Speaker: Greg Sanders

BECOMING THE HOUSEHOLDS OF GOD

All right, I’m gonna take us right into the Scripture. If you have your Bible, we’re gonna be in a couple different passages. We’ll start in the Book of Titus. This is my first step into the Book of Titus. So, I decided to sit down and dress down, make it a little easier because we’re going to be in the Book of Malachi, actually, for most of the morning. 

So, if we look at Titus, couple things I’d want to highlight for us. Number one: I think the subtitle of this book really is akin to becoming the households of God. David Mitchell said it last week, and I thought it was really poignant: if Revelation was Jesus walking among the churches, then the Book of Titus is Jesus walking amongst our homes. And I think, at times, that gets overlooked in the modern day. 

So, I want to push on that idea as we study this book. Purpose of the book, I want to kind of open this up and give us a really good overview so we have an understanding of how to interpret this book. 

Here’s my hope of how this works: I think when we study a book like this, the right way to study it as a family is to read it and reread it and reread it and reread it and just digest it as we’re going through it. 

Now, I understand we have a very microwave culture, and we love variety. I heard a lot about that in the Book of Revelation. But how many of you would agree with me that you came out of the study of Revelation with a very different grasp on that book than you went into it? It changed my life. Period. Changed the trajectory of how I understood the end times, the beginning times. 

I watched in our teaching team, we have Gary Peters, and we have Steve Anderson, both guys that have been in the Kingdom for a long time, both guys that I watched how they grew up spiritually. I know them well. You have Dustin Scott, you have myself, you have David Mitchell. 

So, I’m kind of the midline age-wise. There’s Steve, a little bit older than me. Gary’s a little bit older than Steve. David, then Dustin, you have this kind of blend. The wildest thing for me to watch was Gary Peters and Steve Anderson at first, step back and go, Huh? And as we work through it as a team, watching the Lord just bring all this understanding together. 

What’s my point? I think the systematic study of Scripture changes your life. I think topical study where we just jump in and jump out– it’s not that it’s wrong, there’s still great principles– but we don’t, we don’t interpret it, and we don’t digest it the same. 

Anybody ever been to dinner with that person that eats one bite off of one thing and then tells you they had a great meal? You’re like, Well, it was all supposed to work together. That’s what I think the difference is. 

I think the difference is when we study the Scriptures in the context they were written in, and we mine out the purposes for why they were written, and we take time, we come out the other side more disciplined by the Scriptures. 

Now, it’s less pop savvy in American culture, we really love three points and a good message and send us home to eat. I don’t think that’s what the Lord’s calling this house to be. And I’ll tell you that openly, I don’t think that’s where the Lord’s at for the church at large, future-forward. 

There’s a passage in the Old Testament that’s terrifying. He says, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” They don’t understand what I’ve said. So, we’re studying the Scriptures more systematically, at the risk of feeling not quite as fun. 

THE PURPOSE OF TITUS

So, purpose of the book: Titus packs a punch, and Paul’s going to lay some phenomenal theology in very, very direct terminology. While it’s not very long for words– I think it’s forty-six verses or something like that– it’s a book that’s deep with meaning. 

And the purpose of the book– I want you to catch this, it’s very clear– is to teach the lifestyle that reveals a correct understanding of who God is. To teach the lifestyle that reveals a correct understanding of who God is. 

So, Paul writes to Titus, who is his son in the faith. He’s been left on Crete. Crete is an island, it’s a fairly large island, has about one hundred cities in it, and Titus is given this wildly ambitious task: set the church in order on the island. 

It’d be like dropping somebody into an island of Hawaii and saying, I need you to go make sure all the people in the island understand who God is and follow Him correctly. You’re like, Okay, cool. Good to know. It’s gonna take a minute. He is to appoint elders and teach doctrine to the people. 

So, Crete is off the coast of Greece. If you’re not familiar with where it’s at, it’s about three thousand two hundred square miles in size. Something that’s unique is that, at this time, Crete hadn’t been established by the Romans yet. In other words, it wasn’t super traversable. 

Titus wasn’t just hopping on the interstate to head to the next city. He’s actually gonna have to go through rugged mountain terrain. He’s gonna have to hike. It’d be kind of the equivalent of somebody saying, Hey, there’s an island about the size of Estes Park and the surrounding areas. I want you to go walk through the mountains and figure out how to get the message of the Gospel to all them. 

So, the task in front of him was pretty incredible. In addition to that, the Cretans themselves, the people of Crete, were notorious. It was a place of infamy in the known world. What was it famous for? Deception, immorality, and theft. 

What Paul is combating in Crete is worship because he’s going to combat how worshiping the wrong gods will wrongly shape your life. The Cretans worshiped a pantheon of gods, which means they had multiple gods, but in a highly unique way. They had one God that they fixated on. It was the god Zeus. 

How many are familiar with Greek mythology, and you know who Zeus is? In traditional mythology, the belief is the gods were birthed above and came to Earth. The Cretans believed the gods were born mortal. They actually believe they were born on Crete. 

That helps you understand the arrogance that’s hardwired into them. If you believe that every kid that’s born might be a god, you start to believe a lot about your neighbors that’s probably not true. They believe that through acts of goodness or power, those gods became immortal. 

So, Zeus, being their god of focus, was heralded for three characteristics: he was a womanizer, a manipulator, and a cheat. And the culture of Crete embraced those attributes as godly things, and they built chaotic lives from those. The men were drunkards and liars and cheats. The women abandoned the home, abandoned their marriages, and immorality was rampant. 

There is an island that’s off the coast of Crete. It’s called Lesbos. This is where the origination of a highly female, same-sex attraction came from. This is the culture. It was an inverse of everything we see in the Kingdom. 

For Paul, the simple truth to combat was this: the people had become like what they worshiped. So, what is he aiming to adjust? Those same attributes in the church. The local culture was informing the culture within the church, and Paul’s declaration was simply that that should not be so. Instantly, in that moment, we go, Oh, there’s a parallel for us right now. 

So, Paul set out, through Titus, to rectify that and call the church to live like Christ. Why? To put attraction back upon the Gospel. The only true pattern for right teaching and right living is the Gospel. 

RIGHT TEACHING

What is right teaching? According to Paul, God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, eternally true, faithful, and generous towards His people. That’s in Titus 1. God has already made all things right between humanity and Himself through Jesus– that’s Titus 2. God has given us His Spirit and, by extension, the power to obey Him and live transformed lives– that’s Titus 3. 

And God expects the Gospel to inform and transform– catch this– every belief, every attitude, every action, and every relationship in our life. That’s the overview of Titus 1:3. The Gospel, church, is right teaching, and right teaching is reflected in right living. 

Wrong living reveals a misunderstanding of who God is– lies, mistrust, stinginess, bitterness, unforgiveness, a lack of obedience– but right living reveals a proper understanding of who God is– truthful, faithful, generous, forgiving, and rewarding of our trust and obedience. 

If people become like what and who they worship, what Paul expects is that all believers– Cretans and us– to become more like Him every day in every aspect of how we live because that is how families, churches, and the whole of a culture is made new by the Gospel. 

For us, as a modern reader, I think this is an incredibly relevant book because we, too, fight with what I would call a constant barrage of cultural information that’s attempting to shape what we believe and how we live. 

So, as we study this manuscript, we’re going to be directly challenged and reminded of how our everyday lives are to be transformed by and reflect the truth of the Gospel. Here’s my request: let’s approach this with really soft hearts and a willingness to repent for every place we’ve adopted a cultural standard instead of a Kingdom standard. 

Now, you might say, Right now, I don’t have any of those. I hope not. I might. I’m going to say this: I think we’re gonna find that Paul’s gonna dig into the culture of the home with greater tenacity than he does in any of his writings. There’s no place else in the Scripture where he deals this directly. Maybe a close second would be 1 Corinthians in 6 and 7 and 8. 

He’s going to challenge older men, he’s got something to say. Younger men, he’s got something to say. Older women, he’s got something to say. Younger women, he’s got something to say. 

And for us– I believe this will be the biggest challenge– the biggest takeaway is, will we let our internal homes reflect the Kingdom? I’m not talking about our outside in the church realm, I’m talking about are we willing to open the doors and say, Come inspect the way I live at home? You’ll see the Kingdom. 

You see, the dangers that we have to manage in this is in our culture that’s often considered sacred space. What I mean: No one has the right to speak to it. It’s private. What Paul’s gonna do is proverbially kick the front door of the home into where the lock doesn’t work anymore and say, No, no, no, no, no. The reality is you are to be transformed by the Gospel in every aspect of your life. 

I had a Bible college professor who’s now the head of the Four Square. His name was Randy Remington, and he used to say it this way: “You will never be in public who you are not authentically in private.” He called it the Private/Public Index. We are to be in private who we want to be in public. 

Instead, in our culture, it’s very often a, We’re going to put on a face in public, but nobody really gets to know the private life. Paul’s going to deal with that issue. I’d warn us ahead of time, if you’ve adopted a cultural standard in your home, I want you to prepare to be challenged, and I want you to discipline yourself not to be offended. We’re going to tip sacred cows over because what Paul has to say is strong, and he leaves very little room for argument. 

His words to Titus really are the beginning point for this study, and it’s in chapter 2, verse 1, that promotes the kind of living that reflects right teaching. This is the thesis statement of this book. It’s the central message. And the goal of this thesis is to see the Church built correctly and the people of God live correctly. For if you are taught right, you have the opportunity to live right. 

So, we’re going to look at this verse in context, but at times, we’re going to use this verse as an inspection device, this idea of promote the kind of living that reflects right teaching. What do I mean? It means we’re going to look for places where we’re not living correctly and find out what we’ve believed that’s not true. We’re going to study what Titus says. 

But more than that, like Paul, we’re going to mine for areas in our lifestyles where we’ve been overly influenced by outside forces that don’t reveal right teaching. In other words, if our lives don’t align with Scripture, they’re going to be challenged. How many are in? 

I want to put our eyes on one of those areas today that might seem a little bit strange. I want to put our eyes on our Building Campaign. You’re like, Huh? Trust me, sometimes as a leader, you have this gut instinct, this thing, like anybody know what agita is? Like when you eat something, and it doesn’t quite sit right? 

So, every once in a while, as a leader, things cause me agita, spiritually, they bother me. The older I’ve become, the more I usually just ignore it for a while, kind of like heartburn, and I used to usually assume it’s probably a me thing. 

So, this building campaign has been bugging me for a while now. Before we get into this, we’ve almost closed out the first phase, church has given great. This is not an issue of like we don’t have money. That’s not what this is about, which is why I’ve been ignoring it.

I will openly tell you, I hate announcements, I hate offerings, I hate anything that takes our attention off the Scriptures and off of the Lord, period. So, I was like, Ah, maybe that’s what it is. I’ve just always been wired that way. Maybe that’s what’s going on. 

I’m incredibly proud of our team. I’m incredibly proud of the staff and the way that the team has worked to put things together. And the video, I’m like, It’s awesome. They did a great job with it, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m really bothered by it. 

So, I’ve been sitting with the Lord for about four weeks because I didn’t get to start Titus. So, I was like, Well, okay, I’m just going to sit and think. And I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m bothered by it, but not for personal reasons. I’m bothered by it for Kingdom reasons. 

I want to give you three of those. One: I don’t think it’s how giving is supposed to work in Scripture. Two: it makes the wrong thing to focus. And three: I think it reveals a problem in our family. 

THE  BOOK OF MALACHI

I want to take us to the Book of Malachi to talk about these. You instantly think, he’s gonna go to chapter 3. I’m gonna talk about the whole book. Because in my lifetime, every time we talk about giving or divorce, we go to the book of Malachi and we look at these two passages. 

In my life, I’m fifty-two years old, I’ve been to Bible College– I’ve been to two different Bible colleges– I had never read the Book of Malachi. The other day, for whatever reason, I just decided I’m going to read the Book of Malachi. I’ve got this thing bugging me. I read the Book of Malachi, and lo and behold, it’s way stronger in context than it is when we just look at those verses. 

So, it’s a manuscript where the Lord basically, in an overview, the Lord is calling His people, Israel, back to Himself and away from what we would call spiritual apathy. Spiritual apathy is the condition where we let go of the fear of the Lord in favor of the passionless meanderings of religion. We just go through the motions. 

So, here’s what’s happening in Israel: they had returned from exile to Babylon. They had been in captivity in Babylon. If you remember our study of the Book of Daniel, we were talking about that season. So, they’ve returned from that. They’ve been under Persian rule, the modern country of Iran, plus some additional areas around it. 

If you think about the most recent things there, we’re like, Whoa. Those two countries have been at war for a long time. That’s true, that part of the world has been in conflict probably as long as we have been tracking history. 

They become apathetic and complacent, and they begin to adopt a What does it matter? mentality towards the commands of God. So, the Lord starts with reminding them of His love for them. 

And I’m working through the Book of Malachi. I’m just grabbing the whole thematic elements. He challenges their sacrifices because they had been in the habit of offering the parts of their herds and livestock that were useless and defective. 

It’d be like you saying, I’ve got a broken-down car. I’m going to give it to the church. That’s called a junkyard. That was my first question when Vintage was starting. People called me like, I have a car I need to donate. Like, Does it work? No. Great, Keep it. Why? Because if I wanted to get in the salvage yard business, I would have started a salvage yard. I want to bless people. That’s not a blessing. 

They had started doing that with their livestock. So, they would bring a lamb that was born with a broken leg, and they’re like, I don’t want that in the rest of the herd. Let’s give that one to God. Now the argument could be, Hey, it eats the same, great. But the principle was wrong.

So, the Lord’s challenging that. He tells them about how these less-than-what-He–asked-for sacrifices made Him feel. He says, You’ve dishonored Me. It’s an emotional statement. You’ve let Me know what you think about Me by what you’re doing. 

He challenges the leaders, accusing them of this, and this is the part about Malachi that blew my mind. He challenges the leaders about being unwilling to teach correctly. He basically says, You’re chicken to teach the truth, so you teach the people what they want to hear because you’re afraid of what will happen if you tell them what they’re doing is wrong. At that moment. I was like, Whew, okay, you had me at dishonored. 

He calls them to return to being faithful and explains that they are missing His blessing because of their disobedience. I want you to capture that phrase: they are missing His blessing because of their disobedience. 

And He deals with their marriages and declares that the way they handle each other in the home is part of the lack of blessing they’re walking in. It’s wild. I did not realize Malachi and Titus are so interwoven, and he shares with them that they had begun to doubt His goodness. But the truth is that they’re living in disobedience, and that’s why they aren’t seeing His favor. 

You see, they were starting to say, God’s not taking care of us. He’s not doing for us what He said. And His answer is, There’s something you’re doing that’s keeping Me from being able to do what I want in your life. 

So, they asked the Lord, Really, how are we disobeying You? Anybody ever had a teenager and that thing they do, where their neck gets a little wider, like, Really? Yeah, what it was, that kind of thing from Israel, back to Him, and His answer is sobering. 

He challenges their faithfulness in giving and the way they live it out. His answer to them is, You are missing My favor in your life, and you assume it’s because I’m not good. And here’s the truth: the way you handle your marriages inside your home and the way you give are keeping you from walking in my blessing. You’re like, Whoa. Those are two really big ideas.

BIBLICAL GIVING

So, back to my three reasons for the building campaign bothering me. Number one: it bothers me because it’s not how giving is supposed to work in Scripture. What do I mean? I actually believe that Biblically, the way it’s communicated, there’s a passage in Malachi, it says, “Bring the tithe to the storehouse so that there may be enough.” 

I believe the tithe is enough, and offering has a unique purpose, and it’s not HVAC. You see, the way God called His people is to live supernaturally, capable of providing for the needs of the church. What do I mean? I don’t know how it works, but I know it works, when the people of God in unity tithe, there’s enough. 

The corollary is that leadership within an organization or church has a moral and spiritual obligation to manage the needs of the church within the tithe, but within the tithe has become a phrase that says, Within the amount that the people that are willing to obey will give, that’s not the tithe. Biblically, the tithe represents 10% or the first fruits. 

Now, there’s three categories of people that’ll probably hear this message. There’s some that are like, I didn’t even know that was a thing. Great. We’re gonna help reveal that in Scripture so you know how to walk in alignment with it. 

There’s another crew that’s like, Well, I tried it once, and it doesn’t really work. We’re gonna edit that. And there’s a third crew, it’s like, I don’t really care if it works or not. I’m not doing it. I’m just gonna call that for what it is: that’s sin. 

According to what God says here, that’s what’s keeping favor out of your life. You’re like, My life’s fine. It’s because you don’t understand what He actually wants to do. Psalm 133 declares that there’s a supernatural blessing where the people of God walk in unity. Unity means we’re all together in the same idea. 

So, I think the tithe, when given in unity by all the people of God, is a declaration from a house, We trust You. Offering, Biblically, was reserved for what I would call God-initiated events. Moses calling for the giving to build the Temple. It was a God-initiated event. I love it. 

My favorite passage, Moses says to the people of Israel, Stop. You’ve given more than we need. I don’t need any more. Because they had this attitude where they’re like, We want to do what the Lord calls to do. There should be an excitement. Offering should be something where, like, I want to be part of that. HVAC should not usually be it. 

And there was an offering for the church in Jerusalem. Remember the New Testament, they saw a need, there was this deep poverty need in a church, and they’re like, We can help that. And they’re excited, and they pray over it, they entrust the gift, and the gift goes out, and it’s given. That’s what offering is supposed to be. Biblically, it’s supposed to be something that is the overflow of my heart as an excitement to give back to the Lord. 

THE RIGHT FOCUS

The second reason it bothers me is because it makes the wrong thing the focus. The focus of our gatherings are to be Him and His presence, our love for each other in the Scriptures, Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.” 

We’re supposed to make studying the Scriptures and loving on each other and sharing life and praying our focus because those things are pure and true and holy. They’re to be our devotions and our pursuits. Raising money is not to be our focus. 

When we spend time on building campaigns to raise money, we get our eyes off of what we’re supposed to be doing. The church is supposed to be a resource to the world around her. That means we should be building committees to figure out what to do with the excess money. 

We should be building committees and going, Hey, we need some volunteers because we’ve got places we need to give this to, and we don’t have enough staff to figure out how to give it away. And Daniel’s answer is going to be, It’s going to take a lot of money for me to get to that point because he’s got a lot of ideas of where to give it away. 

ARE WE BEING FAITHFUL AS A FAMILY?

The third reason it bothers me is because I think it reveals a problem or two in our family. You see, in Malachi, the problem God is highlighting in His people was twofold: some of them had decided that doing things the way God said just didn’t matter or didn’t work. They had allowed their perspective and their experience to trump His declaration about His own character. 

The second group had bought into a cultural perspective of serving Him instead of a Scriptural one. They had allowed the influence of Babylon to erode their passion for obedience in their minds. As long as they were just a little bit better than the Babylonians, they were fine. 

God was never after finances in Israel, that was never what He was after. He was actually after their blessing. In chapter 3, He tells them why He’s upset. He said, “Should people cheat God? You’ve cheated me.” And they ask, “What do you mean? Or did we ever cheat you? You’ve cheated Me of the tithes and the offerings due to Me, and you’re under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating Me. So, bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there’ll be enough food in My temple. If you do, says the Lord–” catch this– “I will open the windows of Heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in. 

“Try Me. Put Me to the test. Your crops will be abundant, for I’ll guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe, says the Lord of Heaven’s armies. Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be a delight, says the Lord of Heaven’s armies.” 

He challenges them that their lack of trusting Him and their subsequent refusal to walk in obedience to the tithe was keeping Him from doing what He wanted to do. “For them, I will open the windows of Heaven. For you, I will pour out a blessing, you can’t contain your crops.” In other words, your work will be abundant because He’s going to guard it. 

The world around you will agree that you’re blessed. What does it take for the world around us to agree that we’re blessed? They have to be able to see it. It means He wants to bless His people at a level that the world around them goes, What is going on with them? 

You’re like, Well, how will they know that? Because you’re walking in enough blessing that for them, they’re like, That’s abundance. And for you, it’s not. What level of abundance do you have to walk in that when you live in a decent budget, it looks like abundance to everybody else? A lot, if you’re going to do the right thing Biblically, which is to live below your means because that’s what we’re taught. 

That means, if your means are high enough, below your means, it’s still pretty awesome. That’s His goal. Your land, what you own and occupy, will be a delight. If we look at that list of promises, His heart for His people was blessing. 

Let me put that in a current phrase: God wants His people to walk in the supernatural blessing of finance. That’s His goal, and He has a plan for how to do it, but that plan requires trusting Him. Church, the tithe is about trust, period. It’s not about money, it’s about trust. 

So, for us, Vintage, the issue is simple: we either believe Him or we don’t. And if we believe Him, then we trust His plan, and we do it. We either choose to walk in blessing or we don’t. 

Can I suggest to you that our enemy loves diminishing blessing? Your enemy loves it if you don’t step into the blessing of God because he understands what the reality of that blessing is. He knows what it looks like, and he knows what it’ll do. I would offer to you that he’s fine if you show up to church, but you don’t step into the principles of the Kingdom because you’re really not somebody that’s going to concern him until you do. 

A CHURCH FAITHFUL TO THE TITHE

Paul challenges Titus to promote the kind of living that reveals right teaching. So, here’s what I’m teaching today: faithfulness to the tithe as a whole church. I’m teaching the lifestyle of blessing God wants for us. It’s His word, and it’s His plan. And I’m teaching that our total unity as a family matters in this issue. 

There’s a story about Ai– not artificial intelligence, it’s a city, it’s in Joshua. It’s called the sin of Achan. How many have ever heard about the sin of Achan? It’s a story that one man, one family’s disobedience in Israel cost them the entire blessing. It cost them the war. 

God doesn’t see this as democratic like, As long as 51% percent of the room’s obeying Me, we’re good. He sees it as My people. Every single one of them matters. So, unity is everybody.

I know many of you walk in blessing and can attest to the faithfulness of God. I know there’s a wide group in here. I’ve been walking in the tithe my whole life. I’ve walked in the faithfulness of God.

Just so you know, I don’t have a clue who gives in this church. I have no idea. That is a spiritual thing that I chose from the beginning of Vintage. I will never know the finances of this church. I know the global number, which is what’s come in. I know the giving units. I know how many people give out of the number right now, the highest number we could calculate is 24.3% of the people in this church give. If you’re in that 24.3%, God bless you. 

But my heart is not about money. My heart is to see what happens when unity lands on the church, when we all come together, what can the Lord do with the local church if everybody buys into His principle? 

I have a dream to see what that supernatural unity looks like in our city. I have a dream to be a true storehouse for this region. So, when we’re no longer trying to balance budgets, we’re looking at it going, We have so much excess, we can be a blessing to the world around us. 

I have a dream to take offerings only when God calls us to something beautifully generous. Hey, we heard about a church across town. Their roof caved in or something. They need a special offering. Let’s take one. Let’s wipe that away. Hey, there’s a bunch of things going on overseas that we found out we can help too. How about we just send a big check and have fun with it? 

Not, Hey, our HVAC is broken, and the tithe is not coming in, so we gotta take a special offering so we can figure out how to make it work. That is the dumbest reason in the world to take an offering.

And I’m so incredibly grateful that this house has still funded it, been willing to, but it’s the wrong principle in the Scripture. Because for me, the Scriptures are clear: the tithe is about trust and obedience. Offerings are about generosity. They are different. 

There’s a last thing that’s said in Malachi that I want to call our eyes to. Israel offered an argument. The Lord says to them, “You said, what’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying His commands or trying to show the Lord of Heaven’s armies that we’re sorry for our sins?” Their answer was, basically, What does it matter? 

I had a friend tell me once, You know what? I tried the tithe. I tried for seven years. It didn’t work. I was like, So, at which point did you superimpose and decide to become God and tell Him His principles are dumb? Because last time I checked, I’m under His authority, He’s not under mine. 

I want you to chew on that for a second. You’re either under His authority, or you’re not. And every moment that you would superimpose your opinion over His authority, you have stepped out from underneath His covering. We don’t get to choose how this works, we get to follow it. 

So, if that feels familiar, let me inform you where it’s from: it’s from hell. What have we gained? That’s the language of the enemy. It’s the exact same language he used in the Garden with Eve. It was an invitation to doubt God’s character. 

Hear the heart of this teaching, please. I think it’s time we grow up into the behaviors that reveal that we actually trust His character. You may argue, I trust Him. I would challenge, Great. Prove it. You may argue, I know what the Scriptures teach. My answer is, Great. Then do it because that’s what God said to Israel. 

And I would say in this house right now: if we’re going to promote the kind of living that reflects right teaching, we have to talk about this. If you’re here and you’re like, I’ve been faithful to it, then you know the answer. The answer is, Good for you. Praise God. You’re already blessed. Smile. There’s no condemnation in this. 

This is a challenge to say, Come on, fam, let’s be faithful. Not a few of us, all of us. Let’s step into obedience to what God has said. If you’re like, I’ve never done that. This is scary, I get it. But God says, Test Me. It’s the only place in Scripture where He says, I double dog dare you. Give it a shot. He says, Watch what I will do. 

I don’t think the Lord casually ever says, I’m going to put Myself on display, watch Me, and then fails. He says it with this moxie, which is, I absolutely know what I’m going to do. I can’t wait for you to try Me. 

Why? Because His heart for you is blessing, not cursing. It’s a future and a hope. I know the prosperity gospel took a bad rap for a long time, but there is an aspect of prosperity in the Kingdom that’s real. His passion for His people is to be blessed. 

He said they were to be the head, not the tail. The greater, not the lesser. They were to be the lender, not the borrower. The only way that happens is if His people walk in absolute blessing, and the only way we walk in blessing is to walk in alignment with His principles. 

Now you know why I dress down. My goal is not to dishonor the work about the Giving Campaign. I’m proud of the team for that. I’m also proud when they put announcements up, even though I hate them because then I remember them. 

It’s just to say I think we’re better than this. It’s time to step up and grow up and start being really, really Biblically obedient as a people. If you’re here and you’re young in your faith, you’re like, I didn’t even know tithe was the thing. Don’t feel any condemnation, just step into it. 

Biblically, the word tithe means 10%, it comes out of the idea of first fruits. It means that, if you think about it from a farming point of view, the first harvest they got, they were to give. That’s a huge faith step. I think 10% of finance is a much kinder thing, but that is the Biblical model. 

You’re like, I don’t know. Hey, go ahead. Go ahead. If you want to take a deep dive into stupidity, just Google it. Or you read the Bible because the Scriptures are really clear. The tithe began with Melchizedek and Abraham, which means it transcended law. It was pre-law. 

Melchizedek had no beginning and no end, which is an eternal covenant that we’re coming back into, according to Hebrews. So, the Melchizedekian covenant starts before and comes back into play after. So, all the law stuff that was in between, you’re like, The tithe’s about law? The tithe’s never about law. The tithe’s developed before the law. The law just picked up what they learned from Melchizedek and put it into play. 

There’s a micro theology course on giving. So, maybe you never knew about it. Great, step into it. Maybe you’re one of those that’s like, You know what? I’ve just been disobedient. You gotta repent. No way around it. There is no way to walk in obedience without repentance. 

I don’t know who you are. I will never know who you are. I don’t care. I care about this household being faithful as a unit. And maybe you’re here, and you’re like, I tried it, and I got disenfranchised, or I decided the bills were too big. 

Belinda and I in our lifetime have not been phenomenal financially, we’ve just been faithful to that part. And what the Lord has done in my life has been egregiously stupid. He’s been so kind and so amazingly overflowing to where it doesn’t even make sense. 

How many in here are like, Yep, that’s my story as well. Yeah, there’s a bunch of us. You’re like, I’m not this good. He’s just way smarter. Like it’s this simple: Hey, just do what I told you to do. It’s gonna work. I promise. That’s what I want for us. 

The great thing is we’re not hurting financially. We’re doing fine as a church. This isn’t about like coffers are bare. There’s none of that. This is about the pastor’s irritated because it’s the wrong principle being lived out. And I realized, like, we’re actually doing this in a business way, not the Kingdom way. That’s got to stop. All right? 

Prayer teams will be upfront. I’m being serious, if you’re like, I need to repent. I haven’t been willing to tithe, don’t be ashamed about it. Just put a line in the sand and go, I’m gonna have the courage to come up, talk to the prayer teams, and say, Hey, can you pray with me? I’ve been in sin. You don’t think that matters? I think stepping forward matters, having the courage to admit it. Confess your faults, one to another, and be healed. 

We’ve already raised $155,000 out of the one hundred and eighty we needed. There’s like twenty-six grand left to go in this Building Campaign, and my hope is to never do another stupid campaign in the world because the tithe comes in so faithfully that our answer is we can take care of what God’s called us to take care of. We never have to talk about it, we just get to keep Jesus the main thing, amen?

If you’re new with us, Hi, I’m Greg. I’d love you to be part of this house. Here’s what it means to be part of this house: you step in, you say, This is my church, you commit to serve, you commit to give. Those are the things we ask, and you commit to follow the Scriptures. 

We have a statement of faith, it’s really clear. What that means is, I’m going to be governed by the leadership here, but I’m also going to follow what the Scriptures teach. Our Scriptures, our statement of faith, is pretty much like two thousand years of church history compiled. 

I’m tired of making it easy. My answer is, we are the people of God, and the standard should be really high. We should hold ourselves to a standard that people are scared to live because we trust Him. In America, there is no place like your finances to prove that you trust God.  

Jesus, we love You. We honor You. I know this is a tough one. Thank You for the grace to get it out, Lord. I also think it’s an exciting one because I have this gut instinct that You’re going to revolutionize this house through obedience. 

And Lord, I want to see worship that’s so hot because we walk in and we’re in such alignment with You that the Spirit of God is instantly on our gatherings. Lord, I want to see revelation come out of the Scriptures because we’re so aligned with Your heart that we begin to see things we’ve never seen before. 

Lord, I want to see love that flows because we’re just so excited to be part of the things of God that it’s just easy to love each other well. 

Lord, I want to see this city transformed because a group of people got together and trusted God, and they became one of the most philanthropic, generous houses that the world had ever seen. 

Lord, I want to see worship records come out of here because we got dumb money to have fun with because You have built it that way. 

Holy Spirit, will You teach us how to live Your principles as we dive into Titus? I know you’re gonna adjust a lot more than just giving. I figured I’d start with the easy ones. We love You, we honor You, may Your face shine upon us. Jesus’ name, amen.