Hope Church LV Sermons
Living For The Line
One of my favorite books, it's a little book that I read every year. Multnomah's a publisher that publishes this little series of books that are, I think it's called Small Books Big Change is what it is, these little real small which are good for me, you know, I mean, these are easy to read. But this is one of those that I read, I've read probably every year for the last five or six years. At least since I was first exposed to it, this book first came into my life. It's by a man named Randy Alcorn, who's an incredible author. But this is a little book called The Treasure Principle. And I've shared this book with you numerous times, matter of fact, hundreds of you own a copy of this book. We've made them available here many times and a lot of you have purchased this little book. But in this little book, The Treasure Principle, Randy Alcorn, uses an amazing illustration. It's very powerful and in that illustration, he says that all of our lives have two phases. Two phases, one of them is a dot. The other phase of our life is a line. One of these phases is when we're born, we go to school, we grow up, we begin to mature, we graduate high school, maybe go off to college and get a degree, meet that special someone, we get married, we start a family, we begin a career, we plan our retirement, we have children, we have grandchildren, we retire. All of that, that's the dot. Let me tell you what that is. That is life now. Life now. That's one phase of our life. There's another phase. That other phase is the line. It's life to come. And it is just as real. In reality, it's even more real than life now. Life to come begins when life now ends. When life now ends, either in death or in the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, life to come is going to be usured in for us as children of God. It'll begin with that great reunion that's going to take place where we will be introduced or reacquainted with every believer from every generation that has ever lived on planet Earth. Then there'll be that great wedding celebration, that wedding feast that the Bible talks about. And then we'll begin to grow in the knowledge of God and in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ for all eternity. We tend to think that the dot is the big part. We live most of our lives living for the dot, when in reality, the line. That's the big part, right? I mean, after we've been in heaven for 10,000 years, we'll only just be getting started good and guess what? We're going to look back and go, man, that really was a dot. Perspective is going to help us right now. We struggle because all we know is the dot. All we know is life now, and so it seems all encompassing. It seems all inclusive. It seems like the whole enchilada, if you will. But it's just the dot. The question this morning is, are we living for the dot? For the line. Randy Alcorn says, "The person who lives for the dot lives for the treasures on earth that end up in junkyards. The person who lives for the line lives for the treasures in heaven that will never end." You living for the dot? Are you living for the line? I want you to think about it this morning. Think about your time. Think about how you spent your time this week. Am I using my time? Living for the dot? Living for the line. Don't misunderstand me. I mean, obviously, there's some things in the dot we got to do, right? I mean, the Bible says man doesn't work, doesn't eat. There's some things in the dot that are necessary. It's not that we can't use any of our time living for the dot. We have to. It's part of our biblical responsibility as good husbands, fathers, wives, mothers, and citizens of a society. But am I investing my time focused on the dot or the line? What about my gifts and abilities? Am I using my gifts and abilities for the dot? Or the line? How about my resources? The things that God's placed into my hand. Am I using my resources for the dot? Or for the line? You see at Hope, we value this thing called generosity. We've talked about it many times. One of our core values as a church is generous living. Living with everything we have ready to make a difference. Not just in this life, but in the life to come. How many of you have ever heard of the man Jim Elliot? Let me see your hand. That's what I thought. Number of you've heard of Jim Elliot. If you've never heard of Jim Elliot, let me encourage you to do something. When you get home today, get your computer out, Google Jim Elliot. Read his story. It's powerful. Jim Elliot was a young man in his 20s since God called him to the mission field to go to Ecuador and to preach the gospel among the Indians of Ecuador that had never heard about Jesus before. He and four other men moved there and for three years began to build relationships, trying to reach out and penetrate these tribes there in Ecuador with the gospel. And finally, after three years of trying to build relationships, they decided it was time to go to this particular tribe that had never been exposed to the gospel and they land their airplane and they go in and the tribe murders them all. Jim Elliot's wife and the wife and sister of two of the other missionaries moved to Ecuador. And in the trail of blood literally left by their husbands and family, they take the gospel to that tribe and that tribe is radically transformed through a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's an amazing story. Listen to what Jim Elliot said. Jim Elliot said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." He said, "He's no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Now, when we hear that, we think, "Oh, yeah, he's one of those super spiritual missionary types." You know, that's not normal people, right? He doesn't really think about gain much. No, no, no, you misunderstand what Jim Elliot said. He's thinking everything about gain. He just doesn't want the gain you're going to lose. He wants the gain that's going to last. You hear it? Man, it's not a foolish thing to give what you can't keep to gain what you'll never lose. I want you to take your Bible and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 9. 2 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul is writing a letter to a group of Christians. And he's talking about these very issues of giving. If you're visiting with us, we're in the middle of something as a church family where we are taking next steps. We've prayed literally for the last three or four years. God, what are next steps for us concerning a campus, a home, a place that we could call our own, that could be a launching pad for the nations. And next weekend you see these two globes on either side next weekend. We've asked all of our church family to be praying, leading up to next weekend. And some next weekend are going to be just making a recommitment to something that God spoke into their lives last year. Some are going to be making a first time commitment. They're new to our church family. Some are, God's spoken into your life and what God told you to do a year ago. God's showing you something new to do. We're going to make a commitment together as a church family to make an investment in God's activity through the ministry of this local church touching the world. But I just thought as we did that, that it'd be very good for us to go back to God's word, establish a biblical foundation as we pray this week about what we're doing, why we do what we do. So 2nd Corinthians chapter 9, I want to begin in verse number 6. It says, "Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he's purposed in his heart. Not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that always, having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed." What I want to do out of those three simple verses is give you four biblical truths. It can be a foundation as you pray and seek God this week. Here's the first one. Giving is investing for the life to come. Giving is investing for the life to come. Paul here uses an illustration that would have been very common to every person that was reading this letter. It's an agricultural illustration. It's very familiar to me. I grew up in Alabama. In Alabama we had a lot of soybean farming, a lot of cotton farming, grew up around a lot of farmers. Some of my best friends, their dad were professional farmers. It's what they did for a living. And so this illustration makes perfect sense to me. Not a lot of farming in Las Vegas. If you've grown up here, you may not know a lot about farming. But here Paul is talking about a farmer going out into a field to sow seed. And in Paul's day, what that would have looked like is a farmer with two big bags of seed hanging over each shoulder. And the farmer would walk through the freshly tilled ground and he would take that seed and he would scoop his hand down deep into both bags. And as he walked, he would literally scatter the seed. That's what he talks about. He who sows sparingly will reach sparingly. He who sows bountifully will reap bountifully. He's talking about the farmer walking through. And what he's saying is that the farmer just drops a little seed here and then a little bit of seed over there. Then he can't expect much harvest. But if he sows bountifully, now to the casual observer watching this happen, it appears as though the farmer is wasting all this seed. But that's not all what he's doing. With every handful, there's an expectancy in the heart of the farmer for a harvest. As followers of Jesus Christ, we have been commanded. We have been called to give. But as you and I give, we are not simply giving money away. To the casual observer, maybe some of you even had friends and families say, "Man, you're crazy. Why are you just giving all that away?" To the casual observer, it looks like we're just giving something away. But no, we know something better, right? We're sowing seed, knowing that there's a harvest in the life to come. When you understand this, it makes perfect sense. It's not losing. It's gain. It's investing. One of my favorite Bible study courses is written by a man named Henry Blackaby. It's called Experiencing God. How many of you ever had Experiencing God? It's awesome, isn't it? If you've never been through Experiencing God, listen, I can't encourage you strongly enough. One of the summer enrichment classes we're doing this summer is a Bible study called Experiencing God. If you've never taken it, let me encourage you, go sign up for it. It will change your life. In that powerful Bible study, Henry Blackaby highlights John 5, 17, where Jesus said, "My father is working until now, and I myself am working." And out of that simple verse of Scripture, he teaches us the principle that God is at work all over the world, and he invites us to get in on it. And one of the ways he invites us to get in on it is through the vehicle of giving. You see, when you give to a church, you don't give to a church, you give through a church as an investment in God's activity in the world. Let me show you. I want to ask a group of people to come up here and join me this morning. You guys and ladies, come ahead. You just come right up here and join me. I want you to meet this group of people this morning that are coming up here to join me on the platform, and I want you to know something about them. All of these people have a couple of things in common. All right? Now, as you see them coming up this morning, the first thing that every one of these people has in common is that every one of them have had their lives changed through the ministry of Hope Baptist Church. As you see this group of people, and you may need to move on down this way just a little bit more, as you see this group of people this morning, some of them up here, they've come to know Jesus Christ right here in this fellowship. They came in these doors one day, didn't know God, didn't know Jesus, and through the ministry of this church, they came to know Jesus Christ, had their life radically changed, and have now secured their eternal destiny in heaven. Some of these people have come to know Christ here. Some of these people have been discipled right here in this fellowship. Their lives have been changed through the growth of an intimacy with God. They've understood that it really is about a relationship, and through intimacy with God, their lives have been transformed. Some of them have had their eyes open to the kingdom of God, and they've begun to realize that it's bigger than just me and that God's inviting me to get in on what He's doing all over the world. And even though I may not be a pastor or a missionary or a church planner, that I can put my yes on the table and God can use me for His glory. Every one of these people have had their life changed. Now listen, because you gave. God's changed these people's life. How many of you sitting out here today would say in some way, shape, or form the ministry of this church has been life-changing for you. Let me see your hand. That's what I thought, look around you for a minute. Hands all around. You know what that means? Hey, because we've all given time, talent, treasure, because we've all invested in the kingdom of God through this church. All of these lives have been changed. Giving is investing in the life to come. Oh, but it's bigger than that. These people that you see up here, they've all come to that place where they've put their yes on the table, and this group represents a group of about 45 people that over the next few weeks, this group of people are all going to get on an airplane, and they're going to go different directions all over the world. Next six or eight weeks, we're sending multiple mission teams, of which every one of these people that you see right here are part of one of those mission teams, and there's about 15 or 20 more of them, heading to different corners of the world. Listen, these people that are getting on these airplanes to go on these mission trips, they're going to impact four different continents, Africa, Asia, North, and South America. They're going to directly impact 21 different countries. The countries of Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, Egypt, Thailand, Laos, South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, Tanzania, Congo, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi, Sudan, Nigeria, and Somalia. These teams are going to directly impact the training, the training of over 3500 pastors, missionaries, and church planters that are working in those 21 different countries. Those leaders that they are going to be involved in encouraging and training and coming around, those leaders represent between 80 and 100,000 people that will be directly affected through the ministry of these teams over the next six to eight weeks. One of these teams alone is going to do teacher training for public school teachers in the country of Zambia, the teachers that they're going to train daily pour into the lives of 6,000 Zambian school-age children. Here's what I want you to see this morning. When we say we're going to build a campus and we want you to know it's not a building, it's a launching pad for the nations. That's not a gimmicky phrase. That's reality. This just teams in the next six to eight weeks. We send teams all year long. This is just over the summer. Somebody's going for a week, some ten days, some two weeks, some six or eight weeks, some all summer. Giving is investing for the life to come. I want us to pray for these teams this morning. I want you to extend your hand as if we're laying hands on these teams to pray for them and we're going to intercede on their behalf today. Alright, let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thank You. Thank You for these people. Lord, thank You for what You've done here in their lives. God, thank You for this congregation that gets it. Lord, they're going to make these trips because people have given. Most of these people standing up here have people in this fellowship that are sitting out here that have given and prayed so that they can go on this trip. Lord, as we give, we're investing in the nations. God, I pray for the safety of these teams for the protection or that you would use them mightily for your glory. God, we entrust them to you today. Bless them that the ends of the earth might fear you. It's in the name of Jesus Christ we pray and all of us say together. Amen. Let these teams know you love them and you're praying for them today. God bless you guys. Thank You. Thank You. You can go right ahead. God bless you. Let me give you the second principle this morning. Giving clearly reveals clearly reveals the attitude of my heart. Giving is investing in the life to come, but giving also clearly reveals the attitude of my heart. You know why sometimes we get so uncomfortable when somebody talks about the subject of giving? Because giving clearly reveals the attitude of my heart. And I don't like stuff that shows me where I really am. Jesus said where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. In this text that we read this morning, Paul said each of you must do just as he's purposed in his heart. He's writing to this congregation about a gift that they're going to make, an investment that they're going to make in the kingdom of God. And he says, "I only want you to do what you've purposed in your heart." The word purposed is a word that means to decide beforehand. And the principle here is that giving is the outward response of my heart attitude towards God and his activity in the world. As I've met with God, as I've sought with God, then giving is simply the expression of the attitude of my heart in response to what God said. I want to give you some principles that show us that giving really is this heart issue. Number one, God doesn't need our money. You know that, right? Hey, I'll take it a step further. God doesn't even need us. God didn't need Vance Pittman to come to Las Vegas to be about the starting of a, God was planning a church in Las Vegas where the Vance Pittman got in on it or not. Now God invited me to get in on it because he loves me. And by his grace desired to use me and to allow me to be a part of what God didn't need me. God didn't need our money. Listen to what the psalmist said. He said, "For every beast of the forest is mine." Speaking of God, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains and everything that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. For the world is mine. And all it contains, here's the reality. God owns it all. We don't own anything. It's all his. I know what you're thinking. If God doesn't really need... If it doesn't really need my money, let me think, how can I spiritually ask this question? Ah, why does he want me to get up? Right? That's the second principle. Giving his God's invitation to join in his activity. You see, God loves you. You know what God wants? God wants you to be a part of what he's doing all over the world. You see all these people standing up here? God wants us to be a part of that. One of the ways he allows us to be a part of that is to the vehicle of giving. Let me give you a biblical example. Philippians chapter 1. We spend a year and a half studying together as a church family through the book of Philippians. Look at Philippians chapter 1 verse 3. Listen what he said. Paul says, "I thank my God and all my remembrance of you always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now." Now, you know what Philippians was? It was a letter. He was writing to a group of Christians. And here's what he said. Let me put it in, in advance for an accurate. Here's what he said. Every time you guys cross my mind, I just burst out giving thanks to God for you. Because you've so gotten involved in what God's doing in the world through my life. This church saw in the apostle Paul the opportunity to participate, to share in what God was doing through his life. Just like we're sharing through the lives of these people, we're participating with them through giving and praying. This church saw in Paul the opportunity to get involved in what he was doing. Well, how did they get involved? Well, look at the last paragraph of the letter. Philippians chapter 4 verse 15. Paul says, "You yourselves also know Philippians that after the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of man receiving, but you alone, for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my." Here's what Paul says. You got involved. You joined in what God was doing to touch the world. You joined in what God was doing to preach the gospel by giving. They invested in the activity of God through the apostle Paul. Well, if God doesn't need our money in giving, is God's invitation to get in on what he's doing, then here's the third principle. Giving clearly reveals my heart towards God and his activity in the world. You see to the degree that I give, you know what I'm doing. I'm not talking about amounts of money here. That's not the issue. It's not anybody in the building that can write a check that can impress God. He owns it all, remember? We're not talking about amounts of money. We're talking about attitudes of giving. My response of giving really is a statement of my attitude towards God and what he's doing to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Giving's a heart issue. That's why Paul said each one must do just as he's purposed in his heart. Listen, next weekend we've asked you to be praying. We've asked you to take one of those commitment cards and pray. If you don't have one yet, most of you do. You can pick one up at the big journey kiosk this morning and next weekend. I'm praying for each and every one of you as you respond to the Lord. Some will be making a commitment. You're new to our church. Some will be just reaffirming a commitment. Some will be increasing a commitment. But here's what I want you to hear me say today. Don't participate in this because we're doing it. Don't participate in this because we need a building. You hear from God and do what God says. Period. That's it. And if you can't do it with a spirit of joy, don't do it. Don't do it. The Bible didn't say God loves giving. The Bible says God loves a cheerful giver. The attitude. Principle number three. Giving invites God's blessing into my life. Giving invites God's blessing into my life. And this happens in a variety of ways. First of all, giving brings joy. We just have time to kind of breeze over these. But I want you to turn back a page in your Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 1. Giving brings joy. Listen to this verse. He says, "Now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia." Now, you've got to understand Paul's writing. The church is in Macedonia. One of those is Philippi. Paul's writing about this church that he keeps thanking God for. He's so excited about what God's doing through them. Look at verse 2. "That in a great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy." You hear that? "And their deep poverty." And what's that third one? Oh, yeah. Joy. Not a normal list of characteristics, right? Affliction, poverty, and joy. It overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. Listen to what it says in verse 3. "For I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability." They gave. Now listen to verse 4. Bagging us. You know what the implication is right there, right? Paul had met with the church and said, "Guys, you don't have anything. You're in affliction. You're in persecution. You've got poverty. You guys don't even don't participate." And Paul said, "They wouldn't take no for an answer. They were begging us." You don't beg to do something you have to do. You beg to do something you want to do. Hey, I don't know what it's like at your house. My kids never beg to do the dishes. Have me your house? Oh, daddy, please let me do the dishes. Now, they'll beg to do some other stuff. You know what we beg to do? We beg to do what brings us joy. He was a group of people living in abject poverty, complete persecution. Paul, you don't understand. We got to give! Giving brings us joy. Jesus said it's more blessed to what? To give and receive. Number two, giving brings peace and provision. You see, when I'm giving, I can trust God that God will take care of me and my family. You want peace in difficult economic times? Just obey God and keep giving. Then you can trust Him. Then the ball's in his court. It's his word. He'll honor it. Listen to what Paul said back in our text in verse 8. He said in my God who is able to make all grace abound to you. Listen to all the all phrases. Make all grace abound to you so that always having all sufficiency in everything are all things. You may have an abundance for God and for God. This is not a promise that followers of Jesus will be wealthy regardless of what you hear on television. This is not a give to get mentality, but here's the promise. When I live generously out of the overflow of my heart filled with joy for what Jesus has done in my life, I can go to sleep at night with peace in my heart that God is going to take care of the rest of it. It may not always make sense. It may not even be on the schedule that I wish it was on, but I can trust Him. I can trust Him. I want to introduce you to somebody else this morning. Sharon, come and join me here this morning. Dave and Sharon Mills are a sweet couple here in our church. Have a wonderful testimony. Dave had to be at work today and couldn't be here this morning, but Sharon has come and Dave and Sharon are one of those families. You go right there if you need to. One of those families in our church that last year participated in the big journey. Made a commitment before the Lord. Really sought God. God spoke. Sharon, I want you to let us know here at Hope, share with our family today. How is participating in this commitment and this offering brought God's provision and blessing into your life? We knew initially we just felt really good about the big journey and we looked at it just like what you were speaking about this morning. We created it as a hope thing. We saw it as an opportunity to get involved with God's activity. Here in the city, in the country, and then even beyond there. So we were really excited, but we immediately started praying. We started praying individually and then together as a couple each evening and just having that as a bullet point in our prayer. God, what would you have us to do? Would you have us to get involved with this? And then the second big thing was if we do, how much should we be giving? And pretty much after about three days, we just both, the Lord had placed it in both of our hearts and our minds that we should definitely get involved. We continually started praying and we didn't talk to each other about an amount. Probably a week before we were supposed to make the pledge, Dave came to me and he said, well, God has put it in my heart and in my mind that we should give this amount for the initial amount. And that was great. We were in total accord. It was the exact amount that God had placed in my mind and in my heart. So I was like, this is great. And then he said to me what he thought the monthly amount should be. And he said, I just, you know, and convinced that this is what God has placed in my heart and in my mind that we should give monthly. And we just weren't in accord. That wasn't what I had heard. I hadn't heard too much, but I, when he gave me the number, I just immediately, my mind started going like a, you know, a cash register. And I was thinking about what comes in, what goes out. And the number that he gave, I mean, if I would have been looking at it from a human perspective, I would have been thinking of a fourth of that to give. And I'll also pray, lead by the fact that my husband is a union carpenter. And last year, he was affected. We had been probably as much as anyone else in the city. He wasn't working that much as far as overtime. And that's where he makes the bulk of his money. So, and I'm on salary. And he was working maybe 40 hour a week. Sometimes not even that. And he wanted us to give, on top of our tithe, this amount that was four times what I thought from my butt, the budget, could even possibly happen. So, we started praying again. We had about another three or four days before we were actually supposed to make the pledge. And I think he was the woman that you've given me. Please let her, you know, let her follow what you placed on my heart for our family to do. And I was like, Lord, you know, I'm not sure about this. Please let me go into a chord with my husband. If you placed this on his heart, which I believed he had, to just fill a piece about it. And after about two days, I really did. After about two days of praying, the Lord had just put a real piece in my heart, one that out of obedience to him, to just follow the lead of my husband. And I just really believed Dave was unwavering that that was the amount that the Lord had put on his heart and in his mind. And I just started having a piece that, you know, we weren't going to do it. We'd never done it, even with our tithes. I mean, if I had gone to the paper and wrote it all out, we wouldn't have been doing it. It wouldn't have made sense. And he just gave me a piece that he was in the driver's seat. If we believed him with what he said that he could do through us, he was going to do it. And so that a couple of days later, we made our pledge. We did the initial offering. And then did what we had committed to do monthly, which for us was a weekly thing because we gave weekly. And I would say probably four days after that, Dave started getting all this overtime, just like out of nowhere. I mean, that was not on the horizon. It was nil from human eyes. And we just took that as a real encouragement from the Lord that he had us covered. And what he put in us, he was going to make it happen. He was the person behind the we. I mean, he was making it happen. And I cannot say that throughout the year that Dave had a ton of overtime every month. And there was, I think, even maybe a month or two that he wasn't working. But I can say that God enabled us and sustained us to be able to keep the commitment that he had placed in our heart. He made it happen. And we were just on this wild ride. And when we looked at, at the end of last year, what through our tides and through the big journey, we got it enabled us to give to his kingdom. We were just blown away. Because we knew that Dave and Sharon could never have imagined that. We would have gone so much smaller than where he went. And it has been such a blessing. And I use the word blessing in that it's pulled us so much closer to the Lord in believing him to do it. And that it's not about us. And then, of course, we're so thrilled to be involved with the kingdom and know that we're going to be beyond the dot. And that it's just going to be going so much further beyond that. Amen. Amen. Sharon, thank you very much. God bless you. Thank you. Amen. Let me show it to you in the book of Proverbs, chapter 11. Look on the screen. There's one who scatters and yet increases all the more. And there's one who withholds what is justly do. And yet it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous. And he who waters will himself be watered. You see, God's economy doesn't work like ours. Our says, you hang on to it to secure the future. His says, you share it to secure the future. That always makes sense on paper. But as we respond to him, it brings provision and peace. Number 3, it brings treasure in the life to come. It brings treasure in the life to come. Just real quickly want to read you a verse of Scripture out of 1 Timothy chapter 6. Listen what it says. "Instruct those who are rich in this present world, not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy, instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, and ready to share." Listen, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future. You hear what he said, right? Give it away so you can secure a foundation for the future. So that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. You ever heard anybody say you can't take it with you? Hey, that's true. I've been to Cairo and stood in the National Museum there in Cairo where they have all of King Tut's. What they found in his pyramid in his tomb, the belief of the Egyptians was if you bury it with them in the tomb that they take it with them to the afterlife, well guess what? He didn't take it. It's in the Museum in Cairo. You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. It's what Jim Elliot meant when he said he's no fool. Who gives what he can't keep, to gain what he can't lose. You see, I can lay up treasure in heaven. The Bible says we're neither moth nor rust destroyed. I can live for the dot, or I can live for the line. Last principle, giving reflects the heart of the Father. My mentor, pastor friend Johnny Hunt said to me, "Advanced, you're never more like Jesus than when you give." John 3 16 says, "For God so loved the world that he what?" The core of the gospel is a gift. God gave his son Jesus that you and I could be forgiven of our sin and be given by grace a relationship with God, one that we don't deserve. But that he gave. Randy Alcorn in his little book adds this paragraph. Listen to it. "Five minutes after we die, we'll know exactly how we should have lived. But God's given us his word, so we don't have to wait until we die to find out. Ask yourself, "Five minutes after I die, what will I wish I would have given away while I still had the chance?" When you come up with the answer, why not give it away now? Why not spend the rest of our lives closing the gap between what we'll wish we would have given and what we're really giving? Here's the question today. You living for the die? Are the lying? You know what we're asking you to do this week? We're asking you to pray and simply be a people that lives for the life. Let's live for the lying. I can promise you. When you get here, here, here, here, here, you'll be glad you did.