A Testimony of Hope | Pastor Chris Kouba with special guest Todd Stewart

2 Corinthians chapter 9, I want to begin in verse 6.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

It says the point is this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

The word sow is a farming word.

It's basically, it's in the context here, is meaning to give.

But it says then if you sow bountifully, you will reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for what?

For God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times you may abound in every good work.

God, if I give this, am I going to have enough?

He says here, if you give this, you're going to have more than enough.

That's what he's saying.

Look at the next verse.

As it is written, he has distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

What he's saying is this if you give a little, God's going to give even more.

Verse 11, you will be enriched in every way for all your generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

You may be seated.

What I want to do this morning, instead of walking through this passage verse by verse, like we typically would do, what I want to do is instead give you a living, breathing, real-life testimony of what this looks like in somebody's life who is a friend to our church.

Would you give a good strong United City welcome to Todd Stewart as he makes his way up on stage?

Todd, it is great to have you here.

Todd just released a brand new book.

We're going to talk about this here in just a little bit that is called Delivering Hope, Leading a Business That Builds the Kingdom of God.

And this is basically his biography.

It's basically his story of his life and how God has begun to work in his life, not only bringing him into faith, but also how God allowed business, something that he was good at and had some ups and downs.

We'll talk about that in a little bit.

But also something, this business thing and his passion for the Lord to be not something that competes with each other, but instead something that actually builds and works together.

I know you're going to be encouraged by this in a big, big way.

Todd, tell us a little bit about your story, where are you from, uh, and tell us a little bit about why this church is a part of your big story that you have and coming to faith.

Yeah, so thank you, Pastor Chris.

This is a full circle moment for me in my life.

I'm so thankful to be able to share this with you guys today.

When you look back on your life, now that I'm in my 50s, I you're certain times where you're just like, wow, only God could do that.

So as I came into town today, I now live down in Houston, I drove into old Umble because I went to Umble High School.

Coach Quillan was actually my coach.

He passed away yesterday.

And so we want to honor him.

And at the same time, so encouraged at all that God is doing and has done in my life.

So I drove past the old campus of this church.

And the reason why I wanted to do that was because I literally wanted to think about what it was like as I look back as a 25-year-old guy walking into the church for the very first time.

So this church has been my church home for all those years.

And so there's so many great memories, so many uh faith moments that took place with me being a part of this church.

So to be able to come and share today is incredible.

But I'll share a little bit of my story.

I wasn't brought up in the church.

Um, like I said, I went to Umble High School and uh my dad was not a believer.

Uh praise God.

He later came to faith after me.

So thankful for that.

He was actually a member here as well.

So God is faithful there even.

Um, but early on, my grandfather called me into the hospital room as a 17-year-old kid.

And I was just a senior in high school doing things that most 17-year-old seniors do, not doing church things.

And he called me in there, and my grandfather, my mother's father, was a very faithful man.

And I always recognized that he was just different.

He just walked differently, held himself differently.

He was just a man of character and faith.

And I was the oldest grandchild by eight years, and so you can imagine the weight of that moment.

I walk into that hospital room.

I later found out from my mom, who's a nurse who had been caring for him, that he hadn't spoken in two weeks.

He looks at me in the eyes as his oldest grandchild and he says, Todd, you need Jesus in your life.

Man, the way I describe it today is I didn't understand the treasure that my grandfather laid at my feet that day.

So this moment is a full circle back to that seed that was planted even there that I didn't even take up right then.

And then I went back to school, kind of got back into doing the same kind of things I was before.

Went off to college up at Stephen F.

Austin, met my wife Nikki, got married.

Um my dad actually got laid off in his early 50s.

And so that's another story that we'll talk about.

But as I came home, I had a guy that I had played football with in Umble, who this family had kind of pursued me in the area of faith.

And so they would invite me over for youth stuff.

Maybe some of y'all were invited for your first youth time, or maybe you were invited by young adults to come to this church.

Maybe you were older and you were invited.

But I got that invite to come to church over and over, and I needed it because I was kind of hard-headed.

I remember one time even saying, asking my buddy, hey, are you still doing that Jesus thing?

Now think about this.

I'm on stage at a church talking about Jesus, and I was the guy that said, Are you still doing that Jesus thing?

So God can do it all.

He's able to save those who are far from him.

And praise God, he pursued me through that relationship.

And so I was invited actually early in my marriage to a men's Bible study by that guy that I had played football with at Umble.

And I, for something, some odd reason, I just remembered my grandfather.

I remembered all the things, and I just said, you know what, I'm gonna go.

And I think maybe I just was trying to figure out marriage early on that it was like way harder than what I thought.

So maybe I'll get some tips and it'll help me with Nikki.

Um Nikki, that's a whole nother funny story.

She asked me if I was a Christian on my first on our first date, and I told her I was Methodist.

That's not the right answer.

Nothing against the Methodists.

But I didn't know anything about what it meant to follow Jesus.

And anyway, I followed through on that invite and I opened the Bible for the first time.

I had that aunt that always gave me a Bible every year.

This is my mother's sister for Christmas.

How many of you have that aunt by the way?

Just raise your hand.

And she always prayed for me, and it was like almost a joke at times to me, but oh God, how I'm thankful for those prayers that helped to usher me into a relationship with Jesus.

So I came to this church when it was an old umble, and I walked in and I opened that Bible and I studied the Bible for the first time in my life, and God just began to speak to me.

Like legitimately, the associate pastor I've told you was preaching, and he preached a message that said, God's gonna give you opportunities in your life, and you have to seize the moment.

Now, mind you, my head starts playing like, oh my gosh.

I'm like, what's happening to me?

Why am I tearing up right now?

My wife's sitting next to me at the time, she knows what's happening because she grew up in the church.

The Holy Spirit was drawing me in that moment, and all I knew was I gotta say yes.

Like my grandpa told me I needed Jesus.

This guy's been pursuing me for years.

This Bible thing is actually real.

I felt like the pastor was talking to me every week.

And so I got up out of my chair and I walked forward that day, and literally, Pastor Chris, my whole life was radically changed.

Everything after that in my life became God-centered and Jesus focused.

That's good.

And it's been the greatest joy of my life.

But man, I was a hard head, but God pursued, and so maybe you're a hard head today.

God's pursuing you right now, just like he pursued me.

It's good.

Now, the book is not just about your faith, the book is also about your business.

Tell us about Gulf Winds, tell us how that came about and how you got into it.

Yeah, so it's super important because these two avenues are running side by side, and they're probably doing that for you.

Maybe you're a young person, you love Jesus, but you're in school.

Maybe you're uh maybe you're in the workforce, you love Jesus, but you're trying to figure out how my faith can work in that.

So imagine me, my dad gets laid off in his early 50s.

He was literally my age.

I have more appreciation and thanksgiving for him now than I ever had because I look back.

He literally took his 401k money, which wasn't a lot of money, that he had saved over an entire career.

He'd never lost his job, and he cashed it in to start this little business.

So we were going to be in the warehousing and trucking business.

We hauled ocean containers out of the port of Houston and also the railroads.

We had warehouse facilities, but really what we had was one customer that was my mom's first cousin.

So we had big dreams, but we didn't have a lot of business.

And I just was cheap labor.

I literally made$250 right out of college and I went to work sweeping the floor, driving the forklift.

I had done that work in high school, so I can do labor, and that's what I did.

And uh yeah, so I get saved two years into the business.

So that's the other story.

So now I'm an only child, I'm president in training with this little company that's growing.

I'm trying to figure out what God wants me to do in life because I just love the Lord.

I want to tell everybody about the Lord because the pastor at the time at this church was Pastor Bruce Frank, and he led the whole church through what was called faith evangelism training.

So, this was how do you share your faith?

We literally, as a church, volunteered to knock on doors throughout Kingwood, Atascaseda, and Umbled.

I was brand new in my faith.

I'm still learning the baby stories of the Bible as I'm reading it to my son, Lane, who happens to be sitting over here.

He's now a resident at this church.

I'm reading him this, and I'm learning stories.

My wife's kind of giggling that I don't know any of this stuff, but that's how baby I was.

And this is what God can do.

You see, I got now I've written a book.

I'm not even an author.

I guess I am now, but my dad was the reader.

And so just amazing.

These two paths are running, and and I'm trying to figure out God, what do you want in my life?

Because if you ever love Jesus, you know it takes it takes over everything.

And so I've got this business thing we're doing, but I'm chasing the Lord, and all I want to do is tell people about Jesus because I actually learned how to share my faith.

And I remember that pastor taking me to the first place to share my faith, and he said, Okay, that door is yours.

And I remember like, gulp.

First of all, I didn't want to really be on the pastor's team because who wants to be on the pastor's team?

Nobody wants to be on the pastor's team.

It's totally fine.

I mean, nothing against Pastor Chris, but we don't get invited to parties anymore.

Yeah.

So that's just how it works.

And so literally, it was the best thing that could have happened to me, though.

He loved me well.

I learned my few little Bible verses, John 3.16.

And man, I just went up to that door and I actually fought through the fear.

God, God was with me.

And man, people started coming to faith when I would tell them my story.

People were telling me, Todd, you have the gift of evangelism.

I'm thinking, I'm just trying to learn the most basic stories in the Bible right now.

And so that's running alongside the business that's growing at the time.

And I'm struggling with, do I have a call to be a pastor?

Or how does God want to use this in our business?

And so I just began to, out of the overflow, share like one lady that became actually my assistant for 20 plus years.

I was interviewing her, she was like 18 at the time, and I'm like 25, so like we didn't have anything figured out.

And I said, What do you understand it takes for a person to go to heaven in the interview?

And so I get to lead her to faith, and I just was like, This is what I want to do.

And all of a sudden, there was a shift in my spirit that made me realize I could be a pastor, but I could wear a business suit.

That's good.

In other words, God could use me in the marketplace maybe more than he could use me on a Sunday morning.

That's good.

And so that became my life.

And so for over 25 years, everything that I did, and it's written in that book, not everything, there's a lot of stories that aren't in there, but I began to just use that as a platform for ministry.

And in the process, God blessed the business, brought the right people.

I got to see many people come to faith, and it was one of the greatest joys of my life.

So good.

Todd, I think there's a lot of people that are out here that maybe know that okay, my job is to make money for whatever company, or my job is to do well in business.

On the other hand, they may have this desire to go and to live out their faith for the Lord.

You talk a lot about the risk that you took.

You took risk in business, you took risk, but I feel like that had to be one of the biggest risk, but it didn't feel like a risk to you.

And the way I know you, that's not the case.

What would you say to somebody out here that's maybe struggling through how they unite these things where I gotta make money, but also want to have kingdom impact?

Yeah, what do I do?

Well, I mean, at the end of the day, faith is risk.

I mean, it goes hand in hand.

And so for me, you know, we went through a lot, but there was there was a time where it was like, okay, are we gonna give towards kingdom causes if the company's not necessarily doing incredible?

And we continue to do that even through hard seasons.

Because at the end of the day, think about it.

I got to watch my dad get saved at 50, about 58 years old.

I mean, there's nothing God can't do.

He built that ship.

God laid my dad off so that we could start a company.

I'm not even saved unless we're there.

So I just began to believe that the one that owned the boat, like, that's the one we want to trust in the long run.

And he's the one that's gonna bring the right people and the right business.

And so, incredibly, like, God began to bring like great people to our organization because who doesn't want to be a part of something greater?

I didn't even realize at the time because it what it's kind of popular now for next generation to want purpose in their life.

I kind of come from the like you just go to work hard, you do this, but I understand that part of the benefit of walking with Jesus is that every day we do it as under the Lord.

So we have an ability uh to work for the Lord in everything that we do.

And what I found was even lost people actually benefit from that.

And they actually find joy in knowing that, hey, we're planting a church in Columbia, or we're building a water well overseas, or we're serving somewhere locally.

And so I think people actually want that purpose, they just don't know that it's Jesus.

And so we get to kind of connect those dots.

So I definitely tried to stay faithful through that.

Yeah, that's good.

Todd, I know your story, it wasn't always up and to the right.

Uh, a lot of times on the surface it looked like that, but you had some pretty tough times.

You go into that in the book, not only from a business standpoint, but you had some tough times personally.

Walk us through what it looks like to actually trust in God when you're walking through one of those seasons.

Yeah.

And sometimes you're doing it without anybody else knowing.

Yeah, so I think it's real, it's so important that we understand that when we walk with Christ, we're gonna have challenges.

I mean, it's just a matter, it's not popular to get up and proclaim that from the stage, but the reality is when you commit your life to Christ, now you're a target for the enemy.

Before you weren't a target because you're out there just kind of wasting it.

But now you're on fire for the Lord, you're sharing Christ, people's lives are being changed, hope is being delivered, people are being set free, chains are being broken.

The enemy doesn't like that.

And so you're going to face opposition, and I face my fair share.

I I write about it in the book, but I went through about a seven, seven to ten year period of a lot of ups and downs.

The first big thing that that happened was the business is rocking, we're doing incredible ministry.

Man, people are getting saved, we're building churches overseas, we got all this incredible stuff happening.

The company's growing, we became number one at what we do in our business in Houston.

Imagine that, even though we love Jesus.

At the same time, um my dad, who was incredibly generous, had gifted 50% of our business to a business partner when it wasn't worth anything.

Now they went he went through some different difficult life seasons and it became a sticking point.

So imagine we're at the we're at the peak of ministry.

People are benefiting, awesome things are going on, and all of a sudden now the top has a big fracture.

Now that put tons of pressure on me because I'm president in training, my mom and dad risked everything.

I've worked for this guy for 15 years.

The business is now worth a lot of money, and now he wants out, and because it's 50-50, he can actually force a sale, which would potentially mean I lose all of this, all the ministry, all the people, all the things we've been sewing into.

Can you imagine the pressure that I felt?

I literally, Nikki will tell you I was up at 3 a.m.

some nights just looking out the window, trying to pray, asking God, what's next?

Yeah.

And I had the pressure of my mom and dad because what what you don't know, and I write about it in the book, is my dad had just been diagnosed with cancer.

So now I've got my dad who had just been handed a paper that told him he might live seven years, which he didn't even make it that far.

The partner doesn't know he's got cancer.

I'm the next leader in charge.

I'm bearing that weight of my mom and dad.

Do I let the business go and let the ministry end?

Or do I do I what do I do?

And the only thing I could do is the best thing I could have done.

It's the best thing you could ever do, and that was pray.

It's good.

My dad and I locked arms.

We prayed through that season.

30 days before we had a big offer for the business, which I had already decided I'm gonna have to go through with it because I felt I had an obligation to take care of my mom and dad, and then I could figure it out afterwards.

So I had gotten to that point in my spirit, even though I knew that's not what God wanted and not what I wanted.

But that guy walked into my office 30 days before close and he said, I don't think we should do it.

I almost fell out of the back of my chair.

God had stopped what was impossible.

I worked for this guy so long I knew there was nothing that was going to stop him from getting to that money.

But that created a whole nother problem.

Now I still had to buy the guy out in order to continue the ministry.

So I literally had to borrow several million dollars over a period of time.

Our CPAs, everybody told me I was crazy, don't do it.

But I just believed that God was in it.

And so I did it, uh, and I and I wound up buying him out.

So that allowed us to continue the ministry, and we actually saw ministry go up, even though we were struggling financially, but the world didn't really even know that.

That was really being held by leadership behind the scenes.

I felt a lot of that personally, but crazy enough, our ministry was just rocking and rolling.

People were coming to faith, we were planting churches, and so you see this inverse relationship, right, between risk and faith and how God works.

It doesn't always look like we think it's going to.

My daughter went through a very difficult season during that time.

I write about that in the book that only God could overcome that.

Um, just one thing after another, our house flooded with Harvey.

I'm burying all of this at the same time.

Meanwhile, my dad did pass away with cancer.

I actually preached his funeral from this stage, not this one, because this is a new one after the flood, but literally uh things that people don't know.

So when you see me up here today and you're like, oh, this guy that wrote that book and this successful business, what I want you to see is I've got a successful God.

That's good.

I've got a God that stayed with me through those down seasons.

That's very good.

Very good.

Tom, let me let me interrupt here for a second.

Like, did you want to like take a break?

Like, did you want to like, okay, God, I'm not gonna give to you, God, I'm not gonna serve you, God, we're gonna back off on ministry.

Like, I feel like any of us hearing that would be like, we could understand that.

Yeah, but you talk about in the book how you didn't.

How was God faithful even in that?

Yeah, I mean, in hindsight, right, it would have the easy route would have been to just take the money and go.

But we chose the the road less traveled, and God honored that, and uh, he got us through that seven-year period.

And then, of course, uh, you know, I had a great team, and one of those guys, I don't even know if he's in here, Patrick Mayer was on our team.

Patrick actually is one of uh he came to faith at our business, uh wonderful friend, poured into that company for many years.

Uh but it's just powerful to watch what God did in that.

But then we thought, okay, 2019 is it.

This is gonna be the big year.

We've gotten through all the hardships, now we're heading up, right?

Then COVID hits.

I say, God.

Okay.

We got through this, we got through this, we got through this, we got through this.

Lord, and I'll I'll tell you guys a story.

I was ministering to a lady in this lobby a few years ago, and she said, Todd, I know, I know God works all things for good.

She said, But I'm ready for him to use somebody else.

That's how I felt, Pastor Chris.

God, I'm ready for God, I'm ready for you to use somebody else.

That's good.

But but we did it, we stayed faithful, our team stayed faithful, and literally I sat right out here in this parking lot one day, and actually, COVID became a boom for our company.

So, what happened was everybody needed trucks.

Guess who had trucks?

We had trucks.

I'm like, oh, and so all of a sudden we saw the business start to do this at a time where we thought everything was lost.

So what we Saw is the faithfulness of God through those down seasons, sowing, sewing, sewing, sowing, sowing.

We didn't even see it coming.

It was outside of our control.

And God caused world events that all of a sudden, boom, now we go up to the right.

And I sat in this parking lot and I said, okay, God, I was getting an update from our executive team.

And at that moment, I felt God releasing me from the business to actually sell the company.

And so I did sell the company in 2022, but I took a large portion of that and I put it into a foundation that now we get to do ministry outside the four walls of the business.

In my life, I never, I never thought I would sell the business.

I mean, it was personal.

It was obviously my dad and I.

The one person I was nervous about telling it to was my mom, as you would imagine, because she literally asked to hold$4,000 back so she had something.

And she even gave the last$4,000.

She was working as a nurse as my dad was trying to start the business.

I drove up to her place and I sat on the porch with her and I said, Mom, I think God wants me to sell the business because I was telling her the ministry that was happening.

I think this is a very unique opportunity in the world.

It's never going to happen again.

I just feel like God wants us to move this and do something different.

And she looked at me and she said, Todd, your dad and I are so proud.

So good.

And they knew all along.

Like my calling was Jesus.

I just happened to be in a business suit.

She just confirmed what I was stressing out about.

She already knew.

Like, Todd, we've been watching you for the last 25 years.

Your dad and I talked about the fact that you were going to do something else one day.

But what released me, and you guys need to hear this because maybe you're in a season that you need to be released from.

What released me was I realized God could do more with me in that next season than He was if I hung on to the past.

That's good.

You have to release something in order for God to then move in that next season.

So for me, that meant releasing something that I thought I would never release.

And I did, and God honored that, Pastor Chris, as you know, which has allowed me to continue to sow even more than I thought I could before.

Let me read it again.

The point is this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

I I think the main thing we want you to hear in this entire series, this is not about money.

This isn't a money thing.

Money happens to be what you need to do as a part of following with your heart.

But what Todd is describing is that he wasn't able to give as much money during a more difficult time, but he was able to stay faithful and what God has proven in that time, and then what God has proven even now, even more so, is that he can give you way more than what you think you gave.

And that's, I think, our heart and our desire for you in every way.

Todd, I know one of the things that shifted for you, you've always been a giver, but you you gave away your faith and you've given away money and you've given away time and influence, but you kind of shifted to where it became less about what you gave and more about multiplication.

Not just addition, but multiplication.

Talk us through that.

Where did that come from?

And what challenge would you give us here today about that?

Yeah, I would just say, look, God is a God of multiplication, and he wants to multiply in your in and through each of you.

And you might say, Todd, I can't multiply, but here's what I want you to know.

If you know Christ, then you have the hope of the gospel.

And so at least you can tell somebody about him.

You can pray for somebody.

It doesn't always cost money to multiply.

God multiplies joy, he multiplies prayer, he multiplies so many other things, generosity, a hug.

You name it, God can do it.

But when we understand, right, that God is a God of multiplication, we live differently.

And I try and live every day with the idea that God has built me not just for myself and my family, even my church, but how can we then, as a community of believers, which is God's church, that's United City, how do we now take what I'm most excited about right now for you guys is I feel like this church has been through the season of inward growth and now it's about to explode outward.

Like God wants to take each of you in this community, in our city, in the world, and to the nations.

That's what God does when he multiplies.

For me, that that worked itself out in a business.

Whatever you do, it doesn't matter.

That's God's calling on our life.

And so the greatest joy we could ever have is to be a sower in his kingdom.

He's the one that brings the growth.

Like, I'm not that smart, guys.

We built a company that was number one in this area mostly on people that didn't have college educations.

God can do abundantly more than we could ever hope or imagine.

I wear these socks, Pastor Chris.

You know that?

A friend of mine gave me these socks.

It says bringers.

It's a reminder that we are a bringer of the gospel.

They were given to me by a friend that reaches young people on social media with the gospel.

And every time I wear them, I'm reminded that we are sent people.

God has purposed each of us in this room to a place to bring the hope of the gospel wherever we go.

And so you, as a young person that's in school, as a wherever you work, that's where God wants you.

On your street, in your neighborhood.

And again, you can hear pastors tell you this all day long, but I'm telling you it to you, someone who's lived it.

I was that guy that walked into the church over there, like stumbled in that didn't know the most basic stories of the Bible.

Like I'm not that special.

God anointed through the through the Holy Spirit his work in my life, just because I was willing to walk in obedience and faithfulness.

I just tried to say yes, God.

I didn't want to teach.

I didn't want to go teach a life group.

I was walking with Billy Russell, who's the coach over at Porter, right after I got saved.

And Billy Russell saw something in me, and he's like, Todd, would you want to would you want to teach?

Uh help help me as a good mentor would do.

Would you like to help me teach a class?

Everything in me said, nope, no way, I'm not doing it.

My lips said yes.

I said, I was like, I don't know if that was the Holy Spirit.

I don't know, I've never spoken in tongues, so to speak, but but that yes literally led me to teaching life group to a lot of you, some of you in here, I see Heather right there.

For I can't tell you how many years in this church.

And we've had so many, we've had so many moments in those life groups of God meeting us in prayer in difficult seasons.

I never set out to be a life group.

I just said yes to Jesus, a life group leader.

And so I would encourage you, are you in a group?

You can lead, you just need the Holy Spirit.

Can you serve?

Can you talk to my son Lane, who's in their missions group?

Where do you need to go serve?

Locally, internationally, take that mission trip.

It's it's not rocket science.

Like God uses the least among us, honestly, to do the greatest things in the kingdom.

I'm living proof of that, guys.

That's good.

Like legitimately, I was scared to talk on stage.

When I went to college, I had a speech class.

This is in the book, I tell the story.

My upper lip started shaking.

Like, like, have you ever had a muscle spasm after you worked out?

I'm going, what is going on here?

And it's doing this.

And I'm like, I'm terrified of, I didn't know this.

I mean, I played sports, I did all that stuff, but I never had to get in front of people.

I didn't know it was like the number one fear over death.

And guess what God's called me to do in my life?

I'm always in front of people.

That's good.

I still get a little nervous, guys.

I still have a little bit of anxiety, but here's what I know: God is faithful.

And he's called us not to fear, and he's called us to walk in faith.

And I have a pastor friend of mine who's passed away.

He was a he was a quadruplegic.

I talk about him in the book.

And he would say, I don't want to, but God wants to.

He would say, I didn't, but God did.

And that's been my story.

Like, I don't want to.

God, nope, you're gonna do it.

Okay, God.

And it's like when you say yes, he he you know the saying that he doesn't equip the called, right?

No, no, he calls the equipped or the other way around.

Yeah.

Y'all know this thing.

See, I'm not I'm not professional, is what I'm trying to tell you.

But he equips the call.

That's good.

He doesn't call the equipped.

That's what I was trying to say.

That's good.

Which, what that means is you're gonna think you can't do it.

I'm not able.

I don't have this, I don't have that.

How many of us talk to ourselves that way?

But no, it's God working in and through.

We have the power of the Holy Spirit.

The one that raised Jesus from the dead moves through us.

That's good.

That's why that little company that started out with one customer that was my mom's first cousin wound up doing what it did.

It wasn't because Todd Stewart was something special.

He brought the right people in the right time, and then he brought about a global pandemic that benefited the company so that we could tell more people about Christ.

That's good.

It's good.

Todd, would you close us in prayer?

Would you just pray over our people here?

Yeah, Father God, thank you, Lord, for this full circle moment.

I just want to speak to whoever might be here in the audience today, and maybe they're feeling like I felt on that stage with my lips shaking all those years ago, or when I was first asked to teach, like, God, what can you do with me?

Like, like everything.

God can do everything with you.

Hear that.

God, would you work through your Holy Spirit to meet that person right where they are?

The first thing we gotta do is we gotta surrender our lives to Christ.

We gotta trust Him by faith.

He died on a cross that we might be forgiven of our sin and shame, and then three days later he overcame the grave.

And we've got to trust by faith in that death, burial, and resurrection.

But when we do, God, your word says you fill us with your spirit, and then you empower us to walk out a life of multiplication here and around the world.

And so I pray every individual here today would experience the anointing of the power of God in their life.

The Holy Spirit would move so powerfully in their spirit even now.

All the doubt, all the fears would fall away, God.

And you've called us to walk in faith, not in fear.

And so I thank you in advance for the work that you're already doing in the hearts of those who are here.

I thank you for the people who will come talk to a pastor after the service and say, I gotta get baptized.

I want to trust Christ.

Now's my time to walk in the Spirit of God in whatever I'm facing.

I'm gonna overcome this Job season of life because you're faithful.

God, we turn it over to you.

We give you all the glory and honor and praise, and we thank you, God, that we don't have to do it alone.

You gave us a helper and the Holy Spirit, you gave us a church home.

I thank you, Lord, that you want to use this place to reach all of Umbull, all of Houston, all of our state, all of our nation, even around the world, God.

This place is rumbling with the spirit right now.

I sense it, I feel it, and God, thank you that you took that young man at 25 that walked in there that had no idea what he was doing, and you've used me, God, to encourage others today.

Would you use every single person here today to do the same?

Would you equip them with what they need to walk it out in a way that brings glory to you and expands the kingdom, not only now, but for all of eternity.

We ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's give Todd a hand and thank him for his leadership today.

So grateful for him.

It is because of Todd's generosity that he wants to give you this book.

He wants it to multiply.

And so literally, he assigned copies of the book.

We've got a table out there in the lobby.

We encourage you to go by and to grab a copy of it.

We encourage you, it's free, given to you today.

Uh we want you to read it and we want you to use it, be inspired by it, and give it to somebody else.

Uh, that it would be something that could be multiplied.

Let me give you three quick takeaways from our time together with Todd today, okay?

Three quick takeaways.

Number one, take risks for God.

Take risks for God.

For 25 years, this man faithfully shared his faith and wasn't scared of what the backlash was going to be as a result to his company.

We got way too many people who are walking around scared to death of HR and not nearly scared enough about the holy God.

And what we need to have is a boldness.

Todd talks about it.

He talks about it in his book.

You talk about things that are important to you.

And so, what we want to have is Jesus to be so important to you that guess what?

You just talk about it.

You talk about it with those that you interact with, you talk about it with your clients, you talk about it with your coworkers, you allow yourself to be someone who freely and openly takes risks for God.

Second thing is this trust God in the ups and downs.

God is good when things are going good, and God is good when things are going bad.

And please hear me, your circumstances are a bad barometer of God's goodness.

But instead, if you will trust in a God who is faithful, what you will see is that God has a way of restoring the years the locusts have eaten, the scriptures say.

You may be walking through a horrible season right now.

And I would simply tell you this: you trust in God.

You may be flying high right now and things are going well.

The Bible says this, you better be careful because it is those exact times and you begin to start relying on yourself instead of the Lord.

So let me just encourage you, trust God in the ups and the downs.

Third thing is this: live a life of multiplication.

What does this look like?

If you lead a life group, you need to multiply your life group.

If you're somebody who serves, you need to multiply your service.

If you give, you need to multiply in your giving.

You need to live with a kingdom mindset that isn't just what do I need to do right now, this weekend, but how can I live in such a way that goes beyond me?

Folks, God wants to multiply your influence, and every single one of you has that influence.

How are you gonna steward it?

How are you gonna use it?

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes all across this room with me?

You may not be 25 years old, but some of you may have the exact same story that Todd had when he stumbled into that church.

Somebody invited you to a Bible study.

Somebody's invited you to a church service.

You may have even had that aunt who gave you a Bible every year, just like Todd did.

Somebody may have even spoken a word over you at some point that you've ignored for years.

But it's so that today you could do exactly what Todd did, and you can give your life to Jesus.

What he was told that day is something that's changed him forever.

Not only changed him, it changed people in his company and changed the entire trajectory of many ministries.

And it's this is that God has a purpose and a plan for your life.

All of us are sinners, all of us fall short of God's glory, but God knew that we couldn't do anything to get to him, so he sent his son Jesus to come to us.

He lived a perfect, sinless life.

He died a sacrificial death on a cross, he rose from the dead, and he invites you right now, just like he did Todd 26 years ago, to receive him as your Lord and Savior.

I need to give you a heads up.

If you pray the prayer I'm about to lead you in, nothing will be the same afterwards.

It doesn't mean that things are always gonna go up and to the right and things are gonna be great, but it does mean this: you're gonna have the presence of God in your life forever.

You're gonna have the promise of eternity in spending it with Him.

So I want to invite you to do something that'll change your life forever.

Pray these words, dear God, I want to know you.

I want a relationship with you.

I believe that you died on the cross for me.

I believe that you rose from the dead, and right now I receive you into my life.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We can't wait to see you next week for any of our services at 8 30, 10, 11 30, or Espignol at 1 o'clock.