You’re Ready to Live Generously

What up crossing family I want to welcome you join in all of

our different locations so to those of you here at 48th St. to

those of you in Macomb, Kirksville, 929 Pike County,

Hannibal, Lima, Mount Sterling, Keokuk, Monmouth, Jacksonville,

Weaver we are so glad to have you.

I also want to welcome those of you who are part of our Crossing

Online family and issue a very special shout out to those of

you who are part of the crossing inside, seeing all those

baptisms. We love you.

If you're a part of the crossing inside, don't ever doubt that

this church absolutely loves you.

You have our hearts and we can't wait to see what God is going to

do through you. You've heard me talk about it

for the last couple of weeks, but starting next weekend we are

going to launch a brand new sermon series that will be

perfect to invite somebody that God has put in your life and on

your heart. Every single one of us.

We have people that are close to us but are far from God, and we

built this series out with those people and those opportunities

in mind. Jesus, as you guys know, we're a

big fan of him. Here was the greatest teacher

that ever walked planet earth and his primary way of teaching

was through the power of story. And the Bible word for story is

parable. And we are going to be doing our

best to leverage the model, the teaching model of Jesus and the

power of story through our At the Movies sermon series.

And we're going to be taking a look at what happens when Darth

Vader comes to church. And to those of you who are

watching online, I got to be honest with you, we are not

going to be able to broadcast this series.

So the only way for you to participate will be for you to

show up at one of our physical locations.

However, we know that there's some of you who you watch from a

distance that is not drivable. And I want you to know we're

still going to have online services.

They'll still be preaching, they'll still be chat hosts,

they'll still be worship, they'll still be all the things

you're used to. You just won't be going on the

same journey that the rest of us are experiencing.

But before we can get into that series, we need to finish up

this series. And this is week 3 in our final

sermon in this series, 3 lies and a Bunch of Gospel truth.

And what we've been doing is we've been looking at lies that

Satan has told us that we have begun to believe, and then

looking at the gospel truth and realizing that adjustments need

to be made. The first lie we tackled was

this lie from Satan. I am not rich, but the truth is

we are. Why does this matter?

Because Jesus says that it is easier for a camel, big old

animal, to go through the eye of a needle, super small opening

than it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of heaven.

Why is that? Well, it's because the more

riches you have, the more your riches end up having you.

It is really stinking hard to hold on and put your trust in

Jesus when we are gripping so tightly to our things.

Now let me be clear, Jesus does not have a problem with you

having wealth. His issue is when your wealth

has you lie #2 that Satan has told us that you are not greedy,

that I am not greedy. But the truth is we are.

Why does this matter? Because the Bible says that

greedy people will not inherit the Kingdom of God in First

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 6. That greedy people will have no

inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of God in

Ephesians chapter 5. Greed is living in a state of

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

have more Ness. What you have is never enough,

so you always need more. But it gets worse than that.

You see, greed keeps us from finding our satisfaction in

Jesus. This leads to us coveting, which

opens up the door to create relational distance with others

and with God. And this leads to isolation and

depression. As we've been going through this

series, I've been talking about the gift that God gives people

in tithing. Now tithing is 10%.

In fact, biblical tithing is the 1st 10% of your increase given

back to God. Tithing is not tipping.

Tipping is what happens after the event has taken place, after

the meal, after the person has given you the ride.

It happens after it happens with the leftovers.

Tithing is a first fruit, so it happens first.

Tipping shows appreciation. Tithing shows allegiance.

Tipping says that I own the other 9.

Tithing says God owns it all. Today we are going to deal with

the 3rd and final lie from Satan.

And here it is. Satan has told you that you are

not ready to trust God with your finances.

But the truth is, I believe some of you, if not many of you are

now right about this time in the message.

You guys are all thinking to yourself, why did I come today?

It's OK. You might be wondering why does

the church talk about money? And let me tell you, because we

preach the Bible here and the Bible talks about money a lot.

And you might be going really, it talks about it a lot.

Well, let me just give you some quick stats.

Jesus, you know, one of the big characters in the Bible, one of

the best theologians we have, when he preached through the

power of through the power of story, 16 of his 39 parables

were about how to handle money and possessions.

If you're to read the Gospels, which are about the life of

Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, one out of every 10 verses

deal directly with the subject of money, 288 verses in all The

Bible. It is a big fan of prayer and so

the Bible talks about prayer 500 times.

The Bible is a big fan of faith, but it talks about faith less

than 500 times. But do you know what the Bible

how many times the Bible teaches on money and possessions?

Over 2000 times. Why does the Bible place such an

emphasis on money and possessions?

I'll tell you because our use of money is about the most reliable

external indicator of where our heart is.

Remember what Jesus said in Luke chapter 12, verse 34.

Luke 12:34

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Your treasure determines the direction of your heart, not the

other way around. Now I want to give you all a

gift. And here is the gift.

I hear people say all the churches talk about is money.

And you guys, this is not just for how you answer those

questions if people say to you or you're thinking those things,

but I just want to have like a, a little, a little moment.

And this is for all churches everywhere, because you might

have somebody come up to you and they'll say something like, Hey,

you'll invite them, Hey, why don't you come to church?

And then they'll say, well, all the church cares about his

money. And sometimes I'm in a mood.

You guys have been here before when I'm in a mood and I say

something and you turn to somebody and go, I don't, I

don't know if he should have said that.

I, I, I, does he still have an e-mail address?

Because it's going to be full. So let me tell you how I handle

that question. If I'm in a mood, I want to put

some tools in your tool belt to help you navigate that.

When you interact with somebody, somebody comes up to you and

they say all the church cares about is money.

Not just the crossing, any church anywhere.

This is this is a gift for you. What I want you to say is no,

they don't practice. All the church cares about is

money. Yo, you guys are super smart.

You're halfway there. If that's not enough, this is

how I'd answer it. I had a guy come up to me who

was a basketball coach and he said to me and I was in a mood.

He said all the church cares about is money.

And I said no, we don't, you do. And he goes no I don't.

And I said yes you do. And he goes, no, I don't.

Like I said, I was in a mood. Do you charge to get in so

people can watch your game? We don't.

I can't even get in the building without having a ticket.

Do you negotiate your contract every year?

We don't. When you show up, isn't there a

special place for all the boosters with the nice couches

and the nice chairs and the nice strengths?

You do that, we don't. When I show up, there's a

program that lists all of your supporters on it.

Can you imagine what would happen if I did that?

I wasn't done. I said you have a really special

banquet every year where you make people give you stuff that

you can sell to rich people who already have more than they

need, so that way you can continue to fund your program.

We don't. And when I come to your game, I

have to walk past reserved parking spaces for your super

rich contributors. We don't do that.

How come is it that the basketball coach, and just so

you know, to all the basketball coaches and football coaches, I

got no problem with you doing that.

And I'm not talking about any of you, OK?

Someone's like, I think he's talking.

OK, listen, this is a you're fine.

You know what everybody says about the basketball coaches and

the football coaches and the track coaches?

You know what they say about them?

Boy, they just love the kids. But if I were to run the

basketball play at our church, then you could say all we care

about is money. But the church is the only

institution on planet Earth that never sends a bill.

We are the only place when your marriage is falling apart, that

we are the first responders when you're struggling with issues of

faith. We're there when you're in the

hospital and you're sick, when somebody that you love is dying,

when you get the diagnosis you don't need, when you're trying

to navigate stuff with your kids.

We're the only place that never sends a bill.

So how satanic is that? That the place that never sends

the bill is the place that's accused of all they ever care

about is money. Every single place you go

charges and when you get done, you go.

Those are really good chicken fingers.

You never go. All McDonald's cares about is

the money or Keynes cares about the money, or the restaurant or

the gas station. You go there, you get billed

non-stop. But the only place on planet

Earth that says we love you right where you are, but we love

you enough not to leave you there, the place that decides to

teach you biblical truths that lead to blessings is the place

that gets acute. I was in a mood that day.

And so when this is, listen to me, this is not just for our

church. I'm saying this on behalf of

every pastor everywhere, every church, everywhere.

You need to stand in the gap when that lie gets spoken

because you're either going to feed it, allow it, or rebuke it

because Satan has a stronghold on our stranglehold on way too

many people. We talk about it because you are

going to stand before God and answer for how you stewarded His

blessings. We talk about it because I'm

going to stand before God and give an account to whether or

not I feared your approval or gods.

We talk about it because I'm going to stand before God and be

held accountable for whether I preach to you the whole counsel

of God's Word. When I preach on money, the

people who love to give love the series.

The people who don't give, don't, which might give you an

indication of how you feel about this series because you might be

going, oh, that makes sense. Let me give you some background.

When we preach on marriage here at our church, you know what I

get? I get people going, man.

Clayton, thanks so much. Marriage is in a tailspin.

You want to know why? Because marriage is hard.

Sometimes marriage just sucks and you're like, how do we going

to pull this thing off? Not Jennifer and Ice, because

Jennifer's perfect. Let me she's here this service

if you want to hear the truth. Second service and Thursday

nights. But she's here and our marriage

is our marriage is. I love you.

I just want to take this moment. God bless you.

And I'm sorry. I'm already I'm and it's my

fault. OK, so all right, Hey, OK.

The reason why we talk about it is people lean in is because 80

or 50% of marriages don't make it past the eight-year mark.

When we preach on porn, 60% of the of you by statistically 60%

of you have consumed it in the last year.

And I'll have ladies come up to me like thank you so much for

taking a strong stance. I'm worried about my husband,

I'm worried about my son and all that stuff.

And you know when we say, hey, you, you know, you shouldn't

watch other people have sex. You should, you know, have sex

with the other people that God designed you to have sex with.

People are like man, that's thank you.

Thank you so much for that. Watch this 50% of marriages when

I preach on IT, people are like super thankful porn 60% of

people. But when I preach on tithing.

Van Coe's statistics show that 95% of churchgoers don't tithe.

So in other words, our church has a bigger giving problem than

a porn problem. This is impacting your ability

to honor God. And this is a major issue in our

faith journey and our commitment to Jesus and His Kingdom.

So let me tell you where I am firmly planted, not just as a

pastor, but as a believer, as a part of this body.

When I say that God's way is the best way, I actually mean it.

I believe that God's way is the best way in every area of our

lives. I believe that God's way is the

best way when it comes to salvation, relationships,

forgiveness, pain, worry, anxiety, sex, rest, and yes,

even money. Let me walk you through why I

get there. One, I believe that the Bible

teaches it. Tithing is demonstrated before

the institution of the Old Covenant, established in the law

of the Old Covenant, reaffirmed in the teachings of Jesus.

I believe that the early church radically modeled generosity in

the book of Acts and it is the expected behavior of believers

in the remaining books of the New Testament #2 I believe that

my heart needs it. I need to break the curse of

greed, selfishness, and finding my identity in things instead of

Jesus. My heart needs to be directed

and committed to the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

As Jesus said, where my treasure is, my heart will be also #3 I

believe that my faith is strengthened by it.

I believe that nothing will grow your faith faster then trusting

God with your finances #4 I believe that God blesses it.

Proverbs chapter 3 verses 9 through 10 has this to say.

Proverbs 3:9–10

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all

your crops. Then your barns will be filled

to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine #5

I believe that love requires it. John chapter 3 verse 16 says For

John 3:16

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that

whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal

life. For God so loved the world that

he gave. In light of a blood stained

cross. How can I do anything less?

God loved and so God gave. How can I say that I love God,

love the church, and not give? How can I say that I want to

make this region the hardest place on planet earth to get the

hell from and not be on the frontline financially?

I know that Satan might be telling you that you are not

ready to trust God with your finances, but the truth is, I

believe that some of you, if not many of you, are.

That's why every single week at our church, we have a moment in

our service where we give people an opportunity to start trusting

God financially and partnering in the advancement of the

Kingdom. The more people partner, the

more we can accomplish. The elders determine the vision

of our church, but you determine the speed at which that vision

is accomplished. They are the steering wheel, but

we get the opportunity to be the gas pedal.

That's why as a church we do in your corner moments like camp

scholarships for education, weekend year and given because

we want to give people a chance to take their first steps of

generosity. Did you know that one of the

gifts that God has placed in certain people in Romans chapter

Romans 12 · chapter mention

12 after you read through the 1st 2 verses, which is where

everybody wants to get their tattoo.

If you kept reading, you can go home and check this out.

It says that God gave some people the gift of generosity.

So they want to go beyond the obedience of the tithe, and they

want to do other things, sacrificial things, for the

advancement of the Kingdom of God.

And as a church, we want to come alongside those people and give

them a chance to express that gift.

I remember one time getting an e-mail about a pastor in India

whose church had been burned down by Hindu extremists.

And so he was going to have to kind of pivot the way he

operated. And he was going to start

walking up into the jungle multiple days, One Direction, to

teach people about Jesus. And then he'd walk back multiple

days through the jungle to go back to his family.

And I just sent an e-mail back that said, can he get there by

motorcycle? The answer came back Yeah, well

how much is a motorcycle? And the number came back and

Jennifer and I, we made a commitment a long time ago that

in addition to our tithe that we were going to put a percentage

of our income into an account that was our generosity account.

So that way we could be planned to want to do stuff.

Have you ever been in that spot where you want to do something

and then you're like where we don't have it?

We want to be in a spot where we already had money.

We were pre deciding to put money away.

So that way when a need comes up, we could instantaneously

respond. Well, the the price of the bike

came back for more than what I had in my the account.

So I called another guy in our church who I know has the gift

of generosity and I said, look, man, here's the story.

Do you want the front wheel or the back wheel?

We got to get this thing done. Here's what I love about it.

So while I am he lives in India. So while I'm sleeping, he is

preaching the gospel all over India.

And when he's sleeping, and some of you might be with him right

now, you're sleeping through this sermon.

And God bless you. We see you.

OK, when he's sleeping, I'm preaching.

And I'm never going to meet this guy, and I'm not going to hear

any of the wind stories. Don't need to, because where my

treasure is, there my heart will be also.

And when I get to heaven, the treasure that will be laid up

for me and the guy who partnered with me is we will get to hear

all the stories and the ripple effect of that act of generosity

in the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

I know that some of you believe Satan when he lies to you and he

says you are not ready to trust God with your finances.

But the truth is I believe that some of you, if not many of you

are. That's one of the reasons we

started an endowment here at our church, because I personally

wanted to leave money to support this work and this mission long

after I'm gone. I I know that there's others of

you who you may want to do the very same thing.

I have a generosity goal that I want to give away a certain

amount of money in my lifetime, and I realized that I'm not on

pace to hit that. But I have a life insurance

policy and I eat a lot of fast food.

So if I play my cards right and Jennifer doesn't spend it all,

I'm going to be able to hit my generosity goal when I go to be

with Jesus for cardiac arrest. You heard it here first.

Looks OK. We have an A-fib on standby.

Just get him through the next service, all right?

Anyhow, did I ever tell you about the time I tried to lose

weight and I ate nothing but Bratwurst because I thought that

would. Now I'll tell you that story

another time. You'll put the weight on quick,

OK. Anyhow, so there was a group of

us that we're like, you know what?

Let's start an endowment. And let me tell you why.

Because when I say I want to make this place the hardest

place on planet earth to get the hell from, I actually stinking

mean it. And I want to make sure that

long after I'm gone, there are funds available to reach your

kids and your grandkids and your grandkids kids.

And I want to make sure that there's money deployed all the

way until the return of Jesus Christ.

There are others of you who may want to find other ways to, in

addition to tithing to expand the Kingdom of God.

And that's why I'm so thankful for our partnership with the

Solomon Foundation. The Solomon Foundation comes

alongside churches and helps them get the funding that they

need to take their next steps while leaving a great return to

their investors. In fact, Jennifer and I, we have

our retirement account with the Solomon Foundation and

presently, people in our church, people who look just like me and

you have over $17 million on deposit with the Solomon

Foundation, which means we earn a great interest by having our

money on deposit there. And then they're able to turn

around and loan it out to help churches take their next step as

their churches continue to grow. In fact, this weekend, I'm

pleased to welcome Josh Means, who is the CEO of the Solomon

Foundation. Would you guys please welcome

him? Come on up, my man, Talk to us

about the Solomon Foundation. First of all, did you know that

I coach a high school basketball team?

Well, all you care about is money.

That's all I know. No, I.

Don't I feel like I need to go cancel my booster dinner?

That's right. So we didn't plan that, by the

way, I just came up with that while I was sitting there.

So anyways, hey, before I get started talking about the

Solomon Foundation, do you guys know that you were part of

something special? There's something cool going on

here that I'm not sure that you recognize.

I get to travel all across the country and speak in churches,

and you guys are insanely unique.

And I just want to speak in you just a little bit.

Let me just give you a little bit of wisdom.

You guys have huge momentum. And there's this guy named John

Maxwell. Has anyone ever heard of John

before? I heard John one time tell me he

said, Josh, you've got momentum. You can sleep when you're dead,

man. Just keep going, keep finding

people for Jesus, right? That's what it's all about.

The other thing that you have is you have this guy right here,

and he is insanely special too. So don't take him for granted

because there's nobody else like him.

I don't mean that in a funny way, but man, he is awesome.

Who? Needs no last name, There's only

one I know. So, hey, so let me tell you a

little bit about the Solomon Foundation and then I'm going to

be back behind our booth with Ryan Stiles, our regional VP for

this part of the country. Come find me afterwards.

I'd love to talk with you and just hear more about your

journey and maybe how we can partner together to keep this

thing going. But what we are is we are a

church extension fund and we operate a lot like a bank or

credit union. So you can put, you have a

savings account, ACDA generosity fund, you can keep those funds

with us. And a lot of times we're going

to pay you about a percent or two higher than the bank.

And then every dime you keep on deposit with us, we lend out to

a church. And so you can know that your

money is doing good. You can know that your money is

going to help fund the church somewhere in North America.

And because you fund your account, there are going to be

people all across the country that get to come to know Jesus.

And so I'm going to tell you a quick story.

We have a really good product called the Anytime Access

Account. It's just like a savings

account. You can see the graphic.

We think it's the highest paying savings account in the country.

So when you put your money there, it helps fund churches,

right? I want to tell one quick story.

So there's a, there's a church in South Carolina and we got a

call and they said, hey, will you come meet with us?

We didn't know him. We've never heard about him.

We flew down there. He drove us out to this property

on his truck, put his bed down and rolled out these plans and

said I have these plans to build a 30,000 square foot church, but

either I can't get approved or they're only build me 18,000

square feet. This was a Church of about 400

people and we said no, we will not build you a Church of 18,000

square feet or 20,000 square feet or 25,000 square feet.

We'll build you a Church of 45,000 square feet because

that's what your king did. That's what your that's what

your community needs. That's what we need for you to

find Jesus. Today, three years later, that

Church of 400 is now running 3000 and has baptized over 1000

people. Come on.

So if you're saying that's what I want my savings account to be

a part of, that's where I want my treasure to be, that's where

I want to be a part of. We would love to partner with

you. We'll be out there after service

and would love to talk. So thanks so much, man.

Appreciate you brother. So let me give some context to

this. There is a move that is

happening all across the country.

Our church is not just growing. There are churches that are

going by leaps and bounds everywhere.

God is stirring something in America and right now there are

over $300 million worth of loan requests for churches to be able

to take their next step. And you get an opportunity to

join with Jennifer and I and people just like you all across

this country to go. It's still your money.

You're just putting it somewhere where the where the proceeds are

being used to help churches take their next step.

Now, what we're going to do right now in this service is

we're going to do something that might make some of you a little

uncomfortable. But listen, that is not the

intent. Well, I'm going to have the

volunteers go ahead and come forward.

And as we've been going through this series, there have been

some of you who are going, you know what, I'm ready to go on

this journey of being obedient to God with your tithe and with

your finances. You're ready to take the next

step. And I simply want an opportunity

to cheer you on as you begin your journey.

And what these are, is these are commitment cards.

But let me be clear, this is not a commitment to us.

This is a commitment between you and God.

This isn't a financial pledge to the crossing.

There's no amount tied to this. But what I want you to do is I

want you to look at that card. I want you to write your name

clearly. I want you to put the right

information on it so we can read it.

And here's why. Because we want to celebrate you

and we want to pray for you and we want to honor you.

And so there's four things at the very top.

Hey, you know what? I'm going to start tithing.

Awesome. Check that box.

I'm going to keep tithing. I'm going to keep doing what

I've been doing. I'm going to start giving above

the tithe. I'm going to start my generosity

journey. I'm going to keep giving above

the tithe and I'm going to keep going on that journey.

And then the other one is you might hear, I've heard about the

endowment and go, you know what, I would like some more

information about it. That's the only box that if you

check, somebody on our team is going to reach out to you.

But those first of all, nobody is reaching out to you.

We're not going to call you and go, hey, you haven't.

We're not doing any of that. Here's what we are going to do.

We are going to pray over those stacks of cards and in 90 days,

I'm going to send you a word of encouragement.

I'm going to have each of our campuses and their staff, when

they gather together every week, pray over you and the commitment

that you're making to God. And I want you to sign it.

The reason why I want you to sign it is we sign all the

things that are important to us. We sign our marriage

certificate, We sign for our house, we sign for our vehicles.

I want you to sign your commitment to God.

Like I said, some of you might be going.

You know what, this isn't me right now.

I get it, there's lots of you at our church who are in that spot,

and I'm not trying to make you feel uncomfortable.

I just don't want my feelings towards you to interfere with

giving people an opportunity to go on this generosity journey

and be able to celebrate their decision.

You want to be asking yourself, why do we do this?

Let me tell you the answer. For Jennifer and I, there's this

powerful passage of scripture in Second Corinthians Chapter 9,

2 Corinthians 9:6–13

verses 6 through 13. And while you're filling out

your commitment card, I just want to read this.

Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap

sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap

generously. Each of you should give what you

have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly.

You're under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God

is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, at all

times, having all that you need will abound.

In every good work as it is written, you have freely

scattered their gifts to the poor.

Their righteousness endures forever.

And now he who supplies seed to the sower and bred for food will

also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge

the harvest of your righteousness.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous

on every occasion and through US.

Your generosity will result in Thanksgiving to God.

This service that you perform is not only the supplying the needs

of the Lord's people, but is also overflowing in many

expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which

you have proved yourself, others will praise God for the

obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of

Christ and for your generosity and sharing with them and with

everyone else. Jennifer and I give because we

believe that God uses it to change people and to rewrite

stories. I know that Satan might be

telling you that you are not ready to trust God with your

finances, but the truth is, I believe some of you, if not many

of you are at this time. I'm going to have the people

come forward and start collecting those cards.

You can fold it up. We're not going to look at the

names and if you're not going on this journey, totally get it.

So glad you're here. Can't wait for you to come back

next week. But for those of you who are

getting ready to go on it, we're going to be encouraging you,

praying for you, and supporting you on that journey.

I want to tell you 2 stories. There's a guy in our church who

looks a lot like Santa Claus and I love when he comes up to me to

talk about giving. He calls it fertilizer.

He says if you leave it all piled up in one place, it

doesn't do a bit of good, but if you spread it around, it raises

a mighty harvest. But one of my favorite

generosity stories is an unlikely one.

It actually shows up in all four of the gospels.

This occurs at the beginning of the final week of Jesus life,

which those of you who've been in church for a while is called

Holy Week. And I actually want to read to

you from Luke's account, Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead going up to

Jerusalem. As he approached Bethpage and

Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of

his disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and

as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there.

It's actually a donkey. I figured I could work donkeys

into two sermons which no one has ever ridden.

Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you why are you

untying it, say the Lord needs it.

Those who were sent, who went ahead and found it just as he

had told them, as they were untying the cult, its owner

asked them why are you untying the cult?

They replied the Lord needs it. They brought it to Jesus, threw

their cloaks on the cult, and put Jesus on it.

As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

Those of you who've been in church a while, you know the

rest of the story. Jesus hops on this donkey, and

as he starts to ride down the hill into Jerusalem, the people

of the city come out in droves. They're waving palm branches and

putting them on the ground, taking their clothes off and

putting them on the ground. And the donkey is walking not on

the dirt, but on their clothes. And they start shouting Hosanna.

Hosanna. Blessed is the King, who comes

in the name of the Lord. The Gospel of Matthew points out

that what is happening in this moment is a fulfillment of what

was written by the prophet Zechariah 500 years earlier.

Can I unpack the story for a second?

Did Jesus need that guy's donkeys?

No, the Bible tells us that everything that has been made

was made through Jesus. Jesus could have just said

donkey. I mean he's that bad to the bum.

He could have been like 2 donkeys.

I want the pre Anheuser Busch donkeys.

I think he just had a team of them stood on top of them.

He didn't need it, but he invited somebody into what he

was doing. Can you imagine being the

donkeys? You're just tied up.

Somebody you don't know comes up and unties you.

Where are we going? I don't know.

Then they get close. The Bible says that all creation

glorifies God. So there's Mama donkey and baby

donkey. Oh, my goodness.

Baby donkey. Yes, Mama.

Donkey. Do you have any idea who that

is? Oh, yeah, Mom, I know who that

is. That's the Creator.

That's God's Son. All things have been made, have

been made through him and by him, and are sustained by him.

Oh, yeah. Oh, no.

Oh, no, Baby Donkey. He's about to get on you now.

Baby donkey, listen up. You have never been ridden

before. And don't you dare screw this

up, baby donkey. Oh my goodness, Mama donkey.

I'm getting to carry the son of God.

What about the owner? Let's just say that he's married

to an assertive woman. Honey, Yeah.

Remember how you were talking about all those donkeys?

We should need to get two more donkeys and you saved up and I

said we didn't need them, but you got them anyway.

Yeah. Where are they?

They're not here. Where are they?

Not completely sure. What do you mean?

Some guys took them? Took our donkeys?

Yeah, why? I'm not sure.

What do you mean? They just said the Lord needs

them. The Lord is riding your donkeys.

They haven't even been ridden. Well babe, you better go find

your donkeys. Baby, I found him.

Yeah. Baby, you're a good Jewish girl.

Do you know what it says in the prophet Zechariah?

The prophecy that would one day be fulfilled?

Yeah, I know about the prophecy that he will come riding on a

donkey. Yeah, the prophecy we've been

clinging to as a nation for 500 years.

Yeah, I know about it. What does it have to do with our

donkeys? It was our donkey, the one that

you didn't tell me to get, but I got anyway.

Which means God's on my side, not on your side.

And on behalf of God, you were wrong.

Can you imagine being written into the story of God's

prophecies, being invited in to join God and what He was doing?

Seeing things that God had ordained long before come to

pass through your obedience to your step of faith?

Generosity is where we get written into the story of what

God is doing. I know that some of you have

been convinced by Satan that you are not ready to trust God with

your finances, but the truth is, I believe some of you, if not

many of you are. We're moving to a time, a

decision. If you're here today and you've

never started an intimate personal relationship with Jesus

Christ, the most important thing you can do today is give Jesus

you. And hear me, you don't need to

wait. You don't need to get things

figured out. You don't need to address

things, work on things. Because if you could work on

things, fix things, adjust things, and make things better,

God wouldn't have sent Jesus to die on your behalf.

If you could fix you, Jesus would not have to had to go to

the cross. But we can't fix us, but Jesus

can change us. God decided in His heart to give

you Jesus while you were still draped and wrapped in your sin.

And Jesus went to the cross with the joy set before him.

It was His joy to redeem you and repurpose you and bring you back

to God. Jesus poured Himself out so that

you and I could be cleansed and made holy and right in the eyes

of God and because of God's extravagant gift on our behalf.

Those of us who are Christians, we can't get over him.

That's why we sing, that's why we show up, that's why we talk

about it, because we can't get over what God has done on our

behalf through Jesus. And you might be going, but

Clayton, there's no way that God could use me.

Listen, that is the story of this church and every church

ever since the creation of the church by Jesus himself, that

God has taken messed up soil and raised a mighty harvest.

Don't ever doubt what God can do when He fully gets a hold of

you. But God doesn't take you, He

receives you because you have to give yourself to Him.

And today you can do that in just a few moments.

There's going to be people around you who are going to

stand and sing, and some of them are going to come to the steps

and pray, but there's going to be some of you who are going,

you know what? Today's the day where I need to

start talking and asking the questions about how to have an

intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

And I'm going to encourage you, while everybody else is doing

those things for you to walk right over there underneath that

screen next to the baptistry and talk to somebody about how to

begin the relationship. That will change absolutely

everything. To the rest of you in the room,

to those of you who are Christians, may we become a

blessing to our God, to our church, to our community, to the

lost, and to the mission of this church.

May God raise out of us a mighty army of generous people who are

willing to forego our things for the sake of the Kingdom and the

life change of our friends, that we would leverage our personal

treasure to lay up treasure in heaven so that other people can

be found in Him. There's some of you.

You're a part of the financial warriors here at this church.

I'm encourage you. Would you spend some time at the

steps praying for people who are getting ready to start this

journey because you know what that journey could mean for

them? I also want to encourage all of

you to take some time and just spend some time on your knees,

maybe at the steps praying over the people that you're going to

invite to church next week and believing that God will use this

sermon series to change the destinies of thousands.

Would you guys stand with me? Heavenly Father, use this moment

right here to help many of us make a decision that's long

overdue. God, there's a step of faith in

front of every single one of us. And God, you know what that step

is for every person. I can hear my voice.

So God, make it clear to us and then give us the courage and the

strength to live it out. And am I praying?

Amen.