Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is naive. And you've reached the Mosaic Church podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community, and I'd 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 to get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this has blessed you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast.
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[00:00:59] Okay, good. Awesome. Well, cool. Hey, if you're a guest here, we're so excited that you're here. We actually kicked off a series called Old School, and it was fun. We did that two weeks ago. Last week, obviously, we took a break, but here's what we're doing. We're talking about stuff that is in the Old Testament. And the big idea, really there is, like, trying to figure out what a God is. Like, like, what is God of the Old Testament like? Like, how some of you would say, you know what? If I don't know much about Christianity, but I do know this, I don't know much about the Bible, but I do know this, that there's a difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the.
[00:01:32] Help me out. Yeah. God of the who, New Testament. Yeah. The God of the Old Testament is kind of like fire and brimstone. He's kind of like, he's going to come get you. Eye for an eye kind of situation there. And then the. The. The New Testament God is like, hey, love, peace, and chicken grease. You know what I'm saying? It's all good. Like, what's happening here? What's happening? So what we're trying to do is we're trying to realize that it's actually the same God, and we just don't know how to really accurately see his character. And so last week we went back. Back. Not last week, two weeks ago. We went to the book of Genesis and we talked about the idea of God being good. Like, he is a good creator and he made us good. I mean, then sin corrupted everything, but he made us good. He is a loving God. He made us out of love. And if you didn't catch that one, you can go download that or watch it online. But it's a really fundamental message because it honestly changes the game of your spirituality in terms of like, how you start your story. And so if we know God is loving. This week I want to talk about this idea that God, that God is faithful. Like he's in it. Like when it comes to a relationship with him, he's not into the situationship. You know what I'm talking about? Like you don't know. No, he is in it. He's ride or die. Ride or die. Ride and die. How do you say that? Ride and ride or die. Yeah, Ride and die. I'm just joking.
[00:02:56] But he's in it. He's with you. He's with you, and in fact, he's committed to you. So here's what I wanna do. I wanna jump into another Old Testament story. It's the book of Ezra. Say it with me. The book of what era?
[00:03:07] Ezra. You're like, there's a book of Ezra? Yep, there is. Read your Bible. Okay, so there is and we're gonna get into it a little bit. And the story is really this. It's story about how the people and the Jewish people at that time, they go back from being exiled and they rebuild the temple and people give towards giving towards building the temple and why that is important. But before we jump into that, I got a question for us. Okay. And I wanna ask this question, and I've been thinking about it, but it's just one of those questions I feel that will really help us understand what this whole sermon talk is about. Okay, but this question is like. It's a question that you never ever want to ask.
[00:03:45] You might wanna think it, but you never want to ask when you're in a relationship of any kind. It's actually just not fair.
[00:03:53] It's kinda like I think we're too old for this question, honestly.
[00:03:56] And some of you guys, you might have asked that question probably to your ex. But you know what I'm saying, it's just, it's a question that you're like, ah, should we do this? But I feel like it's so important to this talk.
[00:04:12] So I wonder if we should do that.
[00:04:14] Should we ask that question?
[00:04:16] Okay, here's a question. It's kind of a silly question too. And the question is this. Okay, the question is this. Have you ever turned to someone and asked this question we're going to put up here? It is.
[00:04:29] Do you think of me as Much as I think of you, I know you don't want to ask that question, because either way, no good thing will ever come out of that question.
[00:04:42] Like, whatever the answer is, I'm not quite sure. Do you think of me as much as I think of you?
[00:04:47] I mean, that's good for middle school, right? Any middle schoolers in the house? No, but I mean, like, yeah, now you thought that. I wonder. I wonder. Now I have a memory.
[00:04:56] So I lived back in Kuwait, and I grew up in the Middle east. And my mom, we were Pakistani. Anyway, so we lived in the Middle east. And houses in the Middle east are very different. So we had this outdoor veranda, balcony kind of situation. And I have a vivid memory of my mom standing up there looking at me, and I was walking towards the house, and I was late once again. Once again, I broke my curfew or whatever I was supposed to be in, but whatever. And I was like, you know, I was a teenager. I was like, whatever, man. I live my life.
[00:05:23] And so I'm showing up and mom is there just waiting, just waiting for me. Just waiting for me. And she would do this consistently every time I was late. Because every time I was late, it's not like she could text me.
[00:05:35] It's not like she could page me. Remember pagers?
[00:05:37] You're like, what are pagers? Don't even want to. Don't even bother. Okay. Don't get. Look into that. Okay. She couldn't do anything. She just had to wait for me. And I remember thinking that in my teenage years and think about it. In my teenage years, I never thought of my parents as much as they thought of me.
[00:05:57] Yeah. Some of you guys have teenagers. You're like, really? It's true. They're not thinking. They're not thinking. I don't even know if I thought of my parents up to my mid-20s as much as they thought of me. And now that I am a parent and I've got kids who are, like, above teen, like, they're in their, like, 19, 22.
[00:06:17] Guess what I do all the time.
[00:06:22] Yeah. I think of them all the time.
[00:06:26] And they.
[00:06:27] Do they think of me as much as I think of them? The answer is what?
[00:06:32] No. Am I gonna ask them that question?
[00:06:35] No. Because I want to have a good day.
[00:06:39] I want to feel that I love them and more connected. I'm thinking about their future. I'm thinking about their plans. I'm thinking about their purpose. I'm thinking about who they're going to marry. I'm thinking about all the things that they're going to drive, they're eating, do they have enough protein? Is protein happening? Like, are they gonna do vitamins? Are they drinking enough water? I think about that, and I don't even want to think about that. Cause I want to think about me and Ashley at times. But me, I don't want to think about them. Any parents? Anybody you know? Any grandparents. You're like, grandparents. You're like, hallelujah, we've been set free. But you still think about. Not your grandkids or whatever, you have pets. Oh my gosh. You think about them.
[00:07:17] If you have a dear friend, you like, think about them. You're like, I don't want to think about them.
[00:07:21] So here's the question, here's the big question. Do you think, like, if God were to ever ask you that, turn to you and go, hey, hey, hey.
[00:07:32] Just wondering, do you think of me as much as I think of you?
[00:07:36] I don't know. I would say I don't think you do, God. I mean, I don't think I do. I don't think of God. So this message is going to be like, encouraging and challenging. Okay. Encouraging and what?
[00:07:48] Challenging. Okay, so it's encouraging because I want you to know that God is a God who has thought of you. And before we go to the Ezra Story, we got to go to a story of a guy named Jeremiah. Because Jeremiah is. Plays an important part in the Ezra Story, as we'll get to it. But Jeremiah proves to me, it's just one of the proofs that God from the beginning is committed to us. Like, he thinks about us all the time. There's a very actually very popular passage of Scripture. Jeremiah 29:11. Now you'll get brownies if you know what this verse is about. Anybody? This is the 9 o' clock service. Or is it 9:30? I don't even know. It's 9 o' clock service, right? Okay, you guys should know this 10:30 service. Heathens, all of them. They don't know jack. You guys. You know. You know. Okay, so Jeremiah 29:11. Anybody? Anybody? Okay, it says, what for?
[00:08:42] Don't put it up on the screen.
[00:08:44] They're cheating. Now, you know this passage, right? Let's say it together. Okay? I know the plans I have for you. Says the Lord, declares the Lord, right? Plans to what?
[00:08:59] Yes.
[00:09:00] Key thing is, I know the plans.
[00:09:03] Like, I've been thinking about your plans.
[00:09:06] I think about your purpose.
[00:09:09] This is the most parenting passage in the scriptures. He's like, I think about you.
[00:09:14] I think about you. You think you're worried about your career. I've been doing that forever.
[00:09:20] I think about your plans. You're like God. Do you? No, I really do think about your plans. In fact, this passage is the one we know because it's very popular, but there's one that started the story of Jeremiah, and it's actually this one. And this one is in Jeremiah 1. And it says this. It says, before I formed you in the womb, I. What?
[00:09:43] I knew you.
[00:09:45] I knew you. Like I had a relationship with you before.
[00:09:51] Before I formed you. Now I don't even. I can't even wrap my mind around that. Before you were born, guess what? I did. I.
[00:10:00] I set you apart.
[00:10:02] I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. This is a very private message to Jeremiah, not one that we can just take and say, oh, I'm a prophet to the nations. No, but what he is saying is that there's a God and God is in it. He's committed. He's ride or die. He's with you. He has been thinking about your life, and he's gonna continue to think about your life because he is your creator, your Father in heaven. He is your parent. He's thinking about you. And so I just want to encourage you that he's been thinking about you, but he's also thinking about the fact that you have plans.
[00:10:40] And he wants us to even think about the plans that he has. And so the question today is, do we think about God's plans and God's purposes? Are we praying for our dreams to come true?
[00:10:53] Have you ever stopped and considered God, I pray that your dreams come true. Your dreams for me come true. God, I pray that your plans and purposes for the world come true. Have you ever prayed that prayer?
[00:11:07] That's challenging. Have you thought about that? I know we got all our stuff to worry about, but have we thought about that? And then are we actually helping God accomplish His plans and purpose in.
[00:11:19] In this world, what he has for us? So let's jump into Ezra. Ezra 1. If you got the Mosaic app you can download, I mean, you can follow along, and the passages are all in there as well. So let's jump in.
[00:11:33] We jump in, and here's what we find. Ezra 1. It says, in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord fulfilled the prophecy he had given. Through who? Through who? Through Jeremiah, he stirred. He stirred the heart of Cyrus the King to put in this proclamation in writing and sent it throughout his kingdom. So here's what happened. What happened is, is that The Jewish people were exiled into Babylon. And this was in the book of Jeremiah, talks about this, the plans that. The passage that he talks about, the good plans that I have for you. It's connected to the story of a people who were exiled because King Nebuchadnezzar came in, went into Jerusalem, and exiled a whole bunch of people. It was a very traumatic time for them. And they stayed there for a.
[00:12:21] And in fact, the promise that God said through Jeremiah was that, I'm going to rescue you, but it's going to take 70 years. Now, I've done sermons about that because 70 years, who wants to know that, right? But he says, I'm going to rescue you. But here's what I want you to do. I want you to build homes. I want you to do some things while you're here.
[00:12:41] And then I will rescue you. I will rescue you, for I know the plans I have for you, says God. God. So he says that verse after he says, you're going to be here for a minute. And so people do it. People obey. And the people. I mean, I'm assuming people jump in and just start being. Living, getting.
[00:13:02] Coming to terms with the exile, but also now flourishing there. They don't dwindle away. And they're there for 70 years. So generations have known that they're here in exile in Babylon, which is modern day Iraq. And they're like, there, and they're kind of doing their things. And they've heard the generations have told them, hey, that God is going to bring us back home. We are gonna go back home one day. But it's kinda like it's been a soul. It's been, you know, years and years and years, and a generation have passed away. And so all of this I want you to know, because this people group that Ezra talks about is a people that a generation has passed. And they're like, I know this is the home. I know this is the home. I know Babylon is the home. I know.
[00:13:46] I know that we have another home that we came from, but this is the home. I know. Like my Kuwait is where I was born. And that's kind of like home to me. It's natural. But I've been here. I've been exiled to the U.S. not really. No, no. I chose to be here. Ha ha. Okay. And I'm not going back anyway, so.
[00:14:03] But they're like, hey, God did promise this. And so their story's been told to generations that there's a God who. Who loves them, who cares for them, and who promises to exile them back or bring them back.
[00:14:15] So that's the context. So the context is Nebuchadnezzar, the king dies. And this guy, King Cyrus of Persia, now is in charge. And he does something. And this is what he puts in writing. He says, this is what the king, the king, Cyrus of Persia, says. The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judea. Any of you who are his people may go to Jerusalem, like back to Jerusalem in Judea to rebuild this temple of the Lord. The God of who? The God of Israel who lives in Jerusalem. May your God be with you.
[00:14:59] So when he does this one day, all of a sudden, now family members are saying, oh, hold on, hold on, hold. Now what? Now this king is letting us go. You're no longer slaves. You're no longer. No, no, you can go back. You can go back and go back and then rebuild your temple. Rebuild and do what God's purposes and plans are. Go do that. You are free to go see that day, people who had forgotten, remembered something, remembered a promise that God had given them. And so it keeps on going. And this king says this.
[00:15:30] He says, wherever this Jewish remnant is found, let their neighbors. Let their neighbors. So he. He's proclaiming this. He says, let your neighbors contribute towards their expenses by giving them silver and gold, supplying them for the journey, and livestock, as well as a volunteer offering for the temple of God in Jerusalem. This king is blowing people's mind. He's saying, first of all, I set you free. Go back and rebuild.
[00:15:58] Go back and rebuild. Then he says, hey, neighbors, neighbors, give towards your. Give towards your expenses to go travel, do that. Help them out. Then he says, again, the Jewish people. He's saying, all Gentiles to go. Go help. Go help these Jewish people. And then he says this also, by the way, by the way, Gentiles, I know you're not into, you know, temple and all that stuff or whatever you are. You're not the God of. You don't worship the God of Israel. But if you really want to, you could actually give to building the temple for these Jewish people.
[00:16:33] So just the invitation is like, what now you want me to not just let them go and give them stuff for the travel you want me to contribute? It's like me saying, hey, guys, if you want to, you know, our neighbors, our people are going, there's a mosque being built. If you guys want to give to the mosque building, go for it.
[00:16:54] What what is happening? But this is strange. And the people are like, okay, what's happening? The neighbors do something which is interesting. The neighbors actually, yeah, show up.
[00:17:09] They do it. They help build something that is beyond them.
[00:17:15] And so it continues. It says. The story continues. It says, then God stirred the hearts of the priests and Levites and the leaders of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of the Lord. And all their neighbors did what?
[00:17:31] Assisted by giving them articles of silver and gold, supplies for the journey, and livestock. They gave them many valuable gifts in addition to all the volunteering offerings.
[00:17:44] So interesting. See, God's like, true generosity is never forced. It's like it's stored, it's stirred. It's not forced, it's just stirred. It's stirred.
[00:17:55] And so here's what happens here.
[00:17:57] So then the story continues. Then it says that King Cyrus. King Cyrus? What, him? What, himself? Uh, oh, king's getting involved. Okay. Brought out the articles that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken.
[00:18:12] What is happening here?
[00:18:14] Had taken from the Lord's temple in Jerusalem and placed them in the temple of. And had placed him in his own temple. He takes them back.
[00:18:24] He brought out the articles. He says, take all. This is all. Everything that we have robbed from you, we give back to you.
[00:18:32] What?
[00:18:33] This is crazy. And so the book says here says. Ezra writes. He says, it says. So the total.
[00:18:42] So a total of 42,360 people returned to Judah that day, in addition to 7,337 servants. And yeah, let's mention the singers too. Okay. 200 singers.
[00:18:57] Overrated. Singers are over. Okay. Both men. I hope these guys are not listening. They are watching, actually.
[00:19:05] Both men and women.
[00:19:07] Then it keeps on going. So they took with them 736 horses, 245 mules.
[00:19:18] How many camels is this?
[00:19:21] 435 camels.
[00:19:25] And a whole bunch of donkeys.
[00:19:28] A whole bunch of donkeys. He just. Okay, then the story just keeps on going. It says, and when they arrived at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the family leaders made voluntary offerings towards rebuilding the God's kingdom or on its original site. And each leader gave as much as he could. The total of these gifts came to 61,000 gold coins, £6,250 of silver, and a lot of robes for the priests.
[00:19:58] What is going on?
[00:20:00] What just happened? What just happened? And why is this important? The reason why this is important is because there are a lot of you in this room and watching who give?
[00:20:11] Who Give to rebuilding and who've given to rebuild and build Mosaic.
[00:20:19] There's a lot of you who sacrificed. And today I just want to say that matters.
[00:20:25] That's important, that is appreciated. But God sees that.
[00:20:33] See, he sees what you're doing.
[00:20:35] Like, I don't know why he's putting all the numbers in there, but not that God's into numbers, but he's like. And they got this. And this happened. This happened because somehow God wants to say it's all. This doesn't mean how much they got. It's all the sacrifices that people made. And some of you guys sacrifice. You sacrifice your time. You sacrifice the three T's. I say the time. Your treasures and your talents. Some of you guys serve with your talents. Some of you guys give of your treasures. You tithe. You've been giving to the legacy campaign that we've got going on. Like, almost half of it has been pledged, and almost 20, more than 20% has been already had come in. And the things that we've been able to do here, the ministry that we've been able to do, the fact that we have four camps meeting here in the summer, right now, in the fall, we'll have.
[00:21:29] There are two schools. A church will be. Will help start a church from here as well. In August, there's going to be so many different things that we're going to be able to do. And here's the thing. The money and all that is not just going towards building. It's what it does. So here, these people knew. Their neighbors knew, their pagan neighbors knew there was something. When you rebuild something and you create and build walls for space, the space is not what's important. The space. Space heals people, heals hearts, provides a place for people to come and experience a God. And it's important. And back in those days, the temple, the space was in actual buildings. But now with Jesus, it's not.
[00:22:14] The temple is not as important because that is not where God lives. God lives in the temple of your.
[00:22:25] Yeah, heart, your body. He lives here.
[00:22:28] This is the temple. Now, you're the most sacred thing. Buildings are not sacred. People are sacred. And so buildings are important, but they're not sacred. They're a tool. And so we want to use it as a tool. But here, amazing things are happening for them. It was a big thing, and so now they put it on the foundation. So as the chapter goes on the foundation, they finally make the foundation. And the day they complete just the foundation, they have a moment, and this is the moment. Let me Read this to you. The moment is this. That moment. Many of the older priests. You're talking about the older priests. Why? Because old school priests, they know. They remember that promise.
[00:23:08] You know, there's something about getting older. You know, it's a privilege to get older. You actually have a sense of, like, so much more gratitude when you go, oh, my gosh. Wow. I've seen so much.
[00:23:18] So many of the older priests, Levites and other leaders who had seen the first temple, what did they do that day?
[00:23:27] They wept loud.
[00:23:29] They wept loud when they saw the new temple's foundation. The others. The others. The young people, the youth.
[00:23:41] That's what I think. The youth, however, were doing what?
[00:23:46] They were shouting for joy. They're shouting for joy.
[00:23:50] And then it says, the joyful shouting and what weeping mingled together in a loud noise that could be heard far in the distance. A moment where older people looked and just wept and go, I remember.
[00:24:09] And the new people are like, oh, my gosh, look what we just did.
[00:24:13] It's a moment where they all came together and did something. So why is this encouraging message, and why is this a challenging message?
[00:24:22] The encouragement is that for those of you who've stayed for many years here, we've got people who are old school.
[00:24:34] I mean, I'm looking at the crowd right now. I'm looking at a couple who've been with us before when we dreamed about Mosaic in our living room, Reggie and Tanya.
[00:24:45] And they have been with us from day one, over 20 years.
[00:24:50] I think of people who've come in, even in the last five years, been with us for 10, 15 years.
[00:24:57] There's a sense of, like, oh, man, we're doing something.
[00:25:01] And so when we build out this new space and we do all this and we build out this gymnasium that we celebrated together. When we created that, there was a sense of accomplishment. Not that, oh, wow, we've got a gymnasium. No, it's. It's that we get to offer so many camps. We get to offer so many things. We get to do. We've done something together. This is why it's so important. So if you sacrificially give to Mosaic, I just want to say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you. Those of you who can. Who tithe and give, thank. This stuff matters. It matters. It matters. And here's why. Because this is how we know that we are thinking of God as much as he's thinking of us. Now. We could never do that, you know, fully match his thought process. His thoughts are very Higher than ours. But when we serve and we give, and when we focus or think about and pray for and focus our attention on the things of his kingdom, the things that he's doing, the plans that he has for us, but also in the city and for the world, when we're contributing to building his kingdom, what we are saying is God, we are thinking of you.
[00:26:18] We're thinking of you.
[00:26:20] And so I just want you to know if you've ever thought, man, I don't know if I think about God. If you serve, you think about God. If you give, you think about God. If you're doing anything for the kingdom of heaven, building not just here stuff here, no, you're doing it for up there. The kingdom you're building that you're thinking of God.
[00:26:41] So be encouraged, be confident, be, in one sense, I want to say proud. But be more than that. Have a deep sense of confidence and satisfaction, fulfillment that you are making a difference. Even though some days you're like, I'm not making any difference.
[00:27:00] You are doing that for God. It is, in fact, worship, giving, serving, building. The kingdom is saying, God, I want your dreams to come true. I want to think of you as much as you think of me. I want to do this. See, that's why Jesus in the New Testament, he says this.
[00:27:19] He says, listen, you can be tempted. You can be tempted to live in this world, to be worried about the world and to be into just.
[00:27:26] I don't know, just like collect all the things in this world and build something here. And you want to build something on earth. But I just want to let you know, everything you build on earth is going to decay. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to actually store up. And he says this. He says, store up for yourself treasures in heaven.
[00:27:42] He says, wear moth.
[00:27:44] Like they don't. And vermin say, vermin.
[00:27:48] Vermin. When's the last time you said that word?
[00:27:50] Vermin?
[00:27:52] What are they? Okay, anyways, do not destroy. Where thieves. Do not break in and steal. What he's saying is don't spend your life building something that you're always worried that someone's going to take from you.
[00:28:07] And then he says this. He says, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
[00:28:15] See, what he's saying is something so interesting here.
[00:28:20] He's saying, I want you. I want you to store treasures in heaven. And as I thought about that, I was like, just focus on that. Are we hoarding in heaven? Is that what we're doing? Like that's the deal.
[00:28:34] That deal with like. And then I thought, in fact, Pastor Kristen and I were talking about this, and I was like. I said, here's the question on this. He says, what in what if there are storage units in heaven?
[00:28:46] Okay, what are they filled with? And she goes, people.
[00:28:50] And I was like, think about what you just said.
[00:28:54] Think about it.
[00:28:56] You want to put people in storage units?
[00:28:59] Good thing they're in heaven still. In storage units. No, it's like, what are you doing? No, I don't know. What is this passage about?
[00:29:09] What is it? It's not about the storage units in heaven. It's not about that. What he's thinking is saying. He's saying, hey, listen, listen. He says, God doesn't need your money. He doesn't do that. Here's what's gonna happen.
[00:29:25] Wherever your heart is, whatever you think about the most is your treasure.
[00:29:30] That's what he's saying. He says, so if all the things in this world are always about this world, that's where your heart is. And also, that's where your treasure is.
[00:29:42] And so if you begin to think about things above, when your heart goes towards above things above, eventually you treasure that more than everything else.
[00:29:56] He says, so this passage is about focus.
[00:30:01] Whatever you focus on magnifies.
[00:30:05] So if you focus your life on the idea of, like, I just need to build something here. I just need to collect something here. I just need to do that, then that's where your affections, your thoughts, your feelings, your.
[00:30:21] Your plans are going to go to.
[00:30:23] But if you think of things above, it changes the game. So when you choose to give to Mosaic, choose to build the kingdom here. Build, Mosaic. Build. What God is doing here? Guess what you're doing? What you're doing is you're saying, I am looking to build something that will outlast me, that will not give me just the benefits, but it'll bless people I have never met before.
[00:30:52] I might even never meet.
[00:30:56] I don't know what I'm going to fill with heaven. But what I want to say is I'm going to think about all.
[00:31:03] What I want to do is I want to treasure heaven more than anything else. And so I want to do that. So here's the challenge for some of you.
[00:31:12] You do give, and that is amazing.
[00:31:17] But I don't know, maybe you don't serve.
[00:31:20] Maybe you just haven't figured out your other tea. You know, not your time.
[00:31:25] You know, you could lead a small group. You could throw a block party. You could serve. You could do you could. We could find ways for you to do something again.
[00:31:34] You're just having an opportunity, an invitation to say, God, I want to build your kingdom for others. Of you. You do serve, but you don't give.
[00:31:44] You're like, I've named. I got bills to pay. I got this, I got that. I got all those things. And I get that. I get that. But you cannot allow your worship, your giving, your focusing on the kingdom or your building to be motivated by fear and worry and maybe even a little bit of a greed or indifference.
[00:32:08] You don't want that.
[00:32:10] You want your giving to be motivated by faith, trust and vision and meeting people's needs.
[00:32:20] That's what you want your life to be.
[00:32:24] You don't want to be. Because when we are challenged in our generosity to give, we are invited to become more than we can be.
[00:32:34] Sacrifice does not take from us. If you really think about it, sacrifice, people of sacrifice become more than they could ever be.
[00:32:44] It's so true. It's so true. Our science tells us our chemicals, our bodies are wired up to give. Because when we give, I mean, chemicals just go crazy in a very good way. In us, it was like we're created to do that. Why? Because God says, hey, hey, hey, before I formed you in the womb, I. What?
[00:33:11] I knew you, man. I know everything about you. And I created you a certain kind of way. Just trust me and focus on heaven. That's why Jesus, like, seek first the what?
[00:33:27] The kingdom of heaven. And then all this other stuff will fall in place.
[00:33:33] All of it will fall in place. But if you do the opposite, if you figure out all the other stuff, I gotta figure out the builds, I gotta figure out this, I gotta figure out.
[00:33:43] You'll never think about the kingdom and all these things will not fall into place.
[00:33:51] So the challenge is today you can.
[00:33:55] You can give. Today you can start. Think about it, pray about it, do it today, whatever you need to do. Serve today, whatever you need to do, whatever you need to do.
[00:34:08] Just challenge yourself. Challenge yourself. God, do I think about your things, about your plans, about your purpose in life? Or am I only praying for my stuff?
[00:34:21] That's the challenge.
[00:34:22] But we can do this together.
[00:34:24] Let me pray for us.
[00:34:26] Lord God, thank you. Thank you for your love for us. Thank you, God, that you are committed to us more than we could ever be. And you're okay with that, and we're okay with you challenging us to consider and reconsider all the things that we focus on. And a lot of them sometimes are all. All really about what's going on in this present world and God, that is the challenge for us.
[00:34:56] It is because, God, bills are real. Medical bills are real. God, college bills are real. Just bills. They're just real. God, our needs are real.
[00:35:09] God, our wants are real.
[00:35:11] Everything, God, our plans, our dreams to build something here on earth. If it's a house, if it's a building, if it's a family, if it's a career, if it's.
[00:35:24] If it's anything. God, we know that, you know that we are passionate about those things. But yet, in the midst of all this, my prayer is may we be like the people who rebuilt the temple.
[00:35:40] Who said we're going to rebuild a temple for first, then we're going to get everything else going.
[00:35:45] We're going to do this first.
[00:35:48] God, I pray that we would seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added to us.
[00:35:55] God, I pray that as we go receive communion, as we go to the cross, or when we go light candles to pray. I pray it would be all about you today.
[00:36:10] Your plans, your purposes, in Jesus name.
[00:36:17] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
[00:36:22] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
