What up crossing family? It is so good to be able to
spend some time with you all and welcome those of you gathering
online, those of you gathering with the crossing inside.
We are celebrating the 11 baptisms that happened there all
across this region. That's exactly right.
And I also want to welcome all of you joining at one of our
physical locations. Now, before we get into the
message, we definitely need to address what happened yesterday,
early or late afternoon, early evening.
One, if you did not pay attention to our sermon series
called Don't Take the Bait on Faith and politics, I would
encourage you to watch it. I am so thankful to God that
we've already done this series and that this is not the
introduction to a series on faith and politics.
Two, I am incredibly thankful that President Trump was not
seriously harmed. We should never wish death or
pain on anyone. My core conviction is that I am
not completely sure that Donald Trump has an intimate personal
relationship with Jesus. And I believe that this opens up
a great window for someone to be able to have that conversation.
And so we should be praying for that.
Third thing we should know is that the rhetoric that is
happening on all of the mainstream media, and they'll be
conspiracy theories and there will be memes and they'll be all
kinds of that stuff that that is not how Christians operate or
behave. We should be a light in the
darkness anytime something like that happens.
Third, the way you conduct yourself tells them where your
hope is placed. And your kids, this will be
their 911. They will remember how you
acted, how you responded, how you behaved.
So set a really, really good example. 4th, the shooter.
I don't know all those details, but boy, you got to be in a dark
spot. And there's going to be a mom
and a dad and sisters and brothers and cousins who are
going to gather around a grave and they're going to bury
somebody that they love and that the whole world hates.
When we say that we care for people and lost people, that's
our heartbeat. So pray for the upcoming
political season. Pray that people don't lose
their mind. Thank God that Trump is still
alive. Pray for Biden as he finishes
out his term. And pray for those who are
affected and will be hurt and misguided.
And pray for people who are in dark spots.
Because Christians are people of prayer and we are people of hope
and we are people of peace. And all of that comes from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Deal now next week we will be
starting a brand new series called I'll Get to this left
Third Decisions in the Desert, and we will be looking at one of
the most famous stories in all of scripture.
It is one of the most referenced stories in all of scripture and
this story will help you understand your story.
The decisions that you make in the desert will determine your
destiny. The decisions that you make in
the desert will define you. And Jerry Harris will be here to
start the first two weeks of that sermon series.
And I'm telling you, if you guys have hated this sermon series,
which is the last one, the next sermon series is going to be the
perfect sermon series for you to invite a friend.
And this series is 14 weeks long.
So here's the challenge I'm issuing to you.
Crossing family. There is probably somebody that
you love, that you care about, that you wish had a relationship
with Jesus. And during the next 14 weeks,
I'm going to encourage you to bring that friend, say, hey, I'm
going to take you out for lunch afterwards.
We'll go golfing after that, hey, I'll, you know, pay your
mortgage, whatever you want to do to help your friend show up
for church. Because this series, I mean, it
will be transformative if somebody is new to their faith
or doesn't have a faith. And So what I want you to do
when I was saying that you probably thought of somebody.
So what I'm going to do is we're going to take a little bit of
time and we're going to pray for him.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the way that you love
us and you care for us. God, obviously right now our
country is in crazy political turmoil.
And God, I'm asking that you would help us to live
differently, live in a way that reflects you and your glory and
the presence of your Spirit. God, I pray that you would watch
over our words and our actions and our influence over our kids
and our relationships. And God specifically, there are
people in our lives that we care deeply about, that we want to
find what we have found in you. And God, I pray that you would
open up doors in this upcoming series for us to see those
friends come to faith in you and in my pray.
Amen. Well, today we are finishing up
the sermon series called Map Makers, where we have been
charting a path to better stewardship, less stress and
greater impact. And today at the very end of
this message, I'm going to talk to you about what greater impact
looks like. But the reason for this series
is because while we are some of the richest people in all of
human history and some of the richest people in the world,
statistically, we are not good with our money.
And as a result, we are struggling with mental health,
with stress, with anxiety, with worry.
Furthermore, our inability to handle finance as well is
impacting this. The health of our marriages and
the length of our marriages. And beyond that, how we handle
our money impacts us spiritually.
The stat that kind of broke my heart was this.
When asked Americans said this, 48 percent, 48.6% of Americans
consider themselves to be broke. 66.2% of Americans feel like
they are living paycheck to paycheck.
So since we believe that God's way is the best way, and since
we know that God blesses obedience, we've been talking
about what it looks like to handle our money the way God
says to handle our money. And the very first thing we
learned is that everything we have, everything belongs to God.
That's what it says in Psalm 24. One, the earth is the Lord's,
and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.
You belong to God, your stuff belongs to God, everything
belongs to Him. The second thing we're supposed
to do is we're supposed to tithe.
Malachi chapter 3, verse 10, bring the whole tithe into the
storehouse. So bring 10% to the local church
that there may be food in my house.
Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, 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.
Tithing is 10% of our income. Our increase is to be brought to
the church where we attend, where we serve, where we grow,
and where we make a difference. I wasn't going to do this, but
during this series I've answered emails and I've heard pastors
talk about some of the conversation they've had with
people who call the crossing home.
And so there's a bunch of questions.
And even though what I'm about to say was not really the
general thrust of this sermon series, I realized that I have
not clearly communicated some stuff to you that might be
advantageous to you as you're processing.
So this is what we're going to call a 10 minute rabbit trail,
which means we're going to get you guys out of here by noon.
All right? The tithe is not something that
you and I control. The tithe belongs to the Lord.
God is the Lord of the tithe, which means the only thing I'm
supposed to do is I'm supposed to give 10% to where I attend,
which is what Jennifer and I do. We attend here, we give 10%
here. I don't get to choose what I
want to do. So when I'm at, you know, some
place and they say, hey, would you like to round up for, you
know, basically when I'm at McDonald's and they say, do you
want me to round up? OK, that round up is not a part
of my tithe because that would be me controlling where my money
went. Anything time I'm doing that
after I've started tithing, anything I do beyond that is
where I get to become a generous person.
So when we are faithful in tithing, that's where we give
10%. Our generosity journey begins
after that, that's where we get to have greater impact, which is
the general thrust of what today's message is.
Now, the sad truth is that many people today do not honor God
with their money. And that puts a limit on the
effectiveness of their church. It impacts the relationship with
God, and it puts a lid on their spiritual life.
And in my experience, there are three reasons why people don't
trust God with their finances. And some of you, you might see
yourself in one of these three categories.
The first one is ignorance. You don't know any better.
You're young in your faith. You didn't know how you're
supposed to operate financially and you didn't know what you
don't know. And how can you be obedient to
God in an area of your life that you don't know where God expects
you to operate you? The Bible says how can they
believe upon the one in whom they have not heard?
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?
So there are people who are living in ignorance because they
don't know what God expects of them to do.
Hopefully this series has taken a lot of you out of the
ignorance camp. The second category that kind of
people find themselves in is the area of disobedience.
They know better, but they ignore what God says.
Maybe you struggle with selfishness and you want to keep
it all for yourself. Or maybe it's pride and you just
want to remain in control. Maybe it's consumerism and so
you kind of get out of pocket. And then the third reason, which
is why I think most people operate, is worry.
You're just simply scared to trust God and walk by faith.
You haven't grown to a spot in your intimate personal
relationship with Him where you trust him to do exactly what he
says he will do. You read Malachi and you're
like, I'm supposed to bring the whole tithe in.
Well, what does the blessing actually look like?
If I knew that I was going to get the blessing, then I'd do
the tithing. So let me give you context for
our church here at the crossing. There are a lot of people that
attend and I'm going to use some internal language for you to
give you context. So we would say that there's
about 30,000 people that would say the crossing's my church.
So I'll be at a restaurant and somebody like, oh man, I go to
your church. Like that's awesome.
They're like, so you know, do you preach at 48th St.
Like, yeah, yeah, I'm there pretty much all the time.
I'm almost, I'm almost ever never someplace else.
So you're like that person. They'll be here on Easter.
OK. Then out of that group, there's
about 12,000 people that we would call insider language,
active people who are regularly engaged in the crossing in some
way should perform. Out of that 12,000 people,
there's about 4000 people that give a dollar or more, OK.
And out of that group of 4000 people, there are about 400
couples, 800 adults who demonstrate what I would call
tithing behavior. And that group of 400 people
make up 60% of everything that you see happen here at the
crossing. That means that a vast majority
of the people who call the crossing home find themselves in
one of these three categories. And just so you know, if I can
speak on behalf of the 400 plus families who demonstrate tithing
behavior, I want you to hear me say this.
And I think, you know, you guys, if you're one of the 400, you
can e-mail me and say don't speak for me ever again.
But these 400 people, I think this is what they tell you
because this is what Jennifer and I would tell you.
We love it that you call the crossing home, and it is our
privilege to do everything in our power to make sure that you
have a place to call home. We love it when you show up in a
seat that you didn't pay for. We love it when you show up for
a room and you complain about the temperature even though you
didn't pay the utility bill. We love it when you wipe with
toilet paper because your beautiful little booty needs to
be wiped. And we want you to know that
when you drink from the water fountain, we are happy to supply
it. And when we send your kid off to
camp and when you want us to show up at the nursing home or
the hospital, we are happy that to do it because we don't ever
send a bill. We love it when you bring your
friend to church. We love it when you come to the
steps for the very first time and pray.
We love it when you raise your hand to worship for the very
first time. And boy do we love it when you
bring a person that you love into the baptistry and they find
an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
It is our joy. It is our privilege.
We will give you all the time that you need to grow and
develop in that relationship with Jesus Christ.
But our hope is that one day you will find what we have found and
you will experience what we have experienced.
And we look forward to the day where you are not just a
consumer of what is happening at the crossing, but you are a
contributor to what God is doing at the crossing and
participating in what He is doing in our midst as we try to
make this region the hardest place on planet earth to get to
hell from. We can't wait until you discover
that God's way really is the best way.
We can't wait until you experience that God blesses
obedience. I was, I was putting this sermon
series together. I've been praying for 100
families to take this step that out of a Church of this size
that there'd be 100 people who would say, you know what?
I'm ready to start being a part of what God is doing and taking
God at his word. And I know that 100 people
sounds incredibly small, and I know that God can do
immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.
But for our church to go from 400 families operating like this
to 500 families would be life changing.
That they would be able to go out on a limb and experience the
faith filled life that God has called him to.
End of rabbit trail After tithing, we discussed how to
live below our means, to live on less than what we make.
Proverbs 2120 In the House of the wise are stores of choice,
food and oil. But a foolish man devours all he
has. If you are living above your
means, you are going, you are devouring everything that you
take in. But a wise person lives below
their means, and they have something called margin.
And in many ways our addiction to consumption has put us in all
kinds of trouble, and it has removed our freedom and our
flexibility. Proverbs 25 verse 28 says like a
city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks
self-control. If you do not establish the
discipline of self-control now, it will ruin you later.
And there is a gift that you can give to future you, but that
gift of freedom and flexibility and margin has to be purchased
by present you. Then we talked about saving
Proverbs 1311. Dishonest money dwindles away,
but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.
Storms are going to come and we want to be prepared for them.
We want to be ready for them so that way when it happens, we're
not destroyed by them. As we begin to save, our
stewardship increases, our stress decreases, and it becomes
a gift that we give to our future self.
Ask yourself what are the things that future you wants to do?
Present you has to set future you up with those options.
When we do all of this, we will move into a place beyond the
tithe and we will begin our generosity journey.
John Wesley, a famous theologian and evangelist and church
leader, stated that Christians should make all we can save all
we can so we can give all we can.
In the book of Job in the Old Testament, we find these words
Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart.
As Jerry Harris used to say, there are no U hauls behind a
hearse. You can't take it with you.
You don't get a If you get buried with all your stuff, your
stuff just disappears in the box.
Proverbs 1124 says this one person gives freely yet gains
even more. Another withholds unduly but
comes to poverty. Verse 25 A generous person will
prosper. So if you're going long term, I
want to be a person who prospers.
The pathway to that is being generous.
We're not generous until we've become obedient in the other
areas of whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
People who curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray
God's blessing on the one who is willing to sell you and I.
This might surprise you when you feel the desire to be generous.
That is actually a natural feeling because you were created
in the image of God and God is a generous God.
However, our spending habits and our saving habits can get in the
way of what our heart wants to do.
I've told you some of my financial stories during this
sermon series. And I want you to know that not
all of my financial decisions have been great.
Because even though my dad taught me some great financial
disciplines, when I went off to college, I got a credit card.
And this is this is what happened.
I had a really good, generous heart, and I had a credit card.
And so there were some people in my life that were, you know,
struggling financially. And so when we would go out to
eat, I would pick up the tab for everybody.
Why? Because I had a really good
heart and a credit card. And then there were some people
who are navigating some real financial hardships.
And so I kind of interceded and took some of their financial
burden off of them. Why?
Well, that's because I had a really good heart and a credit
card. And I did this for a long time
because I had a really good heart and a credit card.
And then one day I kind of looked at the statement and I
realized I was in a hole that I was not getting out of.
So I drove 65 miles and I sat down at my father's kitchen
table, the same table that I wrote out my budget when I was
13 years old. And I said, dad, I need your
help. It was the most embarrassed.
Oh, so embarrassed. My dad is a really good man, and
my dad bailed me out of my whole.
I had a really good heart, but I didn't have the discipline to
sustain it. And so my ability to do good for
other people and experience the joy of that giving was actually
covered by my dad's financial discipline.
I hated that feeling so much that I put me on a completely
different path for generosity and you guys can make fun of me
for this. But if I were to pull up my
accounts, you would see my general checking account, you
would see my car savings account, you would see my
general savings account, and then you'd see my generosity
fund. And every year Jennifer and I
determine an amount of money that is going to go into that
generosity account so that when a need surfaces, I have already
pre planned to be able to do something.
Because I hate being in that spot where you're like, I would
like to, but I can't. I wanted to build in margin so
that way my my heart can do what it wants to do.
And can I tell you, this is my favorite money to spend.
Every time I get paid, money goes into my generosity account.
And there's things that like I, I save up for.
So when we get ready to do camp scholarships, you need to know
this. Jennifer and I, we're the first
ones in because we love your kids and we can't wait to see
them find Jesus. When it comes time for year end
giving, we're the first people in because we can't wait for the
Kingdom of God to expand. And when there's golf outings,
we're the first ones in because we can't wait to see what God is
going to do. And we look forward for
opportunities to partner with people and help people and bless
people because we are consumed by people finding what we have
found in Jesus and that is an intimate personal relationship
with Him. And you need to know this by
refreshing others. Jennifer and I are abundantly
refreshed. Last year was 2023 was a really
big year for us because last year was the first year we gave
more money away than we paid towards our house.
And I have a lifetime giving goal of I want to give
$1,000,000 in my lifetime to the advancement of the Kingdom of
God. Now you need to know that you do
not have me on a trajectory to make $10 million in my lifetime
as the pastor of this church. OK, you guys, OK, you're not,
you're not hitting that target. And so I'm thinking like, how do
I still make this happen? And I also want to have what
kind of long term impact do I want to have in my life?
Like what kind of legacy do I want to leave?
Because there's really only two legacies you can leave.
It's what you leave in people and what you leave to people.
And I can only leave in you while I'm alive.
I can only invest in your relationship with God and your
development and as becoming a Christian while I'm talking to
you, while I'm preaching to you, while I'm sitting across the
table from you. And that investment stops the
moment I take my last breath. But is there a way for me to be
able to continue to leave to you even long after I am gone?
And so I really want to was like, I wonder if we could have
an endowment here at the crossing that I could leave
money to so that would support the ministry and the advancement
of the Kingdom of God long after I'm gone.
And so we got a group of people together and they just went out
and made this happen. And they call it the Legacy
Project. And here's what the Legacy
Project is. It is an endowment fund that is
comprised of seven smaller funds.
And what happens is, is when money goes into the legacy
project, it gets equally distributed into all these other
little funds. So like one of them is the
capital fund. You know, there's going to be
capital projects that are going to happen across all of our
locations at different times, and this alleviates the burden
of that on the general budget. Then there's the influence fund.
You might not know this, but there are churches all across
the country that lean on the crossing for help.
They want us to help them pull off their Minsk conferences.
We were asked to help put together a conference in Phoenix
this year and support that. We're pastors from all across
the country gather to learn and grow, and we get to be a part of
that. There's the vision fund.
This is an opportunity for us to prime the vision that God has
every single year at the crossing to do something new
that's never been done. And often times there's not a
line item in the budget to make that happen.
So now there would be with the Vision Fund and then there's the
expansion fund. We would love to make sure that
people in different parts of our region who don't have a
relationship with Jesus, who don't have a church, have an
opportunity to experience what we have experienced.
And this would be the first money spent every year on
expansion. This is how long term you'd be
able to have another Jacksonville or another Monmouth
or a Connect partnership. Then there's the scholarship
fund, cuz man, we love your kids and we want to make sure that
there is no financial hurdle that they have to go through for
them to be able to connect and grow in their relationship with
Jesus Christ. Because we don't want them to
make the same mistakes that we made.
We want them to find Jesus early and have one of the most boring
testimonies on planet earth. I found Jesus when I was young.
I trusted in the whole way through and I took as few stupid
pills as humanly possible. That is the testimony we want
for your kids. We want a way better testimony
for our kids than we have for ourselves.
Then we have the Impact Fund, which is the one that I'm the
most excited about. This would be to help the least
of these among us. It's designed to help people who
got nothing. It's money set aside to help
people who need benevolence or need stuff from the thrift store
and who need counseling and medical help.
And then there's the mission Fund that we want to give added
money to our different missionaries when they have a
particular project that sprouts up and we want to be able to be
pre positioned to be able to meet that need.
This would be the legacy project.
And there might be some of you who are hard wired like Jennifer
and I, and you want to have an Ave. for your treasure here on
earth to impact the Kingdom of God until the return of Christ.
So and Jennifer and I are in the process of doing our will and I
know some of you are going to e-mail me and say you should
have done it way earlier. OK, you're right, but I'm doing
it now. And what we're doing is, is
we're putting 10% of our net worth upon our death to the
advancement of the crossing through the legacy project.
That's right. We're tithing even in our death.
Why? Because we want as many people
to find Jesus humanly possible. So how am I getting to my
$1,000,000 number? Because let's just say for a
second that I, you know, I'm going to die.
My family heart attacks and colon cancer.
So I'm going to get bit one of these days.
It's just going to happen. And when it happens, it'll have
very little to do with McDonald's and everything to do
that. When my dad met my mom, they
were not ideal for building people to live forever.
And I'm going to get bit. And so when I put that 10% away,
let's just say for a second that Jesus doesn't come back till the
year 4000. Every 20 years, whatever I put
in there will have doubled in its impact in perpetuity.
That there'll be funding available for people to find a
relationship with Jesus Christ until the return of Jesus
Christ. And for us, that means the world
now, right now, we're going to do something.
And I know for some of you who are brand new to the crossing,
this is going to seem weird. Just come back next week.
You're going to love the next sermon series.
But as we've been going through this sermon series, there have
been some of you who are going. Yeah, I'm ready to go on this
journey with you. If you guys wanted all of our
locations, you guys can begin coming forward.
And there's some of you who are going.
Yeah, I'm, I'm one of the 100. I'm one of these people who I'm
ready to start trusting God in the area of my finances.
And what I want to do is I want an opportunity to be able to
cheer you on. And So what they're doing is
they're passing out a commitment card.
Now, let me explain to you what this commitment card is.
There's a pen somewhere around your chair or someone's handing
them out. And here's what this card has on
it. I just want you to this is not a
pledge to the crossing. You're not going to get a phone
call from me saying, hey, you said you were, but you didn't.
It's none of be, none of that stuff.
There are some of you, though, that you want to go on this
journey. And if you were to get baptized
this weekend, our church would clap for you.
If you were to start signing up for a ministry, our church would
cheer you on. If you were to get plugged into
a small group, you'd have people going, man, I can't wait to see
what God does in your life next. But sometimes when we get ready
to do stuff financially, we do so in isolation.
We do stuff with nobody cheering us on, with nobody praying over
you. And so here's what we're doing.
We're asking you to fill out this card and then our staff are
going to pray over you. And I'm going to send you
encouragement as you go on this journey.
And so I'm just asking you to look over this, write your name,
fill out the information and check a box.
Some of you are going, you know what, I'm going to start
tithing. Awesome.
We're going to cheer you on. Some of you are going.
We've already tithing. We're already trusting God.
We're some of the 400. We're going to keep tithing.
Awesome. There might be some of you are
going to check the box. You know what, I'm going to
start giving above the tithe. I'm going to start my generosity
journey. Awesome.
Check that box. There's some of you are going to
go. I'm just going to keep doing
what I've always been doing. I'm going to keep tithing and
I'm going to keep being generous.
Praise God for that. And there might be some of you
are going. You know what, I'd like more
information about the endowment. Awesome.
We would love a chance to get together with you sometime in
the fall and get you some more information.
I want you to put your information on it.
I want you to check one of those boxes or two boxes if you want
information about the endowment and then I want you to sign it.
You might be going, Clayton, Why should I sign it?
Well, you sign all the documents that are important to you.
You sign your marriage certificate.
You sign your offer, your house, you sign for your car.
Why not sign your commitment to God?
There's no amounts here. This is between you and Him.
We just want to celebrate the journey that you're getting
ready to go on. Now there might be some of you
are going. I cannot believe you just did
this. I am not doing any of it.
Great. Guess what?
You keep coming here and nothing changes for you.
But what I don't want to do is I don't want to rob some people
who are ready to trust God because it makes some people who
aren't ready to trust God uncomfortable.
There are some people in our church who are going.
I've been waiting to be challenged, waiting to go on
this journey. I've been reading my Bible and I
see it talk about giving all over the Bible and I've been
looking for an opportunity and I just need some encouragement
along the way. Now I'm going to let you guys
come and collect all those. Hopefully you've already filled
that thing out. I'm going to have people start
collecting them and I'm going to tell you why Jennifer and I do
it and the 400 here at the crossing do it.
Second Corinthians Chapter 9. Remember this, Whoever sows
sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows
generously will also reap generously.
Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to
give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a
cheerful giver, and God is able to bless you abundantly, so that
in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you
will abound in every good work. As it is written, they have
freely scattered their gifts to the poor.
Their righteousness endures forever.
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will
also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge
the harvest of your righteousness.
You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous
on every occasion and through us your generosity will result in
Thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is
not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people, but it is
also overflowing and many expressions of thanks to God
because of the service by which you have proved yourself.
Others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your
confession of the gospel of Christ and for your generosity
in sharing with them and with everyone else.
This is going to not sound spiritual for a second, but
sometimes I think of all the things I could have bought if I
didn't tithe, I could have a motorcycle.
Do you know how good I would look on a motorcycle?
Fat guys look the best on motorcycles.
Oh, Jennifer riding around on the back, cut off leather.
Come on, I'd love it. I could have a hot tub.
Do you know how good a hot tub would feel?
Especially as bad as I am at golf?
Hot tub could be healing. There's a lot of things I could
have, but if I had a choice between a motorcycle or a hot
tub and being obedient to God and going on the faith journey
that He's taking me on. If I had a choice between having
a motorcycle and a hot tub or watching you walk into the water
with your kid that you've been praying for all day, every
single day, I'm choosing you. I'm choosing Him.
You know, the favorite part of my service, Just so you know,
it's not my preaching. The favorite part of my service,
It isn't the worship. I love it when I see people pray
at the steps. That's not my favorite part.
My favorite part is when we play the baptism video because I want
to be a part of every single one of them.
And because of our generosity and other people's generosity,
people are overflowing in thanks to God and those who refresh
others are indeed refreshed. We're moving to a time, a
decision. So if you don't know Jesus, if
he could get anything from you today, it would not be
pocketbook. It would be you.
But look at how generous your God is.
Look at how he operates inside of that passage that I just
read. God decided in his heart to give
you Jesus. The Bible says that Jesus,
joyfully or cheerfully, before the joy set before him, endured
the cross and scorning its shame and endured it on your behalf,
He poured himself out so that you could be cleansed.
And because of this great an extravagant gift that He has
given to us, you and I are able to pour out our praise back to
Him. And we have seen God do the most
incredible stuff and raise an incredible harvest out of the
messiest of soils. We have seen Him raise a mighty
harvest out of the most unlikely of places.
And you got to know this. I can't wait to see what He is
going to do and you do. I can't wait to see what He is
going to do in your life. But you'll never find that out
until you start to trust Him. And as soon as you start
trusting Jesus, He's going to move you out of your comfort
zone. So will you have to trust Him
more. And the more you trust Him,
check this out, the more you will trust Him.
And over time you will build a life of faith where you will get
to the point where you believe to the core of your being that
God will always do what God says he will do.
But you will never experience that get to that place if you
stay inside your comfort zone. It's only when you move out and
there are some of you who you have been living under your own
rule for far too long and you've never said, you know what, I'm
going to place my life in His hands and I'm going to begin an
intimate personal relationship with Him.
And if you're here today and you've never started that, don't
put it off. And in just a few moments, when
the people around you stand and sing and some of them come to
the steps and pray, I'm going to encourage you to take a walk of
faith all the way up underneath that screen next to the
baptistry and start a conversation about how to begin
an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
If you're watching online, if it hasn't happened yet, it's going
to happen soon. They're going to open up a
window in the chat for you to be able to click on it, ask them
for prayer, and they'll take you off to their own separate spot
where you can have a conversation in isolation
without everybody else seeing what you're going through.
And you can begin that exact same conversation to the rest of
you in this room, To those of you who are Jesus followers.
I think deep down inside, we want to be a church that is a
blessing to our region. We want to be a church that
honors God and loves God. We want to do something about
reaching the lost around us. And I'm praying that God would
raise a mighty army of generous people out of this church who
care more about the mission of God and the life change in our
friends and our family than we do our personal treasure.
I know there's some of you who you know exactly what's going on
in people's lives because you remember being there.
You're part of the 400 and you know the challenges that are
going through their mind. You know the obstacles, but you
also know the rewards. And won't you be praying for
them? And when we get ready to open up
the steps and people come up and pray, listen, you can pray about
anything you're going through. You can come up here and pray
about what's happening in your home.
You can pray about your health. You can pray for the political
season. But if there's some of you in
here that just want to pray that God would help you as you start
this financial journey, man, the steps are open for you too.
Would you guys stand with me? God, I'm just trusting that
you're going to do a mighty work in us, not just at the
individual level, but at the corporate level.
God, there's so many people hurting, people that are hurting
in our lives, in our homes. Gather so much fear and worry
and doubt all around us. And God, we want to shine.
We want to shine like a star in the heavens pointing people to
you. God, I know there are people who
are getting ready to go on a journey that they never thought
they'd go on, getting ready to start doing something they never
thought that they would do. And I know that every step of
the way, Satan's trying to pluck that seed from the path, prevent
it from producing a harvest. But God, I'm praying that you'd
win, that they'd overcome the obstacles, and they'd be who
you've called them to be. You name my praying.
Amen.