SEP 27 2026 | The Spirituality of Giving S1E2 | Rhythms of Generosity

Sea Change Church · The Spirituality of Giving S1E2 · "Rhythms of Generosity" · Adam Stadtmiller · September 27, 2026
Deuteronomy 14:22-29
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

If you have your Bibles, open them up if you would. We're in Deuteronomy. Fun book, Deuteronomy. How
fun is Deuteronomy? And 14. And we're talking about the spirituality of giving and how generosity
forms your soul. Your personal generosity of your time, your treasure, your talent, but especially
your goats and your grain. Your goats and your grain is your financial provision, the stuff that
makes you safe, right? Time is one thing that you can give, but the one that probably makes us feel
most safe is that number we have in the bank that shows us how safe we are. And one of the most
spiritually formative ways that we can grow as believers is to have a specific, strategic, and
regular plan for our giving, as opposed to just emotional or pressure valve giving. One of the
things we see in the Old Testament, and I think Paul speaks about this as well. We'll talk about
that next week when we're in the New Testament. We'll talk about the three periods of giving. But
one of the things we want to stay away from is pressure valve giving. Oh, I feel so guilty. I feel
so guilty, and I heard that there's a couple orphans, and I'm going to give whatever to these
orphans. Like, oh, I feel so much better now I gave, right? Oh, I can feel better until the next
time you feel guilty. Jesus has released us from that guilt, I told you last week, and we'll be
really hitting this next week, that when you get into the New Testament, there is no longer a
command to give of any kind. Jesus paid all the debt, so there is no debt. And very few pastors will
tell you, very few pastors on TV will tell you this, but there is no demand for you to give at all.
Now, there is a lot of speaking about generosity. Jesus speaks about-- We'll look at the New
Testament, new covenant giving. This week we're in the Mosaic Law. But we will be-- One of the
things I wanted to share with you is that you want to stay away from emotional and pressure valve
giving It says decide in your heart in the New Testament what you will do. And so one of the things
that I want to really, as we form you as spiritual people, because our job is spiritual formation, I
want you to grow spiritually. I want you to know Jesus more. And so one of the things that I'm
trying to get out of this series is for you to take an honest look at where your heart posture is
and what your physical actions are in regard to the giving of your goats and your grain. And like I
said, you don't have to give anymore. Now we have this free will to give. So let's jump right into
Deuteronomy 14:22-29. Hopefully, you have your Bibles today, and I will read out of the English
Standard Version. Says this, "You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field
year by year. And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell
there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, of your oil, and of the firstborn of
your herd and flock." That place would be Jerusalem. We would know that. In Deuteronomy, Jerusalem
wasn't a place yet. It was a place, but it wasn't called Jerusalem, and so that is what he is
speaking about. We're looking forward to that. Go on to verse 24, "And if the way is too long for
you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the Lord your God blesses you, because the
place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses, to set his name there, then you shall
turn it into money. Bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord God chooses."
Now let me stop right there. Before Jerusalem existed, they were still doing this, so there were
other places where they were moving, that Moses and the Mosaic Law was sending them to, but
eventually, once the Jews take control of Jerusalem, this would be the place that they journey to on
a pilgrimage. Go to verse 26, "And spend the money for whatever you desire. Oxen or sheep or
wine..." Actually, I'm going to go back to verse 25. "Then you shall turn it into money and bind up
the money in your hand and go to the place that your Lord God chooses." Now this is interesting,
verse 26, "And you will spend the money on whatever you desire." I've never seen that before. That
was new to me. When was the last time you were told take your tithe and go spend it on whatever you
want? It's weird, right? I've never seen it before. I'm going to tell you what it means in a second.
"Oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink." What? Have you seen that one before? Take your tithe, go to
Jerusalem, and buy yourself a beer. It literally says that, and I'm going to tell you why it says
that. That throw you off? That threw me off this week. I was doing some deep research. What are we
talking about? Because this does not say what I wanted it to say. Okay? I got to be honest with you.
I wanted the tithe to say something different than it actually said, and I had to preach what it
said, not what I wanted it to say. What I wanted it to say was all your tithe is supposed to go to
the church and give it to the pastor and the church to spend it on church stuff. Didn't actually say
that. I totally wanted it to say that, and it didn't. "And you shall eat before the Lord, and you
will rejoice," circle rejoice, "with your household." That's the key. "And you shall not neglect the
Levite who is within your town." They finally got to the Levite. That's us. "For he has no portion
or inheritance with you." And that would be part of the land. "And at the end of every three years
you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that same year, and you will lay it up in your
own towns. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner and
the fatherless and the widow who are within your town, they will come and eat, and they will be
filled. And the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do." Way more
expansive than I ever thought it was. Super expansive. You are giving to the Levite because the
Levites were not given a provision of an inheritance of land in Israel. They had no provision. Why?
Because what was their inheritance? The Lord was their inheritance. So they didn't have a place to
grow crops. They didn't have a place to raise their own cattle. So they survived because of the
congregation of people, so that is where the money went. And I think for a long time thought the
tithe is for the purpose of just the church and the maintenance, and it was a temple back then. But
for that. And that's a huge part of it, right? But it's way more expansive than I thought. Not only
that, but when you go into town, part of it is meant to have a community meeting, a community
rejoicing. So it says when you get together, when you bring your stuff, which would end up being
Jerusalem, I want you to spend it on a time rejoicing in the Lord. Buy what you want. Spend some of
it to buy some oxen and slaughter the oxen and have a... And the Jews are so good at this, these
massive festivals where they all eat together, and they party, and you've heard the statement, the
Jews always say, "They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat." That's one of the main things that
Jewish people would tell me when I was over in Jerusalem. And over and over again, you see that. So
this tithe, part of it was brought in, and it was meant to celebrate. So if we were to have a taco
truck after church using the money that you gave us to do that, that's very biblical, okay? And
that's some of the spending. So you have a caring for the Levite, caring for the church, caring for
the temple at the time. You have it using to celebrate God together, and then you're caring for the
poor. And this is super powerful. You are absolutely caring for the poor. You're storing up food,
and we're going to look at that quickly here in a second, but it's very expansive. And you can see
that it's not just about bringing money to do church work. It's about a life of generosity that
blesses you, that blesses the community, that blesses the poor, that blesses God, that cares for the
Levitical priesthood or your church workers, whoever it is today in the modern New Testament
understanding. I put as the big idea that under the Mosaic Covenant, God made generosity a way of
life, setting apart a portion, bringing gifts in worship, and making room for those in need. You
see, when we are living in a generous life, when we're thinking regularly about what comes in and
how we're going to use it to care for others, to actually care for ourself, I never had seen that
some of your tithe can be used for you, ever. That's God, too. He's always like, "I'm going to show
you some things you didn't get. I want to celebrate you as well with that and the community." And so
you see that, but I put the big idea is this. Under the Mosaic Covenant, which is what this sermon
is about, God made generosity a way of life, setting apart a portion, bringing gifts in worship.
That's key. It's always worship. We talked about that last week, making room for those in need. Last
week, we talked about the Mosaic Covenant. There were three distinct periods where there was giving.
Now, the first was before the Mosaic Covenant. That was Abraham when he gave. That was Noah when he
gave. That was Cain and Abel when they gave. There was absolutely no command. There was no command
that you had to give. Then Moses comes along and screws everything up. No, I'm just kidding. He did
not screw anything up. He wrote the law, and in the law, God brought a command that you had to give.
Last week's sermon talked all about why that was. Some of it was it builds the way to God. There was
no sacrifice, and there needed to be a sacrifice to get to him. Now, that sacrifice was eventually
Jesus. I'm not going to re-preach it. Go back to last week, and you can listen to all that. But that
was pre-Mosaic, and in the Mosaic time, there was a law. God never wanted a law for you to have to
give. He wanted you to give freely. Now, after Jesus, the moment Jesus rose and went to heaven, and
the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost 50 days later, the whole system changed. We were in what they call
the New Covenant, which means everything that you do with your generosity, with your goats and your
grain, with your time, is a free will offering. You just get to decide, what kind of person do I
want to be? How generous do I want to be? How much do I want to give? What do I care about? You get
to decide and to step into that and do so with the same tenets as before. You're doing it in regard
to your worship. You're doing it in regard to rejoicing. You're doing it in regard to taking care of
those who are in need. So three distinct parts of giving. Now, our errors of giving. It's like
Taylor Swift. There's an errors tour, the tithing errors tour, right? You got the error? Thank you.
A few millennials laughing. Thank you, millennials. I appreciate you. I see you. As we understand
giving, here's one of the key concepts I want you to understand. You're going to see this in this
passage that it wasn't just a rote Show up on Tuesday and pay your taxes. You know tax day doesn't
have a rhythm, right? It can, you can pay quarterly or whatever, but pretty much everyone knows
April 15th, right? And for me, I started thinking about it April 12th. You know what I'm saying? It
wasn't that way for the tithe and the offerings and the different things. It was this way of life.
It was spiritually formative. It was a part of who they were and who they were becoming. I put
generosity should have a rhythm that we can count on and a readiness to respond when need appears.
Now, this is key. The Bible's very clear, and especially in the Old Testament and the Mosaic Law and
all these different festivals that come up, that there was a rhythm to what they did when they
brought the tithe. And the Jews had all these festivals, Purim, and they have Rosh Hashanah and all
these different times. It was built in a rhythm. We have Pentecost, we have Advents, we have the
Passion Week, and we have different ones as well that we celebrate, but there was a rhythm to what
you do. So go to verse 24. It says, "If the way is too long for you," and then it gives you a
provision, like you can't carry all the grain, right? So turn it into money and then just bring the
money it says. That is showing that there was some movement. You were actually walking to somewhere
to give your tithe two out of every three years. There's an investment in the journey. There was a
pilgrimage, and imagine you're a two-week walk out. You got your kids, you got everyone with you,
and then you have all-- Let's say you have the ability to bring all your grain harvest, and you've
got 1,000 pounds of grain that you're trailing behind you. How does that change your experience of
giving from just stroking a check on a Sunday? Now, no problem stroking a check on a Sunday. What
I'm trying to say is they took it a little bit more-- It had a little bit more nuance and depth to
it, where they understood this is a lifestyle. This isn't just pressure valve giving. If you were to
continue to go on, you would see that there's this continual, go to this place, go to that place,
and it was part of a journey. Now I want to understand tithe. There's three types of giving for the
most part, you can probably find some others, in Old Testament giving or in Mosaic giving. And the
first was the tithe. We'll look at what the tithe meant, what that actually means. One of the
biggest questions people ask me, does tithe still exist? What did it mean? The second were
offerings. Some of these were commanded. Now, the tithe was always commanded. The tithe was a
commandment. You had to give 10%, and there was a blessing attached to that. Go to verse 27. People
have overused these verses, but it doesn't mean that it wasn't true. Verse 27, "And you shall not
neglect the Levite who is with you in your towns, for he has no portion, inheritance." Sorry, go to
verse the end of 29, my bad. The very end of 29, "That the Lord may bless you in all the work that
your hands do." Now I know people have overused that, but at least 100% sure in the Mosaic Covenant,
next week we're going to talk to see if this actually is true for New Covenant giving, okay? It's a
big question for people. But at least in the Mosaic Covenant, God made a promise that if you tithe,
he would bless you and your barn, not barn, excuse me, your barns, not barn, plural, would be
filled. Now the question I have is now that Jesus removed the command, does he remove the blessing?
When you tithe, he's like, "Nope, nope, New Covenant, no blessing anymore. I did that back for them,
and I'm not doing that for you no more." We're going to look at that next week. Really big question.
That'll be the final week of this series as you look into that. But we're going to look at the
tithe. So the tithe was the first thing. It was commanded. The next was a com-- it had command, and
then it had free will offerings that were not commanded. These were offerings. So you had tithes,
and then you had separate offerings. Offerings were given for one reason or another, but they were
not the one tenth of everything you give. A tithe means a tenth. We'll look at that in just a
second. The next was an offering. So this is what it would look like. If you were a Jew back in the
day, you would go on the once a year, and you would go up to Jerusalem, during the temple period,
and you would give your 1,000 pounds. Let's say you brought in 10,000 pounds of grain. You bring
1,000 pounds of grain. That's a lot of grain. And you would hand that over. And while you were
there, you might want to say, "I want to do a free will offering to the Lord, and I'm going to..."
And Deuteronomy tells all these different types. Now you can do the research on your own and look at
all the different... All you have to do is do this. Search what were the offerings during the Mosaic
period that were commanded or free will. It'll give you, there'll be a list. I don't have time to go
through them all. But you could do offerings that you would just do free will, and then some would
be required. I think when you were-- Like Jesus went to the temple, right? And he was dedicated.
There was an offering. I think it was two turtledoves. And so you would give that offering. Those
were commanded, right? But offerings were things that you would give secondly, and then the third
was alms for the poor or gleanings. So that is like you're walking like John and Peter in Acts
chapter four, where they are going up to the temple, and they see someone begging. He says, "Silver
and gold I don't have, but in the name of the Lord, walk," which was pretty good. But oftentimes,
the Bible would speak in the Old Testament that besides the rhythmic giving, just be ready to give
when someone asks. Someone alongside of the road, like you're there and you're ready and you have
provision. So three eras of giving, pre-law, the Mosaic law, and the new covenant. We're in the new
covenant next week, and basically three types of giving, tithe, offerings, and alms for the poor or
gleanings. You saw that in Ruth, okay? So I don't want to pre-preach it because we're moving into
it. The first time you see tithes, let's look at tithe. What does tithe mean? A tithe is a tenth set
apart for God and used in worship to provide for the Levites and others, and I gave you a more
expansive understanding of that a moment ago. The first time we ever see a tithe is in Abraham in
Genesis 14:18 through 20. There was a priest by the name of Melchizedek. He is mentioned in Hebrews
as well. He is a king, and he shows up, and people believe that this was an archetype of Jesus.
Maybe it was actually Jesus. There's some different thoughts of who this is. But Abraham, who's
pretty weighty in the scripture, right, takes a tenth of the spoil of war. So he had just won a
battle. He had saved Lot, and he had saved all these people. He'd gone into battle, and he takes a
tenth of the spoil, and he tithes it to Melchizedek. Now, when Hebrews talks about Melchizedek, it's
not talking about the tithe as much. It's talking about the high priest who is Jesus, and we have a
high priest. But what you see him doing with the tithe is the tithe is primarily being given to a
priest. And almost always, a tithe is either brought to a priest, it's brought to a Levite, it's
brought to the temple. It is for the work of the kingdom that happens through temples, churches,
synagogues, and that's what you saw. And so that is generally, and that's what I wanted it to say.
I'm not going to lie. I wanted it to be able to come up here and preach and say, "When you tithe, it
should always go to this, to the work of the church." Didn't say that. So it said some other things
as well, but I'm just being honest with you. And so the first time we see is Abraham giving that.
Now, just a quick look at why into next week I'm going to answer this question. Why are tithes not
really mentioned in the New Testament? They are mentioned nine times. We'll dive into that. One of
the things I want you to understand is that the original apostles, and I don't know how long this
went, maybe a couple hundred years, 150 years, they still went to synagogue. So when they were
supporting the church at Ephesus, it was after they went to synagogue and gave their tithes. So you
see Paul. Paul is teaching in the synagogues. He's still going to synagogue. You see John, you see
Peter going to synagogue when they heal the guy out in front. They were still following that, and
one of the reasons it's not mentioning that to the churches is you need to tithe to the church of
Ephesus is because pretty much during the entire writing of the New Testament, they were still doing
both. It was like the church of Ephesus was their side hustle. It would become the primary job, but
it started as the side hustle where they ended up leaving the synagogue and just following the
church. That means that all of the work of the early church, Thessalonica, Corinth, churches in
Macedonia, churches in Rome, were being funded outside of all their other obligations to the temple
That's a big ask, but yet it was still happening. And they were caring for the poor, which is
really, really key, which we see in the third year. So that is why tithes were probably not
mentioned, because they were still giving, but there is nine mentions. We'll look at that next week.
I'm going to keep moving. Tithes were rhythmic. I said avoid emotional pressure valve giving. Verse
22. Go to verse 22, if you would. "You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the
field year by year." So you see that there is a set time. I want to encourage you, have a set time
that you give. We give what we still consider a tithe. I still follow tithe. I follow all of these
rules, not rules. I guess they would be strong suggestions in the New Testament, but I still want to
be a believer who tithes to the church, who has offerings for my friends like Carmen and others and
Y Malawi and the different ministries that I support and we want to be a part of. I want to give to
that as well. And I also want to have something on the side that when somebody in my basketball
league is struggling and can't afford a passport to get across the border, and they ask me, and
they're just telling me about it, and you can say, "How much is that?" And they say, "$250," that I
could say to them, "Hey, let me just cover that." Do you see that that's way beyond just stroking a
check and feeling good when you go home? Pressure valve giving. It is a lifestyle that says, I just
want to be a giver. And so that's the first thing that you see is that there's a rhythm to it. And
so look, you can give wherever you want. If you want to be spiritually formulative, I would
challenge you to have all three of those elements in your giving. Have a tithe that you give to the
church that you go to, have offerings that you give to ministries within the church or outside of
the church. We have 10 or 15, I think we have 15 different ministries we support. And one of the
things the scripture says is that a church should actually tithe. I don't know if many churches do
this, but we set aside $200,000 this year as a church, the members voted on it, to give and bless.
So we had 100,000 or so committed to our ministries. We made a decision to do another 100,000 as a
church because we want to model this because it says that the Levites should actually have a tithe
of the tithe. And so that's just a thing. So the first thing is rhythmic. What's the rhythm look
like? I have a person here who gives here yearly, just once a year. They come in and they tithe
yearly. Some people are weekly, some people are monthly, but I would find an organization, a church
that you believe in, you believe in their mission. If it's not here, fine, go find the right one,
and find a percentage of your income. It doesn't have to be 10%, but think through a percentage.
What does 1% look like? What does 3% look like? But find a percent and give to your church. And then
when you're done with that, look somewhere else. What ministries do I want to support? Who do I want
to care for? Do I want to care for iSight Mission? Do I want to care for all the ministries, hoping
I mentioned them right now, I got 15. Find those, and we give you those opportunities in the back to
care for them directly. And then finally, if you can, just try to have some extra on the side that
you're going to say, when the Lord asks me to give to this cause or this person or the person
alongside of the street, give to that or that place. So those are the three things that you see.
They were rhythmic. Verse 28, back set up, at the end of every three years, you should bring out the
tithe of your produce in that same year, lay it up within your towns. And so they would lay it up,
and the tithe would be in the town. And then that year, that tithe would go towards the local work
of priests and whoever was working there, and also caring for the poor. Tithes had a distinct
purpose. They formed trust and reverence. It says in Deuteronomy 14:23, setting aside a tenth of the
year taught Israel to recognize God as a provider. So circle Deuteronomy 14:23. It states this
purpose directly. God doesn't need your goats, God doesn't need your grain. He just doesn't. He owns
the cattle on a thousand hills. What he wants is your heart. I listened today and it said, and I was
listening to scripture, I think it was, I don't want to say who it is, but I forgot. I'm just
listening to audio, so I get lost on what the actual passage was. But it says he was delighted to
send his son as a sacrifice. I was like, wow. That just blows me away. We have a God that delights
in sacrifice, and what he sacrificed was not his second best. It was his son. And all giving is
meant to model that. So when you give blankets to the homeless, when you give money for wells in
Africa, when you give money to support the work of your local church and what it's doing, before you
give, or every so often, think about this sacrifice represents what Jesus Christ did for me. Tie it
to that. You are going to grow spiritually when you do that. It is about spiritual formation. You
know what Jesus wants? Your heart. Every sacrifice is tied to a person. The sacrifice that Jesus
paid was tied to a person, and his blood was Jesus Christ. And then we showed last week with Cain
and Abel, it said God had no regard for Cain or his sacrifice, but he did have regard for Abel and
his sacrifice. You see that connection? You see, when you give, it's a heart posture. It is an
opportunity to say, "God, I just want to serve you. I want to trust you. I want to move forward with
you," and it'll grow you spiritually. I'm going to continue on. I already mentioned the support of
the Levites and the priests and moving on. The other thing that I loved is it fed people in need.
The tithe of every third year's produce was for foreigners, orphans, widows, and local town. I love
all of our ministries. I love Y Malawi. Love it. I love all the things we're doing. If the only
answer before these different ministries happened that the world had, before the social network,
because before Social Security, there was one thing. There was a few things. YMCA, the church, the
social work that has happened for a millennium happened because of the church. I'm sure people are
helped by government programs. I'm sure. I don't want to make any statement about that. But when the
church gives up our responsibility to care for the poor, we not only lose the opportunity to care
for their physical needs, but their spiritual needs. And so as you'll see, I'm going to show a
priority, one of our key priorities. Every week I'm showing a priority of what we're doing here as a
church, but we want to take that more seriously as a church, and we want to use our partners that we
work with to invest in their neighborhoods. So we have, I've mentioned Y Malawi a few times at the
suffrage of some of our other ministries, but I've been there. It would be great, and I think this
is Phil's desire, that he could eventually leave, take all the Americans that built with him, and
let them care for Y Malawi with the Malawian people. You see, the local church should be the engine
for social welfare and reform and care. And I think the Catholics understand this. The majority of
social work that's happening in the world, you can bash Catholics all you want, look it up. It's
mostly Catholics. You got some NGOs and things of this nature, but they care for the poor. And so
that is one thing that the tithe went for. The other thing, and we'll finish with this as I come in
for a landing, offerings was the second one. So we had tithes and offerings. Offerings are gifts and
sacrifices brought to God. Some were required, while others were freely given. And you had varied
offerings. Now I want you to do the research on this because I could do three weeks on this and it
would just be a lot. It would be a super big Bible study. The first is this, first fruits of
harvest. What is first fruits? First fruits is the first fruit that grows that you bring before the
harvest comes in. So you're going to have a few tomatoes, and if you're a gardener, I've noticed
this. I'm not much of a gardener. My wife is. But I'll notice early on in the season, I'll get a
whole bunch of tomatoes. Not a bunch, but I'll get like eight tomatoes, right, on one plant. And
I'll be like, oh. And then I'll pluck those, and those were the things, and then I'll eat them, that
were first fruits. They said, I just want you to trust. And that's a trust thing, right? You might
not get another harvest. The locust might come. That's one of the reasons for first fruits is when
the first thing comes in, not only does it honor God that you're giving him the first thing that
comes in, it's not waiting till the end of the month, how much do I got left? It's first fruits,
that you're trusting God. So that was just one of those, and there's a lot on first fruits. You had
gifts, annual festivals, regular sacrifices offered on behalf of the community offerings. And so you
had all these that were required, and then you had free will offerings And I just love free will
offerings. Hey, I'm going to take whatever set of money, and there's this thing I really care about.
It could be anything. It could be your high school's basketball team where you're investing. I don't
care what it is. But you just have this thing where you invest. I want to tell you something where I
think we can bring unity in the world. There's not a lot of things where there's unity right now. No
one can agree on anything. Do you want to know, I was thinking about this. If you took someone who
is as far extreme left, and you ask them, "Should we give money to the poor?" And if you take a
Christian, who is a solid believer in God, who believes in generosity, and you say, "Should we give
money to the poor?" Both of those people would say yes. There are very few things, we can't even
agree on football. There are very few things in the world that we can rally people together. I want
to tell you, the Lord spoke to me strongly and said, "If Christians can leverage giving
opportunities and bring non-Christian friends in them to build a house in Mexico, this is one of the
best ways that we can change society and have the ability to shape and to talk to people who might
not agree with you on things." To say I got a friend in Africa, or I have people in wherever it is
to be a part of that, to give and be a part of. So those are the offerings. And then the final one,
and I love this one as we come in for a landing again. I would circle the tower, actually. I did
land a minute ago. Alms or gleaning are provision for people in need. Gleaning specifically meant
leaving part of the harvest for the poor and foreigners. Now, you remember this in the story of
Ruth. If you're a woman, you mandatory, I think you have to do the study on Ruth every six months,
right? Or something like that. Every time I see women's study, we're just looking at Ruth. Fine. We
all understand. Women, so you understand this story a lot. Just playing. But what happened? So she
went to see Boaz, who's in the line of Jesus, and she shows up at his field, and she's very poor.
And one of the things that they were commanded to do was if grain falls to the ground, don't sweep
up all the grain. You're supposed to leave that, and then the poor people would sit alongside at the
end, and they would come in afterwards, and they would take the gleanings. And remember Boaz said,
"Hey, I just wanted to be extra generous. Shake it out for this gal." You know what I mean? So she
comes back with so much gleaning because of that. And so I want you to have a gleaning mentality. We
don't want to be like a Scrooge mentality, a greed mentality, but just where can I give? Where can I
help someone? Wherever this is, it's almost like you have money in your hand, and it kind of just
falls out. That's what happened with the actual gleanings. I'm not telling you to go throw $100
bills down to downtown. I don't really want to have that spent for fentanyl. You know what I'm
saying? But I'm saying they would just have these gleanings. Are you a person of the gleanings? Are
you a person of the gleanings? And as we'll see next week, well, there's not enough margin in my
budget. There is that story of the woman who had one coin, and Jesus says he's watching. Everybody's
going around giving all this money, but he highlights one person. It's this old woman that gives
everything that she had to live on. And so it has nothing to do with your financial situation. It
has to do with your heart. It's not about your budget. Giving is not about your budget. Some people
don't give because they don't have enough to give. Or when something hard comes in their life, they
immediately take their tithe from whatever they were giving to zero. Why do that? Take it to 10%.
You know what I mean? But continue to have a stake in your relationship and in regard to that
giving. Here's what I have, the final thing I'll say is let giving be a habit and let compassion
interrupt the schedule. Let giving be a habit and let compassion interrupt the schedule. I told you
I'm going to share our priorities. We have a second priority here. We have multiple priorities at
our church, foci, and our second priority is caring for the poor, the aged, and the infirm. We are
doing that with our missions partners, and I think I've done a little, I know I've done a little too
much of counting on them to do it, and I can check the box because I got a church to run, right? I
got a church to run. We got all these people out there. We got 15 missionary partners. I can give
you their statistics. We did this. We're in Africa with Harry, and the guy walks, and we help these
girls get off the streets. And I can just put that down as like, check, Adam did this, Adam's church
did this. It is very easy to satisfy a congregation with reports of what we did with other
missionary groups. What is it going to look like for us to get into the game? Now, we do have a
weekly, I think it's weekly, we're still going to the homeless and different things, but I want to
increase that. And especially as my mom has been in aged care, and I've been on all these skilled
nursing facilities and see people that are just left and lonely. And as Pastor Kim is raising up an
army of volunteers and visitors, the amount of you guys that visit my mom is amazing. We really are
going to lean into that. And so I'm going to make it very clear that not only are we going to be
thankful for all these incredible missionaries, but we want to give you an opportunity to care for
the poor, to visit the aged, to go to the nursing homes, the different assisted living facilities.
As I close, were you able to get that picture of my mom, Jeff? No. Okay, my mom sent a picture. It's
very good. I can show it to you on my phone. I gave them to this at the last minute. We ended up
having a party yesterday, my mom's 95th birthday party, which was amazing. We had about 50 people
come. She wanted to say, there was a limit on how many places, the place she lives, she's in a great
place. So she wanted to ask forgiveness for everybody who couldn't be a part of that. But we weren't
sure we were going to make it. And it was one of the things of hope, like, mom, we're going to make
that party. It was fantastic. And she just wanted to say thank you for that. And so we're on the
right track. The doctor said she was going to die multiple times. She was wearing gold earrings and
looking phenomenal yesterday. I wish we had the picture because you could see her. She looked
awesome. So yeah. There's been a team of 20 people from the church that have visited her. She gets a
visit from the church, a person every single day, or every other day for sure. Pastor Kim has led
that. So I want you to know we're moving into that. So the first one was building a children's
building and having a preschool. The second one is caring for the aged and the infirm. They're not
in order, but caring for the aged and the poor. This is where we're going as a church. I deeply care
about your spiritual formation. I hope we become a church that lives like this. We're not only
caring with our tithe, not only having the offerings I think you care about, but just have
gleanings. Just have gleanings. It will change your heart, and attach it all to the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ. Amen? Let's stand if you would. We're going to have our prayer team come forward. If
you need prayer today, we want to pray for you. We want to pray for your marriage, for your family,
for your business, relationships, your health. We have oil. We will anoint you with oil. If you
extend your hands, I will pray for you. Lord Jesus, we bless you, Lord. And God, we just want to
reset. Let's just take a moment to reset. This is a safe place. A place we can come and experience
his presence. Lord, I pray that we are a church of the gleanings, a people of the gleanings, Lord.
People that care for their community, God, and that we can connect with the outside world through
this mission of generosity and giving. Let us be a people who are changed for you. Now, I bless you
and I send you out into the missions field, Matthew 28 missions field, to go be a change agent. Some
of you are going to have an opportunity to pay someone's groceries or their bill, to pay it forward
behind them. You're going to have opportunities. They're going to be there. And when the Holy Spirit
tells you, you're going to know it, I want to encourage you to take the Holy Spirit up on that. So I
send you out now as missionaries to change the world. We'll see you on Saturday at Mount Soledad. In
the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Love you guys. If you have a question about
Scotland, please come forward. I'll be here.