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The Dorito Gospel | Clayton Hentzel

Crossing Church with Clayton Hentzel

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  1. Man, it is good to be with each and every single one of you.

  2. I'm so glad you guys are hanging out with us today and I just

  3. want to say this, I hope you know, God loves you, this church

  4. loves you, and I love you in a big Happy Father's Day to all

  5. you fellas out there. I know that there's an awful lot

  6. of grills and blackstone's, steaks and burgers and back rubs

  7. happening today. So I'm glad you made your time

  8. to come to get some church on. I also want to just thank you so

  9. much for all the encouraging emails and texts that I've been.

  10. Over this sermon series. This sermon series kind of

  11. caught me by surprise too. You know, preaching through a

  12. book of the Bible is one thing preaching through a book of the

  13. Bible, that's in the Old Testament is another thing.

  14. Preaching through the Book of Ecclesiastes, is another thing

  15. altogether, but I shouldn't be surprised.

  16. The Bible tells us that all scripture is god-breathed, and

  17. it's useful and that the word of God is living and active.

  18. And so I shouldn't be surprised that it's taking up residence in

  19. our lives and then it's doing a mighty work.

  20. I want to tell you a couple things.

  21. We got two more weeks of this sermon series this week and next

  22. week. And then we're going to start a

  23. 3-week sermon series. The first week we're going to

  24. talk about heaven the second week, we're going to talk about

  25. hell. And the third week, we're going

  26. to talk about the Judgment. Here's why this is important.

  27. I feel like it'll be a good opportunity for us to kind of

  28. just recalibrate for us to understand.

  29. And not only what the full impact of what Jesus did on our

  30. behalf that will stir our affections towards him and the

  31. sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But it's also going to help us

  32. to really To Think Through how we want to spend our lives in

  33. light of the impact that they can have for the sake of

  34. Eternity. And then after that, if you're

  35. the kind of person who prays for people, I would just encourage

  36. you guys. If you, if you're up for it to

  37. just pray for Jerry and I, we're going to be starting a sermon

  38. series. Excuse me, starting a sermon

  39. series. It's going to be 12 weeks long.

  40. It's probably I believe it's going to be the most important,

  41. sermon series. We're going to do all year.

  42. And but in order for to pull off this sermon series in a way that

  43. is, Useful and palatable. I'm going to be spending a lot

  44. of time in content creation over the next month and then we'll be

  45. debuting it early. So that way you guys can be a

  46. part of it, but I really believe that God could use this sermon

  47. series to bring about big time. Change, not just in your life,

  48. but in the life of the people that you care about your friends

  49. and family and specifically the change I'm talking about is

  50. healing and hope and it's feel a compulsion to go through that

  51. sermons. Is I was nervous about it, but I

  52. feel like I've worked my way through it.

  53. And so, if you just want to be praying over the next month, I

  54. won't be taking some extended time and study.

  55. And hopefully when we get back together for that series, you'll

  56. be like I'm glad we prayed for him because this would have been

  57. a disaster. Okay.

  58. That being said, what I want to do today is I want to jump into

  59. Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and Ecclesiastes chapter 6.

    Ecclesiastes 5 chapter mention Ecclesiastes 6 chapter mention

  60. If I were to put these two chapters of scripture into two

  61. words, they would be worship and wealth worship.

  62. And wealth will start off Ecclesiastes chapter 5 1 through

    Ecclesiastes 5 chapter mention

  63. 7, guard your steps. When you go to the house of God,

  64. go near to listen, rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools,

  65. who do not know that they do wrong.

  66. Do not be quick with your mouth. Do not be Hasty in your heart to

  67. utter anything before God, God is in heaven, and you are on

  68. earth. So let your Words Be Few, a

  69. dream comes when there are many cares.

  70. And many words, Mark the speech of a fool.

  71. When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it.

  72. He has no pleasure in fools fulfill your vow.

  73. It is better not to make a vow then to make one and not Fulfill

  74. it do not let your mouth lead you into sin and do not protest

  75. to the temple messenger. My Vow was a mistake.

  76. Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of

  77. your hands? Much dreaming and many words are

  78. meaningless. Therefore fear God.

  79. Now, kind of a complicated text to let me, you know, if you go

  80. to the grocery store, they put the Oreos at the bottom.

  81. I'm going to do as much as I can to just put the cookies on the

  82. bottom shelf, for everybody this weekend.

  83. So here's a couple things out of this text that.

  84. I like to easy takeaways. When you gather together

  85. worship, when you gather together with people to worship

  86. God be careful guard. Your steps means pay attention

  87. to your lifestyle. Take a good look and evaluate

  88. your lifestyle and take responsibility for the areas of

  89. your life that are in Disobedience to God.

  90. He says, listen is more listening, is more important

  91. than the sacrifice of fools. He's saying, don't fake the

  92. funk. Don't show up for church, trying

  93. to act all spiritual and seem like you've got it all together

  94. listening to God. Implies living in obedience to

  95. God. It's hearing What God Says,

  96. reading What God Says and then doing what God's word says.

  97. He says when you don't, you're offering a sacrifice.

  98. Fools what that means is you could show up for church and you

  99. could sing the loudest in your row, raise your hand, the

  100. highest in your section, pray, the longest at the steps, but if

  101. you're not living in obedience to God, you're offering a

  102. sacrifice of fools. He would much rather you instead

  103. of offering a sacrifice of Fools and pretending to be incredibly

  104. spiritual he'd much, rather you be real and obedient than

  105. disobedient and fake. He doesn't want you to offer a

  106. sacrifice of Fools and he says fools, don't even realize what

  107. they're doing. They're too busy trying to be

  108. spiritual than to do the spiritual work of obedience and

  109. then he says, be careful with the promises that you make to

  110. God. Quick show of hands.

  111. How many of you have ever made a promise to God?

  112. Oh yeah. Me too.

  113. I'm not going to make you do this.

  114. But if I were the kind of guy who were to ask you and how many

  115. of you didn't keep it, I'm guessing I'm guessing there'd be

  116. some hands up. Right.

  117. He says don't do that. It's better for you.

  118. Not to make a commitment to God, then to make a commitment to God

  119. and not keep it. For some of us, the we we get

  120. excited, we see something. We have this stirring in, our

  121. heart, makes total sense, and we're going to start making

  122. moves. But if you make a commitment to

  123. God, you need to keep it. Don't just say meaningless

  124. things. And you guys know this, because

  125. in your own relationships, what does it do to your Earthly

  126. relationships when you make a commitment to somebody and you

  127. don't keep it Right and your marriage, you made a commitment

  128. to them. What happens when you don't?

  129. When it comes to your relationship.

  130. God with you does this mean that God doesn't have grace?

  131. And mercy, of course, he has grace and mercy.

  132. He's just saying he would rather you just be honest.

  133. Then try to pretend like you're completely sold out and

  134. committed. When you're not, then Solomon

  135. turns his attention to the accumulation and The Emptiness

  136. of wealth. Now, it's my family hates on me.

  137. They call it, fads I call it Seasons.

  138. Okay. There are certain Seasons that I

  139. go through, like, during the winter season.

  140. My go-to snack is oftentimes, graham crackers and icing and

  141. all man, I don't know if we just grew up super poor or what, but

  142. like I that's like I talked about that and people like, what

  143. like when you put them in the freezer on a paper plate, you

  144. pull them out. Anyhow, I have Trip.

  145. I have road trip food. How many you guys have?

  146. Like a go to road trip snack. Yeah, mine is the trolley sour

  147. gummy worms. Yeah.

  148. Put them in my lip like Copenhagen or something, and I

  149. just go until all, I just do it so I don't know where I picked

  150. that up from my mom's family is from Missouri's.

  151. That might explain some of it and Mountain Dew and if you

  152. drink enough Mountain Dew and eat enough gummy worms, you get

  153. heartburn, which keeps you awake because you can't fall asleep.

  154. Top five all-time favorite. Snacks is peanut M&Ms. How many

  155. of you would put? Peanut M&Ms and the top.

  156. Oh yeah. Praise God.

  157. For those and if you go to Sam's buying in bulk, you can get sick

  158. now. My favorite article are my

  159. favorite article. My favorite, my favorite

  160. clothing piece to eat. I got to be honest with you,

  161. it's Gotta Be, You know, my favorite sports snack, like if

  162. I'm watching football, is spicy spicy Doritos.

  163. With and this place is in Quincy.

  164. How cool is this with the Red Cactus medium salsa?

  165. If you know you know and if you don't know when you get done

  166. with church you know where to go.

  167. Okay. It is so stinking good.

  168. Did you know that Doritos have been scientifically engineered

  169. to leave you feeling empty? You never get full on a bag on a

  170. well. How many of you've accidentally

  171. in a bag of Doritos? Ha, ha ha.

  172. Now, you know? Yeah, he's signing.

  173. No, let me, let me walk you through this.

  174. They have a powerful Savory flavor known as Umami.

  175. Say you Mommy, that's a good word.

  176. You want to keep that one? Like, that'll be my word for the

  177. day. Mommy, I mean Savory, it means

  178. Savory as well as. So the Savory flavor known as

  179. you mommy as well as what food scientist.

  180. Stephen, we literally calls long Hang Time flavors which

  181. stimulate memories Which is probably why, when I get ready

  182. to watch a football game, I automatically go.

  183. I need some Doritos, the flavors are balanced so carefully that

  184. no one flavor overpowers, any of the other flavors, because when

  185. your body gets an overload of a particular flavor, it starts to

  186. feel full, but it fits perfectly balanced.

  187. Where one doesn't overpower the other.

  188. You can just keep eating. Then the two primary acids in

  189. the Dorito chip is designed to turn your saliva, glands into

  190. waterfalls to wash the Dorito down.

  191. Gets even further than to maximize the pleasure of the

  192. calories coming from the Dorito, half of the calories, come from

  193. fat, which is what allows you to take a bite and get a good

  194. crunch. And then if you notice that the

  195. Dorito almost dissolves or melts in your mouth, Yeah, some of you

  196. are like I love this church because I love to read us, but

  197. here's the deal. When the chip vanishes in your

  198. mouth, it makes your brain think that the calories have

  199. disappeared as well. So you can just keep eating.

  200. It's the same science behind cotton candy.

  201. The flight are the colors of the Dorito are the three colors that

  202. consumers are the most attracted to And then they grind them.

  203. So, finally that after it you take a bite and it starts to

  204. dissolve. It turns into a powder that

  205. fills every crevice and crack in your mouth, helping dentist to

  206. get their third homes across the country, right?

  207. Okay. And it leaves you defenseless

  208. And you end up taking another bite.

  209. Then you find yourself eating a full family size bag of spicy,

  210. nacho Doritos, and a couple jars of salsa and it's halftime.

  211. Doritos are designed to leave you feeling empty.

  212. And so is wealth Ecclesiastes 5839.

  213. If you see the poor oppressed in the district and Justice and

  214. rights denied do not be surprised at such things.

  215. For one official is I buy a Higher One and over them?

  216. Both are others higher. Still, the increase from the

  217. land is taken by all the king himself profits from the fields.

  218. He's saying in, this Fallen World, don't be surprised when

  219. greed remains unchecked. Everyone is going to try and get

  220. into everybody else's pocket. He keeps saying remember the

  221. phrase Under the Sun that everything under the sun is

  222. meaningless. It's all lower story and people

  223. who are only aware of the lower story and only operate and only

  224. follow the lower story are going to be lacking in morals and in

  225. Mercy He says don't be surprised and if you're going to be an

  226. upper story person living in a lower Storey World, be careful

  227. who you marry, who you date, who you do business with, because

  228. the upper story values, and the lower Storey values compete with

  229. one another, they're at war with one another.

  230. They're not compatible with one another.

  231. All of us, see the Brokenness in the systems around us and until

  232. you, and I aim our lives at the upper story, it's only going to

  233. get worse here and the lower Storey. 5 verse 10.

  234. Whoever loves money, never has enough, whoever loves wealth is,

  235. never satisfied with their income.

  236. This too is meaningless and one sentence, he doubles down twice.

  237. He says, loving money and loving wealth will not satisfy it will

  238. leave you. Feeling empty, the more we have

  239. the more we want. You, probably heard another

  240. Pastor say this, every Pastor I've ever heard talks about

  241. this, because it's true and they always make this clarification.

  242. Money's not the problem. It's not money is not good or

  243. bad, it can be used for good and it can be used for bad money's.

  244. Not the problem. It's our affection for it.

  245. Our worship of it are sacrifices for our addiction to it that

  246. caused the problem. Money is a tool to be used, not

  247. a God to be worshipped. Please ask he's 511 as Goods

  248. increase. So do those who consume them and

  249. what benefit are they to the owners except to Feast their

  250. eyes on them? The more we have the more we end

  251. up spending how many of you remember being in your 20s and

  252. you're going if I only made X my life would be so much better and

  253. then in your 30s, you found yourself making X and you

  254. thought to yourself, fine. Made why my life would be so

  255. much better and then you found yourself in your 40s.

  256. Making why? And you thought, if only I made

  257. easy, then my life would be so much better than you.

  258. Find yourself making Z. and you're going, we are spending

  259. all we're making no matter how much we make.

  260. And it leaves you feeling empty. He says the more you have the

  261. more people show up, wanting what you have, the nicer, the

  262. house, the better, the security system, the message actually

  263. says if you go home and read this verse in your message trans

  264. I wouldn't call it translation but in the message it says the

  265. more loot you get the more looters show up that there's

  266. always people trying to put their hands in your pocket.

  267. You know what he says the very best thing that you can do with

  268. your stuff Look at it, use it. Enjoy it.

  269. And point it to Heaven. That's what you do with your

  270. stuff. Don't try to find your purpose,

  271. your meaning, or significance in them, because it's not there.

  272. The car you have the house, you have the property, the RV.

  273. Don't make you cool. Or friendly.

  274. Or attractive. If you.

  275. Get a really nice car and you're a mean person.

  276. Guess what? You're just a mean person with a

  277. nice car cars, don't make you nice.

  278. If you're an ugly person, You get a really nice house.

  279. You're just an ugly person with a house.

  280. It doesn't change who you are. Only Jesus can change people.

  281. Stuff. Just magnifies people.

  282. Jesus is the one who changes people and if you think by

  283. getting the nice stuff that you'll end up getting people to

  284. hang out with you, you'll be attracting the wrong people to

  285. you, because they'll be just as shallow as you are.

  286. Because if they weren't your friend before the car, if they

  287. weren't your friend before the house.

  288. What happens when you lose the car, what happens when you lose

  289. the house? Because if you had to have it to

  290. get them, You'll lose it when you don't.

  291. Buy your stuff. Enjoy it.

  292. Take pleasure in it but don't worship it.

  293. Leverage it. Please ask these 512.

  294. The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much,

  295. but as for the rich, their abundance permits them, no

  296. sleep, a laborer sleeps, good at night, they go in the work.

  297. They punch in. They punch out, they go home,

  298. hang out with their family, not stressed just doing their thing.

  299. But a wealthy person is always worried and wondering about how

  300. do I handle my finances and what do I do with all of my wealth?

  301. They're worried about, do I have enough.

  302. Put aside the markets, the interest rates The geopolitical

  303. factors. I knew a veterinarian, not my

  304. dad who was in you shared with me.

  305. Once he was in surgery on an animal, he had seen him BC on

  306. and it had the ticker that showed the stock market.

  307. He had played pretty heavily in the commodity market, and while

  308. he was in surgery, he was losing tens of thousands of dollars.

  309. By the minute, he couldn't get out of the surgery, to hedge the

  310. market to make a call. And by the time the surgery was

  311. over he'd lost hundreds. I read a story about John D

  312. Rockefeller, his life was almost ruined by money at age, 53.

  313. He was the world's only billionaire earning about a

  314. million dollars a week, but he was a sick man who lived on milk

  315. and crackers, and couldn't sleep because he was always worried

  316. about his wealth, but then he started giving his money away

  317. and his health changed dramatically and he lived to

  318. celebrate his 98th, birthday. Saying, leverage your wealth,

  319. don't worship it Ecclesiastes 513.

  320. I've seen a grievous Evil Under the Sun, wealth hoarded to the

  321. harm of its owners. Now, he's not saying don't save,

  322. have an emergency fund, have a retirement account, try and

  323. leave something behind for your kids.

  324. He's not saying there's anything wrong with that.

  325. He's saying there are people who are always saving for a rainy

  326. day, but they never enjoy the sunshine.

  327. When you may know people like that, it's never enough and

  328. they're hoarding distance them from relationship and distance

  329. them from making memories. And their hoarding comes from

  330. one of two places, either greed, or a lack of faith in God's

  331. provision. It's nothing, he says,

  332. Ecclesiastes chapter 4 or 4 verse 14 for wealth, lost

    Ecclesiastes 4 chapter mention

  333. through some Misfortune. So that when they have children,

  334. there is nothing left for them to inherit.

  335. Everyone comes naked from their mother's womb and as everyone

  336. comes so they depart they take nothing from their toil that

  337. they can carry in their hands. This too is a grievous evil as

  338. everyone comes. So they depart and what do they

  339. gain? Since they toil for the wind all

  340. their days. They eat and darkness with great

  341. frustration Affliction and anger.

  342. The more you have, the more you can lose.

  343. You can have it one moment and you can lose it.

  344. The next there are no U-Hauls in heaven.

  345. You cannot take it with, you wealth can be an absolute Vapor,

  346. you can try and hold on to it, but Slip through your fingers

  347. and when it's gone, then what? If that was your God, if that

  348. was what you worshipped, when it disappears.

  349. Now, you have nothing and their lives are lived in anguish, and

  350. affliction, and anger. You struggle to keep it from

  351. slipping, through your fingers, only to find yourself, depressed

  352. and struggling mentally, and emotionally with the loss of

  353. your wealth, because your God died, your God disappeared.

  354. That's why Jesus says, do not store Treasures on Earth where

  355. moth and rust destroy and where thieves Break in and steal.

  356. Instead start for yourself, Treasures in Heaven, where there

  357. is no math, there is no rust and there are no Thieves for where

  358. your treasure. Is there your heart will be

  359. also, you can't live in the lower story.

  360. And find everything you need here.

  361. There's no meaning there's no significance.

  362. And if you leave your treasure on Earth, it will be destroyed.

  363. And if your treasure is here on Earth, that means your heart is

  364. here on Earth too. Jesus saying take what you have

  365. and aim it out of the lower story and in to the upper Story.

  366. Look at what it says in verse 18.

  367. This is what I have observed to be good.

  368. That it is appropriate for a person to eat to drink and find

  369. satisfaction in their toilsome labor Under the Sun during the

  370. few days of life, God has given them for this is there why

  371. moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions and the

  372. ability to enjoy Them to accept their lot and be happy in their

  373. toil. This is a gift of God, they

  374. seldom reflect on the days of their life because God keeps

  375. them occupied with gladness of heart.

  376. This what he's saying? Get a job.

  377. Earn a wage and use it to care for those around.

  378. You enjoy its benefits and Advance the kingdom of God, take

  379. the blessings that God has given you take the blessings that are

  380. coming to you and use it to bless those around you.

  381. And those who will come after you here Solomon is summarizing.

  382. He's saying don't spend your life trying to acquire more.

  383. Don't spend your life trying to hoard more.

  384. Don't just spend your life enjoy.

  385. Saying what you've been given these people don't spend their

  386. time thinking about how to how short life is or about all the

  387. challenges of the past are all the challenges ahead.

  388. Instead, they just enjoy, what God has given them.

  389. They're just thankful than look what happens here.

  390. This is verse or chapter 6, I have seen another Evil Under the

  391. Sun and it weighs heavily on mankind.

  392. God gives some people wealth possessions and honor so that

  393. they lack nothing, their hearts desire.

  394. But God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them.

  395. And strangers enjoy them. Instead, this is meaningless a

  396. grievous evil. Who's Solomon talking about

  397. here? I think he's talking about

  398. himself. Here's a man who had absolutely

  399. everything he could ever need and he found no satisfaction in

  400. it. He called it meaningless.

  401. Remember Solomon is the wealthiest man who ever lived

  402. and he's saying it's meaningless, we know this to be

  403. true, right? It's when you go to a developing

  404. country and you find nothing but smiles and joy and then you come

  405. back here to your life in comparative Paradise.

  406. There's not a lot of joy. And not a lot of smiles.

  407. Maybe Solomon wasn't just talking about himself.

  408. Maybe there are some of us who are wealthy and we can't even

  409. enjoy it. He's saying wealth does not

  410. equal satisfaction enjoyment, purpose, meaning or

  411. significance. Here's what I need you to hear

  412. me. Say this is the tough part of

  413. the message. This sermon is for us.

  414. I know, I know, I know, I know. You are hoping it was for

  415. somebody else. I sure wish.

  416. So where is sewing? So today by the way, is there a

  417. special text hotline that you know what Clayton's talking

  418. about beforehand? So you don't have to come for

  419. the ones, you don't want. Because so, and shows you the

  420. definitely been here. Because we are always thinking

  421. that the wealthy people are other people.

  422. Right. I mean, some of us, we like to

  423. show off our cars and we like to show off our houses and we like

  424. to have our second homes and we like to have our RVs and we like

  425. to have our recreational land and we like to have our cool

  426. hobbies. And we like to take pictures on

  427. really nice vacations and we like to be wealthy all the rest

  428. of the time. Except for, when God calls us

  429. wealthy, then we're like a boy, Not us.

  430. So and so should a really hurt this?

  431. Because for us wealth is always comparative as long as you and I

  432. can identify somebody who has more than us, we are able to

  433. rationalize that we are not the wealthy people.

  434. There are some of you today as you were getting ready for

  435. church, you walked into a house just for clothes called a closet

  436. and it was full and you came out and you said this out loud.

  437. I have nothing to do. Yeah.

  438. There's some of you got out, you're going to leave church

  439. today and you're going to pull into your house.

  440. And before you pull into your house, you're going to press a

  441. button and your car house door is going to go up and you're

  442. going to park your car and its own house.

  443. And we're not the wealthy ones. Remember the Bible was written

  444. for all people for all time. For all geographic regions we

  445. are the 1 percenters. And if a gathering of one

  446. percenters can get together, and come to the conclusion that we

  447. are, not the wealthy ones because of the zero point, one

  448. percenters. Satan is so crafty that he can

  449. get people that look just like you and me together and convince

  450. us that we are not wealthy. He's coming to us from the

  451. future with all the money you could ever want.

  452. And he's saying It's meaningless Under the Sun, and if he sang,

  453. It's meaningless. Then what are you?

  454. And I supposed to do with our wealth.

  455. I'll tell you. Don't keep it under the sun,

  456. send it to heaven. When we take our wealth and we

  457. send it towards heaven, we get to enjoy it twice.

  458. We get to enjoy it here and we get to enjoy it again in heaven.

  459. There's a guy here on our staff at our Church's name is Bill.

  460. He worked at Western Illinois for many years as the chaplain,

  461. and then eventually he came on staff here at our church.

  462. As we were trying to expand the crossing inside.

  463. He's been working and keeping track of all the people who are

  464. getting baptized and this past weekend at Western Illinois,

  465. correctional center. They passed 1000 baptisms and

  466. that amazing. And if you are the kind of

  467. person who invests your Wealth Beyond the Sun, and into

  468. eternity, you were a participant in over 600 of those baptisms

  469. through your giving. Now, You're just going to get to

  470. see the video here on Earth that says, this past weekend, or this

  471. past month. We had six baptisms.

  472. And all of our campuses will probably be awesome to be super

  473. cool. But, but but but but You'll get

  474. to enjoy it again. Because those prisoners are

  475. going to get transferred to other prisons and they're going

  476. to start Bible studies in there. Other prison, they may never get

  477. out and you meet him here, but they'll be there.

  478. Now, the cool part is is, it'll take all of eternity for you to

  479. hear all of the stories about how God took just that one area

  480. of obedience and that one step of faith and used it in amazing

  481. and miraculous ways. There is a couple who's a part

  482. of our church and their contagiously generous like, you

  483. can't talk Tomb, without them trying to do something there.

  484. You always have to walk away and they ran into a couple who were

  485. who had just moved here. And they had all they had was a

  486. suitcase of clothes and so they help them.

  487. Make sure they got a washer and dryer, and then they took them

  488. Furniture shopping and then they were like, you know what, we're

  489. going to take them out for a really nice meal.

  490. So that way they can have, you know, like a nice date night.

  491. And then they knew of this young, these young girls who

  492. went through a really hard time and so they just made the

  493. commitment that they're going to pay for their Camp.

  494. Every All year. And so, for the last four years,

  495. they been paying for them to go to camp.

  496. But then the girls moved and so then they decided okay, well, I

  497. guess we'll just drive to wherever they live now and we'll

  498. pick him up and we'll buy him all the clothes they need and

  499. all the sleeping bags they need, and they will drive them back up

  500. to camp and we'll drop them off. And you know what, when they're

  501. at Camp we're going to at least come and spend one night with

  502. them and eat a meal with them. And so for four years, This

  503. Woman's been doing that and she was doing it two weeks ago, a

  504. high school camp. For four years.

  505. And on Friday night, she sat down with her and had whatever

  506. that we were eating on that Friday night, with all the kids

  507. and then on Sunday, she gets the text message.

  508. From that girl that says, will you baptize me?

  509. And so on Sundays, she hopped back in her car and she drove

  510. all the way back up to our camp and she got to see it here.

  511. But she's going to get to see it again in heaven.

  512. As that girl finds a Christian man and marries him and raises

  513. are housed in a way that honors, the Lord and leads Bible

  514. studies, its gets to enjoy it there.

  515. You get to enjoy it twice. It's when you pay for kids

  516. scholarship at camp and you get an opportunity to see them

  517. except Jesus here, and then having no clue how God is going

  518. to use them to mentor and disciple people in the future,

  519. and they can trace their relationship to God.

  520. When you get to heaven to back to you and your faithfulness and

  521. your obedience, and you'll get to meet all the people who can

  522. trace their faith back to that person.

  523. We honor God, when we bless a young couple with a date night

  524. to focus on strengthening their marriage.

  525. We honor God, when we enjoy. Wealth and we use it to help

  526. people have a getaway at our second home or borrow the RV for

  527. a weekend. We enjoy it when We Gather

  528. people together, we pay for the meal and we just go around the

  529. table saying, let's celebrate the goodness of.

  530. Our God hear me. We can either worship our wealth

  531. or we can worship with it. and the decision makes all the

  532. difference not just in the lower story, but in the upper story,

  533. And I hope you'll make the right one.

  534. We're moving to a time of decision.

  535. There are let me just there's some people in this room and

  536. Over time. Your wealth is kind of got a

  537. hold on you and if you try to hold on to your wealth, that's

  538. exactly what will happen is. It will it will hold on to you.

  539. And then when you want to let go, it'll be incredibly hard.

  540. And when the music stops on your life, you don't want to be

  541. holding on to your wealth. You want to be holding on to

  542. Jesus. That's where you want to be.

  543. You want to hold on to him because he's the only one who

  544. will never let you down. And there's some of you in here

  545. today, you're going man, you know, it's a good thing.

  546. I'm a rich person, because how much does it cost to start an

  547. intimate? Personal relationship with

  548. Jesus? I got bad news for you.

  549. You can't afford it. Now, you can, there's some,

  550. you're like, well that's kind of depressing because I'm poor.

  551. What about me? Well, the good news is, it

  552. doesn't matter how much you have because it's free. it's the free

  553. gift of God's grace, that he gave to us to you and to me, And

  554. every single week here at the Crossing, we talked about,

  555. people starting an intimate personal relationship with Jesus

  556. Christ. And I need you to hear me say

  557. this, you can have it as well. You can start that relationship.

  558. And I need you to know something everything I've ever wanted in

  559. this life, and everything I've ever had has eventually let me

  560. down. When I was about 10 years old,

  561. maybe a little bit younger, I wanted a huffy 10-speed bike, I

  562. don't want to brag. But I mean I mean I wanted it

  563. and I hope you guys won't find me to wealthy, but I mean I

  564. bought one and I bought it because I did a bunch of chores

  565. around my house for $1 bills. And when I'd saved up $110, we

  566. went to Jackson Fort Madison Iowa and I walked in there, like

  567. a stripper with a bunch of singles, and I bought that Huffy

  568. And all that thing did was get flat tires.

  569. I wanted a four-wheeler and I eventually bought one because

  570. all the cool kids when I was growing up at four-wheelers and

  571. I didn't, I had a horse and four wheelers are faster than horses

  572. and four wheelers don't poop. And I wanted one and that

  573. thing's been rolled and beat up so many times that when you just

  574. look at it you're like is everything okay Clayton like

  575. your marriage? All right, it just looks like

  576. nobody loves it. I wanted the Chevy Avalanche

  577. came out and I thought that was, like, the coolest thing ever,

  578. and I wanted one, and I'll be honest with you guys.

  579. I bought it. I bought one.

  580. And nobody ever was like, when I was at a stop sign, roll your

  581. window down. Then I'll roll it down.

  582. Can we be friends? Because you look so cool in that

  583. car never happened. It just got horrible, gas

  584. mileage. I wanted a hot tub.

  585. And I bought one didn't fit in it.

  586. I got it. Most of the water came out.

  587. I couldn't get Jennifer to get in it with me ever because there

  588. was no room. So, I had to get rid of it.

  589. Listen. All of this is gonna sound dumb.

  590. I just listed off all the things that 21 year old.

  591. Clayton fought was like a home run, like you're killing it,

  592. man. Those are all the things.

  593. Like, if I was the guy who had an avalanche and a hot tub and a

  594. four-wheeler look out, And they all.

  595. Let me down. Hot tub, wasn't big enough.

  596. Huffy got flat tires. The Avalanche got bad gas

  597. mileage. There's only one thing that I've

  598. ever laid my hands on that has never ever let me down.

  599. There's only one thing that I've ever laid my hands on that just

  600. keeps getting better and sweeter that every time I worship him,

  601. he gets better. Every time I read my Bible, he

  602. gets better. Every time I pray, he gets

  603. better. There is only one thing that has

  604. never, let me down. In fact, there's only one thing

  605. that is not only not ever. Let me down, but continually

  606. holds me. Up and that is Jesus Christ and

  607. he will never fail. He will never let you down his

  608. stock. Price is always up and to the

  609. right and until you have a hold on him.

  610. You'll never know. but those of you who know, You know.

  611. So, you can go back to worshipping your stuff.

  612. But your stuff will let you down.

  613. But you can worship him with your stuff. there's some of you

  614. in here today, The first thing you got to do is actually step

  615. into that intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

  616. That's where it's got to be. If your father in here, I'm

  617. going to just tell you. If you've never start a

  618. relationship with Jesus Christ, one of the best things you can

  619. give your family is an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus

  620. Christ. The knowledge of where you will

  621. spend eternity. The stats are in that this

  622. family are this world needs Godly father's Godly husbands

  623. and where you go, your family will follow.

  624. And if you've never started that, there's gonna be somebody

  625. over there by the bastard who did Love a chance to talk to you

  626. about it. Hear me your wealth can buy you

  627. sex but not a soul mate. It can buy you a house, not a

  628. home. It could buy you clothes but not

  629. character. It can buy you popularity but

  630. not purpose. It can buy you a vehicle but not

  631. values. It can buy you a boat but not

  632. blessings. It's Father's Day weekend.

  633. It can buy you a smoker but not salvation.

  634. It can buy you a grill, but not Grace and can buy you Farmland,

  635. but not fulfillment. There's only one thing that can

  636. do that, and that's Jesus. And if you don't have him, you

  637. don't have what it takes. To those of you who already have

  638. a relationship with Jesus Christ, I'm just going to

  639. encourage you to just get down on your knees and say God thank

  640. you for everything you've done. Thank you for all the blessings

  641. that you've given me and God help me to be a great Steward of

  642. my wealth. The last thing, I'm encourage

  643. you guys to do, if you want, is we're doing a kind of a refit

  644. here at 48th Street for broadcast purposes, for the

  645. other location. So we kind of changed up the

  646. stage a bit, we're in the middle of getting new stairs and these

  647. stairs, the ones we have for this weekend and they don't have

  648. carpet on them yet. And if you guys have been around

  649. here a long time, it's kind of like a thing we do here until we

  650. covered up with carpet, we covered up with prayers and

  651. there have been prayers that have been prayed and answered on

  652. the steps of the past and these steps, we don't know how long

  653. they're going to be here. But there's going to be people

  654. who are going to come up and they're going to put their

  655. elbows. These steps and they're going to

  656. put their wrists on these steps and they're going to put their

  657. heads on these steps and they're going to cry out to God and I

  658. would love the foundation of their prayers to be your

  659. prayers. And if you'd be willing to pray

  660. for them or write down a prayer for them, we would there

  661. Sharpies up here and we'd love for you guys to do that.

  662. Would you stand with me? God, do a mighty work right now.

  663. In this group of people bring about a change in every life got

  664. another All kinds of confusion and frustration at times, but we

  665. know that your power can supersede it all.

  666. And so, I'm asking you to do that.

  667. Work in us right now. Give us Clarity on how we're

  668. supposed to respond, and then give us the courage to walk it

  669. out and your name, I pray. Amen.