The Marks of Multiplication | The Blessed Life: Week 6

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Last week on The Blessed Life:

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there's one critical, simple but critical question you and I must ask

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ourselves. The question is this: Am I generous?

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Generosity has an enemy.

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The enemy of generosity is selfishness.

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They're in conflict with each other.

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My kids want expensive crap and it sucks.

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They want this thing, it's called a Nintendo Switch.

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When my kids open it on Christmas morning and they go, "Look what

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Santa brought us," you know what I'm going to do?

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Santa didn't buy you that, that old geezer's cheap.

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Dear old dad bought you that.

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Generosity is what I choose to do with what is truly mine.

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See, God doesn't it need your treasure.

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He's doing fine. He's good.

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He can pay the light bill in heaven.

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It's amazing. He's fine.

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He doesn't need your treasure.

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He wants your heart. And he knows when you give Him your treasure, He

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gets your heart. Being a rewarder, it's not an option for God because

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it's something He is.

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It's just like God can't lie because He is truth.

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God can't ignore generosity because He is a rewarder, He always

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rewards it. - Welcome to Crossroads Church.

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We're so glad to have you joining us online from anywhere you might

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be right now.

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My name's Lena Schuler and I'm the Crossroads Anywhere Community

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Pastor. And today we're in our very last week of The Blessed Life

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series. And we get to hear from our senior pastor, Brian Tome, in a

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few minutes. But before that, we're actually going to spend time

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worshipping together.

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And in the midst of these few minutes, I know that singing songs or

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maybe even watching people sing songs can be uncomfortable or maybe

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feel vulnerable.

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But I would encourage you to sing along with us, go to that

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vulnerable place.

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Because it might just be the time in this hour that you connect with

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God more than any other time in your week.

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And I want you to get to experience that right now.

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So every once in a while I get to throw my weight around here.

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So I threw it around this week, I said, "You know, the last song of

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this series, the worship block of this series, The Blessed Life.

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Haven't we had a good time during The Blessed Life?

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It's been -- I'll talk about that a little bit, the final message.

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But it's been really, really good.

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And I said there's this one song that talks about blessings.

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Can we do that song? And that the band is accommodating that song.

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We're doing that right now. And let me tell you about this song we're

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doing. It's from, well, the writer of it is, his name is William

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Cowper. He's the author of this, not Bill Cowher, William Cowper.

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Big difference between Bill Cowher and William Cowper.

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William Cowper wrote this song in the late 1700s.

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You have to understand his story to understand these words.

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These are very, very deep, or you might not even get these words

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entirely. I want to tell you what he's trying to get behind.

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This is a guy who knows hardship.

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As we've talked about The Blessed Life, some of us are just -- we're

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just feeling blessings of God, whether it's money, whether it's

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friends, whether it's our health, whether it's just a sense of joy

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that's happening. And sometimes you're doing all the right things and

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sometimes you're just not sensing any of the blessings of God.

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That's the way William Cowper was for much of his life.

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At age 6, his mother died.

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When he wanted to marry the first love his life, her father said no.

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He tried and failed multiple times to kill himself with suicide.

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He was labeled at that time insane for a portion of his life.

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And yet God used this guy mightily.

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A close personal friend of his was John Newton, he was a former slave

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trader who wrote Amazing Grace.

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John Newton, a racist, a slave trader, and God gripped him and

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blessed him with forgiveness and a whole new outlook on how to treat

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people who are different than him and a whole new outlook on life.

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His friend William Cowper was enslaved to difficulty for most of his

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life. And he writes this song and he says it to you and I:

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"Ye fearful saint," that's you and I, that's not people who are dead

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in heaven necessarily.

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That's people who are putting themselves under God's direction.

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"Ye fearful saints, take courage.

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The clouds that you see, though dark they may, at some point they're

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going to break with blessings on your head."

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And you can see this song, the verses, it just kind of gives you this

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painful deal of what this guy's dealing with and the stuff that God

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is allowing to come his way.

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But he shakes his fist during the chorus, he says, Ye fearful saints,

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take courage. Take courage, the clouds that you are dreading, the

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clouds that are dark over your head, one day, trust your God, they

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will break forth with a shower of blessings.

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So whether you're dealing with depression or not, whether you're

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dealing with poverty or not, whether dealing with wealth or not,

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whether you're dealing with mental illness or not, whether you're

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dealing with a lot of friends or not, this song is our heart to God

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in whatever situation we're in.

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We just want to thank you.

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We want to praise you, God, for the way that You love us.

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God, for the way that you bring blessings when it's hard to see

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sometimes in this situation that we're in, God, you are always good.

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So, God, I pray that you help us to believe that more when we walk

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out of this building than when we came in.

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When we're watching right now, God, we pray that You are stirring up

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something in us that makes us believe these words.

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Thank you, God, we love you. Hello, everyone.

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Thank you so much for worshipping with us.

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My name is Courtney. Happy to be here with you all and do this with

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you in this room and wherever you are watching.

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Before you get comfortable, why don't you say hi to someone next to

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you. - Worship for me is a way that I

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give thanks to God.

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And it's why is an important thing that I love to participate in with

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you online.

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So I hope that you just got to do that, express thanks to God, give

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God thanks in the midst of Thanksgiving week.

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Thanksgiving is happening this week, in case you forgot.

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Make sure you go get your turkeys.

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And I'm really excited for the two family traditions that are coming

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up this week for my family.

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The first is returning our Thanksgiving Food Drive box.

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If you grabbed a Thanksgiving Food Drive box, make sure you take it

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back to that location on Sunday, today before services end there.

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And if you're looking for a way to be generous this Thanksgiving, you

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could do that by joining up with a local organization, a nonprofit, a

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food kitchen, and helping provide a meal to someone who might not get

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it this Thanksgiving.

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Man, your Thanksgiving will be better for that experience.

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The second thing coming up this week is our Thanksgiving Eve service,

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our Thanksgiving eve experience.

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Now, I've been doing this from the time I was a kid up through

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adulthood. It's a way for me to give thanks to God on the night

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before Thanksgiving.

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And I want you to get to experience the joy of giving thanks to God.

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And I want your Thanksgiving to be better this year than it's ever

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been. And one of the ways that it's gonna be better this year than

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it's ever been is if you start some new traditions and if you

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actually make it an intentional choice to give thanks to God this

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Thanksgiving. And so if you head to crossroads.net/ThanksgivingEve,

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you can see where a Thanksgiving Eve service might be happening near

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you. Or we'd love to have you join us right here online to experience

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Thanksgiving Eve. And in the midst of that, you're going to get

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modeled for you something that you could do around your living room,

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around your Thanksgiving table this year that will make your

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Thanksgiving better if you choose to just imitate the experience that

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we give you right here online.

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I'm really excited about it.

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Right after Thanksgiving is a Christmastime.

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I'm so excited. My husband won't let me decorate our house until

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after Thanksgiving, and so I cannot wait for Friday.

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But nonetheless, I also can't wait for the next series that's coming

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up: Advent.

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This is a Christmas series.

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I don't know what your experience of the word Advent has been.

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Mine has always had the word calendar attached to it.

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But if we look at that word Advent, what does it actually mean?

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It means arrival.

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It means awaiting the arrival.

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And so we have a four part series starting next week on the four

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pieces of Advent that get us prepared for the arrival of Jesus on

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Christmas. So with this series coming up, it's a great opportunity

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for you to invite a friend with you or to share a weekend service

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with a friend to help them anticipate the arrival of Jesus this

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Christmas. It's going to be great.

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And right now, if you want to give thanks to God, you could do that

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by giving at Crossroads.net/give.

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And we're going to hear Adam's story, a story of generosity.

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- I started coming to Crossroads about 10 years ago.

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When I first walked in, one of things I noticed was, Wow this place

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is really big. It seems like they've really got a lot of really

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generous people that give to this church.

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My initial thought was, you know, what do they need me for?

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They don't need my money. The more I got into Crossroads and

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understanding about how this place is truly fueled, I started giving

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a little bit here and there.

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I didn't really understand what the tithe meant.

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I thought it just meant you just gave some money.

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The more I got to see how God's money was used to reach people, the

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more convicted I felt to give more money.

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As I started to really mature, what I realized is that Jesus is more

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important than the government, so I should probably tithe 10 percent

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of my gross. Why should the government get a cut that Jesus doesn't

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get? For a while there I held onto money as if it was going to make

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me safe or secure.

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I started to realize how quickly you can do things like lose your job

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or a catastrophe could happen, it could wipe all of your money out.

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And that's not really true safety.

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True safety is is really believing that the Lord is your Savior and

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the Lord will provide for you.

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So in return, The Blessed Life book, Robert Morris talks about, you

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know, there's different levels of giving.

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There's there's tithing and there's giving.

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And there's kind of exceptional giving where you give a rather large

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gift. And to be honest, that kind of giving kind of frightens me a

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little bit. I find that in the times He's done that, He's always

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given me exactly what needed to do the thing He's asked me to do.

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I started a new business last year and so I knew I had to pay more

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taxes than I normally would.

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So I actually saved up enough money, the amount that I thought that I

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needed to pay off all those taxes.

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And after talking to a tax accountant, I actually had saved more than

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I needed. So when I prayed and thanked God and said, "Lord, this is

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like a far better result than I could've imagined."

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I felt God say, "Give $1,000 to someone."

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And it just like freaked me out.

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I'm trying to renovate some parts of my house and the speed of

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renovation depends on how much extra free money I have.

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So I knew that I wouldn't be able to make some renovations to my

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house, but I felt God tell me quite clearly this is what he wanted

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from me. There was one person that always popped up into my mind as

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the person who really needed that thousand dollars.

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And so I talked to them and said, "Hey, I pray to God.

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He's blessed me more than I could have imagined this year.

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And I think He asked me to give you this thousand dollars."

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The guy was just taken aback.

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He said, "You know, I have had a leak in my roof for years now.

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I was just praying this week and asking God to give me provisions so

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I can solve this problem."

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So it was amazing to see that we both walked away just feeling truly

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loved and truly understanding how God's Kingdom really works.

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When you distribute and you're generous with the things that he gives

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and when you trust in Him to provide for you what you need.

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- Isn't that good? [applause] I just love seeing a heart like that.

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That's what we're looking at, that giving is an attitude of the

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hearts. And I have had incredible fun in this series.

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Even though there's been some intense topics, it's just been light,

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hasn't it? It's been life-giving.

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And the amount of positive emails I've got coming my way is just

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utterly astounding. God is doing some really, really good and fun

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things in this.

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And today is our last day.

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And I'm going to go look at some Bible stories.

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Shocking. You're in church and you're going to see some Bible

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stories. I'm going to do that today.

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And I'm going to talk about the principle of multiplications.

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It's going to come right out of Jesus's life.

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And before we get into that, why don't we pray right now.

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God, You are a God that is worthy of being thanked, a God who is just

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so generous and gracious to all of us.

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God, I want to be able to get Your heart across to all of us.

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I want to be able to powerfully and accurately portray the depth of

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your hearts in the way your mind works and the way reality works.

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Help me to do that. And may You be honored by all that I say.

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And I pray these things according to the character and identity of

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Jesus. Amen. Well, in America, we know of Ringling Brothers or Barnum

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Bailey as the circuses that were known as the greatest show on earth.

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I just saw a PBS special on it or a documentary not too long ago,

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very, very fascinating. The original greatest show on earth though

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was Jesus. He was the original greatest show on earth.

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Wherever He went, people went because where He went, crazy things

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took place. Teachings that would transform people and hold people

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spellbound.

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Healings, He would spit on people and they would be healed of

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blindness.

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Crazy stuff. He would he would heal people who couldn't walk and they

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could walk again.

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People who are possessed by an evil spirit and we're out of control,

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He would speak to it.

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And they would have a total transformation instantaneously.

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And so where He went, people around Him all the time, it's the

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section of scripture I'm going to look at in the book of Mark

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chapter, gosh, six, seven, eight.

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I'm going to look at a couple stories in here.

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And we see in the midst of this kind of cacophony of energy, He's

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trying to take care of Him and the other disciples, His friends, His

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posse, the other twelve of them.

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And they're going to try to get to the other side of this lake.

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It's known as the Sea of Galilee.

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It's really a giant freshwater lake.

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And here's what it says in verse 31.

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He says:

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I like this. He says, "Hey, guys, we've been burning the candle at

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both ends. Let's just go rest.

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Let's just chill out.".

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And still do that. But people are like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no,

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no, no, no. The party is not over.

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Where is this guy going?

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Here it continues, it says

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this:

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So many are coming here and there.

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People are coming to watch Him.

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And they're forgetting their basic sustenance.

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They don't care about food. They don't care about water.

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Well, they could have gotten water from the Sea of Galilee.

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They don't care about that. They're just wanting to see Jesus.

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Jesus is like, "Okay, we need to have some leisure here.

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We need to have some retreat."

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So they head off to another part.

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But the problem is, you can see where this boats going.

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So all these people are like, "Oh, my goodness, the greatest show on

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earth is going elsewhere. Let's find that guy.".

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So they're running around the lake.

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They're either getting their own boats to try to follow Him.

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And they get to this place and it says this:

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Now, many saw them going and recognize them.

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And they ran there on foot, all talents they got ahead of them.

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He's like, "Sorry, guys, I was really trying to get in some retreat

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time. I was really trying to get us some private time.

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I really want to do some male bonding with you.

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And I had this little private ropes course set up over here that

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we're going to do. And that just kind of got kind of fun side.

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I had a pig roast we were going to do.

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Actually, no, we're Jewish. I couldn't do a pig roast.

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But there were some things that things that I was going to do here.

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But all these people were here.

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And just when you'd think Jesus would go, "Oh, my gosh, when does it

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end? All these people just take, take, take, take, take, take.".

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It says He has compassion on them because they're like sheep without

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a shepherd. Maybe they're like modern American spiritualists.

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We in America, we're like sheep without a shepherd.

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We're all spiritual free agents is the way many of us operate.

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We don't want to put ourselves under anybody's authority.

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We don't want to have somebody care for us and give us instruction

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and direction. We just want to kind of scatter where we want.

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And this causes us to be harassed and helpless.

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No one's watching out for us.

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We're not part of any sort of flock or any community.

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And Jesus has a heart for them and says, OK, let's go, let's crank it

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up. Let's just start giving them and teach them.

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And here's what it says:.

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So Jesus doesn't just give them like a little devotional or a little

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homily. He says okay -- and it gets late.

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It gets going into the dark time.

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And now here's where I got to think what probably with the disciples

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were thinking. I think Peter's was going like, "Hey, John, I don't

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know. Are you tired of this?

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I mean we just came from this on the other side of the body of water.

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And now we're here. And maybe if like we told Jesus, hint, hint,

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nudge, nudge, people are going to be hungry and really it's me and

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you are hungry. Maybe if we have Jesus -- let's blame the hunger

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situation on everybody else and just clue Jesus in that if He's going

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to be going on teaching like this He needs to at least have some Hors

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d'oeuvres or something of substance.

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We probably should tell Him just out of pity He should just stop His

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teaching so people could have time to get out the Steak N Shake.

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He's just -- He should just do that.

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So they basically bring this plan to Jesus and here's how it goes.

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They're kind of like, really?

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You want us to -- 200 hundred denarii of bread.

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That's -- a denarii.

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They had a saying another day, another denarii.

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That was a day's wages.

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So they're saying, "Really? You want like a third of the year of

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wages spent on this?"

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Jesus says you can get them something to eat. Now where we're gonna

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go from here is, what this is the story of, this is story of

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multiplication.

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Jesus, multiplies something.

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It's a supernatural thing.

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And the things that He does are the same things that His sheep today

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still do if they want things to be multiplied.

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If we want to multiply, remember back, think about this Jesus, okay.

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He is the most well-known person in the history of the world, in

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every corner of the globe.

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No one can deny that.

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That is because of His multiplying influence.

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His disciples come with a problem.

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They're thinking, Jesus is going to stop the whole teaching thing.

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Or Jesus might just do some crazy miracle right then and there,

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because they've been seeing all kinds of miracles.

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They haven't seen this kind of miracle yet, but they don't know what

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Jesus is possible to do because He is the greatest show on earth.

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And Jesus says them, "Ok, well, you feed them.

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Yeah, give them something to eat."

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This is what Jesus does.

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He still does this today.

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When God wants to get something done, He gets it done through you and

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I. I'll say it again: when God wants to get something done, He does

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it through you and I.

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Jesus is setting up His movement to prosper and multiply when He's

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gone. Jesus said one time, "Greater things will you do than Me."

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There's never been an individual who did greater things than Jesus.

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But what Jesus is saying is, I've got you twelve and we've got these

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other crowds. I'm going to multiply My influence and this movement is

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going to do more than I personally have ever done.

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And that is exactly what's happened and it's been because of the

00:28:07

multiplying influence of Jesus.

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And it starts with you and I.

00:28:12

My friend Gary Haugen, who started International Justice Mission to

00:28:15

fight slavery, modern slavery all over the world.

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Gary says, you know, "You and I, you are plan A and there is no plan

00:28:24

B.". God has no plan B.

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You and I are the ones that He uses to multiply His impact on the

00:28:34

world. So the story continues.

00:28:38

And when they had -- excuse me, where did I stop off here?

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Should we go buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them?

00:28:46

And he said to them, "Well, how many loaves do you have?"

00:28:50

There it is back to you.

00:28:52

How much do you have?

00:28:59

That's what they got between the disciples, five and two fish.

00:29:05

This is nice. I like this, it spells out on the green grass.

00:29:09

You know, some of us think, "Well, you know, if God ever gets a hold

00:29:12

my life, it's going to be painful, really, really hard.

00:29:15

Jesus doesn't say, "OK, let's.

00:29:17

Let's have people get on their bare knees on gravel.

00:29:21

Give me some gravel around here, because unless it hurts, it doesn't

00:29:24

really count." It's amazing how many people aren't big on churches

00:29:28

like Crossroads. They're like, "Well, people actually like to go

00:29:31

there. It doesn't count. It's got to hurt.

00:29:33

It's got to be boring. It's got to be painful."

00:29:36

No, who's -- what's sick, twisted God do you follow?

00:29:39

I don't understand.

00:29:41

Jesus says I'm going to find some grass, have them sit on green

00:29:46

grass.

00:29:52

OK, it stopped there. Three marks of multiplication.

00:29:56

If you want your life to multiply, if you want to see God do greater

00:30:00

and more things, according to this story and this pattern comes up

00:30:04

again and again in the Bible.

00:30:05

The first thing is this: money must be put in order.

00:30:11

Now, when I say money, you say, "Wait, why are we talking about money

00:30:16

here? I thought we were talking about green grass. I thought we were

00:30:17

talking about like bodies of water and greatest show."

00:30:21

Well, the big thing here is going to be the fishes and loaves.

00:30:24

That's the big thing that's going to happen in this.

00:30:27

The fish and a loaf was their modern equivalent of money.

00:30:30

They don't have bank accounts back then.

00:30:32

People weren't carrying around their wealth in their pocket.

00:30:35

It was in your livestock.

00:30:37

It was in your property.

00:30:39

It was in your fishes, it was your loaves.

00:30:42

This was your and my, when we have whatever we have in our account or

00:30:45

our pocket, that is the equivalent.

00:30:47

That is apples to apples, fishes and loaves.

00:30:50

And what Jesus does to start this whole thing off is He puts

00:30:53

everything in order.

00:30:55

First he starts with you, "OK?

00:30:57

Something needs to be done?

00:30:58

Let's go in order. What do you have?

00:31:00

Let's go to you."

00:31:01

The second thing He does, you've got to understand that much of what

00:31:06

you and I understand about Jesus is wrong, dead wrong.

00:31:10

I'm looking forward to our next series, though I hate to have this

00:31:13

one go away because I've had so much fun with this.

00:31:15

It was actually hard for me to have two other people speak this

00:31:17

series because I wanted them all.

00:31:19

This topic just fascinates me.

00:31:21

It's something I've experienced and I've seen so many people

00:31:24

experience. So I'm looking forward to it, but this next series we get

00:31:28

on Christmas. Let me tell you what pastor types and clergy types

00:31:33

you're going to be seeing all over the country, all over the world at

00:31:37

Christmastime. They're going to say stuff like this, "Jesus was a

00:31:40

lowly carpenter who --"

00:31:42

And they always said softly too.

00:31:45

"Jesus was a little --"

00:31:46

Why do they say it softly?

00:31:48

Why not, "Hey, Jesus was a lowly carpenter"?

00:31:49

It's, "Jesus was the lowly carpenter."

00:31:52

Let me tell you about that phrase. That phrase is wrong, dead wrong.

00:31:55

First of all, who says carpenters are lowly.

00:31:58

Who says carpenters are lowly?

00:32:00

Carpenter isn't a lowly profession, not at all.

00:32:02

It's a very high profession.

00:32:04

In fact, most of us have no idea how to drive a sixteen penny nail

00:32:07

into anything. You're going, "Sixteen pennies, what are you..."

00:32:10

That's my point.

00:32:12

Do you even know what a nail is?

00:32:13

Do you even know -- you have no idea about carpentry at all.

00:32:16

Carpenters are not lowly.

00:32:17

My goodness, you need them greatly, especially in our culture.

00:32:22

We are increasingly incompetent when it comes to working with our

00:32:25

hands. Carpenters are not lowly, number one.

00:32:28

Number two, Jesus wasn't a carpenter.

00:32:33

What? Jesus was not a carpenter.

00:32:36

Scholarly belief is coalescing around this, I've been saying this for

00:32:41

years. More and more scholars are seeing this.

00:32:43

There's one verse in the book of Luke where Jesus is referred to as a

00:32:46

carpenter. It's translated as carpenter.

00:32:49

Actually, the word there is tekton, which means master craftsman.

00:32:52

It could be any number of things someone does with their hands or

00:32:55

logisticates. Jesus was known to be of Nazareth, that's why he's

00:32:59

called Jesus of Nazareth.

00:33:01

Nazareth was a quarry town.

00:33:05

Nazareth was where building blocks came from.

00:33:08

Nazareth was where you would take things and build things.

00:33:13

How many wood metaphors does Jesus have?

00:33:16

One. Don't judge somebody with a little speck in your eye until

00:33:19

you've got a log in your eye. One, everything else is stone and

00:33:23

building, everything.

00:33:25

Count the cost before you build the tower.

00:33:27

Build your life on the solid rock.

00:33:30

He talks about stumbling, stumbling blocks and foundation stones.

00:33:34

Jesus was a builder.

00:33:37

He was a builder, likely with stones.

00:33:40

Do we really think that when God comes to the earth, He's not going

00:33:43

to figure out how to make jack?

00:33:46

Do you really think God's going to come to the earth and say, "Oh, my

00:33:48

goodness. I've got to figure out how to feed myself."

00:33:51

Jesus would have figured that out.

00:33:53

Jesus could have done a wonderful table, but he had a mind to do way,

00:33:56

way more than a table in the history.

00:34:00

And the archeologist is leading us to believe this as well.

00:34:04

If He's a builder, what does it --

00:34:06

first of all, every good builder I know is doing just fine

00:34:10

financially unless there's a crazy, crazy recession happens.

00:34:14

And that's momentary.

00:34:15

They get back on their feet.

00:34:17

The second thing that all builders do is they know how to organize a

00:34:20

work site. This is what Jesus does, He divides them up into 50s and

00:34:27

hundreds. He's making order of things.

00:34:33

There must be order before there is blessing.

00:34:36

You can't just live your life any way you want to live your life and

00:34:40

then just expect there be blessing.

00:34:41

There has to be order.

00:34:43

Your money must be ordered.

00:34:44

We've been looking at this throughout this whole series.

00:34:46

The passage after passage after passage, principle after principle.

00:34:49

It's not a solo concept.

00:34:51

It's all throughout the Bible.

00:34:53

If we want the blessing of God, we have to order our money under Him

00:34:58

as the chief shepherd.

00:34:59

We as the shepherd have to slot ourselves under Him as a chief

00:35:02

shepherd. And whenever He blesses us with something, the proper order

00:35:07

is the first fruits, the first 10% gross goes to His church and the

00:35:12

rest is discretionary.

00:35:14

It's crazy that someone would invest something in you and only ask

00:35:18

for a one time 10% payment.

00:35:20

If we really believe that God's blessing me, a one time 10% thing is

00:35:24

crazy, but God does this to test us on this.

00:35:27

He tests us to see whether or not we will order our life around Him,

00:35:31

and whether or not we are a good place for additional blessings,

00:35:34

whatever those blessings would be.

00:35:36

Order is critical.

00:35:39

And this is why Jesus orders these things here now.

00:35:42

And this is also, by the way, why people I know and I've discipled,

00:35:49

they never get ahead.

00:35:51

Because they never order their life under God.

00:35:54

They never order their finances under God, that Got gets the first

00:35:57

because it's His. He says it's mine.

00:35:59

And they never get ahead.

00:36:01

They may get ahead financially, but I never see their life getting

00:36:04

ahead. It's like problem after problem.

00:36:06

OK, I got this one solved and another one pops up.

00:36:09

Because there has to be order and this is a divine way that God has

00:36:15

ordered things.

00:36:16

This is the way our life works.

00:36:20

And I have to admit that it's awkward for me to talk about it,

00:36:22

because sometimes I hear myself saying this, and I go, "Really?

00:36:25

You believe this?"

00:36:27

Sometimes I have to sell it, "Hey, Brian, get ready.

00:36:29

Come on, you've got to pump yourself up to talk about this because

00:36:31

this sounds really crazy."

00:36:33

I admit it. In fact, most of what I say from this stage is really

00:36:36

crazy. Let me give you some examples.

00:36:38

Here's one. Anytime you ask me to pray for you because you've got a

00:36:41

medical issue, let's just say that's crazy.

00:36:44

Wait a minute. I'm going to actually teach that we should pray for

00:36:48

somebody like the prayer actually works?

00:36:51

Let's just talk about how crazy that is.

00:36:53

Like my thoughts and my words are going to change something in the

00:36:57

physical realm. That is crazy.

00:36:59

And yet I believe it and I do it.

00:37:03

How about this one? How about this crazy one?

00:37:05

Love your neighbor as yourself.

00:37:06

Love my neighbor?

00:37:09

That guy is whacked.

00:37:10

Are you kidding me? That chick is -- she's a beer short of a six

00:37:17

pack. She's -- no way.

00:37:19

Yes. Yes. And yet Jesus says that.

00:37:22

He says love your neighbor as yourself.

00:37:24

Here's another one, like we actually believe this?

00:37:28

Pray for your enemies.

00:37:30

Well, pray some judgment on them.

00:37:31

No, no, no. Pray blessings -- pray blessings.

00:37:35

I'm going to tell and I have told, I'm going to tell somebody who's

00:37:39

been abused sexually as a child to pray for their perpetrator, pray

00:37:43

blessing for the perpetrator.

00:37:46

Yes, I have and, yes, I will.

00:37:48

It's not something you can just jump right into immediately.

00:37:50

You've got to build your faith up to be able to do that.

00:37:53

But yes, the only way you can get released of your bitterness from

00:37:57

the people who've hurt you is to pray for your enemies.

00:38:01

Pray blessings on them.

00:38:03

And I know you think I'm crazy when I say that.

00:38:07

Here's what I'm saying, all these things that God says, including

00:38:10

ordering and tithing and praying for healing, if you want normal,

00:38:14

then don't do these things.

00:38:16

Personally, I don't want normal.

00:38:19

Personally, I want abnormal life.

00:38:21

Personally, I don't want natural life.

00:38:23

Personally, I want supernatural life.

00:38:24

Personally, I want to be in step with God and I want to sense His

00:38:29

power coursing through me.

00:38:31

And I don't want to be average.

00:38:34

If you want to be average, do average.

00:38:36

If you want beyond average, if you want abnormal, you want to walk

00:38:40

where you're having the chief shepherd who knows you and is paying

00:38:45

attention to you, then we do abnormal, undescribable

00:38:55

things like this.

00:38:57

This is what Jesus said?

00:38:59

I'm just curious. How many of us would be okay if Gob multiplied your

00:39:02

resources? Just out of curiosity, if you're OK to be multiplied.

00:39:05

Anyone? Just okay, man.

00:39:08

No, not a trick question.

00:39:10

Let me just say I want more.

00:39:13

I want more friends in my life.

00:39:15

I want more health.

00:39:16

I want more visions from God.

00:39:18

I want more creativity.

00:39:21

I want more opportunities to see part of the planet I haven't seen.

00:39:24

I want more money.

00:39:26

I want more deer to shoot.

00:39:30

I want more motorcycles.

00:39:32

I want more assignments from God that stretch me and make me feel

00:39:36

used. I want more laughter in my life.

00:39:39

I want all those things multiplied.

00:39:41

All of them, I want them all multiplied.

00:39:44

And you should too.

00:39:46

God wants to bless His people and He wants to multiply His influence

00:39:52

through you and through I.

00:39:53

And for multiplication to happen, money has to be blessed for it to

00:39:59

multiply. Let's take a look at this, this next thing happens.

00:40:03

It's gonna be blessed and be multiplied.

00:40:04

Here's what happens

00:40:25

Money has to be blessed before it can multiply.

00:40:30

They take the resources, they give it to Jesus.

00:40:33

He blesses it.

00:40:35

When we take our tithe, we give it to God and He blesses it.

00:40:41

And then He begins a multiplication work of building into other

00:40:45

people's lives and building in His Kingdom.

00:40:48

It can't multiply unless it's blessed.

00:40:52

Not possible. Can't multiply unless it's blessed.

00:40:56

And the only way it's blessed is when we're ordering ourselves under

00:41:00

God. Now I believe this so, so strongly that we've been doing

00:41:06

everything we can to help you, help your faith.

00:41:08

Because these kind of things, they're always a mixture of faith and

00:41:13

math. How much faith do I have to go to 3%, do I have that faith, or

00:41:17

4 percent? And what does the math say?

00:41:20

But my payments I make and my --

00:41:22

Faith in that, you've got to figure that out.

00:41:23

This is a matter of the heart.

00:41:25

I just know that God likes when He sees us growing.

00:41:28

I know He likes when He sees us growing.

00:41:29

And I also know that there's something special when we get to the

00:41:33

tithe. This is why we're trying to help you as all we can.

00:41:37

We have the 90 day tithe test.

00:41:38

If you go take this and you do it and you don't get blessed, you

00:41:43

don't sense God more, or they're not something that happens with you

00:41:47

relationally or God doesn't break something financially, or you just

00:41:50

feel more freed up because your conscience before God is free.

00:41:54

If you don't feel that God has blessed you, we will refund you

00:41:59

everything over the last 90 days.

00:42:01

And we're only doing this so that you can start to multiply your

00:42:07

life. You can start to feel blessed by God, because money has to be

00:42:13

given away before it can multiply.

00:42:16

Anything has to be given away before it can multiply.

00:42:18

Jesus, God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son.

00:42:22

Jesus gives His life away on a Cross and his life multiplies.

00:42:28

His life has multiplied, and you and I because he gave His life.

00:42:32

It's when we give something that something multiplies.

00:42:35

I could put something in savings and there'd be incremental stuff.

00:42:38

But multiplication in the Kingdom of God always happens when we

00:42:43

actually give it.

00:42:44

Now, if you do these things, if you do these things and the disciples

00:42:48

do these things so much so.

00:42:49

Let's take look at the end of this little section I'm giving you

00:42:51

today. It says this.

00:42:53

It says: And those who ate the loaves were 5,000 men.

00:43:01

So that's the men. That's not the women or the children.

00:43:03

20,000 people.

00:43:04

They take this stuff, they break it up.

00:43:06

And it's like the disciples, they give it to Jesus.

00:43:09

He blesses it. He gives it back to them.

00:43:11

And we don't know it happened. They start dividing it.

00:43:13

Is it like they divide it and it multiplies their hand?

00:43:15

Like wait, I thought I just broke off that piece.

00:43:17

Wait, it's there again. I thought, wait, wait, where's this fish?

00:43:20

I thought I had three, I still have three fish.

00:43:22

Whatever it is, as they're giving it away, it's multiplying somehow.

00:43:27

So when it's over, they have more left than they started with.

00:43:32

And that was after giving away what they had.

00:43:37

This is the power of how God works in multiplication.

00:43:41

If you do these things, you have to be prepared for multiplication.

00:43:47

Let me just give you some quick little financial things to think

00:43:49

about to be prepared for multiplication.

00:43:52

Three things. One, give thanks liberally.

00:43:55

Give thanks liberally. Recently in my time with God I said, God, I'm

00:44:00

just kind of feeling like I'm in a rut.

00:44:02

Every time I talk to you I start off with God, thank you for...

00:44:06

I said, you must be getting sick of that right now.

00:44:08

It's like by row. God, thank you.

00:44:09

I say something different a thing. And God, I sense God said to me,

00:44:12

"Do you ever get tired of someone telling you, thank you"?

00:44:17

No, I know I never do. God said, "Good I don't either.".

00:44:21

When you sense the blessing of God in your life and even when you

00:44:24

don't just give liberal, thanks.

00:44:27

God, thank you for my friends.

00:44:28

Thank you for the fact that I have my feet.

00:44:30

Thank you that I we're in a country that has is so jacked up

00:44:33

politically, it's still a country I would live in more than any other

00:44:36

country in the world right now.

00:44:37

Thank you for that. Thank you, God, that you've given me whatever it

00:44:41

is, nose hairs that filters out the Micron's of diseases, whatever it

00:44:44

is, whatever it is you can think of.

00:44:47

Yeah, he did that. He gave you your nose hairs.

00:44:49

Thank God, liberally.

00:44:51

Second thing, I know this is crazy for some of us to think about.

00:44:53

Second thing, spend less than you make.

00:45:00

Hold on a second, spend less than you make.

00:45:06

Wow, you're telling me if I make a thousand dollars to not spend a

00:45:11

thousand fifty? Exactly.

00:45:13

Yes, exactly what I'm saying. Exactly, spend less than you make.

00:45:17

And the way we do this is we are very, very cautious in taking on

00:45:20

debt. Very, very, very cautious.

00:45:24

I have two means of debt right now.

00:45:25

I have a 15 year mortgage on my house and I have a motorcycle

00:45:33

payment, a motorcycle interest payment.

00:45:35

The reason I have the motorcycle interest payment is because I have a

00:45:39

-- I got a .9%

00:45:41

rate on my motorcycle a few years ago, point nine percent.

00:45:45

And I had the cash on the motorcycle, but I could park it someplace

00:45:48

and would make three percent in the conserve investment.

00:45:50

So I'll take that.

00:45:52

I'll make 2.1

00:45:53

percent. I'm fine.

00:45:55

That's the different and it's also a different than saying, "I really

00:45:58

don't know mechanics at all.

00:46:00

And I have to have some kind of reliable car.

00:46:02

I'm going to take a hyper modest car payments to start me off with.

00:46:07

That's different too.

00:46:08

Some people like anti-debt all forms of that anti at all time.

00:46:12

I'm not. I'm not.

00:46:14

I am anti us always leaning into debt to get us what we want.

00:46:18

That never will get us ahead.

00:46:20

Yet to be a very, very cautious debtor.

00:46:23

And one of the ways I've become a cautious debtor is I'm managing

00:46:28

much more wisely the stuff that's left after my tithe and my

00:46:32

offerings. I have side gigs I do.

00:46:35

This is my main thing I do. My calling at Crossroads.

00:46:38

I love when I speak here. I love and I manage staff and interact with

00:46:41

you and pray for you.

00:46:42

I love it. I'm very, very thankful.

00:46:44

And there's things I also do on the side.

00:46:46

I speak on the side, one of the things I do on the side.

00:46:48

Last 2 speaking things I did.

00:46:51

One, I got one hundred dollars for it and the other I got just a

00:46:55

couple days ago I got $3500 for it.

00:46:57

Same amount of time, same amount of things, same me.

00:47:01

But one was people in rehab at a halfway house and the other was a

00:47:06

larger group of people who did great, awesome.

00:47:08

My stance with both, the $100 and $3500 is the exact same thing.

00:47:11

First thing, God. Thank you for that.

00:47:12

Woo hoo!

00:47:14

My tithe, that's God's cut.

00:47:16

Immediately I returned that to Him.

00:47:17

Actually, I'm beyond that.

00:47:19

But that section is boom.

00:47:21

And when I deposit that, I wait to see it clears and I don't

00:47:24

anything. I'm not going to myself, "Oh, now I'm going to buy all

00:47:26

these things," it's like I'm already accruing mental debt.

00:47:29

No, no. I don't even think about that until I return to God.

00:47:33

I put myself in order under His command.

00:47:36

It doesn't matter how much money it is, it's always that spend less

00:47:42

than you make.

00:47:44

Three, the last one I'll give you is regularly evaluate and adjust

00:47:49

your macro financial objectives.

00:47:51

Regularly evaluate and adjust your macro-financial objectives.

00:47:55

What I did with my money when I was 23 is different than what I do

00:47:59

with it at 54.

00:48:01

How I treat saving and giving now is vastly different than how I

00:48:05

treated it when I was 35.

00:48:09

We just from time to time, it's good to go, "Okay, where I am right

00:48:12

now, let me tell my money where it's going, unless my money wants to

00:48:18

tell me where I'm going.

00:48:19

No, let me tell it. Let me just sit back there."

00:48:20

Okay, now macro here. What's my thought about giving right now?

00:48:24

How much does -- do I want to multiply in the world?

00:48:27

What about savings?

00:48:29

What should I --

00:48:31

From time to time we've got to do this.

00:48:32

I have to -- just recently I did this, Lib and I are in the midst of

00:48:36

this. And like it dawned on me.

00:48:38

Actually, it didn't. It did dawn on me, but I also remember almost

00:48:42

playing dumb a number of -- about a year or so ago.

00:48:47

One of the ways that Lib and I've gotten ahead financially and one of

00:48:49

the reasons I always defend the trades and carpenters and plumbers is

00:48:54

because those dudes built into me to enable me to be in a place where

00:48:57

I am financially right now. I've had four homes.

00:49:00

Every home I've gone into I've put my own equity and my construction

00:49:04

knowledge into it and have made lots of money on them.

00:49:08

Lots and lots on them every time.

00:49:10

And when I do that, that's an increase that God's given me and I

00:49:13

tithe on that.

00:49:15

So I take -- I bought the house for this and then I put this amount

00:49:18

of money into it. And I sold it for this.

00:49:19

God gave me an increase and that's an increase, so I tithe on that.

00:49:22

This last one, last house I did more made more than any house I ever

00:49:26

had. I had been there for 15 years and did a bunch of stuff and a lot

00:49:31

of -- poured a lot of money into it.

00:49:32

When I netted all of that out, I made about $175,000 on that house.

00:49:38

That was an increase.

00:49:39

And I took a portion that money and other money and I put it into the

00:49:43

downpayment of our current 15 year mortgage we're on.

00:49:45

And then I just, because there's this big thing Lib and I want, we're

00:49:48

just going to park it and we're going to research this thing.

00:49:50

And that's there. And then as I was doing this step three just

00:49:53

recently in the midst of this thing, "Like God, I've had that money

00:49:57

sitting there for 14 months.

00:50:01

That's an increase, I haven't given that to You."

00:50:04

So I made it right, like over the 10% of that amount.

00:50:09

There goes. And boy, I tell you, I just felt free.

00:50:12

In fact, I even felt less stressed about this thing that Lib and I

00:50:16

were thinking of doing. It's probably not going to happen now, but I

00:50:18

actually feel less stressed, at least not right now.

00:50:21

I actually feel less stressed about it because it was just clarity.

00:50:24

It was just a sense of joy.

00:50:26

It's like God blessed me with clarity.

00:50:30

I am so excited about how well we're all doing.

00:50:33

And I know a lot of us have been praying for me coming into this

00:50:36

series, a lot of us who were tithing before the series started.

00:50:40

Our estimates are about 7% of Crossroads was tithing before this

00:50:45

series starts, 7%.

00:50:47

And it's awesome when you come into a series and you're like, yeah,

00:50:49

yeah, I'm doing it. I'm getting encouraged.

00:50:51

Yes, Brian, go, go.

00:50:53

Oh, I needed to be reinforced that.

00:50:54

Woo-woo. I just have an opportunity for those of us who came into

00:50:59

this tithing, not those of us who started tithing, do what you're

00:51:02

doing. Get get your sea legs on you.

00:51:05

There's not a challenge, just an awareness of what we can do when we

00:51:08

multiply, those of us who tithe.

00:51:12

You know, credit card debt, 25 percent of all credit card debt is

00:51:15

medical debt. Think about that.

00:51:18

Twenty five percent of all credit card debt is medical debt.

00:51:21

We do stupid things with our credit cards, but no one wakes up one

00:51:25

day and says, "Man, I just need to spend some money because I've got

00:51:27

this money. I know, I'm going to go to a hospital.

00:51:29

I'm going to buy me an MRI.

00:51:32

That's what I'm going to do. I'll put it on my credit, it's just I

00:51:34

want to buy an MRI. No one ever does that.

00:51:36

No one ever wakes up and goes, "Oh, man, I've got some money burning

00:51:39

a hole in my pocket. I've got a credit card.

00:51:40

What do I do? Oh, I know.

00:51:41

I'm gonna go buy me some chemo.

00:51:43

I'm going to walk in and go, give me some.

00:51:44

No one ever does that, right?

00:51:46

When there's medical debt, it's because there is legitimate true

00:51:50

hardship and pain that's come somebody's way.

00:51:54

When we are in debt, a sin debt to God, we can't get our way out of

00:51:58

the sin debt to God.

00:52:00

Jesus comes and gives Himself so we can pay off our sin debt

00:52:04

So we never have to worry about God hurting us for our sin.

00:52:08

We never have to worry because there is therefore no condemnation for

00:52:11

those who are in Christ. I want to give us the opportunity to

00:52:14

multiply our impact.

00:52:16

Do you realize around Cincinnati there's $65 million worth of medical

00:52:21

debt that's coming due.

00:52:24

$65 million.

00:52:26

Do you realize when it goes in the collection, that collection agency

00:52:28

buys it for one penny on the dollar.

00:52:32

So those you who have a bill collector coming at you for medical

00:52:35

debt. If you had $10,000 you owed to a hospital for medical debt,

00:52:40

they bought that debt for $100.

00:52:44

And now they're coming to you to get $10,000.

00:52:47

I'm helping out here because if you talk to them on the phone, you

00:52:49

might be able to pay off your debt for $500 because they'll take 5x

00:52:53

what they bought it for. There's an organization we're going to

00:52:55

partner with RIP medical debt.

00:53:00

We could pay off $65 million in medical debt in Cincinnati alone, let

00:53:07

alone we want to do in Dayton and Columbus and Lexington, any place

00:53:11

where there's a pocket of Crossroads.

00:53:13

If those of us who are tithing said, "Hey, let's do it.".

00:53:16

If we had -- if we had 650 tithers who were already tithing and we

00:53:20

average a thousand bucks, the entire Cincinnati community, as an

00:53:25

example, will get a letter and say;

00:53:28

"Congratulations, your debt has been paid because someone loves you

00:53:34

and there is a God who has not forgotten about you."

00:53:38

How would that multiply in blessing people?

00:53:41

I get giddy about that. Now, this is not like a challenge, it's just

00:53:44

an awareness. If you want to do that, you can go, you a text 313131.

00:53:48

I'm going to do that. 313131.

00:53:51

You can text multiply and we'll see what what God does with those of

00:53:55

us who God might be prompting to do that.

00:53:57

And if He's not, great. Just an idea could be pretty fun.

00:54:00

Last thing we'll talk about here in this story, the very, very end of

00:54:05

it. Mark 8.

00:54:07

Actually it's not the end of this story.

00:54:09

It is, as time goes on, Jesus does the exact same thing a little bit

00:54:14

later with 4000 men, a bunch more people are women and children.

00:54:18

He's doing a bunch of things. He does the same thing twice, this

00:54:21

multiplication thing. Same format.

00:54:23

He does it twice. And we see this formula happened in various ways

00:54:27

all throughout the Bible and happened in so many people's lives who I

00:54:30

know. And yet, we're human and we forget.

00:54:35

And so now we see Jesus get into the boat another time and he's on

00:54:39

the boat and he's teaching the disciples.

00:54:41

You know, religious people, man, they'll wear you down.

00:54:43

Be careful. Be care for the religious people because they'll get this

00:54:47

yeast and it'll get inside of your life and it'll start to blow up

00:54:50

your life. It will go through a whole batch and it'll jack you up, be

00:54:53

careful. And as he's talking about this, the slaves going, "Like

00:54:55

yeast? Dang, darn it, I'm hungry again and we don't have enough

00:55:00

food." They're like (sound effect) Andy Jesus senses that this is

00:55:03

what's going on. So here's what happens.

00:55:05

He says:

00:55:44

That's what God said to me when I recognized the increase on the sale

00:55:49

of my house. I was like, "Oh, God, I legitimately or intensely,

00:55:53

either way, happened to forget about that one."

00:55:57

God's like, "Brian, do you not yet understand?

00:56:04

When have I not blessed you?

00:56:09

When have I not taken care of you?

00:56:11

When have I not forgiven you?

00:56:13

When have I not given you a full life, even if it was painful, it was

00:56:18

full? Do you not yet understand?

00:56:22

This is the test God continues to give us and we continue to answer

00:56:25

if we want to step into it.

00:56:29

Let's take a moment and just see if God seals something for us and

00:56:33

says something to us right now.

00:56:35

God, I know that you have done something in our church, in our lives.

00:56:41

If there's something right now you want to enforce with us, would you

00:56:45

please speak?

00:57:33

- Don't forget to join us this week for our Thanksgiving Eve

00:57:37

experience. Head to Crossroads.net

00:57:39

at 7 p.m.

00:57:40

on Wednesday. And we'll see you next week for the start of our Advent

00:57:44

series. Share it with a friend.

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