Invested

Good morning, Revolution Church. Good to see you all. Beautiful faces this morning. Once you come on in, we're getting started in here. [MUSIC PLAYING] You've been good, good for all my life. So nothing could ever change my life. You never break a promise. You're constant in all you do. Yours is the way, the truth, the life that I need to do. Come on and sing, I know. Oh, I know that I know you won't ever let me go. Every load, every heart, you are faithful all the time. I've tasted and I've seen you've been so, so good to me. God, I know that I know. Come on, sing it with one voice, and faithful all the time. Oh, faithful all the time. Oh, I've looked to the left all right. And I will keep the heaven in my sight. I know I will not be sure. 'Cause nothing is moving me. 'Cause I've got a feeling for sure of the things I cannot say. Oh, I know that I know you won't ever let me go. Every load, every heart, you are faithful all the time. Yes, I've tasted and I've seen you've been so, so good to me. God, I know that I know you're faithful all the time. Oh, I won't stand on words of a man. God, I'll stand on yours instead. All of my hope, all of my faith, all of it's in your name. And the world cannot deny all that you've done in my life.

All of my days, all of my praise, all of life, Jesus' name. I won't stand on words of a man. God, I'll stand on yours instead. All of my hope, all of my faith, all of it's in your name. And the world cannot deny all that you've done in my life. All of my days, all of my praise, all of it's in Jesus' name. Oh, I know that I come on, you won't ever let you go. Every load, every heart, you are faithful all the time. Oh, I know that I know you won't ever let me go. Every load, every heart, you are faithful all the time. I've tasted it, and I've seen it last time. You've been so, so good to me. God, I know that I know you're faithful all the time. Oh, you're faithful all the time. Oh, faithful all the time. Oh, yes you are God. I've tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord. His goodness and mercy that follows me every single day. Thank you Lord, thank you Lord for your faith. God. ♪ You're faithful all the time ♪ Amen! (audience applauds) (gentle piano music) ♪ Lord is my shelter ♪ ♪ And He is everything I need ♪ ♪ So I will not worthy ♪ ♪ Oh, I will not fear the enemy ♪ ♪ He said that He loves me ♪ ♪ He said that He's with me ♪ ♪ If He's with me ♪

♪ I walk through the valley ♪ ♪ A shadow in time and still a light ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words for me ♪ ♪ So I will take on attention to knowledge ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words for me ♪ ♪ If I know my father, I know my father ♪ ♪ And good things move ♪ ♪ No weapon formed against me, prosper ♪ ♪ The Lord is my savior ♪ ♪ So why should I doubt my beat too ♪ ♪ Why would I question ♪ ♪ The rod in the style that comes with me ♪ ♪ He quiets the waters ♪ ♪ He quiets the storm inside of me ♪ ♪ So what could be better ♪ ♪ Then walk here with him ♪ ♪ And when I believe ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words for me ♪ ♪ So I will take on attention to knowledge ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words for me ♪ ♪ If I know my father, I know my father ♪ ♪ And he has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words for me ♪ ♪ So I will take on you ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪

♪ He has good words for me ♪ ♪ If I know my father, I know my father ♪ ♪ And he has good words ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ I know my father ♪ ♪ Mercy will follow after me ♪ ♪ So farewell ♪ ♪ Not by me ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'll be dwellin' in the house of God ♪

♪ Sure and late ♪ ♪ Good nights ♪ ♪ Mercy will follow after me ♪ ♪ 'Cause you'll feel well ♪ ♪ Not by me ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'll be dwellin' right here in the house ♪ ♪ Sure and late ♪ ♪ Good nights ♪ ♪ Mercy will follow after me ♪ ♪ So farewell ♪ ♪ Not by me ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'll be dwellin' in the house of God ♪ ♪ Sure and late ♪ ♪ Good nights ♪ ♪ Mercy will follow after me ♪ ♪ So farewell ♪ ♪ Not by me ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'll be dwellin' in the house of God ♪ ♪ He has good words ♪ ♪ He has good things ♪ ♪ For me ♪ ♪ So I will take heart ♪ ♪ And resisting daughters ♪ ♪ He has good things ♪ ♪ He has good things ♪ ♪ For me ♪ ♪ If I know my father, I know my father ♪ If I know my father, I know my father, I'll be right, good place, good place. If I know my father, I know my father, I'll be right, good place. For you guys to be seated for a moment, it's that time of year when we have the opportunity

and the privilege of saying thank you to our pastors. Today's pastor appreciation day, would all of our pastors, if you serve as a, on the staff or the congregational pastor, if you, you know who you are, would you come forward so the congregation can see you? Yeah, give man, give man. [applause] [music] What a, what a great group we've got being a, a part of this service, I tell you, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got to do, what a great group we've got as we have this opportunity, I've known most of these people for years, we have an incredible head baster, but he can't be there for all of you, there's too many of them, and that's a great blessing, but we're here to serve you, and if you have a need, you reach out to somebody so that one of these people can fulfill their call and be a light to you, well you've retran and pray, Lord we are so thankful for the group that you have blessed us with it, you have called and equipped them to be our pastors, or to meet the needs that

you've placed before this congregation, I pray over each one of them, their families, their marriages, Lord, the hours that they spend that no one else sees, God, bless that time that they might reap a harvest in peace, that they might reap a harvest in effectiveness Lord, and I know as the enemy comes against them Lord, I pray right now as a church, we put a shield in front of them, Lord, and know that we're covering them as they cover us, and we thank you for what they're doing, and Lord we thank you for what you're doing here in Revolution Church, the call that you've placed on us, and we thank you for everything you're going to do in this service, in Jesus name, amen. Come on, can we give the Lord a praise, amen? How many of you praise the Lord today for the goodness, all the good things he's doing, guys can be seated for just a second and I want for the body of Christ. And we realize that it's really our benefit to be able to serve you and to use the callings that God has placed in our life to minister to this body. You know, I was thinking back 19 years ago when the Lord planted this church, we're meeting at a high school, 39 people were part of that original plan. I was counting across the stage here and I got up to 30. We might have got 39, but today here probably over 30 pastors. Can we praise the Lord for that? Because that's the goodness of God. That's the blessing of the Lord. And so grateful because I read some time back that that one pastor can effectively serve about 200 people. And that's the max. And so we realized early on that when more than 200 people were coming, we need God to bring in more laborers, more shepherds, more pastors. And that's where these individuals have came in. So today when I look up here at congregational pastors and elders at pastors that are serving on staff, youth pastors, ministry staff, campus pastors on and on and on, we're just so, so very blessed to be able to do what we do. So again, we just praise the Lord for the opportunity to serve you. Thank you for the blessing that each one of you are to this church, amen, and to this community. So I want to say a couple things before we move on in the service. First of all, let's give it up for all the first time guests. I met several first time biz. Come on, we're celebrating today because you are in the house of the Lord. And also I want to celebrate all of you that were over to Tennessee Alabama game and still made it to church today. Come on, somebody. That was pretty awesome. I was just, I was just down here between services talking to one of our church members and their sons a pilot. He was flying over Knoxville,

30,000 feet, took a picture and said, what's going on in Knoxville, Tennessee tonight? And so anyway, that was fun. But really, the greatest thing to celebrate today is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And the blessing he is to say, man, we're so blessed for that. But thank you to all of the guests, all of you that are here. Thank you for being with us today. And if you would take just a moment, grab a connect card. It'll be in the seat back in front of you. If you'll just grab one of those cards, fill it out as you're leaving the building. We have these boxes or buckets back in the back by the exit. Just drop those in. Let us know that you're there. We have a team, these pastors, we would love to pray over those prayer requests, pray over you that Lord would bless you for just being here. And so, and if you have any other needs, let us know. You can write it down if you need to be baptized, whatever it may be. Thank you for that. And then last, the second thing which is very important, if you accept Jesus Christ today, if you make him the Lord of your life, it'll be the best decision you'll ever make in your life. And we want to celebrate that. And we're going to do that several ways. But one is, we have a really nice Bible here. You can see this in my hand here. It says, revolution church across the front. Beautiful Bible. And inside of it is next steps. It talks about water baptism, discipleship, different ministries. Make sure before you leave today that you pick up one of these out in the information area and for you as you're leaving. And we'd love to put this in your hand and talk to you about what's next. God is good. Can I hear an amen? No, come on, a better amen. God is good. Amen. God is so good. And we're looking forward to what it's going to do today. Last thing is, if you would let's stand, we're going to pray again. And what we're going to do is, is pray over our offerings. Pray that God would bless the offerings, the gifts, the giving now. I want to read to you a quick verse. It's found in Luke chapter 21. And it goes like this. It says, while Jesus was in the temple, so if you can imagine when Jesus was in the church, the temple, like this, he was watching. He was watching people as they came to, if you could imagine the bucket back here, they had what you call a collection box in their temple. And Jesus was just back observing. He was watching people bring their gifts in and drop them off. And, and he even sat right here. He said, he watched the rich people drop in their gifts into the collection box. And then there was a poor widow. And she dropped in two small coins. Then Jesus looks over at his disciples and he used as a teaching moment. And he said this, he said, God's listen, I'll tell you the truth. This poor widow has given more,

poor as she is, has given everything that she has. You know, what does this say to you? Number one, it tells me that God watches what we give. It says he was observing the collection box. He watches, he observes, he knows, and he knows when we give sacrificially. Maybe amen, and he also knows that every single one of us have an opportunity to worship God with our giving. So today, what I would like to say to you is make sure you worship God with your giving. I'm not saying an amount, I'm just saying that let's all give something. Amen? Let's all give something to the Lord and then worship God with that. Let's all pray right now. Imagine your gifts being placed in God's collection box. Let's honor him here. Father, we just worship you in this time of giving. Thank you, Father, for the generosity of this church. Thank you for the people here, God, who serve. God, we ask you today, Father, that you would bless the ties, the offerings, everything that comes in, Lord, and allow this church, God, to be faithful stewards, to do the work of the ministry that you've called us to do. Father, we just thank you and praise you for the blessings that you poured out on us in Jesus' name. And everybody said, "Help me now." Hey, man, again, let's give these pastors another hand as they're seated. God bless you guys. Good morning. I'm Whitney, and this is Holly. Welcome to Revolution Church. We are so excited that you're with us today. If this is your first time visiting us, please... Good morning. I'm Whitney, and this is Holly. Welcome to Revolution Church. We are so excited that you're with us today. If this is your first time visiting us, please stop by the tables and the foyer. We would love to be even give you a free gift. Also, don't forget to fill out a connect card or on the Church Center app. Also, if you have made the best decision of your life and asked Jesus into your heart, we would love to walk alongside with you and give you a Bible and talk about next steps. So please stop by the table and the foyer as well. Yes, amen. This Saturday, we have Trunkertree on October 24th. You can still host a trunk if you would like to come out and be part of that event. Just go to our website for more info and you can sign up. We also will have next Sunday, the angel tree will be out in the foyer. So if you'd like to bless a child with a Christmas gift, please make sure to check that out. You can also go to the website for additional details on that. Yes, that's one of my favorite things to do. Yes, this is here. We also have No Worship Night in November. We will be packing food boxes for those in our community for Thanksgiving,

so make sure you guys join us for that. We also still have the Father Daughter Dance, which is Saturday, November 7th, which will be a wonderful night of dancing and making wonderful memories. So do not forget to sign up for that on the Church Center app. Yes. And if you need another idea for your date night, we have a married couple's happily ever after event. It will be on November 6th from 6.30 to 9. You can join us for a candlelight dinner, some amazing marriage tips and other fun. So please go register by October 30th. And if there is anything that you need prayer for today, we would love to pray with you. You see the prayer team at the end of the service today. And we just thank you again for listening to all of our updates. And we hope you enjoy the service. What's up, y'all? How's everybody doing? It feels good in here today. I don't hear any coughing, so I guess you didn't get the black lung from all those cigars. I don't know. Is that a sin? I don't know, is it? I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. Hey, that was a big win, wouldn't it? That was a big win. Hey, man, have you guys enjoyed this sermon series? You were called. It's been so good. I was thinking about, you know, how awesome of a team we have of pastors here at Revolution on Pastor Appreciation Day. You guys obviously see how many are working in our congregation all the time. But also, don't we have an incredible team of teaching pastors as well? Pastor David Morgan, Pastor Mark Quill, Pastor Paser. Just give those guys a hand. - Incredible stuff. Last week, Pastor Pase was shared with us. Great multiplication, and one of the things that popped out to me, I'm sure it popped out to you, but no plan B. No plan B, and we need that, we need that. So this week, the sermon is titled "Invested." "Invested." Do you guys think it's a good idea to be invested in your children? - Yes. - Do you think it's a good idea

to be invested in your marriage? - Yes. - You think it's a good idea to be invested in the workplace? Your business, all of those things are really important to be invested in, and honestly, most of us wouldn't have a hard time being invested in those places, right? But I've seen this over the years, no matter what church I've been a part of, what season of life it's been, it's always been the same thing. And I noticed that it's really hard for people to really get invested in the church. Honestly, I think most of the weight of serving, giving, all those things are in the smaller percentages of the overall congregation. And essentially, what that means is most of us are not getting plugged in and using our gifting. Do you guys think that's a problem? - Yeah. - That's a problem. We need to get plugged into the body of Christ serving so we can use our gifts to glorify God. The Bible actually tells us that when we serve in the body that it spurs the kingdom of God forward. And so I think it's vitally important. So today, we're gonna talk about three things that we must invest in for the kingdom of God to go forward as Jesus intended.

Key word, as Jesus intended. You guys think we can mess this up? We can mess this up. We start getting in our own stuff, our own ways. And so that's what we're gonna talk about today. How do we do it the God way? And so today, we're gonna start out in Romans chapter 12, verses six through eight. It says, "We have different gifts, "according to the grace given to each of us. "If your gift is prophesying, "then prophesy in accordance with your faith. "If it is serving, then serve. "If it is teaching, then teach. "If it is to encourage, then give encouragement. "If it is giving, then give generously. "If it is to lead, do it diligently. "If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully." Isn't that a crazy list? Some of y'all don't realize that just encouraging somebody can be a gift. Can be a gift, listen to me. I've learned over the years in church, you never know who you're in the room with. You never know. And so even today, sitting up here, I could be speaking directly to somebody's situation and not know it, right? Not even know your name. But do you guys realize that you can be that?

A simple word of encouragement can change someone's trajectory. It can change their life choices. It can change their eternity. And I want to give you an example of this. Do you guys realize that we live in a world today that is weighty? There's a lot of weights. It's hard to live. And I've actually told my wife several times, I was like, if I didn't have Jesus, how would I make it in this world? Seriously. I mean, it is so stressful, so weighty. And I think about, how do you guys know that you're not about to walk up to somebody that has thought about ending their life? Do you know who you're in the room with? God asks us to do things a lot of times that don't make sense to us. But God sees the purpose and the plan clearly. And it's up to us in this room today. When God gives us a gift, I want to go back to the scripture here in Romans 12 and point something out. In the very first verse, it says, we have different gifts according to Christ's ability. Huh? What does it say? According to the grace given to each of us,

which means what you hold is a gift. It's been given to you. And I wonder how many in this room, your children would be really upset with you if you were to wrap them a gift, right? Put a little bow on it and Christmas is rolling around. You know those little sticker tags you put on there. You just write their name on it. And then Christmas comes around and they go to grab the gift and you snatch it. Well, that's, that's your gift, but you can't open it. You know, I wouldn't get slapped in the face, probably. They probably think I'll mess with them, but listen to me. Who would do that? Who would snatch the gift back? No one would do that, right? Like if you, if you wrap a gift and you got somebody's name on it, you don't snatch the gift back, you give it to the person. How many of us have snatched the gift back from people that needed it in the church? Because we're afraid to use our giftings. We're afraid, we're burying our abilities that by the way God gave us through his grace. They're not even ours to, to, to take credit for it. That's, that's why I love preaching, honestly. Because I can get up here and say whatever God's told me to say and I can be confident that I have used my gifting. Does that make sense? When, when I release an encouraging word to somebody,

I can know that, that if that's my gift, I can go about my day and be full because it's not me who's doing it. It is a gift that God has given me to release. And, and I wonder today, like even, even for me, you know, one of my abilities that, that I've resonated, it's resonated me with, for a long time and I'm getting the opportunity to use it now as leadership. You know, leadership is a spiritual gift, which is not talked about a lot. But, but honestly, that leadership gift is critical to the church. It's not critical so I can get glory. Come on somebody, it's not critical so I can seem important. Your gifts are not for you. Therefore others, therefore the church, it's for the building of the body of Jesus Christ. And so, listen to me. I hope that we're a church one day soon that jumps at the opportunity to use our gifts. Honestly, because when we get to that place, what can God do with that? What can God do when all of His grace in the room right now? I want you guys to look around. Look at all these people in the room. If all of His grace in the room culminated to one part and we all released it. Shoo! You talk about powerful, you talk about something that would change the nation.

That's how you change cities, states, nations. That's how you do it. You come together, you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength, right? And with your gifts. And you release them. Listen, God doesn't make junk. So the point one today is use your gift and be the blessing. If you have a gift, you get to be the blessing. Every blessing that you've heard about in a sermon, or in a song, or in a testimony, why don't you become that story that's being told? Seriously, think about that. God has given you a gift that you can utilize not only to change the trajectory of the church, but to change maybe even a family member, a friend, a co-worker's life, a stranger's life. I was watching a video the other day, and it was a guy he was going out to lunch. And he's doing it for ministry purposes. He stops this waiter, and they're talking back and forth. And honestly, he gives this waiter a word of encouragement. What happens next is the waiter becomes open to what he has to say. And so you can literally see her. As he's speaking this word to her, you can see her kind of open up where she was kind of guarded before. And what happens next is this lady receives Christ right there in the restaurant on the clock. Come on, somebody. (Applause) And I believe that God wants to do that in your lives today. I believe that the Lord, when we all use our giftings,

the way that it's supposed to be done, I believe God can do mighty things like that. So, can I ask you a question today? Why are you hiding? Why are you hiding? There's so many reasons that we can say, but if we're being honest, some of us are hiding. We're scared, we're unsure, we don't feel like enough. Here's one for you. Some of y'all have let your sin dictate your obedience to God. I didn't say that last service. Listen to me, Jesus came to wipe away. Everybody say wipe away, our sins. The only way sin has control over you is if you don't allow the Lord to take that sin from you. And honestly today, some of y'all have not served in the body because you're worried about the sin you did last month or two months ago, or maybe even currently. Let me let you in on a little secret. You know why Satan's so mad about Jesus? He's mad because in the instant that you sin, right after you can ask for repentance, right after you can move on with your life. See, that's the beauty of the gospel is that you are not bound and chained to sin any longer. And it's funny because we'll sing songs about this. We know the truth, like we know the truth of that. But then when it comes to our own lives,

it's like we can't break through the wall. And what I want to tell you today is my Jesus was not brutally murdered, okay? Completely torn apart, hung on across to suffocate to death just so you can still live with the weight of your sin. You know, Jesus was murdered for our rebellion, for our iniquities, the chastisement of our sin, it was on him, okay? And because of that, right now, right here, the enemy hates this dude. You can walk out of here a different person. (audience applauding) Thank you, Jesus. You guys know what a headwind is? I'll give you the definition. It refers to any obstacle force or difficult condition that inhibits progress, success, or growth. You don't want a headwind if you're out on the water, right? In a sailboat, if you're trying to go in a certain direction and the headwind's coming from that direction, right? 'Cause it's gonna blow against you. And here's what I know about the Lord is, you can expect a divine headwind if you say no to the things that God is telling you to say yes to. Some of us give the enemy way too much credit because sometimes it's the Lord putting an obstacle in your path because you're saying no to him. And if you don't believe me, let's go back to the word, right? What about Jonah?

Jonah ran from God, or at least he thought he was going to. He ran right into the belly of a big old fish. That's a awkward place to be, you know? How many of us have ran from the call of God in our life and we've found ourselves in some awkward positions? Everybody shake your head like this, right? And what I wanna say today is that the Lord doesn't intend to punish you, he intends to redirect you. See, the difference between the enemy and God is the enemy intends things that are of substance like that to destroy you, God intends them to be things that change you. The God we serve today is not interested in your know. He's interested in your obedience. It doesn't, listen to me, you don't have to be special, you don't have to have an incredible gift, you don't have to be a pastor on stage, you ain't gotta be Stephen Furdick or any of these like crazy mega church pastors, you don't have to be that, you have to be what God called you to be. And when you do that, there is a freedom that comes over your life. So I just wanna encourage you today, if you have been running from God, if you have been running from using your gifting, today is a prime opportunity. It's not Amazon. It's a prime opportunity to change the trajectory of your life. And get this, others, because by using your gift,

what happens? Others, other people's lives change, right? So, consider that today. Second point, and listen, before I say this, well, I'm just gonna say it. Second point, your finances open doors for others to encounter Jesus. Your finances open doors for others to encounter Jesus. Listen, I know some of y'all, you probably, honestly, you probably hated on me a little bit. If you're being honest, it's okay. I'm good with it about the tithing stuff, right? Giving, some of y'all get it, some of y'all don't. And that's okay. But here's what I will continue to say. Tithing finances, all those things are biblical. I can show it to you multiple places, not just the Old Testament and the New Testament. Jesus tells us to not just do these other things like showing mercy and all these things. He says we should do the latter and the former, right? And which was talking about tithing. And so, check this out. Second Corinthians nine, verses 10 through 13. It says, and please, please, please, do not turn off the switch right now, okay? Listen to this, it's the word of God. For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources

and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be greedy, generous. And when we take, and when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. So two good things will result from this ministry of giving. The needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met and they will joyfully express their thanks to God. As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the good news of Christ. Some of y'all have never heard that scripture before. And you know why? 'Cause the enemy doesn't want you to know the power of generosity in the church. He doesn't want you to know that. In fact, he's done a great job at showing you all the bad examples of generosity to the church so that you won't give to the ones that are good examples. Does that make sense? Do y'all follow me on that? So the honesty that we need to have in this room is that maybe some of us have believed a lie. Maybe some of us have been deceived. The Bible tells me this, that our generosity, this is what fires me up, man. It says two things happen as a result of the ministry of giving. The needs of believers in Jerusalem will be met

which to us today would be our town, right? And then it says, and they will joyfully express their thanks to Pacer, to Chris? No, to who? To God, don't you think that's important? You think it's important to give glory to God? And the Bible is clearly saying, clearly saying that when we give and we are generous that God is actually praised. Now, why would the enemy not want that to happen? Right? He don't want God to be praised. He doesn't want God to be lifted up. He doesn't want everybody's needs to be met. I said this last service, and he got a little chuckle, but you think this place just went. Poof. Seriously. I think we've watched so many fairy tale movies that we think things just go poof. The seats you're sitting in right now, the ground you're standing on, that's poured concrete. Did it go poof? It didn't, did it? Somebody paid for that. Somebody poured that. Somebody used their gift. Come on, somebody. So, I want to contend with you something today, our biggest event of the year.

Look at that. Oh my goodness, that's crazy. If we could serve like that all year round, that'd be wild. But listen to this. Do you think that when you show up on helping hands days, and you see all those tents out there in the lines, and all the papers, and tables, and fans, and then you walk in here and see all the shoes lined up, and all the underwear, socks, and underwear, and all the, and the haircuts, and you think that just, it just said poof, poof. We know it didn't, right? Because some of you guys were generous, and you gave to make that happen. And, and, and here's, here's what I have to say to you today. If there's any example of a ministry of giving and that giving glory to God, it's helping hands. I haven't heard one person's like actual name mentioned with that. When I'm talking, when you're talking about the news, people that, whenever this year, so many people I talked to had testimonies, it was never about a person. It was about the event. And then they said, glory to God. And so I wonder today, who in this room, because you have believed the lie that you're not supposed to give to the church, right? But you give the Netflix, you give to Burger King, you give Starbucks, you give to all these other things, you go to Lowe's, you buy some wood. I mean, come on, bro. Come on, bro. Let's be real. Let's, let's be real, right? I'm all about being real, so let's be real. And, and, and honestly, when, when we get this principle, I actually believe our church is gonna, it's gonna unlock something else. It's gonna unlock another step. I really do. So I wanted to tell you a story from, from John Bevere's book. There's a guy named Mike that he, he had $200 to his name. He get, the Lord said, give it all. And he said, what? Lord, that's all I got. He gave it anyway. You know, this, right now, as we sit here, he's given over $100,000 a month in his, in his offering to the church. Over $100,000 a month. And you'd say, that can never be me. This dude was broke. You know what happened as a result of him starting to give? God started giving him business ideas. That's a wild concept. What if, what if God is waiting on you to release something new in your life? Seriously, this, this guy, one of the crazy things about this story is this guy actually lives off of 10 to 15% of his income. The rest of his income, he gives to God. That's crazy, right? Now, let's also be real. The dude is obviously making a lot of money. So 10 to 15% is, is pretty good, but that's besides the point. This guy is choosing instead of living lavishly, instead of doing all the things he could do for himself, he's given it to the kingdom of God. And, and honestly, it's, it's changing, it's changing the world. It's changing the people around him.

And, and I wonder how many, how many of you guys are interested in investing and growing something? I am. As a businessman, you know, you got to think about people that run businesses. They invest, good businesses invest back in their business, right? People that, people that don't invest back in their business, usually stay super stagnant. They never really get anywhere. But people that invest back in their business, they build more buildings, they hire more staff, they start to grow. And I wonder, what if we started looking at the church as an opportunity to invest, not just in a building, but in people to hire more staff, right? Not, not actual staff, but in this concept, how many more people can we help? Imagine, imagine this, and this is a possibility, by the way, this is not a, this is also not a fairy tale. If all of us were to give, like we're supposed to give, okay, when God convicts us, I actually believe that every single person that walks off the street, we could help them substantially. But we can't do that currently, right? We still help a lot of people, but we can't help as much as we could if everybody was obedient to God's call. So, not trying to put pressure on you. I'm just trying to say, we're just saying here's speaking truth today, okay? And, and I'll tell you this, just lot of money. I haven't had much. In fact, when I left last year, I took this pretty substantial pay cut. And I'm only telling you that today because I know some of y'all in the room maybe have preconceptions about who I am or what I what I have. And the reality is, is I don't have much. I don't want to have much. That's, that's not my goal. In fact, made my wife, you know, we have given, given, given to the kingdom over and over again. And it's not because I want credit. Nobody even knows it. Nobody even knows it. We give because this is a principle in God's word. And he says, when I give that I, I, Chris Craig, get an opportunity to bring glory to God. And I don't know, sorry. I don't know about you and where you're at, but my life, I want my life to bring glory to God. Matthew 6, verse 19 through 21 says, don't store up treasures here on earth. Where moss eat them. And rush destroys them. Where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures, treasures in heaven. Where moss and rust can not destroy and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. That is a word from the Lord Jesus. And I'm telling you today, you can tell what you value by what you spend your money on.

Don't, don't, do not say, well, that church, that church, no. That doesn't negate God's principle of giving. Listen to me. The way a somebody decides to use your money is on them. They will have to answer to that. And I'll tell you, I'm more scared of that than anything else. I fear the Lord. And, and, and whenever you give, if you're giving to get, that's the wrong heart anyway. But if you're giving to give glory to the Father, if you're giving to His name, there you go. That's the right spot to be in. So let's see what God can do with our gifts as we, we move on with this. The third thing that I think is super important and what we'll end with today is we've talked about gifts. We've talked about giving. The third thing to make the kingdom of God move forward is your time. Time given to heaven costs now. But echoes forever. Time given now, it's time, time given to heaven costs now, but echoes forever. Second Corinthians 4, 17 through 18. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Some of us need to take that Bible verse and stick it to the fridge, stick it to our forehead, get it tatted on our arms. Something because we hit trouble and we're like, "The world is collapsing." Some of you are laughing because I'm literally describing your life. It says, "Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever." So we don't look at the troubles we can see now. Rather we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. It's a different perspective, isn't it? So the time we give to heavenly causes will mean more than anything we could ever do here on earth. Can we all have that perspective? And if we all have that perspective, what could God do? So I got another question for you. What do you deem as the best use of your time? And be honest. I want you to think about that. What do you think is the best use of your time? Some of you guys will say, "Work." Some of you will say, "Church service." But here's the deal. What do you think? what are we doing? We're just consumers, right? We're just consuming something. But what I have to tell you today is when you use your time and when you say God, I'm taking time out of my month, out of my year, out of my day to serve you.

God can do exceedingly more than you could ever ask, think or imagine with your yes. And so I think it's vitally important that as we're looking through, looking through these, uh, these different ways that, that we acknowledge that all of us in this room, say all of us, we all have gifts and we need to use them, right? And, and then the second thing we need to do acknowledge is the fact that our finances actually do matter in the church. They actually do matter. And, and when we give them, God can get glory and people can be helped. That's what Satan doesn't want to happen. And thirdly, when we give our time to God and his kingdom, he can use that time and literally multiply it beyond our ability to do, to do that, uh, he can do it. And, and he can bless many through your obedience. Check out John chapter 12, verses 25 through 26, those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. That is so backwards to the world, isn't it? Anyone who wants to serve me must follow me because my servants must be where I am and the father will honor anyone who serves me. Do you want to be where God is? I'm serious. That's the, that's the churchy question and answer. We're always going to say, yes. Does our life reflect that? Does our life reflect that we want to be where Jesus is? Because the reality is if our, if our answer is yes, then our life should reflect that. And our life will essentially do a few things, right? In our life, we're going to see our gifts being used. We're going to see our time being used for God. We're going to see our finances being used. Everything that we have will give glory to God when our yes is connected with our

lifestyle. And, and I'm not trying to say anybody in here is not measuring up. Do not hear me saying that. If you hear me saying that, you're hearing from the enemy. It's not about getting everything perfect. Ain't none of us perfect. None of us have it all right. But what we can do is say yes to God every chance we get without nose in between. You know what I'm saying? And, and, and for me, you know, there was a lot of times where God was calling me to something. In fact, it was to this church. When I got the phone call, how long has that been 11 years ago? I got the phone call for the first time and I was talking to Pastor Pacer. He said, you got this worship spot open. What do you have to give? No, I didn't say that. We started talking. And, but before that backup was told about the opportunity. And I immediately said, no, didn't pray about it. Nothing. I just said, no, because I was in a situation where I felt like I had given a commitment to someone and I needed to honor that. And, and so I just said, no, well, praise the Lord for Timber Craig. She said, can we at least pray about it? I said, baby, I'm just kidding. I said, yes. And, and so we started praying about it and the Lord kept saying, go, go. And then I'll talk to Pastor Pacer on the phone. And when I tell you that we connected in a way, it was supernatural. I don't even know this guy, but I felt like I knew him my whole life. And we were connected on every point. And we went, we said yes to God. If I hadn't missed the last 10 years of what God has done here, I could have. You realize that? I could have missed it by saying no. What are you missing today? What are you missing because you're unwilling to say yes? God wants you to change your trajectory right here, right now in this service. So I got three questions for you as we, as we end off. You

Where have you invested? And I'm not just talking about money right there. Talking about all the other things, your gift, your time. Where have you invested? Is it the right place? Second question, after hearing today's message, what is God speaking to you? I think this is vitally important. We hear a message and we say, oh, that was a good point and we leave. I want you to think about what God is specifically speaking to you so that you know God has spoken to you as an individual. What does God spoke to you today? Specific. What part of the message was like pinpointed for you? And will you invest your gifts, your finances, and your time for the kingdom? Will you bring glory to God? I want you to ponder on those questions today. Go back and reference them online, whatever you need to do. But honestly, I felt like the Lord gave me those questions for you today. And those are questions. If you pay attention to the gospels, Jesus always, when somebody would ask him a question, he would answer any question. Because here's what questions do. They make you think. They make you ponder. They make you actually look at yourself more than two seconds. And they make you be honest. I feel like the Lord is asking questions today to you. The final one being, are you ready for life change? Are you ready for eternity change? So if everybody would bow your head, close your eyes, anybody looking around? If you would say today that God spoke to me about something in my life, I need to shift and I need to change. About any of these points, if that was you today, with nobody looking around, I want you to slip up your hand real quick. Right now. Amen. Amen. Hands all over the room. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Listen, those people that raised your hand, I want you to know what God has spoken to you. You just confirmed it with your hand race. And I want you to take it seriously. Don't leave here. Go to lunch and forget about it. I want you to really, really ponder how you can accomplish what God has convicted you about. Whether that's serving in the church, whether that's time in the church, whether that's giving in the church, whatever it is, it's important that you follow through. I ask the prayer team to come up right now. The second question that I have for you is the most important one. If you have felt the tug of the Holy Spirit calling you to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior today. And you've been white knuckling that your kneecap or your chair.

Today is the day to accept Jesus as your Savior. And so with every head bowed, every eye closed, right now, I want you to do something brave for me. And I want you to lift your hand. If you want to accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord today, right now, let the hand go up. Come on. Amen. Amen. Anybody else? Amen. All right. So to you, I just want to say this is your moment to come forward with another believer and to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Listen, I'm not pressuring you to come up. You can do it in your seat, both of these things. So whatever you decide is completely on you. But here's what I don't want you to do. Not respond. So whatever it is, however it needs to be done, respond today. So let's pray together and we're going to have a song and just worship one last time before we leave. Heavenly Father God, we come to you right now. Your power is in this place. We have felt your presence here. Thank you for being with us today. Thank you for sharing your word, Lord Jesus. Thank you for using gifts in this room today. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving us grace to use those gifts. Thank you, Lord, for the ability to praise you and to thank you for your sacrifice. And God, I pray for those in the room today that they feel like they need to accept you as Lord and Savior. I pray that they would not shy away, but they would press into that, but that they would come to you right now. Lord, you are mocked, beaten, and rejected, and crucified, and you rose again so that we could be together for eternity. And Lord, I pray right now for those people that are lost. God we give you all the glory We give you all the honor We give you all the credit for everything that you've done today and everything you're still gonna do in these next few minutes In Jesus name we pray amen [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] ♪ Walk me from the darkness into glorious light ♪ - Thank you Father for Jesus. Thank you for His blood. Thank you for all that that means to this God. And I know that right now we don't even comprehend what all that blood means. It's everything and more. And we just thank you Father. We love you. Thank you for being in this place today God. I pray for every person watching, especially those watching in the correctional facilities today. God, I pray for a special touch from them. God let them feel how much you love them. Lord, to the one, or maybe more than one, I don't know that's saying, God, if you're even real, if you're even hearing me, God, just show me. God, I pray right now you show that one. Show them how much you love them,

and that you sent your son to shed his blood for them. And Lord, we just love you so much, and we just thank you and praise you, and Jesus might be named. Amen. (applause)