OVERFLOW V // Pastor Chuck Colegrove // April 13, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
planting free church.
And so we started lookingaround for preschools.
And you know, it's it's in themiddle of like it's a start of a
semester, but it is a middle ofa school year, so it's kind of
hard to find a preschool thathad two spots open.
And he was like, yeah, we got aspot open for you.

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And I'm like, well, I need two.
They're like, oh, we can't helpyou.
So we finally found FirstUnited, just right here across
the street from us, and theywere like yeah, we can get your
boys in, just bring them in onWednesday morning.
So we brought them in and wegot there a little after like
all the rest of the kids hadarrived and checked in, and they

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were like just bring themupstairs and we'll introduce you
to the teachers.
And so we met the teachers andthey invited the twins to sit
down at a table and they werelike we're so glad you got here
right at snack time.
And I thought, well, this isprobably the reason why, even
today, if you ask them, theirfavorite subject in school it's
lunch, because they got topreschool right at snack time

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and we sat down at the tablewith them and it was.
You know, it was an appropriatefour-year-old table.
It was short and the chairswere short.
And when we sat down I noticedthere was a pitcher of milk and
there was a pitcher of Cheerios.
So a pitcher of milk and apitcher of Cheerios.
And the teacher said, well,we're going to have snack right
now and we have milk to drinkand Cheerios.
So a pitcher of milk and apitcher of Cheerios.
And the teacher said, well,we're going to have snack right

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now and we have milk to drinkand Cheerios to eat.
And I was like great.
So I grabbed a cup and Ireached for the milk and she
said oh, no, no, no, mrColdgrove, at our school the
kids serve themselves.
Now at our home, now at ourhome.

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Up till that point, these kidshad not served themselves.
They got a mom that did all ofthat, and occasionally I would
do that.
And so I was like are you sure?
I don't think they've done thisyet.
And she said, no, they're goingto be fine, and so I'll never
forget.
I said okay, and Eli reachedout and grabbed the milk and put
the cup there and just startedpouring milk.

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And milk came up over the topof the cup and ran all over.
And I was like, uh, and she'slike it's okay, it's okay he's
going to learn.
And he just kept pouring.
And then I look over at andEvan's got the Cheerios and he's
just pouring Cheerios andthere's a small village of
Cheerios that is populating thefloor and I was like, are we

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okay with this?
She said, oh, this is howthey're going to learn.
And it struck me that they justunderstood the process.
They didn't understand when youstart pouring, you got to stop
pouring at some point.
But they't understand when youstart pouring, you gotta stop
pouring at some point.
But they just decided when westart pouring, we ain't stopping
.
And it reminded me it's theyear I was reminded that's how

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God does in our lives he startspouring and he ain't stopping.
Why don't you just turn to yourneighbor and say this is
overflow and then turn to theother neighbor you've been
ignoring them all service andjust bump them and say my cup is
running over.

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Today we're going to close outour series called Overflow, but
we're not going to stop livingin overflow called overflow, but
we're not gonna stop living inoverflow.
Remember the beginning of theseries we mentioned.
We are getting into thisposition of aligning ourselves
under the abundant outpouring ofGod's life and blessing and

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favor and gifts and spirit inour lives, not so that we look
good, but so that we canoverflow into the lives of
others.
And when God starts pouring, heain't stopping.
You can just get the picture ofEli pouring that pitcher of

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milk over that cup and justletting it run over it, and
nobody's alarmed, nobody seemsto be panicking, nobody's
running to find the mop and toclean everything.
It's okay.
This is what happens when westart pouring.
It ain't stopping.
And that's what God wants to doin our life today.
And when God starts pouring,let me just tell you it's not a

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little trickle, it's not alittle stream, it is a waterfall
, an avalanche, a river of lifeflowing into us.
So as we close this out, I justwant to say this next week is
Easter Sunday.
I told our team yesterday atour Dream Team Connect, like

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when you start the year andEaster is on April 20th, you're
like man, we got a long timetill Easter and then you blink
and it's Easter weekend.
But I'm gonna tell yousomething you need to.
Just there was invite cards onevery seat and I want you to
just take that and invite onemore person this week to join
you on Easter Sunday.
But I wanna remind you it is atnine o'clock and 11 o'clock,

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not 10 o'clock, nine o'clock.
You need to text somebody thatsits close to you on Sundays and
say hey, just remember, don'tcome at 10.
Be here at nine or 11.
Because I know I got like fivepeople in my list that I've
written their names down thatevery year we do two services.

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They show up in the middle ofthe second service.
They show up in the middle ofthe two services.
So if you get here at 10,you're going to be here for the
finale song, but you're going tohave to wait another hour for
the rest of the service at 11.
So remind yourself, set youralarm, listen.
We want you to worship one andserve one, but we want you to
bring somebody with you.
Do not come alone.
What they just sang earlier theblood, the blood, the bloods oh

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, the wonderful blood.
That's one of the songs fornext week and it's just a setup
to how good Easter Sunday isgoing to be.
Our team's been working so hardto how good Easter Sunday is
gonna be.
Our team's been working so hard, but today, today, we're gonna
talk about really this idea andour main thought would be this
that God provides blessings andabundance so we can overflow

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with praise and worship to him.
God provides blessings andabundance so that we can
overflow in praise and worshipto him.
God provides blessings inabundance so that we can
overflow in praise and worshipto him.
You know, when God startsblessing in our life, it is out
of abundance and it is out ofthe overflow of a God who does

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exceeding and abundantly morethan we could ever ask for or
imagine.
But I want you to understand,and I want to be clear with you
today, that when we talk aboutGod's blessings, we're not
merely talking about thematerial things of this world.
There's a standard, we would say, that culture has regarding

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blessings and the church or theBible has regarding blessings,
and they're quite opposite.
And if we're not careful, wecan allow culture to influence
us and we categorize ourblessings only as the things
that are material in our lives,for instance.

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For instance, you know, wewould say that, man, when we're
successful, that's a blessing.
We would say that when we havemore money, come on somebody,
that's a blessing.
You know the world would saythat.
You know, when we have morepower or prestige or we have
position, that would be ablessing.

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And you know, some of us wouldsay when we have more power or
prestige or we have position,that would be a blessing.
And you know, some of us wouldsay when we have more clothes in
the closet, that's a blessing.
And others of us would say whenwe have clothes in the closet
that fit, that's a blessing.
Because everybody knows there'sthat section of the closet that
we're just holding on to justin case, just in case I get back

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into it.
Oh, what a blessing.
But on the world standards ofblessings, you can notice this
that it's tied to success, it'soften tied to self-satisfaction
and I can tell you this, it'svery short-lived.
The Bible even says Materialthings, the grass will wither

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and fade, the earth's gonna cometo an end, but the word of God
stands forever.
So I wanna show you what God'sword says about blessing.
And know this even though Godwill bless us with material
things, that is not the ultimatemeasure of God's goodness.
Listen, if the blessings of God, even though it might seem like

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it's coming in a standard of atest or a trial, it is lighter
compared to what it's going toproduce in our life for eternity
.
Wait, did he just say ablessing is a test and a trial?
Absolutely, because it is thetest that drove me to the cross.
It is the test that drove me tothe cross.
It is the trial that drove meto my knees.

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It is the door that closed thatmade me search for the open
door.
It is the answer that I didn'twant that made me press in for
the answer that I needed.
I didn't write this in my notes,it's not in your notes, but you
know what the blessings of Godare really, established in his

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character.
They're not earned by merit.
You don't earn blessings.
You don't get good enough.
So God can be good, he's justgood, he's just good, he's just
good.
And then the last one God'sblessings grow us closer to him

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and equip us to bless others.
Second, corinthians says this 8and 9 says See to it that no
one takes you captive throughhollow and deceptive philosophy
which depends on human'stradition in the elemental
spiritual forces of this worldrather than on Christ, For in
Christ all the fullness of thedeity lives in bodily form.

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Christ blesses us to draw us inin order that we might bless
others.
So let's lean in, let's justlet's lean in for a second.
The Hebrew word.
There's a Hebrew word barak.
Everybody say barak and yougotta kind of I didn't say it

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very good the first time becauseyou gotta kind of say it when
you get to the end.
Right, it's like barak.
If you to sound Hebrew likeyou've studied Hebrew, you just
got to just have like a grit toit when you end it.
But Barak, you know, I rememberKirk Franklin sang this song.
I think I think it was KirkFranklin.
No, who was it?
I don't know, somebody knows,but it was kind of like Kirk

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Franklin.
But the song was Barak.
And then they say Hallelujah,barak, praise the Lord, soul
Children of Chicago, waltWhitman.
I was supposed to play drumsfor him one time but they
no-showed Flex Shabak.

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They said Shabak, okay.
So shoot, let's keep moving,let me keep preaching.
It was better in my mind whenit was Barak.
But Barak means look at this.
It has two meanings.
It means to bestow favor, butit also means to kneel.

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So I want you to see thereciprocal fashion of praise in
Hebrew.
Is this that God bestows favor?
But my response is to kneel inworship.
So God blesses me and myresponse not is just to say, oh,
look at me, how good I am.
My response is to kneel in,just response of like, in awe

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that God would bless me.
He chose me, he picked me, heblessed me.
So it is this idea ofreciprocal fashion.
It's circular, in fact.
It has to just become who weare and what we do.
When he blesses, we worship.
When he blesses, we worship, weworship and he blesses.
I don't know if it was thechicken or the egg that came

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first, but I'm going to tell you, when you worship, he blesses,
and when he blesses, you worship.
And when we stop praising him,the river stops and becomes a
reservoir and then there's nomore room.
There's no more room.
There's no more room, there'sno more room.
He'll keep pouring as long aswe're praising.

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And look, I can prove it inScripture, I can prove it.
Abraham God says I'm going tobless you, to be a blessing.
What's he do?
He builds an altar and worshipsMoses and Miriam.
They crossed the Red Sea.
You know what they did firstthey sang.
Read it.

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They sang.
You can read it in Exodus,chapter 15.
They sang this song and myquestion is what has God
delivered you from that?
You need to just stop and singa song and if you read it, it's
not like it's ever gonna be onthe radio.
It wasn't that great lyrically,but I'm going to tell you it
came from their heart and that'swhat counts.
So what does God deliver youfrom that requires you to break

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into song and listen.
It's okay, make it up.
My favorite moments in worshipare not when I'm reading what's
on the screen.
It's when I just start doing myown ohs and my own feels and my
own wording to what they'resinging.
Why?
Because it's just an overflowof response to what God has
delivered me from.
David danced like crazy inresponse to the opportunity to

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bring the ark back, the ark ofthe covenant, which represented
the presence of God, and itshowed us that real worship is
unashamed, unfiltered andunapologetic.
So I've said this in othersessions and other meetings and
other Sundays but listen, itshould not.
It should not.
Don't let it freak you out.

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If somebody runs across thefront, it's not, we don't always
do it, it's not like it's astandard.
I've been in churches wherethey're saying okay, five people
run right now.
That's kind of crazy to me.
We're gonna respond to the HolySpirit decently, in order, but
sometimes out of the expression.

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It is okay to express ourselvesas David unapologetic,
unfiltered and unashamed.
I'm not saying you have to gocrazy.
I'm just saying if your heartis in it, then be a blessing.
If you're a distraction, we'lllet you know, because that's the

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moment it changes.
If it's really praise andworship, it's not a distraction.
But as soon as it becomes adistraction, then it's really
moment it changes.
If it's really praise andworship, it's not a distraction.
But as soon as it becomes adistraction, then it's really
more about you.
And praise and worship is neverabout us, it's always about God
.
So I can show you another one.
Paul and Silas in the jailbegan to sing and as they sang

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the jailhouse shook and thedoors opened.
Somebody just said jailhouserock over there.
I gotcha and the prisoners wereall free to go.
None of them ran.
And it just shows me thatsometimes you're going to have

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to sing your way out of acircumstance.
Don't wait till the battle's.
And then let's not forget thetriumphal entry.
Today, palm Sunday, the responseyou got to imagine, like in the

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Roman Empire, when the kingcame in, when Caesar came in,
when people of authority came in, they actually demanded that
you do something.
They demanded you take a place.
They demanded the respect, theydemanded the honor.
And what I'm gonna tell you isyou know, we the Bible says we
respect and honor and pray forall of our leaders in government
, every single one of them,whether we agree with them.

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We love them, we like them, wevoted whatever.
We pray for them, we honor theposition and we respect the
office.
But what I'm going to tell youis but we don't have to wave
palm branches at our publicleaders, because you know what.
The palm branch was reserved forthe one who was going to be
living in victory.

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The palm branch was reservedfor the one that all the praise
and listen.
You don't have to carry a palmbranch because you got two right
here that you can raise andwave.
But you got to imagine thescene People were throwing their
coats and their robes and go.

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I mean, they're singing HosannaBlessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord, and I know itwas just leading up to a
crucifixion, but still, god'sblessings in our life have
always been places for us tostop and pause and remember and
celebrate.
Stop and pause, remember andcelebrate.

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And really, what Palm Sundaymusic can come.
We're gonna close out.
What Palm Sunday can show us isthis praise is not passive.
I've been in that church before.

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Praise is not passive, it isprogressive, it is in response,
it is a declaration and it is anoverflow.
We got time for one more Hebrewword.
One more Hebrew word is kavodkavod.

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Everybody say kavod Kavod isthe Hebrew word for glory and
the meaning of it is weight orsignificance.
So that means when we praiseGod, we aren't just singing

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songs, we're not just clappinghands.
We aren't just singing songs.
We're not just clapping hands,we're not just lifting hands,
we're not just shouting with ourvoices.
We are ascribing significanceand weight to who he is.
It's not because he needs toknow the weight that he carries.
It's because we need to remindourselves the weight that he

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carries, the significance of whohe is in our life.
It's not that he needs to knowit, but we need to remind
ourselves.
There is a name where therethere's a name higher than any
other name.
There is a name whereby noother man is saved.
There is a name that, at themention of it, demons tremble.
Sickness has to flee.
Victory comes, and when I beginto praise the name of the Lord.

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It ascribes the weight of hisglory in my life.
You can look through it Allthrough the Old Testament.
The glory of God in differentspaces would fill the tabernacle
so much so it would overflowout of the tabernacle but nobody
could stand.
Fill the tabernacle so much soit would overflow out of the
tabernacle but nobody couldstand in the tabernacle.
Why?
Because the weight what do youmean?

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It was heavy.
Listen, there's just somethingthat happens when I begin to
praise God.
The Bible is clear.
He is a keeper of his promises.
When we praise him, he inhabitsthe place and you need to see
this.
He doesn't just swing through.
You ever talk to somebody whothey're in a room and maybe they

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have an elevated place forbeing in the room and they're
really in the room to see whoelse might be in the room.
And so when you're talking tothem, they really won't give you
eye contact.
They're like looking around,who else do I see?
I mean we've done it, I'm sureI've done it where I've looked

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around who else Talking tosomebody?
Who else is here?
Who else guys?
And they're really trying tofind who else is important in
this room that I can talk to.
But God doesn't come into theroom when people praise him and
look for the most important inthe room.
He just fills the room.
He just fills it.
So that when you come into theroom and start praising him and

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he fills the room, his presenceis undeniable, it's unavoidable,
it's irresistible.
His presence satisfies therequirement for us to be in the
room, and so that is the weightwe're talking about, the

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significance that.
We're talking about that whenthe presence of God is here,
anything can happen.
That is the weight we'retalking about, the significance
that we're talking about thatwhen the presence of God is here
, anything can happen.
And it doesn't matter whereI've been, what I've done.
I get the benefit of the weightand significance of who's in

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the room.
He finds me.
That weight.
If you could just see itbillowing in, pouring in from
the top, filling every area.
You ever see water when youpour water out on the driveway

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or in the backyard and itimmediately starts running to
the very lowest spot.
It runs past the high spots andfinds its way all the way and
you can trace it all the way tothe lowest spot.
And when we sit in a room andworship and praise, like we did

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today, the presence of God, theblessings of God, remember,
because it's not just about thematerial, it is the spiritual,
it is what goes beyond material,it is what goes beyond
temporary and current, it goesinto the eternal.
And that blessing of God, god,that river starts to flow and

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it's finding its way all the wayto the very lowest spot.
And you might have come in herethinking there's no way God
would ever come down to my level.
But he's so good and he poursout in such abundance that, even
though you think, well, he'shere to fill this person, or
he's here to meet this person,or he's here to provide this

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need, no, he's here to do it alland he can do every bit of it,
because nothing is impossiblewith my God.
Would you close your eyes, lord?
We've had quite a time.