SPEAKER_00: The year was 2005.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: Close?
SPEAKER_00: The year was 2005.
SPEAKER_00: Living in Houston at the time, and I was given an assignment to go to the airport, Intercontinental Airport.
SPEAKER_00: Our pastor was the chaplain for the entire airport system in Houston.
SPEAKER_00: And so there was a task that he had assigned to me to go to the airport.
SPEAKER_00: And he specifically told me, when you get there, you're going to go into the United Desk, the check-in desk, and you're going to ask for this person.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, okay.
SPEAKER_00: He said, and you're going to tell them that you're here on my behalf and that you're to complete the assignment they have for me today.
SPEAKER_00: I can't be there, but you're going to complete it for me.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Oh, okay, sure, I'll do it.
SPEAKER_00: So I drove to the airport.
SPEAKER_00: Coolest thing ever.
SPEAKER_00: Drove to the airport.
SPEAKER_00: I got to park.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can't park close to an airport ever.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever like you ever have to pick somebody up at the airport and you're there like 10 minutes early?
SPEAKER_00: You just loop around.
SPEAKER_00: You do the loop.
SPEAKER_00: And if you dare stop for one second, the kindest person in Chicago has a whistle.
SPEAKER_00: Move it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, they're right there.
SPEAKER_00: I can see them.
SPEAKER_00: I can see them with their bags right there.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
SPEAKER_00: Keep moving.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, just some of the things that get me during picking people up at the airport.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, that's not the story I'm telling.
SPEAKER_00: So I go to the airport, I get to park right next to the terminal.
SPEAKER_00: I walk in and I get to the desk.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, um, I'm here on behalf of uh Pastor Brett Jones, and uh he has an assignment that you're requiring of him.
SPEAKER_00: He's unable to make it, but I'm here in his stead.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Excellent.
SPEAKER_00: Tell me your name.
SPEAKER_00: So I told them my name that I'm like, all right, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Colgrove.
SPEAKER_00: And they gave me this badge.
SPEAKER_00: It was a big ID lanyard, and I put it over my neck and they said, Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, whenever we get to a spot where there's security, just raise that badge up.
SPEAKER_00: I said, okay.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, this is gonna be fun.
SPEAKER_00: Now I love airports, I love to fly.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the type that when we do travel, I like to get there early.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone get there early with me?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, get there early.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss a flight.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna miss a flight because I'm gonna be there on time to check my bag.
SPEAKER_00: The one I travel with sometimes isn't like that.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not mean.
SPEAKER_00: That's not mean.
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't I would travel with no one else, but I would also like to get there one hour early if possible.
SPEAKER_00: So we start walking.
SPEAKER_00: I follow, I follow the guy for a minute, and he says, Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, all right, so I'm following him.
SPEAKER_00: And uh he gets to the first door, first check area, and he just holds a badge up.
SPEAKER_00: So I hold my badge up.
SPEAKER_00: We walk straight through.
SPEAKER_00: We get back around, there's a door.
SPEAKER_00: He says, All right, get ready.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Okay, he holds his badge up.
SPEAKER_00: An officer taps the door, door opens.
SPEAKER_00: I go into the back of an airport, like the terminal, the gate area.
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm like, this is where no one ever gets to go.
SPEAKER_00: It's like we find our way, we get to the gate, we meet the gentleman that's arriving, I meet with him, I pray with him, I walk with him to his next gate to move him to the next spot.
SPEAKER_00: All that to say, I realized on that trip that all I was doing was what I was told to do.
SPEAKER_00: I was told to report, introduce myself, get a badge, raise a badge, show a badge, do what I'm supposed to do, and then be on my way for the day.
SPEAKER_00: And I realized that when I, as long as I was doing my part, every other part fell in place.
SPEAKER_00: The door opened when it was supposed to open.
SPEAKER_00: I got through security the way I was supposed to get through security.
SPEAKER_00: I was get to the gate like I had never got to the gate before, all the way through the back kind of uh back edge and under the behind the scenes area of the airport.
SPEAKER_00: And I got there and I was able to meet with that gentleman, pray with him, and then went on my way.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, it's so interesting to me.
SPEAKER_00: Like for certain tasks, when somebody tells us what to do and how to do it and where to do it, it's so simple.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes God's words tells us what to do, how to do it, and where to do it, and we struggle with it.
SPEAKER_00: And I realize if I would just learn to do my part, God will always do his part.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you turn your neighbor and say, we about to do our part?
SPEAKER_00: And then tap the neighbor you've been ignoring and just say, You look great today.
SPEAKER_00: Just kindness.
SPEAKER_00: Just a little kindness, so a little kindness.
SPEAKER_00: Well, church, here we are.
SPEAKER_00: We're in week three of our series entitled Increase.
SPEAKER_00: As we make our way to Giving Tuesday on December 2nd.
SPEAKER_00: And it's our vision to advance the kingdom, to advance the vision of the church forward exponentially in just one day of generous above and beyond giving on December 2nd.
SPEAKER_00: And as I stand here to preach this series of increase to you, and man, what a week we had last week with Pastor Robbie.
SPEAKER_00: Just such a powerful message about removing the rocks out of the field because the rocks are what is gonna choke up the harvest in our life if we're not careful.
SPEAKER_00: And just I hope you've had a week of just investing in your life and getting rid of rocks.
SPEAKER_00: And what I'm gonna tell you is when you get rid of some, more are gonna come forward because that's what happens when we churn the ground of our hearts up, more rocks come forward.
SPEAKER_00: It's not punishing us, it's just our opportunity to get rid of what doesn't matter in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we stand on this deal, I really felt like as I was preparing yesterday on Thursday, finalizing my notes.
SPEAKER_00: I've I've spent a great deal of time in this message this week.
SPEAKER_00: And as I was finalizing my notes, I just felt the Holy Spirit as I was writing the word increase just hit me with some words for increase.
SPEAKER_00: And I just felt like the Holy Ghost was telling us get ready for supernatural harvest, get ready for greater harvest, and get ready for greater abundance in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to encourage you like there's something powerful that happens at the intersection of obedience and at the intersection of expectancy.
SPEAKER_00: That when obedience and expectancy come together, that is the grounds for the miraculous increase in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And I've said it here often, I've said it for years, that the atmosphere of expectancy is the breeding ground of the miraculous.
SPEAKER_00: And so if we can just like you have to know this, when you walk in obedience, when you do what God's word says, when you do live by his commands, you have a divine right to expect that God will do exactly as he's promised.
SPEAKER_00: You have the passcode, you have the ID lanyard to walk into situations with victory because God's promised victory.
SPEAKER_00: Our key verse is Psalm 65 and 10.
SPEAKER_00: It says, You drench the plowed ground with rain, melting the clods and leveling the ridges.
SPEAKER_00: You soften the earth with showers and bless its abundant crops.
SPEAKER_00: David is talking to us and he's he's laying out this idea of divine partnership.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells us that it is God's responsibility to send the rain, to bless the crops, and to bring the increase in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And that is God's part, but we also have a part in this divine partnership.
SPEAKER_00: And David is implying for us that we have to plow the ground, we have to remove the rocks, and then we have to plant the seed.
SPEAKER_00: And so we do what we can do so God can do what we cannot do.
SPEAKER_00: And there's something that happens.
SPEAKER_00: The gap between my ability and God's abundance is where the miraculous increase takes place in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Like the miracle doesn't happen until I do what I'm supposed to do to get to the miracle.
SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, well, I'm not even gonna say that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna keep preaching.
SPEAKER_00: Let me stay in the notes.
SPEAKER_00: So God assigns to us in this divine partnership, uh, he gives us a formula.
SPEAKER_00: And Genesis 8.22 says, during all the days of the earth, seed, time, and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, do not cease.
SPEAKER_00: God is letting us know that in order for us to operate in his kingdom, we have to understand seasons and times.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he says that there is a seed, time and harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have this revelation this week because I've always heard it preached, and you can read it maybe in your version of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It might be in the NIV or in the New King James Version, it will say seed time as one word.
SPEAKER_00: And I've always heard it preached as seed time and harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's two things that happen that's the seed planting season and the harvesting season.
SPEAKER_00: But as I was studying and reading, I it just was revealed to me that it's seed time and harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that we plant the seed and then there's this time that takes place before the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, students, you're in this arena right now.
SPEAKER_00: I know you are.
SPEAKER_00: You can cram for an exam and pass the test, but you cannot cram for a harvest.
SPEAKER_00: You don't plant a seed today and expect a harvest today.
SPEAKER_00: You plant a seed in the planting season and expect a harvest after a certain amount of time.
SPEAKER_00: And that time is where God's working on you while the seed is working in the ground.
SPEAKER_00: So in everything created, there is a seed.
SPEAKER_00: In everything created, there is a seed.
SPEAKER_00: And men, you know, the fall season's amazing around here because we have this uh, we have, man, the Midwest, we're blessed with delicious apples.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we go to the we go to the farm and pick a bushel of apples or pick up a bushel of apples, and man, there's something, you go to the farmer's market, and these apples, I mean, I don't know who named them delicious, but they were right.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of those things like when Adam and Eve were given the responsibility to name all the animals, like the they got the apple right, I will tell you that.
SPEAKER_00: They're like delicious, delicious.
SPEAKER_00: But what's interesting to me is it is delicious.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you enjoy the fruit, and we are we are created, and actually the harvest is created for us to enjoy the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And so eat the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: But if you if you can just slow down for a second, because in everything created there is a seed.
SPEAKER_00: So in this apple, there is a seed, and oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: In the apple, there is a seed, and there ain't there may only be about six seeds in every apple.
SPEAKER_00: But can I tell you something?
SPEAKER_00: There is an entire orchard in every seed, and so I would compel you don't eat the seed.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the fruit, do not eat the seed.
SPEAKER_00: The seed is not a snack, it's your future.
SPEAKER_00: You're praying for increase, but the increase is locked up in the seed you're unwilling or afraid to plant.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 8 tells us a little bit of the story about seed time and harvest.
SPEAKER_00: It says this now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace, everybody say grace, that God has given the Macedonian churches in the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy, and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me set the stage.
SPEAKER_00: What's happening in Jerusalem is there's a famine.
SPEAKER_00: And because of the famine, the Jews, they're they're struggling.
SPEAKER_00: But the churches all around the region begin to help out the Jews and send offerings to them to help them.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, but he's talking about the Macedonian church because that church, even though they, look what it says, it says in severe trial, that in extreme poverty, in difficulty, something stirred within them to be generous and to give to the need.
SPEAKER_00: And it is amazing to me that they gave as much as they were able, beyond their ability, urgently and willingly, because they first had given themselves to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul tells them in the next verse, all the way down to verse 7, he says that just like you excel in every other gift, I want you to excel in the grace of giving.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting to me that phrase grace of giving.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're used to applying God's grace when we sin.
SPEAKER_00: When we sin, we're like, oh, but by the grace of God, my sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard people say, well, what good is grace if you can't use it?
SPEAKER_00: But the idea is this that we we we have an expression of grace when it comes to salvation.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul's saying the same grace that saves is the same grace that's on you to give.
SPEAKER_00: Whether there be a bountiful harvest, whether you sit in riches, or whether, like the Macedonians, you struggle and are in poverty, you can still give.
SPEAKER_00: Because giving is not something God demands, it's something that God graces.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to give, but you are graced to give.
SPEAKER_00: So that pushes me to keep going.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I normally have one or two or three points that I'm gonna give you, and I'm gonna give them, but not right now.
SPEAKER_00: So just stick with I'm preaching and then I'll give you the point because I didn't want you to lose track.
SPEAKER_00: See, you don't give to earn salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That was already purchased.
SPEAKER_00: And at free church, you don't give to earn your membership.
SPEAKER_00: It's called free church.
SPEAKER_00: But we give because we understand what's been done for us is worthy of us giving back.
SPEAKER_00: And when we give, we unlock the resources of heaven in our life, pressed down, running over, and shaken together for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: See, if you knew the Bible, you know that's a verse.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 9.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this.
SPEAKER_00: Now he who supplies seed to the sower, so who does God give seed to?
SPEAKER_00: People that sow.
SPEAKER_00: And bread for food.
SPEAKER_00: This is why I'm telling you, don't eat the seed.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's going to give you the seed to sow, but he's also gonna give you the bread for food.
SPEAKER_00: And he will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge increase the harvest of your righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's saying that that, listen, you if you give, you you got to see in everything there is a seed.
SPEAKER_00: So if you need forgiveness, you sow forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: If you need mercy in your life, you show mercy to others.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you need a friend, be a friend.
SPEAKER_00: Like sow the seed.
SPEAKER_00: Because in everything there is a seed.
SPEAKER_00: Because you cannot reap where you do not sow.
SPEAKER_00: And you cannot sow what you've already eaten.
SPEAKER_00: So the seed in your hand may look very insignificant, but the harvest is great in God's hands.
SPEAKER_00: And I started to think about this idea.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've told this before around here, dollar bill, it's not much.
SPEAKER_00: Even today's standard, it's less than what it used to be.
SPEAKER_00: I remember when I could buy a whole tank of gas for less than five dollars, go inside, get a Coke and a Kit Kat, and still have a couple of dimes left.
SPEAKER_00: That's the world I lived in, sorry guys.
SPEAKER_00: But you also make about five times more an hour than I did when I got my first job.
SPEAKER_00: So there's that.
SPEAKER_00: But the dollar, I've told this before, there's a gather gathering of denominations.
SPEAKER_00: It was a dollar bill, a$10 bill, a$20 bill, and a$100 bill.
SPEAKER_00: And the$100 bill is like, man, you can't believe the week I've had.
SPEAKER_00: I've been to Disney, I've been to Vegas, I've been all over the man, what a what a week.
SPEAKER_00: $100 bills.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I had the best week of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Disney, Vegas, man.
SPEAKER_00: The$20 bill is, that sounds pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00: You man, I've been to Target.
SPEAKER_00: The$10 bill is like, that's cool.
SPEAKER_00: I've been to Starbucks a few times this week, and the dollar bill is like, I've been to church.
SPEAKER_00: That was supposed to be funny.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't tell it good enough.
SPEAKER_00: I'll work on it for next service.
SPEAKER_00: This is supposed to be a joke.
SPEAKER_00: The guilty flea when no man pursues.
SPEAKER_00: But the dollar, you know, it's not incredibly, it doesn't do a lot by itself, but when you break it down, then you get a dime.
SPEAKER_00: Ten of them.
SPEAKER_00: And a dime in the hand of a banker is just a column filler on the wrong side of the decimal point.
SPEAKER_00: But a dime in God's hands unlocks a doorway and becomes a seed for a greater harvest.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why, this is why parents, this is why you need to teach your kids to tithe on their first dollar.
SPEAKER_00: And on every dollar for commission for whatever they get, whether you call it commission or allowances, but teach them to tithe on those early dollars so that the Lord, when the Lord starts blessing them with tens of thousands of dollars, they already understand the principle of increase and the principle of the sower.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, students, when we give on Giving Tuesday, this is not something for all the adults to give to.
SPEAKER_00: This is something for you to invest in.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not about equal gifts, it's about equal sacrifice, it's about 100% participation, everybody from their own way, given above and beyond our own ability.
SPEAKER_00: But I thought about this that when you are faithful in little, you become a ruler in much.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you can work your way, whatever your giving standard is for your life.
SPEAKER_00: If you give 10%, keep giving 10%, and then for giving Tuesday, give above and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not giving 10%, find a faithful point to begin giving consistently, weekly, whatever you get paid, like whatever the increase is in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Find that space so you can participate.
SPEAKER_00: And then on giving Tuesday, do something you've never done.
SPEAKER_00: Give above and beyond you've ever got.
SPEAKER_00: Because I promise you, here's the principle of the source is this you have to plant the seed.
SPEAKER_00: You have to plant the seed.
SPEAKER_00: The second principle of the source is this you have to plant it with the right attitude.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just give it because I'm asking and we're compelling and we're casting vision to give.
SPEAKER_00: Give it with the right attitude.
SPEAKER_00: All right, I got five minutes to wrap this up.
SPEAKER_00: You ready?
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 50.
SPEAKER_00: David's writing, listen, my people.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, this is God speaking.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I will speak.
SPEAKER_00: I will testify.
SPEAKER_00: This is God speaking to David.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, my people, and I will speak.
SPEAKER_00: I will testify against you, Israel.
SPEAKER_00: I am God, your God.
SPEAKER_00: I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You're giving and your sacrifice, and they're ever before me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not bringing you a charge against that, but this is what you need to know.
SPEAKER_00: I have no need of a bull from you, your stall, or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.
SPEAKER_00: I know every bird on the mountains and the insects in the fields are mine.
SPEAKER_00: If I were hungry, if I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all that is within it.
SPEAKER_00: This is what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: David is telling us, God is telling us and reminding us that he doesn't really need our help to accomplish what he's going to accomplish.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling us, listen, if I were hungry, I wouldn't ask you for food because I own all the cattle on the hill.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I own the hill.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, better yet, I own the entire world.
SPEAKER_00: So the reality is giving doesn't change God, giving changes me.
SPEAKER_00: I give because the attitude I give with re is I'm giving because I'm reminded the price Jesus paid for my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm more like God when I give because He so loved the world that He gave.
SPEAKER_00: And it is the antidote to materialism in my life when I give.
SPEAKER_00: Money answers all things.
SPEAKER_00: It is the love of money that is the root of all evil.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 13, 3 says this, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and I have not charity, it profit me nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I think there are those of us in this room that when we give, we're not giving with the right attitude.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't see the blessing and the favor of God on our finances and in our life because we we're giving with we're we're giving out somebody's compelled us to give.
SPEAKER_00: Or we're giving because we're like we're afraid if we don't give, what's gonna happen in our life?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, there's a grace to giving.
SPEAKER_00: And like God's not gonna love you less if you don't give, but I will tell you, when you give, it changes you for how God looks in your life.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's why we we have to we have to get into the space.
SPEAKER_00: If you pursue increase for personal gain, you'll always be a consumer.
SPEAKER_00: But when you learn to pursue increase so that you can be a blessing to others, we're blessed to be a blessing, you become a sower.
SPEAKER_00: And and and that's why Proverbs 11:24, it says, one person gives freely yet gains even more, and another withholds unduly yet comes to pro poverty.
SPEAKER_00: It is true, the world of the generous grows larger and larger.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's word.
SPEAKER_00: This is not my word.
SPEAKER_00: Because let me just tell you this the enemy is not afraid of your soil, the enemy is not afraid of your field, and the enemy is not afraid of the plow that you work the ground with.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy is afraid of your seed.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because 1 Peter 2.23 tells us, no, that's not it.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 2.23 tells us that we were saved by an incorruptible seed.
SPEAKER_00: When God speaks to Adam and Eve in the serpent in the garden, he tells Eve, he says, Listen, your seed will crush his head.
SPEAKER_00: He may bruise your heel, but your seed will crush his head.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy knows the power of the seed.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the power of the ground, it's not the power of the plow, it's the power of the seed.
SPEAKER_00: It is the power of the seed.
SPEAKER_00: And every time God's people sow good seed into good ground, hell loses again.
SPEAKER_00: And in this moment that we're leaning into on December 2nd, I will tell you this: there is a seed in you, there is a seed to work through you, and it is about to provide an increase that will shake this region.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the seed looks like as it's being produced.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like world-class space in our lower level for our kids and our students to experience God's promises declared for generations to come.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like revival on Oak Park and River Forest campus through young life as we invest into our students in this not next generation, but this now generation.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like literal seed going to Columbia so that we can train and equip farmers and agriculture and then empower women for sustainable trades.
SPEAKER_00: That's what your seed looks like if you if you plant it.
SPEAKER_00: But I'll tell you this the seed will always be seed in your hand.
SPEAKER_00: But when you plant it, it becomes your future.
SPEAKER_00: Can you receive that word today?