Immanuel Sermon Audio
Finish the Mission (Psalm 67)
It really does end up going to real people and these are the kinds of things that they're doing. And also to dovetail with that during the month of December, our sermon series is called Finish the Mission. And we're trying to think about what needs to happen in our lives as individuals and in our life as a church family for the mission that Jesus has given us to actually be finished. The mission is to go and to make disciples of all the nations. That includes our own but it also includes all of the other nations, all of the other peoples, all of the other families of the earth. And so last week we talked about if we're going to finish the mission, we have to understand the idea that God is the judge of all peoples. This morning we're gonna add to that, we're gonna talk about something that is very important for most of us sitting in the room right now. 'Cause the reality is this, when it comes to the mission and all of the nations in the ends of the earth, just being honest, most of us in this room are not going to do what this family has done. Most of us are not going to go. Most of us are not going to leave the United States to cross cultures, to learn a new language and to take the gospel to somebody who's never heard. I hope that you're open to that if God leads you and your family in that direction. But the reality is most of us are not gonna go and you shouldn't feel guilty about that when we watch these videos, you shouldn't say, well, those are the really great Christians who go do that. I'm just kind of chopped liver. I haven't done anything like that in my whole life. Well, we're gonna talk about this morning is money and that's where most of us fit in to this mission of making disciples of all the nations. Because for people like the ones we just watched on the video to go, people like the ones sitting in this room this morning have to give to support them financially. And so we're gonna talk about money and we're gonna talk about giving and we're gonna look at Psalm 67. So you can find Psalm 67 in your Bible. While you find Psalm 67, let me mention three big elephants in the room. And I know when you look up there, there's actually six up on the wall, but three on each screen. Elephant number one. Anybody know that oil is low right now? Right, you know that. You read the newspaper, you watch the local news. Oil prices are not what people in West Texas would like them to be. Just like you, I'm tired of hearing about OPEC and meetings and quotas and Iran and supply gluts and all this stuff, but that's just kind of life right now if you live in this part of the country. And so I realize that I recognize that when oil prices are low, that affects the economy in this part of the world. And when the economy in this part of the world is affected, that affects you as an individual and the amount of money that you have in your pocket. So that's elephant number one. Elephant number two. Like most of the churches in the Midland, Odessa area, we have seen our giving decrease over the last year. Most churches have said, man, we have to be careful. We have to think more about what we're spending. We have to watch a little bit more closely. We don't have the extra that we had a few months back. We just voted on a new budget for 2016 and we lowered that budget a little bit just to be aware and responsible with the reality that the economy right now isn't what it was, say, 18 months ago. So that's elephant number two. The reality that our giving has decreased. Then I don't want you to think that we're running out of money or that things are in crisis mode. We're just sort of treading water, hanging right where we're at. But like most of the churches we've seen, we've seen a change. Here's elephant number three. And this is, to me, more of a good elephant than a bad elephant. Over the last year, we've had an incredible increase in the number of people who are coming to church at a manual Baptist church. And as a pastor, I look at that and I say, "God, I'm grateful for that." Not just because we have those people here and you're here, although I'm glad that you're here, but I look at the economy and I look at the giving situation and I say, "God has provided us with more people who can give." Giving as a whole might be a little bit down, but we have more givers who are able to support work and to support ministries and things like that. So I point out those three elephants to say this. We're talking about giving this morning. And I don't want you to hear what I'm saying to you as a criticism. I don't want you to hear it as sort of me trying to squeeze one more dollar out of you. I just want you to understand that if we're going to talk about missions, and we're gonna preach a sermon series called Finish the Mission, one of the things we have to talk about is money. 'Cause I'm not gonna stand up in this sermon series and say, okay, now we're gonna have an altar call. All the spiritual Christians need to come down front and sign a card that you're gonna move to Africa next month. That's not coming. What we are gonna talk about is sacrificial going by people like the ones we just watched on the video and sacrificial giving by people like you and the folks sitting next to you to send those that God calls out to go. And so we're gonna look at Psalm 67. We're gonna talk about what it has to say about money and why God blesses us with money. And then we're gonna try to apply it very clearly, very plainly to my life first, as I've done this week, and then also to your life. So let's start with the big idea of this passage. The big idea is simple. We will finish the mission when we see that God blesses us so that the world will know the truth. And when I say he blesses us specifically, although that could cover a lot of different things, we're talking about money. He blesses his people with money, why? So that the whole world, all the nations, all the peoples would know the truth. Look in your Bible at Psalm 67. We're gonna read all seven verses. The note at the top says that this is to the choir master with stringed instruments. It is a psalm and a psalm. Verse one says this, "May God be gracious to us "and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, "that your way may be known on the earth. "You're saving power among all nations. "Let the peoples praise you O God, "let all the peoples praise you. "Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, "for you judge the peoples with equity "and guide the nations upon earth. "Let the peoples praise you O God, "let all the peoples praise you. "The earth has yielded its increase. "God, our God, shall bless us. "God, shall bless us. "Let all the ends of the earth fear him." Let's pray it again. Father, we do gather together to celebrate Christmas, to celebrate Jesus. We remember his birth. We marvel at the miracle of the incarnation of the Son of God, taking on human flesh. Father, we're grateful that that baby, born in Bethlehem, grew up, lived a perfect life and died on the cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven, so that we could be brought back into a relationship with you, so that we could gather together on a morning like this to worship. And what a high and holy privilege that he has in turn sent us out to preach his name and his gospel among all the nations. So our prayer this morning is simply that you would help us understand one more piece of this puzzle as we think about what will it take to finish the mission. Give us wisdom, give us insight into your word. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Psalm 67, seven short verses, and I want you to see several ideas, and then I'm gonna ask you some diagnostic questions to think about application. First point I want you to see is this, it is good to pray for God's blessing. It's good to pray for God's blessing. That's the main request that frames this entire psalm. If you look at verse one, it says bless us. That's a request, asking God for blessing. If you look at how it ends in verse six and verse seven, there's confidence that God will do what he's asked, saying God, our God, he will bless us. He will bless us. So it begins with this request. There's confidence in the end that God is gonna bless his people. Here's the problem with this prayer. When we say it's good to pray for God's blessing. Sometimes we pray that and we do it mindlessly. Meaning you start to pray, maybe you're sitting around the dinner table, maybe you're praying at the beginning of a meeting, maybe you're praying with your family. And you just sort of say the words, God, please bless us. And you really have no idea what you mean by that. You just know that's something you're supposed to pray for. So you say, God, please bless the food. From time to time, I ask my kids or ask other people, what do you mean by that? Do you think that something would happen to your belly if you didn't pray that God would bless it? Like did it have E. coli before the prayer and then God blessed it and took care of it and now it's good? 'Cause we might need to learn that trick in Kenya sometimes. God, we need you to bless this food. Okay, now we can eat. So sometimes we just sort of say that. We don't really mean anything by it. If you couldn't explain in other words what you mean by the prayer, God bless this food, bless this meeting, bless this trip, bless this day, bless this whatever, then don't pray it. Don't pray mindless things. Don't say things just because you've heard other people say them in prayers and you feel like that's something that should just roll off your tongue in prayer. Pray what you're thinking, pray with your mind. Don't pray mindlessly. Here's a second problem when we pray for God's blessing, we're Americans and sometimes we do it selfishly. Selfishly. You know this as well as I do. Sometimes when we pray for God's blessing, what we really mean is God, give me what I want when I want it and I want it now. Maybe in our better moments we don't pray that, but sometimes when we think about God's blessing that's all that's on our mind is a sort of a spiritual attempt to get what we want. So let's be clear about what it means to pray for God's blessing, right? Praying for God's blessing begins with grace and a relationship with God. Don't miss that. We're gonna come around and we're gonna talk about money but don't miss this. Praying for God's blessing, this is a second thing on your outline. It begins with grace and a relationship with God. Look at verse one. The Psalmist says in verse one, "May God be gracious to us." God, would you extend to us grace? Literally, would you give us the opposite of what we deserve? What we deserve as we stand before you, verse four says you're the judge of all the peoples and you judge with equity. Meaning he's a good judge. He doesn't overlook sin. You read verse four and you say, "I'm in a little bit of trouble." Because if he's a judge who judges with equity, I'm in trouble, I'm a sinner. He's going to judge me. All he owes me is punishment and judgment and wrath. But the Psalm begins with this request. Be gracious to us. Give us the opposite of what we deserve. Even though what we deserve is punishment, we're praying that you would give us blessing. It begins with an acknowledgement that God doesn't owe us anything good. That the only reason we have good things in our life is because God is gracious to us. This fits right in. I'm not going to let you forget it until we pick back up in Luke. If it's right in with Luke 19, 10. The Son of Man came to seek us and save us. That's not what he owed us. He owed us punishment. He owed us judgment. He owed us wrath. And instead he gives us grace. We read from Philippians 2. He humbled himself by becoming a man. He humbled himself by submitting to death on a cross. That's grace. And this Psalm begins with a plea. God be gracious to us. And that leads to having a relationship with God. That's what it means when it says, "Make your face to shine upon us." That sort of Hebrew, poetical language to say, we want to be face to face with you. We want to see you. We want to know you. We want to have a relationship with you. And the only way that can happen is if you are first gracious to us. I put on your outline, number six. This prayer, this request in Psalm 67, it comes straight out of number six. God had been gracious to the people of Israel and it resulted in a relationship. He brought them out of Egypt, not because they were good people, but just to be gracious to them. And he brought them out so that they could worship him. We remember, Moses going to Pharaoh. Let my people go. But the very next line, almost every time says, let my people go, that they may worship me, that they may serve me, that they would know me. And in number six, God gives to Moses to give to Aaron this prayer. And it's basically exactly what you read in Psalm 67 verse one. God be gracious to us, bless us, make your face to shine upon us. We need your grace and we want a relationship with you. I also put on your outline some verses from Ephesians and Colossians. Paul prays the exact same way for the churches that he had started and then left behind. He writes them these letters and he doesn't say, let's go over the sick list and tell me all the folks who are sick and hurting and those are the people we're going to pray for. What he does is he says, God, these people need grace. Thank you for showing them grace. Continue to show them grace. And God, what I'm asking is that they would know you, that they would really have a growing, vibrant, living relationship with you. So just get in your mind. When you're praying for God's blessing, it begins with grace and it results in a relationship. Number three, God's blessing should result in worship. In worship. If you hear anything in Psalm 67, you probably hear the calls over and over and over again to worship God. Verse three, this is the heart, the middle part of the song. Verse three, let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. Verse four, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Verse five, let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. Now you see, we're talking about peoples, plural, not just people. Grammatically, you could use the word people and it would mean let every single individual on earth praise you. That's a good thing. But the emphasis here is forcing us to focus on people groups, on groups of folks who are not worshiping. And the desire of the psalmist is that every group of people on the earth, all of the nations, all of the families, all of the peoples, would come to worship Jesus Christ. So see the connection here. Think about this, you're gonna have to use your brain. There's a connection in Psalm 67 between God blessing his people and the worship of all the peoples. It begins and ends in Psalm 67 with this idea of God blessing his people, bless us. God will bless us, God will bless us. That's the book ends. In the middle, we want all of the peoples to worship. And the psalmist is saying those two things are connected. God's blessing should result in worship. Now let's apply this to missions very clearly. First thing you need to understand is this, missions exist because worship does not exist. Troy talked about heaven. One of the things that we're going to do in heaven is worship through song. We're gonna do it forever. Not only that forever, but we're going to be doing that. Worship in God, praising God. There will never come a time in heaven where we say okay enough with the worship now. There will come a time in history where we say enough with the missions. No more missions offerings. No more commissioning services. No one else is going out, leaving home and family. No one's asking you to give sacrificially. That's gonna end. And you understand that we do missions now because worship is not happening. We look around the world and we look at all these people groups and we say there's people groups all over the world and they don't worship Jesus. But that's what they were created to do. And Psalm 67 says all of the nations are supposed to worship Jesus. And so we look around and we say there's this void of worship. There's this lack of worship. These people don't recognize Jesus as king. That's why we go. That's why we give. That's why we make sacrifices. Whether we stay here or we leave here, we do missions because worship does not exist. Second thing you need to understand here is this. If your worship is not moving out to draw more people to worship, you are not worshiping. And I didn't give you a blank to fill in there 'cause I just want you to think about it. If your relationship with God, you think you're a worshiping God. You're a worshiper of Jesus Christ. If that is not in some way, shape, or form moving out to include other people in that same worship, you don't understand worship or you don't understand who you're worshiping. If you can come to church on Sunday mornings and your worship can be contained in this room. Or if throughout the week as you have a quote unquote quiet time, if your worship never extends beyond that, it just stays in your little Sunday morning worship service bubble, your daily devotional quiet time bubble and it never spills over so that other people and other peoples are coming to worship. It's not worship. You say, but I'm singing the songs. Yeah, but you're not worshiping. You say, but I read my Bible every day and I pray every day. That's great, but you're not worshiping because true worship will spill over to include other people in that worship. That's the connection with missions. Here's the fourth thing I want you to see and this is where we bring it back around to money. God provides for his people financially so that the world will know the truth. He provides for his people financially so that the world will know the truth. All right, we're gonna be clear about one thing. In verse one, when the psalmist says, be gracious to us and bless us. Yes, he's talking about grace. That's right there, the word gracious. Yes, he's talking about a relationship. We've covered that, make your face to shine upon us. But when he says God bless us, he is talking about money. You understand that? He is asking God to give them money. You say, you sound a lot like Creflo Dollar. You sound a lot like Joel Osteen. You sound a lot like some health and wealth prosperity guy I saw on TV and I flipped through the other night. That's exactly what he's talking about. Money, look at verse six. He's already prayed for God to bless them. Verse six, the earth has yielded its increase. If you live in a culture that's dependent on agriculture, on shepherding, on animals, on livestock, on crops, what does it mean for the earth to yield its increase? It means you just made some money, right? The last church I've pastored, we lived in a small town in Western Oklahoma and it was primarily a farming community. Lots of wheat farmers and they understand if the land gives increase, our pocket books are a little bit fatter. It's money and this man, the psalmist is coming from the very same kind of culture and he says, God, I need your blessing and he explains that in verse six with confidence. The earth has yielded its increase. And in verse six, he connects that increase to God's blessing. Look, the earth has yielded its increase. God will bless us. And then he takes that financial blessing in verse seven and look how he applies it. God will bless us, let all the ends of the earth fear God. You see the same thing in verse two. God be gracious to us, bless us. We need resources, why? Verse two, so that your way may be known on earth and your saving power among all the nations. Think about this question. Don't answer it out loud, just think about it. Why is God blessed the United States the way he has blessed the United States? Why has he given us so much? Why has he given us such an increase? Why of all the places and peoples that have ever lived on this ball? Why here, in this place, so much increase, so much blessing, so much opportunity, so much financial prosperity. Is it only so that we can sit back in our smugness and be comfortable? Or is it so that we can take that increase and use it to finish the mission? If you believe Psalm 67, what the psalmist is talking about, you understand, God provides for his people financially for a variety of reasons, but here's one very important reason, so that they can finish the mission, so that they can go out and send people out so that all of the peoples and all of the nations would praise God and worship Jesus. Now, let's talk about some diagnostic questions. I want you to just think about these. They're designed to take this big idea of God providing for his people so that the mission can be finished and to make it very concrete in your life, because here's the reality. When I stand up and say, God provides for his people money, resources, finances, so that we can finish the mission, every single one of us thinks a little bit differently about how that should look in our lives. And so I'm just gonna ask some questions, give you some biblical principles and help you think about how this might apply to your particular situation. These questions are not designed to make you feel leaving guilty, although they might. These questions are not designed to make you feel like you're some sort of failure, although they might be convicting. Think about these questions, seven questions. Number one, do I think of my money as my money or God's money? I'll just be honest with you. If you get this question right, you can forget the other six. I'm gonna go ahead and give you the other six. You don't get to leave right now. But if you get this one right, the rest of them fall into place. When you give, in your mind, are you thinking I am giving God some of my money? Or are you thinking God is graciously letting me keep some of his money? Those two things are totally different. When you think about what you have is really yours and not God's, you've missed the entire concept of stewardship in the Bible. And what the Bible says, we've seen it in Luke recently, is that God entrusts certain things to certain people. And you can question that. You can think that you could do better in divvying out those things to certain people than God has done, but that's really not your place. He entrusts them to people and they will give account for them. They're not mine, they're not yours, they're God's. And one day you're gonna stand before him and I'm gonna stand before him and he's gonna say, this is what I entrusted to you. How did you use it? And you're gonna have to give an answer. And it's not gonna be enough to say, well, I gave you some of my stuff because his response is gonna be, that wasn't your stuff. That was my stuff that I gave to you on loan so that you could use it wisely. How do you think about your money? Is it your money or is it God's money? Question number two, do I assume an increase in pay means an increase in lifestyle? Brooke and I got married after my second year of college and the last two years of college, we both worked part time jobs and we didn't have a lot of money or lifestyle. (audience laughs) The other day got our old tax return out from the year that we got married and I thought, I don't think it's possible for two people to live on that amount of money. I don't know how that happened. And over the years that's changed and Brooke had a good job when we moved to Louisville. She has an accounting degree and God has provided for our family and been faithful to our family. But I know my heart and I'm guessing that my heart's a lot like yours. I'm very prone to think a little bit more in my pocket is a little bit more in my pocket. It's a little bit more for me. Increase in pay means an increase in lifestyle. That's just sort of the American way. That's why we fight and claw and work so hard and why you want your kids to go to school. We just sort of have this built into our minds that we need to get a little bit more so that we can have a little bit more. And the question I'm asking here is what if God decides to give you a little bit more not so that you can have a little bit more but so that the mission can be finished? I have a good family friend in Amarillo. And when I was finishing school the first time, my master's degree, he called me on the phone. He said, "What are you gonna do?" When you graduate, I said, "I have no clue. I can't get a job." Everybody says, "I'm too young, they won't hire me. I have no clue what's gonna happen." He said, "I got a idea for you. I wanna pay for you to finish school." And I said, "I'm about to finish. I'm a month away." He said, "No, no, I want you to work on a, do a PhD." I said, "Man, I don't have a job. I don't know how we're gonna live." He said, "Do it, and I'll take care of it." This is the kind of guy that wakes up in the morning and he makes money. He rolls out of bed and makes money. You know what I'm talking about? And he had done this real estate thing and he had made some money and he understood something very important. God did not give him this increase just so that he could have more. And he told me on the phone, I understand that God has entrusted this to me and I wanna be faithful with it and I have several things lined up that I'm gonna do and this is one of the things that I would like to do. I want to see the mission finished. God didn't give this to me just for me. Now, do I know what he did with every nickel diamond penny? No, but I know that he was faithful to help my family and that he saw that as part of finishing the mission. The question is, when God gives you an increase, what is your first thought, more for me? Or maybe God gave me this so that we can finish the mission. Question number three. Do I prioritize my church when I give? And I gave you a couple of references you can look up and think about. Matthew 16, Jesus said to his disciples that he was going to build a church. I'm going to build a church. In the book of Acts, we read about that church being built and growing and being established. He didn't say I'm leaving behind a college. He didn't say I'm leaving behind a medical ministry. He didn't say I'm leaving behind something to help the homeless. Although those are all great things, he said I'm leaving behind a church. And so the question simply is, when you give, do you prioritize your church? Many different groups, organizations and people are worthy of your money. In my family, we give to a variety of different ministries and organizations and things like that. But your priority needs to be where Jesus was. Question four. Do I give a thoughtful tithe of my income? Abraham tithe, the Old Testament law commanded tithes. In the book of Malachi, the prophet rebuked God's people for failing to tithe. Now you may notice, those are all in the Old Testament. And you may notice that on your outline, I put that word tithe in quotation marks. I'll be honest with you. That's because I can't flip the page to the New Testament and show you the passage where a tithe, the 10% gift is commanded. It's talked about, but it's never commanded in the New Testament. And you may say, well, it sounds like we've got a loophole. Sounds like an asterisk to me. Great day. This is good news. Or you could think about some of the things Jesus had to say about the Old Testament law. Things like murder and adultery. Where he said, look, you've heard it said that you kill somebody that's murder. If you're angry, you're a murderer. You've heard it said you shouldn't sleep with another person's wife. Look, if you're lustful, you're an adulterer. You can look at those passages and you can say, it doesn't sound like Jesus is just into weakening or reducing or letting go of the Old Testament law. It sounds like he kind of upped the ante on some things. So my suggestion to you is that you say a tithe that see it in the Old Testament plainly, clearly, as plain as the nose on your face. I see it talked about in the New Testament. Is that something that I'm practicing? 10% of what God has given to me, I'm gonna give to him. Some of you say, that's a lot. And for some people to do that much, it might mean a lifestyle change. I'll be honest with you though. I've been a pastor for about 10 years. I can count on one hand the people in my churches that I knew of, that I thought they cannot afford to give 10%. On one hand, could there have been more? Maybe, I'm telling you, the people I know who have talked to me and shared their concerns with me and said, I don't know. And I've said, I agree, you're in a situation right now where maybe you can't do that. All the rest of us, myself included, are more than likely in a position where we ought to say, a tithe is probably a good baseline where I ought to start my giving. And ought to try to move on from there according to how God blesses me. So I'll put it in quotes. Not to say an exact 10%, get your calculator out, but to say, if you give a thoughtful, prayerful tithe of your income, question five. Do I make sacrificial gifts above my normal tithe? Take your percentage, whatever your family settles on, you say this is gonna be a baseline in our budget, consistent. Now I'm asking the question, do you go over and above that? It's commanded in the Old Testament, it's discussed in the New Testament very plainly about churches and Christians giving out of their poverty to help others, to spread the mission, to finish the mission. What I'm not talking about here is this sort of idea. You say, okay, at my church this month, we're taking a world missions offering. I normally give X amount of dollars to the church each month instead of giving X to the church, I'm just gonna give that same X to the world missions. I'm giving the exact same amount, I'm just sort of picking and choosing where it goes. That's not what we're talking about. And to be very clear, that's not what we're asking you to do in a world missions offering. We're actually asking you to make a sacrifice. And just to be very clear, I'm asking you to go without something that you could otherwise have in order to give so that the mission can be finished. And I'm not talking about go without one Starbucks coffee so that the mission can be finished. Talking about a sacrifice. I could use this money for this. Instead, although I'd like to have that, I'm gonna give it to this, to finish the mission, to make a sacrifice. And this is where Psalm 67 is so applicable to you and I when we're thinking about missions. I don't want you to leave feeling guilty that you don't make the sacrifice to pack up and to leave the United States and to move to the nations to tell people about Jesus. If God calls you to do that, do it. If he doesn't, don't. And don't feel guilty about it. But don't think that he's not asking all of his people to make a sacrifice. Some make the sacrifice of going, some make the sacrifice of giving. Everyone's called to make a sacrifice. There's no asterisk or loophole here. So do you make sacrificial gifts? Question six. Do I connect giving to a particular life stage? And I hope the answer is no. It needs to be no. And so fill those words in. Do I connect giving to a particular life stage? And then just sort of put your pin down, look up at me. All elementary kids, all junior high kids, look at me. Elementary and junior high. Do you think, well, I'll start giving when I get a part-time job. I don't have a part-time job now. Just get a little allowance, get a little Christmas money. Giving, that's something you do when you have a real part-time job. Now, high school students, college students, look at me. Do you think, well, giving, that's something you do when you get a real job. Do that when I get a real job. Well, give now, just have a little part-time job. I don't expect me to do that. Parents of young children, look at me. Do you think, well, I'm gonna start giving when my kids are out of the house. Do you know how much kids cost? The answer is yes, I know exactly how much kids cost. But do you think to yourself, well, when my kids are gone, I won't have that expense, I'll free up a little bit of money, and that's what I'll give. Parents of children in college, look at me. Do you say to yourself, well, you know, my kids are in college. Do you know how much college costs? When they're out of college and they're independent and they're on their own and they're doing their own thing, that's, I'll give. Middle adults, look at me. Do you say to yourself, I can't wait for the day my house is paid off, 'cause when that happens, I can really give. You know how close, I only have a few more years left on that mortgage. I've been paying and paying and paying. When it gets paid off, I am gonna ramp up the giving. Older-ish adults. (audience laughing) Look at me. Do you say, as soon as I get that big fat social security check is when I'm gonna start giving? Man, it's gonna change my life. It's gonna be the greatest. Just, I'm waiting, the countdown is on. Old adults, not old-ish, just old adults. Do you say, I'm too old, I'm past the point. I've done my giving. It's over, that's a young man's game. That's for people who have real income. Do you see the problem? You connect it to a life stage and you never do it. Ever. You always think in your mind, I'm gonna be faithful when I get one more step up and you won't. Do it now. Teach your kids, teach your grandkids to do it now. Regardless of how much or how little they have, teach them now. You won't teach them by saying, okay, we're walking into church. Let me see, here's a dollar, go put that in the box. You just taught them how to give your dollar. That's all you taught 'em. Don't connect it to a life stage. Last question, do I only give when I attend church? And I put this one in, the very end, in honor of a lady named Sue Snyder. Sue Snyder was the treasurer at North Benson Baptist Church, the first church that I pastored. And she was a volunteer, she did it of her own time, and she kept track of the money. She's the one lady in the church who knew how much people were giving and who were giving, and she did a great job as our treasurer. And every now and then, she would come in on a Sunday morning, a little bit of a short lady, and she would say, pastor, I'm gonna have to go around and talk to people about make-up giving. And she would. (audience laughs) Sunday school class, by class, by class, by class, and what she meant is, some of y'all been sick. Some of y'all went on vacation, and you didn't give. Pastor doesn't know that, Sue Snyder knows that. Can I tell you the problem when you don't, quote unquote, make-up give? First problem is you hurt your church. That's the first problem. Here's the second problem, and it's way more serious than you hurting your church. You ready? When you're sick, or you're on vacation, or you just don't come and you don't give for that reason? Here's the problem. You just proved that you're not part of the mission. You're just a consumer. You just showed yourself and God that you are paying for religious services, that that's why you give. I give when I show up because I get something out of it. Okay, we're gratefully and gladly received that gift, but between you and God, what you just said to him is, I really don't wanna be part of the mission. I just wanna sort of buy church from time to time. Can I be honest with you? Consumers will never finish the mission. Maybe the biggest problem in the United States of American, or churches right now is we're just a bunch of consumers. You see it in the way that we give. You also see it in the way that we critique every aspect of church life. I read an article this week that said, in the United States of America, church-going people have turned into a giant panel of American Idol judges. We come, we're expecting something quality, in our Sunday school lesson, in the prayer time, in the sermon, in the music, in the lighting, in the whatever, and if I don't get it, I'm gonna leave and I'm gonna be Simon Cowell and point out all the things that were wrong with it. And if there are too many things wrong with it, I'll find something else that suits my taste better. You're a consumer. It's okay to be a consumer as long as you can admit that you're a consumer. What Psalm 67 is calling us to is something way different and much deeper and much better than being a consumer of religious services. It's a call to be part of the mission, to be part of what God is doing, what He's done in your life and in what He wants to do through your life. Now, we'll end with some good news and some bad news. Here's the good news. Although I would like for oil prices to go up, as long as a group of people will be serious about the things we've seen in Psalm 67 and be honest about answering those seven diagnostic questions, I'm not at all worried what the price of oil does. It might go up, it might go down, our budget might go up, it might go down, it might mean changes for our church, it might mean abundance for our church. I don't know what all it's gonna mean, but I'm not worried about it as long as we understand these things and commit to do 'em in our life. Here's the bad news. Every year in this country, 7,000 churches closed their door for the last time. Do you know why churches closed their door for the last time? It's because they run out of money. Trust me, you can go all around this town and every town in the United States and you can find little bitty churches with all sorts of dysfunction and problems and a handful of people that are just hanging on by a thread and they're not gonna close until the money runs out. So you look at that and you say 7,000 every year in this country. Close their door for the last time 'cause they don't have any money. Here's some more good news. That's not us, that's good news. That's not us today. Are we just blowing and going and doing all sorts of extra things on top of what we'd like to do? No, we're just sort of maintaining and maybe for now that's great. So it's not us. Here's some more bad news. Our denomination, Southern Baptist Convention, right now is in the middle of the largest missionary drawdown in the history of our convention. What that means is they're calling missionaries that we've sent out. They're on the field. They're preaching the gospel and the phone call is you gotta come home. It's not that you're doing a bad job. It's not that you're not needed there. We just don't have the money. That's bad news. Here's the truth. Forget good news, bad news, the truth. When Christians in this country get serious about not being consumers, but really being part of the mission, about not thinking that we have stuff that we give back to God, but that God has given stuff that he allows us to keep and to use for his purposes, the mission will be finished. It will get done. Let me pray for you. Father, we're grateful for your word. We do ask for grace. We do ask that you would make your face to shine upon us. We do pray that the ends of the earth would fear you. That all of the nations would know you and acknowledge Jesus Christ as King. And Father, we read earlier from Philippians that a day is coming where every knee will bow. Father, we understand that some on that last day will not bow joyfully but out of submission and in judgment. And our desire is that all of the nations that you have made would recognize Jesus as King and that you would use us through the abundance that you've given to us to take the good news of Jesus to those who have never heard and who are not today worshiping Jesus, that tomorrow and for all eternity they might know the truth of Jesus Christ. Father, forgive us where we need forgiveness, convict us where we need to be convicted, and encourage us where we need to be encouraged. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.