The Danger of Holding Back - Pastor Mike Smith

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, guys, this is Naim and you've reached the Mosaic Church podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast if you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity and I'd love for you to pay it forward. Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you and enjoy. [00:00:56] Speaker B: All right, well, good morning, Mosaic. So glad you're here. It is a brand new series. It's going to be. You can almost see it. It's going to be mind blowing. Right? Okay. That's the idea. It's some stories that are intriguing, some stories that maybe you thought somebody said one time, but maybe you thought you misheard what they actually said. There's no way that could be in the Bible. There's no way that could be true. But we're going to about some of those. This series and the one that I'm going to actually talk about is it involves a couple whose names are Ananias and Sapphira, maybe you've heard of them. But it involves a couple that just. They just got lost. They got lost and they actually never made it back. They just never made it back. So, you know, the whole idea of getting lost. Has anybody ever gotten lost? I mean, not. I was driving around and I lost my way, and then I looked at my gps. No, I mean really lost. Like you just were. You were just freaking out. All right, so I don't remember much about my childhood. I don't know whether God didn't put much. He put megabytes in and I need gigabytes or what the deal is. I don't know if it was just so traumatic and maybe I just blocked it all out, but I don't remember many things. But this one thing I do remember, I remember that we went shopping one day and shopping was the worst as a kid. You know, I was probably six. I don't know. And the other thing you need to know about me at six, I wasn't six foot four. Okay. When I look out now and we're somewhere, if I lose my wife, maybe I can look across everything. Oh, there she is. We're good, you know, at six foot, at three foot four maybe I'm down here. And so when I'm lost, I could. So we were in the store, we're shopping, my mom's having a good time, I'm not having a good time. But in order to make it a little more fun, I'm running into the middle of these shirts and pants that are hanging on hangers and I'm playing hide and go seek. And one of those particular times I feel like I went in and came out in Narnia, okay? Because when I came out, everybody was gone, nobody was there. And I looked around for a few minutes and I mean, I felt like I was the only one in the store really. And so I did what any 6 year old would do. I started crying and just kind of wandering around through the store. Finally, a security guard recognizes from my disposition what's going on. He comes, he takes me to the counter, to the checkout counter, and I think probably they called my wife or called my mother, my wife, oh my gosh. Called my mother and said, hey, we got you. Or on the loudspeaker, come to check out number seven, we've got your son. And she comes and, you know, we're reunited and she's got some good one liners. I mean, there's always a good one liner. Like, I hope you learned your lesson ok, you know, or you know, and I'm like, did I really need to learn a lesson? I don't know that I need to learn a lesson. Maybe another one. You're like, next time use your head, all right? But anyway, I'm found. I'm scarred for life, but I'm alive. Unlike these people that I want to talk about this morning. But sometimes in life we just get lost, right? In a lot of different areas of our life, we get lost. And maybe even a better way to say it is that we get misdirected or we get kind of distracted and we go off in this, in this direction, which is totally wrong, and we lose our way. And that's what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. They lost their way. All right, so I wanna read, I wanna read Acts, chapter 5, verses 1 through 11. Kind of give you what's going on here. All right? It starts in Acts, chapter five. And here's what it says. It says, now, named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, Also sold a piece of property with his wife's full knowledge. He kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles feet. Now before we read the rest of this, I need to give you some context because if I just read this story, you're gonna be like, what? I don't get it. So let me give you some context. This story happens right after, I mean not, not years, not months, but weeks after Jesus has been crucified. He's been put in a tomb, he's been resurrected and he's ascended into heaven. It's right after all these things have happened. And so Jesus has come back and for 40 days he spent this time with his disciples, teaching them, saying, get ready, I'm gonna ascend into heaven and you're gonna be on your own. But he said, what I want you to do is you're not really gonna be on your own. I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit to you and he's going to guide you. The Spirit is going to guide you through until I come back for you, okay? And so that's what he said. He said, I want y' all to stay together right here in Jerusalem and just wait. And so they did. They stayed there. And what happened was they continued to teach. They, they continued to do signs and wonders. The scripture says miracles and things like that. And they stayed together and, and, and obviously, you know, a lot's going on when the leader of a movement gets executed and he comes back to life. Well, people take notice. And even some of the Jewish people that were like, yeah, we're not, we're not even thinking about that. They're starting to change their mind. And the numbers of people are growing and growing and, and Jesus says, I want you stay right there till the Holy Spirit comes. Well, the Holy Spirit comes. You remember this story too probably. He comes, the Spirit comes and, and rest on them. And what happens? They start speaking in different languages, in different tongues. And somebody in the group that has now been like, yeah, you know, I want to check this out, but I'm not too sure about this. That person's in the room and, and they stand up and they say, you know, these people are drunk. And you remember Peter stands up and says, they're not drunk. It's only nine o' clock in the morning. We need more time, right? No, maybe, I don't know, but it's only 9 o' clock in the morning. These people are now filled with the Spirit like Jesus promised. And he went on and preached this message, and it says at the end when he finished preaching like a thousand people were added to their number. So this group is growing. And then Peter and John get arrested and they get out of jail and 3,000 are added to their number. And then Peter preaches again and 5,000. So this number keeps getting larger and larger and larger and they staying together. Why are they staying together? Because they thought Jesus was coming back. Not in years, which obviously we have the benefit of knowing it's going to be a while or I don't know. But they thought he was coming back in days, maybe weeks, but possibly days. And so they stayed together because it was just going to be a short time. And with them all being together, there were material needs. Things came up. They needed food because there were a lot of people there, they needed to eat, they needed material things. It's kind of the same circumstance here at Mosaic. It's why we say, hey, can you be generous here at Mosaic? Can you give to Mosaic, help us when you do ministry. There are finances. And so that's what's happening here. The first person, Barnabas, steps up and says, well, I'll sell my land. And he brings it and puts it at the apostles feet. Well that's not really. I don't know if he actually laid it at their feet, but it's a figure of speech. It's a way of saying he gave it, no strings attached. Here it is. Do with it what you think is appropriate. And Barnabas is the first. And then as we come to this story, it's because Ananias has decided to do the same thing again. Get this, they think they're leaving. They think Jesus is coming back in days. And so what good is property? Let's just sell it. And so that's where we are. Let's keep going. Acts, chapter five, verse. Keep going in verse three. So Ananias has brought this money, laid it at the apostles feet. And then Peter said, ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? In other words, you know you had full control over this, right? Yeah. And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? Nobody was twisting your arm to do anything different. You said you were gonna give it. What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings, but to God. When Ananias heard this, this is the crazy Part, when Ananias heard this, he fell down and died right there. Fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body and carried him out and buried him. It gets crazier. About three hours later, his wife comes in, Sapphira, not knowing what had happened. And Peter calls her aside and says, okay, Sapphira, let me ask you a question. Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land? She said, yeah, yeah, this is it. Peter said to her, how could you conspire to test the spirit of the Lord? Listen, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out. Also, at that moment, she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in, finding her dead, carried her out, buried her beside her husband, and great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. So I'm thinking that it's time to do something that in the life of the mosaic, we've never done. It's time to pass the plate. No. Okay. All right. Well, so some of you know, some of you have been here for a long time. Maybe some of you don't know, but we don't pass the plate at Mosaic. For us, it's part of reclaiming the message and movement of Jesus. Not passing the plate. We don't pass the plate because we feel like if we pass the plate, if we just shove it out there to you, then we're taking. We want to teach people at Mosaic, and again, we believe this is the way Jesus taught. We want to teach people to give, to be generous. Obviously, that's what I'm talking about this morning, being generous. We. That's. That's what we feel like Jesus wants. And. And so we're not going to pass the plate. We. We don't pass the plate, and we take some. We take some abuse for this sometimes. Okay? Sometimes people are like, well, that's an act. And these are mostly church people, right? That's an act of worship. And. And. Can worship only be in church on Sunday? Can you not worship at your computer when you give electronically? I do. I. But we take a little bit of abuse for this. And here's what I would say, because this is part of reclaiming the message and movement. It's not necessarily an act of worship when it's in this context. It's more like an act of coercion. All right? Because when you pass the plate, there are at least two people on either side of you, watching what you do, right? And what does that create? Shame, judgment. So we don't pass the plate, we just say. We just say give. But this passage of scripture, it creates all kinds of questions. How did Peter know. How did Peter know that Ananias didn't give it all? How did he die? Was it a heart attack? Was it a stroke? I don't know. And his wife, how did that happen? Like that, just boom, boom. I mean, here's the one thing I do wanna say, the one thing I absolutely believe with all my heart. God did not strike them down. That's not God's nature. How it happened, I have no idea. But here's what I would say. When you think about this passage, we use our head. Like my mom's one liner. Use your head, use your head. We've, we've been taught to do that. Why do you think he didn't bring all the money? It's because it's been a week. It's been 10 days. Jesus. Jesus was with them for 40 days. He said, stay together. He said, I'll send the holy spirit. So 10 days later, after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit came. Now it's been 10 more days, maybe 10, two weeks. And, and Jesus hasn't come back yet. And so they're using their minds, they're using their heads, and they're saying, ananias, well, what if he doesn't? What if it's another three weeks? We might have some needs. I mean, so you, you kind of can't blame him. You, you, you just, you know, he's just thinking ahead, right? But I think we get a really clear picture of what happened to Ananias. And because it's really a pretty picture, he steps up, he says, I'm gonna sell this. But then he holds a little bit back and Peter identifies why he did that. Chapter verses 3 and 4. Here's what it says. If you didn't catch it, then Peter said, ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit? What made you think of doing such a thing? Now, what would make Ananias decide to be generous? His heart. Right? I mean, when you give to someone, when you are generous to someone, what propels you forward to do this? It's your heart. You're like, my heart went out for them. That's the way you explain it to your spouse. When they say, what did you do with all the money? All right, my heart. Oh, bless their heart. You know, those Are the things that you say. Your. His heart goes out. But Peter says to Ananias, satan has filled your heart. Satan has filled your heart. Which in mind, which in turn made you stop thinking or relying on your heart. And where did he get lost? He got lost in his mind. What if he's not coming back? What if it's gonna be another three weeks? What if we need some money to buy some things for ourselves and his mind overrides his heart? But here's the deal. Your mind shouldn't override your heart. Your mind should only keep your heart in check. Your heart. His heart leads him to be generous, but he abandons. And here's the point. We need to let our heart lead our head. Okay? You got that? We need to let our heart lead our head. Now we have to operate from both. Nobody operates from just one. Well, maybe some people do, but you shouldn't operate from just one. If you just operate from your heart, what happens? You give it all away. All right? And if you just operate from your head, what happens? You don't give any of it away, because all you can think about is what you might need next. And that's the problem we have with generosity. We only use our head and we stop following our heart. But Jesus teaches us to use our heart when it comes to generosity. Don't completely take your head out of the equation. It's attached. Your mind is attached. But he teaches us to use our heart. Look at Luke 21. It'll be here on the screen. Here's what it says. As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. Truly, I tell you, he said, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on. They're throwing in gold, they're throwing in silver. She throws in two copper coins. And Jesus says they all gave out of their excess. What did she give out of. She gave out of her trust, believing that God was going to do things in her life. And Jesus. This is in Luke chapter 21. It's a passage of scripture that's in a larger group of teaching that Jesus was doing. So if you scroll, if you were looking at this on your phones and in your Bibles, scroll all the way down to verse 34, he kind of sums it up. He starts off with this, and then he sums up. Here's what he says. Be Careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the anxiety of life. Now, stop right there for just a second because I wanna explain to you the words they use. Carousing, drunkenness, they're not really the Greek words. It's one of those times that they're like grasping at straws a little bit. Some of the other translations, they say eating and drinking and the anxieties of life. But what the Greek literally says right there for where it has carousing is headaches. Be careful or your heart will be weighed down with headaches. In other words, all the things that create stress in your life. When you have stress, you get a headache. And be careful with that. Drunkenness, that's not the word. The word is intoxication. So it's close. But what he's trying to communicate is all those things out there that just sucked you in, all those. And they can be really good things. But all those things, all those things, you're like, oh, I want that. Oh, you know, that's the idea. Jesus says, be careful or your hearts will be weighed down with worries and stress and headaches, or you'll be sucked into these intoxicating things, or the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. You see, this is interesting. As I began to prepare for this message, this is what God has been talking to me about. Not just in my finances and generosity. I think we've had that conversation a long time ago. All right? In my life, I would just kind of settle that. But in all areas of life, I think that's what God's been teaching me. And I think the reason he's been teaching me this is because most of the times in this world, in ministry, in life, we're dealing with relationships. Every problem seems to be connected to a person. You know what I'm saying? Every problem, what I do or how I solve a problem probably affects a person. And I just. I don't know why I'm sharing that with you. But that's what God has been teaching me lately for, like, two months now. So we're getting there. But you can see this come out in this story that we have to let our hearts lead our minds. I mean, that's what Jesus said. When they asked Jesus, they said, what's the greatest commandment? You remember what he said? He goes all the way back to the Old Testament, to Deuteronomy. He pulls out this thing that Jews said twice a day. It's called the Shema and it basically says, love the Lord, your God with all your what? Heart, soul and then mind. See, he didn't disconnect him. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. But so often where money is concerned, where do we go? Right to our mind. Right to our mind. So just out of curiosity, who actually has money with you today? Who actually. If you've got some cash, I'm not gonna take it. I promise. Okay, all right. If you've got some money, take it out real fast. You can share it with the people next to you. Take out your money. Take out some cash. Who's got cash? All right, so I got a little cash here. Take it out. Because here's what I want you to do. I want you to look at what it says. Flip it over on the back, right in the middle. What does it say? Even your money says, don't trust in it. It says, in God we trust. All right? Even your money says, don't trust me. Trust in God. And we are followers of Jesus, right? And maybe you're not. Maybe you're. Maybe you're still checking out the church. Maybe you're still checking out this whole concept called Christianity and being a follower of Jesus. And so I'm not talking to you. Okay? You get an out this morning. And after this message, you may say, yeah, you know, maybe that's the wrong direction, but I'm not talking to you. But for the rest of us who are followers of Jesus, we should be a reflection of Jesus, right? We should be a reflection of Jesus heart. And Jesus let his heart lead his head in every area of life. Let that sink in. Just a minute. He led his heart in. When he came to conclusions, heart led his head. When he made decisions, when he formed plans, when he made friends, when he spoke wisdom, he let his heart lead his head. Let me give you a couple examples. The story of the woman, the Samaritan woman he met at the well. Okay? What happens with her? I mean, first of all, he's talking to a Samaritan woman. What does the law say? Don't talk. Don't talk to a Samaritan woman. He's talking to her. He says, go get your husband. She said, I don't have a husband. He said, the fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you're sleeping with right now is not even your husband. Okay? What does the law say? Don't even talk to this woman. What does his heart say? She needs to be seen. She needs to be loved. She needs to be Appreciated. He let his heart lead his head, the woman caught in adultery. These men, these religious men, leaders, carry this woman to Jesus, who's caught in adultery. And we're all wondering where the man is too, right? But it's just a woman. And they say to Jesus, what do we do with her? What does the law say? And he thought with his heart. And he said, first person who has no sin, go ahead, throw the first stone. You remember that? He led with his heart. A man crippled for 38 years, sitting by a pool that was a pagan pool where he was waiting for the water to be stirred. You've heard the story, right? Waiting for the water to be stirred. The first one in gets healed, okay? He's been there for 30. He's been crippled for 38 years. He's been there for a long time. What's the law say? Don't even go in a pagan place. What did Jesus do? He went in there and got the man, healed him, brought him out, right? There's 5,000 people sitting on a hillside. The disciples, using their head, come to Jesus and they say, we gotta send these people home, all right? They're hungry. We gotta send them home so they can get something to eat. Jesus looks at them with what? Well, his eyes and his heart. And then one of the sarcastic disciples said, well, hey, we got this little guy over here with five loaves of bread and two fishes. What good is that gonna do? And Jesus takes it and feeds all of em. And I know what you're saying, well, yeah, of course he's Jesus, but that's the point. That's what he wants to do in your finances. We just get lost in our minds. What keeps us from being generous people is we let our heads lead our hearts, not our hearts lead our heads. Let me give you another example, okay? All right? Let me kind of prove this. This is fun. All right? You're gonna love this. We get lost in zeros, okay? We get lost in zeros, not ones in zero. I'm not talking about the matrix. I'm not talking about computer language. For those of you that are geeky computer people, I'm talking about ones and zeros. Can we put up a 1 and 0? Yeah. So 1 and 0, okay? Since we're talking about money, can we just throw the dollar sign in front of it? Okay, all right, so for the sake of not making this argument, okay, can we just say. Can we just say. Can we just agree on the fact that tithing is 10%? Now, you don't have to completely Agree with me. I can make the case. I don't have time. But let's just for the sake of argument, say tithing is 10%. If I said I want you, if you had $10. All right? And you're supposed to give 1 or 10%, how much is that? 10% of 10. One. One dollar. All right, so let's. Not a problem. Right? This is our tithe box. If you haven't noticed on your way in, brand new tithe box, thanks to Pat Jinsky. He's somewhere in here, made a tithe box for us, right? Yeah. All right. So, yeah, not a problem. Right? Okay, let's add a zero. You see where this is going, don't you? All right, we add A0. What's 10% of $110? Okay, what does your mind do? This is lunch. But we're supposed to give 10%, right? Okay, let's stick that in there. All right, Add a zero. Oh, what's 10% of a thousand? You think I have hundred dollar bills laying around? I don't have $100 bills laying around. You see what's happening? You say add a zero. Now we're up to 10% of 10,000 is what our minds tell us. We could do a lot with $1,000. Add a zero. God only asked for 10%. The more zeros you add to your number, the government asked for more, right? God only asked for 10%, but you see what happens. So how do we keep from getting lost in our minds and letting our head lead our heart? Our heart lead our head. Well, read your money, for starters. Read your money. And then I think we have to go back to what happened to Ananias. We have to let the scriptures penetrate our heart. We have to let them keep Satan out of our heart, keep our focus on what God has called us to do, and move into that wise. Why? Why do we do that? I think Paul had an excellent example. Paul was taking up an offering for the church, and he was in Corinth, and he said, I want you to give to this. And he's talking to the people there and telling them, and here's what he says to them. 2 Corinthians. Remember this. This is the theology that Paul's communicating, and it's good theology. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your what heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work, you will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous and on every occasion. Look, some of you know my story. You know where I've come from. You know that when God called me, when God first said, mike, I want you to be in ministry, I said no. I said there were three reasons. Some of you know these, because I've shared them before. I want to make a lot of money. I want to live on the lake. I want to have a boat. And so I said, God, pastors do not make a lot of money. See, I have no hundred dollar bills in my wallet. They do not make a lot of money. And I just complete. I went to school, I wanted to. I said, dentists make a lot of money. Right, Tosh? Dentists make probably not a lot, but in the grand scheme of things, we probably all make a lot of money. And you know my story. You know what happened. Ten years I ran from God. I ran from that call. Finally, I okay, God, I give up. I'll do it. And I go back to school, I become a pastor. I do what God wants me to do. But even before that happened, Jennifer and I started attending a church. And we decided at that time we were going to give 10% no matter what. And the only time that we have thought about not doing that, and by we, I mean me, was one particular year. It was when I skipped a month. And I didn't skip it on purpose. I just forgot. And now I have two months to give for. And the zero thing, you know, the zero thing started creeping in. And some of you have heard me tell this story too. We said 10%, we were going to do it. I did it. It was a little painful, but. But I did it. Within a week, twice as much came to me from a source. That's not important. But within two weeks, I had double what I had actually given. So this is what Jesus tells us. Jesus, in verse Luke 6, he says give. He doesn't say give, he's an invitation. This word, this Greek word is just give. Just trust me, just give and it will be given to you. Let me tell you how it'll be given to you. A good measure. Pressed down, shaken together. That's how you get more and more in a jar when you think it's full. No, it's not full. Let's make it even more fuller. Shaken together, running over, poured into your lap. For. With the Measure you use, it will be measured to you. That's Paul's theology. That's Jesus theology. Where does it come from? It comes from the Old Testament. It's been. It's what God's been communicating for years and years and years. Proverbs 3, verse 9 and 10. Solomon, the richest man in the world at that time, of course, he said this. He said, honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops. Then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. Again, there's this idea of overflowing. As you are generous, what happens is overflowing. Malachi, chapter three, verse ten. Some of you have heard this passage of scripture used. Well, it talks about, don't rob God. Don't focus on that part. That's not the part that's important. Here's the part that's important. It says, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. In other words, that my house, the ministry needs will be met here. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room to store it. You see, your minds cannot reconcile this. That's why we let our hearts lead our minds. You need your heart to reconcile this. So what's our to do? There's a lot of good information, right? There's a lot of things. Now, you know about Ananias and Sapphira. You know about what the context was. You know what they were thinking. What do we do? I want a challenge. Are y' all up for a 90 day challenge? Anybody up for a 90 day challenge? Let's do what Malachi 10 says. Let's test the Lord. All right, let's give. Let's give. Some of you. Some of you already give. Some of you. You know, at Mosaic, when we've talked about generosity, we've said, hey, 10%. I know it's a lot. It may feel like a lot. Your mind tells you it's a lot, right? Okay, so just pick a percentage. Pick a percentage and start giving for 90 days. Let's do this. 10%. Let's. You know, maybe you want to jump in. You want to jump in with Both feet for 90 days, give 10%. Or maybe you want to go a little bit gentler. It's okay. It doesn't matter. But after the 90 days, if you're not in a better place or if you're worse off. Maybe that's a better way to say it. Stop. Okay? Stop. I mean, I could say we'll give it all back, but nobody's going to ask for it back, right? Nobody's going to do that after 90 days if something in your finances has not changed, Just stop. All right, let's do that. But that's our to do. Let's do what the scriptures say. Let's test God in this. So that's it. Give, not because I told you to, not because you feel like you have to, or you feel like you ought to, or you feel guilty, but give because you're a follower of Jesus and your heart tells you that your giving does things like you're giving here. Some of you are so generous already. And we have this space. We were able to bless this school, and they have grown. Ms. India, she is very. She's very humble. She said they've doubled their. They've almost tripled the number of kids they have. They expect when they go into the school to triple what they've actually got. I mean, what you did here has blessed that people. So give. Would you join me? Let's. If you don't give, let's test it out. If you give already, let's give some more. If you give 10%, be generous. I don't know what that means. Let your heart lead you. Okay. Can I pray for us? God, thank you. Thank you for. For giving us a heart to, first of all, see people, A heart that allows us to love people. And God, thank you for giving us a mind that helps us to figure out how we can serve people, how we can help people move into closer relationship with you. And sometimes that looks like our generosity. God, I can't even. Can't even think of the different ways that we have been a witness here at Mosaic, even for this school. And just because of the generosity of people here. But, God, sometimes our minds, they just get in our way. So, God, I'm. I'm just praying that you would. You would help us as we process through this today, this message, this word that you would help us to let our hearts lead our minds as we consider making a 90 day challenge. This 90 day. Taking this 90 day challenge as we consider testing you. God, would you give us the courage. Would you give us the courage to step forward and to step into what you want to do through us? God, we thank you. Thank you for the love we have, for the sacrifice you made for us. God, help us. Help us to just move out of our minds and into our hearts and sacrifice for you. Pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well, hey, we're going to move into response time and maybe maybe response time today for you. Looks like going to the cross, writing down your fears. This comes with, you know, I'm sure this comes with some fears. Maybe the first step is to write down your fears and leave them at the cross as you think about it or come up with that percentage. Or maybe you just need to go and take communion, remember the sacrifice that Jesus has made for you and all that's happened in your life. Or maybe you're praying for a radical shift in your life or a radical shift in some friends lives and you want to light a candle for that. Just invite you to respond in this last song. Or maybe you just need to sit and you need to say God I'm willing, help me. You decide how to respond this morning. Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.