A Move That Sparked A Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So, well, listen, I'm ready to preach God's word. Are you ready to receive it today? The year was 2012. It was the early weeks of January. We moved here. We pulled in, drove in in our white Yukon on January 1st, actually. Pulled up to the front of the house that we'd be renting for the next few years and brought the, we had, it was just me and Ursh and the older boys, the twins, we left in Detroit with my sister for a couple of days because we weren't sure when the moving truck would arrive. So we got here, stayed on cots, stayed on air mattresses, had lawn chairs in our living room, uh, because whenever you move across country, you have no control of when that truck arrives. It could arrive in two days, it could arrive in ten days. There's just no way to tell. And so we were anticipating the arrival of the truck, but we decided somebody told us when you move into a new city, you want your kids to love the city, and so we got them right away. We took them downtown, down, down in the Mag Mile, and walked those streets, and it was freezing cold. And I learned the lesson that every time you leave from Oak Park and go downtown towards the lake, it drops about 15 degrees. If you think you don't need a coat when you leave, you end up buying a coat when you get there. But we were walking the streets, and I'll never forget it. Elliot, at the time, 2012, he was 10 years old, and we're walking, about to turn 10, and we're walking, and we're walking past several people who are asking for help, people who seem to be unhoused. And we walked past a certain gentleman, and he asked for help, and we whatever we did a little to help him, but as we kept walking, Elliot just stopped and looked and he said, Dad, there's a lot of people that have needs here. A lot of a lot of homeless people. I said, Yeah, but it's a big city. There's a lot of need. He said, It seems like we should do something about it. And it really became our heart just to serve our community in the biggest way we can. It could. Before we ever had one service, we served our community just like we did yesterday, buying down gas. We offered free laundry, we did free coffee, we did free parking, we did anything we could to let the community know, hey, we love you and Jesus loves you. It is the year that I learned if you can see the need, whatever you have, whatever you have in your hand, you can meet the need. Why don't you turn to your neighbor and say, we're gonna keep growing? And then to the one that you've been ignoring all Sunday, just look at them and say, Man, the summer's been good for you. The summer has been good to you. I love summer. Summer's the growing season. Man, parents, I know you're at the breaking point. You're you've had a great summer, but your kids are about to, you're like, can can we please go back to school? Like, let's speed it up. Oh, you don't have to say amen. I know it's right. I live that. I lived that for too many years. I'm the proponent for uh year-round school. Let's go to school year-round. Take like two-week breaks every so often. Come on, that would be so much better. Then like 12 weeks of what do you do with your kid for 12 weeks. Plus, they're growing, so they eat everything. They eat every single thing in the house, and then they wonder when you're gonna go back and bring more home. They're like those little birds, like chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp. Where's the yogurt? Where's the goldfish? Where's the lunchable? I know y'all don't use lunchables. Only, only us unsaved people. When we moved here, we sent our kids to school with lunchables and we learned a quick lesson. Oak Park doesn't do lunchables. The twins came home and said, Mom, you can't send lunchables anymore to school. And we're like, why not? And they're like, Because kids bring salmon. They bring eggplant parmesan. I'm like, What have we moved into? My God. Ain't nothing wrong with a lunchable. But they never took another lunchable to school again. I can tell. That's when they learned to make their own lunch. But it's a growing season. You're about to go buy new shoes for your kids, and you're gonna realize they've grown like two pair sizes, like two sizes over the year, and their feet are getting bigger, and their clothes are, man, you're gonna have to go up one more size than clothes. My mom always bought me the husky clothes, thinking I would grow into them. I wore baggy before baggie was cool. I kept telling her mom, like it's parachute pants season. She's like, No, you're gonna wear the big baggy pants. One year we brought we bought Ethan for his for his birthday some some tomes. Remember times you buy a pair and they give a pair? So we bought them and then he didn't want to wear them. We went out of town for a few days. He didn't want to wear them because he didn't want to get them dirty until he could wear them to school. And so we went out of town for like a few days. It was spring break. We come back and he can't wear them because in two weeks he grew two sizes. So we're like being good parents, good stewards, we saved them for Elliot. And when it was time for Elliot to wear them, he was like, No way, I'm wearing those things. And then we couldn't save them for the twins because if you have twins, you gotta have one of similar items. And so we're like, we're not buying another pair because they probably won't fit in two days anyway. So, but summer is the growing season. We're growing this summer. Listen, this is not a coasting season. This is we're leaning in, we're growing.

Summer Growth And A Generous Church

SPEAKER_00 5:57

And uh today I want to continue the series. What about Tyler two weeks ago preaching, preaching the house down? Love Tyler and Skylar. They are a blessing to this house, and they lead our young adults. Skyler leads mom co during the fall and spring season of small groups, and uh man, he preached such a great message. I'm so thankful for his impact and his his mood, the things that he leads in this house. So an incredible, incredible gift to this house. And then um, man, we baptized 14 two weeks ago. That's I mean, that's the kind of Sunday you go into a Sabbath with. You're like, man, we'll bam! And then we'll take a break and we're right back in it. So today I want to continue. Look at 2 Corinthians 8 7. I'm reading in the Living Bible translation. It says, You people are leaders in so many ways. I think he's talking about free church. Paul is talking about free church right here. It says, You people are leaders in so many ways. You have so much faith, so many good preachers, so much learning, so much enthusiasm, so much love for us. And now I want you to be leaders also in the spirit of cheerful giving. Paul was saying, if you read it in new in any of your version of the Bible, it's gonna say, Paul, Paul was saying, since you excel in all of these areas, also excel in the grace of giving. And today I want to talk to you about growing in generosity. Paul's describing free church in many ways. We're growing in faith, we're growing in wisdom, we're growing in grace, we're growing in generational blessing, we're growing in the fruit of the spirit, and today we're gonna keep growing in generosity.

The Call To Cheerful Giving

SPEAKER_00 7:47

You see, if you're really growing, eventually the way your life produces and stuff flows through you will change. If you're growing in generosity, you'll realize nothing is just coming to you, it actually should be moving through you. And and for the record, because I see some of you looking nervously at me like, oh man, here I come, back after Sabbath, and all pastor's gonna talk about is money. Listen, generosity extends way beyond. Way beyond money. Now, money is an indicator because it is a tool that moves things forward, but we can be generous in all the areas of our life. In fact, generosity is actually love in motion. I'm gonna talk to you about two minutes, for about two minutes, I want to talk to you about the difference between the variables of the promise and the premise. You see, the promises of God are yes and amen through Jesus Christ. There are in Scripture over 7,000 promises with your name on it. I don't know if you were a kid and your dad ever gave you or your parents ever gave you a blank check to go to the grocery store with. We didn't, I mean, we didn't have debit cards when we were kids, but someday, if I went, sometimes when I went to the grocery store, my parents would write the check to the store, sign their name, put the date on it, and say, you go pick up these supplies, and I'd be like, Oh, it is on. We're about to get some Captain Crunch, we're about to get some Twinkies. Come on, you get to go to the grocery store with a blank check, it's on. And the promises of God have your name on it. It's like God is writing a blank check for you to use in every area: a promise for strength, a promise for his peace, a promise for his provision, a promise for his presence. The promises of G of God are yes and amen through Jesus Christ our Lord. But most often a promise will arrive with a premise.

Promises And Premises In Scripture

SPEAKER_00 10:15

And I'll show you. For instance, the promise is this. Oh, we love this promise. I will open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that you cannot contain. You're like, come on, Lord, open up those windows. Come on, blessing. Pour it out till I can't contain it. I'm ready. But it arrives with a premise. And the premise is bring the whole tithe to the storehouse. Then see if I won't pour out blessings that you can't contain. Or maybe you've heard this promise, and I will direct thy paths. You know what? That's a great promise. But the premise is first we must trust the Lord with all of our heart and lean not to our own understanding. Then I will direct your steps. Or how about this one? And I will forgive you. But then, uh-oh, the promise is met with the premise, and the premise is as much as you forgive others, you shall be forgiven. So you see, there's this wrestling that takes place with getting the promise and living in the premise. You don't get to choose one or the other. You gotta, in order to get the promise, you gotta be somebody who understands the premise. Our friend Noel, he wrote the book, and in his book, it talks about the terms and conditions that in every situation there's a term and their condition. And you better know them when you go into a relationship, into an agreement. And when you want the promises of God, you gotta know about the premise. And all through scripture, there are promises that God gives us, and a lot of those promises are tied to our ability to be generous in life. And I want to talk about growing in generosity today. Let's uh let's just come on, everybody, lean in for a second. Check this out. The Bible, let's talk about some Bible words. First of all, the word believe. Pretty important Bible word. Believe. Because you gotta believe. Paul says if you believe it in your heart and you confess it with your mouth, you'll be saved. So believe is important. You know what? Believe is used 272 times in the Bible. What about prayer? Prayer, our first response, not our last resort. Pretty important. 371 times in scripture, it's used. What about love? Man, love. Love is important. 714 times in scripture the word love is used. And you know what? When it comes to giving, the word give is used 2,152 times more than all the others. Because you know why? Because we serve a giving God. For God so loved the world that he gave. It doesn't just say that God says he loves, it says God gave. That's how he proved his love for us. Romans 5.8. God commendeth or showed or demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, he gave his one and only Son for us. You've heard me say it before that you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. Generosity is love and actions. So I've got a lot to get through today, and I'm not gonna get through it all. But we're gonna get through as much as we can as we grow in generosity.

What Generosity Produces In You

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Number one, here's some promises to be released over your life. Number one, generosity honors God. Look at this, 2 Corinthians 9 13. The way in which you have proved yourselves by this service will bring honor and praise to God. Paul's talking to the Corinthian church that was giving without holding back, without reserve, they were giving to the ministry that Paul was leading through all of the areas. And then he says, What your service does is bring honor and praise to God. You believe the message about Christ, you obeyed it by sharing generously with God's people and with everyone else. Look at Proverbs 14:31. Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. Generosity honors God. And when we talk about generosity, you know what? We're talking about every time we give is it's worship. Every time we give is worship. And you know, worship is just not a 27-minute segment in service where the band leads us. That's just a fraction of worship. Listen, we give our praise. We give our time, we give our talent, we give our treasure, and whenever we give, it honors God. Second thing is generosity draws me closer to God. Look at Deuteronomy 14.23. The purpose of tithing is to teach you to always put God first in your lives. Matthew 6, 21 says, your heart will be where your treasure is. It's interesting to me. The things that you invest in are the things you find the most interest in. My spiritual father, Bishop Jones, he used to say you could tell a lot about a person on his date book or his checkbook. Like where he spends his time and where he spends his money. And I'm gonna tell you what, listen, if you're struggling, making it to church every Sunday and loving what's happening in church life, I'm gonna tell you what, you know how you change that? You start giving. You get generous with God's house, and then all of a sudden your heart's gonna be in it. Why? Because you invest where you find interest, and where you invest, your heart will follow. Number three, generosity makes me more like Jesus. Look at the scripture in Proverbs 21, 26. But some people are always greedy for more, but look at this. But the godly love to give. Why? Because we serve a God who gives, He gives us breath, He gives us life, He gives us, He gives His grace, He gives mercy, He gives second, third, fourth, and tenth, one hundredth, one thousandth chances. God is the giving God. Jesus gave His life, his whole life, all the way to the cross, the Bible says. And when you read the Bible, you are reading the story of a generous God. The story of a God who gives and gives and gives and gives. Why? Because giving. Well, if if if if the language of the Bible is love, the verb of the Bible is giving. Have you ever stopped on the way somewhere and gotten some fries for your kids? They love French fries. We used to drive by, we used to drive by Chick-fil-A when we lived in Houston, and before the twins were able to really say Chick-fil-A, because of the advertising and the impact of great marketing, they called Chick-fil-A cow eat. Cow eat. We would go by, they would see that little logo up on the signage, and they would go, we want cow eat. We want cow eat. And I'll never forget, we would stop in and get them some chicken nuggets and some fries. And one day we picked up their food and we decided we're gonna we might eat something different, not Chick-fil-A, so we're just gonna get food for them. I was hungry, but I got food for them. And as we left the parking lot, Arshana passed the food back, and then we got on the road, and I just reached back to one of them to grab a French fry. I can't tell you the anger that stewed out of that little two-year-old body. We never taught him this, but he was like, No, those are my fries. And I was like, I can't have one fry. No, it's my fries. In church, I'm just gonna tell you, most of the time I'm pretty good, but sometimes there's the evil side of me that stirs. And something stirred up in me that day, and I started to think, what do you mean? I don't know if I said this, but this is what I was thinking. What do you mean they're your fries? I drove this truck here. I pulled through this drive-through. I paid for these fries with my hard-earned money. I was kind enough to pass you back the fries in your little lap. So if I want a fry back, it's within reason because I bought the fries. Now I don't think I said it quite that way. But as I was driving, as I was driving down the street, it's like the Holy Spirit checked me. And I wonder how many times God sits back and goes, I gave you that strength. I put that blessing in your lap. I opened that door of opportunity for you. I made a way where there seemed no way. And look, I'm not trying to take anything from you. I'm just trying to get you to trust the one that bought the fries. I don't really need the fry, but something happens if you let me have access to the fry. The promise and the premise. Okay, let's keep going. My God. Generosity is the cure for materialism. And materialism isn't just for people who have a lot. Because you can have a very little. And still be very materialistic. And you can have a lot and be very generous. Because it's not really about what you're holding in your hand, it's about what's in your heart. And generosity, every time that I give, it breaks the grip of materialism in my life. I'm in church. You know, like we bought down gas for one dollar a gallon. That's really in the scheme of things, that's not a whole lot. But you would have thought we were we were like replenishing every every bank for those 100 families. It was like we were doing something that was inconceivable. Why? Because there's something that happens when we do something good, it breaks the grip of materialism in our life, and we're like, this is the greatest blessing. Together, we can do so much more. And when we don't live in a state of like, well, what's in it for me? What's in it for me? What's in it for me? Man, the world grows so much larger. When you give and you're generous, you're saying, money, you do not have me. God has me. See, you're saying, money, you may be a tool in my hand, but you will never have a throne in my heart. That's what being generous does. It breaks the grip of materialism in our life. Number five, generosity demonstrates my faith. Every time that you're paid, there's a test. And the test is what are you going to do? Is are you going to serve money? Or will money serve you? It's a test. Are you willing and able to trust God can bless the 90%? Or are you going to sit back and say, no, God, this time I'm going to need all the hundred for myself? It's a test. It is a test. And it demonstrates your faith when you can trust Him and say, God, I trust you in this area of my life. And I'm going to give first to you. You're going to, we're going to live in covenant with our finances first. And we know when we give, it opens the door for you to move in my life. Can I do one more? I'll do one more and then we'll finish next week. Generosity reveals my character. Look at Luke 16, 11. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And the answer is nobody. Nobody. If you can't be trustworthy with worldly wealth, the term is being a good steward. You see, the test of more is this. How do you handle the little? The woman who gave two mites. Such a little, but look at the heart she gave it with. The boy, a few loaves and two fish, and it fed five thousand. Moses started with just a staff, but he led a nation. David walked up with just a sling, but he took down a giant. Gideon, with just an army of 300, defeated a nation. Listen, a generous spirit doesn't require a lot, but it requires that God have access to what you do have now.

God’s Math And Multiplication

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Generosity multiplies my resources. Number ten. Let's skip to number ten. Proverbs 11, 25, a generous person will prosper, and whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. So let me just tell you: if you're if you're kind of in a space of like, oh, I'm tired, I'm not feeling great, I don't have the energy to keep going, I'm probably just gonna sit back on the couch today. No, get up and bless somebody. Be generous. If you're generous and you refresh somebody else, you yourself will be refreshed. Hey, listen, we were refreshed yesterday serving, and we got some, I got some new color to show it. I'm getting closer. But man, two and a half hours on our feet. Who cares? I felt so good. Let's go two more hours. It was so refreshing. Like we're we're directing traffic and moving cars and washing windows, and I look over and our prayer team's got holding hands of the driver out of the car, get out of the car. They hold hands, pray, tears streaming down faces. Like that is refreshing. Those who refresh others will be refreshed. And listen, my math is not the same as God's math. My math is such like this. If I give, I'm gonna have less. Because I've given it away. But God's math is if I give, and only when I give can he multiply it. What you hold on to is limited by your capacity. But what you release to God's hand encounters his unlimited riches. That's that's a different level of math. So so some of us we're like we're like stretching. Oh, I mean, we're stretching like, oh my gosh, we get like we gotta make this work. We gotta really stretch this dollar to make it work. And God says, man, I I can actually multiply it, but I cannot multiply it while it's in your hand. I can only multiply what's sown. Do you remember the woman with with a little bit of oil in the Old Testament with the prophet? And she says, Liam, you can come up. We gotta get out of here. Like she she uh she's got a little bit of oil, and the prophet shows up hungry, and he says, Is there any way you can you can make me a meal? She said, Well, funny enough, the prophet, I have just enough to make one more meal for my son and I. And then we've decided we'll make that meal and then we'll die. And the prophet says, Elijah says, Listen, by God's design, if you'll make me a meal, you'll never run out of oil. In fact, if you'll make me a meal first, the oil will multiply, and you'll fill jars, you'll fill jars of oil in order to pay all of your debts, and you'll always have enough for you and your son. And the oil would not multiply until she made the prophet a meal. And I'm gonna tell you, you want the windows of heaven to open, you want the blessing, you're praying for favor, you're praying for more open doors, but God cannot multiply what's in your hand. The resources in your hand are very limited unless you connect them to an unlimited God. What leaves your hand, listen, if you don't get anything from today, this is what you got to get. What leaves your hand does not leave your life when you place it into God's purpose. In every other situation, once you give it, it's gone. But when you put it in God's hand for God's purpose, it doesn't leave your life, it starts finding a way. It starts finding a way to come back and bless you. It starts finding a way to come back and bless generations. Listen, the New Testament says that when we give, there are generational blessings that follow us. Meaning, I you thought that hundred dollar gift left your hands to never be seen again, but it started finding its way to generations down the road. Be more generous, grow in generosity, and listen, I'm preaching to the choir because you are generous, but but there's more to do. So, what do you do? I've I've got a bunch more points. We'll see if we come back and clean it up next week or keep moving.

See Needs And Give Quickly

SPEAKER_00 32:25

But here's here's the thing: what how do you go into Monday? I mean, we want we want what happens to be more than just like we get fired up, get moved up, cheered up, ramped up, amped up, and then go back into Monday and not change. What do we do? Number one, you got to see the need. You want to learn how to be more generous to grow in generosity with all of those promises coming to you. Number one, see the need. Lift up your eyes off of your own situations, off of your own problems, your own circumstances. Lift up your eyes and see the needs around you. And then not only see the need, but go ahead and meet the need. And it doesn't, you don't, it doesn't take a lot. Whatever's in your hand, you start to meet the need with what you have now. And as you meet the need with what you have now, God will supply more seed to the one who sows, and you'll be able to meet more need. And guess what? While you're meeting all those needs, your needs will be met as well. So see the need, meet the need, and then the third one is really give quickly, like release it quickly. Because you know what? When you when you see the need and get compelled to meet the need, the Holy Spirit's like, pay for that grocery bill, pay, pay for that coffee, pay for that meal, bless that person, pick up this person, put some gas in their tank. When like the Holy Spirit prompts you to do that, the next voice is gonna be like, What? Whoa, why would I do that? And then the next voice is gonna be the devil. Like, you shouldn't do that. You don't know that person, you you know what they're gonna do with that money, you don't know what they're doing, like with that blessing, they won't even know what to do with it. Like the devil, like, so release it quickly. Just if it prompts you, just do it. Because there's something that happens when we live our life. Luke, come up here real quick.

unknown 34:48

I'll jump up here.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Everybody, we love Luke. Interning at the church this summer. What a blessing he is. Um, this this is kind of how it works. Like, here, Luke, I'm gonna put some five dollars in your hand. Yeah, and a lot of times we get what's given to us, and we get a grip on it. Man, you got this is what I should have been with my kids, but it seemed to slip out of my hands all the time. But watch this. Look, you got a good grip on that, and that's that's more than you had when you got up here. But I I actually want to bless you beyond that. Ten times the blessing. He knows. He knows. Look, God can only put more in the open hand. He can't do anything with this, but with this, it can be multiplied again and again and again. Can you receive that word today?

Prayer And An Invitation To Jesus

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Well, let's bow our heads. Father, thank you for meeting us today in a powerful moment of worship, powerful moments of your presence filling this house, filling our hearts, and meeting our needs. And Lord, if we have one desire to be in your house, to dwell in your courts forever and ever, and Lord, I pray, I pray we continue to be the most generous church in this area, that we are so generous with our time and our talent and our treasure that it just pours out in thanksgiving and praise due your name because you deserve it. And I thank you for blessing this house. I thank you for blessing every family every family financially with provision, with more seed, God, so that we can extend the reach as your hands and feet in this community and continue to make a difference. Keep your eyes closed, your head bowed. You know what? In a service like this, you'd say, Well, I don't even know about making a decision to follow Jesus. You're talking about generosity. It's listen, generosity began with God loving the world and giving his son. It was carried out through the life of Jesus when he gave his life on a cross and paid the price for our sins. It's a free gift. We're saved not by our works, not by attending church, not by we're saved by grace through faith. And that just requires you to believe Jesus paid the price and then confess it with your mouth. And if you've never done that or it's been a long time, it'd be my honor to lead you into this moment right now. Say, what do I do, PC? Well, first of all, you got to believe Jesus paid the price for you. Died on a cross. If you believe that, believe that in your heart. Confessing it with your mouth means you'll be saved. And then we want you to take more steps. PM's coming to help you take those steps when I'm done. Let's pray this prayer together. If you've never done it, first time, pray with all your heart. I promise you, your life may not be easy, but you will never be alone again. You'll have a savior that is leading you and guiding you. Are you ready? Dear Jesus, thank you for loving me, for paying a price I could not pay, giving me a gift I could never earn. I receive your love. I believe you died on a cross for my sins. So I turn from my own ways to follow after your ways. Be my Lord and Savior in Jesus' name. Amen. Come on, church, let's all stand and celebrate today.