You are invited to look for opportunities to share what you have, trusting that God can multiply your resources beyond what you see. Take communion today to remember His love and let that fuel your generosity toward others.
What is up, Real Church family? David John Phillips here, and it's an absolute honor to get to be the pastor at Real Church. If this is your first time listening to the podcast, we guarantee you'll walk away, number 1, encouraged, and number 2, with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. Today, we got to dive into part 4 of the blessed life series. This one's titled the **principles of multiplication**.
It was a fun 1 to preach. Hopefully, it will be just as fun to listen to for you and that you'll walk away with a deeper understanding of Jesus. God bless you. Enjoy. Good morning.
Good morning. Happy Thanksgiving, early Thanksgiving, I guess. Thanksgiving is this Thursday. So we're glad you're here. My name is David John Phillips, and there's no place that I would rather be.
If this is your first time, then you are welcome here. And, and we we pray that you walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. Do you guys have a good good week so far? Yeah? I did.
I had a great week. I actually got to go play golf yesterday, which was awesome. It was a surprise. Yeah. It was it was awesome.
I got to go play golf, and and, man, your pastor won. I I play golf, like yeah. I play I play golf, like, once or twice a year, and, man, the Holy Spirit was with me. Y'all y'all pray for Gabe and Daniel Mannix, Gabriel Mullens, and some others. Yeah.
No. It's not normal for me to win in golf, I had to I had to say that. We are in the blessed life. As another, just a couple of other things, if you guys would take your phones out. First, everybody online, hello.
Could you guys give them a big hand clap just for maybe they couldn't come to church some today or maybe they're they're out of town. But if you guys would click share, that would be awesome. But if you guys would take your phones out as well, go to Facebook and click share on the live feed. It's kinda like inviting people to church, all your Facebook friends, and I guarantee they will walk away too encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. And, we were asked, I guess, popular demand, our notes, all of our message notes are once again on our website.
So, if you want to pull out your phone, go to realchurch.us and scroll down, and you can see the message notes towards the bottom. Click on that. It will open up automatically on your phone. It's awesome. You can follow along with us online.
You can do the same thing. Just open up a new tab there. So, we are continuing the Blessed Life series. Have you guys enjoyed the series so far? I would be sad if somebody said no.
It's been terrible. Next week is the final part of the series, part 5 of the blessed life series, and you don't want to miss it. It will It's our baptism service, so we're having baptism at the end of service, which is going to be awesome. If you need to be baptized, don't forget to sign up for that. You can do so online.
But then, also, my father, who's my pastor, and he's also the pastor of the church at River of Life in Winnsboro, Louisiana that sent us here. He's going to be preaching next Sunday, which is awesome. You do not wanna miss it. A lot of what I say comes from what he God instilled into me through him. So, he's probably a little better preacher than I am.
He's been doing it a little longer. You don't wanna miss it. Alright? He's gonna he's gonna bring bring the word and it's gonna be powerful. Okay.
So, for today, part 4 of the blessed life series, let's pray before we get started. If you guys don't mind. Lord, I just thank you for for your goodness. I thank you for your love. Lord, this message that you have prepared in me, if it's just me speaking today, nothing's gonna happen.
Nobody's gonna be changed. Nobody will be transformed. But if it's you speaking in me and through me to these people and their ears are open to hear what you would have to say, Lives will be transformed for *eternity* because that's what your word does. *Lord, I pray it sparks faith, the kind of faith that shifts and changes things, God*. And, I also pray that we have fun today.
In Jesus' name, amen. Okay. So, the blessed life part 4, if you'll let yourself, you may laugh a little bit during this 1. Okay? If you'll let yourself.
My wife doesn't really think I'm that funny. She thinks I'm goofy. I think I'm funny. I laugh at my own jokes. So, hopefully, you'll laugh with me.
But but today, maybe we might be able to have fun. The title of the message I I love because I like math. I was I was a mathematics major in college. I'm a math guy, you know. I did some engineering in in in the Navy.
I just love math. And, part 4 of the blessed life is called the principles of multiplication. So, the principles of multiplication, and God is a God of multiplication. Thank God for multiplication. It's better than addition.
It is. It's much better than subtraction and and division. Right? God is a God of multiplication. And, how many of you would it be okay if God multiplied your resources?
Yeah? Would that be okay? Okay. God being a God of multiplication. Okay.
So, let's let's get started then with the first verses. *Luke-9*. We're gonna start in verse 12. It says, late in the afternoon, and just so you know, I put the ESV up here on this 1 because the ESV in the New *King* James version and others say well, actually, put the NIV. I thought I put the ESV.
Anyway, it says, as the day began to "wear away". It's very important. As the day began to wear away is what other versions say. Okay. So, late in the afternoon, or as the day began to wear away, the 12 came to him and said, send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging because we are in a remote place here.
He replied, that's Jesus, you give them something to eat. They answered, we only have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish unless we go and buy food for all of this crowd. About **5,000 men** were there. Now, stopping right there, usually when this is taught or when you you guys think about the Bible story growing up, this is Jesus feeds the 5,000 with 2 loaves and or 2 fish and 5 loaves. Right?
Now, notice it said 5,000 men, specifically. Okay? So, just as a reminder, 2000 years ago, it was a chauvinistic society. So, so when they counted a crowd, they counted the men. Right?
What were they counting? They were counting families. Okay? So, you had the husband, you had the wife, and you had 2 to 5 kids. Probably more like 4 to 5, but we're for conservative.
To be conservative here, it's we're gonna say 2 kids. So, doing some math here. Right? Man, woman, 2 kids, times 5,000, that's how much? 20,000.
20,000. Right? So so, you can say Jesus fed 5,000, but you have to understand that it was really, theologians would agree with me, it was really probably a crowd of anywhere from 20 to 25,000 people there that day. That's pretty amazing. And Matthew-14:21 backs us up.
I don't know if I put that on there, but if I did, bring it up. If I didn't, sorry. Matthew-14:21 says, the number of those who ate, which this is the parallel passage, was about 5,000 men besides the women and children. So, you have to understand that it was about 20 to 25,000 people. Okay?
You guys follow me so far? Yes, sir. Wonderful. Okay. So, let's get back to Luke-9.
We're gonna pick up where we left off in 14. It says when oh, that's Matthew. Let me get back to Luke. Luke-9, we're gonna pick up in verse 14. It says, 5,000 men were there.
But he said to his disciples, have them sit down in groups of about 50 each. The disciples did so, and everyone sat down, taking the 5 loaves and the 2 fish, and looking up to heaven, he, that's Jesus, gave thanks and broke them. Then, he he gave them to the disciples, and and they distributed to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up **12 basketfuls** of broken pieces that were left over. You ever wonder why it was 12 basketfuls?
You know, there's there's there's a disciple. It's a leftover. Right. Right. I mean, some theologians would say, you know, this is a region of 12.
There's some other things that you could pull apart. But, hey, there were 12 disciples. So, like court here, I would like to say that Jesus wanted each of the disciples to have some takeout. You know, to have some carry home, you know, so a "take home bag". He just thought it was important.
Okay? So, so with that, here's what I like to do sometimes, and my wife is much better at it than I am, is I like to imagine myself in the story. Right? Imagine as if I were there with them. What would I have been feeling?
What would I have been thinking? You know, because these are real people walking around. This isn't just, like, super formal. Like, this really happened. So, what would it have been like for us to be there that day?
So, let's imagine, let's put ourself there. You and I, you and I, we're part of the 12 disciples. Okay? Now, if we were there, let's just say we were we we had formed a Messiah search committee. Okay?
Because we're we're we've been searching for the Messiah for thousands of years here, or hundreds of years at least. And and on this Messiah search committee, we think we found a really great guy. As a matter of fact, he's opened blind eyes, he's opened deaf ears, he's healed the sick, He's raised the dead, He's even done a bonus Messianic sign. He walked on water that wasn't even prophesied that the Messiah would do, but He did it. So, we got a great candidate here today.
Alright? Not only that, we know we're gonna have a "high attendance event". Why? We we sent out mass mailers, we we did ads on Facebook and social media as if they had that back then. We we we we did all kind of stuff, so we know we're gonna have a bunch of people there.
20 to 25,000 people show up. The band, the worship band plays, and it's awesome. And now, it's time for our Messiah candidate to come up and to speak. Okay? Now, if he's like, you know, real church, we usually let out about 11:15, maybe at the latest 11:30, so that you guys can can beat all of the other churches out to the restaurants before they close down.
Right? Well, *Jesus*, this guy, Jesus, he just keeps going. 11:30, he's still speaking. 12:00, he's still going. 01:00, he's still going.
02:00, he's still speaking. 03:00, he's still speaking. And by this time, Mike Keith, he's done missed the Bucks play. 04:00, he's still speaking. 05:00, 06:00.
*Luke-9:12*, literally, ESV says, as the day began to wear away. If you look it up in the Greek, it literally means as the day began to wear away. So, it just keeps going, and he keeps going, and keeps going. So, by this time, the disciples get together, and and and so we huddle up in a little group, and and, man, you know, Peter's like, I'm guys, I'm hungry. Like, he didn't give us a lunch break.
He didn't give us a snack break. And, it's it's late. I I if I don't get something to eat right now, I'm just gonna drop over and die. And, the other person says, that's it. What what what's it?
That's it. Let's tell him, let's tell Jesus that the "people are hungry". The peep because he cares about the people. I know he doesn't care about us right now because we're starved. He cares about the the people are hungry.
So, let's tell Jesus the people are hungry. And, the restaurants are about to close and stuff. We need to let them, you know, he needs to so you get nominated as the spokesperson. So, you go to to tell Jesus, now Jesus is up there, and the inference from Scripture, what it says in Scripture is like he's been speaking, and he's he's continued continuing to speak. It it seems as if maybe maybe the disciples interrupted him here.
So, this is you, you go up and he's like, excuse me, Lord. Excuse me. He's speaking to 20,000 people here. Excuse me. Excuse me.
You finally get his attention and you say, Lord, we were we were talking. This is amazing. This this conference, this whole conference that you're doing in 1 day, like 1 sitting, it's like it's awesome. And and I was just telling John, I could go all day. But but, we just really feel like the people are probably really the the people are really hungry.
The restaurants are about to close. So, Jesus, we feel like you should probably just, like, wrap it up. You care about the people, Jesus says. Yes, Lord. It's all about the people.
The people are hungry. You *Jesus* says. I mean, if you if you look at it in in *Luke-9:4* wait, wait, verse where where is it at? Oh, verse 13, it says, he literally says, if you've never seen it, Luke-9:13, you give them something to eat. Excuse me?
Oh, you said you care about the people. You guys, your little committee, you give them something to eat. So, now, you've got to walk back, and you've got to walk back and tell your little committee of people, your disciples, and that's the hard part. Right? So, you get back and and they they see you come in and say, did you tell them?
Did you tell them? Yes, I did. Did did you tell them that the people are hungry? That's exactly what I told them. I told them the people are hungry.
Okay. Is he gonna dismiss the service? Now now, think about it. It it would be right for him to dismiss the service. It would seem right.
Right? Nope. Well, what did he say? He said for us to give them something to eat. Excuse me.
What? He said for us to give them something to eat. What? That's terrible. Like, what are we gonna And, about that time, a kid was walking by with a sack from rooster fish, and Peter grabs the sack, and he looks in it, and he sees 2 a 2 piece grouper meal and 5 loaves of bread.
And, Peter grabs 1 of the bread, he starts to eat it. And, everybody says, no, stop Peter. That is all we have. That's all we have. And, 1 person says, wait a second.
That's it. We can tell *Jesus* that's all we have. Surely, he'll dismiss the service. That's all because think about it. This is all like, doesn't it make sense if all you have is 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, and you have 20,000 people, and you tell Jesus that's all you have, doesn't it make sense that he should dismiss the service?
If you're there, really. Absolutely. Now, listen to this. Tithing doesn't make sense. Doing it **"God's way"** and trusting him with the first doesn't make sense, but it works because it's God's way.
So, you take the bag, you get nominated once again, and you take the bag to Jesus, and you get his attention. Excuse me. He comes down, and you say, sir, like, once again, we were talking, and Lord, it is like this conference, amazing. It's so good, and and we were just doing what you asked us to do, and and and, you know, trying to feed the people, to figure out what we have, and and and, Lord, we we found well, actually, stole this from a boy, but it's it was all Peter, sir, and and and we found 2 fish and and almost 5 loaves of bread. Once again, Peter went to eat it, but but this is all we have.
What did you say you have? *Jesus* said, well, sir, we have we have 2 fish and and almost 5 loaves of bread. Once again, was Peter. Is he is he starting to eat it? That'll work just fine.
Have them sit down in groups of 50. Wait, wait, Jesus. I don't think you heard me. Like, this is all we I don't have 20,000 of these bags, snack packs, God. I only have 2 fish and That that'll work just fine.
Have them sit down in groups of So, you go tell your friends, the disciples, you have them sit down in groups of 50. Now, think about it, 2,000 or 20,000 people sitting down in groups of 50, it probably took quite a bit of time to to make that happen. And and probably, just me thinking, in the course of time, as that's happening, maybe the disciples got together. And and maybe 1 of them said to the other, you know what? I think I know what's gonna happen.
Guys, do you remember back in second Kings chapter 4? Do you remember when Elijah, like, he fed a 100 men with 20 loaves of bread, and it wasn't enough food for the 100 men, but Elijah prayed and it multiplied right there in front of them. I think, you know what? We have somebody greater than Elijah here right now. I bet that's what's gonna happen.
I bet Jesus is gonna pray, and it's gonna multiply right here in front of us, and it's gonna feed everybody. And, you know what? That's what most Christians think happened there that day. They think Jesus prayed, and it multiplied right there in front of them, but that's not actually what happened. So, then I just once again, my holy imagination, Peter hearing that, he probably grabbed 1 of the pieces of bread and he and he says, hey, guys, watch this.
Watch this. Jesus, this is mine. Bless it. Bless mine right here. Guys, watch.
It's gonna multiply. It's gonna be amazing. Jesus, bless this. It's mine. Bless it.
And Jesus takes it and watch what it says. Matthew Luke-9:16. It says, taking the 5 loaves and the 2 fish, looking up to heaven, he **gave thanks** and broke them. Then, He gave them to the *disciples* to distribute to the people. So, here's Peter, bless mine.
Guys, look, it's gonna multiply, bless mine. *Jesus* takes what Peter has. He lifts it up to heaven. He says, Father, bless it. And then he breaks it.
And he gives half of it back to Peter. Looks a little disappointed. Lord, you gonna pray some more? No, Peter. It's blessed.
Go give it away. Are are you sure, Lord? I mean, you probably need to No, Peter. It's blessed. Go give it away.
Now, I know it doesn't say this, but think about the principles of scripture. Maybe Jesus was thinking, Peter, you have no idea. You first gave it to me and I blessed it. Now, watch what happens when you begin to give out what I've blessed. Peter then takes the bread and the fish, and he probably starts down the first row of 50.
He says, alright. Take a little piece. Just a little piece. Alright. No.
Do you understand there's 20,000 people here? I said little. And, he gets down to the last little crumb in his hand, and he's sweating right now. That's all he has. And he says, here.
And he goes to give it away, and all of a sudden, it goes, and it multiplies in his hands. And, he's probably like, you can have as much as you want. See, the miracle didn't happen in the master's hands. It multiplied in the disciple's hands as they gave it away. Once they first gave it to Jesus, he blessed it.
Then they gave over in a way and it multiplied. 2 principles of multiplication. Number 1, it has to be *blessed* before it can multiply. And, we've learned from this series that our finances are blessed, and we've seen this over and over again when we bring the first 10%, the tithe, right, to the house of God. Even in Hebrews, talked about, when we tithe, we're literally tithing straight to Jesus.
It says, He receives it in heaven. And, what does He do? He blesses it. So, we give the first. And, I know some people give a little here and give a little there, but they never bring the first 10% to the house of God.
And, their finances are not blessed in the way that God wants to bless them and they don't multiply apply in the way that God wants to multiply them because the blessed life happens according to His word, according to what He says. Now, let's just think about this for a moment. Let's put this in perspective here. Back to what is going on with the 2 fish and the 5 loaves of bread. What if, when the disciples saw the roosterfish bag of 2 fish and 5 bread, and they saw the they saw, man, this is all we have, and they just gave it away without ever giving it to Jesus.
First, to bless it. What would have happened? It wouldn't have multiplied. Because the principle according to his word is we give to him first. He blesses it, and then we give it away, and it multiplies.
Do you understand? That's big. So, it has to be blessed before it can multiply. Number 2, I didn't once again, you guys have have been in this series. It's part of his word.
Number 2, it has to be given away before it can multiply. The first principle refers to tithing, bringing the first 10% to the local church, and now that He's blessed it, we give over and above. We give to missions organizations, we give to we we give offering here, we have our generosity budget, we randomly give, you know, amazing tips to waitresses and pray for them, and it's awesome and wonderful. We give over and above. Now, think about this.
What if the *disciples* what if the disciples had given it to Jesus, he blessed it, and then he gave it back to them, and then they just ate it? Would it have ever multiplied? No. It wouldn't have multiplied. Right?
Because they ate it. And in the same way, there's a lot of Christians that understand tithing and get tithing, and it's awesome and wonderful, and it's a big deal. But when God moves on their heart to be "radically generous" over and above, they never give it away because they say, well, I gave the first 10% to Jesus, the rest is mine. That's still a selfish heart. And, so, we go over and above because all that we have is his, and as we do, the principle of multiplication goes into effect, which is amazing.
I, personally, as I shared 2 weeks ago, and if you didn't hear it, I would encourage you to go hear it, you know. I've never preached tithing at this church until this series. And, God rebuked me hardcore. I was living according to the principles of the blessed life but never taught them here. And, multiple reasons, you guys can go back and look at that, and I have apologized to you guys for that.
But, as from from the time that I was a a young child, my father, my dad, taught me about tithing, and he taught me about offerings. And so, from the first time that I mowed the yard, to the first time that I and and got got money for that, to the first time that I I worked as a a lifeguard, to a busboy, to a pizza cook, and on, I've always given the first 10% because I learned from my dad. But, not only that, he modeled being radically generous. You know, you know, my dad gave my first truck away. It was his truck.
But, he gave it to a family that needed it. He modeled radical generosity. And, the imprint that left on my heart, I remember, and I'm not telling you this to toot my horn, I'm telling you this just as an example. Right? Like Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ.
I I remember as a 14, 15, 16 year old kid, evangelist comes to our church, preaches, we take up a love offering or take up an offering, and the offering bucket's going down, and God says, give it all. I'm like So, I take my wallet out, I look in the wallet, and there's not much in there. So, So, I just throw my wallet down in the in the offering bucket and pass the plate down. It was a really it was really cool wallet too. I really liked it.
It was blue, it was Velcro, it was awesome. But, I learned that because it was modeled for me. And, I've been living the blessed life ever since. When I when I was 20 years old and my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, it was time for us to get married. I was in college.
I was getting my bachelor's in mathematics, and and I'd always been taught the American dream. You you go to college, you graduate college, you go get a job, you get enough money to pay off your debt and provide for your wife, then you get a wife, and now you then you have kids and picket fence and a dog. Right? Well, I was in the middle of college, broke, poor college kid. I couldn't marry this girl, but I knew it was time to marry her, and I wouldn't marry her because of money.
And, I was reading in Scripture, and God pointed out this verse to me, and then he spoke so clearly, he said, I will always "take care of your finances". As soon as he said that, I slammed my Bible shut, and I ran to her apartment, knocked on her door and said, baby, it's time to get married. I'm gonna go get a job because I was on a full ride scholarship. I didn't need a job at the time. I'm gonna go get a job.
I'm gonna buy you a ring and we're gonna get married. Why? Because I could trust God. I knew that I trusted him with my finances. But, why did he say that to me?
Why did he say, I will always take care of your finances? He wants to take care of all of his kids' finances. He wants to take care of all of you all the time. He's a good loving father, but we don't all the time let him. Sometimes, we have control.
And, he knew that from the time that I was a boy, from the very time that I I could start, I had always trusted him with my finances. So, I had a track record, so he knew I was going to continue with my track record to trust him. So, he knew I was if I was going give him control, he'd say, hey, I will always take care of your finances. Because of living the blessed life that way, Man, I'm not a multimillionaire. I'm not 1000000000 I'm not a millionaire, but I'm blessed.
I'm content. I'm blessed in every aspect of my life. If God sees fit to to make me that 1 day, great. If not, if he if if I end up having less money next week than I have to that's fine. Because I trust him.
And, I'm still living the blessed life, and I'm I'm more blessed and and more content than some people that that quote unquote have a lot more than me because they don't see what they have. Amen? Solomon, *2 Chronicles-1*. You ever heard the story of Solomon? How how God came to Solomon?
And he said, it was at night in a dream. God told Solomon, ask me for whatever you want, and I'll give it to you. Almost like a genie in a bottle, you know? God's not a genie. I'm not saying that, so don't don't take that out of context.
Now, I'm a heretic. No. But God said, ask for whatever you want, and I'll give it to you. At night, in a dream, you ever wonder what happened in the day, that day? So that day, Solomon was inaugurated as king.
And it's customary for the king, once they're inaugurated as king, to give 1 bull, to sacrifice 1 bull to God. When you sacrifice it to God, there's nothing you can do with it. It's, you know, killed and done. It's it's God's. Solomon gave **1000 bulls**.
Not 1, 1000. What was he saying? He's saying, God, I know you've given me this kingship. I know you've given me all that I have, and all that I have is yours. "I trust you" with everything.
That's what Solomon was saying. You know what God said? Right? Where your treasure is, your heart is also. So, God knew that he had all of Solomon's heart.
And, just to prove it, he said, ask whatever you want and I'll give you I'll give it to you. If he didn't have all of Solomon's heart, Solomon would have answered differently. How did Solomon answer? *2 Chronicles-1:10*. Solomon said, give me wisdom and knowledge that I may lead this people for who is able to govern this great people of yours?
He didn't say my people. He knew that even the people that he was in charge of was God's. And, he was asking, because now, all of his heart was God's because he gave 1000 bulls to God. It showed, where's your treasure is? Your heart is.
But, not only that, he recognized everything was his, and he wanted God to bless him to be able to take care of what God had given him well. His heart was for God and for God's people. So, God said to Solomon, since this is your heart's desire and you have not asked for wealth, asking for wealth would have been selfish. Solomon proved he wasn't selfish. You didn't ask for possessions or honor.
You didn't ask for the death of your enemies. You didn't ask for safety for yourself. No. You're asking for the for your people. You didn't ask for a long life.
You didn't ask for health for yourself. But for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king. Therefore, wisdom and knowledge will be given to you. Also, I will give you wealth, possessions, honor, such that no king has ever had before you. *God* said, you trust me with your life.
You trust me and recognize that everything I've given you is mine, and you've shown it, so not and and that your heart is for me and for my people. So, not only am I am I going to take care of you, take care of my people through you, but I'm gonna take care of you as well. Does that make sense? Yeah. It's pretty amazing.
*Luke-12:27*. It says, consider the wildflowers, how they grow. They do not labor or spend, yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like 1 of these. If that is how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you? You of little faith.
And, do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after such things. And, your father knows that you need them. But, seek his kingdom or seek first his kingdom is the version I learned growing up.
Seek ye first his kingdom and his *righteousness* and all these things will be given to you as well. The heart is never "I give to get". The heart is I trust you. What do you want me to do with what you've given me? I give in order to love.
And, when it's the right heart, God multiplies it. The the the manipulative heart is, God, I'm giving. What you gonna do? No. It's a radical trust.
*God*, I'm giving because how amazing you are. God always bless that. Bible says, test him in it. Last night, I went to Walmart. I was going to pick up something and do something there.
And as I was walking, I saw a man, looked like he's lived a rough life, was living a rough life, possibly homeless man. And, he had a a honey bun in his hand. And, it's amazing how God will test you especially when you're preaching to see if you actually live by what you say. I'm not sharing this once again to toot my horn, but I'm sharing this just to show you what following God and being generous over and above, what it does to you and what it does to others. Guy with a honey bun, he starts going into the self checkout aisle.
*God* says, go pay for his honey bun. I'm like, alright. So, I follow him in, I got my card out, and he's going to the self checkout aisle. He goes to to scan his honey bun, and I go up and I stick my card in, I said, me pay for that. And he looks at me.
He says, why? I said, because God loves you a lot. He says, but but but sir, and he had 2 other items I didn't see. He said, but sir, this is like, you know, another $12 and another. I said, I don't care.
*God* loves you a lot. I didn't think twice about it. I didn't think about how God was gonna multiply it later or anything like that. I was I was being obedient out of love to him. But sir, why would you do that?
Because God loves you. Guy starts crying. Sir, why would you do that? I don't understand. Like, I said, give me that.
And, I swiped swiped the other 2. It was like $20.22 bucks, something like that. And, he's crying by this point. He said, sir, you don't understand. My mom just died, boy.
And, he goes over and he says, why? And, I said, because God loves you. God cares about you and he sent me here to show you that he loves you, not just to tell you. So, I swiped the card and God said, give him a $100. So, I put flashback, put a 100, clicked okay, a $100 came out.
He didn't see it. I put it on top of the thing and I said, there's a $100 there too. And he's like crying right there. He says, can I give you a hug? I said, absolutely.
I hugged him and I said, do you know Jesus? And he says, yeah, do. I said, do you follow him? I said, God wants to remind you that you're forgiven, that you're loved by him and he wants you to follow him. Follow him.
He's with you. And I walked away. Didn't ask anything from him. Just walked away. Now, I wonder how that impacted him the rest of night or maybe today.
He gets up today and he realizes that guy that met me in Walmart didn't do that to get anything from me. And, I'm not saying don't invite people to church, but some people just do things just to get them to come to their church. I didn't all I did was walk away. He realized that he was being loved by God just because God loves him in the moment. Radical generosity, will not only change your life, but it will change others lives.
Let's get the band to come up. If you guys would, if you don't mind, if you'd stand. Thank you. We do our worship at the end of you know, we do a couple songs at the beginning, but a couple songs at the end. The reason is just to let *God* work in our hearts on what he's been speaking to to worship him and thank him.
My prayer is that this word spark faith in your heart. I just want you guys, you don't mind, would you close your eyes and just ask God, what are you saying to me today? What are you telling me? The biggest gift you could give God is yourself. That's the whole reason that he sent his son to die on the cross for your sin.
So you would see his love. We love because he first loved us. So you would see his radical generosity there and you would respond by giving him yourself. That's amazing. As we worship, I want you to do business with God.
Maybe some of you need prayer. We wanna pray for you. Me and Jerry and Heidi and Daniel, we're all gonna be on the front row here. I know we usually stand over there. We're gonna be on the front row here.
If you need prayer and you don't feel comfortable asking your neighbor beside you to pray for you, come come ask us. We wanna pray for you. Whether that's *Jesus* is is your healer, he loves you, he wants to restore you, in relationship with your family, with your friends. But first, he wants to restore your relationship with himself because of his great love for you. So maybe you need prayer for that.
Maybe you need prayer, something else is going on or or something you're we wanna pray for you. Also, we have *communion* on the tables there. We don't have the giving boxes beside those, so you have to pay for communion. It's not it's not how it works. Now, we have communion.
The purpose of communion is remembering what he's done. It's a constant reminder. Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me. And I have it there to try to sometimes we'll do it corporately together. It's important.
But I have it there to try to show you guys that you can take communion on your own. Right? Or you can take communion with your family at over dinner. You can take communion. It's it's important.
It's a holy moment. Make it a holy moment, but you're a priest. It's according to scripture. So I encourage you to to each and every 1 of you today to take communion today and maybe take it with your friends or family or by yourself, either 1. But as you take the the the bread, just make it personal.
*Lord Jesus*, I remember. Thank you God that your body was broken for my healing. Lord, I remember and I receive it. Just let it boost your faith as you remember what he's done. Thank you Jesus that your blood, you were you spilled your blood to wash me clean and right now because of what you've done, I'm clean before you.
Some of you have trouble believing that this week. Some of you messed up in radical ways. You know what? If Jesus is your Lord and Savior, you're clean. When he looks at you, he sees his goodness, not your badness.
And this is this is a reminder of what he's done for you so you can remember it and can walk out what he speaks over you. So take the take it yourself and say, thank you Jesus that I'm forgiven, I'm loved, I'm clean before you. Help my mind to believe what you say so my life can live what you say. And then take it in remembrance of him. Some of you maybe today is responding in tithes and offerings or tithes or offerings.
Pray over it and say, this is yours. I give it to you. This is awesome. That's an act of worship as well. Let me pray for you and let's respond in worship.
*Lord*, I thank you for your goodness. Lord, I thank you for this radically generous church. Lord, I thank you for what you've done in them, what you've done through them. Lord God, what you're teaching them. Father God, I thank you for this series.
*Lord, I thank you, father*, for what you are going to do in and through this church. Lord, that this church is going to impact this community, already is in in in amazing ways, but it's going to impact it more and more, and you give us the opportunity. You invite us to do it together with you. It's amazing, God. Thank you for that.
Thank you that we get to be a part of that. Lord God, thank you for these mighty men and women of God here. Lord, we just ask you to inhabit the praises of your people, and if the if any work needs to be done with you, if people need to receive your your life, I pray that they come forward and ask for prayer. People need prayer, I pray they come forward. In Jesus' name.
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.usgiving or you can text any amount to 84321 and then just search in the link that comes up.
Search for Real Church Clearwater. *God* bless you and the "best is yet to come". Hi.