Blessed to Bless

Pastor Zach Whitehead

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But where we're getting to next. We've talked about it the the the last couple weeks. You guys can be seated. Thank you for joining us this morning. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your worship this morning. Not because it indulges us, but I it it indulges God. It indulges God. Out of the most important part of the service for him, I I believe is the worship, because the worship's for him. It's not for us. It encourages us and it builds us up and it lifts us up. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, um that worship, that worship is to him. And the Bible calls it a sweet incense and a sweet savor to him. And over the last couple weeks, we've been looking at scripture through the context of which scripture is given. And John 101 said, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And if the word was God, then it behooves us to look at scripture through everything pointing to Jesus. That if he is the central figure in which the plan of salvation and the plan of restoration and this new covenant is all about, then both Old Testament and New Testament point to him. And the lens at which we look scripture look at scripture through and must interpret it through must be Jesus. And so we've been asking this question the last couple weeks. What is Jesus building? We've talked about the house, we've talked about the heart, we've talked about marriages, we've talked about children, we've talked about leaders, and last week we talked about the context of the church. And not just here's five ways to have a great, a great heart, or three ways to fix your marriage, or here's some parenting tips, because that's not what it, that's not what this is about. This is about looking at scripture and saying, God, how do you want us to conduct our marriages? What is it, what's the purpose for children? What's what how how do we become not just how do we become leaders, but how do we steward well what you've given us? And all this time we've kind of started with this idea that these are inflow ditches, these are ways that water would flow into the church. But what if to be healthy, what what what it what we have been asking, what it needs to be healthy for God to actually send that water? If we've got to, if we've been, we've been locked into this conversation with God that we have to prepare a healthy house because he intends to fill it. What channels need to be prepped? What needs to be strengthened? But eventually the question then becomes where is all of this water supposed to go? Where is this flow supposed to end up? Where is this supposed to land? God's intention was never merely to create a healthy church that enjoys being healthy. I believe in healthy churches. We are a healthy church, and we become a healthier church. But hear me, healthy things reproduce. Healthy things reproduce, healthy things give, and healthy things flow. I originally thought this idea of community would just be one thing and one and done, but the more I study and the more I look into it, I want to reframe some things through the through the lens of scripture. We got to slow down a little bit here because before we talk about how we reach our community, that once we the the house, the heart, the marriage, and our children, leaders, and church culture is all in the right context and everything looks good, then we start thinking, okay, we've got things fixed here. What does it look like to go outward? We have to understand that God's people have always existed in relationship to the people around them. The house has never just been about the house. The church has never just been about the church. God's covenant promise has never just been about his children, it's been about the people around them, too. And that story doesn't even begin in Acts. That's the cool part about it. This isn't just the story of Acts, and we're going back to the birthplace of the church. This story goes all the way back to the beginning in Genesis. It doesn't even begin with Israel. It's before Israel is formed as a nation. It almost begins immediately after humanity falls. So just bear with me a little bit this morning as we go back in scripture. Genesis 12, uh Genesis 1 and 28. And God blessed them, and and and he said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Talking to Adam and Eve here, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heaven and over every living thing that moves on earth, and every hunter and fisher in this house, you better say amen right now. Amen. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of the man, for the intention of the man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither ever will I again strike down every living thing as I have done. The first thing I want you to know notice is the word blessed. Before Abraham was blessed, God's intention towards humanity involved blessing, fruitfulness, and multiplication. Human beings are bearing the image of God throughout creation. We are created in his likeness and his image. That is scripture. But here's the story sin enters. In Genesis 3, we see rebellion. Genesis 4, we see the first murder. Genesis 6, by the time we get from 4 to chapter 6, violence and corruption fills the earth until God sends the flood. And then even after the flood, even after Noah and his family are the ones saved above the ark, something sobering remains. Genesis 8 and 21, for the imagination we just read, for the imagination of a man's heart is evil from his youth. The flood cleansed the earth, but the flood did not transform the human heart. The flood cleansed the earth of corruption, but it did not wipe the corruption out of man's heart. Because it wasn't much longer after we see the story of the flood waters receding. Even Noah himself was drunken and naked. It didn't fix man's heart, it just fixed a temporary problem. Judgment alone couldn't create what uh create couldn't create the humanity that God intended. Humanity approves itself almost immediately because here we go a few chapters later, and we arrive at Babel. Genesis 11, 1 through 4, and the whole earth had one language and the same words. Wouldn't that be fantastic in understanding everybody? Ordering off menus, traveling around the world, one language, one language, right? They had one at this time. And then it and the people migrated from the east and they found a plan in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said one to another, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. So they're making bricks, they're making, they're they're making really tough bricks so they could build a and they and the brick for stone and the bitamum for mortar. And they said, Come and let us bind ourselves, build ourselves a city and a tower. Everybody say a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. Let us make a name for ourselves. There it is. Let us build. Let us make. Let us make a name. Will, if you'd help me out with that demonstration this morning. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. We like as humans to build things. I don't know about you, but I like to build with Legos. And I think part of the reason that I had kids was I could justify Lego purchases as a 30-year-old adult. Be quiet. In Jesus' name. I enjoy sitting down and building Lego sets with my kids. I enjoy having fun and building Legos with my kids. Why? Because it's accomplishing. You feel like you're solving something, right? You follow all the instructions and you do everything. But this goes back to creation. God put within us creativity. God made builders out of us. He made craftsmen out of us. He made us to create things. But here's the thing, and here's the issue. Even after God established what he wanted to do after the flood and he made a covenant that he would never again do it, that the word rainbow didn't exist. You guys know that, right? He said he literally would set down his bow. And so he was setting down, he was setting down his weapon against humanity and said, I'm not gonna do it this way again. I'm not just gonna cast judgment. And so, but what happens is that they come and they start and they say and what do they start saying? Let us. Let us. So we're gonna make a name for ourselves, and we're gonna make a great city, and we're gonna make a great tower. And doesn't that just just become the nature of things? Is that we keep saying, let us do this, let us do that. I want, I want a great church, I want great programs, I want great outreach. I want to have, I want to have, I want to have this great Sunday school program, let us do this, and let us do that. And as we continue to go, and as we continue to keep reciting the same thing that history has shown us before, all we end up doing is we can we just start creating this ornate tower. We just start building up something and say, okay, let us build something that reaches up to the heavens. Let me get a little fancy here, put a little, put a little outlet on the outside. You guys, you guys didn't know you were you were you were messing with a a Lego, a Lego master here. And they build, they, they, they, they unify. And it's and it's insane what humans can do when we unify, right? They come together and they unify to build this giant tower, and they and they start and they start reeling. And here's the thing: the tower of Babel historically was a ginormous structure. Absolutely breathtaking. Go go read about it some more when you get home. It's it's insane how these people didn't just make the bricks for what they needed, but they begin to build this tower, and everything that they focused on was a sp they focused in a spirit of unity, but they focused in the wrong spirit. They were too worried about building something to them and to their honor and to their sake and to what they felt like they needed to do and what they needed to have. And the reason why they did it is because they wanted to have a tower that should God ever flood the earth again. There's a tower to escape it. They didn't listen. They they they they they should have known the promise of God because we're gener we're we're after Noah. And so it would have been Noah's and his descent and his sons and his daughters that that that that repopulated the earth, right? They should have known that God's promise is that he would have never flooded the earth again. And God laid down his weapon against humanity. But what did they do? Just in case, let us build a tower in case God decides He He wants to do His God thing again. Let us build a tower that reaches up to the heavens, so if He decides to flood the earth again, we can go to the upper echelons of the upper stories, and everything will be okay. Well, we're we're gonna build a tower that looks great, that's fancy, that that that people can see from every direction in the plane. That everywhere you look, you see this mighty tower. You'll see what we've done together. And here's again, implicitly building things isn't wrong. Again, it's part of who we are. It's part of our nature. We love to build things, we love to put things together, we love to fix things. It's just what humans do, right? From the beginning, all we've had as a purpose is is to subdue and and and to and and and to and to and to level and and to build the earth. And so eventually we get we get a great and mighty tower, right? But all a tower does is it draws attention. Why do you build a skyscraper to draw attention? Why do you build a ginorrest building to draw attention? Why do you do the stuff that you're doing to the state capitol right now to draw attention? Does it make legislator better? No. Does it make our government better? No. Does it move Louisiana up in the ranks in anything? No. At least we're number one in food still. But we build a tower to ourselves and everything that we do, every acolyte, everything, every little part, this, that, another, we build this tower and just can say, look what we did. We made something great, and we did something great. Every achievement, all the recognition, all the influence, all the success. But here's what we got to be careful. Building isn't inherently evil. I want this church to be excellent. I believe in a spirit of excellence. I won't settle for anything less. I want our ministries to be healthy, and they should be healthy because healthy ministries produce healthy people. I want our system strong because we need organization. We don't want people double working and double doing things and frustrated because they showed up at the same time because one team thought they were supposed to mow, but it was really another team, and the bathrooms didn't get cleaned because things were miscommunicated. But we we know what stuff goes. I want us to grow because we should grow and we should multiply. It's what it's what God's spirit demands of us. And I want our community to know we're here. But here's the issue, that none of that's Babel. None of that's reflects what Babel, but here's the issue: who's the building ultimately supposed to glorify? Who is this building ultimately supposed to glorify? The problem with Babel wasn't merely architecture, God gave them that gift. God gave them the gift of creativity, God gave them the gift of craftsmanship. It was the orientation in which they placed those gifts. Let us make a tower. Let us join together just in case. Everything pointed back to us. We're our security blanket, we're our security network. We'll be okay together. Us, our city, our tower, our security, our name. We're going down in history as the people who built the greatest tower. And church, here's here's what I here's here's what I want to be careful of. It is entirely possible to build something impressive in the wrong direction. It is entirely possible that we make this house healthy and we build it in the wrong direction. I don't want to build a great church for the sake of building a great church. The world doesn't need that. I want to build a great church because we're an effective church, because we're reaching the lost and the broken. That when people come here, they show up and they see a hospital that's not have scattered systems and the doctors don't know what's going on and the nurses and the physicians what's going on. You wouldn't want to go to a doctor's office like that, right? You wouldn't want to go to a hospital system like that, right? People don't want to go to a church when they walk in and they know things aren't effective. People are walking through those back doors because they have a need. They know this is a place that that's a spiritual place, that when they're broken in their spirits, they're broken in their body, they're broken in their marriages, they're they're they're broken in their minds, they have needs that when they walk in those doors, they're expecting to walk into a place where they find healing and hope. And God forbid that the way that we orient our systems and we orient our ministries and we orient our leadership is that we build a tower. Look at us. Man, we did it. We made a great church, we built some amazing systems, we we got an amazing Sunday school program, we got an amazing team that mows the lawn. We got a we got the cleanest bathrooms in the city. We we we we we got it all set up and we got it all right. What does it point back to? Here's the uncomfortable application of it. We can be known for outreach. We could be known for community events, we could be known for all of those things, yet we could still miss the heart of outreach. We could be known as the church that does everything for this community, yet we can miss the heartbeat behind it. We can have incredible community events, and we will have incredible community events. We're gonna we could we could have great marketing and we already have great marketing. We have an amazing creative team that that helps us with with our photos and our videos and our social media. We have we but but but here's the thing we're gonna have that, but it's not gonna be the focus, the orientation of look at us, look at what we're doing. Thousands of people will know our church's name, but it's not gonna be for the sake of knowing our church's name. And still quietly we're just sitting over here trying to add accolade after accolade that maybe we can just get this tower a little bit higher, that maybe we can just get the programs just a little better than before. And even though, ooh, we're starting to get a little high in altitude and some things are shaky, and man, we're getting a lot of people here, and we got a lot of programs, and we got a lot of stuff going on, and scheduling is getting wonky and and all these other things, like it's okay. Things might be a little shaky, just don't step on the wrong ground or step on the wrong attitude or step on the wrong person because that tower might come crumbling down, but don't tell anybody that because we look good from the outside, right? And we keep trying to fill this thing in and fill this thing in and fill this thing in. And if you notice, even up here on the stage on this table, this thing's starting to shake, and I'm honestly getting worried, it's about to collapse everywhere. But we hold the same perspective and the same attitude when we start building what God intended towards us. The goal was never let's make sure everybody knows who we are. The goal is let's make sure people encounter who He is. The goal isn't about being the church on the block that everybody knows, but it's being the church on the block that knows when I walk in those doors and I lift my hands, or when I walk up to that altar and I hit my knees, I know that God will meet me there. This should be the place that's not just good looking on the outside, good looking on the inside. Everybody smiling will shake your hand and hug your neck, invite you to dinner, but they should know that when we walk into this place, this is the house where I can meet God. This is the place where I will all my sin and all my insecurity and all the other stuff and all the baggage that I've walked in with, I can lay it down in this altar and I can walk out in freedom and I can walk out in peace. And watch what God does when he responds to Babel. He scatters the nations. Rather than commending them on a impossible feat, coming together and unifying, because God wants us to exist in a spirit of unity, right? It was in the upper room. They were all in the upper room in one mind and one accord. What's that? A spirit of unity. You can have a spirit of unity in the wrong direction as well, too. And instead of God commending them and praising them for such a tower, he scattered the people. Can you imagine working so hard on a project? You look over at the person next to him and you no longer understand what they're saying. And people are scattered and they're separated, and they have to find the people that are speaking the same language as them. And God divides the languages because it's not because he's scared of what they'll do with the tower. God's not scared of humanity. We can't do anything against him. But God was worried that their orientation of what they're doing was completely wrong. And if they kept it up and they kept it in this manner, they would doom themselves again. Genesis 12, 1 through 3. Now, now this now a new character enters the scene. This is Abram, and he tells Abram, and Abram is Abraham before he's Abraham, okay? So if you know that, go from your country. Everybody say, Go from your country. He tells them, go from his country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And he gives them this promise, I will make you a great nation. Everybody gets excited when they hear that because they they they know that Father Abraham had many sons, and I'm one of him, and so are you. And we want this promise right here that I'll make you a great nation, and I'll bless you and make your name great, that you will be a blessing, and I will bless those that bless you, and I will dishonor and though him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you all the families of this earth will be blessed. We get excited about the blessings of God, but do you notice the contrast here? Babel says, Let us make a name. And he says to Abraham, I will make your name great. Babel says, I will create my own significance. And now Abraham has to trust God, well, but to trust his own significance to God. Babel says, let us build. And what does God tell Abraham? He says, Leave your country, leave your family, leave your father's house, leave everything you know and follow me. Babel accumulates. Abraham releases. And then watch the story of Abraham's life. And in Genesis 12 and 7, he built an altar to the Lord, and following in verse 8, and he built an altar to the Lord and he called upon the name of the Lord. What does Abraham build? Altars. Altars. Because Babel wants to establish their name, but Abraham learns that I can't establish a name that's already been established. I have to start calling upon his name. There's two ways that we can build this church, and there's two ways that we can do this thing. We can either build a tower or we can build an altar. A tower asks, how do I get greater? How do my programs get greater? How do I go vertical with this thing? How does this become the shining light of the city of Zachary? That everybody knows where we're at. But an altar. An altar's not as pretty. An altar back in the day was a collection of stones where they would make. They would make what they they would make the bed of stones that they needed to perform the sacrifice. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't ideal. I'll be honest, it didn't involve much skill. There wasn't a whole lot of craftsmanship to this. But notice these rocks don't really need to go vertical for for a sacrifice to take place. The rocks really don't need to go vertical for obedience to take place. The rocks don't need to reach the heavens to hear the voice of God. The rocks need to lay in place where they're directed to place. Well God instructed that they would build how Abram would build altars. He would build altars. This rocks just simply need to be laid in the order and the construct that God told them to. Notice the difference. One's attractive. One reaches to the heavens and says, Look at me. And the other one draws no attention. The other one draws no attention. Why? Because the altar, the tower says, What can we accumulate? And an altar looks back at us and says, What can we surrender? A tower says, Look what we've built. An altar says, Look what we're willing to give. I'm telling you this, I was up all night because this message convicted me. A tower preserves an altar releases. A tower holds on to all the blessings of God and holds on to all the constructs and holds on to all the rituals and holds on to all this other stuff. But an altar recognizes each of these stones as a memory of what God has done, of the blessings He's given us. But they look at us and say, What can we give and what can we leave for the next generation? What legacy can we leave? What can we pour out? What can we give? What can we sacrifice in obedience? And all a tower pulls everything inwards because you've got to look and you see it and you go towards it. But an altar puts something valuable in the hands of God. Church, hear me this morning. I don't want to build a tower. I don't want us to be just become excellent at the concept of outreach, and you can do it. And then just become known as we're just excellent in outreach. I want something so much deeper than that. I want generosity to become second nature. I want reaching people to become second nature. I want discipleship to become top of the mind. I want loving this city to happen without thought because it becomes who we are and not what we do. Not because we're trying to build a reputation, but just because we've received so much grace. How could it possibly stop with us? Psalms 67, 1 through 2. God, may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah. That may your way be known on earth and your saving power to the nations. Notice the movement again, bless us. Why, God? Because that way you and your ways can be known. God, I don't want to be blessed with a healthy church that we just have a healthy church and it looks good on social media and other churches can come in. God, what are you doing right? What systems do you have that's going right? What music do you have that's going right? What systems in the booth? What systems in Sunday school? What curriculum are you doing? All this other stuff. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hear me clearly. I want to make it that that that that that God bless us. Why? Because that way you'll be known and your ways will be known. God's goodness is meant to be enjoyed, and we should thank him and we should celebrate every time that his goodness is poured out over us. We should testify about it. But covenant blessing, everybody say covenant, covenant blessing never makes us self-contained, it enlarges our responsibility towards others. The covenant of God is never meant to be self-contained, it's meant to enlarge our responsibility to the world around us. So maybe some of you, God restored your marriage. Thank God that he restored it. Thank God that you're sitting here. Thank God that you defied statistics and just defied expectations. But perhaps another couple is sitting in this very church that you're supposed to go and encourage. Maybe God delivered you from addiction. Thank God that he delivered you from addiction, whether it was drugs, it was alcohol, it was pornography, whatever it was. But maybe there's somebody in this building today that you're supposed to walk beside and help carry them when they can't walk on their own. Maybe God taught you his word. Thank God that you know his word. Thank God that your his word is hidden upon your heart, that you might not sin against him, that you understand how to read the Bible, that you understand how to teach scripture. But maybe the question is not just thank God that you you know the word, but who are you teaching? Do you see where I'm going this? Maybe somebody discipled you, maybe somebody helped you from a long way off, and you were the person that nobody else thought would make it to church and serve God and be a part of ministry, and their family would be in church now. Thank God that you're here and thank God for those that disciple. But the question is now who are you raising? Maybe God gave us a healthy church. But the question becomes who is being blessed because God has blessed us. Abraham eventually becomes a family, and that family becomes a nation. He gives them a promise that your seed and your family and generations to come will be more than the stars in the sky that you can count. And eventually God tells Israel what kind of nation that they're supposed to become. In Exodus 19, 5 through 6, he says this. He says, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession amongst all people. God doesn't just make a covenant with us, but look at this. He says, You will be my treasured possession amongst all people, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. Notice something here that holy and priestly are in this statement. It's distinct yet still existing for others. And this is where I want to make something very clear. We do not have to choose between holiness and mission. We do not have to choose between living out holy lives, but also living out the mission of God. We don't have to compromise truth to reach people, and we will not compromise truth to reach people, but we also don't have to hide people to preserve truth. Biblical holiness was never supposed to make God's people useless to everybody around them. A holy people, everybody say a holy people. A holy people were supposed to reveal something about a holy God. God did not save you and sanctify you and make you holy, that you would sit upon museum shelves inside of a church. But God made you holy and sanctified you and applied his blood to your life and applied his name over your life, that you could go back out there, that people see you and they see something different. What's different about them? It's not just the dress, it's not just the outside, it's the way they speak, it's the way they act, it's the way they think, it's the way they're operating their families, it's the way they conduct business, it's the way they're in the grocery store. They're joyful people, they're happy people. There's something about these people. Because holiness and mission were never meant to exist separately. We don't have to choose between them. Isaiah eventually comes and he says this. He says, I'll also give you as a light to the Gentiles, and that my salvation until the end of the earth. Here we go again. It's Abraham, it's all families. Israel, it's a kingdom of priests. Isaiah says this, a light to the Gentiles. What does it say about God's pattern in scripture? Is that God keeps looking forward. God's promise keeps looking forward. And here we go. Let's fast forward to the New Testament. It's not just in the Old Testament, it's in the New Testament. Paul looked back at Genesis 12, and this is what he says it's astonishing, Galatians 3:8. And the scripture for seeing that God would justify the heathen through faith. He preached the gospel, I say, preach the gospel before Abraham. What is Paul pointing out here? That this was God's intention and God's purpose all the way back in the book of Genesis. Everything that we've known and that we've studied and that we've taught to our children generation after generation after generation after generation. It's not that we would just be a covenant people with God, but the covenant of God and the blessing of God that would be applied over our life and applied to our children and our children's children would be as many for those that are afar off, even as many as our Lord our God shall call. God's mindset with blessing his people was always to move it forward. God's plan was always moving towards Jesus. And then watch what happens, Galatians 3, 13 through 14. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham, everybody say the blessing might come to the Gentile. So now we go from God making a promise to Abraham and to his descendants and his generation, but also now he's saying I'm expanding that promise because I have more than just a covenant people. I didn't die just for my covenant people, but I died for everyone that was born now and everyone that would be born because all of humanity, all of the earth belongs to me. And if they choose that, if they so choose to love me, then I'm willing to go hang on a tree. Even if it's just at the chance that they'll love me back and they'll enter into a covenant relationship with me. I'm not just gonna hold it off for a certain people, but I'm gonna blow this thing wide open, and every Gentile and every Samaritan and every person that's far from me to the uttermost parts of the earth will have access to me and have access to promise and have access to eternity. That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Abraham, nations, Christ, the Spirit. Now, this is where this message becomes deeply apostolic because we weren't just blessed with finances or an amazing facility or great opportunities here. We have received the Spirit of God, not just to rest in this house, not just to rest on the Ark of the Covenant, but to be inside of these temples. We have received the Spirit, and even that blessing isn't supposed to terminate with us. He said, out of your bellies would flow what? Rivers flow. Rivers flow. The spirit that's on the inside of you was not to meant to be a reservoir and a dam that holds up the spirit of God inside of you, so you just might coast it to the kingdom of heaven. But it was supposed to be a mighty river that flowed out of you, that everywhere that you go, that the spirit of God within make an impact. But we'll talk about that later. The spirit, the Pentecost was never just about look what I felt, but the Spirit empowers God's people to participate in his mission. And then Peter talks about this too. Remember what we heard in Exodus that you're a holy people and a royal priesthood. Doesn't that sound familiar in 1 Peter 2 and 9? But you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. He didn't stop it chosen, he didn't stop it royal, he didn't stop it holy. He goes that you would show forth the light. Identity carries a vocation. Identity carries a vocation, and we've been called out of darkness, so something about him can be shown through us. Peter says in verse 12 that people outside of the covenant should be able to behold your good works and again what? Ultimately glorify God. So holiness isn't what I just refuse to participate in. I don't speak that way. I don't dress like that. I don't watch those kind of things. That's not the encompass of what holiness is. Holiness isn't what just I refuse to participate in, it's also what does my life reveal about the God that I belong to? It's not just saying I stay away from certain things as a people, a covenant to God, but what does my life reveal about the God that I belong to? This is where mission and holiness meeting. So here's the question. What are we building? Church. What are we building? Because I believe God is going to bless this church. I believe God's gonna send people, I believe God's gonna raise leaders, I believe God's gonna call ministers, I believe God's gonna restore families, I believe God's gonna birth ministries from this place. But when he does, because he will, when he does, what are we going to do with the blessing? Hypothetically, let's just roll with this for a minute. Suppose God sends us incredible young leaders, and they're here, but ten years from now God calls them to plant a church. Do we say, but we need you here? This ministry wouldn't run without you, this system wouldn't work without you. Or do we go from the we need you here? Could you make this place work? Or do we say, okay, thank you for 10 beautiful years here? Thank you for the lives that you sown into. But we're not just gonna send you, but we're gonna bless you in the sending. We're gonna help you plant that church, we're gonna help you financially. And if you need people to help you plant that church and God lays it on their heart, we're gonna bless all of you to go. Why? Because we're never meant to contain the blessings of God. There may be people here that God sends for a time and for a season, but when God says go and He blesses the going, we better bless the going also. Suppose God raises a missionary here, there's a young person, and they live their entire life here, and at the stroke of 21, God lays it upon their heart and gives them visions and dreams of a people that they don't know, but it keeps them awake at night, it stirs their spirit. Do we clutch them tighter? Or do we say, go and we'll bless you in the going? And suppose God develops someone here who eventually becomes a blessing to another church. Do we lose them? No, because it multiplies. The blessing keeps moving. Everybody say that together. The blessing keeps moving. Kingdom growth isn't only measured by how many people God sends to us. Let me say that again. Kingdom growth isn't only measured by how many people God sends to us, because sometimes it's measured how many people were healthy enough for to send from us. That is what apostolic, being apostolic truly is. Apostolic means to be sent. And if we are to be sent here and called to be apostolic in who we are in doctrine and in nature, then therefore we must also be called a church who is willing to send the blessings of God that we have so received. I'm telling you right now, we will love people deeply. We'll pastor them, we'll disciple them, we'll protect them, we will feed them, we will invest in them, we will love the ever-loving fire out of them while God has entrusted us to us and they're in this flock. But we will love them deeply without possessing them tightly because they're not ours, they're his, they're always his. What did he ask Abraham to do with Isaac? He said, take the boy up the mount and sacrifice him, lay him down on the altar and give him back to me. Was God gonna go through with it? We know that answer was no, but Abraham didn't. The problem with Abraham is that Abraham fell in love with the blessing and got distracted from the one who gave him the blessing and gave him the covenant and gave him the promise. Church, hear me clearly. We have to keep our eyes on the one who has blessed us so richly. We can love, we can love the building that we have, we can love the land that we have, we can love everything that we have in here so much and the programs that we have so much that we get distracted for the one who sent us into this mission into the first place. And so, what did Abraham God ask Abraham to do? He said, I want you to give Isaac back to me. At some point, one way or another, there has to be a moment defining in your spirit that I will not love this ministry more than I love the God that gave me this ministry. I will not love this church more than the God that gave me this church and gave me this people and gave me this blessings because what will happen eventually in our spiritual maturity, at some point, God's gonna say, I need you to turn around and give it to someone else. Sometimes the hardest thing to put on the altar is something that God gave you. It's something that God gave you and God promised you. As I'm wrapping up here. Maybe the question this morning isn't, God, what do you need to give me? And I know some of you have walked into this place and you you have a real need from God, and I believe He's gonna answer for it. But I believe the prevailing question this morning isn't, God, what do you need to give to me? We're a question this morning, God, what blessing am I holding on to so tightly that you're asking me to use to bless someone else? God, what am I holding on to? So tightly. And I'm trying to steward it well, but I've gone from stewarding to possessing, and you're asking me to use that to bless someone else. Is it my time? Is it my home? Is it my testimony? Is it my finances? Is it my abilities? Is it my influence? Is it my knowledge of scripture? Is it my children? Is it my ministry? Is it my future? Maybe the prayer is anymore, Lord, give me more, but maybe it's Lord, everything you give me, everything you've given me is now available to you. I'm so convicted this morning. God, let that be the prayer and the cry and the heartbeat of this church. Is that God, everything you've given us, thank you. Thank you for every blessing, thank you for every family, thank you for every person, thank you for every resource that we have, thank you for everything that we have. But God, it's yours and it's available to you. See it and use it and spend it as you see fit. This is your house, God, because that's the difference between the tower and the altar. The tower says, This is mine, and look what I've built. But the altar is yours, God. You do what you see fit. You are the king of this kingdom, and this is the king's domain, so therefore let what the king says in his domain happen. This is your house, you built it, you're the cornerstone. So you say what goes on in this house. Whatever brings you glory. So I turn it from the individual now to the church. I want to ask us this together as a church. Whatever God's speaking to you individually right now, hold on to that, your spirit. But as a body, I want to ask us a question now. How is this city of Zachary and the surrounding areas different? Because God planted this church here. Not Zachary and the surrounding areas know our name. Babel wanted their name known. But I want something better for this community. God wants something better for this community. The heartbeat of this church, you can hear it and you can feel it and you can see it. We want something better for this city and the surrounding areas. Here's what we want because this church exists in the city of Zachary. I want more people and you want more people to know the name of Jesus. And if God sends them here, we're gonna love them. We're gonna disciple them, we're gonna raise them up. And if he wants to send them back out, we're gonna bless them on their way. Because we're not building a tower here. We're done with this Western ideology of church. I'm done building beautiful churches and great systems for the sake of great systems and great churches. If you want to do that, go pick up the latest book on the church on the Christian store shelf. I'm here to build a church that says, God, it was all yours in the first place. So here I am. Here's my life, here's my marriage, here's my children, here's my finances, here's my talents, my giftings, abilities, here's everything that I have. Because if I live in this city, what about is this city better because I live in it? Is this church? Is this city better because this church exists in it? And God, whatever you send me, I'm gonna thank you for the blessing, but I'm not gonna hold on to it too tightly and white-knuckled. If God calls, I want my kids to stay here and I want them to serve in ministry here one day. But if God calls Zane and He calls Maverick and He calls little Hazel and He says, You gotta send them because there's a world that needs them. I'm gonna cry my balls out of them, but you can expect I'm gonna empty my bank account and I'm gonna say, Sweetie, you go and you bless the nations. You go preach the gospel. That has to be the heartbeat of this church. Can you hear the heartbeat of the father in the house right now? We want to make a difference in this city. I've heard it in your voices, I've heard it in your stories, I've heard it in your testimonies, and this is how we do it. We build altars and we let go. Sounds counterintuitive. I like the flashy systems, I like the good things. I don't like building altars. They're ugly, they're painful. But Calvary was ugly and painful, and if the model that he built his church on and he built his sacrifice on, we can't change that up. Sometimes we'll change the method, but the message has to stay the same. Because you gave God what we give. Because you invested and you poured your life out. God, this is our city, this is our home. We're gonna pour out and we're gonna invest. So, whatever the cost, I count it all as lost because it's yours. God told Abraham, I'll bless you. But what the very next thing he said is that you would be a blessing. So, church, may God bless this house. May he fill it, may he send families, may he send your families and your prodigals, may he send resources to your families and to this house, may he send leaders within the house and from outside the house. May he pour out his spirit in this house and in our homes and in our schools and everywhere that we have Bible studies. May He fill every ditch that we've spent these weeks preparing and digging out, but may we never forget this: that the water was never ours in the first place. What God sent was never ours in the first place. I love you, and I love the people that walk in that door, but they're not ours. The blessing was never ours to possess forever. We're stewards. So whatever he gives, whatever he gives, it has to stay available to him. So we trust with little, we trust with much. If God can trust you with a little bit, and you learn the practice of taking it back to an altar, God can bless you with more. But with greater blessing comes greater sacrifice. The prophet Biggie said it will more money, more problems. But I wonder if you're you're wondering why God's not blessing your finances, it's because you're holding on too tightly what he's already given you. You wonder why God's not blessing the ministry that you're a part of. Maybe you're holding on to it tightly and the responsibilities too tightly, and God's asking you to disciple more than he's asking you to accomplish perfect ministry. I wonder what it is in your heart right now that God is speaking so clearly and so plainly to you that you've been holding on to for so long that He's simply saying, I just want you to lay it back down because I want you to trust me with it. I've got more for you. I've got more. God make us a blessed people who never stop being a blessing. Stand across this house this morning. You know why the Dead Sea is called the Dead Sea? It has a whole lot of inlets, and it has a whole lot of places that water flows into it, but the Dead Sea has nowhere that water flows out of. God forbid that we become a church like that, that we ask him and we carve out all the right things. We've got all the right ministries for for for individual discipleship, for marriages, for children, for leadership, for for everything involved and making church culture happen in the proper way. But we never turn around and say, Okay, God, we dug those ditches that when you do send the rain, they come here, but we too solved is that we pulled this thing up too much and we built a dam and a reservoir, and this never longer becomes living water. Nothing can live in the Dead Sea because the salinity levels are too high. May we not become a church like that. That we ask God to send, to send, to send, but we never turn around and look behind us, and that there's a mighty river flowing from where we are. I want to be the kind of church that is great at everything that we do, but not for the sake of being a great, but for the sake of being, come in, come in your brokenness, come in your hurting. You could be a part of this house, but if so choose God's sins to send you into the sit this city or the surrounding cities or the neighboring state or the neighboring nation or to another church that needs a worship leader, that needs a pastor, that needs another minister, that needs a youth pastor. We're gonna be the ones that send it. We're gonna look back and we're gonna see a legacy that was birthed out of this place that only God Himself could author. So here's what I ask you, church, this morning: two things as an individual right now, evaluate. I know God's speaking to you in this place because he's speaking to me. What am I holding on to so tightly, so white-knuckled, that I'm afraid of if I let that blessing go and I trust God with it that it'll no longer be there. Then I ask us as a church, is this city better? Is this area better? Because we exist. I don't have a traditional altar call for you today. This is uncomfortable, and this is ugly kind of prayer that needs to happen. So whether you come find a place at this altar, or you turn around and you tear and you saturate your seat with tears right now, God is in this house, and he's asking us to build altars today, he's asking us to build monuments to the blessings that he has given us, not that we can show off how great all this other stuff is and how great we are because God has blessed us, but he's asking us to build monuments that are altars to lay those things back down on the job that you have. I'm thankful for it. But I wonder what God is asking you to lay it back down at his feet, your family, your marriage, your children. God, would you begin to speak so clearly in this house this morning? I don't come to you as a pastor, but I come to you as your child. God, I need my father to speak in his own house. I need him to show himself, I need his word and his direction and his guidance. Help me to see, help me to evaluate my heart, search every closet and every door. God, search me and know me. And God, place my life upon the scales and what you've asked me to give, and what you've asked me to lay down at this altar. The same voice that speaks love also speaks conviction. So, God, with your love and conviction, speak into my life this morning. What is it you want me to give back to you? What ministry, what time, what resource? You hear that still small voice? He's speaking to you right now. God's asking some of you to walk out of this place and lay some things down. Young man, young woman, I know you love that sport, but if you feel like God's saying lay it down because it's so it's taken up too much of your time, and God has more for you, and he wants you to be effective at reaching your school in other ways, it's gonna hurt for a moment, but I'm telling you, the blessing and the reward on the other side of it is greater. Husbands, wives, if that job and those extra hours are drawing you too much away from your family, and you feel guilty and you feel convicted every time that you walk through the shadows of those doors at that workplace, because you're not able to be home and disciple your children, and you're not able to raise the world changers that you want to raise. Maybe God is asking you to come back on some overtime and some extra ships and trust him with your finances because there are some things in the grand scheme of things that matter more in eternal life. Some of you are have reached a place with your sobriety that you feel like you've maken it and everything's okay. But I wonder if God is asking you to turn around and to start ministering to those who were once in the situation that you were in. Maybe you've been wrestling and you've been struggling and you've been worried that you'll relapse and that you'll fall back. But if you trust God with the testimony and the blessing that he's been giving you, God will make more and multiply out of the blessing he's given you than you can fathom, imagine or thing. Let me prophesy in this house this morning that God is asking you to give up some things, but whatever asking, whatever tower he's asking you to strike down this morning, God will return to you in time and in finances and in family and in blessing. You will not have to worry, you will not have to be concerned about where bills are gonna get paid and things are to get taken care of, but God will take care of you as a father takes care of his child, as a shepherd takes care of his sheep. Hear the voice and the word of the Lord this morning. If you trust him, he will pour what you owe pouring out of open hands, he will pour back into you, pressed down and shaken together and pouring over in your life. Church, I don't have anything more for you this morning. If you've got to leave, I understand. If you've got work to get to, if you've got things to get to. But if God is asking you to stay for just a moment longer and linger in his presence, linger. I'll stay here as long as you need. We'll keep the building on and the lights on and the AC lawn as long as you need. Whatever you need to lay on the altar this morning, you lay it on the altar. You lay it down, lay those blessings down. God reward AC. We love you. Midweek Tuesday at seven. The youth will be back here for small group at six. They're gonna have a great time. But for those of you who want to stay and pray, this is a house of prayer.