Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Blood and Thunder, Part 2: Ride the Lightning

Episode Date: November 26, 2017

What does it take to see a move of God? Let's see what's possible when we add our sweat, tears, and blood to the power from above. Join us for Blood and Thunder at Life.Church! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, thanks for joining us here at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world thanks to what God is doing at Church online. If you ever have any questions, or you want to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out online simply by going to life.curch. We'd love for you to stay connected throughout your weekend, everywhere you go with the Life Church app. It's free and available wherever you download your apps from. With that said, let's go to this week's message.

Hey, welcome today to all of our Life Churches, our Open Network Churches, our open network churches, our church online family all over the world. You guys are going to be blessed again. Last week, we had the amazing Pastor Levi Lusco, and I'm really excited to tell you that we've got him again this week. If you don't know who Pastor Levi is, maybe you're just joining us. He is the lead pastor at Fresh Life Church,

a multi-site church based out of Montana. He's one of my closest friends in the ministry, a guy that I talk to, and we encourage each other all the time. He is an amazing teacher of God's Word and a fantastic author. In fact, if you haven't read his books, you have to read his books. Through the Eyes of a Lion was his first book. His newest book, Swipe Right, is all about sex and romance and dating.

In fact, parents, for those of you who have teenagers and you have that kind of awkward talk, this book will be a tool to help turn that awkward talk into an ongoing conversation. Pastor Levi is also a partner on the UVersion Bible app. He's got different plans on different books. You'll want to read those. Would you please help me show some Life Church love for my good friend, Pastor Levi, Lusco. Thank you so much.

Love you. Man, Life Church, it is so great to be with you. Who's excited to be in God's house this week? So good. I am such a fan of what God is doing through Life Church. and I don't say that word lightly. I'm truly a fan. Like, I'm watching what God's doing from afar,

just so excited, so engaged. And think about it. The church to God was worth Jesus. He spent Jesus. Like, you, when you were lost in sin, you were worth Jesus to God. And so I think that we should give our lives for what God gave the son, his son's life for.

Anybody with me? Like, I'm a fan. I'm a fan of life church. God gave his son's life to build it, and I'm going to give my life to help add to it. And I'm grateful for what you guys are doing and the way you're leading the way in so many ways, but especially as a young pastor, looking at this church and seeing how you've gone and built and fought for people. And it's just so inspiring. And what we're doing at Fresh Life is it owes so much. We owe so much

to you because everything that God does through you, you're doing. If you're giving here and serving here at your church. Everything God does, as we get encouraged by the open network, as we get encouraged by using the church online platform. Every time someone, this is crazy, this should just blow you away. At our church in Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Utah, as we do church online every single week, people make decisions for Christ and digitally push that button to raise their hand up. And if you understood how God sees it, remember Mario Brothers when he would get the coin and go one up over his head, you know? He gets bigger. every time someone gives their life to Jesus at our church using a tool that you guys gave away,

that's credit to your account. So just so you're aware of what God is doing, and we're just one small example of the thousands of churches around the world who get to use the stuff that you give away, because who does that really? And that all comes from, of course, the leadership that God's raised up. And so I think we ought to honor Pastor Craig and Amy Groschell. There's no one quite like them. and Jenny and I are so thankful for them and the way they lead in their home and the way they lead in the church

and the way they pioneer and just the tireless energy and so I'm so thankful for them and really grateful to be with you again as when I got to come the first time with Eyes of a Lion, that mini-series was so much fun and I just, I love it. And this time, the series that we're in,

if you're just coming in now, it's called Blood and Thunder. And we're talking about the rest of the rest of, people revival. We're talking about how when God does something where he just moves in power, there's this multiple dimensions to it. And really, you can understand it through a statement Jesus made. Jesus said that we ought to be as harmless as doves, but we also ought to be as cunning as serpents. That's one of those strange Jesus sayings that you nod your head to, but you're like, I have no idea what that means. That happened all the time. Like Jesus would be like,

I go, the way I go, you know, and how I'm going to get there, you know. And all the disciples were like, yes, but Thomas would raise his hand, be like, we have no idea where you're going, and we have no idea how you're going to get there. But I, for one, I'm grateful. Though people call him doubting Thomas because of this, I'm grateful that Thomas asks all those questions because Jesus clarified. He's like, oh, here's what I mean. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life, and no one comes to the father except for me. Come on, let's hear it for Thomas asking the questions, right? And I think, you know, especially when we think about millennials and younger, if we, as those who are a little bit older, can understand all the questions they're asking,

thing. Let's just teach them to ask it with the right spirit because that questioning everything thing can be a game changer. And that's how innovative innovation's done. And why did we do it this way? And it'll be insulted. Well, it's just how we've always done it. Go actually explain. And maybe they'll go, well, because it seems like you could actually, listen, young people, if you ask it with the right heart, you're asking of it could help us unlock something brand new. And it could be how we change the game on all those things. So it's pretty cool when those sorts of questions get asked. If I were there, when Jesus said, Jesus, what does it exactly look like to be harmless like a dove and be cunning like a serpent? Because maybe Jesus would have said, what I mean is you got to be a snakebird, right? And you would say,

my bracelet fell off. You would say, what exactly does that mean? And he would say, well, listen, you got to worship like it's all up to me, but you got to work like it's all up to you. You got to be a snake bird. You see, because a dove is a picture of surrender. And doves were offered sacrificial. So it was actually a picture of a blood offer. They would give blood. And so that's a picture of saying, God, I need you to move in power. Change my city.

Change this nation. Change this state. God, work in my family. God, work generations from now that my grandchildren will be saved. Right? That's worship. Right? But then the snake, what's a snake do?

Man, a snake's not just like surrender. Snakes are like, first of all, they're evil, but let's just sidebar that. Snakes, they've got a plant. They're hunting. They're going to find a hot rock to lie on. They're figuring. stuff out. They're setting traps. I'm with Indiana Jones on the matter, but I hate snakes. But I think this means then that we ought to have a mentality that's theological and logical.

Meaning we got to work like it's all up to us, but trust God like it's all up to him and both at the same time. So what does that mean? That means don't just pray for a job. Hello, apply for a job, right? Don't just pray for a hot wife. Brush your teeth. Pull up your pants, right? Ask a girl out. Pull out the, amen from all the sisters, right? You got to be a snakebird. Come on, shove your neighbor and say, be a snake bird, right? And that's really a perfect picture of what we're talking about in the Blood and Thunder series. We're talking about how a move of God requires tears, sweat, and blood and power from above.

That's the only way we're going to see what God wants us to see. Last week, we saw a woman who poured out what she thought was perfume, but turns out it was lightning in a bottle. She was a girl who was thunderstruck. It was a great time together. But this week, in our series as we continue it, I want to talk to you today about how to ride the lightning. The title of my message is, ride the lightning. Thanks, Metallica, right?

Ride the lightning. That's not only the title of this message, but that's also going to be your assignment, life church. Your assignment from heaven is going to be to ride the lightning as you live perpetually with this thunderstruck, generous spirit. you're going to get to ride the lightning. If you have a Bible, join me in two places, Matthew 2 and Luke 2. Matthew 2 and Luke 2, we're going to look at two stories that are kind of connected to the Christmas story, but they both took place after the Christmas account,

two stories that kind of show us what happens when we live with this generous spirit. because the truth is none of us can command God's lightning, right? None of us are Thor, we can't raise the hammer up, you know, right? We can't command God's lightning. I don't want you to, in this series, get the, you know, image in your head that God's lightning, his thunder can be coerced or commanded or controlled. That certainly is not what we're suggesting. But what we are saying is that we can live in such a way to make our lives conducive

to his power that from above it's just waiting for the opportunity to move. Does not scripture say God's eyes are scanning to and fro on the earth, looking, looking, is anyone's heart upright towards me? Now, how do you live with your heart upright towards him? Let me tell you one major component of it. Jesus said where your treasure is, your heart will be also. So could you have a heart upright to God without a generosity in spirit and generosity when it comes to your finances. I submit to you, you cannot. Because you cannot

have a greater heart for God than your finances bear witness. For if your finances were going there, your heart would go there. Question, when you invest in a stock, a certain stock, do you not check out that stock's performance regularly? When you buy something on Amazon, do you not track it compulsively? Where's it at? Where's it at? Where's it at? Is it just me on that? Where's it at? Where's it at? Where's it at? Dopamine. Where's it at? Where's it at? Your money went in. into it, so your heart followed. We care about what we put our money in. So if God's eyes are scanning to and fro in the earth, he's going like, I got lightning bolts. I want to throw him down. With my power to be thrown down. It's the picture of his power working in your life, right?

I read recently there's 8 million lightning bolts per day that strike our planet. A hundred a second. A hundred times a second lightning's hitting the earth somewhere, hitting the earth somewhere. God wants to move in power. He's just saying, give me a target, give me a target, give me a target. I'm telling you generosity. He's got to the heartbeat of the series. Generosity puts a lightning rod inside your soul. It helps you get your inner Ben Franklin on. It puts a kite. It puts a key on a kite. It puts it up in the sky for God who's constantly wanting to surge his power down, wanting to reach the earth. He desires that none should perish, but all should come to everlasting life. He's saying, I'll use a church. I'll use

somebody. Who's going to rise up in generosity? Who's going to rise up with a passion for souls? Who's going to say, God, here am I. Send me. Who's going to say, put the coal from the on my lips and cleanse me because I'm ready to go. Who's going to have the mentality who says, God, here's my life. I surrender it. I give you my emptiness. I give you my future. As I go to college, as I go to work, as I go to school. Put me in coach. I am ready. I want to be on a team. I want to be in a group. I want to build and expand. I want to be a pioneer. I want to. And God, who's up there with the bolts of lightning, the power from above, he's just looking for that tears, sweat and blood so he can he can sort of bring what he wants to. So when

you're, listen to me, when you're living that thunderstruck life out, giving the blood, that's your part. God's part is the thunder. So when you've done all you can do and you've prayed for what he can do, you only have one job left. Wait for the rain, and when it all hits, ride the lightning. Ride the lightning. And that's actually a scientifically accurate way to describe thunder. Thunder rides the lightning. Thunder follows the lightning. The sound of thunder is the actual sound of lightning bolts superheating air as it pushes its way through at the speed of light. It goes so fast it heats the air. How hot does it get? Well, we talked about it last week. It gets about 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is five times hotter than the surface of the

sun. So it's super caliente, right? So the air gets really hot, then really about cold, and that causes a contraction expansion thing, and that sound is what you're hearing. You're hearing the sound of air. Lightning is silent. Lightning's silent. It's the sound of air getting pushed away that you're hearing. So it's chasing the lightning bowl. It's riding the lightning. That's what thunder is. And that's a beautiful picture. And that's what we'll get to do. And I'm going to show it to you by connecting two seemingly unrelated Christmas stories. All right, check it out. Luke chapter two, Matthew chapter two. Here's what we read. It says, and when eight days, someone say eight days were completed for the circumcision. Circumcision. Yeah, I told you. Blood and thunder.

The circumcision of the child. See what I did there? Look what you made me do. His name was called, thank you, Taylor. His name was called Jesus. Back to the Bible. Isn't that so weird how the old Taylor's dead and can't come to the phone right now?

Can we just talk about how much of a weird right turn that was? I was like, I was kind of going with it for a second. It's like, wait a minute, why did the old Taylor die? That's creepy. Some of you. Asked your kids. His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before.

he was conceived in the womb. Now, when the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were completed, listen to this. They brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice. Someone say sacrifice. According to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves. That's two. If it's a pair, it's two turtle doves. We don't know anything about a partridge or a pear tree, but the true love gave to Jesus, for Jesus, two turtle doves. All right along. Matthew 2 now. Here's another story. Seems like it's not connected. I assure you they are. It says in Matthew 2, verse 1, both of these took place after Christmas already was done. I know I'm screwing with your nativity set here, right? You're like, hold on, pastor. Yeah, well, it's in the Bible, so chill.

Verse 1. Now, after Jesus was born in Besselham of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men came from the east to Jerusalem, saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. And behold, verse 9 now, we jump forward a little bit. You're like, wait a minute, what happened in the intervening passages? Herod was trying to kill Jesus so he can stay the king forever. And really, there's only two ways to live. Thy will be done or my will be done.

And Herod refused to do what we must all do, and we will all do eventually. Bow our knee before Jesus is king. Your only choice is whether you bow your knee in life or in death. because one day every knee will bow, every time we'll confess. We'll stand before God, and you'll have no choice but to bow before him when you see his glory. And so Herod did not want to bow his knee. So he instead decided, I'm going to kill this Jesus. I'm going to kill this king. And so that's what he tried to do in the verses that we didn't read. But then in verse 9, it says, behold, the star, which they had seen in the east, went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was.

When they saw the star, I love this. This is so cool. Underline it, if you like to underline it, highlight it in your U-Version app, right? They rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. I love that. We'll come back to that. It's so good. And when they had come into the house, see, they're not in the manger anymore, are they? They're not in the stable anymore, are they? Into the house. I'm screwing with your Christmas, aren't I? Yeah. Almost everything about your Christmas, that's wrong. God bless you. When they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshipped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense. What's the last one? Mur. That's a weird one. It's basically embalming fluid,

right? Thank you. I think. You didn't get that of babies are us, right? Funeral Supply Co. Verse 12. Dude, the Bible's amazing. There's just so much weird stuff in here. You know, Mary just had to smile and nod. Verse 12, then being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, arise, take the young child and his mother, flee. What's this next word?

To Egypt. Egypt. And stay there until I bring you word. For Herod will seek the young child to. to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt, and he was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, out of Egypt, I have called my son. Mary and Joseph here gave a gift. And then, a little bit later on, we see another gift given. And I want to talk

about these gifts, because that's kind of our heart here. We're talking about in this series how we can above and beyond our tithing, which isn't truly giving, it's actually returning to God, what we can do by way of our life of generosity above and beyond our normal tithing to really expand the kingdom and make a difference in that way, how to live that thunderstruck life out, giving the blood, believing God for the thunder. And I want to kind of attack these two stories from three different lenses. So if you take notes in church, which is so helpful to do, because then you can remember it later. First, let's talk about it from the perspective of contribution and capacity. Contribution, what you're giving, and capacity, what you've been given.

Mary and Joseph gave a very small, almost despicable gift at the circumcision of Jesus, which translation, our baby dedication, would be loosely the equivalent. There's this token gift they give, two turtle doves, the text says. Now, what's interesting about that is they were actually in the law of Moses supposed to give a lamb and a dove. A lamb and a dove. A lamb and a dove. But there was provision in the law for the poor to participate. Because God's heart is always, no matter where you're at, no matter what level you're at that you always can participate. That's why the tithe is so even, right?

It's whatever you've been given. It's a 10% or a 10th portion, the first 10th of that. So the provision in the law said, if you can't afford a lamb, which are pricey. I've never bought one, but I imagine. You could just instead give two turtle duffs, right? And that's what Leviticus 12 says. So if she can't afford a lamb, she shall take then two turtile.

does. So we know something about Mary and Joseph. They're poor, but still they're participating. They're participating at the level where they could. Here's what you need to understand. God never holds you accountable for what someone else has been given. He never asked you to give what you can't give. He always measures your contribution against your capacity. But listen to me, he actually does measure your contribution against your capacity. So what that means is, like a golfer's handicap being tabulated, what might say, you know, he might say, you're not. He's not. He's not really does, he actually does, he's contribution against your capacity. He's, he's seem like a huge gift to you or to me as God sees things might actually be a very small gift after all. Think about this small illustration. I have two balloons here. I have one that's green

and like a grenade. And I have another one that is like church red, right? And you think about it and you go, which gift is bigger? Which is a bigger gift of these two? And you're like, well, the red one's obviously bigger. Look that. No, that's, oh, man, wow, look at that big giver. wow, that person gave a lot of money. Whoa. But there's a story in the Bible where Jesus watched people give. By the way, Jesus always watches us give. And he watched him give, and he saw some people come in and give big gifts.

And he's like, wow, all the disciples are like, look at those big givers, right? And they were looking at all the big checks and, man, look what they give. That's a $15,000 gift. That's huge. But then Jesus said he saw this little old lady come and she gave two mites. Think about like what God wants to do through. your life church in the coming days. What does the campus cost? How many millions of dollars are going to be spent on office supplies out of necessity because it's important and the digital technology, all that?

And sometimes we can almost despise our gift because we're like, what is this going to do? I remember we were preparing for a year and offering in our church and my daughter had saved up $100, but as she was asking me, like, how much is this actually going to cost? And I was telling her the $5 million for this and this for this. And I could almost tell it, she got a little deflated just thinking like, what's my gift even going to do? But the truth is, this gift is actually much bigger than this gift. Because God doesn't measure the size of the gift. He measures the size of the stretch. You see, this gift is almost completely stretched.

If I go any bigger, y'all, we're going to have some thunder striking all up in here and give somebody a heart attack, all right? This gift, though, I could go all day, y'all. This thing, this person will not even feel this gift, because it's not about what you give, it's about what you have that God has given to you. He measures your contribution against your capacity. He knows that the person who gives a token gift that's actually impressive by any accounts, you won't feel it. It would not rightly be called a sacrifice. All of us should actually have the mentality that says, I will not give to God that which costs me nothing.

He gave me everything. He gave me life. He gave me salvation. He gave me the Holy Spirit. He gave me a calling. He gave me my marriage back. He gave me a healing from alcoholism. He gave me strength. I'm not going to give him that which costs me nothing. If we're going to use the word sacrifice to talk about a gift that this is blood. If it's like, I'm giving God a gift that means something,

we're going to use the word sacrifice, knowing he measures contribution against capacity. And that means then that just because you can't give a big gift doesn't mean you can't make a big difference. God sees your gift. And if all of us had the attitude that says, well, someone else will give, someone else to give, guess what? No one would give and nothing would get done. And so all of us,

of what we've been given, we're going to give big of what we have in our hands. Second lens that we want to come at this through is through the lens of sacrifice and supply. Jot that down. Sacrifice and supply. This was, though it didn't seem like a big gift, this actually was a sacrifice for Mary, and I guarantee you it was a sacrifice for Joseph. Think about it. Okay, so we've got to get Jesus circumcised. And if I'm Joseph, you know, it's a sacrifice. And if I'm Joseph, Like, put yourself in his sandals for a second, right? You're walking up to the temple and you remember, oh my gosh, we're supposed to give a lamb. We can't afford a lamb.

And Mary's like, we got an overdraft email from Bank of America last night. Like, what are you talking about? And he goes, well, we're going to have to give the turtle doves then. But then as he's going to purchase them, you know part of him's going, wait a minute here. Wait a second here. This isn't even my kid. This is technically your kid. And let's think about it.

Let's think about things for a second here. What you put me through, I'm getting made fun of. I've been like cuckled it, like this whole thing that I've got to live with. And let's talk about how somebody didn't even make a reservation for his son's birth, right? No hotel reservation? What do you? You didn't help me out with the tax bill, Caesar Augustus, right? Oh, how about the fact that we were saving for a wedding?

And now all of a sudden I'm taking care. Like, where's the child support there? And I'm going to pay you now an offering. This isn't even right, right? No hotel? We had your son in a cave, right? I wasn't asking for the writs. Maybe the red lion of the tribe of Judah hotel or something, right?

There's a church jokes, guys, right? Settle down. So if I'm Joseph, I'm going like, you pay me to turtle dubs. I'll dedicate your son. So it was a sacrifice. And I love so much that in their heart, there's no trace of that you get. out of their lack, having nothing to honor God. The very little that they had, though it would cost them,

as they would try and eat dinner, as they would try and live in the coming day, secure temporary lodging in the area, because we know they got into a house by the time the wise man came. So now it's a stretch. Joseph's having to make tables, whatever he's doing as a carpenter. We're just going to honor God. We're just going to honor God.

This is our savior. We're going to honor God. Remember what Gabriel said? Remember what God said? Let's just remember what God's done. for us. So they give these turtle loves, and they go their way, thinking that's that. But they didn't hear it, but in heaven, God was saying, one, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand. Not many days later, ding dong.

Honey, someone's at the door. Who is it? Um, you're going to need to see this. There's like 300 camels out here. Like, for real, one of them stretch, a camelac escalate. It's right there. Spinners. Spinners. They've been spinning. That's good, right? So Joseph comes out. Mary comes out. Baby Jesus is in his little crib. And they opened the door. We three kings of Orient are bearing gifts. We travel so far. Mary and Joseph was like, Thunderstruck, for real this time, right? And these guys come in, and one after the other, they open up chests of gold.

Frankencents, the weird one, mer. And then they ask permission to bow down at the feet of Jesus. And then they worship, warn them to not go, get out of town, y'all, Herod's psycho. Cray, cray, twitchy eye. Guys, bad business. I don't know what that dude's all about. Bad deal.

get out of here, right? Okay? So listen to this, listen to this, listen to this. They received the gold after they gave the blood. Why? Because five golden rings comes after the two turtle doves. Hey, so here's what you need to understand. Here's what you need to understand. God could have given them the plan. Hey, don't worry about this sacrifice. Don't worry about it. I've got these guys coming in a couple weeks with cash for you. But God never tells us how he's going to provide for us. But his promise is that where there's that spirit of sacrifice, he will take care of the supply. That promise is given to you, 2 Corinthians chapter 9, 10, and 11. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your

store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way. How many ways? Every way. So that you can be generous on every occasion and through us your generosity will result in Thanksgiving to God. And that's Mary and Joseph. man they got chest of gold they got furs just sprinkling myr everywhere they go now man they're making it rain everywhere they go to bless people

but but had they had it before the turtle loves wouldn't have meant anything oh sure you want turtle loves you want five lamb whatever right baby back baby back baby back i'm on baby back baby back you can all have ribs right but but they did it when it was a stretch and as you think about how you're going to give how you're going to above and beyond your normal giving as you're going to honor god for what he's done with gratitude, show it because love always gifts. God's going to, I guarantee it, allow some things that are going to break in your life, almost like right as you're about to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if some of you are preparing your gifts and the washing machine breaks, dryer breaks, something goes wrong, something happens to the car.

Why? Because it's an opportunity to see you're going to trust God. That way it will really truly be a sacrifice. As you're writing the check, there will probably be something that will happen cause you think, no, we shouldn't do it, we shouldn't do it, we shouldn't do it. If your hand doesn't shake as you write that check, you're not going big enough. I'm telling you something. There needs to be faith.

If you're going to use, if we don't want to use the word faith, fine, give some small little gift. But if we're going to call it faith, let's go big, let's give big, let's change the world, let's do what God's call us to do. He will supply so that you can be made rich to do even more than you're doing today. All right. So maybe this is why God takes it so seriously when we don't give. How seriously does he take it? Well, in Malachi, he uses the word robbery to describe not tithing.

That's aggressive and forceful and manipulative probably, right? Really? Is it? Because what robbery are we even talking about? Sometimes I hear preachers talk about and I actually get to thinking, I believe the text is exactly what it says, but I don't think it means what you think it says. Does a robbery occur if you don't have anything less than you had before the robbery? Do you think God's saying you're robbing me because money that should be mine isn't mine anymore? If God can't have any less ever, did a robbery occur? I don't think so. Keep reading, and Malika actually says, test me, and I will open the storehouse of heaven

and pour out on you treasure, you won't even have windows to contain, capacity for. Listen, I believe what God's saying is, the robbery is you robbing God of the only thing you can keep from him, the right to bless you like he wants to. That's what you're robbing him. You're robbing him of the ability to bless you and to use you and to multiply you like he wants to. All right. So that's the sacrifice and supply. When we don't sacrifice, we rob them of the right to supply. There's one last lens we're going to look at this through. The lens of price and privilege. There's a price to give. There's a price to change the world. It's not free

to do church. It's not free to open campus. It's not free to expand the U-version. None of this is free. It's very expensive. But let me ask you this question. What's the value of a soul? what's the value of your soul? Because it was worth someone else giving so you could have this church to stroll into. It was worth someone else giving so you could be watching the church online the day you got saved.

You're sitting literally in someone else's sacrifice right now in the building you're in. So there's a price, yes. But the privilege of giving always exceeds the price of giving. And that is why we bet the farm. That is why we are big thinking, big dreaming. bet the farm risk takers. That's why we won't insult God with our safe thinking and small living. Why?

Because the privilege is really bigger than the price. And we save lives as we give. We're a part of God's saving lives. Literally, this church, over 300,000 decisions for Christ in life church history, literally lives being saved, passing from death into life. What is the value of 300,000 souls? It's going to take millions and millions and tens of millions. though to reach those that you still have not reached. Because this church was not built for those who just are already in it. It's always going to be a microchurch and a mega world with a vision to reach those who are still outside, till heaven is full or hell is empty. One of the two, right? And so there's always going to be a price, but the privilege is greater because when you think

about getting to be a part of life's getting saved, say it with me. Right? Your child's in jeopardy. What will you pay? And that's the mentality of the father, who will stop at nothing to save the lives of his children. Now, what's so cool about the story is that we don't just see spiritually, figuratively, lives getting saved, but literally, actually, physically, in blood and life, life was saved by their gift. Let's work it through. Mary and Joseph are told to go where? Egypt. How do you live abroad when you can hardly afford two turtle doves? You fund it with a trunk of gold. You fund it by selling the frankincense. You fund it by selling the mer. Listen, they gave the two turtle duffs, given the blood. God provided with his provision when the wise men showed up with these trunks of

items that were precious, he provided the thunder. And all the way to Egypt and back, they got to ride the lightning. Life Church, my question to you is if the wise men paid for Jesus to go to Egypt, where will your generosity allow Jesus to go? Amen? Let's pray together. Father, thank you so much for this time in your word. And even now as we're speaking, we're just believing you're touching our hearts. You're giving us a figure of a way we can, in a sizable way. In a sizable way, get behind what you're doing that will give us a greater heart for you. At every single life church, as we're hearing this message, if you're responding to God, if he's speaking to you, if he's nudging you to step out in a big way, in a way of generosity to build God's house and expand above

and beyond, if he's talking to you right now and you know, would you just raise your hand up? If you're saying, I want to commit to above my tithes, I want to give in a significant way to see the footprint of what this is doing expand, to see more lives touched. If you're If that's you, I'm described. Maybe your way to come into this would say, I'm going to begin tithing. I can't give an offering. But you say, I want to begin to be faithful bringing God to tithe. If that's you, I'm describing, just raise your hand up, every location. Thank you, Jesus. Give us strength to live out what we're committing to in your presence. All of our heads still bowed, I still close. You can put your hands down. I want to give an invitation to anybody who's come in here

today, and you've never trusted Christ for salvation. And let me just tell you, we don't want anything from you. God has something for you, salvation. The Christmas story is all about God being willing to come to this world so that his son could grow up and die for you on the cross. If you're here, even if you're successful in your career, even if you have money in the bank, even if you have everything made from an earthly perspective, let me ask you this question. Don't you feel that emptiness inside? Don't you feel like the world is not enough? Don't you lie awake at night? Someone's wondering where you're going to go when you die? Let me tell you something. there's a God in heaven who loves you, wants to save you. You are made for a person and a place.

The person is Jesus. That place is heaven. Until you know Christ and are headed to heaven, things will never be right on the inside. If you're here and you would say, man, I want to give my heart to Christ. I'm ready to trust Jesus for salvation. I want to be forgiven. I want to go to heaven. I want to live with purpose on mission. If that's you, I'm describing, would you just raise your hand up right now? Every single life church, just raise your hand up. Raise your hand up right now. Raise them up all over the church. And if you're watching the church online, you can click the link below the screen that says, I'm making a decision. You can raise your hand digitally. God will see you right where you are. Now, for every one of you, I want to pray with you in a simple prayer

as you ask Jesus to come into your heart. I'm going to ask the church family to pray this with us out loud, our way of standing with you in this decision. Pray this to God. He will hear you. He will heal you and make you new. This is your day of salvation. Say, dear God, I know I'm a sinner. I can't fix myself. I ask for you to come into my heart. Give me new life. Save me from my sins. Fill me with your spirit.

Thank you for new life. I give you mine. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Come on, let's hear it for all those making that decision this week. As a church, it's our honor to play a small part in all that God is doing in and through your life. And we would love to continue with you on that journey.

To find out what your next steps could be in your future. your relationship with Christ, all you have to do is go to life.com slash next. You know, here at Life Church, it's our mission to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. That statement drives everything we do as a church, all because we know and we believe whoever finds God finds life.