Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 1: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 3: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 3: in your life. Enjoy the message when we say game changer.
Speaker 3: You know, every year I pick a word several months
Speaker 3: in advance and try to really build my teachings. Really,
Speaker 3: rather than pick the word, I try to see what
Speaker 3: God is speaking and then find a word that describes that.
Speaker 1: It works better that way.
Speaker 3: And I thought it was a little corny game changer,
Speaker 3: you know, you hear that like three times a day ESPN.
Speaker 3: But it sounded like a Gatorade commercial to me more
Speaker 3: than a sermon series. But it really, Uh, it'll mean
Speaker 3: something different when we're done with the series than it
Speaker 3: does going into it.
Speaker 1: And you'll see that.
Speaker 3: And today it's wan lea Foundation from the Pulpit from
Speaker 3: Matthew chapter six. And last year's series was called Waymaker,
Speaker 3: And so apparently I'm on the like a Waymaker game chang.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do Cake Baker in twenty nineteen. See how
Speaker 3: if I could make a trilogy out of it. But Matthew,
Speaker 3: chapter six will be a good place for us to
Speaker 3: start from. The Sermon on the Mountain. This is my
Speaker 3: dad's favorite scripture. He used to read it every day,
Speaker 3: and then I would use it against him when he
Speaker 3: went acting right, I'd be like.
Speaker 1: You read it, but are you living it?
Speaker 3: So I've used the Bible against him as a as
Speaker 3: a weapon, all right, Matthew Chapter six, verses one through four,
Speaker 3: And I can't wait to share this with you. Very
Speaker 3: powerful principle. It's practical, but it's also on another level,
Speaker 3: very profound, and I think the best lessons are that way.
Speaker 1: And so here's what Jesus said.
Speaker 3: Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of
Speaker 3: others to be seen by them. So this might mean
Speaker 3: you have to delete some apps on your phone, do
Speaker 3: you know what I mean? Well, if you do practice
Speaker 3: your acts of righteousness in front of others to be
Speaker 3: seen by them, you will have no reward from your
Speaker 3: Father in heaven.
Speaker 1: That's scary.
Speaker 3: So when you give to the needy, for instance, do
Speaker 3: not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in
Speaker 3: the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others. Truly,
Speaker 3: I tell you they have received the reward in full.
Speaker 3: But when you give to the needy, do not let
Speaker 3: your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so.
Speaker 1: That your giving may be in secret.
Speaker 3: Then your father, who sees what is done in secret,
Speaker 3: will reward you. And the title of this message is the
Speaker 3: Secret Scoreboard. When when my kids first started playing recreational sports,
Speaker 3: I went out and I turned to the person next
Speaker 3: to me and said, hey, they need to turn on
Speaker 3: the scoreboard. And Elijah was playing T ball at the
Speaker 3: time for the Mudcats of Mint Hill. I said, they
Speaker 3: need to turn on the scoreboard. It was his first game.
Speaker 3: Brother looked back at me. He had several kids that
Speaker 3: already played T boy. He said, they don't keep score
Speaker 3: at this level. And when Elijah got in the car
Speaker 3: after the game, I said, congratulations on your first win.
Speaker 1: He said, win. They didn't keep score. I said, I did.
Speaker 3: The first thing I did when that man said they
Speaker 3: don't keep score at this level.
Speaker 1: I found an app on my.
Speaker 3: Phone and I decided every game that he played, I
Speaker 3: was going to score it myself. And I told that
Speaker 3: boy this the following I said, when you get in
Speaker 3: this car. After the game, you ask me if you won,
Speaker 3: and I will tell you whether or not you won.
Speaker 3: I am your official scorekeeper. I believe God wants to
Speaker 3: look at somebody today, y'all, Uncle, help me preach after
Speaker 3: three weeks off. And one of the first things that
Speaker 3: God does when he assumes control of your life is
Speaker 3: he becomes your scorekeeper, because by default, we tend to
Speaker 3: let everybody else keep.
Speaker 1: Score, and it's hard to know.
Speaker 3: Am I winning in real life, especially in adulthood, Am
Speaker 3: I winning? I wonder that all the time. I feel
Speaker 3: like in some areas it's the weirdest thing I will
Speaker 3: win for a season. And while I'm winning in those
Speaker 3: areas for that season, the other areas that are also
Speaker 3: important to me suffer, and I can't keep up because
Speaker 3: it's like I'm playing five sports at once, do.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: It's like the family thing and the financial thing. Those
Speaker 3: don't always work together. Sometimes those seem to compete against
Speaker 3: each other, and it's hard to keep score, especially because
Speaker 3: now we live in a world where there are permanent
Speaker 3: reminders of everybody else's score, and even though they're not
Speaker 3: playing the same sport, they don't have the same calling
Speaker 3: the same circumstances, the same situation. We're all living on
Speaker 3: the same platforms, being fed the same false images, and
Speaker 3: wondering is their life really that much better than mine?
Speaker 3: Or are they just a better photographer? The game has
Speaker 3: changed because back in the day, you used to compare
Speaker 3: yourself to a really small circle of people, whoever was
Speaker 3: around you.
Speaker 1: And that's why I grew up thinking I was.
Speaker 3: A good guitarist, because I didn't have any real good
Speaker 3: guitarist to see on YouTube, and so you know, whoever
Speaker 3: else played guitar, all three of us, that was my
Speaker 3: standard of comparison.
Speaker 1: But the game has changed now.
Speaker 3: It's it's no longer possible to feel really good about
Speaker 3: yourself for any length of time because the standards have
Speaker 3: shifted and the game has changed.
Speaker 1: Touch somebody say the game has changed.
Speaker 3: When Jesus preached this sermon, the Bible says at the
Speaker 3: beginning that he went up on a mountain side and
Speaker 3: sat down, and his disciples came to him, and he
Speaker 3: began to teach them, and began to teach them. So
Speaker 3: like the text speaking physically has Jesus in a all right,
Speaker 3: let's say physically, the text is describing elevation. He went
Speaker 3: up on a mountain side, sat down and began to
Speaker 3: teach them.
Speaker 1: That is the physical motif of the text. This is
Speaker 1: the beginning of it.
Speaker 3: But really what he was about to do was more
Speaker 3: like excavation, which is that he was going to dig
Speaker 3: out beneath the surface. And I'm not changing the name
Speaker 3: of the church, but excavation would be a good church
Speaker 3: name too, because when you have a really good encounter
Speaker 3: with God, when you really really meet Jesus, the first
Speaker 3: thing that he begins to.
Speaker 1: Do is challenge your values.
Speaker 3: And we want him to build our life up and
Speaker 3: build us and raise us and all of these wonderful
Speaker 3: promises that are indeed in his word. But if he
Speaker 3: does not first dig out a deep enough place in
Speaker 3: our hearts and a foundation that is steady and stable enough,
Speaker 3: then even what he builds in our life will be
Speaker 3: subject to situations and circumstances. And so the first thing
Speaker 3: that proves the presence of God in your life is
Speaker 3: that he will begin to challenge your values. You know
Speaker 3: how you can know if you if you met with God,
Speaker 3: were your values child?
Speaker 1: And I'll prove it to you when he.
Speaker 3: Started preaching, because you look highly skeptical.
Speaker 1: Right now, I won't lie.
Speaker 3: I thought you're going to be more energetic with an
Speaker 3: extra hour of sleep, but apparently not.
Speaker 1: It's all right, it's all right, i'llstle down a little bit.
Speaker 3: When you started teaching, he said, Blessed are the poor
Speaker 3: in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
Speaker 3: are those who mourn, for they'll be comforted. Well, right
Speaker 3: off the bat, I'm kind of confused because Jesus is
Speaker 3: telling me that it's not those who look like they're
Speaker 3: winning a lot of times who are really the most blessed.
Speaker 3: Blessed or the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Speaker 3: Bless for those who hunger and thirst. What's a blessing
Speaker 3: about being hungry and thirsty for righteousness?
Speaker 1: For they'll be filled. And with each of these statements is.
Speaker 3: Commonly called the beatitudes, Jesus is giving a new definition
Speaker 3: of blessing. And one thing that you'll notice about it
Speaker 3: when he defines it, it's very contrary to the cultural values,
Speaker 3: which are very external. You know, everything is about how
Speaker 3: you look. If God blesses you, it is going to
Speaker 3: show up as a physical manifestation.
Speaker 1: In your life.
Speaker 3: But when Jesus showed up, it changed the game because
Speaker 3: in a religious system that was corrupted by the elevation
Speaker 3: of appearances over the real condition of the heart, Jesus
Speaker 3: begins to challenge the values not only of the world,
Speaker 3: but of the religious not only in the streets but
Speaker 3: in the synagogues. I've noticed the church is really good
Speaker 3: at challenging the values of the world when it comes
Speaker 3: to sexuality and entertainment and Disney. That's twenty years old,
Speaker 3: but some of y'all will remember when the Church was
Speaker 3: really good at challenging the value system.
Speaker 1: Of the world. But the first thing that Jesus did,
Speaker 1: seems to me, is.
Speaker 3: To challenge the value of the church, and so in
Speaker 3: order to do that, he begins to dig. And it
Speaker 3: really changes the game because it seems almost like an inversion,
Speaker 3: seems like something is being flipped upside down. It's almost
Speaker 3: as if when Jesus comes on the scene, he's less
Speaker 3: concerned with playing the game right and more concerned with
Speaker 3: playing the right game. Some of us are playing the
Speaker 3: wrong game, and we spend a lot of our lives
Speaker 3: trying to figure out how to play the game right.
Speaker 3: But the question becomes this is the game changer. Not
Speaker 3: are you playing the game right? But are you playing
Speaker 3: the right game? And sometimes it takes us half our
Speaker 3: lives to realize I've learned to play the game.
Speaker 1: Right, but I wasn't playing the right game.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't it be tragic to spend your whole life to
Speaker 3: get good at a game that you weren't even supposed
Speaker 3: to play, to win the approval of people who don't
Speaker 3: sit on the throne anyway, to get really good at
Speaker 3: something that isn't good for you. And I see this
Speaker 3: more and more, more, more and more, as it becomes
Speaker 3: easier for us to get sucked into systems of comparison
Speaker 3: and analysis that have nothing to do with real value.
Speaker 3: We start, we start getting good at winning, but winning
Speaker 3: at what? Winning at what? And the game has changed.
Speaker 3: It's changed so much for.
Speaker 1: Young people, you know, Like when I was growing.
Speaker 3: Up, it was different in terms of social media.
Speaker 1: Even the games that I.
Speaker 3: Played as a kid, the video games I played as
Speaker 3: a kid, were much different than the games I see
Speaker 3: my kids playing today. It was an entirely different level
Speaker 3: of nobility involved in When the games I used to play,
Speaker 3: we were doing real things, important things, like when I
Speaker 3: was when I grew up playing games. We were we
Speaker 3: were saving princesses. We were training to win heavyweight titles.
Speaker 3: In order to do that, we had to we had
Speaker 3: to face opponents like Soda Popinski and King Hippo from
Speaker 3: Don Flamenco and the second Don Flamenco and Piston.
Speaker 1: Honda and the second Bald Bull.
Speaker 3: Real stuff, you know, things that that that that transposed
Speaker 3: into actual life skill. But the other day, I was
Speaker 3: watching my kids play game on their phone and all
Speaker 3: they were doing and it was very it was very
Speaker 3: fascinating to me. I just watched them for like five minutes.
Speaker 3: All they were doing was tapping the screen, and I
Speaker 3: watched for a little while before I realized, there's absolutely
Speaker 3: no strat to what they're doing right now. I didn't
Speaker 3: know the game that they're playing because I don't play
Speaker 3: games on my phone. I read my Bible because I'm
Speaker 3: a pastoring. But I walked over said and I said,
Speaker 3: what is that game?
Speaker 1: What are you doing? And they said it was called
Speaker 1: Cookie Clicker.
Speaker 3: They said it's old, Dad, it's an old game, not
Speaker 3: as old as your games, but it's an.
Speaker 1: Old game for us. I said, Cookie Clicker, Let me
Speaker 1: see it. How do you play? They said, you click
Speaker 1: the cookie.
Speaker 3: I said, all right, and then what like up up downtown, left, right, left, right,
Speaker 3: ba star?
Speaker 1: Is that the They.
Speaker 3: Said, no, you just click. You just click the cookie. See,
Speaker 3: these kids don't have to think like we had. Depend
Speaker 3: They said, you clicked the cookie.
Speaker 1: I said, all right.
Speaker 3: And then what they said, then you get more cookies.
Speaker 3: When you like the cookie, you get more cookies. I said,
Speaker 3: And then after you get more cookies, what.
Speaker 1: Do you do after you get more cookies?
Speaker 3: They said, well, the more cookies you get, the more
Speaker 3: the more cookies you can get each time you click.
Speaker 3: That's what y'all been doing over here for the last
Speaker 3: thirty minutes. No Princess Zelda, no Princess Toadstool, just clicking
Speaker 3: cookies to get more cookies, to get more cookies, to
Speaker 3: get more cookies, to get more cookies.
Speaker 4: I said, let me try that. It was addictive. I
Speaker 4: loved it. Five millions of cookies and I couldn't need
Speaker 4: any of them, but I had fun clicking. Let me
Speaker 4: ask you a question.
Speaker 3: Have you been clicking on stuff playing a game without
Speaker 3: asking the question, what is the goal of this game?
Speaker 3: Have you ever argued with somebody and then you realize
Speaker 3: that even if I win the argument, even if I
Speaker 3: win your approval, even if I win your friendship, it's
Speaker 3: not worth winning if I have to win it, even
Speaker 3: if I make you like me. And that's what he
Speaker 3: was doing. He was telling him quick clicking. Jesus was
Speaker 3: saying this. He was saying, quick clicking. Tell somebody quick clicking,
Speaker 3: quick clicking, and ask a different question. It's not am
Speaker 3: I playing the game right?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: Because you can get that right and succeed materially relationally,
Speaker 3: you could get status, you could get power and get position.
Speaker 1: You can even be a really good preacher. But if
Speaker 1: you don't do it.
Speaker 3: For the right reason, you can get all the cookies
Speaker 3: that you want, but you can't dunk any of them
Speaker 3: in milk. If it's not real, am I preaching?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: Everybody over fifty that ever clicked on worthless stuff and
Speaker 3: found out it wasn't worth clicking.
Speaker 1: On makes some noise. God, the church is old. Did
Speaker 1: you hear that? That was a roar?
Speaker 3: Twelve and a half years ago? If I'd asked that,
Speaker 3: it wouldn't have been. Oh that made me feel weird.
Speaker 1: But it's good.
Speaker 3: It'scar it's multigenerational Amen, there's some wisdom that you get.
Speaker 3: Jesus gives it on multiple levels. And six times he
Speaker 3: does this thing in the Sermon on the Mound. I
Speaker 3: wish I had time to show you all of it.
Speaker 3: He said, what's up a construct like this? You have
Speaker 3: heard it said, But I say to you, you've heard
Speaker 3: it said. And then he would quote from the Rabbinic
Speaker 3: tradition that they had been handed through the Law of Moses.
Speaker 1: But I say to you.
Speaker 3: Then he would correct the values because he was speaking
Speaker 3: to people who had perfected the appearance of religion. But
Speaker 3: he understood that if the behavior is right, but the
Speaker 3: belief that is beneath the behavior is not right. If
Speaker 3: your values are shallow, your victories will be empty. And
Speaker 3: why didn't you write that down? I worked all week
Speaker 3: on that, Guston. I know you've got your pens out.
Speaker 3: I have faith in you. If your values are shallow,
Speaker 3: your victories will be empty. So I'm winning at what.
Speaker 3: I'm winning at what? And Jeez went up on a
Speaker 3: mountainside and he sat down. But then he began to
Speaker 3: teach them He's digging beneath the behaviors to identify the
Speaker 3: beliefs like one of them that he said he said,
Speaker 3: you've heard it, said, don't murder. But I'm telling you,
Speaker 3: if you're angry, even if you don't murder, you will
Speaker 3: suffer the consequences of that anger and eventually will either
Speaker 3: lead you toward taking action on it, or it will
Speaker 3: deteriorate your spiritual condition to the point that you might
Speaker 3: as well have gone ahead and done it because you're
Speaker 3: living in a prison of hatred, And whether or not
Speaker 3: you acted out doesn't matter, because beneath the behavior is
Speaker 3: a belief that led to the behavior. This is what
Speaker 3: we mean when we say Jesus was the game changer,
Speaker 3: because he didn't just play the game.
Speaker 1: That's why they killed him.
Speaker 3: He touched lepers that they wouldn't touch. He spoke with
Speaker 3: women who they devalued. He challenged their social value by
Speaker 3: associating with people who ethnically and religiously had nothing in
Speaker 3: common with the Jewish people. And that's what they hated
Speaker 3: about him. He didn't endorse their values to run his campaign.
Speaker 1: He challenged their values.
Speaker 3: He got beneath their actions and challenged their values. As
Speaker 3: a matter of fact, he did it not only in
Speaker 3: terms of hatred, and murder and adultery. But he did
Speaker 3: it in terms of other areas. Like one thing he
Speaker 3: said was you've heard it said love your neighbor.
Speaker 1: But that's easy.
Speaker 3: I say love your enemy.
Speaker 1: See that changes the game. Grace changes the game. I said.
Speaker 1: The grace of God is a game changer.
Speaker 3: When the grace of God really becomes operative in your life.
Speaker 3: What Jesus is saying when he says love your enemy
Speaker 3: is you can't insist on God relating to you one
Speaker 3: way and then you turn around and relate to people
Speaker 3: another way.
Speaker 1: So if you want God to.
Speaker 3: Be gracious to you, that grace has to flow not
Speaker 3: only to you, but through you. And if it's not
Speaker 3: flowing through you, it didn't really flow to you. If
Speaker 3: you don't give it, you don't got it.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry for my grammar, but my theology is spot on.
Speaker 1: It's a game changer.
Speaker 3: And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
Speaker 3: only begodden Father, of the Father full of grace and truth.
Speaker 3: So when grace shows up, it changes the game.
Speaker 1: And the Bible actually says.
Speaker 3: That when Jesus finished teaching all these things, the people
Speaker 3: were amazed at his teaching not because he was so funny,
Speaker 3: not because he was so succinct, not because of the
Speaker 3: human wisdom. But he taught as one who had authority,
Speaker 3: and not as one of their teachers.
Speaker 1: Of the law.
Speaker 3: Well, what was it that the teachers of the law
Speaker 3: were teaching that had no authority?
Speaker 1: They were teaching on the basis of appearance.
Speaker 3: And that's what he's correcting in Matthew chapter six. It's
Speaker 3: not a giving scripture. It's a scripture about intention. So
Speaker 3: when you give, he assumes that you're going to give,
Speaker 3: not if when he's making the assumption that your actions
Speaker 3: will align with your values. And I've learned that the
Speaker 3: greatest way for me to know whether I'm winning in
Speaker 3: my life is not to ask people you know, or
Speaker 3: not to consult certain external scoreboards that can tell me
Speaker 3: how I'm doing, because my bank account is a bad
Speaker 3: indication of whether I'm winning, or the car I drive
Speaker 3: or any of that. But when my actions match my values,
Speaker 3: I'm winning.
Speaker 1: And it's cool when you can get.
Speaker 3: To that place, not that I live there all the time,
Speaker 3: but when i'm there, I know it and I can
Speaker 3: feel it. And when I'm living from that place, I
Speaker 3: don't need others to.
Speaker 1: Notice because my father is keeping score.
Speaker 3: We need to shut down some scoreboards that are visible
Speaker 3: in our life for a little while and get in
Speaker 3: the car. Like Elijah got in the car for me,
Speaker 3: and he would ask me every game did we win?
Speaker 1: And I never lied to him about it.
Speaker 3: I always told him sometimes I said no, uh yeah,
Speaker 3: played terrible today.
Speaker 1: Honestly it was. It was painful to experience. I love
Speaker 1: you anyway, but that that was awful. Am I am?
Speaker 1: I winning?
Speaker 3: And the game has changed now, I mean, it's it's crazy.
Speaker 3: It's crazy. It's crazy because now can somebody please explain
Speaker 3: to me what are v Bucks and what do they do?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Well, that's what I thought at first, like they buy
Speaker 3: stuff like Okay, so my kids are playing Fortnite and
Speaker 3: they asked me will I will I give them V bucks?
Speaker 3: Graham asked me, will you buy us some v Bucks? Now,
Speaker 3: my first hurdle was that real world money is now
Speaker 3: being exchanged for I'm telling you, man, these these games
Speaker 3: have changed for money on a game. And so I
Speaker 3: told Grant then I would buy him some v Bucks
Speaker 3: and I think I bought him, like, you know, five
Speaker 3: billion v bucks for ten dollars or something like that.
Speaker 3: I don't know the system, but I bought him some
Speaker 3: V Bucks and then I went in and I said,
Speaker 3: let me see what those V bucks do that I
Speaker 3: just bought you.
Speaker 1: I said, what are you going to do with the
Speaker 1: V Bucks? He said, I'm gonna buy skins.
Speaker 3: Because on the game I was watching him go around
Speaker 3: with a pick axe, killing people with a pick axe
Speaker 3: and stuff, you know, great family values. And I said,
Speaker 3: do you get a sharper axe or something with the
Speaker 3: V Bucks? He said no, I'm buying skins. I said, well,
Speaker 3: what do the skins do? Do they protect you from
Speaker 3: other people? He said no, the skins don't give you
Speaker 3: any in game advantage. It's just for people to see.
Speaker 3: So now I'm angry because I just spent my real
Speaker 3: money for you to wear something that doesn't help you
Speaker 3: at all in the reality of a game.
Speaker 1: That is already virtual.
Speaker 3: Now I'm man because I'm spending real money. God have
Speaker 3: a counseling session for a moment. I'm sick of spending
Speaker 3: my money on stuff to make me look good that
Speaker 3: doesn't really make a real difference in my soul. V Boss,
Speaker 3: I'm a grown man, and I gotta get to the
Speaker 3: point where I don't need validation from people.
Speaker 1: To do what's right because it's according to my values.
Speaker 1: You don't give so people will see you. Jesus isn't saying.
Speaker 3: That you have to write your checks in a closet
Speaker 3: and put it in the mail and no one can
Speaker 3: ever know, and don't get your tax exempt status when
Speaker 3: you give. Jesus is saying, if that is your reason,
Speaker 3: then that will be your reward. Your reason determines your reward. Well,
Speaker 3: I feel like preaching that. And if the reason I'm
Speaker 3: doing it is to be seen, then that's my reward.
Speaker 3: So if they see me and if they say that
Speaker 3: I did it good, then that's my reward. But if
Speaker 3: I have a deeper reason, then I have a greater reward.
Speaker 3: And here's a game changer for me. I have this
Speaker 3: like Sunday school way that I see the Bible. Sometimes
Speaker 3: that messes me up because like I imagine stuff like when
Speaker 3: it says your reward in heaven or your reward from
Speaker 3: your father. I always used to picture like a corner
Speaker 3: of heaven where there was like pots of gold. It
Speaker 3: was like more like lucky charms and leprechauns than the
Speaker 3: Bible but it was like it was like these big
Speaker 3: rewards in heaven, treasures in heaven. But you know, I'm
Speaker 3: probably not gonna need gold in heaven because up there
Speaker 3: it's called gravel. You see what I'm saying, Like, there's
Speaker 3: not a value of monetary it's like v bucks in heaven,
Speaker 3: so it's not going to really buy anything. But now
Speaker 3: I'm realizing that this is not a passage about hey, man,
Speaker 3: give and then when you get to heaven, it's going
Speaker 3: to be like you know, your uber is going to
Speaker 3: be a Maybok's Like, it's not about getting this reward
Speaker 3: in another place, it's about getting it from another place.
Speaker 1: Then your father.
Speaker 3: This was the key to unlocking the scripture for me.
Speaker 3: It said he sees what is done in secret. That
Speaker 3: used to scare me. Oh God is watching me all
Speaker 3: the time. Ah ah, But now I see that it
Speaker 3: means he's keeping score, and that means nobody else gets
Speaker 3: to And when I live that way, there is a
Speaker 3: certain validation that owns he comes from him and living
Speaker 3: according to the values that He's given to me and
Speaker 3: the world can't give that. And when I'm not living
Speaker 3: in alignment with that, then I get the car and
Speaker 3: the car is my reward. And when the smell of
Speaker 3: the car is gone, and so is the thrill of
Speaker 3: owning that if I do it for people, then I
Speaker 3: have to get it from people.
Speaker 1: One scripture I like.
Speaker 3: To think about when I'm having a pity party is
Speaker 3: one time when Paul was talking about preaching the gospel,
Speaker 3: and in certain situations Paul would say, don't pay me.
Speaker 3: I don't want any money from you. I want something
Speaker 3: from God. And he wasn't always doing that, but when
Speaker 3: he explained it to the church at Court and First
Speaker 3: Corinthians nine, he goes, hey, I got nothing to brag about.
Speaker 3: I preach because I'm compelled. In other words, God called
Speaker 3: me to this, so I almost have to do it.
Speaker 3: But if I do it out of obligation, then it's
Speaker 3: just a discharge. But if I do it like it's
Speaker 3: a privilege, then.
Speaker 1: It's a reward.
Speaker 3: So the revelation for me was that my reason determines
Speaker 3: my reward. So I'm doing this for you, then you
Speaker 3: hold my reward. But if I'm doing this for him,
Speaker 3: it applies in every area of life. It applies to giving. Okay,
Speaker 3: Jesus said this. He said, I didn't come to abolish
Speaker 3: the law. I came to fulfill it. That's what he
Speaker 3: means by the game changer. I didn't come to play
Speaker 3: the game a little better, keep the law a little better,
Speaker 3: like put more.
Speaker 1: On top of it.
Speaker 3: I came to change the reason that you do it.
Speaker 3: So one of those things is giving. In the Old Testament,
Speaker 3: you would see an obligatory system of giving, where I
Speaker 3: bring the tithe because I have to, or else I'm
Speaker 3: under a curse, and so I bring God the first
Speaker 3: fruits of my produce, in the first fruits of all
Speaker 3: of my increase because I have to. It is obligation oriented.
Speaker 3: That's how most of us live. But grace changes the game.
Speaker 3: Jesus said, I didn't come to abolish it, but to
Speaker 3: fulfill it. In other words, I came to give you
Speaker 3: a different reason.
Speaker 1: Now, it's not.
Speaker 3: That I'm doing it because I've got to.
Speaker 1: I'm doing it because of the grace of God. Am
Speaker 1: I saying this right?
Speaker 3: Lord?
Speaker 1: It is a shift in perspective.
Speaker 3: And sometimes you keep doing the same things, but you
Speaker 3: find it a deeper reason to do it, and then
Speaker 3: you find meaning in your life.
Speaker 1: But if you're not careful, you run.
Speaker 3: Around all your life changing the things that you do.
Speaker 3: But you find no meaning in the things because as
Speaker 3: long as you have shallow reasons.
Speaker 1: You get empty victories.
Speaker 3: But when your reason gets deeper, when you start saying,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm giving to God, I'm serving God,
Speaker 3: not because I have to, or not because people might notice,
Speaker 3: or not because I'm going to go to hell if
Speaker 3: I don't. But just He's been good to me, just
Speaker 3: because I know that my redeemer lives.
Speaker 1: That's why.
Speaker 3: Then your father, who sees what is done in secret,
Speaker 3: will reward you. Whatever is your reason controls your reward.
Speaker 1: You believe that.
Speaker 3: You believe that if you have a devotion just so
Speaker 3: you can post on Instagram that you had it with
Speaker 3: a picture of your carfew mugs sitting next to Colossians
Speaker 3: Chapter three, verse seven, Do you.
Speaker 1: Believe me that if that's why you did it, that's
Speaker 1: what you get out of it.
Speaker 3: And when it only gets twelve likes, don't cry because
Speaker 3: I preached Matthew six' one through four, and I told
Speaker 3: you that if that is your reason, then that is
Speaker 3: your reward. I see it like a game show in
Speaker 3: my mind. Tell them what they've won. You know, It's
Speaker 3: like you know absolutely nothing, because you did it for
Speaker 3: the reason, and people will go I left that church.
Speaker 1: Why'd you leave that church? Because I got burned?
Speaker 3: Were you in the cooking ministry? You see the scar?
Speaker 3: Is it nasty?
Speaker 1: I get it. We get hurt.
Speaker 3: But sometimes the reason that we got hurt is because
Speaker 3: in our heart, what we needed from people was too
Speaker 3: much and we shouldn't have been doing it for people
Speaker 3: to begin with it. Oh, the applause died down by
Speaker 3: seventy three percent.
Speaker 1: It always happens when you challenge the values.
Speaker 3: And I noticed a trend in my preaching a couple
Speaker 3: of years ago that bothered me. So I've been I've
Speaker 3: been working on it. Where I was I was preaching
Speaker 3: a sort of theology, it was a little perverted in
Speaker 3: this way, not on purpose, but you just shift toward it.
Speaker 3: You say, if you will, God will, and God's gonna,
Speaker 3: and you fill in the blanks, you know, like, if
Speaker 3: you obey God in this area of your life, it
Speaker 3: will produce a blessing.
Speaker 1: So it was a cause and effect.
Speaker 3: What I'm coming to understand is while that's true on
Speaker 3: the surface, the real blessing is built into the process.
Speaker 1: The real blessing is built in.
Speaker 3: When he says, don't let your left hand know what
Speaker 3: your right hand is doing when you give. That means
Speaker 3: that it ought to be so automatic because you've operated
Speaker 3: out of your values to the point like these guitar players,
Speaker 3: is there a guitar anywhere around here? When they play,
Speaker 3: there's got to be one right LJ. When they play,
Speaker 3: they don't have to think about I would play y'all
Speaker 3: talk dirty to me by poison, but that's not appropriate
Speaker 3: for chure.
Speaker 5: That's the first song I learned, though. That's what I
Speaker 5: think about when I see electric guitar. They do this
Speaker 5: with the right hand and this with the left hand,
Speaker 5: but they don't.
Speaker 1: See these hands. These hands.
Speaker 3: If I've done that enough, this hand is going, and
Speaker 3: this hand is going, and the left hand, what is
Speaker 3: this glycerine by Bush? I think I'm playing of all
Speaker 3: the songs shout of the nineties, And if you've done
Speaker 3: it enough, it's not even a thing. And Jesus, I
Speaker 3: would like for you to get to the point where
Speaker 3: My grace has changed you enough.
Speaker 1: That you don't have to you don't have to think
Speaker 1: about it or pray about it.
Speaker 3: God, should I give to further your gospel in the earth,
Speaker 3: I just need a sigh. How about your common sense?
Speaker 3: And so he challenges my values. And that's what I've
Speaker 3: always loved about this moment in our church we are
Speaker 3: getting ready to give, or when we're calling people to serve.
Speaker 1: You know, it changes the game.
Speaker 3: Because when your intention in coming here is in what
Speaker 3: you get, then that's your reward. When your intention in
Speaker 3: coming is to give something that God put inside of you,
Speaker 3: you are no longer dependent on people, and that's the blessing.
Speaker 3: The blessing is built in to the process. And I
Speaker 3: think we need to take our scoreboard back. I think
Speaker 3: we've adopted the world's values in some ways that have
Speaker 3: caused us to when victories that are empty, then your father,
Speaker 3: who sees what is done in secret, he will reward you,
Speaker 3: not with pots of gold in heaven, not with v
Speaker 3: bucks and cookies, digital cookies, cookies made of pixels, complements
Speaker 3: from people, and empty status that.
Speaker 1: Can be here one day and gone the next.
Speaker 3: When you have crappy values, you will never have lasting joy.
Speaker 1: And popularity is a crappy value.
Speaker 3: That's in the Greek crappy value facility.
Speaker 1: And position is a crappy value.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna work my way up excavation before elevation. Pleasure
Speaker 3: is a crappy it's a great byproduct.
Speaker 1: It's not bad to feel good and enjoy stuff.
Speaker 3: But when that's the goal of the game, it's a
Speaker 3: terrible value. And when my values are shallow, my victories
Speaker 3: are empty.
Speaker 1: So I want God to run my scoreboard. How about you?
Speaker 3: I need that, Come on, I need that. It's too stressful.
Speaker 3: It's too stressful. Life is too stressful, and too many
Speaker 3: people have too many different opinions, and there's too much
Speaker 3: to keep up with, and I can't do it anymore.
Speaker 3: So I want my father, who sees what has done
Speaker 3: in secret, to keep score for me, and I want
Speaker 3: I want him to make the decision.
Speaker 1: Was that good? Am I a good dad today?
Speaker 3: Because I certainly can't ask my kids what they think
Speaker 3: about that. I can't because what I will need to
Speaker 3: do to be a good parent in some seasons we
Speaker 3: I mean sometimes that I am not popular. But if
Speaker 3: I'm parenting according to purpose, if I'm living according to purpose,
Speaker 3: I don't have to consult all these other sources. Say
Speaker 3: this out loud. God is my source, and he is
Speaker 3: my reward. God is my source, and he is my reward.
Speaker 3: God is my source and He is my reward. Now
Speaker 3: clap your hands if you want to live that way.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get around these values over the next few weeks.
Speaker 3: I'm not teaching only on giving or tithing or any
Speaker 3: of that. I'm gonna be teaching on principles of faith
Speaker 3: and principles of vision and principles of value.
Speaker 1: That's what we've always done at this church.
Speaker 3: I never stood up on this stage and preached from
Speaker 3: an emergency that we needed people to give, and I
Speaker 3: won't start now because there is none. But now there's
Speaker 3: an opportunity coming up as this year in is for
Speaker 3: thousands of you to begin to operate according to Kingdom values,
Speaker 3: putting God first. What a lot of people begin to
Speaker 3: do during this season that I think is so appropriate
Speaker 3: is they begin that practice of tithing that's the first
Speaker 3: ten percent, and rather than just giving some one time gift,
Speaker 3: some spontaneous gift, they get systematic and strategic to begin
Speaker 3: to align your actions with your values, because otherwise, what
Speaker 3: is it, It's just rhetoric.
Speaker 1: Your actions reflect your values.
Speaker 3: So thousands of people during this season will begin to
Speaker 3: tie the first ten percent to God and go online
Speaker 3: and set that up in a recurring way, and then
Speaker 3: thousands will bring an above and beyond gift, and we'll
Speaker 3: use that to build the church and build the kingdom
Speaker 3: and preach the gospel, and will show you in the
Speaker 3: weeks to come some videos and testimonies of what God
Speaker 3: is already doing around the world, thousands of you online
Speaker 3: that just click on and click off. Now, God's gonna
Speaker 3: call you off the bench into the game. Off the
Speaker 3: bench in the game, because when you get in the game,
Speaker 3: that's when you start to discover who God really is,
Speaker 3: not when you sit and spectat, but when you participate
Speaker 3: and sacrifice. And God is calling on us in this
Speaker 3: season to get in the game and make a difference
Speaker 3: in the world for the glory of His name. And
Speaker 3: I feel like making a difference. I want my life
Speaker 3: to count for something beyond what I can see. So
Speaker 3: the worship team is going to come now and we're
Speaker 3: gonna sing again. Would you stand to your feet. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna worship God. Please don't leave. It's so stressful when
Speaker 3: I say stand and five hundred people start heading for
Speaker 3: the car. And we don't need any of that, but
Speaker 3: I want us to take a moment and seal the
Speaker 3: word that God spoke today.
Speaker 1: Are you excited about this season of faith? Come on,
Speaker 1: clap your hands if you're excited.
Speaker 3: Father, we ask you now that you would align our
Speaker 3: values with yours. Sometimes what you value and what we
Speaker 3: value are so different, and we need your help in
Speaker 3: those areas. Sometimes we're looking at the wrong scoreboard and
Speaker 3: we feel like we're failing because we're allowing the wrong
Speaker 3: people to run our scoreboard. Sometimes we feel like we're
Speaker 3: failing because we're considering all the wrong columns and not
Speaker 3: the ones that are inside, the ones that matter. So
Speaker 3: I speak over your people today a blessing of affirmation
Speaker 3: and validation that can only come from you. I pray
Speaker 3: that you would speak, even in these moments, the words
Speaker 3: that we need to hear. That we would align our
Speaker 3: values with your voice, and your voice alone that rises
Speaker 3: above every storm, transcends every season. To believe and know
Speaker 3: that your grace is enough for us. In Jesus' name,
Speaker 3: I pray, and the whole church sayd amen, it is.
Speaker 2: So thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those
Speaker 2: of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because
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Speaker 2: the link in the description to give now or visit
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.