When there's a baby up here, you can tell exactly what they're thinking by their face. Like, she's looking at me a few times, like, "I can't figure you out, bro. I don't know what's going on."

No, I'm super excited. I love days like this. It's really a celebration of a church family to a family—to go, "Hey, we got you. We're in this together." Because if you have had kids, or maybe you've been apart—maybe your brother, sister, you got grandkids, whatever—it takes a village. It takes a village to raise kids, especially in today's world.

And I want you guys to know—and Megan's already said this a couple times—but I just want you to know that we're going to do our best as your church family to be a village for you, to pray over you and lead in God, and just be there, you know? Just be there and love her well.

And we're excited about that. I'm excited to see what God has purposed in her life.

Yeah, I know I am too. And just excited about what God's going to do in her life and in your life as God’s given you this blessing of a child.

One of the things we can do as a church family is—we're going to celebrate in a minute—and I really do want you to celebrate them. This is a big deal. This is a big moment.

But I'd love for you to pray with me over these guys and really just pray God's protection, God's direction, and God's peace over their life as they have committed, "Hey, we're going to raise her in the ways of God. We're going to do the best we possibly can in that."

So here's what I'd ask: no matter how long you've been a part of this church or whatever, I'd love for you to just stretch your hands forward and towards them, and let's just pray over them together for God's protection and direction over their life.

Father, we love you so much, God. We thank you for the blessing of children, and right now, God, I pray over this baby. I pray, God, that you would move in her life even at this young age. God, you've purposed her, you've directed her, you've given her a gift on the inside that only you could give.

And God, I pray that it would be developed and escalated throughout her life to be used by you in a big, big way.

God, I pray over these parents. I pray, God, that you would direct, and I pray that your Spirit would teach them and lead them, God, in the hard moments and in the celebratory moments, in the moments where they don't know what to do, and in the moments where they know exactly what to do—that your Spirit would be the guiding force.

God, I thank you for what you're doing. I believe that you've ordained this. So God, I pray that you would lead, God, direct, and send right where you want to go. You've already purposed the steps, God.

As our church, as the church family, I pray that we would be who they need, we would be what they need. And God, I thank you for what's going to happen. I don't—we can't see far down the road, but you can.

So God, I thank you for the purpose, I thank you for the direction, the guidance, the love, the joy in their lives as they embark on this journey of parenthood and the blessing that is.

Father, we love you, we honor you, and we worship you.

Church family, can we just celebrate right now these guys? Come on! That's for you, y’all. I can't get enough. I love it. You are so precious. She was smiling at me so big while I was praying over y’all. I love it.

Hey, one more time, would you stand to your feet, put your hands together, make some noise? Let's go! Love you guys.

Y’all, I love the unpredictability of having a baby on stage. I love it. It's awesome. And I just love babies, so whatever.

Anyway, hey, we're going to continue in worship today as we've celebrated that, and we're going to go back into a time where we're going to sing a couple songs together.

And hear me: I don't want us to be guilty of just singing a song today. I want us to be guilty of glorifying God today, okay?

All right, okay. I want God to be glorified. In fact, Psalm says it like this: that He's seated in the midst of the praises of His people.

And so I want to encourage you today, no matter where you are, no matter what you walked in carrying, no matter where you're at in your life, I need you to understand something: if we'll worship and glorify God, if we'll lift our hands, our voices, and our hearts today, I'm telling you, God will be seated right in the midst of your situation.

God will be seated right in the midst of your life, and God is seated right in the midst of this house today.

And I just believe that if we'll glorify Him, something amazing can take place in all of our lives, and I'm excited to see that.

So I just want to encourage you over the next couple of songs: let's don't sing, let's worship. Let's don't watch a performance, let's participate and just glorify the name of Jesus in this house today. Come on!

I'd love for you to pray with me at this moment if you're able. I'd love for you to throw your hands up and surrender, just say, "God, I'm here today. I'm here for you. I receive whatever you have for me. God, we worship you today. We glorify you today. It is your presence that changes everything. It is your presence that works in our lives."

And Father God, wherever we are, whoever we are, whatever we are when we walk in this room, God, I pray that you alone are glorified above anything else.

God, we will lift our hands, we lift our hearts, we lift our voices in worship and in surrender to you. Holy Spirit, have your way.

Everybody excited to be here? Man!

Hey, while you're celebrating, Columbia, will you help me welcome our Florence campus into the room today? We're so excited to have you with us today.

And Florence, I want you to know we're still praying for you. I know it's still been a heavy season for you, but we're praying for you, your campus, your sister campus. Columbia, we've got you. We love you, we honor you, and we're excited you're in the room.

We're going to continue our series Mountain Movers today. We're going to wrap it up today with this fifth version called Open-Handed Trust.

Open-Handed Trust as we lean in and learn how to build a faith that moves.

So you can go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 7, second book of the Bible, seventh chapter of that book. Exodus chapter 7 is where we're really going to hang out today.

But as we're moving into that, as we're getting our notebooks together, our pens, our Bibles out, I want to celebrate a couple things.

I need to celebrate that yesterday we had several people gather here at our Columbia campus to help us pack 250 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. Come on, somebody! What a moment!

What we believe in is serving our community, and I love that that was a part of it. For all of you that brought a shoebox, that filled a shoebox, and all of you that came yesterday and helped put that together so that we can deliver those, thank you so much.

We're honored that we can be a part of changing the world one child at a time through this.

And I need to make an announcement to you as well. We've got a fun project coming up. I'd love for you to help me with it, and I'll tell you how in just a moment.

But my staff and leadership have been pushing me to do something for a while. We finally pulled the trigger on it, and so I'm pleased to announce that beginning on December the 3rd, we have a brand new project called The Purpose Project.

It's a podcast coming out just for you. I'm excited and really nervous about the whole thing, but I'd love for you to help support that.

It's a weekly podcast, drive-time material, 15 to 20 minutes an episode. If you would, you can scan that QR code. It'll take you to the website. You can subscribe on whatever platform you listen to podcasts on. You can go ahead and do that.

And it's okay, I know what you're doing if your phones are out, so I'd love for you to support that, share it, help us get that off the ground. I'm excited about the life change that's going to come out of that.

Now, today, November the 16th, is End of Year Offering Day. So at the end of the message, our host is going to come up and give a little bit of information on that and what that looks like—putting our end of the year in.

And that remains open through the end of 2025, so December 31st at midnight is when that'll close.

And I know many of you have been praying about that. We've been praying about what that looks like, and I just want to reiterate something: your offering is not about paying the bills.

We've been really blessed. We live by a strict budget here. We budget out percentage. We only go above—we do not go above a certain percent for staffing, for facilities and operations, for administration and ministry things like that.

And that's taken care of. But this is the opportunity to chase some big vision. This is the opportunity to accomplish more things and do some different things.

And over the past several weeks, we've been talking about what that looks like as we are praying over our resourcing and helping our special needs ministry here at Radiate.

And not only that, but preparing for more growth here in Columbia, finishing up our Florence campus as they're getting ready very soon—in a couple weeks—to move into a 13,800 square foot facility out there. Come on, somebody! That's amazing, right?

And then that's the here stuff. And then the far vision of partnering with Vapor Ministries to reach kids with the gospel, and partnering with One Hope to plant churches in Benin, Africa, and partnering with Children's Cup—the sponsor parties, Christmas parties—and point them to Jesus and give them some fun in Jesus' name overseas.

And we're going to partner, and that's what the end of year offering is going for.

And we set a goal of $100,000. We're excited to see where that goes and what God does with that.

And I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you for praying with me and my family, our Pacesetters team, our leadership, our staff here at Radiate as we're all coming alongside to go, "Hey, let's do what we can do so that God can do what only He can do through generosity."

And so I just want to say ahead of time, thank you for that.

Now, we're going to continue this series Mountain Movers: building a faith that moves.

And the reality is, we've been in this thing honestly looking at a little bit of how I've described it to some leaders and staff as a little bit of a marking or a resetting series for our church.

It's felt like as we've done this, as we've talked about the idea of faith and trust, and how the reality is we move further with God when those two meet, not when they're separated.

So faith is the ability to believe that God can—that's faith: God can do this.

But trust is the ability to believe that God will do this.

And faith is built through character and knowing someone's character or knowing God's character.

Trust is built by knowing and seeing and remembering what God has and will do in our lives.

And so the idea has been this: what do we do to get our trust to meet our faith, and what can really happen whenever we do that? What can really happen when all this happens?

And so we've celebrated Operation Christmas Child, dedication—we're celebrating the end of year offering beginning today—and all those things in it.

All of those are a part of trust. All of that is a part of trust. All that's a part of going, "Hey God, I'm going to live not internal faith but external trust."

It looks like living something out in our lives. It looks like living like this: I'm going to say it like this—living open-handed faith, open-handed trust.

And what happens in the world today? A lot of times we're taught to grip hold, grip tight, and hold tight to everything that we have in our lives—our time.

Y’all, for me, say it like this: a lot—time, talent, and treasure. Right? Come on, y’all, you got to help me today: time, talent, and treasure.

And grip it all tight. Grip your time, don't waste it. Grip your talent, don't show it too much.

Grip your treasure. After all, we all need money, and praise God, don't we all need money? Yes.

But when we grip it tight and we don't hold it loose, then we're looking at God and going, "I've got control. You don't."

And trust means that I give up control. Trust means that I'm trusting God with what it looks like.

And when we started this church, one of the brainstorming questions that we asked was, "I wonder what it would look like to not just gather a large crowd of people."

Like, I believe that there's power in that. We need to do that. I believe the church should grow. I believe there should be thousands of people filling churches every week. I believe that means something. Every seat is a soul, and every soul is going somewhere. And I believe that matters.

But what if we not only gathered a crowd, but we gathered a crowd that was generous with our time, our talents, and our treasures? What kind of impact would that make?

And we started brainstorming over that, what that would look like and what it meant.

And entrusting God is what it takes to do that. It takes trusting God and living with open hands.

Here's what I do believe wholeheartedly: when I loosen my grip on my things, God loses His grip on His things. Come on, y’all.

I believe throughout the Bible there's precedence that when I loosen my grip on my life and my stuff, God loosens His grip of blessing over my life.

Here's what I did: I went to the great theologian—the theologian part was a joke—I went to AI, and I asked AI a question.

Because one of the benefits of AI—I listen, I'm not very technology savvy at all anymore. All right, I've hit that age where I'm like, "I don't know, here Brody, do it for me," right?

And so one of the great benefits of AI is it will compile information from across the internet for you into one spot that's easy to read and easy to get to and go research from there.

And I asked AI this question: I said, "What are the top five things that would happen if Christians, believers in Jesus, live generously with their time, their talent, and their treasure?"

I said it worded just like that. AI, what would happen?

And so AI did its little thing, and it brings all this information together, and it gave—I think AI gets me—because it gave me five points with an explanation of each point.

And so here are the five things that would happen if Christians were generous with time, talent, and treasure according to all the studies and the information across the web. Here's what it says:

Number one: churches and communities would flourish and expand.

Man, we're already starting off big. Churches and communities would flourish and expand—not survive, but flourish and grow.

It says this widespread generosity would meet numerous needs: caring for the hungry, housing the homeless, and ministering to the sick and the grieving, making the church a visible source of light and hope in the community and attracting others to its mission.

Man, that sounds awful biblical to me. Come on, y’all. I'm going to preach a lot better if you help me today.

Number two: it said it would increase personal joy and fulfillment.

It's interesting to me. I was like, "Okay, tell me more, Dr. AI."

Research shows this is what it says: research shows that helping others triggers a helper's high, boosting mood, boosting self-esteem, and boosting—watch this—the immune system, while reducing two things that plague our society today: stress and anxiety.

Helping others—this is scientific.

And then it says Christians would experience a deeper sense of belonging and purpose, leading to lives that are truly life.

Reminds me a little bit of John 10:10: Jesus came to give life, and what life? To the full.

Number three says the Great Commission would advance significantly.

The Great Commission, in case you're not aware, is to go into all the world preaching the gospel and teaching others to obey, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

It says it would increase and advance significantly.

It says by releasing vast resources, both human and financial, the church would be better equipped to reach billions—not millions, billions with a "b"—of people for Christ.

Fire me up, baby! Let's do this thing! Billions of people!

It says talents in areas like teaching, music, business, or manual labor would be fully leveraged to share the gospel and build up the kingdom of God.

Come on, let's go! Let's do this!

Number four—I'm supposed to protect my voice a little bit today—I'm not doing so well at that right now.

Number four: a powerful and undeniable Christian witness.

Again, sounds awful biblical to me.

A lifestyle of sacrificial love and serving is hard to argue with.

When people see Christians consistently prioritizing the needs of others over their own self-interest, it offers a compelling testimony that can open doors for evangelism and discipleship.

Come on, AI, you preaching today!

And the last one, it said: a legacy of blessing for future generations.

We have a heart for that at Radiate. That's why we significantly invest in our Radiate Kids programs.

That's why we significantly invest in our Radiate Youth, because the next generation matters.

That's why we celebrate child dedication and things like that.

It says consistent multi-generational generosity builds a culture where selfless living is the norm.

Can I tell you something? Selfless living is not the norm today.

It says consistent multi-generational generosity will do that.

The actions and conversations of today's Christians would form future generations to see the importance of generosity, ensuring that communities continue to benefit from a cycle—not a one-time, a cycle—of giving and service.

Y’all, that's not me conjuring up a message. That's not me going to somebody saying, "Hey, help me word that."

That is AI saying if these things took place—if time, talent, and treasure were generous through Christianity—these are the five things that not could but would happen according to statistics, according to research, and according to information across the web.

I don't know about you, but those five things fire me up a little bit. I'm like, "Let's go! That should be what we do." Amen? That's what should happen.

So in my natural curiosity, I said, "Okay, that's great, but how many are generous with time, talent, and treasure? Can we dive in a little bit today?"

Here's what I asked: I went back to Dr. AI and I said, "What percentage of Christians serve their community, that are generous with their time?"

In 2023, Lifeway—it's the most recent research that was done—Lifeway Research did a poll and discovered that 30 percent of churchgoers serve the community in a 12-month span.

30 percent in one year. Hear me? Thank you, 30 percent.

Challenge the 70 percent. Come on, guys. That means 70 percent of people could not find one hour in 12 months to care for their community with their time.

I'm sorry, but that's discouraging. We celebrate the benefits but not the sacrifice.

All right, let me keep going because it's getting personal.

I asked this: what percentage of Christians practice consistent giving and generosity—time, talent, and treasure?

Here's what it said: Ministry Brands did a research poll, and they discovered that less than 10 percent actually tithe.

In fact, most numbers say two to three percent of believers in Jesus tithe.

That means anywhere from 90 to 98 percent of believers hear the command of God to tithe and do not do it.

Lifeway Research said less than 19 percent ever give one dollar above their tithe, which would be considered generosity.

That means there is 80 or 81 percent who have discovered that generosity is not a part of their life.

We love the benefit, not the sacrifice.

Come on, are you with me today? I know it's getting hard.

And then I asked this last question because time, talent, and treasure—I said, "What percent of Christians serve their church?"

Lifeway Research, again in a poll and in research, discovered that about 30 percent serve the church.

30—not the community, that excludes the community—we're just talking about the church in general, in the ministry, the church that they call home.

That means that there's 30 percent of believers that serve the community and 30 that serve the church.

And let's be honest, it's probably close to the same 30 that serve both.

And they come in and they serve in less than anywhere from two to nine percent is what we'll say actually give financial resources to the church to further the vision of God, the mission of God, in the communities.

Can I tell you something? The benefits sound great, but the sacrifice sounds heavy.

Come on, y’all, let's get challenged for a minute.

And the reality is this: if we lived open-handed, I really do believe that we could see one of the greatest revivals of our generation ever take place.

Why? Because open-handed living is impactful, beneficial, and biblical.

Open-handed living impacts your workplace, impacts your home, impacts your friends, impacts your community.

Open-handed trust and faith impacts and is beneficial to everybody around you, and it's all throughout the Bible.

Open-handed living means everything I have, God, is yours, not mine.

I'm the vessel, you're the provider. God, teach me, God, help me hold this loosely. God, help me hold my time, my talent, and my treasure loosely so that I can follow you.

Now, this is challenging. This is challenging because we're taught and we're raised and we're wired that we're in control, we can handle it.

And I'm just here to tell you, if I've submitted my life to Jesus, nothing I have is mine.

Nothing. My kids are not mine. I get to lead them; they're God's, though.

Come on, y’all. My wife is not mine; she's His daughter. I get to steward that relationship.

My finances are not mine. In fact, I didn't earn them. He gave them to me. He gave me the ability to have a job. He gave me the ability to steward. He gave me everything that I have.

I hold it loosely, open-handed.

And I'm like, God, would you do something with it that I can't do myself? God, would you move?

In Exodus chapter 7, there's an Old Testament story of when God had called Moses to help lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery.

And when He had done that, Moses looks at Him and he goes, "Hey, listen, I can't. I have a stutter. I'm not a speaker. You don't want me talking to the church of Israel, okay? You don't want me doing that."

And God goes, "I see you trying to weasel out of this. I already got it figured out. Nothing catches me off guard."

And He said, "So your cousin Aaron, who's right over there, he's your mouthpiece. He can speak really well. So you're going to tell him what to say, and he's going to say it to them, so we don't have to worry about it."

So Moses and Aaron are leading the Israelites. They come before Pharaoh to release the Israelites from Egypt on a mandate from God.

And this story begins to happen where Aaron is there, and it says in verses 8 through 12:

"Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 'When Pharaoh speaks to you saying, Work a miracle, then you shall say to Aaron, Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh that it may become a serpent.'"

And it says, "So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent."

And then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also—the magicians of Egypt—did the same with their secret arts.

Magicians just recreated what God did.

Now watch this, I love this part: for each one threw down his staff, and they turned into serpents.

And then watch this: but Aaron's staff swallowed up theirs.

I love that. God always wins, by the way. God always wins.

Here's three things I want to give you very quickly today to living open-handed trust. Are you with me today? Because we've been challenged; now let's get encouraged. Are you with me? Here we go.

Number one: listen.

Number one: listen. I gotta learn to listen. I gotta tune my ears to God's voice. I gotta tune my spirit to God's Spirit.

In Exodus 7:9 it says, "When Pharaoh speaks to you saying, Work a miracle, then you shall say to Aaron, Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh that it may become a serpent."

That's God speaking directly to Moses and directly to Aaron.

And watch this: allowing ourselves to hear God's voice drowns out everyone else's.

Who am I listening to? What voice am I obeying? What voice am I leaning into?

Those that truly trust God hear me: learn and listen for His voice. His voice.

I gotta learn what His voice is. I gotta figure out how does God speak to me? What does His voice sound like to me? How do I know that He's speaking? How do I know what He's speaking? How do I know what God—number one?

I'll tell you one way: He speaks through this. If I'm not in this, I'll never know His voice. This is His Word. I gotta learn to listen.

John 10:27 says it like this: "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."

I like to think of that verse like this: I have three kids. I'm blessed. I love my kids. But my kids know a couple things about me: they know my voice, and they know my snap.

They know when I snap, that means, "You better get over here. Let's go." I got a loud snap. I don't know why I do that; it just is.

But they know my voice, and they like to run off and go look at things in the store. And when we get separated—that probably happens more than I'd like to admit in this store—I'll kind of be like, "Kylie, Cullen," whatever, right?

And they know to hear my voice and go to the boy. They'll answer across the store.

We're that family. We don't have much shame, so we're okay.

And they're over here, or they come running. Why? They know my voice.

You could yell their name, and they'd be like, "Who's that?" I yell their name, and they go, "There's Dad."

Why? They've spent time hearing my voice. They know the depth of my voice, the pitch of my voice. They can tell when I'm mad, when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I'm ready to joke around. They know all of that just by hearing my voice.

So let me ask you this: if it takes time to hear the voice, how much time have you taken to hear His?

Maybe it's not God speaking. Maybe it's you haven't taken time to listen.

The Bible says this: I have to be still.

And no, be still.

And no, we live in a world today that is so fast-paced, being still is like a bad thing.

I just want to tell you, be still. Maybe you don't know God's voice because you haven't been still long enough to hear it.

See, sometimes our ear gets tuned to the voice we listen to the most.

Some of us are more attuned to CNN than we are God's voice. Let's just call it what it is.

Some of us are more attuned to our preference in our voice way more than God's.

Some of us are more attuned and tuned in to the voice of our favorite political party than we are God's voice.

We got to get to a place where we go, "God, I'm listening here. I am."

And the only way you know His voice is to hear it.

Watch this: consistently listen for it.

What if—just a question—what if I cut off my list of demands to God and listen to His instructions to me?

What if I took time to do that?

Now, I'm not saying don't pray for what you need. Like, I'm all—I'm a believer in that. I'm good with that.

But I shouldn't do that way more than I just sit back and go, "Hey God, speak to me today. Hey God, I don't even have—I just got a little bit of music playing in the background. I have nothing. I just want to sit with you for a few minutes. God, talk to me."

Here's what I promise: if we'll start doing that, I promise you you'll start to feel, hear God's voice in your life in a new way.

I promise the words on the pages of this Bible will come alive in new ways.

The nudge of the Spirit will come alive in new ways.

You'll begin to hear His voice in new ways.

We have to listen to His voice.

You ever been in those moments where you have to make a decision real fast, and you're like, "I hope I make the right decision. I hope I do this the right way," right?

When I was growing up, it was always, "How would my dad do this? What would my dad tell me to do?"

My dad was a great mentor, is a great mentor and direction in my life.

And I still ask, "What would my dad do?"

But I knew pretty quickly what my dad would do in the situation.

Why? Because I spent time with my dad.

Well, God, I don't know what you want me to do in this situation.

We need to get to a place where we hear His voice enough, and we know His character so much.

We've spent time with Dad. We know what Dad would say. We know what Dad would want us to do.

We have to listen to His voice. Are you with me today?

Here's number two: we have to—watch this—this is crazy, it's insane—obey.

We have to obey.

You know when I got in the most trouble as a kid? When I didn't obey.

That happened way more than it should have.

But when I didn't obey, that's when I got in trouble.

And not necessarily discipline trouble, just trouble in my life.

Because my dad would always prepare me, and I was like, "I got this, Dad. I'm built different."

And then I'd be in trouble, and he's like, "You should have listened to Dad."

And I'm like, "Yep, probably so."

Verse 10 of Exodus chapter 7 says it like this:

"So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh. He had just given them the directions God had, and thus they did."

Watch this: "Just as the Lord had commanded, Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent."

Oh my goodness. They did exactly what God asked, and God came through exactly how He said.

How many promises of God are we forfeiting because we won't trust Him enough to obey His Word?

In fact, I want to give you a little bit of a gut punch today.

It's this: listening without obedience is disobedience.

Listening, knowing what God wants, knowing what He's asking from us, knowing what He says, knowing what it means to be a follower of Jesus—listening and not obeying is disobedience.

It's disobedience.

I'm willfully looking at God and going, "I don't like that. I'm not doing it. I don't agree with that portion of Scripture. I'm not doing it. I don't believe that. I'm not doing it."

And that's not obedience. That's not my truth. That's disobedience to God.

Let's just call it what it is, guys.

Trusting God looks like obedience. I obey. I hear what He says. I listen to Him, and then I obey.

What would have happened if Aaron never threw his staff down?

Or what would happen if nothing happened when he threw his staff down?

So Aaron gets before Pharaoh, he throws his staff down, and nothing happens.

At worst, he gets laughed at, but he was still obedient at worst.

But instead, he threw his staff down and was obedient, and God came through.

Why? Because that's just what God does.

Listening without obedience is disobedience.

I got to get to this place where I trust God, I'll listen to His voice, and I'll let Him take care of the rest.

When God speaks, I obey.

I actually love what Luke 16:10 says.

It says, "He who is faithful or he who is obedient in a very little thing is also faithful in much, and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much."

You know what our famous prayer as humans is?

God, when I have more, I'll do more.

Can I tell you something? You won't.

God, when I have more time, I'll serve. No, you won't. You'll fill it up.

God, when I have more money, I'll be generous. No, you won't. You'll use it for something else.

Why? Because all more—you figure out what the more is.

Finances, time, talent, treasure—it doesn't matter to me.

The more only exasperates who you actually are, and who I am comes through in my obedience.

Come on, guys.

And all Luke 16:10 is saying is, "Hey, you've been obedient with a little bit—the money you got now, the time you got now, the authority you got now, the kids you got now, the wife you have now—though that all these things you fill in the blank, everything you have now, I've put in your hands. You've been obedient, so I'm going to bless you with more."

Why? Because I trust you, and you trust me, and the more that you trust me, the more that I trust you, and it just keeps climbing.

Why? Because we're making impact, and we're doing greater things.

But if you've been unfaithful and disobedient with what I've given you, why in the world would I trust you with more?

You'll abuse the more just like you abuse the less.

Come on.

And God's going, "I just want you to obey. That's all I'm looking for."

God's just looking for obedient hearts.

And I just wonder, can I ask you this question?

What is in your hand that God's asked you to let go of that you won't?

Maybe it's your checkbook, if you still have those.

Maybe it's an addiction.

Maybe it's a relationship.

I don't know.

But what's in your hand that you won't obey God and let go of?

And so I'm literally looking at God and going, "I'll forfeit the blessing over that area of my life. I'd rather take it and control it than hand it over to you."

So we listen, we obey, and then the third one through Exodus 7 is this—and I love this one. This was hard. I let God work.

So when I listen to His voice and I obey His commands, then I back up and I go, "Hey God, I'm not God. I'm not the Savior. I'm going to let you work today. God, I'm going to let you do your thing today. God, I'm going to let you work in this area of your life."

And verse 12 of Exodus 7 says, "For each one"—this is after Aaron had thrown down a staff, it turned into a serpent—"for each one threw down his staff, and they turned into serpents, but Aaron's staff," I love it, "swallowed up their staffs."

Can I tell you something today?

You can manufacture miracles in your life, but they will never match up to what God can do.

You can manufacture being a good moral person.

You can manufacture being generous.

You can manufacture being a good husband or wife.

You can manufacture being a good parent.

You can manufacture being a good boss.

You can manufacture all kinds of miracles in your life.

But there's something that happens when I listen to God's voice and I'm whole, I'm open-handed with my trust.

And so now I obey God and what He says, and all of a sudden the Spirit of God, the power of God touches that obedience, and now His miracles begin to take place.

Here's what happens: His blessing will always swallow up your manufactured miracles.

Because living for God is not about behavior modification.

It's about obedience.

It's about becoming more like Him.

It's about going, "You are my Savior. You are my God. I'm going to live this thing out with you."

In fact, Psalm 37:23-24 says this: "The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way. And when he falls, he will not be hurled headlong because the Lord is the one who holds his hand."

I know you got it all figured out, but God orders your steps.

And when I understand that, I back up.

And it's the phrase we say around here all the time—if you've been around long, you've heard it—I'll do what only I can do, and then I'm going to watch God do what only He can do.

I can listen. I can obey. Only He can bring the blessing. Only He can bring the miracle.

I don't want to manufacture something. I want God's blessing over my life. Amen?

And we can impact the world doing this: live in open-handed faith.

I want to tell you a story. I didn't ask my dad's permission to share this story, so sorry, Dad.

My dad—if you know my dad, you're blessed. He's an amazing guy and an incredible man.

And recently, several months ago, my mom got diagnosed for a second time with a very aggressive breast cancer.

And they found the breast cancer; they got it in time.

But she's going through very aggressive treatment for it right now. It's very difficult for her.

And just continue to pray for them. Many of you already know that.

But I'll never forget when we were going through the diagnosis phase, trying to figure everything out.

My dad, you know, he tries to protect, right? That's what parents do, right?

And so I'll never forget: he called me after a doctor's appointment one day.

I was like, "Dad, I'm 42 years old. You got to stop protecting me from this stuff," right?

So we had that conversation.

But then he said something that was really good. I love it.

You know, sometimes we can try to be superheroes, right? We got it all figured out.

My dad said, I said, "Dad, you got to let us help, man. You got it. God's got this. You know that. I know that. But you got to let us be there."

And he said this:

"I'm taking the cape off."

And I was like, "Yeah."

He goes, "Yeah, there's too many tears and holes in it right now. It's not working very good anyway. And I can't be the superhero anymore. I'm going to—it's up to God. God's a superhero."

And here's what my dad was saying to me, a 42-year-old man:

He goes, "I've tried to fix everything on my own my entire life, so I'm finally learning I'm not that guy. Only God is."

And he said, "I'm going to take the cape off, and I'm going to stop trying to take care of everything on my own, and I'm going to trust God through the process, and I'm going to trust God with everything on this."

And the thing—and the secret is, my dad has always trusted God, but he's also trusted himself a little too much sometimes.

The truth is, we can see all of ourselves in that statement.

And I'm proud of my dad for saying that.

But can I just encourage some of us today: take the cape off.

Stop trying to be God.

You don't have it all together. That is okay.

That's why we listen.

God gives us His Word and His voice to lead in God because He knows you don't have it all together.

Stop trying to fix everybody.

Stop trying to fix everything.

You know what we're called to do? Impact our communities and grow the church.

That's what we're called to do.

You're not called to fix everybody's emotional damage.

Take the cape off. Let God do His work.

We listen. We obey.

"Hey God, I want to do what you say with my marriage, with my kids, with my finances, with my job, with my responsibility. God, I want—I want to obey."

And then God, when I obey, I'm taking my hands off, and I'm going to trust you.

I'm going to let you work.

I wonder what would happen.

I wonder how much of an impact we can make if we didn't just come gather together as a group of people to worship together and have community together and connection with God together, but we went out and trusted God with it.

I wonder if we flipped those statistics on their head and said, "No, no, no, no, no. 70 don't serve the community, but 70 here do."

I wonder what would happen if we said, "No, only three percent of Christians tithe, but 98 here do."

I wonder what would happen if we said, "No, only 30 serve their local church, but 70 here do."

I wonder what—I'm going to tell you what would happen.

What did it say? The Great Commission would significantly advance.

Communities would be changed forever.

It went through the whole way.

Why? Because the kingdom is the focus.

Because God is the focus.

I'm going to listen. I'm going to obey.

And I'm going to let God touch everything.

I just wonder what would happen in your life if you release what God's told you to release and let Him work in your life.

Freedom is yours today.

Truth is yours today.

Grace is yours today.

Live in open-handed faith.

But hear me: it starts at the cross.

And so if you've never given your life to Jesus, you have to start there.

And I'm not talking about praying a prayer.

I'm talking about submitting your life.

I'm talking about going from this point forward, "I'm walking with you, Jesus. Thank you for your sacrifice. I'm walking with you, and I'm going to live open-handed from this day forward."

That's you, and you're ready to give your life to Jesus.

I want to pray a prayer with you for a moment.

I want to lead you in a prayer that begins that relationship as you walk it out every single day, and we begin discipling with you.

And then I want to pray over us all.

God, would you challenge us to live open-handed, to take that next step of generosity in our time, our talent, and/or our treasure?

God, help us live open-handed.

Come on, let's pray together all across the campuses today.

If you're ready to give your life to Jesus, just repeat this with me right where you are:

Dear Jesus, I give you my life.

Thank you for loving me.

Thank you for loving me where I am but way too much to leave me there.

Jesus, I ask you to forgive my past, forgive my present, and please redeem my future.

I want to walk with you from this day forward to the best of my ability.

I want to be with you.

I want a new life, a new creation in Christ.

Thank you, Jesus, for giving your life so that I can have eternal life.

Now God, you see every heart and every soul, every story that's in this room, that's watching online, that's in our Florence campus today.

And God, I pray that you'd speak directly to our spirits and challenge and inspire, encourage and empower us to walk out and live open-handed trust, to be generous with our time, our talent, and our treasure, to make a difference with everything that we have so we can expand and we can increase the impact of the kingdom of God everywhere that we go.

Father, we love you.

We honor you.

We celebrate you.

We're excited to begin this journey with you, and I can't wait to see what you still have yet to come.

Father, we love you and honor you in Your name we pray.

Come on, church!

Subject: Living Open-Handed Faith: Trust, Obedience, and Generosity

Dear Radiate Church,

I hope you’re still chewing on what it means to live with open-handed faith and trust in God’s plan.

Last Sunday, we talked about how faith and trust come together to move mountains in our lives and communities. We celebrated the blessing of children and the power of our church family to come alongside one another, but the heart of the message was about letting go of control—our time, talent, and treasure—and trusting God to do what only He can do. We looked at Moses and Aaron’s story in Exodus 7 as a picture of listening to God’s voice, obeying His commands, and then stepping back to let God work. The challenge is real: generosity isn’t just about giving; it’s about surrendering and living open-handed in every area of life.

So here’s the deal—don’t just hear the message, live it. Ask yourself what’s in your hand that God is calling you to release so He can move in ways you can’t manufacture on your own. It’s not about having more time or money; it’s about being faithful with what you have right now and trusting God to multiply it. Let’s be a church that flips the statistics on their head by serving boldly, giving generously, and trusting God fully.

Blessings,
Radiate Church Team