Deja los Bordes | Tres decisiones que cambiarán tu vida | Pastor Jeremy DeWeerdt

Hello, good morning, City First. Welcome to the church. I hope you are happy to be here. Welcome to CAVE, Janesville, God behind the bars, everyone who is online here. Thank you for being a part of the City First family. We began a new series called Three Decisions That Will Change Your Life. We first started to think about this series. Jane and I started to take three weeks to do this. Three decisions that we take, right? It's like a rain of ideas, of decisions that we take in our personal life and that changed our life. Three decisions that changed our life, but also, it's actually been three pillars, one is our life, our family, that we share together. I get asked this all the time. Pastor Jeremy, you've been serving in the ministry since Moises was alive, almost a long time. And you've been married for decades. If you could go back in time and do it again, what would you do differently? What would you do differently? And you know what? The answer is a lot. A lot. I know that a lot of the decisions that I made had consequences. But I will say this, the things that we're going to talk about this week and the next two weeks, I would do it again and again and again and again and again, a hundred times over. Why? Because today I want you to take notes, to lean in, to be ready to talk about this. Because it's important. I'm going to talk about the choices to not build a life that consumes everything that's about yourself. The choice to not build a life that consumes everything that's yourself. In other words, and you're going to understand it a little bit more,

in other words, leave the edges, leave the limits. Well, we've discovered something. We've discovered that many of the most beautiful moments in life don't come from what we've kept for ourselves, but the most beautiful moments in our lives, with wealth, is what we leave for others. How can we contribute to help other people? The world tells us that a good life is found in accumulating more. Get all you can get, money, experience, success, achievements, comfort, comfort, things. And I'm not saying those things are bad, but I will tell you that they're a part of life and they don't give you a beautiful life. Jesus says the opposite. He says the following, basically, that the best life isn't built by consuming, but by contributing. It's built by contributing. And Jesus said in Acts 20, 35, he says, it's more blessed to give than to receive. When you hear this, many of us Americans here, like we say love, that would include money, but it doesn't just mean money. Maybe we've missed understanding this, and Jesus was giving us a commandment. Maybe it was to be not secret, it was a secret, a secret on how to give a good life. Because giving people actually live a better life. How do you build a life? That's the question.

How do you build a life that helps others to win? Well, I think the answer is hidden in one of the stories that we hardly ever talk about in the Old Testament. And it's basically in the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. And I want to focus on that. The story actually begins with a tragedy. A woman named Naomi, and she leaves the town of Bethlehem before Jesus. And Bethlehem with her husband and her two children because of a plague that entered that area. They're actually trying to find a place where they can find food. And well, the whole family leaves. And unfortunately, they get to a new place and Naomi's husband dies. And then after that, what you imagine happens. One of her children also dies. And then beyond that, something worse happens. Her second child also dies. Literally, Naomi, she's alone, like a widow, and she stays there with her children. and she stays with her two daughters-in-law because her children are getting married. And one of them is Ruth, one of her daughters-in-law. It's interesting, and we're going to talk about Ruth and it's interesting because there are three widows and all three of them are there with nothing. They don't have anyone to provide for them.

They don't have money. They didn't have a future, right? And so we could say in modern day, we saw them in the future. And Naomi says to Ruth and the others, we should go back to Bethlehem or you can stay here. What do you want to do? And Ruth says, I'm going to go with you. And the other daughter-in-law says, I'm going to stay here. So, Ruth and Naomi go to Bethlehem and they have absolutely nothing. They have no food. And I would just say to you that losing a husband or a wife in this modern day is tragic and horrible and as a church, because of the size of our congregation, we have husbands and wives that they lose a spouse and we're there for them as a church and trying to be there for them, it's heartbreaking, these deaths. But I want to let you know that 2,000 years ago too, let me tell you, in the ancient world, it was even more economically, because if a wife lost her husband at that time, her life was pretty much over. There was no social security, there was no unemployment, there was no government programs, there was no retirement funds, there was no hope for these three people. And well, humanly speaking, Bethlehem, she looks at her mother-in-law, Naomi,

and says, in Ruth chapter two, she looks at her mother-in-law and says the following, she says, one day, Ruth said to Naomi, let me go to the fields of harvest and let's see if someone in his kindness will allow me to pick up the grain spikes left behind. She says, I'm practically going to pick up the leftovers of the people. Now, this sounds a little bit interesting, what's really going on, because many years ago before this, God had given his people in Leviticus a commandment, he gave this to the farmers, right? In chapter 19, he says the following, he says, when you harvest, in the book of Leviticus, when you pick up the harvest of your land, do not blind the grain on the banks of your fields, nor lift up what falls from the blinders. Why are you talking about agriculture today, Pastor? Well, because, I'm going to apply it to your life today. God is saying a principle here, is a principle he gave to me in 2026. He says here, do not blind the grain on the banks of your fields nor lift up what falls from the blinders. In other words, leave the waste there. He says, it's the harvest of the grapes. Do not cut the last bunch. Leave those that fall to the ground. Leave it for the poor and for the foreigners that live among you.

In other words, do not keep everything. Do not maximize everything for yourself. Do not consume everything. Leave some behind. Leave some of this. Leave enough for someone else to benefit from your life. One day, Ruth is picking up leftovers and she's helping, right? And a man named Boaz, he's the farmer, and here's her story, right? She's harvesting this. And Boaz, instead of asking her, well, what is the least I can do? God told me I had to leave. Instead, he asks, can I leave? And he tells her, Boaz, in Ruth two, he says, even if Ruth, well, what does that word mean in English? That's already harvested crop. He's already harvested the crop. He has already harvested the crop. He's still picking up the crop. He's not picking up the crop. And so, it's a very special term in agriculture. But listen, she goes like this. If she goes to the grains, she says, don't be ashamed if she grabs what's here, the harvest. In other words, pull out of the handles, not the edge, not the limits. He says, pull them out for her.

He says, let her pick them up and leave her alone. Look at what he's doing here as a farmer. He says, I'm not only going to obey God's rule of not harvesting the edge and not letting go of everything, but I'm going to leave it. I'm going to leave it with dignity for her to pick it up. That's what God said. This is where God said, leave the limits, right? And Boaz said, leave the limits, right? He says, let's drop a hand of the harvest on purpose. We have to drop a little bit more. I think that's the kind of life that God calls us to. And that's the reason our world says, our world says, focus on your own needs. Some of you are hearing this message and you say, I don't have enough. I have to harvest all the way to the end. And let me tell you, I know people who make $20,000 a year and I know people who make $200,000 a year and I know people who make $2 million a year. And I'm going to tell you one thing that's common between them is that all they think it's enough. All the people think they need to do a little bit more. That's the funny thing about money, about time, about resources. We don't always perceive that we're strapped. I'm not saying that we're suffering. I like to say that, but our world says that, if you just focus on those, you can open the door to the world.

That's not a verse from the Bible. It says, well, if God helps those that help themselves, no, that's not in the Bible. Our world says, consume all that is given to you and God says this differently. God says this, and I'm going to give you some principles today. God says, a generous life doesn't consume all that it produces. A generous life doesn't consume all that it produces. Here's Boaz, the farmer. He worked the field and he was the owner of this land. And God said, it's not all for you. And I would say, if you're an accountant, if you're an accountant, a teacher, a father, a single mom, a person who works in the cafeteria, a gardener, whatever you work, a mother, at home, well, if you go to work, you make money. And God says, it's not all for you. Even with your time, even with your talents, even with your resources, even with whatever you own, your apartment, your cars, your cars. God says, yes, you earned it, it's a blessing, I gave it to you. And by the way, it should not be all for yourself. Not getting a lot of that today, right? Because I am attacking a spirit that is in this culture. And this culture says, mia, mia, mia. Mia, mia, mia, mio, mio, mio. And you know what? Some of the first words, like baby, was no and mine. Like a little boy, is what comes out of our mouth first. No and mine, see?

Why does God give us this commandment of not harvesting to the limit? There's the reason why. It's not so much about harvesting, it's more about the heart. This commandment is not about the heart, or most of us are not farmers. Most of us are not planting, not harvesting. You are not planting. Most of us are not aware of agriculture. This command is not about the farmers, this command is about our heart. Because we don't build a life where everything revolves around us. We have to build a life where we leave a little bit of money, we leave a little bit of energy, we leave a little bit of attention, we leave a little bit of emotional capacity on the edges of our life, because people in our life need it. The roots in our life need it. Because not everything that God gives you means that it's all for you. And you know what? I believe this, and Jen and I have discovered this, and we haven't been perfect. Please don't think that we are saints and we live this out, we do this all the time, but it's been a primordial focus for our lives for 35 years.

The richest life is not the one that consumes it all, it's the one that contributes the most. When we contribute more, the giving is not receiving all the time. The second point is a generous life gives us margins for other people to keep winning. Ruth, as a widow, her future existed in someone else's margin. Let's see, did you hear this? Her future, her future existed in someone else's margin. What the farmer said was a waste was hope for Ruth. What the farmer, the farmer didn't see was hope. and I'm worried that that isn't still true in 2026. What you call this 20 minutes, someone else would call a desperately need conversation. You call a little spare money, you say, oh, it's just a little bit of money. What you call, that's the food of the week. What you call an invitation, someone else would say, that's family. And what you call a spare room, someone else would say, that's their home for a season, for a season. And you know, the problem is, many of us plant our lives to the edge. And so we spend every dollar every evening, every weekend is a week, is on schedule, is on energy, is on food. And then someone needs us. And we honestly say, oh, I wish I could help you,

but I have nothing to offer. Why? Because we've planted our lives to the edge. Maybe we've harvested it too close to the edge. You can't help people. You can't help them win. If you can consume, you harvest yourself. So this tells me the following, and that is a generous life doesn't just go to the edge, it drops blessings on purpose. It drops blessings strategically. Generosity, it doesn't hit you lightly. It's usually not something that you just feel inspired to do in a moment, but rather, a life of generosity has to be strategically planned because we're all given the same amount of success in a day. We're all given opportunities and we're all given abilities. We're all given connections, relationships, and we're all given money to a certain extent. And so strategically, we have to say, how are we going to live our lives? Because someday, when we are buried, six feet under the ground, no one is going to come out of this life alive, right? Someday, when this happens, and they hold a funeral service for us, they're not going to talk about all of this in the past. And you say, they're not going to talk about what you consumed. They're going to talk about what? How you changed their lives. What did you give them?

How did you help them? Who were you as a person? The conversations you had with them, the time you helped them earn in their life. They're not going to talk about your 401, your retirement fund. They're not going to talk about your cars. They're not going to talk about those tailor-made clubs. No, no. But if you harvest the edges of your life accumulating all those things at the end of our life, guess what? People are going to have a hard time. You know what's going to happen? I've actually been, well, I'm going to leave this, where the family and friends are like, well, what can we say? Because literally the person that lived that life, just, Boaz could have just simply followed the law, but he said, no, let's leave a little bit extra for her. See, I think that's a really important question. Jenner's going to ask a different question. Most people ask, what do I have to do? But generous people ask, what else can I do? Can I motivate people better? Can I mentor someone even though I'm very busy? Can I help? Can I include? Can I invite?

Who can lose money? Jen and I have discovered that we are not the post-perfect children, right? We're not the ones who have this perfect. We're not Mother Teresa. I promise you, we're not. But we have tried. And I think those people that have known us for over 20 years and have known us for more than three decades would say that maybe this is what our life is about. It's one of the three choices that we have. We decide that we're going to intentionally try to help other people succeed, not just in our profession, but in our lives. And not because we have to do it, but because we can. And because we like it. We've invited people to our lives, to our home, into our journey. We mentor them. We are motivated. And we know, we've avoided being people. Listen to this. We are generous in theory, but not in practice. Because one thing that I've noticed about our culture is that sometimes in our culture, we say, caring is the same as helping. It's not the same. Just because you care, it doesn't mean you help. You know, we feel bad, we say a prayer, we give them a like on Instagram or on Facebook,

and we tell them, you know what? I wish someone would do something. And somehow we walk away and we're like, oh, we're in this. You don't help someone by feeling something. You help someone by doing something. And this is something for all of us. People who need money, food, people who are in pain and in crisis, and you hear about it, it's heart-breaking. But the heart-breaking part is only an airplane wing, unless you do something, that's the other wing. You can't do everything. You can't help everyone, but you can help someone. Don't allow the excuse that you can't do it for everyone or that you don't have permission to do it for anyone. Does that make sense? You see, here's the thing. We have not been perfect, but Jen and I have tried. And sometimes, if we're honest, blessing people has been an amazing blessing. And sometimes, blessing people has not been an amazing blessing for us sometimes. We've had people in our homes, many times, many people, that you would ask our older sons and daughters. There have been most people that have stayed with us for dinner, night after night, that we've brought into our home over the decades. And many of them are grateful. That season of living with the Dwarves,

it gave them a helping hand. It lifted us up, and then we helped other people. And they weren't grateful. And we kind of felt used, that they took advantage of us. We've invited people into our lives. And they've grown up, and we've been their mentors, and we've invited people into our lives, and they went off the beaten path. It's going to happen. Your blessings may not always be received correctly, but to leave the limits of your life without reaping the benefits of it, is what God says, right? In other words, it's not always how we're going to want it. I can tell you the horror stories, and I can tell you the victories, too. And I'll tell you this is more victories than horror stories. This thing I know this, allowing people into the edge of our lives has not been a blessing for them, but it's always been a blessing for us. Why? Because it is a spiritual principle. Proverbs 11.25, Christ the generous will prosper. Those who refresh others, they will themselves be refreshed. It's a promise. When you bless other people, God says, okay, you're going to bless them,

I'm not going to bless you. In my core, I feel that this point that I'm talking about today, you're going to hear this every weekend, these three sessions, I'm passionate about this. Why? Because in my core, I feel that the blessings that God has given Jenny and me, is a direct result of the blessings that we have intentionally given to others. It's called sowing, reaping. When you give, I believe that God blesses you when you give to others. When you help others, God realizes and Jesus says the same thing. Have you heard this? Matthew 25, he says, I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I didn't have a house and you gave me a room. I was cold and you gave me clothes. I was sick and you stopped visiting me. I was in prison and you came to me. Here's the thing. When we let others come up to the limits of our life and we allow others to reap the limits,

we leave a little bit of room. God takes notice. We're really, and as we close today, a generous life can exist forever and stay there and it can be an echo for generations. It's a beautiful story. You know, Boaz was probably thinking maybe he was helping a simple, no, a widow person, right? That she just became a widow. But in this interaction, eventually, Boaz fell in love with Ruth. And Boaz and Ruth would get married and they had a son by the name of Obed. And that son would have another son by the name of Jesse. And Jesse would have another son by the name of David who would slay a giant, Agoliath. David grew up to be a king and his son by the name of Solomon built a new temple in Jerusalem. And guess what? In the lineage, he had a son and another son and pretty soon, there was this individual that came along named Mary. And Mary saw a son by the name of Jesus. Now, look, this is the thing. Literally, you could go to Jesus and you could go back in the lineage and it goes all the way back to Boaz and Ruth.

One generous heart and one decision to let Jesse on the harvest that this generosity changed history. It's so cool. You just never know what your God is building through your generation. When you bring this leader down to mentor him, she or he is like, they don't know much about the world. They just got out of college, trying to learn. And you're like, you know what? I'm going to help you. And you don't have time. So you've left a little bit on the edge of your life, a little bit on the edge. And you say, I'm going to give this limit, this edge of my life. When you mentor a person, you don't know if that person is going to be an incredible leader, an incredible leader in the community, the family you helped. You don't know if when you leave a little bit of edge in your life and you allow that family to be blessed on the edges of your field, you don't know if you have stopped a cycle in the family where now generation after generation, after generation, it's going to be different. They're not going to be in the same cycle that the old generation was in. When you support that young man to go with money,

you support him to go to the summer camp. And maybe someday they're going to do an incredible job. They're going to be leaders of a church or missionaries and they're going to preach the word. You don't know. That person you invited to the church, the donation that you saw, you don't know. I don't know the impact it's going to have generationally. You may say, oh, you're just leaving the edges of your life and you're taking a little bit of the harvest and you're just dropping blessings. You don't know that, but God may be actually writing a new story for that person. So Jen and I have learned this powerful lesson. When you spend your life helping others, you discover that you're in the land of the suffering like you've always wanted to be. Jen and I are blessed. We feel very blessed. We're blessed more than we should be. But I think it's because we took Jesus up in this secret that he told us, when he said, it's more blessed to give than to receive. We're not perfect, but we've tried to do that. It's not because God wants something from me or he knows something about you. No, you've been created for that.

You were created because you were made in the image and likeness of God and God is a generous God. You were made to be generous. They say that God loved the world so much that God. You were created to leave the limits, the edges and to leave blessings on purpose, strategically. The life that is worth living is not a life that asks, how long can I stay? How long can I stay? But a life that says, how can I help other people? who can I help because I was here. Maybe the best legacy we can leave or that we can leave is the point of my message today. Someone else's miracle is hiding in the limits of your life at this time. Someone else's miracle is hiding there. So let go of the edges, the limits. Let go, get out of the limits. Don't harvest until the end. Let go, let go of the edges. And say, I'm going to leave a little bit of time, a little bit of money, a little bit of emotional resources, a little bit of help, whatever. I'm going to leave it there at the end, at the edge. Because I want to help the lives of other people to win as we close. We have the opportunity to practice what I just said. We have the opportunity to help feed the children.

And this is a time that we've never done before. We're going to try. Because we have a heart to be able to help children who are no longer suffering, who can't eat, or who have food insecurity. And so I had a conversation in January with the leaders of Convoy of Hope. They're number 27 on the Forbes list of 1 million profitless. They're number 27, according to Forbes. And I'm a friend of those people. And I said, I want to do something. And we help with food distribution in Rockford, in Cape Coral, in Janesfield. Sometimes we help clean and serve. But we want to do something different. Why don't you do one day to feed people? And those of you who've been here last week, if it's your first week here, you don't have to participate, although I encourage you to do it if you want to do it. But none of us have to do it. It's only if we want to. It says, give one day of your salary. Your salary, divide it by 365, and one day to feed people. That's the edge. You're going to take a piece of your limit and you're going to help other people. And the leader, for every dollar, we are able to provide five nutritious meals for children.

Every dollar, five meals. It's amazing. So they always say first, I believe, we're about ready to provide thousands, not hundreds, thousands, thousands, literally, of meals for children in areas of the world where they're going to learn from Jesus and they're going to be given a meal three times a day. And this is what I'm asking you to do. I think you know what? I did the math on that. And it says, you know what? Give something. Give something. A dollar even. That's five meals. We can all do something. We can leave blessings on purpose and we can help children to be able to live to have a relationship with God and they can serve their world wherever they are. And that's what we're going to do today. We're going to take a moment. We're going to put some QR codes on the screen. If you want to give a gift, you can do it for City First. Anything that comes to this offering is coming to this day called One Day to Feed the World.

If you have cash or check, well, you can see it. And there's going to be a code on the screen and we are going to go ahead. So please put the QR codes. We're going to pray. And we're going to take a moment to pray and I'm going to come back to say goodbye. Dear Almighty Father, we thank you. Thank you, Jesus. That we get the opportunity to take a little bit of the borders or limits of our life, the edges of our life and be able to make a difference. Where some of us are hungry in the church but we don't know what it really is to be hungry in life. And we want to solve that problem. We want to provide meals and provide for them the gospel that they can hear about Jesus, that they know about him and they can live a life serving you. So today, glory to God. Bless both those who give and those who receive. Thank you, God, that we have the opportunity to give One Day to Feed the World.

We love you. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's go ahead. ♪ With all of the faith in the room, what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do, it's gonna happen ♪ ♪ Just let the way make it through, He's gonna move ♪ ♪ He's gonna move, can you imagine ♪ ♪ With all of the faith in the room, what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do, it's gonna happen ♪ ♪ Just let the way make it through, He's gonna move ♪ ♪ He's gonna move, can you imagine ♪ ♪ With all of the faith in the room, what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do, it's gonna happen ♪ ♪ Just let the way make it through, He's gonna move ♪ ♪ He's gonna move, you are more than able to do ♪ ♪ Yeah, you are more, you are more than able to do yeah, you are more, you are more than able to do yeah, you are more, you are more than able to do yeah, you are more, you are more than able to do ♪ ♪ Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Anything is possible. Anything is, anything is, anything is possible. Who am I, who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Anything is possible. Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Anything is, anything is, anything is, anything is possible. Who am I, who am I to deny what the Lord can do? And what we've just done is give life to thousands and thousands of children. So thank you. And I want to tell you, as you leave, if you're new here, we have a gift for you when you leave. Go to the information center out here and tell them you want a free gift. And we also have prayer equipment. If you need prayer equipment or anything, we have stickers too. If you know I want to use one of those stickers, well, grab whatever you need. God bless you. See you next weekend for part two of Three Decisions That Will Change Your Life.