Mattering Week 2: The One Who Pays | Pastor David Oliver | Northplace Church

pastoring North Place Church in the Dallas Fort Worth area for almost 20 years. We're one church that meets in multiple locations even on multiple continents and today you are one of those locations. The church is not about buildings it is about people and we have the privilege today of sharing the hope of the gospel with you right where you are. There is no way I can know exactly what you're going through or dealing with right now but for almost 30 years I have preached about a God who I know I am confident knows you your struggles knows the very hairs on your head and the thoughts that you think before you think them and he is passionately in love with you and our prayer today is that in our time together you feel our love for you and his presence and we pray that this time together gives you hope. Thank you for joining us. Well good morning North Place Church would you stand to your feet this morning as we sing and worship the Lord and sing about the victory that we have in Jesus. Come on. ♪ Lost without hope and dead in my sin. ♪ ♪ Said free by the blood of the Lamb. ♪ ♪ A prisoner in chains, your grace took my place. ♪ ♪ I'm free forever. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Lost without hope and dead in my sin. ♪ ♪ Said free by the blood of the Lamb. ♪ ♪ A prisoner in chains, your grace took my place. ♪ ♪ I'm free forever. ♪ ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, I'm free. ♪ ♪ You paid the price for me. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, I'm free. ♪ ♪ You are my me too. ♪ ♪ Now through the darkness I make the way. ♪ ♪ There's nothing you love cannot do. ♪ ♪ I had a hope. ♪ ♪ My life's not my own. Salvation, salvation is mine. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, I'm free. ♪ ♪ You paid the price for me. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, I'm free. ♪ ♪ You are my me too. ♪ ♪ We hold the promise of what's yet to come. ♪ ♪ My Savior in heaven I'll see. ♪ ♪ In fullness of glory, all the redeemed. ♪ ♪ We'll bow down and worship the King. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, I'm free. ♪ ♪ You paid the price for me. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, I'm free. ♪ ♪ You are my me too. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, I'm free. ♪ ♪ You paid the price for me. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, I'm free. ♪ ♪ You are my me too. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. ♪

♪ I'm free, I'm free. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free. ♪ ♪ Come on, does anyone in the room today who is free? ♪ We've been an incredible journey over the last few weeks called mattering where we've been on the quest for meaning together. And if you go back to intro part one in the series where it talks about an opportunity for you to engage with the invitation. And I want to read from the guide today. If you haven't gotten yours, they're available out in the lobby. Small groups have been absolutely incredible, amazing conversations that have been taking place. But I want to read today from its page 22, and it says the invitation of Jesus is not just to believe something new, it's to follow Him. And following always requires leaving something behind. Today, we have the incredible opportunity to celebrate life chains that is happening through water back to them. And we get to celebrate with people who are making a public declaration that they have stepped into the invitation that Jesus has extended to them. They have said yes, and when they go into the water, they're declaring we are leaving the old behind and stepping into the new creation that He has given us. So today you and I get to celebrate with new life. We get to celebrate with those who are making a public declaration that I have said yes to Jesus and my life has been changed because of it. And so as we sing today, as we declare these songs about who God is, we're going to sing today in North Place original that just released that declares about the holiness of God. Because it is when we recognize His holiness that we also see how desperate we are in need of a Savior. And His grace meets us there every single time. So Lord today, we celebrate with those who have made the commitment to say yes to following you. Lord, we celebrate your grace, we celebrate your goodness, we celebrate your mercy today, and we thank you for who you are. Holy is the name of the Lord. We exalt you today. Jesus, you're worthy of our worship. Would you be honored in everything that we do today? In Jesus' name, Amen, and Amen. Come on, will you join us as we celebrate God's faith in us? Before the year it started, God, you were God, you were God, you were God, you were God. You were God, you were God, you were God, you were God, you were God, you were God, you were God. You were God, you were God, you were God, you were God, you were God, you were God. Holy, Lord Almighty, all of heaven filled with praise. Jesus, worthy is human. Holy, we cry, holy.

Stand in order of your grace, every nation I believe. We stand in order, before I fall, I wake up. You call me yours, and now I know, through every season, God near before. Holy, Lord Almighty, all of heaven filled with praise. Jesus, worthy is human. Holy, we cry, holy. Stand in order, before I fall, I wake up. ♪ Jesus, where Jesus is going ♪ ♪ For me ♪ ♪ Christ, hold me ♪ ♪ And you want to love us ♪ ♪ Let every nation ♪ (audience applauds) ♪ Jesus, I love you ♪ ♪ And you need just by ♪ ♪ Creation finds out ♪ ♪ Holy are you ♪ ♪ In one place ♪ ♪ We joined the soul of heaven above ♪ ♪ Holy are ♪ ♪ Come on, can we sing that together today? ♪ ♪ I know ♪ ♪ The angel ♪ ♪ Lame our own creation ♪ ♪ Rise out ♪ ♪ Holy are ♪ ♪ And with one voice ♪ ♪ We join ♪ ♪ We join the soul of heaven above ♪ ♪ Holy are you ♪ ♪ And I know a name ♪ ♪ We choose by ♪

♪ Creation finds out ♪ ♪ Holy are you ♪ ♪ In one place ♪ ♪ We join the soul of heaven above ♪ ♪ Holy are you ♪ ♪ And I know a name ♪ ♪ Holy ♪ ♪ You're all right in me ♪ ♪ One heaven filled with praise ♪ ♪ Jesus, where is your name ♪ ♪ Holy ♪ ♪ We are holy ♪ ♪ Standing ones around your face ♪ ♪ Every nation ♪ ♪ We're standing ones around your name ♪ ♪ Oh it's the name ♪ ♪ I'm the name of Jesus, everything changes ♪ ♪ So holy are you Lord ♪ ♪ In holy ♪ ♪ Holy, holy ♪ ♪ Through my life I will see ♪ ♪ Holy, holy ♪ ♪ Holy, holy ♪ ♪ Holy, holy ♪ (audience applauding) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Worthy of every song that ends ♪ ♪ Worthy of all the praise we could have been ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could have been ♪

♪ Jesus, the name above every other ♪ ♪ Jesus, the only one who could ever see ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could have been ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could have been ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could have been ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could have been ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could have been ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could have been ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could have been ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath we could have been ♪ ♪ I'm gonna leave ♪ ♪ Love's around, love's around, love's around ♪ ♪ I'm on my side, love's around ♪ ♪ One's just the name above and the other ♪ ♪ All you want, all you want ♪ ♪ Jesus, the only one on my face ♪ ♪ All you want is worth, worth, worth ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ It feels ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Holy, there is no one right here ♪ ♪ There is no desire ♪ ♪ Oh, without my eyes in luck ♪ ♪ Show me who you are and I'm friendly ♪ ♪ With your heart healing ♪ ♪ In love to those around ♪ ♪ Holy, there is no one right here ♪ ♪ There is no desire ♪ ♪ Oh, without my eyes in luck ♪ ♪ Show me who you are and I'm friendly ♪

♪ With your heart healing ♪ ♪ In love to those around ♪ ♪ Love's good ♪ ♪ Oh, I will build my life upon your love ♪ ♪ It is a firm foundation ♪ ♪ I will put my trust in you, oh ♪ ♪ And I will not be safe ♪ ♪ I will build my life upon your love ♪ ♪ I will build my life upon your love ♪ ♪ It is a firm foundation ♪ ♪ I will put my trust in you, oh ♪ ♪ And I will not be safe ♪ ♪ Holy, there is no one right here ♪ ♪ There is no desire ♪ ♪ Oh, without my eyes in luck ♪ ♪ Show me who you are and I'm friendly ♪ ♪ With your heart healing ♪ ♪ In love to those around ♪ ♪ Holy, there is no one right here ♪ ♪ There is no desire ♪ ♪ Oh, without my eyes in luck ♪ ♪ Show me who you are and I'm friendly ♪ ♪ With your heart healing ♪ ♪ In love to those around ♪ ♪ I will build my life upon your love ♪ ♪ It is a firm foundation ♪ ♪ I will put my trust in you, oh ♪ ♪ And I will not be safe ♪ (audience applauds) - Good morning, North Place.

So good to be with you today. Just want to also welcome in all of our campuses. Come on, Saksa, would you help me welcome Wylie Garland, our online family, men and women, and correctional facilities all over the world. Thank you for being here for week two of our mattering series. We had two introductory messages. We had an incredible first week, last week, small groups. So how many enjoy your small groups so far? When God's moving, blessing your relationships. Today's week two. So four weeks into the eight week journey together. And I really do believe from the bottom of my heart that lives are being changed. I know for me, God's been challenging me. I really do believe today, specifically though, it's really a pivotal, we're at the halfway point, it's a pivotal moment in the journey where how we respond to the word of God today, So if you got your Bibles, you can go with me to Ruth chapter 4, Ruth chapter 4. And in this story, we're going to see a little bit. We're going to get a hint of the idea that we're addressing in this second week of mattering the quest for meaning. Ruth chapter 4, starting in verse 1, says Boaz went to the town gate and took a seat there. Just then, the family redeemer he had mentioned came by. So Boaz called out to him, come over here and sit down, friend. I want to talk to you.

So they sat down together. Then Boaz called 10 leaders from the town and asked them to sit as witnesses. And Boaz said to the family redeemer, you know Naomi, who came back from Moab, she is selling the land that belonged to our relative, Alimaleq. I thought I should speak to you about it so that you can redeem it if you wish. If you want the land, then buy it here in the presence of these witnesses. But if you don't want it, let me know right away because I am next in line to redeem it after you. The man replied, all right, I'll redeem it. Then Boaz told him, of course, your purchase of the land from Naomi also requires that you marry Ruth the Moabite widow. That way she can have children who will carry on her husband's name and keep the land in the family. Well, then I can't redeem it. The family redeemer replied, because this might endanger my own estate. You redeem the land. I cannot do it. What we're going to see in this week, what you can see in your guides, if you haven't gotten one already, they're available in the lobby after the service. There's a concept embedded in every quest. Something that we're going to have to understand

if we're going to live and experience the life that matters. I'm going to speak to you about that concept. I'm going to speak to you for the next few minutes on what it means to be the one who pays. The one who pays. Because when it comes to living a life that matters, the question you need to ask yourself is will you be the one who pays? Last week we discussed Jesus' definition of this significant life. And in Matthew 5, he gives us the prescription. And there's two parts. He says, you got to understand and know at your core that you are the light of the world. Because I have made you that. I have declared that over you and spoken that to you. But then as the light of the world, I want you to go and let your light shine before others. And this idea that Jesus presented thousands of years ago has resurfaced in a way, an idea that researchers and modern sociologists call the mattering equation. And the mattering equation is simply this. It's knowing you are valued and adding value to others. If those things are happening, then mattering begins to occur in our hearts. And what I have found over the course of this series, and even just in study, preparing for it, what I have found is that that equation sounds great theoretically. It makes sense intellectually, even saying it and imagining that life feels good emotionally

until I come face to face with a genuine moment where I must add value to someone else and realize that there is a genuine cost to adding value. And if there's a cost to adding value, that means there's a cost to a significant life. And recently, strangely, it kind of reminds me of a memory that happened just a few weeks ago regarding one of my all-time favorite snacks. Are there any snackers in the room? You know what I'm talking like? Like, you don't even do meals, you know what I mean? I guess it's just like, it's just little bits of snacks throughout the day. I'm not much of a snacker, specifically, I'm not much of a candy person. But I do think if there's something in the 21st century that gives us just a glimpse into the man of from heaven that Israel would have had in their 40 years of the wilderness, it's the blue nerds' clusters, any nerds' clusters, people. I mean, it's the closest thing to heaven you're gonna get. I mean, it's amazing, it's incredible. And just, it's one of my favorite snacks and just the other day. At my youngest sister's housewarming party, we were moving her and some of her roommates in and a lot of our friends and a lot of the staff was there and two of our younger staff kids, there were some nerds' clusters and they're both right around two years old. Layup and Camila and they were hanging out together

and they were kind of doing this test with them with the nerds' clusters. So they took two nerds' clusters and they put it under a paper towel in front of Layup and then they put a paper towel with no nerds' clusters in front of Camila. And then they pulled the paper towels you already know what would happen. You're not getting any nerds clusters, right? And for a solid few minute window, Leia just is in deep, the most contemplation you can get from a two year old. I mean, just looking at the candy, and then looking at her, and looking back at the candy. It's just like she is torn. She is really struggling here. And then she does the most incredible thing. You saw a picture of the nerds clusters. She takes the cluster, and then she takes a single solitary nerd off of the cluster. And she gives it to Camila, and then takes the other two for herself. It was amazing. It was awesome. She did the thing she knew she needed to do with as little cost to her as possible. It's like her face knew, if I give some of what I have to someone else, it means at the end there will be less for me.

And we know, we've seen, we've studied that half of the mattering equation, half of the life that matters is adding value to others. That doesn't take us very long in life to realize that that probably will demand something of me. See, we all want a meaningful life. We just all aren't willing to pay the price for one. We all aren't willing to do what it's gonna take 'cause we know it will cost us time and energy, effort and resources. In 2013, four researchers from different universities that they found a similar result. They published a study in the Journal of Positive Psychology. They called the study some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life. They surveyed 400 adults over and over for a month and they asked them two questions throughout that month. How happy is your life and how meaningful is your life? 'Cause we think those two things have to go hand in hand but the research found that some of the very things making people's lives more meaningful were also the same things making them less happy. So listen to this quote from the study. It said, "Happiness was linked to being a taker "rather than a giver, whereas meaningfulness "went with being a giver rather than a taker. "Hire levels of worry, stress and anxiety "were linked to higher meaningfulness, "a lower happiness." So worry and stress, anxiety all went up in the lives

of the people that said they were living more meaningful lives but the happiness went down because happiness is what you feel when you get. Meaning is what you build in yourself when you give. In other words, what we gotta understand today, the main idea, the meaningful life will always cost you more than the feel good one. The meaningful life is always going to demand more of you. This is why in Luke chapter 10, when a man walks up to Jesus and asks him the famous question, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus doesn't answer the question. He answers with a parable about the good Samaritan, a story of a man who at great cost to himself adds value to someone else. Why does he tell that story? Because the man who asked the neighbor question to Jesus, he's not trying to get more neighbors, he's trying to get less. He wants the smallest circle of people possible to add value to at the smallest cost possible to himself. And so Jesus doesn't answer, instead of telling him who qualifies as his neighbor, he tells him this is what it's gonna cost for you to actually go and be one. And Jesus says, "The neighbor in the story "is not the one who smiles at the hurting man, "it's not the one who felt pity, "it's not the one who was sorry "for what the guy was going through.

"The person who matters in that story is the one who pays." It's the one who pays, the one who matters who's more significant is the one who absorbed the cost, which is why James would say in James chapter two, "Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes "and daily food. "If one of you says to them, "go in peace, keep warm and well fed. "Modern day translation, I'm praying for you." I'm praying for you. If your brother or sister is in need and you just say go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 'Cause those things we say, they're nice and they're maybe even true, but they cost us absolutely nothing. And matter always comes with a cost. Matter always comes with a price. meaning by adding value to others, there's three things you got to see and understand about the price of this quest, the cost of this journey. First thing that you have to see number one is that the cost is just part of following Jesus. The cost is just part of what it means to be a Christ follower. One of Jesus' most famous declarations over his disciples is in Luke 9 where he says, then he said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

The words therefore deny themselves as arneomae, arne sas though, and it's the same verb that Luke uses later when Peter publicly denies Jesus by saying, I don't know him. So when he says it's time for you to deny yourself, he's essentially saying to deny yourself is to say about you what Peter says about Jesus, I don't know him. When you and I are together, what he's asking of me, David? I don't know, David. I know you, David. I don't see David. I see you. I don't really care about what David wants. I care about what you want. I want to add value to you. So this means denying yourself is not self-hatred. It's the call of Jesus to follow in his footsteps and renounce myself as the organizing center of my life. It means I stop being the point of it all. And then Jesus hits us with the wammy and he says, I want you to do that every day. I want you to do that all the time, meaning this isn't about the big one time dramatic moments where you help somebody or the big heroic sacrifices. I heard it when I was studying this week. I heard someone put it this way. They said, man, I'll take a bullet for you. Just please don't ask me to help you move. And they're saying, man, I'll do the big thing when the moment comes, but Jesus is calling me to a recurring appointment of death to myself through daily, ordinary, small decisions of

sacrifice for the good of other people. So if you're waiting for the verse where Jesus says, he's fine with you, loving people from a distance, and it never costing you anything, you're going to miss out on what it means to matter. This is why all throughout the New Testament, we see cost language associated with helping other people. Luke 14 says, but when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Why? Because they cannot repay you. Philippians two, three, through four, do nothing from selfless ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others as more significant than yourselves. Let each of you not look only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. 2 Corinthians 12, I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls, Paul said, because if I love you more, does that mean that I'm loved any less? And then Romans 13, eight, let no debt remain outstanding, accept the continuing debt to love one another for whoever loves us, fulfill the law. Paul saying here in Romans 13, when it comes to counting costs in your life, make sure you take care of all your debts, make sure that you and others are paid fairly for what is owed, but the only cost I don't ever want you paid back for is whatever it costs you to love someone else. Have no debts among you except this one, whatever it takes to love people. Now, no one be here, it's stacked up like that, deny yourself daily, spend and be spent.

Be the one who pays, it doesn't sound like mattering, it sounds like loss, it sounds like sacrifice where you just keep handing pieces of yourself away for God and for others. And to some extent, you're right. That's part of what it means to follow Jesus. That's part of what he asks of us, but that's also how everything valuable works. The meaningful things in your life are the things that you really value took more effort, more money and more time. The meaningful life is the more expensive one, but the Bible says that life is so worth it, that life and that sense of significance you get from mirroring God to the people around you through love and adding value to them, it is so worth living, theologian, author and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he explained that kind of life in that idea like this. He says it is costly because it costs a man his life and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. So you understand first, it's just part of following Jesus, it's the life He's invited us to enter. But second, and maybe a little more uniquely, you've got to see number two, that the value is found in the cost to the giver, to the one who gives it. God sees the value in what you're doing, not necessarily in just the action, but in what that action costs you. The most classic example of this to maybe help you understand what I'm talking about can be found in one of the gospel's most famous stories, Mark 12, where it says, "And he Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny, and he called his disciples to them, to him, and said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the

offering box, for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on." So she comes in and puts two coins while everyone else. If you want to talk about what was more valuable, what was more costly from the human standard and worldly perspective, they were miles beyond her, but Jesus as she put in more because he's giving us the way that heaven counts the cost of our sacrifice and our adding value to other people. Really, what God's trying to help us see, but Jesus, what we have to understand about the cost is, according to God, the value in what you do is not measured by what left your hand, but what was left in your hand after. It's not, did I do more than the other person, it's, did that cost me something? Was that sacrificial love on my behalf for the good of someone or something else? Which is why Paul would say in St. Corinthians 8, 12, "For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have." He's not asking you to add value to someone else or to sacrifice for someone else in a way that you can't do or in the way that you saw someone else do. He's asking you to look inward and to ask the question, "What is it going to cost me? What's in my heart to do? What does this sacrifice actually mean to me?" Because there will be situations in people that will cost you different things at different times. Some will cost you time and some will cost you effort. Some will cost you money, some brain power. Some will cost you intentionality and some will cost you a weekend. And if you're a parent, one kid can cost you all of those in 24 hours. Different people cost you different things. If those things come around, don't just ask, "Well, what am I supposed to give?" Ask, "What would be hardest for me to give?" Which one of these would cost me the most? Which are my most hesitant to sacrifice?

Maybe that's choosing to slow down and check on someone at work that has no opportunity to move you forward or move you higher, but just for the good of that person. Maybe it's your line at the groceries pay for the groceries of the single mom who's behind you who's got one kid in the car, one kid on her hand and her purse just fell down and you just know I'm just going to take care of this for her. Maybe for some of us it's I need to open my home and keep the kids of my family, friends who their marriage is struggling and they just need a night to work through things and start talking to things and I'm just going to, I'm going to keep the kids and I'm not going to charge them per hour and I'm just going to do that as a blessing. I don't know what it would be, but I need to pay attention to the areas where I'm slow to pay the cost because I can always find my idols and fears there. If I really hesitate to add value to my family and my friends with my words, maybe I have a fear of vulnerability or maybe I value my image too much. If I have a fear, if I tense up every time someone shows up with a financial need, I might mean money is on the throne of my heart or I have a deep fear of not having enough. God and his love when it comes to paying the cost and teaching you a life that matters, God and his love will not let you circumvent and move around those areas. He's going to keep bringing people into your life and people into those spaces to change and transform your heart. He calls us to pay the cost in the exact spot oftentimes that we are most reluctant to pay it. And the unexpected consequences, I begin to change. It helps them, it adds value to them, but also. So don't wait until your heart is ready to add value to people in situations and circumstances. Don't wait until you feel it, don't wait until... My favorite is, "God, do you want me to help this person?" What a silly prayer. Yes. Why? Because you are the light of the world. And let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

So how? But then that really kind of brings me to a how question. When I study this, when I work with this, I go, "That sounds great." Kind of doesn't sound great, but I get it. I'm ready to follow Jesus. But what you're really saying is that he wants me to do this over and over. How can I be expected to just keep giving and giving and giving and adding and adding and adding? Because my question becomes, "Well, who's going to add to me? Who's going to take care of me? Who's going to replenish my reserves?" So we've seen the cost is part of following Jesus. The value in that cost is in what it costs you. But to do it sustainably, you have to understand number three, the cost is paid from an infinite supply. From an infinite supply. Jesus is asking you to give it all for others. But if you've put your faith in Jesus, you've got to know you have a never-ending inflow from the grace, strength, power, and love of Christ. It is the only way you can continually pay the cost. So why Paul would say to the Corinthians and Saint Corinthians 9, "And God is able." Did you forget he is able? God is able to bless you abundantly. Why? So that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. You say, "When you live this way, when you live dead to self, crucified with Christ so that he can move through you, he will bless you so that in all things, at all times, giving you all that you need, you can abound in every good work to everyone, everywhere, all the time." And then there's two verses later in verse 10. He says, "This is the God, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness." You will be enriched in every way. Why? To be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanks to even the God. Leave that verse up there because notice it doesn't say he multiplies the results. He says he's going to multiply the seed and seed is for sowing. We spend our life consumed about the harvest, which is why we don't give to anybody. I don't add to others because I worked hard for this harvest. God's saying, "I'll take care of the harvest, but I'm going to multiply your seed so you can keep what?" Adding to other people, sowing to other people, blessing generously to other people. That's how it works in the kingdom. We always assume that adding value to you means subtraction

for me. But God says, "When I pour out, he refills my cup." But God says, "When I give, he's going to return it back to me, not always with the same thing that I gave, but always with enough to meet my needs and help me keep pouring, and help me keep giving, and help me keep serving and adding." Which is why he reminds us in Philippians 4 and 19, "My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Not according to my strength or my reserve or my resources, but according to his riches. And you got to remember today that his riches are an infinite supply. That the God who is asking you to pour out owns a cattle on a thousand hills. That the God who asks you to pour out is literally right now walking streets of gold. The stuff we spend our life so concerned about hoarding and keeping to ourselves. It's the asphalt he walks on. So when he asks you to just pour out your life, he's got everything you need to take care of you. He hasn't sure you have access to that infinite supply. How? In your guides this week, there's a section in, in week chapter two, "Cost that talks about the idea of where we define and determine value in today's world in an economic sense." What it says is we determine the value of something by three things. Who made it? What it's made of, and what someone is wearing. Think about it logically, a painting's worth more when there's a certain signature on the back. A ring is worth more depending on the materials that it's made of, and at the end of the day, a thing is worth exactly what somebody is willing to put on the table for it. So when we talk about the internal value, knowing you are valued by God, the internal value you have as the place to overflow from as you add value to others, you got to understand the supply and the value intrinsic to you that you can pull from, because who made you? Who made you? You are not a cosmic accident or an earthly mistake. You were formed from the very hands and mind of God by the greatest artist in the universe. What are you made of? You are made in that God's very image, which means you are endowed with destiny and with dignity. And if you're here today and you've given your life to Jesus, you are literally now the

living, breathing temple of the Spirit of God. What are you made of? Something supernatural, something insanely powerful and precious to God. And what was someone willing to pay for you? First Peter, chapter 1 says, "For you know that it was not with perishable things, such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors." You were purchased with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect, not with silver or gold paid for, with the precious blood of a spotless lamb, which means your value is not set by your performance, your value is not set by what you produce, your value is not set by your pedigree or your title or your bank account or the worst day of your life, your value was set at Calvary by what the Son of God was willing to pay for you. And if that's true, if my value isn't dictated and swayed by the things of this life, my value has been set in stone written in blood by Jesus and His sacrifice for me. I can always afford that value to someone else. I can always afford to do it, to pay the cost, to be the one who pays, which brings us right back to where we started, a simple meeting of two men, 10 witnesses at a town gate, two men who both had the legal rights to redeem Naomi's property and two men who did the math. And the first man when he sees what the land could give him is all in until he hears that the land comes with the price, the Moabite widow. And he literally says, he says, I can't redeem it, why? Because it might endanger my own estate. I can't pay that price because it's going to cost me too much. Adding to her means subtraction from me and then Boast ends up and looking past the cost to what was on the other side of that decision, Boast says, I'll be the one who pays. That person in scripture who would redeem is what's called a Kinsman Redeemer. In Hebrew it's the words go L and a go L had to be three things. A go L had to be a relative close enough to have the right to redeem. They had to be able to actually pay the cost and they had to be willing to do it.

Do you not see? How can I pay the cost? How can I give in this way, look to the one who did it for me? Do we not see Jesus as the Kinsman Redeemer? Jesus paid the price once and for all. He had to be close enough so he left heaven, stripped off his royal and became flesh and bone. Why? To pay the price. He had to be close enough. He had to be able to pay and no one else in the history of the world could pay the price for our sin and for our debt and he had to be willing and he wanted to. He had to be close and able and willing the desire of his heart to bring you home. Because when heaven, when Jesus looked at everything it would mean for him to save and redeem you. He did not say the price is too high. He did not say this will endanger my own estate. He looked at a bride who could never repay him and he paid anyway. He became the one who pays now forever and always. So the only question left is will you follow in his example? Will you pick up your cross and trust Him to meet your every need? Will you empty yourself for others despite what it may mean and cost so that they can experience this great love? Will you follow in the example of our King of our Lord of Jesus? Late pastor and author Timothy Keller was once approached by a woman in his church who said that she was afraid of the sacrifice of Jesus and afraid of the cost of grace. And when Tim asked her why she was afraid, she said this to him. She said, "If I was saved by my good works, then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through.

I would be like a taxpayer with rights. I would have done my duty, and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace." Notice what she says, "At God's infinite cost, then there's nothing he cannot ask of me." If I've earned this, if I've done my part, God owes me a life that matters because I paid for it. But if it's free, if it's from His love and the bounties of His heart, infinite cost to Him, and if He tells me to love people, I've got to love people. If He tells me to lay it all down, I lay it all down. If He tells me to go to the darkest corners of the world to spread the love of Jesus, I'll go to the darkest corners of the world. If He tells me to cross the street and serve my neighbor, I'll go across the street and serve my neighbor. If He at infinite cost to Himself died for me, there's nothing off the table in adding value to you. Whatever I can do, whatever I can go to follow in His footsteps, the one who calls me valuable and calls me deeper into a life of meaning. Just stand with me and cross this room. I'm going to invite the prayer team before it. I think some of us, we just need to sit with the reality of what this messaged me is, this is not a message to understand here as much as it is to live when we leave. But if you're here today, you've never heard of the God who was willing to pay a cost and price for you so high to save and redeem you from your brokenness. He's worth giving your life to. He's worth denying yourself and laying it and leaving it behind to follow after Him. And if you're ready today to give your life to Jesus, there's nothing this team would love more than to pray that prayer with you and introduce you to the one who makes life worth living, who makes your life matter. But for the rest of us today as we go, there are idols we need to lay down,

fears we need to surrender, things that have been keeping us and holding us back from following the example of Jesus in serving and loving the world around us, even if they can never repay. And we need to ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with courage and with faith and with a reminder of the grace that's been bestowed to us, to empower us to walk out of here as people who really matter, not by the world's standards, but by the life of laying down who we are so that all will know and all will see the goodness of our God. So Jesus, would you help us today to deny ourselves, to leave it all behind, to follow you, to follow in your footsteps, Lord. Give us the faith and the strength, fill us with boldness to love deeper, to love uniquely, to see others we may not normally see and to follow in your example. Lord, as we go and live this, I ask that you would bless them and keep them. You would make your face shine down upon them. You would be gracious to them. Turn your countenance in their direction and give them peace. Jesus, tonight, amen. These altars are open today. God bless you. Hey friends, I just wanted to spend a second with you at the end of this message today and just encourage you if in some way you've made a spiritual decision. Maybe you've given your life to Christ today. You've recently given your life to Christ. You want to talk to somebody about giving your life to Christ. Our team would love to help you. We're on the Pando app and have several ministries into various prisons because God has called us to you. We have a heart for forgotten people and forgotten places and that means we serve widows and we serve orphans and we serve special needs, kids and God has given us a heart for men and women in the prison system because I believe Jesus died for you. He has a plan and a purpose for your life and we want to help you know that and discover that.

there is an address on the screen that you can communicate with. a decision to follow Jesus so that we can resource you and point you to tools that can help you grow. Just know that we're praying over you and we're genuinely honored that you've taken time to watch our channel and these messages from North Place Church. (gentle music) (gentle music)