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Andy Stanley - Be Rich 2024 · Andy Stanley Sermons

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From the beginning, our church decided to partner with nonprofit organizations that were making
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the biggest difference in their local communities and around the world. These organizations are
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run by the best of the best. They're marked by clear vision and integrity,
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and truly make a difference in addressing important needs such as food insecurities,
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foster care, medical care, housing, education, human trafficking, and disaster
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belief, things we all care about. Each year, we ask these fabulous
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organizations two questions, what would make a big difference for you and what would
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help you make a big difference? And then during Be Rich, we all
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come together and give a little to help these organizations go further, faster and
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do even more but those they serve. These are the days to give,
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serve and love to be rich. So I want to welcome those of you
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who are joining us online all of our Atlanta area churches, those of you
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who are in churches all around the country, in some places different parts of
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the world. It's so much fun to gather with Jesus followers who are learning
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more and more of what it means to actually follow Jesus. We believe that
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doing is what makes the difference, and Believing is a good start, but
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doing is what makes the difference. That's what Jesus taught and this season for
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us as a network of churches is all about doing. For the past seventeen
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years, we have been able to partner with some of the most amazing organizations
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in our communities, local communities and all around the world during this season that
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we call be Rich. And today I have the opportunity to get to introduce
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you to the CEO and the founder of one of those incredible organizations. We're
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fortunate to have Hal Donaldson with us today, a founder and CEO of Convoy
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of Hope. Convoy has been a be Rich partner for five years. They
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provide disaster relief in the US and all around the world. And the thing
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I love, or one of the things I love about Convoy is they show
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up quick and they don't leave until they are no longer needed. In the
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past few years, they've launched an international women's empowerment program that's amazing Sandra and
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I are involved in. They have feeding centers and they feed feeding programs for
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children in different countries of the world. They do agricultural initiatives, they do
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it all and they have been a partner with us in a very strategic way,
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because when there's a disaster, especially in the United States or even internationally,
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and people in our churches are like, we want to do something,
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you know, how do we give? In the old days, we would
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collect funds and then send the funds to organizations, but now we channel those
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moneies directly to Convoy of Hope because we trust them. They're an extraordinary partner.
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They're led by an extraordinary individual, and you are about to hear his
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story. But before how comes, I wanted to show you just a quick
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video to show you the scope and the scale of this incredible organization that many
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of you have been investing in and partnering with for some time and maybe didn't
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even know it. And for those of you who were about to begin,
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just wanted you to know what an amazing organization they are. So take a
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look at this. Be never earthy, never lave Egle standby what he claim
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lived life to say. I heard you all. I see a pain out
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in the dog, out in the brain. It may be midnight on midday,
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it's never earn never believe standby what he claims. I live in the
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same Syston Jay round in the corner. Helps the way coming for you Healthstone
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Jay. Yeah, I didn't know life to see, help us on the
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way. Help is on the way. So would you please to welcome Hal
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Donaldson. It could be with you. Thank you. So a lot of
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people, a lot of us, are not familiar with Convoy of Hope,
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So just a little little context. It's one of the largest even though you
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may never have heard of it, it's one of the largest and most highly
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rated nonprofits in our nation. Forbes always has it in the top fifty best
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charities in the United States with a ninety five percent efficiency rating, which means
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they're looking at how much of the money that comes to an organization actually goes
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into serving people. Ninety five percent is amazing. Charity Navigator gives you a
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ninety nine percent rating of four star rating. But because I know the story,
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it's big and it's amazing. But it started off with a tragedy,
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and your story is what makes in some ways, the story. Your personal
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story makes the story of Convoys so compelling, and I just wanted our church
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to hear a little bit about your personal st before we talk about Convoy.
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Well, first, thank you for the invitation and thank you NorthPoint for just
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your generosity and kindness to Convoy of Hope through the years. Were just really
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indebted to you. It really starts when I was twelve years of age.
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My parents were scheduled to attend a business meeting, and my two younger brothers
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and younger sister and I were supposed to stay home with a babysitter. But
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the babysitter was late, and so my dad said, you'll have to hop
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in the car with us and go to the business meeting. My father was
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halfway down the road when he glanced at his rearview mirror and he spotted the
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babysitter pulling into our driveway, and so my dad made a U turn,
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drop the four of us kids off, and we would spend the night with
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the babysitter after all. So about an hour and a half later, there
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was a knock at our door and I ran to the door and there standing
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in front of me were two uniform police officers, and they had come to
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deliver the news that my parents had been hit by a drunken driver. My
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father had been killed instantly and my mother was seriously injured fighting for life in
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the hospital. But Andy I'll never forget that night because a number of friends
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and neighbors began together in our front yard, and the police officer pulled me
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up on the porch, put his arm on my shoulder, and he addressed
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the crowd. He said, are there any family members or friends here who
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are willing to take the children home with them? If not, we'll take
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them downtown to the station. And that night, I'm sure it was just
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a matter of moments before someone responded, but for a kid, it felt
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like minutes. And finally one young couple raised their hands, and their names
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are Bill and Leveda Davis, and they said, will take them now.
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To be fair, I think they thought that they were signing up for like
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a one or two night sleepover. But we ended up living with them for
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about a year. And all they owned was a small trailer, and so
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all ten of us had kids of their own, and so we lived in
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that trailer for about a year. There weren't enough beds and so we took
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turn sleeping on the floor. The Davis's they drained their savings account, they
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sacrificed their privacy so four kids could have a home. Wow. Well,
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their generosity was amazing. But the story didn't necessarily get better from there because
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your mom was in a hospital. Yeah, severely. I mean you talk
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about that was that's part of the story. Yeah, my mom because of
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the shards of glass from the windshield, her face was terribly scarred and scabbed,
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and so they wouldn't allow me to see my mother. Weeks passed.
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Finally they let me go to the hospital and Andy, I actually I passed
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out when I looked at her, because I couldn't believe that was my mother.
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Her hip was crushed, her ankle was crushed, and so she would
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limp, had a terrible limp the rest of her life. But those were
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some tough days. She recovered, she was able to get two part time
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jobs, and so we were able to get a place of our own.
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But as a twelve year old boy, I struggled. I just couldn't understand
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how a loving God could allow a father to be taken from four small children.
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And I couldn't comprehend how the man who hit them could walk out of
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jail forty eight hours later. Meanwhile, our family was sentenced to a life
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of poverty. It just didn't seem fair to me. But one day Bill
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Davis, who we had been living with and the trailer. He saw that
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I was struggling, and he came and he threw his arms over my shoulder
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and he spoke these words. He said, how listen to me. Don't
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allow the tragedy of your youth to become a lifelong excuse, because where you
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start in life doesn't have to dictate where you end. And those words were
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life giving. Gave me hope. My parents didn't have insurance and the man
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who hit them didn't have insurance, and so our family was forced to survive
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on welfare and food stamps, and there were many times that the cupboards were
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bare, and so we had to go to school without a sack lunch.
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We had to go to school with holes in our shoes and holes in our
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jeans. And friends, that's before it was cool to have holes in your
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jeans, you know. Yeah, but yeah, some very very difficult days,
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and so Andy I know the shame of poverty. I lived it.
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But I also know the power of kindness because people at our church they wrapped
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their arms around my family and they would come to our door week after week
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with bags of groceries. And people ask me all the time well, what
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difference can a bag of groceries make or a plate of food? Trust me,
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for a hungry kid, it makes all the difference in the world.
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Now, every time those bags would come to our door, it was like
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Christmas all over again. One time a woman saw that I had holes in
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my shoes at church, and so she went to my mom and she asked
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permission to take me to Kenny's shoe store. Now, Kenny, some of
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you will remember this. Back then they had three pairs of sneakers, one
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for two ninety nine, one for three nine nine, one for four ninety
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nine. Right, I'm not talking about two hundred and ninety nine dollars two
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dollars nine nine cents and so so all I'd ever known of the two niney
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nine pair. And so when we walked in Kenny's, I made a bee
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line to those shoes. But this particular day, this woman waved me over
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to the four ninety nine pair, and she said, today, Jesus wants
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you to have the best that they have. Oh goodness, So their kindness,
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the power of kindness, kept me from becoming bitter. And I truly
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believe that in God's scheme, grand scheme of things that he took my father's
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mangled automobile and one day he would transform it into a fleet of convoy of
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hope trucks that would crisscross our country, offering help and hope to millions of
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people. Only God could do that, and man, man, God be
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the glory. So moving forward, that didn't happen quickly, and it wasn't
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even your intention. You weren't a little boy that suddenly had a vision for
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compassion for others. You're a little boy who's poor, and like you know,
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it wasn't unusual. You decided never again, and that sort of shaped
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the trajectory of your life to poverty more than compassion. Talk a little bit
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about how that transition happened. For sure, when you were raised poor,
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you begin a quest not to be poor anymore. And that was certainly the
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journey I was on. And I thought the best way to escape poverty was
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through education, and so I worked my way through college, earned several degrees,
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and I found myself in my twenties working as a writer. I have
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a journalism degree and I was writing books. And one of those book projects
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took me to Calcutta, India to write a book for some missionaries, and
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when I arrived, they said, well, we want you to interview someone
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for our book. And they took me to interview Mother Teresa, of all
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people, and you were how old? Nine twenty nine? Okay? And
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in the course of the interview she turned the tables on me. She said,
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young man, let me ask you a question. What are you doing
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to help the poor and the suffering? And I figured it was probably not
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a good idea to lie tom a freesat. Yeah, I told her the
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truth. I just said I'm really not doing much of anything. And she
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kindly said, well, everyone can do something, just do the next kind
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thing that God puts in front of you. And as you can imagine,
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those words were haunting for me. And I remember going back to my hotel,
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which was a very nice hotel, surrounded by poverty, but a nice
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hotel, and just in my hotel room just crying before God and saying,
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God, priorities have to change in my life, something has to change.
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And I was confronted that night with a question, am I happy and am
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I fulfilled? And Andy the answer was no, I wasn't because I was
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only living for myself. I'd forgotten when my father had taught me that the
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key to happiness and fulfillment is serving others. Be rich serving others, And
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you know, so that night I just really said, God, you need
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to do a work in my life. And I came back to the States
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and I just continued to pray God and make some changes in me. And
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I felt one day compelled to do something quite unusual, to travel to eight
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cities and to live in the streets for three days and three nights. And
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before you tell more of the story, you were already married. Yes,
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yes, yes, amazing. So tell us about that conversation, Honey,
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I feel compelled. Yeah, I did. And I haven't shared this a
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lot, but she can validate it, I said. She said, are
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you sure you look like you belong on Maybury RFD? You know, you
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know, and you're going to go live on the streets. You're going to
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go live on the streets. And I said, I'm just so confident that
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I'm supposed to do it, that I believe that God is going to supernaturally
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provide the resources to do it. And he did. I was sitting down
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with a man I was discipling, and he just asked me a new Christian.
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He just asked me. He said, how is God telling you to
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do something again, brand new Christian. I said, yeah, he is.
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He said, well, I'm supposed to pay for it. And right
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then and there, he took out his check book and he wrote out a
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check to cover all the expenses. And which cities did you guys? He
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I went to Atlanta, Miami, d C. New York, Chicago,
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Detroit, major cities and lived in the streets for three days and three nights
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along with friends. I didn't go alone, and I had a hidden tape
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recorder, so I had interviews with drug NICs and gang members, prostitutes,
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runaways, and the homeless. I went places I never thought I would go.
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I went to crack houses and jail cells and CD bars and et cetera,
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et cetera. And all I can tell you is that as I saw
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the underbelly of America, God truly broke my heart. He broke my heart.
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And I like to say that I believe God had to do a work
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in my heart before he could do a work through my hands. And I
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came back from one of those trips and I just I had to do something,
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and so we took three hundred dollars and we bought groceries, and we
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loaded up a pickup truck and we went into the migrant farm workers part of
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northern California. We began passing out groceries to the migrant farm workers, telling
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him Jesus loved them, We love them, and there was a church right
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down the street that loved them too, And that really was the start of
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Convoy of Hope twenty nine years ago, and since that time, we've now
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been able to serve and share the love of Jesus with over two hundred million
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people around the world. Goodness, I gave the door, thank you,
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thank you, thank you. That was twenty nine years ago. It is
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another thing I'll add is that I really felt compelled to also start the feeding
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program because I really felt like we were supposed to be feeding a million children
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every day so they could wake up every morning knowing they've access to food and
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clean drinking water and no longer scavenging off of garbage sheeps and no longer begging
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in the streets and sniffing glue to take away their hunger. And God blessed
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that as well. That's grown from just hundreds to now every single day we're
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feeding five hundred and thirty thousand children around the world. Yeah to jobbing dolors.
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Thank you. So behind all that is an amazing organization and we've had
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an opportunity to see some of that organization and meet some of the most amazing
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people. And in all that growth from a pickup truck to That's why I
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want to jellous. See the video that eighteen wheelers rowing up and down the
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highway from Springfield, Missouri distributing stuff, you know, the Gulf coast here
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and hurricanes, I mean, and then all over the world you experienced you
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discover something about momentum, and every business owner and everybody in business marketplace leaders
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a momentum is really our best friend. When you have momentum, you look
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way smarter than you actually are. Right, it may just be the economy
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or luck, but it feels great. But in your case, you discovered
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something in terms of momentum that sort of dovetail are syncd up with the way
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that God works. And I think it's so interesting because I do think there's
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transferred to our personal life. Just talk a little bit about what you discovered.
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Certainly in the early days, probably the first decade I thought that we
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could create momentum by simply tweaking the organization and with minor changes we could create
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it. But the long I've been out of the more I realize is that
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you don't create momentum as much as you invite momentum. You invite it.
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And at Convoy about twelve years ago, we invited momentum into the organization.
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We repositioned it, if you will, underneath God's bigot a blessing. And
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when we repositioned it, everything seemed to change. And sometimes I think we
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have to reposition our businesses, our ministries, even our personal lives to really
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get on the flow of God's blessing. We did that twelve years ago and
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we've been growing at twenty percent a year for twelve consecutive years. That's amazing.
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And specifically what did that entail, because I think that's fascinating. I
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think really the main point is that we aligned our expectations with God's plan.
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We really began to seek what is it you want to do God, rather
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than what we want to do, and we changed the question. The question
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was for years, oh, how do we grow Convoy of Hope. The
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question changed to now, God, how much can we give away? Who
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can we bless? Be rich? Who can we bless? And so instead
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of building another charity, it's how do we empower the church and become a
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channel of blessing the church. And we recommitted ourselves to linking up with the
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local church. Everything Convoy of Hope does in the United States and around the
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world is in partnership with local churches. The thing that has been so motivating
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to me as a leader and as a pastor is is the organizations mature.
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There's a shift that happened. I mean, when you had to pick up
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truck full of groceries, there wasn't much to protect, right, there wasn't
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a lot of risk. You weren't trying to protect anything. There was nothing
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to protect. Now that you're an international organization, a huge organization, the
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temptation that's always, oh, we have to protect our asset, we have
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to protect protect and then people begin to close their hands around this and that
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decision those years ago, you know, as I've heard you tell this story,
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was really kind of your way of saying, no, we're not We're
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not here to protect anything. And consequently it really, you know, the
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wider our hands are open the more God can put in our hands. And
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I just even as a leader, that's so motivating to me. Now that
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kind of dovetails into what I think is one of the most fascinating things.
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And I'm gonna get this a little bit out of order, but following being
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involved as I have and tracking along with you, one of the things that
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always amazes me. And I ask you this the last time I had an
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opportunity to interview you, was you are your organization convoy responds quickly to emergencies
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and natural disasters. You can predict a hurricane, natural disaster, but as
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a lot of natural disasters, you you just wake up and look at the
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news and oh my goodness, you are You're always so quick. So my
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question was always how do you budget for a natural disaster? How do you
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budget fro an emergency? And some of my thought was, well, they
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must just hoard millions of dollars waiting for the next earthquake, you know,
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like what's happened in Morocco. We'll talk about that in a minute, but
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that's not the way you do it. And the context for the question I
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ask you originally was you guys your team was in Ukraine so quickly and spent.
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I'll let you talk about the numbers of dollar with resources moving into Ukraine.
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In fact, NBC did a presentation, Actually NBC embedded one of their
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reporters with one of your trucks crossing the border from Poland into Ukraine and watching
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that. It was amazing. But I was thinking, you responded so quickly.
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How do you budget for something unpredictable like that. That's a long question.
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But yeah, So, you know, we really believe in the importance
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of humility and reliance on God. I mean, that's kind of one of
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our core values. We're going to rely on God, and so we don't
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budget for disasters. We don't. When we deploy our relief teams, they're
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told to go and meet as many needs as they possibly can. We want
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to be driven by need, not money, okay, And so in the
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case of Ukraine, we sent the word out that we were on the ground,
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and people responded. More than thirty million dollars was given. Think about
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that. Thirty million dollars was given very quickly. Yeah. Yes, And
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Convoy of Hope has been able to take that thirty million dollars and translate it
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into sixty million dollars worth of aid that has reached Ukraine. We're working with
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three hundred and fifty churches in country in country. Wow. Yes, and
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so they're like compassion hubs and there are distribution points, if you will,
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And so we've been able to work with them to just make a difference in
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their communities. And when this war is over, people are going to be
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able to look to the church as their solution, if you will. Yeah,
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watching the video and just interview with the truck driver and then unloading those
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after creative after creative water and goods. It was amazing you were in MAUI
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quickly I looked on the website yesterday. You're already dist somehow. You're in
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Morocco already. Can you talk a little bit about that because I asked you
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backstage like really, I mean, this just happened, but it's almost like
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you anticipated this. Well. We've been working in Morocco for a number of
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years, and so we had the relationships on the round and by using airlifts,
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and we have containers that are on their way across the Atlantic. So
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and yeah, we you know, you can really much pretty much assume that
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if there's a disaster in United States and around the world of any medium magnitude.
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We're not asking can we raise money? We're asking can we meet needs?
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Can we lift up the name of Jesus? And can we elevate the
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local church? So really that's our forte and so you know, these twenty
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some odd years, we just believe that if we're doing that, that God
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is going to pay the bill. And these twenty years he has, He's
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supplied. Okay, So just the pragmatic side, have you ever gotten in
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trouble doing that? Is like, go go, go, go go.
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Where we're going to get the money? I don't know, just go go
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deliver. You ever got an upside down? Yeah? A few times.
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But that's why you need a very forgiving board of directors. Yes, that
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that is. That's amazing. I want to jump to this last question because
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I want to give you as much time as you want. So one of
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the things that How is he's in some ways he's an ambassador to the church
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because Convoy does so much through the church and as the trust of so many
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pastors all different denominations. I mean, I've been with I mean it's amazing,
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and I feel like How has earned the right to speak to the local
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church, even though he's not a local church pastor, because of the breadth
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of his experience with the church, both in the United States and all over
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the world. So I ask him permission to ask this kind of two part
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questions. So I just didn't want you to think this was a gotcha question,
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and I've asked him to. And one of the reasons we trust Convoy
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as an organization is because How in particular, stays in his lane and keeps
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Convoy in his lane. And by that, I mean they know what they're
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good at, and they do what they're good at, and they stick with
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what they're good at and they let other people do the rest. But because
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of that, sometimes Hal is a little bit shy about speaking outside of his
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lane. So I said, how, I'm going to ask you to leave
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your lane and speak into our lane as a local church or the church in
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general. And so my question is this, based on what you've seen,
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if you could wave a magic wand or push a button and tweak or change
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one thing about the local church, let's just shay in the United States that
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you think if this one thing changed, it could change a lot of things.
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If it just this one thing changed, It could potentially change a lot
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of things. What would that one thing be? Thank you for preparing me
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for this question so I could really think about it. I wish the Church
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was known more for their sweat and tears on behalf of their communities, rather
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than perhaps even their political positions. You know, I'm not one that believes
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that we need to divorce ourselves from the political arena. But neither do I
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believe we should be sacrificing eternal impact for short term political gains. I don't.
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I believe that God wants to work through the Church to influence our communities,
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but also to influence the bastions of power in our nation. You think
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that's possible, I do, But that influence has to be earned. It
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has to be earned, and it's earned through the sweat and tears on behalf
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of our communities. So I think it was last Sunday or Sunday before I
26:27
made this point. And this isn't in the notes that sometimes I hear people
26:34
say, Oh, it's not enough. You know, it's not enough to
26:37
love. Love doesn't work, it's not enough to be compassion, it's not
26:40
enough. And you know, turn the other cheek. I feel like sometimes
26:42
they're quoting Jesus and saying that's not going to work. I'm like, wait,
26:45
we're Christians, what do you mean doesn't work? As a matter,
26:47
if it works, this is what we're commanded to do. So I'm sure
26:51
you hear that. It's not enough just to be compassionate. It's not enough
26:53
to love. I mean, does love work. I travel all over the
26:59
world world, and I have to tell you, I've never seen love fail,
27:03
not once. I've never seen it happen. And I think when you
27:07
look at the life of Jesus, a lot of people today I think they
27:11
are pointing to Jesus and they say, well, he turned over the tables
27:15
of the money changers, and he demonstrated some other compassionate activities. But he
27:22
demonstrated, you know, just at times of holy anger. But if you
27:26
look at the New test, but every time that he demonstrated holy anger,
27:30
it's followed by an act of compassion every time. And today what I see
27:36
as some believers it's rage upon rage upon rage. That's not how Jesus responded
27:42
Jesus. It was compassion followed by holy anger, justified followed by compassion and
27:48
holy anger. There was a rhythm to it, and so today I hope
27:52
that the church is known more for its compassion than it's rage. Wow.
27:56
Well, you've certainly given the church an opportunity to channel their compassion in a
28:00
significant and extraordinary way. Any last thoughts, Just well, I know we're
28:07
very excited about coming to Atlanta and oh yeah, we didn't talk about that.
28:11
We didn't talk about that. Oh yeah, let's say yeah. Because
28:15
one of the challenges is their distribution center. Their hub is in Springfield,
28:21
so Georgia. This is kind of cool Georgia. Companies in Georgia have been
28:23
very generous in the past with gift cards and with actual product. So what
28:29
happens is they send their trucks down, load them up, have to go
28:30
back to Springfield. So you're going to build a distribution center here in Atlanta
28:36
so that when there's stuff that happens in the golf at the Gulf Coast,
28:37
you're able to talk a little bit about it. That's kind of cool.
28:41
Yeah, I mean at the home depots, the Coca Cola's, the Cloroxes
28:45
of this community have been so generous to us, and so for a long
28:51
time we thought, well, we are really benefiting from their generosity. What
28:56
if we had a distribution here so that we're helping the people here but also
29:00
helping the people in the southeast, it will enable us to respond to disasters
29:04
so much more quickly. Whenever there's a hurricane, we actually stage right here
29:10
in Atlanta are trucks that a dozen trucks will be staged right here in Atlanta,
29:15
and then when we know when the hurricane where it hits, we rush
29:18
in but from Atlanta. So it just seems to make a lot more sense
29:22
for us to be here. And I was able to connect how with a
29:26
couple of gentlemen from our church to help find some space and some warehouse space
29:30
that we're super excited about that. And you know, if there's anybody here
29:33
listening that like to make our significant contribution to help get that thing built,
29:40
that you can just bypass us and just go straight to HOW and let because
29:44
it's going to be a big investment, but ultimately it pays you back because
29:47
you're not having to transport things. I necessarily say. So, we're opening
29:51
up a distribution center on the West coast in two weeks, and we hope
29:55
to make this happen within the next twelve wow, wow, anything else.
30:00
I just want to say thank you to you. Thank you for your friendship
30:03
and your trust and how you've leveraged your platform to help us help more people.
30:08
And I see that from Obama heart. Thanks for your friendship and your
30:11
trust. We don't take that for granted. And I want to say thank
30:15
you to North Point and your network of churches. Thank you so much for
30:19
your generosity. When you invest in the b Rich campaign, you're helping people
30:25
like us and the millions of people that we're reaching out to every year.
30:29
And so just a big thank you, Thank you so much. We're so
30:33
grateful. Thank you. How yeah, okay, so if you have if
30:48
you've been around, you know how this works. And if you haven't been
30:52
around, I'm going to tell you how this works. Every year, we
30:53
combine our energy with all of Atlanta area churches and some churches outside the city
30:59
of Atlanta to come together to do collectively and corporately what you do all year
31:04
long. Because you're generous people. When you see a need, you try
31:07
to meet it. When people are raising money for something, you try to,
31:10
you know, participate in that. So be Rich. We come together
31:11
and for two or three weeks, we asked the question, what can we
31:15
do collectively in a big way that would make a big difference, not just
31:18
distributing money to individuals, but partnering with the amazing nonprofit organizations, some faith
31:23
based, but even many non faith based organization, the ones that are making
31:29
the biggest difference, that have the best staff, that are the most organized,
31:32
that at the end of the day, if you just fund them and
31:33
fuel it, they're just going to make the world a better place. So
31:37
what we the way we talk about it is that for the next few weeks
31:41
we're going to give and serve and love, but not just give and serve
31:42
in love. We're going to give and serve and love in Jesus' name and
31:45
be rich. Is our opportunity to remind our communities, as we're constantly reminded
31:51
here at church, remind our communities that everybody right, everybody matters to God.
31:56
Everybody matters to God, whether God matters to them or Now, the
32:00
big question if you're new is why do you call it be rich? That's
32:04
almost offensive. And here's why. The apostle Paul, who wrote about half
32:07
the New Testament, wrote several letters and a couple of those letters were actually
32:12
written to individuals, and he wrote two letters to a young man named Timothy
32:15
that he was mentoring. And in one of the letters he instructs him.
32:20
He says, Hey, when you're talking to rich people, here's what I
32:22
want you to tell the rich people. And here's what he says. He
32:25
says, command those who are rich in this present world, and every year
32:30
at this time, I remind you that chances are you are rich in this
32:35
present world, especially when you compare your situation to other people and other parts
32:39
of the world. So Timothy, or Paul rather is talking to us anybody
32:44
who has extra anybody who's saving for the future, anybody that thinks one day
32:47
I might have enough to retire within the context of the world economy that makes
32:52
most of us, if not all of us rich. And so Paul says
32:55
this, Timothy, tell those people who are rich in this present world to
32:59
do good, because they're going to be tempted to not do good because they
33:02
don't have to do good. And here's our phrase. And to be rich,
33:07
to be rich in good deeds, and to be rich in terms of
33:10
generosity and to be willing to share. So we just snag this little phrase,
33:15
and we call this our be Rich campaign. We want to be good
33:19
at being rich because most of us, compared to a lot of people,
33:22
are in fact rich. Now, the reason you don't feel rich is because
33:25
you know people who are rich er, and you live in the world of
33:29
er. There's big er and pretty er, and skinny er, and high
33:32
er and faster and shinier, er, er, er, er er.
33:36
So none of us feel rich. Then that's okay not to feel rich.
33:39
You are because you and I we have extra and this is our opportunity to
33:44
bring some of our extra together to do something extraordinary in our community. So
33:50
when it comes to be rich, we do not set a financial goal.
33:52
We don't try to raise in a certain amount of money. We have a
33:54
participation goal. And our participation goal is simple. It's one hundred percent participation.
34:00
We want everybody to participate. We're asking one hundred percent of you to
34:05
give, and then we are going to give one hundred percent of it away.
34:08
There's no shipping cost, there's no handling cost, there's no administrative cost.
34:13
Our churches are large enough we handle all those costs and expenses internally,
34:16
and one hundred percent of what is given to be rich. One hundred percent
34:20
of it is given away to these extraordinary organizations that we have vetted ahead of
34:24
time. We went to these organizations and said, what would help you to
34:29
go further faster, what would help you serve your people better? If you
34:31
had a wish list, just give us your wish lists. We're going to
34:35
do our best to raise enough money to help your dreams come true, because
34:38
you're the experts in what you do, and we don't want to replicate services
34:43
that you're already doing well in our communities. And the good news is,
34:46
in spite of inflation, the cost for be rich and the request for be
34:50
rich has not gone up. We're still asking everybody to give the same amount
34:54
we have since two thousand and seven, which is, and let's just say
34:58
it all together, a one time gift of thirty nine ninety five. That's
35:02
it. We want everybody to give a one time give at thirty nine ninety
35:06
five. And if everybody in the Atlanta area, in our Atlanta area churches
35:09
does this today and I hope it's today, we're going to raise about one
35:14
point four million dollars or one and a half million dollars. If everybody in
35:17
our network of Churches does that today and gives it that level. We'll raise
35:21
almost two and a half million dollars and this covers fifty eight really large projects
35:27
for these amazing organizations. But we have vetted several million dollars more of projects
35:35
just in case things get out of hand. Because every year, when I
35:38
ask for thirty nine ninety five and we're not going to raise the request,
35:42
many of you realize, you know, thirty nine ninety five, I won't
35:45
even miss that, and you add a zero, and some of you add
35:46
two zeros, and everybody, every once in a while, somebody adds three
35:50
zeros. And here's why I would encourage you to consider that, because we
35:53
have already vetted these organizations. They are great organizations. We work with them
35:58
all year long. Some of you volunteer in these organizations. So I hope
36:01
this year's be Rich is going to be bigger than ever. Here's what we're
36:06
going to do with some of that money. We're going to help these partners
36:08
with operating costs, program expenses, staffing costs, capital expenses, technology solutions,
36:14
and transportation. And here's why this is important. Any of you who
36:17
well most of us who have jobs, you understand. It's the behind the
36:22
scene stuff that's so expensive at times, and your customers, if you're in
36:24
sales, your customers don't see all the behind the scenes stuff, but you've
36:28
got to have that in order to have a product to sell well. The
36:30
same is true in nonprofit world. Nonprofits love to help families and love to
36:35
help children, love to create furniture, and love to fix things, and
36:38
love to go into the communities and do things. But there's an office behind
36:42
that, there's an organization behind that, there's administrative cost behind that, and
36:45
because we're aware of that, we love to go in and help fund the
36:50
things that the individuals who give to those organizations don't necessarily want to give to.
36:54
So operating costs, program expenses, program expenses are so important because these
37:00
amazing nonprofits are creative and they're constantly coming up with new things to do.
37:05
But if they're not in the budget, they're not funded, and we're able
37:07
to come along and say, you know what, you want to do something
37:09
new, do it, We've already raised the money for you. Staffing costs.
37:14
You know, organizations are like if only we had another if only hey,
37:17
you start interviewing, we're going to raise the money. Technology solutions are
37:22
so expensive most nonprofits can't afford full time IT people. But we come in
37:28
along behind them and say we're going to help you fund those IT solutions.
37:31
So this is strategic giving. These are game changers, honestly, game changers
37:37
for these organizations, and ultimately they're life changers for the people that they serve.
37:43
So this is very, very strategic giving. That's why we're so excited
37:46
about it. Jesus was clear about this, and we talk about it at
37:50
our churches all the time. Right, devotion to God, devotion to God
37:53
is best demonstrated and authenticated through love for other people, not sermons in songs.
38:00
Love for God or a devotion to God is best demonstrated and authenticated by
38:04
the way we treat other people, especially the people that can't do anything for
38:09
us in return. That extravagant generosity. If you think about it, if
38:13
you if you're a Christian, extravagant generosity is actually the appropriate. It's kind
38:17
of the natural response to God's extravagant generosity to you and to me, sin
38:22
his son to pay for our sin. So I hope that our generosity has
38:27
the same effect in our communities and ultimately in the world. And again,
38:30
I talk about this all the time, so I won't spend much time on
38:34
it, but it's just amazing to me. And I hope we never lose
38:37
the wonder of this that once upon a time, once upon a time,
38:40
in the first century, the second century, the beginning of the third century,
38:44
and the fourth century, once upon a time the idea of compassion.
38:47
Compassion was considered a weakness. It wasn't a virtue. Generosity wasn't a virtue.
38:53
Why in the world would you do something for someone who couldn't do something
38:59
for you, Why would you do that? It wasn't considered a virtue.
39:01
And then Jesus came along and introduced a whole different way of thinking about people,
39:06
that everybody had dignity, that everybody deserved to be loved, that everybody
39:10
was loved. And the church came along and took that teaching and organized around
39:15
it and began doing for others what the government and what the empire had never
39:21
considered doing for others. And it took hold, and it changed an empire,
39:23
and it changed the world, and it continues to change the world.
39:28
I love what Halse said. Love does, love work, Love always work.
39:32
So I hope our generosity's going to have the same effect in our local
39:36
communities in this generation. So once again, let's show our communities that our
39:39
faith, our faith isn't limited to discermons and songs. That God demonstrated his
39:45
love in such a way that people could see it. And we're about to
39:47
do the same thing. Now we've made it easier than ever. Those of
39:51
you who are watching online, pay attention. Don't go anywhere. We want
39:53
you right now to go to berich dot org. Not this afternoon, not
39:58
tomorrow, right now, go to Berich and go ahead and give. And
40:01
if you can do more than thirty nine to ninety five, you do that
40:04
thirty nine ninety five. If you're at home, if you're in the building
40:07
or at any of one of our church locations, when you leave, you're
40:10
gonna see some green balloons and some red balloons. The green balloons. If
40:14
you have cash or check, cash, it's about this big it's green,
40:19
okay, checks, Ask you if grandparents they know about those. Anyway,
40:23
If you have cash or check, you go to the green balloons. Just
40:27
making just kidding. I have to check check books somewhere anyway, credit or
40:30
debit the red balloon's probably more popular. We're gonna swipe your car. Just
40:34
go up there and tell us how much you want to swipe it before.
40:36
We want you to do it today, or if you sit tight, in
40:38
just a minute, we're gonna blow up. This QR code is gonna be
40:42
large enough for you to use your phone from where you are seated and give
40:45
before you leave the building. So go ahead, and if you want to
40:49
get your phones out again. God has demonstrated his amazing love toward us.
40:52
This is our opportunity to do it for our communities and to do it collectively.
40:57
So on your mark gets at let's all be rich and we'll see you
41:04
next weekend. But he can clean it. Dream s, look go away,
41:21
because clean it again