Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Love Gives | More Than Enough | Part 1

Episode Date: November 12, 2023

No matter how much you have, more always seems better. But the Bible teaches us that love gives. So how can you trade wanting more for trust that God will provide More Than Enough? We’re talking about it in this message. ABOUT THIS MESSAGEWe tend to hold tightly to the things that matter most. But soon, the fear of losing them can feel like a heavy weight. What if you could trade fear for trust that God will provide More Than Enough? Let’s learn how in our new series. NEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextCONNECT WITH A PASTORDo you need prayer? Would you like to find out how you can get involved at Life.Church? One of our pastors would love to meet with you. Schedule a video call with a pastor: https://www.life.church/meetwithusABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LCNowCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/craiggroeschelFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #morethanenough Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How many of you believe it's more blessed to give than to receive? Raise your hand. Excellent. You can type that in the comment section. I believe it's more blessed to give. And I hope you believe that. You know why? Because Jesus said it.

That's why. It's more blessed to give than it is to receive. But let's just be real for a minute. Can we do that? Can we do that? Yes. Okay. It's also pretty blessed to receive too, right?

Raise your hand if you agree. Yeah, don't act like you're all spiritual. Of course it is. I mean, it's really fun when someone gives you a gift card, right? Or you're driving through the coffee drive-through and someone before you buys your coffee. Or someone cash apps you and say, hey, go to Chick-fil-A and get some Christian chicken. That's a good thing, right? We all like to receive, but Jesus said it's actually better to give.

It's more blessed to give. It's good to receive, but it's more blessed to give. If it's more blessed to give, why is it more blessed to give? The answer is because we reflect the heart of God. Scripture says this, for God so loved the world, John 316, that what do you do? Let's all say it aloud, that he gave. In fact, you may never be more like God when you give. God so love the world that he gave.

So let's play a little game, kind of like in the eighth grade when you do deductive reasoning equations. Do you remember those? Like, if a duck quacks and a quacker ducks, what does a duck do? Remember that we'll play one of those games, okay? We're going to play a game,

and that one I just made up, obviously, because that one made no sense whatsoever, but work with me. Sometimes I make this up as I go. So I'm going to ask you a question, and then I'm going to give you a hint, and then you give me the answer, okay? So the question is, what is God?

And the answer is it starts with L and it rhymes with dove. God is love. Okay, good. God is love. Now, what does God do? This one starts with G and it rhymes with lives. God gives. So if God is love and God gives, then we would say that love gives.

There's your question, your equation. That's way better than the duck failed attempt. But we would say love gives. Everybody say love gives? Type it in the comments section, type in love gives. One more time? Love gives. What does love do love gives?

So if love gives, then I would suggest that you can't love without giving. Love gives. and if you love, then you can't love without giving. So I love cherries. My daughter, Joy, is here, and she loves cherries. And I love joy more than I love cherries. So when I get something with a cherry on it, what do I do with it?

I give it a joy because I love cherries, but I love joy more. Love gifts. I love action movies. How many of you agree? Amy loves romance movies. How many you say she's in God's will. Because I love Amy, more than I love action movies than we watch little women multiple times. Right?

One more. Can you handle one more? I love my grandkids. We have five and one cooking. That means we have six because all life is from God. We have six grandkids. I love my grandkids. And one time two of them were in the bathtub.

and one of them pooped in the bathtub, and the other one saw the poop and vomited when they saw the poop. And so because love gives, who cleaned it up? The answer is, Amy cleaned it up because she loves our grandkids more than I love, our grandkids. Are you with me? And what I know about you is because you love, you want to give.

And because you love, a lot, you want to give more, but many of you feel like you can't. And the reason you feel like you can't is because you believe you don't have enough. And the reason I know about that is because that was me for years and years and years and years and years, I always felt like I was lacking and I was living with what I've grown to know as a scarcity mindset. And so my very, very real go, I'll put all my cards on the table, is to build your faith, and I'm going to ask God to help change your mindset about giving and generosity. Because if I can love you and nudge you a little bit and give you a truth, is this, that many of us don't have a money problem. We have a mindset problem.

God is calling every single one of us to give because love gives. And so, Father, I ask it by the power of your spirit, the truth of your word. that you would renew our minds, not to live with a scarcity mindset, but an abundant mindset, that you are the provider of all, and that it is more blessed to give than it is to receive. Bless us, increase our faith to give. In Jesus' name we pray, and everybody said, amen, and amen, amen. Here's what we're going to do. We are going to work our way over the next couple of weeks through two chapters in the Bible.

We're going to work through 2 Corinthians chapter 8. chapter nine and i want to give you a little bit of the context of these verses paul is the one that wrote this letter to the corinthians and if you don't know about paul is he was a jew paul was jewish and when he got saved god actually called him not just to take the gospel to the jews but to take the gospel to the gentiles now who are the gentiles and the answer is they were the non-jewish people. And this created some tension because Christianity was born out of the Jewish people. So a lot of the Jewish people thought that Christianity was for Jewish people. And all of a sudden, Paul, who was a Jew, recognized that the gospel was for everybody, that Jesus came for the Jews

and the non-Jews, also for the Gentiles. So he's going to take the gospel, but there was controversy. Thankfully, the three big dogs of the day were James, Peter, and John. They were seen as the church leaders. They actually blessed Paul to take the gospel to the Gentiles, and they said, you can go to the Gentiles on one condition. You have to tell them to always be generous. This is what they said. They said, don't forget the poor. And he said, that's what I want to do. I'm not going to tell them anyway. And so Paul went to the Macedonian churches and inspired them to give generously. and he was blown away, stunned, and shocked by their irrational generosity. Here's what he does.

He writes to the Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians 8.1, he says this, and now brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace. Underlined grace, because we're going to see, that's the first time grace is used of 10 different times in two chapters. Giving is about grace. We're actually grace to give. of 10 times we'll see this word. I want you know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. So he's telling the Corinthians, these Macedonians are amazing. In the midst of a very

severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. If you don't know much about the Macedonian churches, I'll tell you two things about them. The first thing we discover is they were very poor, yet irrationally generous. And when I say they were very poor, they're not like some of us are very poor by going, I can barely afford my streaming services, you know, Hulu and Prime and Netflix and Afield Max, they're so expensive, I may have to cancel Disney Plus. Do you know what I'm saying? I mean, that's kind of where some of us live today.

When the Bible says they lived in extreme poverty in the Greek, what that means is it was as deep the ocean. That's literally in the Greek what it means. These people were hurting deeply, financially. And so they were very, very poor, and yet they were irrationally generous. And the second thing we see is that they were enduring trials. This is crazy. Yet they were overflowing with joy. They were in a really difficult time of life in poverty and suffering, and yet in their poverty, they were still generous. And in their suffering, they still had joy. It's interesting because a lot of times whenever we feel like we're lacking, we might be depressed, we might be anxious, or we might selfishly protect whatever we have. but for the Macedonians, even though life was hard, they were generous and they were joyful.

Why? Because they were giving. And it's actually more blessed to give than it is to receive. Why? Because what does love do? Love gives. Now, that raises the question. They didn't have much and yet they were incredibly generous. I want to know why were they so generous when they were incredibly poor. and then, like, how did they give so big when they had so little? And the answer is they had a very different mindset. They had a different mindset. Many of us don't have a money problem as much as we have a mindset problem. And there are two mindsets I want to talk to you about today.

I'm going to call one the bag mindset and the other the barn mindset. Two different mindsets. There's the bag mindset and there's the barn mindset. Let's start with the bag mindset. This is the mindset I had for years. And the bag mindset believes we don't have enough. I'd like to give more, but I don't have enough. And some of you may relate and feel this exact same way you can relate to the words in the Old Testament.

In Haggai, chapter 1, verse 6, when Haggai said, you eat, but you don't have enough. You drink, but you're not filled with drink. You clothe yourself, but no one is warm. Watch this. And he who earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it. No matter what comes in, it's like my bag's got a hole in it, and at the end of the month, there's nothing left in the bag. In other words, I want to give more.

I genuinely do, but I don't have enough. And so we think, when I have more, then I'll give more. is the bag mindset. The second mindset is the barn mindset. The bag says we don't have enough. The barn says we have more than enough. We actually have more than enough. In fact, Deuteronomy 288 promises that if you fully obey the Lord,

what will God do? The Lord will send a blessing on your what? Would you say aloud with you? There it is. On your barns, the Lord will send a blessing on your barns. This is the barn mindset. And on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he's giving you.

It's the barn mindset that we have more than enough. And this is how the Macedonians lived. Even though they didn't have much, they didn't have the bag mindset, we don't have enough. They had the barn mindset believing that we do have enough to give. We don't have to wait until later. We don't have to wait until we have more. We can actually give right now.

They had the barn mindset. Many of us were the opposite. And this was me for years and years and years. And the reason is I didn't have as big of a money problem as I did a mindset problem. I had a bag mindset. I don't have enough. And it felt like my bag had holes in it. What happens when you have the bag mindset?

Let me show you the cycle and many of you will relate to this. What happens is God gives you something. God supplies. You get paid. You get an increase. God supplies. And the first thing we do with the bag mindset is we consume. We spend it.

We go out, we're on Amazon, click by, click by, we got this, we got the clothes, we got the blue, we got whatever, we consume. And because we consume, we lack. We spend everything that comes to us and we don't feel like we have enough. And because we've consumed and because we lack, and all of a sudden, we fear.

We're afraid. Oh my gosh, I don't have enough. And the bag mindset continues to cycle. God gives to us and we spend it, we consume it, and we don't have enough, and so we're free. And the cycle goes on and on and on. I'd like to get more, but I can't afford to do it. This is the bag mindset. There is another mindset, though.

It's called the barn mindset. Instead of consuming first, what do you think you do first? You give first. Why do you give first? Because what does love do? Love gives, right? And so watch as there's an entirely different mindset. You see this mindset, the barn mindset in Proverbs 310.

What do you do? The first thing you do is you honor the Lord with your wealth. With the very first of your increase in the Old Testament, this was kind of like a farming metaphor with the first fruits, with the first part of your harvest. With the first fruits of your crops, you honor the Lord. And when you give to him first, when you put him first, what does Scripture say? What's going to happen? Then your what? Then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine. The first thing you do, if you have the barn mindset, is you give because love gives, you honor God with the very first of what he entrusts to you. And then your barns will be overflowing. Giving first fruits is very similar. Some preachers would say, the same, someone would say it's slightly different. It's very, very similar to what we call tithing.

Tithing was born before the law. It's in the Old Testament. It's in the New Testament. Tithing is returning to God 10% of what he trusts to us. When you give 10%, is it any 10% like the first, the middle or the last? The answer is no, it's the first. You return the very first portion, the first 10% back to God as an act of worship. it's in the way that you honor God. Malachi, three, 10, is probably the most famous verse. It says, bring the whole tithe, all 10% of it, into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Storehouse is kind of like a barn, right? Test me in this. The only where and only time God ever gives us permission to test him is right here. Test me in this, he says, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven

and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. Test me, bring your first and bring your best. When you bring your first and your best, you trust God to bless the rest. We bring him the first. And then when we bring him the first, he blesses our barns. Now, admittedly, you're probably thinking of the same thing I did

the first time I heard this going like, you've got to be smoking the funny weed. 10% like that's crazy because I'll have any left over right now. I got the bag mindset. There's holes in it. If I gave them the first 10%, I couldn't do it. In order to do that, I'd have to rearrange my whole life around God. Oh, what did I just say?

If that just comes down my other, like I'd have to rearrange my life around God to put him first. I'd have to prioritize God to put him first. In many ways, that's the point. Not with just your money, but your time and your heart and your energy and your love. You rearrange your whole life around him because he wants to be first. But that only leaves me 90%. But you don't understand. But 90% he says he blesses.

And one day you wake up and goes like, God's math is different than normal math. because 90% with his blessings seems to go further than 100% without. Now, this is a different mindset. It's way different. It takes faith. You've got to trust God. And admittedly, there are Christians I respect that don't believe the tithe is a New Testament principle.

I can kind of go with that as long as you believe that kind of starts there. You build on top of that. Like literally, it just starts there. And I believe and have practiced it for years. And one of the many reasons is because Jesus affirmed the tie. I'll show you very clearly. This is what Jesus said. Matthew 23, Jesus said, he was kind of railing on the hypocrites.

He said, hey, you hypocrites, you're careful to tithe. Even the tiniest income from your herb gardens. You ignore the more important aspects of law, justice, mercy, and faith. And then Jesus said, these three things, they are in red in your Bible, if you have read. Jesus said, let's all say to loud. What did Jesus say? Jesus said, you should tithe. yes, you should die, but don't neglect the more important things. In other words, if Jesus says

you should tithe, then I'm probably going to tithe, but don't neglect the more important things. Being like, that's kind of like a baseline. Like we all kind of covered that, right? And it's funny how we like exempt this away. Like I know rich people who say like, well, I don't have to tithe. Like what part of being successful makes you immune to God's word? Like, hey, because I'm so successful, I can cheat on my wife, I don't think so. Well, I don't have a lot, so what makes God's word not apply to you? If Jesus says you should tithe, you can do your own research and trust me, I want you to, but I am actually going to tithe. This is going to be a beginning point for me to return 10% back to God. It's giving God our first and our best and trusting him to bless the rest.

When we do that, something can happen. What does tithing do? Tithing can actually break the cycle of scarcity and create a new cycle of supply. It breaks the old bag mindset. The bag says this. The bag mindset says, you know, God supplies and we consume and we lack and we fear. But the barn mindset is different. Whenever God supplies, the very first thing we do now is we put God first. We honor the Lord with our wealth, with the first fruits of our harvest. We give back to him. When we give to him, what does he do? I says, I'll multiply it. I will multiply it back. And what does that do to us? That actually builds our faith. And suddenly, rather than having a scarcity mindset, we have an abundant mindset reflecting

the abundant goodness of a God who says it is more blessed to give than it is to receive. And that's why, like, you want to be more generous. So if I get more money, I'm going to be more generous. So listen to me. More money won't make you more generous. It'll make you more generous. It'll make you more of what you already are, right? If you're generous now, more money is going to make you ridiculously generous. But if you're a selfish jerk now, more money is going to make you more of a selfish jerk later. Some of you say, I know the guy you're talking about, because we've all met that guy. More money doesn't change hearts. It just kind of exposes what's in your heart. And so, if you're not generous now, chances are you won't be generous later. But love gives.

Love gives. And the first thing we do is we honor God with what he gives to us. And so the Macedonians, they didn't have much. And they gave big. They had the barn mindset. Many of us, we have the opposite. Now here's what's crazy. Some of us, we have the bull. We have the bulls. barn blessings, but the bag mindset. Some of us have so much, and yet we give so little. And sometimes some of the wealthiest people, in fact, studies show the higher the wealth goes, the lower the percentage of what they give, on average, not there's some of the, some of the people are ridiculous generous, but some of the wealthiest people can be some of the stingiest.

And the reason is because they still don't believe they have enough. And that's why Jesus said this. He said, watch out. Jesus said this, be on guard against greed. Why do we need to watch out? Because money is a counterfeit God. When you think about it, what does money do? Money promises us what only God can provide.

Right? Money says, hey, if you get enough money, you're finally going to be peaceful. Money says, if you get enough money, then you're going to feel secure. money says if you get enough you're going to be significant but only god can give true peace because you can have a lot of money and no peace in your heart only god gives real security because you can have a lot of money in a bank and get real sick real fast and all the money doesn't heal your sickness only god can make you

significant because we know a lot of people who have really big net worth but still feel far from God and feel insignificant. Money is a counterfeit God. It promises what only God can provide. And so Paul was telling the Crenzy, man, you want to meet these Macedonians. Like, they didn't have much, but they were so generous. And here's what he said about them. This is really powerful.

He said, I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability, entirely on their own. In other words, I wasn't asking. for this. I wasn't trying to inspire generosity. But on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in the service to the Lord's people. Can we give? We want to. Can we be a part? We want to. We want to take what we have and use it to bless the Lord's people. And Paul said, and they exceeded our expectations. What do they do? They gave themselves first of all to the Lord. They rearrange, reprioritize their entire life, their heart, their values, their possessions, their time.

They gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God also to us. This is powerful. They begged Paul. They pleaded. It wasn't just a plead. It was an urgent pleading. Can we give? I know we don't have to.

It's not expected. but we want to. Why did they do this? Because love gives. Because they didn't have a bag mindset. They had a barn mindset. They understood the truth about God's provision. We see it in 2nd Corinthians 9-8, that God can bless you with everything that you need. What do you need? Joy, he'll give it to you, peace, he'll give it to you. Financial provision. He is Jehovah Jira. He is your provisional. He can give you everything that you need. And watch this. And you will always have more than enough to do good things for others. If you have the bag mindset, I've got holes in him. No, no, never enough, never enough, never enough. You're always going to be waiting.

And you're always going to be missing out because it's more blessed to give than to receive. but when you have the barn mindset, I put God first. I want to give. It's an honor to give. I'm not going to wait until later. I'm going to give now. They urgently pleaded.

Because God gives us more than enough. Many of us don't have a money problem. We have a mindset problem. And this was me for years. For years, I grew up with the biggest scarcity mindset. I got to keep what I'm going to keep. I got to keep it. This is going to make me secure. This is going to make me secure. My grandma told me, one day, you're going to face a great depression. You're going to be eating

out of garbage cans. So I decided, I'm going to save up enough, so I'm never eaten out of garbage cans. But money can't provide everything God can. And the first time I heard about the tithe, I was in college, and I ignored it. Didn't want to do it. Second time I heard about the tithe, I went to a Christian bookstore and I spent 10% of my money there and called it a tithe. That's not a tithe. that's buying Christian stuff. A tithe is returning 10% back to God through the storehouse, which I believe is the church,

and I gave my first tithe gift. And God provided in a very special way. I would tell you what God did, but I don't want to make this sound manipulative, but God provided in a way that literally changed the course of my life. God provided. And I'm not going to be.

tell you that when you give you always get more and if you give a hundred you're going to get a thousand I'm going to tell you that what I'm going to tell you is this that when you honor God with a tithe he will prove himself faithful yeah a lot of times you'll get a financial increase I promise you because God rewards those who give generously a lot of times this is way better than money a lot of times it's way better than money it's friendship it's a sense of purpose it's community it's a blessed unified marriage around the things of Jesus, is children serving him faithfully, is being a part of a great community working together to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. These are crazy people, crazy people that rearrange their lives around

the purposes of God. Crazy people who say things like, we will lead the way with irrational generosity because we truly believe that it is more blessed to give than is to receive. And it is the story of our church that at the biggest point of financial debt, when we as a church were paycheck to paycheck, kind of like the bag mindset, and churches started to want to buy, purchase our sermons and our videos and such. And someone said, what if we gave it away for free? And I thought, what if we sell it for a fair price and keep the money and use it for good things to honor God. And God spoke to my heart.

The same way he did on the first day of the church when 100 people showed up and God prompted me and looked out and I said if there's anyone here who has need, you can take back out of the offering. And from day number one, we put our faith in God, and then God called us to give free resources away. And now there's over a million. Listen to me, there's over a million pastors

who have downloaded free resources given away by the local church. The U-Version Bible app is not for sale. It's been free from day number one. Now the family of U-Version Bible apps on over 700 million devices for food. And because of your generosity, we give as a church to 130 local mission groups

and 13 international ones. And we don't just send money. We go ourselves. We send people. we send resources to make a difference. Why? Why? Why? Why? Because love gives. Because love gives. Ashland Groschelle is here. She just recently married my son, Stephen Groschelle. And on the day of the wedding, we had some friends, some pastors, Pastor Bill and Jessica.

They flew in to be there to celebrate the wedding. We were short on time, but we managed to get into what I call a foo-foo restaurant. I don't know what the real day. And it's probably like, I'll probably get canceled for that. Who knows? But it's a restaurant that's kind of expensive and hard to get into. We managed to get in there. And I said, you guys came in. I'm going to treat you. And we're like, we're blowing it out. I never buy drinks. I don't get appetizers. But we had a gifts in town. Like, get anything you want. Get an appetizer. Get two appetizers. Get a coffee and get a drink. We blew it out. Get a dessert. We ordered everything. Get the most expensive thing on there. And we just loaded them up to bless them.

And at the end, I went to pay, and the waitress came up and said, oh, someone got your meal. It's like, oh, no, not this meal. And I was like, no, no, no, no. I said, who? And she pointed over to what must have been a 19 or a 20-year-old girl. I mean, I'm thinking she's probably a sophomore in college or in her first job, probably making next to nothing. And I went up, so I said, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

but no, I'm buying yours. I'll send you to college. And she looked at me and she said, no, you won't, pastor. She said, God used you to change my life. And I've been, listen to what she said. She said, I've been praying for the chance to bless you. And the moment you walked in, I knew this was my chance. And I'm going to tell you right now, I didn't want to receive it.

I wanted to, I want to help her go to college. And yet, love gives. And we were so blessed that day to receive. It's crazy it is. She was more blessed to give. And so if she can give when she doesn't have to someone who has everything, what do you think someone like me can do when I get the barn mindset? Because if love gives, then you can't love without giving.

And because God loved first, God so loved the world that he gave, his one and only son, So the very least I can do is rearrange my whole life around him. And hey, not just put them first in the tithe. That's for beginners. There's train wheels on that little bicycle. And I'm created a sore. I can give so much more than that. My heart, my time, my finances, my life.

Because what does love do? Love gives. So, Father, because you loved us first, help us love you back. Help us to love you with all of our hearts, our minds, our soul, our strength, and help us to love your people, to love others as we love ourselves. God, build our faith, change our mindset, to not give later when we have more, but to give now because love gives. As you're praying today, wherever you're watching from, I'm going to just lovingly ask you, and I'm going to tell you, like for so much of my life, I was stuck.

I was a prisoner. I was a hostage. I was in, I was a prisoner of the bag mindset. I don't have enough. I don't have enough. I don't have enough. And God helped me break through that. And now I'm living in the barn blessings.

If you find yourself a little bit more stuck, and listen, I mean you may not have much and you're there. Some of you, I want you to hear me. Some of you've got a lot and you're stuck there. You are trusting in your money, not trusting in your God. You're stuck right now. the bag mindset if you want out of that you want to change your mindset you want to you want to be a giver you want god to stretch you build your faith if you say yeah i'm stuck in that mindset and i want god to

change my heart would you lift up your hands right now lift them up all over the place lift them up there's more of you than that i want you to lift them up and be honest you're stuck in that you're trusting in the wrong things god stir us up today build our faith god i know there'll be some that will um take the step to tie us for the very first time and god i thank you that you've given us permission test you, and God, I know with full confidence, you will prove yourself faithful and provide. God, break the bag mindset that we don't have enough. Give us the barn mindset that we have more than enough because you are always more than enough. Build our faith, God, to love others, to love you with a heart of generosity. As you keep praying today, I want to tell you about the most amazing and

generous gift in the history of the world. It's called the gospel. The gospel is nothing but good news. And the good news is good news because there's also bad news. I'll start with the bad news. The bad news is that all of us have sinned. That's what the Bible says. It's not a popular word in culture today, but it is a God, it's a word God made up. We've sinned. What does that mean? That means we've done something wrong against a holy God. And the bad news is that our sin breaks fellowship with God, it separates us from God. The good news is that God loves us so much, he loves you so much, that while we were still sinners, he sent Jesus. Scripture says God so loved the world that he gave. He gave. He gave first. And you could say Jesus was kind of like

God's tithe. He gave first. He sent his son Jesus, who was perfect and without sin. And Jesus gave his life for us before any of us even could have a chance to respond. He died in our place. And God raised him from the dead so that anyone the Bible says, it doesn't matter what you've done, doesn't matter how dark your life is, doesn't matter how messed up, how broken, no matter how lost you are, anyone who calls on the name of Jesus. The Bible says you would be saved, saved from eternal damnation, saved from an empty life, saved for heaven, and saved for a ministry on earth, you will be saved. Some of you right now, it's time to receive the gift.

It was difficult for me to receive from that young girl. Receive from God. He gave to you because he loves you. And he'll be the most blessed of all when you say yes to the gift of salvation through Jesus. Wherever you're watching from today, those who say, yes, I want to receive the gift. We step away from our sin.

We confess we need his forgiveness. We call on the name of Jesus. And when we do, God hears our prayers and forgives our sins. Those of you today who say, yes, I receive that gift today by faith. I trust him. I give all of my life to Jesus. If that's your prayer today, lift your hands high right now and say, yes, I surrender to him. We thank God today for those of you at all of our churches who are calling on him and putting him first.

online. You can just type in the comment section, I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. Just type in the comment section. I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. And as we have people all over the world meeting him now, sins being forgiven lives being changed, would you pray aloud? Pray Heavenly Father, take all of my life. Jesus be first. Be my Savior. Be the Lord of my life. All of my life. fill me with your spirit so I can always know you, put you first, serve you, love you, and love others as you've loved me. Thank you for forgiveness. Thank you for freedom.

Thank you for new life. I give you all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. Could somebody celebrate big right now give God glory, give them praise, welcome those born into new life in Christ. Thank you.