SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, Multiply.
SPEAKER_00: How are we doing today?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're back for round two.
SPEAKER_00: First, I just want to say a thank you to Forrest and the leadership here, the team, everybody who makes this thing happen for inviting me back.
SPEAKER_00: I'm grateful every time I get to come to spend time with my extended family here at Multiply.
SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to give you all kudos.
SPEAKER_00: This smells a lot better than the movie theater.
SPEAKER_00: So this is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, right?
SPEAKER_00: So amen.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is this is great.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just amazed at what God has done in such a short amount of time.
SPEAKER_00: Um, as Forrest said, I remember uh meeting him by happenstance, really.
SPEAKER_00: God ordained, I think, uh friendship.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it was just all of a vision, and to think how far that vision has come in such a short amount of time just gets me excited about what the future holds for this place.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I think uh God wants to do amazing things to the people in this room, and that's what this series is all about.
SPEAKER_00: Um I do want to give a caveat.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you are snarling at me.
SPEAKER_00: This is the only jacket I had, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh I am impartial.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a I'm from Georgia, and you know, it was 60 degrees in Georgia this week.
SPEAKER_00: So we went down to Georgia for Thanksgiving, and this is a light jacket, so I took it with me, and then we came back and got a hotel, so we didn't have to drive from Louisville.
SPEAKER_00: My wife's like, You didn't check the weather, did you?
SPEAKER_00: I was like, No, she said, it's gonna snow.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_00: And so, and I say, Well, good thing I brought my my red and black one versus the blue one that I have because uh, you know, I want to be on the winter's side this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's just all right.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're we're we're in this series called The Outpour, and and this whole series has been about, as Forrest said, uh generosity and just this call that we have as believers uh to be people that uh live generous lives and live open-handed with what God has uh given us ultimately towards his kingdom purposes.
SPEAKER_00: And today I just want to echo everything that you've already heard, and I just want to add another principle to you too, belt.
SPEAKER_00: And that principle this morning is giving above and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: As we dive in this morning, I think it's important, though, um to remind ourselves that though our subject matter this morning is centered around the idea of money and our resources and how we steward those well, ultimately what we're talking about today is the call and the cost of what it means to be a disciple and to live a kingdom lifestyle here and now as we wait for the eternal kingdom to come.
SPEAKER_00: And so before we uh begin to talk about giving above and beyond, we have to first know uh what it means to live above and beyond this world and all the desires that come with being here on earth and these present here United States that are all about ourselves and what we can consume and what we can get.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta be a people that are grounded in something different, and so we gotta have the right foundation.
SPEAKER_00: I believe our foundation as believers can be summed up a number of ways, but I'd like to sum it up through these two verses.
SPEAKER_00: The first foot of our foundation comes from Matthew 12, verses 30 through 31.
SPEAKER_00: You know these.
SPEAKER_00: It says this love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
SPEAKER_00: The second is this love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: There is no commandment greater than these.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we begin to think about what it means to outpour, as we begin to think about what it means to give above and beyond, we have to ground our left foot down firmly in a deep loving commitment to God, in a deep loving commitment to our neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: Our second foot, our right foot foundation, can be found in uh Philippians 3.20 when it says this, but we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: So from that foundation of a deep loving commitment and attachment to the Father, we also live with an eager anticipation for Christ to return.
SPEAKER_00: We we continuously, every day, set our eyes on the most beautiful world to come so that this temporal world doesn't take rain in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We continue to set our eyes on heaven and remind ourselves that what Christ will bring will be far better than anything that I could ever accumulate for myself here.
SPEAKER_00: So I hold loosely to my dreams and to the potential that I think I have, and I set my eyes on what the kingdom of God says for the here and now.
SPEAKER_00: A firm foundation of being a kingdom-minded disciple.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews 12, the Bible tells us uh that along this faith journey, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: And it goes on uh to talk about that this cloud of witnesses helps us run the race with endurance.
SPEAKER_00: When it talks about this cloud of witnesses, it's talking about believers, saints of old that have come before us, that have modeled faith for us so that we might know which way to go.
SPEAKER_00: And so I thought as I think about giving above and beyond, I want to know what some saints of old have said about this topic of giving.
SPEAKER_00: So I did a little research.
SPEAKER_00: I want to share some of the quotes that I found from some awesome people that came before us.
SPEAKER_00: So if you all know uh C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis, C.
SPEAKER_00: S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis is a great author.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote the book Mere Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: He he helped a lot of people kind of come from a place of uh intellectualism into faith in his day, but he also uh wrote uh the Lion Witch and Wardrobe and so many other things.
SPEAKER_00: He did a great ministry, but here's what he said about giving.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give.
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Billy Graham, who helped start revival across the United States, here's what he said.
SPEAKER_00: God has given us two hands, one to receive and the other to give with.
SPEAKER_00: The late Tim Keller, who we lost recently, said this A lack of generosity refuses to acknowledge that your assets are not really yours, but God's.
SPEAKER_00: And then I love what uh Mother Teresa said.
SPEAKER_00: Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun, but she was a missionary.
SPEAKER_00: She cared for the least of these.
SPEAKER_00: She has a legacy that goes beyond so many things about her.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what she says Um, if you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's so powerful.
SPEAKER_00: And then I got one more quote.
SPEAKER_00: You probably heard this over Thanksgiving from your grandma, but she probably said this.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, baby, I'm blessed to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And she probably gave you a$20 handshake along the way.
SPEAKER_00: Here you go, baby.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, listen, I'll take the gas money anytime.
SPEAKER_00: You are blessed to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Please hand that over.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the reality of all this is that they're speaking to some core truths, even though they said different words.
SPEAKER_00: Here are some of those core truths.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is this is they speak to the principle that we all have been entrusted with resources.
SPEAKER_00: And listen to the word I said.
SPEAKER_00: I said we've all been entrusted with resources.
SPEAKER_00: At the foundation of everything about our lives is the truth that everything about us is an entrustment.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing about us actually belongs to us.
SPEAKER_00: The breath you breathe, the Bible tells us is the breath of God.
SPEAKER_00: So nothing about your life is yours.
SPEAKER_00: No, none of your money, none of your successes, not even your pain belongs to you.
SPEAKER_00: God has given you everything as an entrustment and he expects a return on investment.
SPEAKER_00: And so they speak to this idea that everything you have, whether it's one penny or one million pennies, as we heard earlier, it belongs to God, but he's entrusting it to you.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the foundational truths of Christian theology is that one day when we stand before God, he will ask us whose side you chose.
SPEAKER_00: Did you accept Jesus or did you deny Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: But he will also say, What did you do with the life that I gave you?
SPEAKER_00: And we want to be people ready for that question.
SPEAKER_00: The second foundational truth that they highlight is this is that they speak to the principle that no matter who you are, you all have something to give.
SPEAKER_00: That Mother Teresa quote hits me because there have been seasons where I've wanted to do for many what I could only do for one.
SPEAKER_00: But the opportunity came and the call was simply to be faithful to the one in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: And so no matter who you are in this room today, no matter how you got here, you got something that God has entrusted to you that can be multiplied, that can be given.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if you got a car with an extra seat, use it.
SPEAKER_00: Get somebody here, give somebody a ride.
SPEAKER_00: If you got two pennies, throw it in there, God will multiply it.
SPEAKER_00: If you got a handy skill that's rare that nobody has, you know how to fix lights or fix doors, come here volunteer, fix stuff.
SPEAKER_00: You have something to give.
SPEAKER_00: Live a life that multiplies.
SPEAKER_00: And then the third principle they speak of is that the principle that as all as believers, we have a mutual responsibility for each other.
SPEAKER_00: We have this mutual responsibility for each other with the idea that we want to honor God in the process.
SPEAKER_00: This mutual responsibility goes against many of the ways a lot of us have come to faith.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us came to faith and made a personal decision to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And everything about our faith journey was personally about us.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I gotta stop doing this sin, I gotta start going to that church, I gotta start reading my Bible, I gotta start praying more about my needs, I gotta start, I gotta start doing this, I gotta start doing that.
SPEAKER_00: But if you look through the history of the church and if you look through the word of God, one of the most compelling visions of the Christian faith is that you were saved out of this world into a new family.
SPEAKER_00: And so so much of what Jesus taught had a principle tied into it that your life meant something to somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we live honestly before each other.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we share our struggles because your success in your struggle is motivation for somebody a little bit behind you.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we look to the left and to the right, the needs around us, because what the money in your pocket might not be for McDonald's today, it may be to help somebody get home today.
SPEAKER_00: We have to live a life that is concerned with the whole of the body of Christ just as much as we're concerned with ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And so as you hear all of that today, I gotta ask the question Is this the place in which you understand your giving?
SPEAKER_00: Is your posture grounded in these ideals?
SPEAKER_00: Has your giving been shaped and motivated by your deep desire to honor God, or is it just a religious obligation?
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, has your giving been hindered because you've never considered what honoring God might mean in your giving?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe for some of you, this whole giving thing is new.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're new in your faith journey, maybe you're figuring this all out.
SPEAKER_00: And so you're like, hold on, bro, I don't even, I'm just learning.
SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you this right where you are.
SPEAKER_00: Just ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_00: Even if you came to faith yesterday, what would it mean for me to honor God with my giving today?
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to ask that question?
SPEAKER_00: Well, today I want to tackle some of this by looking at a scene towards the end of the ministry of Jesus in the book of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you're familiar with the book of Luke, uh theologians say that the book of Luke was likely written to reach rich people.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the book of Luke talks about money a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Like Luke highlights a lot of the parables and the times where Jesus was dealing with people about their possessions.
SPEAKER_00: Luke was probably pretty well off himself.
SPEAKER_00: Luke was a doctor.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things about Luke's life is that I believe is written in this book is that he is living, he is writing out how his own battle, his own journey of walking with Jesus when it comes to his own possessions.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times when we share our testimony, right, we're sharing the testimony of what God has done work in our life most.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's no coincidence that Luke wrote a lot about finances and money as a rich person because I believe Jesus did a lot of work in his life and reoriented a lot of his perspective on what it means to be a kingdom citizen.
SPEAKER_00: And so Luke spent a lot of time preaching and helping rich people come to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to share this with us.
SPEAKER_00: If you live in these here United States, you're rich.
SPEAKER_00: I know sometimes it can be hard to believe because we live in our own circumstance.
SPEAKER_00: This is why it's so important to live beyond ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: When you live beyond yourself, you begin to look around the world and see that man, like there are some people that don't even have a toilet.
SPEAKER_00: We mad at our toilet won't flush, right?
SPEAKER_00: Some people ain't even got no toilet.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're in this room with a shirt and shoes on your feet and you got water that you don't have to walk to a well to get, you're rich.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to receive these words today as somebody with extreme privilege and to begin to consider, God, how might I better understand the position you've placed me in for your kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be doing that from chapter 20.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to go ahead and start joining me there, we're gonna be in chapter 20, picking up in verse 45, and then we're gonna read over to chapter 21 through verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Now, up until this point, uh, Jesus has done a lot in his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is towards the end of his earthly ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And when you read through the book of Luke, which I encourage everybody to go do, um, Jesus has already talked about the principle of sowing and reaping.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that principle, uh, you reap what you sow, right?
SPEAKER_00: We we've all heard that used the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: All right, but ultimately the principle is this if you give faithfully, God is faithful to bless you.
SPEAKER_00: It may not sometimes come back as monetary as you let hope, but it will come back as a spiritual blessing for sure.
SPEAKER_00: And so you you give and you can expect to reap because God is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: We've already heard about this call to be uh good stewards.
SPEAKER_00: We've been entrusted with something.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Jesus has already taught about being good stewards.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has already made a bunch of people mad talking about how good the Samaritan was.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they've already encountered the rich young ruler who wanted to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It was all cool until Jesus said, Go sell all your stuff and come on.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh we've already met Zacchaeus, a tax collector, who got rich for robbing people, used the money that he stole to pay people back more than he took from them even after repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And then we've already been taught that foundational principle by Jesus, I think even Luke 16, where Jesus says that line, you cannot serve both God and money.
SPEAKER_00: So now we find Jesus and his disciples in the temple, and Jesus is teaching at this point.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is a little bit more fiery at this point in his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He's done all the nice talk.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows he's about to die soon.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Let's go for it.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So he and they're preaching, and people getting mad, and they're trying to trip them up, and Jesus just gonna keep talking.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we pick up Jesus, he's already made some people mad, and he's gonna give one more condemnation, but then he's gonna give us uh a beautiful picture into a scene that maybe a lot of us is familiar with.
SPEAKER_00: But picking up in uh verse 45 of chapter 20, here's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: While all the people were listening, he said to his disciples, so this is funny.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is funny.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all, y'all ever been somewhere where you know somebody they talking loud enough where everybody here, they really want everybody here, but they're trying to make it seem like they're talking to you over here.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_00: He like, they all gonna hit us, but I ain't gonna look at them.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna talk to y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: Oh then these people in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Beware of the scribes who want to go around in long robes and who love greetings in the marketplaces.
SPEAKER_00: They love the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.
SPEAKER_00: They devour widows' houses and say long prayers just for show.
SPEAKER_00: These will receive harsher judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Then picking up in uh chapter 21, says this.
SPEAKER_00: He looked up and saw the rich dropping their offerings into the temple treasury.
SPEAKER_00: He also saw a poor widow dropping in two tiny coins.
SPEAKER_00: Truly I tell you, he said, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.
SPEAKER_00: For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus.
SPEAKER_00: But she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed reading God's word this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when we encounter a passage like this, you know, there are some clear things that jump out at us, but but just to be faithful, just to take our time, I always like to say there are two ways that we want to tackle a passage just at a basic level.
SPEAKER_00: The first way is you just want to simply ask, what did the author intend for me to understand from this passage?
SPEAKER_00: Like when I read this in context, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: That's why I went back and I read chapter 20.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's easy just to pick up at the top of a chapter, but you miss some of the context.
SPEAKER_00: When you go back and read in chapter 20, you see that this was one continuous scene.
SPEAKER_00: And so that helps you gain context for what Jesus was trying to teach, but also what Luke was trying to emphasize in the passage.
SPEAKER_00: So you gotta ask, okay, okay, what is the author trying to teach?
SPEAKER_00: But then the second question that you probably should ask is, okay, now that I understand what the author is trying to teach, what does this text call me to in response?
SPEAKER_00: What does this text call me to in response?
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna tackle those.
SPEAKER_00: Now, at the center of this scripture that we looked at is the topic of widows.
SPEAKER_00: Now, during this time, widows were some of the most vulnerable people in society because of the structure of society and the different economic system that they lived in.
SPEAKER_00: So, like to become a widow at this point had the potential to be devastating depending on their social class when they lost their husband, uh, the skill sets that they might have had, or if even if they didn't have any living relatives.
SPEAKER_00: So, in that ecosystem, you know, a widow, when her husband died, a lot of times the first thing that they would do is to see if she had a living adult son.
SPEAKER_00: If she had a living adult son, then she moved into his household.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if she didn't have a living adult son, then they would look to see if her husband had a brother.
SPEAKER_00: If her husband had a brother, then she would move into that household, and then that household would be responsible for her because they lived in a totally different life.
SPEAKER_00: They live in the household responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we we live so individualized that we it's hard for us to understand that, but they had, again, just this mutual responsibility for each other.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if she was a widow and she didn't have a brother-in-law who had a household and she didn't have a uh a living adult son, then it was totally on her to figure out a way to barter for resources.
SPEAKER_00: It was a pretty hard place to be in.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we read our story, it's clear to see that this widow was one in deep poverty.
SPEAKER_00: And as we get the inside scoop of her worship, theologians have long debated what our primary takeaway should be here and why Jesus chose to highlight this poor woman.
SPEAKER_00: The most prominent teaching that you've probably heard, and the one that I've heard up until preparing for this weekend, honestly, was this call to give sacrificially.
SPEAKER_00: The prevalent teaching of the text is that the widow's might represents the call of Christians to give so sacrificially that sometimes it goes against our own best interest to demonstrate our commitment to God.
SPEAKER_00: The biggest case for this position is that Jesus chose to point out the fact that this widow was doing that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus could have just said she gave two tiny coins, but he also said she gave two tiny coins all that she had to live on.
SPEAKER_00: And so the call here oftentimes has been uh preached to us and and and has been said, hey, uh no matter what you got, just give it in faith and know that God will give it back.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what we all know is we can't tell God what He's gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: God has told us He'd be faithful, God told us He'd be with us, but we He don't we don't prescribe what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00: God also gave us common sense, and God also gave us wisdom, and He also gave us each other.
SPEAKER_00: And so this teaching, though has produced great faith in some people, has sometimes produced great peril in others.
SPEAKER_00: And so we live in the complexity of the kingdom economy and we wrestle more with this text.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some theologians, because of that, have been wrestled to, I mean, have been struggling with trying to understand maybe if Jesus had a different perspective, he was trying to bring to the forefront.
SPEAKER_00: And the second teaching that has a lot of backing is this is that Jesus was actually condemning the religious system of the day.
SPEAKER_00: See, on the other hand, some theologians have made the case that this section of scripture is actually a continued.
SPEAKER_00: Of its previous condemnation of the injustice in the religious system and the yoke of the Pharisees and the scribes.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember earlier in Jesus' ministry, Jesus condemned the Pharisees and told them, You put a yoke on people that you yourselves don't even carry.
SPEAKER_00: And they point to how the required religious practices put undue pressure and weight on the poorest in society, calling them to such extreme sacrifice while the rich gave from their leftovers and still maintain their way of life.
SPEAKER_00: And oh, by the way, because their gifts were bigger, they got social clout too.
SPEAKER_00: So the biggest case for this position is that Jesus actually did not say go and do likewise, like he often does, when he points out something that's happening that he wants us to follow.
SPEAKER_00: So we're left here with these two compelling pictures of what might be happening in this widow's story.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I believe: I believe God is big enough that he gives us a beautiful complexity that we can learn from both sides of the debate.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I want to do today.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to learn from both sides of the debate.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible doesn't tell us the posture in which this widow gave.
SPEAKER_00: She could have been grumbling the whole time she gave.
SPEAKER_00: She could have been crying, putting in her last two coins.
SPEAKER_00: She could have been doing it with a praise dance.
SPEAKER_00: The word doesn't tell us, it just simply tells us she gave.
SPEAKER_00: It simply tells us that Jesus noticed it.
SPEAKER_00: It simply tells us that many around her were giving as well.
SPEAKER_00: But the scriptures are alive and well, and they call us to a lesson.
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's a lesson there for everybody today.
SPEAKER_00: So what I want to do is I have two words.
SPEAKER_00: I have a word for multiply church as a whole, and I have a word for the leadership of Multiply.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing I want to do is I want to give a word to the members of Multiply on giving above and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing I want to do is call you to this that every gift should be given faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: Every gift should be given faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: Faithfully giving is giving in such a way that I have considered what God might require of me as I give.
SPEAKER_00: So when we're called to give faithfully, we're called to give, understanding that we're giving not for ourselves, but ultimately for God.
SPEAKER_00: And so a practice that I'll give to you as you want to think about what it means to give faithfully, especially as this local church body is dreaming of the future and dreaming of this outpour offering.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you a challenge just to drop to your knees this week and pray, God, what might you call me to give in this offering?
SPEAKER_00: Before you even make up your mind, before you even earn mark a dollar, I want you to first go to God and say, God, show me what you want me to do.
SPEAKER_00: And then here's the dangerous part about that.
SPEAKER_00: God will likely go past what you think you want to give.
SPEAKER_00: And then here's what faithfulness looks like.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Well, God, now that you've shown me, would your Holy Spirit give me the power to say yes?
SPEAKER_00: Giving faithfully doesn't mean that you don't give without fear of what might happen.
SPEAKER_00: It just means that you give in spite of your fear.
SPEAKER_00: I already know.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I just gave them folks 400, because now when the trouble comes and then it don't become your church no more, it'd be them folks.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I gave them folks$400, and now my refrigerator.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, all of those are real possibilities because we know what life happens.
SPEAKER_00: All of our cars are about to break down somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: We just driving them.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't live in suspicion of that because if you really want them hot wings, DoorDash will show up no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: And so we gotta live in such a way that we give, understanding that God sees.
SPEAKER_00: So we give faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing I want to do is I want to call you all to allow every gift to be given in faith.
SPEAKER_00: So you give faithful, and then you give in faith.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Giving in faith, number one, is giving from a perspective of remembering what God has already done in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Giving with your testimony in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: When you give with faith, you're reminded that God has already brought you somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: And so as you let go of something, you are reminded and assured that God will bring you to the next place.
SPEAKER_00: Giving in faith also means that you don't give blindly, but you attach vision to what you're giving.
SPEAKER_00: Are you dreaming about what God might do with your gift?
SPEAKER_00: Giving in faith says, God, I got the five dollars that I can honestly let go.
SPEAKER_00: But God, I'm believing that you're gonna turn this five dollars to five hundred somehow, and somebody's gonna get saved because of my five dollars.
SPEAKER_00: My five dollars is gonna be the five dollars that take us over the line.
SPEAKER_00: You give with faith.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, this is gonna be the first time you've ever given to something that didn't directly benefit you.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of emotions that are going into that.
SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted you to give, I want you to give in faith to understand that I promise you, it will feel so much better to give that will bless somebody else than to give yourself one more thing.
SPEAKER_00: We all know this, that's why we gotta keep buying stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm so mad right now, I should have left my phone alone.
SPEAKER_00: I I was resisting downloading the new iOS, but then I decided to go read the new features of the new iOS.
SPEAKER_00: And it pulled me in.
SPEAKER_00: I updated my phone, now my phone jacked up.
SPEAKER_00: And I can't go back.
SPEAKER_00: They're talking about you gotta read you gotta delete everything off your phone.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I ain't doing that.
SPEAKER_00: I should have just stayed on iOS 16, whatever it was.
SPEAKER_00: And life feels that way sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: We we see something that's shiny and pretty, and then we think, man, that's gonna be it, and we we engage it, we chase it, and we get it, and we realize it falls short too.
SPEAKER_00: But the kingdom investments live forever.
SPEAKER_00: The beauty of heaven is that it's gonna be a conscious existence.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're I believe we're gonna get to experience the blessing of seeing what our life investment produced.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be meeting people from Frankfurt that you didn't know, and they're like, you went to multiply.
SPEAKER_00: Man, let me tell y'all, y'all got enough money to get that new building open.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all started the daycare over there.
SPEAKER_00: I started putting my babies in there because I just needed a place for my babies to go.
SPEAKER_00: I met some lady outside and she cared for me.
SPEAKER_00: She started praying for me.
SPEAKER_00: She invited me to a prayer service.
SPEAKER_00: I came to faith.
SPEAKER_00: Man, God had used me.
SPEAKER_00: Then I went off and planted a church.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, I promise you, stories like that happen every day.
SPEAKER_00: And let's imagine that happening here in Frankfurt.
SPEAKER_00: Every gift should be given in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to have a word to the leadership of multiply on receiving above and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: And I share this with you at a nine o'clock hour.
SPEAKER_00: And I share with you again.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sharing these words to you as an affirmation of the man and the leaders I already know you all are.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to share it anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, every gift should be received with celebration.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever get to the point that a gift is too small for your dream.
SPEAKER_00: Every gift should be celebrated.
SPEAKER_00: The truth of our story is that the reason that Jesus knew the rich were coming in is because people were likely celebrating how big their gifts were.
SPEAKER_00: And behind the scenes was this poor widow who probably needed to be cared for along the way, was missed because of all the celebration of the big gifts.
SPEAKER_00: And I just wonder what might have happened if those people in that day had a mutual responsibility to each other, and they would have known her story when she walked in.
SPEAKER_00: And as they saw her going up to give an offering, they would have said, Baby, put that back in your pocket.
SPEAKER_00: I got you.
SPEAKER_00: What do you need today?
SPEAKER_00: But we see Jesus celebrated her gift.
SPEAKER_00: So, forwards and leadership, as you receive gifts this year and years to come, celebrate every single gift because it came with faith, and it came through obedience to the God that we're all accountable to.
SPEAKER_00: So celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: The second word I have for you, bro, is this every gift should be received considering the humanity of the giver and with the fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't miss her humanity.
SPEAKER_00: So as we as church leaders go about this work of what it means to be a pastor and a leader, sometimes the beautiful vision of what we dream or what we feel like God has given us can consume our minds and it can get in the way of the first thing that called us to be a pastor in the first place, and that is love for God's people.
SPEAKER_00: So as you chase this vision, bro, never lose the heart of a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Never stop making yourself available, never stop being on your knees praying for the marriages and the children and the lives represented in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Every giver has humanity attached to them.
SPEAKER_00: Never allow a person to become a number or a means to an end of a goal.
SPEAKER_00: But love them well and do the work of a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: My mentor told me years ago, Terrence, if you're gonna be a pastor, if you're gonna be a shepherd, you better get used to stepping in sheep poop.
SPEAKER_00: Never stop stepping in sheep poop.
SPEAKER_00: Be there, be present.
SPEAKER_00: And along the way, as you receive every gift, be sure to do it with the fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we have to answer to God for how we give, we surely will have to answer to God for how we receive.
SPEAKER_00: And so we fear the Lord, taking seriously his commands and his call on our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I know that you're a man of integrity.
SPEAKER_00: I know this team is a team of integrity, so I believe that's already in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: So I affirm that in you and I can call you to that continually, and I pray that over you in this place right here and right now.
SPEAKER_00: God will do amazing things through this body if everybody commits to faithfully doing their part.
SPEAKER_00: What I've learned is that giving above and beyond is less about the number we can give and more about the heart in which we give it.
SPEAKER_00: I've learned it's less about how big my check is, but how big the vision is attached to my check.
SPEAKER_00: Giving above and beyond is learning to give past our points of comfort, but also in integrity to our mutual responsibility to the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Your gift in this place in Frankfurt, Kentucky will spur a missionary along in China tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Because the kingdom of God in the faith family is that big.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what that means: that means that no one who calls this place home gets to be a freeloader.
SPEAKER_00: If this place has blessed you, bless it back, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Your faithfulness and your obedience is taxed to somebody else's breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you want it for them?
SPEAKER_00: We sang about it.
SPEAKER_00: Prison doors open because people give in the local church.
SPEAKER_00: Addictions are broken because people gave in a local church.
SPEAKER_01: Believe in the vision, give in faith.
SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, to those who have the means to give more than your neighbor, please don't look left and please don't look right just to compare your gifts.
SPEAKER_00: But I charge you to look upward to the God who saved your life in integrity to Him and His call on your life and on your wallet.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, one of your biggest assets and gifts to the kingdom of God is that God gave you a mind to think and a skill to do to produce wealth, to unleash, to move people's lives forward.
SPEAKER_00: If some people in here are prayer warriors, you're a giving warrior.
SPEAKER_00: Embrace the call on your life.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I said this in the nine o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: Capital One asked the question: what's in your wallet?
SPEAKER_00: God's money.
SPEAKER_00: So let's be a people, man, above and beyond our comfort, above and beyond reproach and integrity towards each other, towards the vision of what God wants to do here in this church.
SPEAKER_00: Heard it as recently, if your biggest life dream came true, how many people would get saved?
SPEAKER_00: And I think that is a great marker that we can all wrestle with if our minds are set on kingdom priorities.
SPEAKER_00: So, likewise, multiply ask, if you entrusted your best above and beyond kingdom gifts to God and brought your best and above and beyond commitment to his vision for this church and for this city, how many people might get saved and join the family of God?
SPEAKER_00: Church, this is why we give, this is why we exist.
SPEAKER_00: So, with that said, as God continues to give you all vision for what he wants to do in this place, I commend you forward, and I want to borrow from the words of Apostle Paul in Philippians 1 6.
SPEAKER_00: As I commend you forward in faith and in belief, I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that your word is true and that your promises are everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, my heart today is that we as a people would do what we have to do to buy in to your kingdom vision.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, do the work that you can do in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Illuminate our minds.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray for this church as this beautiful, vivid vision comes forward, that they would believe and know that you are in the midst.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you so much for multiply church.
SPEAKER_00: Give it all to you in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.