Now

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION: 

Well, if you’re new around here, I’m Virgil Grant. I’m the senior pastor, and I just want to say a big welcome to each and every one of you. It doesn’t matter where you’re at on your spiritual journey. It doesn’t matter where you’re at in your life that. This is a place that we welcome everyone, and we’re so honored and privileged that we get to do all of this together. And some of you are here this morning, and I understand that you have a need, and your need is you need some advice a love. And I’m here to share some advice for young people and for single people. And wouldn’t you agree with me that they need advice more than ever in the history of the world when you agree with me? And so I’m just going to jump right into it. And maybe you hear, and you’re Christian, and you’re looking for the right way to pick up a person to pick up a guy or a girl. Right? You’re looking for the perfect Christian pickup line, Right? And so here’s what we’re going to do and give you the top ten list. And we’ve got Aaron Martin here. He’s going to do the drum roll for me. Okay. Yeah. So so, here are the top ten lines. Go back to me. I was going to read that, but the top ten lines to flirt with another follower of Jesus. Now, if you know of anybody this single or young, you may want to take some notes to help them. Okay. So number ten, here we go. What are you doing the rest of your afterlife? I mean, isn’t that great? That’s pretty good, right? Now get better, I promise you. Okay. Number nine. Here we go.

Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? I mean, yeah, to me, that’s pretty good. Here’s number eight. Let’s be like Noah and do this as a pair. I mean, you have to admit that it’s biblical number seven. Are you looking for an accountability partner to do life with? Maybe the number six. You do know you’re Old Testament, or this doesn’t make any sense. Okay, So just warning you that number six, how many times do you have to walk around you to make you fall for me? Right. Walking around the city of Jericho seven times. Okay. Number five. Here we go. Is it hot in here, or is the Holy Spirit burning within you? Right. I mean, maybe. I don’t know. I promise you; it gets better, number four. Here we go. I might still be living with my parents, but I’m a story of treasure in heaven. I just want you to know. Some of you are going, Oh, that’s what they’re doing. I just thought they were smooching off of me. But that’s what they do. Yeah, that’s number three. And. Despite being flawed by, Sing Your Skin is flawless. I mean, that is good, right? That’s pretty good. All right. Number two. Here we go. Number two. Excuse me, but I think one of your ribs belongs to me. Yeah, and that may work. My favorite one is number one. And here’s the top way to flirt with another Christian. It is this. I was reading the book of Numbers the other day and realized I don’t have years. It’s pretty good right now. Would you agree with me that flirting can be either good or bad? I mean, wouldn’t you agree with me? I mean, it could be a good thing if you’re single and you’re out mingling, and there are other single people.

Who wants to mingle and you want to, you know, kind of have some convo. I mean, that’s a good thing. But if you’re married, and you’re flirting with the guy at work, or you are flirting with the waitress, that is probably not a good thing at all. And what we’re doing today in the Book of Revelation in chapter three, we’re looking at a church called Laodicea who was flirting with the wrong who and was flirting with the wrong things. And they were flirting in such a way that it was making Jesus sick to his stomach that he wanted to throw up. He was wanting to vomit. Look with me in Revelation chapter three, verse 16, and Jesus says.

I am about to do it with me. Spit you out of my mouth. No, You’ll find out as we go through this letter that Jesus is not hurt. Jesus is not mad. Jesus is disappointed in the church. Laodicea to see to the extent that it was causing his gag reflex to act up. Now, let me ask you a question. Just what is it that causes you to gag? What is it that causes you to want to throw up? You know, if you thought about this, but there’s like a couple of things on my bucket list. That one, when I’m around, it’s just, oh, I mean, I’m going to talk about it and start gagging. I mean, this is how I mean, like rotten eggs. Oh, of you smell a rotten egg. I mean, that is horrible. You know, watching someone else throw up. Oh, it is the very worst. I mean, I was walking to the airport last night, and I smelt vomit. You know, I just smelled it in the airport, and I’m going, Oh, God.

I mean, seriously, I easily gag. But, you know, here’s the thing that you have to understand is that what is it that would disgust God so much that it would make him want to throw up? Have you ever thought of that? What are the attitudes that you and I possess that would cause God want to throw up when he examined our lives? And in this letter to the church Laodicea, they are flirting with two attitudes that was causing Jesus to want to throw up. And I think that those two attitudes can be attitudes that can be filtered and find its way into our hearts and into our minds if we’re not careful. The first one, if you’re taking notes, and I hope that you are, is self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency. Now, have you ever been around anyone who is so full of themselves? Their ego is the size of this room. I mean, not only their ego, the size of this room, but they dripped with arrogance. They’re rude. They’re inconsiderate. Please do not point at them at this very moment. Okay. I mean, they’re blatantly narcissistic, and everything about them. And when you think of this person, when you look at this individual, it makes you want to puke. And guess what? God feels the very same way. God was disgusted at the people at the Laodicea church. He was disgusted with them. He was just disgusted with their attitude of being self-sufficient. Now, if there was ever a church that was full of pride, who was full of independency, full of self-sufficiency, it was the church it Laodicea. And I just want to give you the backdrop. If you understand where the church is located in the city, it gives you a better understanding.

The Laodiceans is which are full of themselves. They were one of the most influential cities in the Roman Empire. It was the major thriving commercial center of the Roman Empire. It was an enclave of millionaires after millionaires, not the kind of millionaires team that you find in the Hamptons, but the millionaires that you find in Silicon Valley. I mean, these were entrepreneurs. These were go-getters. These were self-made millionaires if you will. And they had so much money, it was ridiculous. There was money they had in AD 60. There’s a major earthquake that came to the city of Little to see the Roman Empire sit there, their form of FEMA to Laodicea if you know the townspeople of are too. You tow the FEMA agency of the Roman Empire is go back home. We will build. Rebuild our own city. This is how much wealth they had. Now, some of you are saying, well, if they were wealthy, if they were Silicon Valley and caps of people. Where did their wealth come from? Well, they came from three different primary places. It is fashion, medicine, and commercial banking industry. Let me just break this down for you. Fashion is that outside of the city of Laodicea. They would raise sheep, and these were just not in the ordinary sheep, but they had this rich, glossy black wool that they would grow. And it was used for the best clothing of that day And age. People were always asking the question, what were the Laodiceans wearing? I mean, this was kind of the clothing empire of the Roman Empire everybody went there. That’s where you went and got your Louis Vuitton. This is Fifth Avenue if you will.

This is where you go and get your Rolexes. This is where you go and get Gucci or whatever your preferred brand is. Everybody was wanting to dress and to be fashionable like the Laodiceans. The second thing that you see on the screen is that they made their money from medicine is; that very early on, the doctors in layout to see developed an ointment that they were able to use to clear up people’s vision. Because back in that day and age, a vision was something that would often go out before anything else because of the sand and the dirt and the dust, and then how to treat their eyes. And so they come up with an ointment. It also tells us, according to history, that the first cataract surgeries that ever took place in the world took place at Laodicea. And so it was a fashionable capital. It was the epicenter of medicine, but it was also they made their money as a highly developed commercial banking industry. It was a huge financial center of that day. And within the context of this city of wealth, there is a church that Laodicea sphere and is in the middle of all of this affluence, in the middle of all of this wealth. And Jesus comes to his believers there, and he has a word for them. Now, I want you to look with me at verse 17. He says to them.

Revelation 3:17(NIV)

“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”

Now, Jesus wasn’t busting their shop chops for being rich.

It’s never about being rich, is it? Because all throughout scripture, there are all kinds of people that have wealth that influence affluence. There was Joe. There’s Abraham; there’s Solomon; there’s David; there’s Barnabas, you know, there’s Nicodemus, there’s all of these people. And you have to agree with me that that wealth of resources placed in the proper hands can benefit a broken world in which we live in, right? I mean, there’s nothing really I mean. The resources that we have in ISA allow us to meet many more needs. The more resources that we have, the more needs that we can meet. So Jesus wasn’t busting their chops for having money. He was busting their chops because they had come to the place where they were putting their dependency in their wealth and not in God. See, folks, are, if you understand this or not. But the problem with wealth is wealth oftentimes buys you in illusion. It buys you an illusion. Now, what am I talking about? It buys your illusion that you have security and you don’t need God in your life. Here. What I’m saying is that they provide us this illusion that we can have wealth, and wealth is their protection. Wealth is their security. And we think that we can do less apart from God and that we don’t need him. And Jesus knew this about the church, and they to see. And he says, Listen, I understand that you trust in yourself. I understand that you’re self-sufficient, but let me give you the road back to me. Let me give you a way to come back. If we’re some of you who are self-sufficient today, here is the road back to God. Look with me at Revelation chapter three, verse 18. And I love the way the message puts it. And Jesus says.

Revelation 3:18(MSG)

“‘Here’s what I want you to do: Buy your gold from me, gold that’s been through the refiner’s fire. Then you’ll be rich. Buy your clothes from me, clothes designed in Heaven.

You’ve gone around half-naked long enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me so you can see, really see.’

Now go back to the previous slide. Notice what Jesus is saying here to them. He’s talking to them about their wealth. He’s talking to them about the riches and what he’s saying to them. If you read the passage, they stop believing that your trust and your faith can be in your wealth. Stop building your own life stuff. That doesn’t matter. Start going after what matters. Stop buying into the cultural myth that more will make you happy. Folks. We believe that more will make us happy. We believe if we have more that, we will be better secure. We will have greater security, he says. Stop buying into that. Stop buying into the myth. In fact, let me just do this. Write down Revelation Chapter 18. Go back and read Revelation Chapter 18 later on this week and read about how all the wealth, about all the affluence that we have one day, will be exposed for exactly what it is. Nothing but a foundation of saying a cheap substitute for the real thing, which is God himself. And what he’s saying here and what Jesus is saying is money is unpredictable. If you don’t believe me, just go and invest in the stock market, and you’ll find out how unpredictable it is. But God is good. Money is fickle. God is not. Money is deceptive. God is not. Money is unsatisfying. But God is not.

Money is temporary. God is not in. Jesus says, Why would you build your life on something unpredictable, fickle, deceptive, unsatisfying, and temporary when you can hook up with a faithful, true, dependable, fulfilling, eternal God like my Heavenly Father? See folks. Can I tell you something is that generosity is becoming a norm around here at Eastside, is that I love to sit back and watch the generosity of our congregation, and it’s growing each and every single day. And I love to see how you’re unleashing your generosity around to others. It means I get what you love, people. I get to what you serve people. I get to watch you to reach people, to unleash compassion. And in folks, compassion is being unleashed and a greater level than ever before in a congregation. And that’s all reflective of the fact that you and I are carrying around the DNA of God inside of us. And I think that we should just give a big hand to your generosity and for what your generosity is doing in our community and in the world. And Jesus, if you go and look at this, notice what else he says. He says, go back, Timmy. Sorry. Buy your clothes for me. Clothes designed in heaven. Next slide. He goes, You’re going. You have gone around half-naked long enough. He says, Your self-sufficiency is being exposed. He goes, You know what you really need to do? You need to get rid of your self-sufficiency and clothed yourself in my sufficiency, clothe yourself in my holiness, clothe yourself in my righteousness, clothe yourself with my wardrobe of righteousness, He says, Put on a new wardrobe and make it all about me. And he goes When you put all my holiness and my righteousness; then you will be making a bold fashion statement.

And that’s what he says. He says, Come, don’t trust in riches, don’t trust in your fashion. And notice what else he says. And buy medicine for your eyes. For me, he goes, You need some Vaseline for your eyes. Don’t get it from the medical field. Don’t get it from the doctors. Get it for me because I can give you a spiritual eye that can see that is greater than any vaccine or any cataract surgery because what you need is not cataract surgery of the eyes. You need Lasik surgery on the heart. And when you do that, then you’ll be able to see what true riches, what true fulfillment, and what true dependency on me really looks like. I told you, there are a couple of attitudes that would make God sick. Can we get to the second one in a second? But I want you to understand something here. Is that self-sufficiency? And independence. Often times leads to being short-sighted. See, folks are self-sufficient and independent. Leads to pride. And pride is the root of all sins that we exist in the world today. So self-sufficiency and independency will cause you not to pray a prayer to the Lord. Because. Why? Because you’re self-sufficient. You’re independent. You don’t need the Lord. And if you do pray, you’re not praying this type of prayer. Search my heart, O God, and reveal any wicked, evil ways in my heart. Anyways, this is out of line with your will. We don’t pray those prayers and see folks. What we have to understand is that self-sufficiency and self-deception equals one thing, and that is self-destruction. And this is what’s going on with the church Laodicea. This is what’s going on in our world today. This is what’s going on in the chaos of a world.

The chaos of a rule is that I’m self-sufficient. I don’t need God. I am God. I know what’s best for my life. I determine the course. I determine the path of my life. I am self-sufficient. And because I’m self-sufficient, then I am self-deceptive. I don’t see reality. I don’t see God for who He is. I don’t see the sin in the wicked ways in my own heart. And then the end result is what the Bible says is self-destruction. Now you look around, and you see this playing out. Time and time again, wherever you look, whatever the category may be, whatever the political corner may be, they’re all headed down the same road. But self-sufficiency is a sin that you and I cannot flirt with. We have to be totally dependent on God. God has brought us this far, and it’ll be God who will take us into the future. But there’s a second attitude that we cannot flirt with, and that is indifference. It’s indifference. See, the layout of Syria wasn’t really a dead church. It wasn’t a thriving church. It wasn’t comatose. But it wasn’t taking any risk. No, it wasn’t. You could just say it was just a normal church. It was just a safe church. A comfortable church to tend to plug your family into. There are no high-risk plans on the drawing board. No daring ministry ventures. There was being prayed over. It was just a bunch of benign. Group of believers, perfectly, perfectly content, just plain church. And how do I know this? Well, look at the next passage. Says this.

Revelation 3:14-16 (NIV)

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ” So, because you are lukewarm-

Do you know what Jesus is saying there? Jesus is saying, your room temperature faith makes me sick. Let me say that you’re at room temperature. Faith makes me want to vomit. Makes me want to puke. Makes me want to throw up. Now Laodicea, as the city, had everything except one thing. Didn’t have any water supply. Laodicea had to get its water from two nearby cities, and they developed this very extravagant. Aqueduct system to bring in water. They brought in water from one city. Carl Air Police there was known for its therapeutic Hot Springs water. The other town was called Classy, and Classy was known for its cool, refreshing underground spring water. Now think about this. There was hot therapeutic water coming from one city. Cool spring water coming from another city. It flows through the aqueduct system, and by the time that it reaches to the city of RCA, guess what the water is? The water is what? Lukewarm. And Jesus says. That’s the temperature of your feet. That’s the temperature of your church. You’re flirting with indifference. You’re flirting with complacency, with apathy. You’ve just become rich and lazy. They were not using their gifts to serve the poor or the needy. They were probably waiting for someone else to do it. Instead of being totally consumed by God, they had become consumers, totally consumed with themselves, and they just sat there on their apathetic assets, blinded to their own spiritual condition and to the condition of the world.

Now, folks, I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard this passage preached my entire life. If you grew up in the church, hadn’t you heard this passage preached? And if you’ve been like me, what I’ve heard it preach is that the preachers always said one thing. It’s always truth is Jesus doesn’t want you to be cold. Jesus doesn’t want you to be cool, and Jesus would rather for you to be want to be on fire and hot for him. Now, folks, I believe that that teaching that I grew up with is false teaching. I don’t think that’s what the passage meant. This is if I can help you to understand this. Have you ever been outside working on a hot day? Or maybe you did a run, or maybe you worked out at the gym, or maybe you were playing basketball. And whatever the condition may be is that you became really, really thirsty. And when you became really thirsty if somebody offered you one of these and said, Would you like to have this? And you went, Yes, this is what I need. And what did you do? I mean, you drink the whole bottle just like that, correct? Now, would you not agree with me that there’s sometimes, after a long day of work or maybe a long week, your body and your joints are aching, and maybe you’re having trouble because you’re a little stiff and maybe sometimes what is needed is not a cold bottle of water, but rather you need something like this. You need some warm, therapeutic, hot water to help you to relax. And I think what Jesus is saying to you and to me is that there are people around us who have thirsty souls who are looking for their thirst to be quenched, and what they need because they’re worn out chasing success is that they just need a cold bottle of water.

And there are other people who are tired and weary, and what they’re needing is not a cold bottle of water but what they’re needing is a hot soak in the hot tub. Does that make sense? I think it’s what Jesus is saying because if we don’t offer up cold water if we don’t offer up hot water, then here’s what he said. Don’t be either be hot and therapeutic or cold and refreshing. But don’t just sit in the sun like a rolled-up garden hose and do nothing. And for many of us, that is what we are now. Here’s the thing. We could end the sermon right now and pray a prayer and go home. But I got a question for you. What do you think? God. It’s trying to say to us today through this passage because, I mean, here’s the question What do you think God is trying to say to us today through this passage? Now, here’s the deal. Here’s a reality. Is that most of us here can go. You know what? I used to be a part of a church like that. There’s kind of lukewarm. You know, they were in comatose. God bless you. But. But they wouldn’t take any risk. They wouldn’t be taking any chances. They wouldn’t be praying for boat prayers. It wasn’t doing anything earth-shattering. They used to be a part of the church. Or some of you go; you know what? I’ve got family member members who go to your church like that. You know, I’m saying, I mean, like, like, we import the finger at all the other churches and all the other members of her family or loved ones or friends. But that’s not the purpose of the gospel. The gospel is not. The point is that other people, but it’s first of all, do want to point of their self.

And what does God want to do in me? What does God want to do in you? What is he saying to you, and this morning this is the most important thing? And I guess the best way to explain to you what God wants to do in through us is to tell you a true story about a guy named Larry Walters. Larry Walters was retired. Well, he wasn’t retired. He was unemployed. Truck driver. He lived in L.A. He lived in a rental house. And the rental house he lived in was on the front line. The planes came into L.A. He found like one of his houses will go right into the L.A. airport. And he said it has been, you know, unemployed in his backyard is chase lounger sipping on lemonade. Maybe it was spiked; I don’t know. But so it was. And he was he would just sit there and wonder what it would be like to fly. And so one day he developed a plan and just and it’s a brilliant plan is that he decided to take his lawn chair, the old aluminum ones, you know, and he put a rope tied to the ground, anchored into the ground. And then he decided to take weather balloons filled with helium to his lawn chair. And so he grabbed this CB radio, he grabbed the six-pack, and he grabbed his baby gun because his plan was to cut the rope that he would fly up over his neighborhood. He would wave at his neighbors, his friends, you know, kind of go over the city, have a beer, kind of relax, then take his baby gun and start, you know, shooting the balloons one at a time and slowly come back to earth.

So here he is. He’s tethered to the ground with his rope and is seated in his lawn chair. He cuts the rope. And that’s when the plan went into disarray. He shot up in the air 11,000 feet in the flat pathway of all the airlines coming into L.A. because you pick, you imagine on that day you’d find commercial flight, and you looked out the window, and you see a guy in a lawn chair with a six-pack and a CB. I mean, would that be crazy? But, I mean, that’s kind of what was going on, right? And so he CB, you know, for the help and to tower control, and they helped him. Slowly but surely, to make it back down to the ground. He shot one weather balloon after another, and by this time, the media had already heard about it. And so when Larry Walters landed back on the ground safely, the news reporters, they started asking him questions, and they asked him three questions. Here are the three questions. Were you scared? Yes. Would you do it again? Nope. He’s a man of few words. Then they ask him the question, Why would you do it? And here’s his response. Well, you can’t just sit there. You just can’t sit there. Was his response? And friends. When we think. About the condition of our world. When we think about how dark it’s becoming. When we think about the division in the hatred. That’s going on all around us, you and I. We cannot just sit there. We have to do something. And the thing that God wants to do is to change your heart. And to change my heart. This is what God wants us to do because you just can sit there and remain the same person that are you have to allow me to change you, to renew your mind, transform your heart, transform your soul.

See, folks, we. We’re talking about legacy makers. Legacy Makers is about what God wants to do in your life. See, some of you think that legacy makers don’t really apply to you. So you’re just sitting there, and you think, I don’t have to do anything. But here’s the reality. You just can’t sit there because wherever you’re at in your spiritual walk, you are at the starting line. It’s not the finish line. It’s just the starting line. Do you know what happens? You take two or three steps for God. You get further down the pathway of living the only life. You know what? You just once again establish the starting line. Because God wants all of you, God wants all of you. We call it the all in life. See, folks, we help people to find and to follow God. We call it all in life. And the all in life is never over with. Many of you just think, well, we. I can just survive. I mean, I preached my giving a year ago. I increased my give me two years ago. I started doing a little bit more around the church. I’ve started being more active in my life group. That’s great. There’s more to this than what you’re doing. And the greatest shot that we have of pushing back the darkness in central Kentucky is for God to do a miracle in your life and to do a miracle in my heart and see folks. Our mission is very clear, is to push back the darkness in central Kentucky by helping 10,000 people to be on the journey of living the all in life. Why push back? Darkness is getting darker. Do you know why? 10,000? We will double the lot. We want to go from 10,000 people going to church to 20,000 people.

Do you know why? Second campus To offer more services to be in close proximity. Why now? Because. Why? Because God has answered our prayers. And see our call to action. It is to do something because you can’t just sit there. Because if you just sit there, then nothing’s going to happen. And listen to me. One of the things that I’m actively pursuing in the church is actively pursuing. It is to pass the baton off to the next generation. Because so often times that churches are thriving and growing, they’re making a difference, but they don’t hand the baton off to the next generation. And one of the things that we’ve been doing in East Side is that we have been in the process of handing off the baton to the next generation. And we’re not waiting five years or ten years. We’ll have a five or ten-year plan of doing that. We’re in the midst of doing it right now. We’re in the midst of raising up leaders right now in our youth group, an inner college ministry. And this morning, I want to invite Luli McGinnis to come up. Lily is a senior. Come on up in high school, and she’s going to share something with you. So would you welcome Lily too? Now, what if we, the church, all of us, decided to live a little dangerously, came out from hiding behind the brush, and let God light a flame in us? What if we began a revolution and didn’t back down from persecution? Became part of a solution and got in the distribution of love, hope, and grace. What if. What if we knew what God said? Let his word wrap around our hearts in our heads. More than just words on a page collecting dust unread.

But instead, like this book is alive, not dead. What if. What if our families were thriving? A place of peace? No. Depriving. No striving. More than just surviving. But rising up to give care, invest, serve in guide to set aside our pride, decide to abide and stay beside a place where children can confide. Love is supplied, and hope presides. What if you’re 12, 16, or 20 and lived with the courage? Unlike so many possessed valor, boldness, and faith. Plenty. Let God write your story from the beginning. All of the someday I’ll be are phony and fleeting. You are worthy now. Your life has meaning. What if. What if we unleash our compassion, fling our faith into action, and open our hands, our homes, our wallets, and our doors To the lonely, the outcast, the hurting the poor gave to our neighbors and didn’t keep score humbled ourselves so that someone else can saw. What if ah, what if we’re more than just the words we say or some game we play? What if we didn’t stray or sway or live our lives in all of these different shades of gray? What if instead we pray God make this our DNA? I think we would be dangerous. I think we would be legacy makers. Thank you. Yeah. Is he friends? We just can’t sit there and do nothing. We have to do something. We have to make it better for our children and our grandchildren. And now is the opportunity. And what I’m asking you to do is to rise up and to say, I’m going to be a legacy maker. And what the ask that we’re asking right now. It is for you to participate in generosity. In general, it’s going to look like one of three ways for you.

And the first one is for some of you. You probably need to start your generosity for some of you. You don’t give in. It’s okay. It doesn’t matter where you’re at. But God wants to change your heart. And one of the ways they change your heart is to ask you to step in. And generosity. And what does that look like for you? Is it a dollar a week? Is it $5 a week? $5 a month? It doesn’t matter. But here’s what I’m asking you. If you’re not, if you’ve not stepped into generosity, would you do it in the next week or so? The amount doesn’t matter. But it’s saying to God, You’re not done with me, but you want to transform me. You want to change me. For some of you, you’re going to go, and you’re going to increase your giving. For some of you, you’re going to make a one-time gift. And so far, 75 different families have done one of these three things. Some families have started their generosity journey. Some have increased their giving. Some have just made a one-time donation. And I just want to say thank you. 75 families so far. There are going to be many more. Some of you. You have. You’ve increased your giving, or you started at your giving and even gone to the QR code; you’ve been scanned that it’s on your program, which is also going to be on the screen. You go to the QR code and let us know of how you’ve increased your giving. So thank you for doing that. But would you just let us know that you’ve done it or that you’re going to start? And here’s the reason why we ask you to do that is because.

Next week on May the seventh. We’re going to have a big celebration. We’re going to have a commitment Sunday. We want to share with you the amount that’s been given. That’s been pledged. We’re going to share the number of people who stepped into generosity, the number of people who increased their generosity, and the number of families who’ve made one-time gifts. And we’re just going to celebrate the fact. That. These families have agreed and said, you know what? I want to be counted as a legacy maker, and you’re stepping into generosity is the way that you let us know that you’re in. And again, it doesn’t matter how small the gift is or how big the gift is because what we’re doing is that we’re setting up and passing the baton off to the next generation, and we want to be faithful in that. And I know that. God’s going to use this in a great and mighty way because God’s not done with us. And we had to be totally dependent on him. So would you please stand? Would you pray with me, please? Father, this morning. Thank you for a church who is passing the baton even as we are speaking to the next. Generation. That’s the reason that we have leaders, student leaders all across our church. The reason we have student leaders on the worship team and the tech team, and we have the young people who are being developed as teachers on the stage, is that, Father, we want to faithfully and successfully pass the baton to the next generation. We truly want to be legacy makers. We want to push back the darkness. We want people to find and to follow you. And to live the only life. And, Father, I’ll just thank you for the families who’ve already stepped up, whether they’ve made it known or not, through the QR code, the online link.

Father, thank you for the early adopters who said Yes, Father, thank you for those who are knuckled about finances that think the church needs money or that God needs money. There’s just what noble thank you for them, Lord, because you’re in the midst of. Helping them to release their control, their grip on their finances and to transform their hearts into generosity. Father, thank you for all the legacy makers who are gone before us. And, Father, we pray that you will continue to bless them. In Jesus’s name, Amen.