 Hey man, so John chapter 2, this is our second week in John chapter 2 and I'm warning you we're going to be in John chapter 2 for probably this sermon and maybe two more, at least two more from today because I don't want to leave any stone unturned here in our Bible study of this is our first, this is the first Gospel that I've gone through since I've been preaching so I want to make sure that we capture everything. We're going to focus on this story, the second story in John chapter 2 where Jesus goes into the temple and flips over all the tables here, look down at verse number 12 and then I'll show you what we're going to look at this evening. The Bible says in verse 12, so Jesus has just performed his, he just started his ministry, he just performed his first great miracle by changing the water into wine. We looked at that last week. I encourage you to watch that. A lot of people misuse that story to justify being a drunkard basically. So I preached through that and showed you that biblically Jesus did not make alcohol there. But look down at verse number 12 and let's look at the next thing that Jesus gets into here. The Bible says in verse 12 it says in this, after this he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brethren and his disciples and they continued their not many days. So they didn't really stay there long and they went to Jerusalem in verse 13. The Jews Passover was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. This is of course where the temple, so of course the Passover is when all these people are coming to town, right? And it's all these different people. This was the Acts chapter two, the great speaking of tongues of different languages where they preached the gospel to everybody who was during this time as well. Look at verse 14. And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them out of the temple and the sheep and oxen and poured out the changers money and overthrew the tables. So he found people basically doing business within the temple and Jesus sits down and he makes himself a weapon here and then he basically kicks them all out. Look at verse 16. And he said to them that sold doves, take these things hence, make not my father's house and house of merchandise. As disciples remember that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Of course they were, if you want to turn to Psalm chapter 69, this is what they are quoting. So the disciples actually know the Bible so that's interesting as they remember these things. So this is a fulfilled prophecy in Psalm 69 verse number nine where the Bible says, for the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon thee. So this is what they're quoting when they, this is what they comes to their mind when they see Jesus driving these people out of the temple. Now this story is a famous story in the Bible, in the Gospels. It's actually not the only time Jesus does this but there's two issues here with Jesus driving these people out of the temple and there's two issues. The first issue is the one we're going to look at tonight and it is the idea of money in church. Okay, the idea of money in church. And the second thing, the second issue that we're going to look at next week is Jesus's attitude towards these people. And we're going to just kind of explore Jesus's attitude next week but tonight we're going to look at this idea of money in church. Now money is not something that I bring up a lot in this church. It might be actually my least favorite thing to preach on but when we hit something in the Bible, this is one of the difference of our church versus many other churches. We're going to preach through everything in the Bible. So what was the problem here? As we look at this idea of money in church. I mean, look, the Bible actually talks a lot about money. The Bible talks in Proverbs which I brought up last week in the sermon on bad counsel. The Bible talks about, you know, you shouldn't be just spending all your money. You shouldn't be going into a bunch of debt, all these different things. The Bible has a lot to say about money. So you can't really say, I mean, 2 Timothy chapter 2 is all just before we get started on the sermon. 2 Timothy chapter 2 says, for the love of money is the root of all evil. Meaning, if you love money, that's where all your troubles are going to start. Like everything that's going to just spring up and cause you problems in your life is going to come from the fact that you love money if you do love money. So we're not to love money but can you really say, according to the Bible, that we shouldn't care about money? I mean, you know, you have to, I mean, as a leader of your family, you have to care about money. I mean, you say, I just don't care about money. Okay, go in your bank, go to your bank and take out all your money and just go give it to the first bum that you see if you don't really care about money. But obviously, the Bible does care about money and it cares how we, you know, there's a wise way to handle your money and a not wise way to handle your money. That's what we're looking at in Proverbs last week. But tonight we see this issue of money come into the temple or, you know, as we're going to look at tonight into the church. And this is a big deal today. This is a big deal. There's a lot of people doing what is happening in this passage today. And look, what we're seeing in John chapter 12, John chapter two verse 12 through 17 is actual doctrine here. We're actually seeing Jesus, like, explain doctrine of this. Okay, he's like literally saying, you know, make not my father's house and house of merchandise. That's doctrine right there. When it comes out of the mouth of Jesus, Jesus is just saying, this is what you should not be doing. So the problem statement of this, we're going to look at this whole idea of money and the church and how it works together tonight. But the problem here was that there was people doing business inside the church, inside the temple here, right? I mean, why were they doing this? Turn to turn to Leviticus chapter one. Why was their people selling doves and sheep and oxen? They're selling cattle and sheep and doves. Why? Look at Leviticus chapter one and verse number one. I'm going to spend a lot of time on this, but basically Leviticus chapter one, chapter one through chapter seven, details all the sacrifices of the Old Testament on, you know, what they were supposed to do, and what they could use, what they couldn't use. Look at verse number one of Leviticus chapter one. I'll just give you a little taste of that. And the Lord called unto Moses and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation saying, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, if any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd and of the flock. So there were several offerings and Leviticus chapter one through chapter seven details these offerings. The main offerings are the burnt offering, there's a meat offering, there's a sin offering, there's a not the wave offering, the wave offering is a part of a different offering. There's a trespass offering, and then there's a peace offering. And I believe three of those offerings are you were able to use either an ox, a sheep, or an actual bird. I mean, the peace offering, the sin offering, you could use a bird as well. You say why? Well, because a lot of people just didn't have, you know, a bunch of cattle. So they just, it was kind of a cheaper version to have a peace offering or a sin offering, or a burnt offering. They could use a bird too. So this is why these people are in the temple is because there's all these people, and they're going to be doing these sacrifices, these sin offerings, there's money to be made here. There's opportunity. There's opportunity. So, hey, why not have people, why not instead of having them bring their bird or their ox or wherever from all the way from their house, maybe from another nation. Well, hey, I got an idea. Somebody in the temple probably stood up and said, why don't we just sell stuff here? And then people, you know, don't have to bring all these things. I mean, from a logical perspective, it sounds reasonable, right? And I'm sure the people in it, the Bible doesn't point out on whether it was the the price of the temple taking a cut or what the cut was or whatever, or if it was just like independent businesses running inside the temple. But the point is, Jesus didn't like it. And Jesus says, this ought not to be happening. You should not be making merchandise, making a house of merchandise out of the house of God is what Jesus was very clear about his doctrine. All right? Now, there's many churches that sell things today. This happens all over the place. There's many churches that you can go to and they have stores, bookstores. You can buy DVDs. You probably don't buy CDs anymore. The kids are like, what's a CD? You can buy shirts. You can buy all kinds of things. By the way, things that we have here, but they're selling these things in these churches. These are things that are not to be done. That's what Jesus has clearly said here. Now, I'm going to give you two reasons that people sell in church today. All right? The first one, I'm not really even going to spend a lot of time on because I have beaten Second Peter chapter two, literally to death in the last two or three weeks. But basically it's false prophets. It's false prophets making merchandise of people. Where the Bible literally says, you know, they buy their feigned words, they make merchandise of you. So false prophets, why are false prophets? This is a church that has a false gospel. This is a church that doesn't preach the gospel. This is some Pentecostal church that preaches workspace salvation. What do they do? They just make merchandise of people. They're just there to just make money. Okay, they're there and so what sell stuff too? So we can sell things, we can make more money. And that's, that's the point of the false prophet. One of the main motives of the false prophet is to literally just make money off of people. He's going to make merchandise of the people, but he's going to make his, they literally exist to make money. Okay, that's why you're going to see these big mega churches and they're never going to, they're never going to say anything mean to you. They're never going to say anything that might offend anybody. They're never really going to take a stand. I mean, like all the Bible does is take stand after stand after stand. And it is crystal clear on all these issues of the day. That's why you're not going to see those things preached there. Why? Because they, they just want to just, they just want to fill the seats. Because they're just making merchandise of people. So the first one, the first reason that people are going to be selling in church, having businesses in church is because they're false prophets. They're false prophets and they're just, their goal is to make money. You know, the Benny Hins and the Joel Osteens and all this, the goal is just to get as much money as they possibly can. But outside of false prophets, I've even been in an old IFB church, an old IFB church that also sold things. Before we moved to California, this was something that we did see. So the second, the second read, the second category, sorry, of people selling in churches is look, they're not false prophets. They have the gospel correct. And they're still selling in church. So you say, why? Look, we've been in old IFB churches where they sell materials, they sell gospel stuff, they sell music, they sell, they have missionaries. I remember we had missionaries come in and the missionaries would, would play a song and they would set up a stand in the back of the church and sell all their music. And look, you say what's wrong with this? Because they sell all their music and then the missionaries get the money and they go and they continue, they use that money for their missions. I mean, it sounds harmless, right? It sounds okay except Jesus said not to do it. Except Jesus said, don't do it. Don't sell in church. So we have to just follow what the Bible says in our lives. Now look, you say churches need money. It's true. Churches need money. So if we can't sell in church and we can't set up a coffee shop, look, I mean, churches need money. Even this church needs money. You know, I can't just say like I'm the pastor of this church and I just don't care about money, like whatever, you know, the money we get, I just give to all the bums and, and everything's great. You know, I mean, church, I mean, look, there's bills, there's bills here, there's repairs here, there's, there's operation and maintenance costs here. And look, I mean, it's, it's true. I was thinking about Pastor Thompson's sermon when he, he gave us that soul winning, recharge your soul winning battery sermon. And he said, you know what, I can't wait to see what this church has in the future. And it's true that bigger churches have more resources and can do more things because of the resources that they have. That's a, that's a true thing. But turn to Matthew chapter nine. Turn to Matthew chapter nine. So while churches need money, we have to pay the rent here, we have to pay the utility bills here, we have to, you know, we do a lot of things that do cost a lot of money here, you know, the activities and, and bringing people to town. All of this requires money, but the Bible doesn't really focus on that when it comes to the church. Look at Matthew chapter nine and look at verse number 37. Matthew chapter nine and verse number 37. The Bible says this, this is Jesus. He says, then he said unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenious, but the laborers are few. Notice what Jesus focuses on here. He says, the laborers are few. He says, pray either for the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth what? Send forth laborers into his harvest. So the Bible is saying that we need people. That's what Jesus is saying. He's saying, you know, look, the more people that we have, the more we will be able to harvest. The more people that we have, the more we will be able to do. The more people that we have, the more people we'll be able to give the gospel to. The more people that we have, you know, maybe we have to go get a different building. The more people that we have, that's when all these things will happen. We say, who's going to pay all the bills? I mean, where does that come from? If I can't open a coffee shop and I can't open, you know, a bookstore and I can't start selling things, well, turn to Leviticus chapter 27. This is where tithing comes in. You know, this is where tithing comes in. The Bible is very clear about this in Leviticus chapter 27. But tithing is kind of when Jesus is talking in Matthew chapter 9, verse 37. He's saying, we need people, but the doctrine of tithing is assumed. It's assumed. That's where the church gets its resources. And that's what the Bible teaches. Look at Leviticus 27. Look at verse 30. The Bible says, and all the tithe of the land, you say, what is that? Whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree is the Lord's. That's important to note where the Bible says the tithe, whatever it is, and we'll get there in just a second. It says it belongs to God. It is holy unto the Lord. And if a man would all redeem out of his tithes, he shall add there to the fifth part thereof. So this is saying that, and then in verse 32, it talks about the tithe being the tenth. And again, in Numbers 18, it talks about a tithe is a tenth part. So basically what the Bible here is saying in Leviticus 27 is that 10% of all the harvest and all the increase, it belongs to the Lord. It's not that you're giving it to the Lord, it's just, it's his. It belongs to him. It says, if you take out of it, then you have to pay 20%, a fifth part. So one fifth is if you do the math on that, it's 20%. So the Bible is teaching that. Malachi chapter 3, of course, this is a go-to here on tithes and offerings. Malachi chapter 3, look at verse number 8. Again, this just backs up the fact that the tithe is, it already belongs to God. It's his. It's not like something that people are giving to God, it belongs to God. Look at verse number 8 of Malachi chapter 3. Verse number 8, the Bible says, woman, man, rob God. Yet you have robbed me. But you say, wherein have we robbed thee? And then God says, in tithes and offerings. He says, you are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. So this nation, at this point, was not paying tithes and not giving offerings. It says, bring all the tithes into the storehouse. Now these tithes are grain and whatever their increase is. So it's a cattle guy, he's got cattle, a farmer, he's got grains, whatever it is, he's bringing a tenth of it in. Could there be a meat in my house and prove me now herewith, say the Lord of Hosts, I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes and shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, sayeth the Lord of Hosts. So basically God is tying a blessing to the people that actually give the tithe and he's tying a curse to it in verse number nine, people that don't give the tithe. Now this isn't a prosperity gospel, this is just what the Bible says. Alright, this isn't that, hey, if you tithe nothing bad's ever going to happen to you, that's not what the Bible says. It's just saying, from God, he's not going to bless what you do if you're stealing from him. Alright, and people are like, okay, well, you know, turn to Proverbs chapter three. You say, well, I mean, is it 10% after taxes or before taxes or how do I calculate that? The Bible says it's his in the first place. That's the first thing you need to understand. In Proverbs three, nine, the Bible says honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase. That's super important right there because the Bible is saying it's the first fruits, meaning God should be the first one that gets paid. You should give God the first 10%. You don't give Uncle Sam his whatever percent he takes, but you give, and it says of all thine increase, that's important too. You say, what should I pay tithe off of? Everything. Anything that you increase with. Alright, now a lot of people say, well, tithing, I've known so many saved Baptists that are just like, yeah, tithing is not a New Testament thing. It's just Old Testament. So, I mean, same God folks, his positions haven't changed. I mean, the meats, the drinks and the diverse washings are gone, but it's the same God. If Jesus didn't revoke it, it's still in play today. The Old Testament is just as valid as the New Testament. That just feeds into this doctrine of that there's like Old Testament God and New Testament God, which is just false anyway. I mean, Jesus is flipping over tables here. I mean, Jesus is dropping hammers on people here. We're going to talk about that next week and how that's a righteous situation, but turn to Genesis 14. Turn to Genesis 14. Let's look at a New Testament reference here on tithing. Look at Genesis chapter 14. Look at verse number 18. Genesis 14, verse number 18. The Bible says, so this is all in context of, if I can't open a coffee shop, if a church, if Jesus Christ's church on earth, we can't sell books and we can't sell things and we can't start a business here. You know, where are we supposed to pay the bills? And the answer is tithing offerings. And the Bible is very clear on that. Look at Genesis 14, verse 18. The Bible says, in McKillsidech, the king of Salem brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and he blessed Abraham, the most of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the most high God, which had delivered thine enemies into thine hand, and he gave him ties of all, meaning Abraham tied to McKillsidech. Now turn to Hebrews chapter 7. Now if it wasn't for Hebrews chapter 7, we wouldn't really have some clarity on what was actually happening here in Genesis 14. But the point in Genesis 14 is that Abram paid, it was Abram at that time, paid tithe, paid 10% of his spoil to this high priest. All right, look at Hebrews chapter 7. The Bible says in Hebrews 7.1, for this McKillsidech, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, clearly referencing Genesis 14, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom Abraham, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, again equating the tithe to the tenth part, first being the interpretation king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace. And you're like, who is this guy? Look at verse 3, though. Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning or beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. McKillsidech was an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ literally took tithes from Abraham. So it's literally Jesus was there taking tithe. Now turn to Matthew chapter 23. So Abraham literally paid tithe of everything that he had, everything that he took from the kings to Jesus, is what the Bible was very clear on. Look at Matthew chapter 23. Let's look at Jesus' words here in Matthew chapter 23, verse number 23, where Jesus says, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and come in, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone. So Jesus is pointing out that the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, faith, which I'm going to show you how, you know, faith is directly tied to money in church, but he's saying these ought you have done to what? Pay tithe. He's saying paying tithe was right, but you're not doing these other things that you should be doing. But he's not saying you shouldn't have paid tithe. He's saying these ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone. You know, but the Pharisees, what were they doing? They were just showing everybody how godly they were and how much they gave, and they weren't doing any of the judgment, mercy, and faith. And Jesus is like, no, you should be paying tithe, but you should do the important things. You know, do these other things as well. So look, the law was clear on this. I mean, I know people don't really want to hear this today because people, you know, just people really like their money, but let me just use as an example of myself for you. I didn't always tithe. I didn't always tithe. But when I found out the doctrine of tithing when I first heard that preached, I started to tithe. And look, I'm telling you, I give ten percent of any of my increase. If I find a dime, I give a penny. Anything that I sell, that I give, it is nothing to do with you. It has to do with my relationship with God. I, as a pastor of this church, I need to be right. That's how I look at it. I give ten percent, I mean, I round up because I don't want to miss anything. And that is what we're supposed to do. Turn to Haggai chapter one. I mean, I sell something and I make a little profit. I tithe on that. I don't want to miss anything. Why? Because it's God's. I don't want to be carrying something around that belongs to the Lord that I have not given to him. Now look at Haggai chapter one. Let me just give you a little bit of a testimony here. I kind of read you a little bit of this kind of attitude in Malachi chapter three. But Haggai chapter one sums this up so well. And let me just tell you this. I didn't always tithe and then I started tithing once I knew the doctrine of tithing that was taught in the Bible. Because look, I'll be honest with you. I always gave to church. When I was Lutheran, I gave to church. We gave to church. But I never sat down and like tithe. I mean, I never figured it like that. Because I, you know, should you or shouldn't you? I mean, it was kind of a question mark for me. But as soon as I mean, I got saved. I started learning the Bible. And I'm just like, I'm putting these things into practice. But look at Haggai chapter one. Look at verse number five. The Bible says, Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have so much and bring in little. Look at these words here. You eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but you are not filled with drink. You clothe you, but there is none warm. You see what the Bible is saying here? The Bible is saying that this person in Haggai chapter one is just spinning their wheels. And I'm telling you, this was me. This was me. I mean, just spinning your wheels. I mean, I'm telling you when I was, I was, I was saved for several years in North Dakota before I moved to California. And I worked my tail off. I worked my tail off at two jobs. I had a business that I was trying to grow. I was remodeling a house. I was building buildings. I was building fence. I was basically rebuilding a business. And I had a full time job too. And I worked my tail off. And I'm telling you, it was like, but you know, and then look at the last part. It says he earneth wages, earneth wages to put it in bags with holes. It was like, I, I couldn't get ahead. It's like, what's going on here? I can't, I can't get ahead. That's what the Bible is saying. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Look, if the Lord's not with you, it's like you're putting money into bags with holes in it. And I'm telling you, there's times in your life, and maybe you know these times, or you've been through these times, where you feel like there's just nothing you can do, where you can get ahead. And that's where I was. But look, ever since I've been tithing, I don't even worry about money anymore. I'm not, I'm not rich. I'm never going to be rich. But you know what? I'm not broke. And I don't worry, I don't worry about money. I'm responsible. I try to do what the Bible says as far as spending and, and debt and all these different things. And, and I give 10% to the Lord. And Haggai 1, I'm just telling you as a, as a, as a testimony, Haggai 1, 5 through 7 is true. All right. And the Bible, you know, kind of gives that, that same methodology in other places as well. But look, here's the thing, folks, turn to Second Corinthians 8. Second Corinthians 8 and Second Corinthians 9 talks about offerings. So tithing is one thing, you know, this, this 10% to the Lord of any of your increase. But then there's something called offerings. And in Second Corinthians 8 and Second Corinthians chapter 9, Paul, he's taking a special offering from the Gentile churches to the saints that are being persecuted in Jerusalem. And that's what he's talking about through all of chapter 8 and into probably I think half of, or more of chapter number 9. He's talking about this special offering that he's coming to, to collect. But here's the thing. When you think about this, tithing only makes sense. It only makes sense because, I mean, tithing and offerings, it only makes sense because if it was just like whatever you felt like giving, nobody would give anything. Think about like, think about like if your boss operated that way. Like you go to work for, for a day and you work really hard and your boss comes to you and he's at the end of the day and he's like, you know what I feel that you, I feel that you worked for, I should pay you 12 bucks today. That's what I feel. It would be ridiculous. It's ridiculous to even say that. So to say that God wouldn't have a plan for his church is actually a little bit crazy. There's an amount it's set. It's not about, you know, your feelings. And in 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 actually where people, at least verse number 7, 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 and verse number 7, this is one that people will use and say, see you shouldn't tithe. It's just every man give according to what he wants. Every man, according as he perpeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity for God love with a cheerful giver. Paul's talking about this offering that he's coming to get for Jerusalem. And yeah, that's exactly what he's saying. He's like, you should give what you want to give. You should give what you can. And Paul's saying, if you're like, I shouldn't have to give this offering. He's like, don't give anything then. Because God wants a cheerful giver. But he's talking about some special offering. Look, we've never had a special offering here. But I'm not saying we never will. I'm not saying there might not be a time where we need something or whatever and we have a special offering. It's biblical. It's biblical. I've just never done it here because we've always been able to fix stuff ourselves and God's always blessed this church and we found free chairs. And I mean, I've never had to. I've never felt like it was necessary. Actually, just, you know, what would like people to just kind of get to that basic doctrine of tithing. Because that's what, you know, the Bible clearly teaches. But it's not to say, you know, a variety that have the vision offering every year and the vision offering is very specific. It's for very specific things. It's not just like, well, I mean, what's full the coffers? It was very specific for different things that are explained every single year on the vision offering. There's nothing wrong with that. It's an offering. And during the vision offering, pastor, it's not a tithe. Pastor, he meant is always very clear on you should give what you can give in your heart. You know, you should give, you know, willingly, you should give liberally as Paul, you know, Paul's giving this advice of second Corinthians chapter 8, second Corinthians chapter 9. Another thing about tithing is, if you look at second Corinthians chapter 8, look at verse 13, you know, Paul's kind of like, given a lot of examples about people that were really in a bad place that are still giving liberally to the church in Jerusalem. But look at verse number 13. He says, for I mean not that other men be eased and ye burdened. So Paul here, then he goes into kind of like that it should be equal and all this. So tithing just makes sense, folks. I mean, it doesn't make sense that some people would give and then others just wouldn't, you know, like everyone just, you know, carries the load or whatever, right? Because Paul's just saying like, it's not supposed to be that some people are eased and some people are not. It's supposed to be like everyone kind of has the right heart and everyone kind of helps out and everyone kind of pulls, you know, together. That's kind of what Paul is explaining in second Corinthians chapter 8 and verse number 9. But I mean, we're never going to sell in church. Let's go back to the point of selling in church. You say, going back to the point of selling in church, we see that tithing offerings is where the church gets its finances. It's how we pay the bills. It's how we turn the lights on. That's how it works. Okay. Now, here's mistakes that pastors make. Here's mistakes that churches make. And look, if a church is a pastor led church, okay? I mean, I don't know. Let me just take two minutes and kind of tell you how the money flows here. But basically, I don't really have a lot to do with the money as the offering comes in and it's counted and it's put in the bank and it's there's kind of this there's this methodology where the ushers count the money and then they everything's documented and then someone takes the money to the bank and then that deposit slip comes back and it's matched with the counting records and all these things. I mean, it's it's sealed tight. And I really have nothing to do with that circle of that. And I don't really want to have anything to do with that circle. But I decide where the money spent. I mean, this is a pastor led church. There's no committee here you're deciding where to spend the money. If there's a mistake on how the church spends money, that's my mistake. You know, I own that. You know, suddenly the church is just like, you know, broken like we just, you know, we're in debt or whatever. I mean, that's my fault because those are my decisions. Okay, now back to selling in church. Here's the here's the mistake that pastors make. Here's the mistake that even saved pastors make the tithes, the offerings. They feel like it's not enough. They feel like if we just had more, we could do more. Which is true. But Jesus focused on the people, not the money. Okay, and the reason Jesus focused on the people is because the people are supposed to be taught the Bible. So the people should understand and be taught the word of God. And as the people come in, the money is just going to happen. The more resources is just going to happen. Right. But what pastors do, saved, saved people, their, their, maybe their heart is, is sort of in their mind in the right place, but it's not. We just do more. We just start a business in church. We could just sell instead of giving the coffee away. We could just sell coffee. Instead of giving these resources away, we could just sell some of these things and we could add to this. We could do more. But that's wrong because that is, that is replacing faith with their works. You see, that's a pastor who is not, look, I'm telling you folks, I'm telling you folks, we've always been taking care of here. We've always been, you know, blessed here. Is it true that if we have more people that come to the church and more people tithe, we will be able to do more? That's true. But the Lord has always taken care of us. And I don't stress about that at all because I know that as long as we are, as long as I am doing things the right way, that the Lord will bless this ministry. I don't need to force God's hand. I don't need to ditch faith and force God's hand. This is the irony of huge churches. The irony of these churches with thousands of people, yay, hundreds of people that they have to stop, start coffee shops and stores and all these things because, you know, these mega churches, they have to do this to make more money because nobody sold out there. The people don't know the Bible there. No, we will never do that. And look, when we grow as a church and we grow as Christians, that's when we will do more. That's how it goes because if I took that faith away and I decided that I need to replace that faith with my works and start a business here, then God wouldn't be in it. God's got to be in it. God has to be in it or what? This is the same. And this is just the beauty of this because this is the same mistake that individual Christians make. When they say, if I just had more money, then I could tithe. If I was just doing a little bit better, then I could tithe. No, wrong. You're filling a bag that has holes in it. The Lord has to be in it. If the Lord's in it, it just forget about it. I mean, it's just amazing how God would put things together. People don't have money because they don't tithe. I mean, that's my experience as I see people in this Christian life. And that's actually my experience as well. I'm just filling this bag with holes in it is what I was doing. It's them taking faith into their own hands. They're replacing the faith that they should have in God like, hey, if I do what God says in the Bible, God's going to take care of me. Instead they're replacing it with their own works. So look, the Lord's always taking care of this church. I mean, even with bills and major unexpected costs, which we've had a couple in the last few months, somebody always steps up and covers it. I mean, somebody pays it. So look, this is like a message that I don't preach a lot. No one's ever going to pull you aside here and be like, listen, brother, what's going on? No one's ever going to ask you to fill out some pledge card. Look, we've all been in churches like that. I've had both extremes here, actually, where people don't give anything. And then I've had people come up and tell me how much they give and want extra treatment or whatever. Those people are here anymore. Imagine that. But look, you're tithing, you're offering. It's between you and God. It's between you and the Lord. It's really that simple. And selling in church is the same lack of faith as not tithing. It's just a lack of faith. So nothing will ever be for sale here. Every single activity that we go to will be covered here because everything will always be free here, even though things aren't free. Things are always going to be free here. Why? Because that's how Jesus wants it done. It really comes down to that. You know, I say, what if we run out of money faster? Well, I'm certainly not going to go against the Lord Jesus Christ, even if we run out of money. I mean, I'm never going to take things into my own hands and do things against the way Jesus wants it done, even if we run out of money. But we're not going to run out of money. Because I just, as long as we're doing things the right way, everything's fine. And you don't even have to stress about it. Look, oh, you already were at 2 Corinthians chapter 9, but here's one last thing I want to say. One last ironic thing about people that sell in church. In 2 Corinthians chapter 9, I read you that verse where it says that God loves a cheerful giver. God wants somebody to give with the right heart, not grudgingly. He just wants someone to give cheerfully. So Paul is saying with that offering, he's saying, you know, give what you can cheerfully. If you're going to, you know, if you can give 10 bucks cheerfully to this special offering, but if you give 20 bucks, you're going to be like, eh, stupid Paul wants $20 or whatever. He's like, don't give, don't do that. But here's the irony of people that sell in church. They're trying to work around that bad heart. They're trying to, somebody is grudging, grudging. I mean, God loves a cheerful giver. That means it's a gift. I mean, the tithe is the Lord's. The 10% that just belongs to him. If you're not giving it to him, you're just stealing it from him. I mean, it's pretty clear. But the offering is God wants what you're cheerfully able to give, meaning it's a gift. It's a gift to the Lord. What the guy, the pastor, the church that's selling in church is doing is they're working around someone's hard heart, meaning, I know these people won't cheerfully give a dollar, so I'll sell them a pancake, and then they'll be happy. Because what are they doing? They're getting something for it. The people that go and the church that makes a bunch of money through the bookstore, the pancake sales or whatever is not, those people, they're getting something for it. They're not giving gifts. They're getting pancakes. But that's what the church does, the pastor does to work around this heart that is not cheerful. But the Bible says that we should just be cheerful. Look, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Everything that you have is from the Lord. Everything that I have has nothing to do with me. It's just because God made it happen. And look, I'm old enough, I'm not old, but I'm old enough to where I was doing stuff and nothing was working, and then I didn't even know what I was doing, but I was right with God and everything's working. That's what you have to understand. God needs to be in your life. You need God in it, or you're just going to be shoveling bags full of holes. That's it. So look, you shouldn't want anything in return. You shouldn't want a book. If you want to give to the church, give to the church. If you want to give an offering, give an offering. The tithe is the tithe, but the Bible is saying you should be cheerful about it, show the right heart about it. You shouldn't need a t-shirt or pancakes or books or coffee shops or whatever it is. We're never going to have any of that stuff. So look, the Bible covers, I mean, does the Bible not cover almost everything in your life? The Bible covers how you should work hard, you should provide for your own in 1 Timothy chapter 5 in verse number 8. I mean, you're worse than an infidel if you don't work hard and provide for your own. Provide what? Stuff you buy with money. The Bible teaches us, you know, I mean, it's pretty good that by the way, you know, God only takes 10%. I mean, Uncle Sam takes like 40 or 50, right? I mean, it's like, you know, and look, even as far as that stuff goes, we're not even supposed to worry about it. Like, I don't like the fact that the government's taken, you know, almost half of everyone's paycheck, but whatever, take it all. I mean, at the end of the day, I'm not going to, you know, die on that hill, right? We're not going to go can't hoven on this thing and all go to jail so we can't preach the gospel to anybody except in prison. All right. So the Bible's clear on money, the Bible's clear on selling in church, the Bible's clear on where the church gets its money and look, it's just, it's just, the whole thing is a matter of faith. And we're always going to be fine here as long as what, as long as we're doing things the right way. And you can apply that same thing to your personal life. That's why it's such a great, a great doctrine in the Bible. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.