The Christian's Approach to Money part 3 - The New Testament Church's Example

Thank you for that worship, Keith. Well, I know that we have been in our first Timothy passage every week at our scripture reading. I know that we divided that first Sunday slightly, and if you have been faithful on Wednesday nights, you know that we have looked at the first Timothy passage more in a more in depth manner. I trust that you have gotten that information. We will come back next Sunday to our first Timothy passage, and like I said earlier, it's our desire that you would have that firmly fixed in your heart, maybe in your mind, maybe you memorize that, and I think that the Lord is teaching us through that.

Now, go ahead and tell you this morning we're going to be in various passages of the scripture. Now, it's not my desire to cause you to flip here and there and everywhere and miss what we're wanting to look at. I would encourage you to drop those verses down if you can't follow me, and then go back and study them on your own. So we'll be in various places, and if you need any help getting those verses later, you just let me know. I'll be glad to share those with you. Most of you know we are exploring the subject of money, not just the subject of money, but the subject of money in the life of a Christian.

We would all raise our hands and say we're Christian. Most of us, I believe all of us, would say we're called to be a part of this church, Nola Baptist Church, and so we've just put our study through the Gospel of John on Holden. We're looking at monies as it applies to us as Christians. The title of this series is "The Christian's Approach to Money." We're just taking that title and adding to it as we go. I encourage you to keep up with these titles, keep up with the notes, because this all goes together. I said earlier this is really one big message. Now we've had two messages so far.

Our first message was very practical, and then our second message, last Sunday's message, was really very educational. In our first message we started the process of thinking about our monies, and when I say monies, I don't mean just our monies. I mean our monies and our possessions. We're thinking about what we have and allowing the Lord to form our thinking when it comes to our monies and possessions. We learned from this foundational passage in 1 Timothy that we must be rich, liberal, in good deeds with our possessions. And then in our second message we examine that very familiar word, the tithe.

Some people might use a variation of that word, tithing, and this message was very educational. We learned of the tithe from the Old Testament all the way into the New Testament. We looked at the tithe before the law of Moses. We went all the way back to Abraham, and then we looked at the tithe all the way into the time of Jesus and then this New Testament era. Now remember that I said that there is the rest of the story. Really last week I got to the tithe in the time of Jesus and how it applies to us, and I said we're gonna have the rest of the story.

Now I'm gonna give us a little more information as to the rest of the story towards the end of the message. Now early on, and I've repeated this, I have said that we need the Lord to stir us up. Now I don't know if there's ever been a time in your life, and I trust that it has, when the Lord has really stirred you spiritually. I can think about times in my own personal life, even when I was a layman, when my home church pastor would preach, and it was like the Lord just drew a lot in the sand, and he began to stir me up as the way I viewed the Scriptures and the circumstances.

I even used an analogy of the Lord taking a big stick and putting it into the pot of our lives and our monies and our possessions and stirring and stirring and stirring until he gets us to where he wants us to be. Now really for this work to take place, there are three things that we need to see. This is a work of the Holy Spirit of God. Now we know who the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit is not an it. The Holy Spirit is not a thing. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, and for us as Christians, the Spirit resides within us, and He counsels us and corrects us, and He teaches us as born-again believers.

So when the Lord doesn't work in us like this, He just by the power and the work of the Spirit, He begins to stir in us and overturn us and calls us to think and really just draws that line in the sand. He does that work in us. But then also the second thing we must see, this comes with proper knowledge. See when the teaching of God's Word comes before us, many times that teaching of God's Word, it just cuts right into the heart of who we are.

And the Spirit of God takes the truth of God, and He just applies that into our life and stirs within us, and He convicts us, and He challenges us, and we just latch hold to the Lord as the Lord has latched hold of us with that proper knowledge to allow the God to do this work. And then ultimately the third thing, this work that I'm talking about is for His work. The end result is that we would be useful, that we would be useful for Him and in His Church and in the world, and we'll talk a little more about that a little later. And that's why it's very important for us to listen. Listen to the messages, be good students, and taking the notes.

And again, I say it's important for us to get what we're looking at on Wednesday nights. If you've missed what we've looked at on Wednesday nights, I'll be glad to give that information to you, because it's just layer upon layer of this one message, what? The Christians approach to money and the Lord working in us here and now. Now, this all leads us to this morning's message. This is the Christians approach to money. This is part three, and we're adding to that. This is the New Testament Church's example. The New Church, the Testament Church's example. There are only two major truths that we're going to look at this morning.

Number one, the early Church's giving, the early Church's giving, and then number two, the Macedonian Church's giving. This Christians approach to money, the New Testament example, just a small amount that really is there if we look at the totality of the New Testament. So let's look at this first major truth, the early Church's giving. Now, when I say early Church, let me define that a little clearer. I mean the Church in its infancy. This is the Church that is in Jerusalem, and this came about right after the giving of the Holy Spirit.

In Acts chapter 2, we know that the Spirit of God was poured out there in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, and we have the birth of the New Testament Church, and we have a picture here in the scripture of the Jerusalem Church starting in verse 2. Now, I don't want you to turn there, but I want you to notice in your own study time, there is a window of time when we have the Jerusalem Church at peace all together doing this work. The Church's birth in Acts chapter 2, that great end gathering, and then they had peace until Acts chapter 19 when great persecution broke out against the Church.

If we look at Acts chapter 2 starting in verse 37, there's this great end gathering. The Church is at peace, they're growing, and then in Acts chapter 9, we see that Saul began persecution of the Church, and it says in verse 1, "And on that day a great persecution arose against the Church in Jerusalem, and they were scattered." So we're going to look at a few passages of scripture right here in this window of the Jerusalem Church. Now, I will give you three portions of scripture, Acts chapter 2, starting in verse 44. We'll look at this verse, these verses. Acts chapter 4 verses 32 to 37, and then over a little in Acts chapter 11.

Now, this is past that Acts chapter 8 passage I was talking about, but there are some truths that I want to bring to the surface. We're looking at this early Church's giving, this early Church's giving. So with our first major observation out of this first major truth, the early Church's giving, let's look at Acts chapter 4 starting in verse 32. This is after the birth of the Church, after the Day of Pentecost. Notice starting in verse 32, all the way down to verse 37, "And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them claimed that anything belonged to him, as was his own.

But all things were common property to them or among them. And with great power the Apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds to the sales of the sales, and lay them at the Apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need." And Joseph, a Levi, and what do we see? That's Barnabas. We're familiar with Barnabas. And what does it say? His name is translated the Son of Encouragement.

Verse 37, "He owned a tract of land and he sold it and he brought the money and he laid it at the Apostles' feet." What do we see right here? Our first major observation. They gave, these Christians gave, out of unified hearts and unified lives. Now I said earlier this is the Church in its infancy. The Church in a great time of numerical growth. They were outside of persecution and they were growing in a great way. But notice there was a great spiritual unity within the fellowship. Verse 32 says they were one in heart. Go back to the verse. "And the congregation of those who believed were one heart and one soul.

Also they were letting go of possessions." Verse 32, "And not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own." And then they were giving through leadership. Verse 35, what does verse 35 say? "And they gave them or laid them down at the Apostles' feet." When they sold properties and they brought the money to the Church, what did they do? They brought it to the appropriate leadership. And then they were giving and meeting needs within the congregation. What does verse 35 say? "For there was no, not a needy person among them." And so they were meeting these needs. So what do we see here?

All of this is coming out of this great unity within the lives of the people. We see this spoken of earlier in Acts chapter 2 verse 44. Right after the great end gathering, when that church is really being birthed on earth, verse 44, "And all those who believed were together and they had all things in common." This speaks of that unity that we see flashed out more here in Acts chapter 4. So what do we see here? This is the early church is giving, but what do we see? They gave out of unified hearts and unified lives. Second observation, they gave in their great times of growth. They gave during their great times of growth.

Now we're going back to Acts chapter 2. I know we're getting out of step chronologically. Acts chapter 2, starting in verse 44, "And all of those who had believed were together and had things or everything in common, and they began selling their property and their possessions and were sharing them with all as one might have need." This is the same thing we see in Acts chapter 4. But this right here is during the middle of their great time of growth. This was a tremendous time of numerical growth in the life of the New Testament church. Hundreds were being birthed into the kingdom.

The church had just been born of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost. And the church at Jerusalem was growing rapidly. And with this growth, there came needs among God's people. So they gave out of unified hearts and lives. They gave in great times of numerical growth. And then the third observation, they gave in their times of crisis. We'll turn over to Acts chapter 11, starting in verse 27.

Acts chapter 11, starting in verse 27, "Now at this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them, named Agapus, he stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world. And this took place in the reign of Claudius." What we have here is a New Testament prophet prophesying about a famine. So this is the context of this giving. There was a great crisis. Famines were common then. And extra biblical writers and historians tell us all about these famines that would take place. There's a very noted and respectable Jewish historian from that day. His name is Josephus.

I have his writings. And he wrote of famines such as this. And this particular famine was bad enough because verse 28 said it impacted the known world. In other words, the area, the region, the known world. And what do we see? The disciples, they gave, verse 29 says. And they organized in their giving, verse 29 says, they gave to those who were in Judea. We see that in verse 29. And notice that this relief came from Antioch and it was sent out to Judea. They sent this support through Barnabas and Saul. They took the support. The money's where it needed to go. And they sent this support to the elders of the church.

So there was a great crisis and they gave. And then the fourth observation, we go back to Acts chapter 4. They gave sacrificially. They gave sacrificially. I go back to Acts chapter 4. What do we see in verse 34? "For there was not a needy person among them. For all who were owners of land and houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' fee." Then verse 36, we have Barnabas, which just translated the son of encouragement. He sells properties and does the same thing. Here we see a general reference and a specific reference. People's in the life of the church and one man, Barnabas.

They would sell properties and they would give the proceeds to the church. Barnabas sold property and gave. They brought the monies. They brought these to the leaders. They brought this in the life of the church. So what do we see here? Chronologically, I've known we've gone back and forth. We are getting a big picture. We are catching a glimpse of the giving of the New Testament church, the infant church there in Jerusalem. They gave during their great time of growth. They gave during a great time of crisis. They gave sacrificially. Simply, they were good at giving, even when they were in their infancy.

Now, I have not made one key observation, but I want to ask a question to get to this key observation. What was the secret to all of this great work? Let that question roll over in your mind. What was the secret? How was this possible? How did this take place? Well, you might say this is a great work of the Spirit. That's a true answer, but that's not what I want us to see. I want us to see the key was their great unity. Their great unity.

We go back to Acts 4, verse 32, "And the congregation of those who believe were one in heart." We see that if we go all the way back to Acts chapter 2, starting in verse 44, "And all those who believed were together." That speaks of their unity. Yes, this was a work of the Spirit, but more than that, God took all of these sinners and He made them one. Now, an application for you and for me, I would like you to write one word down. Yes, you guessed it, that word unity. There have been many preachers who preach good sermons on unity. There have been many preachers who preach bad sermons on unity.

There have been books and seminars about this word unity, but what do we need to see right here about this word unity? Because I think that you see by now this early church in its infancy, yes, they gave in crisis. Yes, they gave during a time of great growth, but we see this wonderful, mysterious unity that only God could have brought about. I want us to see that we must be unified. Now, there are a lot of people, they make a mistake here, they will say they're Christian and they will unify all around personal opinions. Let me give you an example. An old friend of mine served on church staff one particular time in this particular church.

I won't call the name of the church, but way back in the early 70s in the life of this church, they started a Christian school. Now, I am not against Christian school. I'm not. No matter of fact, I'm for public school if that's where the Lord's led you to be. I'm for private school if that's where the Lord's led you to be. And I'm for homeschooling if that's where the Lord has led you to be. And I'm not against private school, but years ago back in the early 70s, there was some monies appropriated and this church felt led to start a Christian school and everything in the life of that church revolved around that Christian school.

I'll give you an example. I was speaking to this friend just the other day and I said, "Yeah." I said, "Those people up there have a Christian school and they just so happen to have a church down the road." They were all unified around what? A Christian school. But see, here's the problem. That kind of unity can only go so far. Why? Because it's not found in the Scriptures. What do we see here? We must be unified around certain things. I'll give you the first thing. We must be unified around a common salvation. I've known people. They were unified around all kinds of "Christian things" and they weren't even born again. Not these people.

They were born of the Spirit. They were born of God. The Spirit of God had been poured out and they were truly born-again Christians. The first step to unity is that we are born again. Because listen, if someone comes in the life of the church and they're not born again, they might speak our language, they might profess our theology, they might have things in common with us, but we can never be one with someone who is not born again. These people were born again. But also the second step of unity is the church. Now if you boil their lives down, they were about one thing, the church. Did they have wives? Yes. Children? Yes. Jobs? Yes.

Properties? Yes. I don't think they sold everything they had. They had lives to live, but their lives were centered around the church. The first step to unity is a common salvation and the second step is that our lives will be channeled into the direction of the New Testament church. That's what these people did. I think that we're on a good track when we're looking at the ten pillars of the church because what has God shown us? The church. That is God's kingdom work on earth. He's coming back for the church.

He suffered and he bled and he died for the church and all of those things around the ten pillars of the church, we do them in the life of the church. And let me tell you something. If you're born again and you pour your life into the church, you're being just like these people that we're talking about here. And that will bring about a work of unity. And I want you to look around you. You know people who would say they're Christian. They use the same words you use. They have some of the same personal opinions you have and look they will unify around personal opinions. That is not true Bible unity.

When you boil it all down and I've seen so many good Christians be led astray. I go back to my illustration earlier. I've seen so many Christians be caught up in the proverbial Christian school down the road while the church suffers. So what do we see here? This early church, they were a giving church. They gave out of this great supernatural unity and it was in times of growth, good times, times of crisis, bad times, and yes it was sacrificially when the Spirit of God led them. Now I'm continuing a little more in application here. Three questions.

If the Lord were to do a great work among us and we were to have an explosive growth, would we give accordingly? I think that's a legitimate question. You might say pastor you're about numbers. No. I'm just about God birthing people in the kingdom. If God were to do a great work and there would be great growth here and we would have to make major changes here, would you give accordingly? If we have great crisis, would you give? I've seen some of you give individually. Yes, I've seen some of you meet needs in crisis time, but if there was a great crisis, would we give? And would we get to the place of giving sacrificially?

Yeah, the Spirit of God lead us to give sacrificially. I've said this from the pulpit and I'll say it again. I don't think I've ever called us to give sacrificially that they might come. So what do we see here? The early church is giving. It's a whole lot here in just these few verses. And let's look at our second major truth. Notice the Macedonian church is giving. Now we find this here in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. So if you would turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 8 with me. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. We'll look at verses 1 to 5. Let's read those together. "Now brethren," Paul's writing to the church there at Corinth. We know that church well.

We've been in Corinthian several times. So what does he say? "Now brethren Christian people, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia. That in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality or giving. For I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord, begging us with much in treaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints.

And this not as we had expected but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God." Now right here in these five verses we have three churches. We have the Corinthian church. Had a lot of problems, did they not? Paul's writing to this Corinthian church. We have the Macedonian church referenced here. Then we have the Jerusalem church. But what do we see going on here? The scripture tells us how the church in Macedonia gave greatly to the Christian Christians in Jerusalem in their time of need. I ran across a small little quotation here.

John MacArthur says this text verses 1 to 5, this text provides the richest most detailed model of Christian giving in the New Testament. And I'll tell you the more I meditated on this verse I think that is true. So we have a snapshot of this wonderful work here, this work of giving. Four observations I want to make just out of these verses. First notice they gave liberally. They gave liberally or generously. Go back to the verse now brethren we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given to the churches of Macedonia.

There's the churches mentioned that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their, the New American says, liberality. This word liberality is translated generosity in the English Standard Version. This word can be translated sincerity. This means they were totally committed to this particular giving. They were not hypocritical, they were not half in and half out, they were not double-minded, they were all in. This was sincere. Sincere in every way they were liberal. They gave liberally. Second observation they gave to support the saints.

Verse 4, they were begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints. This was a relief for the Christians in Jerusalem that church were familiar with. But notice how they supported them. They begged to participate. Is it that what we see? Begging us with much entreaty. It's almost like they just won't leave Paul alone. They begged to participate in this giving and then they saw the giving as a privilege. The New American says favor. Go back to verse 4. Begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participating in support of the saints. So they gave liberally, generously.

They gave to support the saints. And then the third observation they gave of themselves. Verse 5, and this not as we had expected. See this was a surprise to Paul. But they gave of themselves to the Lord. So not only did they give financially but they went beyond that financial giving. They gave of themselves. First they gave of themselves to the Lord. Second they gave of themselves to Paul. And third they gave of themselves to the work. And I want you to notice that order. They gave themselves to the Lord. They gave to themselves to the Paul, the Apostle Paul is the leader. And they gave themselves to this work.

This represents a giving of their monies as the need arose. This represented a giving of their possessions but more than that a giving of themselves. And then fourth they're giving surprise Paul. I think about this. The Apostle Paul was shocked. Verse 5, and this not as we had expected. But they first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us by the will of God. Paul was surprised that these Macedonian Christians were giving like this. So what do we see here? Three churches. The Corinthian church. Oh they had a lot of problems, did they not? They were terribly immature and Paul is trying to work them out.

And we know that Paul is addressing all of their problems and issues in the life of the church. Then there's the Jerusalem church and we know they had needs. And then there's the Macedonian church and they were giving. One of the greatest examples of giving that we can see. Now in application I want to give us a phrase and I want to give us a story to illustrate this. And I would like you to write this phrase down. Earlier I asked you to write down the word unity and I want you to write down this phrase for me. And here's the phrase, front of the line mentality. Front of the line mentality.

Many of you here know the significance of December the 7th 1941. December the 7th 1941 is when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and it thrust America into World War II. I have a living grandfather on my dad's side who's a World War II veteran in the Navy. And he can tell you vividly where he was when he got the news that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. He was living at the time in North Mississippi and he said he was bird hunting with his dad on a Sunday morning. He said there was an old farmer that lived there in the community and they were bird hunting and the old farmer ran out and told him that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.

My grandfather said he looked at his dad and the first thing he said was I want to sign up. Now that isn't exactly how he said it but I can't repeat how he said it. What was he saying? Front of the line mentality. I want to go, I want to serve, I want to do whatever it takes. The rest of the story is this, he was 17 he was underage. His mom lived in Oklahoma. His dad said you're crazy. He said his daddy literally looked at him and said you're crazy. Probably because his dad remembered World War I. But he said son if you want to go I'll sign that you got to go to Oklahoma to get your mom's signature.

He said he hitchhiked all the way to Oklahoma. His mom consented to sign and she had to borrow ten dollars to get him on the bus to get him to New Orleans to sign up. He said by the time he got to New Orleans he'd already turned 18. He didn't need the signatures and he joined the Navy just like many of his brothers. You know the irony of it as bad as he wanted to go fight he never left the United States. He served on a aircraft trainer in Lake Michigan. Wanted to go. He said repeatedly he volunteered, volunteered and of course he needed to serve here in the States. But what do we see? Frontline mentality.

See isn't that what we see with that Macedonian church? What did they do? They stepped up and they it's almost like they're bugging Paul. Look I want to get in on the work of the church. I want to help the knees there in Jerusalem and we want to give. That's that frontline mentality. They were liberal in their giving. They were serving. They were giving of themselves. They offered themselves. That's that frontline mentality. And if we're ever going to be good givers, givers according to the Spirit of God and how God wants to work here, we're going to have to be front of the line mentality givers. Now a question before we move on.

Why do I mention these just small examples from the New Testament? Why the early church, the Jerusalem church, why the Macedonian church? We need to see that the examples of what a giving church should look like. Now I think most of us, we don't want to admit this, most of you are like me. You need to see it and see these examples show us what it should look like. Most of us have never seen a truly giving church. We've seen glimpses. Maybe you have. We've seen glimpses. We've seen little bright spots, but most of us have never seen a church like the Jerusalem church or the Macedonian church or other examples that are found in the scriptures.

And we need to be this kind of church. We need to be looking at these New Testament examples in yearning to be these types of churches. Now a word about timing. Our first message, our first message dealing with giving, is getting us to think. I think one of the first steps sometimes is just causing us to put on breaks and begin to think. The Lord Himself by the work of the Spirit was getting us to think about our monies, seeing that we must be doing good, be doing good out of the abundance that we have with our monies and with our possessions. That's why we spend so much time in 1st Timothy 6 verses 17 and 19.

And then last week's message, it was to educate and it was to help us to see where the tithe came from, where it's going all throughout the journey from Old Testament to New. In the next week we will look at how the tithe applies to us and I will address above and beyond. I will lead us down a healthy path of what giving should look like. Now a question. Why this message briefly looking at the New Testament examples, giving, why again do we do this? I believe that it is very important to learn of the tithe like we did last week, but I believe it's very important for us to see what these churches did.

And if we jump straight into the tithe without looking at some of these examples, I believe we short circuit of work. Remember the rest of the story? I dated myself last week when I talked about Paul Harvey and the rest of the story. I said earlier that we're going to look at the rest of the story. Well this is only part of the rest of the story. We're going to look at the full rest of the story next week. You might say, "Pastor, you're leading us on. You're dangling this in front of our faces." Well so be it. Now in conclusion, I want to go back to this challenge. I think you know me by now and the way I preach and teach.

There are times when I repeat myself. I do that purposely. The Lord Jesus did. How often did he have to repeat himself to those disciples? So when we find ourselves repeating ourselves, we're in good company and it's for a purpose. And I want us to get this challenge because I think this is all part of the work that the Lord wants to do in you, in me, and us as a church. First, as your pastor, I call us to engage in a prayerful examination of our monies and even our properties. Yes. I call you to go to your prayer closet, whatever that may be. You might pray outside in the barn. You might pray outside in the garage.

You might stay up late in your den. I don't know where you pray, but I challenge you. I call you to pray a prayerful examination over how much you make, what you do with your monies, your properties. Yes, everything. You might use a term that you're familiar with, your assets. Take the time. Take the spiritual effort. Be disciplined in your prayer life and pray over what you have and what you're making and what you're spending. Pray a prayerful examination. Second, as your pastor, I call us all to come to a place of honest examination between two things, our essentials and our extras.

I call us to come to a place of an honest examination between our essentials and our extras. Now, if we pray over our essentials and our extras long enough, I think that some of our essentials will find their way over to the extras. Remember what I have shared several times and I repeat it. We learned in 1 Timothy 6 verse 17, what does Paul say instruct those who are rich in this present world? We must interpret that in light of their culture and ours in Paul's day. If anyone had daily food, simple shelter, and simply clothing on their back, that was enough.

Anybody who had more than daily food, anybody who had more than simple shelter, I mean anybody who had more than just clothes on their back was considered rich. If we get honest in our examination, we're rich. We have many extras. So I ask you to pray over your essentials and your extras. And then third, as your pastor, I call you to pray and pray and keep praying and ask God to get you to a new place of usefulness. No one adds something to that. I didn't share with this, share this with us last Sunday nor the Wednesday before. There is something that I use from time to time.

I say from time to time, "Brother Keith has heard me say this, I call this praying this on through." If we're not careful, we can pray and not pray on through. We can pray and give a little bit of effort or even a lot of effort, but we don't carry it all the way through. Another way that'll look for you could be different for me. What I'm saying is this, I call you to pray and to pray this prayer and ask the Lord to do a work in you to get you to a new place of usefulness and you keep praying to you or convinced that the Spirit of God has got you to where you should be. That's called praying it all the way through, all the way.

Because if we relax for one minute, we'll only pray part of the way and we'll only get to a part of that place and we'll short-circuit the work that God wants to do. Next week we will pick back up with this challenge and we'll get into the rest of the rest of the story and that'll be how the tithe and how giving above and beyond the tithe relates to us and where we're going in the future. Let's pray.