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Consumer Culture vs. Kingdom Living (September 28, 2025)

• Organic Church • Season 2 • Episode 47

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What if the secret to abundance isn't getting more, but stewarding well what you already have? This eye-opening message explores the surprising revelation that transformed a struggling church into one experiencing supernatural overflow.

"I've never seen a U-Haul following a hearse." This stark truth cuts through our consumer-driven mindset, challenging us to examine what we're truly accumulating. While we obsessively track Amazon packages minutes after ordering and sign up for endless subscriptions, many of us fail to invest in the one relationship that offers eternal returns.

The revelation shared is both simple and profound: faithful stewardship creates supernatural provision. When church leaders began making prayerful, intentional financial decisions rather than impulsive purchases, they witnessed money miraculously stretching beyond natural explanation. Even after writing a substantial check for renovations, the church account remained mysteriously full – a testament to God's faithfulness when we honor Him with our resources.

Our culture bombards us with messages to buy more, have more, and be more. Yet Scripture paints a completely different picture of success. "Those who love money will never have enough," warns Ecclesiastes, while Jesus directly challenges us: "You cannot serve both God and money." The message gets uncomfortably personal when asking whether we possess things or our possessions possess us. Those emotional shopping sprees when feeling empty? They're just chasing dopamine hits that quickly fade, leaving us still unfulfilled.

Perhaps most revealing is the parallel between our subscription-addicted culture and our spiritual lives. We mindlessly pay monthly for services we rarely use while neglecting our subscription to the Kingdom. The difference? Jesus isn't asking for monthly payments – He's already paid in full for your salvation.

Take the challenge today: examine what you're investing in, cancel your subscription to fear and materialism, and redirect your heart toward the only treasure that lasts forever.

SPEAKER_00:

We had a really great revelation in that meeting, and it was this. Our church has seen a great deal of success. We've been living in the overflow for about the past year. And we've been trying to figure out how, like, how do you put a bow on that? How do you figure it out? Like what happened in that year that made such a difference for us? Am I not working? Is it working? Okay. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what had changed in that year. And I finally realized it and I was able to voice it to council and to Pastor Roger and Pastor Holly. And do you know what it is? Because I'm gonna tell you, but does anybody have an idea? It's having a faithful council that tithes back into this building. It's hard to believe, but it's true. Now here's the reason I say that they understand what it means to give to the house, so they responsibly spend the money of the house, right? It's about stewardship, consumer culture, right? Instead of just buying to buy, instead of just doing to do, we prayerfully consider every single action. Now I shared this with some people, I haven't shared it with everybody. And again, we are living in the overflow and we realize that we recognize it, but I have to share this because I don't think you understand what the overflow actually looks like for us. Okay. So we wrote a check for about$6,500 to buy carpet. Of the$10,000 we raised, more than half was spent on carpet. That was to do the stage and the gym floor. It's done, it looks beautiful, that's wonderful. But when we wrote check, I said to my wife, I said, that's really gonna hurt to watch that come out of the checking account, right? Because we've had all of this money sitting there and it felt so nice. And so I was uh I was working on some reports for council, trade-off, and I said to my wife, I said, that check hasn't cleared yet. And she said, What do you mean it hasn't cleared yet? I said, Well, I wrote the check, but it hasn't come out of the account yet, and we couldn't figure out what was going on. And I looked and the check had come out, but we didn't lose any money. How does that happen? Because we had a council that made wise decisions with the money of the builder, right? We didn't just make a decision on the fly. We have been praying about this for so long and believing that God would do something great. Now, the best part of this is there's still a grant sitting out there that we may get even part of it given back to us yet, right? God has been so good to us, but so often we get wrapped up in the consumer culture and the idea that if we buy or get or have or whatever the case may be, that we will grow. I want you to look around for a second. We're not growing because we have things, right? Look at this carpet, right? We are not growing because we have things, we're growing because we are being obedient and being good stewards of what God has blessed us with, amen. And I believe that wholeheartedly. This isn't about what we're doing or how we are. This is because we are trusting in God to move in this place, amen. Okay. Today we live in a consumer-driven world, amen. Right? How many of you shop on Amazon? Right? How many of you get two-day prime? How many of you get upset when it doesn't show up in two days? Right? I'm like, I'm tracking it 15 seconds after I bought it to see if it's shipped yet and to see what day it's gonna show up in my house. That's ridiculous, right? Can we agree on that? It sounds crazy. You guys remember when you used to get mail and you didn't know when it was coming? Right? When you opened the mailbox, that's when you knew you were getting something. See, even today, we're able to see our mail long before it comes through an app. If you didn't know that, you should get it because it is wonderful. But through the app, you can tell what you're gonna get in the mail for that day. There are things that we have just become so accustomed to that we can't get past it. If you look at how many of you have ever thought of something and then it pops up on a social media ad, you only have to say it sometimes, you think it, and there it is. That's scary, right? Like, and I think of a lot of really weird things that somehow still magically appear on there. Here's the here's the deal: commercials, social media, billboards, our phones, everything that we touch, everything that we look at says buy more, have more, be more, right? Buy more, have more, be more. The more you have, the better off you are. Amen. If I go buy a brand new car, I'm better off. Right? It won't break down. But likely I'm in debt, right? Likely I've taken on a payment that maybe I can afford, but can you imagine what you what else you can do with that money? Right? Let me tell you something. Marcus and Jenny had been praying for a second vehicle for a long time, right? A long time. Marcus calls me, says, Hey, I'm going to pick up a car. And I said, What do you mean you're going to pick up a car? He said, paid$500 for it. Right? Now that sounds crazy because some of us are like, I would never drive a$500 car. I'm gonna tell you something. You go, you go through Financial Peace University, you learn to live like no other so that you can live like no other. Amen. If I want to go out to dinner, I can't afford it if I got a$900 a month car payment, right? The problem is, is every time we look at the internet, we watch TV. How many of you guys get sucked into like QVC and those infomercials, right? But wait, there's more, right? For only separate shipping and handling, right? You guys remember the sham wow? Sham wow, wow, every time, sham wow, right? That guy was crazy. I think he was on drugs. I don't know for sure, but I'm saying he was convincing, right? You wanted to buy the sham wow, you didn't know if it worked or not, but you were willing to take a risk because the man was convincing. The problem is that every time we look at something, we say, if we buy more, we can be more. If we have more, we can be more. That is not the truth. It is not the truth. I'm gonna start uh with a passage of scripture. We're gonna start in Matthew 6. We're gonna start in uh verse 19, chapter 6, verse 19. We're gonna go to 21. Uh, if you've got your Bibles, you can go ahead and get those out. It says, Don't store up treasures here on earth where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Whatever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. See, Jesus never told us, buy more, have more, be more. He never said that. Instead, Jesus says, wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. So I ask you a question today. What are the desires of your heart? Right? What are the desires of your heart? When you think about what you want today, what is it? Because when I ask you what you want, you immediately go to the list of things you've got ready for Christmas, right? How many of you have gotten the kids' Christmas catalogs already? What in the have they always come that early? Or are we just starting to like really getting in on this? We got the Walmart one the other day in the mail. And I picked it up and I said to my postmaster, I said, Man, is it really time for these already? And he said, Sure is. And then he said to me, How many kids do you have at home? I said, three little, two bigger. And he goes, Here, here's two more magazines. He's like, Well, I know they'll fight over it, and at least this way they'll each have their own. And I'm like, Chuck, I appreciate you, my friend, but I don't want him to have any of them, right? Because we've started to consume more and more. I bet if I opened Easton's magazine right now, everything is marked, including the My Little Pony and the Barbies, right? He doesn't actually want them. He doesn't want those things, but he sees it in the magazine, and that magazine creates the dopamine, right? That desire to have, that desire to buy. How many of you listen to the radio? And every time on the radio, it's you've got a car ad, right? They tell you zero percent interest for well-qualified buyers, right? Anyone know what a well-qualified buyer is? Because it ain't me. It ain't me. I'm telling you, I don't think they have 0% financing. I think they just say it to say it, right? When they add that for well-qualified, the problem is though, we will run out and find out whether or not we are well qualified, right? Because if I can get it for 0%, right? 12 months, same as cash. Anybody ever bought on 12 months, same as cash? Did you know that if you don't pay it off in 12 months, they hit you with interest for the whole purchase? Right? How many of us have ever been hit with that? Right? That doesn't feel good, right? The problem is, is we are convinced to spend, convinced to have, so that we can be. And again, Jesus tells us that wherever our tra wherever your treasure is, the desires of your heart will be also. The question is, do you have possessions or do your possessions have you? And today I will tell you the truth. Some of my possessions have me, right? There are things that you could say, but Pastor Michael, do you need that? You should get rid of it. And I would laugh at you. Right? I'm not gonna give you my stuff. Right? I have I have been stashing this stuff for years. What? Okay. I was like, she's laughing at me right now? Rhonda, I like you, but I will fight you.

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I'm related.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, all right. And there are some things, and you move it from place to place, and you carry this box and you open it, you go, oh, I don't need that, and you just stick it in the basement on the shelf, right? Sometimes our possessions have us. Amen. And I'll tell you, I've got possession. Listen, I got two totes full of magic tricks that I like to do for the kids. I see, I use them once a year at Easter. Once a year, but for some reason I can't let that stuff go, right? It would be like asking Pastor Holly to purge her shoes or to go through her she shed, right? It's not she says that's not gonna happen. They're gonna shop your shoes and your she shed. Just yard sale. But what I'm realizing is that many times we forget what it means to be good stewards of what God has blessed us with, right? And that we become obsessed with the things that we can get with God's gifts, right? So when I think about what God has done in my life, I think of a lot of different things. But the one that always strikes me, and I tell this story regularly, is when Alyssa and I bought our first home, right? We walked into this house, we had a laundry list of things that this house had to be in order for us to buy it, okay? We knew what we wanted. We had to have a garage, we had to have what was it, three or four bedrooms, whatever that number was. We had a laundry list of things. We walked into this house and it had none of them. And yet, some for some reason we bought it. Right? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But God knew what he was doing in that moment. We lived in that house for several years. We were blessed to have had it, we were able to do a ton of work to it, and when we sold it, we made almost a hundred thousand dollars selling it. That's what God was doing in that moment, right? It was so that he could move us to the next place. It had nothing to do with us, it had nothing to do with that house, to do with what he wanted to do next. But we had to be obedient with what he had given us. Amen. That's hard to do, church. Amen. You think it's hard for you personally? Imagine when it doesn't hit your pocketbook. When you don't feel it, when you're spending somebody else's money. I'm telling you, when you have people who understand what God is doing in the house, the church will continue to thrive. All right. Jesus warned us not to store not to store up our treasures on earth, and everything in this world that we chase is temporary. Amen. You can have the nicest car, but if you don't take care of it, it's gonna rust away. Amen. You can have the most beautiful home, but if you don't take care of it, it's gonna fall apart. Clothes will fade. Heck, when you buy technology, it's outdated before you get it home. You buy a computer today, they're already working on the next best thing. Amen. But we are so consumed with having the next best thing all the time. I just saw that some phone companies are doing a program where you can trade in your phone every year. I'm not shaming anybody that does this, just to be clear. But you can trade in your phone every year for an extra like$10 or$12 a month on your bill. You know you're not getting that phone for free, right? That$10 to$12 a month you're paying on that phone bill covers the cost of that phone in that year's time. But for some reason, we're so obsessed that we have to have the latest and greatest, especially if you're an iPhone user. Amen. Let's be honest with each other. Have any has anybody seen the new iPhone? They put the camera across the top of the back now rather than just in that little square. That's fancy. It don't do anything different, folks. It's all the same. But the problem is, is it looks shiny, it looks pretty, and so we become obsessed with it. Now I want to ask you a question, and this is a serious question. Since I've started working at the bank, I've realized this. Are you sweaty, Dale? I'm burning up over here. Okay, I was making sure it wasn't just me. Anybody got their blankets on yet? Nobody yet? Well, you might be able to kick the oh, she's cold. I since I started working at the bank, I'm across the street from the funeral home pretty much every day. And I leave the office every day, go home for lunch, go out for lunch, whatever. Sometimes I just sit in my car. But I realized there are a lot of funerals. A lot of funerals. You know the number one cause of funerals? Death. That's it's it's crazy how that happens. But here's one thing that I have never seen in all of the funerals that I have seen. You want me to tell you what it is? I've never seen a U-Haul following a hearse. You can't take it with you, right? Now you might want to, right? Some of us, I'm gonna buy the plot next to me, bury the jumpsuits in there with me. My wife can go somewhere else. I just need those right there. But every time, every time we think about stuff that we have, it elicits this emotional feeling for us, amen. Right when you like, listen, I'm gonna tell you something. Every time I walk in the gym right now, I cry a little bit. I'm not kidding. I was standing back there during worship and I started to tear up because I was thinking, God has so good to us, so good to us, and that is such a blessing for us, amen. And so I just every time I think about it, I tear up a little bit, and I think, man, how wonderful it is that we've been able to be such good stewards with his money that he would give us such a blessing at virtually no cost, right? At virtually no cost, other than a little bit of time, well, a lot of bit of time, but Pastor and Roger and I have committed to this. When that project is done, nothing's on the books for a little while, right? Like I'm pretty sure my family doesn't even know me anymore. I come home, change, and I leave again. But God has been good to us, and so we want to continue to live out what He has called us to do. Ecclesiastes 5:10. It says, is that right? Is that where we are? We can be thank you. Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness. Jenny, where are you at? Stand up, sweetheart. I'm talking to us right now. Some probably some more of you, but I know her and I, we've talked about this. Have you ever felt depressed or void and immediately go shopping and buy something that you absolutely do not need? Yes, hallelujah! Do you know why you do that? Because that dopamine kick makes you feel like you've fulfilled that void. And then what you find is that 20, 30, 40 minutes later. Well, I don't know that I've ever had that. I realize that the void is still there and I need to buy something else. Buyer's remorse? Yuck. That sounds ew. What does does that mean you feel bad that you bought it? Because I don't think I've ever done that. I don't think I've ever done that. If our identity is wrapped up in what we own, we will always be empty. Amen. If we are always wrapped up in what we own, we will always be empty. The devil wants us to chase things that are going to burn, but God wants us to store up the treasure that will shine forever in the kingdom of God. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Paul wrote, truly goodness with contentment is itself great wealth in 1 Timothy. Amen. That means that if we are content with what we have, there is great joy in that. Now listen, I'm happy with what I have. I have a fear of losing what I have sometimes. And so then I fight and I claw and I grab to keep whatever that is. But the problem is sometimes God says, I need you to let go of it. Amen. I need you to let go of it so that I can put you into that overflow. And we become distant or or discontented with whatever we think that God is going to do. Contentment is not laziness, it is living free from greed. Amen. Now I mean that in the desire to want things, right? I don't mean that contentment in I just come in on Sunday morning and sit in my seat. Hey, turn the air up because it is hot in here and there are people fanning themselves. It can be 12 degrees in here right now and still be too hot. Get your coats out. Hebrews 13, 5. It says, Don't love money, be satisfied with what you have, for God has said, I will never fail you, I will never abandon you. Amen. I will never fail you. I will never abandon you. I think back to that statement, and I think of all of the times when we struggled as a ministry. God, where are you? Why aren't you showing up like we expect you to show up? And he said, I need you to be obedient. I need you to wait until the time has come. The time has come. Amen. He has he has pulled us into the overflow. We had to learn to live with little so that we could feel blessed in living with much. Amen. Now here's the thing: he can take all of this away tomorrow, right? And we have to be content with living in little again. We cannot be angry, we cannot be distant from God because we have little. Can I just I want to stop for a second? I'm gonna hop course and I just want to say this out loud. I have experienced in this past couple of weeks people who don't like the vision that we have for this building. Okay. This is not new, this is not new news, this is something that's been going on since I first started talking about it. And I want to tell you that if you don't like it, that's okay. And you're welcome to tell me that you don't like it. That is perfectly okay as well. But don't be offended when I don't care. Okay? And it's not that I like I value who you are as a person, but you didn't get my vision, right? God didn't speak to you in the nighttime hours and say that you were going to do something greater, right? Is that fair? Right? And so listen, everybody's gonna have an opinion, and that's okay. I'm gonna listen to you, I'm gonna nod and smile, but when it doesn't happen, that's the way it needs to be. And if you're if you're mad at me after that, hey, come talk to me. It's okay if you're upset with me. It is not okay to be upset with me and then run and hide. Because when you're upset and you run and hide, you look childish. And it tells me that your level of spiritual maturity is probably less than that of my children. Amen. Amen. Is that a fair statement? All right, I'm done. I'm off my soapbox. Okay. Whew. What was that? What was I talking about? Was that Hebrews 13 5? Okay. Our security does not come from the stock market, it's not in our job and it's not in our bank accounts. Our security is in God all the time. Amen. It doesn't matter how big that checking account is, if you don't have a relationship with God, if you don't understand who Jesus is, all of us wandered away onto worthless things. Amen. Just like I tell Beth, I would rather spend the money that we have to feed God's people than to sit on it for no good reason, right? If we are blessed, our community should be blessed. If we are living in the overflow, our community should get to live in the overflow, right? Because that's our responsibility. See, we can show Jesus, we can be Jesus, but we have to act that way. We can't just, well, you know, there are people who call here all the time who want$20, they want$50, they want this, they want that. And we have to we have to balance that because good stewardship requires that, right? And so we ask a lot of questions. There have been times when we've given people gas cards, there have been times when we've given people gift certificates to makeos. We need groceries. Hey, listen, this was before the food pantry. Listen, I can't just give you a$50 Walmart gift card. You know why I can't give you a$50 Walmart gift card? Because you might go spend that on something that is not food for your children, like you're telling me. It's not my responsibility to tell them what to do with it, but it is my responsibility to God to honor what He's given us. Amen. And so we're careful about it, but we're also very generous with it. Psalms 37, 25. It says, Once I was young and now I am old. That is the truth today. Hallelujah. Lord have mercy. I don't know what happened, but like one day I woke up feeling old, right? Anyone ever been there? Once I was young, but now I am old, yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread. Amen. When I was young, God was good to me. So I was, you know how Facebook gives you your memories and you're able to see some of the stuff that you posted years ago. I often don't look at mine because I realized just how cringy I was as a Christian very early on. What do I mean by that? Saturday night, I'm posting on Facebook. Can't wait to go to church tomorrow morning and get my Jesus on. This is the dumbest thing in the world. Now, but here's the thing give me grace, umbrella of grace. I was young and I was immature, right? I was trying to show the world that I was something that I was not truly in that moment. Right? I wanted the world to believe that I was righteous, redeemed, but I was still smoking and swearing and doing stupid things, right? But see, the problem is I had a pastor that didn't take my crap ever. She was one of the few people in my life that would call me out for the stupid things that I was doing. And I never once took offense to what she said to me because I realized she was right and I was wrong. I humbled myself before her authority and before her relationship with the Holy Spirit, because she had something that I didn't have. Amen. That was hard to do as a young immature Christian. And now I don't even post about going to church. I don't post about going to church. Because if you know me, you know that. If you know me, you know that. And you know that it is a priority in my life in all things. When I was young, I once I was young, and now I am old, yet I have I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children out begging for bread. When you've got Jesus, you've already got enough. Amen. When you've got Jesus, you've already got enough. Joy cannot be bought from Amazon, from Walmart. I would argue from Target, because Target brings me a lot of joy, I'm just saying. Especially you hit it when it's on clearance. There's a lot of joy. But but real joy is poured out from the Holy Spirit. Amen. Real joy does not come from purchasing things. Real joy comes from being in relationship with Christ and the Holy Spirit moving and acting in your life in ways that you cannot imagine. Amen. I have never, never once ever experienced the move of the Spirit that has ever brought me sorrow. Now, sometimes it's put me in my place, it's made me question my life decisions, but it has not brought me sorrow. Paul said, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Evil in 1 Timothy 6 10. Money itself is not evil. Right? Can we agree on that? Having money does not make you a bad person, it's the love of money. Right? Mr. Crab, Scrooge McDuck, they would be considered hard-hearted people with their money, right? Money, money, money, money. They just got all of this wealth built up on earth that they are receiving nothing in heaven. I will promise you this there are some of us who know people like that in our lives. There are plenty of us who know people like that. Money itself is not evil, it's a tool. But when money becomes your master, you are its slave. You become bound to that love, and you will do anything to have more of it, including some very dishonest things. I watched a documentary about this really strange guy who had built a tree house. Real tree house, like Swiss family Robinson style. Okay? And he was running out of money, so he decided to rob a bank. And he did successfully multiple times. And then he finally got caught, and guess what? He got shot and killed. The love of money is the root of all evil. You can have it, and nothing bad might happen to you for a little while. But eventually, your desire to have money is going to take over and it's going to cost you dearly. None of us are promised tomorrow. And so if we are hoarding and we are sitting on and we are not blessing, then we will learn the hard way when God calls us home. Amen. You know, the the the Christian world has been hit hard the past couple of weeks with with pastors who have been passing away that are large pastors. And I think to myself every day, those churches, I hope, I hope that they have been goods with their money. Amen. I hope that they have given to their communities. I hope, because those pastors have to answer for that too. Not just their own finances, but the finances of their house. And that's a scary thought. That is a scary, scary thought. Matthew 6, 24. This is one of my favorite passages of scripture ever. No one can serve two masters, for you will hate one and love the other. You will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. Amen. You cannot love God and be enslaved to anything else. To me, this is that number one in all things sinful. You cannot be addicted to something and live your life for it and also love God and live for God. You know, there's a and it probably many of you have shared it, which is why I've seen it. There's a Facebook post running around that says you can't love God and hate people at the same time, right? It's true. It's true. You cannot love God and hate people. Your love of God should be a natural love of God's people. Amen. Thank you. Because I'm sorry I was starting to wonder if maybe I was the only one that knew that. I know that it's hard to comprehend. Listen, we're all gonna go through struggles with people in our lives. We're all gonna meet people we don't like. I got a handful of them, but guess what? I still love them regardless. Regardless, doesn't mean that I take whatever they throw at me. Sometimes I have to say, hey, listen, I know matter, I'm gonna just give you an example. I had to do a Zoom call with a lady from um a company that we that we do business with, and she's supposed to be a trainer, and she's supposed to teach us how to balance certain things. And I everybody that I talked to before I went on that call, they said, good luck. Right? So she's got a reputation for being very hard and being very mean. And I hopped on, and I knew right away, my heart was already like, You better, you better calm yourself down because you're already walking into this, ready to fight this lady. Right? I don't even know her, never heard her voice before I was ready to fight her. And we get on the Zoom call, and I work in a cubicle, so there are lots of people around me, and I asked her a question, and her response, and I'm not exaggerating when I say this, is well, I don't know what you want me to tell you. Just like that. And I said, Lord, guide my response. And I said, I'm sorry, I've got to stop you for just a minute. What you just said to me was incredibly rude and disrespectful, and all I'm asking for is your help. She immediately apologized, and that call was probably one of the warmest and most um informative calls I'd ever been on before. Sometimes we have to understand that those people are being, I my opinion of her was formed from the opinion of other people, right? And so I was willing to fight with her over something that I we hadn't even had yet. But when I humbled myself and I said, I am gonna love her regardless, and I'm gonna make this work regardless. I had to tell her, We've gotta, we've gotta come to an agreement here. I want to, I want to be able to understand what you're saying to me. I want to give you the information you need. She was willing to have that conversation with me. She didn't apologize once. At the end of the phone call, she said to me, She said, I think I'm starting to go crazy. She said, rude and crazy, probably not something I should be proud of. I ended up having a call the next day. We talked for about 40 minutes and she said, Hey, I just wanted to say I'm sorry about yesterday again. She's like, Sometimes I get that way, and I didn't mean to be that way. Do you realize that sometimes people need to be led into what God wants for them? I don't know if this lady's a believer or not. Right? I have no idea, I still don't know to this day, but here's what I do know. I I know that I was gonna show her Jesus regardless. I could have yelled back, I could have told her to quit treating me like I was stupid, right? I could have done all of those things. But my choice was to show her a little bit of Jesus because if I were to serve the world in the way that I treated her, I could not possibly serve God at the same time, right? And I knew that I couldn't do that because it wouldn't be fair to her, to me, or our ministry. Some of us are out chasing paper, we're trying to get money, we're trying to get the the accolades the next best thing, but we are not pursuing God's presence. Right? Some of us are sitting in here today saying, I showed up because I was told I had to show up. Because pastor will call me if I don't show up. Right? I'd get a text message, I've called Dale from the pulpit. Where are you? Right? Some of you know. I'll text you during worship. Where are you at? Beth, Beth's probably gotten that a couple of times, Marcus has gotten it a couple of times, and my dad has gotten it. Like, why are you not here? Right? I don't want you here because I want to fill a seat. I want you here because you're missing out, right? You are missing out, and I don't want that for any of you. I don't want you to be chasing the world, I want you to be chasing the presence of God. All right, I'm gonna skip that point. I apologize if you guys want my notes, I'll give them to you. But this is the part that I really want to get to because I think we're all experiencing this right now in our lives. Everything we have is a subscription, right? Do any of us own anything anymore? Hulu, Netflix, let's see. Uh, Paramount Plus, Disney Plus, what else we got? Peacock, ESPN, YouTube TV, Amazon Prime. What else we got, folks? What?

unknown:

Hallmark.

SPEAKER_00:

You have to pay for Hallmark? That's disappointing. I don't think I'd ever pay for that anyway. It's the same 12 movies every day, right? They just change. I just, I'm sorry if I offended anybody. Just know that that was not my art. But everything, I mean, if you go to Walmart now, you can sign up for Walmart Plus and they'll shop for your groceries, deliver them to you. Instacart, Uber Eats, you name it, everything is a subscription. Amen. The problem is, as we focus on these subscriptions every day. And listen, your phone plan, right? How many of us buy our phones on a payment plan through our phone bill? We don't even feel it anymore, right? As a matter of fact, if you have a phone with ATT, they charge you more if you buy your phone outright. If I were to pay you a thousand dollars for my phone and own it, my bill goes up ten dollars a month. How does that make any sense? Because they want you locked in to a subscription. The gym, your groceries, everything has a monthly charge. You sign up, you agree to the terms, and you pay the price. Amen. The truth is life is not a subscription, right? The only subscription that we have to have is to the kingdom of God. See, when we subscribe to the word, when we subscribe to devotion, what is the cost of that? Nothing. It is free. The word is written, and listen, if you're like, well, I had to buy my Bible, I'll get one. Because when I think about it, and I think about the fact that that we're paying for all of these things, and some of us pay for the the the uh uh Bible app, we get the extra translations and all that stuff. How many of you pay for the Bible app? Good, thank you, Jesus. Because the word of God should be free. Listen, you get me going. I have a real hard time. Anyone going to see uh Stephen Furtick preach in a stadium? Do you know why? Cost you$75 to get in there, another 45 to park, and the gospel of Jesus Christ is free. Amen. If I charged you a cover charge every Sunday to walk through the door, you guys wouldn't show up. Right? You go, that guy's nuts. Now listen, I might not be looking, I might not be able to sing like him, but the gospel is free. There is no charge for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. And it drives me crazy to think that we that we prostitute the pre the the the presence of the Holy Spirit, amen. And that we that we charge you to get in to receive a healing. Can I promise you that God will heal you in your own home? God will heal you wherever you are. You do not have to be in the presence of anybody except the Holy Spirit in order to receive that. Amen. And I'm thankful that there's truth in this ministry, that we can say that to one another, that we can look at each other and say, hey, listen, we don't have to pay for those things. I'm not getting down on you if you like to go see Brandon Lake in concert. That's wonderful, right? Alva gets to go see Brandon Lake pretty soon, right? That's wonderful. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but you have to remember what it is. You're going for a concert, you'll get the Holy Spirit, right? But you're paying for the entertainment in that in that point, right? Uh there's a difference, but when you're going to hear a pastor preach, like you don't go to World Harvest Church and pay to get in, right? There's nobody taking tickets at the door. That's what churches are supposed to be like. Their door should be open, it should be free to enter. Amen. I'm just thankful that we're able to understand that it that you don't have to pay for what Jesus has done in your life because he has already paid the price in full. Amen. When Jesus died on the cross, he paid for the gospel to be preached everywhere. There should be no shame in what Jesus has done. Some of you are faithfully paying for things that will entertain your flesh while ignoring that eternal subscription. You are ignoring that place in heaven that is set aside for you because you're more worried about whether or not that Netflix subscription is gonna auto-renew next month. Now, listen, some of us don't need Netflix. How many of you have a subscription you never use? Right? It's like probably you probably don't even know you're paying for it, right? I'm the same way. Like I get this$12 bill on my my phone every month. I get a notification that says that that Apple has just charged$12 to my debit card. I have no idea what that$12 is for. No idea. I've got a subscription, but I don't know what it is. And then I look and I realize it's peacock. What's on peacock? And why do I have it on my phone? The Olympics, you're exactly right. That's what it was. That's exactly what it was. See? It's exactly what it was because we had to watch Simone Biles and we weren't allowed to miss gymnastics, right? But here's the thing, now that I know that I've got it, you would think that I would go and cancel it, right? But I don't. I just let it continue to run and run and run. But then the problem is I become so focused on all of these subscriptions that I forget to focus on the one thing that matters. I pay for the monthly subscription, but I forget to subscribe to faithfulness that will transform my soul. Amen. Now, I know there are some of us sitting here thinking that this guy's lost his mind. But I promise you this the world will continue to tell you to sign up for more, but Jesus tells you to simply sign up for the kingdom. He's not asking you for anything more, he's simply saying, sign up for the kingdom. Pay monthly for happiness, but Jesus says, I have already paid in full for your salvation. Amen. The only thing that is going to get each of us to eternity is a centered on Jesus Christ. I was thinking the other day as I was going through some of my notes. I say that a lot. But can I tell you why I say it and it's the truth? I'm worried that there are people sitting in this room that aren't gonna make it. Because we say it with our mouth, but we don't live it with our heart. We say it with our mouth, but we don't live it out when we're in the streets. Amen. You have to cancel your subscription to greed, you have to cancel the subscription to fear, cancel it to consumerism. You have to subscribe to the only thing that matters, and that is the kingdom of God. Because when you do, you are investing in a treasure that will never go away. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I just thank you and praise you, Lord, for your presence in this place and Father, for your anointed word. I pray that as we move from this place, that our hearts start to inspect all of the things that it's subscribed to. Father, I pray that you look at our hearts and you realize that this is all junk and we don't need it, and you help us to throw it out so that there is more space for you, Father God. Lord, my heart, my mind, it's centered on you today. And Lord, I want more of you and less of the world. More of you and less of me today, Father God. And I pray that every heart in this place is feeling that same way. Lord, I pray for my counsel as they continue to make financial decisions for this church, Lord, as they continue to understand the vision that you have cast upon this place, and Lord, great and mighty things will continue to happen because of their faithfulness to your kingdom, your vision, and all of the things that you have called them to do. Lord, I thank you for the patience of our people. As this project has taken much longer than I had originally hoped, Lord, I pray that you just continue to lead us, guide us, and direct us. Father, we pray all of these things in your precious Son Jesus' name in the church says, Amen.