How to Take Hold of Your Money

Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, welcome. I'm so glad you're hanging out with us today. Before I jump into our new series, I got to say something the other day. I was reading this awesome kids Bible with my daughter and we were reading about Daniel in the lion's den, and when I read it it said that King Darius was the king that sent Daniel in the lion's den. Now, when I read that, I said, wait a second, wasn't King Nebuchadnezzar the one that did that? And so after I got done doing nighttime routine with her, I went and opened up my Bible and it was in fact King Darius. So why do I bring that up? Because a few weeks ago in our previous series, the Power to Change, I said it was King Nebuchadnezzar who sent Daniel into the lion's den, and I wanted to say I was wrong, and so I wish that I was going to not mention that. But I said you know what? It is an awesome opportunity In a world that is so cynical of churches and of pastors. I think, as a pastor, it's my job to say hey, if I make a mistake, I made a mistake, guys, and I wanted to just let that know. And I also want to highlight the importance of you spending daily time with God and you reading the Word for yourself, because even pastors sometimes make mistakes. Okay, that sound good. And also, this is a good kids Bible. That sound good. And also, this is a good kid's Bible. Okay, so maybe I'll start doing this and I do my sermon prep. Okay, I won't miss anything, all right, all right.

Speaker 1: 1:37

Well, we are kicking off a brand new series here at LVC and this is history making series. Okay, because this is our very first series at LVC about money. Now, okay, now, before you say, oh, no, here it goes, here it goes. They're about to campaign for pastor's private jet. No, you know they're about to do no, no, no, they're going to pass the offering plate three or four times during the message. Hold on, let me say something real fast to that Ushers pass down the offering plates for me. Actually, go ahead, go ahead and pass down the offering plates for me. Actually, go ahead, go ahead and pass down these offering plates. And guess what? On these offering plates, go ahead and take a payday or take five. We got some candy for you guys coming down on these offering plates right now, okay, so, yes, okay, we are starting a brand new series, kicking off, a new series called Keep the Change, and we are going to talk about money for the next three weeks.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Because here's the truth If you're a small business owner, you worry about money. If you got kids in daycare, you broke and you're worrying about money If you breathe. Money is a part of life. It's a part of life, and so money is a big deal. Money is what causes most of the divorces in America. Money can split families apart.

Speaker 1: 2:55

The Apostle Paul says it like this the love of money, which this is one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible. So it's the love of money. Money in itself is just neutral. Money is neither good nor bad, just like AI. It's not good or bad, it's how you use it. It's how you use it.

Speaker 1: 3:14

But Apostle Paul says For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. You know what I hear when I read that verse? I hear is that money, at its core, is a heart issue. It's a matter of the heart and as everyday people who are learning how to become Jesus followers, it is our responsibility to deal with matters of the heart, because there is an enemy who is ruthlessly and relentlessly after your heart. It does not want you to succeed, and it will attack your heart Again. Notice why, when we make decisions that we wish we didn't make, oftentimes before we made those decisions there was a wound of our heart, there was a matter of the heart, and so we got to look at this, and money can be one of those things the enemy tries to use to ruin our heart. Okay, so, like I said, for the next three weeks, we're going to talk about this and we're going to talk about our hearts.

Speaker 1: 4:13

Today I want to be super over-the-top, practical with you guys, because my hope for you is that you will have freedom in your finances, that you have freedom in your finances so that you can be the person God has called you to be. You can be the person that God's called you to be. Now there's a whole bunch of things the Bible says about money. Interesting enough, jesus talks more about money than heaven or hell combined. He had a lot to say about it, but I want to highlight five things about money. But I want to kind of throw a disclosure out. This isn't like do these five things and then the next 30 days, you're going to have, like Jesus, abs. Okay, it's not like that. Okay, do these five things and you're going to be great. No, no, no. The five things I'm going to present to you today.

Speaker 1: 4:55

If you do these things over time, this is the infinite game here. This is the long haul game. If you do these things over time, over years, even decades, you will see the result that you want 100% of the time. If you're consistent I love that word that Brandy shared during worship. God is so consistent and I believe that he looks for us to be consistent too. So if you do these things consistently over time, it will work out. Because here's the truth If you plant corn, don't be shocked. When corn grows. As you sow, you shall reap. If you plant nothing and wait on just someone to bail you out, don't be surprised when it's not enough. That's not. This is how it works. You are in charge of the planting. God is in charge of the sunshine and the rain. Okay, so again, very practical.

Speaker 1: 5:46

Today, the first thing we're going to do is this we're going to live on a written budget. We're talking sexy today at church. We're going to live on a written budget. Have a financial plan for every dollar you earn. Who in here remembers your budget when you were a young adult? I can tell you my budget Chick-fil-A, chick-fil-a, chick-fil-a, chick-fil-a. Oh no, where's all my money? I got to eat ramen noodles. Next paycheck this time I'm going to be better with my money. Get a text message you want to get something to eat Chick-fil-A. That's where most of my money went. I wish I knew what I knew now, but we want to live on a written budget.

Speaker 1: 6:29

Jesus says don't build a tower without first counting the cost. So don't build a tower without first counting the cost, because if you don't count the cost, you'll find yourself halfway up a tower without enough supplies to finish it. And then Jesus says then all who will see you will begin to mock you and say this man began to build and was unable to finish it. And then Jesus says then all who will see you will begin to mock you and say this man began to build and was unable to finish. Don't build a tower without first counting costs. Zig Ziglar used to say this. He says if you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every single time. If you aim at nothing, you hit it every time. Leadership expert John Maxwell says it like this a budget is telling people their money what to do instead of wondering where it went. That's some good wisdom there, you know.

Speaker 1: 7:10

And again, when it comes to life, winning is an intentional act. Getting where we want to be is an intentional act. For example, the NBA finals are coming up, which these Eastern and Western Conference have been amazing so far. But here you go, when the finals comes up and the last game happens and the reporter runs to whoever he runs to probably the Mavericks, maybe and he says how do you feel about this, how do you feel about winning this? The superstar is never going to say well, I just don't know how I even got here. I just got off a bus and the next thing I know, we won a game. No, it took years and years of what Commitment, dedication to get where he wants to be. And this is the truth. No one accidentally reaches the life they want. Let me say that one more time no one accidentally reaches the life you want. You accidentally reach the life that you wish you didn't have, but you never reach the life you want on accident. It comes through intentional habits and discipline. So, plant something, control the process, control the controllables. Write it down. This is my plan.

Speaker 1: 8:15

Couples I'm going to speak to couples for a second. Even if one spouse handles the money, you know there's a little bit more money gifted or whatever. Both of you need to come up with a plan and agree upon it. Both people need to be in it and remember this is a spiritual act. It's a spiritual act. We aren't just trying to be like 50 Cent. We're just not trying to get rich or die. Trying that don't work out. No, we want to steward our money in a way that brings glory to God and allows us get this, allows us to use our resources to make a difference, to make a difference in our lives and the lives around us, in the world around us. You got to say God, I'm going to manage your stuff and we're going to live on this plan. We're going to live out this plan. It changes everything. Again, I'm going to be practical.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Second thing is this avoid debt. Debt, that's a nasty word. Avoid debt. You need to make a plan to get out of debt, because here's the deal. Proverbs 22 says this the rich rule over the poor. The borrower is slave to the lender. And here, here, I got some chains on a budget, because our church is also on a budget too, and I went to buy some real ones and that was too expensive. So I said here are the Frankenstein costume ones. They're out of season, but I get the point across because here's the truth, guys.

Speaker 1: 9:39

Debt is kind of like walking around like this. It's hard to have fun in your marriage when you're just kind of worried about what you're doing. It's hard to have fun in that new car you have if you really weren't ready to buy it yet. It's hard to have fun thinking about your kids going to college and you're like I don't know how they're going to get there. See, debt is not fun and it controls us and then we have to get out of it.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Here's the crazy thing. A lot of us are walking through our lives. Money comes in, money goes out and we can't figure out how to get a hold of it. We can't figure it. We're always fulfilling a couple steps behind. And I know why. And the reason why is because we live in a financial system that's not designed for you to succeed. Just to let you know the banks and stuff. They don't want you to succeed, they want you to be in debt because it's more money for them.

Speaker 1: 10:28

It's not like I'm trying to be a conspiracy theory or whatever, but this is the truth. This is how it works and if you live surrendered to it, it doesn't work. Here you go. This is what I want to share. I want to share Aaron and I's financial story because maybe through our financial story, you actually maybe see something in your own life, in your own story. Okay, here you go.

Speaker 1: 10:45

Aaron's financial, aaron and I's financial story in our marriage can kind of be summed up like this Wow, god, thank you so much for blessing us with this. Thank you, god, you're so good to. Wow God, we really blew that one, didn't we? That's a little dramatic, but kind of how it is. Okay, that's kind of how it is, since we've been married time after time after time.

Speaker 1: 11:09

God would provide for us in miraculous ways, but the thing that would get us would be credit cards, would be credit card debt, and we would, and then we would get some credit card debt and then we'll pay off the large sum. Then we'll be so pumped. Yeah, yeah, we did it. We're never going to do that again. We even did like cut the credit card up with the scissors. You know, we did the whole thing and then we found ourselves in the same spot and we did this maybe three or four times with our 10 years of marriage.

Speaker 1: 11:37

We found ourselves and finally, a little under two years ago, we just kind of had enough of it. We had enough of it. We had enough of the up and down and this was the truth. God's blessing was too great for our obedience to be so little. God's blessing was too great for our obedience to not match it. And this is why I say it's a matter of the heart, because it's not just about having numbers in your bank account or whatever. It's about God. If you're providing something for me, I want my obedience to measure your blessing. If you're providing something for me, I want my obedience to measure your blessing. I want to get there. Okay, come on.

Speaker 1: 12:09

And so what we did? Because Aaron and I, we wanted to be a blessing to others, want to bless others, and the people that we were tired of blessing were the people with the names Chase, cat One and Wells. They don't need no more blessings. Okay, and so for us, like I said, we did the yay, no debt and paid it back off and then got back in it, but we had to address the chain. We had to address the chain Like why do we keep firing ourselves in this spot? And for us, the chain was connected to trust. It was trusting God. It was not trusting God enough to live obedient to what he's called us to do.

Speaker 1: 12:51

And what we discovered, it was a trust thing. We did not trust that God was really provider. Isn't it funny how you can do that? God provided time and time and time again, but at the root, that's not what we trust, because you can say you trust God, but your actions. That shows what you really believe. Okay, hopefully it's not too hard today, but I'm getting there because why not be too hard? I got nothing else to lose.

Speaker 1: 13:19

Okay, because it wasn't really about money. Money revealed an area of our hearts that wasn't surrendered to God and what we discovered, again it was a trust thing. We did not trust God and we made a decision to trust God and we did something crazy. We got a financial coach. We got a financial coach and we did something crazy with that financial coach. We changed our bank account to a bank called Cube which I can talk to you offline about that if you want to know more, which allowed us to do envelope digital budgeting. It allowed us to do envelope budgeting, but digital, and we made a plan.

Speaker 1: 13:52

First, the payoff of debt. We had a roof replacement we had to do. We had a car payment we got we want to get rid of, and we had some miscellaneous credit card debt, and, with a lot of discipline, we did it. We paid it all off, and here's the thing. Here's the thing. More than being debt-free, though, we learn how to trust God. We learn how to really trust God, and the crazy part is that we have more money now living on a budget than we did, now that we're out of debt, now that we can do things for God that we couldn't have done before.

Speaker 1: 14:22

For example, we are believing for our church, for Local Vineyard Church, to grow. We're believing for this church to grow and reach more people in our city. We believe God has called this church to help everyday people learn how to become Jesus followers, and the reason why, the reason why we feel so compelled to this, so all in for this is because, when you look at the world, people are walking away from faith in record numbers. People are skeptical of the church, and a lot of times they should be. There's a lot of things out there that's like whoa, that's not good. You know, people are skeptical of the church, there's skeptical things, and people are walking away in record numbers.

Speaker 1: 15:00

But what we believe, what we believe deep in our hearts, if everyday people can learn how to follow Jesus not just a church, not just a trend, not just when the music sounds good and the music doesn't, but if everyday people can learn how to follow Jesus in their daily lives, it changes everything. It will change everything for them. They will be able to understand and handle the complexities of life through an authentic relationship with Jesus. And so we feel impassioned about that. And because of another reason, because what do we lose if we don't do this? What do we lose if we don't go all out for this? Well, we lose the next generation. We lose the next generation, because if this generation doesn't learn how to follow Jesus, the next generation will give up. And so we see this as valuable, as something to go all in, and we see this as something to be done now.

Speaker 1: 15:52

And because Aaron and I have taken responsibility of our finances and the blessings that God has given us. We made a pledge this year to give over $10,000 to a giving campaign that we're doing with our leadership team in order to reach more people for Jesus. And let me say something Two years ago we wouldn't have been able to do that. Now we can do it because we made some of the hard steps and because we see our lives, man, my life, my resources. It's not just for me, it's for that single mom that comes into this church. Come on, let me get. Can I get real with you guys? It's for I met with the district supervisor in Midlothian.

Speaker 1: 16:32

He told me the biggest need in this area is homelessness. And I said well, sign us up. Sign us up because there's people out there who are in need, who are desperate, who need faith, who need something to change in their lives. And I said, god, I can manage my finances well so that that person can hear the gospel, so that that person's life can be changed, so that the generations to follow can be changed, so that we can leave a legacy beyond ourselves. Friends, this is why I'm passionate about it.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Here you go, but the enemy nah stay in debt, stay in it, stay where you are and not make a difference. And this is what we're doing. And here you go. And this is the truth that I learned Restrictions now lead to delights later. Restrictions now lead to delights later. And we got to be people that are okay with restricting ourselves now for future glory.

Speaker 1: 17:29

Third one Third one I hope I'm being practical. I hope I'm being honest today with you guys. Third one is this Get good people around you. Get good people around you. First, corinthians says this Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. Ain't that the truth? Ain't the Bible so practical? You want to show that everyone with a teenage kid you're like here. Here is your verse until you graduate, you know so evil company corrupts good habits.

Speaker 1: 17:55

Did you know that you become who you hang out with? Studies say that your 10 closest friends, over the next decade your income will be within 10 to 15% of the average of your 10 closest friends. And some of you are saying I need some new friends because my friends are broke. Maybe you do need new friends. I'm joking, but for real, why do I talk about friendships in the message about money? Because who you hang out with you will develop similar habits. Who you hang out with you will develop similar habits.

Speaker 1: 18:27

And this money topic again, isn't all about dollar bills and numbers in your bank account. It's really about the person you're becoming. It's really about who am I becoming, what kind of person am I becoming? It's really about who's that? Because if you want to be a good parent, you don't hang out with parents who neglect their kids, do you? If you want to be a good parent, you hang out with other good parents. If you want to be a good husband, you don't hang out with men who are bad to their wives, do you? No, you hang out with other men who are good to their wives. If you want to be a good wife, you don't hang out with women who are bad to their wives. You get what I'm saying. If you want to be someone who is people, hang out with generous people, because good people will champion you to become who Jesus has called you to be.

Speaker 1: 19:07

And that's why our small groups are so important. That's why we're doing a summer small group semester. Our winter groups went so good. We said, man, we can't stop there in the summer, we got to keep going. So we're doing a six-week semester, summer small group, and we're going to have a men's group and a women's group and a worship group and I encourage you for six weeks, man, get good people around you. Even if you can't make every one, that's okay, the ones you can make. Be there and get good people around you.

Speaker 1: 19:33

Jesus tells a great story, or the Bible has a great story about friendship, and I think it's the kind of friendships that we need in our lives, the kind of friend that I desire to be. Jesus is at his house, is at a house teaching, which last week. We had house church last week because the building closed down because of a mysterious smell Rats. But then we had 74 people at my house last Sunday and, shockingly, it didn't smell bad at the end of it. It was great, you know, but this is what Jesus is doing. Jesus is that house church. He's teaching about the kingdom of God and at this point his ministry grew crowds, big crowds. Words got around that God is using them to heal people.

Speaker 1: 20:14

And now these four friends who hear this, they got one friend who's paralyzed and then check this out. This is what they say Some men carrying a paralyzed man on a mat try to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd. They went to the roof, hold on, hold on, hold on. These four friends got this one friend and they're bringing him somewhere. And I have to ask you this. I just got to ask you this when are your friends bringing you? And where are you bringing your friends? Where are you bringing them? And they say they get there and the people you know. They get there and the place is packed out, they can't get in. And then text doesn't say they showed up, it was too busy, and they say hey, man, sorry, tough break, buddy, no, no, no. Text says they found a way. They found a way. They said they're going to climb a roof.

Speaker 1: 21:13

And here at LVC, I hope, I hope my prayer, my prayer. I know we don't have the biggest budgets, I know we don't have the fanciest gizmos and gadgets and all this stuff, but my prayer at LVC is that we will create a community, that we are roof climbing friends around here, that we will climb the roof for you, that if you're in need, man, we're going to come and help you out. But my prayer is that we will have an authentic community, because that's what the world is looking for, not just a church that grows big just for the sake of growing big, but a church that is growing big in relationships and people with a heart for each other. And so what they do? They do something crazy. They climb on the roof. I don't even understand how they do it. How do you pick up a paralyzed man and get to the roof while you're climbing on a ladder? It's crazy. But they lowered him in the mat, through the tiles, into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said friend, your sins are forgiven. I love this. They are busting through the roof for their friend.

Speaker 1: 22:15

I'm going to say this when we address matters of the heart, we need good people around us, because matters of the heart, man, are tough, scary. We don't always want to do it. Some of us will stay in the same problem for years because, man, I'd rather be what I'm comfortable with, even though it's not good for me, than address this, than address this. Here you go, get good people around you, go to our small groups.

Speaker 1: 22:44

Next one save and invest, leaving a legacy. Leaving a legacy See if you don't have any payments and you got a plan, the first thing you want to do is save and invest. Proverbs 21 says and the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil. The rest of the Proverbs says and a foolish man devours all he has. If you spend everything you have, biblically speaking, you're foolish. That's not my word. Get mad at God. I didn't say that. That's what God said, and I've been a fool before. I've been a fool before and I know what it's like. I know what it feels like. You know what it feels like being a fool. It feels like you're broke and worried and stressed. But you save and invest, and you're saving for an emergency fund first. Then you're saving three to six months to get ready for whatever may happen.

Speaker 1: 23:30

Now I want to get a little nerdy on you guys. Can I get a little nerdy for a second? You know, because you know you want to know what happens every year and it catches me by surprise, used to catch me by surprise every year Christmas. You know what happens. You want to know what else happens every year and some, for some reason, it would catch me by surprise birthdays, anniversaries, and I have about 900 nieces and nephews, so there's a lot of them. There's a lot of birthdays and so nerd time, nerd time, aaron and I, we chose an amount of money we want to spend on our kids and our in for the holidays, birthdays, and Aaron and I, we're gift givers. That's kind of our love language. And guess what we did this past Christmas? This past Christmas, we were actually ready for it. We were actually ready for it and because, throughout the year this is the nerd thing because throughout the year, each paycheck, we take a little bit of money and in our digital envelope system in Cube which is amazing we save a little bit every pay period, and so we're ready for it. We're ready for it. It doesn't catch us by surprise, see.

Speaker 1: 24:35

And then we're not just saving for fun stuff, we're saving for it. We're investing in our future. Even, like I said, the gift that we're giving to the church, we're not just spending that on the church, we're investing into the kingdom of God. We're investing into what God is doing. We're investing into Midlothian, our kids. We're putting money away for them so they can get a jump start on life, our retirement, believe it or not, I don't want to do this for my whole life.

Speaker 1: 25:01

I want to live in a farm somewhere, away from everybody, but I want to do that. But I also want to coach young pastors one day and I want to preach occasionally. I'm actually excited for my sage season. Aaron says I'm crazy, but I'm excited when I'm able to retire. But here's the thing what I do now is going to determine what that sage season looks like. I can wish and dream to be that, but what I do now is going to either get me there or not get me there. So I got to save and invest.

Speaker 1: 25:35

And again, I'm not just talking about money. Invest your time in what matters. This is the principle of understanding your responsibilities, not your concerns. We all have things we're concerned about but we're not responsible for. And again, notice, I said invest, not spend. Spend your time, you never get it back. Invest it, you get a good return for your investment. So you're going to invest your time in what you're responsible for.

Speaker 1: 25:57

For me, my responsibilities are simple. I'm responsible for my relationship with God. I'm responsible for my relationship with myself. There's no one going to eat a salad for me, but me. I got to take care of myself. I'm responsible for my relationship with Aaron. I'm responsible for my relationship with Kingsley, jameson and Hayden my children. I'm responsible for my relationship with my close friends and family and I'm responsible for my church and they're in that order for me. They're in that I got to take care of those things in that order. I got to take care of those things in that order, because the easy temptation, especially with pastors, is to say, well, if I take care of church as my number one, I mean that's like me working for God and helping God, right? No, they're two different things. They're two different things and it's easy to do that. It's just like the spouse that says, well, I'm working all these hours to provide for my family, but really your kids just want you home. That's actually what they want, more than all the fancy stuff you can buy them. They just want you. And so what kind of legacy are you leaving? What kind of legacy are you leaving?

Speaker 1: 26:54

Last point be incredibly, outrageously generous. Be a person of generosity. Be a person that is open, and I'm talking about and I'm not being the kind of person that you know that's someone. I'm talking about being the kind of person that's generous, where you're looking at ways to buy a single mom a new car because she needs one. I'm talking about being the kind of person that's ready to check to feed hungry babies. I'm not. That's the kind of generosity I'm talking about. I'm talking about you reach over and you pay for someone who's struggling with their light bill because you got your stuff in order and you can help them be a blessing to someone else. I'm talking about outrageous, even sometimes spontaneous, generosity. And I'm saying that's what God wants for you to be able to do that and because when you get your stuff taken care of at home, man, you can take care of other people around you.

Speaker 1: 27:47

See 2 Corinthians says this, for God loves a cheerful giver. He loves a cheerful giver, and I know I said this a couple of times already, but it was during the 21 days of prayer and fasting we did as a church at the beginning of the year, when God first dropped that in my heart, to give this money away and to give the money away and reinvest it in the church. And when I told at the moment God spoke to me, I was like, yep, I'm going to do that. When I told Aaron, aaron said yep, let's do that. When we told our financial coach, she was like what are you talking about? Like, why would you do that? You just made all these strides, you just did all this stuff. No, no, that's supposed to go into your retirement, that's supposed to do that. And I told our coach. I told our coach, I said look at what God's going to do. I mean, he told me to me, look at what he's going to do. And so, the moment I'm going to be honest with you guys, the moment we started, we adjusted our bank account to start paying for that and saving for that. Erin gets a meeting with her supervisor.

Speaker 1: 28:45

God provides more than what we just gave away. And I tell that story because you cannot out-give God. You just can't do it when you're and I got so many stories that happen just like that. The way I even got my house is miraculous, and I'm gonna tell you this time and time again. When you're saying God, I'm open to be used by you. God, here I am, take all of me. Time and time again, you can't outgive God. And I'm going to say this that's not just, that's not just pertain to your finances, that pertains to your strength, to your mental health.

Speaker 1: 29:22

When you say God, here I am, I'm laying it all out for you, I'm going all out for you. God will supernaturally meet you in ways that you never thought of, dreamed of or imagined, because he is a generous God. He is generous in love, he is generous in provision, he is generous in providence, he is generous through and through. And the reason why I know that, why did? How? Can you say, jacob? How do you know that God's generous? Not just because of a couple of my stories. I know this because John 3, 16. John 3, 16 says For God so loved the world that he what Gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Speaker 1: 30:01

But I want you to get to the next part. I want you to get the next part. I want you to get the next part because sometimes we skip verse 17. He gives to us exceedingly, abundantly, beyond what we could ever ask or imagine, and His gift, though, is always tied to a mission, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. God and His generosity is always tied to a mission, and I'm going to tell you this when you're living on mission for God, man, I'm going to God, I'll give whatever you want me to give God, I'm going to go all out for what you want me to go all out for you want me to serve on a team? I'm going to serve on a team. You want me to feed hungry people? I'm going to feed hungry people. You want me to go on a mission trip? I'm going to go on a mission trip. You want me to get counseling for my marriage? I'm going to go to counseling for my marriage. You want me to be the parent that's there for my kid, that's present, and put my phone away. I'm going to be present for my kid. I'm going to do it.

Speaker 1: 30:53

When you say God, here I am, I'm all out, I'm all in, I'm going, all for you, man, he will provide for you, because generosity is always tied to a mission and his mission, his mission, was you, because he loves you and me and us. In Midlothian, he gave his one and only son. And so, lord, here I am, here we are, these chains, these chains, chains of depression, of anxiety, fear, not trusting God. Well, lord, we lay them down and we say we take up faith like a child, and we say we step towards you and we trust you for all things. God, jesus, holy Spirit, thank you for your love, thank you for your goodness and your favor, thank you for how good you are to us. And so, lord, we come to you right now. We give you our finances, we give you our stories.

Speaker 1: 32:05

Everyone in here has a different financial story, a different upbringing. I even feel right now the Holy Spirit saying there's some people in here there's trauma laced to money. You maybe grew up in environments where you never had enough. I feel like the Lord's heart for you right now, saying he was with you even in that. Maybe I even feel the Holy Spirit saying there's some people here that you struggle with. Just to compare, you want the life that someone else has and God is saying no, no, no, I made you, I designed you and you are enough. I feel like the Lord is saying no, no, no, I made you, I designed you and you are enough. I feel like the Lord is saying that specifically to someone you are enough. It's not about what you do. He loves you just for who you are. So, god, we thank you. We need you for who you are. So, god, we thank you, we need you. Lord, we say we live surrender to you.

Speaker 1: 33:16

If you're in here today and you don't know this Jesus I talked about, but you want to. You want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, or maybe you have before and you kind of walked away. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life or maybe you have before and you kind of walked away if you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, I want to pray with you. I'm not going to call you out. Have you come up front? Nothing like that. Just right where you are in your chair. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, just pray this prayer with me, just right where you are. Say Jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new. Forgive me for my sins, make me new. Today I trust you with my life Today. I follow you In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.