The Power of the Prompt

our theme is game Changer. 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 have 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 Elevationchurch dot org and you can see the ways to give there. But most importantly, know that we feel a tremendousness of responsibility to minister the Word of God not only to you, but to challenge you to partner with us and reaching people for the Gospel. I believe your gift today could be a game changer, so don't put it off right now. Elevation Church dot 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 tampuses and locations? I said, can we thank God for all of our campuses and lots? 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 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. I'm a little jet life. But thank God for the great work he's doing also with our evan around the world and our interns Our Fall twenty eighteen 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 want to 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 game change or 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 into. And that's important to me. Not to follow a formula. It's important to me. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with doing it the same way every time, because 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 going to 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 right anyway? Whether it made sense or not, here's

what I'm going to do today. Because when I was praying about what we should do as we set up what's going to 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 going to 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 and 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 get into this real quick, and this will 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 going to scream as much. Those of you who don't like all that. Anyway, this is your weekend and I'm just going to 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'll tell you what it all is in a moment. Some notes and some money and

i'll tell you about that. An envelopes, 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 backstory today. Every blessing has a backstory. Okay, every blessing has a backstory, and so this is one for the nation of Israel. Joshua for nineteen 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 was set up at Gilgal. The twelve 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 is 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 setup. And then what's verse twenty one. It gives the purpose he said to the Israelites in the future when your descendants ask their parents and not 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 very important, because the stones can't speak for themselves. Right. This is not like Siri, Hey, Siri, bring me lemonade it. This is not that kind of thing. This is not

some magic trick. 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, gentlemen, tell them, Israel cross the Jordan on dry ground. Four. 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 they're pretty cool. Elevation Church dot org slash Internship shameless plow. They're two weeks out from finishing their internship and I got to meet with them Thursday and we had the best time. Right, were supposed to go ninety minutes and it went two and a half hours. And then, for the first time that this has ever happened, I met them at the movies because as a part

of their discipleship process, I took them to see Creed two. 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 because I'm the pastor. And then I turn around, know, what's what do you really listen to? And then they'll uh, I'll ask us 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 like sometimes you're in a worship service and somebody go Jesus. But he said the name of Rocky. And when he invoked the name of Rocky, he won my heart. In fact, I'll come here, Gabe, real quick, lj just in honor,

in honor of Gabe. Let's do this real quick. Go ahead, go ahead, l j Oh, you want to run the stairs? I like that here, big n who goes to us stairs up there? Yet? Hey, by the way, they big upstairs nam dah, don't want to see it again, don't know? Man, make account hurry up the running up tide assist. So this could be you Eleviationchurch dot org slash internship. Thanks for coming. Now let's go sit down here, let's en up, 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 the real test. I said, what's the best Rocky? He said, And he didn't have to pray, he didn't have to think. And this aw'm a 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 five. We all know that could be three. But he said the right answer, he said Rocky four.

When he said Rocky four, I said, I perceived that thou art a prophet and the words of life are I was like, just because that's the first one my dad showed me. I remember my dad on a Friday night we stopped by National Home Video in Monk's Corner VHS tape and he said, you're ready for Rocky four. You're ready for You're ready to see. By the way, it's just so 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 fo We called 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 deceiting Drago and and then so when I found out that Creed two was the sequel to Rocky four, 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 too?

This has probably taken 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 Stone Crest and we watched the Gospel according to Roboa, and there's so much gospel and Rocky, but you probably don't 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 two. And I won't tell you how it ends, because your homework this week is to prepare your offering, read your Bible, and go see Creed to and past there 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, remember, 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 cool. And then I thought, I wonder how many of them know the backstory 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 gave. 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 Webner. How many of you didn't know any of this? Just raise your hand real quick. Okay, this is important. This

is almost biblical. Rocky is canonical, and I promise you would be in Joshua in just a moment. But let me get the backstory this. And when he was watching Chuck Webner 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. Three days. And then when he finished writing it, he remember 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 he didn't know if he was any good, but he show him working on this thing. He's prompted.

And then they offered him twenty five thousand dollars for the script fifty one hundred no, because they weren't going to let him be Rocky and he wanted to play Rocky on something in and told him, you need to play this character. This is once a lifetime thing. And then they offered him two hundred fifty thousand dollars, three

hundred thousand dollars, three hundred and sixty thousand dollars. He had one hundred and six dollars in his bank account, and they offered him three hundred and sixty thousand dollars from the script. He said no, he had already sold his dog, Buckus Buckus, He sold his dog Buckus, and he turned it down. And finally they gave him a million dollars to make the movie, which wasn't much, and he made it. And as of twenty seventeen, according to what I Google, the Iraqi franchise has earned in the

box office alone over one point four billion dollars. So let's say God for Rocky, and then we'll move on and do something I want to tell you about. I just told you. I can see some of you like, come on, man, I ain't come for all this. Let's shut up. I'm trying to get to something here, all right. 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 and 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 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 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 then we experienced a 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 sense somebody of voice memo. They said they saved it for four years on their phone. I didn't know that they were going to save it for four years. I just knew they were going through something, and I sent it to them prompting 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 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 two ten 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 twelve. I'm not going to do twelve like the twelve stones. We don't have that long. If I just want to

take five, I just want to take five prompts. And this is where the post it notes come in, because I wrote down five prompts, you know, like a writing prompt that you get writing prompt And I'm going to hand these one at a time to these interns and I'm going to 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. I am an answer to prompt. Everybody say prompt, Prompt. 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 going to prompt you, and will you respond to the prompt that determines how you experienced the promise. So I've got five of these and they will prompt the story like those stones prompted the stories, and I pray that God will use it. You want to 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 they went good last night. So read me last. Tell me about the time you thought your college roommate was going crazy? What was actually setting an example you would follow for the next twenty years. What a great question. Thank you for asking me that. So my college roommate my junior and senior year, was named Alex Earl, which is funny because he would get

up super early and he would pray. I would get up last minute seven fifty seven for an eight am 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 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 redneck persona called Dwyane McGraw d u w I a n E with a thing over the e because it's French dew Wyane McGraw and he called he modeled after roy D Mercer and had the best time

in college. But what I learned from him that I never forget that I'm so glad you asked me about and thank you for asking me. That is 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 a 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 have time to talk about it. I'll tell you when I get back. I'm like, oh my god, what is Alex? What is Alex into? It's like some Walter White crap going on. And so he he came back. He wouldn't talk, tell me what he was doing. And he came back, he said he looked so relieved. I was like, what was that? And he and he said he was real serious. He goes, God convicted me, Bro, I've been hold on. Let me tell you what he said next, he said, Max. He said, since I've been

here at college, I haven't been tied in. 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 tie. I calculated. God spoke to me that his money was in my bank account. And I've 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 send 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 in 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 had 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 ten percent, how can I say everything I have comes from Him and I sent 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 life. So like, if you need me to get up here and say, eh, if it don't be okay, word of God, 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 man 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, ten percent of fifty dollars, isn't that hard to sin? Sin? Got some coupons in the mall or something like that. But 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 going to prompt some people this year in that you've been holding on to what is God's I should move on from this point. Feel 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 Landier. By the way, Ben,

who's your favorite intern on the stage? Right? Now? Don't answer that now? Just give it to Mic. Just give a line. 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. It's 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 piece, 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. It scared me 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 of 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

three point thirty dell Wood Drive, Shelby, North Carolina. Could go by there and knock on the door and ask the person and say hey hello, and then go into the kitchen and then sit down and you'll see the spot where this happened. Okay, all right, 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 pressure of providing for children. Yet, we were young. We could afford number one combos at the Mexican restaurant, 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 less deposit we made it to the She said, let's say bad news. I think God, God might be I don't know if I use 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 this book, you know, just good, just good, dang it woman. And so I remember sitting down writing five checks. I remember who we wrote them to. It's not important. We didn't have Elevation Church at 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 piece. And the way that I interpreted what the piece 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 tired 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, Because every Rocky four has a creed to, 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 at the table. Abby has more money than the boys. I don't know what she's running on the side of school, selling some

jolly ranchers or something. Abby is so loaded. She's like, says to her brothers all the time, you need to visit the bank of Abby seven, I said, And I'm like, hey, it's time. It's your 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 da da d bo because 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 because 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 him 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 where 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 shelby the emergency fund, and not two times that, but over the course of this church, we've been able to give not ten times and I couldn't really believe this number, not one hundred times, but

a thousand times what we gave at that kitchen table to this ministry. And I'm not going to 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 million dollars and they're able to do that.

We've seen that. But some people God prompts, and God prompts him 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. I went, I went, I went to elbution. I just talked about money. Now talking about money and 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 school. I don't even need a pulpit for this sermon. I am preaching on this school. Drago' I'm grateful. You know, like when we first gave to Outreach, I had no idea that that it was a set up. To see it as 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 slide El Louisiana, and we sent him sixteen hundred bucks 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 forty million dollars away to those in me. Come on, I'm prompting you right now the praise God for what we've been able to do around the world. You kind of go back and you wonder, you wonder, you wonder what if what if we had said no back then? What if I said now, I'm gonna keep my low sixteen hundred dollars 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 real privilege. It's a real privilege. Just do another prompt. I think we got time for one or two more. You want to do this one? You sure this is a big one. Don't screw it up. Take the post it now, a 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 seven 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

start one. I was twenty five 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'd put up a map and anyway, you don't need to know all that point us. I brought in a guy who I thought was like an expert in church planting, and I asked him talk to my team and tell him anything you want, and I'll give you a fifty dollars Chili's gift card. At the time,

that seemed generous. We got it from credit card rebate points, okay, And so he's like, Ah, you don't have to give me anything, just I'll 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 and 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? And we shut the door and he's like, now I'm going to give you the silver bullet of church planting. I'm about I'm about to

hear this. And then he goes, there's friends that you have that belong to other churches, and those churches are big, and they tied 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 twenty four months. 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 thank them. I didn't correct him until 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 going to 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 and 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 no job. We didn't have some big funding. It was

nothing like that. It's nothing like that. I just said, what if we gave ten percent the tithe to the church that we're currently a part of till we leave. That is sending us and another ten percent to the new one we're starting. But 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 this sermon. If we become now just consumers Christian consumers where it's like I didn't really like the word today. I end

my song today. I was a guest today. I was this. 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 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 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 rare that is that God kept those families together these twelve and a half years. And now God is calling on another generation. And I really don't have time for the last two stones. 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 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 makes some noise at every location. Who wants to hear about the bus ride from Hell makes some all right? So John the Baptist, I'm gonna tell you this one real quick.

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 three hundred one thousand dollars. 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 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 was 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

friend's gonna sit? You need to start another campus. And I have three hundred thousand dollars 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 of 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 says, I don't have the gifts to do that. People will not watch me preach on a 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 like a young punk like I was, but he said it would love to 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. I say, yeah, come back, what do I doing well? Do? I don't want God up else? Come on, I want it on this. I want to be in the middle of what God is doing. And now today watch this over over. I want to

say it's seventeen locations. This more than that, because somebody's watching this in a hospital room on a 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 see that 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 twelve and a half 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 Abby's money. That's the biggest money is the kid's 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 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. 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 a media prompt. Prompt. Yes, God is 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 away from 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 claimant, blab it grab it weird theology where I'm telling you that you can get a Mercedes if you give God ten dollars. I'm believe in that. I'm preach that never have, never will.

What I'm telling you is a testimony that God has made a way 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 give, 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 want you to buy your head and close your eyes. No one moving. This is a pretty important moment. Right now is set up for something that God wants to do in the future. And I'd like to just give you one minute, just sixty seconds after I stopped 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'd 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 it with others. Just speak to me specifically, God, show me how I can be used as I prepare my offering, because i'd give it online this week or bring it back next weekend. Show me what you've given me 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 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 experienced. 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 faith fethfulness 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 ten percent. 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 twenty nineteen, something that you're believing God for in this next year. You can visit Elevationchurch dot org slash give for more details

and how to give and be apart. We're excited to see how God is going to move in our church in this season and believe that God wants to do something very special in your life