Break The Cycle | Waymaker | Pastor Craig Groeschel

[Applause] what an awesome weekend you pick to be in the house of God I have the great privilege today of setting up someone who has made a way for thousands of churches through his faith and leadership God has used him to pioneer a movement pastor Craig Groeschel is in the house this weekend the key to this is to understand that not only is he the pastor of the largest church in America he's also one of my best friends there have been so many times in my life where I felt like I was alone in the challenges of leading a church only to find that sometimes God will give you someone who has been there before you and has gone farther than you I didn't feel like I could successfully complete the waymaker series as we get ready for our year-end offering as we anticipate in faith what God is going to do through you without bringing his voice into the conversation someone who has been at the helm of an organization who has made the Bible available hundreds of millions of times on people's phones tablets and devices through the YouVersion Bible app someone who has been used by God to pioneer the multi-site movement by which now we're able to reach all of the locations that we're reaching into today I wanted to bring him for a special message today to encourage our faith inspire our generosity I know at every location you're up on your feet right now I'm gonna give you three seconds to get on your feet welcome to the stage my pastor my friends [Applause] Wow what an honor to be back at my home away from a home we're all a part of one church but if I've got a favorite Church away from mine elevation church is full of the most passionate to be with you guys and at every elevation start so let me just take a moment and I want to just bring perspective from some of them the outside and I hope that every single day that you take a moment and you thank God that you get to be a part of not just a powerful local church but a part of a spiritual movement touching people all over the world is because of your generosity your faithfulness your prayers your passion and I want to just show honor to your pastor's family pastor Steve and the Holly you guys were the best of the best I honestly I admire your pastors preaching and just sometimes go wow how in the world do anyone preach like that week after week III admire that admire your leadership more so I just love you as a friend and and so the person that you are your integrity your character your generosity your passion the way that you truly love people and then just your passion for preaching the word you're paving the way and Holly I told you this just in our recent time together your husband always brags on you the strength of your marriage who you are who you are as parents to these three amazing kids that I love like they are my own you guys are absolutely amazing and I would love it if you would just help me so honor to the Pioneers the face [Applause] and to do all of you I wanted to say thank you to the gift that elevation is to the broader church you're a gift you're a gift there's not a weekend that goes by at my home church at all 27 locations there's not a significant part of elevation at our church and let me tell you what we come ready to worship and because of you week after week we come to the altar believing God we'll do it again [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] people around you say you're away maker you may not know it but you're away maker God is using you to make a way it is a real honor to be a part of the waymaker series this is this is honestly one of the most important times of the year for Elevation Church as we look back just with appreciation at all that God has done in the last year launching for new elevation church locations in the last year touching literally millions of people online and through literally millions and billions of people through YouTube and the television ministry man up every time I turned on the TV preacher pastor Steve and preached it faster Steve it is fantastic and then we look forward to the new year with divine anticipation knowing that what God has done has been miraculous in the past few years but God stands ready to do exceedingly and abundantly more than all you can ask think or imagine according to his power that is at work with you every single one of you the church that he would be glorified in generations to come and so it's with great honor today I want to continue along in the message series called weigh maker and I love to think about through scripture all the different times that people would make a way for the Gospel message to go out I like John the Baptist John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus to come I like for guys who had a friend who was unable to walk because he had a problem and when they came to the house where Jesus was they couldn't get in because the crowds were so big and so they literally climbed up on top of the roof and what they do they made a way when there didn't appear to be away during a hole through the roof to drop their friend and to get him before Jesus and when I was thinking about all the different ways to make a difference I want to talk today about a way that many people don't think about making a way I want to tell you at all of our elevation churches that your gift can make a way your generosity can make a way for so many people to hear about the good news of Jesus in fact proverbs 18 16 says it very directly directly that a gift does what let's say allowed all of our churches a gift opens the way your gift of generosity can open the way in fact it's powerful to me if you just look in the Old Testament there's a prophecy in the book of Zechariah that talked about one day that Jesus would come the king would come righteous and victorious riding in on a donkey that the king would come righteous and victorious riding in on a donkey what most people don't recognize is that the donkey didn't belong to Jesus Jesus rode in on a donkey that was somebody else's donkey when you think about it there was some guy and was so powerful in me as we don't know this guy's name we don't know what he did for a living we don't know how many donkeys the guy I owned this might have been his only donkey he might have had a thousand donkeys but we know that when Jesus needed transportation fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy there was one unnamed person who said you can use what I have to write into the triumphal entry his gift made a way for Jesus to come what I hope you'll understand is at the end of this year many of you will make the biggest gift that you've ever made some of you your gift will be the very first time ever done and what I hope you'll understand is that God will use your gift to make a way for others to find the same freedom same power same life same grace saying forgiveness through Christ that you've experienced and in fact my whole life is a result of a gift that made a way take a little bit of my story I grew up going to church but I didn't understand the gospel I went and just didn't understand it at all and so when I went into college I kind of majored in sinning anybody else had that major anybody else have that major yeah sin is fun for a little while right until it mess you out how many of you know sins fun raise your hands again okay do a few of you are raising your hands okay listen if you don't raise your hand either you didn't do it right or you're lying it's fun until it messes you up didn't mess you I was in the messed up part where it caught up with me and so I was a part of a fraternity that got in all sorts of trouble and they were they waited for guys that committed grand larceny so they were gonna try to kick us off campus and I at the time was the vice president and thought I need to do something a PR move to try to keep us in the game and I had this random weird sense that I should start a Bible study you'd understand I'm like the one of the lead wild guys and we should start a Bible study parsley it was because I wanted to kind of help create you know a public relations stance part of it was I was just spiritually curious wondering is there something more and so I told all the guys that I made hey Tuesday night this week seven o'clock we're gonna have a Bible study and I like what the bleep are you talking about gross a Bible study it said you ever a little Bible study it's Tuesday night seven o'clock you know and so Tuesday came around we have our first Bible study and I'm walking to my business class and it dawned on me I don't have a Bible I'm gonna lead a Bible study but I don't have a Bible so I'm not going to tell you that I prayed because I honestly don't think I was that spiritual all I kind of did was I just kind of like thought in the direction of God it's kind of like I don't have a Bible if anybody's listening I'll have a Bible and I walked into my class I came out God as my witness there was a gentleman in a suit and tie from an organization known as the Gideon's and this man said to me young man would you like a free Bible and he handed me this green New Testament Bible and when I got it I was like I took that little Bible I went to our little Bible said there were seven guys who came to the first Bible study I said guys turn to the first book in your Bible I was trying to sound pastoral they all turned to Genesis I turn to Matthew but no wonder it's free it's not all there and so so we started reading and in Matthew chapter 1 and it's a bad place to read in the Bible with a bunch of drunk returned any guys if you read Matthew I skipped in Matthew two has got to get better and we started reading through there and it was so powerful I got excited I read through on my own I read all the way through Matthew's Gospel read about the death and the resurrection of Jesus I read it in Mark's Gospel about Jesus dying and being raised from the dead I read in Luke's Gospel I'm thinking to myself you would think after two or three times he see the fact that they were gonna kill him had no idea it's the same story over and over and over again and and we would just read through the Bible and then we would pray and you gotta understand none of us were Christians we didn't know how to pray and so honestly our prayers afterwards would be like dear God you know protect us as we're partying this weekend god help us I get DUI God we pray for Mitch's girlfriend if she's not pregnant god help or not Vic tried we had no idea that's what we prayed I read all the way ahead I got to a feast in Chapter two and it was in Ephesians chapter two that the spiritual lights came on for me I read that you could be saved by the grace of God but that it was not by your good works but it was only by the faith that you have in the perfect work of Jesus that your sins could be forgiven and I went out all by myself into this little field and I knelt down one person and when I stood up I was a new creation in Christ Jesus the old was gone and everything had become new what I hope you'll understand is there was someone somewhere I don't know her name or his name I don't know if they were 20 or they were 70 but they gave a gift to an organization that gave away Bibles someone took their own time volunteer came to where I was away no I thank God for search of people who are way makers because of your generosity that's what I want to talk to you about today if you want to be seated at all of the churches is how your generosity can actually make a way for others to come to faith in Christ little question all of our different churches let's have some participation it's no fun without you Lake Norman we need some love I need some all the way from the North in Canada Blakeney everywhere all of our different churches how many of you would say that you're pretty generous raise up your hands raise their hands well bow be shy don't be jealous you're pretty generous I absolutely and no because pastor Steven tells me that there are some of the most radical generous people as a part of elevation Church but the problem is many people think that they're generous and they're actually not hello there are a lot of people who think they're generous and they're really really not the reason I say this is because giving and being generous are two different things people think they're generous because I give every now and then but giving and a radical spirit of generosity there are actually two different things in fact I want to tell you something that I hope will sink in today and that you'll feel the power of this and that's this if you're taking notes you can jot it down most Americans don't feel rich and we are at the same time most Americans think we're generous and were not let me say it again most of us in the country which we live we're actually incredibly blessed and rich but we don't know that we're rich and most of us think that we're generous but we're not for example if you ever get out you're gonna discover that about half the world lives on two or three dollars a day most of us drink way more of that in coffee every single day we have no idea how blessed we are they say you are rich rich rich rich rich rich rich how many of you actually own a car all the churches you're on a car some of you you're so crazy rich you own two cars and in your household if you own a single vehicle do you realize depending on the study you're in the top six to nine percent of the wealthiest people on planet earth today you are in the top six to nine percent of the most wealthy people on planet earth today we're rich and we don't even know it look at some of you you're so rich let me tell how rich you are this will freak some people out you're so rich that yesterday a regular day you got in your vehicle with gas and you drove it past eight different restaurants to get to your very favorite restaurant and you're so rich you walked into that restaurant and someone seated you at a table and you asked a complete stranger to go and tell someone else to prepare your food and the stranger went in and told someone else because there's a team of people serving just you and the people in the back made your lunch you didn't have to hunt for it you didn't have to kill it you didn't have to break the neck of a chicken in both places they couldn't afford a chicken they brought out your chicken it was already dead it was already grilled and it already had the sauce with it and then you ate it and then you gave the place to somebody else and somebody else cleans your place and then you got back in your very very rich car and you drove past the other eight restaurants and you came to your house some of you you're so rich when you pull up to your house you push the button and when you push the button there was a door that magically opened and then you pulled your car into something called a garage we have to explain that to people in many parts of the world because when they see it they think it's a house for your car they can't believe that you have a house for your car some of you you've got a house that holds two cars some of you you've got a free car house for your course and you only got two cars and the third part of the garage is used for the junk that you can't fit in your house because you've got so much stuff for your house that you've got to store junk in the garage that's how rich you are and then you walk into your house this climate controlled and you walk up through a device and you open up the freezer and you pull out your best friend's bin and Jerry and you eat ice cream because you're not still all the way full from all the food that you had at the restaurant then you go to bed the next day some of you walk into a closet like you literally walk into a closet it's not just a closet but you walk into a closet this closet is bigger than the houses that many people live in not only do you have like one story of clothes but some of you you're so rich you've got closed down here and then you've got clothes up here and some of you you've got clothes that go here and here and here and here and you walk in and you look at these clothes and you go no no no no no no no and you touch them all and then at the end of the day you say oh I've got nothing to wear that's how rich you are that's filthy rich so many Americans we're rich beyond measure but we don't know it but at the same time we feel like we're generous and we're not the reason we think we're generous is because we give every now and then but giving and being generous are two different things I don't want to make anybody feel bad but I want to call it as it is the average of erican only gives 2.8 percent of their resources 2.8 percent of what they make in a year that's what they give that's the good news if you make more money those of you who make over $100,000 a year the racial actually goes down okay if you are really really rich the average person only gives 2.6 percent of their resources that is tragic we are rich and we don't realize that we think we're generous and so many times we are not why is it that we don't give more because I know you love to make a difference you love to impact lives your great Jesus followers but the reason that so many of us we don't give more is because we honestly feel like we can't do it we're afraid there's not enough and on a person that understands this intimately because I grew up with a with a scarcity mindset that if I give and they're not there's not gonna be much left and so I was very very afraid to be generous what I had to learn actually through counseling to renew my mind to a mindset of abundance and generosity is that that scarcity is actually a cycle whenever we're afraid of lack there's a cycle that ends up hurting us and I want to show you just on the screen for a moment of what tends to happen and this is why so many of us are not generous God supplies something to us and then here's what tends to happen we end up God supplies and we consume let's stop there for a moment we consume we spend money the iPhone 10 is out we got to have the new shoes we got to go we got to get the purse to match we consume and then the next thing you know is we end up lacking because we've consumed so much after that we consume we lack and then next slide is this we're afraid because we there's more month left than money and so then we go back to the god supplies and we consume more and then relax and then we're afraid and then we consume and then we lack and then we're afraid we pretend like we're generous we're not we pretend like we're not rich we really really are and this is the cycle of so many people who feel like I can't get ahead I'm always gonna struggle I wish I could give more but I just can't afford to because I just don't have much the Apostle Paul teaches us and I believe has a word for me an award for you on how we are to give I want to show you today from God's Word 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 how God makes us a way maker through our generosity this is what the Apostle Paul said Paul said you must decide in your heart how much to give and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure in fact I'm going to ask you just to pray about making a radical faith filled generous gift to the work of God at Elevation Church if there's any part of you that feels pressured don't do this this is a joyful offering to the goodness of our God to the massive work through this church this is a faith filled we're gonna be generous about it we don't give reluctantly or under pressure for God loves a person who gives cheerfully God loves the person who gives cheerfully it's fun to give I don't know if you can get a wide shot can you get a wide shot with these boots in it and you might get a wide shot it goes boots you know what I got those boots Pastor Steven got me these kicks I got shoe game because you're a pastor so I went and found my favorite pair of shoes brought them to his house and a whole time I can't wait till he opens it up oh I hope he likes it I hope they likes it as much as I inside there's like this anticipation to give this is what happens oh I can't wait to see how God uses my gift oh I believe by faith when I plant the seed there's gonna be a harvest okay I can't believe I got such good ground to plant the seed into I'm delightful about what I get to give and God scripture says will generously provide all that you need does this sound like a God of scarcity this is an abundant God God will generously provide then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others as the scriptures say they share freely and give generously they share free and give generously that's who we are that's what we do we don't just give generous isn't what we are it's who we are is this internal it's not something we do it's our identity they share freely and give generously to the poor and not notice this their good deeds will be remembered forever they'll be remembered forever you're a waymaker people will thank God because of what you gave so what do we do we give generously and God multiplies abundantly Paul goes on to say for God is the one God is the one our Heavenly Father is the one who provides seed for the farmer and bread to eat what you have is a gift from God what he has given you is not all for you what he's given you as a seed if you keep the seed that's all you have if you sow the seed God can multiply the seed for us God who provides the seed for the farmer and bread to eat in the same way what will our God do he will provide and increase your resources and then is it all for you know he'll produce a great harvest of generosity in you I don't know who's ready for it but there's a harvest coming in your life you planted some seeds and there is a harvest coming there is an increase of generosity coming through you and I love this yes you'll be enriched in every way why so you can have more for yourself no no so you can always be generous and when we take those gifts to those who need them what are they gonna do they're gonna thank God in heaven they're gonna praise God in heaven they're gonna worship God in heaven they're gonna thank God because of your generosity it made a way for them to experience the grace of Jesus they're gonna thank God because of you and your faithfulness what do we do whenever we have a scarcity mindset God gives to us and we consume okay we consume some of you you're you're gonna strategically pray about what you can give maybe for the first time because you strategically consume all the time you know you do you shop for the deal you make the hunt you saw the shoes you're gonna find the best deal you'll figure out a way you may not have the money but you're getting a new phone whatever it is you strategically consume but you're gonna strategically give praying asking God how can you stretch by giving and so what do we do when we break the cycle whenever we sow God multiplies we sow and God multiplies in fact let me show you a different cycle we looked at the first cycle a minute ago and let's go ahead and pull this up this is a separate cycle instead of consuming the first thing that we do as Jesus followers is we worship God with what he gives to us the first thing we do is we give we seek God first we seek his kingdom first we seek His righteousness first and then he adds everything unto us the first of the day we seek God in his word the first of the week we worship God corporately in church the first of the year we seek God through a fast the first of any increase we give what happens when we give oh get ready for it here comes God multiplies will he put seed in the ground God multiplies it what happens when we give and God multiplies the next thing is it builds our faith our faith starts to grow we see the provision of God and so what do we do we give even more and God multiplies even more and our faith grows even more and we impact more lives and we become even more generous and we're even more blessed and even more people praise God because instead of consuming first we give first for those of you that are hurting financially I understand that pain I know that fear but I want to tell you a principle that can break the cycle of scarcity and it is the act of worshiping God through the tithe tithing breaks the cycle of scarcity and it creates a new cycle of supplies tithing breaks the cycle of scarcity and it creates a new cycle of supply what is the tithe the tithe comes from a Hebrew warden ma asar and it literally means 1/10 1/10 of what God blesses us with we bring we're not literally technically giving we're bringing it to his house as an act of worship because of his goodness the tithe predated the law in the Old Testament in the New Testament Jesus clearly affirms the tithe when he said you should do all these other things but yes you should certainly tithe and you should sow love grace and mercy three days to law all the way down to Jesus saying it I believe with all my heart the tithe is the beginning points of returning unto God it is the beginning level for Christians every time I see an increase god I'm going to worship you and this some of you right now are saying man I wish I'd skipped church today okay oh no this is gonna be tough I don't like this message all the love what I want you to do is not only fall in love with it to see the power of what God does through our act of worship when we come before him and say god I honor you with the time and so to do this there are I could list a hundred things but I want to show you three specific things about the power of the tithe the power of the tithe the first thing if you're taking notes is this what does the tide do the tithe teaches us to put God first the tithe teaches us it is one of the most tangible ways to say upon every blessing that I receive from you God I honor you and my first act of worship by returning 10% to you in fact I love the way Deuteronomy 14 23 and in the today's living Bible describes it it says that the purpose of tithing is to teach you to always put God first in your lives it's the consistent reminder to always put God first now I know what some of you are thinking going oh my gosh I can't even pay the bills right now right so some people are thinking you can you know this is like that is crazy I can barely make my car payment I got my student loan payment I got credit card payment I could never ever ever do this in order for me to do what you're saying I would have to totally and completely rearrange my life it's exactly what I'm saying I have to make some major massive changes yes I might have to sell something I might have to do something radically different yes that's exactly what I'm saying because the purpose of the tithe among many things is to teach you to put God first but I'd have to change a lot just you would in order to put God first and we worship Him first here's the thing it takes faith to give first it doesn't take faith to give last it takes faith to say God before I see how this ends I'm going to honor you you are so good you are so faithful you have always been with me you have never let me down you have never left me you have never forsaken me you have always worked in all things to bring about good whatever the devil meant for evil you brought something good out of this god I honor you puts you first as an act of worship the tithe teaches us to put God first the second thing it does is it builds our faith the tithe builds our faith Malachi chapter 3 verses 10 and 11 it's so powerful the only place in scripture that God says we're allowed to test them it's when it comes to this probably because God do that some of us this is exactly what it would take but this is what Malachi says bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house God says test me and this you don't believe it try it see how good I am God says and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it well what does God say test me try me give me your first and your best and trust me to bless the rest give me your first and your best and trust me to bless the rest in other words cf with the blessings of God upon your finances that nine percent with God's blessings doesn't go further than a hundred percent without God's bless he put me to test God says and see if I won't open up the windows of heaven let me tell you about my own journey toward this I told you how I came to faith in Christ somebody gave me a Bible someone else paid for that and made away well I became a new follower of Christ and I started going to this great church and I heard a guy preach on the tithe and it freaked me out freak me out I heard another message on the tithe and so I'd said okay I'm gonna do this I took ten percent of what I made and I went to a Christian bookstore and I bought a bunch of t-shirts and and music with that and that was my tithe that's how stupid I was okay I didn't understand it there's no way I'm gonna do this I heard finally a third message and it convicted me that this is Jesus affirmed this this predated the law this is an act of worship why would I fight so hard against giving to God in an act of worship for something that I believe then I'm gonna try this and so I had worked ahead I started back in college a tennis camp I played tennis in college so I started this camp and I had all these students I was like a little kind of entrepreneur I maybe was a lot of money for a 20 year old back in college and so I added up at the end of the summer all that I'd made and took timber sin of that and it was to me like a really really really really big gift and I wrote the tides check to this little church I was going to found out later on it was the exact amount being needed for this storage shed that they were trying to buy which kind of blew me away put that in as an act of worship and I'm telling you back then we wrote checks if you don't know what a check is you can google it or ask her grandmas it was so how we used to do it and we put my check in and my hand was literally shaking I was so afraid this is a hundred percent true story I went home that day and I've been saving money to buy a car because I had a piece and I wanted one that worked and my grandmother my grandmother who we didn't think had anything she's one of the grew up in the depression lived modestly never traveled out of the state of Texas for her whole life if she had never been anywhere she called me up and she said Craig she'd never done any like this I mean she was a $20 but you know Christmas gift lady that's it she called me because I can't explain it but God put you on my heart I'm soaked your commitment to follow Christ you I'd like to get you a car and she bought me a car not just a car but like a Christian car she bought me a Honda Accord and all the disciples gathered in one thank you okay so if she bought their Christian car and and you know I was so blown away I drove that car for 11 years I took the money that I had set aside to buy the car and I was I was 20 years old and I put it down on a on a rent house to buy this little house and put my fraternity brothers in it by the time I graduated from college I actually had four rental units that were going they ended up paying my way through seminary and has created the financial strength that I had today to be radically generous okay all the way back I go all the way back thirty years or so to my very first time and see the hand of God in the provision who proved himself faithful now am I saying that if you give a tithe you're gonna get a Honda Accord I'm not saying that I want you hear me clearly but what I am saying is when you honor God with the tithe he will prove himself faithful he will prove himself faithful he will prove himself faithful if you fast forward a little bit we started a little church that grew along the way and we've stumbled upon an opportunity that was pretty special we created an app our church and we were first to market with something called the YouVersion Bible app on the very first weekend Apple released apps we released an app and we didn't know where we're doing but he got 81 thousand downloads on the first weekend and suddenly everyone with the business mind came to us and said you need to sell that app for 99 cents it made perfect sense that would have been a fair price that have been a generous thing to have a great app at the time our church was in the peak of debt we had the most debt I had more financial stress at that point in my life than ever before and we thought about it and we listened to God and what God showed us very clearly is that your life was changed by a free Bible someone made a way for you as you have freely received you should freely give so we made what was one of the biggest faith decisions we could ever make our Bible is not for sale our Bible will never be for sale it is a gift to the world as of today there are 293 million for them 93 million people who have on their devices free Bible app with over 20 woody the thousands and thousands every single month what happened what happened the gift that made away in me made a way for others at the peak of our debt as we gave that gift God started blessing us financially our church now is in 2011 seven locations we were a hundred percent debt-free we weren't debt-free at the time we were elevations age because we were building it that way but our generosity made a way God blessed it we put seed in the ground God multiplied it listen you can't live a life of scarcity as you give first you see the blessings of God it got opens up the windows in heaven there's someone here it's gonna be the fun that your first step of faith is gonna lead you to freedom as you put God first what is it tithe do it teaches you to put God first it builds your faith and then this is what I love number three the tithe and let's just get practical it provides for the work of God's church it provides for the work of God's church Malachi 3:10 is just bring the whole tithe into the storehouse the storehouse is an Old Testament picture of the New Testament church that there may be food in my house I don't know about you but I actually think that the food served up every single week at elevation Church it's not just state but as high in steak however you like your steak is medium-rare it's Pittsburgh style in a steak it is rich it is juicy it is living it is nothing but pure blown dead cow living words preach every single week by your pastor your life has been nor as spiritual transformed by the spiritual food that's in the house and that's what happens is you're giving it provides for the work of God this is what we do this is what we do we tithe we worship God we give offerings it's not reluctantly or under any kind of pressure it's an act of worship to the goodness of our God this is what we do it's it's who we are all the way through and through we're way makers because of what you have done at every single elevation Church there are literally tens of thousands of lives being impacted all the time I like Vasanta if I can show you a picture of La Sante before finding elevation she didn't feel worthy of God's love at all she was contemplating taking her life and because of your generosity through elevation online she heard a message of hope she heard a message of faith this crazy woman picks up and moves all the way to Charlotte attends University City gives her life to Christ let me tell you about Elam Elam grew up within the Islamic religion she always had spiritual questions after leaving her birth country and wandering around the u.s. she wandered into elevation Blakeney she heard the gospel the gospel penetrated her heart she found life in Christ he is a new creation all of the old is gone it is because of you her life has been impacted every week every week every week let let me tell you about Alex Alex what was in a dangerous cycle of drug abuse he couldn't overcome it he tried he tried he tried he was hooked he was addicted he found himself homeless unable to make things work considering taking his life finally made a good decision and went into detox and guess who was there a secret agent a volunteer from elevation church representing the Lord Jesus Christ because that's what you do and this volunteers started telling him about who crisis about the power of forgiveness about the freedom you can find in Christ he came to church on the weekend it has to happen it has to happen it was all day our God for him to walk in on that day it had to happen he found freedom and rightly twice why because it's new because of you and then there's your story since your story I don't know who I'm talking to it Oliver Church the but there are those of you you were lost and now you are found you are spiritually dead and now you're alive you were hurting and you found divine comfort you were in bondage and [Applause] your strength this is what we do this is what we just do away maker you are away maker john the baptist prepared away for guys were clearly prepared away one guy we don't know his name so you can take my donkey and his gift made away this is who you are this is who we are this is what we do this is what we do let me show you the cycle again let me show you the cycle go ahead and be seated real quick if you will let me show you the cycles again can we pull those up the first cycle is this God supplies every single one of you you've been blessed with some type of provision the way we live in our culture today as we consume first and then what do we do you know it because you live there most of us we lack we're afraid then we fear and we consume there is another way tithing breaks the cycle of scarcity and creates a new cycle of supply instead what do we do as Jesus followers the first thing we do is we give as an act of worship to our God then our God multiplies it and then our faith grows and then we give some more then we give some more at some point your pastor is going to give you the great gift of the opportunity of putting seed into good ground those of you who are already tithers what you're gonna do is you're gonna bring and offering I pray you bring the biggest offering that you've ever made to put in the best ground you've ever planted in you will not sit in a seat that if someone else is sacrificed you're going to give the same thing so other people around the world can hear the power of the gospel for some of you you're offering it will be your very first time it'll be the first time you come in and say God this is a lot and I'm trusting you I'm putting you in first and some people are gonna say how can you do that why would you do that there's so much why would you do that and what you'll be able to do is say if you knew Jesus the way I know him and you would give like I give I don't know who I'm talking to but there's somebody here you've been set free you you were like me you were lost dead and hurting and someone gave something that brought you here that changed your life if you knew them as I know them if you know I'm a savior if you know I'm as friend if you know him as your righteousness if you know him as your Redeemer somebody here knows your healer somebody your power this is what we do this is what we do this is what we do this is what we do this is what we do this is what we do we make away our gift mix away now as you're cheering let me say this this is what we do I want to ask you this are you a part of wheat are you a part of we because in our world today so many people receive an increase and they consume and they lag and they're afraid but we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ we've been transformed we've been made new and we count it as one of the greatest gifts of our life that we get to be a part of something that touches the world do you realize that that touches the world when you give your gift makes away I thank God in heaven that somebody gave and I don't know who their name is but I have a Bible because of them and they're probably about 293 million people today somewhere thank God that our church gave people just like you they don't know their name they number the story but they gave radically and generous because we will lead the way with their rationale in generosity because we truly believe it's more blessed to give the receipt so father God I thank you for some of the most radically generous people I thank you for your hand upon this church God the anointing that is touching lives all over the world and pray God that over the next few days that your spirit would speak to people bless them with the gift to give the gift of faith God to sacrifice the so many of sacrifice before to praise you God for what you've already done in anticipation of what you're going to do God we bring our offerings stretching our faith to worship you God thank you for radically generous people because God we worship the most generous one who ever one gift made a way the gift of your son for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son the gift of Jesus made a way that we could have eternal life therefore we give as worship we give as honor to you because you first gave to us God thank you for Jesus following faith-filled radically generous demon conquering Bible believing worship spreading Jesus followers seeing what God can do through these people God we worship you we honor you we give you praise all of our elevation churches we thank God that we get to give to the God who first gave to us could you give him praise today [Music] you [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Elevation Church

Views: 173,672

Rating: 4.8646193 out of 5

Keywords: Elevation Church, Sermon, Pastor, Craig Groeschel, Steven Furtick, Tithe, Generosity, Giving, How to be generous, Share, Multiplication, Increase, Abundance, Harvest, God supplies, Scarcity Cycle, Faith, How to grow your faith, Build your faith, Foundation, Blessing

Id: gMbtQwo2Pjk

Length: 48min 27sec (2907 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 20 2017