Latest / First Love Revolution / Generosity | Soldiers and Citizens | January 31, 2024

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Generosity | Soldiers and Citizens | January 31, 2024 · First Love Revolution

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Revolution Church Message Series Soldiers and Citizens.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: You can find the entire series in video and podcast format, as well as other messages, at FirstLoveRevolutioncom.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Here's Pastor Shane with today's message.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: We all excited to jump back into our Soldiers and Citizens series.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to it tonight.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Why are we doing this series?
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Well, there's far too many Christians that think of themselves as a civilian in the kingdom of God.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: I've certainly done this many times in my life and, as a result, we can get pretty shocked whenever hell takes aim at us.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: It's what Peter said in 1 Peter 4, verse 12 and 13, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you, but the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Keep on rejoicing.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: We know, we understand this series Soldiers and Citizens when we are suffering in Christ and we are rejoicing, which I'm going to guess is not as frequent as any of us would like to think.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: So, to resurrect a persevering faith, we need to reclaim our identity as soldiers and citizens, not as merely civilians in the kingdom of God.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: We just can't have Soldiers in the kingdom refusing to carry or to deploy their weapons and the full weaponry of spiritual battle as if they are civilians.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: There's no room for spiritual pacifism.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: It just makes somebody an easy target in this war.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: And so what are those weapons.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: That's what this series is all about Learning to use the weapons, learning to use all of the weapons.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Today, we're going to talk about a very overlooked one which, when it gets deployed, it multiplies, actually, into many weapons.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: It's like a cluster bomb.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: In that sense, it's honestly probably one you've never thought of as being a spiritual weapon in this war, but it is.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Well, if we were to go to the feeding of the 5,000, a story of Jesus feeding 5,000 men, plus the women and children and the wilderness found in the Gospels of Matthew, mark, luke, john, right at the beginning of our New Testaments, you would see that there was an offering of five loaves and two fish.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: It wasn't nearly enough to make a dent in feeding this massive and very hungry crowd.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: And yet Jesus took it and he received it and he blessed it and he passed it out and distributed it to be eaten.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: And then, after this huge crowd I mean easily 10,000 to 15,000 people after they ate we read in John 6, 12, and 13,.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: When they were filled, he said to His disciples gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: So they gathered them up and they filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten, meaning after the 5,000 men plus their wives and their children ate and if their sons are like my sons, I'm going to tell you that was a lot of eating.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Well, after all of that, okay now what could have fit in one basket when it started and when it was first offered now is filling full 12 baskets, which is sending the message that there is enough here to fill you all physically.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: But what happened here can fill all 12 tribes of Israel full of the testimony of who I am.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: You see, a multiplication miracle.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: It meets a need, but in the multiplication it can actually fill a nation.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: It can fill even an entire world with the testimony of who God is.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: It accomplishes more than one thing at once.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Remember what Jesus said I am the bread of life.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: He who comes to me will not hunger and he who believes me will never thirst.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: So the leftovers in abundance were a testimony to who he was.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: He is the one who's more than enough.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: He is the one who is not in short supply.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Church, we need more multiplication miracles because they testify profoundly to who God is in a world hearing the whispers of the accuser constantly saying that God isn't enough and God isn't doing enough.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: We need more multiplication miracles because the earth is not yet filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: We need more multiplication miracles because the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few and the stakes are high, and it's the testimony of the multiplication miracle that shakes up a world whose love for God has fallen flat.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: We need multiplication miracles, but what always precedes a multiplication miracle?
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: We all want a multiplication miracle, but we just want it to just come right.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: But there's always something that triggers a multiplication miracle in Scripture, and it is an offering.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: It's a generous offering.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: It's why generosity is a profound weapon in the kingdom of God.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: It's actually a weapon that leads to another weapon, and it's that of testimony.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: But why do?
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Why do so few use this weapon so sparingly?
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Why do so few, when they use this weapon, use it so begrudgingly?
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: And some never do?
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Why are some people generous and others not?
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: It's about what they believe.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: It's about what they believe.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Second Corinthians 9a says God is able to make grace abound to you so that, always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: So why does it seem that some just kind of always have an abundance for every good work?
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Well, others feel that they don't have anything to offer.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Let's right here in the text these are six keys to living a life wielding the weapon of generosity consistently.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: What are these six keys to doing this?
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: And why should we care?
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Well, we should care because Second Corinthians 96 says now I say this he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, what else do you need for some motivation?
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Reap sparingly, so so sparingly.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Reap sparingly, so generously, and reap generously.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Generosity is the key to being wealthy in eternity.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: That's a pretty big motivation.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: But there's an even better motivation than that.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Verse 7, each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: That's kind of a big deal.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: There's not that many times.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: It's just like God specifically loves when someone does this.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: But when someone is a cheerful giver, god loves that.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: You see, love for the one who gave himself for us and who loved us.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: That's what this is about love that desires for all that is in his heart to be done, so that his name, which is treated as common and is treated as lowly on earth, would instead be made holy on earth and glorified and magnified.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: So how do we do this?
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: How do we live generously?
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Six keys.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: For the first one, back to 2 Corinthians 9, 8, our anchor verse of today.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Notice what it says.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Notice where the emphasis is God is able.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: God is able.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: He's the one who can do it.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: More literally, he has the power, he has the might.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: If you're thinking that you are cut out of the capacity for generosity because of your circumstances or because of your situation, or because of your lack of finances, you are not.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Get your eyes step one back up on him.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: He is able, he has that power, he actually has that ability.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: All of us can express radical generosity to the God who's been radically generous to us because he is, not because we are, because he is.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: He's the emphasis and he's the source, he's the origin.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Like with everything we can only because he has already See, the foundation of a poverty mentality is a lack of confidence in God as provider, and the foundation of a generosity mentality is an abundance of confidence in God as provider.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Jesus said in Matthew 6, verse 31 to 33,.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Do not worry saying well, what are we going to eat, what are we going to drink?
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: What will we wear for clothing?
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: The Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need these things, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: We serve a God who is able and who promises, at minimum, to provide the basic needs and necessities of life.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: If only we'll put him, his kingdom, first.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: That's key number one of radical generosity.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: It's he, he's able.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Key number two back to second Corinthians nine eight God is able to make all grace abound to who, you, and you is not an elite few, and this is where Satan gets.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: So many of us were like, yes, yes, I know that God is able, but I've got some unique reasons to believe that I would be uniquely excluded from his care or provision in this way.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: It's not true.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: It's you.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: You see, this included all of the Corinthians who were the recipients of this letter, and the Corinthians were not, generally speaking, a wealthy people, and it was all of them and, by extension, it includes all of us, and that's significant.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Significant because all too often we read this scripture and we can dismiss this scripture as not being applicable to us.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Like maybe we kind of imagine that this is something that's for an elite group of people, like it's for the 1% that can give at this level, that can just really, you know, do something.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Great for God to be generous for God.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: But that's not true.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: It is possible for all of us to live a life of radical generosity to the God of radical generosity.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: It's possible for me to live a life of radical generosity to my God, who's been ridiculously generous to me.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: How can we do that?
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: That's what's going to lead to our third key.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that you might have an abundance for every good deed.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Now, the word for abound, it's the same word that we actually saw back in the feeding of the 5,000.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Whenever there were leftovers that were filling the baskets, that was this word peresuo.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: It's a word for abundance, it's a word meaning more than enough.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: So, if this is the line of what is needed, grace abounding is everything that's above this line.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Like God is able to meet your basic needs, yes, but God is also able to make grace abound above and beyond all of those basic needs as well.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: That's the third key.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: He's able to make it abound, abundant.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: The fourth key is very closely related what can he make abound to us?
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Many translations actually say it like this God is able to bless you abundantly.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: We read that God blesses us abundantly and I think naturally our minds kind of go to the place of like, okay, god's able to bless me so that I can give abundantly.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: It's not that hard to conceive.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: After all, we know he's the God who owns a cattle on a thousand hills and all of that.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: And so, knowing this, what do we reason?
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: If God wants to direct some you know more cows into my pasture, well, that would be great, god, because then I can direct some more moolah to you.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, you like that.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Or if God wants to direct heaven's dump truck to pour out on me, I can then pour out generosity on him.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: But until or unless that happens, well, I just can't.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: But is that what the scriptures actually say?
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: It actually says God is able to make all grace abound to you so that you may have an abundance for every good deed.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: This word grace is important.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: It's important for several reasons.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Back to our sufficiency line.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: So whatever is above the line.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: That's grace.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: It's his mercy that actually even brings us up to the sufficiency line we don't even deserve that.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: It's the mercy and the compassion of God.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Everything above the line, it's the grace of God and grace by definition.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: It means undeserved.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Something cannot be deserved or entitled and be grace at the same time.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Those who this is why this is important because those who perceive they're getting less than what they deserve, they're not going to be generous hearted.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm getting ripped off, I'm not getting what I'm doing, so I'm not going to be generous.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Those who perceive much as grace, much of what's flowing into their life as something undeserved, well then they want to be gracious back.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: I don't even deserve all this.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: I want to be gracious as well.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: It's why this word grace is so important In part.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: And then, third, those who perceive that everything they are getting isn't grace, but it's what's needed and it's what's necessary.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: They also won't be generous.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: If you look at everything in your life, you're like this is what's needed, this is what's necessary.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: There's no grace, there's no grace abounding, then there's no capacity for generosity then, because they're now equating everything they have not as grace but as necessary, as sufficient mercies of a basic necessity.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: So the fourth key to a life of generosity is this word it's grace.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Grace is what greases the gears of generosity.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Key number five God is able to make all grace abound to you so that, always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every need.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Now, this word, everything that we just read in verse eight, is literally flattening out both the word for every way and always.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Every way, always, and when you combine every way, always, and every good deed, that is a profound amount of emphasis to say there is always a way for you to participate.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: How many others had some loaves or some fish, just like the boy did?
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: But only the one who gave the offering ended up having their offering be multiplied by the Lord, not only physically, but also now filling the entire world with this testimony of who he is.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: The only one who shares, then, in this full harvest of that is the one who gave that.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: He's the only one that gets this in part credited to his eternal account, the one who gave the offering.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Everyone else said I literally don't have enough, and he said neither do I, but here's what I have and what's being credited to his account in eternity is still not even finished yet.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: God's going to do stuff tonight, and here it's going to be part of his testimony.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: The fifth key, though, is always, always in the sixth and final key to a life of generosity is this God's able to make all grace abound to you so that, always, having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: We're never going to become generous until we get this.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Is it sufficient?
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Is it sufficient?
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Pay close attention to how God's word says this Sufficiency in everything, so you have abundance for every good deed.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: It's like what are you saying here?
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: How can just having what's sufficient lead to an abundance all the time?
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: That's crazy.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: How does that work?
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Let me read it again, just saying it slightly different Sufficiency in everything, so you have abundance in everything.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: This is pure gold.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Once you get this, this is a key that's going to unlock something tonight and change eternal inheritances.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say it again Sufficiency in everything, so that abundance in everything.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: You see, often it gets reversed.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: We want abundance in everything and find that we don't have sufficiency for every good deed as a result, because we don't have the abundance, we don't have the sufficiency for every good deed.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: We just completely reversed this, but we got to flesh it out.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: What's the biblical definition of material sufficiency?
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: Jesus said don't worry about what, because your father knows what you need, and he mentioned clothing, food, shelter.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Sufficiency 1 Timothy what, are we told, is sufficient for us to be content as Christians?
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: 1 Timothy 6, 8.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: If we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Sufficiency Understanding the biblical standard of sufficiency?
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Now let's read it again.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: God is able to make all grace abound to you so that, always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: He's starting to get it right.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Sufficiency what's sufficiency?
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: I have food?
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Do I have clothing?
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Do I have the ability to stay warm from the elements?
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, even that's God's mercy.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Everything that's above that is grace.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Everything above it is God's grace.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: If I see my basic needs as sufficient in all ways, at all times, and everything that's above that, I see that as grace, even abounding grace.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Then what is possible now?
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: That wasn't possible before.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: I actually now have an abundance for every single good work.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: What's abundance anyway?
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: Abundance is actually back to our same word for the third time, peresuo.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: It's good for you to know what abundance means.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: We're being called to give Peresuo, generously, aboundingly.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: What is it Biblically?
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: There's actually many different layers of giving that get described and it's really helpful, I think, to understand the different types of giving according to the Bible.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: The first type of giving according to the Bible is actually called stealing.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you knew that it's when you're giving to God in such a way that you're actually stealing from Him as you are giving to Him.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: So what is that?
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Malachi 3, famous verse 8 to 12, will a man rob God?
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Yet you're robbing me.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: But you say how have we robbed you in ties and offerings?
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: And you're cursed with the curse for you're robbing me, the whole nation of you.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there might be food in my house, and test me now in this, says the Lord of hosts.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out fuel blessing until it overflows, then I will rebuke the devourer from you so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground, the vine and the field cast its grapes, says the Lord of hosts.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: So anything that's below the tithe.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: It's like if you give 9.5% you still aren't giving anything.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Biblically, you are stealing.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Which leads us to what is the tithe?
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: The tithe is the first tenth biblically.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: So the tithe goes back to Genesis, abraham tithe to the priest of Salem, pre-mosaic law.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: The tithe continued throughout all of the Old Testament.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: The tithe is assumed in the New Testament, which Jesus himself made clear.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Matthew 23, 23 said Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: You tithe the ment and dill and cumin.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: You've neglected the weightier provisions of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: But these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: See, it's really bad theology that says that the tithe is unnecessary because it's just an Old Testament thing.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: It's not true.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: The tithe, what was it?
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: It was the first fruits, the first tenth of any proceeds.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: The New Testament leaves the tithe in the dust with a much higher standard.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: What a generosity which we haven't even gotten to yet.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: But I can tell you this If you try to just tithe, you are probably going to fall short of it.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: The Pharisees what did we just read?
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: They only wanted to meet the minimum, but they didn't want to fall short of the minimum.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: So they're literally like taking the mint from their garden, weighing it up on some little scale and getting a tenth of it out and making sure that they even tithe on their little, tiny little spices, you know, growing outside.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you, most people who try to just hit the basic obedience standard of the tithe will probably fall short of it because they're not going to count something, something that's flowing in their way.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: They're not going to count whether it's the 401k account or their interest gains or maybe health benefits packages.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: There's many other things.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: We get given things all the time.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: It's sad to me when people try to just tithe because trying to hit the minimum standard, they're probably falling short of it.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: It's really true of any minimum's mentality with the Lord.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: But after reading Malachi, I do want to say this you should see this much for the one who tithes.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: They're 90% that's remaining after the tithe.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: It's going to go further than their 100% would have, because that 90% is now under God's blessing and he's protecting it from the devourer at the same time.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, is the craziest financial mistake to not tithe?
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Tithing is not going to solve all your problems, but certainly it is a major problem to not tithe.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: What, then, is third?
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Third is actually giving.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: So anything that goes beyond the tithe, that's considered giving.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Now you're giving to God.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Even if it's just one penny beyond the tithe, then someone now has officially given something to God.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: They've given their first penny to God.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: Remember tithing isn't giving.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Tithing is returning.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: It's returning the first tenth, honoring him as the one who gives all and gives us the ability to even earn the things that we do earn in this world.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: So tithing is considered not stealing.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: The first time we give to God is when we go beyond the tithe.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Fourth is now generous giving.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: This is what we're talking about.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: This is the weapon that we are discussing today.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: That's what is generous giving and very complicated ancient language terms.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: It just means giving a lot.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Generous giving just means it's giving a lot.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: What is giving a lot mean?
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: That's going to be something that is very fluid and flexible.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: If someone is poor, giving a lot may just be a few percentage points beyond the tithe.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: If someone is at a middle class kind of wage level, giving a lot maybe it's going to be giving 10% beyond the tithe or 20% total.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: If someone is wealthy, upper class, giving a lot is going to go up from there in proportion to what they are receiving.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: There are still, if you're not scared yet, three other layers of giving that go beyond this biblically.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: The next one is sacrificial giving.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: This is fifth.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Sacrificial giving is when someone gives to the point that they are actually going to do without something that is needed, without something that's a part of that sufficiency line.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: So now they are giving to the point that it's hurting them.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: This isn't like they are giving to the point that they can't go on that fancy vacation.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: No, it's dipping, not into what I'd like, it's dipping into things I actually need.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: So it's giving to a point of inconvenience going without something in order to give to God, in order to give to His kingdom.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: When God told the widow to feed His prophet, it was that.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: That's sacrificial giving.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: She already didn't have much food, so you know the story.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Sixth is faith giving.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: Faith giving is when God tells you to give something you don't have.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: It's like God, you must have said that wrong, because I actually don't have that.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: And then he's like no, I want you to give this much.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: I literally don't have that.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: This is called faith giving.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: It's when you hear from God an amount that you literally don't have and then you commit by faith to giving it and then he supplies it from there.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: That's faith giving.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: Seventh, final, is when he calls to give what all Christians are called to be surrendered to at all times, which is all.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: But there are times that God says give everything, sell everything, give it all.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: And I've actually heard a few testimonies of this over time and it's pretty incredible at what God does.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: When people hear Him tell them to do this, I mean it's a wild thing Sell your house, sell your car, sell everything, auction it all off.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: I mean literally giving everything and he does it.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: And I've heard people call it.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: I've heard people receive that calling and respond, and it's a pretty amazing testimony when it happens.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: But I'll wrap up with this.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: When I was in college, I was fortunate.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: I was on a full scholarship for tuition, but I had to pay my way for everything else, and so for during those years, you know I mean I had the most basic items in my mini fridge.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: You know, to eat, I had a big can of oats because it was a cheap way to get a lot of breakfast out of it.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: I had very cheap bread so cheap, you know it would fall apart.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: It was so dry and crumbly.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: You know I had peanut butter.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: Try to smear peanut butter on cheap bread.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: I remember it vividly.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: I kept jelly and a couple other items, always some ramen, of course, and some ham.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: You know, a little cheap ham might have the deli just kind of sliced that bad boy up.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: I didn't eat all these things at the same time, so don't worry about that, but that was like years.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: That's just what I hate.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: It's what I had Even in seminary.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: This is after Wendy and I are married.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: If we were to go and hit the dollar menu at Wendy's or you know, a $5 Caesar's hot and little Caesar's hot and ready or whatever, that was like a fancy night.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: And that was several more years, you know, of going through school and all that before I ever got a real job.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Praise God for real jobs too.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Our homes that we lived in, of course, were.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: You know they were just very tiny, certainly nothing out of a magazine by any means, and don't even get me going about our cars.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Well, we could tell you stories all day, but over time, what happens?
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: As you get jobs and as you live longer, over time, your standards tend to change about what you believe you need.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: This happens to all of us and they change pretty dramatically.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: Now I think that there's a spectrum, you know.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: For some it's not dry bread now with a slice of ham, it's like herbed focaccia with truffle infused butter.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, some people get really, really crazy, but we all move somewhere along this spectrum, you know.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: And we're not camping at Lake Tin Killer anymore, now it's private villa on the French Riviera, like, well, that's what we need.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: I need that People's standards of what they need change.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Some people think they need that second or that third home.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: It's the only way I could have a mental stability, like we always have a way to need whatever it is that we have, but what is truly sufficient?
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: If you answer that wrong, you're going to get generosity wrong, because generosity is the gap between what God's actually graced us with and whatever we consider sufficient.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: That gap is where generosity comes from.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: So if I raise my sufficiency line really, really high, well, now there's no grace, there's nothing there anymore to live a generous lifestyle with, so my capacity for generosity closes.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: It's why it's good to get back to what's really and truly sufficient.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Sometimes, sometimes, I go down to just a meal a day and I decide to eat really simple foods, like I did back in college, just to remind myself of what's actually needed, what is really truly required.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: If I know that, I'm telling you I can be generous to any work.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: The house you know what's actually sufficient.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: I grew up in a family of four but I had plenty of friends, families of five and houses.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: You know less than 1,400 square feet, sometimes even a bit smaller than that.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to tell you those kids are not scarred.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: They're not.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: The kids I see scarred usually come from very dangerous and poverty places or the complete other end of the spectrum, very wealthy places, not nearly as much from the simple but content places.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Our cars yes, our cars were embarrassing, but you know they got us where we needed to go.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: What do I actually define as sufficient?
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Whenever they broke down, you know they didn't blow up and kill all of us.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: You know we just had a tow to the shop and fixed it and it was cheaper than the cost of car payments.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: The point being this those who are incapable of being generous, often they have radically altered their line of sufficiency beyond what God tells us we should be content with.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: But what if we became those who lived with radical generosity, not only directly witnessing the multiplication miracle for the salvation of souls and for the changing of lives and all of that, but also so that there would be a tidal weight of testimony that would fill the earth for His glory?
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, god promises that the bomb drop of generosity it will cluster out and this multiplication miracle that it will happen.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: He does.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: In fact.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: We're going to finish with that Going back to 2 Corinthians 9, the next verse, verse 10.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: So there is actually a multiplying promise here that comes along with generosity.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Now we don't determine how that multiplication is going to happen, the multiplying of the seed here.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: So in the feeding of the 5,000, for example, the multiplying came only after it left the hand of the offer.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: There was a multiplication, but it was after it left the hand of the offer.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Then is when it multiplied.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: And God does that and he does that a lot.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: But in the parable of the talents, the one who is faithful receives or gets entrusted with more as a result of their faithfulness to steward what God had already entrusted to them.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: So it could happen this way, it could happen that way, one way or the other, with generosity.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: There is this promise of multiplication, but then, not only that, god promises to increase the harvest of your righteousness when you are generous as well.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: These are two major multiplying promises, Meaning it's like you throw a seed it becomes like five seeds before it hits the ground and then, when it hits the ground, the one seed produces a 10x harvest beyond what a normal seed should have ever produced.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: I mean multiplying, multiplying layers of multiplying, but there is a promise of that harvest being attributed to your account and that harvest being multiplied.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: And if we're really living with our eyes on eternity, which we want to be, that's a big deal.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: Years ago, I was asking the Lord, like God, how should competitive people stay focused on you and not compare with others?
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: And you know, I was asking for my wife's sake.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: She's so competitive.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: But the vision that I got was I saw this vision of myself as a I don't know a train conductor, the one sitting in that front car in the train, and all these cars behind, and they were loaded with like golden wheat.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: You know you see them with coal sometimes, but it was just like all this golden wheat coming into heaven and what I heard was to seek to bring the most harvest into heaven, a harvest that can be laid at his feet for all of eternity, for his glory.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: If you want to do that, if you want to bring a great harvest into heaven with you which gets to be laid at his feet for all of eternity, generosity is the harvest multiplier.
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: I'm convinced God won't even allow someone to step into a great harvest multiplication.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: Who does not step into a life of generosity?
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: He's just.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: Everything he does to us is so generous.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: When we see rightly, it's very offensive if we're stingy.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: It's the harvest multiplier.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: And Paul says God will, he will.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: That's a promise Both of multiplying the seed for sowing and of multiplying the harvest itself.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: Again, we don't know exactly how it's all going to be multiplied and I think we all kind of tend to want it to be multiplied by coming right back into our purse.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: But you know, if it was always going to come back to us, it was always going to be multiplied in the hymn and trusting us with more well, we wouldn't need to be adjusting to the sufficiency line in that situation, would we?
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: Because we'd be like, oh, if I give 20,000, at least 20,000 it'll come back.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: It doesn't always work that way.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: God does this multiplying thing in both ways, not just the financial blessings coming back your way, way, although he certainly does do that often as well.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: Verse 11,.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: You will be enriched in everything for all liberality which, through us, is producing thanksgiving for God.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: The word liberality is often translated as generosity.
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: It's actually a word that means both generosity and simplicity.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: Isn't that odd to have a word that means simplicity be the same word for generosity?
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: Kind of interesting, why?
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: Because they understood the capacity for generosity was tied to the willingness to live simply.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: As a result of their generosity, what's happening?
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: There's this multifaceted testimony that's happening.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: We just read Thanksgiving is now going up to God because of your generosity.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: What else?
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: Verse 12, for the ministry of the service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, so it's also supplying the needs of the saints while also producing thanksgiving for God.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: And then verse 13, because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: So this gift becomes the miracle which is now testifying to who God is.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: Now they're glorifying God and they're praising God for who he is as a result of others' generosity.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: Can you just see this cluster bomb effect of this one weapon, the weapon of generosity?
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: It comes with this multifaceted promise and it also has a multifaceted impact.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: I got a few testimonies for you as we wrap up.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: Years ago, someone in our church had a crazy set of circumstances that came together in their work life in such a way where there were these unprecedented, almost unimaginable kinds of sales that took place of them.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: And this gentleman received a sales bonus as a result that was hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: I mean just blew his mind and blew his family's mind and all that.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: Now this family lives simply and they prayed well, god, what do you want us to do?
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: And they felt like the Lord led them to give it all.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: I mean even for me.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: I was like are you sure?
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: Are you sure you said that?
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: I mean it was a big enough bonus and it wasn't replicable, it wasn't predictable to ever happen again.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: It was kind of like this is a freak set of circumstances that had come together and it could have changed their whole lifestyle, but they gave it all.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: And then the incredible thing is it started happening again and again.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: It was like, okay, watch me, now God does it again.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: Okay, watch me, now God does it again.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: And the crazy thing is they've just kept giving with this radical generosity, each time continuing to live quite a humble life that no one would ever guess.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: How much money has passed through their hands Never guess.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: And are they bitter about it?
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: No, they are joyful about how much God has allowed them to be a part of these kingdom purposes.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: Many of the miracle testimonies of our church they have probably all they've participated in.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: And here that's just one testimony, but it's just.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: It's remarkable.
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: Another testimony in progress.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: This is a testimony of faith giving right here.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: So a woman from our church woke up in the middle of the night and she had this prompting from the Lord to actually buy a raffle ticket which she had received in the mail.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: She fully planned on doing nothing with.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: You know whoever buys the raffle ticket.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: Sorry if you do, but I mean I don't know if you're gonna buy the raffle ticket, but this prize would be a very large sum of money that could significantly change her life.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: But shortly after buying the ticket she came a couple weekends ago to church, heard about what God's doing in Latin America and what he's calling us to In 2024, and she came and before us she committed 100% of the proceeds.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: If she wins it.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: She believes that God spoke and that she's going to win it.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: Of course I'm praying yes, lord, yes, lord, amen.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: She's supposed to find out in March, so it's not a completed testimony but that's a faith testimony for sure, giving before it's even gotten.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: I'll share another testimony.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: So already in this church, almost a quarter of our church are like 20% or more givers, which is amazing.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: But late last year we heard the Lord, among other things, tell us to pray that many would double their giving in 2024.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Now that kind of took me back.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: I've talked about it before because most people that are at 20%, they've probably they've been adding like a percent or two a year every year for quite a while, but to double giving in one year again, I think I've only heard of that, you know, a couple of times now.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: So recently someone testified that they had it in their heart to double their giving, but they knew it was impossible.
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: But they went to God and they said God is their way.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: I really want to do this.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: And when they got together as a family and prayed.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: I can't go into the whole thing, but God gave them this whole divine strategy for how they could double their giving in 2024.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: And there's no raise, there's no bonus, there's nothing that would make it easy for them to do this at this time.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: But what seemed impossible he gave them a divine strategy to do, and they're doing it.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: One of those things was that they had some stock that someone had given them almost 20 years ago.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: They had totally forgotten about it, hadn't looked at it in a long time, but he led them to go back, look at that and to donate that stock.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: And, you know, by donating the stock straight to the church you know there's no gains tax and all that kind of stuff and so it turned out, the stock had appreciated significantly like, I think, like seven times what the last time they had seen it and what it was worth.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: Amazing.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: Someone else really wanted to be a part of this 100-day miracle, and they weren't sure how, but God led them to do something they didn't think of naturally, to give through one of their businesses Again, something most wouldn't think of, but he made a way.
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: With all of these testimonies, though, there's one thing that's clear.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: It's that what God has spoken over this year, I mean it's unprecedented.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: What we're seeing in the first couple of weeks of this year, it's unprecedented.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: I've never heard of this before.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: If God does everything he has called us to pray for and follow him in this year, it will be something I've just never even heard of.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: Outstanding All this to say, I think all of us even if it's like I'm their poor all of us want to be a part of this.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: We all want to be a part of this miracle that he's doing.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Now, church, when we hear what is on God's heart and we do our part, what's going to happen is a testimony that's going to be told that results in praise For his name.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: It's what happened through the Corinthians giving A testimony was told that said there is a God who sees and there is a God who loves and he meets the needs of the suffering.
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: I believe the same testimony is being penned right now.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: An.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: American church and nonprofit coming to that part of Mexico City that isn't sought by others.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: I'm just telling you, heads are turning and people are very confused.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: More than once we've been asked but why?
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: Why are you coming here?
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: Why would you come here?
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: In fact, one of the principles of the local secondary school we've met with regarding the English advantage we was just both of them.
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: They were totally taken back.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: He said this is such a huge help for us and you're here to help.
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you could tell he knew like they must be Christians, because he got overcome with emotion.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: He said this is such a blessing.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: Likewise, when we were sitting with the realtors and the attorneys their number one question when everyone got relaxed enough to really ask, I said but why, trust me?
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: They're glad, you know they make money off of sale or whatever, but they're like.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: But why are you?
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: I said, do you really want to know the?
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: Truth.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: You're like yeah, I said we simply heard the Lord tell us to do this.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: We would have never thought of this in our own.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: They said who?
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: I said God told us that's why we're here.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: The whole room changed.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: Everyone got really like softer.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: It was really significant.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: The point is people are shocked.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: They know like there's nothing to be gained, like they just can't make sense of it.
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: They're digging deeper and they're asking questions, but we believe many eyes will be open to see the reason and that it's him, it's who he is, it's his love, it's his compassion.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: Over the last 10 days, god's already provided, through many of you, for the work in Mexico and I do want to thank you guys for that, this one, of course, being the hub I shared on the weekend, being the hub and being the first time setting everything up legally and structuring all that in the country.
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: It is costing us almost double what the others are projected to be, but still we're now up to 200,000 committed for the purchase of the 500,000 needed.
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: It's a big job since a few days ago and we're up to 319,000 of the 550,000 for the launch and the operating costs, which is a big jump from the weekend as well.
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: Thank you, god.
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's exciting.
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: I know for most of us those numbers are always scary.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: Like what in the world could I do when the number is that big and the needs are that large?
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: Don't ever forget what Jesus said Mark 12, 41.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: Jesus sat down opposite the treasury.
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: He began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury.
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: Many rich people were putting in large sums and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amounts to one cent.
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: Calling his disciples to him, he said truly, I say to you, this poor widow put in less.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: No, more.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: She put in more than all the contributors to the treasury, for they put in out of their surplus but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she owned, all she had to live on.
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: If you haven't participated and God has been putting this on your heart I want to encourage you to respond.
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: You can let your commitment be known by emailing our associate pastor, rebecca Layton just Rebecca at FLRchurchcom what you're feeling led to commit to.
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: As you guys all know, time is of the essence with this 100-day miracle that God has shown us on his heart.
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: But it's also good for you guys to know we're going to be down there this next week working with the new staff on budgeting, on operations.
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: Rapidly we're approaching the purchase date and so far, although the provision has been great, we've received commitments from 45 people in our church, all those numbers that you just saw.
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: That was from 45.
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: I think that's a relatively small amount of people for our church body on the financial front.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: But this is something we all want to be a part of.
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: This is something we all want to contribute to and it's just a miracle.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: We are going to want to know that we were a part of that.
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: It's the beginning of the entire international thing that God has planned.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: So I want to read our main passage one more time.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: Altogether, We'll close in prayer.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: So Corinthians 9, 8, would you read it with me?
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that, always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good work.
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: Amen, amen.
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to invite us to prayerfully respond as we do.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: Lord, we want to come to you and I would encourage you to ask him a few things tonight.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: One ask the Lord God, what is sufficient?
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: Has my definition of sufficiency been changing so rapidly?
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: There's no more abundance of grace in front of my eyes.
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: God, remind me what sufficiency is.
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: How am I willing to be content as long as I have food and covering?
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: I would encourage a church to ask the Lord is this 100-day miracle really on your heart?
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: Here in our pastors say that they believe that, but God is it?
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: Just speak clearly, then, what you're calling me to do, what you want me to give, how it's possible.
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: Would you show me a divine strategy as you're praying on that?
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: I want to speak to a second group, if you're here.
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: You would say that you lack confidence that you are at peace with God.
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: You even lack confidence that, if you were to die today, that you would stand before Him and that he would allow you to enter into eternity with Him.
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: Share the good news with you.
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: You can have confident assurance, being forgiven by Him and right with Him.
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: See, god makes it clear in His Word that he loves you.
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: He made you for a relationship with Him, and yet our sin does separate us from a sinless and holy God.
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: The God made a way where there was no way.
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, himself being God, he came and he died on the cross in my place, in your place, for our sins.
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: He rose from the grave, promising life in place of death for all who would receive Him.
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: So if you're here and you would say, I honestly know that I've sinned, I know that I need to be forgiven, I believe that Jesus made it possible for your sins to be completely washed away by coming and dying, rising again.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: I want to give you a chance to receive Him as your Lord and your Savior.
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: He promises that by putting your faith, your trust in Him.
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: That's how you receive forgiveness and eternal life and that's how you're reconciled into a relationship with God.
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: So if that's you with heads bowed and eyes closed, I would just give you an opportunity to respond by raising your hand, holding a high for a moment, the way of saying if he's reached His hand down this far, just save me.
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: I'm going to reach up to save.
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: I want to be saved by you.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: If you're listening online, there's a place for you to indicate that that's the decision you'd like to make as well.
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: I didn't see any hands tonight, but I'm going to lead us in prayer just in case I miss somebody.
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: God, I want to know you.
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: I want to be separated from you by my sin.
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: I admit to you, I've sinned.
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: I'm asking would you forgive me?
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: God, I believe that you're holy.
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: I don't believe I can burn my way.
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: I want to be eternal presence.
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: I need to be forgiven, jesus.
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: I believe that you've paid the price for the cross for me and for my sin.
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: I'm gross that I could be forgiven of my sin and a place of death is the consequence for my sin.
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: Receive eternal life.
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: And I'm asking would you do that for me tonight?
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: Please forgive me of my sins.
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: Please give me the gift of eternal life and relationship with you.
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you for forgiving me.
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: Thank you for saving me, god.
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: I want to join together with my brothers and sisters and we want to pray according to your will and according to your ways.
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: God, I don't have to see how it's possible, I don't.
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: If you said it, I believe it.
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: God, we want to come and we want to ask you, we want to participate in this place of prayer and, lord, we are asking that you would have everything that's in your heart to do in this hundred-day miracle.
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: God, I am asking that you would bring in the full provision for the Mexico City purchase of the facility and the startup and launch cost.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: God, you are able and God, however, you want me, however, you want us to participate.
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: We say yes and amen.
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: God, we pray over this hundred-day miracle.
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: We pray that the hundred core team members out of Mexico City would be raised up and that all hundred would have intercession as just part of their commitment.
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: If it's not built on prayer, then it's not built by the Lord.
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: And so, god, we are praying that you would raise up that core.
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: Lord, we pray over the Colorado Springs campus that you would raise up a hundred intercessors, unique intercessors, who would be praying in 24-7 prayer over the next hundred days and God, we pray over the lone tree campus that, god, you would get the live in five hundred out of the hundred and sixty-eight hours in the week by the end of this hundred days.
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: None of it is possible.
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: There is no way anyone could say that is reasonable If you looked at the amount of people, the capacity that we have.
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: None of it can be done.
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: But in you, christ Jesus, it can, and we are praying that you would do this, lord, for your glory, god, we are praying that this hundred-day miracle would be the atom bomb of testimony that would go off, that would lead to the other four locations, provisions and being planted in the year 2024 as well.
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: That we would finish this year and we would not be the only ones marveling.
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: That our bellies wouldn't be the only bellies filled, but then instead baskets would be filled to the fullness of the testimony.
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: That would go so far, beyond these walls and beyond our wildest imagination.
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: Awaken faith around the world.
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: We pray and we ask in Jesus' name and all who agree said Amen Would you stand with me as we officially close?
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: You're welcome to stay in worship.
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: Our prayer teams are going to be available.
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: We'd love to pray for you.
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: If you have something going on physically, financially, relationally, whatever it might be we would love to be a part of praying over you.
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: Don't forget to turn in those membership forms.
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: If you want to commit to being an active member of this body over the next year, we would love to have you.
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: And finally, if you want to stay in worship, god, we pray over the 24-7 worship that's going to be continuing from this point forward.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: God, we pray that, as you've supplied over the last almost 11 months, now, that you would provide a supply even for those night shift people coming in and keeping the fire on the altar all throughout the evening hours.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: We love you and we pray for this in Jesus' name, amen.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: This has been a Revolution Church Message.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: To access more of this or other message series, visit FirstLoveRevolutioncom.