This Is Going To Be Good

0:00 Hey, real quick, we're going to let you get into this amazing message, but we just wanted to come in here and talk to you real quick. Yeah, just from our hearts. We're just so excited as our whole church and Fresh Life Online fam have all been praying. We've been praying about what is the part that we can play? What is God calling us to give? We're saying we don't want to tell you to give anything, but just to ask, what would God have you to do? what part would he have you to play in extending the reach of his kingdom through what he's doing each week at Fresh Life at our online platforms and all the different ways in this year-end offering this is the kingdom and it's it now man people are giving you can give between now and the year end but a lot of us are giving all at the same time and it's just a beautiful powerful

1:06 you. And so it's going to be beautiful. Yeah, we've been stirring up our hearts through looking in the New Testament and seeing what the kingdom of God is like. It's like a cold cup of water going out. We're a part of that happening around the world. It's like a child in Jesus's arms. We're a youth-led movement, seeing young people reached. We're watching the incarcerated set free, spiritually speaking, coming from being stranded in sin to life and liberty in Christ. We're seeing that happen every week in our physical churches that we operate inside of prisons, but also as the Word of God goes into prisons all around the country. And you can have ownership of that spiritual dividends, literally accruing to your account eternally, because Jesus says not one thing done unto the least of these will be forgotten. He sees it as being personally done unto him. And so we're excited to, without hesitation, invite you into that, to give, to give extravagantly, to give with faith.

2:00 If it takes faith for you to give a $50 gift, great. If it takes faith to give a $50,000 gift or a $500,000 gift, all of us can do only what God has called us uniquely to do. But together in his hands is where the magic happens, where the miracle occurs. And we're believing for a miracle to happen through what God's doing, but also in your life as well. Now you get to listen to this message. And I pray that God blesses you and speaks to you in a powerful way. We love you. I want to mention really quickly that we just added to the Movement Conference 2026 lineup, Strings and Heart and Brooke Lidgertwood. Hello. So, so great. Both of them. If you're not listening to Strings and Heart, newer, but incredible, and just climbing the charts like crazy out there, doing some crazy cool collabs and just some phenomenal music. And then Brooke, just what do you want to say, right?

2:54 What a beautiful name. Hello, King of Kings and seven record, followed by the eight record. I bet you my bottom dollar, nine's coming soon. It's going to be, I don't know. I can't prove that. But we're excited to have them. If you have a Bible, though, join us in Luke chapter 10, Title of the message, this is going to be good. This is going to be good. Come on, could you speak it prophetically over my message before you even heard it? Come on, say, this is going to be good. And of course, we can say that opening up the good book. We can say that opening up scripture, that God's going to speak a good word to us. Luke 10, it says, and behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, what is written in the law? What is your reading of it? So he answered and said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said to him, you've answered rightly, do this and you will live.

4:12 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor exactly? Then Jesus answered and said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him what? Half dead. Now by chance, a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, which I hate that they got to go ahead and tarnish my name like that. A Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.

5:30 And he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, take care of him. And whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you. So which of these three, the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan, do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? And he said to him, he who showed mercy on him. Then Jesus said to him, go and do likewise. Now, one of my favorite leadership quotes, I think about it all the time, is if you want men to build a ship, don't drum up people to gather wood, divide the work out, responsibility out. you get rope, you get sail, you, no.

6:42 He says, instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. It's about a vision that becomes larger than life. It's not about, OK, everyone, here's exactly how we're going to approach it. Though that, of course, does have to happen at some point. The sentiment is, if you can get a group of people moving in the same direction, they become unstoppable. If you can get to where it's internalized, and it's not something someone else does, it's something we do, the moment you see this is not my church, this is our church, we are the church, and we are here to change the world, the moment we realize the collective power of unity that's unstoppable, behold how good and how pleasant it is when we dwell together as one. I mean, God himself said, that's the reason the Tower of Babel story happened.

7:37 He said, if I don't go down there and confuse their languages, nothing they attempt will be kept back from them. I'm telling you, when we act as one, there is nowhere we can't go. There is nothing we can't do in Jesus' name. There's power in people yearning for the vast and endless sea and dreaming for the ocean of risking. I mean, that's the power in catalyzing impact of great leaders. I mean, JFK, the moonshot, he said, we're going to send a man to the moon and bring him home safely back by the end of the decade. And what happens when you have an idea you're running towards like that, that you can feel, that oozes from your pores, people will move heaven and earth to get it done. They will themselves be able to do things that they're not even technically capable of. But they don't know their own limitations. and great companies leverage this all the time, but you have to work at it.

8:33 Culture drifts by nature, and so you have to keep bringing it back to center, keep bringing it back to focus. One example would be the great hotel chain Ritz-Carlton. Their creed is that they as a company are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. Now, man, that is a master class and saying a lot with a few words. I don't care if you're the maid coming by to refresh the bed or you're the person at the valet parking the cars or you're the general manager. We are ladies and gentlemen. This is how we think of ourselves. This is how we carry ourselves with poise. But we are serving ladies and gentlemen too. That tells you who we are. It tells you what we're here to do. That tells us who the customer is. And we are all collectively bought into what that could feel like to step into an environment like that. If you ever have been in a Ritz-Carlton, you will hear my pleasure, my pleasure, my pleasure, which, by the way, is where Chick-fil-A got it from.

9:32 Yeah, you didn't realize there's a little taste of Ritz-Carlton and every chicken nugget that you put in that sauce. And now you're all going to be mad at me today because you can't get none because it's Sunday. The Ritz, they don't talk about staff meetings. They talk about the heart of house and coming together, syncing it up with the heart of house. The people who do the laundry, the maitre d', the sommelier, the concierge, all of them come. This is the heart of the house, not back of house, but heart of house, right? And just this idea. Here's a vision. Here's what it could feel like, the spirit of hospitality and excellence that we're all striving for. we are in a series of messages where we are communicating vision and simultaneously to that we've been and are continuing to be all the way to the year end in the midst of this year-end offering season and it's not a mistake that these two are together we believe that the vision of the ocean is what we're here for that's why it's not been on you know and some of some i've even had someone say to me you haven't talked about money very much as you've been preparing for this series. How do you feel about the offering? You haven't really, there hasn't been a sermon on tithing, there hasn't been a sermon on offering, but that's again, it hasn't been the rope week and the sail week and the wood week, because I want us to dream of what the kingdom of God looks like. And if we see that, if we understand what the kingdom of, what the vision that we're pursuing, right, that no matter how long you've been here, you're still a five o'clock higher, that none of us are big shots in God's kingdom, that none of us are here because we deserve to be here, that God got us at the nick of time at the last.

11:12 We're saved, all of us, by the skin of our teeth and the grace of Almighty God, and all of us are going to conduct ourselves like I can't believe I get a seat at the table. Do you realize how refreshing it will be if the spirit of gratitude rises up from people who don't believe they're in the kingdom of God because of their good works, but because of the slaughtering of Jesus Christ on the cross? That's going to change our posture. The church won't be this social club, country club. What's in it for me? Am I getting my needs met? Am I being fed? It's going to be a rescue mission where we want to see other 5 o'clock, because it's always 5 o'clock somewhere. There's always room for more people. So this is a vision of a kingdom of God where grace marks us. It's a kingdom of God where it really does matter to give out cold cups of water in Jesus' name. Your Christmas isn't going to be any different because of that well that we're going to open in Malawi. or in India. But the 250 villages who are going to get clean water as an outcome of this, their lives are going to be changed and your eternity will be marked by this moment.

12:15 This is a kingdom I see where we're going to give out cups of water and Jesus later on is going to say, you did that for me. You did that. It really is going to matter what we are going to do, the gospel that goes out. This is the kingdom. It's greatness in youth. We're going to always stay fixed and focused on being a youth-led movement, reaching young people, seeing them deploy their gifts. It's a kingdom where evil grows right alongside the good. And there's going to be weeds along with wheat. And we're going to feel Satan sometimes roots wrapped around our neck in the suffering that we experience and see. And we're going to worship him anyway. Because in heaven, we won't get to praise God surrounded by suffering. But right here, right now, we can. And not only can we worship him, we can do something to alleviate that suffering.

13:09 And so instead of complaining to God or to each other about the injustices of the world, we're going to be a part of a kingdom that's a part of the solution. Salt and light, a city on a hill. They're going to know us by our love. but we are today in our series that's all about vision going to talk more plainly and frankly about money because I can't rightly divide the word of truth and avoid the topic and even though it brings up discomfort and people grimace and I can't believe you talk about that in the church all this all the church wants to talk about well let me tell you something I'm not doing a very good job if I don't talk about it. Because Jesus talked about money more than he talked about faith or prayer combined. Would you think I'm doing a very good job if you never came in here and heard a sermon about faith?

14:07 Would you think this is a great ministry if I never told you to pray, right? And what if I ignored a subject that he talks about twice as often as either of those? Do you realize that I can't do my job well and not talk about money? The Bible brings up instruction on how we spend our money, more than 2,000 unique verses, more than almost any other topic. And a full 11 of Jesus's parables does talk about it. It's been commonly quoted that Jesus talks about money even more than he talks about heaven, more than he talks about hell. Why does Jesus, why does this book talk so much about what we do with our finances? because nothing, almost nothing will impact your faith life more than your financial life. Didn't Jesus say, where your treasure is, there you're, finish it, heart will be also.

15:02 Where your money flows, your passion always grows. Whatever you invest in, you care about. So to anybody who's like, oh, this church just wants my money. Oh, yeah, of course. And so does Taylor Swift and Netflix and Mastercraft and Burton and the NBA. I just want it to go towards something that's going to make an eternal difference. So do I want your money? Yes. I want your heart to flow towards God, towards righteousness. And I know that when you get skin in that game, your attention, your care, your preoccupation will flow towards that which you invest in. And the devil knows it too. and he wants to keep you back. He wants you to waste your life. He wants you to obtain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process and giving provides for us a surprisingly blunt acid test of your passion for God because you can say you love him but Jerry Maguire would go, show me the money.

16:05 Show me what you actually care about because anything else you care about in this world, there's going to be resources that flow. to it. You can give without loving, but it's impossible to love without giving. And that's why we read John 3.16, God so loved the world, he sent a card. No, he gave. He loved you so much, passion followed resource. The Bible says we weren't redeemed with the corruptible currency of silver and gold, but the precious blood of it. He loved, he gave the most valuable thing that ever was to be given, his own son, Jesus Christ. And if we love him, we will give also. It's an acid test of whether we love him or not. Matthew 25 puts it this way. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left hand.

17:00 Then the king will say to those on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And then he will say to them, for I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. You came to be with me. And then they're gonna go, well, wait, when did we ever give you food or drink or clothing, Jesus? And he will say, what you did for the least of these, you did for me. Remember what he said to Paul on the way? He said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He takes what's done to his church personally. He takes what's done to the poor, what's done to the lost, what's done to those who don't know the gospel yet. He takes it personally.

17:53 It seems to be that Jesus is saying the dress code in determining whether you are a sheep or a goat comes down to your caring for what God cares for. Do you love what the beloved loves? Do you love what he loves? And does resource flow towards that? Because the gospel going out costs. Seed being sown, seed costs. The cold cup of water, it costs to give. It costs bandwidth to send the gospel to where everything of value costs. And the kingdom of heaven is no different. The kingdom of heaven costs. It costs Jesus' life. and if we have come into the kingdom, our mentality should be, I am not my own. I was bought with a price and so I'm here to deny myself, shoulder the cross and be willing to follow him. Now, of course, the text is not saying, here's how you become a Christian, but rather here's what you will do if you have.

18:57 Do you see that distinction? You do not become a Christian by doing good. But doing good should be a way of life if you have. Once you have come to him and followed him, you're going to grow in following after his footsteps. But he does lay down a marker of what you're doing with your finances as an asset test, as I said, of spiritual vitality. For example, when Zacchaeus gave his life to Jesus, Zacchaeus was the wee little man in the tree. and Jesus said, I'm going to go to your house for dinner, which would have been flabbergasting to every Jewish person to eat with a tax collector. They were hated. This is an IRS agent. We're not eating. They have cooties. And Jesus said, we're eating. I'm going to eat with you to eat bread. If I eat a little bit, you eat a little bit. It goes into you. It goes into me. We're becoming one in that way. And he said, I'll be united to sinful humanity. I'm going to be touched by sinners because you're not going to make me unclean.

19:51 My touch to you is going to make the unclean clean. My spiritual life and you see? And then Zacchaeus is so blown away by this love. His response is, I'm going to pay back those who I've stolen from. And I'm going to begin giving to the poor. Every time you bless me, I'm going to prioritize the gospel work in what you're entrusting to me in my life as a tax collector. And Jesus says, salvation's come to this house. I can see it right there. I can see it plain as day on your life. A plum tree doesn't grow peaches. There's been new life in you. So now this is going to be life produced through. I can see it in your life. So if you've come to Christ, I could say prophetically, if it really is there, this is going to be good. This is going to be good. If you're following the good shepherd, hello, goodness and mercy is going to follow you all the days of your life.

20:44 You can't passionately love God and then not care for lost people. You can't love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and then not want those who don't have water to get water. You see what I mean? You can't not want the prioritizing of the missionary work to happen through your life and through your finances. You can't care for God and serve money at the same time. You'll either love one and hate the other or hate one and love the other. You have to, as Bob Dylan said, you got to serve somebody, right? And this principle that we're talking about is seen in this passage, where a young lawyer comes to test Jesus. Foolish mortal. You know, like, he's so sad. He comes to test Jesus. He's a big shot, you know. And when you hear lawyer, you think, like, you know, attorney in that day, this is an expert in the Jewish law, OK? So he's a super-duper religious nerd and thinks he's figured out how to crack the code.

21:44 And he's living, you know, where he's so holy. And Jesus comes, and he's just preaching loosey-goosey salvation. All you got to do is believe in him. And then once you believe in him, you pick up your cross, you follow him. And he's like, that's not fun, because I won't get to brag. I won't get to be like, no one walks like us. No one talks like us. He wants to be able to be that guy. So he comes to Jesus and seeks to trap him by saying, how do we work hard enough to inherit eternal life? Do you realize the contradiction? What do you do to inherit things? You have relational proximity that puts you downstream of someone's estate, right? So if you inherit something from an uncle, if you inherit something from a grandfather, you were born into it. You didn't work to get it, right? And that's why Jesus said you have to be born again to enter the kingdom. You have to think differently. So what do I have to do that I can brag about to inherit? Is it a gift or is it something, is it a gift or a wage?

22:43 Salvation is not a wage to be earned. It's a relationship to be entered into. And when you do that, you're born again into the family. You receive the inheritance, but you can't boast in a gift. It was given to you, right? So the question's flawed. What do I do to inherit your life? Jesus' response to the man is to play at his own game, to beat him at his own game. Because the guy expected Jesus to say, nothing. You can't earn it. You just believe in me, which he actually says in John 6. But instead, Jesus says, well, I don't know. What does the Bible say? What does the law say? And then he says, how do you read it? Which, commentaries point out, is a technical phrase that was basically probably this guy and his nerdy friend's catchphrase. All day long, they would bring up some verse and go, what's your reading of it? What's your reading of it? How do you read it? How readest thou? And so Jesus is like, well, oh, shucks.

23:36 I don't know. What does the Bible say? How do you read it? And that's what the guy was going to do next. The guy thought Moses was on his side, but Jesus is like, well, before I answer that, come on, Moses, come on in. And Moses does the uppercut to this guy, and now the guy's on his heels. He's like, well, you've got to love God and love your neighbor, I think. And Jesus is like, well, that's very good. You did a very good job. You are very good at deciphering the law. And then Jesus says, so yeah, you got it, buddy. Just go do that. If you can do that, you will live. Jesus is insinuating. It's a backhanded compliment. He's insinuating, you haven't done that. You aren't really living. You search the scriptures thinking you have eternal life, but these are they which testify of me. He's saying to the man, how's that going for you, bud? That whole saving yourself thing.

24:28 And so the guy, realizing he's been busted, he's been bested at his own game. Jesus is like, I know something you don't know. I'm not left-handed, right? This guy's like, ah, he's very, very perplexed. So what he does now, he's going to try and lower the standard, OK? He's going to try. He goes, well, who is my neighbor anyway, right? What is a neighbor? It's a very nebulous concept. Who's to say what a neighbor is, you know? Because he realizes, I haven't been loving God with all my heart. That's not evident in my life. And I don't even love people well. So now he's going to get real technical here and try and find a loophole for himself. He says, seeking to justify himself. For who? Jesus hasn't condemned him. People haven't. His own conscience is the problem here. And so he goes, well, who is a neighbor? And Jesus is like, OK, we're going to make it really simple. I'm going to draw three pictures. And I want you to point to the one that you, how condescending and awesome is Jesus?

25:26 Let me tell you a story. There was a guy walking from Jerusalem to Jericho, 17-mile journey, very commonly trafficked area. People would know this route well. And they would know it at this time was notorious for getting jumped and getting robbed. Why? Josephus points out Herod the Great had just finished this massive rebuilding of the temple complex, okay? And 40,000 workers who had come to the city from all over the place, because it was a gang-busting time to be in the trades, all these stone masons, all these workers, they've been hired because there was tons of money. Harry was paying this top dollar. But now all of a sudden, the job's over, and there's no need for these 40,000 extra workers in the city of Jerusalem. So many of them would wander off and go back to where they were from.

26:19 But some of them eventually stayed around. And being of a rough disposition and needy money, they turned to crime. And it's a soft target to wait in a wilderness area, a remote stretch, where business travelers coming and going, where there is no Apple Pay, there is no crypto. If they're going to have it, they're going to have it on their person. And so they're basically hijacking travelers and stealing from them. And not only in Jesus' story does this guy on this 17-mile route, which got nicknamed, by the way, in that day, the way of blood or the passage of blood, it was so common to get jumped there, that they took from him all his money. But the Bible says they were just merciless, and they beat him, leaving him half dead. Imagine being in the hospital, being told your odds of living or dying is 50-50, right? That's this guy. He's halfway dead. He's on his way to the next world. But Jesus says, and I love how he says it.

27:13 He says, as it happens, as luck would turn out, like Jesus believes in coincidences. If I didn't in his story, he does. You know, it's a hypothetical. Oh, what? Can you believe the odds? You know, a pastor walks by, a priest, right, comes by. And of course, this is the perfect person to show charity. the perfect person, a man of God coming by. Of course, he's going to do something. He sees the man, looks the other way, pretends like he didn't see him, and crosses over the street to get to his important religious meeting without doing even anything to check if this guy's alive. And of course, if he was dead, which maybe he looked dead, he would have been defiled. And the guy's thinking, well, he's already dead. And if I get defiled, I can't go help all the people I'm going to help. So because of all the good, Really, in the name of God, I can't touch this guy, right? Whatever story he told himself. Then a Levite came by.

28:06 Levites worked for the priests. Levites had some unique roles with singing. But one of their specific roles was the benevolent fund being dispersed. Can you think of a better person who took in a collection for the poor and for those who are needy and those who are wounded? This is the guy. This is literally what he does. This is who he is. He should help the guy. But he, looking at him, went the other way, crossed over to the other side of the street, and passed by. And it was not the Levite. It was not the priest. Their own countryman was lying in need. It was a Samaritan. Now, if you could have heard the audience in that day and the man himself sucked in their breath when Jesus brought this guy up. The Samaria, they were connected to the Jewish people, but there was a distinction. They were only half relatives, OK? They were mudbloods, right? They were muggles, okay? So this man and the rest of the Jewish nation kind of had this like Draco Malfoy kind of superiority because we're of pure descent, you know?

29:08 And the Samaritans were, you know, oh, they're just, you know, they look down their nose at them. And that's why at the end when the guy says, when Jesus goes, which one is the good neighbor? The guy can't even bring it to say the Samaritan. He says, the one who showed mercy. He cannot say the Samaritan was the hero. He can't do it. It's an offense to him that this one was the one actually showing what God's love looks like. Because love always gives. Spurgeon says that what the story is showing us is that what the law demands of us, the gospel produces in us. The law demands this. Do, do, do, do, do, right? But it's powerless to help us do it. But when we see Jesus' sacrifice, of course, spoiler alert, Jesus is the good Samaritan.

30:04 And he, the one who came down from heaven to earth, who left his beast, putting us on it, who came when we were half dead, half dead, alive physically but dead spiritually, to connect us back to the Father, to bring us life eternally. That he, once we're on his side, once we've been brought back to life by him, we then are gonna be released to do good works, not to earn eternal life, but because we do have eternal life. It's gonna be downstream, produced in us effortlessly as a function of abiding with Christ. At the end of the day, religion can't save, but Jesus can. And once we have that salvation, it's going to flow out of us is what the story tells. That's a big idea. But the text also gives us four different choices when it comes to money, which is interesting.

30:59 And I had never seen it before. But as I was praying through and looking, I go, oh, there's four different characters, and they each respond to money differently. And it's been said, I think it was Randy Alcorn, that every time we get paid, we take a test. The test is who do we honor the most? Who do we look to as our source? Is J.P. Morgan the source, right? Is your mortgage institute, like, what do you value? You're honoring something by paying them first. So this text will give us four different choices when it comes to money. You make one of them every time you get paid. The first is we can choose to be like the robbers who steal. I hope that's not your choice. I hope that's not, I hope your role model isn't. I love the robbers in the story, you know? These guys are really go-getters. You got an entrepreneurial band, you know? They, of course, represent theft. Which it's not just standing in the way of blood to jump somebody and steal their money.

31:50 There's all sorts of different ways that we can steal or be dishonest or crooked, right? I had a long time ago needed to do something on our house after some damage took place with an insurance claim. And we were meeting with different contractors to see about which would be the one, a good fit for us to do the work, getting quotes, all the thing. And one of them who came into our house, I could tell he was looking at me funny. and I never know if I'm in public and someone's like, I know who you are. Sometimes they'll say, oh, I know who you are. I go to the church. I'm a part of our church. My favorite is that one. I hate when I go to your church and I'm always like, do you get here? Do you serve here? Are you a part of this? This is your church, baby, right? Don't just put it all on me. Goodness gracious, right? Let's shoulder some of this together.

32:37 And the worst, the weirder ones are like, they'll let the whole conversation go, but then at the end be like, I know who you are, by the way. And I'm like, oh, thanks for making it weird, right? But occasionally, there's little beauty moments in that. Like this week, I bought my daughter a pair of shoes. She, you know, kids, these feet, the grow and the thing, and always with the new shoes, you know? And we had this whole interaction with this wonderful person who helped us buy these shoes. And at the very end, at the very end, we were walking away. She'd already hand us the bag. She goes, oh, by the way, I just love Scott Harrison. I just love the charity water. I just love the wells. I just, I was just, she's just literally crying right there. Like, oh my, just overflowing. And then the other person who was standing by was like, that was now her chance. It was in. She's like, I also know who you are. And she follows us out. It was a little creepy. And no, I'm kidding. And she, super sweet. She shares this story that I will never forget, that what the ministry has meant to her.

33:29 She can't come in person. She watches online. And how this ministry was used to carry her through a season of two years where her daughter was a victim of human trafficking. And for two years, did not have access to her daughter. and praise God through prayer and some amazing work. She didn't have a chance to tell me every detail of it, but that her daughter is back safe now. Praise God for that. And she talked about what the, she told us she was there the Sunday after my daughter died. She happened to be able to be there in person and come to the service and the hope that she's received and what this ministry has meant to her through that and how she's able to watch online from where she lives hours away from any of our broadcast locations. locations. And I said, you promised me you will watch this Sunday because we're going to talk about that very topic that affected your family in a way that we're going to be able to make a difference for other people going through exactly that. And so I'll say to you, stay buckled up. You're going to get some tissues if you don't have them or your neighbor's shirt sleeve or something. You will need it. Okay. But this guy in my house, he said, he didn't say right away, I know who you are.

34:30 He said, he said. I, to be honest with you, thought your house would be nicer. Excuse me? He goes, well, you pastor that famous church, don't you? And then he looked around and goes, I just figured it'd be fancier. I didn't know whether I was more complimented for my piety or insulted.

35:01 I decided a little bit of both. And I said, oh, yeah, what were you expecting? Well, you know, church, I figured it would just all be like, like as though the tithe just gets, my car just backs up. We just load it into my trunk every week. And off we go, you know, just bags of cash. Oh, it was a good week at church, you know. You'd be surprised. Some of you are like, it's not how it works. No. And then, you know, the conversation flows on. I already was like, yeah, probably not the contractor that I'm going to go with. And then I was confirmed in that when later he said, you know, this thing, I can write up however you want me to write it up. And we can just send it to the insurance regardless of whether we want to do any of that work or not, just so you know. And I just remember after I thanked him and shook his hand and, you know, was sad that he knew where I lived, to think about how strong his opinions were about how the church and how I should spend money, but how little he seemed to care about integrity. You see, the way to Jericho can start in your living room, and there's lots of different ways to steal. Secondly, we can choose to stockpile money. This is the choice the Levite and the priest made. They had money. They had jobs. They had resource coming in, and their literal job had them giving out discretionary money to help hurting people.

36:27 but what they do with money. Well, we found actual footage of what they did with the resource. This is what happens when you stockpile money. Look at this. This is it right here. That's actual footage of stockpiling what's meant to be shared. But the real problem with stockpiling and having a mentality of me and my family, our needs, you understand, having the tightness of money, that may be what you start like, But here's how that progresses, what you end up looking like. Right here.

37:01 Dragon sickness. From holding tightly what's meant to be held onto loosely. It gets into you, pollutes you. It starts out valuing peace and security. And if I have this much, I'd be good. I know I'll be good. I just need to have these ducks in a row. And then what does it end up with? It ends up with you isolated and paranoid and actually hurting those who you set out to protect and to help. You know, if I take this job, if I do extra thing, my family will have more. You have to always be asking the question, is my family more of more or more of me or more of heaven reflected in the mentality and the heartbeat of our home? So we can steal, we can stockpile where the treasure becomes a trap, where we end up scaly and sick and with red burning eyes and breathing fire. Right?

37:52 But Jesus didn't want you to be a dragon. He wants you to be a river. He wants to flow through you to bless a hurting world. This world is not your home. The comfort of how comfortable you can make a world you're leaving. We have to always ask that question. Are we laying up for ourselves treasures here to say goodbye to? Or laying up for ourselves treasure in heaven, which is our real home? So we can choose to steal. We can choose to stockpile. or we can be like the Good Samaritan, choose to sacrifice, right? He had and he gave. It cost him, he had to sacrifice. He didn't have any more oil for the rest of his trip, right? He didn't have any more wine provision he brought for the trip. He gave two denarii, which were each of them one month's living expenses for the average business person in that day. And he gave two months and said, that's how sick this guy was. He's gonna need to convalesce and be rehabilitated for two months.

38:46 And he said, I'll even pay more. I'll even get more. you tell me how much he needs, I'll pay more. Just keep giving it to him. Don't ever cut him off, and I'll pay you back at the end. That's a sacrifice. Can you agree with me? It cost him something in order to do something he valued and prioritized more. He loved his neighbor as he loved himself. Or we can, number four, we can choose to steward our finances. And this, I'm going to tip my hand right away, is where I want us to get to. I want us to get to a place where We're stewarding what's in our hands. Here's the definition of stewardship. Where we manage the things that belong to somebody else. The innkeeper is a steward. Because when the Good Samaritan gave him all this money, it wasn't his money. And if he would have said, the moment the Good Samaritan left, okay, you're ejected.

39:39 I need your room. Kicked him out. And called Chip and Joanna Gaines and redone the inn. What would that have been? Spending the money contrary to the wishes of the one who owned it. Okay? So those are our four choices. Look at them one more time on the screen. We are always choosing every time we get paid to steal, to stockpile, to sacrifice, or to steward. And this next part, I first heard John Maxwell say it. And then I loved it so much. I looked, I tried to find if he published it anywhere. And I didn't know if he found it in some other book he wrote, but he hasn't published it. I can't find it anywhere. I've used AI. If you know where it's from, let me know. Eventually, it will just become mine, okay? Because here's how it works. First time, it's someone said. Second time, it's I've heard it said often. Third time, it's like I always say. Okay, that's how it works with citations, and I'm kidding. This is John Maxwell. He said, those four choices all have scripts, okay? And you can figure out which one you are based on what the silent cry of your heart is when it comes to resource.

40:40 First is the words of a thief, what's yours is mine and I'm going to take it. That's language of a thief. What's yours is now mine, thus I'm going to take it. The declaration of a stockpiler is what's mine is mine and I'm going to keep it, right? I'm a self-made man. I worked hard for this, right? Church doesn't need my money. You got, right? That's what's mine is mine. thus I'm going to keep it. The declaration of a sacrifice is what's mine is yours, and I'm going to give it. And then we can know where we want to land. We're stewards when we say what's mine is not mine, and I'm going to manage it. OK? What's mine is not mine, thus I'm going to manage it. Let's praise God for John Maxwell today, everybody.

41:33 And when we get there, when we can view ourselves differently as God's money managers, we will jot these three things down. Know this, it's because everything I have, I've been given. Please write that down. Everything I have, I've been given. Don't you dare push back on it. Whoa. No, no. He gave you life. And if you are alive in Christ, he gave you a second birth. He gave you everything. Well, I built this company with my bare hands. Who gave you the hands?

42:03 You could have been born with no limbs. You could have been born without the skill you have. Everything we have, we've been given. So let's open our eyes up to that. Number two, there is an expectation behind everything I've been entrusted. OK, so if he gave it to me, there's something in his mind. Why did he give you what he gave you and me what he gave me? Why did he give perhaps me one talent, but you five talent? Why did he entrust to some a lot and to some not a lot? I don't know, but I know there's a plan behind what he gave you that he expects to be carried out. Like, I was thinking about how so many of us are receiving packages because we shop online and how frustrated you would be if a package didn't come. And then you find out it wasn't because, like, someone stole your package. It was because the FedEx guy just kept it. He's like, well, they gave it to me.

42:56 I just thought I'd open it and use it in my life, right? You were given it with a purpose, right? And for all of us, there's some sense in which what we've been given, the Bible says we are blessed to be a blessing. Rivers, not dragons. So what we have said throughout the years of giving is we're not asking you in this offering to give anything. All we're asking is to ask God what he would give to you. And we just want you to be obedient to what God wants you to give. What has he entrusted to you? There's an expectation in line with that. And then third, this is a really sobering one. There will be an examination of how I executed. And this is the moment we stand before God to give an account of what we did while it was entrusted to our care. And again, if you think anything is yours and not God's, then just keep it after you die and you'll be right.

43:51 Other than that, we're going to stand before him. And he's like, hey, gave you this time on this earth. What did you do with it? What did you do with the time? What did you do with the abilities? What did you do with the personality, with the social connections? What did you do with the resource that I entrusted you with while you had it in your hands? I was thinking about how my dad named me the executor of his will, of his estate. And he told me that during a chemo session. I'm sitting there with him watching the chemo, the poison that we were hoping would give us more time with him on this earth. He said, hey, just so you know, when you open the will, here's where it is. It's you, your siblings. You know, I haven't had the chance to tell them yet. It was just such an intense thing to receive, just this awareness that now I was going to have the job of seeing that his wishes were carried out. how twisted would it be if my stewarding of it was not what it has been and that is how do I honor my dad and his wishes and see them come to life Jesus died and gave us all something and the question that we're going to be asking when we stand before him is did what I do with what you gave to flow through me line up with and sync up to your heart have I loved what the beloved loves? This is a hard but important question to ask. And ultimately, our choice is either to look the other way or go out of our way. Because sacrifice and generosity is always inconvenient. It's always easier just to focus on comfort and to patting our nest just a little bit more. But when we think of that audit, when we think of standing before him to give an account. It will cause us to look back at every time we didn't go out of our way, and we will wish we did it differently. So what I want to do before we close is I want to give you what hopefully can be a roadmap towards stewardship signposts and benchmarks, right? Like we take our kids and we put a little thing. I would encourage you to have giving goals for Jenny and I this year,

46:02 and we're so excited. And this isn't a flex, this is leadership. In the Bible, the leaders would always go first. When we years ago had been dreaming about some goals, we had set a number. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could reach this number? And for us, we praise God that this year for us represents not only the largest offering we've ever been able to give, but we hit a number with a zero added to it that we had been for years dreaming and praying that we get to. And it's funny. We thought it'd be a couple years ago, and actually a few things zagged where they should have Hello, somebody, right? There's something to use for you. It's like, but as we continue to move towards it, we praise God that we've gotten it. Now, if we open this up and pass it around for us to look at, some of you would scoff. That's all. What, you don't even love God, right? Because for you to give what for us represents a supreme sacrifice for us would be cute for you. You wouldn't even feel it as if it's left.

46:55 Would you even notice if this amount was taken from your account? And for others of you, you would be shocked. And you would go, I don't know. if I ever could get to a place to give like that. Either way, here's what I'm saying. I'm saying what I'm about to say is going to be if you have ears to hear a thing. The majority of you don't give, so it's not even really going to matter. But for those of you who do, I want you to hear me that there can be some goals towards generosity that you can have. This is a stewardship strategy, OK? And to tell you it, I have to tell you a story about my shin. I got shin splints. Never had them in my entire life. Never had any shin splints. But I started having throbbing pain in my shin whenever I ran. And I put it on the internet and asked people to speak into it, which is always a way to find 100 solutions to one problem. But someone said, I read every one of them, and someone said, you should go and get your feet scanned and find any professional scanning things.

47:51 They can scan your feet, tell you if you get the wrong insoles, wrong shoes. And I'm like, that sounds like a great solution. And so I went in and got my feet scanned. And the guy scammed me. He's like, no, no, your shoes are fine. he told him when I'm rotating my shoes out that's fine and then he said tell me about your running and so I said well my wife ran a half marathon a while back and I don't even like running I like my wife and so I started running with her just to be around her because she was training so often and then the half marathon came and went she gave it up but I'm running now still by myself just alone all the time I don't know why I liked it she got me into it and then she abandoned me and so I run And I found out it's very therapeutic. And it's a great time to process. And it's a great time to pray. And I love the metaphor it is for life and all the rest. And he said, well, tell me about the speeds you run at. And I said, I usually do heart-based training.

48:45 And I try and keep my heart at this exact number. I'm like a little OCD. And so my runs tend to be exactly this long distance-wise. And exactly, he goes, stop, stop, stop. I see your problem. I said, what do you mean you see my problem? He said, you're in pain because you're not pushing yourself. I thought maybe he was going to say, you're going too hard. You love it too much. I can clearly see you're a real athlete, you know? Nothing like that. He said, your pain comes from a failure to push. He said, you have to think about running differently. Then he gave me what was a gift. It was a quote from a running expert that he said this. He said, running strategy should be as follows. it should be mostly easy, occasionally hard, and every once in a while, you got to go see God. I came for the scan, but I stayed for the spiritual life advice. I felt the Holy Ghost in that running. So I'm telling you something. I was like, wow, that is profound. He said, if you just run the exact same, the problem is you plateau. And the problem, you're not challenging yourself. And muscles need to be challenged. You need to do different things and work your body from different angles and something recovers. And so basically, he was saying, your running has to be varied in tempo, in length, in intensity. And you have to honestly just push yourself at times to a breaking point where you do something you don't even yourself think you're capable of doing. And I have not been able to stop thinking about that running advice and how it overlays with generosity. Because when we talk about something being mostly easy, mostly easy, what's that? Well, scripturally speaking, that's called tithing. Tithing is mostly easy. Now, it doesn't start out that way, right? I think it was Rockefeller who said, had I not tithed on the first dollar I made, I would not have been able to tithe on the first million dollars that I made, okay? But when you start small, the 10% return to God on everything he entrusts to you, which is what the Bible tells us to do. First time the tithe shows up, it's in the book of Genesis, for sure with Abraham and Jacob, but I would even argue it's what we're seeing with Cain and even

50:52 the failure to eat, the instruction to not eat from one of the trees that we were given, this principle of honor God, hold back. It's his, whatever he says to give him, give him the first fruits, the firstborn, right? So God entrusts you. And I think God picked 10, tithe means a tenth, because we have 10 fingers and 10 toes, right? So when you get $10, the first dollar goes to God, and the other nine are his, but we keep them to spend hopefully in line with his thinking and planning, but we do so mindful of that first dollar that reminded us that everything is his, that he's our source. And that extrapolates out. $100, the tithe is the first 10. Now, if you give the last dollar or the last 10, it doesn't take faith and thus becomes a tip because you're not declaring first. Before I know anything else that's going to work out, I give to God the first and the best 10% of everything that I've received. That's mostly easy. And that's the bread and butter. That's going to keep you in good cardio shape.

51:49 A friend of mine said to me the other day, he said, honest question, and he didn't mean it from a bad way. He said, should I give all at once one time at the end of the year, or should I give throughout the year? And I said, bro, you should do both. You should do both. For me, I don't need one reminder that God's my source. I need 27 of them. You know what I'm saying? I need every hour. I need a constant reminder. So mostly easy, but then occasionally hard. This would be biblically what we talk about as an offering. This is, by the way, something that's impossible to do if you're not tithing. Offerings begin where tithings end. And scripturally speaking, I mean, feel free to have a different opinion on it, but scripturally speaking, the tithe always goes to your local church, okay? The storehouse in the Old Testament, the church in the New Testament, until you give to God through the church the tithe.

52:46 Offerings can also go to your church, but it also can go to your cousin who's going on a mission trip and someone who's needing their car struggling, right? So some people have it twisted. They think, well, I'm just going to, everything, anything I do for benevolence, I'm going to call my tithe. And then, you know, above and beyond that, no, the scripture is clear. We give our tithe to our church, to God through the church, offerings above and beyond that. By the way, buying Brandon Lake concert tickets is not tithing, right? A Christian t-shirt, not tithing, right? Oh, no, this is for God. Anything for God just becomes a touch. So offerings now, here's the beauty of this one, as the Spirit leads you. We can give as God leads us in offerings. Again, like I told you, this doesn't apply to most of you, but for someone like, oh, man, I want to grow in this way. I want to excel in the grace of giving. I can then give an offering, mostly easy, occasionally hard. And then last category, every once in a while, man, go see God. Go wild out.

53:40 Extravagant offerings. This is where someone breaks perfume at Jesus' feet. You can sell that. You realize what you gave? This is Solomon, this lavish offering towards God. Every six steps, the priest stopping and the sacrament. This is above and beyond, above and beyond. This is the heartbeat that hopefully we would have this rhythm of generosity all the time. We're following the Holy Spirit in offerings. But then every once in a while, come on, we've got to challenge ourselves. And we've got to dream of that endless ocean. And we've got to go see God and do what only he can do through our efforts. The pain sometimes come from not pushing yourself. the tithe, a gracious way of describing it would be to say returning to God what's his. A less gracious way of describing tithing would just be to call it not stealing.

54:35 I know. This is not the popular one on YouTube. You're not glad even you came. You want this to stop. But the scripture refers to a failure to tithe as stealing or robbing from God. offerings come where tithings end. Yet every year we have people who their first step towards tithing would be this offering. I'm going to make a gift, and then this is going to begin for me now a different arc, a different trajectory. And we praise God and welcome you in on that journey. There's space for that. I do also have to mention at some point, you'll see on the card in the envelope on the seat, or if you already received it, there's different checkboxes if you want to talk to someone about how to set up recurring giving. There's also options to give stock and crypto, as well as estate planning, conversations about that. A lot of people have chosen to prioritize the kingdom in their estate and how they're good. They just want all this money to go ruin their children, but to go towards the gospel even after they're with Christ in heaven.

55:32 So there's lots of options as you begin this journey, lots of tools for that. But here's some hard data, OK? Less than 5% of American Christians tithe. 95% of Christians in America do not give 10% of their income to the work of God in the earth. The average currently, this is 2025 data, is 3%. The average American Christian, if you add up what's given, is 3% of their income. And you say, well, yeah, but that's just because of inflation and how tight things were. And I would give more than 3% of my, I mean, I do give more than 3%, but I would give more if I made more. And here's the actual data to show that's not correct. If you make, as a household income, $25,000 in America, on average as a Christian, you will give 4% of your income to God. But if you make $100,000, it goes down to 2.5%. So when you make more, it turns out there's more fun things to spend it on. And even though the amount might increase, the percentage actually goes down the more you're entrusted. But what I would say, having said all of that, is just remember God's trying to keep you back from dragon sickness.

56:48 He's trying to keep you back from what happens in this world that you start, the characteristics of dragon sickness is you don't realize you got it. And opening up those hands is a way to work through that spiritual chokehold the devil gets on you. God doesn't want just the money out of your account. He wants the idols out of your heart.

57:16 And if we give, when we give, here's what I can say about that generosity. It's gonna be good. It's gonna be good. It's gonna be good. It might feel scary. It's gonna be good. How could I say that? He's the good shepherd. and when we follow his lead, goodness and mercy follows us. As a ministry, we have given $6.5 million to nonprofit charities that we ourselves do not run. We call them our outreach partners and men. We hadn't had this practice. It's not anywhere in the Bible, but 11 years ago, God put it on our heart as we received our year-end offering to give the first 10% of that offering away to our outreach partners. Let me tell you something. It was terrifying that year. We needed to even make our budget, you know, balance that year, every bit of what was coming in for our ministry efforts, which are valid ministry too. But we felt God put it as a test.

58:09 And I'm telling you something, the first year we made that decision and stuck to it was the first million dollar offering we ever received in the history of our church, ever. By making that decision, no matter what comes in, 10% is going out, the first 10% is going out. And since then, we have just been addicted to watching God work through our arch partners when we give, when we prioritize what he's doing in the world. And I want to show you one of the outreach partners that has received grants from us to the tune of $85,000 is how much we've given. And let me tell you something, $85,000 goes real far in the Philippines, US dollars. And this ministry works to help and serve those who have been pulled out of human trafficking. And we had the chance to send some of our video team to the Philippines earlier this year just to find out what has happened with the money that you have given as a church.