When Effort Replaces Grace: Examining the Heart’s Role in Spiritual Growth

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[00:01:58] Resurrection is destined Praise to the whole place for me Father your heart's imagined Years of hurt our eyes have seen He's returning to take the blame It's up Lake City. If this is your first time here we want to invite you to fill out the guest card in your worship guide. After service we would love to meet you at the Welcome Center and we have a gift just to thank you for being here. If you're joining us online you can fill out the online guest card.

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[00:10:29] card. We hope you have a great day. Hey guys, we're Tipico College Worship and we're so excited

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[00:10:34] to be with you at Revival 26. We're coming so expected and ready for God to move. It's going to be absolutely incredible. He's meeting us for such a time as this. We can't wait to meet you

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[00:10:44] there. Life Group Sunday is Sunday, March the 1st. That evening we will have what we call a Life Group

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[00:10:49] reception from 4 to 5 p.m. where you can come and meet all the Life Group leaders and sign up for

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[00:10:54] some really amazing groups hi y'all i have something very exciting to tell you beginning march the first sunday march the first we are launching a fourth service here at lake city church and so beginning march the first we are launching an eight o'clock service we already
[00:11:13] have a 9 a 10 15 and 11 30 service but beginning sunday march the first there will be a fourth service beginning at 8 a.m. And for all of you early birds, I hope to see you then March the

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:11:25] 1st, 8 a.m. We're so glad you're here. We love you. God loves you. Make it a great day.

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[00:11:35] Third service, my favorite service, which by the way, that's going to become more offensive moving forward now that there's four services happening starting March the 1st. So you guys are still my favorite. Why don't you stand up to your feet? We're going to get ready to continue
[00:11:50] to worship with our giving. Man, today is a powerful day, a powerful day. I know it's super gloomy outside, but in here, man, God has already been through this room. Somebody has had a revelation in your seat. Somebody has had a breakthrough in your seat already. God is in the
[00:12:12] house. And, and I just, it goes without saying sometimes just being in the room together, it just ministers back to me. It ministers to each other. I came in the, in the parking lot one way, and then I spent the first two services just saying, wow, look at what God has done at
[00:12:30] Lake City Church. Look at this group of people. And so it's an honor to get to give alongside you guys. Behind me on the screen, you should see the four ways that you can partner with us and
[00:12:40] give. And I know you guys give to all kinds of things all over town and you're off busy doing things. But when we do stuff together, it moves the needle, man. It really does. And if you're
[00:12:49] watching online, this is your personal invitation from me to you. You can jump in and give with us as well. If you're in the overflow rooms, it is good to see you. It's good to have you. You can
[00:12:58] jump in with us too. And so I'm going to pray over this offering and then we're going to go straight back to worship. Is that okay? Because this is one of those days where I kind of need
[00:13:07] to just get out of the way. So I'm going to stop talking now and pray so that God can keep doing what he's already doing. Amen. God, we thank you today. We thank you in Jesus name that we get to
[00:13:18] be Lake City Church. God, what an honor and a privilege it is to give to you, God, the things that you care about, to sow seeds into the things that you care about. God, teach us more of your
[00:13:30] heart. Teach us how to give and be generous just like you. God, I pray a fresh blessing and an anointing over each family that's represented in the room, each person at the sound of my voice,
[00:13:40] God, I pray that you would bless them. Bless every gift and every giver, God, this morning.
[00:13:46] Teach us what we should do, how we should pray, God. Tell us what to do and we will be obedient.
[00:13:51] We will do it. We are an obedient people. God, thank you that your presence is in the room right now. Thank you for the gift of your spirit, God. Thank you so much. Teach us to give like you give,
[00:14:05] God freely and unlimited in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen. Amen. Let's worship.

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[00:22:45] Every choice we make, every word we speak, every step we take is a seed placed in the ground.

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[00:23:12] Some seeds are sown in faith, trusting God with what we cannot see yet. Some are sown in fear, Holding back, protecting ourselves, choosing comfort.
[00:23:28] And most days, we don't notice the ground changing.
[00:23:31] But over time, something always begins to grow.
[00:23:37] Galatians 6 reminds us, a man reaps what he sows.
[00:23:43] What we reap is never accidental.
[00:23:46] It reflects what has been planted, nurtured, and allowed to take root.
[00:23:51] Because the future we hope for starts with what we sow right now.

[00:23:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:23:57] Good morning. Welcome to Lake City Church on this beautiful Sunday.
[00:24:10] The weather is just so amazing outside, is it not?
[00:24:14] But at least it's not two inches of ice and a foot of snow.
[00:24:19] Like, we can handle a little rain.
[00:24:21] Sign of spring is to come.
[00:24:23] And you're probably looking at me saying, who's this guy on stage?
[00:24:26] What is he doing up there?
[00:24:28] And my name is Terry.
[00:24:29] I'm actually the executive pastor here at Lake City Church.
[00:24:32] And Pastor Rob asked me to share a word this morning.
[00:24:35] And many of you might know me as the make room guy, you know, because those that don't know what Make Room is.
[00:24:44] By the way, how many are excited to see this lot peeled off over here, right?
[00:24:49] Fencing starting to encroach in the parking lot a little bit.
[00:24:51] We've got a parking lot coming online over here, but this time in April, we're gonna see the building go three-dimensional.
[00:24:58] You're gonna see all the steel come up out of the ground.
[00:25:01] We're gonna have a parking lot come online in the June timeframe.
[00:25:04] God is doing some absolutely amazing things and a lot of it's because of you.
[00:25:09] And before I forget, I just want to welcome those that are online today, watching from all over the world, and those that are possibly in an overflow room this morning.
[00:25:18] And if that is you, making room is on the way, officially.
[00:25:24] But when I started thinking about it, I couldn't let today go by.
[00:25:27] And, you know, I am the make room guy at this point, and I can't shake that off.
[00:25:31] And so I'm going to talk to you about, and continuing the series of seeping and row, seeping, wow, sowing and reaping. I'm going to challenge you this morning to make room for your harvest. What you don't know is I actually almost came back out on stage a little too soon this
[00:25:51] morning. I stepped out during the offering time, ready to preach, man. I was ready to go, but I was back there just really deep in prayer, really, really, really deep, really fast. And I thought
[00:26:01] I missed my cue. And I panicked for a second, almost ran out here too early. But I was debating if I was going to share that. But God today wants you to make room for your harvest. And
[00:26:13] I thought it was really smart of Pastor Rob to put the title of the series of sowing and reaping. Because I don't know when I hear sowing and reaping, what's the phrase that normally comes to mind? You reap what you sow. I heard it over here,
[00:26:28] right? You reap what you sow. And in our modern language, That's what we say. And so many times I think we use it in the wrong sense. We use it when someone usually does something wrong, right? It's like, oh, they messed up. Yeah, they're going to reap
[00:26:45] what they sowed, right? And we kind of use this as a dig against people, maybe even a curse in a way against people's lives. And that really was not the intention of the writers in the Bible. And
[00:26:58] this concept, it's a farming concept and it was used all throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament, but it was something that was incredibly familiar to them and maybe a little bit not as familiar to us. Now we get the concept, but I asked, do we actually get what the writers
[00:27:16] were trying to say? Do we truly understand it? And then our English language, we flip it around so it's a little catchier, right? So it rolls off the tongue just a little bit better. Sounds easy
[00:27:26] to us, right? And we focus in on reaping the harvest, but not looking at what it took to get to that place. You know, and so we focus in on reaping and sowing. And so I looked in
[00:27:38] Galatians 6, 7, and I often read from an NIV Bible, which is a very modern translation. It says, do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. And so a lot of
[00:27:50] that came from that. But if you go back into the King James version, be not deceived. God is not mocked for whosoever a man soweth, whatsoever a man soweth, thou shall he also reap. So I
[00:28:05] went back a little further and looked at the original Greek and the Greek has it more like King James is the focus was on sowing and then reaping. It was in the proper order. But this
[00:28:16] farming analogy, if you really understood it, like ancient people knew farming. Most people had to grow something if they were going to eat food. And it was a very labor-intensive thing. They didn't have big green
[00:28:31] John Deere tractors to come out and plow a field for them. They had to manually do it by hand.
[00:28:37] Or if they were really fortunate, like state-of-the-art technology was this big blade with handles on it. And they would hook up livestock and allow the livestock to pull this blade while they were kind of steering and controlling it. And so sowing in their terms
[00:28:53] was something way beyond what we talk about today.
[00:28:57] I really feel strongly we cheapen up the language a lot by the way we just talk about it.
[00:29:02] But for them, it was profound.
[00:29:04] You know, and a farmer would also plan many years to advance.
[00:29:10] A good farmer is thinking two, three to five years down the road around what's the quality of the soil going to be and how long can I sustain this type of crop in this particular type of soil.
[00:29:23] And so a lot of planning and work went into it.
[00:29:25] And if you really think about it, sowing for a farmer was 364 days out of the year.
[00:29:33] And then they reaped a harvest in one single day.
[00:29:38] And so most of their life was consumed in the sowing phase, not the reaping phase.
[00:29:46] This is my third service, by the way, and my voice is not tuned for this.
[00:29:50] So just bear with me as I drink a little bit of water.
[00:29:53] But the farmer goes out and he would turn the soil.
[00:29:58] He would plant the seed.
[00:30:01] And then a lot of us think, oh, that's farming.
[00:30:03] That's it.
[00:30:03] He gets to sit back and go watch Netflix or something, right?
[00:30:06] He gets to lay back in the recliner and then wait until the harvest comes.
[00:30:10] No, it's the exact opposite of what the farmer has to do.
[00:30:14] He now has to worry about, is there going to be rain coming?
[00:30:18] Is there water for this seed?
[00:30:21] or is there going to be weeds that come up and try to destroy the crop?
[00:30:24] Are insects going to invade?
[00:30:26] Is some sort of weird fungus going to take over or some other disease in a plant?
[00:30:30] And so the farmer would work every single day for 364 days of the year, praying and hoping and guiding and working all for that final day, that final moment of reaping a harvest.
[00:30:44] And so I kind of think about our own lives and we're so eager to reap a harvest, but we don't really understand the depth of what it takes to do that. And I would spin this around
[00:30:56] a little bit and say, the sowing phase, that is our life. That's everything that we're doing in our life. That's every step we're taking, every decision that we're making, whether or not we choose to serve God or do it on our own. That's the sowing phase. And then when God pours out
[00:31:14] his blessing. It's going to happen many times in an instant. I know many of you are probably dreaming one day when you have that dream house and, or maybe it's, Hey, I can't wait till I get
[00:31:25] married or find a spouse or a boyfriend or girlfriend. And you have all these goals in your life. Maybe it's that dream car that you want and you've been saving and working. Maybe it's retirement and all these things that we have in our life. But you know what I've learned
[00:31:40] at this point. I turned 50 recently. And one of the things I've learned is that those moments of reaping happen fast. They happen quickly. And then the moment after that harvest comes and you reap some reward or hopefully not a reward, the opposite of that, life goes back on.
[00:32:02] You're immediately back into the sowing phase. All right. And you can either sow upward or you can, all right, so you can reap upward or you can reap downward. So it can go both directions
[00:32:16] when we're going through life. So it's not always good. And maybe sometimes you're sowing your finances in the places that you shouldn't be sowing them, or maybe you're sowing your life in places other than it should be sown, such as your marriage or your family and the things of
[00:32:34] the church and the ministries. See, reaping can take you higher or it can take you lower this morning. So how do we make room for a harvest that is truly lasting in our lives? And I would ask the question, if you
[00:32:51] want to make room for your harvest, but the first thing you need to do is to make room in your heart. And then to make the most out of your harvest, you need to have a good heart today.
[00:33:05] But what is that? I hear heart and I can't really describe it.
[00:33:10] You know, it seems untangible. It's not like a scientific thing that you can measure and put a value on. And I would, I think of heart, it's kind of like the emotion behind what we do. It's not
[00:33:29] what you do many times, but it's how you do it that matters. And I thought of an example is like, you ever get an argument with your spouse? I heard that Del. And it usually starts, you know,
[00:33:46] one way or the other. And, uh, and one person will say something. And you have my, my wife says something to me and it's like, Hey, I can't let that go. Right. I got to say something back.
[00:33:56] And so I fire something back. Right. She fires something back. I fire something back. And it usually ends with us like trying to figure out what are we even arguing about? And then usually her response to me at some point in the back and forth is, why are you so mad? And I'm like,
[00:34:14] I'm not mad. And she goes, then what are you, right? And so we'll do this little game we play all the time. But you see, your heart is what drives you forward in life. It's this indescribable
[00:34:29] force that causes you to do something great or to do something really terrible. And when your heart is in a good place, the harvest can be plentiful in your life. And so I want to take you into the
[00:34:45] Old Testament for just a bit. If you haven't studied the story of the Israelites coming out of Egypt and the story of Moses and how he led the people out of Egypt, you need to go back and
[00:34:56] set that foundation for your life and really know that story inside and out. But the people were delivered from Egypt through a series of miracles. There were 10 plagues that God put upon Egypt.
[00:35:08] to prove to the Pharaoh that this is God saying, let my people go. And he lets them go, but he chases after them. And in the process, splits the Red Sea right down the middle, side to side,
[00:35:20] and allows the people of Israel to walk up right through the middle to the other side. And then the ocean collapses or the sea collapses and destroys Pharaoh's army that was chasing them.
[00:35:30] And for the next 40 years, God goes on to just pour out to them and to, and perform miracle after miracle. I mean, they didn't even have to worry for food. God miraculously brought them
[00:35:43] manna and quail and he guided them to where they needed to go. He put a cloud by day and a fire by night. They actually got to see the glory of God, like in a temple. And they got to see the 10
[00:35:55] commandments and they got to experience so much stuff. But in the end, the people, the Jewish people, they still complained. They were never satisfied. And it's about 40 years into this cycle and they're about to have another miracle,
[00:36:14] but they were complaining to Moses about not having enough water.
[00:36:18] You would think after this, if he's provided for them for 40 years, how could you get into a place where you would complain about having enough water?
[00:36:28] In Numbers chapter 20, verses eight through 12, God is talking to Moses and he says, take the staff and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together.
[00:36:40] Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water.
[00:36:46] Now, here's what you may not know.
[00:36:48] A lot of people get this confused.
[00:36:49] This is the second time that God is performing this miracle.
[00:36:55] It's almost like a repeat of a previous story 40 years earlier where God had instructed Moses to go up to the rock and to strike the rock.
[00:37:05] And when you do that, water will come out and everybody and all your livestock and everybody will be taken care of.
[00:37:10] And so he does that.
[00:37:12] Fast forward 40 years later and God is performing the same miracle for them, but he does something slightly different.
[00:37:19] He tells Moses not to strike the rock, speak to the rock.
[00:37:26] And part of me is thinking that maybe God was testing Moses.
[00:37:29] Are you actually listening to me?
[00:37:33] So he and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, And at this moment, Moses's heart grew extremely angry.
[00:37:41] He starts getting upset and he yells at the people.
[00:37:45] And he's like, listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?
[00:37:50] And then Moses raises his arm and he strikes the rock, not once, but twice.
[00:38:03] But then God goes ahead and performs the miracle.
[00:38:05] Water gushed out and the community and their livestock drank.
[00:38:10] But there was a downside to this.
[00:38:13] And it goes on in verse 12.
[00:38:14] But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land that I have given them.
[00:38:28] Moses was not able to reap the harvest that had been promised to the children of Israel.
[00:38:35] He was not able to see the promised land because for a moment he allowed his heart to grow angry and bitter and upset. And he disobeyed God's direct command. And he showed himself in front of all the
[00:38:51] people of Israel. So he does not get to reap the harvest. See, God cares for your heart condition this morning. He cares how you do something, not just what you do. And so the second
[00:39:07] point I want to make to you this morning is that if you want to make room for your harvest. You need to make room in your mind. And I'm not sure why this is.
[00:39:19] There's something about the human condition where we are stubborn people. We think we've got it all and we've got it under control. And for some reason, it's hard to obey what God wants for us.
[00:39:34] He tells us to do certain things, but we go a different direction. He tells us to go help someone, but we get scared, right? He tells us to start a new ministry, but we don't have the time. He tells us to take a
[00:39:48] chance and start a new business, but we never do it. And it's worse than ever. We have gone on to this thing where we just pollute our minds anymore with these things. Amen. Am I hitting
[00:40:04] home over here this morning? Is that what it is? But it's like we scroll and we scroll and we scroll. And I hear some of you guys swipe and you swipe this way and you swipe that way. You know, I'm lucky. I've been married
[00:40:19] 30 years now. Last weekend was our 30 year anniversary. You guys won't know anything about this, but we had like an organic relationship. We actually like met and we went on dates and we talked on the phone and we got to know each other. And, and like, you know, I don't
[00:40:38] think it works that way anymore. I don't even know how it works, but, and wow, that rain's coming down today. You see, there's this thing in us, though. It's just like pure stubbornness. It's like we just want to do things our way. We feel that our way is better. We feel like we've got
[00:41:04] this. And we are saying in some ways, you know what? We are God. I don't think we ever come out and say that, but that's what we are saying when we choose not to listen to him. We are God. And
[00:41:17] there's no better example of this in the Bible other than Jonah. If you haven't noticed, I'm having given you a tour of the Old Testament today. And I know many of us don't bother to read the Old Testament or find it too
[00:41:28] difficult. But man, the Old Testament is just full of people full of heartache and destruction in their lives. And God is using that as a warning for us in today's age of how to be and how to listen to him. But Jonah, how many of you know the
[00:41:44] story of Jonah? I see some hands. All right. Jonah and the whale, right? Have you actually read the book of Jonah? Right?
[00:41:55] How many chapters are in the book of Jonah? Okay, four. All right, right answer. Most of us know about chapters one through three, but we don't know about chapter four. And so I would encourage you today, when you go home, go look up the book of
[00:42:09] Jonah. It's four short chapters. You'll read the entire book of Jonah in all of about 10 minutes. And you will feel like you've done something great that you have actually read, not just the verse of the Bible for the day. You've read an entire book. But in Jonah chapter one, verse
[00:42:26] twos, God says to him, it says, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me. But what does Jonah do instead? He runs away. He actually
[00:42:41] books a ticket on a ship that's headed the exact opposite direction of Nineveh where God had commanded him to go, and he runs. And while he's on this ship, God brews up a storm, a mighty big
[00:42:54] storm, and the people that are on the ship start freaking out, and they're going to Jonah, and they're telling him, what did you do, man, to upset the Lord so much? He goes, dude, it's all me.
[00:43:05] It's all me. He's like, you guys just need to throw me overboard. That's what he tells them.
[00:43:11] And at first, they're like, no, we can't do that. And the waves keep coming, things get worse, they're like, all right, man, we're tossing you, right? And so they grabbed Jonah and they literally toss him overboard. And what comes along to swallow him up? A whale. Wrong. A great fish,
[00:43:29] right? It doesn't say whale in there. It's a great fish. You're like, oh, what's the difference?
[00:43:34] A fish and a whale are two different things. But some of those details do matter. But so Jonah and God began to have this conversation back and forth with each other. And eventually Jonah comes to the point, yes, Lord, I will do what you want me to do. Just save me from this
[00:43:52] belly of this fish. Sorry. I grew up in children's church my whole life. My dad's a pastor. I've known Jonah and Noel since I was a little kid. And so the fish spits him out on the shores of
[00:44:08] Nineveh. He goes and preaches to the people and God saves all the people of Nineveh. The end, greatest story in the Bible. We all love it as kids, right? But there's a chapter four. And chapter four begins with Jonah
[00:44:23] being really angry at God because he saved the people of Nineveh. And I'm like, what's wrong with this guy? What is wrong with you? After God just did all this stuff, delivered and performed this huge, crazy miracle in his life, he is now
[00:44:37] angry at God. And so God, and so Jonah goes out on the, on the outskirts, sets up a camp. God provides him shade of a plant that's over him to keep him out of the
[00:44:47] sun. And then Jonah's still so upset with God. God says, you know what? I'm going to wipe that plant out. Takes the plant away. And then Jonah gets mad about this plant. And by the end of
[00:45:00] chapter four, God is just blunt with Jonah. He's like, man, I don't get you. He's like, you're so angry and so upset about a dumb plant. And you could care less about the people that in Nineveh that I saved. And so we get like
[00:45:18] that so many times in our life, we don't allow God into our mind, right? We think that we're on the right track, but we're doing it our way. And really the moral of the story this morning
[00:45:30] is don't be a Jonah. See, Jonah did not make room for God in his mind. He thought he knew better than the creator of the universe. But there's a third point I want to make to you this morning. And that is that we need to make room in your provision. And maybe
[00:45:51] you hear this, you're like, oh, provision. Oh, pastor's talking about money. I know there's at least one or two of you out there that's going to freak out as soon as you hear preachers talking
[00:45:59] about money. Well, I intentionally use the word provision. Provision means everything that God has given you, your gifts, your talents, your, your education, your family, your time that you have available and your money. It's all of that stuff. And I know here today that there are many
[00:46:19] of you that have sacrificed to make this building project over here a reality. And I know for many of us, it was not easy. We sacrificed in times, maybe we didn't have it, but we did it. And I
[00:46:31] just want to let you know today that those that have done that, we say thank you to you. We appreciate you. We appreciate your money. The leadership team is just overwhelmed what God has done in the miracles, many of
[00:46:42] which you guys don't even know the beginning of to get us to this point. But I know that when the money, the topic of money comes up, that some of you get uncomfortable. Well, I just want
[00:46:54] to ease your mind this morning. It's not about your money. We care more about your heart and your mind and ultimately your soul than we do your money. But it's one of the hardest areas
[00:47:08] for any of us to deal with.
[00:47:10] And I think I know why money makes us so uncomfortable.
[00:47:13] I think it's the perfect intersection of heart and mind simultaneously coming together.
[00:47:20] And I don't think it really matters too much if you're at church versus Walmart.
[00:47:24] We all, when we pull that debit card out, there's this weird, uneasy feeling that goes through your mind of like, should I do this or not?
[00:47:34] And it's because heart and mind intersect at that moment in time because you need to make a decision about the provision that God has given you. But there's something powerful that happens when you feel like you've earned something, right? It feels like an
[00:47:52] entitlement, man. I worked hard for this. I earned it. This is what God gave me. This is mine.
[00:48:00] But Jesus clearly taught many, many times on this topic throughout the Bible.
[00:48:04] and he taught that when you begin to loosen your own purse strings and you have a spirit of generosity that comes into your life, suddenly you begin to feel good inside. Things begin to feel different and you feel like you're something bigger than yourself and you no longer see money
[00:48:22] as an entitlement, but rather it's a gift from God. And that sounds like a subtlety, but it's not.
[00:48:30] It's one of the most important things that if we get right in our life, so many other areas in our life will just begin to fall into place. And suddenly God blesses you with starting to think about money differently.
[00:48:42] Well, what should I be investing in? How should I be treating my money? And before long, you begin to have more than what you even know what to do with. And that's ultimately what God wants
[00:48:54] for us. But in Luke 16, 10, 16, 10 and 11, Jesus says, whoever could be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be
[00:49:07] dishonest with much. And in verse 11, so if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? Jesus was the best at layering on like complex, multi-layered meanings behind single sentences. And on the
[00:49:28] surface, it just sounds like he's talking about money and like, oh, if you trust me with a little, trust you with a lot.
[00:49:34] And it's all financial. But that last sentence like resets the entire game. He says, who will trust you with true riches? Well, what do you think true riches actually were from Jesus's point of view? Those true riches are the plan that he has for your
[00:49:52] life. It's the spiritual aspect of your life. It's the blessing that's upon your entire family that you get to pass on to others. It was spiritual wealth, not just simple worldly wealth.
[00:50:09] and to tithe and says, look, if I can't even trust you with a little bit of money, how can you be trusted to the greatness of God?
[00:50:20] See, I don't know about you today, but I want all that God has in store for me.
[00:50:25] I wanna make room in my heart.
[00:50:28] I wanna make room in my mind and I wanna make room in my provision.
[00:50:36] Can we stand today?
[00:50:40] And we're about to go back into a time of communion and worship. And those of you that are gluten-free, there's gluten-free at the front.
[00:50:48] Communion elements are around the church. But I just want to talk to a few people this morning very directly, very quickly. You see, Moses and his relationship with God and even Jonah, it was centered around obedience. But when Jesus came, he came to transform our relationship
[00:51:08] to the Father by treating our obedience as a heart condition. Jesus asked the basic question, why are you being obedient? Are you doing it because of tradition? Or are you doing it because you truly love the Lord your God with all your heart? And do you truly believe in treating your
[00:51:30] neighbor as yourself? Or do you do these things out of a sense of duty? Can we bow our heads today. Maybe you're here this morning and you haven't made room in your life for Christ. Or maybe you did at one point and
[00:51:52] you shoved him back out. I tell you today, he is making room for you right now. And all you need to do is simply acknowledge him. It's as simple as that. It's just simply saying, yes,
[00:52:06] Lord, I want what you have for my life. I want you to come into my life. I want you to forgive me for everything. I want you to take control of all areas of my life. And if that's you this
[00:52:15] morning. Simply just raise your hand. I just want to pray for you right where you're at. Yes, Lord, I see your hand. I see the hands. Amen. All over this congregation this morning. So I'm going to
[00:52:26] ask everybody to repeat this prayer after me. Jesus, come into my life. Lord, fill my heart.
[00:52:37] Fill my mind. Lord, I give you my provision. Forgive me of my sins, and I will follow you for the rest of my life.
[00:52:50] In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

[00:52:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:52:53] In the families here at Lake City Church, God, move in our lives and in our hearts, God.
[00:59:00] Your ways are higher, your ways are better.
[00:59:04] We pray that as we go into our week, Jesus, that as Lake City Church leaves this building and walks into this community, God, that we would be a light, that we would proclaim your name, your word,
[00:59:17] and hope to this community, Jesus.
[00:59:21] that your spirit would go before us, that your plans that you have made for us, we would know that they are good.
[00:59:30] So Jesus, be with us today.
[00:59:33] We worship your name.
[00:59:34] You are holy and righteous.
[00:59:37] We love you, Lord.
[00:59:38] In your name we pray.
[00:59:40] Amen.
[00:59:41] Come on, church.
[00:59:41] Give them praise today.
[00:59:44] Hey, guys, we love you.
[00:59:45] God loves you.
[00:59:46] Go make it a great day.