OVERFLOW III // Pastor Chuck Colegrove // March 30, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just got lost in the moment.
What's up?
Free Church, how good to seeyou today.
Listen, what a powerful moment,what a powerful time of worship
and as we were singing, and onething that I love about the
atmosphere in this house, howGod is moving in such a powerful

(00:20):
way, is that no matter how muchvolume we put in the speakers,
you're out singing the soundsystem, which is incredible, and
maybe I felt like I needed tojust share this.
If you're relatively new intothis kind of atmosphere, why do

(00:46):
we sing so loud with everythingthat we've got into us, that we
have in us?
Why do we clap our hands andwhy do we raise our hands and
why do we make such anexpression in praise and worship
?
And I can tell you, it'sscriptural number one.
So it actually is the Bible.

(01:06):
The Bible says that we shouldsing a new song.
The Bible says we should singsongs together.
In other passages of scripturein the New Testament it says we
should sing psalms, like thepsalms, and that's what a lot of
the worship songs that we sing.
And then the Bible says weshould clap our hands and that

(01:27):
we should lift up holy hands,and the Bible says that we
should shout to God with a voiceof triumph that God actually
arises.
With a shout, god enthroneshimself in the place where
people praise him.
But when we shout there issomething that happens in the

(01:51):
heavens that it causes God toarise with the shout.
And then the Bible says weshould praise him on the cymbals
and the loud cymbals.
The Bible says we should praisehim on the strings, the
stringed instruments.
The Bible says we should praisehim with 10 strings.
That's right here.
When we clap our hands, that's10 strings.

(02:11):
The Bible declares that weshould praise him in spirit and
in truth.
And let me show you that thespirit is the expression.
It's not a capital S inscripture, it's my spirit, my
desire, my aim in life,everything that I am.
In spirit I praise him andworship him.

(02:32):
And then it says and in truth,which means not just the
biblical truth of God's word, inmy life do I praise and worship
, but in the truth of who I am.
I come into this house.
I am just a sinner saved bygrace, but when I get into his
presence I cannot help.
A sinner saved by grace, butwhen I get into his presence I
cannot help but think of all thethings he's done for my life,
and so that's why we get alittle bit excited.

(02:53):
And I would say to this I wouldsay this that you know, I can
go into an athletic arena and Ican watch a game and I can cheer
and be crazy and be loud, andat the end of the night I can go
home and my life has notchanged, because the outcome of

(03:14):
that game does not change mylife.
But when I come into God'spresence and I lift my voice and
I surrender by lifting my handsand I express myself in praise
and worship to my God and King,my life changes every time,
every time.
So that's why we have such anexpression in this house.

(03:37):
And listen, we're not gonnaapologize for that and it's good
for you.
I'll tell you another thing youwant a free church hack.
It's why we turn the lightsdown, because we love to hear
you, but we don't have to seeyou.
But I love, I do, I lovelooking around and seeing the

(04:01):
expression of praise and worshipall through this room.
But what I would say is we dothat so like you could just kind
of step back from yourself fora minute and you don't have to
be so prim and proper and sostately and so churchy, like I
just feel, like some of you, ifyou would just lose yourself in

(04:23):
worship, all the things youthought you were looking for
would disappear and you wouldhave an encounter that would say
man, this is so good for me, Ineed to express it and share it

(04:46):
with somebody else, and that'swhat God's doing in this house.
And so I felt like I needed toteach that just for a minute.
But, man, what a great day inGod's house, amen.
Hey, anybody paying attention?
Last Sunday in March, thatmeans you're one quarter into
the best year of your life.
Huh, I'm ready to preach god'sword.

(05:09):
Are you ready to receive it?
Today?
The year was 2024 and uh, wewere, uh, prepping for a
vacation, my family and I and wehave.
We have kind of two vacationswe do in alternating years.
In one year, we go north to thewoods in Wisconsin and we love

(05:31):
it up there because we can bringour dogs with us and it's like
nobody's in the woods and we'reon a lake and so we ski and boat
and have so much fun just ourfamily, and it's a great
vacation.
Now, in the alternating years,we go south to the Hot Springs
area of Arkansas where Urshana'sfamily, her brothers, live and

(05:52):
we vacation with them and webring the boat with us.
But it's a little bit different, because in northern Wisconsin
in the first week of August itcan be 58 degrees and then when
you go to Hot Springs Villagethe first week of August it'll
be 118 degrees.
A little different.
A little different.
So we were prepping for the tripand I realized that the battery

(06:14):
on my boat wasn't chargingproperly, and so I made a few
calls, made a few checks and wefigured out that the alternator
was not working.
It wasn't charging the batteryand the alternator is not
working, wasn't charging thebattery, and the alternator is
what charges the entire systemwhile the car's running, but
then it also recharges thebattery so that you're not just
running everything on thebattery, because if you do that

(06:35):
for too long the battery's gonnago dead.
So we figured out we think wecould make it work.
Because it is the northernvacation, we don't spend the
whole day on the boat, you onlyski and you get out of the water
.
You don't float around in 58degree water when it's 113

(06:57):
outside.
You float all day long, youdon't get out of the water, but
when it's 58 degree water youget in and out as fast as you
can.
And so we were like, well, wewon't be floating around all day
, so we think we can make itwork.
And so we kind of nursed thatboat and charged the battery
every other night or so onanother charger and we made it
out of vacation.
Well, we were there.
My brother-in-law was with us onvacation and he was like I

(07:19):
think I think we could changethe alternator together, let's
do it.
And I was like, absolutely Well, in northern Wisconsin you
don't just find whatever partyou need.
You're like in the north, likethere's like two stores to pick
from and nobody had it.
So he was like listen, I'mtelling you, you could change it
by yourself.
Now you've heard me sharestories of me fixing things,

(07:40):
repairing things, trying tobuild things.
Listen, I struggle with Ikeasometimes, and so do you.
So don't even act like you'rebetter than me.
So so we.
So I was like all right, I'lldo it.
So we get the boat back homefrom vacation it's in our
driveway and I decide I'm gonnaswitch out the alternator.

(08:03):
And so I start working on itand take off the plugs that need
to be taken the wires, I getthe new alternator.
Now, in retrospect, my boat is aold boat.
It's a 1992 boat, so it's olderthan some of you, but I still
love it.
It's a classic vintage we liketo call it.
And so what was on there andwhat they sent me were two

(08:28):
different things.
So it wasn't like I could justlook at it and go, well, this
plug matches here.
I had to kind of like guess andso I guessed and I was like I
think I got it.
I turned it over.
I didn't try to start it causeI wasn't in the water and you
don't start a boat if it's notin the water Long story.
But so I tried to start.
I just turned it over and it itsparked.
It had.
I was like I think I'm going tobe good.

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So I talked to Urshan to take medown to the river so I could
ski and test it all out.
And we pulled in, dropped theboat into the water on the
trailer, still try to start.
It wouldn't start, triedeverything, battery, jump.
The mechanic from the marinacame down, tried to get it
started, couldn't get it startedand I was just feeling like a
failure because I was like man,I thought I knew what I was
doing to change this alternator.

(09:09):
I thought I read the directions, followed directions.
I called my brother-in-law whenI needed help and I was like,
man, I thought I got it.
So I had to leave the boat withthe mechanic at the marina and
they don't just look at it thatmoment Like I would have put it
in the shop that moment, fixedit that moment and gotten back
on the water.
But he was like I'm busy.
So he called me a few weekslater and he was like hey, I got

(09:32):
your boat running.
I was like, yes, so it's stilltime in the fall to ski.
And so I was like all right,good, I'll be down Friday.
He's like you actually did thework right.
You did the alternator, it wasright.
I was like it was huh, howabout that?
First thing I said to her shesays I got it right.
She just nodded her head alittle bit.

(09:54):
So he was like you got it right, he said.
But you know, the crazy thing isis the boat every boat has this
, every watercraft has this.
It's called an, an auto enginecutoff switch.
We call it a kill switch, whichyou're supposed to wrap around
your arm and it's to protect youin case you would fall out from
where you're driving or fallinto the lake without with the

(10:16):
boat still running.
It would immediately shut theboat off because boats don't
have brakes brakes.
So that kill switch had a badconnection.
So, even though the alternatorwas right and the battery was
right, the kill switch was notconnected with enough current
through it to allow the motor tostart.

(10:38):
And he's like.
All I had to do was push thekill switch in just a little bit
more to make the properconnection and the boat ran fine
.
I was like imagine that it's theyear I learned no matter how
good the source or how good thereceiver, if there is a broken
current it will end the power ofwhat's happening, of what's

(11:10):
happening.
So turn and tell your neighborand just say, hey, don't forget
the kill switch.
And turn to the neighbor nextto you you've been ignoring all
service and just say, hey, we'reliving in overflow.
That was a long story, sorryfor that.
Thanks for going with me.
That was a long story.
Sorry for that.
Thanks for going with me.
Had to get it all out.
So we're in this seriesOverflow.
It's week three and we're gonnawrap this up in a couple of

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weeks.
Next week, pastor Robbie Emeryis gonna be with us preaching
Overflow.
The week after that is PalmSunday and the week after that
is Easter Sunday.
And if you remember last week'smessage, if you weren't here I
would go back and listen to iton podcast or YouTube or even
Facebook, because it was apowerful day in God's house and

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what we talked about was thisGod provides belonging in
abundance so that we can beoverflowing with invitation to
others and on every seat.
Today there was a seat drop foryou, an invite card, and I
would ask you to take more thanone.
If there's an empty seat aroundyou, take extras and let's
invite everybody we can.

(12:15):
Why?
Because God's been so good, heallowed me to belong and I don't
want to belong by myself.
I want everybody in my world tocome with me, so invite your
neighborhood.
I want everybody in my world tocome with me, so invite your
neighborhood, invite yourcoworkers, invite everybody in
the marketplace, at the grocerystore, at the gym.
Come on, don't shy away frominviting people to church for
Easter Sunday, not because wewant a lot of people in the

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house although that would be funbut because people need Jesus
and people need to get to meet aJesus who died on a cross for
their sins, and that is why wewant to fill this house up so
people will be saved and peoplewill get to know God.
It's the vision of our churchGet to know God better on Sunday

(12:56):
.
So that's, that's been thespace that we've been in and,
man, I have a lot to say aboutoverflow, but I need to just
dive straight into my messagebecause I have some important
stuff that I want to share withyou.
I felt like I wanted to startwith giving you this practical

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expression of giving at FreeChurch In years past.
If you've been a member of FreeChurch for a while and given to
anything, you can know that ifyou went to the giving page
online, you could select titheor general offering.
You could select monastery,witness, youth.
You could select, I mean justlocal missions, global missions.

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You could select just aboutanything in order to give to.
But I felt like could selectjust about anything in order to
give to.
But I felt like closing outlast year and starting this year
, the Lord, just really with thepeople that are in my world and
the people that I've beenlearning from and growing with
and just kind of havingexpression and conversation, of
simplifying things, I felt likethe Lord just kind of leaned in

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and just kind of helped me togive you a better understanding
of giving at Free Church and theimportance of giving, and so I
wanted to just bring thisexpression and when I brought
these home I said, well, arethose the new giving baskets?
I was like, yeah, by faith,absolutely by faith.

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Oh, it's just so you can see it.
But the tithe we are a churchthat lives by the tithe.
And what do I mean by that?
Well, we both live on thereceiving and the giving side of
tithe.
So what is the tithe, the wordtithe, so what is the tithe?

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The word tithe actually means10, 10.
It's a, it's a percent.
It's what we do is we give 10%.
But we don't just give 10%, wegive the first.
The tithe is the first 10%.
So every time you're paid,there's it's a, and God is
testing you in an area of trustand he's like do you trust me to

(15:09):
give me 10% so that I can blessthe 90%?
And I thought about it even inthis basket.
I'm not going to do it, butit's almost big enough when you
just put your first 10% in, it'sactually like you're putting
your whole self in to thisbucket, because God takes that

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10 and blesses it beyond whatyou could do with the whole.
And so tithing actually breaksthe spirit of greed.
In my life, tithing actuallybreaks the spirit of I can do it
on my own or I'm in charge.
When we tithe, we're saying God,you are in charge and we will

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live in covenant with youregarding our finances.
And we've challenged peopleover the years.
Last year, free Church, youtook an incredible step of faith
and confidence and you tithedbetter.
Last year, many of you tithedfor the first time in your life
and lived by that principle.
And I'd say, if you're nottithing, you know it'd be easy

(16:15):
for me to say, well, why don'tyou just start with giving, like
start with 3% or start with 5%?
But the reality is, pastor Benhas showed us and taught us so
many times that really that's agood way in, it would be a good
example.
But start with the 10, becauseit's what belongs to God.
And so when we tithe, we'resaying that God is in charge.

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And what's interesting issometimes we like to do this in
church life.
We say, well, I'm going to paymy tithe but I want to direct it
to the youth.
Or I want to pay my tithe and Iwant to direct it to monastery.
Or I want to pay my tithe anddirect it to kids or to missions
, or maybe any of these thingsyou see listed and we say, well,
I want to take my tithe, butI'm going to tell God where to
put my tithe.
Well, is that living in controlor is that allowing God to have

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control?
Is that living in trust orreally trying to tell God what
to do with what you give?
So when we give tithe, we give.
And now look what the tithe does, look what we do with the tithe
.
I mean, it allows us to buythis incredible building.
It helps pay the mortgage, ithelps pay for our staff,

(17:19):
employee expenses and what agreat do.
We have a great team churchIncredible.
It helps fund Witness, youthand Monastery.
It helps fund Free Church Kids.
It helps put equipment in thisroom and just really I like to
say this way kind of the thingsthat we have to do as a church.

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The tithe really helps makespace, for it's the vision of
the church.
The tithe helps make space forthe vision of the church.
So when you go online to give,you're going to have the
opportunity to choose.
Are you going to tithe?
And I would encourage you.
If you've never tithed, I woulddefinitely try it out because I
think you'll be surprised.

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It may seem like a stretch atthe beginning, but God will
bless you beyond what youthought possible and if you
really trust him, I think it'sincredible.
We trust him with our wholelife.
We trust him with our eternity.
But sometimes it's difficult totrust him in our current
situation and we think, well,I'll get to tithe the next time
around.
But really God wants to know doyou trust me or not?

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Are you in control, or I'm incontrol, and that's the tithe.
And so tithe does all thethings that I've said.
Well, then we have other thingsthat we love to give to.
I mean, who doesn't love?
We help plant churches when wegive out and above and around

(18:45):
from Free Church.
We help plant churches throughthe ARC Association of Related
Churches.
We help with One Hope, whoprovides Bibles around the world
.
They've given away millions ofmillions of Bibles around the
world in all languages.
We love to do serve events.
In a couple of weeks we'regoing to serve the village of
Oak Park and the surroundingarea as we do the Easter egg.
It's an Easter hunt, easter egghunt, but they call it the Dash
and Scramble, and so we'll bethere serving coffee and donuts.
We've done this for years.
We give away gallons andgallons of coffee and we give

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away hundreds and hundredsalmost 1,000 donuts every year.
We've done this for a number ofyears and we'll be doing that
again.
Or sometimes we wanna give toConvoy of Hope, who we partner
with to do incredible thingsaround the world, but especially
nationally on disaster relief,when there's a hurricane or
flooding or the fires inCalifornia.
We don't just give into randomspaces, we give to people who

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know what they're doing.
So who doesn't live to give tothat University of Michigan
Missions, that is, theUniversity of Michigan football
team.
This year we saw so manyplayers baptized.
Pastor Robbie will give you anupdate about that next week.
And then the building fund.
Like the things that we do, weused to call it free forever,
but it's how we expand the spaceof what we're doing here in

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this house, if we're gonna dothe lower level remodel and
we're gonna put classrooms inproper classrooms for our kids,
if we're doing here in thishouse, if we're gonna do the
lower level remodel and we'regonna put classrooms in proper
classrooms for our kids, ifwe're gonna install the sound
system, that's the building fund.
So in the past you used to beable to pick all of it, but now
it's like now we're just gonnasay it's the tithe, it's what I
trust God with, and then anyextra giving above and beyond.

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So here's what happensGenerosity, tithing is not
generosity.
Tithing is a covenant with Godregarding my finances.
Above and beyond is generosity,and what we're going to call
above and beyond giving iskingdom builders.
So for many of you that gave isPuerto Rico on here.
Yeah, there we go.
I missed it.
Where is it?
Oh, right in the middle.

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I couldn't reach it.
So a few weeks ago wechallenged everyone to give and
you guys stepped up and gave$5,000 that one single Sunday
for our kids to travel, youngadults to travel to Puerto Rico.
Someone else matched another10,000.
So that got them off andrunning and they're gonna raise
the rest of their support.
In fact, today there's a bakesale downstairs and you can buy

(21:14):
a brownie for $150.
It's going to be the bestbrownie you ever had made by one
of these students or one ofthese young adults, and well,
you don't have to leave if youdidn't like it, evan Jeez, it's
a joke.
So they're gone, they're out.
I made one joke about you,witness me.
But instead of giving andsometimes we'll do that where we
do individual giving but what Ithought was it'd be so much
easier if you go on our websiteand you can give tithe or you

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can give above and beyondgenerously, and what happens is,
instead of just having tochoose one, you just give to the
greater fund and everythingkind of fits right in here.
It makes it so simple Tithe andkingdom builders, and we're
actually going to preach aboutkingdom building in a couple of
months, a series that I'm gonnado as we go into our fall season

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, as we prepare.
You guys wanna take this tabledown?
Thank you, you should set itover on the side.
We love Julian, or what Lovethat kid?
So I felt like just thatpractical expression.

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Now let me give you the biblefor it.
Will you stay with me for 15more minutes, maybe more?
So let's look in scripture.
So here's the scripture I wantto share with you.
Second corinthians, chapter 9,verse 8, says and god is able to
bless you abundantly so that inall things at all times,

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everybody, say all things at alltimes.
In all things at all times.
Having all that you need, youwill abound in every good work.
Verse 10,.
Now, he who supplies seed tothe sower and bread for food
will also supply and increaseyour store of seed and will
enlarge the harvest of yourrighteousness.

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This week's main idea is thisGod pours out blessing in
abundance so that we canoverflow with generosity to
others.
And I just want to share withyou quickly just this idea of
overflow principle, because Ican tell you this Anybody who
lives practicing the tithe intheir life and living above and
beyond in generosity for God'shouse and for God's kingdom,

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they live in overflow.
You ask any person who hastithed faithfully over the
course of years and they willsay I can't, it's not.
And you might say, well, howcan you afford to tithe?
And they will tell you I can't,it's not.
And you might say, well, howcan you afford to tithe?
And they will tell you I can'tafford not to tithe because
there is an overflow in my lifeand it is a principle of

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overflow.
And I want to share theseprinciples with you today.
Are you ready?
Let's go, let's lean in andlet's hurry and get through this
today so we can go buy somegood treats from our young
adults and students.
First of all, giving begins withtrust.
Giving begins with trust.
I shared a little bit abouttrusting with a tithe.
But look what the scripturesays, proverbs 3 and 5.

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Trust in the Lord with all yourheart and do not depend on your
own understanding.
That is a famous passage ofscripture.
In fact, if you've ever spentany time in a Sunday school
class, a youth ministry and aninternship program, you learn
this verse first trust in theLord with all your heart and
lean that to your ownunderstanding.
But in the same passage ofscripture we read that and then

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we skip down to verse.
I think it's verse 10.
And the next verse says thisand honor the Lord with your
wealth and with the best part orthe first part of everything
you produce, then he will fillyour barns with grain and your
vats with overflow, willoverflow with good wine.
Man, what a promise.

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When we honor God with ourwealth and give him the best
part or the first part ofeverything, then he fills our
barns with grain, our vats withoverflow, with good wine, and
that is just do I trust Godenough with what he's given me
to give it and see what he willdo with the rest of it?

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And God says listen, I'll dobetter than you thought possible
when we're singing, you've beengood, so good, so good to me.
That's what I'm thinking about,god.
Every single time I dosomething.
You do it better than I thoughtpossible.
Every time I have an idea ofhow you're gonna bless my family
.
You bless us beyond what Ithought possible.
Every time I think you're gonnaheal my family, you heal us

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beyond what I thought possible.
Everything he does, he doesbeyond, in abundance and
overflow.
So it's the honor part.
And I want to just let you knowthis God, really God doesn't
need your money and God doesn'twant your money, but he wants
your heart, and where your heartis is where your treasure is,

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and where your treasure is iswhere your treasure is, is where
your heart is.
My spiritual father, he, usedto say this.
He used to say you can tell alot about what's most important
to you by looking at yourcheckbook and your date book
when you give or what you spendyour money on, and then where
you put your time.
And I just wanna tell you,giving begins with trust.
I can trust God that when I domy part, he will abundantly do

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his part.
The second principle is thisGod gives to the givers, god
gives to the givers.
It's amazing to me when I thinkabout this, just like the
engine cutoff switch in my boatthat keeps the current flowing
and keeps that motor running.
That water is a similar water isa similar conduit, and as long

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as the river is flowing, itbrings life.
But when the river becomesstagnant, or when the water
becomes stagnant, it becomeslifeless.
If you've ever seen just asection of water when it floods
around here, when it rains inthe spring and it floods down
the river and we see the riverover here, I think what is that

(27:02):
river called this Plains Riverand it floods every year.
I always feel bad for thepeople at Jude and Jeans.
Oh, so sorry Chicago, gene andJude's.
Well, I feel bad for both ofthem either way.

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But when the water floods likethat and then when the water is
received, there'll be pockets ofwater that stand and stay.
Nothing lives in what standsand stays.
It only lives when it keepsflowing.
Nothing lives in what standsand stays.
It only lives when it keepsflowing.

(27:45):
And so when God blesses you, heblesses you in order that you
would be a blessing.
In fact, in Luke it says thisgive and it will be given to you
.
Good measure pressed down,shaken together and running over
, it will be poured out intoyour lap.
For the measure you use, itwill be measured back to you.
And the reality is this passageof scripture.
If you read through the book ofLuke, chapter six, the chapter
six, that Jesus is not onlytalking about financial giving

(28:06):
in this moment.
He was actually talking aboutforgiveness and he was talking
about mercy and he was talkingabout all the other
characteristics of our life.
And the reality is it.
It plays in all of thecategories.
If you're merciful, you'llreceive mercy.
If you're gracious, you'llreceive more grace.
If you forgive others, youyourself will be forgiven.

(28:28):
And if you give, it will begiven back to you.
It will be given back to you.
So when we don't let what Godgives us flow through us, it's
like we're pulling the enginecutoff switch on God's overflow
of blessings.
Will he still bless us?

(28:49):
He can bless us, but he can'tbless us the way he would bless
us if we were actually living inthe covenant and giving what
he's asked us to give.
I like to say this Giving is nottransactional, it is
transformational.
If it's only transactional,it's just I give because I'm
expecting something back, or Ipay my bills, so my lights stay

(29:15):
on.
Bills are transactional.
New sweaters are transactional,new shoes are transactional.
Giving in God's house istransformational.
It will change your lifebecause it changes your priority
.
All right, we're almost done.
Next one God provides seed tothe sower.

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The sower sows and reaps, and Ijust want to tell you this In
everything that God puts intoyour life, there is a seed.
That's why this tithe is soimportant, because the 10% God's
not saying I'm going to giveyou, I'm going to bless you, and

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then you just turn it all overto me.
No, god's saying there's a seedin what I'm giving you and when
you sow the seed, actually itallows me to put more seed in
your life 2 Corinthians 9, 10.
Now, he who supplies seed tothe sower and bread for food

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will also supply and increaseyour store of seed and will
enlarge the harvest of yourrighteousness.
That is such a powerfulprinciple that God gives seed to
the sower, and you know what?
God doesn't give seed to thestingy.
He gives it to the sower.
Amen, god's like I said, everytime you get paid, it's a test

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of trust.
Are you going to sow seed orare you going to hold on to it
and eat the seed?
And when you sow the seed,god's like listen, I'm going to
bless the 90% and I'm going tomake sure there's more seed in
the storehouse for you to do itagain.
There's seed in everything thatyou do.
And listen, we don't give inorder that we get.

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We give in order that we grow,because when I give, I'm growing
more like him.
My heart is more like his heart.
When I give, I'm growing morefor the things in his house and
in his kingdom.
It establishes the pattern ofmy life that he's first and
everything else will come in itsplace and priority is him.

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When I read about the miracle ofthe feeding of 5,000, and I
don't have time to preach thiswhole message today or this
whole story I would love tospend time in this, but we were
with our friends Pastor Chrisand Audrey a couple weeks ago
and he brought up this idea thatthe little boy had a lunch and
it was just a few loaves and afew fishes, and there's 5,000

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people on the hillside, 5,000men the Bible says very clearly
5,000 men plus women andchildren.
And the boy has just lunch andthat's the only food they could
find on the hillside that day.
I'm going to tell you what Ihave a house of a couple of
teenagers and two loaves and afew fishes will not be enough

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For two, let alone 5,000.
Can I get an amen from a parentof a teenager, or even an
upcoming?
Even the little ones out eat usnow.
But the reality is, when it'sgiven, then it can become more
than enough.
As long as it's in that boy'shands, it is not enough.

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But when he gives it, the Biblesays Jesus broke it and blessed
it and it multiplied to morethan enough.
Even beyond feeding 5,000 pluswomen and children, there were
baskets full left for thedisciples to take with them.
And that's what God wants to dowith you.
He gives seed to the sower andyou're like well, I don't know.
Well, listen, every time yousow the seed, he blesses what

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you, what is left in your hand,and it's enough to feed you,
take care of you, to prosper you.
And then he's like I'm going todo it again.
And let me tell you my dad usedto always preach it you cannot
out give God, you cannot givehim.
And then the last one we modelthe greatest gift when we give.

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We model the greatest giftbecause Jesus did not hold back.
God did not hold back when weneeded a savior, god sent his
one and only son the greatestgift ever given.
We would all agree.
God gave that gift because heknew if he held back the gift,

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there would be no hope forhumanity.
And he gave his son, even allthe way to the cross, for our
sins.
And it is the greatest giftever given.
In fact, we're going to preachabout it Easter in a couple of
weeks and set the table forhundreds and hundreds of people
to be saved on Easter Sunday.
But I'm just going to tell youit's the greatest gift ever
given.
And when we give financially,when we live in covenant with

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the Lord and our tithe, and thenwe give above and beyond to
bless and to build the kingdomof God, let me just tell you
something it is modeling thegreatest gift ever given.
And this is how you know.
It models the gift Number oneit's selfless.
When I give.
I don't give for my ownpersonal gain.
I give because I know even thelittle part that I play becomes

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a greater part of what all couldbe done when we do it together.
Like, really, my little bag ofloaves and fishes is really not
seemingly in itself going tomake that much difference.
But when I give it and then itcomes all together with how god
multiplies all of our giftstogether, then it is.

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But I don't give it for me,it's selfless.
The second thing is thatsacrificial, youificial.
You know I was thinking aboutthis.
The tithe is a covenant that welive in relationship with the
Lord.
It's not really.
It's not really a sacrifice.
It's what we're asked to bringto the house.
Bring the tithe to thestorehouse so that the barns may

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be full and people will be fed.
That's, that's what the Biblesays.
It's not like, hey, this is aneat little idea that will help
build buildings and pay forstaff members.
No, this is how people are fed,for the kingdom of God is by
bringing tithe to the storehouse.
That's not a sacrifice, church,that is just our rightful act
of worship and service inregards to our finances.

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So that's the tithe.
The sacrifice is when we goabove and beyond tithe.
The sacrifice is like listen, Iknow I was going to do this,
but I feel like I want to sowthis into kids ministry.
I want to sow this to build thelower level out and one of you
could write the check one timefor us to do that and we would

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build that lower level out withproper permitting and everything
.
I think you could write thecheck one time.
We need to hang these speakersand get them off the stage so it
sounds better in this house,and get the clutter off of this
stage.
One of you could write thecheck for that.
That's 100 grand.
I didn't tell you the kidsnumber because it's flexing If

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we build it ourself as it'sdesigned right now, it's about
15,000 before equipment andfurniture.
But our kids deserve betterfurniture and better equipment.
You could one of you could dothat right now and it would go
right in that kingdom buildersbasket and then we'd listen.
Y'all did it for the ACs.
We didn't have to get a loanfor that, so we don't really

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wanna get a loan.
I think it could be done inthis house.
We'll preach about that goinginto the fall, but some of the
stuff will hopefully get donebefore that because you're so
generous, but it's selfless,it's sacrificial.
And then the next one it'sabundant.
You know what?
Generosity is not tied to adollar amount, it's tied to the

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heart, because what's generousout of my heart is different
than what's generous in yourheart, because it's the
principle of the seed.
In the storehouse you're workingwith, and some of you God is
blessed I had somebody come upto me and say I feel like
there's more I can do.

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What should I do?
I'm like well, you're serving,you give tithe faithfully.
Maybe what you're expressing isyou have a gift of giving and
maybe you wanna give above'reexpressing is you have a gift of
giving and maybe you want togive above and beyond the tithe
because you have a gift to give.
Some of you have that gift inthis house, the gift to give,

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and you move not just the visionof the church, but you, like.
This is sometimes.
I feel like tithe is the thingswe have to do and kingdom
builders are the things we wantto do.
You know we have to pay thebills, we have to have lights on
, we have to have insurance, wehave to.
We're going to have to replaceroofs up on top.

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We got about an $85,000 quoteright now to do that.
We have to do that.
But, man, we get to send kidsand young adults to Puerto Rico.
We get to build out the lowerlevel.
We get to help Convoy of Hopeand Disaster Relief and build
centers and feeding centers inColumbia and we get to do all

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that.
We have to do that, we get todo this.
And it's really just theprinciple when God pours out
abundance of blessings in ourlife, he does it so we can
overflow in generosity to others.
Can you receive that word today?