Acts - Paul Part 1

Jesus, thank you so much.

Thank you for being uh our God, a God that we can call our own, a God that has has come for us.

Lord Jesus, we uh we just want to lift up everyone that's here this morning, everyone that needs you, that needs to experience your love in whatever way that is, and Holy Spirit, we ask that you would speak right to our hearts.

And even go beyond speaking, Holy Spirit, minister to our hearts.

Give us what we need.

If it's encouragement, give us that.

If it's a challenge, give us that.

If it's comfort, give us that.

And just bless Ken as he speaks, and we ask all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

All right, Ken Kington.

Well, I absolutely love Justin, and uh I gotta pile on a little bit because I've seen the volunteers here.

If you're not plugged in, let me give you one quick assurance about volunteering and then one um observation about it.

One, I remember growing up in church, and basically volunteering was where they sucker you in, and then they're like, oh god, you're here.

You're on your own until you burn out.

And you're just like, I have no more Cheerios or goldfish, and the kids are going crazy.

And it was it was a bad experience.

What I've seen here is the opposite end of that spectrum of going, hey, you know what?

Not only is it a cool necklace, but how cool is it that you can volunteer like once a month, twice a month, once every two months, and you can get on one of these teams.

Not only will you see that, hey, I get a cool necklace, but it makes a huge difference, these little pieces.

I love the the welcome team.

I look I look forward to it.

I literally get out of my car and I see them at the front doors, and as you come in, it's just like this this moving hug as you come in.

It's just, oh man, it's great to see you too.

Oh, I got another hug, you know, and just free hugs all the way in if you want.

And and uh everybody do this right here, real quick.

Everybody just do this right here.

Okay, you qualify as an usher.

Just uh we got two, two right over here.

You know, that's that's it.

That's your qualification, that's your ability that you have to have.

Just okay, right here.

Yeah, come on in right over here.

And uh, and you can have as many hugs as you want.

It's just it's incredible.

Um, just the opportunity to be there.

And the unseen part is that you're gonna start meeting some people that are on that team, whatever team you volunteer for.

And it's gonna get you a little bit deeper into being a part, and that is just one of the coolest experiences ever.

And you just develop these relationships.

So those are cool.

Um, this morning I want to encourage you to open the book of Acts.

We're in a series on Acts, so we're gonna open the book of Acts.

Whew, that was a tough one.

Um, you can look over to chapter nine, and I gotta tell you, I was a little bit uh very overwhelmed.

It's very rare that I'm overwhelmed with a topic.

And uh Justin was very kind to say, hey, we're gonna we're looking at Paul.

Paul, and we're gonna do it take two weeks.

I'm like, Paul wrote a majority in the New Testament, major, and two weeks.

Okay, I'll we'll make that happen.

And uh, and there's this mass of where we could go, but as I started reading and looking through this and started reading some of my favorite teachers on this, it became very clear to answer some questions.

Answer some questions that make it really where am I today?

And we're gonna end up with a major question that's gonna let us see clearly where we are and how we get closer to Jesus and what God wants us to have.

But there's some questions that kind of come in the process there.

I was reading Chuck Swindahl, who's one of my favorite teachers and writers, and he gave one of the most amazing illustrations I'd ever heard.

He says, for just a minute, before we dive in, he said, um, go back to World War II.

So kind of get there mentally for just a second.

World War II.

And you live in Austria.

You live in Austria and you are Jewish, and the German expansion is happening, and the uh tragedy that was the Holocaust is happening in full-blown uh splendor, and it is happening in Germany and spreading throughout Europe and through the world.

And he says, now imagine this: you fall asleep one night, and God appears to you in a dream, and he says, I want you to go to a city north in Austria.

And you're like, Oh Lord, what?

Okay, what?

I want you to go to City North, and it's north of here, and I want you to go to a house that you've never been to, owned by a man you've never met, and I want you to go into that house because there's someone there I want you, I want you to touch and lay hands on.

And his name is Adolf Hitler.

Imagine for a moment what you feel at that second.

That this is the perpetrator of the Holocaust.

This is the reason why we fled to Austria.

This is okay, Lord, um see, do you know who this guy is?

And God says, No, that I want you to go to a house you've never been to, to an owner you never met, to literally bless Adolf Hitler.

That's shocking.

Multiply that by about a hundred, and that is Ananias in chapter nine of Acts.

And that's what I want to just read this one passage of what's happening with him in chapter 9, and then we're gonna start asking some of these questions.

In chapter 9, verse 10, it says, In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias.

The Lord called to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Yes, Lord, he answered.

And the Lord told him, Go to a house in of Judas on straight street, and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.

In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.

Now, I don't think any of us would fault him for his statement next.

Um, Lord, Ananias answered, I've heard many reports about this man, and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, and he has come here with authority from the chief priest to arrest all who call on your name.

But the Lord said to Ananias, Go.

This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.

I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.

Then Ananias went to the house and entered it.

Placing his hands on Saul, he said, This is stunning when you think about it.

Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me to you, so you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Wow! The gravity of that is lost unless we dig a little deeper.

Who was Paul?

Who was Saul at this point?

Who was Saul?

Well, if we look earlier in the book of Acts, we'll see a name pop up a couple times, and I'm gonna mispronounce it, but Gamieli.

And he was, if I could put it this way, he was the one who mentored.

He was like the top teacher of all teachers in that time, the rabbi of rabbis, and he was the one who had basically trained the Sanhedrin.

What is the Sanhedrin?

If you can imagine our country right now, you take the Supreme Court and the Senate and you put them together, and they're the Supreme Court Senate.

That is the Sanhedrin.

They are the ones who make the rules, who take the law of God and say, we're gonna make sure the law of God is upheld no matter what.

The right direction, the right training.

So he is in that, in that Sanhedrin.

But then there were the disciples of Jesus.

These are the guys who actually knew Jesus.

They knew God in the flesh.

They knew Jesus and they saw him crucified, and they were totally, completely disbanded and dismayed, and then they saw Jesus raise from the dead.

You see a man who claims to be God and then proves to be God, and that kind of changes things.

And he started going, This is Jesus, and Jesus says, Go tell them about me.

I'm the fulfillment of all these laws, I'm the fulfillment of the Old Testament, and I have died, and this is why, and this is why it said this, and it's true.

And they couldn't get over it, and they started preaching.

Well, the Sanhedrin who did not believe this, they said, Hey, you you guys are heretics.

You're you're speaking blasphemy, and they're like, Yeah, we don't care because we've seen God and we've seen him raised from the dead, and they bring him in.

And Paul is sitting on the Sanhedrin when they bring in these disciples, and they said, You will quit doing this or we will kill you.

And Gamiel Eli stands up before the Sanhedrin and he says, Listen, we've had guys come before who stood up and said, Follow me, and we've killed them, and their followers disperse.

And it happened again, and their followers dispersed.

He says, If if these guys really are like those, Jesus is dead.

And they say he's been raised again, and there's evidence of that, but he's been killed, they'll disperse.

But if they don't, and they truly are of God, then we are fighting against God, and that's a battle we're not gonna win.

So just let them let them do and let what happens happens.

So they beat them.

They beat him, and Paul was in the sandhedron.

Devoted said, I don't understand what you're saying, old man.

I know I've studied under you, but I don't I don't know if I agree or not, but I vote.

Okay, we'll beat them and let them go.

And Paul was there.

He was there for that speech, and he voted, and he saw them beaten.

And then if we look in uh in Acts 5.41, we see what happens at the end of that because we're we're gonna start answering one of the questions we'll see in a second, because they beat them and they said the apostles left the Sanhedrin, and after being beaten and told, never speaking of this again, because they had they they rejoiced, because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name.

And we're gonna see that delineation, and we'll come back to that in just a minute, but that idea of we were beaten simply and only because we know Jesus, and we were worthy of that.

And we're gonna see this delineation in a minute, and then where else do we see him in chapter 7?

If you want to flip over there and follow along, we basically I love this one, Stephen.

Stephen was another one who had seen Jesus, and he's out preaching, going, Not only do I know the Old Testament, but listen, here's the Old Testament fulfilled in Jesus, and I've met Jesus, and you can know him through through his Holy Spirit, and you can literally experience the life you were meant to experience.

And again, the Sanhedrin said, Stop talking about this.

Who are you?

And they found some people that falsely accuse Stephen and say, He's blaspheming, and Stephen's like, no, no, no.

So they bring him before the Sanhedrin.

Again, Paul's sitting there, and Stephen starts giving a history lesson.

You can look through this entire chapter.

Stephen going, you know what?

Let me tell you what I do know.

And he starts with Abraham and then Moses, and he goes through the whole history, and we see the Old Testament crammed in this one spot.

And Stephen's giving them the history and the Sanhedrin, and Paul's going, okay, that's accurate.

All right, that's accurate, that's accurate.

But see, Stephen couldn't leave well enough alone.

And I love what he does next in chapter 7, verses 48 through 43.

He gives them this history lesson, and then he finishes it.

However, because they're saying you're gonna tear down the temple, and he says, However, the Most High does not live in a house made by men.

And then he quotes the prophets.

Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.

What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord?

Or where will my resting place be?

Has not my hand made all of these things?

And then he lets loose on the Sanhedrin.

You stiff necks and uncircumcised hearts and ears.

You've just like your fathers, you always resist the Holy Spirit.

Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute?

They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one.

And now you have betrayed and murdered him.

You have received the law and put it into effect through the angels, but have not obeyed it.

He's just sitting there going, you know what?

You studied it your whole life and you missed it.

And here's the question that we're gonna start asking and answering.

What side am I on?

Am I committed to the truth for the sake of the truth, or have I encountered Jesus and experienced him?

They had the truth and imposed it on others.

And there's it's very easy to sit back and go, oh man, I I hear that truth.

That's really good.

I know a friend of mine that needs to hear that.

But what God longs is for you and I to go, wait a minute, how does that apply to me?

God, what are you trying to tell me?

And the question I want you and I asked this morning is that simple question.

God, what about me?

What are you trying to share with me this morning?

Because at that point, they drugged Stephen out and they stoned him.

And if you look at this passage and you look where he has just made that and you slide on down and it says, and who held the cloaks of those who were stoning Stephen?

Saul.

He stood there.

Not only did he agree with it, he held the cloak so they could stone him.

And then he gets even more mad.

He's like, Who are these people that think they are better than us?

I have studied my whole life.

I know this law.

I know what's going on.

And you're telling me, he says, I can prove to you that Jesus was not God.

And he could through certain twists and turns.

He was so committed to learning about God that he missed encountering God.

And that's a tragedy.

But that motive, and that's really the second question that we got to get to, where is my motive?

And that's the question I want us to ask this morning.

What is my motive?

Let me bring it down to a simple level for a second to identify motive.

As our kids grew from children to bigger children, I'll not forget one morning we were laying in bed on a Saturday, and there was a smell, a burnt smell, that waved it upstairs.

And I'm like, that can't be good.

And I walked downstairs, and there was Kennedy kind of scraping something off of a plate out of the microwave.

She had put something in the microwave and turned it on, and it had burnt tremendously, and it was bad.

And I said, What are you doing?

And she goes, I'm making breakfast.

How do you get mad at that?

You're gonna let mom and dad sleep in and you're gonna take care of yourself?

No.

Do you think I went in there?

Well, you never do that again.

No, I said, honey, that's fantastic.

That's awesome.

What are you making?

Can I help you make it?

Can I show you how to use this?

Because I'm seeing the big picture that if I will take this time and not get upset and take the time to say, this is how you make it, then for the rest of my life I will have Saturday mornings to sleep.

I love this.

And it's like I see her heart.

Her heart was not to destroy something, her heart and her motive was right.

That was her motive.

And that is the differentiation here because I look, and as I was praying through this and preparing for it, I saw Paul, who was Saul at the time, and I saw Judas.

And I'm like, well, why was Judas cursed and Paul blessed?

Why was that?

How does that happen?

And the bottom line, the question you and I have to ask is, What is my motive?

Where is the motive in this?

And I see this in Judas.

Judas knew Jesus, and I'm convinced as I read all about him, he was around Jesus, a charismatic leader, to see what he could get from Jesus.

All the way through, he was looking to get.

I want a line.

He said he's gonna take over the world.

He's a charismatic leader.

I'm gonna be with Jesus because I see what I can get.

Now let me get very personal.

Because Paul ended up giving up everything to know Jesus personally.

Where am I?

Am I in my faith?

Am I seeking God because of what I might get?

Now, if the truth be told, every one of us at some point, after those of us who have come to Christ, we're being faithful and we're doing all we know to do right, and yet circumstantially life is not working out the way we expected.

And in our honesty, we go, God, what is up?

I'm being faithful, and I feel like you're leaving me alone.

There's a really good chance that God is trying to move us from this get mentality to knowing him mentality in those senses, in those times.

Judas had the position and power.

That's what he wanted.

I want position, I want to be aligned with power, and I want power.

Paul endured beatings and lost everything for what was right.

His motive had changed.

Here's the biggest one.

Judas was in the right place for the wrong motive.

Paul, and here's the big one, had the right motive, but a very wrong focus.

Very wrong.

He couldn't see it.

But his motive was right to be what is right and pure and holy.

That's what he was committed to, but his focus was in the wrong place.

And the way we make that transition is very simply to know Jesus.

I can see it happening in Judas.

They come to him, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, the lawmakers.

And they come to him as Jesus starts to move towards the cross, and they go, Judas, you know what?

Your leader's going down.

It's obvious.

He's going down.

You don't want to be on the wrong side of this when it goes down.

It's time to cash in.

You need to go ahead and jump ship because he's going down.

And Judas, because his motive was selfish, looked at the circumstances and went, You're right.

What's in it for me?

30 pieces of silver.

Done.

Now the paradox, the irony, is that you don't want to be on the wrong side when it goes down.

And he was.

That's why he was cursed.

His motive was about him, where Paul, on the other hand, you think you know, but you think you know about Jesus, you think you know him, you don't, you don't know him until you know him personally.

And he is better than you can ever conceive.

See, because Saul knew about him, but then he knew him.

I I've had the privilege in my life of meeting some people of note that are famous, and I've run into a lot of them as well.

I've I travel a lot of weekends, and I can't count the number of times.

I'm sitting on a plane, and about we take off.

I'm just kind of in my own world, and I look next to me and I'm like, I know who that is.

I've seen them before.

I've sat next to rock stars, I've sat next to news personalities, actors, actresses, politicians, childhood heroes, and I'm just like, wow, look at them.

I've also been around people that you've seen on TV, you have heard about, you've read about, and I've actually had to have gotten to have lunch with and dinner with and hang out with them.

And the number one piece I always walk away is they're different than I thought.

They're normal people, but they're even better.

I thought that it would be in awe of the fame that they have, but that's not the cool part.

The cool part is that they are incredibly normal.

And they're even better once you get to know them personally, of who they really are.

And I just think, wow, I I'm glad you're famous, but if if you weren't famous, I'd want to hang out with you because you're just awesome.

And that is the difference between Judas and Paul.

That is where it is.

That's why.

That's why when Paul says, you know what, I want to go below the surface.

I don't want to know the history and the law about God anymore.

I want to know God personally, which is the next question we have to ask.

Am I in that process?

Do I really want that?

And I can tell you this too.

I've been around some people that I've gotten to know personally.

I'm not going to name names.

But I was around a band once, and I actually liked this band at the time, and I was actually going to perform at this event with them.

And I always thought, oh, I love their music.

It's kind of cool.

But then I was with them backstage and I saw them berate a volunteer because whoever was in charge of it had the wrong bottled water in their green room.

And it wasn't just the wrong, it was like, come on, it's in our right, or you've got to get this.

We're not going on unless you get us the right water.

And this poor volunteer walked away almost in tears and panic, going, Oh, we gotta get them water, we gotta get them water.

And I just wanted to go up and go, hey, I got your CD and uh you you can have it back.

Because I'll never listen to it again.

And I didn't do it, but I was just like, wow, that's the wrong.

That's the wrong, that's the me, that's the Judas side.

I I haven't heard that band in the last several years, and I don't wonder why.

Because motive comes out after a while.

Yet, Paul, Paul, in this sense, now I'm gonna tell you this.

I'm gonna read this passage of where Paul moved to.

Not knowing about God, but knowing God.

And I want us to ask ourselves the question: is my motive right?

Am I on that way?

Or do I just learn more and more about Jesus, or do I want to know God personally?

And in Philippians chapter 3, verses 4 through 11, he starts laying it down with the difference of knowing about God and knowing God.

Philippians 3:4–11

He says, I myself have reason for such confidence.

If someone else thinks they have reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more.

Circumcise the eighth day of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law of Pharisee.

In other words, I've got the right, I was born to the best lineage and the highest level.

And I have I'm a lawyer of lawyers, I'm the one who teaches law now.

I'm up there.

As for zeal, I persecuted the church.

As for righteousness based on the law, I was flawless.

And then here's the line.

But whatever were of gains to me, I now consider lost for the sake of Christ.

What is more, I consider everything lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them garbage that I might gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of my faith in him.

I want to know Christ.

Yes, to know the power of his resurrection and the participation in his suffering, becoming like him in his death, so that somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

I want to know that power, and I can't know it apart from knowing him.

And if I can take this, I want you and I for just a second, take the best of the best of your resume.

What's your best quality, highest achievement, biggest bank savings account?

Take it all.

I want the best of the best.

If somebody says, give me your best top 10 qualities, top 10 achievements, I want you to think of those for just a minute.

And Paul is saying, not only do I have more, and he lists all of his, but I want us to take those.

And all of that compared to knowing Jesus, and here's the graphic part.

I I can only describe it this way because this word garbage is pretty intense.

A few years ago I was in New Orleans, and I've shared a piece of this before, but in New Orleans during the final four, we got to go down there with my sons, and we were down there for the entire weekend of the final four.

It was awesome.

New Orleans is one of the most unique places on the planet.

It is amazing in so many ways.

I joked with this one crowd.

I said, you know what?

I've been in heat before, but this heat, humidity, no breeze.

I said, I went back to the hotel and went in the sauna so I could cool down.

It just was just that oppressive.

We're walking around the streets.

We saw this dude about 6'4 with a hat and a veil and a mini skirt and a fishnet shirt and three days' growth and high heel stilettos.

And and my son and I'm like, what?

And I said I looked around and I saw everybody going, hey, look at the weird guy.

And then I realized they're all looking at me.

You know, just it's like it's that kind of a place.

It's that kind of a place.

But what really got me, we experienced this over and over, some of the most amazing food ever.

We went to Cafe Dumont at midnight to have beignets, and they were awesome.

These smells are amazing.

I mean, stunning.

Smells you don't smell anywhere else in the world.

And we had uh Emerald Legacy.

We went there one night, just splurged a buddy of mine, and he's like, I'm taking you guys out for getting me tickets.

I'm like, great.

And it was unbelievable.

It was so unbelievable and so great.

My 16-year-old son, who if you were the comedy night, this is the one who says, I'm never full, but I occasionally get tired of chewing, okay?

That one, that son, he had so much, he had a doggy bag afterwards, he could not eat it all.

It was just amazing.

But New Orleans is a place where you can walk, and these smells, you literally smell.

I've never smelled that combination.

We have to go there.

And you're just drawn this, and I can't even describe it with words, how amazing these smells are, and the taste and flavors are even better.

And it's the only place in the world I know that you can have that smell and walk five steps further, and it smells like a horse took a dump, someone threw up on it, someone else set it on fire, and somebody else urinated to put it out.

And it's just like, oh, oh man.

And you walk back five steps just to smell the others, oh it is that diverse, it is that separate.

That is what Paul is saying right here.

He says, My best, and the best in this life we can do on our own is the poop and the vomit and the that's mine.

And that's what it is, and my best is that compared to knowing Christ personally and intimately.

It is the most amazing, indescribable experience of life that is worth giving up everything to know him personally, and that's where motive comes in, and we start to see the best we have leaves us empty.

And that is why in Philippians 4 11, Paul writes about his experience.

And we hear 13 very often.

We hear verse 13 all the time, but we miss the verses before it.

Paul writes, he says, I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstance.

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty and want or in want, I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

There's not a circumstance, when we know God personally, there is not a circumstance in life that we cannot get through and go, I'm good.

Because the circumstances don't drive me.

God, you are with me.

You are helping me, you are here to teach me, and I long for this.

Now, here's the the pointed question of the morning.

It's an evaluation for you and I to take personally.

Life without and life with Jesus personally.

Without Jesus, am I living trying to get what I want?

With Jesus, am I longing to give to let him give me all I need?

Which is the difference?

And he knows my needs deeper and better than I know them myself.

And I wants to take a just a quick evaluation as we we wrap this up.

One, our world says, fame is it.

We long for fame.

I I was blown away at a survey they did with teenagers today.

They said, What do you want in life more than anything?

They said, fame.

I want to be famous.

And I love their answer.

They asked them a follow-up.

Famous for what?

I don't care.

I just want to be famous.

And take that to the nth degree.

Look at those who are famous.

How amazing is their life.

They have all the fame, glory, and fortune that they want.

We're talking, Justin and I were in the back, about a famous couple that's just split up.

And we're just kind of comparing the notes of how ironic it is.

They have a$10 million wedding and a$30 million divorce three years later.

There's this emptiness in the middle of that.

Is that really it?

Do I want fame or do I want purpose and significance?

See, Jesus offers purpose and significance where the emptiness of fame is there.

Do I want to live comfortable?

I just want to live comfortably, whatever that is.

And I can tell you from having been in a third world country, it's the same desire.

I just want to be comfortable.

That's defined different no matter where we are.

I just want to be comfortable.

Well, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that, but here's the deal.

I'm at the point, and I think it's because my hair is turning gray and turning loose.

I would rather, instead of comfort, I would rather have meaning and peace that goes beyond my circumstances.

I would rather have that.

And that is what Jesus offers.

There's a lot out there, especially in some pockets of subcultures, that I want respect and honor.

People are disrespecting me.

Don't diss me, don't disrespect me.

You know what I'd rather have?

I'd rather have what Jesus offers.

Complete and total forgiveness for everything.

I don't need your respect.

I just need Jesus.

You can disrespect me, you can stone me, you can throw me in jail.

It doesn't matter because I've got Jesus.

And I've got all the forgiveness and all the peace that that passes comprehension.

Well, doesn't God want us to be happy?

I just want to be happy.

Well, let me just throw a little bit of a wet blanket.

Happy happens twice a year on your birthday and Christmas for maybe an hour.

And then happy goes away.

But joy, God says, I want to have a level of joy in your heart that no matter what the circumstances are, you can have joy.

That's what Jesus offers.

And then there's the, and here's the man, this is so convicting.

Do I live to get or do I live to give?

Get all I can.

I need to get all I can.

I gotta have all I can get.

Or do I really believe that Jesus said it's more blessed to give than serve?

I've have I discovered giving at the greatest fulfillment level ever?

Do I really believe that?

And I've shared this illustration before because it drives me crazy.

Those who kind of take scripture and twist it out, I share it once a year, and this is my once a year.

The televangelists who get on and they say, give.

If you give to God, he will give you back.

That's the give to get.

If you will give to my ministry, then God will bless you.

And I've just that always just rang like, huh?

Really?

Now here's my question.

And if he really believes that, and one day I'm gonna make the call if I ever stop on that channel again.

Hey, do you really believe that?

If I give to your ministry, then God's gonna bless me tenfold, a hundredfold.

Yes, I do.

Great.

Here's my bank account.

I've got a deposit slip, I'm gonna send it to you.

You make the biggest deposit into my account that you want to, and God will bless you 10%, 100%.

If it's true, if it's true, now I want to I want to get very real for a minute because there are some, and I believe God laid this on my heart as I was praying through it to say, you know what?

There's a few here that need to say, you know what, I can't I really do believe it's more blessed to give than receive, but I don't have anything right now.

And I understand that.

I've lived there, I've been there.

And there may even be one or two here today say, you know what?

I came today going, God, I'd give, I would give, but I've got nothing.

I've got nothing.

And and here's the deal.

I I once a month I pray and I say, God, I here's part of what I give to you, and I'm gonna consecrate this.

Consecrate simply means, God's it's you own it now, I do not.

And God laid on my heart that for this month.

I love on the back of those, I always write them so I don't get them mixed up.

In God We Trust is highlighted on all of these.

This is this is some of that.

This is a hundred dollars right here on the front.

There it is.

Some of us today, somebody here today, I want you to experience one of the greatest gifts in life, and that is giving.

Period.

This is God's, and at the end, you can wait till everybody's gone and God lays it on your heart, whatever it is.

It may be simply to go, God, I came in saying I'd give, but I don't have anything, to come and take this and walk it back and put it in that offering box and say, God, thank you that you gave me something to give back because I really do trust you.

Or it may be one that says, you know what?

I I know I should, but I don't know how.

I want you to take one of these and I want you to put it somewhere separate.

Maybe it's a separate pocket, maybe it's a separate part of your purse or your bag, and just say, God, when you show me that time, and I'm gonna look every day until you show me, I'm gonna give this to somebody.

I'm gonna buy their meal, or I'm gonna give it to somebody in need.

And if possible, if you really want to go crazy, do it anonymously so that they have only God to thank for it.

That's how strongly I feel that God longs for us to experience what it means to give.

And are you one of those?

And let me just tell you, maybe you're one of those who came in today going, oh man, there's a put the 20s down, like, oh, I need that.

I need, I wish I had that 20.

Then there's a good chance you do need that 20.

And you do need that to take and give it to somebody else to start experiencing what an encounter with Jesus of what it means to give.

That that power of transitioning of that.

And then finally, it just said, you know what?

I want to make a good living.

There's nothing wrong with that, but it's devoid of Jesus because what Jesus wants is us to have a life of complete fulfillment that goes beyond, goes beyond a living to abundant life, what he created us for.

So here's my question for you and I this morning.

Do I know about Jesus or do I know him personally?

If I know him personally, do I know him at the level and with the full motive that he longs for me to have?

And I don't say that condemningly, because I can tell you every area I mentioned this morning, I have failed completely.

At least once, most of them multiple times.

But like Peter and like the disciples, the joy of knowing Jesus personally, he never once goes, loser.

Never.

And he says, Come to me who lack wisdom, and I will give it to you without finding fault, with total grace.

I've started to notice a pattern throughout the New Testament.

Every time it says truth, right before it, it says, with grace and truth.

God is not condemning.

But if I want to check my motives and say, God, which of those areas am I not fully yours?

Which area do you want me to change?

Because I know it's for my best, but I don't understand how, but Lord, here it is, whatever that is.

God longs to change us in that way.

If you don't mind, I want to pray.

They're gonna come up, we're gonna have a chance to really let that sink in.

But I'm so glad you're here.

Next week, we're gonna look at the next level of that, which is gonna be even better because we're gonna see some examples of the way people really took that.

Pray with me real quick.

Father, thank you for your truth.

And Lord, I pray as only you can right now, your Holy Spirit would move on our hearts.

Show us where our motives need to be purified.

Lord, it's scary and it's painful, but ultimately let us realize how worth it it is.

So, Father, thank you.

Thank you for the way you love us, and that you never condemn, you convict.

And you never convict where you don't give the lesson and the power and the love and the grace to do it.

God, thank you for that.

And we just love you and thanks for loving us.

And it is only through Christ we can pray.