What's up guys? Welcome to Esfiam Buzz. My name is Liz Jackson and today I have another big, big, big star, Munamjua. Ako na jinaia unyama, Namunamjua. So, tumbili. Habariakumze tumbili. Niko sa fika bisa Liz Jackson, okopowa. Niko fiti. Niko sunutanzakuni tamueshimiwa. Kitu suru. Nakuja, 2027 ni kubaya. Uta pita? Nio api misi pitaangi. Nga pita na gila mutu. So, 2027 tu nengia pale kitu suru. Dakuja mca pale. Oh, you guys, that's tumbili has just declared that he's going for the kitu suru. Ni kitu suru ama kitu suru. Residencin kitu suru already know. They already know manze imagine. Kasipula na takuni yomba ni ni, pesa. Sen mambesina. Mambesina. Anasho no tiyata bi. Ah, we ni biya biya bro, tulisha kipu taim. Ndoa sewa na kamu, we kamu. Kasipula ni, dr. Kasipu. So, tumbili umesema 2027, mca seat, kitu suru, nasi mama. Ni kitu suru ama kitu suru. Aama kitu suru. Kitu suru. 2027. All right, guys. So, tumbili leu me piga luku pamba safi for the first time ume chana nyele tangu ni kumit. What's going down today? Auna jua, mimi in person mi u chana nyele. Picha zangu, like sen ni ta kupiga selfie kuna vili intafanya fanya nyele iwi. Sasa uni mimi kwa ground. Kwa ground mi u kwa gaivi. Ni kita kupiga picha yani, usiya chewa sewa kujue vili uko. Onyeshe, kuna identity ya online na kuna iya ground. Kusaba wana inti kwa ground lazima u kwe mone kana wemsuri. Sasa uni mimi, even do mi wudunga daily. Daily? Dali me kwa namarakadana, u kwa iwi anyway. So, tumbili tu me kwa tukiuna hashtag who's laughing now me koki zunguka yani ume te seko me hangaika, unenda kwa kaosh na matiket. Who's laughing now ni ni? Who's laughing now is a comedy special featuring tumbili and maybe other comedians. Ya, maybe. Maybe. Ah, me sema maybe. So, nikulize, tickets ni how much na ita kwa wen? Leo ni Tuesday as we doing this interview now is Tuesday. The event is in just a day. Just a day. Si ni keshwa lafu. Yes. Si ku ni Thursday show. Ticket goes for a thousand shillings. Tickets as we speak right now they are like 90% sold. So, 10% maybe ni awalo watu me decide watu tachukulia kwa milango. Ya, but now 90% sold. We wanted to have it sold out, but ni kama tu jahamanage. But we still have ni ni to go. We see if keshwa wachatonevi le ku ta happen. Ya, ya, ya. But everything is ready. Ma fans ume nuwa ticket like kakrezi yani. I really appreciate them. Na kuna mtu moja mo niya me buy tickets mingi ni na ni wa utwambi? Eh, watu ame buy matiko? Kuna days ame buy 50 tickets. Kuna there's some person who bought 30. Kuna wakumi, kuna 14. There's a expedition motors under... Ya, they bought 20 tickets. Ya, ya, ya. So, uh, like two weeks ago tumbili, kulikwana talenta hele li lonjwa pala state house and a lot of creatives wa li kua. So, ni kangoja kuna tumbilia kiposa kwa pala state house it didn't happen. Kulienda je uli pata invite amani uli kua businessan. First of all, I heard that the invitation was open to any creative. I don't know if you can confirm that you were there. So, uh, mi ni li pata. Yo, I heard, uh, I heard it over that invitation is open. So, it means I was invited. Ninge nda singe kaziwa. But then, ni kaskia, as long as wuna drive, amo kunda ni hadinga wneza ingia. Sindi wa? We zingia wuki tembe ya. So, uh, mi mi, the reason why I didn't go, kwa I didn't get right the agenda of the whole thing of talenta hele. It's a good initiative, but again, siyoni li kvile nasaidiwa wasani. Noona. Kwa sabu over and over wasaniwa mi kua kilia. Na badwa talia. Noona. Uh, art is something that is, uh, it's a self-decision. Nobody sends you to do art. We only decide here. SPM didn't approach you at all. Li zi wuna kani kwa wneza tangaza kuja. Maybe you approached them. Wa ka piti apiti ni ni ni wa kakupe anafasi. So, that means the reason why wuna wasaniwa tendele akulia. Number one, we are too many. The government can't help each and every artist or, uh, content creator that is in Kenya. Noona. Even we can see it from time ya corona, there's some amount, like 10 million or 100 million, which what wengia wa kupata. Wato wengia wa kupata. Why? Because we are too many. So, talenta hele, badwa si gaipata visuri, uh, what is the objective? Because so far we haven't seen, uh, them supporting your art. Li wuna wali sponsor Safarirali. Safarirali ni ma bazu. Nia wali ni matajiri. They have sponsored WRC. Noona. The only way wali wasaniwa li, wali support iwa indirect, kuna concert zili e kwa pona iwasha, kata si of, uh, some promoters, nwa keka logo ya talenta hele. Noona. So, the reason mi si kuenda pale is, I don't know clearly what talenta hele is na ita, ita sediaje tumbili kwa ki tukama iyama wana ifanya. Then again, if you tukama easy, yes, they are willing to help. Maybe tumbili will knock a door pale at talenta hele, asem mi mi have this show, I want funding. Noona. But again, by the time upeweo funding, shoya kwa ita kwa isha pass. Because I know those processing ni ni ni, si jui yenda nani, si jui ako live TikTok, si jui azi yada kima liza live TikTok, ni 2 hours later kwa mi AC mi mi, endo wami nani, so it's something that niya kwa nga isha watu na mi mi frustrations in dosipendi. So it will consume time, I'm yet to see what talenta hele will do. I'm just hope siya kutume wa se, because we've seen vitu kama isi mingi, kuna isi youth fund, they don't benefit youths. Noona. Zina benefit wa se, the ni ni ni, the committee, most of the time, like talenta hele, I heard it was disbanded, but again disbanded, but again badu iko, so how is it operating? Noona. Si usani, noona, do you know the meaning of art? Art ni, ile part of wewe mo nyeku ji hasu liya, kama ume decide unafanya muziki, usi nungu nike usapotiwi, niwe uligi later. It's not a school where you can complain to your parents that's why it's called art. It's not a obligation to support you. It's not the obligation to support me. Mendo nili ji leta apa, wa kikuwa convince that mi ni kuna kitu ya kua peyaza, kua tumbuiza, they support me. So talenta hele, mi si i feel mi mi, si i feel, but siya ti, iene za tole wa tuna, wali wa se wa back in doa, si feel like kiyotu umili anaski ambaya ko, si si tu li powa yob. Noona. Mi si ku i feel, si ga i feel, because over the past years, even individual who came to know kuna kizi mi lango, za kwa ambaya say, ni kuna i kitu, ni kuna i kitu, they don't come through. Sasa i group, udapata, maybe budgeteo nika mi i li on mi amoja, then maybe 90 million will go to, ku li pa, ni ni, ku li pa, ni ni, shugulizao, cause transportation, ofisi, lipue, this guy's salary, noona. So a lot of money will go into, ku e kawa say, wakai fresh, wakai ni kawa na wakia talenta hella. Then 10 million sasando, muta kwa munekewa concert zabure, na iwasha, na ita o matenda. Do you know how to make a lot of money? Because wakai kia concert bure, they have talked to companies, zapombe, inyumulewa uko uchapa, uchupa, just because u li enda, gigia bure, noona. That's it, they are still making money even if it's a free gig. Ya. So a tukimalizia, nataka tuongelele, oflet, uli kuasi jim, na management job, uli ku na manage ingesh, ili kuina semekana iwa the manager. And lately tuliona, alisa iniwa na a garage, piasisia twelele. Nara direkos. Sasa unezat twelezia, what happened to the relationship with ingesh, na ni ni nina, ina indeleya sai? First of all, I've never been, I will never be, I'm not a manager to anybody. Just me tumbili. When ingesh, ngo mea ke li posto pale, I personally saw something in this, this chick. It was at that time when everybody was negative. Not everybody, a bigger percentage was negative. E uia na imbanini, yangali yame nozake, anaka siji yame, sungurame kula karot, siji ingoma ni kali kiyo amyut, yani all sorts of insults to this song. I took my time, took my resources, ni kaput my resources together, drove to Naivasha. Nika enda, nika kutana na, the crew. Nika chukua, nika fanyanini, kukarudi naivasha, nairobi. What I did was just to add value to this lady and show her the way. Mi misina skills a tiku manage mutu amani ni. I was just showing her the way. Ikwe iwe iwi, avoid this lane, use this lane, avoid these people, use these people. Ono na. That's when I said every person me na kuja na tak fanyangesh interview, should we give her something. And it was like that for day one. SPM paid, Eve paid, Tumili paid. Ono na. And many others. Ono na. Ata nani ezra mwenyewe. Situ li piga nani ingeshe ni ni, wig. But the wig was to be kept kuwa, kwa shop. Asi nde na uge to kwenye uko kwa rafki, ake kwenyal kuwa na lala. Kwa the wig was worth like 75,000. Ono na jwebe ya wig wewe. 75,000 na e kwa kichwa, ake nyanganywa. So ni kama mbe any time ako na interview ako na giga ako na ni ni. She'll be coming here a na fanywa make up a na pigwa wig a na enda wapi interview. The first one was for TV 47. Ni ma mbe ako jesa tisa na nosu so that we have ample time to do the the make up and the wig thing. Interview kuena zasa moja doktofoneke. She came at 6.30. And that is the day nilua patanisha na umar. Wialium sign. So what happened is umar mimi nili muambia nilitaka mbuembue tumingiza na mbuembue. Ni kama mbe umar as a TX ni kama mbe umar and he also my mechanic. Ni kama mbe umar ni aji. Siu kami witu pigi udem kipindi tumpele ke TV 47 na mbuembue visuri. Aka kuja nagari ake Eo 6.30 bitu bit traffic tukafika interview late like 30 minutes later. But tulukot na nga jewa. So kufika pale ofwene ke mi was not supposed to be part of the interview but ofwene ke alifanya angesh then aka mtuwa then aka fanya na mimi. Those were two episodes kando kando. So after me ma Lisa ofwene kaka ni mbe ni aji I have my radio show up to 11. Will you mind joining me? Ni kama mbe aza una zasa apia izo ni questions umutua kiku Lisa you can't reply negative TCAZ wa say wukachin mbe ano problemo si tukanda tukapiga shumpaka satano but ni yenden pikenpaka satano ni kama mbe nidropia udem kus mimi minta tokapa satano na ezik ni nga jampaka ni malize o ma rakam tukua wakatoka So I think apoka distance there are so many things that they talked about kus ikafikama Lisa angesh is not picking my calls ame tukwa kwanza tukwa na mbe ake ame pe anakwapi kwa bradzake wuki piga ni bradzake alasa bradzake wakata maniwali akwa nasimu nelesku ya kwanza lukutana I wanted to buy her a phone nilumuliza wkuna phone akantole aka ni onyesha ndiwi nika mbe anilikwa dania unan ni kikununu liya nona kaza wante da akwa nasimu poa ili ana interact na mafans ili ana interact na mafans kidogo kidogo mini kwa mombasa na ona tii nani omar ame post ingesh waki wa mesalimiana iwi na karatasi iwi nashindwa omar siging ingesh but does hi have any skills ako shikamsa ni does he have any connections tisi tuna connections nesam tuma anezata pigata interviewata kumi mimi by the time she was being signed nilukwani me book ingesh for 6 gigs which I cancelled all of them the moment I saw that post I cancelled set nilukwani mimi sigina mani ni I wanted to show her the way a pimpiwe visuri nilimbaia viatu palê shuhab alikuw adresi yagwefpwa wa wa tii kufuwezo marrinda rindaz enye ni ni ni nina ka asi ni ni ni ni ni ni nina na nga negasemi wa wa tii tumpimpiwe visuri like six months tumuad value wa tia omuoguwe keila kitu na nga studio to lisha lipa video location to lisha lipa tuliisha sought Magari Lexus 570 nna Wranglaza JJ titas Big shout out prosto jei jei Taitazaliku baliku Toka gariza kembili zaki Whari na nyumba hinzima ahole Bhungalo Manshon, machata Bhungalo Manshon hinzima tupege video pale so mi i didn't feel bad dati ngesha mesai nuka I felt bad because these two I brought them together oma aratanya nmia nmi ataku sani ngesh ono nage nimua mi mi sinai isuna nayo We go ahead, we sign, mimi mintendu liya kum-sapot from a distance But them going behind my back and doing all those stuff ninini Mimi manya at the end of the day, if Ngesh happens to go down na ma disapie vilewa sanu, disapia for some time then wa na uliza lienda gawapi, mimi don'ta tagi wa kwaizu upuzi because people do tag me everywhere atu wa li kuja kwa diyemi hangu the momenti li sama I'm not liable for anything with Ngesh They came to my DM, so many of them atu usimuachili e manza mimi kili e dunini no no, where's the force mutu you know she's a grown up where's the force mutu we uli ni ambia the other time ati alikwa na liya alikwa na liya ni ni? Ngesh, nikipatan na Ngesh, alikwa na sema the name is big, but she has no money in the pocket na alikwa me give up, alikwa na rudi naiva asha and a give up, wome ju Ngesh for how long? a few weeks not few weeks, how long? a few weeks a few weeks, we've been in this game for 13 years Liz mimi nime juwabutita kwa muhupi wome juwabutita kwa muhupi, tu me kwa kwa i game for the longest you know na I was signed under SPM you know na, you don't know that I was signed under SPM because before it was a buzz you know na so, Sisi tu me kwa na badua tuna tuna vama sutiza shout out you know na, this so, nipige picha lazima nitag sutubai but nini me piga nime jitege mea I can't even tag anyone, isn't it? but Sisi ngesha me kwa game 3 weeks na nivi leta mimi me soonga it was 2 weeks 2 weeks you want to drive 2 weeks you want to pay kwingi kwa o taili na ulipe billa tia 10,000 for us atas hi badi na kwa gashida tuna pate excuse ya kwen na washroom na tuna slide away, you know na so, ajipe time kuna gitu na itwa patience and perseverance that's what we were doing I was putting in my resources nili mamia misiku mamia tina manage I wasn't managing and I can't manage because I know the pressure was on me I also have my personal things in kulia time no na so, yei e kulia liya ati jina ni kubua jina badu si kubua and that's Kenya nani apa Kenya akuna pesa mingi kuliko jina kwa nini musani nitagi e moja calligraph the name is bigger than the money he has no na the name is big name is big akuna musani Kenya mbae anahela ngingi kuliko jina ya ke so, ngesha atulia ati zi chini na mingi a place mbae ya nili kansu shu ya ke amombasa nili kansu ya kisumu nili kansu ya nani ya atklab nili kambia matiba mi am not part of it matiba aditu to book her sasa direct nili mpae anamba zika garaje canceled nini inaitu aji la viva I canceled nika mbewa say kwa nini aji nini mumu aprochi nini we am not part of this brand anymore am not part of it so yei kama na mimi mimi na nafani kwa nini na liya kwa sababu I took my time my airtime my resources nika unge na producers nika unge na nika mitaftia location nika unge na kila mtu I use my resources naka naivasha naka naivasha in less than an hour naka naivasha in less than an hour naka naivasha in less than an hour naka naivasha naka mitaftia naka naero nana e industry you can even be here for 50 years bila kwa moka na unaji tumayo the most adworking artist nana unge za kwa uko with the richest label but unatoa crap what you will listen to your music nana it's all about patience it will take you 20 years nana it will take you 10, 15 patience ya ni time time so yei ya tu liye badata jaanza stivo zindu ya na liya stivo me kwa kilia maybe even from the first week he was signed nile tu na mbego tu liya vitus ta kwa sawa kuna ziliu na pehamsa na waka hoops vagal kuna pehamsa na waka hoops sometimes na waka sometimes as you work people don't know the hustle of you holding someone some artist responsibilities out anyway msa ni kwa zupatem msa ni mzemba na kaivi na kupigia simu umepata gigiote ujiapata na rudia na tu liyevi na watch Netflix nana it's not easy sayi I heard the stivo complaining nga japata shows who is to blame the management but if you kwa ni mwei revu kiviako wneza token uji tafti gig ambia management imepata gigi deal with these people that's the problem with our artist that's why you see that Tanzania tuna peha Tanzanians views mingi kuliko villa tuna peha Kenyavetu and they say in Tanzania wana pata less views Tanzanians artists get less views from Tanzanians themselves wana why because CC are to support way to we have reasons because we are sending way to our Yuko series atawale weni wako series badu tuna wana wa Yuko series wana kuna vitu Kenyan audience na taku wana mbuembuwe weka mbuembuwe wana patience ngeisha na liya first second week badata jakula Christmas iote kwa i game moide jampata ataboxing diya jakula badu na na liya already so patience management means I have no problem with Umar but kame yako serious na taku pushum gal which I don't know atato up skills and stuff because it needs a lot connection kana Umar get to SPM na ingesha pigi interview nini without SPM approaching ingesh management hawezi anaju wa tu tumbili kwa media anaju wana tu na tumbili true it just knows tumbili nani na pluto sisi ndo wana na tengenezea magari yes unasa inu akwa garage atangit after tata location flani maali apige shuguli ikai serious hey alright guys so tumekwa tukipiga story na tumbili I hope me pata masuali mulikom na uliza kusungesh kusu who's laughing now so guys I'm gonna see you on Thursday who's laughing now Kenyanashano Tieta inanzasangapi? shu inanzasakumi na nambili paka saan na usiku saakumi na nambili in English 6pm or 18 hours alright 1800 hours or 6pm Kenyanashano Tieta see you at who's laughing now adios


Well hello and welcome in today's video the art business review of 2021. I'm going to take you behind the scenes and share some of my wonderful wins, my biggest blunders and my largest learnings from 2021. Not only as a fine artist but also as an art business owner so stay tuned you won't want to miss this. Well if you're new here then a huge welcome to my channel my name's Sophie and I help artists to build a profitable business around their own art practice. I'm also a fine artist myself as you can see I'm sitting in my studio today so this channel is dedicated to all things art business related whether that's actually from starting up and putting together your business the planning the organization the marketing social media all the things that are involved in running a successful art business that's what we do each week on a wednesday on this channel. So of course if you love the content don't forget to give this video a like because it really helps me to get seen by more people on youtube and of course subscribe to my channel so you get a reminder every time I post a new video. So first up let's look at some of these wins it's really easy when you're doing a review of the year of course to dive into all the wins and I highly suggest that if you haven't done a review that yet that you really sit down and think about everything that went on for yourself and your art practice last year did you achieve your goal you know what were the biggest wins that's something I'm going to share in a moment what were the learning opportunities what did you do well not so well what do you need to change up for this year etc so I'm a really big proponent of doing a big review before you start planning your next year. So some of the wins for me definitely actually I'm sitting in the first win so although I had probably what you could say is plenty of room to paint at home we all know that when you're running a business there are lots of distractions when you work from home so a big win for me was finding a local studio just 10 minutes away where I could actually spread myself and make a huge mess and that's what I say that's what we're filming in today so that's the first big win the second big win was looking at actually getting outside of my comfort zone I took the creative visionary program with Nicholas Wilton and I'm actually taking it again this year because I really wanted to expand my own work I wanted to work at what I liked and what I didn't like there's been a big gap since I was a professional artist back in the UK and I haven't quite found my groove I've tried a few things and if I'm sure a few of you watching can relate you know you love to paint you love to create but you perhaps haven't quite found what it is I certainly did do and I don't want to just pick up where I left off I want to actually develop and stretch myself new so taking that program and and finding a time in and amongst everything else to do that was a big win another big win was actually taking myself seriously as a weaver I started weaving alongside the painting and discovered that actually the two could really inform each other so but taking myself seriously as a hand weaver and enjoying that texture of wool and fabrics and different things but not only that by the end of the year I was actually running a weaving workshop and I mean doing that twice a month going forward as well so that is a big win sometimes we do something and it's a bit of a side hustle or we do something and it's just a creative expression but I discovered that I really love weaving and the two the two things really complement each other and then another big win on the business side is myself and Vicky my business partner we really really decided to up level our art business academy this year on membership programme so we took a lot of time out to actually put together a five stage path every single step you need to build your business and all the content it was kind of like a mega course in the background of our membership and it took of course far longer than we thought and actually at time of recording we haven't quite done the last couple of pieces but it's nearly all there and so we're really proud of that achievement and we can really sit back and say that we stand a thousand percent behind our art business academy so that was a huge win actually forcing ourselves to get down and plan it all out and try different things and actually decide on the final five stages and then put all that content together okay next up some blunders who doesn't love a blunder we might call them a mistake but I often find that you know a mistake actually is a chance to learn something so I've decided to call them blunders really right first up was actually booking myself into an art fair when I didn't have any work and so I put myself under huge pressure to having come out of that program to actually change my art and then complete an entire collection for the art fair and of course I didn't pull it off so I had a lot of work that wasn't finished that I didn't stand behind I wasn't happy about so that was a massive blunder so could I pull out of the art fair yes I could but I decided to go ahead and just see how far I could get so for me that that was that was probably the biggest blunder of the year just not allowing myself time to create the product first blender number two was really not sticking fully to our business plan now a lot of people might say well it's been COVID it's been difficult we've had to do things in different ways and sure you know we definitely have to do that we definitely have to work in and around that but as a creative we all love to add things in and so therefore I was forever saying oh let's add this in let's add this in let's do that and so that was a massive blunder because it sent us off in different directions that we didn't really need to be doing last year and then really the third blunder was not fully looking after my health and those of you that have been following my journey for a while know that I've had a big sort of health journey and therefore for me it's super important to look after my health and I kind of started to feel better again and so therefore I let some of the routine go and so a big blunder for me was the fact that I lost my energy I wasn't sleeping and I didn't really put the attention on health like I should have done so last but not least having looked at some wins having looked at some blunders let's get them really important part and that's the learnings and I hope you're following along with me and making sure that you're writing down wins for you and blunders for you and now let's look at those learnings because that's what we can really take into the next year well the first learning for me was actually that as a creative I really can put the weavings and the paintings together you know a lot of times when we express ourself in different ways we say well they don't really sit together you know I'm doing something completely different over there and really I advocate to focus on one thing and do that thing really really well so it felt a little bit hypocritical to suddenly be saying well I paint and weave but until I got to a point where I realised that one really informed the other they're both about colour they're both about texture they're both about the same sort of content as well now so actually discovering that I could pull those two together and I will be having an exhibition with both really side by side I've done a couple of open studios with them into mix but this time they're going to be a brand new collection that's worked together the paintings next to the weaving so they really will sit together so that was really a good learning and it's definitely building my excitement for this year to come so the next learning for me is really to allow the time to fully explore the painting you can see some paintings behind I've definitely been dreaming about those and I'm definitely going down that abstract path and I've gone down that abstract path and now I'm allowing myself to see that right to the end and you know what I think I think I'm probably going to end up a little bit where I've been most of most of my career which is having something vaguely recognisable on the canvas I've really explored the abstract thing and you know what it's probably not for me so I need something that's just a little bit representational because that's what I think about that's what I photograph that's what lights me up that's what inspired me to watch this space because I've definitely taken some interesting photographs in the last few months and I'm really inspired to see how I can translate that onto the canvas and of course onto the weaving so yeah really allowing plenty of time to fully explore the creativity that's the next learning third learning of course is to keep on learning and that really is to keep up pushing yourself out of the comfort zone so I've signed up for the creative visionary program again and I'm really excited to go through the different stages I've also had more a sort of notice I knew that it was coming up and I've managed to map it out in our annual planner to allow plenty of time for me to actually dive into that whereas it kind of I've sprung upon me last year and I signed up and we were in the middle of a launch and it was all very messy so this time I've enabled myself to actually block out those three months in the year so that I can devote more time to doing it and learning number four especially right now we need to be thinking about this in January and that of course is really to have a simple business plan and stick to it we really really noticed that last year you know I was wanting to chop and change and put this in and put that in and come up with this idea and that idea and a massive shout out to my lovely Vicky who said you know what we're actually just going to we're just going to do one thing and we're going to stick to it next year so we have a really simple business plan we're just going to stick to that so I'm going to say that if you're watching this video right now and you're thinking mmm I don't really have a clear idea of what I'm doing next year I'm good with this review bit but I don't really know how to put that plan together then make sure you look out for the next couple of videos and if you're interested too we do all of this stuff over in our membership program right now you can get yourselves on the wait list we will be opening the doors again in March but if that's something you even vaguely want to find out about then check the information below this video as I'll have a link where you can get yourself on the waiting list and you can find out about it before everyone else that's it I hope you'll feel fully inspired to do your own art business review for 2021 to get yourself fully prepared for the year ahead I look forward to seeing you on another video thank you so much for watching take care bye bye


Morning Radiant Church. Hey, we wanna welcome Portage, so good to be with you and everybody who's online. This morning I wanna invite you to open your Bibles with me to Malachi chapter three. This is a continuation of our series entitled First Love. And for those of you who are wondering how long we're gonna be camped in the book of Malachi this weekend and next weekend are the final two installments of our First Love series. So today we are going to be looking at chapter three and the title of the message is The Tithe Matters. You know, they tell pastors that there's three things that you should not talk about in church. You should not talk about politics. You should not talk about money and you should not talk about sex. Well, the good news is we're not talking about politics today and we're not gonna talk about sex today but actually I think the church should probably talk more about all of those issues because how many know that if we don't talk about them, then we give the full blank page to the world to describe and define those things. And we need to really see those things through the lens of the kingdom of God. Today we are gonna be talking about how God views money because as you'll see very quickly in the book of Malachi, God has some very strong opinions and also some spiritual truths that the world does not understand, it does not comprehend, that are actually counter cultural, kingdom cultural, I believe, and counter cultural from the way that the world sees things. But here's the deal. The deal is that the world's view of money is a cursed view of money and economics. But how many know that God is a God, not of cursing but a God of blessing? God wants his people to live under the divine blessing of the kingdom of God. And so this morning I want you to look with me in Malachi chapter three, we're gonna read six verses together. Beginning in verse number six, here's what the Lord starts by saying. He says, for I the Lord do not change. Just stop right there. Anybody glad that God is not an arbitrary God, that God doesn't change his mind, he doesn't roll off the wrong side of the bed and he's not in a bad mood one day and a good mood in the next.  Can I get a nine AM amen to that? All right, there we go, feel good now. All right, he says, for I the Lord do not change, therefore you, oh children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers, you've turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how shall we return? Will a man rob God and yet you are robbing me? But you say, how have we robbed you in tithes and in contributions?  Therefore bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts. And see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you such blessing until there is no more need.   Actually like how in verse number 10, the new century version translates it. It says, bring to the storehouse a full 10th of what you earn so that there will be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord all powerful. So God is dealing with the issue of finances with his people Israel. And as we've seen all throughout the book of Melachi, God is concerned not about the external observation and obligations of what it means to be the people of God. He's concerned with the heart condition because as we know, we know this to be true in our lives and it's obviously true in ancient Israel's experience with God is that you can do all the right things outwardly but yet have your heart far from God. As we saw in Melachi one, two and first parts of three, God is concerned about honor. He says, where's my honor? And they said, well, how haven't we honored you? And what about worship?  You're not giving me your best. And he's concerned about their trust and their observation of God's word because God says it, but they're not really giving credence to it. And it's even reflected in their family and in the way that they honor vows and covenant and marriage and all of these different things. But yet Israel's response is always God, what do you mean? We're still going to church. We're still giving you offerings. We're still listening to your law being read in the temple. We still have a priesthood. We're bringing you our sacrifices, what we have. We're doing all those things and God is saying to them, no, I don't have your first love. I don't have your first love.  When I was the God that brought you out of Egypt, you trusted me. When I was the God who did signs and wonders and miracles, you trusted me. When I was the God who performed miracles and defeated your enemies before you and gave you material blessing when you wanted it, you trusted me.  Do you know that in any relationship, what goes first before the external words and actions is always the heart? Jesus said in marriage, He said that divorce actually happens because of hardness of the heart. Can I tell you today that the reason why we have distance between us and our relationship with God is because somewhere along the line, we let our heart grow cold. You see, as Timothy Keller says, all sin, it doesn't matter what kind of sin it is, all sin always begins with a character assassination of God. It always starts there. Is God trustworthy? Is God good? Will God keep His word? Can I trust God? Where is God? All of those things are us looking at God and saying, God, you're not doing things the way I think you ought to do them and therefore I'm going to take matters into my own hands. How many of you know we have a tendency to do that? We have a tendency to take matters into our own hands when things don't happen the way we want them to happen in the timeframe that we want them to happen. Really what God was saying is this, is that first fruits given to God reveal a first love of God. When we give God our first fruits, that's what the tithe is. When we give God our first fruits, we're actually revealing that there is a first love in our hearts towards God. Now, if you're new to Christianity, if you're new to the church or you're new to the Bible in general, but especially like Old Testament prophets like Malachi, you might read that word tithe and say, well, I don't really understand what a tithe is. I know that in church we take offerings and those kinds of things and the finances go to support church and missions and those kinds of issues like that, but what is a tithe? Well, a tithe is a principle that we find all throughout the pages of scripture. It's not just contained in the law, even though it's included in the law, but it actually is a guiding spiritual law that you find all the way in the Old Testament. In men's life like Abraham and his grandson Jacob you find it in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, practiced by the people of God all throughout the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament. Jesus mentions it in the Gospel of Matthew, the writer of Hebrews mentions it. It's all throughout the pages of scripture and the reason why you find it in principle all across the panoramic view of scripture is because the tithe represents more than monetary donations. It represents a view of trust and dependence. A tithe actually means a tent. That's why the new century version uses bring a full tent and it's not just any tent, it's the first tent where the people of God, God told the people of God, I am your covenant provider, I am your protector, I am the purpose giver, I am God.  That's what worship is. Whatever we build our life around is actually what we're worshiping.  Therefore, what I want you to do as a practical expression of that in your daily life is I want you to take everything that you earn and I want you to take the first 10th of it, the first part of it, and I want you to bring it to the house of God where you worship me, where I've chosen to make my name abide and I want you to give it to me and honor it to me, because actually God's not saying I don't want you to give it to me. He's saying I want you to return it to me because as Lord of your life, I'm laying claim to it. I'm saying that I'm Lord of your life when the first 10th belongs to me, so bring it to me. And then everything that you give over a 10th is called an offering. Now Abraham gave a tithe of everything from the spoils of battle that he went into, he gave it to the Lord. Jacob, when he built an altar, he gave a tithe of everything. Leviticus and Deuteronomy, it says, you shall, as farmers, as an agricultural society, you shall bring a tithe when you reap your harvest, when your herds give birth, when your goats have little babies, you shall take the first, the best, the unbloodish, and God says it belongs to me. Why? Because what God promises to his people is this. Number one, I am your supernatural provider and protector. And when you honor me with the first 10th with the tithe, I'm promising that I'm gonna put my supernatural blessing on the other 90% that you have and I'm going to prosper it, protect it, and I'm going to multiply it so that all the days of your life, you will know that you belong to me. But Israel had forsaken that. Israel had stopped doing that. And the reason why they had stopped honoring God with the tithe is because they didn't trust God. They were becoming self-sufficient. And here's two immutable truths that God starts in this whole discourse by saying, he says, number one, it's immutable, I am the Lord and I do not change. How many of you know we change but God doesn't change? And the second thing that he says that's immutable is this. He says return to me and I will return to you. Now why is that significant? Because God always promises that when we will turn our hearts back to him, he always will return back to us. And in this regard, God is saying to the people of Israel, you used to tithe, you stopped and I want you to return to me. By the way, it's the only place in the entire book of Malachi.  He confronts Israel in all of these areas but the only place in the entire book of Malachi that God gives that may prescription and says this is how you return to me is financial. He says return to me. And you say how do I return to you? And he says by giving your tithe to me. Now I don't know about you but if I think about spiritually getting right with God, money is not the first thing that I think of. I think of prayer, I think of faith, of scripture, I think of going to church again and all those things are great. Why in the world is God hung up on finances? Let me tell you why. It's because God knows if he has your money, he has your heart.  Money touches every area of your life. It touches your family? How many know that in today's world divorce rates are incredibly high? 50% of marriage is in America and in divorce. Do you know the number one issue in marriage? Money. How many know that money touches your children? Have anybody in this room raised kids? Children equal expensive. Raise your hand, right? Portage, you guys too? Okay, children are expensive.  No, they get more expensive. Used to be able to buy them a big wheel, now it's a car. It used to be like pay for little league, now it's pay for college. Pay for a wedding, oh my Lord. It's like, turn HGTV off, don't get any crazy ideas. So money touches marriage, money touches family, money touches your future. Because what's gonna happen when you're 65, 70 years old? Who's gonna take care of you? We've got our hopes and our dreams for our future, for our grandchildren, it touches that. Money touches our health, healthcare issues, health insurance, money touches every part of your life.  He's not like, I make a deal with you, here's what's gonna happen. I am Jehovah Yahweh, I'll never change and I'll protect you, but it's gonna cost you 10%. This is not heavenly Sopranos. God made all the gold in dem-dare hills. Here's how God views gold. He paved heaven with it. He sees gold the way you see asphalt. He doesn't need your gold, but what he does want is your heart. And so when God says return to me, and the way that I want you to return to me, the first step is by tithing again. He's got two reasons for that.  We can look at money, we can look at our job, we can look at relationships, we can look at ourself as our source, but when we put God first with our finances, we're saying, God, Jesus, you are Lord and I trust you to take care of all of these other issues in my life. That's the first reason. Number two, the second reason is, he says, bring all the tithe into the store so that there might be food in my house.  Do you know the first greatest commandment?  Second commandment is love your, do you know how you love your neighbor? You love your neighbor by living a sacrificial life and that includes your finances. And on the planet right now, there are over two billion people that do not have access to the name of Jesus. And it is our responsibility and our generation to get the gospel out there. Let me give you some statistics that will rock you. Wealthiest nation on the face of the earth. Number one, United States. Wealthiest Christians on the face of the earth. Number one, American Christians. We have more than any other Christians anywhere else on the face of the earth because we're the wealthiest nation on the earth. Do you know that in America today, only 6% of American Christians died? 6% of American Christians died. And if you read Malachi and take it literal because we say we believe the Bible, right? God says that when we're not tithing, we're actually living under a economic curse. It's not because God's cursing us, it's because we're choosing not to align our life under God's supernatural blessing where he is supernaturally biased for us. And when we honor him with the first tent, he says, I'll make it possible by my blessing that you'll be able to do more with the 90% than you keep than if you had kept the whole 100 and did it on your own. So God says you can do more this way. So we're living under a cursed economic system which means we're limited to the same horizon that unbelievers are limited by because we're limited by our own insight, our own wisdom and our own economic system that we're a part of. Do you know that statistics say this? That if just the American church, just us, if just American Christians would tithe, we would be able to pay off every church. We would be able to pay off every Bible college, every mission outpost. We'd be able to translate the Bible into every language that has not yet been translated and support fully every missionary on the mission field globally around the world and probably within one generation fulfill the great commission and see Jesus come back. And that's just the American church. And let me tell you something, American Christians only make 20% of the Christians globally. If you are the devil and you want to destroy people's life and you want to keep the name of Jesus from being glorified globally and you want to make sure that the great commission is not fulfilled in this day, what's the number one issue you are going to go after? You're going to go after putting mute and cancellation on Christians' generosity in the wealthiest nation of America. How do you do that? By getting their heart shifted in some other direction. How many of you have ever shopped or grocery shopped in Myers or Walmart? Raise your hand if you've ever done that. Okay, that's everybody, right? If you're not from West Michigan, then you don't know what Myers is necessarily, but you've been to a grocery store experience. How many have ever done one of these? You got your cart all loaded up and you're heading towards the checkout lane. You're not going to do the self-check because you got 14,000 items in your cart. And so you're looking for the shortest lane. Have you ever gotten into a lane and the lane is slow? And then the lane next to you dwindles down to almost nothing and you say to yourself, I'm going to switch lanes. Has anybody ever done that? Raise your hand if you've done that. Okay, so what do you do?  Only to be disappointed because you thought there's only two people in front of you and then the person in front of you has got 900 coupons and needs a price check and a repackaging and the lane you got out of all of a sudden you would have been out 10 minutes ago but you made the bad decision to switch. What is the answer to do when you're stuck in that lane? Let's go back to the original lane. Well, here's what we do with our finances.   And we get in line and we build our life around the access of God in his kingdom and his promises. But then we see other lanes that are moving faster. And we look at our lane and we say, you know what? This isn't kicking in. God, sometimes it feels like you're not answering my prayers. I've been tithing, this is challenging. I don't know how I'm gonna make it all happen. It takes faith. Faith is the substance of things, hope for the evidence of things that we don't see. We're in the kingdom of God lane. We see other people being blessed. We see other people with a lot more wealth and resources. They're not tithing. And the devil whispers in her ear, switch lanes. So what we do is financially we switch lanes. But as soon as we switch lanes into the world's way of doing things, we quickly realize that it's a cursed economy. And that's where Israel was. They had switched grocery store lanes. They had put all their groceries in the basket of believing that they in and of themselves were self-sufficient. They did not need God's supernatural blessing on their finances, on their economy, on their lives. They could do it themselves. And they were in this lane. What is God saying to them in Malachi three? He's like, you got into the wrong lane because you assassinated my culture. You did not trust me. You did not believe in me because you've got a hard heart. And God is saying, return to me. What's he saying? Switch back into the other lane. Come on, trust me. It's interesting that in this section of scripture, this is the first time I've ever seen this. And I can't tell you how many times I've taught on tithing over 25 years of being a pastor, not only because it's something that we regularly need to talk about with Christians, because Christians and unbelievers don't understand the concept and the principle in a world dominated by consumerism. But I teach on it because it's been a life-changing reality and a revelation has changed Jane and I's life. First time I've ever seen this though, it says in verse number six, for I the Lord do not change, therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. What did I see in there? It's the fact that God refers to Israel by their old name, which is Jacob. Why doesn't he say you, O Israel, are not consumed? You remember in Genesis 28, Jacob's name was changed to Israel. Israel means one who rules and reigns with God. Jacob means subplanter, one who tries to take the position of another. Actually, the reason why Jacob got his name is, remember he was a twin, he's in his mother's womb, and his brother Esau is being born ahead of him, so what does Jacob do? Jacob reaches out and grabs ahold of his brother's heel, trying to pull him back in so that he can get ahead on his own. And here's God saying to Israel, calling them Jacob, saying you're trying to do to me what Jacob, your forefather, did to his brother Esau, which is you're trying to take the place of the one who's supposed to be first. You're trying to take the place of the one who's supposed to be first. You're trying to take matters into your own hands and get ahead. You know, that's exactly what happens when as Christians we say, God, I love you, Jesus, I love you, but you know, the tied thing, that's really challenging. The tied thing, that's hard to do.  That's my issue. You know what we do right there? We're grabbing ahold of God and we're saying, God, I want to be first, not you. We become Jacob.  It's always funny to me to look out at hundreds of people when I talk on certain subjects, because if I talk about joy, people are like, yes, I needed joy. Talk on worship, you can see those who are worshipers. There's like, I don't know, yeah. When you talk on finances, there are three groups of people. There are those who are tithers and right now I can almost like identify because you're just like, yes, I'm so glad he's teaching on tithing, yes. Because you've experienced the joy of seeing God miraculously move in your life and you want other people to experience that. Then there are people that are in the middle going, well, I've never heard this before. Where has this been? And you're looking at the Bible and in fact checking me on Google and right now you're like, whoa, this is brand new. We need to think about this and talk about this.  You're like, if I didn't know when he was gonna talk about money in church today, I'd have stayed home.  Just stick to the gospel pre-chart.  I'm actually really excited to have some of you scowling. It's awesome because I know that the dross of Jacob is rising to the surface and what God wants to do is he wants to skim it off and he wants you to do what he says in Malachi chapter three, test me. Says the Lord, test me, put me to the test. Do you know that the tithe, let me give you three things that the tithe is that will help you. Number one, the tithe is a test. It is a test. It is a test of your conviction and your dependence on God, but it's also a test for God at his own invitation to prove that he is covenantally faithful. The number 10 all throughout the pages of scripture is used as a number of testing. It's used as a number of testing. Book of Revelation, you shall be thrown into prison for 10 days so that your faith is tested. In the Old Testament, Joshua leads the children of Israel into the promised land, 10 cities of the Canaanites. The first city that they come to is Jericho. God says it belongs to me. Don't touch it, don't take any of the wealth.  Give all the wealth into the storehouse, just it's mine. It's a test. 10 times they stoke the furnace in the book of Daniel for the children, you know, the Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego or Rackshack and Benny if you watch Veggie Tales. They stoke the furnace 10 times hotter. Testing, tithe is a test. It's a test for you and it's a test for God. One of the major killers of men and women in North America today is heart disease. I don't know if you're anything like me genetically. My family has issues with heart disease and so pharmaceuticals, one of the big markets for pharmaceuticals are statin drugs that help people so that they don't have heart attacks and lowers cholesterol and different things like this and one of the newer developments that they have is a heart, what's called a heart CT where they can put you into a CT testing and they can scan your heart ahead of time to tell whether there's potential blockages or issues in your heart because nobody wants to just go through life. Typically it's just kind of, well I hope I don't have heart disease and then one day it just hits a normally healthy person, they have what's called a widow maker and it takes them out and then the autopsy reveals that they had plaque buildup in their heart that was blocking the flow of blood that causes a heart attack. Now you can do a heart CT scan where they can look at it and they can say, oh we need to put a stent in or we need to do something here to open those passageways.  Number one killer destroyer devourer of Christians is spiritual heart disease. Well how do you know if you have heart disease? There's no CT scan for your soul, can you imagine if there was if they could put you in and it's like, oh you got some serious soul issues. Whoa I mean look at that unforgiveness, that bitterness, woo, we're gonna need a rotor-router that bad boy and you got some scars there and some unbelief and some doubt there and I don't even know what that thing is but we're amputating it. I mean can you imagine putting your soul under a CT scan? God has given us a test though to make sure that our heart is first love connected to God. What is the test? It's the tithe.  First thing that we do is we honor God with a tithe. We take the first 10th and we set it aside and say God, we remember that you are first in our life. We remember that you take care of us. We remember that you promise to protect us, that you are our purpose giver, that my financial stability and well-being is not in my own hands. Sure I need to budget. Sure I need to do the natural things that I need to do but the world does those things. I am a person walking under the supernatural hand blessing and protection of Almighty God and I don't care what the economic downturns on stock market looks like. God's stock market never has dips and it never has valleys. Isaiah nine says of the increase of his government there shall be no end. I wanna operate under the kingdom of God economy, not a broken world Wall Street economy because God will always take care of me. It's a test of my heart and here's how it's a test when I begin to struggle with giving it and paycheck to come every two weeks. When if I struggle with it, that's an indicator that something's wrong with my heart but when I don't do it, it's also an indicator that there's blockages between me and God. Number two, the tithe is actually an alignment of our hearts. We decide who we're going to align with. Are we gonna align with the kingdom of God or are we going to align with the American dream? The American dream says I've got freedom to do whatever I want to and I can be a self-made man and I can pull myself up by my bootstraps and if I'm smart enough, I'm in the right place at the right time.  The kingdom of God says this Matthew six, he says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all of these other things will be added to you. What other things? All the things the American dream promises. God doesn't want Christians walking around miserable. Oh, life's so hard and I'm giving to God but it's really hard and God's never gonna be in debt to you. God's not opposed to you having things. God's not opposed to you being financially stable. God's not opposed to you having beautiful homes and boats and vacations, being able to leave an inheritance for your kids. He's not opposed to any of that. He's just opposed to those things having you. He's just opposed to those things becoming the dominant point of focus of your life. When we center our lives around the kingdom of God, when we seek God first, what we're saying is God, I'm trusting you. The priorities of my life are you. The kingdom of God is my priority. The great commission is the reason why I've been put on the planet and when you prosper me, God, you can trust me. I'm going to be generous and God says, good, I know I've got your heart. Now, what do you need? I'm gonna give you everything that you need for the purpose that I've placed you on the planet. Do you know when Jane and I planned a radiant church, we had $0, zero people, zero experience, zero buildings. We had zero. And I was 24 years old, I was making a great income at a very large church in Grand Rapids, corner office, assistant, 100 voice choir, television programs that I was a part of, all the potential in the world. And God just challenged me. He said this. He said, if you will build my house, Lee, I'll build yours. And so we moved down here and we planted a church and everybody's like, all pastors are just in it for the money. Can I just promise you we were not in it for the money? That is not why we went into ministry. That is not why we did it. But I can tell you that 25 years later of serving Jesus in full time ministry, there's never been a day ever that I've ever not had what we needed. There's been some times we needed to stand in faith and believe God for the little things that he has always been faithful and just and true to meet all of our needs. And you know what? He brings no sorrow with it. Can promise you we've tied on little and we've tied done much. And there's been times where it's been a test. But listen, if you can't tie down little, you won't ever be able to tie down much. I've had people tell me, well, someday pastor when I win the lottery, I'm gonna tie. No, you won't. I promise you. Not unless you can tie down your minimum wage because if you struggle with one, the zeros are gonna cause it to be a little bit harder the next time around. Third thing that you need to know about tithing is here's in God's divine wisdom and providence, why he came up with this concept. Tithing is an antidote. Tithing is an antidote, it's a vaccine. You know, medical science has amazingly gotten rid of a lot of diseases that used to kill people through vaccines.  But what happens is as you receive the vaccine, it strengthens your immune system to be able to fight off the real thing when it is introduced into your system to keep you healthy. Things like smallpox and typhoid and measles and mumps and all those kinds of things. Some people are like, well, we just don't see measles attacking anybody anymore. Well, you wanna know why? It's because people take vaccines and we've eradicated those things and our life expectancy has gone to a whole another level. Can I tell you there's also spiritual vaccines and antidotes? Well, what are they? And what do they protect you against? The greatest disease facing American Christians today, listen to me, is the love of money. Now, go to third world nation and they're still as susceptible to it, but it's just not as prevalent in their culture as it is in ours because we have so much. Paul writes this in 1st Timothy 6, he says, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. And then it says this, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Notice he doesn't say money is the root of evil, he says it's the love of money. That's a root of all evil. It's through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves through with many pangs. Here's why we need a vaccine for the love of money. When we talk about the love of money, why would we love money?  Jesus said this, you cannot serve God and, say it with me. Say it one more time. Money, money, money, money. It's actually the word translated that Jesus says money is, the King James gets it right, it's called mammon. Mammon is more than money, mammon is actually a Syriac word, an Aramaic word that refers to a deity that promises wealth, prosperity, and protection. So there's actually a spiritual dimension to money that we have a tendency to worship it in the way that we're supposed to worship God. And here's why, because money is the only thing that Jesus put up in comparison to God. He didn't say you can't serve God in sex. Even though sex is a big issue in our day, it's not the same. He didn't say you, Jesus didn't compare and say you cannot serve God and greed. He didn't say you cannot serve God and idols. No, he said you can't serve God in money. Why did he pick money?  How?  If I have enough money, I can live out my dreams. If I have enough money, I can go anywhere I wanna go. If I have enough money, I can own anything I want. Instead of having to pray and ask God's will, instead of submitting our life to God and saying, God, you're the purpose giver. God, you're my protector. God, you're my healer. If I have enough money, I can heal any disease. If I have enough, I mean, the uber rich, why do we admire them so much? Because it's almost like they can be their own God. That's the illusion that money creates. And it's the fruit that the enemy tempts us today with. That if we'll serve money, it'll give us whatever we want to. That's the love of money. We need an antidote to that. What is it? The antidote to the love of money is putting God first in our finances. Saying, God, money is not my God, you are. Money is not the thing that's gonna determine my future, you are. Money is not going to be my healer, you are. Money is not going to build a hedge or protection around my family, you are. Money is not gonna be what is my security at 65 years old, you are. It's the love of money. And the last thing is this, the tithe is an opportunity. It's an opportunity for us to see God move miraculously in our life. He says this, I will open for you the windows of heaven, which means I'm gonna give you access to heavenly resources. I'm gonna rebuke the devour, which is spiritual protection, and your vine shall not fail to bear fruit. It's blessing. Stand with me all over the room if you would. I want you to hear two things. Number one is this, the tithe does not assure you of financial resources, the tithe assures you of heavenly blessing.  Heavenly blessing is saying they're in covenant with me. Therefore, if somebody attacks your house, they're attacking me. Somebody attacks your finances, they're attacking me. Somebody attacks your health, they're attacking me. This is God speaking. God partners up with you in covenant when we put him first. This isn't something we do to be saved. This is something we do because we're saved. If I were to tell you this morning that last week when I was in an airport, I ran into a guy named Steve Bezos. Anybody ever heard of him before? Wealthiest man in the world owns Amazon. How many have used Amazon, by the way? Raise your hand. Well, if I were to tell you that I've got great news for you, I've got an access code for everybody. And if you go home and you plug this access code in, you can have whatever you want that is in an Amazon warehouse. How many of you would be excited and want that access code? Raise your hand. Okay, write this down. Ready? I lied. But as excited as you would be about that, you should be much more excited about the fact that I may not have met Steve Bezos, but I've met Jesus. And he's given a promise and an access code that says when we put him first in our finances, you don't get access to 100,000 square foot Amazon warehouse. You just get access to heavenly resources at your need whenever you need them because God is your Father. And he says, I'm gonna throw open the windows of heaven. Pour out blessing that you cannot contain. And here's what God says, test me, test me, test me. Put me to the test. That's my challenge for you this morning. Is if you are a tither, today I want you in your heart to remind yourself, it's not just about writing the tithe, giving the tithe, it's about first love.     Put them to the test. I dare you to do it for three months. I dare you to do it today. Don't wait until next month. If you consider the clouds, you'll never sow your seed. Today to return to the Lord and say, God, you are Lord of my life.  So today I establish it. Do something today and consistently put God to the test for the next 90 days.  I wanna pray for us. I want our prayer team to move into position if they would. All over the room, over at Portage as well. Online, thank you. Let's bow our heads this morning. Heavenly Father, soften our hearts. You're not just looking for a financial relationship, but there is no relationship unless you're Lord of every place of our life. You're either Lord of all or you're not Lord at all. Holy Spirit, quicken our hearts. I don't want anybody to make decisions based out of the wisdom of men or the convincing speech of a man. I want us to be convicted by the spirit of a living God who's inviting us to trust you as our Father. Today, Lord, many multitudes in the valley of decision. I pray that you would give us faith, give us courage to put you first. And Lord, most importantly, I pray that whatever needs, whatever situations we're facing, whatever voices of fear are speaking to us, I pray that your voice would be louder. Faith would be louder. Courage would be louder. The voice of our Father inviting us closer to return would be louder than any other voice in our life. Help some of us to make decisions today, Lord. And even beyond just talking about the tide, Lord, whatever issues we're facing, I pray that today you would cause us to draw near to you and make you Lord of all of our lives. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.