Flip The Bag

up on your phone if you can. That way you can highlight what I say that matters to you, go back and see it in the week, and that way you can kind of record or bring if you want to bring the real paper the scrolls with you to church, You're always welcome to do that as well. I got this big old Bible, y'all. When I preach from this one, it's a heavy sermon. Abby calls this Bible fat cat. So the deal is, I'm supposed to give her this one. She's ten. I preach through each Bible for a few years,

then give it to one of the kids. So Abby gets this one here in a few years but I get to put a few more miles on it, including tonight with Matthew chapter twenty five, or this morning if you're watching it another time at another location. So much to consider. This passage may be familiar to you as the parable of the Talents, It's pretty well known, pretty well known passage. I was so excited when God gave me permission to preach it. I have to feel a

scripture to preach it. I don't have to feel it for it to be true, but I have to have a personal connection to preach it with integrity. And so when I saw this this week, I was like, Oh, let's go. Let's go, because I love it. Being a parable, of course, has a confluence of the practical application for our lives as well as theological construct to help us understand God. So it really addresses both realms. And the Kingdom of God is always concerned not only with eternity,

but with groceries, migrains. The Kingdom of God is concerned with grades and scholarships and the things that you really care about. God cares about too. So we might be surprised to see God presented in this light. For all of us who only think of him as being a god who focuses on peace. He speaks here in this parable about prophet not profit like you know, I'm a prophet, not that kind of prophet, not with the pH profit like money. But he's using it for an illustration to

get us to think about something deeper. So that's how parable works. And in this parable, I want to just read the whole thing to you and you just relax. I know you've probably heard it before. Let's just go over it again to cover old ground. But when I read it this time, I'm going to say it. I'm going to say a little bit differently, just to help us see what God wants to illuminate today. Again. It

will be verse fourteen like a man. So when he says it will be, he's talking about the Kingdom of God. It's a succession of parables where he's talking about the importance of being prepared. It will be. The Kingdom of God will be because you can't see it, so I've got to tell you what it's like. It's like a man who is going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one, he gave five bags of gold to another two bags, and

to another one bag. So commonly in the King James they use the word talent, which is a weight. It's a measuring weight, a talent, not meaning like a gift and ability. Now in the thirteenth century, our English concept that came from the Latin concept of talent was derived from this. But here it is a measurement of weight. So when it says bags of gold, they're kind of the translators here are giving us an image of what the talent would be like. He says five bags of

gold or five talents. Two bags of gold, two talents, one bag of gold, one talent. Now hold on to that, and let's keep reading. The man who had received five bags of gold Verse sixteen went at once and put his money to work, and gained five bags more So also the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. After a long time, the master of those servants returned

and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. Master. He said, you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See I have gained five. I have more, show off. But his master wasn't mad about it. He was proud of him. He did what he was supposed to do. His master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things. Few things. I'll put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. The

man with two bags of gold also came Master. He said, you entrusted me with two bags of gold. See I have gained two more. His master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with the few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. Then the man who had received one bag of gold came Master. He said, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed.

This is a weird way to suck up to the boss. So I was afraid went out and hid your gold in the ground. I wonder what gold is in the ground because of fear in this room today, and as I posed that question, I want us to consider the master's reaction. He said, here is what belongs to you, and his master replied, you wicked, lazy servant. Yikes, Jesus,

this is what God is like. So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed, Well, then you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. And let's stop with these verses. Verse twenty eight. So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance.

Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside in to the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This seems harsh, Pastor Stephen, I'm just reading the Bible you brought with you to church. Now, since y'all didn't like verse thirty, let me back up to verse twenty eight. Take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. I'm gonna give you two titles for this message, and

you can choose the one you like better. If you are a churchy person with a lot of religious tradition, this sermon is called the Kingdom's Secrets of Stewardship. If you like your sermons a little edgier, I want to call this message flip the bag. Let's do it. I had a dream last night that I didn't really figure out why I had it, but it was my sermon working its way into my subconscious. In the dream, Chunks, we were sitting around the table at the Lavine Senior Center,

one of the first places our church met. I say one of the first places, because the first place we met was in me and Holly's home on Dellwood Driving, Shelby, North Carolina, and then we meet at Chunks at Amy's house the next week. So we were a multi site church from the very beginning. One church, two locations, we used to like to say, but it was only four

of us by this point. In the dream that I was dreaming, we were sitting around the table, and you know, dreams are weird, so it wasn't the same people at the table and the dream, but it brought me back to that moment in time where I called a meeting to tell our staff. At the time, I called them staff, even though I wasn't paying them a dime. I just started calling them staff, but I called them all together to say, we need to decide when we're going to

go to two services. And half the room started telling me reasons that we shouldn't go to two services. We need double volunteers, we'll need to have to stay there later and tear down, and we have to be out by this time. And there were about five reasons. So I stopped and restarted the meeting. Now, sometimes you have to restart a meeting and clarify what you meant to say as a leader, and I apologize to those in attendance and said I asked your forgiveness. I was a

little unclear when I started. I wasn't asking y'all, this is my bad. I phrased it as a question, you know, like take that question mark delete it. I wasn't asking if we're going to to services. We are going to to services. I'm just trying to figure out June or July. That's all this meeting is for today. This ministry is reaching not only through two services or three services at Valentine where I preach, or two campuses or three campuses,

but twenty different physical locations. Meeting not just in the state of North Carolina, but meeting in far flung lands like Winston, Salem, Rono, Virginia, Toronto, Canada, Melbourne, Florida, Orlando, Florida. And then they have this thing called the Internet that takes the message all over the world. And we were talking about two services. I don't know if we should go to two services. That's that's crazy. Now I want to ask you a question. What if we didn't double it?

Maybe I shouldn't ask you. Maybe I should ask somebody who this ministry is helping them get through a very very difficult, painful divorce or separation or custody battle. Or maybe this ministry is helping them keep breathing while they're fighting addiction, or maybe is helping them keep living a little bit even though they have some health problems. Maybe I should ask them. Or maybe their kids are interested in God again because of our awesome e kids volunteers.

What if we didn't double there's a popular misconception that you are stuck with what you start with, and so what we typically do, if we're left to our own natural calculative devices, is to take whatever we think we've been given. In the text, there's three different measurements of wealth. And I even love the phrase if I can mind this a little bit for the richness in it. It says that the kingdom is like a and who went

for a journey. This represents Jesus no longer being physically present, or as we called it last week, when he ghosted his disciples, did y'all hear it? And when he left his spirit with them? But he didn't leave them, but he changed the way he related to them. So now the Kingdom of God is like God has given you the phrase here is he entrusted his wealth to them. I just kept reading that over and over this week.

He entrusted his wealth to them, and I knew it wasn't about money and k it was a parable using a symbolic physical representation of something spiritual. And I realized again the scandal of the thought that the Master gave something to the servant, that the Master gave something to the servant, and that he trusted the servant. Now you will hear a lot of sermons about trust God. Is it possible that God trusts you more than you trust him? Can we say this, God trust me? Sure he does.

He trusted you with something he trusted you if you live to be seventy one. I'm not sure if you will if you keep on staying up late like you are and running yourself ragged. But if you lift to seventy one, you will take over the course of your lifetime somewhere close to you ready for this seven hundred and fifty million breadths. I googled that because I thought like, sometimes we think we don't have much, and really, to put this text in context brings forth the revelation of it.

Touch somebody sayel lift the bag. I don't mean by that what Kwavo meant by it. I don't know what bag he was talking about I'm talking about. I don't want to clarify that I'm talking about. I'm talking about the bag that God gave you. Now, I tend to think on a scale of one to ten, and it's interesting in the passage that by the time it gets done, one who started with five bags has ten. That's double. One who started with two bags has four, that's double.

One who started with one bag as one that's not double. Instead of being proud of the man who had the wisdom to put the money somewhere safe, the master rebuked him because it was not his to hide. I need to preach an anointed word for somebody who has a gift inside of you. It's not yours to hide. So you don't get to tell God what you will or won't do with the seven hundred and fifty million breasts

that he gave you. In fact, the scripture says, let everything that has breadth raise the Lord, because he put it in you. It is only right that you utilize the breadth that he gave you to serve the gipper who gave you the gift to begin with. He entrusted them with his wealth, the god who speaks oceans with a syllable of his word, they separated from the dry land. He said, I'm gonna give you something. I'm gonna give

you five. I'm gonna give you two. I'm gonna give you one and the one with one, the one with one. I did a little research this week. Asked a few people, you know the parable with the five bags, two bags and one bag? Which one are you? Nobody said five, a few said two. Almost everyone I asked, and it was a small sample size. I only asked four people. I made it sound like a barner research pull. It

was really informal, but they mostly said one. And I get that because I have had people misunderstand our ministry that did not see where we started. Can I preach this if you did not see where I started, Please do not judge where I'm at if you didn't see where I started. I've always considered myself kind of a one talent man. I can't fix anything. My mom, I

don't know what was up with this. She was texting me pictures of my ninth grade report cards today as if to give me sermon material for the fact that I'm a one talent student. But the thing about it was, I didn't go to Harvard, I didn't go to Princeton. I didn't go to anything like that. And even in preaching, you know, a lot of times I will feel an insufficient vocabulary to communicate the vast riches of the expense

of God's glory. And when I think about how to put into words what I want to say, you know, the devil will try to get me to downplay the deposit that God gave me in order to diminish the gift in my eyes. But I found out something, and this is what we really want to unleash on insecurity today. This is what I want to give you to help you flip the bag. It's not about how many bags you start with, is how quick you can flip it,

because God is a multiplier. If God speaks to you today through this message, the very best thing you can do about it is to flip it quick before the devil snatches it back when you come to church or when you watch on YouTube. However you consume this message, the best thing you can do. See because to link a few parables for you. In Matthew thirteen, Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like a man who scattered seed. And some of it fell along the path.

Some of it fell on shallow ground, some of it got scorched by the sun, some of it got shooked by the thorns. Some of it fell on good ground. But it said that some of it immediately got snatched. Now hold that thought of all the times that God has spoken to you and distractions snatched it, or a confrontation snatched it, or a fight in the car on the way home snatched it, or just the next thing

that you have to do snatched it. Or a text message coming through while you're trying to read on your Bible, app snatched it and got you another place. Now think about that, and let's read again. Give them Matthew twenty five. I'm so full tonight, y'all. I don't know how I'm gonna get this all out. But it said that he's like a man going on a journey. And it said when he went on his journey, the man verse sixteen, who had received five bags of gold went at once

and put his money to work, you know. And it doesn't say that about the one who got one bag, doesn't say that he went at once. I never noticed it said it once, But I think it's very important for what becomes of what God speaks into our life and what God does. If I preach today and before you go to sleep tonight, you share with somebody, Ay siri. If you share that before I before I even get done saying this message, If you are already thinking, wow,

I could share that with someone? What that does? You take the word that you were given, you multiply it so quickly before the enemy can snatch it, and it begins to bear fruit in your life because you treat it as seed. When you treat the word as seed and you invest it back, either through sharing it with someone else or acting on it. You know, you got to act on what God gives you before you talk

yourself out of it. You gotta act on it. There will be no amount of notes that you can take from a sermon that will give you the victory in your life. There will be no amount. It is. It is when you flip it, that is, to convert it from word form into flesh form. There are so many things that God has spoken to you that got snatched before they ever did what they were intended to do. So here's the principle. It is not how many sermons you hear that determines how much you grow. Some people

are professional sermon hearers, professional Bible highlighters. You should see their highlight array. They got forty eight flavors of highlighter. They got blueberries scented highlights. You know. But it is not it is not the amount of bags that I get. That's why you can see a professional athlete or a musician and up broke after making millions. You're like, well, dang man, I mean you serious right now? That guy's broke.

That guy made twenty three million dollars when he was nineteen. Yeah, if you would have made twenty three million dollars when you were nineteen, you'd be dead with your dumb, foolish self. You would have killed yourself. At least that guy is alive. So I started thinking, yell, all right, aching, okay, just checking on you Saturday night is different. We just talk on Saturday night. It'll be polished for the sermon tomorrow. But when I went through it, I was like, Wow,

the one with five went at once. He flipped it quick. He flipped it quick. He flipped it quick. He flipped it quick. I'm gonna do it right now. I'm gonna do it right now. I'm over my Bible right now, not after I read Facebook, because after I read Facebook for five minutes, I will lose my faith in humanity and God. I got to read it right now. First thing gonna wake up. I gotta flip it right now, right now, right now. And when he did it at once,

he went to work it once. But the master stayed away a long time, so it took time for it to mature. But he acted on it immediately. And that's what the guy with two did. Now, the beautiful symmetry of the passage is that the man who handed his master for talents experienced the same joy as the man who handed him ten. Yeah, I'm really blessed by that. It's not about how many bags they handed the master. It was in the process of trusting that joy was born.

So means that regardless of what you've been given in your life. Because you're like, I'm the one talent guy, you haven't talked about him yet, I'm about to about to talk to all the one bag one baggers, one bag Billy, let's give him a name, one bag Billy. At first, he's kind of excited, you know, he's like, ah, cool man. Remember only three servants got any bags. This dude is rich. He's going on trips and stuff. This guy, this guy has much property. But he's one of the

three that got trusted. Remember when you attach your security to stuff or your significance to status is never Now. I wonder if one bag Billy was happy for a little while. But then he runs into Tommy. Yeah, two bag Tommy. So Billy's like, Tommy, what's up man? And and and Billy's like, it's the best day of my life. And Tommy's like me too. Did you get the bag? And uh, Tommy's like the bag? No, I got bags, bags, you know bags. I got one bag. Well, here comes Freddy.

Now Freddy's coming up. I got five backs from the Master. Five back Freddy, two bag, Tommy, one bag, Billy. See because the reason that that billy got afraid and hid what he had is because he went on Instagram. I'm gonna preach like it twenty twenty. I'm gonna bring this parable to modern times. And he went on Instagram on Tuesday and it was too talent Tuesday on Instagram, five talent Friday on Instagram, and old one bag Billy starts thinking, I wonder why. I wonder why only they got one bag.

I feeling pretty good about my bag to I saw you bags. I feel pretty good about my little vacation till you start talking about Italy. He went to Italy. Huh hmm. Went to Myrtle Beach. I thought it was I used to like Myrtle Beach. He went to Milan. It's all right, yeah cool, No, I like Myrtle Beach. I'm more of a local kind of guy. Now I got this bag. Now feeling bad about the bag that the master gave me because it's how we count it that matters. It's how we count it. And when we

hear this, we feel bad for Billy. We're like, oh man, poor Billy, she's just walking around with this bag. Let's look in the bag. Can we look in the bag? We live in a world that worships the bag. We never even look what's in it. So what was a talent? What was a talent? It's a weight? How much money do you have to have of silver coins? Let's don't even talk about gold to weigh a talent? That is six thousand days of pay for a day laborer, one talent.

Now you can't convert the economics from Palace Stein to Ballentine. But put a note. I gotta put that in tomorrow. That was really good. That was really good. But now watch this. It would be somewhere around one point for what we would call million, because we have words for this, right million. So I was reading I feeling bad for Billy. I was like, dang man, I probably would have hit it too. I would have been ashamed to work with

a million. If I was friends with Tommy and and Freddie, I probably would be I'd probably hide in my mind too, until I realized something, Look at me, it's still a million. That's a lot. Oh, not to you. A million's not a lot. To you, how many of you? A million is a lot, and you will take it if somebody wants to cash at it. It's still a million. But now when we read it in contrast to two and five, it sounds small. But put it back in context, it's

still a million. When you start thinking, you know, I don't have anything to feel good about right now. I don't have anything to be proud of right now. I just want you to look at the devil some this week when he's telling you you don't have anything and you are not anything, and just only you and the devil will know what this means. Say it's still a million. It's still a million. One time, come on, y'all better help me preach. I will preach through the Super Bowl

if you don't start. And I got real arrogant one time because the church was growing and we had like a holiday week and there were only eight thousand people in church, only eight thousand people in church, and one staff member showed me my million, said how many people lived in the town you grew up in Wow. It was six thousand, six thousand, and what I needed was to break down my blessings, to break down my bag and remember it's still a million. Like, here's what I mean.

If God never does anything else for me, he has been so good to me, let me explain it to you. He canceled my sins. He did not treat me as my sins deserve. No, I'm serious. He gave me a purpose for living. He gave me a hope. He called me, he brought me into the kingdom. He put a crown on me. He gave me seven hundred and fifty million breads, and how to use a few to think him while I still can't. You want to thank him right now for your million. You ought to thank him right now

for your bag. You ought to thank him right now for your blessing. Still a million is still a million. Break it down. You got a lot once you start counting it. Come on, let's count to a million. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine ten. See when you break it down, it doesn't sound so little anymore. Break down your blessings and then invest it back. Flip the bag. Flip the bag. One becomes two two becomes four. See I found this out. Man.

Now we don't have time to do the illustration. But would you rather have a million dollars today or a penny today? But I'm going to double it every day for thirty days. So I asked Graham last night. You just know that because it obviously is connected to the illustration because they said a penny. But Graham is twelve. So I asked him the question. He thought for a minute. The first thing he said is it's a real offer. Is is hypothetical? Because how much do I need to

think about this? Put it on calculator. Put it on calculator. So if we do it, and you can probably imagine the first day that we double, it's still not going to be much. It's still going to be like significantly less than a million dollars. It's going to be two cents. But I'll give it to give to me. I know we don't really have time, but if you just double it point o one times two. I did that right, Okay,

times to count for me? That's four times two times, two times two times two time, two times two times two. Now it's still only ten dollars and twenty four cents. But what if you double it and keep doubling it. All all discipleship is is doubling. All we can do is parents, is try to double the values that we think are important imperfectly as we model them before our kids, and apologize when we think they're or wrong, and just try to invest something that has been invested in us.

All my mom did raising me was try to take what she had and apply it toward what she saw. And I'll be honest with you, you know it wasn't much. She would set aside like fifteen dollars every week to send me over to Jack Cribs Garage to learn guitar. Before that, my dad would cut Harold Staley's hair to get him to give me a guitar lesson, because I think at that point it was hard for them to

afford the lessons, so it was an exchange. And then my mom dipped pine cones and sold them around holidays, dipped them in scented wax, and then she would sell that, put that money aside, drive me to Jack Cribs Jack Cribs Garage. He would sit on the freezer for the lesson and you would get the chair. It was a high, really high class operation there. But that was a good man who taught me, who taught me beach music. I didn't want to learn beach music, but beach music set

the foundation for punk rop. I didn't learn a lot of chords. To this day, I don't know a lot of music theory. I know a little bit. But it's not how many chords you know. It's not how many bags you have. It's not how much education you have. It really isn't it really isn't. I mean, I promise you there are educated fools and there are brilliant idiots. All Billy had to do, all Billy had to do because now I've written songs. Now that God his grace.

Because one way you flip the bag is you collaborate. And my favorite collaborator in the world is Chris Brown. There's nobody creatively bet that I would rather collaborate with than Chris. And now it's not how many chords I know. It's whether or not that enough people can come together, put their preferences aside, and move something forward and flip the bag. And flip the bag. It's still a million I tell you, I don't know that many guitar chords. Well,

compared to most of y'all. I'm Mozart, you understand. And if the man with one, if Billy would have just kept on. Oh man, well this is not much. You don't have to stay stuck with what you started with. Look, I'm still going. That's ten thousand now, still not a million. But we haven't got the thirty yet, and so the enemy. Oh I messed it up up, but twenty two. All right, I gotta start all over. Y'all. Hang type for a second. It won't take long. Hold on if you keep doing

I did it last night with Graham. I promise you I practiced this. It's hard to talk at the same time. But if he kept doubling it, if it keep doubling it, if I keep doubling, if I keep doubling, if I keep showing up, if I keep showing up. Okay, I didn't get much out of church this week. Honestly, I was distracted by pastor shirt. It was bright, hurt my eyes. But if I keep coming, if I keep coming, if I keep doubling, touch somebody say, flip the back, flip

the back, flip the back, flip the back. In thirty days, there we are. We're back at ten. Thy now's twenty. Now it's forty one. Oh. Now it's getting interesting because now I see we started two services, so we could start two campuses. This is not a church growth seminar. I'm trying to get you to think about the time. You have, the talent, you have, the treasure, you have, the friendships, you have, the skills, you have double double double.

We're almost there, We're almost there. If you would have took the penny, you could have had five million, three hundred sixty eight thousand, seven hundred and nine dollars and twelve cents. And you're like, you can keep the change. No, don't keep it, don't give it. What flip it? You saw what we could do with one if we take twelve and do that thirty days. So now, do not allow the devil to diminish the gift God gave you. Do not allow the devil to tell you your best

years are behind you. I came to declare your blessed days are still up ahead. Flip that bag. Flip that bag. In the name of Jesus. It is not nothing, It is more than enough. There is a gift inside of you. That man did not deposit it came from the master y'all aren't shouting like people who just found out. I've got something eternal down inside of me. So he said, flip the bag. It starts with your belief about God.

B a g belief about God. Until you flip that, you will always operate in fear like Billy instead of faith like Freddy. You will always hide what God gave you the way that the text ends where you were like, oh, that doesn't sound like my loving, good good Father. Throw him out, gnashing of teeth. That was his experience of the Master, that was based on his perception that was not rooted in reality. Do you know how I know? Here's how I know. He said, I knew you were

a harsh man. I knew you harvest where you didn't scatter, and you reap where you didn't sew. See, he thought God was trying to get something out of him that God didn't put in him. Here's what I know about God. Here's what I believe about God. He never makes a withdrawal where he did not make a deposit. So the proof of God's power and presence and provision in your life is the demand. The demand proves the deposit. It shows you that He trusted you with something. He trusted

you with something. I want to trust God, but I got to start understanding he trusted me, just like you trusted me with your time today by being here. And I take that very seriously. God trusted you with something. How seriously do you take it? God trusted us with the church. And it could have stayed one service, It wouldn't have bothered me much. When I had that dream and I was seeing the church small again, I was like, Oh,

that was fun. Wasn't complicated. I mean, honestly, like, if we didn't double the church, what bothers me about it is you wouldn't be here. And I don't know what you've received through this ministry, but I know it started with a bag. It started with a belief about God. It starts with a belief about your gift. You know. The biggest flip in the passage is just to see like that all three of them received something, to see it as a gift. So where the enemy comes and goes, hey, man,

that's that's not enough time to do that. A lot of us we don't spend time with God because we keep waiting on a week. You might have to catch some time with God in the car. Okay, you might have to turn off I'm gonna personalize this message to me serious XM satellite radio channel thirty four Lithium where they play the nineties music that God likes, but turn off the worship music. And sometimes you'd be like, this is all the time I'm gonna have to day to breathe.

When I was in college, I remember I used to go in the bathroom sometimes between classes and just go in like a stall and just try to take three to five minutes because I was in a morning person, so I'll sleep right up to class. And I didn't get my time with God then, so then the devil will be like, oh, you didn't spend time with God, He's not gonna bless you today. I'd be like, I meet God in the bathroom. God will meet me right

in there in that stall. And so to stay in a scae city mindset is the enemy's objective to get you to think about all the things that other people have and and to be honest with you, it's going to go psychological as well. You're going to start to feel like, well, I'm just a messed up person. That's the problem. I'm just not one of these good people. I'm just not one of these stable people. I'm crazy. I was raised by crazy. I was raised by third

generation crazy. Crazy came before crazy, be got crazy, be got crazy, begot me. And if that's going on in your mind too, you will hide what is his. You will hide what is his. So what I mean is when we live afraid and when we don't double what we've been given, not only do others miss out, but we end up in a place of darkness and isolation, wondering what we could have done with one bag. So I want to say to you that as I look over my life, I think I've done a lot with

what God gave me. And yet there comes a point where all of us must decide do we want to double it again? Or should we stay in a scared place or a scarce place? And I just want to pray with you about that before we dismissing the enemy tries to snatch what was said? Would you stand up with no one moving at any location? Matthews, Lake Norman, Who else is with me right now? Elevation University City, Melbourne.

Remember it was one campus, one service, double double. God is doing that in your life right now, and some of it you won't see. Some of the things God will do through you will happen after you're done. But at least double the deposit we're moving in this series from the first half was really about our identity, and this is really going to be about our stewardship. I'm gonna pick it up again next week and I'm gonna continue along these lines. How many of you are going

to be here for next week's message? Yeah, but can we make a deal before you come back? Double something that you got, even if you just take some time this week, Like, hey man, I'm gonna send that sermon link. When does it come up again? Oh? On Monday? Okay, I'm gonna send it. I'm gonna send it to so and so or or I'm actually gonna take one line from that sermon put it on my mirror. I'm gonna put it still a million on my mirror, and I'm gonna start counting things that God has given me in

my life and counting people. I did a thing at the beginning of the year where I just wrote down a few starters. I will I can. I have a flipped it. I wrote down all the people in my life and how much they love me. I'm filled in the blanket, said Holly will And I wrote down all the things that Holly will do. You know. She will cook for me, she will walk with me, she will listen to me, she will encourage me. And by the time I got them breaking down the bag, I realized

how much was really in it. Some of us don't really tap the resources that were put in our life because we just stare at me. We We go, oh, it's just a wife. No, no, no, there's treasure in that relationship. There's gold in that relationship. There is gold in some of your friendships. It's like being at Elevation Church and just kind of like you come in, you go and you bury it in the ground, Like what do you preach about again? I know something he was saying, Tommy, Timmy,

what God said was flip the bag. Father, We thank you for what you put in our lives, divine treasure in each vessel. We thank you for the oil that flows from heaven. Would you just turn your palms up to Heaven. You don't have to lift your hands all the way, just like you're receiving something from God. There you go, Lord, You've already given so much. We're all standing here holding at least a million least a million

reasons to be grateful. It means so much to us, Lord that you chose us to be born, that you gave us the gift of life, that you gave us almost a billion breaths. With every one of those, God, we have an opportunity to rely on you, to trust you, to take inventory of what you've entrusted to us. We want to ask you to help us because we'll get so focused on what's on the bag that we never get to what's in it. We look at labels and

things like that. We need your help to sort through it and just really start from a place of what we've been given. So I just want to bless your people tonight by reminding them Lord that they are the head and not the tail, above only and never beneath God. Even if situations come to steal their faith, their faith is not rooted in situations. So I just ask right now that in this moment of holy ground and quiet from the world, that we would receive what we need

from you. We thank you that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, never far from us. We want to take what we've been given in not live in fear or frustration, but to really turn it into faith. If you gave it to us, you put it in us. Thank you Jesus. If you put your hands down and keep your heads about and your eyes closed, there's someone in here. It may be one, and it may not even be in this room. But I want to give you the opportunity to give your life to God, to

trust your life to God. You never really did that before you went to church and things like that, but you never really gave God your life. You tried to be a better person, but you never really had that surrender moment of salvation. And I want to offer that to you right now while the spirit of the Lord is heavy in this place. So what we do we pray a prayer because the Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the day,

you will be saved. It's by grace. We're saved through faith. All we have to do is trust in the work that Christ already did on the cross. So if you want that relationship with God a new beginning today to really give him your life, turn it over to him. It'd be my privilege to pray with you right now, and we're going to pray out loud as a church family. If you repeat this after me, God will hear your heart. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son

of God and the Savior of the world. And today I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe you died for my forgiveness and rose again to give me life. I receive this new life. I am a child of God. This is my new beginning. On the count of three, shoot your hand up if you prayed that one, two, three. Celebration A celebration, A celebrate, A celebrate. Come on, let's celebrate them across every location. Put those hands together and thank God for the one. Thank you

for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button. Take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at

Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.