Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas. Thank you for listening to the message today. I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.
God bless you. It's good to be in the house of God. Amen. Amen. There's no better place to be than in the presence of the Lord.
Even, even when it's raining. Um, just a couple, couple of announcements before we get into the word. Um, I'm, I'm making it a point to every day or not every day, but every, every, uh, Sunday to announce our serve conference. Again, this is, we were very intentional about trying to get the entire body, the whole church, uh, to be servants in the kingdom of God. Amen. Um, servants, it's not just a title for a pastor or minister. We are all servants.
If you're a Christian, you are a servant of the living God. And so we are trying to create an entire, a whole church. Somebody say whole church, a whole church that serves God, serves the church, serves people, serves their community. And so I'm excited about this conference. We're, we're opening it up to, to a few churches. Um, and, um, we want you to, we want you to be there so you can, you can register. We do ask that you register again.
It's a free conference. Again, the thing with free conferences is that people register with no intention of actually going, don't let that be you because we're going to buy food for you. Okay. So if you register, make sure that you're there. Um, also this coming Wednesday, um, we're going to celebrate, um, Thanksgiving together, uh, at seven o'clock we'll be having a potluck, so bring your, bring your favorite dish or make your favorite dish, or if you don't cook, then pick something up from H-E-B and, and bring it. We're going to, we're going to have some time of fellowship. Amen. Everybody likes to eat.
You got to eat, right? Might as well do it with brothers and sisters in Christ. So this Wednesday, um, and then I'm going to ask, uh, Maria, if she can just come up here just for a couple of minutes, um, because we have our NUMA closet outreach next week. And amen. She was able, she and a team while I'll let her tell you about it. Hello NUMA. I don't think I'm good at this, but okay.
So, uh, we had the privilege of going yesterday, uh, out to hand out goodie bags, uh, downtown. Um, we only made 50 and there were so many people. Um, so, uh, we're asking if you have any warm clothes, um, that you don't use blankets, uh, uh, is going to get cold and they live outdoors in, um, in boxes. It was, it was a little bit overwhelming because we couldn't provide everything they needed. And so, and they were so welcoming to come and, and receive prayer from us. And there is, there is a world outside of this church that needs Jesus. There is people out there in the streets that need to know that there's a church that loves them, that there is a God that loves them.
And we are meant to go and do that. So if you want to be part of it, we're going to continue to do it. We're going to continue to go out there, better prepared with more stuff, um, to just let them know that there is a church here that loves them, that wants them to come to Christ. And if you have the heart to serve in this ministry, please let me know, or let sister Debbie or my husband Juan, um, we need people, we need people to pray for them, um, to be there, to let them know that Jesus loves them. Amen. Praise God.
Thank you, Maria. Thank you for that closet. Um, we asked, we asked her if she'd be interested in, in taking it over. She, she really, I mean, her heart is, is there. And, um, so praise God, praise God for, for her and the team and, um, the whole closet. Amen. Thank you as well.
For those of you who have donated good stuff, I went in there, there's some good stuff in there. So thank y'all for not just leaving your junk there. Um, if you would stand with me, we're going to go to the, to the word second Samuel 24, that's the last chapter of second Samuel. Uh, be, be in prayer over Ellie. Uh, she woke up really sick this morning. So that's why Melissa's not here. Uh, I know JJ as well.
Uh, Leah was supposed to be leading worship. He's so he's sick. My uncle David is, is in the hospital. Um, and, um, there, there, yeah. Adrian. Yeah. Um, there's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of people that are sick.
So just be in prayer over those, over those people. Amen. Um, second Samuel 24. So just to give you a little bit of context, David has, uh, just taken a nationwide census. And in that process, he sinned against God. Uh, some say that his sin was because he didn't trust in God enough to rely on his power alone, that he had to rely on his, in his numbers. Um, others say that it was because the census was only done when God commanded it, and so the fact that David did it without God's permission, that was an act of disobedience.
Either way, David disobeyed God and in God, in turn, God punished the nation. So God is now requiring a sacrifice from David. Amen. So second Samuel 24, 18 through 25, it says that day, God came to David and said to him, go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Arun of the Jeppes site. So David went up, uh, to do what the Lord had commanded him. And when Aruna saw the King and his men coming toward him, he came and bowed before the King with his face to the ground. Why have you come?
My Lord, the King Aruna asked, David replied, I have come to buy your threshing floor and to build an altar to the Lord there so that he will stop the plague, take it, my Lord, the King and use it as you wish. Aruna said to David, here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing boards and the ox yokes for wood, uh, to build a fire on the altar. I will give it all to you, your majesty, and may the Lord, your God, accept your sacrifice. But the King replied to Aruna, no, I insist on buying it for, I will not present burnt offerings to the Lord, my God, that have cost me nothing. So David paid him 50 pieces of silver for the threshing floor and oxen. David built an altar there to the Lord and sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord answered his prayer for the land and the plague on Israel was stopped. Amen. Heavenly father, I thank you, Lord, for this word that you've spoken over your servant, Lord.
I just pray that today you would be on my lips, my God. I pray that nothing that I would say today would be from me, my God, but from you, Lord, I pray that you would be on our hearts and our minds ready to receive this word, father, God, I pray Lord, that it would do a work in our spirits, Lord. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Take your seat. Last week, we, uh, I feel like God has been doing something with, with these messages, um, there's, there's a common theme here and last week, if you were here, we talked about holiness and if you didn't catch that sermon, I would really encourage you to go back and listen, listen to it.
Unfortunately, um, we were having some live streaming, uh, issues, but for those who don't know, we do have a podcast, our Newman church podcast. You could catch all the messages there. I think it was a, an important message for Christians in this era of time that we're in, we have to chase holiness. We have to chase the Holy spirit. And we talked about how holiness is supposed to cost something, right? The greater, the holiness, the greater, the anointing, the greater the price. And Jesus was the absolute perfect embodiment of that because Jesus was the perfect sacrifice.
He was perfectly Holy. He was sinless and because he was Holy, that made him worthy. And for you and me, that means worthy to be praised, worthy to be worshiped. But to the father, it meant worthy to be slain because he was the only one pure enough, Holy enough to be, uh, to be taken as a sacrifice that would be appeasing to the Holy God. And so this message kind of continues off of that message. It's going to be a little bit more focused and it might be a little bit more personal because we're going to be talking about giving, giving that costs, giving that cost. That's the title of my, my message this morning.
Uh, y'all know, I like to set up the stage before I start preaching, right? So y'all know exactly where we're going. Um, I don't anticipate a lot of a minutes today. I don't like that because while this is broadly about worship, that means something to God included in that is giving financially to the kingdom of God as a form of worship. There's pastors who thrive when they talk about this stuff, man, my, my grandpa, my grandpa, Joe, man, he would, he could pick up an offering, man.
He loved it. I don't, I don't know how he did it. Some people just, they, they, they thrive in this, in this topic. I don't like it. I'm not one of those pastors. This is my least favorite topic to talk about. I did not want to talk about it today, especially because we got baptisms.
I love to talk about worship, but not so much giving as a form of worship, even though it is a form of worship, because I know there's people in the room who might be thinking, there just goes another pastors talking about giving again, all these pastors talk about his money. And if there are visitors here today, I don't like the fact that this is the message that you walked into, but for those of you who know me, those of you who hear me preach every week, you know, that I've got a, a deep love and reverence for the gospel, and I'm going to preach all of it, all of it. Okay. You know, that I believe that the Christian needs to be fully transformed by the gospel and every aspect of their life. And one of the biggest aspects in our lives has to do with money, how we manage it, how we spend it, how we save it, how we invest it. Money is a part of our life. You didn't get here today without money.
You had to put some clothes on that you probably paid for. You had to get in the car that you probably paid for. You had to put some gas that you probably paid for. Nothing that we do in this world is done without money. And so a lot of us are uncomfortable when we talk about money. I feel uncomfortable saying the word money on the, behind the pulpit, but we gotta, we gotta redeem it because there is a way to honor God with our money.
Just like there's a way to honor God with sex. He said sex. There's yeah, there's a way, there's a way to honor God with these things. Okay. Don't tell me you're, you're Pentecostal Monday through Saturday, right? Don't tell me that you, you, you, you live in the world and you work in the world and you probably have, if you're married, have relationships with your spouse, like we do things in a way that should honor God. So for those of us who call Jesus Lord, we have to release Lordship of our money as well, lay it down at the feet of Jesus.
I've used this example before that if you were to lose your phone and somebody found it and somehow unlocked it, would they be able to tell that you're a Christian just by going through your phone? Like would they find text messages that edify and that encourage, would they find music that honored God? Would they find apps and search history that let them know that you take time to study the word? I think we can ask the same question about our bank accounts.
Somebody audited you. Would they be able to tell that this man or woman was a believer that this person give regularly to the church or to missions? Did they spend money in a God honoring way? Were they stewarding? Well, what God allowed them to have. It's it said that Jesus spoke more about money than any other topic in the gospel. That's actually not true.
I looked, I looked into it. It's not true. Jesus spoke way more about the kingdom of God than he did about money, but he did use money a lot as an illustration because money is such an integral part of a person's life and it's, it's interesting when Jesus uses money in his parables, he assumes a responsible handling of money. Why? Because our money, again, we're going to, we're going to say that word a lot today. We gotta, we gotta redeem it. Our money should honor God.
I told, I told a pastor, pastor Danny a few months ago that we needed to prepare to talk about giving to the church, something that we don't do regularly. We don't do it enough behind the pulpit. Um, because there's a lot of people who don't truly know the blessings that come with pouring into the kingdom of God with their money, there's people who don't understand that scripture commands us to give and to give joyfully, right? So as, as pastors, just as we have a responsibility to preach and teach about sin and grace and the Holy spirit and the gospel, we also have a responsibility to preach and teach about giving.
So I thought November, let's try November. November is going to be a good time to talk about it because it's going to compliment everything that we discussed at our member meeting this past Wednesday. And for those of you who were there, man, thank you for being there. I really appreciated your attendance. I know that many of you couldn't be there, but you want it to be there. I know some of you didn't know about it. I know some of you maybe forgot about it for the ones who knew about it, but didn't care enough to attend.
The Holy spirit, I wanted to get after y'all today and Holy spirit said, calm down and think about it. Don't think like a pastor. Think, think about, think about them. So I was like, what are you trying to say? Holy spirit. And, and, and he said, there might be some people, some members who don't understand how valuable they are as members. And so I'm coming to you as your pastor to, to let you know that if you are a member here, we absolutely value you.
And I don't, I don't care if you've never been presented here. I know some of y'all, some of y'all give me a hard time. Y'all been here for like 10 years. I never got presented before people. If you, if you serve here, if you learn here, if you've grown here, if you give here, you are a member, you are a part of this family that is Numa. You are a part of this body. You're a part of the, I don't care if you think of yourself as a fingernail, you are a fingernail that we want and that we need.
If my wife and I were to call a family meeting, because we're about to get ready to make a major decision, we're also going to include our two little girls, even down to Ellie, who's four years old and thinks that maybe her opinion doesn't matter. It does as parent, I do care about her opinion. So that's why, that's why I want you to know that we, I wish that more of more of us would have been here. You know, we estimate we have about 400 members and we counted about 61, uh, that, that came this, this week. And, um, we shared some impact numbers for the year, over a hundred salvations, man, praise God, over a hundred salvations, 42 baptisms after today, 108, uh, intentionally discipled, uh, praise, praise God. We shared our financial numbers. We shared a little bit on the vision and the future plans.
We also talked about a goal to, to raise $200,000, um, by the end of next year for some much needed building projects and, and, and, and, uh, fellowship hall remodel. Also, if you want to, if you want to copy, can you go to the next slide real quick?
Somebody back there. If you, if you want a copy of that slide deck, you can scan that and we'll, we'll, uh, we'll send it to you as a presentation. I wouldn't have to be talking about this if you are here Wednesday. Okay. So, uh, um, I'm a priest though. I'm a preach that that's, that's fine. Thank you.
You can go to the next slide. Um, I'll, you know, I was also thinking because I thought, well, maybe, maybe some people didn't come because they thought it was going to be boring. Right. And I did tell you that it was going to be boring. So, um, there's that, but you know, it was not going to be a service. It was not going to be Pentecostal preaching. It was not going to be fire worship.
It was going to be administrative business stuff, right? Maybe that's why you didn't come, but understand this in the Christian life. You're not always going to have high praises and amens and Pentecostal spirit. That's not all that it takes to run a church. And it's certainly not all there is to church. And it's certainly not all there is to the Christian life. This, this is why we got a lot of fickle Christians because we aren't always willing to doing the boring and mundane and routine things that God requires for good stewardship.
If it's not read my word, if it's not slain in the spirit, if it's not the right type of worship song, if it's not night of worship, we'd rather skip it. I said, I wasn't going to get out to y'all my, my bad, but I'm already preaching. I'm S I'm speaking broadly here. God will often take us through places that are not exciting where a worship song isn't required, where there's no miracle where sometimes the process is boring and taxing and tedious and structured and we're Pentecostals. We don't like any of those words, but if you read the process that it took to build the arc of the covenant or even the temple, you will know that God sometimes requires these things. And so we like to come to church. Why? Because we get filled here at church, but the process doesn't feel you.
The process depletes you. So a lot of times we're not willing to go through the process. Just give me the end result. Give me the starting moment where you call me and I feel real good. And then, and then give me the destination where I actually receive it. Nobody wants to go through the depleting part of the process. So if you think that worship is something that is supposed to energize you, you're wrong, you're wrong.
Worship is something that is supposed to cost you because worship is a giving up of something. Worship requires alters. What are alters for to slay something? To give something up that the text says that Aruna saw King David coming to him and bowed before him in reverence. What an honor it must've been for Aruna to receive the great King David. And immediately David gets down to business. He says, I want to buy your threshing floor.
A threshing floor for those who don't know is a, was a piece of land, usually like on a, on a hilltop. And it was used for a thresh, threshing sheaves or separating grain. And, and these types of transactions, it usually included everything. It included the land and included the oxen, the threshing boards, all the tools, the yolks. And so Aruna is presented with King David and David wants to buy the threshing floor. And he's like, well, I'm a, I'll give it all to you. You're the King and you're about to make a sacrifice to God.
How am I going to charge you for something like that? How many of us in this situation, us always looking for a deal, always looking for something cheaper, always looking for that best price, the best labor. We call it thrifty. You just cheat, right? How many of us would have heard Aruna's offer and called it a blessing? Shoot. I would've, I came to tell somebody today that free isn't always a blessing.
Cheap isn't always a blessing. And when it comes to God, if it doesn't cost you anything, God doesn't even want it. God doesn't want you free. God doesn't want you cheap. Let me remind you that God rejected the religion of the Israelites, even though they were giving, even though they were sacrificing, their sacrifice didn't come from their heart. It came from their religion. So maybe, maybe some people in the room today, maybe you do tithe.
Maybe you do give, and you're saying this message isn't for me, but be careful not to confuse a routine of worship with a lifestyle of worship. There's a difference. There is a difference. This isn't about coming to church regularly. This is not about giving to the church regularly. I could easily make it about that as a, as a pastor, but if you don't, if you don't give to the church, God's going to provide. I believe that.
I'm not worried about that, right? This is, this is his house. This is his vision, right? Uh, his will, his bill. That's, that's what they say. So I'm not, I'm not worried about that. I'm not trying to make an argument of why you should give to that.
It's not me today. That's not me. This is about giving something to God that costs you something. This is about worship. Jesus didn't give something that was cheap. He didn't give something. He didn't give something that didn't have value to us.
And thank you, God. Thank you, God, for not going cheap on me. Thank you, God, for going the highest price in the universe. Thank you for going all the way to Jesus because he could have easily saw something else and saw somebody else, somebody more holy than me, but not as holy as Jesus. And he could have said, spare my son. He's too valuable. No, he said, give my son because they, we, me, we're so valuable.
What you give to God is got to cost you something. You're still with me. This is one of those sermons again. Look and understand this either way in the text, either way, David was going to have to construct the altar, whether he paid for it or not, either way, he was going to have to build it. He was gonna have to put in the work. He's gonna have to put in the time to build the altar. Too many Christians.
And I was one of them justify not giving God money because we're going to give him time. Well, if I, if I just, I just give God, I just give to God differently. I give to him with my time. I've, I've been a minister for, for a very, very long time. Worship, you know, worship leader, youth pastor. And there was a time where I wasn't giving to God regularly. I wasn't giving my tithes and I was justifying.
I said, well, God sees my heart. I, I put in the work. I'm here all the time. I'm here where nobody's here. And God said, not, you ain't giving me everything. You're not giving me your heart. You're giving me what's easy.
You're giving me what's natural. Give me what's not natural. Give me what's not easy. Give me what takes a little bit of work. Give me what takes a little bit of discipline. Give me something that costs you. Worshiping God requires all you've got, all you've got.
David knew that giving something to God that costs him nothing, even if he was going to put the work into it, he knew that if he skipped, skimmed out on God in one area, it was a reflection of David not giving God his whole heart. We know that that true worship is something. That begins in the heart to worship, it's a heart issue, right, because it requires a sacrifice when when we worship God, sometimes it feels painful and it should feel painful. Why? Because we're ridding ourselves of what we want because our heart belongs to God. And last week we talked again, we talked about holiness, how holiness costs more than most people are willing to give. And so we looked at Elijah and how Elijah followed Elijah because Elijah desired the spirit that was on Elijah.
And and in order to receive that greater level of anointing, he had to do what no other person was willing to do, even if it wasn't required of him to do it. You aren't required to fast, you aren't you aren't required to to to pray from this time to this time. You might not be required to do a lot of things, but when it comes to holiness, when you are willing to pay a higher price, you will get something of greater value. That was a message last week. Right. And I told you that if you're not ready to to go that level of holiness and the message isn't for you today, the message for everybody, because worship is required. I don't I don't have to fast, I don't I don't even have to tithe, you can make that argument from the Old Testament, the Old Testament thing, and you interpret it a different way and you might not even have to go to church.
I don't have to abstain from this. I don't have to abstain from that. But at some point you have to ask yourself that if all the things you're justifying doing or not doing is leading you to a life void of worship. Like if you're doing none of these things, what do you think worship is? Ask yourself that question, because there's a lot of technicalities that Christians like to argue about and there's a lot of little ways out that we like to wiggle our way out of. I don't got to do that. It's not required of me.
And we do that so many times we realize that I don't even really know what I'm giving to God. I give him my Sundays. I give him a little bit of time, I sing some worship songs. What are you giving that that costs? What does your relationship with God cost you? You're still with me. It's too quiet, it's too quiet.
What is your what is your relationship with God cost you? Think about that. That question is a very it's very specific. It's not what has your Christianity cost you, your Christianity might cost you some relationships and some friends. It's not what has your level of unashamedness cost you. That might cost you, you know, maybe people thinking that you're crazy because you're sold out for Jesus. I'm asking you, what has your relationship with God cost you?
That should be personal. It should cost you things that nobody else even sees or knows about. When you take time away from your sleep. Time away from the TV, time away from social media to give God some moments with him, nobody's supposed to see that. When when you give your offering, when you tithe faithfully, nobody's supposed to know about that. Jesus said, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. For then you will receive your reward, you will have your reward, but nothing from the father.
So so what is your relationship with God costing you on a personal level? That man doesn't see. We got a lot of impressive Christians, man. Impressive preachers, impressive podcasters, impressive worship leaders, ministers, teachers, and people see that people see the fruit, people see the preparation, they see the anointing. But what is what is God seeing in your life? What does your worship cost you? It's not just supposed to fill you.
It's supposed to deplete you. And we sing these songs, man, you provide the fire, I'll provide the sacrifice. God has definitely provided the fire.
What sacrifice have we offered? Think about it. I can't answer that question for you. I'm pausing a little bit so you can answer the question to yourself. When you give your life to Jesus Church. People don't people don't comprehend this. When you give your life to Jesus, you give your life to Jesus.
It's not it's not just a two minute prayer. It's not like, OK, I believe in Jesus now. No, it's it's it's it's everything. It's a repositioning of your heart that's now in the hands of God. I've given my life to Jesus. That that means that my life is no longer my own my life. When we think of the Christian life, we think of it very specifically, we you know, we used to get these questions asked at Sunday school, what does it mean to be a Christian?
Go to church, read the Bible, pray. Give an offering. And it's kind of pathetic that fully grown Christians who grew up in the church would still answer that question like that. It includes those things, but the Christian life also includes life. What does life look like? Work. School, play, relationships, money management, responsibilities, health, food.
So sometimes we're very good at giving God the Christian things, but not the everyday things. Our ministries honor God, our our going to church honors God, but our stewardship of the things that God has given us, that doesn't always honor God. The way that we take care of our bodies, that doesn't always honor God. The way that we treat people doesn't always honor God. The way that that we live at home with our families, it doesn't always honor God. The way that we manage our money doesn't always honor God. So what, how are you worshiping God? Santo. I wish it was a more exciting sermon.
If we were to do a series on worship, we could cover all of these things because worship includes all of these things. Worship is not about a worship set.
Got to get out of that mentality. We got, we got to get it out of the, the Americanized Christianity that thinks worship is lights and good songs. And if it's not a good song or if it's, or if it's just a keyboard, we're not going to go as hardcore because there's, there's the whole band's not here. Like we are so emotional when it comes to our worship and all these other crucial elements and areas of our life are falling apart because we haven't learned what true worship is. It is not entertainment.
It is not good music. That's not worship. And God is looking for, for those who would worship in spirit and in truth. So I want to talk about finances real quick. Still with me. Somebody told me once pastor that this is a long time ago. Pastor, when you talk about giving, understand that you're, you're getting personal.
Worship is supposed to be personal. If worship isn't personal, I don't know what or who you're worshiping. There's, there's, there's no value in worship. Value there. Worship is supposed to be personal. We should be able to talk about the most intimate things because we're talking about the most intimate relationship that we should be having with God. If we can't talk about these things, if we say, Oh, my children are off limits.
Don't talk about my children. Don't talk about, don't talk about my sex life. Don't talk about, don't talk about my finances. Don't talk about the way that I, that my, my, my, my relationship with food. Don't, don't talk about those things. No, we have to talk about those things because all of that is a way that we honor God. We have to be able to talk about these things and we have to be able to make it. Okay. If Jesus was your accountant, would he be pleased?
There was a lot of, Oh, a couple of months ago, I preached, uh, I preached a very personal message on stewardship called good and faithful. And I know that that message, um, a lot of people identified with that and they needed to hear it. I praise God that the Lord used my negligence, um, to speak to people and to get that conversation started. I don't want to preach. I don't want to re preach that message, but I, the way that we manage our finances, can either honor God or dishonor God. And hear what I'm, hear what I'm saying. Hear what I'm saying.
The way that we manage our, I'm not even talking about giving yet. Talking about the way that we manage our finances, either honors God or dishonors God. Why? Because if giving is a form of worship, then the way that we manage our money affects how well we worship him with our finances. I, I can't make, I can't make my money a slave to God when I am a slave to so many debtors. I can't do it. I know this is hardcore.
We're doing some heart surgery today, but I think that's only, it's only true because, you know, again, we're Americans, man, this is what we do. This is what Americans do. This is how we deal with money. It's the way that I dealt with money for so many years of my life. I didn't have the money for it, but I had a credit card for it. But in the old Testament, see, the Israelites had to learn how to manage their money because, um, they knew that God was always going to require a tithe every single year. God said, you shall tithe the yield that comes from the field.
And so they had to learn how to manage their harvest in a way that didn't touch the 10%. How, how easy is it for us to spend money on ourselves? It's you know, yesterday I took Layla to a birthday party and, um, I dropped her off and there was a Starbucks across the street.
I didn't want Starbucks. I didn't need Starbucks. I wasn't thinking about Starbucks, but I went inside and paid for a drink. It's so easy to make these impulse decisions when it comes to money, right?
And we think, well, it's my money. I've worked for it. I went to school for it. I worked overtime for it and I, it's, it's got to go to bills and it's got to go to kids and it's got to go to my spouse and it's got to go to food and it's got to go to Amazon, right? It's got to, got to. What I love about the Jewish culture, and this is still true today, by the way, it's no secret that Jews tend to be very, very good with the way that they manage their money. And it's because God has always been embedded in the way that they use their money.
Always been a part of their life. Maybe tithing looks a little bit different today. Maybe tithing isn't required today. If you want to make that argument, but the Israelites had to learn how to incorporate God into their wealth. We haven't learned that in our society. We haven't learned that as Hispanics, as Americans, we haven't, that's not the narrative that we're taught. You see, when we talk about money, we make it all about, I'm sorry, when we talk about ministry, we make it all about what God wants.
When we talk about the church, it's all about just hearing and, and envisioning whatever God wants. And then, and then being obedient. When we talk about purpose and calling and God, tell me where you want me to go. We make it all about what God wants. But when we talk about money, it's rarely about what God wants because we don't naturally invite God to sit at the table of our money management. How many of us have intentionally offered God something with their money? I'm not, I'm not talking about our offering time at the church.
See, even then that could be, it's, it's easy to give because people are watching, right? I mean, how many of us have gone to God in prayer and said, Lord, I want to bless you. I want to bless your kingdom. How can I be a blessing with, with even the little that I have? How many, how many of us desire to have more simply so that we can give more? I will. Well, that's what we tell God, Lord, if I had more, I'd give more.
But how many for us, is that a real desire? Like, God, man, I just, there's so much need. There's so many people who are lost. There's so many families that we can help. There's so many homeless out there that we could help. There's so many needs in, in the church, in the, in the community. If I just had more, I could, I could give it, I could give it away.
See, when we carry the heart of God, I 100% believe that he is going to pour blessings over that. Because your heart is in the right place. In Mark chapter 12, Jesus talks about the poor widow. You probably know the story. She put in two coins. Everybody else was dropping Benjamins, right? People with money just going, giving their money.
But this woman, she had two little coins. Maybe you don't give because you think that your offering is, it's not going to do anything. What is my $5 going to do? That's what is my $5 going to do to the church? See, it's that type of mentality that we need to break. Your giving has very little to do with the dollar amount. It has everything to do with what it costs you.
I'll have the band come up. David knew, and if you're going to, if you're going to get baptized and I'm gonna go ahead and dismiss you. David knew that if he gave something to God that he didn't pay for, it would have meant nothing to God. God's not going to bless that. Might the reason be that so many Christians struggle with their finances is because they haven't allowed God into their finances. And maybe the reason you don't manage your money right is because you're not thinking of your money as an instrument to honor God. I know there's a lot of movement, but let me, let me have your attention.
Maybe, maybe there's a whole mind mental shift that needs to happen when it comes to your finances, because you need to start asking the question. We need to start asking the question. How can my money honor God? Because it's such a big part of my life every week.
Thank the Lord. I, I have, I have a paycheck every single week. I have a place to sleep at night. I have food to eat. How can what you have given me be a way to honor you? God, that's the question that we need to start asking. Because for a lot of people, you can barely give an offering to God, let alone 10% because you've allowed debt and gratification and desire to govern your finances rather than God, what does your worship cost you?
Listen, we have a, we have a goal to meet as a church and I believe that we're going to meet it, but today is not about that. Not about that because it's not about that. I'm, I'm not going to ask how many of you want to contribute to that building fund right now that we'll, we'll do that throughout the next few weeks. Today's not about that. I could, I could have easily made this a sermon to try to really compel you and to move your emotions to contribute. No, no, no. God is not concerned with contributors. He doesn't want to contribute or he wants to worship her.
It's, it's not, it's not about contributing. It's not about making a commitment to give to no, no, because if we can't solve the heart problem, I don't, I don't care how many goals we set, we'll never reach them. Our heart has to be in the right place as a church. And again, we're talking about money today. Maybe you're here and you're like, I'm never going back to that church again.
You know why? Because they talked about money. That's fine. That's fine. But being a Christian again, requires every aspect of life that we have to I want to, I want to honor God with my time. I want to honor God with what I watch. I want to honor God with what I put into my body.
I want to honor God with my relationships. I want to honor God with my service. I want to honor God by, by loving his people. I want to honor God with my money. So today is not about what you're willing to give. It's about where you're willing to put your heart. That's what this is about right now.
And so I want to ask you right there where you're at. Once you stand. Yeah. Jesus told the woman at the well, he said, the father is looking for worshippers.
He's looking for worshippers. How many worshipers do we have today? We worshippers do we have.
I'm not just, I'm not just talking. Some of you are afraid to say yes. God is looking for people who take their entire life and lay it down because that's what he did for us. You think about it. Jesus didn't just give his time. Jesus gave everything, anything you can think of. He gave up his throne for poverty.
He gave up his dwelling place in heaven for not even a rock to sleep on. He gave up everything because that's what it takes to honor the God who requires everything. And as believers, as Christians, that is what God is calling us to today. A heart that would be completely his in every aspect of your life. And maybe, maybe you're saying today, maybe, maybe you're going to come up to the altars and you're going to begin, you're going to commit to God. You're going to say, God, I'm going to begin giving to you. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to start to tithe.
And maybe the reason you don't tithe right now is because God, I've got such a mess to clean up. Got such a mess. The room's a mess. But when you make it about God, when you make it about honoring God, it's not just the 10%, you're going to be forced to clean up the other mess. It's not just honoring God with 10%. It's honoring God with all of it, all of it. It's honoring God with what you give and what you keep.
Honor God with your money, with your money. Let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, I thank you, my God. My God, I thank you because you gave to us everything, Lord. You pay the ultimate price so that we would have life in you. My God, forgive us. Forgive us, my God, for withholding certain things from you, holy God.
I pray, my God, that you would change hearts today. That we would posture our hearts, my God, in a way that is totally, totally surrendered to you, my God, because you are holy and you are worthy. Holy Spirit, have your way in us right now. My God, I pray conviction and I pray freedom, my God. And I pray, Lord, just a heart, heart of worship, because I believe that you are awakening the hearts of worshipers, not just in this house, my God, but in this city, Father God, you are doing something, Lord, and I pray that we would give everything that we have to give to you in Jesus name, in Jesus name. As a worship team sings, I'm going to open up these altars. I'm going to have the prayer team come and we're going to have a moment with God.
If you need, if you just need to have a moment, one-on-one with God, come over here, come pray, come kneel down before the presence of God. Thanks for listening. If you'd like some more information on NUMA church, visit us on our website at mynumachurch. org. If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe or share it with your friends on social media and tag us at my NUMA church. Thanks again, and God bless.