Radically Generous

But right now what I want to do is I want to give you a little introductory moment for our guest speaker. I'm really excited that we brought him today. I've been [singing] getting to know our guest speaker over the past several months. He moved down here from the Pacific Northwest a while back. He is working at Cornerstone Christian Church over in the East Valley.

He's one of their executive pastors. He man, he's a great communicator of the word, but I don't know if you know anything about Cornerstone, but they're running several thousand people on a weekend, So I know what he's about to deliver is something really powerful to you all. They're doing a great work, But what's what's more exciting to me than where he works and the fact that it's a big church is what he feels called to in the long term. In fact, this is why I brought him today, because I believe next [music and singing] year, or the year after, he's feeling called by God to go start a new work somewhere in the valley, a new church. Come on, let's celebrate new churches planted so that people can come to the saving knowledge of Jesus.

He's going to plant a new church And so I wanted to bring him here right in front of you, because one of these days he's going to be a big deal in the valley. You're going to hear about him and you're going to be able to say, "I don't need his autograph because I heard him communicate a great word of God". Amen, somebody, All right. So, without further ado, I want to invite my friend, Pastor TJ McConna. Why don't y'all give him a hand clap?

Come on, Come on, Love it, Love it. Oh my goodness, guys, Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here with you guys this morning. With that level of introduction, I can only go down from there, you know. But, dude, I'm so grateful for your pastor Matt.

We've gotten to know each other. We met over, actually in the East Coast at a place called S2 East, and we were both doing some conference work there. What an awesome pastor you guys have. What an awesome shepherd you guys have. And I'm so excited for what this is going to become.

Okay, I get to come in as a guest speaker and talk about giving. I get to talk about giving. There's some people excited about giving in this place. I like that. Now, I come from a lot of Baptist churches, So you start talking about giving, people start leaving, .

So I'm excited that you guys are excited to hear about this, But I want to say it this way: guys, If you want to join God in the impossible, you're going to have to give more than you thought was possible, . Yeah, I'm going to say it again: guys, If you want to join God in the impossible, you're going to have to give more than you thought was possible. I want to. I want to be vulnerable with you guys. Real minute for a second.

Six years ago, I was in a really hard place- Church hurt, messed up situation all the way around- And, and I was feeling pretty bad for myself. I was feeling really bad for myself And I- and I come from a family of a lot of addictions, a lot of things going on in my family And, I'm working pretty hard to break generational curses. But in this moment, this moment of weakness, I went through probably about a year to 18 months of just spiraling. You know, I started, I started self-medicating, you know, and I'm not, I'm not going to go to heroin, you know I'm not going to go to drinking, but what I did is I went to food, you know, I went to food and I ate, and ate, and ate and I, I didn't get on the scale for like two years because I was just, I was hiding from my problems. But when I finally did, jumped on the scale, it said, just a, a couple clicks short of 400 lb.

Somebody just gasp over here. All right, Jesus loves them too. Right, Like someone's like "Oh, I know what you think of me now". In this place. But I, I was hurt, I was in a hard, hard spot.

But the good news is God was starting to lift me out of that, He was starting to raise me out of that. The God of resurrection was doing a resurrection work in me. My heart was getting right, My head was getting right, My emotions were getting right And I stepped on the scale and that wasn't right, You know. So I started, started working towards something And I, I, I researched certain diets and I did like every phase diet you can possibly do. You know, I did the one that like you juice everything, which just gave me diarrhea for a long time.

I did like the thing where you like eat like a caveman, cuz apparently cavemen were fit, I don't know. I did all those things and I was like: two steps forward, two steps back. Two steps forward, two steps back. I was like, how am I going to get this stuff off? I want to get healthy.

I want the health that's going on inside of me to be to be projected into the world. How do I do that? And all of a sudden, I'm scrolling through Facebook and I see a friend from high school Now. His name is Rob Doo. Now, Rob has always just killed it when it comes to fitness stuff.

When, even when we were in high school, he was a state level champion wrestler And he was all he. He had changed from being a wrestler to being an endurance athlete. Okay, He did crazy things. Now. Now, you know, marathons, multiple marathons, multiple iron men.

He got through all that stuff And then, finally, he did this thing called the Uberman, which is a Iron Man on steroids. I don't know, I don't. I got to remember this all times because he always thinks I'm, you know, like I sell him short here. But it's ridiculous, So ridiculous, that only seven humans have completed this in the history of the event. He's one of seven.

Now, he's a pretty awesome guy, but he always reminds me that he's one of seven. There's seven billion people in the world. And so he says he's one in a billion. And. And so I called him and I said: "Dude, this is where I'm at.

I need help. You know I need help". And he goes. He said what I just said to you: If you're going to join God in the impossible, TJ, you're going to have to give more than you thought was possible. Okay, What does that mean?

I was thinking. You know, hey, maybe you can get me to run a 5K. That man laughed at me. 5K, No, no, no, Because no, I, I, I think we can do better than that. Like a 10K?

No, No, Grandma's run 10Ks. What do you want me to do, Rob TJ, if, if, if, you do everything I tell you to do, in a year you're going to run a marathon? Now, I reminded him at this point of what the scale told me that morning. I was like "No, there's just there's. There's [snorts] no way, There's just absolutely no way".

He reminded me of it again: If [snorts], you're going to join God in the impossible, you got to give more than you thought was possible. I'm going to give you a full training. I'm going to, I'm going to be there for you and I'll even run the marathon with you, I'll pace with you for this marathon. And because he was like pumping me up and because the whole thing I like, I agreed. I was like, "Okay, let's do this, Let's, let's run this marathon".

Hung up and just like, "That's a mistake, That's not going to. But he sent over this full like training, Like he had every day mapped out between this day and the day that we were going to run a marathon And we- and he had already signed me up. He paid for everything, dude. He paid for like a really fancy watch so I can track all my vital signs. He paid for the marathon.

He just, he just like "No, we're going to do this thing". Right, So I get all this stuff in the mail. And now I got to go out there and do it. Now, the first thing- and I told you I was pretty heavy individual- The first thing you have to do in training is you got to see how far you can go. So I went out there, put some sweatpants on, put my hoodie on [clears throat], because it's the Northwest and you're always wearing a hoodie in the Northwest- and I ran as far as I could.

You guys know how far I ran. I ran for about 25 seconds. 25 seconds I was out of breath, I was done, came back. I reported it back to him, thinking he would say something along the lines of "Okay, you're obviously too out of shape, We're going to have to set our bar a little bit lower. But he just man, was just like a calculator".

And he just like: "Okay, here's the adjustments we have to do, Here's what I want you to do". And he just tailor made, he remade his training so I could still run that marathon. But this is what you have to do, You have to follow it. So the training went like this: Every other day you're doing something and every two weeks you do a long run. Every long run you do is longer than the last long that run that you did.

So my first long run was a half a mile. You know, after end of two weeks of just kind of doing some stepping and walking and a little bit of jogging, I had to run a half a mile. Now I thought I was going to die. Whole time I thought I was going to die, but I did it. I ran a half a mile, Came back.

I'm stronger than what I thought that I was. Man, this, maybe I can do this Next week. I had to run a mile and a half. No, two weeks later I had to run a mile and a half and I did it. I ran a mile and a half And then two weeks later, I had to run three miles.

Guess what I did it? I ran three miles Two weeks after that and slowly but surely, the weight started coming off too, Like I started looking better, I started feeling better And I'm doing things that I didn't know were possible. I was doing things that I that that were impossible for for me just a few months before this. How is this happening Now? I remember the day that I ran seven miles.

You want to know? I remember that day was first. That was the longest I'd ever run in my life, even back to high school. So if I completed today, I'm in uncharted territory. All I have to do is finish.

And I'm at mile six and I'm feeling dead. You know I'm jogging, but I'm jogging slower than I walk. You know I'm [panting] and I just feel like I'm going to fall over at some point. And then I feel it a hand, grab my head and start trying to pull me upwards. Now I think I've died and there's an angel trying to grab me up and that angel's struggling.

Right now I see these big white wings flapping right in front of me. I like this is. That's not what was happening. What was happening was an owl was attacking my head. I found a different gear that day, Matt.

I PR that last mile, just running from that owl. I get in the house. I'm screaming at my wife [screaming]. The owl tried to attack my head. My wife laughs at me.

Okay, now you guys think about this. Do you guys know how much an owl weighs? No, you don't. 3 lb, 3 lbs. I already told you what I weighed.

I look so sick and I look so diseased to this owl that he thought I can take it. It's going to be food for my babies right there. I called, I called Rob up and I was mad. I was still kind of scared. I was like: "Dude, the animal kingdom doesn't even want this, bro.

Like this is, this is not good". He reminded me of that statement. You know if, if you're going to join God in the impossible, you're going to have to give more than you thought was possible. He asked me a question. He said: "TJ, why are you running at night".

I'm running at night because I'm ashamed. I know what I look like when I'm out there running and I'm afraid that other people are going to see me. So I just want to cover that up. He, he, he paused for a second. He said: "Maybe it's time to come into the light, Maybe it's time to start running in the day".

So I did. I remember the day that I did a half marathon: 13.5. I've been running for six months at this point. It's awesome, things are good. And, and by the time I did 13 point, was it 13.1 time that I got to that spot.

I had lost over 70 pounds at that point, which was awesome. It was huge, you know. I just kept going, I kept going, I kept going. And then the last long run, I get a full year out. The last long run is a run that's 20 miles.

That's it. I got to go out and do 20 miles. You know how long it takes to do 20 miles. No, you don't, It's a long time. It's a long time, especially when you're not that not in running shape, you know.

But at that point I've been running for almost a year and I'd lost over 120 lbs And I was ready to go. I went out there and I did it. I didn't just do it, I sprinted through that finish line. I was so ready. Two weeks, two weeks.

I'm going to be a marathon runner, I'm going to complete this, And I knew it. I could believe it that I, I could see the finish line And I knew it was true that, that, if that, if I was going to join God in the impossible, I had to give more than I thought was ever possible. And I'd done that. I forgot to tell you, guys, the year this happened- Spring 2020, come back from my marathon, I'm sorry, Come back from my 20 mile run. One day later, email goes out: The marathon has been cancelled.

What, What was all this for? So I did what I always do. In that moment, I headed to McDonald's to drown my sorrows in something else for a little while. Now, that day, I was defeated. That day was really, really hard, But my wife reminded me that I'd already done more than I ever thought was possible, That I was already a champion in that way.

Now, guys, what I want to do today is to say this: There's a place that you haven't gone to yet. There's a place in your relationship with Jesus that you haven't given him yet And because of that, because of that, you started to believe a lie, And the lie was this: that that is impossible to give up. I can't give that much up, But I'm standing here telling you guys, as somebody who's seen the impossible, that all you have to do is just give more than you thought was possible and God will meet you halfway there. Let's pause that story right there and let's jump into the word of God. If you got a Bible, go ahead and open it up to Proverbs 11:24 and 25.

Proverbs 11:24

It'll be on the back screen here. It says this: "One person gives freely, yet gains even more. Another withholds unduly but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

Now, I love the word of God because when I when, when you read it, you can feel it nourishing your body. But sometimes there's verses like this that don't make sense on the first run through. You know how is it that people who give more away will gain more in the long run? But I've seen this happen. Now.

I've never told this story before in any stage that I've been on and but, but God was like "Today is the day". There's a person in my life who I love so much. He's a mentor to me and his name is Dan. Now, Dan is the most generous human I've ever met. Dan practices radical giving in his life.

Okay, But in order to tell you the full story, I just got to give you a brief testimony of who Dan was. Dan was a poor kid in LA, growing up super, super, super poor Dad doesn't even know who his dad is. His stepdad, be kind of, becomes his dad. He's sort of raised by a single mom and at 14 years old he gets his girlfriend pregnant and he- and this is the old school ways- So if you get your girlfriend pregnant back in the day, you marry her the next day, And so that's what happened: Shotgun wedding, two 14-year-old kids getting married. The world shouldn't have been open to him and them, And it wasn't.

Everything was hard for them at that point. Dan was a hard worker, but it was a struggle: Two kids raising a kid. Now something happened in Dan's life which was amazing. A human showed up who was radically generous with their time. He was a pastor, And back in those days, pastors would just go knock on doors.

They [snorts] would just go knock on doors, ask you if you go to church, invite you to their church, you know. And he knocks on the door and this kid opens the door and he realizes this kid is married to another kid and has a kid And he says: "Hey, I think you should come to church". Dan says "No". He looks past, sees his wife. His wife's name's Sally.

He goes: "I think you should go to church". She says "Maybe I will". She starts coming to church without Dan. You know, taking their daughter to church Makes Dan so mad, Feels like the church is sort of stealing his little family. But at the same time he's working so hard he doesn't have time to think about this.

But that pastor doesn't give up on Dan. He keeps showing up and knocking on his door And he figures out that Dan likes to fish and he has a little boat and he's like: "Hey, would you like to go out and fish with me on a boat". They go out every Saturday and fish And somewhere along the lines Dan gives his heart to Jesus and it changed everything. Now he starts just running hard and he feels like God is calling him to the ministry at 16 years old, right? And so he heads off to Bible college in Oregon at 16 years old And he shows up and he's like: I'm supposed to be a youth pastor.

I'm supposed to be a youth pastor, but he's got a family at home so he has to work full-time and go to school full-time, right? And so he goes to school full-time and then he gets a job at a car dealership washing cars. He's just washing cars out there, but he's got the joy of the Lord in his heart. He believes that people should see Jesus in his excellent work. So he works harder than everybody else there.

Pretty soon they realize he doesn't need to just wash cars, He needs to manage the car wash. And he manages it in such a way that it's just beautifully run. And they realize we don't make any money off the cars getting washed, We make money off the cars getting sold. So at 17 years old he becomes a salesman. He, within a month, he's their top salesman.

Within 6 months he's a sales manager. He's not even 18 years old yet. He's about to graduate. He's so excited, He's ready. He's ready to launch into his youth ministry career.

But a good mentor comes into his life and says: "Dan, I think that you can make a dent for the kingdom as a pastor, But I think that if you took all your talents and just completely dove headirst into the business world, you could build a kingdom". And, and I think that's what you should do. Dan hated that. He wanted so badly to be a pastor. Problem is when he got up in front of people he would just shake so nervous, you know.

He thought about it for a while and finally he graduated. But he submitted to what God's call was in his life. He went to work in Sacramento selling Porsches and Ferraris. Pretty soon he saved up enough money to buy his own dealership. At 23 years old he was the youngest Volkswagen dealership dealer in the world.

To this day there's never been a younger one that was wasn't given to them. He bought it outright and he started just going. Now here's the crazy thing is, he believed God had something be big for him. So he started giving and he gave impossible amounts his whole life, from the time he was young to the time he was old. He would give more of his income than he would take.

I'm going to say that again: He would give more of his income than he would take. 60% went other places. Dan didn't become poor by doing this. You know. You know what: Dan became very, very, very wealthy.

By the time I met him, he was a millionaire like 10 times over. And here's the thing that you, that I've learned about millionaires: like real millionaires, real people have money. They don't really show it. You know, you'd think that the dude who sells Ferraris and Porsches and owns all these dealerships would also drive. One Dude drove a minivan.

It was a nice minivan. It's like a Sienna, Like that's a nice minivan, right, But it was not anything special. You know, Some Sienna people are like: "See, I told you" [snorts]. Yeah, All the Sienna drivers like: "I don't have a million dollars, Matt, don't come talking to me about some tithing stuff". But he gave and he gave and he gave.

And I know this for a fact because he gave to me in my ministry. Now, I lasted 20 years as a youth pastor. That makes me a 300year-old youth pastor. But I'll say this, guys: Without the generosity of people like Dan, I wouldn't have made it. I know for a fact that he paid for several pastors, seminaries.

He paid, prayed, he paid for several church plans. He paid for several missionaries And then in 2021, Dan went home to be with Jesus. He went home to be with Jesus, Went into a surgery at the age of 72 and he didn't come out the other side of it. It was a hard day to lose Dan, a mentor in my life, Huge deal. I miss him.

I miss Dan. Dan cared so much about his church, He's cared so much about his Bible school and he was like one of the main funders of all these things, But he also cared very deeply about his family. So whatever he saved up, that he didn't give away, he gave to his family. That was millions of dollars, you know, but it was weird because as soon as that resource shifted owners, it completely changed. Now I was close to this family, so I know the whole story And it's probably one of the reasons I don't tell it, because I don't, I don't want everybody knowing this, this business, but it's true.

They started looking into the finances and they started to get really, really mad. And they got mad because they realized that Dan had given away more of his wealth than he had saved up now, But he had saved millions and millions and millions of dollars. But they felt entitled to that money. They felt entitled to that money And they felt like he had given away their inheritance before they got it. And so when they got it, whatever they got, which was a lot, they just started spending it And then they withheld everything from where Dan was giving it And they felt like whoever he was giving it, whoever he was giving it to, was like predatory towards him.

So they, they, they, they. They burned bridges. They stopped all of it. I came back and I talked to him two years after Dan had died, Two years after They looked at me and they said: "Man, you would be surprised how quickly $7 million will go. I think I would be surprised about that.

What happened? It's the same amount of resources, just two different hearts, . Now I want to read it again. I want to read it again. One person gives freely, yet gains even more.

Another withholds unduly and but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Do you hear it? There's a place where you haven't gone, And perhaps, perhaps it's in your giving guys.

You're a church plant, So I know something about that. Maybe, maybe Matt's never said this. I'll say it. You guys are in a very vulnerable spot. You are in a very vulnerable spot.

This place exists on a knife's edge And you're going to need a lot of miracles between the time that you are right now and the time where you break ground for the first time, the time when you, when you move into your new building for the first time and build the next, you're going to need so many miracles. But if you withhold, it will be gone. This is yours, This is the part of the kingdom that God said "Your will be done". And you have to step up and you have to give more than you thought was possible, because I believe that Orbit Church is supposed to be doing the impossible. Greed is a poor decision.

Greed is a poor decision If you are withholding. You need to repent of that. You need to give more than you thought was possible, And my belief is what the Scripture says is true: God will refresh those who refresh others. Let's jump into another part of the text here: 2 Corinthians 9:6. It'll be on the screen, but if you have a Bible, turn there.

2 Corinthians 9:6

And here, here's another thing I'll say. Let me just get on a little side. Pulpit here. Guys, We need physical Bibles again. All right, We?

We need to come back to this. Physical Bible is a statement. It's awesome, It feels nice. I love it when, when, when, when churches have physical Bibles and you can just kind of feel the wind move. You know when, when, when things open up.

I love it when the word of God is not connected to Instagram. I love it that where you can get replenished from God's word is the same place, that you can get replenished from God's word. I hate it that so much of us get God's word from the same place, that we're looking at things that we shouldn't be looking at. Right, If you have a Bible, turn it to 2 Corinthians 9:68. Says this "Whoever sws sparingly will also reap sparingly".

Those are two Bible words. It means kind of plant and then harvest. Right, Whoever plants sparingly will harvest sparingly, And whoever sws generously will also reap generously. Guys, the point is this: A gener, a gen, a generous mentality, leads to generous opportunities. A scarcity mentality leads to scarce opportunities.

Now, I told you guys, I've been a youth pastor for a minute, Probably 15 years ago, I started talking to God about something that I desired, And I love, love, love, love summer camp, And my favorite thing to do is to speak at summer camps. I love it, dude. You can hear it even probably in my presentation today. You're like, I feel like I'm back at summer camp. Welcome to camp.

I love it. Now, here's the thing is: I was up in the Pacific Northwest where just nobody- who's anybody, is for Jesus. Like if you're going to become somebody, you got to move to a place where there is people who care about Jesus. Most people up in, the Pacific Northwest care mostly about their pets and their politics and other people's kids, . But I wanted to become a camp speaker and I had this thing that I just never thought was going to happen And I thought this thing was going to be impossible.

I wanted to go speak at the biggest camp in the United States place called Hume Lake in California, But again, I'm in Nowhereville, Washington, And I asked somebody. I said: "Hey, how do I get there". They said: "Say yes to everything: Every retreat, every camp, everything. You can Just say yes. If you can say yes, say yes, And I did.

I started saying yes And some of these camps were awesome, Some of them were weird. Okay, I'm gonna be really honest. Matt, you do not have a weird church here. I've seen weird churches, You know. I've seen weird congregations, weird camps.

I remember one camp I said yes to because I said I was going to say yes, I count there. And there was six kids at this camp, Six right, Five dudes, one girl, No, wait, It was. It was a difference between It was five girls, one dude, That's what it was. I remember I was preaching up in front of them and it felt weird. They were all right here and then one girl has to go to the bathroom.

What happens when one girl has to go to the bathroom? I preach to an audience of one to close out that message. But I said yes, I said yes to everything And I- and I didn't think it was going to get me very far- But camp started talking to other camps and say "Hey, we really like this guy and hey, you got to try him out". But I was really just in that Northwest thing. But then all of a sudden I get a call from a camp in California, Not a big camp but a California camp, And California camps pay California prices.

So I was like: I'm there, Here, I am, Send me Lord, And I go down there. And it was awesome, It was like seven churches together but maybe like 200 kids, And it just had this awesome feel And it was awesome. I kept getting invited back to speak at that camp And it was the best paying camp that I ever got commissioned for. So every time they called I'd be like "Yes, yes, yes, yes". So I get a call from the director of this camp and I'm thinking, "Oh, there's my Christmas bonus".

You know, call "Hey, TJ". I'm like "Hey, how's it going? How's it going, Justin". He goes: "I got to tell you something. I quit working for that camp".

Oh no, He goes: "Yeah, you know, it just wasn't right and I needed to move on and I got another opportunity". So, something in my head I was like "Whatever" He goes. "But I just took a job at Hume Lake and I wanted to know if you want to come speak at Hume Lake this next summer". Guys, it happened because I said yes to everything, . There was no camp.

I went to that little camp with six kids and I preached the best I could preach to them. If, if you're going to go into this radical generosity that we're kind of talking about today, is you got to understand this down to your bones, is that you know, scarcity begets scarcity and generosity begets generosity, you know. All right, let's look at this. Last verse here says this: it's just the second part of 2 Corinthians, and it says this: says this: in God, who is able to bless you abundantly, ly so that in all things, at all times, having all you need, you will abound in every [snorts] good work Guide. God's will is for the willing, God's will is for the willing.

Now, I don't know if you guys know this- Most pastors know this, but I don't know if congregation. But there's this battle that's sort of raging between different theological camps in the Christian community, And it comes down to this. It really comes down to this: Does God choose us or do we choose God? And people get really, really, really, really really spun up about this. But when people, when there's arguments in the Christian world, the best place to go is the word of God, The best place, And you know what the be, the best picture of the churches: A wedding day with a bride and a groom.

Now tell me, do you guys know of a good marriage where, where both aren't choosing each other? So do we choose God or does God choose us Both? Both We, as his bride, choose him as our groom. He, as our groom, chooses us, even in our brokenness, to be his bride. God's will is for the willing, And so you have to be willing.

It's not good enough for me to come up here and preach and say you should give more. If you do that out of obligation, you're doing it for the wrong reason. If you do it out of guilt, you're doing it for the wrong reason. If you're doing it to show off, you're doing it for the wrong reason. Now, God can use all of that for his glory, but you're not going to get any of the blessing.

But if you do it because you heard from God to do it, then you will inherit the blessing. And I want to tell you, guys, this: the blessing is not a new car, It's not a new Mercedes, It's not money in the bank, It's knowing God and being able to make him known. So you have to be like: I'm ready. I, I want to be, I want to be generous, but I want to be so generous that it hurts. I want to give until it hurts.

So I'm at the McDonald's drive-thru. How's that for a transition? I'm at the McDonald's drive-thru. Guess who calls me Rob. I don't know who told him, Probably the Holy Spirit.

What are you doing right now, Rob? You don't want to know. Goes: "What are you doing right now". Go: "Well, I'm at McDonald's drive-thru. What are you ordering"?

I'm like "Double quarter pound with cheese, The best sandwich in the world you know". And he goes: "Why"? Goes: "Didn't you get the email? They canled the marathon, Rob. We ran it all for nothing.

I needed a day off today. And he goes: "Are you ready to give up". I said: "I, I don't have a choice". No, you always have a choice. God's will is for the willing.

Are you ready to give up? What do you mean, Rob? Here's the great thing about running TJ: We can just go out and run anyway. Two weeks we're supposed to run with everybody else. But how about this?

Me and you show up and run anyway. Finish off my double quarter pound with cheese, because I learned I'm not a quitter There. It was The morning of the marathon. I pictured it in my head: All these people. I even printed off a shirt.

I lost 140 pounds to run this marathon. It's just me and him. I was sad, but we got going. There was no starting line, There was no gun, There was nothing. It was just Rob looking at his watch saying "All right, better get started".

And we did. We ran, We ran, and we ran, and we ran, We, We, We made up miles along the way. We talked about Jesus, I told them about my dream of planting a church, I told them what I want to be and all the other stuff. And it wasn't just a marathon, but it was a journey and it was wonderful. And we never got past.

We never passed anybody else. We got to the 21 miles, the longest I've ever run Church. I still had energy. I still had it. I was stronger than I'd ever felt in this moment And I knew that I was going to finish.

And today I was going to go from just being a dude who was hopeless but to a dude who was a marathon runner. And I just needed five more miles. And guess what? Rob starts looking at his watch. He starts like tapping on it like it's not working.

And I look over like "What's going on, Rob". He's like: "I don't know what's happening, TJ, but for some reason we gained a mile somewhere. We must have taken a long way. So if we're going to finish where we said we're going to finish. It's going to be something closer to 28 miles, not the 26.2 miles, What No?

And I? I looked at him. I go: "Dude, here's the great thing, We're the only ones out here, Rob, As soon as the watch says 26.2, we win". He looks at me and he says: "That's not your finish line". I want to punch him in his head.

What? That's not your finish line, TJ. I was like: I don't need your Mr Miyagi moment here. Okay, I didn't r, I didn't. I didn't train to run 28 miles, I ran.

I'm here to do 26.2. He goes: do you want to finish where you said you were going to finish, or do you want to finish short? All right, Rob, We'll keep running 26.2. We're still running 26.3, 20 all the way, 27.1, 27.3, 27.5, and then I see it at 27.75. The reason that my, my finish line couldn't be back there?

Because it was here, because Rob and my wife had gotten everybody, everybody from my life, to be at that finish line right there. Okay, They had printed off big, big posters of my head and were chanting me into this moment. It was a finish line that was just for me. Guess what, guys? I didn't just run my first marathon, I won my first marathon, All right, And I got- and this is the part of story I never told before, but it's true, It's 100% true- Dan was there.

He had one year left to live. I didn't know that, But he was patient, but, sorry, he was impatient And I didn't get there when I said I was going to get there, Mostly cuz Rob made me run more, So he started walking down the path. Now let me tell you guys this: The first person I saw at my finish line was Dan. Now, why would it be that the first person I saw at my finish line was the first person who finished his race? Because this is what happened that day: God didn't just give me a race, He gave me a picture of what it looks like to finish well, .

Now I believe that there is a finish line for you, for only you. But between that day and today, there's a lot of giving. You're going to have to do, Not just financially, but you got to give more. Why? Because if we want to join God in the impossible, we're going to have to give more than we thought possible.

Now maybe you walked in here today and you're like, "Okay, I'm going to go home, I'm going to look at my finances. I'm going to see what I can do, because I do need to give more". But maybe you walked in here today and you don't know Jesus. So the thing that you need to give is you need to give your life to Jesus today. You need to start your race.

So if you want to do that, I'm going to pray a prayer And all you got to do is bow your heads. You're good, Close your eyes. Everyone here bow your head. Close your eyes. Every single human here.

If I see your eyes open, I'm going to come over. I'm going to poke you in your eyeballs. I want to create a private moment for somebody who wants to say yes to Jesus. If you want to start a relationship with God, if you want to start by giving your life to Jesus today, just pray this prayer, Not out loud, because this isn't about performance, but in the quietness of your own heart. Pray this prayer to God.

God, I need you now. I am ready to start my race. I thank you, Jesus, for what you did for me. Jesus, thank you for dying for me, but more than that, thank you for rising for me And in the same way that you rose, Jesus, would you rise me too? Would you raise me too, God, I give you my life.

Let this be the beginning. I cannot wait for that finish line, But until that day, help me to give everything I have to you. If you prayed that prayer, would you just slip your hands into the air just high enough so I can see them? I want to see them. There's hands going up all over this place.

Guys, look at this, I'm going to start counting. Keep your hand up. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 24 guys. 24 people said yes to Jesus for the very first time. Guys, there's a celebration in heaven.

How about we celebrate?