Rich Toward God

Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, who in here remembers your first job? Okay, who in here remembers how much you got paid for your first job? I was going to say, based on your generation, minimum wage looked a lot different, dependent. I remember my first job. I was a peewee sports coach, so I was the guy who ran around and chased the little kids on the soccer field making sure they kicked the ball and not each other. That was my job. And I remember when I got my first paycheck, when minimum wage was $6.15. And I looked at that paycheck. I opened, I looked at it and I said, wow, I'm rich, this is awesome. It was great. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 0:45

That summer I ended up getting a job flipping burgers at a water park in Virginia Beach and guess what? They gave me $6.30 an hour. Dude, I was moving on up. I felt like the Jeffersons up in there. It was great. Then, later, later, I ended up getting a data entry job where I made $8 an hour and I thought life could never get better. I was like I have arrived.

Speaker 1: 1:12

But we all know right that as seasons change, that seasons change in life, the need for different things happen to come and go, and what we discover is that, as life changes, we got to adjust. I remember when I was when I got my first real job at a church, I was making around $19,000 a year and I thought, man, that's awesome. I'd never thought I'd be this blessed before in my whole life. Then, when Aaron and I got married, our combined salaries, we were making a little over $50,000 a year and I said, man, we can pay bills and go on vacation. This is great, this is awesome. But the bar of wealth and what rich looks like keeps moving. Like I mentioned last week, how much do you need to be happy? Well, culture will tell us. When you buy that thing, then you will be happy. When you have one more thing, then you have security. When you have just more thing, then you have security. When you have just a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 2:07

But Jesus, he spoke to us with a caution on this in the Gospels. Check this out, luke 12. Jesus says this. He's saying you have to watch out, you have to be on guard.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Now, today, we conclude a three-part series called Keep the Change, where we've been talking about our finances, we've been talking about money. And why have we been talking about money at church? Not to get me a Cadillac Escalade. I don't got one, you know, not to fund some kind of no, but because if you're a small business owner, you stress out about money. Right, if you got kids in daycare, you definitely are stressing out about money. You know, if you breathe, money is a stressor in your life and money is a matter of the heart how we use it, how we spend it. And so Jesus is telling us hey, we gotta watch out. We gotta watch out because it's easy to allow greed and things like that to get in our hearts. Check this out.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Jesus tells this story about a farmer who had a great year. He had so much produce he didn't know what to do with it. He was ready to open up a grocery store called Farm Fresh, where he was also going to serve the best fried chicken ever. But then it never occurred to him like, maybe, with all this extra stuff I got, maybe I should like help someone, maybe I should be generous, maybe I can help the needy. No, he only thought about his bottom line. And so instead of so what he did, instead of helping people, he said I'm going to tear down all my small barns and I'm going to build bigger ones. I'm going to get more stuff and I'm going to expand and grow bigger, but check out what Jesus says about this farmer. But God said to him you fool. This very night, your life will be demanded from you. Then, who will get what you have prepared for yourself?

Speaker 1: 4:04

Here's the object lesson here. This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich towards God. What Like rich towards God? Like, what does that even mean? Like, what does that even mean? How do we do that? See, god wasn't mad that he was rich. The problem was that he wasn't rich towards God. Now I'm going to give us some good news today and I'm going to give us some bad news today. Okay, you ready for this? The good news is this You're rich, and you may be like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, jacob, I am not rich. I do not. Now, here you go, here you go.

Speaker 1: 4:42

We all have different struggles. We all have different things when it comes to finances. There's different needs based on our livelihood, but what I want to do is I want to introduce this is a paradox for you to think about. Okay, just for us to think about While we're here right now, while we're here in this auditorium all around the world. There are 3 billion people on planet Earth who live on $2 a day. So, yes, we may not have all the money in the world, but relatively speaking, we're pretty good. We're doing pretty good. Okay, now again, we all have struggles, but compared to most people in the world, we're very fortunate.

Speaker 1: 5:17

For example, think about this, think about this I know you haven't thought about this in a while, but think about this. Right now, you have a refrigerator at your house. There is a refrigerator pumping some cool air on your food. So today, after I dismiss service, you don't have to go out and hunt and kill for your brunch. It's already at your house. You can already have it. And haven't we all been guilty of this I did it last night, actually that when you open the refrigerator and there's food in there but you say I got nothing to eat, we all been there, haven't we? We got leftovers. That's peasant's food. You know, that's rich people problems, guys. That's rich people problems. Another thing you might have rich people problems if you've ordered something on Amazon and it was supposed to come in two days, but what you ordered is all the way in the West Coast, so it took three days and you're frustrated that you don't got your thing from Amazon yet. That's a rich people problem. You know another one, another rich people problem. You might have some rich people problem If the little device in your pocket right now that is more powerful than the mainframe computers of the 1980s and gives you instant access to everything.

Speaker 1: 6:35

If you pull up that phone and you open up Disney Plus or Netflix and that thing buffers for a little bit. And if it begins to buffer and you start to get mad that this thing is buffering just remember that that signal is coming from space, from space to your phone. It might buffer a little bit, but that's some rich people problems right there. So we have problems with that, okay, but here you go. But we will say but when we say we're rich, it might make us feel uncomfortable, right, it might make us feel like, well, I'm not rich, here you go. Let's think about this.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Solomon says this in Ecclesiastes 5. He says this Moreover, when God provides someone wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them, I just want you to know God wants you to enjoy your stuff. Okay, that's a good thing. Okay, okay, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil. This is a gift of God. It's a gift of God, but we're uncomfortable acknowledging that we've been blessed in this way. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 7:38

You'll never be apologetic if God blessed your marriage. You don't want to be like, oh yeah, I guess he blessed my marriage, yeah, we love each other, but I mean, I guess it's all right. You know, you'll never be apologetic if God gave you physical health Like yeah, I'm in pretty good health, my big toe hurts, you know. You know you wouldn't say that. You'll never be apologetic if God blessed your kids. Or if God blessed your favorite sports team, like the Boston Celtics are going to win, but we'll see. But you'll never make excuse for any of that stuff, would you?

Speaker 1: 8:06

But when it comes to money, we get a little bit weird. We get a little bit weird about it. Like I said last week, it's good to have stuff, but don't let your stuff have you. Don't let your stuff have you. Now, the good news is this You're rich. That's the good news. The bad news you're rich. That's the good news. The bad news you're rich, and that's bad news and the bad news. And why is that bad news? Because the more you have, the harder it is to live by faith. The more you have, it's harder to live by faith, because you tend to trust what's in your hands rather than the one who put it in your hands. You begin to lean on your own security and you would do things to find security rather than leaning on God. It can put you at a spiritual disadvantage. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 8:52

There's one of my favorite stories in the gospel. It's the story of the rich young ruler, this young man. He runs up to Jesus. He's so pumped, he's so excited. He says good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus is like okay. Jesus says, well, keep the commandments, Do those things. He's like I've done those things.

Speaker 1: 9:10

And this guy, this guy, this kid, he is passionate about the things of God. He said I kept the commandments, I'm living. I just want to know how do I inherit eternal life? How do I go for it? And I love this. Jesus looks at him and loves him. I love this. Jesus sees in him and this kid man he's on fire. He's awesome. But then Jesus is like hey, I love that you do all that, but just one thing, here you go. Just one thing that you need to do Sell everything you have, give it to the poor. Then come, follow me.

Speaker 1: 9:44

Then the text says at this news, the man walks away with his head down. He said I can't do that. He said I can't do all of that. Then Jesus says this. Jesus says this. Jesus looked at him and said how hard is it for the rich to enter the kingdom of God? Indeed, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. See, wealth isn't a problem. The problem is when things that you possess now possess you later and you're in prison to those things. So how, how can we be rich toward God? How can we be? I got three ways that we can be rich towards God today. Okay, first one is this Think like a steward, not like an owner. Think like a steward, not like an owner. Psalm 21,.

Speaker 1: 10:30

I got some encouragement for some people who are dealing with some difficult people, who are dealing with some difficult situations. I got some encouragement for some people who are dealing with some difficult people, who are dealing with some difficult situations. I got this Bible verse that's going to give you some encouragement. It says this the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. Man, isn't it good to know that God is in charge, that you don't have to be in charge, even though you want to uppercut someone, you don't have to, because God is in charge, it belongs to God. All that, all is all, is his, and we got to get that into our minds, into our hearts. From the simplest things, here you go. I want you to get this. From the simplest things like your TV that's the Lord's. Your car, that's the Lord's. Your house, that's the Lord's. That difficult relationship that belongs to the Lord, to yourself. We belong to God. Everything in it, all who live in it, belongs to God. This is so critical.

Speaker 1: 11:26

Okay, what I want to do is I want to give you one practice on how you can really begin to walk this out, okay, and that is the practice of tithing. That's the practice of tithing, because this changes everything. Now I know once I said tithing, there's some people in here that said, oh no, here it comes. This is when they're going to start asking for money. This is when they're going to pass the offering plates down, and I know church and money can leave a sour taste in your mouth, right, it can leave a sour taste in your mouth, right, it can leave a kind of because, from what we've seen from the you know in the world and what different pastors have done, when you talk about church and money, it can leave a sour taste in your mouth. And so what I want to do, I actually want our ushers to come down and we're going to go ahead and pass out the offering plates right now. So we're just going to get this part over with right now, because I know it probably has a sour taste in your mouth because we're talking about tithing and giving. Here we go, ushers, go ahead and pass out. Oh, we got some sour candy for you guys. Okay, we got some sour candy. All right, because that's how some of us feel about when it comes to church and money and giving. And what are they asking for? Is it for a pastor's private jet? No, okay, here you go, here you go. This is what I want to do For real money and church.

Speaker 1: 12:46

It can leave a sour taste in your mouth and, as a pastor, here you go. I want to be transparent with you guys. As a pastor man, it is very easy to shy away from uncomfortable topics. I'm going to tell you this there's a lot of topics that we need to be talking about as a church, but it's easy to shy away from those things. But this is what I begin to learn, friends that if I shy away from uncomfortable topics, I'm going to do you a disservice, because the world has no problem talking about uncomfortable things, and the world has no problem asking you to spend your hard-earned money. On your way from your house to this building. You ran across so many advertisements, didn't you? And they have no problem talking about it. And what I'm talking about is not even I'm not talking about even spending your money. I'm talking about something a little bit different. So what I want to do is I want to talk about the tithe, because for some of you, this is a brick wall in your faith. This is a brick wall in your faith. You are stuck at this level, and when you learn how to trust God in the area of your finances, man, there will be breakthrough in your life In other areas. That's not your finances, okay. So here you go.

Speaker 1: 13:48

I'm going to look at a text in the book of Malachi. Malachi was a minor prophet. This was the last book in the Old Testament, 400 years before Jesus shows up on the scene in Matthew's gospel. So the context of this is this what you need to know the tithe was actually modeled 400 years before the Levitical law and that was given. So it's in the law, but it actually predated the law. And then Jesus promoted the tithe and then what you see in the apostle Paul he actually promoted percentage given and radical generosity. Okay, we'll talk about Paul another time, but we're going to stick on the tithe for this one.

Speaker 1: 14:28

So the prophet Malachi says this bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. So the storehouse is the New Testament local church. Okay, so that's where you get spiritually fed Old Testament. It was the temple. That was the temple. Then God says something that he never says before and he doesn't say it after this. Okay, he says test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, wait a minute, are you not supposed to put the Lord, your God, to the test? Yes, except when he says to test you. It says when he says to test them. Okay, and this he says test them in this. And then he says and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room to store it.

Speaker 1: 15:13

It means so the tithe means the first tenth of your income. Now, in the Old Testament that looked a lot different than us. That would include spices and animals. However, you made income. Nowadays, when you open up your paycheck, I don't think you have fresh oregano in there, you know. I don't think you're getting spice. That was funny. I don't think you're getting spiced. That was funny. I don't think you're getting paid with animals. If you are, I'm really concerned. Okay, you know, but the whole point of the tithe is this, and this is what I want you to get the whole point of the tithe had nothing to do with necessarily what they were tithed and what they were given their spices or whatever. The whole point of tithe was God teaching people a divine order of things, and this is the principle of first things. It's the principle of first things. The whole point of the tithe was to teach that God must be first. You can't be. God must be first. But this isn't just a money principle, it's a life principle. We have to put God first.

Speaker 1: 16:16

There's a guy in our men's group. I love him. He's so funny. He says when he wakes up, the first thing he does he wakes up, he hops into the shower and he begins to pray, so his shower water becomes holy water. But I get one cheesy one a month. Right, okay, all right, but so, but that's the first thing he does in his day. Man, I'm going to pray, I'm going to pray. He's giving God the first part of his day. Then we can give God the first part of your week.

Speaker 1: 16:43

Did you know that when you come to church on Sunday, that's an act of worship, that you're saying, god, I'm giving you the first part of my week. It's a beautiful corporately. We're not just checking the box oh, went to church this week. No, we're saying, God, I'm putting you first in my week. I'm going to worship you, I'm going to honor you. That's what we do, and that can also be known as taking a Sabbath. When you know you come to church together, setting aside the day to rest and things like that. It's the practice. It's practicing the principle of first things.

Speaker 1: 17:12

And notice this. Notice what it says. This is not coffee, by the way. It looks like coffee, but it's water. Okay, notice what the verse says.

Speaker 1: 17:22

It says that we don't give our tithe, does it? It says we bring our tithe, we bring our tithe. And I know it's a small thing, but to understand, but I want you to understand you can only give what you own. You can only give. What do I mean by that? The reason why it says bring, because it doesn't belong to you in the first place. It doesn't belong to you in the first place. Leviticus says the tithe is holy and set apart. God says it belongs to me. God says well, it's mine, it's mine. Here's my whole point. That is the moment of worship, when we declare God's ownership over everything and then your mind and your heart begins to change. See, I am a manager, I am a steward of what God has entrusted me to See, here you go.

Speaker 1: 18:04

We see this in our kids very easy. My daughter Kingsley. She's going into the first grade this fall and now she gets invited to a birthday party. Like every single week. There's always a birthday party. Like every single week. There's like there's always a birthday party like every week. Which most of these birthday parties are Sunday at 11 am, which speaks to the spiritual condition of our community.

Speaker 1: 18:25

Church is not a priority. That's why we got to help everyday people learn how to become Jesus followers. Okay, here you go, but there's a lot of parties and that could become expensive. That could become expensive. So here's the thing Kingsley has no limit of what generosity should look like when it comes to spending our money. We set a limit $15. But Kingsley's like well, my friend loves Barbie, so we should buy her the Barbie dream house. I was like you got $100 right now, like what are you talking about? But she has no limit to that.

Speaker 1: 19:01

Here's the thing. Isn't it much easier to be generous when you're spending someone else's money? And that is the point. I want you to get this. That is the point of the tithe. It's not yours, it's God's, and so I give it away, I bring it. I bring it to the Lord because it is and this is what happens because it's supposed to come to you, then flow through you. Come to you and then flow through you. Just to be transparent. Okay, because I know again, sour, sour taste in your mouth Church money. Sour taste, just to be transparent.

Speaker 1: 19:36

When I was working as a youth director in our previous church in Virginia Beach the same church that's sitting up here before I started to tithe. So my tithing journey started when I was in my early 20s, late teens. But up to that point I didn't really buy into the tithe thing. I didn't really understand it. My thought was well, I give my time, I take kids out, I'm a youth director, I take youth out, I'm a youth director, I take youth out, we buy lunch, I get them ice cream, I hang out with them. That way I tithe that way. I think my heart was in the right place. But truthfully, truthfully, when I was being honest with myself, I was scared. I was scared to tithe. I needed that extra money for food. I needed that extra money for rent, I needed extra money for a social life, just to be honest.

Speaker 1: 20:17

And here was the part that's kind of funny. There wasn't like a real, like divine moment. There wasn't like a specific teaching. I was sitting in my boss, my pastor. She didn't even tell me to do it, nothing like that. There was just this moment that I knew this was the next part that I needed to do in my spiritual journey. I needed to take this next step in my spiritual journey and I started to tithe. I started to tithe.

Speaker 1: 20:39

I remember the first time I did I was like, okay, here I go and I tithed, I gave and the next day I won the mega millions. No, that didn't happen, but I did give, I give and what I discovered was what I discovered was month after month of doing this. The crazy thing that I saw was I always had more than enough. I always had more than enough. I was never without and through tithing, god used that to build a pathway to help me learn how to trust Him more. That's my tithing story. My tithing story is connected not to just you know God blessing me financially, it's tied to wow, I actually can trust God. I trust God. And when I got married, erin didn't tithe. That was kind of a new thing to her. But we built our finances on the principle of tithing and saving. And again, we've seen blessing after blessing because of that, not just externally, but internally.

Speaker 1: 21:29

Now I want to say this. I want to say this because everyone is in different places and different seasons in your life and if you're new with us, I'm just glad you're here, I'm just glad you're here. Never feel any pressure to give in that way. But here at LVC we don't really use the word membership when we talk about being a part of our church we use the term being fully engaged. You can learn that at Local Basics, but we have five rhythms of what it looks like to be fully engaged at LBC. The first one is this it's active participation in your own spiritual habits. See, we actually believe if everyday people learn how to follow Jesus not just follow a church, not just follow a trend, not just follow something that everyone else, but follow Jesus in their own personal lives they will be able to navigate the complexities of life because they have an authentic relationship with Jesus.

Speaker 1: 22:16

So when what we see our heart, our number one thing is we want to see you connect to Jesus relationally. We want to see you spend time in prayer and Bible reading or however God speaks to you. We want to see you do that. Number two is we want to see you have active participation in the church by attending regularly and inviting your friends. The third thing is active participation in small groups attending at least one semester a year. Some are small groups starting this week. And then the fourth one is active participation in serving. We want you to be on a team and kind of what we see being on a local team serve once a month, that's it Just serve once a month. You may end up finding out that you want to serve more, and that's great, but at least start with once a month.

Speaker 1: 22:54

And the last one of being fully engaged is active participation and giving. And here you go. This is the part I want to really hit. We encourage you to start somewhere in percentage giving. If you feel like man I don't know if I can tithe 10%, jacob that just seems so daunting to me. And it's not that I want to be disobedient to God or not, you know not listen to the scriptures, but, jacob, I got some struggles. Here you go. My encouragement to you is start somewhere. Start where you are, not where you want to be. If that's given 1%, if that's given 2% of income, I encourage you to start because the truth is, I believe your heart is in the right spot, but we just need to create the pattern of discipline to do it. Okay. So that's what we encourage you to do. That's what we encourage you to do. Here's the thing, and this is an invitation there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, but I know it will change your life, okay.

Speaker 1: 23:44

Second way to be rich towards God is this Invest more than we spend. Invest more than we spend Now. Invest more than we spend. I'm not just talking about stocks or 401ks or mutual funds those things are good. You should probably look into that. I'm talking about heaven. I'm talking about heaven being internal kingdom investors, thinking about heaven. Jesus says this. He says do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither See. The more you invest in things that matter to the heart of God, the more your heart is going to beat for the things of God. The more you say God, I'm going to give this to you, I'm going to invest in what you're doing. I'm going to look towards you. God will begin to do something in your heart. Your heart always follows where you give. Where you give, see, every moment of the day, you have a choice to make to spend what God's giving you your time, your talent, your treasure or to invest it, or you can invest it.

Speaker 1: 24:58

Spend a little bit of time binge-watching your favorite Netflix show. Nothing wrong with it. We do it all the time. We got some shows that we've been watching. Nothing wrong with it, but but maybe sometimes we need to take that same time, get on our knees and pray for our teenage kids. I pray for our kids and the life difficulties they're going through Because, man, they need, they need us as parents to intercede for them. See, your kids. I just want to speak to some parents for a reason. I always feel the Holy Spirit to say this to me your kids, yes, they need to have good values and you need to parent them. You need to do that, but you want to know one of the things that one of the ways that you can parent your kid the best is praying for them, because you know their struggles more than anyone else and you can bring that to the Father. I just want to say that to some parents in here today. That was not in my notes, okay, but you can even pray for your boss that doesn't know Jesus, that friend that you'll see friends come to know Jesus. That is having an investment in someone's eternity. I'm going to do that. I'm thinking that way.

Speaker 1: 26:02

You can spend your influence building your own brand or making your own social media famous, or whatever. Or you can use that same effort to make Jesus famous. See, you can spend your money on the next toy or the next thing. Or you can buy, or you can pay for a single mom's rent this month. Can I challenge this a little bit? Or you can give to a local mission partner that's helping, or you can fund the next LVC outreach. Here we go. When we do our outreach, we've got one coming up in the fall. When we're doing it, it's because we're believing for people to come to know Jesus. Man, when you give, you're helping someone's Aunt Betsy come to find Jesus, come on, man, aunt Betsy needs Jesus. And when we do it, when we invest in it, you're a part of that thing. You're a part of it because there's a difference between spending and investing. And this is what I want us to get. We're going to say, hey, I'm a steward of what God's doing, I'm going to invest in what God owns. And the last point I want to give us today is this you begin to live to give. You begin to live to give. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 27:09

Recently I've been asked this question. This may be a little heavy, but I'm going to ask it. I'm going to say it to you guys. I've been asked this question what does it look like to give my death away. What do you mean by that, jacob? What do you mean by that? What is it Not just to give my life away, you know, because that's good. I want to give that, I want to give everything I have to you. But what does it look like to give my death away Meaning? What does it look like that?

Speaker 1: 27:35

When I die, what kind of legacy am I going to leave? What am I setting up in motion for people? What am I having for people? And you may think, jacob, man, you're only in your 30s, why are you thinking about that One you never know? First of all, you never know. And second, I want to start now. I don't want to wait till I get to the end of my life and say, man, how can I build a legacy, how can I help people? I want to do it now and I want to help people now, and so to that, I want to ask you guys this question how are you going to live to give? How are you going to leave a legacy that affects the next generations?

Speaker 1: 28:09

See Proverbs 22 says this he who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor. Can we be people that give to the poor. Can we be people that give to those in need? Financial expert and Jesus follower, dave Ramsey says it like this live like no one else now so you can live like no one else later. Now he's talking about a financial principle with this, but there's a spiritual principle with this too, because for some of you, you might not want to wake up in the morning, you might love that snooze button a lot, but what would happen if you wake up and spend daily time with God?

Speaker 1: 28:50

What would happen to your family, to your life, to your joy, to your peace, to that anxiety you deal with that. You say no, I don't want to wake up, I'd rather sleep because my bed's so comfortable. But I'm going to get up and I'm going to get before God, I'm going to kick off every day, spend a daily time with God. What would happen? What would happen to the parent? You get home and you're tired from work, but your kids, your kids, still want you to play. What would happen that, even for a moment, you sacrifice and say, no, I'm going to get on the floor and play with my kids. I'm going to pick up the sticks and play video games with my kids, even though I don't want to play it. You want to know what's going to happen. Your kids will tell the story of your legacy that, even though my mom and dad were tired, they were still playful, they still cared, they were still there. They went above and beyond for me.

Speaker 1: 29:38

You may say to yourself I only got 10 minutes to work out, that's not going to do nothing. What am I going to do in 10 minutes? But the discipline. You say no, the discipline. I'm going to work out for 10 minutes because my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and I'm going to get, I'm going to steward it well.

Speaker 1: 29:52

Again, like I said, I've been thinking about legacy a lot recently. I've been thinking about it a lot. I've been thinking about it a lot with this verse in mind, and you're going to be like what's the correlation here? Jacob, I want you to get this here. You go, matthew 21. This is right before. Jesus is about to be betrayed by Judas and eventually go to the cross. Check this out. Matthew 21 says this Jesus tells His disciples go to the village ahead of you and at once you will find a donkey tied up there with her coat by her. Untie them, bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them and he will send them right away. You're like what does that have to do with legacy? What does that have to do? Here you go. I want you to get this point In what universe does God, who made everything?

Speaker 1: 30:39

In what universe does that God need anything from us? Of universes, does that God need anything from us? Can't he just do it? Can't he just do it? Going back to the story of feeding the 5,000, more than 15,000, did he need two fish and some bread to perform the miracle? No, he's God. He could have done whatever he wanted. But if you look at the story, jesus broke the bread and blessed it, but the multiplication happened in the hands of the disciples.

Speaker 1: 31:07

Why does this God, who is all-powerful, decide to use people? Why does he do this? And I want you to get this with the idea of legacy. I want you to get this. He didn't need us. He doesn't need us, but he chooses to use us. Because this is an invitation. I want you to get this. This is an invitation to have your name written in on this story, because that man who owned those donkeys when Jesus came down the road and the people said Hosanna, hosanna in the highest, and they were worshiping him. This man, whoever he is, he knows that I was the one that gave those donkeys to Jesus. His name was written in the story and I want you guys to know that your name can be written in the story. It's an invitation. Your name can be written on someone else's salvation.

Speaker 1: 31:59

When you say I'm going to give, I'm going to serve, I'm going to go all in. When you say God, I'm going to give, I'm going to serve, I'm going to go all in. When you say God, I'm going to use my influence, I'm going to use what I have, god will write your name in the story. It's in the story and he says he wants to use you to do that. He wants to use you to do that. He wants to use you for crazy things Like here's some bread, here's some fish, now go feed them. And you're thinking my 10%. What am I going to do with that? I got bills, I got.

Speaker 1: 32:34

Multiplication happens in the hands of the disciples. Will you allow God to multiply what he's given you? Because it's an invitation. Friends, here you go, our mission, and we are man. We are sold out for this. Our mission as a church is to help everyday people learn how to become Jesus followers. Because, guys and we know it, can we be honest? We know it People are burnt out, people are struggling, we are struggling, and the only one that can bring true hope, true joy, is Jesus. And so, friends, can I invite you, can I re-invite you, to the story that Jesus has already invited you to on his cross, that you can be a part of making a legacy, of making a difference, doing something that's beyond just you. So, father, jesus, holy Spirit, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your goodness and God. We say we want more of you. We say we want to leave a legacy with our lives.

Speaker 1: 33:59

Man, I just really feel the Holy Spirit, specifically talking to some parents today, and I don't want to exclude anyone, but I really just feel like the Holy Spirit nudging in my heart right now. I just feel like this word is for a parent I don't know you want influence with your kid, and I just feel like the Holy Spirit is saying integrity leads to influence. I don't know what that means. I'm going to throw that out there in the atmosphere. Integrity leads to influence. I don't know what that means. I'm going to throw that out there in the atmosphere. Integrity leads to influence. So come, holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit, more of you, more of you, lord and God. We even give you this topic of giving and stuff like that, lord. I guess, like I joked about Lord, it could be a sour taste in someone's mouth, but that's like the Holy Spirit saying, hey, process it with me, talk to me about it, and, lord, may we live to give that.

Speaker 1: 35:10

Jesus. This is what you did, jesus. You lived your life in a place that you can always be inconvenienced for people. You were walking and a man was in a tree and you stopped everything you did and hung out with him. You were thirsty and there was a woman at a well and you spent time with her and she ended up being the greatest evangelist in the New Testament. Jesus, you always had time for people, you had time for us. You had time for us. You have time for us, you have time for us. So, god, we love you, we need you and if you're in here today, you're like Jacob. That sounds good, but I don't know this Jesus you're talking about.

Speaker 1: 35:55

If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life. I just want to pray a prayer with you. I'm not going to call you out. Have you come up front? Nothing like that. Just right where you are. If you want to make a decision to trust jesus with your life, all right, give your heart back to god. Just pray this prayer with me. Just say, jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new today. I follow you today. I trust you in jesus name. Amen, amen, amen. Let's give god some praise in here.