The Breakthrough After the Sacrifice

while you're taking a seat I'll just introduce myself my name is Keith I'm the lead and founding Pastor here at Journey Church and we have begun a journey called more everyone shout more more it's a two-year generosity initiative believing God's best he has not done he is able to do far more immeasurably more exceedingly more our God is able he's going to do it he could do more than we can ask he could do more than we can think he wants to do it through us today today if you brought your journey God would you just wave in the air like you don't care come on somebody wave in the air like you don't care I just want to give somebody come on I saw that wave in the air like you don't care I see that over there hey if you want one of those silly pints I'll tell you we've got a hub out there we've got all kinds of more gear that you can

get a hold of if you want one of these cool shirts you want to be a cool kid grab one for yourself come on somebody if you can't afford the shirt we've got free bracelets for you grab one of those we've also got a stickers for you you can slap it on your phone like I do and remind yourself that God is able to do what more and he wants to do more through you that's the kind of God we have we've got the God Almighty you want some testimonies today does anybody want to testimony let me just testify of God goodness would you let me testify of God's goodness God is so good we need to share testimonies I'll tell you why because John in the Book of Revelation he warns us he gives us this epic description of the revelation of Jesus you want to get to know Jesus read the last book of the Bible Revelation don't be confused it's written in apocalyptic language so you got to take your time

through it but you will be blessed if you get to know Jesus in Revelation chapter 12 John sees this epic war between good and evil there is a battle right now between good and evil and in Revelation 12 he says it's like the ultimate MMA fight it's like Michael and the angels versus the devil and the fallen angels and we wonder who's going to win this war so he's witnessing this right in front of him then he says he heard something Revelation 12 verse 10 and I heard a loud voice in heaven same now salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser that's the devil

for the accuser of our brothers those are the Believers in Jesus has been thrown down who accuses them Day and Night Before Our God that's what the devil does he accuses he's a liar verse 11 The Voice continues and says and they those are the Believers in Jesus and they have conquered would you say conquered conquered him conquered the Devil by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they love not their lives even unto death the key to overcoming the enemy is not trying harder the key to defeating the devil is not being a better person

the key to overcoming the accuser in your life is not being more religious or even going to church more the key is the blood of the Lamb that is Jesus Christ it's all about Jesus it's about what Jesus has done he is the great sacrifice he died once and for all for our sins it's by his blood that we're forgiven he died he was buried but he rose from the grave he defeated the devil and since Jesus is alive today we can be alive is not just the blood of the Lamb God wants you to testify you have a testimony you have a story to tell the enemy would love for you to keep that story just deep inside not to tell anyone who God is what God's done but God wants us to share our

testimony so can I just share some testimonies with you just last week I was down at the father's house a part of a network of gatherings and it was a whole slew of lead pastors and spouses and we got together and we were sharing Miracles after miracles of what God's been doing in our churches I love that the holy spirit is not working through one church it's his church and one day we're going to get to see that God has had a plan Jesus said I will be build my church and the Gates of Hell shall not Prevail so we got to hang out with all kinds of cool people earlier this year we Guerrilla loved a brand new church down in Alameda which is in the Bay Area Alameda is a city that's often overlooked and they started a church down there to to reach the least of these and we're so grateful that we got to invest in this brand new Church Plant because last Sunday Kara and I got to talk to this this pastor and his wife

last Sunday they celebrated their two-year anniversary they moved into a brand new building that day and they had all sorts of baptisms and we get to be a part of what God's doing we lost a church three years ago up in Redmond called Journey Church in Redmond Pastor Luke and Stacy lead that church and we knew that they needed a life-giving church up there we want to reach every single soul in Central Oregon we lost that church three weeks before the pandemic come on somebody you know the devil does not want Journey Church to keep planting churches but I'll tell you today Pastor Luke testified they are just blowing up they're at three service Services they can hardly keep up with the growth they're seeing the same work of God you want to know a miracle they launched Pursuit night the same week we launched Pursuit night and we didn't even talk about it they're pursuing the

Lord the same way we are I'm so grateful to hear what God's doing with that church plant and seeing what God's doing there we plant churches all over the country we're a part of Ark and we invest thousands of dollars every single year starting new churches across country this year Journey Church you've helped launch 37 churches across America with those 37 churches there have been over a thousand salvations just on the first day just on the first day I'm so grateful for what God's doing all across America last year we helped start a church in iganga Uganda next month I'm taking a team with me from Journey Church and we're going to Uganda we get to see the hundreds of kids that we sponsor here you know we are changing the lives of hundreds of kids if you don't sponsor a child right now at

Journey Church in December we're going to give you an opportunity to sponsor a child we want every single child sponsor so they get the opportunity for an education to get out of poverty for food and the hope of Jesus Christ so that's coming in December but we already sponsor hundreds of kids we also support Stars disability Ministry in Uganda a few years ago we bought them a van and on the side of that van it says supported by Journey Church who we didn't ask them to do that but when they pick up disabled kids and they bring food to families right there on the side of that van we have Journey Church in Uganda doing the work of God to the least of these and we get to go be a part of that Ministry just next month and see what God's doing through your financial gen generosity you know we didn't ask to put our name on that van but in Africa there's a culture of honor and they honor us for the work and the

sacrifice that we've done there and then I get to go to that very church that we helped plant last year we're going to do an open Crusade and preach the gospel to anyone who's willing to listen and then I get to preach on Sunday at that very church that we planted and then later that day we're going to do baptisms praise be to God we get to see a mighty work of God all over the world not just in Bend not just in Central Oregon not just in America but all over the world you know last year was probably the most difficult year of my life we went through all sorts of hardships you know that pandemic was terrible on everybody especially the church you know we lost hundreds of families that moved all over the country God bless you we wish we were where you were but God left us here and he's doing a mighty work and I'll tell you I'm so grateful for that do you

know if you really want to see something great sometimes you got to stick with I'm so glad that God said stick with it because he's doing such a powerful work through Journey Church and I believe it The Best is Yet to Come As as we witness what the work is doing last year one of the reasons it was such a tough year for me personally is we had a year of loss we lost a lot of people at Journey Church it was like we just did one celebration of life after another and I wasn't celebrating I was just grieving I was just kind of stuck in a rut and at the same time people were saying things about me and Journey Church and it was just kind of like Lord I'm kind of done I'm ready to tap out of this one you know and by the grace of God God just said you know you need to learn from me Matthew chapter 11 Jesus said don't do this on your own he said come and learn from me he said all of you who are heavy laden and burdened Matthew 11 verse 28 come to

me and I will give you rest and I'll tell you if you take God at his word he's going to meet you there my family we took God at his word he transformed our lives he transformed my life he transformed my marriage and I came back today as actually the one year anniversary for me being back from sabbatical what the devil tried to steal God redeemed he has done such a good work but I was starting to tell you about the loss of lives because at that time we had a tremendous loss in May of 2022 and I had I had a one of our sisters in our church prophesied in me and said Keith ask for the Nations ask for the Nations I was confused by that and she gave me all kinds of scriptures to support this you know the Lord Jesus said Go Make Disciples of

Albany she said ask for the Nations and I was so broken I didn't I didn't understand this prophetic word that was given to me but now since that time I've understood it how many of you just buy a show of hands in this room right now were born outside the United States just keep your hands up if you put your hands nice and high nice and high nice and high come on look all over so the cameras can look at you for a second keep your hands high you were born outside of the United States outside United States I'll tell you we've got all you can put your hands down we've got all sorts of families at Journey Church from all over the world a different countries all over Africa all over the world one of the wild blessings that God gave us our families from the Ukraine I'm just so in awe of what God's doing how the fire of what God was doing through the Ukrainian Church God is bringing here to Journey Church I got to meet uh Ruslan and Victoria they've started a small group for ukrainians on

Tuesday nights here at Journey Church so if you're a Ukrainian Tuesday night's right here at Journey Church we've even got uh child care for you even if you're not Ukrainian and you just want to worship and pray with the ukrainians right here Tuesday nights now I just got word that we've got another Ukrainian family coming to bend this week from another sponsored family this week so if you want to be a part of a miracle you can be a part of this I mean there's tangible needs there's tangible needs like cars or or jobs just all kinds and I'm a Ukrainian a few weeks ago his name was Alexander and Alexander let me know what was happening tangibly in Ukraine we just watched what's on the news but he let me know because his parents are still there and they're in their 70s and he let me know that when Russia goes and

occupies region a village a city they take out the resources their power in the water doesn't matter who you are you could have been middle upper class and you lost your power and your water because that's what the Russians do when they come into this region so you've got all of these people without the basic needs and necessity so he did something back in December just a few just almost a year ago he went over to Europe he went to Germany bought all kinds of generators and then drove them into Ukraine and gave them to the local church so the local church can have power but then he noticed that all of the water for that region was being distributed through the local church water would be shipped and they would put them in these huge containers and then people would come from their houses to guess where the church for water now Olek said he's going back there to drill

some wells in these cities so that the The Villages and cities can have water and it's all going to be done through the church now as Alexander and I were talking about this it was so tangible and real the Holy Spirit just hit me I never thought I would have a heart like this for people that I don't know because there are thousands of civilians dying in Ukraine just because of missiles that are just randomly fired they're not targeted so many children children are dying there they're dying because of of this war and as he let me know the Holy Spirit just hit me and I just asked him well how much is a well and as well as five thousand dollars and I said well we're going to write you a check for ten thousand dollars would you build two Wells from Journey Church in Ukraine he leaves on October 5th just this week he's going to leave to Ukraine to go drill those Wells and bring water so Journey Church you're bringing water

to Ukraine this week you are it's been our dream that we would reach people Jesus would reach and go to places where Jesus would go and one of those dreams was to get into the prison we had the hardest time for years we just could not get into prison do you know this year God opened a door for Journey Church to get into Deer Ridge prison last night they were there and they had a church service there under the leadership of Pastor Noah he is bringing the gospel it is the largest church service there I mean God is moving mightily he let me know just last night he equipped the prisoners how to have prayer teams like we do it Pursuit nights so that they would have prayer teams in the prison by the prisoners earlier this summer they had baptisms at the prison do you know 95 of prisoners will be

released 95 of prisoners will be released why wouldn't we want to get into the prisons and transform their lives with the gospel the good news of Jesus Christ so that when they get out they don't do it again we don't just leave this into the hands of the government and say boy you guys are good at what you do you go ahead and handle this we're going to take God at his word and go where Jesus would go Jesus said in Matthew 25 he wants us to go visit those in prison and we get to be a part of that and we're not going to stop We Believe next we're going to go into the women's prison but we're not going to stop until we're in every single prison and we know that when prisoners get out they know that there's a church they can go to because we really truly believe there's hope for everyone is not just for you this is not a country club this holy huddle where we just get up here in this place and say well what do you have for me what do you have for my family we

say how can I be a part of the mission of God how can I lead people on a journey of transformation in Jesus how can I be a part of what God's doing and I'll tell you what that requires sacrifice would you shout sacrifice sacrifice listen clearly to me your most significant breakthroughs will come after your most significant sacrifices your most significant breakthroughs will not just happen because you're praying it it will happen when you step out in faith and faith is not having it figured out if you haven't figured out I will tell you right now is not faith faith is the Assurance of things hoped for you don't have it and God needs to do it and when you do that I will tell you right now it is not easy it is not

comfortable if it's comfortable it's not faith but when you step out in faith and you go places you've never been before God will meet you there just in 2023 alone at Journey Church here we've had over 800 decisions to follow Jesus and believe in Jesus for the hope that he has for us just this year we've had nearly 200 water baptisms just this year I mean God is moving mightily and he wants to do it through you and the reason I wanted to start today with these stories is because your life is a story and God sent me here to tell you that if you're still breathing you better believe that God's not finished with your story don't you let the devil deceive you and think that somehow your best days are

behind you I'm here to tell you your best days are still yet to come so whatever you're facing right now whatever you're going through right now every single breath that you have is an opportunity to say God you get the glory I want you to do more I want you to do more through my life I want you to do more in this city I want you to do more in our day and our time if I'm alive I'm going to keep preaching Jesus as long as I can until he comes or I get to go to him one of the two we're going to believe that God's best is still yet to come for Journey Church today can I just get an amen [Applause] we're believing it today you know over and over and I'm going to transition more into scriptures right now but I would just tell you we are seeing God do

things in this church that we've never seen before and I believe it's because we started Pursuit nights where we invited the Holy Spirit God himself to have his way through his church Jesus is the head of this church now when we did this that might sound extremely obvious to you but I'll tell you it's a hard thing to release control to say God I'm giving you everything and when we did that we got to see breakthroughs in this church that we've never seen before just in the last two weeks we've heard two testimonies of those who have had cancer that are now cancer-free and these These are these are actual diagnosed cases one of them we prayed for about three weeks ago who went in to have surgery so that that cancer would be removed so that they could see how much it spread when that when she had that surgery she was called just happened to be at the exact same time that church was starting by her

oncologist to say well we removed that but there was actually no cancer there which is interesting because we just prayed for that a week before now if we go back a year ago when I got back from sabbatical one of the things we said here at Journey Church amongst the staff is that Journey Church would be a cancer-free Zone that this would be a place where God's glory would be so great that that we would see healing and that we would see reversal that we would see that which is incurable cured that which is impossible done now let me just testify to those who are are the doubting right now and if you're doubting right now that's okay because God loves you and he wants you to touch the holes in his hands God can heal anything and we're seeing it right now at Journey Church we're seeing it if you need healing on

believing that God can heal you for absolutely anything just come to Pursuit now anytime or after the service come get prayer from any of our prayer team now you say well why would God do that I'll tell you why God would do it he is still the miracle working God he is away making God he is a soul-saving God he is a life-giving God he is the creator that all he has to say is the word and it happens now you say well well why why isn't everybody healed I'll tell you statistically speaking we're all going to die so if you get healed ten times you will die you will meet your maker but why wouldn't he why wouldn't he show the world who he is through you why not why wouldn't we take him out his word go read the last chapter in The Book of Mark and just see what God has called us to be a part of he's called us to be a

part of what he's doing so that we could experience more of what he's doing some of the most significant breakthrough is not healings it's Deliverance Deliverance of marijuana alcohol pornography strongholds broken where the devil got you you hooked and it seemed impossible for you to stop doing the very thing you don't want to do well God can deliver you he will through the power of who Jesus is through the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony I'm believing that today Hebrews chapter 13 verse 16. let me just share this with you do not neglect the writer says do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices everyone say sacrifices sacrifices are pleasing to God do good share what you have that type of

sacrifice pleases God I like how the new international version says the same verse I was reading from the ESV the NIV says do not forget would you say that do not forget it's interesting that we have to be told not to forget to do what to do good and to share which implies to me it is not natural to do good it is not natural to share we learned that early you you have a baby you do not need to teach them this word mine it will be one of the first words that every single human learns to say it doesn't matter what it is mine as long as they can get that death grip around

it and as long as it can say that word they believed whatever they've received is mine is not yours you can't have it if you take it away I will let the whole world know that you just beat me down I'm gonna scream I'm gonna kick I'm gonna holler because that's sit with me mine that's the most natural thing deep inside of us and then the parents they have the impossible task for the rest of their child's life to teach them this concept to share I know it sounds so Elementary but you just try to raise a human being it is not easy it is not natural to share so the Bible has to teach us do not neglect this do not forget this that God doesn't want you to be a little baby

holding on to everything you have God doesn't want you to think that all that you have is yours he actually wants you to do good and to share because it's that type of sacrifice that the Lord is pleased with do you want to please the Lord you want to please the Lord the Bible tells you how to please the Lord the Bible doesn't say hey if you go to church every Sunday and look really good that just pleases God the lord loves it when you look like you have your life together nope I'm so glad that it doesn't even say if you follow all the religious rules and work really hard to be a really really really really really good person then the Lord's pleased with you nope he just loves it when you do good and you share

but let's just be really clear here it's not just share anything it's got to be a sacrifice doing good and sharing has to be a sacrifice and let's just clarify what a sacrifice is and what is not because sacrifice is actually something that most of us don't even want to talk about because sacrifice will cost you something it has to cost you something sacrifices giving up something you love for someone you love so I'm going to give up something I love for someone I love sacrifices rarely easy because sacrifice is giving up what I don't want to give up now let's just be really clear what sacrifice is not sacrifice is not going through your closet picking clothes you haven't worn for five years throwing

them in a garbage bag and taking them to Goodwill that's not the doing good and sharing with others that God has in mind sacrifice has not taken that old wooden oak dust that your grandpa passed on to you that you don't know what to do or you don't want to give that to Goodwill and so you you go to the church and say I've got a gift for you it's 2 000 pounds so could you get some guys in the church to help lift it I mean no offense to those you who have donated Oak death to the church I'm just saying that's not sacrifice sacrifice is saying I'm willing to go to places I've never been before sacrifices is something that doesn't happen by

accident it requires intentionality sacrifices mentioned over 300 times in the Bible it's important to God and it should be important to us too many of us want something that only sacrifice can get listen if you want great health it requires come on sacrifice y'all didn't want to say it I know that hurt the world wants you to think that if you just popped a pill you would be skinny if you only did the four minute workout you you would have those abs you've always desired if you only bought this piece of equipment if you only bought this type of clothing then you would then you would be healthy there's no quick fix to health that

requires some tenacity some hard work some discipline some some grit it requires you to say I've got to give up something I love for someone I love more you want to be healthy requires stay with me sacrifice you want to get wealthy it requires sacrifice I don't know why we still believe in get rich quick schemes the government is the best at this they spend millions of dollars to convince us through Billboards commercials and other advertisements that if you just invest five dollars in the lottery you're going to get a five million dollar investment back the lottery is a tax on the poor

it is a terrible investment it is an awful way for you to think that this is the way that I will get wealthy because if you talk to anyone that's actually acquired real wealth it requires stay with me sacrifice it's hard you've got to actually not buy what you want to buy so that you can get to where you want to go that can be hard you want a thriving healthy good marriage it requires sacrifice I don't know why nobody's talking about that one but you don't just wake up one day and say boy my marriage is healthy I did nothing to get to this place where I am today we were just soul mates

and we had a beautiful wedding and lived happily ever after no when you marry somebody you just married all their baggage you married all their family problems you inherited all their secrets that you don't even know yet so you actually want a thriving marriage I want to warn you it will require sacrifice you will forgive when you don't feel like forgiving you will love when they are absolutely unlovable it requires sacrifice and somehow we want to please God and do good and share with others but I'm telling you it requires a sacrifice most people don't do what they can

I put a most there so I didn't offend somebody most people don't do what they can they do what they want here's the reality I'm speaking to myself as well as I'm speaking to you today if we did what we can if we sacrificed this city would never ever be the same the world would never be the same I'm talking if we just went to the New Testament and did what the early church did if we sold our possessions and gave to those who had a need if we were willing to be so bold that we would be willing to lose our lives for Jesus the world would never be the the same but it would truly require sacrifice Hebrews 13 16 do not neglect to do good

do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God this happens when we lay our lives at the altar and say God I'm going to give you what I have so that I could please you now the previous verse if we look at this in context It's always important to look at scripture and context the the writer in Hebrews 13 is talking about Jesus what he did for us outside the hill that our lives should reflect what Jesus did for us he gave his life so let's give our lives verse 15 says this through him Jesus through him then let us continually everyone say continually continually offer up a say it with me sacrifice of praise to God so what is that praise to God that is the fruit of lips the fruit of lips that that what

comes up off of your tongue what comes out of your mouth the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name so so was the sacrifice of praise it's acknowledging God is acknowledging his name what do I mean by that it's saying this everything I have in my life is because of him the clothes that I'm wearing Jesus the bed that I sleep in Jesus the food that I eat Jesus the house that I live in Jesus the car that I drive Jesus I don't have anything unless he gave it to me so so my praise is not through a song at Church my praise is not through some

church service my Praise My Sacrifice is saying all that I am is his James put it this way in chapter 1 verse 17 every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of Lies with whom there is no variation or Shadow due to change so God doesn't change so therefore we ought to do what the Bible says to do which is to give him acknowledgment who he is the name that is above all other names the Everlasting to Everlasting the Ancient of Days The God Who is still as glorious today as he was a billion years ago that I'm going to acknowledge if I have anything good in my life it's from God I didn't get this on my own God is the one that gave me this good gift Psalm 24 1 poetically and powerfully states it this way the Earth is the Lord's

so everything on the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof unless you're wondering what does that mean the world and those who dwell therein we are meant to be his so who gets the glory in your life where do you point people too many people spend their entire lives living for things that they cannot take with them when they die now statistically speaking you will die but you will take nothing with you billionaires today think that they're special because their goal is to give away half of what they have before they die well if you still have half when you die ain't nobody taking that with them to

heaven so the goal is not to give away half of what you have when you die the goal is to say God everything I have is yours so how can you do more with what I have than I can do on my own too many Focus their lives on the things that really don't matter Jesus had this encounter with a man in the Book of Mark chapter 10 let me read you the story it's it's a true story and as Jesus it says in Mark 10 verse 17 Jesus was setting out on his journey a man ran up to him and knelt before him and asked good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life that is the question every person deep down asks their souls because you're made for eternity eternity is real it's not made up it's not Fiction it's real and you have a soul that's Eternal it's the question

most people ask too late they usually ask it when they're sick or they're facing death you don't have to wait this young man asked Jesus how do I get to heaven verse 18 Jesus said to him why do you call me good no one is good except God alone so if you think that I'm God I'm going to give you a God answer well do you know the Commandments he goes through the Ten Commandments this is in the Torah the instructions of God do not murder do not commit adultery do not steal do not bear false witness do not defraud honor your father mother anyone ever heard of The Ten Commandments raise your hands if so all right so Jesus is asking this man you ever heard of that well this young man said to him teacher all these I have kept from my youth so that's what it takes amen and Jesus looking at him loved him may I just declare today what Jesus did for this young man he's doing it you right now he

looks at you and loves you he looks at you and loves you he looks at you and loves you he looks at you even when you're sleeping and loves you he just looks at you and he loves you yes he looks at you and he loves you now just because he loves you doesn't mean he'll say what you want him to say because then Jesus said to him you lack one thing here's the one thing go sell all that you have give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me it is a wild great adventure to follow God In the Flesh let's do this and look what he does look at verse 22 disheartened by the same another book says he hung his head low

disheartened by the same he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions as we're in this two-year generosity initiative I thought about this story a lot I mean I'll be honest it's haunted me on a very personal level what would have happened if this man did what Jesus asked him to do we'll never know I can only guess based on the experiences of my life based on examples and scriptures what would have happened if he sold his possessions gave it to the poor could God have said well now I trust you I'm going to give you four times what you had before now I'm going to build a Ministry based on your heart now I'm gonna go do great things we'll never know could it be that he would have trusted God on this wild adventure and one day

in heaven oh God the father would speak these words well done good and faithful servant what would have happened if when Jesus said it he said Jesus what you say I'm doing it you are worthy of it all I want to honor you God I praise you I bless you everything I have is not even mine it's yours what would have happened it sounds like a good word until Jesus says it to you when he asks you to sacrifice when he sees in you what you can't even see in yourself potential just trust me there's a breakthrough coming but it's going to come after the sacrifice I'm not going to give it to you too early because if I did you would celebrate it not understanding what it took to get here character's not comfortable you got to go through something

now today before you misunderstand what I'm saying Jesus is not asking every one of us to sell everything he's not asking every person to sell everything but here's what Jesus is asking for us to acknowledge Him and everything because if there's something stopping you from experiencing the kingdom of God Jesus wants to take that thing stop and you say and get rid of that and often the very thing stopping us from experiencing the full kingdom are things it's typically not theology or doctrine every once in a while there's a weird smart person that will get caught up in those things but for most of us it's the stuff and I wonder what would happen if we

just trusted Jesus and took him at his word let me just share with you a couple verses out of Luke 10 verse 10 it says one who is faithful and very little is also faithful and much one who is dishonest and very little is dishonest and much Jesus is talking about money here he just told a really interesting and even weird obscure story about a shrewd manager now let me fast forward to verse 13 it says no servant can serve two masters none nobody can do this for either he will hate the one and love the other he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other you cannot serve God and money listen you you can't marry a woman and say you're my wife but I also want to just have another lover a little bit on the side she's not going to say that's a great idea that's going to work out well

you watch like season 15 of Sister Wives it doesn't work [Applause] it sounds interesting at first you can't serve two you're gonna be devoted to one or devoted the other some of us we think that this just doesn't really work to church because that's not realistic in my workplace I can't be a Jesus freak in my workplace I I'm not sure I want to surrender all the things I love with my life and Jesus has actually my life with you is better than your life on your own when when the prophet Malachi was speaking the Israelites it's the last Old Testament book he speaks on behalf of God he says you're robbing me now God's people the Israelites look back at God say how are we robbing you we're not robbing you and God says yeah it's actually through your tithes and offering and they're

like we're giving offerings we're giving ties but all they were doing was the bare minimum there was no sacrifice they were giving what they could they were giving what they wanted not with not not the best not the first fruits not not giving God I'm gonna give you the best of what I have and the Lord gives a challenge and I believe this challenge still exists today the Lord says bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby God says put me to the test says the Lord of hosts if I will not open up the windows of Heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need now there are so many people that want

to debate exegete this text and try to understand what is God saying but let me tell you what I think God's saying test me in this try me in this how will you ever know if God will keep his word unless you try it because your most significant breakthroughs will only come after your most significant sacrifices God's not going to reverse it he wants you to trust him he's going to do it foreign also said I'm going to restore what the enemy devoured so where the devil's been destroying your life I'm gonna go above and beyond that if you would just test me now think about this God never asked us

to do anything that he's not already done there is no one more giving and sacrificial than our God Jesus said in John 3 16 for God so loved the world he what he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not and will not perish but have eternal life there is no greater sacrifice than God giving his only son that when the Creator came to this world he was not received he was rejected the religious did not celebrate him they mocked him they ridiculed him this very Jesus went through all the same suffering that any of us go through so that when we go through pain and hardship when we've been abandoned when we've been mocked out when people have made fun of us we can look to Jesus and say he knows what that's like if you've ever been arrested he knows

what that's like he's been beaten he's been whipped he's been spit upon he was crucified he did that to be your sacrifice Hebrews 10 12 says but when Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice he fulfilled the ancient practice of bringing an animal for sacrifice that that blood being shed would cover my transgressions my sin I no longer need to bring an animal to to get sacrificed because Jesus is the last and great single sacrifice for all sins he sat down at the right hand of God he died he is resurrected he revealed himself he ascended into heaven that by believing in him we get the power of the Holy Spirit now what's our response what's our response

Paul says in Romans 12 1 our response should be this I appeal to you it's like he knows this is not natural I appeal to you therefore Brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a Living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship Paul says your life ought to be a sacrifice not sometimes all the time this is who you are now when you do that you see breakthroughs like you've never seen before let me share one last story Abraham he had a son named Isaac he was a promised son God said through your wife you guys are going to have a child that child is going to Bear forth a nation

well when that child started to grow up God said now I want you to give me that child back as a sacrifice go off for that sacrifice on a mountain now if you just read that story alone in the Bible you would say that's messed up I'm not sure I want to follow that God but you got to go back to the beginning God was faithful God was good God gave a promise and every time he gave a promise he never relented he was faithful every single time the Bible says Abraham was counted as righteous because he believed God not because he did the right things not because he acted the right ways because he believed God and when he went up on that mountain to sacrifice his son he didn't do it to sacrifice his son he didn't do it because God asked him to give a sacrifice that he didn't want to

give he believed that God was able to do more with his son's life than he could do he believed in a resurrection this is a picture forward of Jesus he had his son carry the wood up the same Hill that jesus carried the cross up he believed that God was able and when he was willing to sacrifice God stopped him in Genesis chapter 22 verse 12 God stopped and do not lay a hand on your boy and then verse 13 and Abraham Abraham lifted up his eyes looked and behold behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns and Abraham went and took the RAM and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son so Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide your most significant breakthroughs will

come after your most significant sacrifices let me just tell you I've had many Rams provided for me in my life I want to invite my wife up here the Lee Lady of this house care to come up here and share with you just a little bit that we have trusted God and we have seen God's provision like Abraham I can look and say the Lord will provide he will provide when you can't see it you can believe it can you all just say hello to Kara I begged her to come up here with me that's true because I said they're not gonna believe it if I just say it they need to hear it from your words as well Carol let's just go back in time just a little bit well we got married 20 years ago yes December 20 years I was making

loads of money as a youth pastor she was making loads of money as a first year teacher come on somebody and so we got married and one of the first things we did when we got married is I said what did I what did I say to you we got married when it comes to tithing oh that we were going to give we're going to give and do you think that was a good idea at the time I thought it was a terrible idea yes I I didn't understand it I was very new in the faith and I watched you give in faith your life is is Faith and mine was different and so I was raised in the house of an accountant and so I counted every number and two plus two equals four and I said why would we do this so that was the

beginning of our story so she's being kind and she's not telling me about all the arguments we had she's describing Faith but if you really look that up in the dictionary it was foolishness because I went into marriage in debt I I had credit card debt and she she asked me like I don't understand like why would you have credit card debt and I said oh it's really easy you know she said well why would you spend the money you don't have I was like it's super easy like when you got like more month than you do money you just go to the grocery store and you still you know they they give you stuff even though you don't have money and so I went into our marriage in debt and I thought it was Faith but I thought you know you can trust God and still live the way you want to do it wasn't a sacrifice I just thought you know the Bible says tithe you give a tithe and so we fought through this and I won that fight we we

started giving a tithe and she won the fight when it comes to debt because the Bible says that those who are in debt are slaves to the lender so we got out of debt within a few years yes although the school debt took more a little longer a little longer that took forever but we got out of the school debt too that I got myself into and we we worked on this and here's what we did is we we started a tie then we never gave up and times were lean for our one year anniversary tell the church what we got for our one year anniversary oh we got our first born daughter we got a firstborn daughter I wish we just sent off to England we just sent away and I'll tell you nobody tells you how much babies are going to cost you all right yeah uh it starts off it seems like just like way too much with diapers and like doctor's bills and everything yeah and then we moved to bend for a better place like so many you

without a plan we moved to bend I didn't have a job and so I just got any job I could get but you know what we continue to do during that time yeah we gave we gave yeah even to the point when we were going backwards every month with our bills we still gave and God was faithful he was faithful faithful over and over and we just kept having babies well kids after the third one we said okay now we know how it works all right like this this is like we were we were struggling financially weren't we yeah but I would say through that season where we just didn't have a lot but we would give out of a sacrifice I believe that I learned and saw God's um uh faithfulness I saw that his kingdom is a kingdom of abundance it is not a kingdom of want he is our Jehovah Jireh he will provide when we need him he will provide

care speaking over someone today because if you're in debt right now or you grew up in poverty which by the way I did grow up in poverty you can get a mindset to say this is who I'll always be God wants to break that and he wants you to see yourself in his eyes he's the provider there's nothing he can't provide now fast forward in our Story Kara transitioned from teaching to real estate now real estate's interesting because it's not like a job like mine where I get a paycheck once a month I know exactly how much I'm going to get make real estate's feast or famine yeah and I'll tell you when when it's a famine it's really hard because you don't you don't have anybody paying your bills and there's been many times where care has been the breadwinner in our family but when the thing about real estate is when you sell a nice house even if it's been a famine for a long time that check is really big

and do you know it's a lot harder to tithe on a big check than a small check but this woman is so faithful the first thing she does the first thing she does because she handles all of our finances the first thing she does is she ties doesn't matter what size this check is she ties and I tell you if I could tell you the ram stories in our family they're bizarre you can't make it up like you try to predict in your mind what wealth will look like but God says I'm way more creative than that I'm going to show you stuff that you don't even know you don't even know that I'm going to give you something that I mean just his faithfulness over and over yeah I mean I've gotten to a point where I can't wait to give it because I can't wait to see what God's Gonna Do With It yes so here we are we're in this generosity

initiative same for two years we're asking you as a church to commit what does it look like for you to surrender what does it look like for you to sacrifice what does it look like for you to be a part of this well Kara and I are in here with you when we have a commitment card and we look at this and say well what have we been giving and what would that look like to expand this giving we've had these conversations in fact we we had an awkward one because Kara at dinner a few months ago she was just like so how much do you think we should give I'm like oh no we're gonna have this talk at a date night these these haven't always gone really well and I just I preface with her I was like well let me tell you I'm gonna give you a number but it's going to be spread over two years so if we divide the two years by every month all right like just go with me here all right God is good he's big he's a good God all right let's go here because I was thinking a number in my head we've never given like that

before I mean it was it was huge and when I said that number literally Kara said back to me like oh I was actually thinking we could just write that in one check I'm like wait did you hear the number correctly because it's it's a it's a number that we've never given anything like this before yeah and I just believe that God is calling us to higher level giving he's not asking we are not asking you to do anything we're not doing and so I firmly believe that he's calling us to get to sacrifice more it was if I could add a little bit yes it was a year and three months ago that we were you described a little bit in in your message um we were burnt out we were we were spiraled and burnt out and and broken

and we surrendered all of it to God we said God have it all have it all we're we only want you we only want to go where you want us to go we only want to do what you want us to do yes we don't want to hold on to anything we surrendered it all and three months later he not only returned it all back he returned it four five six seven ten fold back amen what we surrender yes yes hi she's she's telling the truth and we we constantly when we talk to each other about this we we put out like a posture of our hands like open Palms like when you literally give it to God he gives room to fill but when you hold on there's no room for him to give we literally did and what she's talking about is we sold our house and everything in it and and our cars

and our cars and everything and we're like this is crazy then at the end of the three months sabbatical we said well we need a home because we're still homeless and if you've ever looked for a home like you can get addicted on Zillow like you've never been before and you become a Zillow addict it becomes your God your idol and then we just kept trusting he said God you I mean he provided so much because we built so much equity in this house in a short period of time and he not only gave us the house that we wanted just the perfect house that we wanted he gave us everything in the house that we had gotten rid of for free they said do you want anything and we said well like what they said anything we said we'll take everything and we said sure we'll take it all and they gave us we had nothing we I mean they give us everything we walked into a fully stocked house a fully stocked kitchen we even had a snow blower a hot tub I mean he returned yes so much fold more than what we get the

snow blower is a joke because like I hate I hate the snow I do okay you can hate me all right but I had I bought all kinds of snow shovels because I thought that would maybe be better if I got a better snow shovel every single year and I left all those snow shovels you know and I'm like I'm giving you these snow shovels that's my gift to you and then God gave me back and said I'm going to provide for you and so I would just I just I want to reiterate God's faithfulness that when you trust him and it's not an overnight Journey it's like over and over you look back and you say look at how far we've come and we're just a living testimony of this like God literally restored what the devil devoured and some and some but it was in a posture of Just Surrender saying God let your will be done and that was our prayer let your will be done Lord you fight my battles

like you don't have to take on the anxiety of what you're going through give it to him sacrifice it to him give it all to him and I I wanted you guys to hear part of our story because when she told me that we're going to write a check for this I was sick to my stomach and for the last few months I keep thinking about this like Lord I'm so sorry that this is so hard for me this is stupid you always show up so why am I actually like fretting about this so I just need to challenge you that if you really gonna give in this more initiative it could make you a little sick to your stomach it might be awkward there might be hard conversations if you're married it might be a conversation you have with your spouse that's uncomfortable but it will be worth it on the other side could you all give care a hand for sharing with me

[Applause] tonight we're going to have advanced commitment night it's just a chance that some of us are just going to lay before the Lord Lord everything I have is yours is we're not actually going to give anything but what we are going to say is God I'm trusting you I want to invite you back here at five if you call Journey Church your home we would welcome you to be a part of that um if you want any information about more visit the the more Hub I want to just say the most important thing that I can say today if you've not received Jesus Christ as your savior of your life today's your day the Bible says today is the day of salvation you don't have to wait for a better day or another day you can do it right now right where you are what that means is you've got to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and then you have to give it to them it doesn't mean you have it figured out but you start the greatest journey of your

life you start trusting God with everything your past your problems your hurts everything you give it to God I want to just ask you right now if that's you and you want to say yes to Jesus would you just close your eyes this is between you and the Lord you know you don't always need to close your eyes but there is something about Focus I'm just going to ask you to focus right now I'm going to ask you right now this is between you and the Lord you came in here today I don't know what you came in with but God does and the Lord has spoken to you today and you're saying yes I want to follow Jesus would you just raise your hand right now and say yes that's me I'm going to say yes to Jesus praise God praise God anyone else you're saying what I came in with I'm not going to leave with I'm going to give this to Jesus amen praise God praise God praise God praise God he's going to change the whole family he's going to be changed now just saying yes to Jesus

changes everything the power of God through Jesus that is the person the Holy Spirit wants to work through you anyone else Right Where You Are amen praise God so grateful okay right where you are I just need you to really focus on this right now I'm going to pray a prayer and you can put your hands down I'm going to pray a prayer and I'm not going to ask you to repeat the words but I need you to reflect this in your heart the seriousness of this decision because if you do this it changes everything your next step is baptism you're going to be obedient to God you're going to start doing what the Bible says this is God's word it's not easy but it's always worth it he's always faithful he never stops being good but in your heart just quietly in your heart just pray something like this it needs to be genuine to your heart to the Lord Lord I trust you

I believe in you Lord forgive me of my sins today I repent and I just want more of you so Lord today I start a relationship with you help me to follow you help me to trust you and believe in you thank you for salvation and the hope of Heaven today I received the Holy Spirit In My Life in Jesus name Lord just even as we're praying right now I just believe that God you are taking us to new places new breakthroughs stuff that we've never experienced before because we've not fully trusted you Lord I'm sorry where we've fallen short and I thank you that you're a God of Grace your god of new mercies every morning Lord I just pray that you would release your church to be Unleashed to be more like you a God that's great and generous the one that sacrificed it all for us

today I'm just asking Lord would you do more more than we could even ask or think I trust you in this in Jesus name we pray amen