TRUST FUND | CHAD VEACH

0:00 Hey, what's going on, everybody? Thank you so much for listening to this week's message from Zoe Church. We are a community in Los Angeles that is all about the person and the message of Jesus. Thank you for joining us today. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. And if you're encouraged by the message, you can share it on social media. I want to thank every person that also gives to and through our church to help make a difference on the earth. If you'd like to give today, go to our website, and you can give there, zoechurch.org backslash give. We are concluding today a series called Open Heaven. We've been talking about living under an open heaven. And so let's jump into this week's message called Trust Fund. Matthew chapter number six, we are concluding today a series that we've been in called Open Heaven. Open Heaven.

0:51 We do not want heaven closed. How do you say open in Spanish? Abrir? Same thing, sugar. You know what I'm saying? I know Spanish. Rosaristona. So we want heaven open. We want to live under an open heaven. We've been talking about money, talking about tithe. I said this statistic. In the Bible, there's 500 verses on faith. In the Bible, there are 500 verses on prayer. There are 700 verses on the subject of love. but in the Scriptures there are 2,000 about money, possessions, and stewardship. God talks to us about our money so that it doesn't become an idol in our life. We want to serve God, not money. Somebody say amen. The Bible says every time I bring my tithe to God, every time, he'll open. he'll open what's window? Same thing. Open the window of heaven, pour out more blessing.

1:57 The Bible literally says that I have room for. I won't be able to store. What it's really saying is you won't just have enough for you. It'll spill out and overflow into others. That's in every area of your life. You'll have more than enough. God won't just supply your needs. He'll cause you to be a blessing to others. And so we're going to conclude this series. And I'm praying that out of this series, you feel encouraged to take care of your dollars. Somebody from the church tagged me this last week and showed a photo of their old Dave Ramsey book. And they said, I feel seen at Chad Veach. And I was like, that ain't Chad Veach. That's Dave Ramsey. That ain't me. We look a lot different, homie. But all of this, we're trying to be, at the end of the day, we want to be good stewards of all that God's given us. Is that your prayer? Amen. So let's conclude today. Matthew chapter six, go there in your cell phone. Okay. Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body. What you will wear is not life more than food and the body more than clothes. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin, yet I tell you, not even Solomon, straight out of Zara in all of his splendor, was dressed like one of these.

3:36 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown in the fire, will he not much more clothe you of little faith? So do not worry saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the pagans, those are Clipper fans, run after all these things. Your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

4:16 I like that. He's saying, you know what? We got problems today. Why are we worrying about tomorrow? I've got stuff I'm trying to sort today. I don't need to worry about where are we going to eat? What are we going to wear? What are we going to do? No, where's it going to come from? No, I'm going to. What did it tell me? Jesus told me to do something here. He said, seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be taken care of. Let me just put it this way. Put it on the screen. God knows what I need before I ask.

4:49 God already knows. God already knows what you need before you are never informing heaven on your needs. God knows what you need. Why does God know what you need? because his eye is on your life. God knows when you stand up, when you sit down, when you go out, when you come in, God is fully acquainted with all your ways. The Bible literally says more than the sands of the seas, so are the thoughts of the Lord towards you. God is watching your life and he already knows. So he says, don't seek after stuff. I'll meet all of your needs. Seek first my kingdom and everything else will get taken care of. Anybody believe that God is good? I've been saying it every week, but let me just say it again. God has been better to me than I deserve and greater to me than I could imagine. I don't deserve how good God has been, and I never imagined how good God has been. Is that your story? And so when it comes to the area of finances, we increase our trust in God. We trust his character, and we trust his nature.

6:03 God is not a man that he would lie. God is not a man that he would change his mind. We've been saying that God is a promise giver and he's a promise what? Keeper. He keeps his word. He keeps his promise. So I can trust in God. I don't trust in me. I don't trust in my gifting or work ethic. I don't trust in the stock market. I don't trust in culture. I trust in God. I have found God to be trustworthy anybody else. I want to preach a message today, write down the title. It's called Trust Fund. Because I'm just telling you, giving is not a dollar issue. Giving is a trust issue. Giving has nothing to do with finances and everything to do with your faith. When I give to God, I'm saying, I trust your ways more than my ways. I trust your wisdom more than my wisdom. I trust in your provision, not my provision. Let me say it again. God can do more with 90% that's blessed than you can do with 100% that's not. When I give my tithe and my offering, I'm saying, I trust in you. I know you're going to abrior the windows of heaven, pour out more blessing than I've got room. Come on, clap if you believe that today.

7:17 I trust in God, my Savior. That's all I got. I can't hit that next note. I'm gonna give you four things to write down today. Number one, put God first. God should be first in our life. He is not thrilled about coming in second. He is not interested in being third. God wants to be the first priority of our life. He said, seek first the kingdom of God. Everything else will take care of itself. Look at Matthew chapter six. It says this, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. I like that. He is saying the first commandment, all of the old law and all of the old laws are summarized in just two.

8:15 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as your what? Love your neighbor as yourself. So God said, I want you to love me with every, your whole heart. And when you do that, you put God first. Are you aware of how much is competing to become priority in your life? You've got competition that wants to take the precedence and the priority of your world. These are called idols in the Bible. And God is clear in the book of Exodus. He said, you shall have no other gods before me. no idols and a lot of people woke up today nobody rolled out of bed is like you know what I just love I've got idols galore well you know I just signed up for four idols yesterday it's just it's gone fantastic no but inevitably we allow our job our finances family we allow things to take priority over God in our life, not on purpose, inadvertently. And God said, no, I want to be the premium and the priority of your life. Put God first. It's kind of like we're now in NFL season.

9:28 Anybody thankful we're in football season? Hallelujah. Glory to God. Every week, I got to tell you, every week we got people wearing jerseys every Sunday right now. It's crazy. I just don't know who's going to show up. Last week we had a Packer jersey in one service. We had a Charger jersey in the other. I had to deliver. This is a guy wearing 49ers gear. I had to deliver a 49er spirit. Thank God we ain't seen a Raider jersey. I don't know what would happen. I don't know. I've never seen a Raider guy in church. I've never seen it. My man's got a… Is that a Ram jersey in the back? Stand up right here. Look at this guy. Oh, he put a… My guy went like this. Yo, he went like this. Good luck today. Who do y'all play today? The Colts? Yeah, you ain't going to win.

10:11 You ain't going to win. You ain't going to win. You ain't going to win. But all these people, there's a guy literally in the last service, during worship, he grabbed my shoulder. He goes, hey, pray for the Giants today. Pray for the Giants. I'm not praying for the Giants, bro. I've never prayed for the Giants. I never will pray for the Giants. but I'm just telling you right now you all these teams competing to become first do you realize there are things competing for your attention competing for your heart competing for your money competing for your life and I don't know about you but I want to tell God has competed and won in my life he is the first priority he's number one and when I give to God I am telling all my competitors. Nope. God wins. When I give to God, I'm telling my ego and my agenda, you don't win. God wins. I am not first. God is first. What I want doesn't come premium priority. What God says is premium and priority. Look at the book of Proverbs. Watch what God says. Proverbs chapter three, honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce. Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine. You know what I'm saying? You don't have a barn. I don't got a barn. We don't have vats. We don't even know what vats are. We read vats and we were like, yeah, it's good. Yeah. Chat, what's a vat? It's not literal.

11:43 It's figurative. God is saying, I will bless you beyond your wildest dreams when you honor me with the first of your fruits when you put me first in your life. So listen, when I put God first in my life, it is not a finance thing. It is a heart thing. Write down number two. Everything starts with heart. This is a heart agenda. This is a heart issue. Money, when it comes to money and God, we realize, we recognize this has to do with my heart more than anything else in the world. And so God starts and deals with our heart, not our finances. He touches my heart. He changes my heart. It was so cool this last week. I got an opportunity to preach in Chicago. I was in Chicago this last week, and I love Chicago. I was with one of my dear friends, Pastor Kent Muncy, City Church, Chicago, downtown Chicago. And after the service, we had a great service. After the service, my friend, we've been friends for 20 years.

12:39 I waited for him for an hour and 20 minutes, almost an hour and a half. I waited for him to finish talking to people. And I talked to people and then made my way to the back. And I just waited for my guy. We've been friends for 20 years, so I'm fine. And he came in the back. He's like, I'm so sorry. Are you hungry? I'm like, my man, yes. In fact, mad hungry. He's like, I'm so sorry. I'm like, no, you're good, bro. You're a pastor. I got to 100%. He's like, you got to hear this story. You got to hear the story. He said, there was a guy that wanted to talk to me after the service. He said, Pastor Ken, I got to talk to you. He said, there was a man in your church that I got into business with. And this man, because he was a Christian, because he came to your church, because of who he was, his values, I partnered with him in business. I gave a million dollars. I invested a million dollars into this man's business. And it turned out to be fraudulent, turned out to be a bad deal. And he said, I showed up four weeks ago at your church because I was about to hurt this man. I came to your church to hurt him. He said, but I was sitting in the service and I heard your message and God touched my heart. So I didn't, I didn't hurt him, but I came back the next Sunday to hurt him.

13:47 He said, so I sat through the service, and again, God touched my heart and stopped my heart so I didn't hurt him. I came back last Sunday, third Sunday in a row, and I was going to hurt him again. This time, God spoke to me during the service and said, forgive him and let it go. The next day after he forgave this man, he signed a contract for his business worth almost over $80 million dollars he says so i gotta just tell you pastor k i just gotta tell you i'm in on church i'm in on god god changed my heart i woke up to i walked up to that man today I walked up to that man today and I told him, I forgive him. I forgive him. I just want to let you know I forgave him and I'm here to serve. I'm here to help. Watch where God starts. Did God start with the million dollars or did he start with his heart? Because all of life, all of life is a heart issue. All of life. If your heart is good, your life will be good.

14:49 If your heart goes sideways, your whole life will go sideways. So I want to remind you, we serve a God that is after your heart. And that's why he asked us to give him money, because he knows we cannot serve God and money. In fact, watch how Jesus says this. Put us on the screen. Look at Matthew chapter six. No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. You can't, it's impossible. You can't serve God and money. You're gonna get, no, you're gonna be devoted to one and you're gonna hate the other. So I've decided, how about you? I'm gonna love God, not money. I'm gonna give my life to Jesus and following Jesus, not for fame and fortune and comfort in this world.

15:43 I want God to be the premium and priority of my life. So I don't just worship him with singing. I worship him with giving. In fact, watch what Isaiah says. This is Isaiah the prophet. Watch what happens to so many people. Isaiah 29. The Lord says, these people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me. I just like that verse. God is showing us something. He's saying these people, they come to church or they listen to worship and they love worship. They love to sing. but when it comes to giving, they're like, what? I'm not giving. Giving? What? He said, their lips are close, but their hearts are far away. Watch this. Jesus taught us that wherever your treasure is, your heart will be with it. So how do I get my heart to be with God? I give my money and my heart follows. Your heart follows finance, not your finance follows heart. You understand what I'm saying? So I want to give God the first and the best of my life because I know it's not a money issue. It's a heart issue. And I want to tell the Lord, you have won the competition for my life and I will not serve money. I will serve you. I will have no idols in front of you.

16:58 You are everything to me. Come on. Anybody believe in today that you want your heart to be with the house of God, the people of God, and the things of God. So when I give, I'm going, no, no, I'm not gonna win. The Rams ain't going to win. God's going to win. And I know this has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do with God. And I don't want to be that follower of Christ, that Jesus follower that's like, man, I love you, God, but you cannot talk to me about my finances. No, no, no. God, you can talk to me about anything. You can talk to me about anything. Any subject is on limits for God. Amen. So number one, you got to put God first. Number two, it all starts.

17:51 Everything in this kingdom starts with the heart. And then write down number three. This is about sincerity. It is not about show. I put it this way. God is pleased with the sincere, not the show. This is not for others to find out about or other people to know about. This is about sincerity. God serves. God loves genuineness. God loves authenticity. So this is not about a show. There's a story. I love this story in the book of Acts, Acts chapter four. In the book of Acts chapter four, this guy named Barnabas sells a field and he comes and he brings the proceed to the apostles' feet. When he does this, he sells the field, brings the proceeds, the church goes nuts. Everybody pulls out their phone and they start taking photos and videos and they start posting on their story, not their feed, their story. And they start going, at Barnabas, you the man. At Barnabas, wow.

18:43 wow, at Barnabas, emoji, emoji, emoji, like at Barnabas, whoa. They just love him. Now there's a couple in the church named Ananias and Sapphira. And Ananias and Sapphira see all the love that Barnabas is getting. And they're like, man, we want some of that shine. We want some of that attention. So they go sell a field, but they agree together. Let's give some of the proceed, but let's keep some back for ourselves. So they come to church and they act like they're Barnabas, but they are not. In fact, put it on the screen. Most people want the appearance of generosity rather than the act of being generous. Most people want to present themselves. This is LA. People present themselves better than they really are. People present themselves. I'm an artist. Fam, you're a sandwich artist. You work at Subway. There's a word for somebody today, making Italian combos, telling people, you artists. most people want the appearance look at how much i've given giving is not between you and man giving is between you and god and if you're living for the applause and the approval of man it won't take you anywhere in life that will leave you empty if you live for man's praises we live for the audience of one there's only one person's opinion that matters there's only one man's thought that matters. And am I living, come on, clap today. Am I living to bring you glory and to give you praise? So do I ever think that giving is about showing? Giving is about this pageantry or about somebody else knowing. No, no, we give in secret. Jesus goes, do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. In other words, keep it a secret. This is between God and me. And God says, what you do in private, I will reward in public. What you do in the secret place, when you give, I will reward you in favor, blessing, and an open heaven. Amen to that.

20:43 So don't ever believe the lie. Don't ever believe the lie that it's about show. No, it is not about show. It is about sincerity. In fact, put this on the screen. I love this line. It is about devotion before duty. It is about heart before hands. It is about love before lip service. It's about devotion. It's about heart. It's about authenticity. Remember, we serve the God that says man looks on the outward, but God looks at the heart. He's in the heart business. In fact, there's a story Jesus tells about this one time they're doing the offering. could you imagine this at zoe we're doing the tithes and offerings time as zoe you just tap your phone back when jesus was doing offering you had to come give it in front of him all the people watching like Oh, really?

21:39 Interesting, Sam. Wow. And this one time they're given the offering and Jesus sees a lady, a widow who gives two copper coins and he stops and he goes, hey guys, look at this. This lady has given more than anybody else. Everybody else gave out of their abundance. She gave out of her poverty. she didn't walk up with two copper coins going are you guys not impressed are you not entertained no she just quietly came up and she put in her offering it proves it's about heart not dollars it's not that you can't move God with the amount you can move the heart of God with obedience you can move the heart of God with trust you can move the heart of God with faith and every time I give, I'm saying, I trust in you. God's so good, he says, work six days, rest a seventh.

22:40 What I'm saying when I take a Sabbath day is, I trust that you can do more with six than I can do with seven. You understand? It's a trust issue. It's never for show, it's always for sincerity. Amen? So here's the last thing to write down. Worship team, you can come make your way up. Everything we do is by faith, not fear. everything we do. Hear me, friend. We are in the faith field. Everything we do now, we do by faith. We're faith people. Any faith people here today? I heard Pastor Jaben Chavez, you know, Pastor Jaben has a church in Las Vegas, City Light, Las Vegas. I heard him say recently, faith is knowing and not knowing at the same time. I like that line. Faith, let me say it again. Hear me loud and clear. Faith is knowing and not knowing at the exact same time. Well, tell me what you know. I know that God is good. I know that God is true. I know that God could be trusted. I know that God could be followed. I know that God's ways are better than my ways. I know that God, as far as the East is from the West, he's removed my transgressions from me. I know that God is merciful. He's loving. He's compassionate. He's kind. He's slow to anger. He's rich in love. He's faithful. He's generous. God is good. That's what I know.

24:11 And at the same time, there's a lot I don't know. I don't know how it's going to happen. I don't know where the money's going to come from. I don't know what God's doing right now. I don't know what he just led me into. I don't know what he's asking of me all the time. I got to know and not know at the exact same time. He said, all you folks call him Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rafa, Jehovah Tetzaku, Jehovah Nisi. Jabin goes, I call him Jehovah Sneaky.

24:38 Because he done snuck his way into asking me to do something where I don't know what he's doing all the way. But by faith, I am trusting and believing that he's going to be good. He's going to be generous. He's going to be, oh, come on. Praise him like you ever had to trust him. Praise him like you ever had to step out on water praise him like you know i don't know how it's gonna happen but i know he's good come on give him a praise today faith is knowing and not knowing at the exact same time that's why stand to your feet last scripture today proverbs chapter 3 verse Verse five, put it on the screen. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not upon your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. What will he do?

25:31 Direct your path, establish your thoughts. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. He will direct your path. He will establish your thoughts. I'm trusting God. I'm not trusting my own wisdom. I'm not trusting my own ability. I'm not trusting in my own plan I'm not trusting in my name I'm trusting in the Lord this is my trust fund I'm I am giving my money to God to let God know you didn't just win my heart you won my life amen to that that's our prayer that's our desire that we'd follow God with everything we got amen