All right, brand new series. We ready to go destination. If we haven't met before, my name is Josh Myers. I'm the lead pastor here. I am thankful for all of you for being here today and being a part of Destination Church this morning.

Whether it's your first time or you've been here for a while, I am thankful for you. Thank you so much for being here. I I'm ready for Christmas music.

You ready for Christmas music yet. Oh, there's like two people who are like, "No. " Like, when does it start.

, we're starting our Christmas series today. It's called Light in the Darkness. And the big idea of this series that we're going to be in leading up to Christmas is simple.

We're going to look at a couple of characters in the Christmas story. And we're going to see how Jesus and the birth of Jesus was their light in the dark places. And so it's it's really simple to just kind of catch on. They're going to be kind of standalone messages. And as we ramp up for Christmas here, we're also ramping up for Christmas in our household.

And as Wes shared, I'm doing the same thing with my kids because they're anticipating the gifts. And I I remind them that this is this season is about Jesus's birth. And the way that I phrase it to them is, "How would you feel if on your birthday everybody was getting and giving gifts to each other and they didn't get anything for you. " And they're like, "Could that really happen. " And of course not.

But what I'm saying is that Jesus is so good that this gift that we got in Jesus is so good that on his birthday he we get to give gifts to each other. And it's all of this representation towards the fact that we have been given to by God the Father and we've been given this this wonderful miracle of the light in the darkness which is Jesus. And what we need to remember before we look at all of the characters to the story is we kind of need a precursor to that.

We need a little bit of an introduction and we need to be able to see that God is a giver. Okay, before we even look at how Jesus gives light in all of these dark situations in Mary's story, in Joseph's story, and in some of the people that are just waiting on Jesus in all of their stories, we need to first see that God in his very nature is a giver. From Genesis to Revelation, you can see this that God gives us creation. And so we just came out of this book study in Colossians and we learned what. That God created all things through him and for him on purpose and for a purpose.

And that God gives us life. That he gave you life. This is something to be excited about. We're like still on like turkey, , you know, nap time. Okay, let's wake up.

We got the brisk air. , God gives us provision, right. We have breath in our lungs. We have food on the table. We have indoor plumbing.

That's a huge blessing, right. So we have all of these blessings upon blessings of God giving us provision. And perhaps the most generous thing that God did for us is give us his son. His son as a sacrifice on the cross. This this verse that is plastered all throughout even culture that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

You see God is a giver and if you and I are striving to be Christlike to striving to be Christian we need to know what it means to really give and to really share this whole financial thing. But God knows that this is difficult. And I I'll prove it to you.

Did you know that in the Bible there is about 2,350 verses on the subject of money and generosity alone. That's more than faith and prayer combined. Some sources estimate that in the Gospels about 25% of Jesus's teachings are around or go on some sort of money or generosity illustration. The famous theologian Martin Luther puts it like this. He says, "There are three conversations a Christian needs.

The conversation of the heart, the conversation of the mind, and the conversation of the wallet. " Now listen, if you just tensed up a little bit because you're like, "Uhoh, pastor's about to talk about giving. There's the door. Can I make it.

" I'm going to tell you, okay, this is not your typical message about giving. Actually, we haven't even taught about giving yet here from stage other than during announcement time. So, promise me something. Promise me that you will not get tense and that you'll stick around to the end. We we together.

So, the importance though of these conversations is not because God wants something from us. It's because God wants something for us. God wants something for you.

And he wants us to talk about our heart and our mind and our wallet because our wallet and our treasure is ultimately connected to our heart. And so Jesus talks about money so much because it's where fear and trust and faith all meet. And so today I want to look at this big question of how do we give when it's difficult and learn more about the character of of God being a giver.

So if you would take those blue Bibles and open them up to page 832. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 6 this morning. , and by the way, if you don't have a Bible, please take that one home with you.

We love giving away Bibles. Can we celebrate for a second. Because this morning we did some math together and we found out that we've given away 150 Bibles.

So, , it's my prayer that you guys are taking those, opening them up , during the week. , so Jesus is in the middle of this big sermon. And it's called the sermon on the mount.

It's one of Jesus's most famous teachings and he's going to talk about treasures in heaven. Listen to what he says. We'll take it little sections at a time here starting in verse 19 right where it says treasures in heaven. And it says this.

Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth, where moths and vernham destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourself treasures in heaven, where moss and verum do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So, how to give when it's difficult. The first thing that we learn from this short teaching or the short little verses that we just read is to remember the eternal over the temporary. I don't know if any of you have taken on the task of assembling a bookshelf lately.

And specifically one that you've bought at like Target or Walmart or like IKEA, right. Because they're all like you the Allen wrench and the back is basically made out of a cereal box cardboard with microscopic little nails. You guys know what I'm talking about, right. So, I've put one of those together and they're so weak that you can like basically blow on them and they fall apart. Now, in contrast, I used to have this bookshelf that moved with me from house to house to house.

If this thing fell on the floor, the floor would break before the bookshelf would break. Okay, that's how sturdy this thing is. You see, we live in a time where things are built to sell, not built to last.

And so, the world then is in a race after your wallet. Don't believe me. Look at some Black Friday ads, okay.

They're all going after your wallet. But Jesus isn't actually going after the wallet. He's going after your heart. And so Jesus makes a connection here that where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

They're in the same place because usually the things that you love are things that you are pouring some of your finances into. And that the temporary things on this earth are are not built to last. And that's why we see some of the most richest, famous people on earth still miserable and struggling with mental health and addiction. It's because money doesn't solve all of the problems.

And so what Jesus is saying here is invest your money and generosity into the kingdom and that is the wisest place to put your treasure. Something you should know about me when I talk about giving. I'm going to go through all of the objections that you might have because I've had them too.

Okay, so here's the first objection that you might say to this. Okay, Josh, that benefits God, but how does that benefit me. Okay, how does that actually benefit me.

And somewhat that's a selfish question, but a fair question. And we need to remember that God as we focus on the eternal things and give to the eternal things, God is going to provide for us in those temporary desires that you and I have. God knows the desires of your heart. And so, you need to be able to trust God with some of those temporary things.

I'll give you an example of this. I had two friends that were looking at houses that were way way out of their price range. Okay, I'll just be honest with you.

And friend one said, "I want this house because I want it to be my sanctuary, my escape, my mountaintop away from people. I want as many rooms as possible so I can have a music studio, a workout room, and listing all of these things right now. Friend B, who just as a premise to friend B was probably one of the most generous people that I've ever met in my life.

And he was looking at a house that was well above his price range. But his heart said, "I want this house because I want every room full with any of my friends who don't have a home. I want this room full every week for a Bible study or a meal together. They'd have friends giving every single year where they could just fit as many people into this house as possible.

So, the motivation there was different. The motivation between the two people. Now, you might sit there and say, "Yeah, well, I've been telling God like if I win the Powerball, I'm gonna give, you know, $80 million to the church or whatever it is.

" And so, but it's different than that because it also has to go within the vision of what God is trying to accomplish, which is the next thing that Jesus goes on to say, that the world fights for your wallet, but Jesus is fighting for your heart and for your treasure. And where your treasure is, there your heart is. And there your eye is.

Look at verse 22. It says, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body is full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body is full of darkness.

If then the light in you is dark, how great is that darkness. " So how to give when it's difficult is to remember the eternal and not just the temporary. And then remember it's about vision and not vice. Now, for some of you, the problem is not going and buying temporary stuff, but it is a temporary comfort. It's going and buying an $8 coffee every day.

It's going and getting different vices that I definitely do not know anything about whatsoever. Hold on for a second. I've always wanted to do that.

I I bring this up here for an illustration, okay. To give you a visualization of this that it's okay to enjoy things. But they cannot become the source of our joy.

This is not the source of my joy, although I enjoy it and it's going to wake me up as I sit up here this morning. But what Jesus is teaching here is what you are focused on is going to get your attention, your heart, your mind, and your treasure, your money. And so to have a vision of where God wants you to put your finances is really, really important.

And you see this is where people really start to develop addictions to drugs and alcohol and different comforts even like overeing or overspending our comforts and things that we might enjoy that we then replace as the source of our joy. But what Jesus is teaching here is that if your eyes are healthy, then your whole body will be full of this light that God gives us. But if our eye is unhealthy and we're focused on unhealthy things being the source of our joy, then those things become what we run to for comfort in place of the author of comfort. And so what we need to be able to do is focus on Jesus, focus on being generous. And when you find, or at least when when I found this, that as I'm generous, it checks my heart on how much I'm spending on things that I enjoy.

Because what's happening is as I'm generous, this light is entering me in the area of my finance. And I'm able to check how generous am I being verse how much am I spending on my comforts. You see, it gives vision to what really matters and what really brings comfort and really brings joy.

Because if we continue to focus on things that bring darkness into us like addictions and things like that, then we become slaves to those things. And this is where Jesus starts to go next. Look at verse 24. He says this, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate one and love the other, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money. " So the next thing we need to do if we need to learn how to how to give when it's difficult is to ask, "Who are you devoted to. This is a crazy area of scripture where God gives us a black and white picture in eitheror situation. He says you can't serve both God and money. Now that doesn't mean that we can't learn or use money.

Money is important. It's a tool. But remember that Bible verse that Paul talks about where he says the love of money is the root of all evil. It's not money that's evil itself.

It is the love of money because the love of money puts us into serving two masters and then what we do with our money reflects how we almost feel about God and how we serve God. So we either fear or we trust God and this is the result of that. This is the the black and white kind of side of that.

If we fear money and fear finances, this is what happens. And for some of you, you might be like, I don't fear finances. I have enough. I have what I need.

But what it results in is our soul then at work serving money. And we start to do things like overwork and burn out. We start to make feelingbased decisions.

We start to be resentful. If I'm working this hard, why can't I afford to get more things. We start to worry about money.

There's an anxiety. Every time we see the bills come in, we're like, "Oh, man. I don't want to open it or we'll withhold or compare. " Guys, I'm the only person on my block right now that does not have a riding lawnmower.

And man, do I feel that temptation to compare, right. It's a normal thing. But when we start to follow this track of fearing money and fearing being generous, then we start to come into these feelings and start to ultimately despise God because we end up serving dollars. We end up serving overwork.

We end up serving by withholding or worrying. But when we trust God on the other side with our finances, it brings us security, knowing that ultimately God is the one who made it possible for me to have a job that supplies income in the first place. That I can have faith that even though I'm giving and it's difficult, that God will provide.

And then I can rest in that knowing that I don't have to overwork or worry or compare because who likes doing that, right. But I can go into this area of trusting God, of putting my faith in him, and I can rest in that. And then as a byproduct, I get to be more generous, which I've I've never met a person who has, you know, walked away from a situation of being generous and just said, "Man, that was really terrible.

" Like, we all want to be generous, but we all, if we're honest, just a little bit fearful. And so, are you devoted in trusting God or are you fearing money. Now, some of you, let's talk about the practical for a second, then we'll get back to the heart. Okay, just the practical for a second. Some of you may ask, "How do I start trusting God with my finances.

" , here's just three simple steps. Start small. If you've never done it before, start small, okay. And make a goal to grow in percentage every year.

You've heard it said probably from a stage before that that tithe really translates to 10%. And what happens is some people look at what 10% of their income is and they're like, "Oh man, I can't do that. " Or they're at 10% and they're like, "Hey, I'm good. " But make 10% a floor, not a ceiling. Meaning the goal should not be to get to this magical number.

The goal should be to grow in our generosity every year. That doesn't mean to give more necessarily. That just means to listen to needs more, which is another way that we can grow in trusting God is listen for needs around you in the community. The newest need that we've that we heard as a church was that people were needing food, right. The government was cutting off some food assistance programs and so we said what can we do on like the smallest quickest scale and we decided to raise money and raise food for the food shelf this is our giveaways which is at 42 items in just two weeks destination church you did that so good job and that all started with us listening to a need you have people around you that have needs.

And then third is to support your church. Is to just support your church because you believe in what God is doing. Now listen, I'm going to be real with you for a second.

A lot of churches will talk about money and what ends up happening is you hear a teaching about money and then you kind of feel this like icky guilt feeling and then the the church will ask for your dollars or whatever for whatever thing it is. Almost like you're in like one of those time share high pressure situations. Okay, I want you to hear my heart on this.

If you've been in a church where that's happened, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but this is not that. Okay, that is not my intention in this. Because when I ask for you to support your church, I don't want you to give because you feel guilty. I want you to give because you believe in what God is doing here and what God is going to do here.

You hear that 17 people have given their life to Jesus here. You hear that six people are getting baptized. You hear that there are new people coming in every day calling Destination Church their home.

And you don't feel guilty. You feel joy to support that. And you hear even that we are setting aside a huge chunk of our budget to not even benefit us but to benefit the kingdom and to benefit people who have needs.

And so listen, I just want to give a quick update of where we are financially. We are a brand new church, okay. Brand new church started in September and as of today, we are 50 to 55% sustainable. Which means I just kind of want to give an idea of what that means. That means that in this room, in our church, that we are supporting our budget at 50%.

And some of you may ask, well, how are you even surviving. The other 50% is provided to us by our three parent churches. But that money over time will taper off and we will build our own foundation of giving within the church.

And our goal in this is to be at 100% by year two or three so we can start I'm going to drop the hint. We can start building a new future. And so so this is the goal.

, and it takes all of us to get there. So, this is how you can support your church. Just really quick, support your church by consistently giving. It helps us to see what's coming in month after month.

, bless your church by setting up the reoccurring giving because it gives us a forecast of what's coming in. And I know it takes a lot of faith to let it just automatically come out of your bank account. But let me just say this.

Uncle Sam takes it automatically out of your check. Do you trust him too. I don't I'm just that I'm not saying how you should answer that.

I'm just posing the question. And then lastly, you can bless your church by giving a year-end gift. We're really praying for some new things that we need. Our trailer is a hand-me-down trailer, and I'm praying that it lasts us for the winter right now. And so, there's things that we need as a church that that help us to build the church.

And you may be here today and be thinking the exact same thing that I thought when I was sitting in a brand new church plant in 2009. I sat in a brand new church. It was smaller than this and met in a movie theater and I I heard the whole tithing conversation for the first time and talking about generosity and giving and I was like I don't have a lot. I don't really have a lot to give.

, but I but I feel like God's calling me to give. , and so I made my tithe $80, which in 2009 for a 20-year-old who just had a his first daughter was a really big step. Well, about a month went by and I lost my job.

, I was about two months or so away from unemployment and food stamps and stuff like that. And I was like the poorest that I had ever been in my life. And it got to be so bad that I got to a week where my grocery bill every other week was $80 and my tithe was also $80.

And so I remember on a Friday looking in my wallet seeing $80 and seeing I can either go spend this on food or I can give it. And let me tell you, this is one of the hardest decisions that I've ever had to make. And I thought about it. I prayed about it.

And I was like, "Okay, God, I'm just going to trust you with this. I'm just going to I'm just going to try. " , it was a really, really difficult moment for me, you guys.

Really difficult where I was filled with that whole fear side of things. But you want to know what the craziest thing happened. Because God showed up. Because I went to a small group that week, they sent me home with all of the snacks left over. They had no idea that we were that I was going through this.

I I was sitting at home. My mom comes and and stops by and says, "Hey, they were having a bunch of two for one sales at Cub and I overbought some stuff and have some extra meat that you guys can have. Brought over two bays of groceries. Random friend calls me up and says, "Hey, , you got time to go out to dinner. I I want to take you out for dinner.

" And it happened where two weeks went by where story upon story kept happening and I did not even express this story to anyone because God saw that faithfulness. Now, I'm not saying to live in this way of recklessness all of the time, but I'm saying to live in this area of faith, not worrying about your finance, because I want to tell you what ultimately drew me to make the decision to give the $80 over keep it. Look at verse 25. Jesus is not talking about money anymore, but he is instead talking about worry, which if you listen is connected to your treasure, to your money.

Look at this verse 25. Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life. Some of you just need to hear that this morning.

I just feel it. I tell you, do not worry about your life. What you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes. Look at the birds of the air.

They do not sow or reap or store away in barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you m not not much more valuable than they. Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life. And why do you worry about clothes.

See how the flowers of the field glow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that even Solomon in all of his splendor was not dressed like one of these.

If that is how God clothe the grass of the fields which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith. So do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat. What shall we drink.

What shall we wear. For the pagans. People of this world, run after these things.

And your heavenly father knows, your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom, his righteousness, and all of these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough troubles at of its own.

So what Jesus is saying here is he's saying as you seek he supplies. As you seek Jesus in all areas of your life of your time, your treasure, your finance, all of these areas. As you seek, he supplies. And as you seek it first, he supplies.

He knows what you need. And God is the perfect father and he knows your needs before you have them. And so please hear me on this.

Don't let money keep you from God. Don't let money keep you from a God that wants to supply for your every need. God wants to show you his generosity in your life as you show your generosity to others. That's why we look to this ultimate picture of the light in all of the darkness that Jesus gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. So as we listen to all of these stories, we need to remember that God ultimately gives out of his nature that God loves us so much.

And when we remember those things, when we come to a a time of reflection on those things, it leads us into this deeper trust and reliance on God. So this morning, we're going to do something here at Destination called communion. And communion is this time where we come and we remember that God gave us Jesus and Jesus's sacrifice for each and every one of us. And so when we come up to the table, we take the bread or the little cracker that's in there and we remember that Jesus used this as a visual representation.

He said, "This is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. " And then he took the cup of the new covenant and he said, "This is my blood.

This represents my blood shed for you. Take this and drink and do this in remembrance of me. " And so as we come forward and we take communion, we remember that God gave us Jesus in this way that makes a sacrifice.

Now, these tables are open to those who believe and say, "Jesus, you're my Lord and Savior. " You can get up and and take communion and come to the table. There's a gluten-free option just during this time.

If you'd rather just sit in your chairs, too, that's fine. , but I just want to end with this. Could you could we just like bow our heads for a moment and just in prayer. Cuz for maybe some of you, you've heard all of this message today and and you're struggling financially.

You're in a place where you're really just worried and anxious about Christmas. And maybe for you, it's it's not even about it's not even about money. It's it's about trusting. And maybe for some of you, you've just been in this season of of just really hard times financially.

And maybe for you this morning, the first step is not to give, but the first step is to trust God with your life. And so if you're in here today and you're just feeling like, man, I want to I want to do this, but I don't really even know how to do this or how the Bible teaches this. I want to encourage you. I was in the same place.

I had no idea what I was doing when I was given 80 bucks. And God wants to meet you in that place. And I want to meet you in that place.

But it starts by saying, "Yes, Jesus. " And so if you're in this room right now, maybe for you, the first thing that you need to give is your heart to Jesus. And so if you're in here today and you just feel like I'm talking to you, like God is calling you into relationship with him, would you just so boldly raise your hand so I can pray for you.

Thank you, Jesus. , and I'm just going to you put your hand down and I'll just lead you in a in a prayer and we can all pray this together in our hearts. God, we thank you for giving us your son.

God, we confess that we are sinners in need of a savior. And so, God, as we come forward, we remember your sacrifice for us. God, we give you our lives. Finances, time, talent. We thank you for all of the blessings that you've given us in Jesus name.