Embracing God's Greatness Through Humility and Generosity

"i'd like us to take some time and just meditate on the god we just worship there's a passage that i was reading the other day and it it was so powerful for me with some of the stuff i was dealing with and you know just kind of starting to worry about a lot of stuff and then i just meditate on this passage and just like oh i got nothing to worry about and i don't know what kind of week you've had and what you've been dealing with but i i i really believe that meditating on god and who he is not maintaining your problems and how he might fix it but just meditating on him that alone really does solve all our problems it really does it is that simple and so i want us to look at this verse and look at it together" [00:06:24]

"god the blessed and only ruler the king of kings and lord of lords who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light whom no one has seen or can see to him be honor and might forever amen and just as i was looking at each of those phrases and thinking about this being who possesses all of that god okay we're not talking about a person we're not talking about you and i we're talking about this being in heaven that we call god who is blessed it says god the blessed and only ruler see i usually don't think of god being blessed i think about myself being blessed right and anything about you being blessed i mean being happy and and you know that that's in its truest form the simplest way to to express that word blessed is happy you know satisfied content but to think of god being blessed god's happy right now he's infinitely blessed you can't change that" [00:54:55]

"he alone is immortal you ever think about that that there is only one being only one being who exists that has life within himself death has no effect on him it's the literal word is deathlessness see all of us are wondering when when's it going to happen and any minute any moment and there's one being who possesses life who alone is immortal he gives us one that gives us his immortality but it's him giving it to us we depend on him for our survival do you realize that satan is only alive right now only exists because god is allowing him to exist right now all of the demons all of the angels the whole spiritual realm every human being every animal is only in existence because god is allowing them existence you're only here because god has allowed you another day but he alone he's the only one who's in charge of life" [05:13:19]

"so you got this one being who rules everything create everything as in charge of all life king of kings lord of lords and he lives in unapproachable light the psalmist in psalm 104 says that he wraps himself in light in in revelation 22 it talks about how when when we go to heaven at the end in heaven there's no night because god dwells there and there's no need for a lamp or a sun or a moon because god himself his light the light he gives off constantly illuminates the whole place but he dwells in a light that's unapproachable whom no one has seen or can see unapproachable light it's kind of like the sun think about this you know how you can't even stare at the sun and it's 93 million miles away so i can't look i can't approach i can't look at this light that's 93 million miles away and that's just one star that god created when you think about his unapproachable life just look at his creation for a moment this one ball of fire that's 93 million miles away that i can't look upon" [06:28:08]

"and the bible says to him be honor and might forever amen see and when i started look at god just take my eyes off of everything else in life and think so there's a being up there who no one can approach no human being can approach who's in charge of everything everything the only ruler who alone is immortal who alone dwells in this unapproachable light who alone deserves all the honor and might forever suddenly my problems didn't seem so big when i started to realize if that god is for me who can be against me it's like i had lunch last week with a friend of mine who was telling me because i love my prayer times in the morning because because every time i'm done praying i walk away going nothing can hurt me is that the way you leave your prayer times where you go what's going to go wrong there's this perfectly content the blessed god the only ruler who alone is immoral dwells in unapproachable light he's the king of kings lord of lords and he's my friend he's my father i'm his child" [09:49:59]

"command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant he goes so what if he got a bunch of stuff you know it's real easy it's really easy when you have a lot of stuff when you've been successful to be arrogant to think that you're better than someone else and yet you dwell on god and you're still there um when you realize that you're only alive because he allows you to be alive he says command those who are rich we're going to be the hardest we're going to deal with this more than most of the world being arrogant just by nature of who we are and where we've been placed and the things we have and that's why it says command them not to be rich not not to be rich not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain but to put their hope in god again after dwelling on god and who he is and how much power he possesses isn't it foolish then to put your hope in riches which are so uncertain or to put your hope in your wealth i mean so you've got a choice between putting your hope in that being or putting your hope in the stock market or your real estate or your bank account when there's one being who determines life and is in charge of everything on this earth he says put your hope in him tell the rich be careful it's a trap you can easily feel secure because of your stuff because in your house you can control the climate you control who comes in who comes out you can maybe get the best medical care and everything else you can afford the best doctors and you start feeling like okay i'm okay now i'm okay now i got good insurance i got this i got that he goes don't tell them do not put your hope in that put your hope in god he's the only ruler he's only once in charge of life" [13:21:20]

"command them to do good to be rich in good deeds okay that's that's the bigger question is is not whether or not you should have bought that shirt could you have bought a cheaper one or whatever else is are you known for being rich in good deeds not so much are you known for that is that who you are you just do a lot of good things you're rich in good deeds and not only that but to be generous and willing to share are you generous and this doesn't mean you have to be rich to be generous because you know the most generous people i've met are are some of these people in third world countries i i've been floored i am so humbled when you know we'll bring a food pack you know from children's hunger fund and you'll bring into a house into a mud hut into a little you know cardboard box you know and these people knowing you're coming have a meal prepared for you and you go are you kidding me and stuff most of you would and i do too look and go i don't really want to eat that you know and yet at the same time you look at their faces and the joy because they just wanted to share with you and you just are so humbled and so broken you go are you kidding me i came here to help you and you want to provide this for me you you you killed one of your chickens i mean this is your prized possession i'm just giving you some this little box of food that there's nothing to me and you're you guys it's not about being rich in fact if you you look around the world you'll see that if you look at giving averages it's those who are in poverty those who have less they give a larger percentage of their income than those who are rich and that's why the bible says command those who are rich to be generous and willing to share it's weird you would think the people with more stuff would be more freely giving it's just not that way" [16:56:40]

"and he says if in this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age why does god want us to do this why is he commanding the rich he says because there is a life that's coming okay this this is not this is not everything what you're experiencing here on earth me talking you you know listening and touching feeling the way we do right now this isn't everything this is such a small small moment in time and then comes eternity but what we do here with our possessions now could lay a foundation for the future so why is god telling us to be generous and give to the poor around the world to care for the people in need is it to make us feel guilty whenever we enjoy something is it to feel guilty about what we have is it to ruin our fun no the bible tells us right here exactly why he commands us to do this he says so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life man i love that why is god telling us to be generous why is god saying hey love all these other people and give to them as much as you can why so that we can have treasures in heaven and so that we can take hold of the life that is truly life you like that phrase life that's truly life because we'll watch commercials that'll tell us what life is all about right this is the life sitting on the beach holding a corona right this is the life and then down comes the swedish bikini team you know what whatever this is uh does it get any better than this and yet what is the bible says what does the bible say says this is life that's truly life when you learn that it's it's fun to indulge right let's let's face it it's fun to buy stuff and you know and get stuff for ourselves but he says there's a life that comes from giving a life that's truly life you experience what it's like to give to someone else and improve their lives that's the stuff that builds you up that's the stuff that stores up for you personally through your whole life you never regret that and you start enjoying you take whole that that word take hold is to grab it's it's to get a grip you know if i'm saying get a grip on what life is really about what true life is about get a grip on the fact that at any moment your life on earth is going to be over and then you're going to take hold of the life that's truly life eternity forever he goes make sure these people get this that it's not about this time on earth okay this is a joke compared to what's going to come that's the life that's truly life and you've got to get it" [19:12:00]

"and so can we enjoy the things we we have absolutely but we have to keep in mind our calling is to take hold of the life that's truly life and the eternal life and that's why as a church we changed our spending habits and said let's not just reflect it personally let's do it as a church and that's why everything you give half of it goes out now and and why in this year we're increasing our outgoing giving as a church from 1.5 million to 4 million dollars that's why this week i tell you about a decision the elders have made this week we've decided that in our budget we're going to give a million dollars to children's hunger fund this year those of you who aren't familiar with the children's hunger fund let me tell you why we're giving them such a substantial amount because we as elders thought you know what we're looking at the way they've always spent their money and they could do it more wisely than we could right now why would we try to figure out all these places to give when here's an organization that's doing it so well we give the children's hunger fund because of their philosophy they are very in line with with us where they love the local church when they distribute food they don't just drop it off um dropping a a container off and just walk away they distribute food through the local churches and so the local church pastors and congregation members in these third world countries will take the food and then pass it out to the poor so this way they're not just giving them food they're giving them relationship and love they're telling them about jesus and they're building relationships with these people as they give them food the other reason why we give the children's hunger funds such an exorbitant amount is because they were rated by forbes magazine as the most efficient relief agency in all of america over 99 percent of everything they get goes directly to the poor only about point four point six of a percent goes to overhead and so we go you know what this is a great investment i've traveled with them i've seen them i'm on the board i'm looking at everything they do and and and and we've experienced it many of you guys have served over children's hunger finder have taken trips overseas with them and we go you know what they could spend it wisely and i asked dave what would you spend it on um what would children's hunger fund spend it on and he gave me a list what this million dollars is going to help them do uh in egypt it's going to provide 1.2 million meals and help them establish their mercy networks there's a church base that they work with in egypt and they're actually going to a lot of these muslim areas to the poor in jordan syria yemen kurdish iraq morocco and to the sudanese refugees in spain in india it's going to help these five church planters set up these networks to pass stuff out in philippines there's a network of 300 churches in the slums that we're going to be sending this stuff out to in cambodia there's 5600 orphan children and this will help supply them with the daily nutritional supplements as well as food also in cambodia they they just opened a medical center children's hunger fund at medical center to help those those young girls that work in the garment factories that would never have any care they do now in ukraine it's going to help supply 1.5 million meals to children in orphanages in ghana west africa another half million meals other countries where they're just starting this and hoping to do it this year our guatemala honduras nicaragua peru eastern eu in fact jose luis who's starting our spanish ministry right now is in nicaragua and guatemala helping to establish some of these networks so we have churches down there to then start sending the food out and it's just it's just fun they're they're also looking to start another hub in ensenada not just a place to distribute food but a like another children's hunger fund like an actual distribution center so that they can actually have stuff from mexico in that base and send it out to the poorer countries poor areas of the country um and then they they just had a building donated to them in chicago and so they've opened up another distribution center in chicago to hit more of the u.s and in the poverty areas in the u.s as well and so i you know when dave sent that and and realizing the heart of the elders going you know what we want to give so much to this this year as a church i just get excited being a part of a church like that i just go you know what this is this is the place i want to be this is what we're committed to right on we are called to love the world now um with our building we also want our new building to reflect this heart for the world and so you guys know we've been working on this building project for a while over there off of tierra rijada let's show them the land the slide of the land just in case you guys don't know where it is it's right by the ronald reagan library um right below it the ronald reagan library that's a big uh square on the top is that air force one thing and so this is off of tierra rajada um it's the property to the left of that of this dirt road and um it's about 140 acres which normally an acre goes for a million bucks 140 acres here we're getting for five million dollars and uh so this is uh this is the project we've been looking at some we've been giving it's allowed us to give get all the environmental surveys and you know look for endangered rats and everything you you'd be amazed at how many things you got to go through and so we've been in this process for the year and we believe we have a we have a game plan i know i know it's very important those rats um but here's the thing in a moment okay because we've needed room okay you guys know that we've needed room this service is ridiculous you know bunchy in the multi-purpose room and now we're gonna start a spanish church and it's like okay we haven't been able to grow in about five years we've been maxed out and so we really haven't been reaching out the community do anything we need more room we need to grow and you also saw financially when we grow the finances grow and so does our support all around the world to the people who are in need and so it's just wise so we came up with a plan and i'm going to show you it in a second but i also i'm going to tell you that we're not going to do it okay and i'm going to explain why we are going to do something but we're not going to do this exact plan i'm going to show you and the reason was after seeing the plans it just didn't sit well with me and it didn't set well with the leadership is a 60 million dollar plan and sounds like a lot of money because it is and i i believe that we can do it a lot cheaper and there's some creative things we can do um and still grow and it means a little bit of sacrifice on our part but i i think we'd be excited to do it because of what it will accomplish so let me show you the plan realizing this isn't what we're going to do i'll show you the real plan later but here here it is here's here's what we had" [29:38:00]

"and so i'm not going to bore you with a lot of the potential roadblocks because as you know in a project this size there'll be many of roadblocks we think we've got most of them handled but there there's still plenty plenty plenty of things that could go wrong and i don't tell you about all the different government officials because there's really only one person in charge right you know and we learn that and say you know what you're the only ruler you're going to determine what decisions they make and so what what do we need to do then exactly and so we'll be having another week of prayer coming up here um right before easter to pray for the property pray for our easter services pray for this future just come before god and i tell you we tell you all this stuff because we want you to be praying right now but the other thing too is we're gonna need you to do more than clap and more than get excited because uh we need your wallets okay we we uh and that's the stuff you guys know man i am not good at that we've never done a building fun campaign that type of thing and i really don't want to okay here's what i like because the truth is is okay here's our goal our goal is to present it to the county this month okay to present this whole project i think we've done enough of the background work we're going to still shore up some things but bring it before them and it'll be a process that we go through with them and um we where our goal is to break ground uh this time next year that means actually purchasing because we're in escrow but the lady has been kind enough to let escrow carry out until that day so we don't really have to pay a whole lot to keep this going she's been incredibly generous to us and uh so next march though we'd have to come up with the five million dollars for the land and we'd like to pay for that rather than take a loan on that so that we can use the loan for buildings if necessary so i know some of you guys are thinking okay so five million dollars in addition to it just sounds like the stupidest thing for us to do to cut our budget and say we're gonna give half away this year while we're also trying to raise five million dollars and then you announce that we gave a million dollars to the poor and we already designated that the children's hunger fund all of this you you say and then you want to raise 5 million on top of that that sounds very stupid and and it is if there's no god it really is a dumb dumb stupid plan if god doesn't exist but he does and how many of us on a personal level have had those times in life when you really couldn't afford to give to god but you did anyways and what happened when you did that everything got taken care of didn't it and haven't you recognized in your own life that the more you give out the more it seems like you're blessed with and you feel like man i can't ever out give god i've experienced that personally as an individual and many of you have and i want us to experience that as a church and say you know what i don't believe we can ever be hurt by giving to the poor that's what the bible teaches me that you know he goes you know that i forget the passage now but he says i'm old now and one thing i've never seen is is the generous you know the holy the righteous watching their children beg for food it's like the generous man the generous man is always taken care of and i just believe as a church if we are generous and we give you know what the money will come in i mean in reality what we're talking about is doubling what we brought in last year to accomplish all of this and because we don't have space we're not going to be able to double the number of people to give so have you figured out what that means okay but here here's the thing is i don't want anyone giving out of guilt or bummed out giving see because i look at this and i go you know what i want to figure out a way you know for my family to give as much as we can i want to i want to do this like i want to know that i was a part of this i want to know that i was a big part of this and trying to figure out this year and i just pray to god i go lord here's a number that i'd like to give i didn't even make this much last year so i don't know how in the world i could give that much this year this is what i'd love to do somehow by faith and you're the giver i can only bless you if you bless me first it's kind of silly but it's like god i need you to bless me so that i can bless you in return not so that i can indulge and spend it on myself it's to give back to you and i want you to pray that way to say okay if it's march 08 and can i could i possibly double what i gave last year could i give way beyond that can i sell something i do something because i want to not because i'm pressured to or not because oh we're not going to make it it's it's this idea of lord i want to joyfully be a part of this vision and do something huge with my life before it's all over and so we are going to take an offering right now and our prayers in the next few weeks as we continue and now i'm going to keep this much more in your face um so that you know about without making it like a give give give type of thing in fact those of you who here who are visiting sorry you had to hear that um i we don't want any of your money um we want to give to you uh salvation going to heaven is not about you pulling out your wallet okay i don't know what you've heard on television or anything else but that's not the way it works salvation's a free gift it's given to you don't earn it by doing good works okay that's a free gift jesus died on the cross so that you could go to heaven he rose from the grave to show you that there's life after death and the bible says it's a free gift and it's because we've been freely given this that we give out of the joy of our hearts that's why if it's guilt to you or bummer to you we say don't do it do it because you want to and you're excited about it but for those who are here just trying to check it out trying to understand a relationship with god the last thing i'd want you to feel is that we want anything from you we want you to experience a life that we have we want you to take hold of the life that's truly life and if you have questions if you want some prayer there'll be people up here by the prayer room to pray with you while we take our offering" [47:12:00]