The Outpour - Overflow

Father God, you're the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God, your name is holy.

Forever, God.

Your name, Father, is above all other names, Father.

As we come here before you this morning, God, we bring ourselves love.

Father, that we can worship you and lift you up high.

Jesus, you are the one seated on the throne.

And you stand and you receive our worship and our honor today, God.

But we come to you, Father, to bless your name.

And we know, God, that you're going to bless us in return.

So, Father, thank you, God, that we come before you now as people who can live wholle.

Because your death, burial, and resurrection on the cross, that we gain access to life abundant in you.

So, Father, we thank you, God.

We praise you, God.

We turn our hearts and our minds to you and your word today, God.

Fill this space.

Fill this place.

In the strong name of Jesus, everybody said amen.

Tell somebody hello and grab a seat.

Good morning.

If I've not met you before, welcome.

I'm glad that you're here.

I'm Forrest Lead Pastor here at Multiply.

Thankful for you being here today in our midst.

If you're new, again, welcome.

You've come on a great day.

We've jumped into this series called The Outpour that's leading us up to December the 8th, when us collectively as a church, we are going to give to the Lord generously on that Sunday morning, December the 8th.

And over the last few weeks, or the few weeks ahead of us, uh should say, we're gonna be talking about what it looks like for generosity.

And so the title of my message today is Overflow.

Everybody say overflow.

Turn your neighbors say overflow.

Just thinking about where things were this time last year.

Can we celebrate something this morning?

Are y'all in the mood to celebrate?

Because I'm in the mood to celebrate.

A couple of these things we got to celebrate last Sunday with my friend Dustin as he came to kick off our message, and boy, he brought the fire last Sunday.

And I'm grateful for him.

And we got to celebrate the fact that already this year we have celebrated 30 baptisms in this house of friends and of family and of kids.

These are our these are our neighbors that we love so much.

And also, y'all are gonna love this.

This is like so cool.

So, over the last year, um, we have gotten to be a part of outside of the walls, serving our community through our Free for Ford initiative.

23 different events over this last year.

We've been outside the walls serving schools, serving nonprofits, serving people in our community that are in need in a variety of different ways.

Isn't that crazy though, church?

Almost more than two a month is what ended up happening for us to be able to step out and serve outside the walls.

I'm just thrilled because of you and your faith to step in and to say, you know what?

Hey, we're gonna see God move outside of the walls of this place into our community.

Gosh, I love it.

That means we got to serve seven different local schools this last year.

That was crazy because we didn't serve seven the year before that.

These are some of the schools, Second Street, the Academy, Collins Lane, Hearn Elementary, Peaks Mill Elementary, Elkhorn Middle, and Frankfurt High all in the last year.

Come on, somebody.

Serving five different local nonprofits.

We got to give a financial blessing to Avenues Clinic for women who are helping women that are in need of crisis pregnancy care.

Our favorite forward team now is established.

We actually have one with nine different members on that team, and God is continuing and building more in the life of our schools and at Kentucky State University with our fellowship of Christian athletes.

Now, not just with football, but with baseball, with softball, with track, with basketball, all that's gone down basically in this last year.

And I'm just so grateful for what God has done.

Aren't you grateful?

I'm grateful.

I'm thankful for what the Lord has done.

And not to uh gloss over it, because if you're new here today, you don't know this history, but we weren't always in this beautiful building in space.

We were uh in the movie theater here in town that had its own unique blessings for us to be there.

Um this time uh a year ago, we were busting till 6 a.m., 5 30 a.m.

call time, so you unload the trailer.

One of those Sundays uh last year at like 5:30 or 6 in the morning got the text that the men's restroom had standing water in it.

That was not the only time that ever happened to us, by the way.

Um, and so that Sunday, my parents happened to be visiting my mom and dad from out of town, and so my dad was like, Well, let's let's let's get it.

Grabbed the shop vac, threw it in the car, got to the movie theater, and all the team was doing all the things, setting up the kids' space and doing worship and all that stuff, and my dad's like, I got this, I got this.

We go into the bathroom, and what had happened was one of the sprinkler heads in the men's restroom had busted, and it had rained been raining all night long into the bathroom, and that just gives a whole new twist to raining on the throne.

Um raining on the toilet.

It was literally raining on the toilet.

There's a picture of my dad here, and I jumped in and was helping him uh doing our best.

Uh that is the bad kind of overflow, okay?

But this morning we're talking about the good kind of overflow.

Not the bad kind of overflow.

We were literally shot back in the ceiling.

That was crazy.

We had church, we got it ready, and it happened.

Praise God.

We're gonna talk about the good kind of overflow today, and that is the overflow that comes from us pouring out in faith and God filling us up more than we could ever imagine.

Amen.

As we pour out towards God.

And so, what we're gonna talk about today is generosity.

We're talking about what it means for us to be generous people and for us to follow after God's heart, for us to be people who are willing to step out and willing to be generous with what God's blessed us with.

Now, here's what I know is true whatever you pour into your life will overflow.

Now, this is a principle that isn't just a fun little adage, but this is a principle from Jesus.

The fact that whatever we input into our life will eventually overflow out of our life.

So if the input in your life is fear, then you're going to overflow fear.

If what is inside of you is resentment, because you didn't get the job, because the marriage didn't go the way that you wanted, then resentment will overflow out of you.

To the people around you, your kids, your co-workers, your friends.

But if you're filled with faith, if you're filled with generosity, those things overflow as well.

Jesus taught us this.

In Luke chapter 6, verse 45, Jesus said, A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart.

Luke 6:45

And an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.

What you say flows from what is in your heart.

In my home, we say, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

So that thing that you say, you say, Oh, I didn't mean to say that.

Oh, I take it back.

That's an overflow out of what is going on inside of you.

I heard it recently said like this, and it it really stuck out to me this year, and I've thought about it over and over and over again, and and it puts it this way.

What informs you forms you.

What informs you forms you?

So whatever it is that you are drinking in throughout your week, if it's TikTok videos, podcasts, if it's Fox News, MSNBC, whatever it is that you are having inform you, it eventually will form who you are.

What are you inputting?

Are you inputting the opinions of your favorite athlete or actor?

Or are you being filled up with God's word?

Are you letting God's word and the Holy Spirit to fill you up and to form you into the person that he wants you to be?

The Apostle Paul put it this way to us in Corinthians or in Colossians chapter 2, verse 7.

Colossians 2:7

Let your group your roots grow down into him, Christ, and let your lives be built on him.

Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thanksfulness.

Everybody say overflow.

Dig down deep roots into Christ, into Jesus.

Build your life upon him, and then the overflow that will pour out from you is a thankful heart to God.

What will overflow from you is godliness.

And as we speak and as we talk about generosity today, I want to share with you a story from the Old Testament that actually was shared with us this time last year by my friend Dustin, who preached last week, and I've not been able to get over this story over the last year, so much so that it just lods itself in my heart and in my mind, and I want to share it with you this morning if that's okay.

And we're gonna look at the story of the prophet Elisha.

Elisha.

Elisha was a prophet that is in the book of Kings, and Elisha was a prophet that had a ministry of miracles and ministry to the kings of Israel.

Coming before them and prophesying and asking for them to have the people of God, their hearts turn back to God because they were worshiping false gods and false idols and turn themselves away from God and wickedness.

And Elisha the prophet would go and speak to the king and speak to the people and call them back to God, and then all along his ministry it was marked by miracles.

That God was flowing out and pouring out from him.

And in this particular story, we see the fact that Elisha has all of these uh helpers that help him in his ministry, and these are uh this group of prophets that help him in the in the ministry and the administration of what he's doing, and one of these helpers of his dies.

Not only does he die, but he leaves his wife and two children in a terrible place financially, in a destitute place, in a desperate place.

And we see what happens with this widow who is left now with the pieces to try to figure it out, and not unlike what has happened, maybe to even some of us in the room, that somebody has passed and all the things were all put together and lined up and put you in a position where you're trying to figure it out.

But this was of the most dire of circumstances.

Let me show you what was going on.

This is 2 Kings chapter 4, starting in verse 1.

2 Kings 4 · chapter mention

If you have your Bible turned there, if you've got your app, if your phone, pull that out, please, so you can highlight this story on your app so you can remember it where it is.

2 Kings chapter 4, starting in verse 7, starting in verse 1 through verse 7.

2 Kings 4 · chapter mention

One day the widow of a member of the group of the prophets came to Elisha and cried out, My husband who serves you is dead.

And you know how he feared the Lord.

But now a creditor has come threatening to take my two sons as slaves as payment.

Verse 2 What can I do to help you?

Elisha asked.

Tell me, what do you have in your house?

Nothing at all.

Except a flask of olive oil.

Everybody say except.

She replied, Verse 3.

And Elisha said, Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors, then go into your house with your sons, shut the door behind you, pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.

So she did as she was told.

Everybody say, Did.

She did as she was told in verse 5.

Her sons kept bringing her jars, kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another.

Verse 6.

Soon every container was full to the brim.

Everybody say, Full.

Bring me another jar.

She said to one of her sons, There aren't any more, he told her.

And then the olive oil stopped flowing.

Verse 7.

When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts.

And you and your sons can live on what is left over.

You ever feel like what you got's not enough?

I know I felt that.

I've felt that way many a times.

Actually, uh uh two or three weeks ago, as Emily and I, we were discussing one morning the this generosity series that was gonna come and giving day that was gonna be December the 8th, and we were happened to be getting ready in the the the bathroom at the same time, and the topic came up of what in the world we were gonna give on December the 8th after the year that we've had, and we just started dying laughing.

Of like, we have no idea what in the world we're gonna give.

Just laughing at each other in the morning, just talking about what in the world we're gonna do for year and giving.

And then Emily said, But God is gonna provide.

And we know that he will because he's done it over and over and over and over and over again in our life.

And also, just a little caveat there, we weren't talking about uh God providing just like our basic needs.

We were talking about God providing for us to be generous to others.

Providing to us so that we could then pour out and be generous for his kingdom.

Do you ever feel like you don't have enough?

You might feel that way.

You might feel that way today.

You don't have enough time, you don't have enough resources, you don't have enough energy.

It never feels like that you have enough for this widow.

Elisha asked her, What do you have in your house?

And she said, Nothing at all.

Except, what do you have in your house?

And she says, Nothing.

Nothing at all.

Because she was probably thinking about the fact that she was thinking, Why are you asking me this, prophet of God?

If I'm hemad in my house or can pay the debts, I wouldn't be coming to you and asking right now.

If I'm already hemmed everything that I'm not that I'm needed, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

I got nothing at all in my house.

I don't have enough to be able to save my sons from them being sold into slavery to pay this debt that I didn't know was gonna happen in the circumstances in my life.

And she comes and she says, I got nothing at all, except she had something.

She had something.

And if you take that something and you multiply it by one thing, your faith in Jesus Christ, it can be everything.

It could be everything.

She said, I got nothing at all.

A few months ago, my friend Kyle Wade preached here on this platform and gave us a sermon about what it looked like to step into the gap of what God and faith and what he's calling you to do.

And he gave us a word that I want to remind you about today in light of this passage and this scripture and what he told us.

And I've not been able to get over this statement for months now.

What he said was faith before miracles.

Faith before miracles.

It feels like I got nothing.

But I know that I have something in Christ.

And that little bit of faith, if we'll pour out just that little bit of faith, God will be faithful to fill it up beyond what you could ever imagine or dream.

And the world says, I don't know what you got.

Don't let that go.

I need to get that.

I need to be there.

I need to be insane.

I need to do this.

I can't possibly let go of.

The abundant life that he invites us into.

And that abundant life means that he's going to provide our every single need.

He promises us that.

That doesn't mean every single one that we have, but he promises us that every single need that we have is going to be met.

The apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 4, verse 19, says, And this same God who takes care of me will supply almost all your needs in his glorious riches.

Philippians 4:19

Is that what that says?

No, that's not what it says, is it?

That ain't it.

That ain't it.

This same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs and will from his glorious riches which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

It is God who will overflow as we pour out in faith and trust him to fill us up.

Amen.

To supply all of our needs.

Not just some of them, not almost all, but he's faithful to us.

Y'all are gonna love this.

Y'all gonna love this.

So over the uh the the course of the last few weeks, we've been talking about some of the initiatives of our church that we want to uh get after with this year and giving that's gonna happen on December the 8th, and some of those initiatives that we're thinking of doing and asking God, what if you want to do this?

What if you want to do that?

Um in the course of the last few weeks that we've been talking about it with our leaders and volunteers and different folks.

There's been a couple of there's been two guys who are construction professionals in our church who already have said, you know what, when it comes to the construction side of these things that we're going to be doing as a church, they have stepped up and said that they want to donate their time, their professional skills.

Listen to this church, to the tune of$70,000.

$70,000.

That's not a check.

That's their time, that's their skill, that's their talent that they're bringing to God the something that's in their hand.

Well, I don't have anything.

Except, yes.

One who's donating$40,000 worth of architect work, the other that's donaty,000 or more of general contracting skill and time.

Just two guys.

Just two guys in the life of our church have stepped up to do that, pouring out to see God fill up.

And sometimes we just get in this mindset, and I get in this mindset where I think, you know what?

What I have to give is just so small.

How can it ever make a difference?

How could how could what I do even matter?

And maybe you're feeling that way too.

I'm thinking like, how in the world how how could whatever I have to bring in generosity, how could it even matter?

But we see from the widow that it's not the size of the gift, it's the heart behind it, amen.

She had something.

She had something to bring.

And as we bring that offering to God, God's gonna be the one to multiply it.

And so for us, we receive the blessing just in the bringing of the offering.

So the bringing is the blessing.

The bringing is the blessing.

See, watch this.

The whole community, this widow's friends, her neighbors, they got to be a part of a miracle just by letting her borrow a jar.

One little small thing.

She came.

And then become a part of the miracle of sniving or summons by bringing in an empty jump what they had.

The whole neighborhood to be a part of the miracle because they were willing to just bring what it was that they had.

And in doing so, they were blessed to be a part of a miracle.

Your little bit that you think won't make a difference makes a huge difference in God's hands.

And God is just wanting and asking for us to press in to be a part of the miracle.

The little that's in our hands will overflow in his.

And so as we step out with acts of faith and we involve God in the middle of it, it becomes powerful.

It becomes powerful.

When you walk out uh today from the uh service, you're gonna get this little tiny jar like this.

How cute that is.

And here's what I want you to do with this jar.

I want you to put it in your car console where you're gonna see it all the time, or put it on your desk at work, or put it on your countertop in the bathroom when you're getting ready.

And I want you to think about what it would be and what God can do with just a little bit to pour it out.

And think about, okay, God, what is what is this?

What is what is it that you want to pour out from my life and faith and fill up more than I can expect?

What is it that you want me to do?

And so let this be this little jar be a reminder to you to be praying about what it looks like for you to step out and have a generous heart towards God.

But I don't know about you, but the enemy tries to attack me and say things like, Well, I'm gonna need that money later.

Well, I can't give that.

What if something happens down the road?

Something that I'm not expecting?

How in the world can I do that?

And maybe you're right now in this place and you're already in that mindset and you're approaching this, and you're like, ah, I don't know about that.

I don't know if I could give that because I may need it for something that I'm not expecting later.

And already have fear at your door and gripping you, trying to hold you back.

Because I know this, I know on December 8th, because the same thing happened last year, there are gonna be a number of people who step out in faith and give to the Lord for the very first time on December 8th of their entire life.

To say, okay, God, you tell me to trust you with my finances.

You want my whole heart, my whole life, you want me to be obedient to you, and there are gonna be there are gonna be several of us that give for the very first time ever.

And take that step of faith, and it's a huge step of faith.

Amen.

It's a massive step of faith to say, okay, God, I am I am making room for you to do the miracle.

That's what I'm asking you to do.

To make room for the miracle.

Well, make room.

The widow is pouring out in faith, and as long as she kept pouring, God kept filling.

God doesn't need our money.

He doesn't even need our time, but he wants your heart.

He wants your heart.

He wants you to be like him and have his heart.

So make room in your heart.

Jesus tells us this in Luke chapter 6, just a couple of verses earlier.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

He says, give and you will receive.

Your gift will return to you in full.

Prince down, make them together to make room for more.

Running over, poured into your lap.

The amount you will give determines the amount you will get back.

Make room, church.

Jesus said, make room, so I can press it down and pack it in and sing it pour over because of your generosity and generosity flow back to you in the name of Jesus.

Not because of your power, but because of his.

How can I possibly put myself in a position of I don't even know what I can do to afford something, but instead for us to pour out and trust God as a provider.

See, fear wants to hold us back, but faith is telling us to pour out.

And there's some people in the life of our church who've got some real faith.

Amen.

Some folks in the life of our church got some scary faith.

Last Sunday, a couple in our church, after the amazing service that we had last Sunday during worship, let me know that during the worship time last Sunday, that both the husband and the wife, independent of one another, they felt the Holy Spirit and felt the Lord impress upon their heart and mind to give all of their savings.

They talked about it later and realized that the Lord had told both of them at the same time in worship last Sunday for them to step out and to have some scary faith and to do that.

Now God's not calling everybody to do that.

But the Lord put it on their heart for them to do it.

To pour out and have some scary faith and see God provide.

Church, don't you think we need to pray for this couple?

Because don't you think that pretty soon the enemy's gonna try to put something in their path?

I'll tell you what, after the awesome service last Sunday, I was feeling juiced up.

Woo, man, this is amazing.

We're gonna give.

This is gonna be great.

And then Monday morning, the fan on my radiator broke$853 to the auto shop on Monday.

Anybody else have car problems this week?

I know somebody got an offender.

I know somebody else got their car break down this week.

Just this week.

Just this week.

Isn't it like the enemy to try to distract us?

Isn't it like the enemy to try to put an uh an obstacle in our way?

And then Emily and I just laughing even more.

God, okay, all right.

Cars in the shop.

Alright.

What are we gonna do now?

Tuesday, okay, Lord.

Let's see.

We're gonna keep praying, we're gonna keep trusting, we're gonna keep following him because we know he's gonna provide.

Amen.

This couple who stepped out and they're planning to give, we need to pray for them.

Because God is gonna grow them and grow their faith more than they could ever imagine.

I want to share something with you that I've not shared before, other than just a handful of folks.

But a few years ago, now, right after our church launched on March the 20th of 2022, that summer uh a friend of mine challenged me to write out what's called a vivid vision.

And what it was essentially was he challenged me to write out kind of like a letter of what multiply church would look like in the summer of 2025, three years later.

Now, mind you me, at this time we had just gotten to the movie theater.

We'd been in there a couple of months, had a handful of baptisms, the the Lord was working, but this space was like not in the cards.

I was running around town looking at like four or five different commercial properties, just wondering, okay, God, what are we gonna do?

Are we gonna be in this movie theater forever?

What do you want to do?

And I sat down and wrote out this letter, and I got it with me today.

And there's a lot of things in here.

And there's a lot of things in this letter that already now, before we even got to 2025, have come to fruition.

Like in this letter I wrote about how we were gonna start the Frankfurt Ford initiative that had never been spoken before.

And actually wouldn't even been told until the fall of 2023 that we would even talk about it.

I I wanna I wanna share just a little excerpt from this with y'all if that's okay.

Now, this isn't some like prophetic thing, but a vision is for the future.

And this is just a small little snippet.

The morning human Kentucky summer hits my face as I step out of the car in a newly renovated shopping center, visible by the main road in Frankfurt.

A string of facades adorned with newly minted signage shows that new things are happening.

Back from the edge of death.

Amen.

This shopping center now houses a newly created Christian child care center next to a green space with beautiful open to the public playground being constructed.

Next to the child care center stands a co-working space with dedicated offices for local nonprofits called City Hub.

Next to that is the big, the next to that's the biggest retail anchor space with a large X with the words multiply church shining in the bright sunlight.

My eye scans down the shopping center, seeing the signs for a DBA kitchen location that focused on second chance employment, the new Interwrap Technology training facility, and the indoor children's play place.

And it goes on and it goes on and goes on and goes on and goes on.

And I want to I don't want to bore you with it, but what I want you to know is that many of the things that uh wrote about at that time, like walking in, seeing through the glass, volunteers that were ready for the day, families and seasoned saints and K-State students all ready to serve God, walking in through this space and the worship center and the different people.

K-State student being baptized, these things have come to fruition already.

They've already come to fruition.

And there's a lot more to come, isn't there?

Amen.

God has so much more that He wants to do.

Now I'm not closing, but I want you to uh here in just a second, you're gonna get a card passed to you.

And what this card is gonna be, the Usher's gonna pass him out.

This card that you're gonna see, it's gonna look like this.

Um and what I'm asking for you to do is to take this card.

It has outpour on one side, the graphic, and it has this on the other side, asking for your name and address.

And then there's some there's some boxes there for you to begin to think about of what it looks like for you and your family to give on December the 8th.

Here's what I'm asking you to do.

I'm asking you to take the card and to begin to pray.

I'm asking you to take the card and set it on your desk, put it somewhere where you know it is, and begin to pray about what it is that the Lord is leading you to give on December 8th.

That would be generosity for you.

Once you get the card, will you just raise it up?

You got the card, just raise it up so I can see it.

Got the card.

So you take this card, and what I'm asking you to do is just to pray.

Pray about what God would have for you to do and for you to give when we have our day of giving, it's gonna be on December the 8th.

And so I want you to talk to God, wrestle with Him, talk with your spouse if you have one, wrestle with them.

Ask, and I'm hoping that on this card there's like a there's like a uh amount written down and then it's scratched out, and then there's another one because you've been doing business with God.

Like, okay, Lord, what is it that you want for us to do?

What step do you want us to take?

And I I I want to share with you all some of the things that we're thinking about happening in 2025.

Of okay, God, what if you do this?

What if you would do that?

Are you want to hear some of those things?

Well, you all know that um we've been talking for a little while about this space that's next door to us, the consignment space, and the possibility of that becoming a a whole space for kids and for youth, and to have a custom environment created.

I got a little blueprint here to throw up for you to see.

Uh on your right, this is our existing space, and then for your left over there, this is all would all be new space with kids' classrooms, and the backspace area would be worship area for youth and for kids, and then indoor play space right there for those kids in that space.

And right now we're just asking, okay, God, what if you want to do that this year?

I don't know.

God, what if you want us to be able to cross that bridge and for us to be able to have a space that's dedicated for kids and youth?

Here's here, listen here.

Here's why.

So they can have custom environments to grow spiritually.

They have a custom environment for them to flourish and for them to grow.

Also, we want to utilize and maximize the space that we have in this place and have productive spaces.

And so, also, too, uh, I would love for us to be able to add some stations into this lobby space for people for connection.

I would love for there to be a space for Frankfurt Ford so that people could see where we're serving and sign up for different events.

Uh I want to read another excerpt to you from the Vivid Vision.

This is me walking into the building.

A towering 15-foot wall separates the lobby from the worship center with a giant graffiti-style mural of a map of the United States, bleeds over the edges of the drywall, each state along with its respective capital etched into the mural as a visual representation of the church playing efforts happening outside the walls of the church.

I got a little sketch that my friend in Florida put together for us of how we could have this station here with a map that's showing future church planting efforts.

And I know I'm saying this to you for the first time, but God's kind of put in my heart for years now, and then a couple years, this crazy idea of we have planted a work in a capital city.

What if God would allow us to be a part of more works being planted in capital cities across this nation?

I don't know.

What if he would?

What if he would do that?

Because I know this our family came to this capital city not for the politics, but for the people.

And how many others across our nation need uh a life-giving church to step up and be there for the people, the people of that town and of that city, to say, hey, we want to create a space, create an environment for you to be able to know Jesus.

So I don't know uh what that all is gonna look like.

Don't claim to, but here's the thing.

We're just in our year in giving, we're gonna allocate 10% of this year in giving to future church planting just so that we can kick that domino over.

Just see what God has done.

Maybe you may be asking, like, well, what about Kentucky?

Why don't we just plant a church in Kentucky?

Well, we have this great friend, Southland, who planted us.

They're doing a phenomenal job planting churches in Kentucky.

We don't need to double up on that.

They're doing a great job.

They got a ton of resources and a ton uh uh to folks to help, so we don't need to do that.

We're gonna do what God's led us to do, and they're doing a great job.

And then also, too, we want to take this year and initiative and for us to uh invest in resources when it comes to um team and some new staff who have administrative skills and uh project management skills and some things to be able to serve this house.

I think that our staff, our leaders, our volunteers are doing a phenomenal job here, don't you think, Church?

I think so.

I think you're doing a phenomenal job.

And so we're not gonna add more staff than we need, that's for sure.

But we're gonna allocate some of that towards that growth.

And then also, too, some of you who were around will remember that in your in giving's past, uh, we have partnered with the Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation who helps kids and teens who are impacted by incarceration and help them by doing Christmas gifts for them in the Christmas season.

And we uh talked with Wanda Joyce and they asked us, because they have some other things figured out, they they asked if we would take that investment that we made in them, and if that we would take that and we would roll that$5,000 into a youth advocate position for next year for someone on their staff to mentor kids all throughout the year.

And we said, absolutely, we would love to do that.

We would love to do that.

So part of that year and giving is gonna go to the Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation.

Also, uh, I I told um some of you a couple weeks ago we were thinking about how we could partner with the military base.

Looks like you're gonna hear more next Sunday about how we may be able to partner with uh Operation Christmas Spirit with some of the families on the military base to be able to provide some toys for kids for that.

So I uh you'll hear more of that.

All gets worked out next week.

You'll hear more of the details.

Pray that it does because we finally have an open door to serve the base.

Praise God.

My friend who worked on the base for nine years said that in her nine years of the base, she never saw a church ever do anything on the base.

And that doesn't mean that that's the truth, that was just her experience.

But I know for us, it's like, okay, God, like, what do you want us to do?

How how could you help us to be able to step in?

And so that'll be a part of this year-in giving initiative as well.

Woo! All right.

There's there this is just the tip of the iceberg.

I'm gonna be sharing more with you over the next couple of weeks, so come back, be here so that you can hear more of what we're thinking and what's going on as we lead up to December the 8th.

But ultimately, what I'm asking for you to do, and I'm inviting you, if you're a follower of Jesus, is for you to stretch.

Stretch.

Stretch with the Lord, ask him what he wants you to do, and then follow through with it.

And see him pour out, see him fill up, see him work in your life.

Now, if you're in the room today and you're not a follower of Jesus, my ask for you this morning is to be saved, is for you to take the step for you to receive Jesus as your Savior.

Because everything that we just talked about, all the benefits that you receive from following Jesus, you only get them if you've given your life to Him and received a salvation on the cross.

Where he generously gave his life so that you could have new life.

He died in your place 2,000 years ago, so that your sins, all your mess-ups, all your ways that you're jacked up, all of those things could be washed away by his power and the power of his blood poured out for you on the cross, in your place, and not just staying on the cross, but then raised from the dead three days later, so then you can then be raised in new life in Christ.

And that's your step today.

If that's you, for you to receive him as your savior and for you to begin this journey with Jesus.

And so, right now, I want you to bow your heads with me right now, everybody.

I want to pray right now a blessing over us.

Father, I pray for every man, woman, and child that's represented in this room.

God, I pray for every single believer who claims to know you and follow you, Father, that God, you would right now begin to just well up some new thing in their life when it comes to their generosity.

Father, I pray right now, Lord, that they would just do business with you.

That God, they would wrestle with you and they would ask you, and that God, you would show them what it looks like for them to be generous.

Only, only you and them know.

And so, God, I pray that, Lord, and in response that they give, Father, that they will know that it will be given unto them.

That every need will be supplied.

Father, I also pray right now all across this room, anybody in this space and place who's here today, who has not received you as Savior, that today would be their day of salvation, today would be the day that they would, uh their destiny would be changed from heaven for eternity, that God, you would save them in this moment.

And the way that you do that, God, is by them pouring out their heart to you, a genuine heart to ask you to save them.

So if that's you right now, I just ask for you to pray to God right now in your mind and heart.

Not without some magic words, but because of a genuine ask in your heart to say something like this to God, Jesus, save me.

Pray in your heart and mind, Jesus, save me.

I believe that you're the Son of God, that you died on the cross for me, and that you're alive.

Forgive me, cleanse me, wash me so that I can be in heaven one day with you.

Thank you for saving me.

I give you my life as you generously gave yours for mine.

Thank you.

In Jesus' name.

Nobody looking around, head bowed, eyes closed.

Today was your day to pray to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, to receive forgiveness by what He purchased for you on the cross 2,000 years ago.

And today was your day of salvation.

I want you to take an action before God and before heaven.

And so I can pray for you that you would raise your hand up when I count to three.

If you prayed that today to receive Christ as Savior, that you would raise that hand up at the count of three, ready.

One, two, three.

Anybody in the room right now?

Father?

Anyone in the room?

God, I thank you, God, for your salvation for us on the cross.

Thank you, Father, for your goodness and your mercy towards us.

Thank you, Jesus, that we can come to you humbly and know, God, that your love is pouring out to us in ways that we can never imagine and express.

So we thank you for that.

We praise you for that.

We love you.

In the strong name of Jesus, everybody said, Amen.

Church, will you stand to your feet and worship and sing right now as a response to our glorious God?