²⁴“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. -Matthew 6:24

God Wants Your Heart

When it comes to giving, God is far more interested in having your heart than your money. Jesus said wherever your treasure is, that’s where your heart is. For instance, in the area of finances, I’ll be able to tell matters most to you in life by looking at your bank statements. What does your spending say about you? How you spend your money will show me whether you’re trusting God with your finances by putting Him first or if you’re trusting in yourself and your money. You can’t do both.

If you asked any pastor around the country if you should be a tither and a giver, I promise you they’d tell you yes, regardless of whether or not you attend THEIR church.

Why? Why would they tell you to be a tither or a giver if their church is never going to see a penny of what you’re giving? Because they know being a tither and a giver is for your benefit, far more than it is for the churches benefit. (I’ll go over the benefits of giving in another post).

People who think it’s all about the church or pastor wanting their money are missing the entire point of giving. Giving is all about yielding your heart to God and trusting Him with everything that’s important to you.

God wants all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength. God wants to be first in your life. My question to you is – is He? If He is, you’re finances will reflect that. I like what Pastor Nathan says, “He’s either Lord of all, or not at all.”

Tomorrow I’ll go over the three types of giving in the Bible – tithing, offerings, and alms giving.

Check out this video from LifeChurch.tv:

I got the privilege to go to NewSpring’s Unleash Conference today. It was an incredible experience. It was amazing to see what God has done here! This will be a 2-part review! One with a summary of key takeaways and another of the practical ministry takeaways. Here were my big takeaways:

It’s All About Making Jesus Famous One Life at a Time - This is NewSpring’s Vision. It is beyond evident that the vision is burning in the hearts of every staff member and volunteer. Everything they do as a church, is done with the intention of changing people’s lives. When I say everything… I mean everything!

Quit Playing Games and Start Preaching the Word - I love how simple Newspring is. I.E. The youth – ALL they do is preach, worship, small groups, and a summer camp. It’s all centered around pointing teenagers to Jesus. Period. I love it!

People Act Like they Don’t Know Christ, Because they Don’t Know Christ - Let me clarify! They had a 5th grader that went to their childrens ministry for the first time. He saw a PS3 and Wii and said, “They have a PS3! A Wii! This s*** is awesome!” Those are the people we’re trying to reach, we need to have people like this coming to church! Instead of correcting them, let’s love them and point them to Jesus. They’ll only change as a result of knowing Him!

People Can Believe in You and Go to Hell - I love Perry. He was saying that we should never try to get people to believe in us or think we’re awesome. We need to constantly be getting their eyes off  of us and onto Jesus. He’s the only one that can save them.

Celebrating Wins is Critical – Every staff meeting they start with sharing victories in their church. Then they celebrate them – this fuels them with passion every week becasuse it helps them recognize they are doing what God called them to do!

They Don’t Know How They Grew! - Twice in their church their attendance has doubled in a one week span… from 400 to 900 and 4,000 to 8,000. What did they do? Nothing… They have no idea how it happened! Perry always relays it like this: Leadership is as easy as listening to God. Then do what He  says! Perry said, “If you can explain what God is doing in your church, He’s probably not that involved in it!

I loved being at Newspring! I know it definitely fired me  up to come home and do more for Jesus. I’m so glad they are doing what God called them to do and inspiring the body of Christ while they do it!

Tomorrow I’ll talk about the practical things I learned that we can implement in our ministries!

¹¹ Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. ¹² So two good things will result from this ministry of giving—the needs of the believers in Jerusalem^[f] will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.¹³ As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ.                                                                                                     II Cor. 9:11-13

Tuesday we took our Youth Group to Cedar Point.  As usual, it was an awesome time! As I’ve mentioned several times every time I go somewhere with large throngs of people, I love to people watch and dream.  I saw thousands of people enjoying Cedar Point and I got to thinking… They all came to have an “experience of a lifetime” riding all the thrilling rides Cedar Point offers. They had no problem paying hundreds of dollars for their families to come to the park to enjoy the  rides that last less than 1 minute. I started looking into the cost of these Minute and a half joy rides:

The Cost of Building the Millennium Force – $25 Million

The Cost of Building the Top Thrill Dragster – $25 Million

The Cost of Building The Maverick – $21 Million

It’s estimated that Cedar Point has spend for $120 million building rides since 2000. Yet, I’ve never heard anyone complain about Cedar Point spending too much money to build rides. I never hear anyony tell Cedar Point that all that money could be given to the poor.

But, as soon as the church starts spending millions to build a new building, start a new program, and do stuff for people, people go crazy. “The church just wants my money” “The pastor just wants my money” “They could be giving all that money to the poor”. Here is just a few thoughts I have about money, giving, and the church: -

• The Result of Us Giving and the Church having Money is Changed Lives – I’ve never heard of anyone whose life was changed forever cause they went to an amusement park. Can you put a price on someones life turning around forever? A restored marriage? Getting purpose? Developing a relationship with God? Without money Cedar Point could not provide the experience they do, without money, the church can not provide the change that they need to.
  

• You Choose Where You go to Church – The reason most people complain about giving and how churches use their money is because they have been in a church that has not managed their money well. You choose where you go to church, I wouldn’t settle for anything less than going to a church that uses their money wisely to reach people. How do you know if they do or not? Look to see if lives are being changed on a continual basis.

• Receiving is Overestimated, Giving is Underestimated - I promise you’ll get no greater joy in your life than when you give of your time, talent, and money. I’ve never met anyone who tithes and gives offerings consistently that has ever complained about it.
  

• There is so Much Money in the World – I think it’s easy to think that there is a shortage of money in the world, but that is not true at all. In fact, there is a ton of money in the world. Watch Cribs, go to Beveryly Hills, go to Qatar… you’ll see there is no lack of wealth in the world.

• A “Whatever it Cost” Mentality - Cedar Point never thinks about what its going to cost to build a top-quality ride. Why? Because people will love it and it will get paid for because of that. We need to adopt the same mentality… We should never think about what it costs to reach people. As people get their lives changed, they’ll start to give in order for others to have their lives changed. We need to reach people no matter what it costs.

• Everybody Wants Your Money - Cedar Point wants your money, Nike, Giant Eagle, Banana Republic, etc. above the church wanting your money, God wants your money. It’s all over scripture and the church is the God’s tool to use to reach the world. The purpose of God and the church having your money is to change peoples lives. So, if peoples lives are getting changed, I’ll never scoff at the price.

The Bible says where your money is, your heart is.If you were to look at your checkbook and see where you’ve been spending your money, my question to you is, are peoples lives getting changed as a result of where you give your money? If not, you’re missing out on one of the greatest joys you can experience. Being involved in changing a life…

Long post… have a lot of this on my heart and so much more… but I’ll save it for later..Thoughts?