The Catalyst

Hello church, how you guys doing today? If you just came in, clap your hands. If you're staying here from the previous service, do it again, come on. Hands up. (upbeat music) ♪ Halle, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You get out the praise ♪ ♪ We say, halle, halle, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You get out the praise ♪ ♪ Oh, come on, but you leave now ♪ ♪ Live from the truth, do it again ♪ ♪ That's crazy ♪ ♪ You get out the praise ♪ ♪ We say, halle, halle, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You get out the praise ♪ ♪ Always, oh I've got a god who is home ♪ ♪ He's known for making a way ♪ ♪ And he thought the battle ♪ ♪ So I would have had to ♪ ♪ But glory be loved so he's made a threat ♪ ♪ Oh I've got a god who's been fed ♪ ♪ So more than I could have prayed ♪ ♪ And through every season it's part of my weakness ♪ ♪ He gave me a song like a flesh up here ♪ ♪ I can't you pray ♪ ♪ I can't you pray ♪ ♪ Well that's why I woke up today ♪ ♪ But look ♪ ♪ Well I can't you pray ♪

♪ But together we say ♪ ♪ Halle, halle, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You get out the praise ♪ ♪ Halle, halle, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You get out the praise ♪ ♪ Oh hey ♪ ♪ Oh I've got a king who was fed ♪ ♪ And he put my share in the pain ♪ ♪ Went to hell and back and now I never have to ♪ ♪ And he did it all in three days ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ I can't you pray ♪ ♪ I can't you pray ♪ ♪ I can't you pray ♪ ♪ Well that's why I woke up today ♪ ♪ That's why I woke up today ♪ ♪ You lift up the voices, say ♪ ♪ I think you're great ♪ ♪ A little more music ♪ ♪ I lay, I lay, I lay ♪ ♪ You know, you feel all the pain ♪ ♪ You say, I lay, I lay, I lay ♪ ♪ You feel all the pain ♪ ♪ Always ♪ ♪ You feel all the pain ♪ ♪ I'm feeling more than you ♪ ♪ I'm feeling more ♪ ♪ I'm singing the prayer of the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ I'm singing the prayer ♪ ♪ I'm singing the prayer ♪

♪ I'm singing the prayer ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ I'm singing the prayer ♪ ♪ I'm singing the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ I'm singing the prayer of the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ I'm singing the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪

♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪

♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪

♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ Holy, the rest of our lives ♪ ♪ There is one of them all ♪ ♪ Jesus is holy ♪ (gentle music) There is one on the throne, Jesus is worthy. He is worthy of praise and the honor and glory. The worthy is the man who was landed seated on the throne. There is no one on the throne. The elders, creatures by giving praise to Him and Him alone. There is no one on the throne. Jesus is worthy of praise and the honor and glory. He is worthy of praise and the honor and glory. The worthy is the man who was landed seated on the throne. There is no one like the Lord, the elders, creatures by giving praise to Him and Him alone. There is no one like the Lord, worthy is the man who was landed seated on the throne. There is no one like the Lord, the elders, creatures by giving praise to Him and Him alone. There is no one like the Lord, the elders, creatures by giving praise to Him. So we crown you, King of the Lord, we crown you, King of the Lord, we crown you, King of the Lord. We crown you, King of the Lord, we crown you, King of the Lord, we crown you, King of the Lord. We crown you, King of the Lord, we crown you, King of the Lord, we crown you, King of the Lord. We crown you, King of the Lord, we crown you, King of the Lord, we crown you, King of the Lord. We crown you, King of the Lord, the elders, who was landed seated on the throne. There is no one like the Lord, the elders, creatures by giving praise to Him and Him alone. There is no one like the Lord, the elders, who was landed seated on the throne. There is no one like the Lord, the elders, creatures by giving praise to Him and Him alone. There is no one like the Lord. Death could not hold you, will talk before you. Silence the books

You have no right, oh, you have no equal, now and forever come. You are a force in the kingdom, force in the glory, force in the blood, the power of the dead. The heaven's all are free, the praise of your glory, for you are right, the heaven's all are free, the praise of your glory, for you are right, the praise of your glory, for you are right, the heaven's all are free, for you are asked to love again. You have no right, oh, you have no equal, now and forever come. You are a force in the kingdom, force in the kingdom, force in the glory, force in the blood, the power of the dead. And all are free, the praise of your glory, force in the kingdom, force in the kingdom. You have no right, the heaven's all are free, the power of the dead. There's no one worthy of the praise, the worthy as the Lamb, where we're slain and seated on the throne, there's no one like the Lord. And the elders, creatures, by giving price to women in the Lord, there's no one like the Lord. And while let's keep this worship going, let's keep this worship going right now. Thank you, Jesus. While the scripture tells us that the Lord comes in the still small voice. I know, let's just get, let's just get low before him right now. Let's just have the pads and the piano going right now. Holy Spirit speaks to us. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. [MUSIC] Some of you guys aren't familiar with what just happened. That was the Holy Spirit speaking through the gift of tongues. And we had an interpretation which is all biblical. The Lord gave us a word this morning. We're the seed of Abraham. something for you today as well in this service. And I also know that where Jesus is lifted up, all men are drawn to Himself. And so we just want to give glory right now. If everybody would, let's just give praise to the Lord. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Lord. Thank you Jesus. Come on you guys can do better than that. The King of glory. Come on. We praise you Lord. We praise you Lord. Come on. We crown you King of glory. We crown you King of glory. We crown you King of come on crown Him with your praise. Come on praise Him this morning. We crown you King. Come on. Yes. Come Holy Spirit. Fill us up Lord. Fill us up. Come on speak. We crown you King of glory. Come on. Lift your praise to Him today.

We'll lift our praise. We'll lift our praise. Come on let's sing it again. Scream it. We crown you King of glory. We crown you King of glory. We crown you King of glory. We crown you King of glory. We crown you King of glory. We crown you Lord. So we crown you in this place Lord. You are our King, our Savior, our Lord. Wherever you say to go we follow. Whatever you say to do we obey. Look God we we just want more of you. Whatever it looks like in our lives I pray a blessing over every household represented here today. God we pray for an extra portion of the Abraham blessing on every household right here right now. We ask you to move in broken situations right now what the enemy has tried to disrupt what he has tried to delay. God we ask for accelerated blessing in those situations right now in Jesus name. God we ask right now for those people that are in health situations. Lord it feels like it's not going away it's hanging on it's hanging on. Lord we ask today Lord through their perseverance. Lord would you honor their faith in you Lord they've never stopped believing. They've never stopped believing for their healing and today God I pray that they claim their healing in Jesus name also from the lineage of the Abrahamic seed Lord. We say today that healing is ours in Jesus name. God I pray for every broken prodigal that is new you but has ran away for a moment. Lord I pray for even in the in the prisons today that we're streaming into. Lord I pray that today would be the day that they turn from their wicked ways and see you. You said that the Holy Spirit would send it to all the earth to convict us of our sin. So today Holy Spirit would you convict us Lord of our sin and help us to turn back to you Lord. And Lord finally we pray Lord that our minds would be healed in this place. That you would give us healthy mindsets. Lord that in a day of mental health and things going crazy Lord would you slow us down in Jesus name. Lord would you allow us to see what you want let it allow us to hear what you have to say. And Lord we dispel any attack of the enemy in Jesus name. And we all pray. Amen. All right you guys can be seated today. Thank you so much for being here. How many of you guys are excited to be a House of God? Come on. I didn't know worship team just kill it today. They did incredible. Thank you guys so much. Hey real quick I got two things for you. The first thing is next Sunday is connect one. So if you're here and you have been a new guest and you kind of just been attending off and on or you're here for the first time our connect process is awesome. It's going to be next Sunday at the pavilion at 1130. There's going to be crackle barrel. Come on somebody.

So really, it's just a time to meet Pastor Pacer, his wife Connie, our staff, get to know our church, and then get free lunch on top of it. Don't you say the Lord doesn't provide if you don't show up? Come on, somebody. The Lord wants to provide somebody's lunch. So I think that's going to be a great time, if you haven't done that, please do. If you are a new guest with us, we want to give you a hand clap. Thank you for being with us today. Come on church. Thank you guys for choosing revolution. If you are a new guest with us, we have a connection card in the back of your seat. Please make sure to grab that, fill it out. We have two buckets in the back that you can drop it into. We would love to connect with you. We are a church built on discipleship, not on fancy services. Amen? Amen? All right. Thank you. Hopefully, hopefully that's true, right? So, and then also, did you guys know that we have a school here at Revolution, Pre-K through eighth grade, and drum roll, we have a high school coming next year, ninth grade. The Lord has provided a building here, and it's incredible. We're going to have space to do it, and we are so grateful for what God's doing. And then lastly, actually, I forgot something. Do you guys know that if you make Jesus the Lord of your life today, that we have a free Bible for you on the way out? So make sure on your left, right in the center tables, there will be a free Bible for you. It's got a little insert in there that tells you next steps. What to do after being saved?

This is so important. We get baptized, come on, somebody. And then we follow it up with discipleship, which is a biblical principle, all right? We don't just leave you out lone wolf. That usually leads to people falling away from the faith. And so make sure you do that. And then lastly, we're going to worship God with our giving in this moment. So if you would stand your feet right now, we're going to worship God in a different way. Here's what I believe. The Lord wants all of your heart. It's up to you if you want to give it to him or not. And honestly today, there is a massive blessing. We talk about the Abraham blessing and actually pastors going to talk about that some today as well on this message. Listen, the blessings of Abraham are waiting on you, okay? And one of the ways that we do that, you know the first person to tithe? Guess who? Come on, somebody. Abraham, listen, he knew the principle of giving every part of his life, not just pieces of it. And so today, if you would follow the Lord in your giving, I know that he's going to bless you. The Bible says that what we sow, we will reap. Listen to me, have you ever planted a seed and God just won fruit out of it? Probably not, right? You plant tomatoes, you plant one seed, you get like a bunch, right? And so we know that seeds multiply. God can take your gift and he can multiply it beyond what you could ask, think, or imagine. Some of you guys, listen to me very closely on this and I'm going to shut up. Some of you guys need to build doorways with your finances.

Listen to me, if you don't think for a second that there isn't people gushing in here and gushing out, save, set free and delivered, then you're mistaken. It happens every single week because somebody said, "I'm going to build a doorway financially." We don't like talking about that, pastor, but it is a reality. Some of you guys have the means to do it. Some of you don't. Here's what I want to tell you. God isn't concerned with the amount he can multiply beyond what we could ever give. He wants your obedience today. So let's worship him with our obedience. I get the opportunity, listen to me real quick. I get the opportunity to give to him. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for the opportunity to give. So we're going to pray real quick and after we pray, you guys, we've got buckets in the back. We've got app. We've got a tap tag on the back of the seat. You can give in all kinds of different ways, but what I encourage you to do is be obedient to the Lord. I don't care about the right, I don't care what amount you give, right? It's all about you and the Lord being obedient and giving that obedience to him. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, God, we love you and we thank you for today. We thank you for the opportunity to give back to you, Lord. Whatever way that each of us have, whatever finances we have, Lord Jesus, we give them to you and we ask that you Lord, as we give them and release them to you, would you do more with them than we ever could? Lord, we love you so much.

Thank you for your presence here today. Thank you for your word here today. And Jesus, mighty name I pray, and everybody said. (upbeat music) - Hi, good morning, Riverley St. Church. We're so thankful to have you with us today. I'm Holly, and this is Whitney. If you're our first time visitor and you get a chance, we would love for you to sell out a Connect card, or you can go to our website or the Church app and fill one out there as well. Please also take the time to stop by our table. We'd love to answer any questions that you have about the Church and give you a free gift. If you have recently accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Savior, we're so thankful to be part of this journey with you. And we would love to give you a free Bible to continue your next steps and your growth journey. Yes, and we also would like for you guys to stop by. Angel Tree starts. Take up a child to bless this Christmas. We also still have Father, Daughter dance. It's gonna be November 7th. It's actually next Saturday. So do not forget if you have not signed up, you're not gonna wanna miss this. So please go to the Church Center app for that. Yup, don't wanna miss out on that.

Also, we don't want you to miss out on our Happily Ever After event that we have on November 6th. It will be from 6.30 to nine o'clock. You can join us for a candlelight dinner and some wonderful other fun activities and marriage tips. So don't miss out on that. Also, there will be no worship night again in November. Instead, we would love to have you come serve and worship by filling food boxes for our Thanksgiving food drive. So more details will be on the website and all social prop platforms. Yes, and if you are interested in adoption or helping those who are, we have November 9th at 6 p.m. Join our family and adoption ministry, also known as Fan Interest Panel. So come out for that. We also have Connect One, which is welcome. It will be next Sunday after the third service. We are during the third service. Lunch will be provided. Meet Pastor Pacer and his wife Connie. Be some of the elders and church staff. Lunch will be provided. It'll be a great time to see our vision for our church and the heart behind our church as well. Yeah, absolutely. Also, we want to remind you

for the young adult Oasis ministry. They will be having a pumpkin carving party tomorrow at 7 p.m. So if you would like to know more details, please go online to the church app. Also, if you need any prayer for anything today, we would love to see you come down at the end of the service. Our prayer team will be ready and available and they would love to pray with you. So thanks so much and hope you enjoy the message. (upbeat music) - How's everybody doing today? You doing good? Glad to be in God's house. I know you are, man. It's good to see you here. And so thankful for each one of you coming to worship with us. Help me give it up for the 945 correctional facilities. Join us right now. So thankful. Let's give a big shout out to our local correctional facility, Blunt County, they're live right now. Come on, give it up for Blunt County. Thank you, all of you that join us every weekend. We're in a sermon series called You're Called. We're using John Bevere's book and it's been awesome. I'm really enjoying it.

And joining the discussions we're having in our life group. I have some cool things to talk about. But last week, Pastor Chris, he titled the message invested. And he talked about how that most of us have no problem investing in something we love. Things like our children, our family, our careers, you know, things such as that. But he asked also the question, how many of us are truly invested in the church? Something that Jesus loves, right? How many of us are truly invested in the church? And hopefully all of us are, but it was a great message. Let's give it up for Pastor Chris and Timmer. They do a great job. I'm so grateful for you guys. Today we are in chapters 10 and 11 in the book. And so the title of the message today is the catalyst. The catalyst is chapter 10. The title of chapter 10, the catalyst. Question, what do you think of when you hear the word catalyst? I'm sure different thoughts, different ideas. Let me share what I think of. Okay, so I'm a car guy and most of you know that. Being a car guy, I think of a catalytic converter. Was there anybody else here that that went to your mind? Okay, we got a few guys here. Any ladies did that go to your mind? One, one or two in the back.

Okay, so what is a catalytic converter? Some of you are saying, well, first of all, I want you to know that all of you own one that drove in here today in an automobile unless it's a 1975 or earlier. 1975 federal government put a regulation said to every manufacturer, Purpose of it is it takes toxic gases that come out of the engine and they flow through the exhaust system, they go through this converter and the purpose is to clean those gases and make them something that's you know friendly to the environment. And inside the catalytic converter are things like platinum and some other things that are very costly. Now you know I was thinking about catalytic converters, another thought that came to my mind is our church a few years ago we had one stolen, imagine this, stolen off a church band. Can you imagine anyone that would steal a catalytic converter off a band that says revolution church on the side of it? I could imagine, I would not do that even before Christ. But anyway and we had a second one, the attempt happened, they cut half of it off and then gave up on the second half so it was still on there. But what people do is they take these things and then they scrap them for for big money and catalytic converter. But just saying that that has nothing to do with the message today, okay? It's just what I thought of, it's just what I thought of. But let's talk about John Bevere's definition of catalyst. Here's what he said, catalyst is a key ingredient that precipitates or accelerates an event or change. Think about that for just a second, it's an ingredient that precipitates or accelerates an event or change. Question, could it be that you have a gift in this room today that if it was used it may accelerate a massive move at revolution church?

Think about that for a second. I've seen it happen in the past. I had a guy invite me to lunch 18 years ago. We're sitting at lunch and and he said God's placed it on my heart to have like an event for back to school. That day he gave me a check and that's how helping hands started. He was the catalyst for helping hands coming. So I'm just curious is there anyone here today that may have that gift but it's still not being utilized? Well hopefully by the end of the day we're going to recognize what those gifts are and possibly use them. Look at 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 10. If you have your Bibles turned there this is the theme verse for today. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts and he goes on and he says use them well to serve one another. What we can learn right here from 1 Peter is every single one of us have been given a gift from God and they're given to us to serve one another. It's not for my own selfish will or purpose it's for other people and so I want to share something I witnessed last Sunday here at Revolution Church. So we had our three services pastor Chris he did a great job sharing the message. We had a baby dedication it was scheduled after the third service so after this service we met down at the pavilion and it was awesome it was an incredible baby dedication. I mean the building was almost full of people and there was family members and all that and it was it was awesome. So Colleen I we go in and we've got a table we sit down at the table and and I'm looking around I'm watching what's going on and I started noticing that there were a lot of different gifts that were being used at this event. Here's a couple of them that I saw. There was the administrative gift there were people up at the front dance when they were coming in at a table and they had names they were they were checking them in and I'm sure that this this group of

people had also probably contact the families letting them know the details what to expect what time and all of that. So that was pretty cool to see that administrative gift being used but I also noticed some other gifts. I noticed the gift of hospitality. How many of you realize the gift of hospitality is so needed in the church? These were individuals at the door when family members walked in they were there to greet them that smiling faces hey how you doing welcome them in they took them over to the table and then they would actually walk them back to be seated and it was awesome so again I'm just sitting back observing I'm watching all of this and then I noticed the gift of helps the gift of helps and I saw that one of my favorite parts of these events is the food table okay I look over at the table and there's a a wide variety of food over there and somebody had to prepare that somebody put that together somebody planned for it and this is the gift of help. As a matter of fact they had told me that The pineapples were just cut up perfectly, set in place and everyone was served. And so I'm watching all that. It's like, man, this is awesome how the body of Christ uses the different gifts and people are served. Well, it didn't end there. I also saw the gift of teaching. There was a biblical example given to all the individuals at the event, given them an example in the Old Testament of baby dedication. They used Hannah. So everything working together and at this point in the event, I was not even needed. I wasn't you. My gifts were not used.

I was sitting there watching everyone else use their gifts to serve other people. And here's the results. All these family members were ministered to. The Lord Jesus was honored in the kingdom of God advanced as 15 children were dedicated to the Lord Jesus. Can we praise the Lord for that today? It's awesome. That's just an example of something I just witnessed and watched firsthand. So when the body of Christ is using those gifts, it's special, it's beautiful, and it is awesome. So today I want to talk to you about serving. And I've got one point and five takeaways, OK? The first point, the only point is this. Serving is the catalyst that creates multiplication. I want you to look at that for a second. Serving-- serving others is the catalyst that creates multiplication. Now, we talked about multiplication, the word multiply in the Bible. It's first found in Genesis chapter 1 when God spoke to Adam and he said, be fruitful and multiply. That Hebrew word, as we've discussed, is rava. And it actually means to multiply. We saw that same rava blessing on Abraham, how that everything that he touched just was blessed and increased and continued to multiply. So today I want to give you a biblical example of this

found in Genesis 24 verses one through four. If you have your Bibles, let's turn there. So the Bible says here that Abraham now was very old. How old is very old? Anybody want to throw out a number? 97 is very old. How many of you younger folks used to think 50 was very old? Yep, me too. And then when I turned 50, it's like, that's really not that old. You know, you've heard that the new 60 is the old 40 or something like that, but I remember 50 is very old. And then I turned 60 and it's like 60 is not that bad. It's not that old. And now I'm looking for 70. Right now I'm just not, 70 is pretty old, but when we get there, hopefully it's not that way, right? But Abraham, the Bible says he was very old. And, but it also goes on and it said, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. Everything about Abraham had been blessed. So he said to the senior servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, he said, put your hand under my thigh. Now this was a process that they did during this time when they made a covenant. It seems odd, it's like a handshake. So he said, put your hand under my thigh. And he said, I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife or my son

from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son, Isaac. So he has this conversation. Number one, his senior servant was over everything, including the wife for his son Isaac. That's crazy, isn't it? So it's pretty incredible here. So what we do know for certain about Abraham, was Abraham was a man of faith, he was obedient, he served God, and this catalyst for multiplication was definitely in his life, the rova blessing. Now he's old, his son Isaac doesn't have a wife, and so he has a conversation with his servant. And he sends his servant to his own people in the town of Nahar. Nahar is a city close by, so the senior servant, he loads up the camels. Okay, this is what they did back in that day, he takes 10 camels and he loads up the saddlebags. And then he starts this journey. But God had also used Abraham to tell him that he was gonna send an angel ahead of the servant. How many of you realize that God says, You when you do something for the Lord or whenever you do something many times God has already sent an angel ahead of you to clear The way amen when we don't even realize it. We don't even know it. I call it providential care It's God looking out for me when I had no clue and he does for you as well He does for all of us so this the servants on his way. He takes the 10 camels He's got him loaded down

and so Evening time has now came. He's close to the city He's on the outskirts of this town that he's going and he stops near this well where they would the women would come out of Evening time and draw water He stops there because he you know, this is a good place probably to find Isaac's wife and What he does next is the camels kneel down The servant gets off the camel and he begins to pray and I want you to listen to the prayer that he prayed It's found in verses 12 through 14. He said then he prayed Lord God of my master Abraham He said make me successful today and show kindness to my master Abraham See I'm standing beside this spring this well and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water May it be that when I say to a young woman Please let down your jar that I may have a drink and she says drink and I will water your camels to Let her be the one you've chosen for your servant Isaac By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my Master do you notice how specific this prayer is I mean down to the detail You're talking about laying out of fleece. You're talking about asking the Lord to show you something I mean, he's he's very specific He said he said let her give me a drink and then let it not only her give me a drink But let her water these camels ten camels and and so Look at verse 15 24 15 check this out Before he had finished praying Come on somebody How many of you realize prayer works How many of you how many of you realize when you pray a prayer that's in line with God the Father with his heart That it works and it works fast Do you understand why sometimes we just keep praying a prayer and keep praying a prayer and keep praying a prayer? We never see anything up. It may not be in alignment with God We may be praying amiss the Bible says but right here. He praise a specific prayer while he's still on his knees Listen to what happened Rebecca say Rebecca

Rebecca came out with her jar on her shoulder. She's carrying this jar water She was the daughter of Bethule son of Milka who was the wife of Abrams brother Abraham's brother Nahar Now notice the woman was very beautiful a virgin no man had ever slept with her She went down to the spring filled her jar and came up again The servant hurried to meet her and said please Give me a little water from your jar verse 18 look closely drink my Lord she said and a key word right here and Quickly say quickly and quickly lowered the jar to her hand and gave him a drink of water After she had given him a drink. She said listen to this I'll draw water for your camels to until they've had enough to drink Was this not exactly what he had prayed? Was this not a precisely what he had asked God to do to show him How many of you have ever asked the Lord to show you something if I ever asked for a sign ever asked for a fleece Ever laid something out, you know most of us probably have But it's pretty incredible that this happened so quick and What we know right here is God had went before him Here's this beautiful woman She did exactly what the servant had prayed and immediately. Here's what he does he takes out of the camel bags to gold bracelets and a gold nose ring and gives them to her this was basically Like an engagement or something saying that she is she's taken. You know when I was reading that I Thought okay, I guess no nose rings are in the Bible. Okay, maybe they are okay. I don't know I know I know I see a lot of them. I just always thought that would be weird that But anyway, the servant gives two gold bracelets and a nose ring. And then the servant now is invited back to Rebecca's house to meet the family, okay? Brings her back to meet the family. And so now when he's back with the family, he's got the camels, Rebecca's there, he starts explaining to Nahar, her father, exactly why he was there, he said, he said, "I'm here

on behalf of Abraham." Well, enough said, because everyone knew Abraham. Abraham had a reputation of being a good man, a godly man, a blessed man, an influential man, a man of great wealth, a man of great, you know, animals, his flock. A huge family and now land. Abraham was known for that. And so when he mentioned, "I'm here on behalf of Abraham," I'm sure everyone perked up, listened to what he's got to say. And so the servant goes on to explain to her family how that God had blessed everything Abraham had touched. It was like the blessing of the Lord was on his life, and then he goes on to say this, "And Abraham has a son, his name's Isaac, and Isaac is inheriting everything that Abraham has." Abraham has sent me here to find a wife for her. While I was down at the well, you know, I pray a prayer and exactly what I prayed come to pass, and I believe she's the one. The family, they listen, Rebecca listens, they're all in agreement. And so Rebecca leaves to go back to meet Isaac. She goes back, she meets him, they fall in love, they get married, and it's absolutely incredible. God's blessing is on her life. When she marries Isaac, the blessings of multiplication continue on through her, okay? As a matter of fact, today what I want to do is I want to give you five pointers that we can learn from Rebecca that we can apply to our own life that will bring the blessings of God on us, the blessing of multiplication, the rather blessing on our lives. Five things that we can learn, five pointers. Number one, Rebecca served with, check this out, with eagerness, say eagerness, with eagerness. She was eager to serve. The Bible says she quickly lowered the jar off her shoulder and quickly gave Abraham a drink.

And then she quickly began to fill the troughs up with water for the camels. And the Bible says right here that she literally ran, I don't know how you could run. They say these jugs, these jars were approximately like five gallons. If you could, could you imagine, says that she ran back and forth watering those camels? I mean, that was, that was work. Was it not? That was, that was a job. I want you to look at this verse, 1 Peter 5, 2, says, care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. This is for each one of us. Listen closely, care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch out or watch over it willingly, not grudgingly. Not for what you will get out of it, but because you're eager to serve God. I got a question. I got, I got something for you to think about today. What flock has God entrusted to you? Because I think every single one of us in this room, God has entrusted to us a flock to watch out for. For some of you, it may be, it may be your children, your grandchildren. And God has given them to you to, to look out for, willingly, it's, it's like it's, this is, for others, it may, it could be elderly parents that need care. For others, it could be, maybe it's a ministry. Maybe it's your business. Whatever it is, the Bible tells us that we are to show care for the flock that God has entrusted to us. Now, I know a lot of us will say, well, that sounds like that's for a pastor. It is for a pastor. My job is to watch out for you, to care for you, to tell you the truth, to love you, to show you the Word of God, to explain to you. That's my job.

But all of us have a flock to care for, okay? And so that's the first thing that I want us to, to learn right here. Are you eagerly serving what God has entrusted to you? Are you doing that? Okay? They're okay with that. If the king comes, the president comes or someone influential comes, we're okay to serve them. But are we okay to serve the servant? Are you guys with me? The person that Rebecca was serving had no name. He had a name, but we don't know the name, and I believe that God intentionally left it out of there to show us, to give us an example. The people don't have to have a name for us to serve them. We're to serve everyone. You know, the last service before you guys came in, I had a gentleman stand up right here in the center section. He introduced himself to me and he said, "I'm here for the first time today." He's a black gentleman. He said, "I met you in Cookville. I was incarcerated down there and I watched all your sermons and I listened to all the music." And he said, "Today's my first time being here, and I just wanted to meet you." He's in Epperson Ministries right now, and he's learning and growing and developing. We'll see, this gentleman is just as important as I am or you are or any of us are. Does that make sense? And our job is truly, honestly, if we want favor with God, we do what he calls us to do and we serve other people. One that we can't deny is that God's blessing has been on this church for 19 years. It'll be 20 in January.

The blessing of the Lord, I mean, you can't even explain to you, I can sit here all day long and give you one story after another how God has miraculously blessed us in so many different ways. But I want you to understand something. The blessings of the Lord can be turned off just as quick as they're turned on. Are you with me today? God is the one that controls the vow. He's the one that releases the blessing or don't release the blessing. And one thing that allows the blessing to continue to flow is to always give God the honor. As soon as human beings, as soon as an individual, as soon as a personality starts taking credit, the vowels turned off and the blessing stopped. As long as Jesus is always the one lifted up and exalted, the blessings continue to flow amen. And so just this week I was in my kitchen by myself just thinking about that. It's like God, thank you for the blessing on our church and please don't ever turn it off. God, just thank you for saving people every weekend. Thank you for delivering people every weekend. Please keep that going. Don't let it stop. And I don't believe it will stop as long as we stand the right position. So, so what we see right here is that Rebecca was serving the servant and that became the catalyst for multiplication. Second take away, Rebecca went the extra mile. Would you agree that she went the extra mile? I mean, she, her service was absolutely exceptional. As a matter of fact, if you, if you look at this, after a long trip, a long journey with camels, typically from what I could read and what I can understand, most camels, after a long journey, will drink between 30 and 50 gallons of water.

Are you with me? Any, anybody have a perception of what 50 gallons of water looks like? How many of you guys have ever seen a 55 gallon drum? Anybody? You know, it's about this big around, it's about that tall. That's what a typical camel could drink. But for math's sake, we're going to use 30. Let's just say that these camels drank 30 gallons of water each. How many gallons of water is that that Rebecca carried? Three hundred gallons of water that she carried. And if the, if the jug was five gallons, that's, that's over 40 pounds that she carried. And the Bible said she ran. Now there were two types of wells during this time. There was the, one type was the, I had the bucket with the rope that you would lower down in the water, fill it up, crank it back up. That was not this type of well. This type of well was the one that you would walk down to the edge and then go down the steps until you got to the level of the water. So if you could imagine all of these trips running down these steps, loading up the water, coming back, filling up the trough, making sure that every single camel was watered. And she, she just met this guy. Okay? So, so that right there I think is incredible. She with the extra. So important that we go the extra mile. Look at the third thing that we learned from Rebecca. Rebecca served with responsiveness. She didn't wait to be asked to water those camels. Watering the servant would have been the easy part, would it not? Just pull down your jar, give him a drink of water.

But what she did, she served with responsiveness because the Bible says that she said, "Can I water your camels also?" Now, I mean, I think this is something that we can learn from Rebecca because as a result of this, this again created the catalyst for multiplication in her life. Fourth thing, Rebecca served with commitment. She was totally committed to what she did. And I would say she had an extremely hard task. This is not going to be easy. You're doing this every day. You're drawing water for your family and your animals. How many of you guys ever worked on a farm? Can I see your hands? Are there anybody here? Hold up your hand high if you ever worked on a farm. A few of you did. You realized that is hard work, extremely hard work. The last employee that I hired at the city of Maryville 25 years ago, we brought in several candidates for interviews and the job was a customer service rep. And I remember we gave the disk survey, personality profile, but I remember this one lady had on her application that she worked on a farm. Well, this probably didn't mean anything to anybody else, but it meant a lot to me. You know what that told me? Hard work. She had work ethic because if you work on a farm, you get up early and you work all day. I mean, it's hard. It's hard. I know. Scottie, what you do is hard work. It's not easy. And many of you, your work is hard.

Rebecca was a hard worker and she was committed to her work. And this commitment became the catalyst for multiplication. Look at 1 Corinthians 1558, "Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm, let nothing move you, keep part of this scripture out here. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor and the Lord is not in vain." You know, the Bible says that everything we do, we should do it as unto the Lord. All of our work, whatever it is that we're doing, it should be unto the Lord. And then the last thing that I can take away from Rebecca and the blessing that was on her life is Rebecca served to completion. Say completion. She finished her work. She wouldn't leave you hanging. You could depend on her. If you ever had somebody that you couldn't depend on, anybody, yep, you ever had anybody on a team that you just didn't know if they're going to make it or show up or not. We all have, right? And then if you ever had those that you knew, if they said, "I'll be there," you had no question, no doubt, you could depend on them. They're going to be there. This was Rebecca. Rebecca was going to be there. She was not only going to be there, but she was going to complete the task that she had. How many of us would have, you know, watered half the camels, stopped with five? This is a lot of work, especially when there's no credit, especially when there's nothing that I'm going to get from it. This is just some servant that I don't even know. But what she didn't know was that the ten camels she was watering were carrying treasures, they treasures, gold, silver, costly apparel that was for her. She had no clue.

What she was serving was going to eventually beat the blessing in her life, and she did it not knowing. How many of us do that? How many of us are willing to do that? I mean, I think it's incredible. And so as a result of this, yeah, she becomes wealthy like that day. She also goes back and marries Isaac. She marries a godly man, which is awesome. But these things weren't really not the greatest reward that she had. Now I want you to look at what I believe was the greatest reward. It was the fact that she would now enter into the promises of Abraham. her task, doing her daily job, not complaining, just serving. And God was preparing her for something great. God was going to take this young girl who's a servant and he was going to make her the mother of many nations. The Bible says that all nations would be blessed through her. Through this girl that was just simply serving the servant. What can we learn from it? How important is it that we serve? You know, this morning, it was cold early this morning. It's been cold. I love these cold mornings, but it was cold this morning. And I come in here in between the first and second service. I ran into a guy who leads to the parking lot team. Big old guy, he reaches out, shake my hand, and man, his hands are cold his eyes. I said, "How are you doing?" And he said, "Man, I'm doing good." His hands were frozen, but he was doing what God called him to do. And he was using the gifts, the gift of help, serving you and I, making sure that we had a parking lot. And by the way, today they had to work overtime because all services ran into the next. Sorry. If you came in today and the parking lot was full, man, we just got on a roll. Amen? That's not a bad thing. It's okay. Our schedule was out the window. So the parking lot team, I'm going to have to apologize and all the members out there working and greeting and all that. But I just said that I watched this fellow serving and it was a blessing, even though it was so cold. She didn't know, but she's going to become the mother of many nations. And Rebecca multiplied immensely. Here's a question. One of the last questions I have is how many of you think about this? I'm talking to you now. How many of you would

like to have the blessings of Abraham on your life? I hear a couple of amends. I want you to really think about it. How many of you would like to have the blessings of Abraham on your life? Can I see your hand? See, hi. I think we're 100%. I think we got every hand. Every hand. Well, many of you have those blessings and didn't even know it. Many of you, let me show you. Galatians 3, 29. And now that you belong to Christ, anybody belong to Christ here? Come on, hold your hand if you belong to Christ. Praise the Lord, amen? That's awesome. And now that you belong to Christ, you are, say I am, the true children of Abraham. Are you guys with me? I didn't have to be born into a Jewish family. I don't have to keep the 613 laws, which is totally impossible. Nobody can keep it. You and I belong to Christ. And he said, I've got, I've got you two laws to keep. I can keep two. I hope. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, spirit. Love your neighbor as yourself. And he said, everything else is caught up right in the middle of those 613. So you and I, when we came to Christ and we accepted Christ and we were born again and we were saved, the Bible says, now we belong to Christ and we are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, just like Rebecca became the heir. And God's promise to Abraham belongs to you. You, you, you. Man, does that not excite you? Think about it. How blessed was Abraham? You can't even, you can't even imagine. Yeah, Ephesians 3, 20. The Bible says that he will do exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ask or think according to the power that works in you. Listen to me, the power that's working in you is Christ, is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the power that works through us and because of what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary. Listen, I don't know, I don't think we understand the magnitude of what Jesus really did on Calvary. When he took on the sins of all humanity, when he died for you and I, he hung on that cross, he was buried when he was raised on the third day. And I want you to understand something. When you and I accept that sacrifice and surrender Here's something though that's a reality in our churches across America and across the world. There's a lot of people that attend our services who have not been born again, who have not been saved, and it's a reality. I want you to understand something you may say well how do I know if I'm saved or not? Do I know if I've been born again?

You know in this church we have people come from all different walks of life. Some of the worst of the worst, some of the individuals that have been brought up in church, they were dedicated to the Lord as a baby. They never went astray, they learned the scriptures, they learned the passage. Like you, taking notes as a young boy and attending church and serving the Lord and worshiping God and they never really experienced that bad road like a lot of us have went down. But I want you to understand something regardless of how you were raised or what you believe. One thing's for certain, you must be born again. And there's no condemnation if you're not. It's my job as the pastor to make sure that you don't come into these services and sit here and go through the motions and miss out on the most important thing of your life. And that's been saved. You see I'd have to give an account for that if I didn't really preach the gospel and tell you the truth. Because today I want to say something, if you and I can't have a conversation and you take me to the place or the time or the experience where you were changed, there's a chance that you've never been born again. Here's the good news, it doesn't have to stay that way. See what, amen. Praise the Lord. Yeah. It doesn't have to stay that way because it's easy to get involved in this church. We have so many different ministries and outreaches and it's easy to come in here and be part of it but make sure you've been born again. Make sure you've accepted the Lord Jesus. And here's something I'm going to say. I think many times that people, good people that have always been in church, aren't saved, aren't born again because they've prayed the prayers, they've always known Christ. But yet there's maybe just something that the Holy Spirit said, you've got to surrender it all.

You've got to give it all and there's maybe been just a small place in your life that you've never surrendered. For me, I had to say yes to Jesus and throw it all down. But I was in such a bad place, I really, I didn't have another place to turn. And some of you, you know, you may not be in that spot that the Lord Jesus desperately wants a true relationship with you where you've been born again. How do I do that, pastor? I've raised my hand. I prayed the prayer. I've even been baptized in water. But I don't know if I've ever truly been born again. Ask yourself, ask the Holy Spirit. I'm not trying to confuse you because it is simple. It's so simple that a child can do it and does it. Are you guys with me? But one thing I made clear in the baby dedication is this is not salvation. You know, we're dedicating them to the Lord, but they'll need to come to the point for themselves that except Jesus and are born again. If you're not certain that there's a point in your life where you can say that's when I was changed, let it be today. It can be. It can be today. This is that one thing you're still holding on to, it can be anything. If there's one thing that you're still holding on to, will you let it go? Will you surrender at all? That's what he's looking for. Total surrender. If you would, let's stand. Father right now, help me pray. Father right now, if there's anyone lost that's in this house, I pray God that they come to

the point. (gentle music) God that they're saved, that they're born again, Lord, we don't want anyone, anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance. God let people be able to mark the time, the place where they seen an experience change in their life. Where the old man went away and the new man came alive. God, I pray if you're speaking to anyone right now, the Holy Spirit would draw them. Draw them to Christ. We love you so much for it. Thank you for the work you've done on Calvary. Thank you for the work you're doing right now. Everyone praying, quick question. If you just acknowledge that the Holy Spirit's dealing with you, and you just say, "Pastor, I just want to be certain that I've been born again, will you remember me in prayer? That's you right now. I just want you to hold up your hands. Say remember me in prayer pastor, amen? Anybody else? Any other hands, amen? Is there anybody else? Just hold up your hand. Amen, yeah, the Lord sees, the Lord knows. There's many hands, and praise the Lord up in the stadium sees, yes. God sees that, he knows, he knows.

Anybody, I don't want to miss one. Is there one more? Yes, thank you, man. I just want to know for certain. Just want to know for certain. Praise the Lord, yes, sir. No other one. There's, thank you Lord. Would you look at me for a moment? It feels really good as a pastor. When the Lord confirms what he's shown you through the week. And the Lord showed me that there was a lot of individuals in this church that need to be born again. This just confirmed with all the hands raising. I want you to understand a couple of things. For all of you who raised your hand, and maybe you who didn't, and those that I can't see online. You know the word says that if we'll confess our sins, he's faithful and he's just to forgive us. And if we'll turn from our wicked ways. Confession is the first part, turning is another part. And then what really seals it is you sharing with your own lips what God did in your life. Do you guys with me? It's what the word says, that's the Bible, it's not my opinion, it's what the word says. Comes through confession. So today, for all of you that raised your hand, my prayer is that you will not leave

until you feel the presence of the Lord change your life. We're gonna do something a little different right now. I know normally I ask the prayer team to come up, I'm not gonna do that. I don't feel like I need to do that. I feel like that I need to personally pray for each person that wants to be born again today. (gentle music) Each person, if you're here and you want, I told you I'd pray for you and I will, I'll pray for all these hands that were raised. And I'm not doing this to try to highlight you or embarrass you, but I feel like the Lord's saying do something a little different right now. Because we wanna make for certain that you're born again before you leave, amen? If that's you, I want you to meet me down here. I want you to come right now. Your worship team's getting ready to start playing. Come on, start making your way. If there's anyone, I know there's a lot of hands that raised. If there's anyone that wants to be for sure, I want you to meet me, come on. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We just want to be for certain. We'll share something with you as they're coming. My dad was on his last days, he's on his deathbed. And I knew he was getting ready to go on to be with the Lord. But there was just something in me that I just had to know for certain.

And I went to dad, and this is not easy when you go to your dad. He's on his deathbed. I just said, "Dad, I love you so much." But I just want to know for sure that you're saved, that you're born again. Can we pray that prayer? And he couldn't even, he'd barely talk. He was at that point, but you put his hand out. And he prayed that center's prayer. Because here's the reality is, it's life short. We've got several people here that we're going to, and I'm going to pray for them. And if you would, point your hand this way and please pray from where you're at. Let's worship the Lord as we do this last song. And thank you guys for the boldness, for the courage. You may be as saved as anyone in this room, or more so. But there was something that just urged and tugged on your heart to come forward, and I appreciate that. Because here's what I'm going to say is, hey, it can't hurt anything to do it again. Can I hear an amen to that? You think God's going to say, "Why did you do that twice? Why did you go up in front of her?" No, I don't think God's going to do that. I think you're going to say, "You just want to make for sure." So if you guys would, let's worship and point your hand this way as we pray for these individuals. Oh, my words fall short. I've got nothing new. How could I express all my gratitude? I could sing these songs as I often do. Every song I sing, and you never do. So I throw up my hands, praise you again and again. It's all that I have is a hallelujah, hallelujah. I know it's number, but I'm nothing else before key, except for hearts in hallelujah, hallelujah. I've got one response. I've got just one blue, with my arm stretched wide. I will worship you. So I'll throw up my hands, praise you again and again. So that I have is a hallelujah, hallelujah. I know it's number, but I'm nothing else before

key, except for hearts in hallelujah, hallelujah. So come on my song, oh, don't you get shout me, lift up yours, 'cause you've got a light inside of those lines, get up and praise the Lord. So come on my song, oh, don't you get shout me, lift up yours, 'cause you've got a light inside of those lines, get up and praise the Lord. So come on my song, oh, don't you get shout me, lift up yours, 'cause you've got a light inside of those lines, get up and praise the Lord. [Music] So I'll throw up my hands Praise you again and again It's all that I have is a hallelujah Hallelujah and I know it's not much I'm nothing else before you keep Except for heart-singing Hallelujah Hallelujah [Music] Hallelujah [Music] Oh how he loves us Oh how he loves us Yes he loves us Oh how he loves us Oh how he loves us Yes he loves us Oh how he loves us Oh how he loves us And oh how he loves us How he loves us He loves us Oh how he loves us

Oh how he loves us Yeah he loves us Oh how he loves us Oh how he loves [Music] Lord Jesus we just thank you for sitting. I don't let you love us. We can't even comprehend the amount of love that you have for us. Lord I just pray over everyone who is a Lord. I just pray that your blessings would reign in their life, Lord, that you would just continue to show us. name Lord I just pray over your people church that we would just continue to become more like a family make us deeper rooted make us more unified Lord I just pray that you would just have your way in this place and that we would lean on each other whenever Lord I thank you for what you've done I thank you for everyone here I pray that you saw from the hearts of the people who maybe still are debating whether or not they need to come up I'll just pray that they know that there's still time you still got them Lord I just pray blessings upon everyone as they leave Lord that you would just show them more and more of your glory show them more and more of your plan for their life or be a lamping to their feet and light on to their God pray all of this in Jesus name thank you so much for joining us today the service we just pray that this message has been a blessing for you and encourage you this week just let the let the words speak to you let it become alive and please join us next weekend we'll be back here again 8 30 10 o'clock at 11 30 Eastern time God bless and have a wonderful rest of the day [MUSIC] (gentle music)