Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast and I wanted to
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you.
Speaker 1: Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective
Speaker 1: to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Part four is usually the best when it comes to
Speaker 1: rocky movies, and this is part four of the Kingdom
Speaker 1: Cloud series. I want to share some time today in
Speaker 1: Matthew chapter twenty five. Please find that always look it
Speaker 1: up on your phone if you can. That way you
Speaker 1: can highlight what I say that matters to you, go
Speaker 1: back and see it in the week, and that way
Speaker 1: you can kind of record or bring if you want
Speaker 1: to bring the real paper the scrolls with you to church,
Speaker 1: You're always welcome to do that as well. I got
Speaker 1: this big old Bible, y'all. When I preach from this one,
Speaker 1: it's a heavy sermon. Abby calls this Bible fat cat.
Speaker 1: So the deal is, I'm supposed to give her this one.
Speaker 1: She's ten. I preach through each Bible for a few years,
Speaker 1: then give it to one of the kids. So Abby
Speaker 1: gets this one here in a few years but I
Speaker 1: get to put a few more miles on it, including
Speaker 1: tonight with Matthew chapter twenty five, or this morning if
Speaker 1: you're watching it another time at another location. So much
Speaker 1: to consider. This passage may be familiar to you as
Speaker 1: the parable of the Talents, It's pretty well known, pretty
Speaker 1: well known passage. I was so excited when God gave
Speaker 1: me permission to preach it. I have to feel a
Speaker 1: scripture to preach it. I don't have to feel it
Speaker 1: for it to be true, but I have to have
Speaker 1: a personal connection to preach it with integrity. And so
Speaker 1: when I saw this this week, I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: let's go. Let's go, because I love it. Being a parable,
Speaker 1: of course, has a confluence of the practical application for
Speaker 1: our lives as well as theological construct to help us
Speaker 1: understand God. So it really addresses both realms. And the
Speaker 1: Kingdom of God is always concerned not only with eternity,
Speaker 1: but with groceries, migrains. The Kingdom of God is concerned
Speaker 1: with grades and scholarships and the things that you really
Speaker 1: care about. God cares about too. So we might be
Speaker 1: surprised to see God presented in this light. For all
Speaker 1: of us who only think of him as being a
Speaker 1: god who focuses on peace. He speaks here in this
Speaker 1: parable about prophet not profit like you know, I'm a prophet,
Speaker 1: not that kind of prophet, not with the pH profit
Speaker 1: like money. But he's using it for an illustration to
Speaker 1: get us to think about something deeper. So that's how
Speaker 1: parable works. And in this parable, I want to just
Speaker 1: read the whole thing to you and you just relax.
Speaker 1: I know you've probably heard it before. Let's just go
Speaker 1: over it again to cover old ground. But when I
Speaker 1: read it this time, I'm going to say it. I'm
Speaker 1: going to say a little bit differently, just to help
Speaker 1: us see what God wants to illuminate today. Again. It
Speaker 1: will be verse fourteen like a man. So when he
Speaker 1: says it will be, he's talking about the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: It's a succession of parables where he's talking about the
Speaker 1: importance of being prepared. It will be. The Kingdom of
Speaker 1: God will be because you can't see it, so I've
Speaker 1: got to tell you what it's like. It's like a
Speaker 1: man who is going on a journey who called his
Speaker 1: servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one, he
Speaker 1: gave five bags of gold to another two bags, and
Speaker 1: to another one bag. So commonly in the King James
Speaker 1: they use the word talent, which is a weight. It's
Speaker 1: a measuring weight, a talent, not meaning like a gift
Speaker 1: and ability. Now in the thirteenth century, our English concept
Speaker 1: that came from the Latin concept of talent was derived
Speaker 1: from this. But here it is a measurement of weight.
Speaker 1: So when it says bags of gold, they're kind of
Speaker 1: the translators here are giving us an image of what
Speaker 1: the talent would be like. He says five bags of
Speaker 1: gold or five talents. Two bags of gold, two talents,
Speaker 1: one bag of gold, one talent. Now hold on to that,
Speaker 1: and let's keep reading. The man who had received five
Speaker 1: bags of gold Verse sixteen went at once and put
Speaker 1: his money to work, and gained five bags more So
Speaker 1: also the one with two bags of gold gained two more.
Speaker 1: But the man who had received one bag went off,
Speaker 1: dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
Speaker 1: After a long time, the master of those servants returned
Speaker 1: and settled accounts with them. The man who had received
Speaker 1: five bags of gold brought the other five. Master. He said,
Speaker 1: you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See I
Speaker 1: have gained five. I have more, show off. But his
Speaker 1: master wasn't mad about it. He was proud of him.
Speaker 1: He did what he was supposed to do. His master replied,
Speaker 1: well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with
Speaker 1: a few things. Few things. I'll put you in charge
Speaker 1: of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. The
Speaker 1: man with two bags of gold also came Master. He said,
Speaker 1: you entrusted me with two bags of gold. See I
Speaker 1: have gained two more. His master replied, well done, good
Speaker 1: and faithful servant. You have been faithful with the few things.
Speaker 1: I will put you in charge of many things. Come
Speaker 1: and share your master's happiness. Then the man who had
Speaker 1: received one bag of gold came Master. He said, I
Speaker 1: knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you
Speaker 1: have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
Speaker 1: This is a weird way to suck up to the boss.
Speaker 1: So I was afraid went out and hid your gold
Speaker 1: in the ground. I wonder what gold is in the
Speaker 1: ground because of fear in this room today, and as
Speaker 1: I posed that question, I want us to consider the
Speaker 1: master's reaction. He said, here is what belongs to you,
Speaker 1: and his master replied, you wicked, lazy servant. Yikes, Jesus,
Speaker 1: this is what God is like. So you knew that
Speaker 1: I harvest where I have not sown, and gather where
Speaker 1: I have not scattered seed, Well, then you should have
Speaker 1: put my money on deposit with the bankers so that
Speaker 1: when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
Speaker 1: And let's stop with these verses. Verse twenty eight. So
Speaker 1: take the bag of gold from him and give it
Speaker 1: to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has
Speaker 1: will be given more, and they will have an abundance.
Speaker 1: Whoever does not have, even what they have will be
Speaker 1: taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside in
Speaker 1: to the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing
Speaker 1: of teeth. This seems harsh, Pastor Stephen, I'm just reading
Speaker 1: the Bible you brought with you to church. Now, since
Speaker 1: y'all didn't like verse thirty, let me back up to
Speaker 1: verse twenty eight. Take the bag of gold from him
Speaker 1: and give it to the one who has ten bags.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you two titles for this message, and
Speaker 1: you can choose the one you like better. If you
Speaker 1: are a churchy person with a lot of religious tradition,
Speaker 1: this sermon is called the Kingdom's Secrets of Stewardship. If
Speaker 1: you like your sermons a little edgier, I want to
Speaker 1: call this message flip the bag. Let's do it. I
Speaker 1: had a dream last night that I didn't really figure
Speaker 1: out why I had it, but it was my sermon
Speaker 1: working its way into my subconscious. In the dream, Chunks,
Speaker 1: we were sitting around the table at the Lavine Senior Center,
Speaker 1: one of the first places our church met. I say
Speaker 1: one of the first places, because the first place we
Speaker 1: met was in me and Holly's home on Dellwood Driving, Shelby,
Speaker 1: North Carolina, and then we meet at Chunks at Amy's
Speaker 1: house the next week. So we were a multi site
Speaker 1: church from the very beginning. One church, two locations, we
Speaker 1: used to like to say, but it was only four
Speaker 1: of us by this point. In the dream that I
Speaker 1: was dreaming, we were sitting around the table, and you know,
Speaker 1: dreams are weird, so it wasn't the same people at
Speaker 1: the table and the dream, but it brought me back
Speaker 1: to that moment in time where I called a meeting
Speaker 1: to tell our staff. At the time, I called them staff,
Speaker 1: even though I wasn't paying them a dime. I just
Speaker 1: started calling them staff, but I called them all together
Speaker 1: to say, we need to decide when we're going to
Speaker 1: go to two services. And half the room started telling
Speaker 1: me reasons that we shouldn't go to two services. We
Speaker 1: need double volunteers, we'll need to have to stay there
Speaker 1: later and tear down, and we have to be out
Speaker 1: by this time. And there were about five reasons. So
Speaker 1: I stopped and restarted the meeting. Now, sometimes you have
Speaker 1: to restart a meeting and clarify what you meant to
Speaker 1: say as a leader, and I apologize to those in
Speaker 1: attendance and said I asked your forgiveness. I was a
Speaker 1: little unclear when I started. I wasn't asking y'all, this
Speaker 1: is my bad. I phrased it as a question, you know,
Speaker 1: like take that question mark delete it. I wasn't asking
Speaker 1: if we're going to to services. We are going to
Speaker 1: to services. I'm just trying to figure out June or July.
Speaker 1: That's all this meeting is for today. This ministry is
Speaker 1: reaching not only through two services or three services at
Speaker 1: Valentine where I preach, or two campuses or three campuses,
Speaker 1: but twenty different physical locations. Meeting not just in the
Speaker 1: state of North Carolina, but meeting in far flung lands
Speaker 1: like Winston, Salem, Rono, Virginia, Toronto, Canada, Melbourne, Florida, Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 1: And then they have this thing called the Internet that
Speaker 1: takes the message all over the world. And we were
Speaker 1: talking about two services. I don't know if we should
Speaker 1: go to two services. That's that's crazy. Now I want
Speaker 1: to ask you a question. What if we didn't double it?
Speaker 1: Maybe I shouldn't ask you. Maybe I should ask somebody
Speaker 1: who this ministry is helping them get through a very
Speaker 1: very difficult, painful divorce or separation or custody battle. Or
Speaker 1: maybe this ministry is helping them keep breathing while they're
Speaker 1: fighting addiction, or maybe is helping them keep living a
Speaker 1: little bit even though they have some health problems. Maybe
Speaker 1: I should ask them. Or maybe their kids are interested
Speaker 1: in God again because of our awesome e kids volunteers.
Speaker 1: What if we didn't double there's a popular misconception that
Speaker 1: you are stuck with what you start with, and so
Speaker 1: what we typically do, if we're left to our own
Speaker 1: natural calculative devices, is to take whatever we think we've
Speaker 1: been given. In the text, there's three different measurements of wealth.
Speaker 1: And I even love the phrase if I can mind
Speaker 1: this a little bit for the richness in it. It
Speaker 1: says that the kingdom is like a and who went
Speaker 1: for a journey. This represents Jesus no longer being physically present,
Speaker 1: or as we called it last week, when he ghosted
Speaker 1: his disciples, did y'all hear it? And when he left
Speaker 1: his spirit with them? But he didn't leave them, but
Speaker 1: he changed the way he related to them. So now
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God is like God has given you
Speaker 1: the phrase here is he entrusted his wealth to them.
Speaker 1: I just kept reading that over and over this week.
Speaker 1: He entrusted his wealth to them, and I knew it
Speaker 1: wasn't about money and k it was a parable using
Speaker 1: a symbolic physical representation of something spiritual. And I realized
Speaker 1: again the scandal of the thought that the Master gave
Speaker 1: something to the servant, that the Master gave something to
Speaker 1: the servant, and that he trusted the servant. Now you
Speaker 1: will hear a lot of sermons about trust God. Is
Speaker 1: it possible that God trusts you more than you trust him?
Speaker 1: Can we say this, God trust me? Sure he does.
Speaker 1: He trusted you with something he trusted you if you
Speaker 1: live to be seventy one. I'm not sure if you
Speaker 1: will if you keep on staying up late like you
Speaker 1: are and running yourself ragged. But if you lift to
Speaker 1: seventy one, you will take over the course of your
Speaker 1: lifetime somewhere close to you ready for this seven hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty million breadths. I googled that because I thought like,
Speaker 1: sometimes we think we don't have much, and really, to
Speaker 1: put this text in context brings forth the revelation of it.
Speaker 1: Touch somebody sayel lift the bag. I don't mean by
Speaker 1: that what Kwavo meant by it. I don't know what
Speaker 1: bag he was talking about I'm talking about. I don't
Speaker 1: want to clarify that I'm talking about. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: the bag that God gave you. Now, I tend to
Speaker 1: think on a scale of one to ten, and it's
Speaker 1: interesting in the passage that by the time it gets done,
Speaker 1: one who started with five bags has ten. That's double.
Speaker 1: One who started with two bags has four, that's double.
Speaker 1: One who started with one bag as one that's not double.
Speaker 1: Instead of being proud of the man who had the
Speaker 1: wisdom to put the money somewhere safe, the master rebuked
Speaker 1: him because it was not his to hide. I need
Speaker 1: to preach an anointed word for somebody who has a
Speaker 1: gift inside of you. It's not yours to hide. So
Speaker 1: you don't get to tell God what you will or
Speaker 1: won't do with the seven hundred and fifty million breasts
Speaker 1: that he gave you. In fact, the scripture says, let
Speaker 1: everything that has breadth raise the Lord, because he put
Speaker 1: it in you. It is only right that you utilize
Speaker 1: the breadth that he gave you to serve the gipper
Speaker 1: who gave you the gift to begin with. He entrusted
Speaker 1: them with his wealth, the god who speaks oceans with
Speaker 1: a syllable of his word, they separated from the dry land.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm gonna give you something. I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you five. I'm gonna give you two. I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you one and the one with one, the one with one.
Speaker 1: I did a little research this week. Asked a few people,
Speaker 1: you know the parable with the five bags, two bags
Speaker 1: and one bag? Which one are you? Nobody said five,
Speaker 1: a few said two. Almost everyone I asked, and it
Speaker 1: was a small sample size. I only asked four people.
Speaker 1: I made it sound like a barner research pull. It
Speaker 1: was really informal, but they mostly said one. And I
Speaker 1: get that because I have had people misunderstand our ministry
Speaker 1: that did not see where we started. Can I preach
Speaker 1: this if you did not see where I started, Please
Speaker 1: do not judge where I'm at if you didn't see
Speaker 1: where I started. I've always considered myself kind of a
Speaker 1: one talent man. I can't fix anything. My mom, I
Speaker 1: don't know what was up with this. She was texting
Speaker 1: me pictures of my ninth grade report cards today as
Speaker 1: if to give me sermon material for the fact that
Speaker 1: I'm a one talent student. But the thing about it was,
Speaker 1: I didn't go to Harvard, I didn't go to Princeton.
Speaker 1: I didn't go to anything like that. And even in preaching,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of times I will feel an
Speaker 1: insufficient vocabulary to communicate the vast riches of the expense
Speaker 1: of God's glory. And when I think about how to
Speaker 1: put into words what I want to say, you know,
Speaker 1: the devil will try to get me to downplay the
Speaker 1: deposit that God gave me in order to diminish the
Speaker 1: gift in my eyes. But I found out something, and
Speaker 1: this is what we really want to unleash on insecurity today.
Speaker 1: This is what I want to give you to help
Speaker 1: you flip the bag. It's not about how many bags
Speaker 1: you start with, is how quick you can flip it,
Speaker 1: because God is a multiplier. If God speaks to you
Speaker 1: today through this message, the very best thing you can
Speaker 1: do about it is to flip it quick before the
Speaker 1: devil snatches it back when you come to church or
Speaker 1: when you watch on YouTube. However you consume this message,
Speaker 1: the best thing you can do. See because to link
Speaker 1: a few parables for you. In Matthew thirteen, Jesus said
Speaker 1: that the Kingdom of God is like a man who
Speaker 1: scattered seed. And some of it fell along the path.
Speaker 1: Some of it fell on shallow ground, some of it
Speaker 1: got scorched by the sun, some of it got shooked
Speaker 1: by the thorns. Some of it fell on good ground.
Speaker 1: But it said that some of it immediately got snatched.
Speaker 1: Now hold that thought of all the times that God
Speaker 1: has spoken to you and distractions snatched it, or a
Speaker 1: confrontation snatched it, or a fight in the car on
Speaker 1: the way home snatched it, or just the next thing
Speaker 1: that you have to do snatched it. Or a text
Speaker 1: message coming through while you're trying to read on your Bible,
Speaker 1: app snatched it and got you another place. Now think
Speaker 1: about that, and let's read again. Give them Matthew twenty five.
Speaker 1: I'm so full tonight, y'all. I don't know how I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get this all out. But it said that he's
Speaker 1: like a man going on a journey. And it said
Speaker 1: when he went on his journey, the man verse sixteen,
Speaker 1: who had received five bags of gold went at once
Speaker 1: and put his money to work, you know. And it
Speaker 1: doesn't say that about the one who got one bag,
Speaker 1: doesn't say that he went at once. I never noticed
Speaker 1: it said it once, But I think it's very important
Speaker 1: for what becomes of what God speaks into our life
Speaker 1: and what God does. If I preach today and before
Speaker 1: you go to sleep tonight, you share with somebody, Ay siri.
Speaker 1: If you share that before I before I even get
Speaker 1: done saying this message, If you are already thinking, wow,
Speaker 1: I could share that with someone? What that does? You
Speaker 1: take the word that you were given, you multiply it
Speaker 1: so quickly before the enemy can snatch it, and it
Speaker 1: begins to bear fruit in your life because you treat
Speaker 1: it as seed. When you treat the word as seed
Speaker 1: and you invest it back, either through sharing it with
Speaker 1: someone else or acting on it. You know, you got
Speaker 1: to act on what God gives you before you talk
Speaker 1: yourself out of it. You gotta act on it. There
Speaker 1: will be no amount of notes that you can take
Speaker 1: from a sermon that will give you the victory in
Speaker 1: your life. There will be no amount. It is. It
Speaker 1: is when you flip it, that is, to convert it
Speaker 1: from word form into flesh form. There are so many
Speaker 1: things that God has spoken to you that got snatched
Speaker 1: before they ever did what they were intended to do.
Speaker 1: So here's the principle. It is not how many sermons
Speaker 1: you hear that determines how much you grow. Some people
Speaker 1: are professional sermon hearers, professional Bible highlighters. You should see
Speaker 1: their highlight array. They got forty eight flavors of highlighter.
Speaker 1: They got blueberries scented highlights. You know. But it is
Speaker 1: not it is not the amount of bags that I get.
Speaker 1: That's why you can see a professional athlete or a
Speaker 1: musician and up broke after making millions. You're like, well,
Speaker 1: dang man, I mean you serious right now? That guy's broke.
Speaker 1: That guy made twenty three million dollars when he was nineteen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you would have made twenty three million dollars when
Speaker 1: you were nineteen, you'd be dead with your dumb, foolish self.
Speaker 1: You would have killed yourself. At least that guy is alive.
Speaker 1: So I started thinking, yell, all right, aching, okay, just
Speaker 1: checking on you Saturday night is different. We just talk
Speaker 1: on Saturday night. It'll be polished for the sermon tomorrow.
Speaker 1: But when I went through it, I was like, Wow,
Speaker 1: the one with five went at once. He flipped it quick.
Speaker 1: He flipped it quick. He flipped it quick. He flipped
Speaker 1: it quick. I'm gonna do it right now. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do it right now. I'm over my Bible right now,
Speaker 1: not after I read Facebook, because after I read Facebook
Speaker 1: for five minutes, I will lose my faith in humanity
Speaker 1: and God. I got to read it right now. First
Speaker 1: thing gonna wake up. I gotta flip it right now,
Speaker 1: right now, right now. And when he did it at once,
Speaker 1: he went to work it once. But the master stayed
Speaker 1: away a long time, so it took time for it
Speaker 1: to mature. But he acted on it immediately. And that's
Speaker 1: what the guy with two did. Now, the beautiful symmetry
Speaker 1: of the passage is that the man who handed his
Speaker 1: master for talents experienced the same joy as the man
Speaker 1: who handed him ten. Yeah, I'm really blessed by that.
Speaker 1: It's not about how many bags they handed the master.
Speaker 1: It was in the process of trusting that joy was born.
Speaker 1: So means that regardless of what you've been given in
Speaker 1: your life. Because you're like, I'm the one talent guy,
Speaker 1: you haven't talked about him yet, I'm about to about
Speaker 1: to talk to all the one bag one baggers, one
Speaker 1: bag Billy, let's give him a name, one bag Billy.
Speaker 1: At first, he's kind of excited, you know, he's like, ah,
Speaker 1: cool man. Remember only three servants got any bags. This
Speaker 1: dude is rich. He's going on trips and stuff. This guy,
Speaker 1: this guy has much property. But he's one of the
Speaker 1: three that got trusted. Remember when you attach your security
Speaker 1: to stuff or your significance to status is never Now.
Speaker 1: I wonder if one bag Billy was happy for a
Speaker 1: little while. But then he runs into Tommy. Yeah, two
Speaker 1: bag Tommy. So Billy's like, Tommy, what's up man? And
Speaker 1: and and Billy's like, it's the best day of my life.
Speaker 1: And Tommy's like me too. Did you get the bag?
Speaker 1: And uh, Tommy's like the bag? No, I got bags, bags,
Speaker 1: you know bags. I got one bag. Well, here comes Freddy.
Speaker 1: Now Freddy's coming up. I got five backs from the Master.
Speaker 1: Five back Freddy, two bag, Tommy, one bag, Billy. See
Speaker 1: because the reason that that billy got afraid and hid
Speaker 1: what he had is because he went on Instagram. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna preach like it twenty twenty. I'm gonna bring this
Speaker 1: parable to modern times. And he went on Instagram on
Speaker 1: Tuesday and it was too talent Tuesday on Instagram, five
Speaker 1: talent Friday on Instagram, and old one bag Billy starts thinking,
Speaker 1: I wonder why. I wonder why only they got one bag.
Speaker 1: I feeling pretty good about my bag to I saw
Speaker 1: you bags. I feel pretty good about my little vacation
Speaker 1: till you start talking about Italy. He went to Italy.
Speaker 1: Huh hmm. Went to Myrtle Beach. I thought it was
Speaker 1: I used to like Myrtle Beach. He went to Milan.
Speaker 1: It's all right, yeah cool, No, I like Myrtle Beach.
Speaker 1: I'm more of a local kind of guy. Now I
Speaker 1: got this bag. Now feeling bad about the bag that
Speaker 1: the master gave me because it's how we count it
Speaker 1: that matters. It's how we count it. And when we
Speaker 1: hear this, we feel bad for Billy. We're like, oh man,
Speaker 1: poor Billy, she's just walking around with this bag. Let's
Speaker 1: look in the bag. Can we look in the bag?
Speaker 1: We live in a world that worships the bag. We
Speaker 1: never even look what's in it. So what was a talent?
Speaker 1: What was a talent? It's a weight? How much money
Speaker 1: do you have to have of silver coins? Let's don't
Speaker 1: even talk about gold to weigh a talent? That is
Speaker 1: six thousand days of pay for a day laborer, one talent.
Speaker 1: Now you can't convert the economics from Palace Stein to Ballentine.
Speaker 1: But put a note. I gotta put that in tomorrow.
Speaker 1: That was really good. That was really good. But now
Speaker 1: watch this. It would be somewhere around one point for
Speaker 1: what we would call million, because we have words for this,
Speaker 1: right million. So I was reading I feeling bad for Billy.
Speaker 1: I was like, dang man, I probably would have hit
Speaker 1: it too. I would have been ashamed to work with
Speaker 1: a million. If I was friends with Tommy and and Freddie,
Speaker 1: I probably would be I'd probably hide in my mind too,
Speaker 1: until I realized something, Look at me, it's still a million.
Speaker 1: That's a lot. Oh, not to you. A million's not
Speaker 1: a lot. To you, how many of you? A million
Speaker 1: is a lot, and you will take it if somebody
Speaker 1: wants to cash at it. It's still a million. But
Speaker 1: now when we read it in contrast to two and five,
Speaker 1: it sounds small. But put it back in context, it's
Speaker 1: still a million. When you start thinking, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't have anything to feel good about right now. I
Speaker 1: don't have anything to be proud of right now. I
Speaker 1: just want you to look at the devil some this
Speaker 1: week when he's telling you you don't have anything and
Speaker 1: you are not anything, and just only you and the
Speaker 1: devil will know what this means. Say it's still a million.
Speaker 1: It's still a million. One time, come on, y'all better
Speaker 1: help me preach. I will preach through the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: if you don't start. And I got real arrogant one
Speaker 1: time because the church was growing and we had like
Speaker 1: a holiday week and there were only eight thousand people
Speaker 1: in church, only eight thousand people in church, and one
Speaker 1: staff member showed me my million, said how many people
Speaker 1: lived in the town you grew up in Wow. It
Speaker 1: was six thousand, six thousand, and what I needed was
Speaker 1: to break down my blessings, to break down my bag
Speaker 1: and remember it's still a million. Like, here's what I mean.
Speaker 1: If God never does anything else for me, he has
Speaker 1: been so good to me, let me explain it to you.
Speaker 1: He canceled my sins. He did not treat me as
Speaker 1: my sins deserve. No, I'm serious. He gave me a
Speaker 1: purpose for living. He gave me a hope. He called me,
Speaker 1: he brought me into the kingdom. He put a crown
Speaker 1: on me. He gave me seven hundred and fifty million breads,
Speaker 1: and how to use a few to think him while
Speaker 1: I still can't. You want to thank him right now
Speaker 1: for your million. You ought to thank him right now
Speaker 1: for your bag. You ought to thank him right now
Speaker 1: for your blessing. Still a million is still a million.
Speaker 1: Break it down. You got a lot once you start
Speaker 1: counting it. Come on, let's count to a million. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
Speaker 1: nine ten. See when you break it down, it doesn't
Speaker 1: sound so little anymore. Break down your blessings and then
Speaker 1: invest it back. Flip the bag. Flip the bag. One
Speaker 1: becomes two two becomes four. See I found this out. Man.
Speaker 1: Now we don't have time to do the illustration. But
Speaker 1: would you rather have a million dollars today or a
Speaker 1: penny today? But I'm going to double it every day
Speaker 1: for thirty days. So I asked Graham last night. You
Speaker 1: just know that because it obviously is connected to the
Speaker 1: illustration because they said a penny. But Graham is twelve.
Speaker 1: So I asked him the question. He thought for a minute.
Speaker 1: The first thing he said is it's a real offer.
Speaker 1: Is is hypothetical? Because how much do I need to
Speaker 1: think about this? Put it on calculator. Put it on calculator.
Speaker 1: So if we do it, and you can probably imagine
Speaker 1: the first day that we double, it's still not going
Speaker 1: to be much. It's still going to be like significantly
Speaker 1: less than a million dollars. It's going to be two cents.
Speaker 1: But I'll give it to give to me. I know
Speaker 1: we don't really have time, but if you just double
Speaker 1: it point o one times two. I did that right, Okay,
Speaker 1: times to count for me? That's four times two times,
Speaker 1: two times two times two time, two times two times two.
Speaker 1: Now it's still only ten dollars and twenty four cents.
Speaker 1: But what if you double it and keep doubling it.
Speaker 1: All all discipleship is is doubling. All we can do
Speaker 1: is parents, is try to double the values that we
Speaker 1: think are important imperfectly as we model them before our kids,
Speaker 1: and apologize when we think they're or wrong, and just
Speaker 1: try to invest something that has been invested in us.
Speaker 1: All my mom did raising me was try to take
Speaker 1: what she had and apply it toward what she saw.
Speaker 1: And I'll be honest with you, you know it wasn't much.
Speaker 1: She would set aside like fifteen dollars every week to
Speaker 1: send me over to Jack Cribs Garage to learn guitar.
Speaker 1: Before that, my dad would cut Harold Staley's hair to
Speaker 1: get him to give me a guitar lesson, because I
Speaker 1: think at that point it was hard for them to
Speaker 1: afford the lessons, so it was an exchange. And then
Speaker 1: my mom dipped pine cones and sold them around holidays,
Speaker 1: dipped them in scented wax, and then she would sell that,
Speaker 1: put that money aside, drive me to Jack Cribs Jack
Speaker 1: Cribs Garage. He would sit on the freezer for the
Speaker 1: lesson and you would get the chair. It was a high,
Speaker 1: really high class operation there. But that was a good
Speaker 1: man who taught me, who taught me beach music. I
Speaker 1: didn't want to learn beach music, but beach music set
Speaker 1: the foundation for punk rop. I didn't learn a lot
Speaker 1: of chords. To this day, I don't know a lot
Speaker 1: of music theory. I know a little bit. But it's
Speaker 1: not how many chords you know. It's not how many
Speaker 1: bags you have. It's not how much education you have.
Speaker 1: It really isn't it really isn't. I mean, I promise
Speaker 1: you there are educated fools and there are brilliant idiots.
Speaker 1: All Billy had to do, all Billy had to do
Speaker 1: because now I've written songs. Now that God his grace.
Speaker 1: Because one way you flip the bag is you collaborate.
Speaker 1: And my favorite collaborator in the world is Chris Brown.
Speaker 1: There's nobody creatively bet that I would rather collaborate with
Speaker 1: than Chris. And now it's not how many chords I know.
Speaker 1: It's whether or not that enough people can come together,
Speaker 1: put their preferences aside, and move something forward and flip
Speaker 1: the bag. And flip the bag. It's still a million
Speaker 1: I tell you, I don't know that many guitar chords. Well,
Speaker 1: compared to most of y'all. I'm Mozart, you understand. And
Speaker 1: if the man with one, if Billy would have just
Speaker 1: kept on. Oh man, well this is not much. You
Speaker 1: don't have to stay stuck with what you started with. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm still going. That's ten thousand now, still not a million.
Speaker 1: But we haven't got the thirty yet, and so the enemy.
Speaker 1: Oh I messed it up up, but twenty two. All right,
Speaker 1: I gotta start all over. Y'all. Hang type for a second.
Speaker 1: It won't take long. Hold on if you keep doing
Speaker 1: I did it last night with Graham. I promise you
Speaker 1: I practiced this. It's hard to talk at the same time.
Speaker 1: But if he kept doubling it, if it keep doubling it,
Speaker 1: if I keep doubling, if I keep doubling, if I
Speaker 1: keep showing up, if I keep showing up. Okay, I
Speaker 1: didn't get much out of church this week. Honestly, I
Speaker 1: was distracted by pastor shirt. It was bright, hurt my eyes.
Speaker 1: But if I keep coming, if I keep coming, if
Speaker 1: I keep doubling, touch somebody say, flip the back, flip
Speaker 1: the back, flip the back, flip the back. In thirty days,
Speaker 1: there we are. We're back at ten. Thy now's twenty.
Speaker 1: Now it's forty one. Oh. Now it's getting interesting because
Speaker 1: now I see we started two services, so we could
Speaker 1: start two campuses. This is not a church growth seminar.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get you to think about the time.
Speaker 1: You have, the talent, you have, the treasure, you have,
Speaker 1: the friendships, you have, the skills, you have double double double.
Speaker 1: We're almost there, We're almost there. If you would have
Speaker 1: took the penny, you could have had five million, three
Speaker 1: hundred sixty eight thousand, seven hundred and nine dollars and
Speaker 1: twelve cents. And you're like, you can keep the change. No,
Speaker 1: don't keep it, don't give it. What flip it? You
Speaker 1: saw what we could do with one if we take
Speaker 1: twelve and do that thirty days. So now, do not
Speaker 1: allow the devil to diminish the gift God gave you.
Speaker 1: Do not allow the devil to tell you your best
Speaker 1: years are behind you. I came to declare your blessed
Speaker 1: days are still up ahead. Flip that bag. Flip that bag.
Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus. It is not nothing, It
Speaker 1: is more than enough. There is a gift inside of you.
Speaker 1: That man did not deposit it came from the master
Speaker 1: y'all aren't shouting like people who just found out. I've
Speaker 1: got something eternal down inside of me. So he said,
Speaker 1: flip the bag. It starts with your belief about God.
Speaker 1: B a g belief about God. Until you flip that,
Speaker 1: you will always operate in fear like Billy instead of
Speaker 1: faith like Freddy. You will always hide what God gave
Speaker 1: you the way that the text ends where you were like, oh,
Speaker 1: that doesn't sound like my loving, good good Father. Throw
Speaker 1: him out, gnashing of teeth. That was his experience of
Speaker 1: the Master, that was based on his perception that was
Speaker 1: not rooted in reality. Do you know how I know?
Speaker 1: Here's how I know. He said, I knew you were
Speaker 1: a harsh man. I knew you harvest where you didn't scatter,
Speaker 1: and you reap where you didn't sew. See, he thought
Speaker 1: God was trying to get something out of him that
Speaker 1: God didn't put in him. Here's what I know about God.
Speaker 1: Here's what I believe about God. He never makes a
Speaker 1: withdrawal where he did not make a deposit. So the
Speaker 1: proof of God's power and presence and provision in your
Speaker 1: life is the demand. The demand proves the deposit. It
Speaker 1: shows you that He trusted you with something. He trusted
Speaker 1: you with something. I want to trust God, but I
Speaker 1: got to start understanding he trusted me, just like you
Speaker 1: trusted me with your time today by being here. And
Speaker 1: I take that very seriously. God trusted you with something.
Speaker 1: How seriously do you take it? God trusted us with
Speaker 1: the church. And it could have stayed one service, It
Speaker 1: wouldn't have bothered me much. When I had that dream
Speaker 1: and I was seeing the church small again, I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: that was fun. Wasn't complicated. I mean, honestly, like, if
Speaker 1: we didn't double the church, what bothers me about it
Speaker 1: is you wouldn't be here. And I don't know what
Speaker 1: you've received through this ministry, but I know it started
Speaker 1: with a bag. It started with a belief about God.
Speaker 1: It starts with a belief about your gift. You know.
Speaker 1: The biggest flip in the passage is just to see
Speaker 1: like that all three of them received something, to see
Speaker 1: it as a gift. So where the enemy comes and goes, hey, man,
Speaker 1: that's that's not enough time to do that. A lot
Speaker 1: of us we don't spend time with God because we
Speaker 1: keep waiting on a week. You might have to catch
Speaker 1: some time with God in the car. Okay, you might
Speaker 1: have to turn off I'm gonna personalize this message to
Speaker 1: me serious XM satellite radio channel thirty four Lithium where
Speaker 1: they play the nineties music that God likes, but turn
Speaker 1: off the worship music. And sometimes you'd be like, this
Speaker 1: is all the time I'm gonna have to day to breathe.
Speaker 1: When I was in college, I remember I used to
Speaker 1: go in the bathroom sometimes between classes and just go
Speaker 1: in like a stall and just try to take three
Speaker 1: to five minutes because I was in a morning person,
Speaker 1: so I'll sleep right up to class. And I didn't
Speaker 1: get my time with God then, so then the devil
Speaker 1: will be like, oh, you didn't spend time with God,
Speaker 1: He's not gonna bless you today. I'd be like, I
Speaker 1: meet God in the bathroom. God will meet me right
Speaker 1: in there in that stall. And so to stay in
Speaker 1: a scae city mindset is the enemy's objective to get
Speaker 1: you to think about all the things that other people
Speaker 1: have and and to be honest with you, it's going
Speaker 1: to go psychological as well. You're going to start to
Speaker 1: feel like, well, I'm just a messed up person. That's
Speaker 1: the problem. I'm just not one of these good people.
Speaker 1: I'm just not one of these stable people. I'm crazy.
Speaker 1: I was raised by crazy. I was raised by third
Speaker 1: generation crazy. Crazy came before crazy, be got crazy, be
Speaker 1: got crazy, begot me. And if that's going on in
Speaker 1: your mind too, you will hide what is his. You
Speaker 1: will hide what is his. So what I mean is
Speaker 1: when we live afraid and when we don't double what
Speaker 1: we've been given, not only do others miss out, but
Speaker 1: we end up in a place of darkness and isolation,
Speaker 1: wondering what we could have done with one bag. So
Speaker 1: I want to say to you that as I look
Speaker 1: over my life, I think I've done a lot with
Speaker 1: what God gave me. And yet there comes a point
Speaker 1: where all of us must decide do we want to
Speaker 1: double it again? Or should we stay in a scared
Speaker 1: place or a scarce place? And I just want to
Speaker 1: pray with you about that before we dismissing the enemy
Speaker 1: tries to snatch what was said? Would you stand up
Speaker 1: with no one moving at any location? Matthews, Lake Norman,
Speaker 1: Who else is with me right now? Elevation University City, Melbourne.
Speaker 1: Remember it was one campus, one service, double double. God
Speaker 1: is doing that in your life right now, and some
Speaker 1: of it you won't see. Some of the things God
Speaker 1: will do through you will happen after you're done. But
Speaker 1: at least double the deposit we're moving in this series
Speaker 1: from the first half was really about our identity, and
Speaker 1: this is really going to be about our stewardship. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna pick it up again next week and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: continue along these lines. How many of you are going
Speaker 1: to be here for next week's message? Yeah, but can
Speaker 1: we make a deal before you come back? Double something
Speaker 1: that you got, even if you just take some time
Speaker 1: this week, Like, hey man, I'm gonna send that sermon link.
Speaker 1: When does it come up again? Oh? On Monday? Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna send it. I'm gonna send it to so
Speaker 1: and so or or I'm actually gonna take one line
Speaker 1: from that sermon put it on my mirror. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: put it still a million on my mirror, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna start counting things that God has given me in
Speaker 1: my life and counting people. I did a thing at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the year where I just wrote down
Speaker 1: a few starters. I will I can. I have a
Speaker 1: flipped it. I wrote down all the people in my
Speaker 1: life and how much they love me. I'm filled in
Speaker 1: the blanket, said Holly will And I wrote down all
Speaker 1: the things that Holly will do. You know. She will
Speaker 1: cook for me, she will walk with me, she will
Speaker 1: listen to me, she will encourage me. And by the
Speaker 1: time I got them breaking down the bag, I realized
Speaker 1: how much was really in it. Some of us don't
Speaker 1: really tap the resources that were put in our life
Speaker 1: because we just stare at me. We We go, oh, it's
Speaker 1: just a wife. No, no, no, there's treasure in that relationship.
Speaker 1: There's gold in that relationship. There is gold in some
Speaker 1: of your friendships. It's like being at Elevation Church and
Speaker 1: just kind of like you come in, you go and
Speaker 1: you bury it in the ground, Like what do you
Speaker 1: preach about again? I know something he was saying, Tommy, Timmy,
Speaker 1: what God said was flip the bag. Father, We thank
Speaker 1: you for what you put in our lives, divine treasure
Speaker 1: in each vessel. We thank you for the oil that
Speaker 1: flows from heaven. Would you just turn your palms up
Speaker 1: to Heaven. You don't have to lift your hands all
Speaker 1: the way, just like you're receiving something from God. There
Speaker 1: you go, Lord, You've already given so much. We're all
Speaker 1: standing here holding at least a million least a million
Speaker 1: reasons to be grateful. It means so much to us,
Speaker 1: Lord that you chose us to be born, that you
Speaker 1: gave us the gift of life, that you gave us
Speaker 1: almost a billion breaths. With every one of those, God,
Speaker 1: we have an opportunity to rely on you, to trust you,
Speaker 1: to take inventory of what you've entrusted to us. We
Speaker 1: want to ask you to help us because we'll get
Speaker 1: so focused on what's on the bag that we never
Speaker 1: get to what's in it. We look at labels and
Speaker 1: things like that. We need your help to sort through
Speaker 1: it and just really start from a place of what
Speaker 1: we've been given. So I just want to bless your
Speaker 1: people tonight by reminding them Lord that they are the
Speaker 1: head and not the tail, above only and never beneath God.
Speaker 1: Even if situations come to steal their faith, their faith
Speaker 1: is not rooted in situations. So I just ask right
Speaker 1: now that in this moment of holy ground and quiet
Speaker 1: from the world, that we would receive what we need
Speaker 1: from you. We thank you that the Kingdom of Heaven
Speaker 1: is within us, never far from us. We want to
Speaker 1: take what we've been given in not live in fear
Speaker 1: or frustration, but to really turn it into faith. If
Speaker 1: you gave it to us, you put it in us.
Speaker 1: Thank you Jesus. If you put your hands down and
Speaker 1: keep your heads about and your eyes closed, there's someone
Speaker 1: in here. It may be one, and it may not
Speaker 1: even be in this room. But I want to give
Speaker 1: you the opportunity to give your life to God, to
Speaker 1: trust your life to God. You never really did that
Speaker 1: before you went to church and things like that, but
Speaker 1: you never really gave God your life. You tried to
Speaker 1: be a better person, but you never really had that
Speaker 1: surrender moment of salvation. And I want to offer that
Speaker 1: to you right now while the spirit of the Lord
Speaker 1: is heavy in this place. So what we do we
Speaker 1: pray a prayer because the Bible says that if you
Speaker 1: confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe
Speaker 1: in your heart that God raised him from the day,
Speaker 1: you will be saved. It's by grace. We're saved through faith.
Speaker 1: All we have to do is trust in the work
Speaker 1: that Christ already did on the cross. So if you
Speaker 1: want that relationship with God a new beginning today to
Speaker 1: really give him your life, turn it over to him.
Speaker 1: It'd be my privilege to pray with you right now,
Speaker 1: and we're going to pray out loud as a church family.
Speaker 1: If you repeat this after me, God will hear your heart.
Speaker 1: Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
Speaker 1: of God and the Savior of the world. And today
Speaker 1: I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe
Speaker 1: you died for my forgiveness and rose again to give
Speaker 1: me life. I receive this new life. I am a
Speaker 1: child of God. This is my new beginning. On the
Speaker 1: count of three, shoot your hand up if you prayed
Speaker 1: that one, two, three. Celebration A celebration, A celebrate, A celebrate.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's celebrate them across every location. Put those
Speaker 1: hands together and thank God for the one. Thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who
Speaker 1: give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that
Speaker 1: this ministry is possible. You can click the link in
Speaker 1: the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org
Speaker 1: slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 1: you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1: You can click the share button. Take a screenshot and
Speaker 1: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 1: Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.