Building a Community of Faith and Generosity

1) "And as we walk parallel and beside the church and the vision that God has given us, my hope is that we'll learn some things about our individual lives, our individual vision that God's given us for our lives. individually. But today, I really want to talk again really more about the prophetic vision that God has given us as a church. And I want to talk a little bit about how to move it from being a vision to reality, from being a vision to reality. And so, I want to begin really just by just sharing again with you, I don't think I can say it enough, really is the vision that God has given us as a church. We are building a community for God -seekers. And that's what we from the least to the greatest. We want to have an open door, an open heart, an open life to other God -seekers." [01:34] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "And so, as we do that, we open up the opportunities for more leaders. We open up the opportunities to reach different neighborhoods, more people, while still maintaining a community of believers. You know, when you walk in the back door, you see people that you know, that you do life with, but you also see people that you've never met before. And so, have a community where we have, it's multi -agency. It's multi -ethnic, multi -racial, and it's multi -generational. So, I believe that's what a healthy church looks like. And so, that's the kind of church that you're a part of. So, it's important that you understand that that's what we're working on, whether we're talking about small groups or world missions or local missions or just about any kind of subject that we bring you, it's really under the cover of the idea that we want to build a healthy community for people who are seeking God." [02:59] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "So God gives us the vision. Then we sow the seed. Then God makes the seed sprout, grow, and to mature. And then through faith and patience, we participate in the harvest. It's a pretty simple program, isn't it? I mean, it's not hard to understand the math of that. And so, but I've always wondered, you know, and thought about for years now, been very clear. You hear that buzzing? It's a fan motor? Okay. Well, good. Maybe it's, that's great. Praise the Lord. Doing his job. Great. So your seed, and here we are talking about seed, right? You sow the seed. So your seed that you sow is your life." [09:51] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "So the Bible says that the seed is the word. That is the living and prophetic vision that God gives. So we sow the seed when we invest into the vision. Make sense? We sow the seed when we invest in the vision. Our investment is the life we sow mixed with faith and patience. So into the soil of faith, the seed goes. What is the seed? It is our life. Our life. How do we represent our life? By our money. So we invest our money into the vision that God's have it, and that's like sowing a seed. Your finance become a seed. It becomes a seed. So there's life contained in the seed, and your money is your life. When you give God your money, you are investing your life because your money is the seed of your life." [13:14] (66 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "And so it's the turning of our heart that really controls the whole thing. It's preparing our heart, the soil of our life, the soil of our heart, preparing it for God's seed, God's vision that he has for your life. And here, I want to make this really, really, really clear. God has a vision for every one of your lives. And so sometimes it's hard to find. I heard somebody say one time, it's like a blind dog in a meat house. He's close to it, but he doesn't know exactly where it is. Yeah. And so that's kind of how my vision has been sometimes. I was like a blind dog in a meat house. I smell it. I know I'm close." [22:27] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "So what you do with the seed, your money, will control what, how, and where the blessings of God are in your life. It's gotten so quiet in here. Are y 'all okay? Everybody all right so far? It's all right? It's okay for me to just share the word? Is it all right? This is the Bible, okay? It's what the Bible says. Don't shoot me. I'm just the delivery boy, okay? Don't shoot me. Malachi chapter 3. Will a man rob God? How many of you have been robbers in your life? Don't raise your hand. Robbers and thieves, right? He said, will a man rob God?" [23:44] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "So, he says here, verse 10, bring all the tithes into the storehouse. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse. Here's just some thoughts. I've got more after this, but here. We do not pay our tithes. First of all, a tithe means a tenth. That's literally what the word means, a tenth. And secondly, that tenth is to be brought into the place where you are pastored, where you're cared for, where you're discipled, where you do life, the place where you hear the word, the place where you join the vision, the place where you become a part of a family, a spiritual family. And so, we don't then pay our tithes, nor do we give our tithes. The Bible says that we bring them. We bring them. Now, you only pay for something or give something that belongs to you." [26:14] (65 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "The tithe orients our lives towards faith. When you give of your tithes, it orients you towards faith. What do I mean by that? I mean that, you know, when you first, at least Nancy and I were like this, when we first started tithing, we had more bills than we had income. Can somebody say amen to that? Like a stack of bills was that high and the income was about that high. And so you think, well, I'm just gonna wait till the stack of bills goes down a little bit and then I will tithe. Well, the Bible says bring all the tithes into the storehouse. It doesn't say if your income is up here and you're, you know, you're gonna tithe. If your bills are down there, then bring it all. No, it doesn't. It says, no, bring all the tithes into the storehouse." [29:14] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "It breaks our self -reliance and greed off our hearts. Number nine, it opens the windows of heaven for God's blessing. And number 10, it reminds us that God is first in our life. That's my favorite one. These are the reasons that Nancy. And number 10 is it reminds us that God is first in our lives. That's my favorite one. He's first in our lives. So the tithe prepares our heart for a harvest. We tithe, it's like breaking up the fallow ground in our life. It's putting us in position, A, number one, to be used by God. It's building our faith. It's building our trust. It's reminding ourselves that God's first in our life. It's keeping us on an internal perspective. It's making us people of God, reminding us that we're not our source, that our job has eternal significance, that self -reliance has no place in my life." [32:52] (61 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)