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A 15-Year Church Story Of Growth And The Next Five Years Of Faith | Sunday May 3 · Life Community Church

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, this is Jamie Bridges, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: All of our services are inspired and built straight from the Bible.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into this week's message recorded at Life Community Church.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, so guys, uh, real quick, I want you to go to John chapter 6.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: I just want to talk to us real fast about 15 years, what this means.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: I do feel like there's some things I would like to share with us in the last couple minutes that I have.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, our desire as a church is for you to be family.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like we desire that.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, for you to be family, like all we're asking is you to fill out a form.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: That starts the conversation.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: On May 20th, we're having what we're calling a family meeting.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, this is for people who want to be family, and we we're gonna talk about some things.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: All throughout the Gospels, you can see this where Jesus is talking to his disciples, and there's moments where Jesus says, Hey guys, I can't tell you the full picture right now.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: You couldn't handle it.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: You couldn't handle what I'm about to say to you, right?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: And we get that because there's some things we protect our kids from saying to them at the age that they are, the maturity that they are.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: So we understand that there are some things that we need to say that need to happen in family meetings.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: And for us to be family, that has to be mutual.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: You have to desire to be family, you have to want to be family, you have to want to be here, you have to desire to be here.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like all these questions are just, you know, you're something you're filling out, but us moving forward.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's all it is.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: We desire that.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like we want that.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: We want you to be involved.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so if you're like, I'm waiting on an invite, I just did.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and we do often, okay, we want that.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I say that to us because there are some things we need to talk about that I think are pretty crucial.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: And usually every five years, what we've seen pattern-wise, which uh everything I'm about to say to you is not a pat on the back.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: This is not about me.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: This is about what God has done the last 15 years.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: Every year we've grown numerically, every year our finances have gotten more.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: Every year we've done more than we did the year before.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's to God be the glory.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: But every five years, we feel like the Lord says something specific for the next five years.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I can look back at my notes in 2016.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'm looking at my notes.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: I'm looking at what I shared.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: Number one, the the day of our anniversary in 2016.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I could just tell you it was a crazy stressful season for my life.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you remember this, Bridget, um, but I was I was exhausted.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: I was tired.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: I was encouraged by our team, primarily our overseers, for me to take a sabbatical because of how exhausted I was.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mentioned that to to Bridget.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: She said, Come here, let's go in the office.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: I need to give you an exam.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: And what she found is she found shingles.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I have shingles, you know, at 39 years old.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, that's not something that should happen.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: And she's like, Oh, that's stress induced.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's where I was five years in.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: It was a it was a pretty critical moment for me of going, God, I don't know what you're about to do, but I remember that morning.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: And when I'm looking back at my notes in 2016, the Lord said to me that morning, you won't be in this room much longer.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, God, I don't, I don't know what you're saying right now.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I really felt like the Lord says, You're about to make room.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: You're about to make room.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: So in 2021, 2020, obviously everything's happening in the world.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: And we felt like the Lord said, Hey, listen, you need to expand this place.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: You need to make room.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: And it didn't make a lot of sense, especially with my sketch on a napkin, as me and Pastor Sean were meeting, as I drew this thing out, I said, I believe that this is something God wants us to do.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, this is the 10-year mark, this is what's happening, all these things.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: And we know, I shared this video with us.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Pastor Doby was here on that weekend, and he said three words, and he said the same word three times increase, increase, increase.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: So this year, as I'm driving this past week, um, I'm driving a that's a long sword, but I'm by my, you know, I'm kind of in my own little world, and I felt like the Lord said something to me for the next five years.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't say that to you to get you to clap.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: I don't say it to you to hype you up.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: I say it because I believe the Lord said this to me.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: I believe that.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: I believe the Lord said in the next five years, on your 20th anniversary, you'll be debt-free.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: I believe that was pivotal for the church.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I believe the second thing, which is some behind the scenes things that have been happening that the Lord has been opening, he says, Listen, you've done a good job with this generation, but now it's time to raise up this generation to send this generation out.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: I believe in the next five years and on our 20th anniversary, we're gonna talk about how we're sending people.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: I prayed this on April 30th, 2011, our second service as a church.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: I felt like the Lord says, Jamie, you need to go as a church and you need to leave some there.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: That means you're not just a church that takes trips, you're a church that sends people out.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: I believe those things are gonna happen the next five years.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: Now, what does that look like?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: I believe John chapter six, a familiar passage to most everybody in the room, whether you've been raised in church or not, you've seen or heard.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's in all four Gospels, which means this should be something we pay attention to.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: And it's John chapter six.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus has just heard John the Baptist was beheaded.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: He was killed.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says that Jesus tried to get away by himself, but crowds of people kept following him.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: Those parents in this room that you have kids, you know what he's talking about.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: You've tried to get away, these kids keep following me.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm saying?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm in the bathroom, leave me alone.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's I know it's not the dad's world.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: He gets to be in the garage, he gets to do all he wants.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm talking to moms right now.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: You understand?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: My wife's the loudest amen thus far.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: So we understand this is what is going on.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: And the Bible says so many people are following Jesus.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: And we know this story.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: It says a huge crowd, people coming to look for him.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: Turning to Philip, he asked, Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: He was testing Philip for he already knew what he was going to do.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: Philip replied, even if we worked for months, we wouldn't be have enough money to feed them.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: There's that little kid over there.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: He's got some loaves, he's got some fish.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: But what good is that with this huge crowd?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus said, Tell everyone to sit down.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: So they all sat, the grassy slopes, men outnumbered them about 5,000.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus took the loaves, he gave thanks to God, distributed them.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: We know this story.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: Verse 14 says, When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, Surely he is the prophet we have been expecting.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: And when Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away again into the hills by himself.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: Again, this is important for us to understand because the disciples see a problem.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus sees an opportunity.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: And Jesus turns to Philip and he says, Where are we gonna buy enough bread to feed these people?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: But the Bible says, man, he already knows what he's gonna do.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus will always test what you believe.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus always tests what you believe.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: Let's be clear.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus was not asking because he needed help.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus was not saying, Philip, I'm clueless here.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what I'm gonna do.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: He knew what he was gonna do.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: This was for Philip.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: You think some of the things that God is asking of you is about God?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's not, it's about you.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: This was about them.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: So why ask?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Why ask?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: Because Jesus will put you in situations where your theology is tested by reality.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: It needs to be tested.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: God will ask you questions that He already has the answers to.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus isn't looking for information, He's building faith.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's what's happening in life, community church.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: This is the season we're in.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: God is building our faith and he's asking, who's with me?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you want to know what's happening in our in our walks of life and who we've been walking with?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: He's asking, who's in?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: Who's in?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't turn to the crowd, he turned to his disciples first.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: Which one of you boys is with me?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Philip, I don't want to just do a miracle, I want to use you to do the miracle.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: So what are you gonna do about this?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: What are you gonna do?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: And Philip answers the most weight the church people answer.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have enough.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: The budget doesn't work, the numbers don't add up.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: This is too big.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Because anytime God wants you to do something big, he's gonna let you see how small you are first.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: Not to discourage you, not to discourage you, but to disconnect you from self-reliance, to disconnect you from being the man.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: You're the man at work, you come home trying to be the man, and God's going, You ain't the man.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm the man.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: He's saying, I'm the man, you're trying to be the man, I'm disconnecting you.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: So he looks at Philip and goes, So, how are you gonna feed these guys?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Are you kidding me?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: 5,000 men, probably 15,000 people total with kids and wives, women?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: What am I gonna do?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have enough wages for this.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: This isn't happening.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Mark 6, it says, with what we'd have to work for months, Jesus, respectfully, this is not happening.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, has anybody ever done that?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: God speaks and you respond with a spreadsheet.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: Come on, where some of you at?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, God, I know you asked me to do.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: Do you see this?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: See what's over here?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: See what you call not enough.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus calls, bring it to me.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: And in that moment, Philip, he didn't look for a leader, he didn't look for a pastor.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: He looked to a kid.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: A kid with what?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: A lunchable.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: A launchable.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: And he already said, here's this boy, he's got some bread and fish, but this is pointless.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: What are we doing right now?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what is happening?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: Don't miss this.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus never asked him for what he didn't have.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: He asked him for what he did have.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard stories over the last couple months of this dream big.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: I put up on the screen$2.6 million pledged over the next two years.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: We cheered about it.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's great.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: Most bankers that I've talked to have been blown away by it.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: And it's great.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: But$2.6 million isn't gonna build what we're talking about.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: There was no moment where I stood in front of you in the month of February and said, I'm asking you to give what you don't have.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm asking you to just give what you already have.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: And that's gonna equal what goes on the screen.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's a starting point.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's not the ending.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: There was no moment where I'm asking people to give everything to support what's about to happen.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't look at Philip and go, I'm I'm putting all the pressure on you to make this happen.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: He said, No, Philip, what are you gonna bring?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: What are you gonna do?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then he says, Here's this kid's lunch.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: Thank God his mom packed it today.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: Here it is, and he goes, Good.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I was asking.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I was asking.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I needed.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: Watch what I'm about to do.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: See, your willingness to say yes when it doesn't make sense is what Jesus is looking for.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: Mathematically, spreadsheet in your mind, logically does not make sense.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: The miracle starts with surrender, not supply.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: We go the other way.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: God, what can we afford?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: What can we do?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's not what he said.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: He said, Whatever it is you have, bring that, give that.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I'm asking of you.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: Your obedience, your generosity, your faith, wherever it is.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't say, have this perfect faith.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: Now I can meet you.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: He says, I meet you where you are while you were still sinning.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: Christ died.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't say when you got it right, when you cleaned yourself up, then Jesus came in.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: He said, I want you where you are.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: Where you are, what you have, what you have.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Stop making this bigger and more complicated.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: Some of you, you're overthinking things.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm praying about what the Lord wants me to give.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's already there.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: Why are you trying to muster something up?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Who are you trying to impress?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I can picture people going, okay, boy, come here.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: Let me see this.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, here it is.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: Well, here it is, Jesus.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure there's a moment he's like, This is embarrassing.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: Here it is.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know what he did though?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: He gave what he had.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: So that's it.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: If I could be vulnerable, if I could be real, like we've walked together.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: Some of us in this room.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: You stood from the beginning.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: 15 years.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: We've walked together.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: Five years, 10 years.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: We've walked together.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: And God has looked at you and said, All I'm asking for is your lunch.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: And some of you, you've withheld it.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: You've withheld your lunch.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: You're holding on to it, going, I don't know if it's enough.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if I the miracle doesn't start with the supply, it starts with your surrender.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: God can't bless what we don't give.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: God can't bless what we don't surrender.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: God can't bless what I'm trying to control.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: God's asked you to control one thing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: He's only asked you to control one thing, yourself.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: Not your situation, not your job, yourself.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: The boy had to let it go.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: No miracle happens if he keeps his lunch.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: If he looks at Phillips and says, Not me, dude, someone else.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: Not me, someone else.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: And listen, we as the church, we've done that our whole lives.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: Someone else do it.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Someone else.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: Not my gifting.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: Someone else.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm hurt.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm offended.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm shattered.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have enough.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: Give something.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: Give something.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: Start somewhere.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Stop using your excuses.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, this isn't gonna feed it all.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: It won't.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: But in my hands, it won't.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: In his hands, it can.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: It can.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know when I'm sitting with people?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: I wish I could go into all of the details.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: All of the details.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: There's a day.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: There's a day.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: I wish I could sit there.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: And where people are looking at me going, do you understand what this 57 acres could be?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, I truly do not understand it.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: I don't grasp it.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: I can't fathom it all.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: I can't, I'm not putting God in a all I know is we're going to give him what he has, what we have, and we're going to let God do the rest.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know that the amount of people who are talking about this thing?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just giving you a uh you're gonna be blown away, as blown away as the people who are standing there going, How in the world do we have leftovers?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know why I can stand in front of you and say, the Lord is saying in five years we're gonna have zero debt because I believe God can take my lunch and he can do something more with it than I could have ever done.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: I can't do anything with it.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: But if I'm holding it, if I'm holding my lunch, if I'm saying mine, I'm keeping it, he can't bless it.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: Some of you are asking why God hasn't blessed you like he's blessed someone else because you're hoarding your lunch, you're hoarding your gifts, you're hoarding the plans that God has for your life, and yet at the same time, you're holding on to him and you're saying, Why is God not blessing me?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: Why is God not doing something?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: He is trying, he's trying, you won't let him.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's not he's not able, it's that you're not available.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: You're not available.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: Your greatest ability is your availability, that's it.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: And some of you is I'm just gonna know by it.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: I can't afford it.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: You can't not afford it.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: God, I just want to be part of what you're doing.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: No, you don't, you really don't, and I hate to say it that way because I think you do in word, you don't in conduct.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: God, I'm listening.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: You're listening.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: When does listening turn to doing?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: There's a young man in this room, 15 years old at the time, and he heard what we were talking about.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: This young man was saving money for when he turned 16 to buy a truck.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: And in this room, as we talked about, dreaming big, God said, give it.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: And he gave it.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: But to this individual, it was everything.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: Could have justified, could have gone back, God.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: Did you say half?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Did you say tithe off that thing?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: Did you say 50%?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: No, he said everything.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I have no doubt, and I don't know this to the full extent, but I'm sure that week of him speaking and that week before he gave, it was a struggle.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: God, was it everything?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: And he gave it all.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: This is no different.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I think is happening with Jesus?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think he's looking at his disciples and he's going, I'm so tired of your BS excuses.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: Bring me the kid.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: Bring me the kid.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: He's gonna teach us some things.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: He's gonna show us some things.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I think what the Lord taught me through this story that I've heard about is God goes, listen, we're gonna excuse away what He's asking of us, and God is saying, Hey, life community church, bring me the kids.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: Bring me the kids.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know the number one thing people say to me when they start talking about life community church, especially those of them that are at the 10:30 service.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: I love the kids up front.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: I love the kids, I love the teenagers, I love the passion, I love the zeal.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: But hear me right now.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: They are not tomorrow's future hope, they are today's.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: Stop calling them the next generation, they are the now generation because Jesus said, Do not forsake them from coming to me.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then he says, Hey, here's what else?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: If you refuse, Philip, to do what I'm asking you to do, here's what I'm gonna do.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna use the boy because you refuse.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: You think I can't?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna watch this.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: Watch this.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: My prayer from that day that his parents told me that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Was God, I pray that you would blow his mind and there would be leftover for what he was wanting to raise to the obedience to say, God, it's yours.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: Come on, every every single one of us in this room.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know my prayer was for myself and for us as adults when we leave this room today?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm talking to the 30 and over for a second.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, most of your heads just went down.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: You understand?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking to us.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking to us.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm saying to us, why are we, why are we not saying yes to some of the things that God's asking us to do?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying it's across the board, you guys.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: I know from a giving, from a serving, from I get it.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not shaming you, I'm not condemning you.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm saying there's more.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus will make you face impossible situations so that we can trust him.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's all he's trying to get us to.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: It was never dependent on the size of the lunch, it was dependent on the power of Jesus.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: This was never about the size of the lunch.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: This was always who made it about the size of the lunch?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: The disciples.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: Eight months of wages.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: So you know what their solution was?
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: Send them home.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: They can pay for it themselves.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: It would have been easier just to send them home.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: It'd just been easier to, guys, just keep doing what we're doing.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: Keep doing what we're doing.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: When God speaks, and in this moment, God does more than enough.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: God doesn't just meet needs, he reveals his nature, and his nature is abundance.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: But you can't see the abundance until you see the obedience.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: I told every single person that stepped into this lukewarm baptism with a lot of floaties, mind you.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: I need to wash my hands just now.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: This is not about the water.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: This is the foundation of where they go because of their obedience to get in this tank and be in front of their peers and say yes to Jesus.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: This is the starting point because of the obedience.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: Blessing is gonna come.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think the enemy wants to take away from them?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: The abundance of what God wants to give to them.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: It reveals his nature, which is more than enough.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not standing in front of you going five years from now, we're gonna be able to say we're dead free because we're the coolest church in town.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Or to get on the Colombians, or to get on the news, or to get on whatever.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: We're doing it so that we can show off what God is.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: I just know twelve disciples carried baskets of food home that day.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: They came with nothing and they left with abundance.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's a simple question that Jesus is asking all of us as we move forward from this day.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: Will you give them your lunch?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: And some of you, yeah, you might need to rearrange some of your priorities, but some of you, you already got it.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: You're holding on to it.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: He's just asking for your obedience.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: He's asking for your generosity.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: Because I don't just say the best is yet to come, we want to live out the best is yet to come.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: I can look at every single one of you that were here from the beginning, and I can promise you this not one of you thought we would be here.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: To the Jim Harrises of the world, if we could drill five holes, drill five water wells, just five, and God says, How about 754?
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: If we could just plant one church, how about 200?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: What is God doing?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: He's saying, I see what you got, watch what I do with it.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: Give it away.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: Give it away, give it away, give it away.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: This is a declaration moment.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, we're not in survival season, we're in a multiplication season.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: Increase, increase, increase.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: Not for the sake of growing, for the sake of declaring who God is.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: For the sake of going, look, look what he did.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: Look what he did.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: Look what God did with our lunch.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: We threw$2.6 million dollars on we and it's awesome, it's great.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's our lunch.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's not the ending point, that's our lunch.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's all God asks of us.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's all He asks.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: We pray together.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: God, inside this room, the talent, the gifts.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, there are some incredibly smart people in this room.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: So much to offer, so much to be done.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: God, I pray that as a church we would let go.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: Let go of how we think it should go.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: Let go of how we think it should happen.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: And just be obedient with our supply that we surrender it.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: Say, God, it's not ours anyway.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_02: The gifts, not ours.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: You gave it.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_02: Our time, God, we don't know how much time's left.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: I did a funeral yesterday.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: All of us think we have so much time.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: James says, You think you can say you can do this tomorrow?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: Your life is a mist.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: Here today, gone tomorrow.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: And our time, we're here because of you.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: Because your breath, how the money, the talents, the gifts, all that, God, it's yours.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: God, it's yours.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_02: Man, it's not even ours.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: God, we give you our lunch today.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_02: Not so we can say, look how cool we are.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because I know my lunch in your hands means abundance.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_02: My lunch in your hands means overflow.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: My lunch in your hands means the kingdom of God advances.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: All you want from today, us today, is surrender.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: God help us.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because five years from now, I don't want to be a church that regrets.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: I want to be a church that celebrates what God has done.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: God, give us your strength today.