Andy Stanley - Wishful Thinking

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
One of the challenges, one of the downsides for being
in such a giant church like we are, and spread
out all over the city and all over the country,
and all kind of cool stuff going on a lot
that you don't know about and don't need to know
about because you're busy raising kids and having jobs and
dating and all that stuff. But you're part of this
enormous thing that just keeps growing. And the downside for
me personally is that I know so very few people

(00:23):
and you walk up to me in the halls or
in the stores or in the community, go hey, Indy,
you don't know me, And then you know it's not embarrassing,
it's just unfortunate. So every once in a while, I think, Gosh,
I wish you didn't have to preach a bunch of
sermons and just communicate through sermons and email. I wish
I could just come out and just talk. So today
I may start doing that more often, but today we're
kind of between series, so I just thought I would

(00:45):
just come out here and tell you some stuff that
I've been thinking about. Now, if this is your first
time with us, you could not have picked a better
Sunday to be in the buildings with us, or a
better Sunday to be watching online, even if somebody is
forcing you to watch online and won't feed you lunch
unless you sit down wat this how whatever the situation is,
because you're gonna kind of find out what we're about.
You to find out a little bit more about what

(01:05):
I'm about, and really really what's most important to me
as it relates to you. Because today I want to
give you five things. You're not gonna need to write
these down because you're only going only maybe one or
two will be applicable to you, but five things that
I wish for you. And here's what I mean by that.
If we were to sit down over coffee or lunch
and you were to say, Andy, you know, I've been
going to the church for a while, and you know what,

(01:26):
just kind of give me the bottom line, what do
you hope happens to me as a part of you know,
Brown's Bridge Church or North Boyning Community Church or south
Side Church or Woodstock City or Buckhead Church or you
know whatever campus that you're a part of, or wherever
you watch from. You know what, what's the thing so
today I just want to give you these five things.
Is this to me is sort of the essence of
who we are. But more than importantly, it's kind of

(01:48):
the essence of what I wish for you. Just putting
on my pastor not preach your hat, but my pastor
hat for just a few minutes, and these things will
make your relationships richer, but more importantly, it'll make your
faith journey more exciting. And if Christianity is boring to you,
you're not doing it right. Okay, because Christianity isn't boring.

(02:09):
Sometimes we're boring, But the Christian faith really is a journey,
and it's an exciting journey. And the last thing I
want is for your faith to get stale. In fact,
I think one of the reasons people quit going to church.
It's not that they necessarily quit believing everything. It just
doesn't seem to matter anymore. So if your version of
the Christian faith is just so vanilla that it doesn't
even seem to matter, I don't want to offend you.

(02:32):
But there may be something you don't know, or you
may not be you may not be doing it right.
So anyway, this isn't much of a sermon, So there's
not going to be a whole lot of verses. This
is just kind of from my heart to use. Here's
the first thing. Five things. The first one I'm going
to spend the most time on. So when you look
at your watch after the end of number one, don't
think that much time times four more. Okay, we're not
going to be here all day. So the first one

(02:53):
is kind of a big one. In fact, I thought
about making this the whole message because it's such a
big idea. But I really, really really wish for you
or in high school or college, are you been or
newly wet, or you're dating, or you just went through
a divorce, or you're you know, senior and you're about
to retire. Regardless of your age, I wish for you
a courageous act of obedience that cost you something. This

(03:15):
is what I would wish for you, which is not
what you would wish for you, but it's what I
would wish for you. That you would have those moments.
Not every day, not every month, not even really every year,
but I wish for you a moment in time and
experience every once in a while where you feel that
internal nudge and you know that there's a divine element
to that internal nudge and you need to do something.

(03:36):
You need to make a big step, a courageous act
of obedience that cost you something, a decision where you
don't know where it's gonna end up, but you know
in your heart God has nudged you to do this,
and not something that you manufacture. Not something like, Okay,
I'm gonna test God, I'm gonna prove God, I'm gonna
quit my job. You know, you know, not that I'm
just gonna marry the next person. I know this, This

(03:59):
isn't that, this isn't foolishness, but to go too long
without giving in to that internal nudge to do something unusual. Again,
not something that you manufacture, but something that you sensed that. Wow,
every time I pray, every time i'm silent, every time
i'm quiet, I just feel like God is nudging me
in a direction to say yes to that nudge when

(04:20):
it comes along. And by the way, this is how
you become a deep Christian. This is how you become deep.
I don't know if if you grew up in a
church tradition where you know the sermon would be really confusing,
and you thought it was confusing, but somebody said that
was so deep and you thought I just thought it
was confusing. They said, no, it's not confusing. It's deep.
That's what we call deep. If you don't understand it,
it's deep. Okay, that's completely wrong. Okay. Deep is not information,

(04:46):
and deep certainly isn't confusing information. Deep is transformation that
results from personal obedience to God. Deep is when you
say yes and you don't know where that yes will lead.
And that is the the story of our faith, from
Genesis all the way through Jesus. It is the story
of the faith of the people that you have the
most respectful, In fact, the Christians that you have the

(05:08):
most respectful, even if you're not a Christian, but you
know some Christians, or it was your mother, your dad,
or your grandfather, and you don't necessarily want to be one,
but you have so much respect. It's not what they
knew that impressed you. It's the way they lived in
spite of That is what impressed you. It's the men
and women who are faithful in spite of who make
big decisions in spite of the fact that they don't

(05:30):
know how it's going to end up. That's what deepens
our faith. It's saying yes. Deep is when you can't
touch bottom. Right. Deep is when you're in over your head.
Deep in terms of spirituality and following God is obedience
when there's no guaranteed outcome, and when you say yes
to that internal nudge. Some of you know exactly what

(05:52):
I'm talking about today because you've been wrestling with it.
You've been talking about it. You talk to your girlfriend
about it, Your husband and you have been talking about it.
You called your mom the other to talk about it.
You just have this sense. That's when your faith journey
becomes exciting because you will pray harder. No one will
have to say have you prayed? You're like, have I prayed?
That's all I do is pray because I'm so worried

(06:12):
because I'm saying, God, I'm gonna do this. But of
course I'm so dialed into God. I don't even think
I could sin. I mean, I am so you know,
tuned in because I'm so conscious of the fact that
if God doesn't come through for me, then you know,
I don't know what's gonna happen, but I just sens
this is what God wanted me to do. You will
listen attentively, You'll take note, the Bible will come alive,

(06:33):
you'll lean in. And here's why. And I've been teaching
you this for many, many years. When your expression of faith,
you know what an expression of faith as faith is,
I believe faith is. I'm going to act on what
I believe. That's what faith is. That's what walking by
faith is. I believe it. Therefore I'm gonna act as
if it's true. I'm not making it true. And I
don't think believe in it makes it true. That's magic.

(06:55):
That's not Christianity, by the way, faith, christian faith is
I trust that what God has said is true, and
I trust that what God is asking me to do
is what I need to do. So when your expression
of faith intersects with God's faithfulness, I'm telling you something
happens on the inside, You're never gonna be the same.
It becomes a stake in the ground, it becomes a

(07:15):
defining moment for your faith. And anytime you tell this story,
it's emotional because you obeyed without any kind of guaranteed outcome,
and God came through for you, and God responded. And
I'm telling you, people can argue all day long, I
don't know if there's a God and you're like, okay,
let me just tell you what happened. It becomes a

(07:35):
stake in the ground. But for your faith again, if
you go too long ignoring those internal nudges, and I'm
just gonna tell you, Okay, the older you get, the
more there is at stake, the more there is at risk,
the less likely you are to say yes. And if
you go too long without saying yes to God every
once in a while, when God nudges you on the inside,

(07:56):
your faith will get stale, it will get old, it
will get boring. It'll be John eleven, Yeah, I know,
Lazarus is raised from the dead. Again, what do you know.
I mean, you'll just kind of go there, you know,
I know five Stones killed Goliath, I know the story.
It'll just be flat. But I'm telling you, what makes
you rich in faith and what makes you deep in

(08:17):
faith is not what you know, and it's not even
what you're learning. It's what you are experiencing. This is
why Jesus, in his brilliant, brilliant way, said to the
people in the first century not sit down and take
notes or learn from me. His initial invitation was, come
follow me. And if you don't get this right, and
if you ignore this for too long, you'll get cynical

(08:38):
as a Christian. You'll start complaining about all the dumbest things,
all the wrong things. You'll start to get old as
of the Christian, but not mature, just older. Okay. So
you know, for us, the reason this is such a
big deal for me, and the reason I love to
talk about it to our churches is this is the
story of our church. Because I had a really good
job with a really good future, and I just felt

(08:58):
the center, and I just felt that nudge to leave.
And every time something awesome happens at one of our churches,
I honestly, it's so emotional to us, especially baptism stories.
You know, she'll turn to me and we can't even
speak anymore dearing baptism. We can't. We just look at
each other and we know what we're thinking, because so
many years ago there was this big, emotional, incredible baptism
and Sandras said, what if this is what she said,

(09:19):
she whispered in the back to the service. What if
we hadn't left? Now, there's what if it we had
stayed with the secure thing and the sure thing and
we got it all worked out thing and all the
details are in place, thing what if we hadn't left.
It's like it's just it's still so emotional for me.
Then a few years ago, we felt that nod nudge
to become foster parents. I mean, talk about scary. What

(09:40):
you know they're gonna the door's gonna you know, you're
gonna get a phone call. We're gonna bring some children
with a plastic bag with the only clothes they have
and leave them at your house. I'm busy. I mean,
I I'm really busy, right, but sometimes you you just
know when you know you gotta go. A few years ago,
our our lead pastor at Brownsbridge Church, I'm left side

(10:00):
those of you at Brownsbridge. You know this. I told
you the story two days three days later, I'm sitting
on my couch having my quiet time, and it's just like,
I don't know. It wasn't a voice. God didn't speak
to me. I wish you would. If God could speak
to me, I'd give him a list of things I'd
like to know that like some really important things, like
a cure for a disease. That would be cool, but
it's for me. I don't know what I would understand
what he was saying if he told me so. But
I sit on my couch and I just knew. It

(10:22):
was just a moment where I knew, Andy, you go
to Browns Bridge on Sunday, you step in his lead pastor,
and you commit to a year. It was just like
you just know. And I told Sandra and she said,
what are you gonna do about your other jobs? I said,
I don't know. Sometimes you just know. And it was
an extraordinary year, I mean, and everything got done when

(10:43):
you know you just got to go. For some of you,
it's time to leave that job and you're scared to death.
Of course, you're scared to death. Guess what if you're
a Christian and you feel a nudge to leave your
job and do something else, no one's gonna have to
tell you to pray. You're gonna show up at church
and see these worship songs and the words are gonna
light up. You're gonna go like, that's my favorite song,
and your husband's gonna be like, we've been singing that

(11:04):
song for eight years. I know, but I love that song.
Why Because it's gonna the words, lyrics are gonna connect
with what you've stepped out in faith, not to do
something foolish, not something you came up with. Some of
you need to take that job. You know, I just
don't feel qualified. Guess what you step into a job,
you step into a role you're not qualified. No one's
gonna have to tell you to pray. No one's gonna

(11:26):
have to tell you to open the scripture, no one's
gonna have to tell you to live dependent on God.
You're gonna walk into the office every day when I'm
in over my head and God's gonna go good. That's
what deep is. Deep is over your head where you
have to look up to me for help. This will
be a story you tell for the rest of your life.
Some of you need to get out of this country
and go on a global X trip with us. Every
time we talk about serving people in other parts of
the world, you're like, I really need to do that.

(11:47):
I think I'll just support somebody else. Here's the check,
because for many of us, it is easier to write
checks than to get up and go do something. And
the older you get and the richer you get, the
easier it is to say I'm just gonna write a check.
I don't want to go to all the hassle and
I feel like your father in heaven says, well, then
you miss out because you'll never know what I would

(12:10):
have done in you if you hadn't, if you had
gotten up and done something. And you know, respond to
that internal nudge to do something outside of your comfort zone.
Some of you, you've been for a long time. It
felt like you needed to go teach school and get
out of the marketplace and go back into a world
that you've maybe felt called to it or even trained
to do. Teach school. Some of you need to volunteer.
Every time we talk about volunteers, she's like, I know

(12:32):
I need to, and you just some of you need
to downside and do something else with all that money.
Some of you need to start that business you've been
putting off but you're scared to death, but you just
you just kind of know. It's almost like every it's
like a god thing. It's like, I feel like this
is like a spiritual thing. Some of you, if I
can get real personal, you need to break up with her.

(12:52):
You need to break up with him. And you've known
let me just put on my parent half for a
long time. For a minute, you have known this for
so long. Your friend friends, know he or she is
a loser for you and not good for you. They're
not losers in life. It's just that you aren't good together.
It's time and you're so scared. Yeah, but what if
nobody else comes along? Guess what? They may not, but

(13:12):
you'll never know. And here's the thing, look up here,
I'm not done with This is very important when you
get out of that relationship. Do you know what's gonna
happen on the inside of you? Your attentiveness to your
heavenly Father is going to increase exponentially, because as long
as you are in a relationship that you know you

(13:33):
shouldn't be in, you have put God to the side
because he keeps getting on your case. And do you
know why he gets on your case because he loves you.
So get out of that relationship. Break up some of
you and just need one clap down? Here, come mom?
You must be a mother? Are you a yes? Yeah?
We got a mom down here going hallelujah. Somebody finally
said it. Some of you. I challenge you all the time. Singles,

(14:00):
I'm just so glad we have so many college students
and singles and single again people in our churches. I
love the fact that you've found our churches, but you
need to take a year off dating, and that scares
you to death. Do you know what's gonna happen to you, dear,
in your year off dating, Something's gonna happen on the
inside of you that when you go back into the market,
you are gonna be a different and better person. One day,

(14:23):
Jesus is walking along with his guys, you know, and
he he offers a man the invitation of a lifetime.
He turns this just some apparently some random person in
the crowd. I don't know. Maybe this is a guy
that's been following him for so long. Jesus been paying
attention to him, thinking, you know what, I think this
guy has potential. And he turns to him and he says,
follow me. Now. The guy he talked was pointing to

(14:47):
has no idea what hangs in the balance of this invitation.
This is just another rabbi. And where's he from? Nazareth? Nazareth?
I've never heard of it. I don't even know anybody
from Nazareth in Galilee. I mean, that's like the wrong
side of the country, you know. But that Jesus turns
this guy and says, follow me. This is the this
is the invitation of a lifetime. Okay, And he says,
but he replied, Lord, first, let me go and bury

(15:08):
my father. Okay, I don't want to spend a lot
of time on this. His dad wasn't even dead yet.
I mean, if his dad, if his dad was dead,
he wouldn't be there. Following Jesus, he'd be at his
father's funeral. Because when people died back then, they didn't
like wait for days. They were like, boom, funeral, bury
him quick. He chanced, you can't let the body sit
out there, and they don't. They weren't. They didn't burn

(15:29):
people's body. They actually buried them and then collected their
bones later. So his father wasn't even dead yet. This
was his way of saying, look, I would love to
follow you. Thank you. I'm so honored. I'm so honored.
But I got I got to get some things worked
out and sorted out, worked out and sorted out. First.
I got to get things worked out and sorted out
at home. And then when I get things worked out
and sorted out, we'll get that whole will thing done.
And my father's gone, Hey, then hey, get here, ring

(15:51):
me up I'll follow you, right. Do you know what
his name was? No, Well, I'll never know. Opportunity came
and gone missed. Still another, same guy, same day, read it.
That same guy, same day. Still another said Hey, okay,
Jesus loser, okay, but I will follow you, Lord, I

(16:12):
will follow you. Okay, this guy, you know, excuse me.
I will follow you, but first let me go back
and at least say goodbye to my family. Same thing.
I gotta go back, get something sorted out, worked out,
sorted out, worked out, sort of that worked out. And
later when these gentlemen measured what they gained by hesitating

(16:33):
against what they gained or what they would not didn't
gain by going. Later on, when they thought through what
they gained by hesitating and measured against what they lost
by saying no to Jesus. No comparison, bad decision. And
then Jesus says something that seems very harsh to us.

(16:54):
It's not quite as harsh to the first century audience
as it is to us, but it was still kind
of harsh. He said, Look, let the dead bury their
own dead. But you you, he says to this guy,
I'm giving you the opportunity of a lifetime. You have
no idea what hangs in the balance of your decision

(17:15):
right then and there in that moment to follow me.
I'm inviting you to do something out of the ordinary.
I'm inviting you this. In his case, he was saying,
I'm invited you, inviting you to be a part of history. Peter,
come over here, Peter, Peter. People two thousand years from

(17:35):
now are gonna name their children after this guy. What
do you think about that? Andrew Kimera, come, They're gonna
name their kids after Judas? Okay, Barthol, the companys lots
of barns. Right. Jesus said, look, but you go and
proclaim the kingdom of God. Now this was the first

(17:55):
century invitation. It's a little bit different than God's invitation
to you, but his name is true for you. You
gain by hesitating does not compare to what you gain
by saying yes. So just say yes and obey. I'll
tell you a couple of quick examples. Jeff and Wendy
Henderson at Gwinnett Church. He's the lead pastor of Atwenet Church.
Are now. Jeff and Wendy were leading a starting He
was in the marketplace, had a great job with an

(18:17):
extraordinary company that all of you have purchased products from,
perhaps or probably. And so Jeff is in marketing, got
a great job, and he's leading a starting Point group,
which is an environment for people who are coming back
to faith or who have questions. And they were leading
the starting Point group in their home and Jeff and
Wendy started feeling that nudge. And Jeff is a preacher's kid,
so he knew the I don't know, I don't know what,

(18:37):
I know what. I know too much to know that
this is probably not I don't know that nudge to
get out of the marketplace and to step full time
into ministry. And of course he wrestled with it, and
of course he prayed through it. And then Jeff and
Wendy said yes, and they came in on our staff
and began leading starting Point groups professionally. And then Jeff

(18:59):
was a lead pastor FIRS lead pastor at Buckhead Church
and navigated the grocery store days. And then Jeff felt
another nudge. This time it wasn't from God, It's for me,
not really kind of, so I said, so Jeff then left,
I mean, by you know, leading Buckhead Church, what an
extraordinary opportunity left Buckhead Church to go to Gwenett Church
and then start over again, and Gwenett Church can go

(19:21):
to the other cameras second Gwenet Church. Aren't you glad?
Aren't you glad that Jeff and Wendy Henderson said yes
to that initial nudge from God. Imagine what you would
have missed out on. Imagine what they would have missed
out on. That's not the only story. Gavin and Chantelle.
Gavin who's the lead pastor of Woodstock City Church, he
was a volunteer and southside at Peach Street City in

(19:44):
their student ministry, and then once they got going again,
same thing. Just felt that nudge. Okay, you know it's
going to be a pay cut. I don't know where
this goes. I'm not really trained to do this. Got
out of the marketplace with a fabulous job with another company.
Every one if you've heard before, stepped into the role
there at in pa Street City, a southside church, and
then just as things are going well, felt out nudge
to leave and go to Woodstock to take up the

(20:06):
reins and become the leader and a church plant where
things weren't going all that well. In fact, things were
going so unwell that Gavin and Chantel, with their own money,
helped make payroll a couple of times. Some of you
at Woodstock City Church don't know that, but you need to.
In Woodstock City Church look around and that's the result
of a lot of your hard work and your generosity.
But I'm telling you, aren't you glad the Gavin said, Okay, God,

(20:30):
I don't know where this is going. It feels like
a free fall to me, but yes, absolutely. And my
point isn't that all of you need to leave the
marketplace and go into ministry. That's not the point at all.
The point is this. You are surrounded by and you
are influenced by on a weekly basis by people. This
isn't just discermon. This is a reality. This is the
Christian walk, This is the Christian faith. This is what

(20:52):
makes faith exciting. And many of you have stories of
your own. And my point is, I just don't want
you to miss it because you don't know what hangs
in the balance, and you don't know who hangs in
the balance of your decision to say yes to God
when you feel that internal prompt. Now I know for
some of you, I've just ruined your day because you
had just finally talked yourself out of it, said it's

(21:13):
not God, it was the pizza, and I I'm not.
That's just irresponsible and it's foolish. I just don't want
you to miss it. Number two. Second wish I have
for you I won't take as long on these next
four is the thrill of knowing you were instrumental in
someone's decision to follow Jesus. I can't tell you how
I want this for you so much. In other words,
I want there to be someone in the world that

(21:34):
when they tell their faith story, someone outside of your family,
that when they tell their faith story, they mention your name. Ideally,
I would love for you to sit in one of
our services and watch someone be baptized, and when they
tell their story on their video, they mention you by
name because you were instrumental in helping them take their
first step, their second step, or that final step of

(21:56):
faith when they put their faith in Christ. And I'm
telling you, when you enter into a spiritual, spiritual kind
of conversation, when you introduce, when you invite someone to church,
when you hand that person that book, when you say, hey,
can we get together for coffee. Hey, I noticed you
said I'd love when you're when you engage. I mean,
come on, you are so dependent on God, you are
scared to death. You've called people and say pray for me,

(22:18):
pray for me. I'm gonna call my niece and now
you know she last time we talked it and goes
so well. But I feel like I'm gonna give my
husband this book, or I'm gonna give this guy at
work this thing. And you're so you're so dialed in,
I mean, your faith skyrockets. You're so dependent on God.
You'll be vulnerable, you'll be over your head, you'll be
out of control, You'll be deep. You'll be deep, and

(22:40):
you know what, that memory will be emotional for you
for the rest of your life. It'll be a stake
in the ground. It'll be something that holds you when
things are tough and things aren't going the way that
maybe you want them to go. And I'll tell you
the easiest way to jump into this, because I'll just
be honest. Some of you, you've been a Christian so
long you don't even know any un church peace anymore.

(23:00):
You don't even know any people that are far from
God or me. You know two or three or four,
but you know they've kind of you know, tap, you're
sort of tapped out on those conversations. You should you
know what you should do. You should join our starting
point Minister. You should lead a starting point group. We
will introduce you to some people with some really hard questions,
with some really difficult backgrounds, with some really challenging situations.
You'll be scared to death. You will pray like you've

(23:21):
never prayed before. The Bible will come alife to you.
And it's time because you're getting bored. You're getting a
little too cynical, a little too critical. Christianity is getting
a little bit too flat for you. Somebody else, you
needed to get involved with our high school students, middle
school students. You became a Christian high school or middle school.
Here's your opportunity to lead some students in a way
that you were led. Perhaps it's time to do that,
and you felt that nudge it's time to see us.

(23:43):
I just I just want this to be a part
of your story at least one time, or invite a
neighbor to church. I mean, let me just ask you this,
this is convicting me. When is the last time. And
when is the last time you showed up at church
and you were nervous because you were bringing or meeting
someone here for the first time, and you were so nervous.

(24:03):
I mean, you're like Clay today needs to really be
good because it's here. Okay, right, Adam, Adam, okay, third
row two back, Okay, we work together. They say they're
going to give this one time, Adam, do not mess
this up for me. When is the last time you
evaluated what we do on Sunday morning through the lens

(24:24):
of an unchurched friend, unchurched neighbor, maybe an unchurched colleague.
When's the last time that happened. Hey, that's why we
do this. That's why we do it the way we
do it. And in that moment, on that Sunday, you
will be so dialed in, you will be out of control,
you will be deep. Third thing I wish for you

(24:47):
the freedom and the joy that comes from organizing your
financial world around give safe live. The freedom and the
joy that comes from not giving organizing your entire financial
world around give save live. Now, if you've been around
for a while, I have been preaching and preaching and
teaching this for twenty years. Okay, the thing is, I

(25:09):
want you to have stuff. I want you to have
lots of stuff. I just don't want your stuff to
have you because when your stuff haves you, when your
stuff has you, things just don't go well. Things don't
go well relationally, things just don't go well. Besides that,
I want you to be the kind of person that
God can trust with more stuff because you're so generous
with your stuff. Because what you do with your resources

(25:30):
is a This is important, Jesus said this. What you
do with your resources is a direct reflection. What you
do with your resources is a direct reflection. What you
do with what you have is a direct reflection of
whose you are. And if you belong solely to yourself,
my friends, that is a very small life. You were designed.

(25:53):
You were created not to live for your glory alone,
but for the glory of God. And Jesus was so
clear that what we do with what we have is
an indicator of who truly owns us, of who is
the lord of your life. I mean, you've heard this verse.
If you grow up in church a thousand times, this
is brilliant Jesus. Stuff right here where your treasure is
there your heart will be also. In other words, wherever

(26:17):
if I want to know where your heart is, I
just need to look at your bills, how you spend
your money, or how you save your money, how you
hoard your money, I'll know where your heart is. And
the formula this is so powerful, it's Jesus is saying this. Look,
you want your heart in a different place, put your
money there, your heart will follow. And if you don't,
if you're not intentional about where you put your money,
your heart will just follow where you spend your money.

(26:39):
And you may have a lot, you may have a little,
but you will become a very small person and you
will miss out on God's ultimate purpose and will for
your life. And the thing is, God never has access
to all of you, and God never has access to
all of me until he has access to everything that
I have. When God has access to you, that's when

(27:03):
you're free. And I I just want you to be free.
And this won't happen until you have a plan. This
is why I say all the time, everybody, even if
you don't go to church, and even if you don't
ever come back to this church, and if you never
watch again, everybody needs a plan. For how they plan

(27:23):
to support the local church, because one day you are
going to need a local church and you are glad
there are local churches in your community. Everybody should have
a plan for how they plan to support their local church.
Not guilt giving, not here comes the bucket again, but
a plan. And the thing is, most of you, if
you're like most Americans, and I know you're above average,

(27:45):
so you're not exactly like most Americans, but a lot
of you you don't even have a spending plan, much
less a giving plan. You know what a spending plan is.
It's a two letter, two syllable word. It starts with
the bee, is it? What's a spending plan? Of what
a budget? Yeah, you don't even have a budget. You
don't even have a spending plan. So there's no way
you can have a giving plan. But I'll make you promise,

(28:06):
have been doing this a long time. I'll make you promise.
If you start with a giving plan, you will end
up with a spending plan. And this spending plan will
be far better than you'll ever be able to create
a budget unless you stay. Unless you start here, start here, give, save, live,
give SA And here's the thing, and this won't matter
to you. But just while I'm telling you what's inside

(28:27):
of me, imagine, Imagine if all fifty thousand of us
adults a part of our Atlanta area churches. Imagine if
we got this right. Imagine if we all got rid
of our silly debt, and if we pulled our giving

(28:48):
and made ourselves wholly available to God. I'm telling you
our potential for good in our communities and in our city,
in our world is unimaginable. The money is in the bank.
We already have the resources. We just need your heavenly
father invites you to be a part of local churches

(29:10):
where people understand the value of giving, saving and living.
And the thing is, I promise you I wouldn't have
the courage to say this. Sandra and I are in.
We have been from the beginning. Twice. We've gone without
salaries to make sure this thing works. The staff around you,
the lead pastors, I mean, we are in. This isn't
a gimmick, This isn't a ploy. This isn't oh so

(29:30):
we're going to have more money. Has nothing to do
with that. It has everything to do with where your
heart is. And as a pastor, I want your heart
to be in the right place. And you can't pray
your heart to the right place. You can't behave your
heart and to the right place. Jesus said, it's more
practical than that. Where your resources are going, that's where
your heart ultimately lands. Our potential as extraordinary. If you've

(29:52):
been a Christian for five years or more and you
don't have a plan, if you don't have a giving plan,
oh my god, good this. Have you been paying attention
to what Jesus taught? I mean, that's just unimaginable to me.
And so that's why I'm going to come back to
this over and over. I want you to know the
freedom and the joy of a life organized organized around

(30:12):
give first, save second, Live on the rest, Give first,
save second, Live on the rest. Last number four is this.
I wish that you could see the difference that your
commitment and generosity has made in churches all over the
country and all over the world, and you can't see that.
I get to read the letters, I get to see

(30:32):
the videos, I get to visit the churches. You're busy people.
I just wish if you had a week, if you
had a day, if you had twenty four hours, if
you could catch a glimpse of the difference that you make.
Not buy something special and extraordinary, the fact that you
show up every week, the fact that those of you
who give generously give those or you have a plan
to have a plan for those of you who have
served and volunteer. I'm telling you you are making a difference.

(30:55):
And you have been making a difference in churches all
over the country, all over the world for over twenty years.
You've helped church leaders try new things, stop old things,
rethink things, rebuild things, renovate things, change the way they
do things, change the way they paint things and decorate things.
Just your presence and your consistency. And I want to
tell you one quick story to illustrate this, because this

(31:16):
kind of thing happens all the time and you're not
aware of it, but you're a big, big part of it.
There's a gentleman named Lee Creicher. He and his wife Linda,
back in the late seventies started at church in Pittsburgh,
and they started in their home, and they got outside
their home and they got a place to meet, and
things went really well for a while. And about fourteen
years in which is a long run, things were not

(31:37):
going well, and Lee quit the church and quit the
ministry and went into the marketplace and got a really
good job with a really good company, and he was
done with that. He was kind of burned out. There
was just lots of stuff going on, very heartbreaking for
him because his life blood was in this church. But
just left the church, left ministry, worked for this company

(31:58):
for a few years, got relocated to Atlanta, found North
Point Community Church. And those of you at North Point,
you don't know Lee. You didn't know this was going
on right under your nose. For those of you who
serve and show up early and make things awesome there,
you didn't know this was happening. But it's actually it's
happening today. You don't know about it. Lee and Linda
and their kids showed up at north found north Point
Community Church and it was like, oh, and they weren't
so sure they were into the big church thing, but

(32:19):
they loved it. They loved the music, their kids plugged in.
They absolutely loved it. Life was good. They're living in Alpharetta.
The weather is better there are you know, things are
just great. Two years there at North Point and he
gets a phone call from a board member at his
old church. Now he's been out of ministry for over
ten years. At this point, I mean that's in the
rearview mirror. The board member says, things are not going

(32:41):
well here, as you know, would you please come back?
He said, no, but thank you gotta go. No, we're good,
Our kids are settled in. This is great. They called
and they called the church and dwindled down to about
one hundred and fifty people. Two hundred people almost no children,
no high school, no middle school, just older people aging out,
dying church. They kept calling him and calling him and

(33:01):
calling him. At some points the long story, I'm shortening,
Lee and Linda felt that that nudge, he took a
two thirds pay cut, relocated in Pittsburgh, and jumped back
in because of what he had seen at North Point
and because he knew he needed to go. So we

(33:21):
put together a leadership team, bought them all airplanes, you know,
tickets and their spouses, flew everybody to Atlanta and brought
them to North Point. You didn't know they were there,
marched them up and down the halls, went in womb land,
up street, went into all the environments, sat through the service,
got them together and said, okay, you want to do
this in Pittsburgh. Do you think this is possible in Pittsburgh?

(33:43):
You want to create a church where unchurched people can
come and have their faith ignited and Christians you've fallen
away and have their faith reignited. Do you think this
is possible in our community? Because if you don't like this,
you're not going to like where we're headed. Because this
is where we're headed. And he went back to make
a long story short. Last year they averaged over two
thousand people and they have three campuses. Look, they went

(34:05):
from this to this. Listen, look up here. Wait wait, wait, wait,
before you clapp before you clap, before you clap. I
appreciate it. No, I really do, And I want you
to clap in a minute. Here's I just don't want
you to miss this. People you will never meet, in
places you will never visit, are returning to church and

(34:26):
are returning to faith, returning to hope because of your
engagement in your local church. And I'm telling you preaching
my preaching, Adam's preaching, Gavin's preaching, you know whoever's preaching
preaching did not inspire this. Being with you, watching you serve,

(34:48):
watching your enthu enthusiasm, your creativity, You're commitment to the
local church. That is what ignites a fire in church
leaders who need to go back and make a change
in their community. Be half of all the people that
you'll never meet and people I'll never meet, really literally
all over the world. I can't say thank you enough.
I just wish you could see it. I just wish

(35:09):
you could experience it, because it would light you up.
What you do here goes way, way, way beyond the
walls in the halls of our local churches. Last one
is this, and this is to a very specific group
of you. For those of you who aren't Christians yet,
for those of you who have questions we have yet

(35:29):
to answer. For those of you who just you kind
of want it to be true. You're hoping it's true,
but you got a bad church experience. You know, your
uncle is a preacher and ran off with you know whatever.
You know, you just you went to school and you
just learned too much biology to ever be a Christian.
Whatever your thing is, but you're kind of leaning in
this direction. My wish for you is that you would

(35:51):
keep seeking, that you would keep asking, and you would
keep knocking, and that you wouldn't stop to use Jesus
terminout that you would take a step to follow Jesus.
In fact, here's what you'll learn at our churches, because
this is what Jesus modeled and what he taught. You
can follow before you believe, you can follow, until you

(36:16):
believe you can follow, before you have all the answers,
and you can follow as you get your answers. This
is not a one and done. This isn't pray some
kind of prayer and boom magically all your answers or
get questions or answered. This is we don't We don't
even teach that or believe that. Because in the first
century Jesus said to men who knew nothing, follow me,

(36:40):
and their faith was like this the whole time. And
apparently that's okay. And we want you to follow. We
want you to take a step. We want you to
get in starting point and get some of your questions answered.
We want you to move closer and closer and closer
to the front. We want you to get a Bible.
We want you to take your first in praying, and

(37:01):
we want to be an environment where it's safe for
you to do that. And then when the time comes
for you to raise your hand and ask a question
and connect. We want to be there for you. But
my heart's desire for you is that you won't give
up the journey and that you won't get up give
up the quest and conclusion. People ask me all the time, Andy,
did you ever envision you know all this? No, we

(37:26):
passed my vision about seventeen years ago. Okay, so no.
And I want you to hear this from me that
no one, no one is more surprised by all of
this than me, and no one is more grateful for
all that has happened than me, and no one knows,
and no one is more aware that it is not

(37:48):
about me than me. This what you've experienced, in what
you've done, is about a conversation that Jesus had with
his disciples on one hoton. They're in the region of
Cesareah Philippi, and Jesus says to us, guys, hey, what's
the word on the street about me? That's not a
good question for most of us to ask, but Jesus asking, hey,

(38:09):
what are people saying about me? And they say, well,
they think you're reincarnated prophet. Some of you think that
you're John the Baptists come back to life. They think
you're somebody old that's come back in some kind of
new form or fashion. And Jesus says, what about you, guys,
who do you say that I am Simon? Peter answered,
and he said, well, you're the Messiah. I mean, I

(38:32):
mean we've seen too much, we experienced too much. You're
the Messiah. You're the son of the Living God. And
Jesus said to him, Jesus replied, Simon, son of Jonah,
for this blessed are you, for this was not revealed
to you by flesh and blood, but by my father
in heaven. You finally got the answer, right, You are

(38:52):
exactly right. I am the Messiah. I am the one
who is sent from God. And I tell you, and
here's the part that I don't want you to miss.
This is why this happens, This is why this works,
This is why what you do is so important. And
I tell you this that you are. Peter did a
little wordplay with his name, and on this rock, this
declaration that I'm the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

(39:14):
I will build my ecclesia, my assembly, my gathering, my movement,
and the gates of Hades that is death will not
overcome it, and it didn't and it won't. And together

(39:36):
we have the opportunity of being a small part of
what Jesus began two thousand years ago that will go
until the day he decides to return. So let's get
it right. Thank you for working so hard to get
it right. And perhaps perhaps we will be a small
part of leaving the local church in America better off

(39:58):
than how we found it. So pay attention to that
internal nudge, look for that opportunity to get uncomfortable and
invite somebody or give them that book, send them that article,
have that conversation, make a plan for how you're going
to support whatever church you go to financially so that
your resources are part of what God's up to in
the world. And then keep seeking, keep asking, keep knocking.

(40:25):
Those are my wishes for all of us.