May 5, 2025 • 45 mins
What did you think of today's message?
1 Chronicles 9:10-18
Recorded May, 4 2025
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, it's good.
Thanks, dude.
I see some of my Warriorspeople out here.
Thanks for coming to church.
We're praying for them today.
Name seven so last week wewrapped up the gospel according
to Matthew, and it ends with amission, a purpose.
Actually, our mission, ourpurpose, not only as individuals
(00:24):
, but the church, andspecifically our church, that
Jesus followers, our multipliers.
That is literally what changedthe world In Matthew, chapter
28,.
As this wrapped up, it's thefinal words of Jesus.
He says in chapter 28, he saysin verse 19, therefore, and so
if you pause right there, you'relike what's the therefore?
(00:45):
Therefore?
Well, just before this, jesussaid all authority on heaven and
earth belongs to me.
I'm over everything.
I'll hold the keys toeverything.
So, therefore, because of this,I want you to go and I want you
to make Like it's the one thinghe asked us to do, to make
something, to do this.
He said make disciples ofeveryone, everywhere, all color,
(01:08):
all size, all places, baptizingthem.
And then he tells us what to doto baptize them in the name of
the Father, the Son and the HolySpirit, and teaching them to
believe.
He didn't say that.
What did he say?
Teaching them to obey.
Do you guys realize there's adifference, like between
(01:30):
believing I think a lot of uscan kind of get stuck and like I
believe in that stuff, Ibelieve that stuff's good, I
believe everything, I believe hewas who he was, I believe that
those are good ideas and stuff.
But there's a big difference inobeying.
Did you know?
Paul actually talks about thisin 1 Corinthians.
He said that it's about the.
If you don't love the Lord, youwould be cursed.
(01:50):
Why?
Love is a verb?
Right, it's actionable.
It's not just believing insomething because you know who
else believes.
Did you know Satan believed.
You know the demons believedthat Jesus was who he said he
was.
Then he raised from the dead.
The difference was they didn'tlove him, they didn't obey him.
And so he teaches us you canthrow it back up there.
(02:10):
He says to obey everything, toobey, not believe.
Obey everything that I'vecommanded you.
And then he loses with thispromise it's so good.
If you do that, surely I amwith you to the very end of the
age.
And so what does this all looklike?
This is what all in he's saying.
You guys want to be all in.
(02:31):
You're going to let me be theking, the ruler, the one that
carries all authority on heavenand earth.
This is what this looks like.
This is what it smells like,tastes like what people can see.
It smells like, tastes likewhat people can see.
That's what all in going makingbaptizing, teaching, obeying
and friends.
That's what we're going to talkabout for the next several
(02:52):
weeks.
What does all in look like?
And, frankly, are you ready tobe all in?
Are you ready just to hear itand believe it and be like, oh,
I believe that stuff happened, Ithink that's nice, or are we
actually going to go all in anddo the things?
This final statement, this finalcommand, now, real quickly, I
just want to tell you that thisis not just a one-off.
We're going to be going intosome stuff.
(03:13):
We're going to be teachingBible.
We teach books of the Biblehere.
We go through them expositorily, verse by verse.
We're going to be doing thatbecause this church we teach,
we're Bible-based, we teach theBible, and right now we're going
to be talking about this all-instuff.
We're going to do some othercool stuff over the summer, but
I want you to know this is not aone-off.
If you just came here for justtoday and then you think you're
going to take away what we'retrying to get off.
(03:34):
This is just chapter one.
They all go together.
So it's really importantbecause here is another way that
Jesus put it we have been askedto be fishers of okay, a lot of
(03:54):
you guys get that fishers ofmen right.
And what do fishermen do?
They cast nets and they mendnets, and then they pull the
nets in and then they castbigger nets and then they mend
nets and fix it up.
They're casting and they'remending and they're casting, and
then Jesus fills the nets right, and then they're casting and
then they're mending nets.
And for us, here's a bit ofwhat our future is gonna look
(04:16):
like.
It's found in three words Iwanna focus on.
First is transformation.
Transformation this is wherewe're casting nests and we're
amending nests.
Transformation we believe it isso important to have
environments around this placeand spaces that are these
environments wheretransformation can take place,
(04:36):
like quality environments in ourfamily building and for our
students and for this space.
The environments that youparticipate in, you walk in,
they're all very intentional andwith that, that transformative
space, it actually needs somemending right, it's part of
casting, but then you have tomend the nets, you have to fix
it up.
And you guys walk around andyou see some stuff it takes
upkeep, right.
So mending is like how many ofyou guys even knew that this
(04:59):
building that you're in isactually nine years old?
It feels like it's still a baby.
But things just they change andthey go away.
And like you walked around andyou're like, oh, that could use
a little fixing up.
And like, oh, that's fallingapart, right, or all the
equipment, it all has a life anda lifespan and so we got to
mend the nets.
So then we can cast wider nets,so we can create spaces for
(05:20):
transformation for people tomeet Jesus and to hear the good
news and then to love him and toobey him, not just believe on
him, not just hear about this.
And that leads it intoexpansion, transformation.
And then you expand your netsto cast wider nets.
Not many of you guys know this,but this building itself was
actually built to be larger.
These walls in the back of theroom actually are temporary on
(05:43):
purpose.
When we originally built this,we built it with the intention
that there's actually stadiumseating that goes up, so this
space gets expanded for moretransformation that those walls.
If you guys have been up by thecoffee shop or across in the
bathroom.
Maybe you've noticed.
On the wall it says temp one,temp two.
It's because it's a temporaryroom.
It's not supposed to be thereall the time.
That's the vision of hey, we'recasting bigger nets and we're
(06:05):
mending nets, and so we wanna beable to expand and knock those
walls down.
We wanna be able to expand andadd, like a solar to our parking
lot.
I don't know if you guys, Idon't know what your PG&E bill
looks like this is gonna makesome of you guys like do a
little like puke in your mouthand swallow it.
We, we pay about $80,000 a yearto PG&E because we use this
place, because we want to castnets right, we want to mend nets
(06:27):
, so it's like, okay, so how canwe expand and make it so we can
use this space even more so andit not be a burden?
We want to do expansion.
Not only this, but check thisout.
I believe that God has, likeordainly, put us in such a
strategic place.
We are on this piece ofproperty in a regional church
for a reason, on purpose, andone of the reasons is within the
next three years, you want tosee what's coming.
(06:48):
It's this.
Look at this picture.
See our church right there.
We're getting neighbors andthat's on purpose.
Some of you guys are likethat's my new neighborhood.
Right, we have three years.
This is us right here.
Some of you guys when I say,like God ordained us to be in
this place, in this position,some of you guys don't know this
(07:08):
story.
We have 20 acres right herethat was actually donated to us
for $1.
We've been put in this spot tocast nets and to mend nets, and
we got to get ready forthousands of people moving into
the neighborhood and that arearound the region that are going
to be coming here to experiencegreat environments,
(07:29):
outside-facing environments, toexperience transformation and to
fall in love with the Lord.
So we have transformation.
That's important too.
So when we focus on expansionand what that looks like here
and in the future, and then wehave innovation, we have to be
prepared to innovate to reachpeople, to cast those nets as
wide as possible and to createnew places and spaces for nets.
(07:52):
One of those ways it could bejust throwing it out there.
If we're gonna throw big visioninto there that within the next
three years, we're able toactually prepare our nets for
Jesus to fill the nets.
Well, what do we do with that?
One of those things is sometimesoon it's actually knocking
down the walls, but potentiallybuilding right over here and
I'll show you guys in the nextcouple of weeks a large like
(08:13):
gymnasium type of space it'slike a YMCA or Boys and Girls
Club that literally becomes abridge for community and county
people to come up onto ourcampus, experience something
through athletics or food pantryor transitional housing or
recovery stuff, all of thatstuff that then that's their
first experience and then theycan say, huh, what's going on
(08:35):
over there?
And then they get to experiencethese transformative spaces.
We've got to be innovative.
Like that.
Our NextGen team is doingfantastic right now.
They are dreaming big, as theyshould be.
Nextgen stands for like ourkids, our children's area up
through our teenagers, and justthey're like.
They're dreaming about, likeMandy's dreaming about.
Like what would it look like ifwe could focus on intentional
(08:57):
parenting so we can take thosetransformational spaces and
environments and start puttingthose in the homes and we can
resource our parents and ourfamilies?
And then like big dreams oflike what does it look like to
do a parent conference?
What does it look like to be anintentional parent or our
student ministries huge, giantvision this next year to see
over 500 unchurched or kids thatare not involved in church
(09:18):
coming through this campus andthese spaces and these
environments that we've created.
And they're being creativealready.
They're using our vans as likea bus service and they're trying
to reach specific groups, andsome of you guys participate in
a.
We've been doing a chosen Biblestudy that's wrapping up this
week on Tuesday nights and a lotof them come here.
It's Tuesday night and it'sjust wild out there.
I mean like skateboardseverywhere, bikes, just all of
(09:39):
this different stuff becausethey're trying to reach wide and
then go deep with these kidsand they're like this is what is
happening.
I'm like this is happeningbecause we need to be innovative
in how we reach this nextgeneration, because here's the
deal, friends, and I firmlybelieve this whoever wins the
kids wins the future In thiscommunity and all around them.
Whoever wins the kids wins thefuture.
(10:00):
And so there's big vision forthis, and I'm going to tell you
that when you have big visionfor this, it's messy Like,
because you're inviting messypeople in here, right, and we
are called to be fishers of men.
But here's my question to youAre we really ready to be
fishers of men or we do we justwant to be keepers of the
(10:22):
aquarium?
Or we do we just want to bekeepers of the aquarium?
Ooh, ooh, ooh.
Those of you who are parents orgrandparents, you know, I know
this, I'm a parent.
You pray for your kids.
Like you pray for them, likeyou want a place in a space like
(10:45):
this.
I mean, you're literally likeplease make your youth group so
cool, because my kid does notthink Jesus is cool right now,
but they can at least come to agood environment where they can
find some identity.
You know, same thing with yourgrandkids.
You pray for your own kids.
Many of you are praying foryour kids who are far.
You're praying for yourgrandkids and I just want to
tell you this If we're going toreach the next generation, it's
(11:10):
going to be messy and we justgot to do some things different
and some things where you'relike I don't like that or like,
wow, that's a lot of sacrifice,that's what it takes, that's
what you're being invited to andyou want it.
That's what you're alreadypraying for.
Going all in looks like beingcalled to high levels of
sacrifice, and so we'relaunching an initiative the
(11:31):
short-term initiative to go allin and make that those things
become a reality.
This isn't a campaign.
I want to be really clear andwhat I'm doing is I'm asking all
of you all of you who are inhere in person, all of you who
watch online to engage in thisinitiative, to go all in and ask
what does all in actually looklike?
(11:53):
To leverage our collectiveresources in order to maximize
our kingdom impact and, by theway, if you didn't know this,
you already are.
You're already making, on aregular basis, a kingdom impact,
locally and nationally andglobally, whether you knew that
or not.
But I want us to maximize We'vegot to maximize our kingdom
impact.
(12:13):
I want us right now we shouldbe putting our foot on the gas
to maximize our potential.
But to do that, it's gonnarequire all of us all of us to
maximize our personal generosityand our resources to this
initiative.
And here's the thing, and I wantyou to hear this For some of
you especially, we're not doingthis.
(12:34):
This isn't a money talk.
We're not doing this becauseyour church needs money.
This isn't about your churchneeds your money.
This is about the world needingyou and your influence.
Like to actually go and makeand do and teach and obey.
This is about the world needingyour influence.
Our nation, our world need morechurches like your church.
Everyone does it so thateverybody, every child, every
(12:57):
college student, every singleadult, every middle schooler,
every high schooler, couldexperience the kinds of
environments that you experience, because we want to set the
anchor deep in their hearts andso that when they tend to stray
which we know you do and theyknow they will, because they
will not stray far, because theyhave been anchored we have
(13:19):
anchored into them the actualfirst century version of what it
means to follow Jesus.
Now, if this talk about moneyor sacrifice makes you nervous,
I understand that, but here'swhat I want you to hear.
34 years ago, it was a much,much smaller group of people
that were asked to givegenerously with everything and
(13:42):
really give everything.
They had, their time, theirtalents, their effort,
everything they had to anexperiment, everything they had,
their time, their talents,their effort, everything they
had to an experiment, to highlevels of sacrifice.
We had no members, we had nomoney, we had no property, we
just had an idea and thatexperience, because of the
sacrifice and the generosityagain, high levels of sacrifice,
became the church that you arecurrently seated in right now,
(14:06):
and I know I know many of thosepeople because they're still
involved in this church heretoday.
In fact, pastor Ken, ourfounding pastor, he's here every
week.
He's one of those people, oryou've seen her up here on stage
Pastor Megan, our pastor ofcare.
She was one of the first 12that moved from where she lived
and moved out to this communitythat said, yes, I'm going to
lean in.
And they said yes and gavesacrificially.
(14:27):
And if you talk to them, theydon't miss the stuff, they don't
miss the money, they don't missthe sacrifice.
If you ask them, they would notgo back and undo any of it if
their life depended on it,because of what they have seen
God do in and through them andaround them.
We're all here because of that,because someone else went all
in and said yes, here because ofthat, because someone else went
all in and said yes.
In fact, if you have only been apart of this faith community
(14:48):
the last two years, would youraise your hand really high?
Okay, so everybody can lookaround the room.
Just the last two years, okay.
How about this?
How many of you guys have onlyexperienced since we've had this
building on campus.
You've never been up here whenthere wasn't this building up
here.
So you can raise your hand uphere.
That's a ton of us, yeah, okay,what about before this building
?
This building didn't exist andyou were a part of it.
Okay, so you can look around,okay.
(15:09):
So these are different groupsof people, those of you who are
only been here for two years,and I could do less.
Your hand is raised becausesomeone else ahead of you raised
their hands, and then someoneelse ahead of them raised their
hands before this place was here, and then it was someone else's
turn to raise their hand.
And here's the thing.
Here's the thing.
Five years from now, two yearsfrom now, but five years from
(15:30):
now and I believe this with allof me, thousands of men, women,
students, children, thousandswill be grateful because of what
you're about to do, what youare raising your hand and saying
it's our turn.
We are going all in because weactually believe this thing,
this our hand, and saying it'sour turn.
We are going all in because weactually believe this thing.
This is actually what we wantto do.
We actually want to obey thisstuff.
(15:51):
We believe in casting nets, webelieve in mending nets and then
throwing wider nets out there.
We are not going to just takecare of an aquarium, we're going
to be fishers of men.
Now, the other reason that youdon't have to get weird or feel
weird about the preacher up heretalking about money or asking
you for high levels of sacrificein your life is this People who
have embraced this and many ofyou, many of you are here, you
get what I'm about to say Peoplewho have embraced what Jesus
(16:14):
taught about money and peoplewho embraced as a lifestyle what
Jesus said about possessions,would tell you that they're
never going back.
As one of those, I will tellyou I am never, ever going back.
And Michelle and I, my wife, weare so fortunate to have
learned, you know, thepracticing of tithing and
understood, first and best,giving, and understood the value
(16:35):
of investing us and our timeand our family and our resources
into doing what God's, intoGod's community, and then
changing through that, reallythe world.
And we just want those of youwho have never experienced this
before to be a part of that.
We want you to experience thatand some of you haven't
experienced it because of fear.
Some of you haven't experiencedit because of debt or whatever
(16:55):
the reason, because you don'ttrust the church and you hear
stories.
But here's what I want you toengage because I'm telling you.
I'm telling you you will nevermeet a follower of Jesus who
allowed their money to followJesus and his kingdom that
regrets it.
You'll never meet that person.
So you don't have to be nervousabout this.
We don't want you to be.
I don't want to be weird aboutthis.
(17:17):
This is just one moreopportunity to follow Jesus, to
cast nets, to mend nets, to gofishing.
We're going fishing and it allcomes back to one simple idea
and today, just for a fewminutes, I want to introduce
this simple idea and for some ofyou, this might totally be a
review, for some of you who'veheard this before, but maybe you
(17:38):
sort of drifted, and I get that.
For some of you, this may be anovel idea and the first time
you've heard about it.
And in the end, what I'm goingto do is I'm going to ask you
today to spend a week thinkingabout it, but not doing anything
about it, just thinking aboutit.
There's actually no realapplication for today's message
other than a thought exercise,so you're not just waiting for
(17:59):
some pitch.
This isn't a pitch, this isvision.
This is what's going on, and itall goes back to acknowledging
and applying this one simpletruth.
It starts, actually, with KingDavid.
King David said it first in theOld Testament, and then King
Jesus came along and reiteratedit later.
And King David he made thisstatement or sort of exported
(18:20):
this and teased out this truthduring a prayer that he prayed
that we're going to look at aspart of his prayer in just a
minute.
But there's one statement fromKing David's prayer all those
years ago that says it all, andhere's what he said in this
prayer to God.
He said everything, everythingin heaven and earth.
(18:41):
He said God is yours.
In other words, god, you own itall.
We are just temporary managers,we are just simply temporary
stewards of it.
So here's the context of thisprayer.
It's kind of interesting.
So King David he's probably inhis mid to late 50s and he's
settled all the border disputesaround the ancient kingdom of
(19:03):
Israel, and so there was peacein the land and he decided that
it was actually time for GodYahweh to have his own temple.
As other pagan religions, theyall had temples for their gods,
and God, israel's God Yahweh,lived in a tent.
It was called the tabernacle,and this had been since the time
of Moses.
And so David decides I'm goingto build God a temple, a
(19:25):
permanent structure.
And so he goes to work.
But before he does this, aprophet came to see him.
His name was actually Nathan.
He said a couple of things.
He said hey, king David, firstof all, I think this is great,
this is great.
But here's the deal God's notasking for a building, like,
because he's mobile, and Goddoesn't need a building because
he's not tied to a piece ofgeography.
(19:47):
But he appreciates thesentiment.
But then he said but if you'regoing to do the temple thing,
you actually can't build thetemple because you're the
warrior king Like.
You have too much blood on yourhands.
Now you have a son namedSolomon.
He can build the temple, butyou can't build it.
And so then David took no as ananswer.
(20:07):
But then he decided to go towork and collect all of the raw
materials for this extraordinarystructure that later his son,
solomon, would build.
That's why the first temple wasactually called in Jerusalem
was called Solomon's Temple.
And so he begins to pull all ofthese materials together and he
personally funds out of his ownwealth the first round of
materials.
And then he funds out of hisown wealth the first round of
(20:27):
materials.
And then he announces to allthe influencers of the city of
Jerusalem, all the influencersin the region, the military
leaders, the city council, thewealthy families, the people who
have pull government officials,all of these people, and he
says to all of them hey, I wantus to build this temple, god a
(20:48):
temple, and it needs to beextraordinary, it needs to be
magnificent.
And then the text tells us thatwhen he made this announcement,
get this.
This is what it says.
They gave willingly Because, asyou read the story, they saw
this opportunity to participatein something grand and glorious
(21:08):
for their God and they didn'twant to miss out.
And then the influencers of thecommunity began to give towards
this project.
And then what happened is thenthe common folk came along and
they're like, well, we don'twant to miss out on this, like
we want to be able toparticipate.
And these were the people whohad very, very little extra.
The text says that when thecommon people, the poor people,
(21:30):
saw their leaders giving and thepeople who had this stuff to
give generously to this project.
The text says that this thepeople rejoiced over the
offerings, for they had givenfreely and wholeheartedly to the
Lord, and then King David wasfilled with joy.
So there's this outpouring ofgenerosity towards this project,
(21:50):
in a way to honor God.
And so, as this is happening,david is so overwhelmed by the
generosity of the people and thegenerosity of the nation that
he gathers all the leaders, hegathers as many people as he
could to launch this project, tobring together all the
resources necessary and themoney to buy those resources,
and then he prays this prayer.
(22:12):
He prays this prayer and thechronicler records this prayer,
and I want to read you part ofthis prayer.
Why?
Because it's so right on thenose in terms of the posture of
anyone who trusts God and,especially in our generation,
who follows Jesus.
It just explains so clearly howwe are to view our wealth, our
(22:36):
income, our potential, ourpotential collectively as it
relates to furthering God'skingdom in the world.
And embedded in this prayerreally is a posture, is the
posture that I hope all of uswill adopt during this season of
our church.
Here's what David prays.
I'm just gonna read it to youand then make a few comments.
(22:56):
Are you with me.
Okay, he says this yours, lord,is the greatness, the power,
the glory, the majesty and thesplendor.
And the reason he says this?
The reason he says this isbecause it all belongs to you.
It all belongs to you.
(23:17):
Anytime you see splendor andglory and greatness in a person,
in nature, anywhere, it's all amanifestation of the greatness
and the glory, of the splendorof God.
And then he says this yours Lord, and this just remember this
this is coming from a king, thisis coming from a king.
This is so unusual for a kingto say something like this even
(23:38):
now Yours, lord, is the kingdom,yours is the kingdom.
In other words, it's not evenmy kingdom.
I mean, I'm the king, but I'mactually smart enough to know
it's not my kingdom, becauseeverything belongs to you.
Yours, lord, is the kingdom andyou are exalted as head over
(23:59):
all.
I might wear the crown, but weare not confused.
We know who is the head of thisnation.
It's your kingdom, not mine.
And then listen to this.
This is so powerful.
He says wealth and honor.
You know position andrecognition.
We know that they come from you.
You are the ruler of all things.
(24:21):
In other words, david says look,I'm not confused.
I have what I have because yougave it to me for a time.
All of this is true of me.
I'm going to tell you.
All of this is true of me andit's true of you as well.
All of us who have a little bitof extra is because God allowed
us to actually manage the extra, whether it's position,
(24:43):
influence stuff, money.
If we don't live hand to mouth,it came from God and, yes, I'll
tell you, I'm not ignoring thefacts.
This is so important.
I'm not ignoring the fact thatyou worked really hard.
You worked really hard and youtook advantage of those
opportunities that came your way, and your instinct was to say
thank you, god for thatopportunity that came my way.
(25:06):
But then you're so smart,you're so smart, you leveraged
it, you took advantage of it,you worked really hard, god
honored your work and so, yes,you had a role to play.
But ultimately, we're actuallysmart enough to not be confused
either, to know that we don'tactually control the future and
don't control all of thevariables.
Right, we took advantage of theopportunities and David saw
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what, unfortunately, many peoplein this culture miss that there
is just too many variables toever be arrogant about that that
there are just too many thingsthat are out of control for us
to ever actually take credit,even for our hard work and
taking advantage of theopportunities that come our way
and the successes and ourprosperity.
(25:50):
Yes, they are the results ofsome things we did, but we're
smart enough to know things likewe didn't determine our health,
we didn't determine where wewere born, we didn't determine
where we were born into, wedidn't determine what was in us
that gave us the drive to workour way out of that environment
we were born into.
There's just too many variablesthat there's never any need.
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There's never any room forarrogance.
But, to put it bluntly,arrogance is a reflection of
ignorance.
Arrogance says I'm too ignorantto understand that I don't
control all these variables thathave allowed me to be as
successful as I am.
And David, david is declaringthis before a whole nation.
I'm not confused.
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I know why I'm the king.
I know why I have the positionthat I have.
I know why I have the margin Ido is to build this temple for
God.
And then he says this in yourhands, in your hands are
strength and power to exalt andto give strength to all.
In other words again, he'sacknowledging this publicly.
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I'm the king only because youchose me to be the king.
I did not choose to be the kingmyself.
Create this opportunity formyself.
There are just too manyvariables in life to take credit
for a success.
Our wealth, our extra margin,our extra opportunity and
everything on heaven, includingopportunity, wealth and strength
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and honor, come from you, god,and you alone.
And so the correct posture isgratitude and humility, and you
know how I know that's true.
You know how you know that thisis true, because when you meet
a successful person, when youmeet a successful person who is
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humble and quick to give creditto the people around them for
their success and quick to getcredit to God, you are moved by
that, you're actually impressedby that, like you're actually
inspired by that, because youknow that with all their success
, they're actually not confused.
(27:57):
And then this he tips his hat toyet another posture for us to
live by.
And, friends, I just want topromise to you that if you
assume this posture, if I assumethis posture, you will always
be glad you did.
And if you don't assume thisposture, I'm telling you you
will look back and you will wishyou had.
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Okay, are you with me?
Okay, so here's what he saysbut who am I?
He says but who am I?
And then he extends it to thewhole nation and who are my
people?
But who am I?
But who am I and who are mypeople?
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That we should be able toactually give this generously,
to give generously as this.
He asked this generously, togive generously as this.
He asked the question that everywealthy, honest person asks
along the way why me and notthem?
Why is their life like that andnot mine?
And because we live in a worldwhere we know what's happening
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globally and economically.
We've all had that thought andyou've asked that question in
your own way.
You look at what's happening inthe world, or maybe you've gone
on a global trip, or you'vegone into another space, or
maybe even just around yourcommunity or people you've met
with.
And you've met people who justdon't have the opportunities we
have or the wealth that we have.
And again, in many cases theyare hand to mouth.
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But have you noticed, they haveso much joy.
But at the same time, you can'thelp but wonder and this is an
honest question why me?
Who am I?
Who are we?
And again, this was a culturewhere most people literally had
to live hand to mouth, like whenJesus said say this daily
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prayer.
And he says give us this dayour daily bread.
And he says give us this dayour daily bread.
That was a literal prayer,because food didn't keep.
You had, like wine and grainright.
Everything else spoiled and sodaily bread meant daily bread,
and if you ran out of grain orif there was a famine, or if the
harvest didn't come in, entirevillages would starve in, or if
the harvest didn't come in,entire villages would starve.
And David is saying like weactually have extra, we have
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some margin.
But why us?
Why me?
Who am I, who are my peoplethat could do this?
Because he's saying what youall are doing, what you're doing
to support this initiative,many people couldn't.
Many people couldn't becausethey don't have the extra.
And you've, man, god, you havehonored us, you've honored us to
(30:36):
be those people to do this.
You've equipped us andempowered us and given this to
us to be able to do this.
He says who are we, who am I,that God would choose us?
Why this opportunity?
Because everything belongs toyou and everything comes from
you.
Friends, this is the posture tolive with.
This is the posture you willnever regret.
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You know what else this does?
This posture actually createsthis opportunity to keep our
hands open for God to give andto take.
It's just a transaction.
We're just stewards andmanagers of this.
Wow, you gave me this.
I'm going to keep my hands openbecause this is where you want
this to go.
This is what you want us to do.
And then David continues.
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He says all this abundance, allthis extra, all this margin,
all this beyond our daily breadand beyond our daily needs, all
this abundance that we haveprovided for this building you a
temple for your holy name comesfrom your hand and all of it
belongs to you.
Again, he's saying we're notconfused, we're actually not
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giving you anything.
We're simply just giving backto you ultimately, because it
came from you.
He's recognizing this, and whenthis idea actually goes from
your head to your heart, it's agame changer.
I am telling you it's a gamechanger not just in terms of
your money and your possessions.
This is a game changer in termsof your entire life and I can
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attest to that.
I have seen it play out in myown life.
I have seen it play out in manyother people's lives.
Now, to be clear, we are notbuilding a temple.
That's the good news.
This is not a capital campaign.
That's also the good news.
This is actually way, waybroader than that.
We are positioning ourselves tomaximize our ability to be
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conduits through which Jesuscontinues to build his church,
because he promised he's goingto do it anyway, whether you're
on board or not.
But here's the deal Get this.
Are you with me?
We have actually been invited.
We've actually been invited toparticipate, to raise our hands,
so other people get to raisetheir hands Like.
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We're the builders, we're thenet casters, we're the menders
right To enlarge his kingdom, toexpand his reign, his rule in
the hearts of men and women andstudents and teenagers and
seniors, every kind of person.
This is what we've been doingfor the last 34 years.
But to maximize our collectiveimpact, we have to maximize our
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personal generosity.
We can't think like owners whodonate to a church, and if
that's been your mindset, I wantto challenge you, at least in
the next few weeks, as we talkabout expanding this vision.
I want to challenge you tobegin to think differently.
You are not an owner who justhas some money, who has some
wealth, occasionally orsystematically.
You know you're going to donateto the church.
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That's not an all in mentality.
That's not all in mentality.
We have got to embrace themindset that was actually
introduced in the Old Testamentand then Jesus reiterated it in
the New Testament that we aresimply managers and stewards of
everything and everythingbelongs to God and, for whatever
reason, he's allowed us to havea little bit of extra for the
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benefit of his kingdom, and thatwe are to adopt the posture of
manager.
And when you do that, when I dothat, two things are gonna
happen.
And I'll wrap it up with this.
Here's two promises when thisbecomes the framework or the
mindset that you have.
Number one, you will vieweverything, everything that you
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own and who you are not justcash and percentage, but you
will view everything you own asa potential tool to further the
agenda of your king.
And I mean everything like yourkitchen, your kitchen table,
your dining room, your extrabedroom, your backyard, your
extra car, a vacation home,whatever it is, you'll begin to
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see wait a minute, this isn'tabout giving money to the church
.
This is about everything that Iown.
Everything I am as a human, asa person, is a potential tool to
maximize God's influence in theworld and expand the kingdom of
God.
I know, even in my own house,and many of you have experienced
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I know this because hundreds ofyou have opened up your homes
to small groups or you'veleveraged your house.
You've leveraged your yard,your extra bedroom, your car for
someone in need.
I mean, the point is, many ofus understand this.
This isn't just about cash.
It's about it isn't just aboutmoney.
It's everything actuallybelongs to God.
I know in my own family,michelle and I are having all
kinds of these discussionsbecause as we begin to send kids
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out in life and they kind ofage into that space, we got
extra rooms coming up in thefuture and so we're already
saying, like that's a tool.
What does that mean, god?
What are you going to beinviting us into?
Like, how do we get to leveragethat space and that tool, maybe
potentially for other kids tocome in that don't have a place
to come in?
You know it means differentthings for all of us, but we
begin to see it all as a tool toexpand his kingdom and that
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becomes a game changer.
You know what else happens andI'm not being crucial of anyone
in particular.
You gotta figure this out foryourselves but you're gonna
collect fewer collectibles.
That's just what happens.
You're gonna collect fewer.
You're gonna begin to liquidatethings that aren't doing
anybody any good.
Not because it's a sin or a badto have stuff 100%.
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I'm just telling you that whenthis begins to change you and
you start to adopt this mindset,you'll see all of that
differently and you'll never goback and you'll never regret it.
Number two number two you'llgive first and adjust your
lifestyle accordingly and thisisn't new, you know you give
first, you save second, you liveon the rest.
Or, like you know, you get.
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Some of you guys did this withkids.
You know you had little jarsand this is what you did, or
you've done it yourself.
You give first, you fund God'skingdom, you save second, you
fund your own kingdom and thenyou live on the rest.
And when you think in terms,when you adopt this mindset,
like I'm not an owner, I'm amanager, you will adopt first
and best mindset rather than aleftover and last and you know
(36:50):
this and you know this mostAmericans, we are leftover and
last.
Don't be most Americans.
Leftover and last means Ifinanced my kingdom.
I've got everything I want.
They need some money.
So what can I afford to give?
Or, like I financed my kingdom,I got all the food I need.
Oh wait, there's food that'sexpired in my pantry.
(37:13):
Let me give that away because Idon't want to eat it.
Leftover and last.
And so what can I afford togive?
This isn't just about what youcan afford to give.
You need to just erase thatmindset.
That's not what we're talkingabout.
This is actually how mostpeople think, but that's not how
stewards think.
That's how managers of God'swealth and margin of money think
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.
They think differently thanthat.
And here I know this.
I get this because I'm livingin it too.
Friends, here's why this is sohard for this, and it's been so
ingrained, as we are inclined toequate wealth and income and
stuff with our own personalvalue.
Look at how you arrived Like amI valuable enough?
This is what's showing value tous.
(37:56):
Or we tend to conflate or getmixed up about the fact that
what we have or what we drive,or where we live, or how much
money we have in the bank orwhen we can retire.
We have a tendency to actuallyequate that with our identity.
Are you with me?
So here's the challenge when youdecide to give first, what
(38:20):
happens is it actually begins tofeel like you're losing control
of your money and control ofanything.
Whatever you equate life with,savings or things or grades
where you go to school,professional success, whatever
it is, whatever you equate lifewith, you will cling to it as if
(38:41):
your life depends on it.
And this, friends, is why wecling to our stuff.
This is why the whole idea ofpre-deciding to actually give
feels like I'm out of controlbecause I'm losing my life.
It's why we worry, it's whywe're confused, and Jesus would
(39:01):
like to un-confuse us.
You will find it easier, you'llfind it easier to surrender your
entire life to your King whenyou acknowledge and begin to
live as if you are a manager,not an owner, when you take off
the owner hat, like King Daviddid, and say I'm not confused, I
(39:22):
am the king.
I didn't make myself king, Igot all this extra opportunity
and that all came from you.
I am just managing it for atime, but understand.
Just managing it for a time,but understand.
We cannot surrender to ouractual king until we dethrone
the imposter king, and Jesusknew that.
Our attitude and our approachto wealth and wealth management
(39:42):
and wealth accumulation wasgoing to be actually he knew
this the number one he talkedabout this so much the number
one competitor with who rulesand who reigns in our life.
And I'm just telling you, I'mtelling you this show me a man
who has dealt with this andactually surrendered all of this
to King Jesus, and I will showyou a man who will never go back
(40:02):
to living the other way, whohas more peace and prosperity,
and probably more prosperityindeed, because he's redefined
what prosperity really is.
Now, when I was sharing thiswith my team earlier, they said
I don't think you should say man, like, say people, because
everyone deals with it.
It's men and women, right.
And I said well, it's actuallyreally intentional.
And here's the deal Ladies, youstruggle with this too.
(40:25):
But let me just talk to theguys, because I am one and I
don't get women as much.
I get this about women.
You are naturally more of anurturer than we are.
You're probably more naturallygenerous than we are.
This is so tough for us guys.
So, men, yes, I'm saying it toyou Show me a man who has dealt
(40:45):
with this and surrendered all ofthis to King Jesus.
And I'm telling you, men.
I will show you a man who willnever go back to living the
other way, who has found morepeace and more prosperity.
So this week, here's yourassignment.
Here's it.
I just want you to practicebeing managers.
I want you to actually not justpractice thinking, just
(41:06):
thinking about being a manager.
What would I do in thissituation if I really thought
about myself as a manager versusan owner?
Just thinking about that.
What would I do in thissituation if I really thought
about myself as a manager versusan owner?
Just thinking about that.
What would I do in thissituation as you face different
conflicts and tensions as itrelates to your things, your
resources as a human, yourresources, you know, financially
planning, whatever it might be.
What's in your house already?
(41:27):
What do you have?
What's not in your house yet?
What would it look like if youreally believed and embraced the
idea that everything in heavenand earth is his?
What would it look like?
What would that change?
What kind of attention does itactually create in you?
And I want you to pay attentionto the tension, and we're going
to pick it right back up therenext week.
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Now I want to tell you all this,just to be straight for this.
I'm going to unpack big visionover these next couple weeks.
Pastor Ken's going to come in acouple weeks and he's going to
give you all kinds of miraclestories about groups that went
all in and the story behind thisfaith community.
And at the end of this convo ina couple weeks there's going to
be a commitment card the nextthree to five weeks.
You're going to have the nextthree to five weeks or so to
(42:10):
think about and to pray about.
What does it look like for meto participate, to go in and
mending and casting and fishing,to mend the nets, to cast
bigger nets and watch Jesus fillthe nets and to be ready to
fill the nets.
And when I say pray, it means Idon't want you to just go have a
(42:30):
conversation and be like whatcan we afford to do?
What is he asking us to do?
That's the wrong question.
I want you to ask the questionand I want you to begin to pray
individually and if you're amarried couple or if you're
engaged or you have asignificant other, I want you to
pray, be praying together, andI know it's a scary prayer and
I've prayed it many, many timesand I've never regretted it.
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Pray Father, how do you want me, how do you want us, how do you
want our family and our kids toparticipate in this initiative
and then, in about three to fiveweeks, we're gonna turn it into
a commitment.
You're like well, like some ofyou are like well, like what
about?
Like the people who are brandnew to this place right now?
(43:11):
Like, welcome to church today,I guess, whoa, like what about
the unchurched people who aren'ta follower of Jesus yet or
don't have the love of the Lordyet?
They believe in some of thisstuff.
They're checking out maybe evenyour, you know, atheist,
agnostic, your Buddhist,whatever?
Yeah, here's the deal.
(43:35):
You're why we exist, that's whywe create these spaces, that's
why we do what we do, and we'regoing to continue to keep that
in mind as we have thisconversation.
But that's why we're doing this.
In fact, if you're not afollower of Jesus, if you're not
a Christian, you're probablysitting here going like, oh
there they go again.
The church is raising money,right, and so, as you stick
around, I'm telling you, youwill understand.
We are not raising money for us, and I know this may sound
condescending.
We're raising money because wecare about you, and you may
(44:00):
think we're crazy, but we reallybelieve this.
We believe that following Jesuswill make you better at life
and it will make your lifebetter.
And I'm telling you, friends,I'm telling you I cannot wait to
go fishing with all of you.
Would you stand as we respondin worship?
All right, it's good.
Thanks, dude.
I see some of my Warriorspeople out here.
Thanks for coming to church.
We're praying for them today.
Name seven so last week wewrapped up the gospel according
to Matthew, and it ends with amission, a purpose.
Actually, our mission, ourpurpose, not only as individuals
(00:24):
, but the church, andspecifically our church, that
Jesus followers, our multipliers.
That is literally what changedthe world In Matthew, chapter
28,.
As this wrapped up, it's thefinal words of Jesus.
He says in chapter 28, he saysin verse 19, therefore, and so
if you pause right there, you'relike what's the therefore?
(00:45):
Therefore?
Well, just before this, jesussaid all authority on heaven and
earth belongs to me.
I'm over everything.
I'll hold the keys toeverything.
So, therefore, because of this,I want you to go and I want you
to make Like it's the one thinghe asked us to do, to make
something, to do this.
He said make disciples ofeveryone, everywhere, all color,
(01:08):
all size, all places, baptizingthem.
And then he tells us what to doto baptize them in the name of
the Father, the Son and the HolySpirit, and teaching them to
believe.
He didn't say that.
What did he say?
Teaching them to obey.
Do you guys realize there's adifference, like between
(01:30):
believing I think a lot of uscan kind of get stuck and like I
believe in that stuff, Ibelieve that stuff's good, I
believe everything, I believe hewas who he was, I believe that
those are good ideas and stuff.
But there's a big difference inobeying.
Did you know?
Paul actually talks about thisin 1 Corinthians.
He said that it's about the.
If you don't love the Lord, youwould be cursed.
(01:50):
Why?
Love is a verb?
Right, it's actionable.
It's not just believing insomething because you know who
else believes.
Did you know Satan believed.
You know the demons believedthat Jesus was who he said he
was.
Then he raised from the dead.
The difference was they didn'tlove him, they didn't obey him.
And so he teaches us you canthrow it back up there.
(02:10):
He says to obey everything, toobey, not believe.
Obey everything that I'vecommanded you.
And then he loses with thispromise it's so good.
If you do that, surely I amwith you to the very end of the
age.
And so what does this all looklike?
This is what all in he's saying.
You guys want to be all in.
(02:31):
You're going to let me be theking, the ruler, the one that
carries all authority on heavenand earth.
This is what this looks like.
This is what it smells like,tastes like what people can see.
It smells like, tastes likewhat people can see.
That's what all in going makingbaptizing, teaching, obeying
and friends.
That's what we're going to talkabout for the next several
(02:52):
weeks.
What does all in look like?
And, frankly, are you ready tobe all in?
Are you ready just to hear itand believe it and be like, oh,
I believe that stuff happened, Ithink that's nice, or are we
actually going to go all in anddo the things?
This final statement, this finalcommand, now, real quickly, I
just want to tell you that thisis not just a one-off.
We're going to be going intosome stuff.
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We're going to be teachingBible.
We teach books of the Biblehere.
We go through them expositorily, verse by verse.
We're going to be doing thatbecause this church we teach,
we're Bible-based, we teach theBible, and right now we're going
to be talking about this all-instuff.
We're going to do some othercool stuff over the summer, but
I want you to know this is not aone-off.
If you just came here for justtoday and then you think you're
going to take away what we'retrying to get off.
(03:34):
This is just chapter one.
They all go together.
So it's really importantbecause here is another way that
Jesus put it we have been askedto be fishers of okay, a lot of
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you guys get that fishers ofmen right.
And what do fishermen do?
They cast nets and they mendnets, and then they pull the
nets in and then they castbigger nets and then they mend
nets and fix it up.
They're casting and they'remending and they're casting, and
then Jesus fills the nets right, and then they're casting and
then they're mending nets.
And for us, here's a bit ofwhat our future is gonna look
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like.
It's found in three words Iwanna focus on.
First is transformation.
Transformation this is wherewe're casting nests and we're
amending nests.
Transformation we believe it isso important to have
environments around this placeand spaces that are these
environments wheretransformation can take place,
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like quality environments in ourfamily building and for our
students and for this space.
The environments that youparticipate in, you walk in,
they're all very intentional andwith that, that transformative
space, it actually needs somemending right, it's part of
casting, but then you have tomend the nets, you have to fix
it up.
And you guys walk around andyou see some stuff it takes
upkeep, right.
So mending is like how many ofyou guys even knew that this
(04:59):
building that you're in isactually nine years old?
It feels like it's still a baby.
But things just they change andthey go away.
And like you walked around andyou're like, oh, that could use
a little fixing up.
And like, oh, that's fallingapart, right, or all the
equipment, it all has a life anda lifespan and so we got to
mend the nets.
So then we can cast wider nets,so we can create spaces for
(05:20):
transformation for people tomeet Jesus and to hear the good
news and then to love him and toobey him, not just believe on
him, not just hear about this.
And that leads it intoexpansion, transformation.
And then you expand your netsto cast wider nets.
Not many of you guys know this,but this building itself was
actually built to be larger.
These walls in the back of theroom actually are temporary on
(05:43):
purpose.
When we originally built this,we built it with the intention
that there's actually stadiumseating that goes up, so this
space gets expanded for moretransformation that those walls.
If you guys have been up by thecoffee shop or across in the
bathroom.
Maybe you've noticed.
On the wall it says temp one,temp two.
It's because it's a temporaryroom.
It's not supposed to be thereall the time.
That's the vision of hey, we'recasting bigger nets and we're
(06:05):
mending nets, and so we wanna beable to expand and knock those
walls down.
We wanna be able to expand andadd, like a solar to our parking
lot.
I don't know if you guys, Idon't know what your PG&E bill
looks like this is gonna makesome of you guys like do a
little like puke in your mouthand swallow it.
We, we pay about $80,000 a yearto PG&E because we use this
place, because we want to castnets right, we want to mend nets
(06:27):
, so it's like, okay, so how canwe expand and make it so we can
use this space even more so andit not be a burden?
We want to do expansion.
Not only this, but check thisout.
I believe that God has, likeordainly, put us in such a
strategic place.
We are on this piece ofproperty in a regional church
for a reason, on purpose, andone of the reasons is within the
next three years, you want tosee what's coming.
(06:48):
It's this.
Look at this picture.
See our church right there.
We're getting neighbors andthat's on purpose.
Some of you guys are likethat's my new neighborhood.
Right, we have three years.
This is us right here.
Some of you guys when I say,like God ordained us to be in
this place, in this position,some of you guys don't know this
(07:08):
story.
We have 20 acres right herethat was actually donated to us
for $1.
We've been put in this spot tocast nets and to mend nets, and
we got to get ready forthousands of people moving into
the neighborhood and that arearound the region that are going
to be coming here to experiencegreat environments,
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outside-facing environments, toexperience transformation and to
fall in love with the Lord.
So we have transformation.
That's important too.
So when we focus on expansionand what that looks like here
and in the future, and then wehave innovation, we have to be
prepared to innovate to reachpeople, to cast those nets as
wide as possible and to createnew places and spaces for nets.
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One of those ways it could bejust throwing it out there.
If we're gonna throw big visioninto there that within the next
three years, we're able toactually prepare our nets for
Jesus to fill the nets.
Well, what do we do with that?
One of those things is sometimesoon it's actually knocking
down the walls, but potentiallybuilding right over here and
I'll show you guys in the nextcouple of weeks a large like
(08:13):
gymnasium type of space it'slike a YMCA or Boys and Girls
Club that literally becomes abridge for community and county
people to come up onto ourcampus, experience something
through athletics or food pantryor transitional housing or
recovery stuff, all of thatstuff that then that's their
first experience and then theycan say, huh, what's going on
(08:35):
over there?
And then they get to experiencethese transformative spaces.
We've got to be innovative.
Like that.
Our NextGen team is doingfantastic right now.
They are dreaming big, as theyshould be.
Nextgen stands for like ourkids, our children's area up
through our teenagers, and justthey're like.
They're dreaming about, likeMandy's dreaming about.
Like what would it look like ifwe could focus on intentional
(08:57):
parenting so we can take thosetransformational spaces and
environments and start puttingthose in the homes and we can
resource our parents and ourfamilies?
And then like big dreams oflike what does it look like to
do a parent conference?
What does it look like to be anintentional parent or our
student ministries huge, giantvision this next year to see
over 500 unchurched or kids thatare not involved in church
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coming through this campus andthese spaces and these
environments that we've created.
And they're being creativealready.
They're using our vans as likea bus service and they're trying
to reach specific groups, andsome of you guys participate in
a.
We've been doing a chosen Biblestudy that's wrapping up this
week on Tuesday nights and a lotof them come here.
It's Tuesday night and it'sjust wild out there.
I mean like skateboardseverywhere, bikes, just all of
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this different stuff becausethey're trying to reach wide and
then go deep with these kidsand they're like this is what is
happening.
I'm like this is happeningbecause we need to be innovative
in how we reach this nextgeneration, because here's the
deal, friends, and I firmlybelieve this whoever wins the
kids wins the future In thiscommunity and all around them.
Whoever wins the kids wins thefuture.
(10:00):
And so there's big vision forthis, and I'm going to tell you
that when you have big visionfor this, it's messy Like,
because you're inviting messypeople in here, right, and we
are called to be fishers of men.
But here's my question to youAre we really ready to be
fishers of men or we do we justwant to be keepers of the
(10:22):
aquarium?
Or we do we just want to bekeepers of the aquarium?
Ooh, ooh, ooh.
Those of you who are parents orgrandparents, you know, I know
this, I'm a parent.
You pray for your kids.
Like you pray for them, likeyou want a place in a space like
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this.
I mean, you're literally likeplease make your youth group so
cool, because my kid does notthink Jesus is cool right now,
but they can at least come to agood environment where they can
find some identity.
You know, same thing with yourgrandkids.
You pray for your own kids.
Many of you are praying foryour kids who are far.
You're praying for yourgrandkids and I just want to
tell you this If we're going toreach the next generation, it's
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going to be messy and we justgot to do some things different
and some things where you'relike I don't like that or like,
wow, that's a lot of sacrifice,that's what it takes, that's
what you're being invited to andyou want it.
That's what you're alreadypraying for.
Going all in looks like beingcalled to high levels of
sacrifice, and so we'relaunching an initiative the
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short-term initiative to go allin and make that those things
become a reality.
This isn't a campaign.
I want to be really clear andwhat I'm doing is I'm asking all
of you all of you who are inhere in person, all of you who
watch online to engage in thisinitiative, to go all in and ask
what does all in actually looklike?
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To leverage our collectiveresources in order to maximize
our kingdom impact and, by theway, if you didn't know this,
you already are.
You're already making, on aregular basis, a kingdom impact,
locally and nationally andglobally, whether you knew that
or not.
But I want us to maximize We'vegot to maximize our kingdom
impact.
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I want us right now we shouldbe putting our foot on the gas
to maximize our potential.
But to do that, it's gonnarequire all of us all of us to
maximize our personal generosityand our resources to this
initiative.
And here's the thing, and I wantyou to hear this For some of
you especially, we're not doingthis.
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This isn't a money talk.
We're not doing this becauseyour church needs money.
This isn't about your churchneeds your money.
This is about the world needingyou and your influence.
Like to actually go and makeand do and teach and obey.
This is about the world needingyour influence.
Our nation, our world need morechurches like your church.
Everyone does it so thateverybody, every child, every
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college student, every singleadult, every middle schooler,
every high schooler, couldexperience the kinds of
environments that you experience, because we want to set the
anchor deep in their hearts andso that when they tend to stray
which we know you do and theyknow they will, because they
will not stray far, because theyhave been anchored we have
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anchored into them the actualfirst century version of what it
means to follow Jesus.
Now, if this talk about moneyor sacrifice makes you nervous,
I understand that, but here'swhat I want you to hear.
34 years ago, it was a much,much smaller group of people
that were asked to givegenerously with everything and
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really give everything.
They had, their time, theirtalents, their effort,
everything they had to anexperiment, everything they had,
their time, their talents,their effort, everything they
had to an experiment, to highlevels of sacrifice.
We had no members, we had nomoney, we had no property, we
just had an idea and thatexperience, because of the
sacrifice and the generosityagain, high levels of sacrifice,
became the church that you arecurrently seated in right now,
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and I know I know many of thosepeople because they're still
involved in this church heretoday.
In fact, pastor Ken, ourfounding pastor, he's here every
week.
He's one of those people, oryou've seen her up here on stage
Pastor Megan, our pastor ofcare.
She was one of the first 12that moved from where she lived
and moved out to this communitythat said, yes, I'm going to
lean in.
And they said yes and gavesacrificially.
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And if you talk to them, theydon't miss the stuff, they don't
miss the money, they don't missthe sacrifice.
If you ask them, they would notgo back and undo any of it if
their life depended on it,because of what they have seen
God do in and through them andaround them.
We're all here because of that,because someone else went all
in and said yes, here because ofthat, because someone else went
all in and said yes.
In fact, if you have only been apart of this faith community
(14:48):
the last two years, would youraise your hand really high?
Okay, so everybody can lookaround the room.
Just the last two years, okay.
How about this?
How many of you guys have onlyexperienced since we've had this
building on campus.
You've never been up here whenthere wasn't this building up
here.
So you can raise your hand uphere.
That's a ton of us, yeah, okay,what about before this building
?
This building didn't exist andyou were a part of it.
Okay, so you can look around,okay.
(15:09):
So these are different groupsof people, those of you who are
only been here for two years,and I could do less.
Your hand is raised becausesomeone else ahead of you raised
their hands, and then someoneelse ahead of them raised their
hands before this place was here, and then it was someone else's
turn to raise their hand.
And here's the thing.
Here's the thing.
Five years from now, two yearsfrom now, but five years from
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now and I believe this with allof me, thousands of men, women,
students, children, thousandswill be grateful because of what
you're about to do, what youare raising your hand and saying
it's our turn.
We are going all in because weactually believe this thing,
this our hand, and saying it'sour turn.
We are going all in because weactually believe this thing.
This is actually what we wantto do.
We actually want to obey thisstuff.
(15:51):
We believe in casting nets, webelieve in mending nets and then
throwing wider nets out there.
We are not going to just takecare of an aquarium, we're going
to be fishers of men.
Now, the other reason that youdon't have to get weird or feel
weird about the preacher up heretalking about money or asking
you for high levels of sacrificein your life is this People who
have embraced this and many ofyou, many of you are here, you
get what I'm about to say Peoplewho have embraced what Jesus
(16:14):
taught about money and peoplewho embraced as a lifestyle what
Jesus said about possessions,would tell you that they're
never going back.
As one of those, I will tellyou I am never, ever going back.
And Michelle and I, my wife, weare so fortunate to have
learned, you know, thepracticing of tithing and
understood, first and best,giving, and understood the value
(16:35):
of investing us and our timeand our family and our resources
into doing what God's, intoGod's community, and then
changing through that, reallythe world.
And we just want those of youwho have never experienced this
before to be a part of that.
We want you to experience thatand some of you haven't
experienced it because of fear.
Some of you haven't experiencedit because of debt or whatever
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the reason, because you don'ttrust the church and you hear
stories.
But here's what I want you toengage because I'm telling you.
I'm telling you you will nevermeet a follower of Jesus who
allowed their money to followJesus and his kingdom that
regrets it.
You'll never meet that person.
So you don't have to be nervousabout this.
We don't want you to be.
I don't want to be weird aboutthis.
(17:17):
This is just one moreopportunity to follow Jesus, to
cast nets, to mend nets, to gofishing.
We're going fishing and it allcomes back to one simple idea
and today, just for a fewminutes, I want to introduce
this simple idea and for some ofyou, this might totally be a
review, for some of you who'veheard this before, but maybe you
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sort of drifted, and I get that.
For some of you, this may be anovel idea and the first time
you've heard about it.
And in the end, what I'm goingto do is I'm going to ask you
today to spend a week thinkingabout it, but not doing anything
about it, just thinking aboutit.
There's actually no realapplication for today's message
other than a thought exercise,so you're not just waiting for
(17:59):
some pitch.
This isn't a pitch, this isvision.
This is what's going on, and itall goes back to acknowledging
and applying this one simpletruth.
It starts, actually, with KingDavid.
King David said it first in theOld Testament, and then King
Jesus came along and reiteratedit later.
And King David he made thisstatement or sort of exported
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this and teased out this truthduring a prayer that he prayed
that we're going to look at aspart of his prayer in just a
minute.
But there's one statement fromKing David's prayer all those
years ago that says it all, andhere's what he said in this
prayer to God.
He said everything, everythingin heaven and earth.
(18:41):
He said God is yours.
In other words, god, you own itall.
We are just temporary managers,we are just simply temporary
stewards of it.
So here's the context of thisprayer.
It's kind of interesting.
So King David he's probably inhis mid to late 50s and he's
settled all the border disputesaround the ancient kingdom of
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Israel, and so there was peacein the land and he decided that
it was actually time for GodYahweh to have his own temple.
As other pagan religions, theyall had temples for their gods,
and God, israel's God Yahweh,lived in a tent.
It was called the tabernacle,and this had been since the time
of Moses.
And so David decides I'm goingto build God a temple, a
(19:25):
permanent structure.
And so he goes to work.
But before he does this, aprophet came to see him.
His name was actually Nathan.
He said a couple of things.
He said hey, king David, firstof all, I think this is great,
this is great.
But here's the deal God's notasking for a building, like,
because he's mobile, and Goddoesn't need a building because
he's not tied to a piece ofgeography.
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But he appreciates thesentiment.
But then he said but if you'regoing to do the temple thing,
you actually can't build thetemple because you're the
warrior king Like.
You have too much blood on yourhands.
Now you have a son namedSolomon.
He can build the temple, butyou can't build it.
And so then David took no as ananswer.
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But then he decided to go towork and collect all of the raw
materials for this extraordinarystructure that later his son,
solomon, would build.
That's why the first temple wasactually called in Jerusalem
was called Solomon's Temple.
And so he begins to pull all ofthese materials together and he
personally funds out of his ownwealth the first round of
materials.
And then he funds out of hisown wealth the first round of
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materials.
And then he announces to allthe influencers of the city of
Jerusalem, all the influencersin the region, the military
leaders, the city council, thewealthy families, the people who
have pull government officials,all of these people, and he
says to all of them hey, I wantus to build this temple, god a
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temple, and it needs to beextraordinary, it needs to be
magnificent.
And then the text tells us thatwhen he made this announcement,
get this.
This is what it says.
They gave willingly Because, asyou read the story, they saw
this opportunity to participatein something grand and glorious
(21:08):
for their God and they didn'twant to miss out.
And then the influencers of thecommunity began to give towards
this project.
And then what happened is thenthe common folk came along and
they're like, well, we don'twant to miss out on this, like
we want to be able toparticipate.
And these were the people whohad very, very little extra.
The text says that when thecommon people, the poor people,
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saw their leaders giving and thepeople who had this stuff to
give generously to this project.
The text says that this thepeople rejoiced over the
offerings, for they had givenfreely and wholeheartedly to the
Lord, and then King David wasfilled with joy.
So there's this outpouring ofgenerosity towards this project,
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in a way to honor God.
And so, as this is happening,david is so overwhelmed by the
generosity of the people and thegenerosity of the nation that
he gathers all the leaders, hegathers as many people as he
could to launch this project, tobring together all the
resources necessary and themoney to buy those resources,
and then he prays this prayer.
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He prays this prayer and thechronicler records this prayer,
and I want to read you part ofthis prayer.
Why?
Because it's so right on thenose in terms of the posture of
anyone who trusts God and,especially in our generation,
who follows Jesus.
It just explains so clearly howwe are to view our wealth, our
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income, our potential, ourpotential collectively as it
relates to furthering God'skingdom in the world.
And embedded in this prayerreally is a posture, is the
posture that I hope all of uswill adopt during this season of
our church.
Here's what David prays.
I'm just gonna read it to youand then make a few comments.
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Are you with me.
Okay, he says this yours, lord,is the greatness, the power,
the glory, the majesty and thesplendor.
And the reason he says this?
The reason he says this isbecause it all belongs to you.
It all belongs to you.
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Anytime you see splendor andglory and greatness in a person,
in nature, anywhere, it's all amanifestation of the greatness
and the glory, of the splendorof God.
And then he says this yours Lord, and this just remember this
this is coming from a king, thisis coming from a king.
This is so unusual for a kingto say something like this even
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now Yours, lord, is the kingdom,yours is the kingdom.
In other words, it's not evenmy kingdom.
I mean, I'm the king, but I'mactually smart enough to know
it's not my kingdom, becauseeverything belongs to you.
Yours, lord, is the kingdom andyou are exalted as head over
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all.
I might wear the crown, but weare not confused.
We know who is the head of thisnation.
It's your kingdom, not mine.
And then listen to this.
This is so powerful.
He says wealth and honor.
You know position andrecognition.
We know that they come from you.
You are the ruler of all things.
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In other words, david says look,I'm not confused.
I have what I have because yougave it to me for a time.
All of this is true of me.
I'm going to tell you.
All of this is true of me andit's true of you as well.
All of us who have a little bitof extra is because God allowed
us to actually manage the extra, whether it's position,
(24:43):
influence stuff, money.
If we don't live hand to mouth,it came from God and, yes, I'll
tell you, I'm not ignoring thefacts.
This is so important.
I'm not ignoring the fact thatyou worked really hard.
You worked really hard and youtook advantage of those
opportunities that came your way, and your instinct was to say
thank you, god for thatopportunity that came my way.
(25:06):
But then you're so smart,you're so smart, you leveraged
it, you took advantage of it,you worked really hard, god
honored your work and so, yes,you had a role to play.
But ultimately, we're actuallysmart enough to not be confused
either, to know that we don'tactually control the future and
don't control all of thevariables.
Right, we took advantage of theopportunities and David saw
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what, unfortunately, many peoplein this culture miss that there
is just too many variables toever be arrogant about that that
there are just too many thingsthat are out of control for us
to ever actually take credit,even for our hard work and
taking advantage of theopportunities that come our way
and the successes and ourprosperity.
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Yes, they are the results ofsome things we did, but we're
smart enough to know things likewe didn't determine our health,
we didn't determine where wewere born, we didn't determine
where we were born into, wedidn't determine what was in us
that gave us the drive to workour way out of that environment
we were born into.
There's just too many variablesthat there's never any need.
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There's never any room forarrogance.
But, to put it bluntly,arrogance is a reflection of
ignorance.
Arrogance says I'm too ignorantto understand that I don't
control all these variables thathave allowed me to be as
successful as I am.
And David, david is declaringthis before a whole nation.
I'm not confused.
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I know why I'm the king.
I know why I have the positionthat I have.
I know why I have the margin Ido is to build this temple for
God.
And then he says this in yourhands, in your hands are
strength and power to exalt andto give strength to all.
In other words again, he'sacknowledging this publicly.
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I'm the king only because youchose me to be the king.
I did not choose to be the kingmyself.
Create this opportunity formyself.
There are just too manyvariables in life to take credit
for a success.
Our wealth, our extra margin,our extra opportunity and
everything on heaven, includingopportunity, wealth and strength
(27:15):
and honor, come from you, god,and you alone.
And so the correct posture isgratitude and humility, and you
know how I know that's true.
You know how you know that thisis true, because when you meet
a successful person, when youmeet a successful person who is
(27:36):
humble and quick to give creditto the people around them for
their success and quick to getcredit to God, you are moved by
that, you're actually impressedby that, like you're actually
inspired by that, because youknow that with all their success
, they're actually not confused.
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And then this he tips his hat toyet another posture for us to
live by.
And, friends, I just want topromise to you that if you
assume this posture, if I assumethis posture, you will always
be glad you did.
And if you don't assume thisposture, I'm telling you you
will look back and you will wishyou had.
(28:19):
Okay, are you with me?
Okay, so here's what he saysbut who am I?
He says but who am I?
And then he extends it to thewhole nation and who are my
people?
But who am I?
But who am I and who are mypeople?
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That we should be able toactually give this generously,
to give generously as this.
He asked this generously, togive generously as this.
He asked the question that everywealthy, honest person asks
along the way why me and notthem?
Why is their life like that andnot mine?
And because we live in a worldwhere we know what's happening
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globally and economically.
We've all had that thought andyou've asked that question in
your own way.
You look at what's happening inthe world, or maybe you've gone
on a global trip, or you'vegone into another space, or
maybe even just around yourcommunity or people you've met
with.
And you've met people who justdon't have the opportunities we
have or the wealth that we have.
And again, in many cases theyare hand to mouth.
(29:24):
But have you noticed, they haveso much joy.
But at the same time, you can'thelp but wonder and this is an
honest question why me?
Who am I?
Who are we?
And again, this was a culturewhere most people literally had
to live hand to mouth, like whenJesus said say this daily
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prayer.
And he says give us this dayour daily bread.
And he says give us this dayour daily bread.
That was a literal prayer,because food didn't keep.
You had, like wine and grainright.
Everything else spoiled and sodaily bread meant daily bread,
and if you ran out of grain orif there was a famine, or if the
harvest didn't come in, entirevillages would starve in, or if
the harvest didn't come in,entire villages would starve.
And David is saying like weactually have extra, we have
(30:11):
some margin.
But why us?
Why me?
Who am I, who are my peoplethat could do this?
Because he's saying what youall are doing, what you're doing
to support this initiative,many people couldn't.
Many people couldn't becausethey don't have the extra.
And you've, man, god, you havehonored us, you've honored us to
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be those people to do this.
You've equipped us andempowered us and given this to
us to be able to do this.
He says who are we, who am I,that God would choose us?
Why this opportunity?
Because everything belongs toyou and everything comes from
you.
Friends, this is the posture tolive with.
This is the posture you willnever regret.
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You know what else this does?
This posture actually createsthis opportunity to keep our
hands open for God to give andto take.
It's just a transaction.
We're just stewards andmanagers of this.
Wow, you gave me this.
I'm going to keep my hands openbecause this is where you want
this to go.
This is what you want us to do.
And then David continues.
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He says all this abundance, allthis extra, all this margin,
all this beyond our daily breadand beyond our daily needs, all
this abundance that we haveprovided for this building you a
temple for your holy name comesfrom your hand and all of it
belongs to you.
Again, he's saying we're notconfused, we're actually not
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giving you anything.
We're simply just giving backto you ultimately, because it
came from you.
He's recognizing this, and whenthis idea actually goes from
your head to your heart, it's agame changer.
I am telling you it's a gamechanger not just in terms of
your money and your possessions.
This is a game changer in termsof your entire life and I can
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attest to that.
I have seen it play out in myown life.
I have seen it play out in manyother people's lives.
Now, to be clear, we are notbuilding a temple.
That's the good news.
This is not a capital campaign.
That's also the good news.
This is actually way, waybroader than that.
We are positioning ourselves tomaximize our ability to be
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conduits through which Jesuscontinues to build his church,
because he promised he's goingto do it anyway, whether you're
on board or not.
But here's the deal Get this.
Are you with me?
We have actually been invited.
We've actually been invited toparticipate, to raise our hands,
so other people get to raisetheir hands Like.
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We're the builders, we're thenet casters, we're the menders
right To enlarge his kingdom, toexpand his reign, his rule in
the hearts of men and women andstudents and teenagers and
seniors, every kind of person.
This is what we've been doingfor the last 34 years.
But to maximize our collectiveimpact, we have to maximize our
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personal generosity.
We can't think like owners whodonate to a church, and if
that's been your mindset, I wantto challenge you, at least in
the next few weeks, as we talkabout expanding this vision.
I want to challenge you tobegin to think differently.
You are not an owner who justhas some money, who has some
wealth, occasionally orsystematically.
You know you're going to donateto the church.
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That's not an all in mentality.
That's not all in mentality.
We have got to embrace themindset that was actually
introduced in the Old Testamentand then Jesus reiterated it in
the New Testament that we aresimply managers and stewards of
everything and everythingbelongs to God and, for whatever
reason, he's allowed us to havea little bit of extra for the
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benefit of his kingdom, and thatwe are to adopt the posture of
manager.
And when you do that, when I dothat, two things are gonna
happen.
And I'll wrap it up with this.
Here's two promises when thisbecomes the framework or the
mindset that you have.
Number one, you will vieweverything, everything that you
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own and who you are not justcash and percentage, but you
will view everything you own asa potential tool to further the
agenda of your king.
And I mean everything like yourkitchen, your kitchen table,
your dining room, your extrabedroom, your backyard, your
extra car, a vacation home,whatever it is, you'll begin to
(34:36):
see wait a minute, this isn'tabout giving money to the church
.
This is about everything that Iown.
Everything I am as a human, asa person, is a potential tool to
maximize God's influence in theworld and expand the kingdom of
God.
I know, even in my own house,and many of you have experienced
(35:00):
I know this because hundreds ofyou have opened up your homes
to small groups or you'veleveraged your house.
You've leveraged your yard,your extra bedroom, your car for
someone in need.
I mean, the point is, many ofus understand this.
This isn't just about cash.
It's about it isn't just aboutmoney.
It's everything actuallybelongs to God.
I know in my own family,michelle and I are having all
kinds of these discussionsbecause as we begin to send kids
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out in life and they kind ofage into that space, we got
extra rooms coming up in thefuture and so we're already
saying, like that's a tool.
What does that mean, god?
What are you going to beinviting us into?
Like, how do we get to leveragethat space and that tool, maybe
potentially for other kids tocome in that don't have a place
to come in?
You know it means differentthings for all of us, but we
begin to see it all as a tool toexpand his kingdom and that
(35:44):
becomes a game changer.
You know what else happens andI'm not being crucial of anyone
in particular.
You gotta figure this out foryourselves but you're gonna
collect fewer collectibles.
That's just what happens.
You're gonna collect fewer.
You're gonna begin to liquidatethings that aren't doing
anybody any good.
Not because it's a sin or a badto have stuff 100%.
(36:05):
I'm just telling you that whenthis begins to change you and
you start to adopt this mindset,you'll see all of that
differently and you'll never goback and you'll never regret it.
Number two number two you'llgive first and adjust your
lifestyle accordingly and thisisn't new, you know you give
first, you save second, you liveon the rest.
Or, like you know, you get.
(36:26):
Some of you guys did this withkids.
You know you had little jarsand this is what you did, or
you've done it yourself.
You give first, you fund God'skingdom, you save second, you
fund your own kingdom and thenyou live on the rest.
And when you think in terms,when you adopt this mindset,
like I'm not an owner, I'm amanager, you will adopt first
and best mindset rather than aleftover and last and you know
(36:50):
this and you know this mostAmericans, we are leftover and
last.
Don't be most Americans.
Leftover and last means Ifinanced my kingdom.
I've got everything I want.
They need some money.
So what can I afford to give?
Or, like I financed my kingdom,I got all the food I need.
Oh wait, there's food that'sexpired in my pantry.
(37:13):
Let me give that away because Idon't want to eat it.
Leftover and last.
And so what can I afford togive?
This isn't just about what youcan afford to give.
You need to just erase thatmindset.
That's not what we're talkingabout.
This is actually how mostpeople think, but that's not how
stewards think.
That's how managers of God'swealth and margin of money think
(37:34):
.
They think differently thanthat.
And here I know this.
I get this because I'm livingin it too.
Friends, here's why this is sohard for this, and it's been so
ingrained, as we are inclined toequate wealth and income and
stuff with our own personalvalue.
Look at how you arrived Like amI valuable enough?
This is what's showing value tous.
(37:56):
Or we tend to conflate or getmixed up about the fact that
what we have or what we drive,or where we live, or how much
money we have in the bank orwhen we can retire.
We have a tendency to actuallyequate that with our identity.
Are you with me?
So here's the challenge when youdecide to give first, what
(38:20):
happens is it actually begins tofeel like you're losing control
of your money and control ofanything.
Whatever you equate life with,savings or things or grades
where you go to school,professional success, whatever
it is, whatever you equate lifewith, you will cling to it as if
(38:41):
your life depends on it.
And this, friends, is why wecling to our stuff.
This is why the whole idea ofpre-deciding to actually give
feels like I'm out of controlbecause I'm losing my life.
It's why we worry, it's whywe're confused, and Jesus would
(39:01):
like to un-confuse us.
You will find it easier, you'llfind it easier to surrender your
entire life to your King whenyou acknowledge and begin to
live as if you are a manager,not an owner, when you take off
the owner hat, like King Daviddid, and say I'm not confused, I
(39:22):
am the king.
I didn't make myself king, Igot all this extra opportunity
and that all came from you.
I am just managing it for atime, but understand.
Just managing it for a time,but understand.
We cannot surrender to ouractual king until we dethrone
the imposter king, and Jesusknew that.
Our attitude and our approachto wealth and wealth management
(39:42):
and wealth accumulation wasgoing to be actually he knew
this the number one he talkedabout this so much the number
one competitor with who rulesand who reigns in our life.
And I'm just telling you, I'mtelling you this show me a man
who has dealt with this andactually surrendered all of this
to King Jesus, and I will showyou a man who will never go back
(40:02):
to living the other way, whohas more peace and prosperity,
and probably more prosperityindeed, because he's redefined
what prosperity really is.
Now, when I was sharing thiswith my team earlier, they said
I don't think you should say man, like, say people, because
everyone deals with it.
It's men and women, right.
And I said well, it's actuallyreally intentional.
And here's the deal Ladies, youstruggle with this too.
(40:25):
But let me just talk to theguys, because I am one and I
don't get women as much.
I get this about women.
You are naturally more of anurturer than we are.
You're probably more naturallygenerous than we are.
This is so tough for us guys.
So, men, yes, I'm saying it toyou Show me a man who has dealt
(40:45):
with this and surrendered all ofthis to King Jesus.
And I'm telling you, men.
I will show you a man who willnever go back to living the
other way, who has found morepeace and more prosperity.
So this week, here's yourassignment.
Here's it.
I just want you to practicebeing managers.
I want you to actually not justpractice thinking, just
(41:06):
thinking about being a manager.
What would I do in thissituation if I really thought
about myself as a manager versusan owner?
Just thinking about that.
What would I do in thissituation if I really thought
about myself as a manager versusan owner?
Just thinking about that.
What would I do in thissituation as you face different
conflicts and tensions as itrelates to your things, your
resources as a human, yourresources, you know, financially
planning, whatever it might be.
What's in your house already?
(41:27):
What do you have?
What's not in your house yet?
What would it look like if youreally believed and embraced the
idea that everything in heavenand earth is his?
What would it look like?
What would that change?
What kind of attention does itactually create in you?
And I want you to pay attentionto the tension, and we're going
to pick it right back up therenext week.
(41:49):
Now I want to tell you all this,just to be straight for this.
I'm going to unpack big visionover these next couple weeks.
Pastor Ken's going to come in acouple weeks and he's going to
give you all kinds of miraclestories about groups that went
all in and the story behind thisfaith community.
And at the end of this convo ina couple weeks there's going to
be a commitment card the nextthree to five weeks.
You're going to have the nextthree to five weeks or so to
(42:10):
think about and to pray about.
What does it look like for meto participate, to go in and
mending and casting and fishing,to mend the nets, to cast
bigger nets and watch Jesus fillthe nets and to be ready to
fill the nets.
And when I say pray, it means Idon't want you to just go have a
(42:30):
conversation and be like whatcan we afford to do?
What is he asking us to do?
That's the wrong question.
I want you to ask the questionand I want you to begin to pray
individually and if you're amarried couple or if you're
engaged or you have asignificant other, I want you to
pray, be praying together, andI know it's a scary prayer and
I've prayed it many, many timesand I've never regretted it.
(42:50):
Pray Father, how do you want me, how do you want us, how do you
want our family and our kids toparticipate in this initiative
and then, in about three to fiveweeks, we're gonna turn it into
a commitment.
You're like well, like some ofyou are like well, like what
about?
Like the people who are brandnew to this place right now?
(43:11):
Like, welcome to church today,I guess, whoa, like what about
the unchurched people who aren'ta follower of Jesus yet or
don't have the love of the Lordyet?
They believe in some of thisstuff.
They're checking out maybe evenyour, you know, atheist,
agnostic, your Buddhist,whatever?
Yeah, here's the deal.
(43:35):
You're why we exist, that's whywe create these spaces, that's
why we do what we do, and we'regoing to continue to keep that
in mind as we have thisconversation.
But that's why we're doing this.
In fact, if you're not afollower of Jesus, if you're not
a Christian, you're probablysitting here going like, oh
there they go again.
The church is raising money,right, and so, as you stick
around, I'm telling you, youwill understand.
We are not raising money for us, and I know this may sound
condescending.
We're raising money because wecare about you, and you may
(44:00):
think we're crazy, but we reallybelieve this.
We believe that following Jesuswill make you better at life
and it will make your lifebetter.
And I'm telling you, friends,I'm telling you I cannot wait to
go fishing with all of you.
Would you stand as we respondin worship?
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