads music,

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there's a playlist on Spotify and all kinds of Crossroads original songs

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like the one that we just sang on Spotify and Apple Music

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and YouTube and wherever you normally listen to music.

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So head there and maybe practice worshipping this week in a new way.

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You know, one of the reasons that we worship is because it helps us get closer to God.

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I don't know about you, but I felt closer to God

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after hearing Michael Junior a few weeks ago.

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There were tons of people all across our church

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and all of our locations and all of our communities

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who either raised our hands or who silently said to God,

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"I want more of you and I want to give you full access to my life."

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If that was the first time you've done that

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or you did that and you've never been baptized,

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you've never publicly declared your faith in Jesus,

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now is the time for you to do that.

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We have baptisms coming up in a few weeks at Crossroads.

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And we want to give you the opportunity to declare your faith in Jesus,

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to declare that you want to follow Him all the days of your life,

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the way that followers of Jesus have been declaring that

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since He was walking around the earth with them.

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And so whether you live near Crossroads location

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or you're in a city in California or in Boston or Philadelphia,

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we want you to get to experience baptism as a next step in your faith

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if you've decided to follow Jesus and haven't done that yet.

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So you can chat with us on the Crossroads Web site

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and we'd love to help you get started, get you signed up

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and help you figure out how to make that happen anywhere you might be.

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You know, on Sunday nights I often go to dinner at my family's house.

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I don't know what your Sunday nights look like,

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but we're often sitting around the kitchen island at my parents house

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and there's laughter and sometimes there's challenge.

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Lots of times because that laughter

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or that challenge comes directly from the junior high humor of my father

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or the encouraging question that he asks us

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that probes something good from what we experienced at church that week.

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My dad happens to be Brian Tome

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and I want you to get to experience what I experience

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around his kitchen island on Sunday nights.

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I want you to get a weekly push from Brian Tome in the Crossroads app

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in the midst of your group chat

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to help you process the weekend a little bit further,

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to maybe laugh around some junior high humor

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and to be challenged to do something during the week

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with what we experience in the midst of this church service.

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And so you can subscribe to the Weekly Push from BT to get those questions

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and that conversation starter in the midst of your group chat.

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It will help your group go further

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and will help you personally experienced more of God

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and more of the church throughout the week.

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And I want that for you.

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Right now if you are part of the Crossroads team and you want to be generous,

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we can do that by heading to Crossroads.net/give

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and becoming a giver today.

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And right now, we are in a series called The Blessed Life.

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And I'm excited for you to get to experience the blessed life.

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- So this is the day.

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Just so you know, I'm just going to tell you what you can expect,

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I'm going to put out front for you.

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This is the day that you accused me of ulterior motives.

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Seriously, this is that day.

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This is that day where I say things

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that I know is going to get under your skin

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and I'm going to get more than my normal fair share of emails.

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This is that day.

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This is that day where it looks like I am being condemning and I'm not.

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There may be some things that happen today where you might feel conviction,

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but there is zero interest.

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Zero interest to me to make you feel unworthy.

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Zero.

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But this is the day where you may think that that's my point.

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This is the day that I play into some of your fears

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for what a megachurch pastor does, thinks and believes.

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This is that day.

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So I just want to state that upfront.

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I know exactly what I'm walking into.

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I know it and I welcome it.

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Because to the core of my being and the core of my relationship with God

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I've seen what I'm talking about over and over and over,

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and I want you to have it.

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I've seen what I'm going to talk about today happened

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in hundreds of people's lives who I've personally counseled,

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not just people I've kind of talking to,

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but hundreds of people who I personally counseled

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and followed up with and discipled.

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And I'm excited to bring this in today.

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Do you know that for everyone in here, there is a test that you regularly take?

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Now, you might be going like this.

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"What test?"

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Yeah. That's exactly what I did all of my educational year: "What test?".

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I hated that. I would go in.

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I would go in and I would sit down at my desk

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and the teacher would start passing out tests.

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And I'd go like, "What test?

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Is this a pop quiz?

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What test? What test?"

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And so many times it was, no, in the syllabus at the beginning of the class,

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I just didn't pay attention.

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There's a reason why in college I took accounting I three times, OK?

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I didn't start get my stuff together educationally until I got to seminary.

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But there is a test and I'm telling you right now,

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not I'm telling you.

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God is telling you.

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He's going to tell you that today.

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If you have any value or belief in the Bible,

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there is a test that He gives again and again and again and again.

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That test that He gives us it's called the tithed test.

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It's the test of whether or not we will return to Him 10 percent of what is His.

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Last week we looked at the fact that what all we have is all things God's given us.

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We're born in a free country.

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That's something God gave us.

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We didn't choose it.

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If we've been involuntarily inhaling and exhaling on our own,

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we didn't choose that. He blessed us with that.

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There's things that you and I have

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that we only have because of the blessing of God.

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And it's hard to say which ones come because we've worked for them

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and which ones come because God just gave it to 'em.

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But even then, when I worked for it,

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God gives me the opportunity to work for it.

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But there is a test where we are able and asked

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and expected by our Heavenly Father, if He is your Heavenly Father,

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to return to Him only 10 percent of what is His.

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Let's read the book of Malachi 3:7.

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I'm going to give you a lot of scripture verses.

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Are you okay with that? I'm going to give you a lot.

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I just want to make sure you understand this isn't my idea.

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I want to make sure that you understand this isn't my idea.

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This is a very, very heavy thread.

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And here's the thing: Lives in here are going to be changed today.

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There are people in here, you've been stuck.

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I'm going to tell you why.

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There's been some of us in here who just like keep hitting the wall.

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And I believe God's going to reveal to you what that wall is

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and you're going to have a breakthrough, you are.

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Book of Malachi 3:10, God says this:

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Pour down blessings until there is no need.

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And He said bring the full tithe into the storehouse.

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What is He talking about here?

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He's talking about bring a tenth of your gross income,

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or everything you get, a tenth to your local church.

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That's what he said, a tenth of your gross income to your local church.

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In the New Testament they come

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and they bring it to the apostles at the apostles' feet.

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It's a place where you surrender a tenth of what is actually God's.

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Now, I know there's a lot of questions on this, there's a lot of stuff going on.

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Let me make sure I understand here.

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Today we're not looking at what The Wall Street Journal says about money.

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This whole series, because The Wall Street Journal

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is never gonna get you to get a sense of blessing, it never will.

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We're not looking what Suze Orman says.

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I don't care what Dave Ramsey says.

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We're looking today what the Bible says.

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And this is critical: tithing is a test.

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You know the number 10 in the Bible comes up again and again and again.

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God regularly tests in the Bible

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or there's tests in the Bible surrounding the number 10.

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When the nation of Israel was in bondage to Egypt, there were 10 plagues.

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Ten plagues to test Pharaoh's heart.

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The Commandments, there are 10 of them.

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The Commandments not only are rules for lives,

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they're test about whether or not we will obey who God is.

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Israel in the wilderness, as they're wandering in the wilderness,

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there are 10 tests, 10 times God tests them in the wilderness.

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Jacob, one of the heroes of the faith.

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Jacob.

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Jacob is working for Laban in order to get one of his daughters.

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His wants Rachel and Laban, his future father-in-law,

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changes his wages 10 times.

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He has a test 10 times whether or not he actually wants

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to wait for the daughter that he actually is going to get.

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Daniel in the book of Daniel,

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he gives pharaoh a test and says, how about you test me and I fast.

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I eat the way I want to eat for 10 days

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and see whether or not this is healthy or not.

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This is a test that Daniel goes through.

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In the New Testament we have ten virgins who are tested.

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They're tested whether or not they have oil inside of their lamps.

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There's also in the Book of Revelation,

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ten days of testing in the Book of Revelation.

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Now, this is just a lot about stuff, just so you know.

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If you know all these stories,

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I'm sorry, if I'm just breezing over the top of them,

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because all these stories are awesome.

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I wish I could give a whole series on all of them right now.

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I'm just letting you know this a regular or a constant.

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And another one. How many apostles were there?

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Ten --

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Twelve. I'm sorry. Twelve.

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Got that one wrong, shoot.

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Well it was twelve, but one was a dud

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so we'll call it eleven and round it down to ten.

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So there was ten apostles.

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There's always --

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When when God tests us what He's doing is He's looking to see,

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"Do you really want me?

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It's a test.

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Do you really believe that I have blessed you with all that you have?

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Because if you do, then 10 percent going back to Me

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and My work should be easy."

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It's a test of do we really love God and own our faith?

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Do we own it?

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As a dad, I'm a dad of three adult children.

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I'm very thankful for all my children.

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I'll tell you, I'll start crying if I think about it too much.

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Every one of my kids' lives,

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one of the most proud and moving moments of my relationship with them

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or in my life really is when I found out,

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when I find out that one of my kids tithed.

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Last time I found this out at Thanksgiving couple years ago,

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my son was just talking about one things he was thankful at Thanksgiving.

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And I won't tell you all that he said.

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But I looked at him and said, "You're tithing right now?".

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Like not dad is giving you an allowance and making you do it.

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You mean you are getting your own adult big boy paycheck and you are tithing?

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Yes.

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What it does -- what it does is it's like, man.

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OK.

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I know God has your heart now because you can get baptized

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and it not be as much of a test as giving,

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returning back to God 10 percent of what He's already given.

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It gets personal.

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Tithing is a test and tithing is biblical.

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I want us to see how strong and consistent

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this strain is throughout the entire Bible.

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We know that God is love.

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How do we know God is love?

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The Bible. The Bible tells us.

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No one else would tell.

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The Bible is what tells us God is love.

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We know that we should not steal and not murder, all that kind of stuff

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Because the Bible says that.

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We have the Ten Commandments.

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We know that we should love our neighbor as our self.

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Love. Go out of our way

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Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

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We know this by the Bible.

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We know that we should pray for our enemies as the way to release bitterness.

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We know this through the scriptures.

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Right?

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And the same scripture tells all those things that are helpful

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and is only contained in the scriptures, is the same place,

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the same source that consistently, again and again

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tells us as God's children if we want to be a child

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that's under the blessing of God,

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that is in the zone of blessing for God,

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this is something we will do.

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I know when I give this people say,

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"Well, isn't this an Old Testament thing?

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Isn't this a law thing?"

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A law thing meaning when nation of Israel got established as a country,

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then God put them in their law system.

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And so this law should be for them back then.

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Well, no, no.

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I'll show you this because the tithe existed long before the law existed.

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The tithe existed during the law.

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The tithe existed long after the law with Jesus.

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I'm going to show you this partially right now.

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The Book of Genesis 14:18, we have Abraham,

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key figure in the nation of Israel that's about to happen.

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And we see that he bumps into this guy whose name is Melchizedek.

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He's not a Jewish priest.

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There are no such things.

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But this -- it's some guy who's got his spiritual A-game going.

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Let's read it. It says this:.

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So here we have Abraham before the law even comes along.

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Abraham in his relation with God realizes, "I've got to give a tenth.

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I've got to give a tenth to this guy right here."

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That's 500 years before the law.

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400 years before the law we have Jacob who comes along.

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I mentioned a bit of his story just earlier and it says this:.

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He says that to Laban. I'll give you a tenth.

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Then we have in the law Leviticus 27:30-32:

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So God saying, "Hey, if you're in agriculture and I'm giving you a crop,

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a 10th needs to be returned to the storehouse.

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If you're a sheepherder, a tenth needs to be returned.

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If you're in banking, a tenth of your paycheck needs to be returned

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or your bonus, whatever it is.

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Then after the law, because Jesus says, "I haven't come."

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Jesus says, "I've come to fulfill the law."

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The reign of Jesus and Jesus, death and resurrection

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when He moves it completely

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says all these things that are cultural to the nation of Israel,

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these things aren't relevant to other followers of Jesus.

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But Jesus says this to these people who are incredibly religious.

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He says:

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Jesus goes, "You religious people, you Old Testament law people, like you really anal.

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Like you're tithing your parsley.

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You're tithing your Frank's Red Hot Sauce.

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You're tithing your cilantro.

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But you're neglecting that there's people here who need justice, who need help."

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And he says this, "You should have done the former,"

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meaning you should have tithed.

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That's exactly what he said,

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"You should have tithed, but you shouldn't have neglected

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more weightier things that you need to get on to."

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And giving God back a tenth, as I'll explain in a minute,

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isn't all that weighty.

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And then in the book of Hebrews 7, it says that Jesus receives our tithe.

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This is long after Jesus has left planet Earth.

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Jesus actually receives our tithe.

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So God receives the tithe, that we return the tithe back to Him.

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And the storehouse is the place where it is the local church

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that then spends the tithe on pushing forward the agenda of God.

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We return it because we don't all own any of it,

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and especially that 10 percent, we don't own that.

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We return that.

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So one of the reasons why, and I'm just going public on some things

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I've always believed, but I haven't been this clear with.

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That's why I never counsel people personally on their tithe

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to be giving things outside their church.

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Give to things outside their church.

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I give things that I'm way, way, way beyond the tithe for decades.

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It's great to give to other things, but you can't play God with the tithe.

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When we decide that I'm going to help this missionary here.

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I'm going to help.

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OH, I have this buddy at work that had a hard time here and I'm --

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We're not returning it.

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We're still playing God with it.

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We're not surrendering it.

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The test is bringing it and surrendering it.

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And every person who I've ever known who has an X factor with God,

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they settled this.

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What do I mean by an X factor of God?

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It's like you're around them

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and you just sense the moisture of the blessing of God around them.

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It's just a weird thing, like they just seem to have

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more yeses than the average person to their prayers.

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They seem to have a sense of vitality about them.

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There's just a -- there's a spiritual maturity.

00:32:38

There's a depth about it.

00:32:39

It's because they've been taking and passing the test

00:32:44

and the blessing of God is residing on their life and on the relationships.

00:32:49

Tithing is the established, ordinary, expected practical thing

00:32:56

that every follower of Christ does.

00:32:59

It's the normal, ordinary, expected practiced, reenforced thing

00:33:04

that every follower of Christ.

00:33:06

I mean follower of Christ, not people who just go to church.

00:33:11

Literal followers of Christ do.

00:33:14

And it makes -- why is it a test?

00:33:15

Because it's hard, that's why.

00:33:19

If it wasn't difficult, it wouldn't be a test, would it?

00:33:22

You know, playing jump rope is not a test.

00:33:23

Well, for some of us it is.

00:33:26

The test is difficult.

00:33:27

I talked about in college being hungry.

00:33:30

Part of why I was hungry was because I was tithing.

00:33:33

That's when I started tithing.

00:33:34

God was building me spiritually.

00:33:35

He laid out much of what I'm giving you.

00:33:37

And I was like, oh, wow, I just have to do that.

00:33:39

Part of it was that.

00:33:40

And part of it was I was going out to eat a lot

00:33:44

and I wasn't buying groceries.

00:33:46

To do this it's going to take a measure of faith

00:33:50

and it's going to take a measure of math.

00:33:51

You're going to have to figure out which of that is for you today.

00:33:54

How much is faith?

00:33:56

How much is math?

00:33:58

Faith to go to 10 percent now?

00:34:00

Faith to go to 3 percent and up it 2 percent every year?

00:34:04

Math of I know I have all these different premium services I can.

00:34:07

Math of I'm saving x amount.

00:34:10

I'm not gonna save that much more.

00:34:11

I'm going to return what is God's to Him.

00:34:13

It's whatever your decision is,

00:34:16

your decision on what is the combination of what is faith and what is math.

00:34:21

But all of us who pass this test,

00:34:24

and I'm continuing to take this test and pass this test.

00:34:26

All of us who pass this test, we have to have a measure of faith

00:34:30

and a level of math every time.

00:34:33

Malakai 3:6-9, back to Malakai, not Malachi, the Italian prophet, but Malakai.

00:34:42

He says this:

00:35:13

So it says here God doesn't change.

00:35:17

He doesn't change His belief on thou shall not steal.

00:35:21

And something He's very, very clear on,

00:35:23

He doesn't change His belief on either.

00:35:25

And He's talking with some people here who,

00:35:27

to use the nomenclature of our series, who are not blessed.

00:35:31

They're not blessed. They know something isn't going on right.

00:35:34

And he goes, "You've robbed me.".

00:35:38

And they're going, "Whao, whoa, whoa, whoa.

00:35:40

How have we robbed you?".

00:35:42

Because you've kept what is mine.

00:35:45

The 10 percent that is mine.

00:35:48

It's a key terms here is "does not change."

00:35:52

Key term is tithe, tenth.

00:35:57

Now let's think about how crazy God is.

00:35:59

I mean this is crazy.

00:36:00

I know that you think, we all think it's crazy that God would expect us

00:36:04

to live on 90 percent of what we live on right now.

00:36:07

But I'll tell you what's really crazy is when I talk to people

00:36:10

who are in business or people who are heading organizations,

00:36:13

one common challenge everybody has is capital.

00:36:17

"I've got to get capital."

00:36:19

"I've got to get to be able grow my business."

00:36:20

I've got to get capital."

00:36:21

"I've got to get investors."

00:36:22

And if you spend time in the non-profit world or anybody who has expanding business,

00:36:27

this a constant challenge.

00:36:28

It comes up again and again and again and again and again.

00:36:31

Can you imagine a banker?

00:36:33

Bankers are good people, by the way.

00:36:35

Let's clap for the bankers in here.

00:36:36

Bankers never get clapped for.

00:36:38

I'm giving the bankers a clap.

00:36:40

Jesus actually tells stories about bankers in a positive way.

00:36:45

Bankers, investment, people who make investments,

00:36:48

could you imagine if somebody was to make an investment in your business

00:36:53

and they say, "Okay, how much do you need?

00:36:54

You need $10,000?

00:36:55

Okay. Here's what I'm going to do.

00:36:57

I'm going to give you $10,000.

00:36:58

And here's the terms.

00:36:59

The terms of this deal is I expect $1000."

00:37:06

You're like, "$1000 a month?

00:37:08

$1000 on annual profits?

00:37:11

$1000 on growth of the business?

00:37:12

$1000 as a percentage of sales?

00:37:14

What? What?"

00:37:15

"No, no, no. It's $10,000

00:37:17

and then I just need a one time fee of $1,000."

00:37:21

You go, "Whoa, you're going to give me $10,000

00:37:25

and you're going to only require $1,000 back?"

00:37:29

"That's right, that's what I'm going to do."

00:37:30

"Well, sign me up for that."

00:37:33

Friends, that's exactly what God does.

00:37:35

If we believe that God actually is the one who gives all things.

00:37:40

If we actually believe that God is aware of our situation

00:37:43

and He has given us opportunities, that's exactly what He does.

00:37:46

He gives us.

00:37:48

He gives us things.

00:37:49

He said, "Now the test is I just want to see if you still know

00:37:53

this all comes from Me and your most important thing in your life is Me.

00:37:56

And the way I'll know that is I expect a 10 percent immediate return

00:38:00

that you're not controlling that goes right back to My to --

00:38:03

the local church, the place where I'm doing my business

00:38:06

and trying to expand things and all that stuff."

00:38:09

This is crazy.

00:38:11

Because what happens is when we do that with God,

00:38:15

we send Him a signal that says, "God, over here.

00:38:18

Over here, God. Here's a person who wants more of You.

00:38:21

God, over here, over here.

00:38:23

Here's a person who wants more of what You want to bring.

00:38:25

God, over here.

00:38:26

Over here is a person that when You send things my way, You can trust me.

00:38:31

It's a test. You can trust me.

00:38:33

And I'm going to honor the things that You have given me

00:38:37

and the things that You've done to me."

00:38:38

This is why, second point, tithing is powerful.

00:38:43

It is powerful.

00:38:47

One of the other stories in the Old Testament.

00:38:49

We have this king and this king is just utterly blown away

00:38:54

by what's happening as he sees the people of Israel bring forth their tithe.

00:38:59

Here's what it says:.

00:39:13

It's amazing that I still have 90 percent left, 90 percent left.

00:39:19

It is better to be blessed on 90 percent

00:39:22

than to live on a 100 percent that isn't blessed.

00:39:25

I'll say that again.

00:39:26

It is better to be blessed on 90 percent

00:39:31

than be living on a 100 percent that isn't blessed.

00:39:34

Because this is a powerful, powerful thing.

00:39:38

I just ran across a story some --

00:39:40

I hear these stories regularly and I know some of us in here

00:39:43

are just like, some of us are, "OH, man, this is..."

00:39:45

I know your heart is erupting inside of you positively.

00:39:50

You're like, "Oh, my gosh.

00:39:51

Finally, finally, other people around here

00:39:54

are going to help with this because this has been amazing for me."

00:39:57

Those of us who passed this test, we can't hear this enough

00:40:01

because we know it's been a source of experiencing God,

00:40:06

understanding God.

00:40:07

And I just heard this woman's story

00:40:09

and I think you'll appreciate hearing from Hope.

00:40:13

- So I moved over from England a year ago last Monday.

00:40:17

I came to work at Cincinnati Children's as a researcher.

00:40:20

I came with my boyfriend at the time and very excited.

00:40:23

And unfortunately, we ended up breaking up in the first week.

00:40:27

And so I had to find somewhere else to live.

00:40:29

I ended up finding Uptown.

00:40:31

I got involved with young adults there.

00:40:32

And they've really just become the people I relied on for support.

00:40:36

They're kind of like my family away from home.

00:40:38

Before I came to America I was kind of a borderline Christian

00:40:41

in the sense I wasn't all in.

00:40:43

And I've always known that there's a 10 percent rule.

00:40:45

You should give 10 percent of your income to the church.

00:40:49

I just basically ignored it.

00:40:51

It was like, Eh, it's OK, I don't need to.

00:40:54

And so I think I ended up giving $5 every paycheck, which is pittance.

00:41:00

And so over the last year, I've kind of realized

00:41:03

God's kind of been saying to me you kind need to step up your game.

00:41:06

You need to give 10 percent. It's the right thing to do.".

00:41:09

And throughout this kind at the same time

00:41:10

I've had kind of issues being unable to kind of trust God

00:41:15

and know how to do that practically.

00:41:16

So I was with my friend Joel and he kind of brought up the topic of tithing.

00:41:21

And he asked me about money and said, you know, "Do you tithe?

00:41:25

Do you give any of your income away?"

00:41:28

And I kind of sheepishly said not .5

00:41:30

percent of my income goes away.".

00:41:32

And he kind of told me, you know, "It's you know, it's a good thing to do.

00:41:35

It's you know, it's in the Bible for a reason.".

00:41:39

And so when I got to work I went on the Crossroads App

00:41:42

and I upped my very small percentage to 10 percent.

00:41:45

And literally that day I felt a wave of calm come over me.

00:41:51

And it was all because I'd like practically done something

00:41:57

to put my trust in God,

00:41:58

which wasn't just praying or reading the Bible,

00:42:01

but it was a physical thing that I could give.

00:42:04

So later on that day I heard from my boss

00:42:06

I was going to get a promotion in the new year

00:42:09

and I had a pay raise that same day.

00:42:10

So it was, yeah, it was all God.

00:42:13

So before I was would tithe I knew

00:42:17

I wanted to like deepen my relationship with God,

00:42:20

but I was always so hesitant about giving money, you know?

00:42:23

It's a big corporation, it's a big church.

00:42:25

What will happen to it? I don't know.

00:42:27

What made me shift my opinion probably was just God.

00:42:31

Now that I am tithing and, you know, I kind of wish I did it sooner.

00:42:34

I think having that that trust that I now feel between God and myself is incredible.

00:42:39

And if I have I had that year when I was going through that,

00:42:41

you know, break up to now I feel much more,

00:42:44

I guess, cemented in my faith.

00:42:46

And there's an idea of being all in.

00:42:48

You've kind of got to be all in in your faith.

00:42:50

And this is just one way you can be all in is to give 10 percent.

00:42:55

- Isn't that cool? [applause]

00:42:58

Now the blessings of God go way beyond finances.

00:43:01

The blessings of God include the relationships God gives us.

00:43:04

It includes the the health that we have.

00:43:06

The blessing of God include a sense of awareness of God.

00:43:09

The blessings of God or are a joy that we could have that He blessed us with.

00:43:14

Its opportunities.

00:43:15

It could be sunshine.

00:43:16

The blessings of God are very, very --

00:43:18

The blessings of God include His Son, who has died on the Cross for us.

00:43:23

I mean there are loads, loads go on and on and on and on.

00:43:26

But those of us who tithe, we also know

00:43:29

like when something happens financially,

00:43:31

it just like it turns our head but.

00:43:34

Normally if we get a new friend that doesn't necessarily turn our head,

00:43:37

like "Oh my gosh, God showed up," though He very well may have there.

00:43:40

But when we have something happen financially, it just makes you go, wow.

00:43:43

That was part of Hope's story and I hear those again and again.

00:43:47

My most recent one was a couple months ago

00:43:50

I driving my wife's car and we were going out to eat some place.

00:43:54

And as we were going, it was raining and a car lost control,

00:43:58

crossed the center yellow line, smashed into me,

00:44:00

put us into the guardrail and totaled our car.

00:44:06

Which right there they where we're going, I'm blessed.

00:44:08

Like a game of inches, I'm dead right now, head on collision.

00:44:12

Game of inches, my wife and I,

00:44:14

I mean I don't know how good airbags are

00:44:15

when you're going that fast, but geeze.

00:44:17

Was that the blessing? Yeah.

00:44:20

Then I'm like, oh, my gosh.

00:44:21

I'm just --

00:44:22

You know, whenever you have an accident, your first hope is no one's hurt.

00:44:25

And then what's the second one? It's not my fault, is it?

00:44:27

Because I want my rates to go up. Right?

00:44:28

That's the second big question.

00:44:30

This one was not my fault.

00:44:31

The insurance company, you know, guaranteed that,

00:44:33

said that was case.

00:44:34

But here's problem: They never give you enough money, right,

00:44:38

to get the next car that you need.

00:44:40

I find out that day when I find out -- that day I find out

00:44:43

the last raise Crossroads had given me two and a half years ago,

00:44:47

I hadn't -- Something happened after the first paycheck

00:44:51

where it reverted back to my previous pay.

00:44:55

I didn't realize it because I don't stare at my stuff.

00:44:57

I'm sorry, I don't balance my checkbook.

00:44:58

That really freaks some of you guys out.

00:45:00

I just don't notice.

00:45:01

They come two and a half years later and go,

00:45:02

"I'm sorry we owe you back pay.".

00:45:04

You're kidding?

00:45:13

Did they find it just in time, because God said, hey, there's a guy that going to need it?

00:45:17

Or did God two and a half years ago go, I'm just going to save this

00:45:21

because I'm putting this in an interest free account for you

00:45:24

because you're going to need this later.

00:45:26

I don't know, but I'm telling ya, it's real.

00:45:29

It's real.

00:45:31

A friend of mine, you probably, you may know him, I'm Craig Dockery

00:45:34

and he was telling me this story last week.

00:45:36

We were talking about this stuff and he said,

00:45:38

"Man, one time I was between churches.

00:45:40

And as I was between churches, I was saving my tithe for the next church.

00:45:46

And so I was taking my cash that I had and I was putting it in a sock in my drawer."

00:45:51

And then he said, "My car got totaled and I had to buy a new car.

00:45:55

And I figured, well, I'm just gonna use this money.

00:45:57

I bought the car partially using that money.".

00:46:00

He said, "It is the worst lemon of a car I've ever had.

00:46:03

It broke down more than anything.

00:46:05

I cannot tell you how much money I've put in that car.".

00:46:08

I've interacted with some people who tithe that say,

00:46:10

"I'm convinced my car's still going at 300,000 miles

00:46:13

I don't know if he blesses cylinders and motor oil or not.

00:46:17

All I know is Craig said, "It's the worst car I've ever had.".

00:46:22

And why are we reflecting on it?

00:46:23

We're reflecting on that because of this verse.

00:46:25

I don't know if you caught it.

00:46:27

I'm going to read it again.

00:46:29

Malachi 3:9, here he goes again:.

00:46:49

So there is a devourer that is trying to devour you and I.

00:46:53

There is a devourer.

00:46:55

And if you feel like you're not getting ahead,

00:46:57

there's reason you're not getting ahead.

00:46:59

Maybe there's a devourer that's trying to devour your crops,

00:47:02

devour your life, devour any progress.

00:47:04

God says here, so I'll just let him speak for Himself,

00:47:07

when we don't pass the test and return 10 percent of His money,

00:47:12

we come under a curse.

00:47:16

Now, this doesn't mean that God's putting a hex on us and voodoo and stuff like that.

00:47:20

It just means that we're out from the blessed zone.

00:47:25

It means God makes a mental note like,

00:47:28

"Oh, I'm not going to step in front of the devourer on your part.

00:47:32

I'm not going to go out of my way

00:47:34

to stop certain things that could devour you."

00:47:37

And I know folks like this,

00:47:39

like it's a regular point of discipleship conversation I had with them.

00:47:42

"Are you tithing?" "I'm working on it."

00:47:45

"You said that three years ago.

00:47:46

What are you..."

00:47:47

In life just doesn't seem to work.

00:47:49

There's frustration after frustration you try to patch together.

00:47:52

Is it just because of this?

00:47:53

I don't know.

00:47:55

But I will tell you, in my experience, this is a huge, huge thing.

00:48:00

And God says this to incentivized us.

00:48:03

He says, is to incentivize us to come into His ways.

00:48:07

There are people who tithe and they say,

00:48:11

"God has blessed me and he's still blessing me."

00:48:13

And then there are people who don't tithe.

00:48:15

And we say, "I can't afford to tithe."

00:48:19

Those of us who tithe go, "God's blessing me, I can't afford not tithe."

00:48:21

And those of us who don't tithe go, "I can't afford to tithe.".

00:48:25

Robert Morris, who wrote the book

00:48:27

that I've been basing much this material on, he says this:.

00:48:40

So I'll just ask you just to consider could it be

00:48:45

the reason why you keep heading into a wall,

00:48:48

could it be the reason why there just seems to be,

00:48:52

could it be as simple as this test not being passed?

00:48:56

You won't know until you do it.

00:48:59

You won't know until we try it.

00:49:03

Now, I'm going to do a little visual object lesson here.

00:49:08

The three people -- I'm preaching right now in Oakley,

00:49:11

so the three people who've had the most visible roles in Oakley

00:49:14

I'm going to invite up right now today.

00:49:16

Justin and Courtney and Victor,

00:49:19

I'm going to have them come on over here.

00:49:20

I'm doing everything I can to make sure we understand this.

00:49:23

I mean, if we don't want to do this, that's OK.

00:49:25

That's your decision, but I want to make sure that we understand it.

00:49:29

So I've got -- I forgot your name.

00:49:32

- Justin.

00:49:33

- Justin. The person I know best of everybody here.

00:49:37

Will be up here and Courtney and Victor, Okay.

00:49:40

Now, here's a -- This is a weird thing, but let's just imagine this.

00:49:43

Hey, I've got a lot of resources.

00:49:45

I've got a lot of money.

00:49:47

Let's imagine I'm incredibly powerful, very connected.

00:49:50

And I'm going to go away for a while.

00:49:52

And here's what I'm going to do.

00:49:53

I need to take care of Lib. I'm taking my wife.

00:49:56

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you each $10,000 every month.

00:50:03

And what I want you to do is I want you to return

00:50:06

a thousand of that to my wife to take care of her.

00:50:09

And then you do whatever you want for the rest.

00:50:12

OK? All right. Good.

00:50:13

Now, imagine after three months, I go back, I talk to Lib,

00:50:19

and say, "Hey, Lib, how are things going?

00:50:22

Is the resources coming in and everything?"

00:50:23

And she says, "Well, Victor, man.

00:50:26

Victor like he's on it, man.

00:50:30

Every month, first of the month, like bam, $1,000 show up."

00:50:34

Awesome, Victor. Yeah.

00:50:36

And Courtney, "With Courtney like it's really weird with Courtney,

00:50:38

she sends me some months a thousand.

00:50:42

She sends me other months, $1100, sometimes $1500.

00:50:46

But it's like, it's holding up, but it is all good.

00:50:48

It's awesome.".

00:50:49

Great, How about Justin?

00:50:51

"Well, Justin started off real well.

00:50:54

He hit the first month and then it was like $700

00:50:59

and then it was $500."

00:51:01

And I"m like okay, so what am I gonna do?

00:51:04

What am I gonna do here?

00:51:05

Now, I know it's not the case because I checked what he tithes.

00:51:09

I do. That is not the case.

00:51:12

You laugh, dead serious, when you come on staff at Crossroads

00:51:15

It's like the expectation that you don't commit adultery.

00:51:18

It's an expectation that you tithe on gross to your church

00:51:21

just like great, great people do who aren't part of the church.

00:51:24

So I know these guys are all.

00:51:26

You can give them a hand on that.

00:51:27

[applause]

00:51:28

And most of our staff goes above and beyond that.

00:51:30

So what I'm going to do with Justin is I'm going to go,

00:51:33

"Hey, man, I'm going to take what I'm giving you,

00:51:35

and I'm going to have to be shifting that elsewhere.

00:51:38

Because I've got to take care of my wife.

00:51:40

I'm gonna have to be doing it.

00:51:41

And by the way, that job interview you have coming up.

00:51:46

I know the owner of that company pretty well.

00:51:50

That's probably not going to go very well for you.

00:51:53

Because I'm going to have to do something that causes him

00:51:56

to not hire you because you haven't been that faithful.

00:52:01

You know? Because I'm pretty connected.

00:52:03

Right?

00:52:04

That's God any way.

00:52:05

So, that's it.

00:52:07

Thank these guys for being here right now.

00:52:11

Now, interestingly, I talked about Lib, my wife.

00:52:15

She's my wife's, very personal to me.

00:52:18

Jesus says that His church is His bride, the bride of Christ.

00:52:27

Tithing is probably a lot more personal to Jesus than you and I realize.

00:52:34

It's very personal to Him.

00:52:37

And He wants us to be in the right place.

00:52:43

Wants to be in the right place.

00:52:44

Now let me read this verse again because it's so amazing.

00:52:47

Malachi 3:10:

00:52:53

God says, put me to the test.

00:52:54

Put me to the test.

00:52:55

That's crazy. It's the only place in the Bible where God says,

00:52:57

you can put me the test.

00:53:09

It's a two way test. God tests us.

00:53:12

God allows us to test him.

00:53:14

Now we've put -- I put lot of thought and we've put lots of prayer in this.

00:53:18

And I do, I want to do everything in my power

00:53:22

to get those of us who want more of God

00:53:24

and to go through a wall to get you to be able to pass this test

00:53:29

and to sense and experience the blessing of God in different ways.

00:53:33

And so our board decided to go ahead, we'll take the test, too.

00:53:37

Here's what we're going to do.

00:53:40

For anybody who wants to start tithing, who has never tried before.

00:53:45

You can take the tithe test for 90 days.

00:53:50

And if you get back to us after 90 days saying,

00:53:53

"I just didn't sense, God didn't work for me."

00:53:54

We're going to refund you your everything you gave in the last 90 days.

00:53:58

You can go to Crossroads.net/tithetest.

00:54:05

So I can't -- it's hard to think of any more barriers I could a lower, right?

00:54:10

Knowledge's barrier, you know, inspiration, I'm lowering the barriers.

00:54:13

And the barrier of, hey, if you don't see God show up,

00:54:19

you're going -- come back to us and we're going to

00:54:21

give you back everything you've given in the last 90 days.

00:54:24

You can go on Crossroads.net/tithetest.

00:54:27

This is for new tithers, by the way.

00:54:29

And probably should do it for everybody,

00:54:31

but we just set it up for new tithers.

00:54:33

And there's instruction on it.

00:54:34

And we're also going to be able to come to you

00:54:36

and we're going to give you encouragement

00:54:38

and all that kind of stuff as you go forward.

00:54:40

It's going to be really, really cool.

00:54:43

So my heart for you, my desire for you is to move.

00:54:49

Take take a step.

00:54:50

Take a step.

00:54:51

Take a step in that direction.

00:54:53

Have God see you take a step.

00:54:56

If it is right now by faith, I mean rip the Band-Aid off and 10 percent now

00:55:02

that's obviously pass.

00:55:03

Or if it's a step of, "God, I see my way through it this way.

00:55:08

And here's how I'm going to start this step today.

00:55:11

OK. OK. But get moving.

00:55:13

Don't make this a philosophical thing.

00:55:16

Our philosophies never lead to our blessings.

00:55:20

Our lives, our choices lead to our blessings.

00:55:26

Malachi, 3:12:.

00:55:37

I want your life to be a life of delight.

00:55:40

I want my life to be a life of delight.

00:55:43

I want people to look at people at Crossroads

00:55:47

and say how delightful those people are

00:55:51

because they're just something special happening.

00:55:53

And part of how that happens is this test.

00:55:58

Let's spend a moment just collecting our thoughts, praying, being silent.

00:56:05

And if God seals or affirms or confirms anything that was talked about,

00:56:11

or maybe just puts something else in your mind

00:56:14

that He wants you to have in your mind right now.

00:56:16

If you want do that, what I do sometimes when I do this

00:56:18

is just put my hands palms up in my lap because I want to receive.

00:56:24

Dear God, I Pray you would direct our heart

00:56:32

right now as we direct our mind.

00:57:18

Lord, You're good to give words of instruction.

00:57:24

I think you've given that to us today.

00:57:26

You're good to give us second chances and third chances.

00:57:30

You're good to give us words of life.

00:57:35

Lord, we want to pass anything, any test you give us, want to pass it.

00:57:40

And God, I trust that I pass the test you've given me

00:57:44

to give this material in as winsome and as nonjudgmental and non-manipulative way as possible.

00:57:52

That was my heart, that was my goal.

00:57:55

And I'll leave you to grade my paper.

00:57:58

These are your people, Lord, do with them what You will.

00:58:03

I pray these things according to the name of Jesus.

00:58:05

Amen.

00:58:08

All right. Exhale.

00:58:11

Good. [applause]

00:58:13

Man, more good stuff coming.

00:58:15

We'll see you next week. Have a good weekend.

00:58:20

- Well, I hope that just now you took advantage of that time

00:58:23

and space to hear from God.

00:58:24

I know that that's been a gift for me

00:58:26

in these last two weeks of The Blessed Life.

00:58:29

And maybe you heard something specific from God

00:58:31

that you're going to go and act on this week

00:58:34

or maybe as a follow up, you want someone to pray for you.

00:58:38

We have staff and volunteers that would love to pray for you

00:58:42

from anywhere you might be right now.

00:58:44

So if you head to the Crossroads website

00:58:45

and click on the chat button in the lower right hand corner,

00:58:50

whether you have something specific or just general that you want prayer for,

00:58:54

we'd love, love, love to do that right now for you.

00:58:57

We'll see you back next week for week three of The Blessed Life.

	Worship	2:31
	Community Life	13:51
	Message	17:40

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