It's all about the heart | The Blessed Life Week 1

Where your money goes says a lot about your heart. When we believe everything we have is ours, we’ll always have a grieving heart when we give. Today Brian Tome talks about how God uses money in our spiritual formation, and how we can develop a grateful heart instead.

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    - What does a piggy bank, a funnel, change and $100 bill
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    have to do with God in our hearts?
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    My name is Brian. Welcome to Crossroads.
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    We're going to find the answer to that question
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    and more today.
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    We're doing a series called The Blessed Life.
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    We did this series several years ago,
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    and it's one of the most powerful series
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    that we've ever done.
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    And you're going to hear some stories from people
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    who went through it before.
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    So powerful that we're going to do it again.
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    Now, I got to tell you that that kind of hurts my pride
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    because we haven't really repeated very much
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    at all at Crossroads the last 26 years.
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    The first time we're going to repeat something,
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    it came from somebody else.
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    We've borrowed this content from Gateway Church
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    in Dallas, Texas.
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    I had pastor after pastor, person after person
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    say, "Oh my goodness, this material is,
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    sounds like a really religious cheesy word,
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    but it's true, is anointed."
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    There's something special about it.
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    And we found that's exactly what happened
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    when we did that before.
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    Churches have gone through this.
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    They've gone through it multiple times.
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    It's the first series, well second series in 26 years
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    we're going to actually repeat
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    and it's not even one that we came up with
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    or I came up with.
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    Man, why aren't the best things,
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    things that I invent on my own?
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    Well, you know why we're going to do it?
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    It's because we want to bring
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    the blessing of God into our lives.
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    Now, listen, this is not a campaign.
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    There's no commitment coming at the end
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    where you're going to sign anything.
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    There's no big ask of, you know,
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    to whatever, whatever, whatever.
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    This is not a campaign.
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    We are going to challenge you
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    because Jesus challenges us.
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    But we just want you to listen, consider,
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    and ultimately be blessed.
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    That's The Blessed Life.
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    Today we're going to talk about the different hearts we have.
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    All of us probably have one of these dominant hearts,
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    but all of us at the same time have elements
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    of these hearts that go through us.
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    We're talking about money.
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    And really, when you talk about money,
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    you're talking about your heart.
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    Jesus says where your money is,
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    there your heart is also.
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    I know if I was able to look at your bank account,
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    look at your credit card statement,
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    I would tell you who you are.
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    I would know something about you
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    based on where your money goes you'd know something.
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    You would know something about me by looking at mine.
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    You would see that guys spends a lot of money
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    on Jeep CJ7s, he must be restoring one right now.
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    You'd be like, "Man, that guy, that guy,
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    the work that he does and believes that his church does,
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    there's a lot of money that goes.
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    That guy, boy, you understand that guy.
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    That guy right there, he has a --
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    he must spend a lot of time watching TV
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    because he's got a lot of streaming services.
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    You'd know a lot about me if you looked at my money.
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    And God knows about us when He looks at our money
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    and our money actually impacts our heart.
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    What kind of hearts are we talking about here?
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    One of them, one of them is actually seen
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    in the Book of Luke 12:15. Here's what it says.
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    Jesus said to them, "Take care,
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    and be on your guard against all covetousness,
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    for one's life does not consist
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    in the abundance of his possessions."
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    Jesus tells us to be careful of a covetous heart
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    or a greedy heart.
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    That's what this kind of heart is. A greedy heart.
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    So many of us had piggy banks we were growing up,
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    or maybe you do right now.
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    What's piggy banks about?
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    About getting, getting, getting.
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    All of us are natural born getters. Get, get, get, get.
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    Anybody who's had kids,
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    you know you have to teach your kids to share.
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    You have to teach them to give.
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    They naturally know to consume and take and hoard.
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    That's called the human condition.
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    And this is the way many of us are still today,
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    even if we're decades older than when we were kids.
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    We're about getting and getting and saving and saving.
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    We may not even have any vision
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    for what we would do with the savings,
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    but I just want more of it.
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    I want larger, I want larger.
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    Or some people, they're greedy heart
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    doesn't come in the form of savings.
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    They're greedy heart comes in the form of
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    I always have to have new clothes.
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    Every party I go to, I have new clothes.
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    I always have the latest technology.
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    I always have to have an expensive vacation
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    that's on the horizon.
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    I always have to, I need, I have, I consume.
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    It's about greediness.
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    This heart right here has got to be broken open
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    because it just, it doesn't work.
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    It needs to be broken and it needs to be smashed.
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    Here's another heart.
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    Another heart is seen right here.
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    I forgot -- my forgot my prop.
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    Anyone have a $100 on them? Anybody here?
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    I forgot my prop. Anyone?
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    Yeah. Can I? Thank you. Thank you.
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    Right. Yes. This is --
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    This is -- oh, now it's -- now it's --
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    now it's two halves of $100. Right. Right.
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    There it is. Thank you very much.
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    I appreciate that.
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    All right. Well, what was I saying?
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    What was I saying?
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    Actually, here's the thing, if you were in the room
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    and I said, "Does anybody have $100 here?"
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    Would you have just gone, "Oh, I do. Here you go."
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    Or would you have been like,
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    "I don't know that I want to give it away.
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    I don't know that I want to let it go,"
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    because you might have been grieving it.
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    This is the second kind of heart that we have.
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    It's a grieving heart.
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    That guy, Paco, who just gave him that $100,
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    he's actually not grieving right now,
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    even though I ripped it half. Do you know why?
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    Because I gave him that $100 before the video shoot.
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    That's why.
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    See, "It's fine. You can have it. You can have it."
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    But when we believe that everything we have is ours,
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    that we've generated all of it, that we own all of it,
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    we will always grieve when it comes to releasing it,
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    because it's all about us.
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    Grieving hearts invent systems known as fair share.
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    Fair share is the understanding
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    that giving always sucks.
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    None of us wants to part with our money,
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    so it should be equally sucky for all of us.
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    Like, what's the equal amount for all of us?
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    Whatever your share is so no one wants to do it.
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    We shouldn't have to do it, but we've got to do it.
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    So, what's the equal thing so we can spread it out,
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    so we can all grieve a little bit
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    instead of grieving a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot.
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    What is wrong with this?
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    That's not how God has created us.
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    All that we have is His.
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    You and I haven't created anything.
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    We've just refashioned elements
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    that God has put on this planet.
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    Everything comes from God.
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    God is a giver.
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    We don't talk about giving a Crossroads very often
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    or so you think, because we only talk about
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    money giving very often.
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    But to be clear, we talk about giving all the time
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    because that's what Jesus did.
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    John 3:16 says God so loved the world
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    that He gave His only Begotten Son.
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    He gave. He is a giver.
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    The book of Deuteronomy 15:10 says this:
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    You shall give to him freely,
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    in your heart shall not be grudging
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    when you give to him, because
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    for this the Lord your God will bless you
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    and all your work and all that you undertake.
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    A grieving heart or a grudging heart
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    and the blessing of God comes
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    when we say no to this grieving heart,
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    when we say no to the greedy heart.
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    Those hearts don't get us to the blessing of God.
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    To have a life that's blessed is a life
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    when God looks at it and sees it, He says,
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    "There is a life I want to be vested in,
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    I want to pour more into because they're into Me
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    and they understand that they haven't generated anything
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    and I generate love for them all the time."
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    That's what I've done with Jesus.
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    - Paco, you got a 100 bucks for me, man.
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    - I'm sorry, but I gave my money
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    to a guy who needed it already. Apologies.
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    - I think you spent it on that sweater right there, man.
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    - This old thing? - Good look.
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    This was my grandma's carpet, and I turned into a sweater.
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    - Grandma's killing it, dude. - Wecome.
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    - Hey, welcome to Crossroads anywhere.
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    My name is Andy Reider. This is my good buddy Paco.
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    And today we are heading into this Blessed Life.
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    We're looking at what it means to live a blessed life
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    and how we can experience it first.
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    - That's right.
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    Now you're going to hear about tithing and money
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    and some terms that, like, get associated with the church
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    and get associated with weirdness at times.
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    Let's be real clear, God doesn't need your money. Okay?
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    This is about our hearts.
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    This series is about our spiritual formation
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    and how God uses our money to help form us spiritually.
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    - Yeah, I just encourage you guys.
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    It might be a little challenging. Lean in.
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    You will get out of this what you put into it.
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    And we don't want to just, like, talk about it, right?
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    We want to show what it means to live The Blessed Life
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    through the story of someone in our church right now.
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    - I grew up in a Christian household.
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    You know, my parents were very faith based.
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    I had a -- I had a really early encounter with Christ
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    and accepted Him as my Lord and personal Savior
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    when I was about seven years old.
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    As I kind of grew up, I guess I would say, you know,
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    my path kind of diverged a little bit.
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    Through that period of my life
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    I wasn't finding, you know,
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    what I wanted out of this life, essentially.
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    So, I decided to make a change
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    and I found myself back at Crossroads, actually.
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    I wanted to kind of rededicate my life and my walk,
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    so I decided to get re-baptized.
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    I started reading the Bible.
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    I started praying more regularly.
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    I joined a Rooted group
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    and I started to find more community.
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    I started to volunteer.
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    So, I started all these disciplines,
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    I guess, in my life.
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    And one that was, you know, still missing,
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    I would say, is giving.
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    I had given sporadically when they passed the plate,
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    let's call it, or at the end of the year,
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    you know, give a few hundred dollars there.
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    But I wasn't doing it as a practice.
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    I just kind of decided now is the moment.
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    There wasn't something in my life
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    where I was sitting there and I kept praying for
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    and praying for and praying for and was like,
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    you know, switching over to regularly giving
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    to make up something that was missing in my life.
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    I just decided, you know, this is one more --
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    one more step in my walk with Jesus that I need to do,
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    you know, to to have the life that He wants for me.
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    Putting God first in my life has brought about
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    a certain order in my life
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    that I was missing beforehand.
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    It's really a mentality shift that it has been.
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    It's so different.
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    It's like -- it's like I'm ready.
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    I'm not sitting back and saying,
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    "All right, what what am I doing now?
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    Where am I going? What am I going to do?"
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    Now I can say that that life is, "All right.
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    What do You want me to do? I'm ready.
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    Where do You want me to go? Let me do Your work.
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    Let my light shine to others."
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    Through this journey I definitely see, you know,
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    the Lord as a provider.
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    He provides for all the needs that I have and then some.
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    Now, you know, I'm giving, and now, all right,
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    more things have popped up.
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    You know, the joy, the purpose, you know,
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    the peace that I have, it's like, all right,
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    those things are overflowing.
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    Back when I was walking my own path,
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    I would like to say, the one thing that I realized
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    was that I was never alone there.
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    He was always there and always will be.
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    - The next part we're going to look at is this one.
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    This is liked to our heart.
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    This is our heart.
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    It actually is meant for
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    when resources come into our life,
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    they flow through our life
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    to places where God wants them.
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    It's my heart.
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    This is a generous heart.
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    Stuff comes in from God and stuff goes out
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    to the things that God wants it to go to.
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    Comes into my life and it goes out of my life,
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    a place where my heart directs it to
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    because I have a generous heart.
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    Comes in and goes out.
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    The generous heart, being interested in the things
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    that the heart of God is interested,
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    and taking His money that He's blessed me with
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    and funneling it over in those places.
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    That is a generous heart.
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    One of the things that we hate when our kids say this,
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    if you have kids, they always go, "Mine, mine, mine."
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    It's all about mine, my everything.
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    They're clingy. They're clingy to it.
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    Instead of seeing that we can give
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    and we can release and we can bless.
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    And the Book of Luke 6:30, here's how Jesus puts it:
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    Give to everyone who begs from you,
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    and from one who takes away your goods
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    do not demand them back.
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    And as you wish that others would do to you,
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    do so to them.
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    There is a saying of this in nearly every religion,
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    but it normally operates this way, except for Jesus.
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    It's, like, don't do to other people
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    what you don't want them to do to you.
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    That's a good thing.
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    Don't do to other people what you don't want them to do.
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    But Jesus puts it more in the aggressive,
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    on the assertive, on the proactive:
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    you do to others as they would do to you,
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    as you want them to do to you.
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    Generosity.
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    We would all love someone else to be generous to us, right?
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    So, Jesus says, "Be generous to others and to My work."
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    Now, I've got to admit when I read this,
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    I actually don't like that I read -- what I'm reading here.
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    I'm not liking at all.
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    Actually, I'm pushed. I'm pushed on this.
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    I think I've got a generous heart
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    and therefore I want to allow myself to be pushed.
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    Many people have already tuned out.
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    You're never going to come back for five weeks
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    because you don't have a generous enough heart
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    even to be pushed.
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    And that's just really, really sad.
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    I get pushed, and here's a way I don't like getting pushed,
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    but I'm opening myself up to it.
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    It said, Jesus says here,
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    "Give to everyone who begs from you."
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    I've gotta tell you, I don't do this.
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    I don't do this at all.
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    When I'm in a major metropolitan area
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    and I see somebody by the stop sign holding up a sign
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    and begging or I'm going to a ball game
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    and you've got all the panhandlers that are there,
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    99 times out of 100 I'm passing them by.
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    I'm passing by.
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    I'm telling myself the reason why I do.
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    "Well, I'm just maybe enabling a drug addiction
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    if I give something to them,
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    or I'm incentivizing them to not work,
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    because you can get a job right now, 4% unemployment,
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    or there's something else going on with them
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    that I don't want to support."
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    And I just always assume the worst and I don't give.
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    One my favorite signs I ever saw, by the way,
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    this person I almost gave to.
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    He held up the sign that said, "Why lie? I want a beer."
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    I was like, okay, I might actually --
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    someone may be telling the truth,
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    but I don't like this about my heart,
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    that I am begrudging that.
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    And I always, always err on the side of no,
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    when someone's begging.
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    And Jesus says exactly the opposite.
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    I don't know what that means to me.
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    I don't know if I'm now going to carry around
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    a lot more cash to give to people.
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    I don't know if I'm going to stop every time,
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    but it seems that's what it says.
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    I need to think about that because
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    that's what a generous heart does,
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    to allow himself or herself to be pushed
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    for the development of our heart.
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    Final heart that we have is seen here
  • 00:16:16
    with these chains or these shackles.
  • 00:16:23
    This is the way many of us are with our finances,
  • 00:16:27
    we are shackled.
  • 00:16:28
    We are maybe deep in credit card debt.
  • 00:16:33
    We're having a hard time making ends meet
  • 00:16:35
    at the end of our month, or we feel shackled
  • 00:16:37
    because we've been such a consumer for so long
  • 00:16:40
    that we don't have adequate savings to do
  • 00:16:42
    the kind of things that we want to do.
  • 00:16:44
    Or we're just shackled
  • 00:16:46
    because money just has us all bound up.
  • 00:16:50
    Well, there's another way that we're shackled,
  • 00:16:52
    or at least we were shackled at one time.
  • 00:16:54
    Let's go ahead and read it.
  • 00:16:56
    It's from the book of Deuteronomy 15:15.
  • 00:17:00
    Here's what says:
  • 00:17:02
    You shall remember that you were a slave
  • 00:17:06
    in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God
  • 00:17:09
    redeemed you; therefore I command you this day.
  • 00:17:14
    This is the preamble to the Ten Commandments
  • 00:17:17
    that are located in Deuteronomy
  • 00:17:19
    and also the Book of Exodus.
  • 00:17:21
    And it starts off, before God gives any commandments,
  • 00:17:25
    He said, "Let's just level set here.
  • 00:17:28
    You were a slave.
  • 00:17:30
    You were under tyranny and oppression
  • 00:17:32
    in Egypt under Pharaoh.
  • 00:17:34
    And I came and rescued you."
  • 00:17:39
    We have to develop a grateful heart.
  • 00:17:41
    This is the way I was.
  • 00:17:44
    This is the way some of us are right now financially.
  • 00:17:48
    But this is the way I was.
  • 00:17:50
    I'm not this way anymore.
  • 00:17:51
    There was a time when I was in shackles
  • 00:17:54
    to my own emotions and my own pride.
  • 00:17:57
    There was a time before I came to understand
  • 00:17:59
    who Jesus was and He gave his life for me,
  • 00:18:02
    that I always felt slighted, I always felt rejected.
  • 00:18:04
    I felt like I never fit in,
  • 00:18:06
    even though I fit in pretty well.
  • 00:18:07
    I was one of the relatively cool kids,
  • 00:18:09
    but I didn't feel that way.
  • 00:18:11
    I felt abandoned on the outskirts, like an orphan,
  • 00:18:15
    and I always thought people had it in for me.
  • 00:18:16
    And I took things too personally
  • 00:18:18
    and I was always trying to earn people's approval.
  • 00:18:20
    I'm trying to earn my way into the cool crowd.
  • 00:18:23
    I'm trying to make sure that I'm enough.
  • 00:18:26
    Let me tell you something,
  • 00:18:27
    when you feel that way,
  • 00:18:28
    that is utter and complete bondage.
  • 00:18:31
    And when I recognized that God likes me
  • 00:18:34
    the way I am right now, He not only loves me,
  • 00:18:36
    but He likes me and He doesn't give up on me.
  • 00:18:39
    And He blesses me in the midst of all of my foibles.
  • 00:18:43
    When I realized the love of Jesus, and I just --
  • 00:18:46
    I just got freed.
  • 00:18:48
    I got freed.
  • 00:18:50
    I became incredibly grateful.
  • 00:18:53
    A grateful heart.
  • 00:18:54
    So, have I given significant amounts of money
  • 00:18:58
    over the years? Yes.
  • 00:19:00
    Is the percentage of my income that I give away
  • 00:19:03
    higher than anything I would have thought of
  • 00:19:05
    way, way long time ago? Yes, it is.
  • 00:19:08
    Is that because I'm some great financial whiz? No.
  • 00:19:12
    Is that because I have more commitment
  • 00:19:14
    than the average person? No.
  • 00:19:17
    Is that because I make more money
  • 00:19:20
    than anybody you've ever thought of? No.
  • 00:19:24
    The starting point was
  • 00:19:25
    because I've got a grateful heart.
  • 00:19:27
    I'm thankful for what God has done to me,
  • 00:19:30
    in me, through me.
  • 00:19:32
    And as I throw God's money, not my money,
  • 00:19:36
    because I didn't create the money,
  • 00:19:38
    but as I throw the money
  • 00:19:39
    that He has brought into my life,
  • 00:19:41
    when I throw it to things that He is concerned about,
  • 00:19:44
    my heart -- my heart goes there.
  • 00:19:47
    Where my money goes, my heart goes,
  • 00:19:51
    and my heart is going the way of God's
  • 00:19:54
    and I want yours too.
  • 00:19:55
    That's what we're dealing with in this series.
  • 00:19:58
    I think you're going to love it.
  • 00:19:59
    You're going to be thankful for it
  • 00:20:01
    and your heart is going to be better for it.
  • 00:20:03
    We'll see you next week.
  • 00:20:05
    - Dude, I don't know about you,
  • 00:20:07
    but I am not trying to be a stingy old man. Right?
  • 00:20:09
    I'm trying to have a generous heart because
  • 00:20:11
    I'm grateful for what God has done for me.
  • 00:20:14
    - That's right.
  • 00:20:15
    That's one of the things we want to offer you guys
  • 00:20:17
    as a community, as a church.
  • 00:20:18
    And we have an example that coming up November 3rd,
  • 00:20:21
    we've got a thing called online prayer night.
  • 00:20:24
    Now, it happens over Zoom and you're automatically,
  • 00:20:26
    like, "Oh, my gosh, I just had, like,
  • 00:20:27
    a three hour training with HR on Zoom."
  • 00:20:30
    No, it's great. It will grow and challenge
  • 00:20:33
    and build into you spiritually,
  • 00:20:34
    a chance for you to receive prayer
  • 00:20:36
    from a gifted, trusted person on our team.
  • 00:20:38
    We'd love to connect with you that way.
  • 00:20:40
    And if you just want to connect with me,
  • 00:20:42
    like, personally, not just a team, not a chat,
  • 00:20:44
    bot, not anything, you can just send me an email
  • 00:20:46
    if there's something that I can be praying for you about
  • 00:20:48
    or something that we can do for you
  • 00:20:50
    no matter where you are, just send me an email.
  • 00:20:52
    We'd love to connect with you.
  • 00:20:53
    - You're going to be on the Zoom call?
  • 00:20:54
    - I'll be there. That's what I'm talking about.
  • 00:20:56
    - Hey, we'll see you guys next time.
  • 00:20:58
    More Blessed Life coming your way.
  • 00:21:00
    - But talk about something that some of us
  • 00:21:02
    are going to go, "Oh, yes, yes, yes, please.
  • 00:21:04
    Please talk about that."
  • 00:21:05
    And others of us go, "Oh, no, don't, don't talk."
  • 00:21:08
    I got my lie detector on.
  • 00:21:10
    I'm not going to tell you lie.
  • 00:21:11
    I am not going to tell you a lie.
  • 00:21:17
    - Hey, make sure you hit the playlist button ahead
  • 00:21:20
    so that you can keep up to date on videos just for you.
  • 00:21:23
    And don't forget to hit the subscribe button below
  • 00:21:26
    to keep up to date on all the latest content
  • 00:21:29
    coming your way from Crossroads.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What’s the best gift you’ve ever given? What made it so great?

  2. What stood out to you most from this week’s message?

  3. Think of someone you consider to be generous. Describe them to the group. What makes them generous? What’s it like to be around them?

  4. What are some personal challenges to being generous?

  5. How could increasing your generosity be beneficial for you?

  6. What’s one step you can take this week towards developing a generous heart?

  7. Let’s end with prayer. You can say something like, “Jesus, thank you for your act of ultimate generosity. Thank you for giving up your life to save ours. Please develop in us the same kind of generosity. Remove everything within me that’s holding me back from being generous.” Amen.

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions! Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • What “conditions of your heart” might be holding you back from being generous? How might you start to turn from one of those towards generosity?
  • How would your life look different if you embraced generosity rooted in love and selflessness?

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(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

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Got it! Enjoy your discussion.


Oct 28, 2022

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