The Lost Art of Sacrifice

We live in a world obsessed with free — free shipping, free content, free everything. And honestly? That same entitlement has crept into the church. In this standalone message, Pastor Jason opens 2 Samuel 24 and lets King David show us what we've been missing: a spirit of sacrifice that costs something real. Because great sacrifice becomes great worship — and to follow Jesus is to carry that same spirit into every part of our lives.

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Transcript

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If you want to turn flip in your scripture, we're going to go old school, Old Testament. We're heading over to 2 Samuel 24 in just a little bit. We are looking at this sermon. It's a standalone sermon that I've entitled The Lost Art of Sacrifice. Growing up, I played baseball. Any baseball players out there, man, come on, man. I played American Legion Baseball, and I loved playing baseball, but there was this thing every spring as we were getting ready for tournaments. Usually it was winter time. We were in a gym because I lived in Illinois. And so it was too cold to find somewhere outside. So they'd take us into the gym. And one of the first things that Coach would often make us work on was this thing called bunting. Nobody likes to bunt, do we? Like we want to hit home runs, but I think sometimes in baseball we forget about this really important play. It was called the sacrifice bunt. Actually, if you are old enough and were born in the 1900s like me, I know. 1991 World Series, the Minnesota Twins, the Atlanta Braves. Game seven of the World Series, one of the best World Series games that was ever played, besides the Cardinals winning the World Series. Praise God. A 0-0 game ends up getting one, one to nothing. And you want to know how the Minnesota Twins scored that one winning run? A sacrifice bunt. Moved a runner into scoring position, and they end up winning game seven and winning the World Series because somebody was willing to sacrifice to put somebody in a better position. We understand baseball sacrifice fly, right? If I've got a runner on third, the goal was always see how hard and how far you can hit it into the outfield. And even if you get out, get it out there as far as you can so you can hit a sacrifice fly so that the runner on third hopefully has some kind of semblance of wheels and can make it home and tag up and score that game-winning run, right? Baseball was won on moments of sacrifice. We are about to celebrate America's 250th birthday next week. Come on, Merca. Praise God. We're gonna shoot some fireworks, blow some things up, eat some good food. But how do we get here? Sacrifice. I think we're at this moment where we kind of forget the significance of sacrifice. And I understand sacrifice well. I'm really concerned about damaging my six-pack, and so I try to eat enough calories to keep a cushion over it so I don't worry about damaging my six pack. Anybody else in here said? Amen. Amen. Just protecting this thing. I can't have it get injured, can't let it get chipped here, you know. I have moments where I sacrifice my safety in my marriage because I have to prove to my wife that I'm right and she's wrong. I'm sure none of you guys ever have those moments. But there's just some moments where it's like, I'm sacrificing, we're going for it. We get it. For some of us, we sacrifice rest, we sacrifice some margin in our finances so our kids can play competitive sports somewhere. We make sacrifices. Sometimes we, if we're not careful, we can sacrifice our relationship with God or our relationship with our family because we'll pursue a career or we'll pursue a financial outcome to try to make more money. And if we're not careful, we might sacrifice for the wrong thing. If we want to grow in our relationship with Jesus, the reality is there are moments, if you're really serious about growing in your relationship with Jesus, there's a sacrifice. Sacrifice to make Sunday a priority as we come together. A sacrifice to say, I'm not just gonna make Sunday a priority, but I'm gonna make it a priority to find a group so that I can get around some other people that can help me grow. I'm gonna sacrifice by serving when I come to church instead of waiting for somebody to serve me. I'm gonna sacrifice by not just serving, but maybe I'm gonna take the first step and I'm actually gonna start giving some of my finances and trusting God with them and sacrificing so I can see what he would do. The reality is, whenever the kingdom of God has grown the most, is whenever we've had a spirit of sacrifice. And one of the greatest moments where the kingdom of God has shrunk in this world is when we've lost the spirit of sacrifice and we pursue comfort and convenience. And so we're gonna take a moment to look here at a story, a very key story of King David in 2 Samuel 24, where we have this moment because the question to me that I think we should consider is where does sacrifice fit in my faith in Jesus? When is the last time when you thought, so that I could be more committed to Jesus, what do I need to sacrifice so I can do that? It's almost a foreign concept in today's world. And so King David gives us a great example of what sacrifice looks like. Because the reality is, if this church is going to continue to grow into what I believe God wants to do in this place and through this place and through all of us here, it's going to come behind those people who are willing to continue to make sacrifices so that we can build what God's calling us to build. And so, 2 Samuel 24, starting in verse 18, says this That day Gad came to David and said to him, Go up and build an altar to the Lord at the threshing floor of Arana the Jebusite. And so King David went up to do what the Lord commanded him. And when Arana saw the king and his men coming towards him, he came and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. Why have you come, my Lord the king? Arana asked. And David replied, I have come to buy your threshing floor and to build an altar to the Lord there so that he will stop the plague. The reality is, if we want to learn how to have a spirit of sacrifice, then we have to understand one of the first things God has called us to do is to build a place that meets people's needs. If you don't know the story of what's happening here in 2 Samuel, David has sinned. He's made a mistake more than a mistake, a mistake that's costing people in Israel their life. And he understands that he sinned, he's repenting, and the people are paying the price for David's sin. And so David realizes I better listen to what God says and create a space that's going to meet these people's needs so they don't have to suffer under the plague of sin anymore. And the reality is, God invites us to do the same thing in today's world: to build a space that meets people's needs. And one of the greatest needs this world has is to find a way to eradicate the plague of sin that's destroying us. And I know that word seems so dirty to talk about in today's world, but we can't share the good news and the hope of Jesus Christ if we don't have a conversation about sin. It's not good news if we're not in a mess that only He can save us from. And so our hearts, our desire as we talk about whatever the next step may be in buying land or one day building a building, why would we want to do that? Because we want to create a space that's going to meet people's needs long after our time here on earth. I do not want a building to make life easier so we don't have to set up and tear down every Sunday. I don't want a building so that we can have a cool space. I don't want to create a space to just be trendy because it's the thing to do to be trendy. I want to create something that becomes a space for those that are being destroyed by the plague of sin can come in and experience the hope of Jesus and be set free and find eternal life. That's what I want to do. That is the invitation in the legacy fund. That is the invitation as we say, man, why would we sacrifice? Because the reality is to do something great in life, sacrifice is required. That we have to stop thinking about our own needs and start thinking about somebody else's. We sit here today because somebody thought about our needs and sacrificed their own life, time, money to be able to be here and do what we do. We live in a country that can have its 250th birthday. Why? Because men and women, throughout the course of those 250 years, whether you like the history of it or not, fine. But we can still acknowledge that we're here today because men and women sacrificed so that we could be here. And I think one of the biggest crises that we have in today's world, I'm listening to this book because I'm incredibly convicted by it. And just what I'm reading in scripture right now, I just feel like we have a crisis of comfort in today's world. We don't know how to sacrifice because everything in our world makes us comfortable. And it's coming at a price. And my concern is that it's coming at a price in our faith because we're not willing to sacrifice what we need to grow in our faith. That is my concern. The creep has spiritual implications in today's world. And so for us, we want to do all we can to create a space that we can make sure people who need to find freedom from the plague of sin can come in, encounter Christ, and be set free. So that a generation can grow up with everything that the world is telling them and hear about a God who loves them and the word of God that is true for their life, and that they can follow what he says and experience the full life that he wants for them. And we want to create a space so that can happen here. We want to create a space so every marriage that may be struggling to figure out how to survive in today's world, that you don't just have to figure out how to survive in your marriage. We want to create a space so that you can feel like your marriage is thriving the way Jesus created your marriage to be. That you don't have to figure out how to parent a kid and struggle to barely get by parenting your kids, but we want to create a space that partners with you as a parent so that you can feel equipped to know how to raise up a generation who has a faith in Jesus. And if somebody's not willing to sacrifice and stand in the gap, who will? The problem is we're always waiting for somebody else. And maybe God's just said, Hey, I'm calling you. We'll go on. Arana said to David, here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing boards and the ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar, and I will give it all to you, your majesty, and may the Lord your God accept your sacrifice. Most of us would be like, Woo! Free, right? But here's the problem: free is not always good. Like we would think in this moment, like, this is it. He's given it to you. I know you came to buy it, but he's given it to you. It's free. Man, I've in my lifetime, I have had one horse given to me. And I had one horse to be tried to give it to me. I didn't take the second one. The first one was a blessing. I still got him today. He's 26. He's an old man for open horses, but hey, we're gonna we're gonna keep trusting. The other one? Somebody wanted to get rid of a horse. Free, man. That free horse had a ton of medical bills that came with it. They weren't looking to bless me, they were looking to unload a medical bill. Free is not always good. And there's this moment, like we would think, David, free. Like, man, God just answered your prayer. Here you go. It's free. How can you sacrifice something that's free? That's the conundrum in this moment. That's the space or place that we hit somewhere in here. Is that I think we've forgotten what that word sacrifice really means. And it's not a sacrifice if it didn't cost you anything. I mean, the word sacrifice would require a cost be paid in order to sacrifice. I was reading the other day, maybe you know this story, about a guy that was named Reverend Thomas Charles. Reverend Thomas Charles was a missionary in Wales in 1800. And one of the things he was trying to do was to take the good news of Jesus to a nation and country that had not heard the good news of Jesus. And word had gotten around about who he was and this thing that he had called a Bible. And there was a young girl named Mary Jones that was nine years old, fascinated with a Bible, so fascinated that at nine years old, she would walk two miles from her house to her neighbor's place so that she could read their Bible because everybody didn't have one. And in that moment, at nine years old, Mark, you I know, I know we try to say that kids need time to grow up before they can learn significant things. Mary Jones, at nine years old, decided I'm gonna do whatever it takes to be able to buy my own Bible. And for six years, at nine years old, she made a decision. And over the next six years, she worked and she saved all she could so that she could buy her own Bible. And when she was 15 years old, she went to find Tabas. It was a 26-mile hike in December, barefoot, 15 years old, with six years of wages that she had saved up to go to his house so that she could buy a Bible. She got there and he said, I don't have any more. And he was so heartbroken in the moment that he actually gave her his own Bible. And he went and started the Bible Society that we know today that has worked to take the Word of God all over the world. And how did it happen? Because one teenage girl was moved to sacrifice something so that she could get the word of God in her life. And for most of us, we we don't even want to pull our phone out and swipe up and click the Bible app to open it up. And a 15-year-old girl walked barefoot 26 miles and saved up money for six years so she could buy her own copy of it. I would say comfort in today's world is creating a crisis of faith for us. And maybe we need to learn the lost art of sacrifice because there's actually something in our faith that we need to sacrifice so that it can be built. That these are the moments where we live in a culture, let's be honest, where we feel entitled and owed something. Every political cycle, there's going to be another politician that comes on. We're about to hit the next one, and here's what I can promise you. Their platform, somewhere in some way, is going to promise you free things if you vote for them. Every time. Free college, I'll find a way to get your debt paid for. Free health care, free money. Because why? We we live in a culture that feels like somebody owes me something. I should get for free. Instead of learning what it means to sacrifice for something, we feel entitled and feel owed something. And we do it in the church if we're not careful. We'll come to church with the same expectation. We don't come say, man, how can I come, give, and serve? We show up and say, What do you have for me? I don't like the donuts, man. You don't have the sprinkled ones anymore. You got rid of them chocolate covered donuts, man. I am so mad. Anybody mad we got rid of the chocolate-covered donuts? You don't have okay, there's a few of you. Brave man right there. Mad because you you don't you need some more flavors of creamer out there for your coffee. Mad because you don't play the songs that I like during worship. Mad because it's starting to get hard to find a seat and it's kind of uncomfortable. And we let it creep into the way we worship Jesus if we're not careful. When the center of our faith, I don't know if you understand this, actually isn't you. Novel concept. The center of our faith is actually about Jesus. And it's not what can I gain from him, but actually true worship, we're about to learn here in a moment, is what can I give to him, not gain from him. And when I learn to give to him, I learn I actually gain something. It is the dichotomy of the kingdom that makes no sense and yet it works. The more I give, the more I gain. I've said this my whole life because I've experienced it in every facet of my life. Financially, everything I've ever given to God, God has replaced with something better. Every possession I've ever given away, God is replaced with something better. Every bit of time I have ever given away to somebody who needed it, God has given back to me something better. I've gone on missions trips thinking I was gonna go bless these people by building them something nice. And by the time I leave, I realize I don't feel like I gave them anything. I feel like they gave me something in return. That's how I know Acts 20 that we talked about is real, that it is more blessed to give than to receive. That in our faith there is something that happens when we sacrifice, that comes back to us, that God does through us. But when we start to ask somebody to sacrifice for me instead of considering how can I sacrifice for somebody else, we're gonna have a group meeting tonight for people that want to lead groups. You know what? To me, I'm thankful for somebody that said, I'm willing to sacrifice my home or my time to invest in other people so that they can grow in their faith. That we have one great job here as a church, and it is to lead people to be mature followers of Jesus Christ. Maybe that starts with salvation for some, but for others, it's time to grow up into maturity. And how do we do that? It takes more than a Sunday morning, it takes finding a community of people to plug into so that I can grow. And how does that happen? People are willing to sacrifice a night in my schedule. I'm willing to sacrifice, I gotta get up a little earlier to do some studying so I can be prepared for this. We were in one great life group and she sacrificed by making some amazing desserts every time we came over to her house. Praise God for the people that will sacrifice for desserts. There is something in these moments where free is not always good for us. And one of the things I'm most concerned about with a church is a capital C is we're creating a space that costs people nothing to come and be a part of. And that's not a good thing. And that's why I'm willing to say for some, I might not be your church. Because I'm not just gonna try to create a space that asks nothing for you. I'm gonna try to create a space that helps you grow and mature in your faith. And that may mean like it's time to grow up and not just come to church and say what's in it for me, but to show up and say, Man, what can I give to serve some other people around me? Maybe for some, it's it's time to say, Man, I trust in the Lord with all of my heart. Until you start talking about the offering, Pastor. You you can't trust in the Lord with all your heart if you don't give away some of your pocketbook. So I'm gonna push to mature and grow. Why? Because there's something that happens as we mature in our faith. That one day I won't be here to be the guy to answer every question you have. My hope is one day you are so mature in your faith, you don't have to call me anymore to get some of the answers. But but you actually have grown so much, somebody's gonna start calling you for those same answers on how they can grow. That is the goal. It comes at sacrifice. How do I know? Because salvation is a free gift from God. We all know it, and yet it requires sacrifice. Because one of the very things Jesus said is that if you want to follow me, you must take up your cross and then you must deny yourself and follow me. Salvation is free, and yet it costs you everything. When is the last time in a moment with Jesus you said, hey, what do you want me to deny so that I can follow you better? Can I be honest with you? It's been a little too long since I've prayed that prayer. If I can just be honest with you as your pastor, what are you calling me to deny myself of so I can follow you better? Because the world says, gang, gang, gang, get, get, get more and more and more. Jesus says, take up my cross, deny yourself, follow me. Salvation is free and yet it comes. You everything that is the invitation. That is the good news of Christ. We keep going. Verse 24 and 25 say this, but the king replied to Uranah, he did not say thank you for the free stuff. He said, No, I insist on buying it, for I will not present burst burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing. So David paid him 50 pieces of silver for the threshing floor and the oxen. David built an altar there to the Lord and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord answered his prayers for the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped. We have to have a spirit of sacrifice. To follow Jesus, we have to have a spirit of sacrifice. David has this moment where he says, I won't take it for free. I can't offer God something that costs me nothing. I'm going to pay you for it. That is what it costs to be a sacrifice. And then I'll offer my offering to the Lord. And I think that's the challenge because in this moment, sometimes we could have been like David if we're going to be honest. Like I love David in this moment because at this space, David could say, Man, God, I've kind of done enough already. You remember that giant I killed? Tell me who else did it. Man, I've kind of been leading for a while and I've fought some people and I've won some battles for you. Like I've paid my dues. I should be able to just coast now and let somebody else serve me. I've been around church long enough. Let me just tell you something. When you reach that space where you feel like I've done enough and you're ready to cash it in, is one of the greatest traps of the enemy. And things start falling apart. Because David didn't reach a space where he was ready to cash it in. David didn't say, Do you know who I am? Could have. Do you know what I've done? I've sacrificed more than a lot of other people. I should be done having to sacrifice. And David's like, nope, man, if I'm gonna worship God, I'm gonna learn to sacrifice. Every day I'm gonna learn to sacrifice. That there's something here about sacrifice that becomes critical, that becomes key in everything that we do. And here's a couple of things I want to point out about sacrifice. I'll do it real fast, I promise. Sacrifice without personal cost is performance. David understood this. Sacrifice that costs me nothing is performance, not sacrifice. Otherwise, David would have just took the free. But he said, I can't offer something to God that costs nothing. If you look at word, that word nothing means in the Hebrew, like you get down to the nitty-gritty, it literally means I can't offer you something that has no purpose. I can't offer you something in vain. David understood if I took this for free and did this, I'm offering something back to God that has no value. Then he was so moved that he's like, I've got to pay for this because there's got to be some meaning and some value behind this sacrifice to be worth something. Sacrifice that costs nothing is a performance. You want to know how I know Jesus pointed it out in scripture. How many times did the religious people show up and they drop some money in the offering box, make sure everybody was looking and be like as they walk up to the box, maybe take some of those coins and jingle it around just a little bit so people could see them going in there? Sacrifice that doesn't cost much is much more of a performance than any kind of offering of worship to God. Great sacrifice becomes great worship. You can't truly worship God when sacrifice is not involved. And if you understand the history of this context of what happened here in this space, if you go back and study scripture, let me tell you there's a lot more of a story of sacrifice here than we realize as we read this place. If you actually go back to a moment with a guy named Abraham, he had a son named Isaac. And this space where David is at now is actually the same space where Abraham took Isaac to offer his son to the Lord. That this space that was about to cost David something had once cost Abraham something too. And he was ready to sacrifice a great sacrifice to God until the ram was caught in the thicket and God brought a sacrifice. And so here on this same mountain, David shows up to do what? To offer a sacrifice to God, and he's not willing to take a free one. David is willing to pay a price. And then if you keep studying history from this moment in Scripture, what ends up being built in this very spot is the temple of God by Solomon, where a whole country can now come together to worship God. That this spot that had a history of great sacrifice being offered as great worship to the Lord became a space and place where a great congregation of people could come worship God. It required sacrifice to ever qualify to become good worship. If we want to worship God, there's got to be some sacrifice involved. If it costs you nothing, you're not offering him anything. Somewhere following him should come with a little bit of discomfort, should come with a little bit of pain, should come with a little bit of sacrifice. We see this in scripture if you go through it over and over again. In the Old Testament, we talk about the tithe, and everybody kind of gets bitten out of shape whether it's a rule we should follow or not. Let's just look at the heart of it and let's let's quit worrying about whether it's a rule we should follow. But when they would offer a sacrifice in the Old Testament, God told them to bring your first and to bring your best, not your leftovers. It was a heart of generosity from the very beginning to be offered to God. Not wait to see how things turn out and then bring it to me. No, bring me your first, bring me your best, and this is how you worship me. Why? Because there is something about sacrificing something to God. If you understand the value of those animals, it was their currency in their world. That was their livelihood. When God would ask for the first and ask for the best, he was asking something that became the currency that drove their entire life. They live or died by those animals. And so to give God my first and to give God my best was me trusting God with the very thing to sustain me. And then we move into the New Testament. That's why I say all it's doing is building on this idea of generosity and sacrifice. I don't give God my leftovers, I give God my best. One of the things kinder and I do every week, it comes straight out. Man, we have recurring giving set up. I don't wait to see if I can't afford it. I don't wait to see what's left over to do it. Automatically, every Friday, to ching to ching, I get an email. Thank you for giving to Generations Cowboy Church. And we do it. Why? Because I want to offer God my first and I want to offer God my best. This legacy fund and building this land, how are we going to do it? Somebody's willing to say, man, I'm willing to sacrifice and offer some of my best so that I can do what God's called us to do. This is the space, this is the place that we begin to infringe on in these moments. And so if we're going to do it, we have to do it because sacrifice is part of God's nature and who he is. For God so loved the world, he you want to look like Jesus? This is the challenge in our life. The uncomfortable space. And I'm just willing to be uncomfortably real in this space. To say, what does the future of this church look like? The future of this church looks as good as we are willing to sacrifice for what God is calling us to do. Plain and simple. Why are we willing to pursue that land and that house for now until we can afford to build a building? Because for us, it can still begin to create a space where we can do ministry and people can experience Jesus. Great people like Michael Juray have been leading our student group so our students can get together. And we've had 15, 20, or more kids that have come together on Sunday nights throughout the school year to grow in their faith. And so, man, why would we love to have that? Because then we have our own space for our kids to meet instead of having to be dependent on other spaces and places for people to open up so we can bring those kids together. If we want to reach generations, it's going to cost something. If we've got people that would love to do something like celebrate recovery or help some other people out who are in spaces where they're struggling, and if we could get that and we could fix some of that up, we could create a space where we could begin to partner with people who are fighting the plague of sin, bring them together with somebody who could give them hope and help them find freedom that Christ wants for them. Until we can do more, we'll do what we can and use it to the best of our ability to accomplish his work and his kingdom, and then we'll just keep trusting God as we go. Why? Because he sacrificed for us, we're willing to sacrifice for him. That is the call, that is the move that we are pushing towards over and over again. And the question to me is just is sacrifice a part of our nature. Is sacrifice like if you had to be honest, is sacrifice a part of that nature inside of you? Hey man, I get really uncomfortable when I start thinking about that. Because I realize sometimes it's not. And it should be. We celebrate church for a lot of things. And if we're not careful, we're going to ruin the thing that we've been called to build. Those things can all be byproducts. Community is a byproduct of coming together. But the goal is not to just build more friendships. The goal is to build more mature relationships in Jesus. And we do that through relationships. The goal is to not create a space that says, me, me, me, me, me. The goal is to create a space to say, man, how can I serve in kids' church one Sunday a month so that another generation can be reached? And I'm willing to sacrifice one Sunday a month to go serve and teach those kids, or go serve and help out in those kids. Why? I'll make that sacrifice so that those kids can hear about Jesus and somebody can invest in them. I'll sacrifice a night a week to do a group, even though it's going to be more work and my life is stressful, my life is full. Why? Because I want to help some other people who don't have a community of faith find a community of faith so they can grow closer to Jesus too. There are these moments where we're willing to serve and give up my comfort, give up my priorities, give up my schedule, so that other people can experience Jesus. And when we do that, we realize we didn't give away anything and we gained everything. This is how the kingdom of God is built. This is where God begins to work and move. And I've seen this play out time and time again. When we were in Texas at one of the churches we were at, when that church was getting started and they were getting ready to build their building on their piece of property, the pastor tells this story. He was a roper. And if you know one thing that's important to a team roper is a good horse. Because you can be as good as you want with throwing a rope, but if you don't have a good ride, there's only so much that you can do. And he said he felt like God told him to sell his best horse and to give that money so that he could make a sacrifice so that building could be built. And there's a cool story because he did it. And down the road, when that was horse was older, the guy that bought it from him actually gave it back to him. And when that horse passed away, they buried him right out front in front of that church because that church stands there today, because he was willing to sacrifice. Sacrifice looks different for all of us. I had a rancher once come to me, he was selling cattle. And I love that some people trust me, but please don't trust me this much. He walked up with an envelope and he had, I think it was three or four thousand dollars cash in it. And he handed it to me. He said, I sold some cows the other day. And God told me to tithe so many cows off the cows that I sold. So here's my tithe. And he just trusted me. Hand me like four grand in cash. Like, bro, there's an offering box over there. Go put it there. Like, just don't hand me cash like that. But it was his sacrifice that God had spoken to him about and said, Man, I I gotta do something, and this is what I feel like God's called me to do, and I'm willing to do it. I love the first Sunday that we talked about the legacy fund and we rolled out what we were doing. We'll give names, don't give them outs, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna tell you what made my heart so happy that Sunday is there's a high school student in this church, the very first Sunday we talked about that, who got on the website and gave a gift to this church, to the legacy fund as a high school student. And no, it was not mom and dad's money because this kid has a job, it was their money, their sacrifice. To say, man, I as a high school student, I can get that. And so in this moment, man, as we try to move forward with doing something that we feel like God's calling us to do, man, my question to you would be what is God asking me to sacrifice so that I can invest in something that's gonna last forever? Because here's the thing amounts are not what I'm after. I could create a whole giving campaign. I could tell you if you give this much amount of money to this for that and give a pledge, and then we can follow up with this and that. Here's what I'm asking. We can all sacrifice equally. That we can do. Amounts don't matter, sacrifice matters. There's a story of a widow who gave a mite. And what did Jesus say about her? She gave all she had, and she gave more than anybody else who put more money in there. So I could try to talk about amounts. Some of you can say if you would give $100 a month 12 months from now, you could give $1,200. And for some of you, $100 would be a great sacrifice every month to give. Others, you would miss it. I spend almost that just trying to film a truck up every week. Truth. I keep waiting for those gas prices to go down the Trump promise, but they ain't happening yet. One of these days. That over the next 12 months, if I would just ask the Lord, what are you asking me to sacrifice to invest in something that's going to outlive me? And he'll speak to you just like he'll speak to me. And whatever God lays on your heart, I would encourage you just to begin to trust him and give. Maybe for some of you that might mean this is going to be the first time you ever give. Cool. Great place to start. For some, maybe you do a little and it's it's God stretching you a little more beyond what you're comfortable with. For others, man, maybe I've already made some sacrifices, but I just believe like God's calling me to give more and I want to do more. Great. I'm not here to badger, I'm not here to make anybody feel guilty. I'm not here to motivate anybody to do anything other than to say, every moment I have ever sacrificed anything to God, He has given back to me something better than anything I ever sacrificed. And so, what would God be calling you to sacrifice so that we could begin to make a move on something like that? For land, for a building, so that we can begin to build a legacy that outlives us. Listen to God speak to you. Trust His voice, do the uncomfortable thing, and give. And watch what God does. That would be my invitation to you. Maybe for some it's sacrificing to serve. We're talking about trying to go to two services this fall. We keep seeing the spaces fill in. There ain't many more chairs that we can throw into this hole somewhere. So how do you fix the problem? You fill the chairs twice in one day instead of once. Is it inconvenient? 100%. Is it gonna be a sacrifice? Yep. I've preached two Sundays. I've preached three Sundays before. I need a nap after three, but I've done it three times in a Sunday. Is it worth it? A hundred percent. Because it's not about what makes me comfortable, it's not about what I'm comfortable with, it's about what has God called us to do so that we can make an impact on the community around us. What's your sacrifice bond? What's your sacrifice potfly? If we can stand all across this place, I get some friends that are gonna come down. Here's what I want to invite you to do as we worship a couple of things. Maybe you're here, and I'm just gonna trust the Holy Spirit's gonna speak to your heart. And maybe you just need to ask the Lord, what are you calling me to sacrifice and give? So that we can begin to do all we can to pay as much down as we can on that land. Turn that home around into something that can be a blessing in the meantime until we can do something more permanent on it. What would God call you to give? What would God be calling you to do? Maybe God's calling you to step up and serve more so that as we get ready to move to two services, there's a space or place that we can always use more help. There's never too many people on any team. Let the Lord speak to you as we worship. Ask him those questions and listen to his voice speak to you. And if you're here today, and maybe the reality is you're just going through some stuff. You're struggling in your marriage, you're struggling in your family, you're struggling in your finances, maybe you're sick and you're going through some health battles, maybe you're struggling with anxiety, you're struggling with depression. I don't know what it would be. Here's what I want to encourage you to do: sacrifice your pride and what people might think about you, and step out and let somebody pray with you. Don't come into this place carrying the same weight and then leave carrying the same weight. The goal of this community is to sacrifice my pride and whatever anybody else might think about me. And recognize we are here for each other to pray for each other, to carry one another's burdens and lift each other up. And so, as we worship, if that's you and you need prayer, sacrifice your pride. Sacrifice whatever people might think, and come down and let somebody pray with you. Can we do that in this moment together?