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I want to start by honoring Scott and MaryAnn Shootman, who were faithful youth leaders and church members who heard God's call to sacrifice a successful business and move to Nashville to help plant a church. They served sacrificially for nearly twenty years, and their faithfulness as elders opened the door for me to become a pastor. There's no way I would be your pastor today without their family's obedience to God.
This message is particularly personal to me—it's what I would call a life message. This principle has radically changed Janna's life and mine, and I believe it's the best message I can give you right now.
Years ago, when I was pastoring a small church in Nashville, a church planter from Atlanta came to spend time with me. As we drove through an affluent neighborhood where many Tennessee Titans players and CEOs lived, he pointed to a beautiful house on a hill and asked who lived there.
I mentioned that the owner had just started attending our church. The church planter sneered and said, "Sounds like you need to preach a sermon on Greed."
Something triggered in me at that moment. I responded firmly: That man has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to missions. He's paid for plane tickets for families to adopt children from China. He flew our leadership team to a conference on his dime. He's offered his home for church events. I don't think he has a greed problem—I think you have a jealousy problem.
Here's the crucial distinction: The Bible's dividing line is not between rich and poor. It's between greedy and generous.
In all my twenty-three years as a pastor, no one has ever confessed to me that they have a greed problem. Yet everyone seems to know someone who does. There's a reason for this.
Jesus pointed this out in Luke 12:15. He said, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed." Notice that Jesus doesn't say "Watch out for murder" or "Watch out for theft" or "Watch out for adultery." Why? Because greed is unique—it's a sin where the presence of greed creates the illusion of its absence. Greed blinds you to itself.
I conducted a little test on Facebook, asking what things made you think a family was rich when you were a kid. The answers were revealing:
Here's what struck me: Out of 900 comments, no one mentioned anything they personally did or had. Everyone identified greed in someone else.
Let me give you a clear biblical definition by walking through the story of Achan in Joshua 7–8.
When Israel conquered Jericho—the first city they came against in Canaan—God gave explicit instructions: "Everything made from silver, gold, bronze, or iron is sacred to the Lord. It must be brought into his treasury." Everything. Why? Because Jericho was the first.
But one man named Achan disobeyed. He took some of the plunder and hid it. When he did, the blessing of God was immediately removed from Israel, and they came under a curse.
After this, Israel went against Ai, a city ten times smaller than Jericho. Joshua thought only a few soldiers needed to go. But because God's blessing was removed and His curse fell on them, about 3,000 Israelites went up and were routed. Many died in total slaughter.
They discovered their sin through casting lots, and Achan was identified as the culprit. In Joshua 7:21, Achan confessed: "When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, I coveted them and I took them."
Two words: coveted and took. These are what I call Siamese sins.
Greed Definition: If you view God's part as your part and you end up keeping God's part as your part, you fail the greed test.
Coveting is when you crave something that belongs to God. Greed is when you take something that belongs to God. They're inseparable twins.
After Achan's family was judged, Israel gave the plunder back to the Lord. Only then did the Bible say, "The Lord turned from his fierce anger."
Here's what I need you to understand: This principle has the power to change your life and your family's life. I've experienced it personally.
I avoided teaching this for a long time because it's one of the most misunderstood principles in the entire Bible. But I realized something: This principle is one of the most critical steps in going from a convert to Christianity to a disciple of Jesus Christ. I stopped avoiding it because I was letting fear of criticism keep me from teaching people a principle that has arguably resulted in more blessing in my family's life than any other principle besides salvation.
Here's the principle I want to teach you:
God promises to bless your life when you put Him first in your finances. God cannot bless any area of your life where you don't put Him first.
I'm using the word cannot intentionally. This isn't because God is unwilling—it's because of how blessing works spiritually.
The Bible calls this principle the tithe—a word that simply means tenth, or 10%. This principle appears throughout Scripture. Look at Leviticus 27:30:
"A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord."
Or Proverbs 3:9–10:
"Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine."
Notice: the first fruits, not the leftover fruits.
Let me be straightforward about what a tithe actually is:
A tithe is the first 10% of everything you get. Not 2%, not 4%, not 7.6%. The first 10%.
Here's the difference between a tip and a tithe: You tip people who serve you. You tithe to show adoration to the one you serve.
Let me illustrate with some math:
Notice something: When I say $100, everyone's comfortable. But as the numbers get bigger, every butt cheek in the room clenches. Why? Because you start thinking, "I could do a lot with $100,000. I could do a lot with a million dollars."
Here's the hard truth: Statistically, the people who struggle most to put God first in their finances are not those with little—they're those with a lot. The more you have, the less likely you are to return the first 10% to God.
God said in Joshua 6, "Everything... belongs to the Lord." Let that sink in: Everything. Belongs. To. The. Lord.
You're going to operate in your life one way, and when this mentality starts to change, your whole life starts to change—and you get a lot happier.
There are different attitudes you can have toward what you own:
When we understand that everything we have belongs to God, that we're merely stewards of His possessions, everything changes. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. Everything that has come to us and everything that will pass through our hands—it's all His.
I have a five-year-old son named Hudson. He's a Happy Meal junkie—I can make his whole day with a Happy Meal. A few weeks ago when the girls were out, I said, "HUD Bud, let's go get a Happy Meal." I even upsized the fries.
On the drive home, those fries looked really good to me, so I reached my hand over and asked, "Hey bud, could I have a french fry?"
This little twerp smacked my hand and said, "Those are mine!"
Now, what I wanted to think was, "You pest! How dare you!" But here's what I realized: I bought that with my money. I'm the one who handed it to you. And frankly, I'm strong enough that if I wanted, I could just take it.
But here's the spiritual parallel: The Bible says about everything you have—it's from Him, to Him, and through Him. Everything you have.
When you start to understand that everything belongs to God, every spending decision becomes a spiritual decision. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. Everything that has come to us and everything that will pass through our hands—it's all His.
Consider this parallel: God is saying that about everything you have—it's from Him, to Him, and through Him. Everything you have. You may never have realized this, but when we keep what belongs to God, we're actually stealing from the Living God.
God asks that you return the first 10% to Him—not because He needs it, but because He's first. Throughout the Bible, whenever it's talking about the tithe, it never says to "give" your tithe. It says to "bring" it. You can't give something that doesn't belong to you; you can only bring it back to the person that it belongs to.
When we keep God's part, we're stealing from Him. God Himself says in Joshua 7: "They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen them from me." This is exactly what happens when we don't bring the first portion back to Him.
The passage says to bring your tithe "into the treasury"—or as other translations say, "into the house of the Lord." In the Old Testament, the treasury was a room attached to the Temple where people would go to worship.
The New Testament equivalent to the Old Testament house of the Lord is the local church. This is where your tithe goes. You don't get to designate your tithe—you can't say, "I'll give some to this TV preacher, some to this animal shelter, and then this part goes to God." Why? Because it doesn't belong to you. You're a steward, not an owner.
This principle runs from Genesis 1 and 2 all the way to Revelation 22. It has the power to change your life. Look at the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4.
Many people wonder why God accepted Abel's offering but rejected Cain's. Some think it was because Abel was a rancher and Cain was a farmer, and God prefers meat to vegetables. That's not it.
Here's what the text says:
"In the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering."
One brought the first, and God respected it. One waited until the very end to see what he had left over and brought that. God didn't just reject Cain's offering—God couldn't accept it. Why? Because God can't be second. He's first of all, above all, before all things.
Even if He's not first in your life, He's still first in the universe. Your order doesn't change His order.
Some say, "But that's the Old Testament. I'm a New Testament Christian." But here's the question: If Jesus told you to tithe, would you do it?
In Matthew 23:23, Jesus is rebuking Pharisees who were so focused on tithing that they were measuring out tenths of their spices. And here's what He says—these are the red letter words of the Lord Jesus Christ:
"You should tithe... but do not neglect the more important things."
Jesus affirms the tithe in the New Testament. He's saying do both—take care of the heart issues, but also do this. It's like telling someone, "When you come to church, you should wear a shirt and shoes, but do not neglect the pants!" He's saying, "Let's do both."
Many of you are thinking: I see it in the Bible, but how could we possibly pull this off? Let me make this practical.
Imagine you're a landscaper and you complete a project that nets you $1,000. A tithe on $1,000 is $100. But here's the key question: Which $100 bill is the tithe? It's the first one out of your hand—the first one in your priority.
Don't get legalistic with this. What matters is your heart: What's first in your priority? In our family, we automate what's important. We set up automatic withdrawal so that when we sit down to make our budget in January, the tithe is literally the first thing that comes out.
Here's the real question: When you sit down and allocate money to the mortgage, to food, to clothes, and then give God what's left—is that really God's part? If God isn't first in your finances, He's not first in your life. Jesus said:
"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
We can say all day that God is first in our hearts, but if He's not first in our finances, He's not first.
Many say, "Pastor, I would love to tithe, but I just can't afford to." I want to share what my parents told me many years ago:
"You'll never be able to afford to tithe until you tithe."
There are blessings God promises to those who take the step of faith. Proverbs 3:9-10 says:
"Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your possessions; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow."
Once you give the first, the rest is blessed.
Jesus says in Luke 6:38:
"Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."
God Himself says in Malachi 3:10:
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse... Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."
This is the only thing in the whole Bible where God says, "You can test Me in this." God and 90% of your income can do more than you and 100% of your income. I promise you: 90% with the blessing of God can do more than 100% without it.
Why does God do it this way? Tithing teaches us and our children to walk by faith. It takes faith to give the first. It doesn't take faith to wait, see everything, and then give what's left over.
In Joshua 7 and 8, you'll notice that the greed of Achan gets passed down to his children. Throughout the Bible, the faith of faithful parents also gets passed down to generations.
You are going to pass down either greed or faith to your children—and it will be by your response to this test. What will you do with the first?
My parents were always people of unbelievable faith. Growing up, I heard countless stories of how they made the decision to trust God with the first—how professors would slip checks under their door, how groceries would mysteriously arrive. These were stories of faith.
When Jan and I got married in 2006, I was 22 years old, a brand-new youth pastor on a rural Kentucky youth pastor's income. We were a single-income family, and when we did our budget, that red column on the spreadsheet meant we didn't have enough.
But in that moment, I remembered my parents' stories of God's faithfulness. So we made a decision: The math doesn't work, but we're going to give God the first and watch what happens.
I have my journal from 2006. Before God provided for us in any way, I wrote at the top: "God's Financial Faithfulness." Then I waited to see what God would do.
All kinds of crazy things started happening:
The IRS paid me! Do you know how powerful God is?
When it was all done, I wrote: "This is far more than we gave away."
Ever since 2006, Jan and I have known we can trust God because we've lived it. No one—no one—will ever convince me that God is not faithful. I have seen His faithfulness, and I want that for you. I want your children to grow up saying, "You'll never convince me that my God is not faithful." That happens when you walk in faith.
Some of you need to take this step for the very first time. There's a card on the back of your seat that says "Automate What's Important." Do that in your life. Text the giving number. Whatever you need to do, take a step into the faithfulness of God and see what happens.
I want to start by honoring Scott and MaryAnn Shootman, who were faithful youth leaders and church members who heard God's call to sacrifice a successful business and move to Nashville to help plant a church. They served sacrificially for nearly twenty years, and their faithfulness as elders opened the door for me to become a pastor. There's no way I would be your pastor today without their family's obedience to God.
This message is particularly personal to me—it's what I would call a life message. This principle has radically changed Janna's life and mine, and I believe it's the best message I can give you right now.
Years ago, when I was pastoring a small church in Nashville, a church planter from Atlanta came to spend time with me. As we drove through an affluent neighborhood where many Tennessee Titans players and CEOs lived, he pointed to a beautiful house on a hill and asked who lived there.
I mentioned that the owner had just started attending our church. The church planter sneered and said, "Sounds like you need to preach a sermon on Greed."
Something triggered in me at that moment. I responded firmly: That man has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to missions. He's paid for plane tickets for families to adopt children from China. He flew our leadership team to a conference on his dime. He's offered his home for church events. I don't think he has a greed problem—I think you have a jealousy problem.
Here's the crucial distinction: The Bible's dividing line is not between rich and poor. It's between greedy and generous.
In all my twenty-three years as a pastor, no one has ever confessed to me that they have a greed problem. Yet everyone seems to know someone who does. There's a reason for this.
Jesus pointed this out in Luke 12:15. He said, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed." Notice that Jesus doesn't say "Watch out for murder" or "Watch out for theft" or "Watch out for adultery." Why? Because greed is unique—it's a sin where the presence of greed creates the illusion of its absence. Greed blinds you to itself.
I conducted a little test on Facebook, asking what things made you think a family was rich when you were a kid. The answers were revealing:
Here's what struck me: Out of 900 comments, no one mentioned anything they personally did or had. Everyone identified greed in someone else.
Let me give you a clear biblical definition by walking through the story of Achan in Joshua 7–8.
When Israel conquered Jericho—the first city they came against in Canaan—God gave explicit instructions: "Everything made from silver, gold, bronze, or iron is sacred to the Lord. It must be brought into his treasury." Everything. Why? Because Jericho was the first.
But one man named Achan disobeyed. He took some of the plunder and hid it. When he did, the blessing of God was immediately removed from Israel, and they came under a curse.
After this, Israel went against Ai, a city ten times smaller than Jericho. Joshua thought only a few soldiers needed to go. But because God's blessing was removed and His curse fell on them, about 3,000 Israelites went up and were routed. Many died in total slaughter.
They discovered their sin through casting lots, and Achan was identified as the culprit. In Joshua 7:21, Achan confessed: "When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, I coveted them and I took them."
Two words: coveted and took. These are what I call Siamese sins.
Greed Definition: If you view God's part as your part and you end up keeping God's part as your part, you fail the greed test.
Coveting is when you crave something that belongs to God. Greed is when you take something that belongs to God. They're inseparable twins.
After Achan's family was judged, Israel gave the plunder back to the Lord. Only then did the Bible say, "The Lord turned from his fierce anger."
Here's what I need you to understand: This principle has the power to change your life and your family's life. I've experienced it personally.
I avoided teaching this for a long time because it's one of the most misunderstood principles in the entire Bible. But I realized something: This principle is one of the most critical steps in going from a convert to Christianity to a disciple of Jesus Christ. I stopped avoiding it because I was letting fear of criticism keep me from teaching people a principle that has arguably resulted in more blessing in my family's life than any other principle besides salvation.
Here's the principle I want to teach you:
God promises to bless your life when you put Him first in your finances. God cannot bless any area of your life where you don't put Him first.
I'm using the word cannot intentionally. This isn't because God is unwilling—it's because of how blessing works spiritually.
The Bible calls this principle the tithe—a word that simply means tenth, or 10%. This principle appears throughout Scripture. Look at Leviticus 27:30:
"A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord."
Or Proverbs 3:9–10:
"Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine."
Notice: the first fruits, not the leftover fruits.
Let me be straightforward about what a tithe actually is:
A tithe is the first 10% of everything you get. Not 2%, not 4%, not 7.6%. The first 10%.
Here's the difference between a tip and a tithe: You tip people who serve you. You tithe to show adoration to the one you serve.
Let me illustrate with some math:
Notice something: When I say $100, everyone's comfortable. But as the numbers get bigger, every butt cheek in the room clenches. Why? Because you start thinking, "I could do a lot with $100,000. I could do a lot with a million dollars."
Here's the hard truth: Statistically, the people who struggle most to put God first in their finances are not those with little—they're those with a lot. The more you have, the less likely you are to return the first 10% to God.
God said in Joshua 6, "Everything... belongs to the Lord." Let that sink in: Everything. Belongs. To. The. Lord.
You're going to operate in your life one way, and when this mentality starts to change, your whole life starts to change—and you get a lot happier.
There are different attitudes you can have toward what you own:
When we understand that everything we have belongs to God, that we're merely stewards of His possessions, everything changes. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. Everything that has come to us and everything that will pass through our hands—it's all His.
I have a five-year-old son named Hudson. He's a Happy Meal junkie—I can make his whole day with a Happy Meal. A few weeks ago when the girls were out, I said, "HUD Bud, let's go get a Happy Meal." I even upsized the fries.
On the drive home, those fries looked really good to me, so I reached my hand over and asked, "Hey bud, could I have a french fry?"
This little twerp smacked my hand and said, "Those are mine!"
Now, what I wanted to think was, "You pest! How dare you!" But here's what I realized: I bought that with my money. I'm the one who handed it to you. And frankly, I'm strong enough that if I wanted, I could just take it.
But here's the spiritual parallel: The Bible says about everything you have—it's from Him, to Him, and through Him. Everything you have.
When you start to understand that everything belongs to God, every spending decision becomes a spiritual decision. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. Everything that has come to us and everything that will pass through our hands—it's all His.
Consider this parallel: God is saying that about everything you have—it's from Him, to Him, and through Him. Everything you have. You may never have realized this, but when we keep what belongs to God, we're actually stealing from the Living God.
God asks that you return the first 10% to Him—not because He needs it, but because He's first. Throughout the Bible, whenever it's talking about the tithe, it never says to "give" your tithe. It says to "bring" it. You can't give something that doesn't belong to you; you can only bring it back to the person that it belongs to.
When we keep God's part, we're stealing from Him. God Himself says in Joshua 7: "They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen them from me." This is exactly what happens when we don't bring the first portion back to Him.
The passage says to bring your tithe "into the treasury"—or as other translations say, "into the house of the Lord." In the Old Testament, the treasury was a room attached to the Temple where people would go to worship.
The New Testament equivalent to the Old Testament house of the Lord is the local church. This is where your tithe goes. You don't get to designate your tithe—you can't say, "I'll give some to this TV preacher, some to this animal shelter, and then this part goes to God." Why? Because it doesn't belong to you. You're a steward, not an owner.
This principle runs from Genesis 1 and 2 all the way to Revelation 22. It has the power to change your life. Look at the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4.
Many people wonder why God accepted Abel's offering but rejected Cain's. Some think it was because Abel was a rancher and Cain was a farmer, and God prefers meat to vegetables. That's not it.
Here's what the text says:
"In the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering."
One brought the first, and God respected it. One waited until the very end to see what he had left over and brought that. God didn't just reject Cain's offering—God couldn't accept it. Why? Because God can't be second. He's first of all, above all, before all things.
Even if He's not first in your life, He's still first in the universe. Your order doesn't change His order.
Some say, "But that's the Old Testament. I'm a New Testament Christian." But here's the question: If Jesus told you to tithe, would you do it?
In Matthew 23:23, Jesus is rebuking Pharisees who were so focused on tithing that they were measuring out tenths of their spices. And here's what He says—these are the red letter words of the Lord Jesus Christ:
"You should tithe... but do not neglect the more important things."
Jesus affirms the tithe in the New Testament. He's saying do both—take care of the heart issues, but also do this. It's like telling someone, "When you come to church, you should wear a shirt and shoes, but do not neglect the pants!" He's saying, "Let's do both."
Many of you are thinking: I see it in the Bible, but how could we possibly pull this off? Let me make this practical.
Imagine you're a landscaper and you complete a project that nets you $1,000. A tithe on $1,000 is $100. But here's the key question: Which $100 bill is the tithe? It's the first one out of your hand—the first one in your priority.
Don't get legalistic with this. What matters is your heart: What's first in your priority? In our family, we automate what's important. We set up automatic withdrawal so that when we sit down to make our budget in January, the tithe is literally the first thing that comes out.
Here's the real question: When you sit down and allocate money to the mortgage, to food, to clothes, and then give God what's left—is that really God's part? If God isn't first in your finances, He's not first in your life. Jesus said:
"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
We can say all day that God is first in our hearts, but if He's not first in our finances, He's not first.
Many say, "Pastor, I would love to tithe, but I just can't afford to." I want to share what my parents told me many years ago:
"You'll never be able to afford to tithe until you tithe."
There are blessings God promises to those who take the step of faith. Proverbs 3:9-10 says:
"Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your possessions; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow."
Once you give the first, the rest is blessed.
Jesus says in Luke 6:38:
"Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."
God Himself says in Malachi 3:10:
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse... Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."
This is the only thing in the whole Bible where God says, "You can test Me in this." God and 90% of your income can do more than you and 100% of your income. I promise you: 90% with the blessing of God can do more than 100% without it.
Why does God do it this way? Tithing teaches us and our children to walk by faith. It takes faith to give the first. It doesn't take faith to wait, see everything, and then give what's left over.
In Joshua 7 and 8, you'll notice that the greed of Achan gets passed down to his children. Throughout the Bible, the faith of faithful parents also gets passed down to generations.
You are going to pass down either greed or faith to your children—and it will be by your response to this test. What will you do with the first?
My parents were always people of unbelievable faith. Growing up, I heard countless stories of how they made the decision to trust God with the first—how professors would slip checks under their door, how groceries would mysteriously arrive. These were stories of faith.
When Jan and I got married in 2006, I was 22 years old, a brand-new youth pastor on a rural Kentucky youth pastor's income. We were a single-income family, and when we did our budget, that red column on the spreadsheet meant we didn't have enough.
But in that moment, I remembered my parents' stories of God's faithfulness. So we made a decision: The math doesn't work, but we're going to give God the first and watch what happens.
I have my journal from 2006. Before God provided for us in any way, I wrote at the top: "God's Financial Faithfulness." Then I waited to see what God would do.
All kinds of crazy things started happening:
The IRS paid me! Do you know how powerful God is?
When it was all done, I wrote: "This is far more than we gave away."
Ever since 2006, Jan and I have known we can trust God because we've lived it. No one—no one—will ever convince me that God is not faithful. I have seen His faithfulness, and I want that for you. I want your children to grow up saying, "You'll never convince me that my God is not faithful." That happens when you walk in faith.
Some of you need to take this step for the very first time. There's a card on the back of your seat that says "Automate What's Important." Do that in your life. Text the giving number. Whatever you need to do, take a step into the faithfulness of God and see what happens.
