As I was preparing this message, I almost decided to design it as an open letter to my two older sons.

Carson has been sons. Benjamin turned 20 last week and is in Georgia in a tech school and got an apprenticeship in a German plastics company.

And they're making money and they're on their own.

And I'm their dad and they're 1500 miles away each and you know what I'm wondering are they

timing? What do they do with their money?

You like, depending on where you grew up and what you think that that's an odd question or concern for a dad to have for his sons.

But maybe before I'm done you will you will see why it's such a big deal to me.

Are they looking at their money and the practice of tithing as, well, that was a lifestyle option my parents chose,

so like living in the city and shopping its savors.

You know, he can do it, he can not do it, it's no big deal.

Or do they look back and say, that's the rock from which we were hewn. And when they carved us at three years old to take 10 cents and put it in a different place that something was going on in our lives that ought to stay

there forever, which way are they going to go?

It's a broader concern.

If it were just me and the boys, I wouldn't preach on it.

I wouldn't afflict you with my burden for them.

But it's a broader concern. Last year in Christianity today there was an article about young adults and money and giving.

And here are a few of these appalling sentences from that article from William, James Williams of the Church of God World Service who studies these things.

Our people 45 years old and younger have grown up

mesmerized by materialism. There's tremendous pressure on families to spend, spend, and spend.

And then he adds,

I've heard that the generation that believed in the tradition of tithing is in three places.

Nursing homes, retirement homes, and cemeteries.

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