hey don't start clicking off I promise we're gonna get to the preaching in just
a moment but I'm excited about this this is a very special tradition at Elevation
and we want to speak to all of you who call our church home especially our
extended family our eFam around the world because once a year we have a special
series it's really more than a collection of teachings it's a faith
experience for all of the people who are part of our ministry at Elevation and
this year our theme is Gamechanger I think one of the most exciting things
that God is doing in our ministry is to open the doors of our ministry beyond
our walls what I mean by that is we are amazed at the thousands and thousands
and thousands of you who are letting us know that you're impacted by this
ministry in another zip code in another state in another country maybe
eventually on another planet but what I wanted to mention to you is that you can
be a part of this beyond just consuming many of you've been blessed by God to be
a blessing and I wanted to ask today would you be willing during this special
time of year to make a one-time donation to the ministry or maybe partner with us
on a monthly basis through recurring giving I believe God could use your gift
to enable this ministry to continue to reach to continue to break paradigms to
continue to lift up Jesus and I wanted to ask you personally to go to
www.elevationchurch.org and you can see the ways to give there but most importantly know
that we feel a tremendous sense of responsibility to Minister the Word of
God not only to you but to challenge you to partner with us in reaching people
for the Gospel I believe your gift today could be a game-changer so don't put it
off right now www.elevationchurch.org you can find all of the details I hope you
enjoy this message and thank you for being a part of the family welcome today
to all of our locations can we thank God for all of our campuses and
location I said can we thank God for all of our campuses and locations Amen
I was doing my stalker thing where I go around to all the campuses pushing
buttons with cameras that are set up in the auditoriums I've been on do I look
tired I was on I was on a trip I went to Asheville and Columbia and I even went
to Toronto for a minute all through technology of course before I came out
to see you so I'm a little jet lagged but thank God for the great work He's
doing also with our eFam around the world and our interns our fall 2018 interns
come on thank God for thank God for them thank God for their their wardrobes
for their sense of style and fashion I'm gonna tell you why they're up here in a
minute I'm gonna keep you in suspense but hey one thing that I really always
feel good about is when I'm doing exactly what I know God wants me to do
when I stand up here on the stage and as we get ready for next weekend which is
going to be phenomenal where so many people around the world and here at our
church locally are going to participate in our Gamechanger offering where we
get to bring God something of significance and value to us
and we all get to make that opportunity count to invest something in what can't
be taken away as we have so many times before as we get ready for that I pray
and I try to see how God wants me to preach that would position us each of us
for the season that He's taking us in to and that's important to me not to follow
a formula it's important to me I'm not saying there's anything wrong with doing
it the same way every time because you know we take up these offerings for
expansion and we use so much of it for outreach each year so I guess it would
be fine if I just repeated the pattern each year but maybe it's just my
personality I can't do that and even more than that I don't want to start
trusting in some kind of formula I guess that's the best way to say it if I'm
gonna preach about faith I want to demonstrate faith in the way that I
preach about what I'm preaching about so does that make sense anyway whether it
made sense or not here's what I'm gonna do today because when I was praying
about what we should do as we set up what's gonna happen next weekend and I
pray that you would not skip church next weekend you know some people will always
do that like it's gonna be a guilt trip it's not it's not like there's gonna be
a cover charge next week or something like that it's for everyone but it'll be
really beautiful it'll be special but this week is probably the most important
because this is where we set it up and any good comedian can tell you that the
setup is often more important than the punchline and so but there's nothing
funny about the Word of God so let's go let's go to the Word of God today I
want to share the same scripture just a few verses if I drop a few verses down
from what I shared last week did you get to hear the message last weekend
it's mine to manage touch somebody say it's God's to give but it's mine to
manage and I talked about this concept that we are stewards of the story the
story of how God has saved us and how God has sustained us and as a pastor I'm
coming to understand my role more and more as a steward of the story that God
is telling through this church and it's God's story but it's ours to manage so
powerful and so let me let me get into this real quick and this would be a
little different today I think you can tell that I'm a little I'm excited I'm
really excited but I'm sitting down I'm seated so I'm not gonna scream as much
those of you who don't like all that anyway this is your this is your weekend
and I'm just gonna talk to you a little bit today
you laughed a little too much of that made me feel self-conscious
I might holler once or twice but I really just want to talk to you and I
got all this stuff in my Bible and I tell you what it all is in a moment some
notes and some some money and I'll tell you about that and an envelope and some
post-it notes and we'll get to all that in a moment but first let me read this
this is so important as a backdrop for what I believe God wants to give you as
a back story today every blessing has a back story okay every blessing has a
back story and so this is one for the nation of Israel
Joshua 4:19 on the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan
and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho and Joshua set up
everybody say set up and Joshua set up at Gilgal the 12 stones they had taken
out of the Jordan now they're not in the promised land yet but God is setting
them up and as a part of the setup it's kind of elaborate God it's like hey take
the stones from the Jordan which represents the miracle that I just did for you and
set it up and then after you set up the stones this is the purpose of them
they're not just props I don't want you to just collect these stones for props
and put them in a trophy case somewhere but rather than just trophies these are
triggers these stones that you set up because I'm not done with you yet
and there's a great thing that I'm doing through you and so I want to use the
stones as a set up and then watch verse 21 it gives it gives the purpose he said
to the Israelites in the future when your descendants asked their parents now
stop right there he's teaching them to think
generationally he's thinking them he's teaching them not to just settle for
instant gratification and what's in it for me so in the future when your kids
are asking what do these stones mean tell them tell them they're important
because the stones can't speak for themselves right this is not like Siri
hey Siri bring me lemonade this is not that kind of thing this is not some
magic trick you got you've got to speak and tell them when you see the stones
when they see the stones tell them I love this stuff I love these Old
Testament stories so much in them tell them
Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground for the Lord your God dried up the
Jordan before you until you had crossed over the Lord your God did to the Jordan
what He had done to the Red Sea when He dried it up before us until we had
crossed over every generation is to experience their own move of God not
just worship something God did in the past but to move forward into the future
full of faith and so I want to speak to you for a few moments today on the power
of the prompt the prompt if you'd like to write that down
it's just a little title that I'm giving the message if you wouldn't like to
write it down it's still the title that I'm giving the message
the power of the prompt so about these interns they're pretty cool
www.elevationchurch.org/internship shameless plug
they are two weeks out from finishing their internship and I got to meet with
them Thursday and we had the best time right we're supposed to go 90 minutes
and it went 2.5 hours and then for the first time that has ever
happened I met them at the movies because as a part of their discipleship
process I took them to see Creed 2 amen come on I'm a good good pastor it's Who
I am
now what prompted me to do that well when I was getting to know them I like
to do an icebreaker hey you know what's your favorite music and then they'll
always say Christian bands cuz I'm the pastor and then I don't know what so
what do you really listen to and then they'll uh I'll ask what's your favorite TV
shows they all said the office I think everybody said the office and I said
cool y'all are too young for the office but anyway I understand and then they
said I said what's your favorite movie and one of the kids
screams out Rocky he said it you know like you'd like sometimes you're in a
worship service and somebody goes Jesus but he said the name of Rocky and when
he invoked the name of Rocky he won my heart
in fact come here Gabe real quick LJ just in honor in honor of Gabe let's do
this real quick go ahead go ahead LJ oh you want to run the stairs
I like that yea do those too those stairs too go all the way take those stairs they want to see you go
come on man make it count
so this could be you elevationchurch.org/internship thanks for
coming now let's go sit down man that's enough catch
your breath you know you hadn't done that much
cardio in months
so I was like you like rocky he goes yeah I said now this is a real test I
said what's the best rocky he said and he didn't have to pray he didn't and
this is how I'm gonna test if he's a true man of God he said he wants to go in ministry one
day and there's an answer to this and it's definitely not it's definitely not
5 we all know that could be 3 but he said the right answer he said Rocky 4
when he said Rocky 4 I said I perceived that thou art a prophet and
the words of life I was like just cause that's the first one my dad showed me
I remember my dad on a Friday night we stopped by National Home Video in
Moncks Corner VHS tape and he said you're ready for Rocky 4 and you're
ready for you ready to see by the way it's just I can know who to pray for
that needs the Lord how many of you have not seen Rocky a single Rocky movie oh
come to the altar are you serious your parents
haven't shown you Rocky 4 we call DSS on those parents I almost felt like with
my kids it was a generational responsibility you know to show them how
the Cold War really ended with Rocky defeating Drago and and then so when I
found out that Creed 2 was the sequel to Rocky 4 I was like oh man this is the
this is the equivalent of Joshua and Moses this is like the Red Sea and the
Jordan you know is this - this is probably taking the illustration too far
but I almost had a spiritual experience I met them at the theater on on Thursday
night and we watched Rocky I think we annoyed everybody in the theater
we were so loud at Stonecrest but we went to the temple of Stonecrest and we
watched the Gospel according to Rocky Balboa and then there's so much gospel
in Rocky but you probably know the backstory to it and so you know it
prompted me sermons come to me from all kinds of places but I'm sitting there
Graham and Elijah went with me and we're watching Creed 2 and I won't tell you
how it ends because your homework this week is to prepare your offering read
your Bible and go seek Creed 2 it's fantastic and then and then I was thinking
Graham was sitting with me Elijah was sitting with me the interns were there
and I was thinking like remembering my dad's in heaven now and so I always
remember when he showed me it was just a cool moment where I was like every
generation gets their own Rocky it's pretty cool and then I thought I wonder how many of them know the back story of
how Rocky Balboa was created I wonder how many of I wonder how many of them
know what these stones mean you know they know that Michael B Jordan wasn't
the first Creed I wonder if they know and I don't know
how much of this you knew Gabe but when Sylvester Stallone created Rocky he was
inspired because he was broke right he had been in one movie and he had
moderate success but he moved to LA because he wanted to start really trying
to write and he would walk around writing stuff and that he went to see
Muhammad Ali fight Chuck Wepner how many of you didn't know any of this just
raise your hand real quick ok this is important this is almost biblical Rocky
is canonical and I promise you we'll be in Joshua in just a moment but but let me give the
back story to this and when he was watching Chuck Wepner fight Muhammad Ali
and go the distance even though he didn't win and put the champ down he was
inspired by the story of an underdog he thought that's what I need to write and
he spent the next three days writing the rough draft of Rocky three days three
days so for those of you who don't believe that Rocky is biblical it's
three days and then when he finished writing it he
remembered he was prompted just by something that he saw talk about the
power of a prompt he was prompted watching it I need to write that he
wrote it and then somebody asked him what he was working on when he went for
an audition one time and he almost didn't want to tell him because even
know if it was any good but he showed him I'm working on this thing he's prompted
and then they offered him $25,000 for the script $50,000, $100,000 no because
they weren't gonna let him be Rocky if you wanted to play Rocky and something
in and told him you need to play this character this is a once in a lifetime
thing and then they offered him $250,000 $300,000
$360,000 he had $106 in his bank account and they
offered him $360,000 for the script he said no he
had already sold his dog Butkus Butkus he sold his dog Butkus and and he
turned it down and finally they gave him $1,000,000
dollars to make the movie which wasn't much and he made it and as of 2017
according to what I Googled the Rocky franchise has earned in the box-office
alone over $1.4B so let's thank God for Rocky and then
and then we'll move on cause there's something I want to tell you about I just told you I I can see
some of you like come on man I didn't come for all this shut up I'm trying to get
to something here alright I got a reason for telling you this because everything
great that I've ever seen I would attribute to the hand of God in my life
started with a prompting a prompting and the thing about game-changers and game-
changing decisions is that they don't feel like game-changers in the moment it
doesn't a promise from God usually doesn't feel like a promise here's how
it operates in the pattern of Scripture okay that God will give you a promise
and then He will give you a prompting to act on the promise that He gave
and learning to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit is the
most crucial skill that that you could ever acquire in your life it takes
courage it takes discernment it takes sometimes being still shutting the other
voices off but the promptings of the Holy Spirit I mean how many times have I
missed the the the blessing of God in an area of my life because I did not
respond to a prompting how many times have we come to church and heard a
sermon and and then we experienced the prompting but because we didn't respond
to the prompt we did not receive the promise it could be the smallest things
one time God prompted me to send somebody a a voice memo they said they
saved it for 4 years on their phone I didn't know that they were gonna save it
for 4 years I just knew they were going through something then I sent it
to him prompting a prompting and it must have seemed weird to the Israelites
right set up the stones but the stones are not there to serve the purpose that
they seem to be serving on the surface they are to prompt the story now I'm
preaching to you today because there are some things that God has placed in your
life and some things that he's doing that if you will pay attention God is
trying to to use that thing to prompt you in an area of your life where he
intends to bless you the stones prompt the story and then the
story is meant to prompt the faith of the people so that they can continue on
and this is how God works so I want to practice this today I want to do this in
front of you it's one thing to preach it it's another thing to practice it and I
realized that the Israelites didn't go back to that place in Gilgal and tell
their children the story that's why in Judges 2:10 it says that the next
generation didn't know why didn't they know because their parents didn't
revisit the place they got so far from where they started that they lost their
sense of who brought them now I don't want that to happen to us as
a church and so I thought what might be appropriate today to help prompt your
faith is to share a few stones not 12 I'm not gonna do 12 like the 12 stones
we don't we don't have that long but I just want to take 5 just want to take
5 prompts and this is where the post-it notes come in because I wrote
down 5 prompts you know like the writing prompt that you get writing
prompt and I'm gonna hand these one at a time to these interns and I'm gonna ask
them to tell me the story and you can ask me anything you want as long as it's
exactly what's written on this post-it note and I'm gonna answer it
it's a prompt everybody say prompt prompt that's that's the word God gave
me prompt to learn how to respond to the prompting of God that's what this
offering is about that's what life is about
that's what forgiveness is about God is gonna prompt you and will you respond to
the prompt that determines how you experience the promise so I've got 5
of these and they will prompt the story like those stones prompted the stories
and I pray that God will use it you wanna read the first one you didn't get to go
last night okay it's the same ones as last night though yeah I didn't change
them because it went good last night so really nice tell me about the time you
thought your college roommate was going crazy but was actually setting an
example you would follow for the next 20 years what a great question thank you
for asking me that so my college roommate my junior and senior year was
named Alex early which is funny because he would get up super early and he would
pray I would get up last minute 7:57 for an 8 a.m. class we went to North
Greenville University it's where I got my degree it's where I got my wife if you
were to ask me which of those two has served a greater purpose in my life it
would no doubt be that one so I hadn't shown anybody my degree in a while but I
show her off all the time anyway my roommate was Alex Early
he was very spiritual but he's also one of these people who wasn't so spiritual
that he wasn't funny he was like able to he could quote John Calvin to you but he
could also make the funniest prank phone calls
and he would call he had this uh this this redneck persona called Duwiané
McGraw D-U-W-I-A-N-É with a thing over the e cuz it's French Duwiané McGraw
and he called he modeled after Roy D Mercer we had the best time in college but
what I learned from him that I never forget that I am so glad you asked me
about thank you for asking me that is a one day he came running back to the room
between classes and he looked like he looked like he was in a state of
absolute emergency he was in panic mode and he starts grabbing out of the drawers
all the money he can find in the room not my money his money he starts
grabbing all the money out of the room and I was like what are you doing he's
like I don't have time to talk about it I'll tell you when I get back oh my god what
is Alex what is Alex into it's just like some Walter White crap going on and and
so he uh he came back he wouldn't talk to tell me what he was doing he came
back he said he looked so relieved I was like what was that and you and he said
he was real serious he goes God convicted me bro I've been hold on let me tell you
what he what he said next
he said since I've been here at college I haven't been tithing he belonged to a
church that I really admire in his hometown in Woodstock Georgia First
Baptist Woodstock Pastor Johnny Hunt and he said I am I'm sending my tithe I
calculated God spoke to me that His money was in my bank account and I'd
been telling myself the whole time I was here at college that since I was away
and since I didn't have much anyway he said but God convicted me not to keep
His money in my account and that boy mailed the cash and he had coins and
everything he could find and sent it in the mail and God used him one of the
ways God will prompt you sometimes is through the example of somebody else
that's why I always do the giving on the weekend where people come and give
because I think that sometimes an example is better than a sermon Amen
and when he did that God spoke to me you know because my mom had taught me the
same principle of tithing and yet I found so many excuses and you know what
I did next thing I did well I had a checking account I didn't think it had
to be as ghetto as he made it out to be like throwing cash in the mail but I did the
same thing I decided you know what he's right he's right if I can't trust God
with that 10% how can I say everything I have comes from Him and I send it yeah
Amen see I'm not I need you to know this in case you're new or a guest or
something I am not one bit timid about preaching this stuff this is my
testimony I don't apologize for it I believe in what we do I believe in what
God's Word teaches I've seen it in my so like if you need me to get up here
and say yeah it'll be okay you're special that's not me that's not how I feel
about God that's not how I feel about His Word that's not how I feel about His
principles that's not how I feel about His promises
I believe this stuff so so it prompted me and I never I never kept God's money
in my bank account after that no matter how much I had didn't have and it got
harder when you have more you know 10% of $50 isn't that hard
to send send God some some coupons in the mail or something like that then when
God starts blessing you you have to decide do you want to trust Him on the
next level Amen so I believe God's gonna prompt some
people this this year end that you've been holding on to what is God's
I should move on from this point it feels super uncomfortable but these are just
my stones these are my stories this is what God has done for me so here's
another one I really like this one this is probably my favorite one who wants to do
this one you want the prompt yeah okay let's get her a mic Ben Landheer by the
way Ben who's your favorite intern on the stage right now don't answer that
no just give her the mic give her the mic tell me about the big decision you made
at the kitchen table that made you feel like you were going to throw up in your
mouth and I wrote it in an acceptable way I think I actually did throw up in
my mouth and swallow it back down so here's the story too vivid I understand
you know when Holly and I got married she taught school and I traveled and
we saved up and put a down payment on a house and we did what Dave Ramsey taught
in his Financial Peace stuff like no debt and all that we tried to do that
but other than our house but then another thing we did was he said put an
emergency fund and Dave Ramsey said it he said it scared me that to not do it
the way he said it and he said that it should be a certain amount of your
expenses in case something happens and he said do it as quick as you can well
we were just married and we didn't start with a lot
money or anything like that we started with no money but over time I was able
to build up and I'll never forget like we're in our house at 330 Dellwood
Drive Shelby North Carolina you could go by there and knock on the door and ask
the person say hey say hello and then go into the kitchen and then sit down and
you'll see the spot where this happened ok alright so we we had just put that
amount of money we just hit the amount in the savings account and I was going
in to tell Holly hey good news we got our emergency fund we hit the
number because we set the number hit the number and when I went in to tell her
prompt something prompted me and at first I thought it was the devil
I really did because it was like hey what if you gave that money instead we didn't
have kids yet we didn't have that that pressure of providing for children yet
and we were young we could afford number one combos at the Mexican restaurant and
and so it was like what if you gave it away would you do that so when I sat
down at the table I told Holly hey I got good news and bad
news the good news is we've got our emergency fund like the last deposit we
made it to the she said what's the bad news
I said I think God might be I don't know if I used the word prompting but I feel
like an impression that we should give it away
and see I'm counting on her to say that's not God like I'm counting on her
to have no faith right because then I can say well Lord the woman that you
gave me you know
and she goes oh cool I trust you God spoke to you let's go let's do it dang it woman and so I
remember sitting down writing 5 checks I remember who we wrote them to
it's not before we didn't have Elevation Church yet the church we were part of at
the time another ministry and we gave it away but the funniest thing was while I
was doing it I was like my hands were shaking and right when I've written the
last one I felt like a peace and the way that I interpreted what the peace that I
felt was like God was saying to me keep your hands open to me no matter how much
I bless you with no matter how hard things get at certain times in your life
or how tight it seems and I've experienced both of those keep your hands open and
if you'll keep your hands open to me you'll always have everything you need
to do everything I've called you to do
now let me tell you the sequel to that cuz every Rocky 4 has a Creed 2 every
Red Sea has a Jordan just this past Monday I got to sit down with our kids at the
kitchen table and it wasn't some holy sacred moment in fact they were running
around they were I think annoyed that they had to sit and listen to these
stories again I think Graham said dad we know this already but what I did I told
them our testimony and I asked them to bring all their money to the table which
is really technically my money you have no money you understand that but bring
my money that I let you pretend like is your money and keep in your little
stupid wallet bring it to the table Abby has more money than the boys I
don't know what she's running on the side at school selling some Jolly
Ranchers or something Abby is so loaded she got she's like says to her brothers
all the time you need to visit the bank of Abby she's 7 I sat them down and said it's time it's
year end offering you know we did this with Waymaker we did this with
Surround we did this we've been doing this since they were conscious like
here's mommy and daddy and remember Dada Dada Dada Baba Baba Baba cuz different
times we've done that over and over again not the tithe but above and beyond
and then we pray about it and sometimes God will give me like a specific number
that's meaningful sometimes I'll think I have the number and then it's not the
right one cuz it doesn't take faith and God will stretch me because one will be
what I can do and then one will be something that really says how I need
Him but when I was walking them through that and I'm like sit down and listen to
this you know you need to hear this story
I realized something that just this year we had a milestone we're now Holly and I
by the grace of God have been able to give to this church Elevation Church not
what we originally gave at the kitchen table and in Shelby the emergency fund
and not 2 times that but over the course of this church we've been able to
give not 10 times and I couldn't really believe this number not a 100 times
but 1,000 times what we gave at that kitchen table
to this ministry and I'm not gonna tell you the amount because it's not about
the size of the gift it's about the sacrifice that's what it's always about
like some people sit through this teaching and God prompts them to give a
$1,000,000 and they're able to do that we've seen that but some people got
prompts and God prompts them to do something that would seem small but to
him it's bigger because it represents something that comes from your heart
that's all God is when I went to I went to Elevation they just talked about
money I'm not talking about money I'm talking about your heart where your treasure is your heart
will be also and we talk about every element of your
heart but until this happens until your hands are open to God that's that's what
the offering is about it's about getting your hands open not because God needs
what you have you need what He has
I'm preaching on this stool I don't even need a pulpit for this sermon I am preaching
on this stool Drago I'm grateful you know like when we first
gave to outreach I had no idea that that it was a set of a stepping stone it was
a stepping stone God was setting the table because when this church didn't
have much money Hurricane Katrina hit and I felt a
prompting reach out to somebody in New Orleans or in the area and I found a
pastor in Slidell Louisiana and we sent him $1,600 that we did not have we
needed that money for our church but I was operating out of the same principle
you keep your hands open to me and see what I will do through you and now the
fact that we've given and will have given by the end of this year over
$40,000,000 away to those in need come on I'm prompting you right now to
praise God for what we've been able to do around the world you kind of go back and
and you wonder you wonder you wonder what if what if we had said no back then
what if I said no I'm gonna keep my little $1600 for our outreach I'm gonna keep my
and God is prompting some of you to open your hands to Him
and I pray that you'll know that joy it's a it's a real privilege it's a real
privilege let's do another prompt I think we got time for one or two more
you wanna do this one you sure this is a big one don't screw it up
take the post-it now that shiny cross around your neck tell me about the
silver bullet of the church planting the silver bullet of church planting you
want to know about that you sure I don't know if you can handle the silver bullet
of church planting I certainly wasn't ready for the silver bullet of
church planting so imagine this church has not started yet
I'm meeting with the 7 families that moved here to start the church come on
let's go back to the Jordan for a minute you got to go back to where you started
and revisit these miracles so at that time I didn't know anything to teach
these people so all we did was read books from people who knew how to start
church because we never started one I was 25 years old I had no idea I mean
I'm scared to death but I feel like God is prompting us to start this church and
we had just decided to come to Charlotte to start it we put up a map and anyway
you don't need did all that the point is I brought in a guy who I thought was like
an expert in church planting and I asked him to talk to my team tell them anything
you want and I'll give you a $50 Chili's gift card at the time that
seemed generous we got it from credit card rebate points okay and so
he's like eh you're don't have to give me anything I'll just come nice guy and he
shared with us a little bit about evangelism a little bit about marketing
a little bit about team building unity groups all the typical stuff but then
when it was over we'd been recording the whole session so we could listen to
it and learn from it taking notes and all the families are sitting around the
table and he's like at the end he goes okay can you turn that off a minute
can you stop recording you turn it off and he goes can you shut the door what's
about to happen here yeah and we shut the door he's like now I'm gonna give
you the silver bullet of church planting
I'm I'm about to hear this and then he goes there are friends that you have that
belong to other churches and those churches are big and they tithe to their
church but their church wouldn't miss it if they stopped get them to transfer
their tithe from that big church to your little church for 24 months and and when
he said it it felt like a bullet not a silver bullet but it felt like if we did
that if we started this church on that kind of manipulation that we
would always have to manipulate and I thanked him I didn't correct him until he
left the room I said thank you for coming appreciate it
God bless you he prayed he left I shut the door again when he left I said to
the team I said we will not build this church on those types of principles if
we're gonna do God's work and God's will we'll have to do it God's way
and
it was a temptation in the moment you know because it was strategic and
sometimes sometimes you'll be prompted to take a shortcut and to do it your way
you can justify it you know but in that moment here's what God prompted me to
ask of that team and these are just normal people some of them with small
children all of them moving with with no job we didn't have some big funding
it was nothing like that it was nothing like that I just said
what if we gave 10% the tithe to the church that we're currently a part of
until we leave that is sending us and another 10% to the new one we're
starting what if we all committed to lead the way and to do that so that when we
stand up and ask people to be a part of this we will have set an example that
they can follow do you want to know why God is using this ministry today and now
like I look in the camera and it's like in Singapore and Cape Town and Gastonia
and all kinds of places all around the world it's not because of it's not
because of great preaching it's because of personal sacrifice that people were
willing to make and hear me I appreciate the
front row but I want to say something to everybody watching the sermon if we
become now just consumers Christian consumers where it's like I didn't
really like the word today Ah they didn't do my song today Ah it was a guest today Ah was at
this event if it becomes about that God will shut it all down because that is
not what this church was founded on you see how they're looking at me out there
it's like this you are sitting right now in somebody else's sacrifice I always
thought that was so crazy people come and go I don't I don't I don't like when
the church talks about giving how do you think there was a church for you to come
to if somebody didn't give me too JJ I loved it I love to tell the story of how
that original core team they're all still here at the church by the way all
of those families do you know how rare that is that God kept those families together
these 12.5 years and now God is calling on another generation and
I really don't have time for the last two stones I'd I'd like to give them to
you but I'm I'm only gonna be able to give you one of them and I'm gonna let
you vote on this one which one you want do you want to hear about the time that
John the Baptist came into my office
or option a or do you want to hear about the time that we took a bus ride from hell these
are your options pray about it see if God prompts you who wants to hear John
the Baptist make some noise at every location who wants to hear about the bus
ride from hell make some noise alright so John the Baptist
I'm gonna tell you this one real quick that's the that's the time that John
Butler who was a Baptist who yeah he was a Baptist preacher and he came in my
office listen to this you heard this last night but listen again you need to
hear these stories over and over again he came in and he had $300,000 he had a
denominational job he'd been coming to the church the church was full he sits
on my couch in my office he asked for a meeting with me and he said well
preacher you were full this Sunday I noticed you were full I noticed there
wasn't an empty seat in the house and I'm so proud of that I was like yes sir
praise the Lord you know spiritualize it but really I was proud of it
yes sir praise the Lord we prayed for it praise God he goes preacher that's a
problem I said no it's not a problem it's a goal I want a full house he said yeah
but you're telling these people to bring their friends where are their friends gonna
sit you need to start another campus and I have $300,000 that a little old lady
who died left to the Baptist Convention for church planting and I'll give it to
you if you'll start another campus and here's what I said and I'm ashamed to
tell you this to this day because for all you that think this is just a brag
session to tell you about my great faith it's not it's about God's faithfulness
in spite of it because I looked at that man and said I don't have the gifts to
do that people would not watch me preach on the screen
so I thank God for what he said next so powerful he said here's how it works
preacher and he's talking to me like like I like like a young punk like I was
but he said it with love too he said if you get ahead of God trying
to obey Him He'll just shut the door if you get
behind God and won't obey Him He'll just get somebody else to do it you take a
few days and pray about it preacher and let me know what you want to do and he
got up to walk out and I was like hey come back we'll do it we'll do it we'll do it I don't want God to pick somebody else come on I want in on this I want to be in the
middle of what God is doing it and now today watch this over over I want to say
it's 17 locations it's more than that because somebody's watching this in a
hospital room on the screen somebody's watching this on television
somebody's watching this in a prison
and it all starts when you respond to a prompting so for just a moment would you
would you just seated right there where you are for a moment would you
make a space right now in your heart for the Holy Spirit to prompt you in an area
of your life where He is speaking to you but you have not yet responded Joshua
said set up these stones so that when the children of Israel ask you what
these stones mean you can tell them what God did I did my best today in the
little bit of time that we had to tell you some of the things that God has done
for us in the 12.5 years that we've been a church some of it
before you got here some of you have been here for many of these miracles and
I did it in hopes that it would prompt you to know that when faith skips a
generation and when we start to stand in the middle of something that God did
that was extraordinary and treated as common miracles start to dry up and all
I'm asking you to do as we prepare for next weekend online around the world you
know we've already had the conversation with our family here's uh here's Abby's
money it's the biggest one of the kids money that's what God prompted them to
do Holly and I have have been praying and I didn't tell you this yet but in my in
my heart while I was preaching last night my number went up so we need to
talk again because one number was comfortable
and then the other number represented a commitment to not rest on what God has
already done but to make way for what He wants to do and the ask is very simple
ask God ask Him to prompt you some of you have never been through this process
so you've never taken it seriously and I understand it's uh it's uncomfortable
but this card is a prompt it's a prompt for you you know what a
great word prompt prompt prompt it also means immediate prompt
prompt yes God it's yours of course God of course I would advance
your work of course I would give to You of course I would be generous of course
I would want to make a way for someone else like You made a way for me of
course Lord it's Yours when you get that kind of spirit in your heart you begin
to experience promises of God that you could never imagine this is not some
name it claim it blab it grab it weird theology where I'm telling you that you
can get a Mercedes if you give God $10 I don't believe in that I don't
preach that I never have never will what I'm telling you is a testimony that
God has made away for me time after time and I want to see Him do the same in
your life if that means that right now you're in a season where you can't give
then let this be the season that someone else carries the load there's nothing
wrong with that but you pray you pray that those who are able to give will if
not on the level that's comfortable but on the level that represents a true
commitment to the cause of Christ may we never become like this when we started
like this so I want you to bow your head and close your eyes no one moving this
is a pretty important moment right now is a setup for something that God wants
to do in the future and I'd like to just give you 1 minute just 60 seconds
after I stop talking and if you would ask God silently you don't have to pray
out loud or anything like that maybe you want to just open your hands just
physically like right in front of you that's what I do sometimes when I'm
praying about a message or when I'm asking God for direction in my life
maybe just with your hands open and just say God would you prompt me
would you prompt me to respond to the Gospel that you've freely given me as I
get the opportunity to share with others would you speak to me specifically God
show me how I can be used as I prepare my offering so I give it online this
week or bring it back next weekend show me what you've given me that came from
you that I can now give back as an offering and in just a moment I'm gonna
allow you to sit you know God often doesn't shout He doesn't like draw stuff
in the sky He doesn't always respond with a big star sign that comes from
heaven out loud He speaks in a whisper still small voice He prompts you and it
is your response to that prompting that determines how much of His promises you
experience so Father now speak to Your people in this minute of silence and
throughout the next week and prompt them as to what You would have them to do in
obedience hey thanks for joining us today we really hope you enjoyed the
sermon we want to give you some practical ways to put what you heard
today into practice now first of all would you take some time and think about
the stones you have in your life maybe it's the moments when God showed His
faithfulness across your journey second would you pray about what God would have
you give to the year end offering here at Elevation for some of you who call
Elevation home maybe it's just to start tithing that's giving back to God the
very first 10% now for others of you it may be to bring an offering a gift that
will allow us to continue spreading the gospel all around the world and we want
everyone to participate by just choosing a word or a phrase for 2019 something
that you're believing God for in this next year you can visit elevationchurch.org/give
for more details and how to give and be apart we're
excited to see how God is gonna move in our church in this season and believe
that God wants to do something very special in your life
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