What up crossing family I want to welcome you join in all of
our different locations so to those of you here at 48th St. to
those of you in Macomb, Kirksville, 929 Pike County,
Hannibal, Lima, Mount Sterling, Keokuk, Monmouth, Jacksonville,
Weaver we are so glad to have you.
I also want to welcome those of you who are part of our Crossing
Online family and issue a very special shout out to those of
you who are part of the crossing inside, seeing all those
baptisms. We love you.
If you're a part of the crossing inside, don't ever doubt that
this church absolutely loves you.
You have our hearts and we can't wait to see what God is going to
do through you. You've heard me talk about it
for the last couple of weeks, but starting next weekend we are
going to launch a brand new sermon series that will be
perfect to invite somebody that God has put in your life and on
your heart. Every single one of us.
We have people that are close to us but are far from God, and we
built this series out with those people and those opportunities
in mind. Jesus, as you guys know, we're a
big fan of him. Here was the greatest teacher
that ever walked planet earth and his primary way of teaching
was through the power of story. And the Bible word for story is
parable. And we are going to be doing our
best to leverage the model, the teaching model of Jesus and the
power of story through our At the Movies sermon series.
And we're going to be taking a look at what happens when Darth
Vader comes to church. And to those of you who are
watching online, I got to be honest with you, we are not
going to be able to broadcast this series.
So the only way for you to participate will be for you to
show up at one of our physical locations.
However, we know that there's some of you who you watch from a
distance that is not drivable. And I want you to know we're
still going to have online services.
They'll still be preaching, they'll still be chat hosts,
they'll still be worship, they'll still be all the things
you're used to. You just won't be going on the
same journey that the rest of us are experiencing.
But before we can get into that series, we need to finish up
this series. And this is week 3 in our final
sermon in this series, 3 lies and a Bunch of Gospel truth.
And what we've been doing is we've been looking at lies that
Satan has told us that we have begun to believe, and then
looking at the gospel truth and realizing that adjustments need
to be made. The first lie we tackled was
this lie from Satan. I am not rich, but the truth is
we are. Why does this matter?
Because Jesus says that it is easier for a camel, big old
animal, to go through the eye of a needle, super small opening
than it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Why is that? Well, it's because the more
riches you have, the more your riches end up having you.
It is really stinking hard to hold on and put your trust in
Jesus when we are gripping so tightly to our things.
Now let me be clear, Jesus does not have a problem with you
having wealth. His issue is when your wealth
has you lie #2 that Satan has told us that you are not greedy,
that I am not greedy. But the truth is we are.
Why does this matter? Because the Bible says that
greedy people will not inherit the Kingdom of God in First
Corinthians chapter 6. That greedy people will have no
inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of God in
Ephesians chapter 5. Greed is living in a state of
have more Ness. What you have is never enough,
so you always need more. But it gets worse than that.
You see, greed keeps us from finding our satisfaction in
Jesus. This leads to us coveting, which
opens up the door to create relational distance with others
and with God. And this leads to isolation and
depression. As we've been going through this
series, I've been talking about the gift that God gives people
in tithing. Now tithing is 10%.
In fact, biblical tithing is the 1st 10% of your increase given
back to God. Tithing is not tipping.
Tipping is what happens after the event has taken place, after
the meal, after the person has given you the ride.
It happens after it happens with the leftovers.
Tithing is a first fruit, so it happens first.
Tipping shows appreciation. Tithing shows allegiance.
Tipping says that I own the other 9.
Tithing says God owns it all. Today we are going to deal with
the 3rd and final lie from Satan.
And here it is. Satan has told you that you are
not ready to trust God with your finances.
But the truth is, I believe some of you, if not many of you are
now right about this time in the message.
You guys are all thinking to yourself, why did I come today?
It's OK. You might be wondering why does
the church talk about money? And let me tell you, because we
preach the Bible here and the Bible talks about money a lot.
And you might be going really, it talks about it a lot.
Well, let me just give you some quick stats.
Jesus, you know, one of the big characters in the Bible, one of
the best theologians we have, when he preached through the
power of through the power of story, 16 of his 39 parables
were about how to handle money and possessions.
If you're to read the Gospels, which are about the life of
Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, one out of every 10 verses
deal directly with the subject of money, 288 verses in all The
Bible. It is a big fan of prayer and so
the Bible talks about prayer 500 times.
The Bible is a big fan of faith, but it talks about faith less
than 500 times. But do you know what the Bible
how many times the Bible teaches on money and possessions?
Over 2000 times. Why does the Bible place such an
emphasis on money and possessions?
I'll tell you because our use of money is about the most reliable
external indicator of where our heart is.
Remember what Jesus said in Luke chapter 12, verse 34.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Your treasure determines the direction of your heart, not the
other way around. Now I want to give you all a
gift. And here is the gift.
I hear people say all the churches talk about is money.
And you guys, this is not just for how you answer those
questions if people say to you or you're thinking those things,
but I just want to have like a, a little, a little moment.
And this is for all churches everywhere, because you might
have somebody come up to you and they'll say something like, Hey,
you'll invite them, Hey, why don't you come to church?
And then they'll say, well, all the church cares about his
money. And sometimes I'm in a mood.
You guys have been here before when I'm in a mood and I say
something and you turn to somebody and go, I don't, I
don't know if he should have said that.
I, I, I, does he still have an e-mail address?
Because it's going to be full. So let me tell you how I handle
that question. If I'm in a mood, I want to put
some tools in your tool belt to help you navigate that.
When you interact with somebody, somebody comes up to you and
they say all the church cares about is money.
Not just the crossing, any church anywhere.
This is this is a gift for you. What I want you to say is no,
they don't practice. All the church cares about is
money. Yo, you guys are super smart.
You're halfway there. If that's not enough, this is
how I'd answer it. I had a guy come up to me who
was a basketball coach and he said to me and I was in a mood.
He said all the church cares about is money.
And I said no, we don't, you do. And he goes no I don't.
And I said yes you do. And he goes, no, I don't.
Like I said, I was in a mood. Do you charge to get in so
people can watch your game? We don't.
I can't even get in the building without having a ticket.
Do you negotiate your contract every year?
We don't. When you show up, isn't there a
special place for all the boosters with the nice couches
and the nice chairs and the nice strengths?
You do that, we don't. When I show up, there's a
program that lists all of your supporters on it.
Can you imagine what would happen if I did that?
I wasn't done. I said you have a really special
banquet every year where you make people give you stuff that
you can sell to rich people who already have more than they
need, so that way you can continue to fund your program.
We don't. And when I come to your game, I
have to walk past reserved parking spaces for your super
rich contributors. We don't do that.
How come is it that the basketball coach, and just so
you know, to all the basketball coaches and football coaches, I
got no problem with you doing that.
And I'm not talking about any of you, OK?
Someone's like, I think he's talking.
OK, listen, this is a you're fine.
You know what everybody says about the basketball coaches and
the football coaches and the track coaches?
You know what they say about them?
Boy, they just love the kids. But if I were to run the
basketball play at our church, then you could say all we care
about is money. But the church is the only
institution on planet Earth that never sends a bill.
We are the only place when your marriage is falling apart, that
we are the first responders when you're struggling with issues of
faith. We're there when you're in the
hospital and you're sick, when somebody that you love is dying,
when you get the diagnosis you don't need, when you're trying
to navigate stuff with your kids.
We're the only place that never sends a bill.
So how satanic is that? That the place that never sends
the bill is the place that's accused of all they ever care
about is money. Every single place you go
charges and when you get done, you go.
Those are really good chicken fingers.
You never go. All McDonald's cares about is
the money or Keynes cares about the money, or the restaurant or
the gas station. You go there, you get billed
non-stop. But the only place on planet
Earth that says we love you right where you are, but we love
you enough not to leave you there, the place that decides to
teach you biblical truths that lead to blessings is the place
that gets acute. I was in a mood that day.
And so when this is, listen to me, this is not just for our
church. I'm saying this on behalf of
every pastor everywhere, every church, everywhere.
You need to stand in the gap when that lie gets spoken
because you're either going to feed it, allow it, or rebuke it
because Satan has a stronghold on our stranglehold on way too
many people. We talk about it because you are
going to stand before God and answer for how you stewarded His
blessings. We talk about it because I'm
going to stand before God and give an account to whether or
not I feared your approval or gods.
We talk about it because I'm going to stand before God and be
held accountable for whether I preach to you the whole counsel
of God's Word. When I preach on money, the
people who love to give love the series.
The people who don't give, don't, which might give you an
indication of how you feel about this series because you might be
going, oh, that makes sense. Let me give you some background.
When we preach on marriage here at our church, you know what I
get? I get people going, man.
Clayton, thanks so much. Marriage is in a tailspin.
You want to know why? Because marriage is hard.
Sometimes marriage just sucks and you're like, how do we going
to pull this thing off? Not Jennifer and Ice, because
Jennifer's perfect. Let me she's here this service
if you want to hear the truth. Second service and Thursday
nights. But she's here and our marriage
is our marriage is. I love you.
I just want to take this moment. God bless you.
And I'm sorry. I'm already I'm and it's my
fault. OK, so all right, Hey, OK.
The reason why we talk about it is people lean in is because 80
or 50% of marriages don't make it past the eight-year mark.
When we preach on porn, 60% of the of you by statistically 60%
of you have consumed it in the last year.
And I'll have ladies come up to me like thank you so much for
taking a strong stance. I'm worried about my husband,
I'm worried about my son and all that stuff.
And you know when we say, hey, you, you know, you shouldn't
watch other people have sex. You should, you know, have sex
with the other people that God designed you to have sex with.
People are like man, that's thank you.
Thank you so much for that. Watch this 50% of marriages when
I preach on IT, people are like super thankful porn 60% of
people. But when I preach on tithing.
Van Coe's statistics show that 95% of churchgoers don't tithe.
So in other words, our church has a bigger giving problem than
a porn problem. This is impacting your ability
to honor God. And this is a major issue in our
faith journey and our commitment to Jesus and His Kingdom.
So let me tell you where I am firmly planted, not just as a
pastor, but as a believer, as a part of this body.
When I say that God's way is the best way, I actually mean it.
I believe that God's way is the best way in every area of our
lives. I believe that God's way is the
best way when it comes to salvation, relationships,
forgiveness, pain, worry, anxiety, sex, rest, and yes,
even money. Let me walk you through why I
get there. One, I believe that the Bible
teaches it. Tithing is demonstrated before
the institution of the Old Covenant, established in the law
of the Old Covenant, reaffirmed in the teachings of Jesus.
I believe that the early church radically modeled generosity in
the book of Acts and it is the expected behavior of believers
in the remaining books of the New Testament #2 I believe that
my heart needs it. I need to break the curse of
greed, selfishness, and finding my identity in things instead of
Jesus. My heart needs to be directed
and committed to the advancement of the Kingdom of God.
As Jesus said, where my treasure is, my heart will be also #3 I
believe that my faith is strengthened by it.
I believe that nothing will grow your faith faster then trusting
God with your finances #4 I believe that God blesses it.
Proverbs chapter 3 verses 9 through 10 has this to say.
Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all
your crops. Then your barns will be filled
to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine #5
I believe that love requires it. John chapter 3 verse 16 says For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal
life. For God so loved the world that
he gave. In light of a blood stained
cross. How can I do anything less?
God loved and so God gave. How can I say that I love God,
love the church, and not give? How can I say that I want to
make this region the hardest place on planet earth to get the
hell from and not be on the frontline financially?
I know that Satan might be telling you that you are not
ready to trust God with your finances, but the truth is, I
believe that some of you, if not many of you, are.
That's why every single week at our church, we have a moment in
our service where we give people an opportunity to start trusting
God financially and partnering in the advancement of the
Kingdom. The more people partner, the
more we can accomplish. The elders determine the vision
of our church, but you determine the speed at which that vision
is accomplished. They are the steering wheel, but
we get the opportunity to be the gas pedal.
That's why as a church we do in your corner moments like camp
scholarships for education, weekend year and given because
we want to give people a chance to take their first steps of
generosity. Did you know that one of the
gifts that God has placed in certain people in Romans chapter
12 after you read through the 1st 2 verses, which is where
everybody wants to get their tattoo.
If you kept reading, you can go home and check this out.
It says that God gave some people the gift of generosity.
So they want to go beyond the obedience of the tithe, and they
want to do other things, sacrificial things, for the
advancement of the Kingdom of God.
And as a church, we want to come alongside those people and give
them a chance to express that gift.
I remember one time getting an e-mail about a pastor in India
whose church had been burned down by Hindu extremists.
And so he was going to have to kind of pivot the way he
operated. And he was going to start
walking up into the jungle multiple days, One Direction, to
teach people about Jesus. And then he'd walk back multiple
days through the jungle to go back to his family.
And I just sent an e-mail back that said, can he get there by
motorcycle? The answer came back Yeah, well
how much is a motorcycle? And the number came back and
Jennifer and I, we made a commitment a long time ago that
in addition to our tithe that we were going to put a percentage
of our income into an account that was our generosity account.
So that way we could be planned to want to do stuff.
Have you ever been in that spot where you want to do something
and then you're like where we don't have it?
We want to be in a spot where we already had money.
We were pre deciding to put money away.
So that way when a need comes up, we could instantaneously
respond. Well, the the price of the bike
came back for more than what I had in my the account.
So I called another guy in our church who I know has the gift
of generosity and I said, look, man, here's the story.
Do you want the front wheel or the back wheel?
We got to get this thing done. Here's what I love about it.
So while I am he lives in India. So while I'm sleeping, he is
preaching the gospel all over India.
And when he's sleeping, and some of you might be with him right
now, you're sleeping through this sermon.
And God bless you. We see you.
OK, when he's sleeping, I'm preaching.
And I'm never going to meet this guy, and I'm not going to hear
any of the wind stories. Don't need to, because where my
treasure is, there my heart will be also.
And when I get to heaven, the treasure that will be laid up
for me and the guy who partnered with me is we will get to hear
all the stories and the ripple effect of that act of generosity
in the advancement of the Kingdom of God.
I know that some of you believe Satan when he lies to you and he
says you are not ready to trust God with your finances.
But the truth is I believe that some of you, if not many of you
are. That's one of the reasons we
started an endowment here at our church, because I personally
wanted to leave money to support this work and this mission long
after I'm gone. I I know that there's others of
you who you may want to do the very same thing.
I have a generosity goal that I want to give away a certain
amount of money in my lifetime, and I realized that I'm not on
pace to hit that. But I have a life insurance
policy and I eat a lot of fast food.
So if I play my cards right and Jennifer doesn't spend it all,
I'm going to be able to hit my generosity goal when I go to be
with Jesus for cardiac arrest. You heard it here first.
Looks OK. We have an A-fib on standby.
Just get him through the next service, all right?
Anyhow, did I ever tell you about the time I tried to lose
weight and I ate nothing but Bratwurst because I thought that
would. Now I'll tell you that story
another time. You'll put the weight on quick,
OK. Anyhow, so there was a group of
us that we're like, you know what?
Let's start an endowment. And let me tell you why.
Because when I say I want to make this place the hardest
place on planet earth to get the hell from, I actually stinking
mean it. And I want to make sure that
long after I'm gone, there are funds available to reach your
kids and your grandkids and your grandkids kids.
And I want to make sure that there's money deployed all the
way until the return of Jesus Christ.
There are others of you who may want to find other ways to, in
addition to tithing to expand the Kingdom of God.
And that's why I'm so thankful for our partnership with the
Solomon Foundation. The Solomon Foundation comes
alongside churches and helps them get the funding that they
need to take their next steps while leaving a great return to
their investors. In fact, Jennifer and I, we have
our retirement account with the Solomon Foundation and
presently, people in our church, people who look just like me and
you have over $17 million on deposit with the Solomon
Foundation, which means we earn a great interest by having our
money on deposit there. And then they're able to turn
around and loan it out to help churches take their next step as
their churches continue to grow. In fact, this weekend, I'm
pleased to welcome Josh Means, who is the CEO of the Solomon
Foundation. Would you guys please welcome
him? Come on up, my man, Talk to us
about the Solomon Foundation. First of all, did you know that
I coach a high school basketball team?
Well, all you care about is money.
That's all I know. No, I.
Don't I feel like I need to go cancel my booster dinner?
That's right. So we didn't plan that, by the
way, I just came up with that while I was sitting there.
So anyways, hey, before I get started talking about the
Solomon Foundation, do you guys know that you were part of
something special? There's something cool going on
here that I'm not sure that you recognize.
I get to travel all across the country and speak in churches,
and you guys are insanely unique.
And I just want to speak in you just a little bit.
Let me just give you a little bit of wisdom.
You guys have huge momentum. And there's this guy named John
Maxwell. Has anyone ever heard of John
before? I heard John one time tell me he
said, Josh, you've got momentum. You can sleep when you're dead,
man. Just keep going, keep finding
people for Jesus, right? That's what it's all about.
The other thing that you have is you have this guy right here,
and he is insanely special too. So don't take him for granted
because there's nobody else like him.
I don't mean that in a funny way, but man, he is awesome.
Who? Needs no last name, There's only
one I know. So, hey, so let me tell you a
little bit about the Solomon Foundation and then I'm going to
be back behind our booth with Ryan Stiles, our regional VP for
this part of the country. Come find me afterwards.
I'd love to talk with you and just hear more about your
journey and maybe how we can partner together to keep this
thing going. But what we are is we are a
church extension fund and we operate a lot like a bank or
credit union. So you can put, you have a
savings account, ACDA generosity fund, you can keep those funds
with us. And a lot of times we're going
to pay you about a percent or two higher than the bank.
And then every dime you keep on deposit with us, we lend out to
a church. And so you can know that your
money is doing good. You can know that your money is
going to help fund the church somewhere in North America.
And because you fund your account, there are going to be
people all across the country that get to come to know Jesus.
And so I'm going to tell you a quick story.
We have a really good product called the Anytime Access
Account. It's just like a savings
account. You can see the graphic.
We think it's the highest paying savings account in the country.
So when you put your money there, it helps fund churches,
right? I want to tell one quick story.
So there's a, there's a church in South Carolina and we got a
call and they said, hey, will you come meet with us?
We didn't know him. We've never heard about him.
We flew down there. He drove us out to this property
on his truck, put his bed down and rolled out these plans and
said I have these plans to build a 30,000 square foot church, but
either I can't get approved or they're only build me 18,000
square feet. This was a Church of about 400
people and we said no, we will not build you a Church of 18,000
square feet or 20,000 square feet or 25,000 square feet.
We'll build you a Church of 45,000 square feet because
that's what your king did. That's what your that's what
your community needs. That's what we need for you to
find Jesus. Today, three years later, that
Church of 400 is now running 3000 and has baptized over 1000
people. Come on.
So if you're saying that's what I want my savings account to be
a part of, that's where I want my treasure to be, that's where
I want to be a part of. We would love to partner with
you. We'll be out there after service
and would love to talk. So thanks so much, man.
Appreciate you brother. So let me give some context to
this. There is a move that is
happening all across the country.
Our church is not just growing. There are churches that are
going by leaps and bounds everywhere.
God is stirring something in America and right now there are
over $300 million worth of loan requests for churches to be able
to take their next step. And you get an opportunity to
join with Jennifer and I and people just like you all across
this country to go. It's still your money.
You're just putting it somewhere where the where the proceeds are
being used to help churches take their next step.
Now, what we're going to do right now in this service is
we're going to do something that might make some of you a little
uncomfortable. But listen, that is not the
intent. Well, I'm going to have the
volunteers go ahead and come forward.
And as we've been going through this series, there have been
some of you who are going, you know what, I'm ready to go on
this journey of being obedient to God with your tithe and with
your finances. You're ready to take the next
step. And I simply want an opportunity
to cheer you on as you begin your journey.
And what these are, is these are commitment cards.
But let me be clear, this is not a commitment to us.
This is a commitment between you and God.
This isn't a financial pledge to the crossing.
There's no amount tied to this. But what I want you to do is I
want you to look at that card. I want you to write your name
clearly. I want you to put the right
information on it so we can read it.
And here's why. Because we want to celebrate you
and we want to pray for you and we want to honor you.
And so there's four things at the very top.
Hey, you know what? I'm going to start tithing.
Awesome. Check that box.
I'm going to keep tithing. I'm going to keep doing what
I've been doing. I'm going to start giving above
the tithe. I'm going to start my generosity
journey. I'm going to keep giving above
the tithe and I'm going to keep going on that journey.
And then the other one is you might hear, I've heard about the
endowment and go, you know what, I would like some more
information about it. That's the only box that if you
check, somebody on our team is going to reach out to you.
But those first of all, nobody is reaching out to you.
We're not going to call you and go, hey, you haven't.
We're not doing any of that. Here's what we are going to do.
We are going to pray over those stacks of cards and in 90 days,
I'm going to send you a word of encouragement.
I'm going to have each of our campuses and their staff, when
they gather together every week, pray over you and the commitment
that you're making to God. And I want you to sign it.
The reason why I want you to sign it is we sign all the
things that are important to us. We sign our marriage
certificate, We sign for our house, we sign for our vehicles.
I want you to sign your commitment to God.
Like I said, some of you might be going.
You know what, this isn't me right now.
I get it, there's lots of you at our church who are in that spot,
and I'm not trying to make you feel uncomfortable.
I just don't want my feelings towards you to interfere with
giving people an opportunity to go on this generosity journey
and be able to celebrate their decision.
You want to be asking yourself, why do we do this?
Let me tell you the answer. For Jennifer and I, there's this
powerful passage of scripture in Second Corinthians Chapter 9,
verses 6 through 13. And while you're filling out
your commitment card, I just want to read this.
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.
You're 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 will abound.
In every good work as it is written, you have freely
scattered their gifts to the poor.
Their righteousness endures forever.
And now he who supplies seed to the sower and bred 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 the supplying the needs
of the Lord's people, but is also overflowing in 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 and sharing with them and with
everyone else. Jennifer and I give because we
believe that God uses it to change people and to rewrite
stories. I know that Satan might be
telling you that you are not ready to trust God with your
finances, but the truth is, I believe some of you, if not many
of you are at this time. I'm going to have the people
come forward and start collecting those cards.
You can fold it up. We're not going to look at the
names and if you're not going on this journey, totally get it.
So glad you're here. Can't wait for you to come back
next week. But for those of you who are
getting ready to go on it, we're going to be encouraging you,
praying for you, and supporting you on that journey.
I want to tell you 2 stories. There's a guy in our church who
looks a lot like Santa Claus and I love when he comes up to me to
talk about giving. He calls it fertilizer.
He says if you leave it all piled up in one place, it
doesn't do a bit of good, but if you spread it around, it raises
a mighty harvest. But one of my favorite
generosity stories is an unlikely one.
It actually shows up in all four of the gospels.
This occurs at the beginning of the final week of Jesus life,
which those of you who've been in church for a while is called
Holy Week. And I actually want to read to
you from Luke's account, Luke chapter 19.
After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead going up to
Jerusalem. As he approached Bethpage and
Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of
his disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and
as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there.
It's actually a donkey. I figured I could work donkeys
into two sermons which no one has ever ridden.
Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you why are you
untying it, say the Lord needs it.
Those who were sent, who went ahead and found it just as he
had told them, as they were untying the cult, its owner
asked them why are you untying the cult?
They replied the Lord needs it. They brought it to Jesus, threw
their cloaks on the cult, and put Jesus on it.
As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.
Those of you who've been in church a while, you know the
rest of the story. Jesus hops on this donkey, and
as he starts to ride down the hill into Jerusalem, the people
of the city come out in droves. They're waving palm branches and
putting them on the ground, taking their clothes off and
putting them on the ground. And the donkey is walking not on
the dirt, but on their clothes. And they start shouting Hosanna.
Hosanna. Blessed is the King, who comes
in the name of the Lord. The Gospel of Matthew points out
that what is happening in this moment is a fulfillment of what
was written by the prophet Zechariah 500 years earlier.
Can I unpack the story for a second?
Did Jesus need that guy's donkeys?
No, the Bible tells us that everything that has been made
was made through Jesus. Jesus could have just said
donkey. I mean he's that bad to the bum.
He could have been like 2 donkeys.
I want the pre Anheuser Busch donkeys.
I think he just had a team of them stood on top of them.
He didn't need it, but he invited somebody into what he
was doing. Can you imagine being the
donkeys? You're just tied up.
Somebody you don't know comes up and unties you.
Where are we going? I don't know.
Then they get close. The Bible says that all creation
glorifies God. So there's Mama donkey and baby
donkey. Oh, my goodness.
Baby donkey. Yes, Mama.
Donkey. Do you have any idea who that
is? Oh, yeah, Mom, I know who that
is. That's the Creator.
That's God's Son. All things have been made, have
been made through him and by him, and are sustained by him.
Oh, yeah. Oh, no.
Oh, no, Baby Donkey. He's about to get on you now.
Baby donkey, listen up. You have never been ridden
before. And don't you dare screw this
up, baby donkey. Oh my goodness, Mama donkey.
I'm getting to carry the son of God.
What about the owner? Let's just say that he's married
to an assertive woman. Honey, Yeah.
Remember how you were talking about all those donkeys?
We should need to get two more donkeys and you saved up and I
said we didn't need them, but you got them anyway.
Yeah. Where are they?
They're not here. Where are they?
Not completely sure. What do you mean?
Some guys took them? Took our donkeys?
Yeah, why? I'm not sure.
What do you mean? They just said the Lord needs
them. The Lord is riding your donkeys.
They haven't even been ridden. Well babe, you better go find
your donkeys. Baby, I found him.
Yeah. Baby, you're a good Jewish girl.
Do you know what it says in the prophet Zechariah?
The prophecy that would one day be fulfilled?
Yeah, I know about the prophecy that he will come riding on a
donkey. Yeah, the prophecy we've been
clinging to as a nation for 500 years.
Yeah, I know about it. What does it have to do with our
donkeys? It was our donkey, the one that
you didn't tell me to get, but I got anyway.
Which means God's on my side, not on your side.
And on behalf of God, you were wrong.
Can you imagine being written into the story of God's
prophecies, being invited in to join God and what He was doing?
Seeing things that God had ordained long before come to
pass through your obedience to your step of faith?
Generosity is where we get written into the story of what
God is doing. I know that some of you have
been convinced by Satan that you are not ready to trust God with
your finances, but the truth is, I believe some of you, if not
many of you are. We're moving to a time, a
decision. If you're here today and you've
never started an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
Christ, the most important thing you can do today is give Jesus
you. And hear me, you don't need to
wait. You don't need to get things
figured out. You don't need to address
things, work on things. Because if you could work on
things, fix things, adjust things, and make things better,
God wouldn't have sent Jesus to die on your behalf.
If you could fix you, Jesus would not have to had to go to
the cross. But we can't fix us, but Jesus
can change us. God decided in His heart to give
you Jesus while you were still draped and wrapped in your sin.
And Jesus went to the cross with the joy set before him.
It was His joy to redeem you and repurpose you and bring you back
to God. Jesus poured Himself out so that
you and I could be cleansed and made holy and right in the eyes
of God and because of God's extravagant gift on our behalf.
Those of us who are Christians, we can't get over him.
That's why we sing, that's why we show up, that's why we talk
about it, because we can't get over what God has done on our
behalf through Jesus. And you might be going, but
Clayton, there's no way that God could use me.
Listen, that is the story of this church and every church
ever since the creation of the church by Jesus himself, that
God has taken messed up soil and raised a mighty harvest.
Don't ever doubt what God can do when He fully gets a hold of
you. But God doesn't take you, He
receives you because you have to give yourself to Him.
And today you can do that in just a few moments.
There's going to be people around you who are going to
stand and sing, and some of them are going to come to the steps
and pray, but there's going to be some of you who are going,
you know what? Today's the day where I need to
start talking and asking the questions about how to have an
intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
And I'm going to encourage you, while everybody else is doing
those things for you to walk right over there underneath that
screen next to the baptistry and talk to somebody about how to
begin the relationship. That will change absolutely
everything. To the rest of you in the room,
to those of you who are Christians, may we become a
blessing to our God, to our church, to our community, to the
lost, and to the mission of this church.
May God raise out of us a mighty army of generous people who are
willing to forego our things for the sake of the Kingdom and the
life change of our friends, that we would leverage our personal
treasure to lay up treasure in heaven so that other people can
be found in Him. There's some of you.
You're a part of the financial warriors here at this church.
I'm encourage you. Would you spend some time at the
steps praying for people who are getting ready to start this
journey because you know what that journey could mean for
them? I also want to encourage all of
you to take some time and just spend some time on your knees,
maybe at the steps praying over the people that you're going to
invite to church next week and believing that God will use this
sermon series to change the destinies of thousands.
Would you guys stand with me? Heavenly Father, use this moment
right here to help many of us make a decision that's long
overdue. God, there's a step of faith in
front of every single one of us. And God, you know what that step
is for every person. I can hear my voice.
So God, make it clear to us and then give us the courage and the
strength to live it out. And am I praying?
Amen.