Steven Furtick - The Power of The Prompt (12/04/2018)
In Joshua 4, God instructs Israel to set up twelve stones from the Jordan as memorials to prompt future generations to remember His miracle of dry-ground crossing. The preacher uses this to teach the "power of the prompt"—God gives promises but often prompts obedience through impressions, examples, or situations to activate them. Sharing personal "stones" (stories of tithing, sacrificial giving, rejecting shortcuts), he urges responding to Holy Spirit promptings in the upcoming Game Changer offering, breaking complacency and trusting God to fulfill promises through faithful stewardship.
Welcoming Campuses and Preparing for Game Changer
Welcome today to all of our locations. Can we thank God for all of our campuses and locations? I said, can we thank God for all of our campuses and locations? Amen. I was doing my stalker thing where I go around to all the campuses pushing buttons with cameras that are set up in the auditoriums. I've been on… Do I look tired? I was on a trip. I went to Asheville and Columbia. I even went to Toronto for a minute, all through technology, of course, before I came out to see you. So I'm a little jet-lagged.
Thank God for the great work he's doing also with our eFam around the world and our interns, our fall 2018 interns. Come on. Thank God for them. Thank God for their wardrobes, for their sense of style and fashion. I'm going to tell you why they're up here in a minute. I'm going to keep you in suspense.
But, hey, one thing I really always feel good about is when I'm doing exactly what I know God wants me to do when I stand up here on the stage. And as we get ready for next weekend, which is going to be phenomenal, where so many people around the world and here at our church locally are going to participate in our Game Changer offering, where we get to bring God something of significance and value to us, and we all get to make that opportunity count, to invest something in what can't be taken away, as we have so many times before.
As we get ready for that, I pray and I try to see how God wants me to preach that would position us, each of us, for the season he's taking us into. That's important to me, not to follow a formula. It's important to me. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with doing it the same way every time, because we take up these offerings for expansion and we use so much of it for outreach each year, so I guess it would be fine if I just repeated the pattern each year, but maybe it's just my personality. I can't do that. And even more than that, I don't want to start trusting in some kind of formula.
I guess that's the best way to say it. If I'm going to preach about faith, I want to demonstrate faith in the way I preach about what I'm preaching about. So, does that make sense? Anyway, whether it made sense or not, here's what I'm going to do today.
The Importance of Setup for What's Coming
When I was praying about what we should do as we set up what's going to happen next weekend… I pray that you would not skip church next weekend. Some people will always do that, like it's going to be a guilt trip. It's not. It's not like there's going to be a cover charge next week or something like that. It's for everyone, but it'll be really beautiful. It'll be special.
But this week is probably the most important, because this is where we set it up. Any good comedian can tell you that the setup is often more important than the punchline. But there's nothing funny about the Word of God, so let's go to the Word of God today.
I want to share the same Scripture, just a few verses. If I drop a few verses down, from what I shared last week. Did you get to hear the message last weekend? It's mine to manage. Touch somebody and say, it's God's to give, but it's mine to manage.
I talked about this concept that we are stewards of the story, the story of how God has saved us and how God has sustained us. As a pastor, I'm coming to understand my role more and more as a steward of the story God is telling through this church. It's God's story, but it's ours to manage. It's so powerful.
Joshua 4 – Stones as Prompts for Future Generations
Let me get into this real quick. This will be a little different today. I think you can tell I'm a little… I'm excited. I'm really excited, but I'm sitting down. I'm seated, so I'm not going to scream as much. Those of you who don't like all that anyway, this is your weekend. I'm just going to talk to you a little bit today.
Y'all laughed a little too much at that. It made me feel self-conscious. I might holler once or twice, but I really just want to talk to you. I have all this stuff in my Bible, and I'll tell you what it all is in a moment. Some notes and some money, and I'll tell you about that, and an envelope and some Post-it notes, and we'll get to all that in a moment.
But first, let me read this. This is so important as a backdrop for what I believe God wants to give you as a backstory today. Every blessing has a backstory. This is one for the nation of Israel. Joshua 4, 19.
On the tenth day of the first month, the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho, and Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. Now, they're not in the Promised Land yet, but God is setting them up.
As a part of the setup, it's kind of elaborate. God is like, hey, take the stones from the Jordan, which represents the miracle I just did for you, and set it up. Then, after you've set up the stones… This is the purpose of them. They're not just props. I don't want you to just collect these stones for props and put them in a trophy case somewhere.
Rather than just trophies, these are triggers, these stones you set up, because I'm not done with you yet, and there's a great thing I'm doing through you, and so I want to use the stones as a setup.
Then watch verse 21. It gives the purpose. He said to the Israelites, in the future, when your descendants ask their parents… Now, stop right there. He's teaching them to think generationally. He's teaching them not to just settle for instant gratification and what's in it for me.
So, in the future, when your kids are asking, what do these stones mean? Tell them. Very important, because the stones can't speak for themselves. This is not like Siri. Hey, Siri, bring me lemonade. This is not that kind of thing. This is not some magic trick. You've got to speak and tell them when you see the stones, when they see the stones, tell them…
I love this stuff. I love these Old Testament stories. There's so much in them. Tell them, Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground, for the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.
Every generation is to experience their own move of God, not just worship something God did in the past, but to move forward into the future full of faith.
The Power of the Prompt
So, I want to speak to you for a few moments today on the power of the prompt. If you'd like to write that down, it's just a little title I'm giving the message. If you wouldn't like to write it down, it's still the title I'm giving the message. It's the power of the prompt.
So, about these interns. They're pretty cool. Elevationchurch.org slash internship. Shameless plug. They're two weeks out from finishing their internship, and I got to meet with them Thursday, and we had the best time. Right? It was supposed to go 90 minutes, and it went two and a half hours.
Then, for the first time that this has ever happened, I met them at the movies. As a part of their discipleship process, I took them to see Creed 2. Amen. Come on. I'm a good, good pastor. It's who I am.
Now, what prompted me to do that? Well, when I was getting to know them, I liked to do an icebreaker. Hey, you know, what's your favorite music? Then they'll always say Christian bands, because I'm the pastor. Then I turn around, no, what do you really listen to?
Then I'll ask, what's your favorite TV shows? They all said The Office. I think everybody said The Office. I said, cool. Y'all are too young for The Office, but anyway, I understand. Then I said, what's your favorite movie? One of the kids screams out, Rocky! He said it like sometimes you're in a worship service and somebody goes, Jesus! But he said the name of Rocky.
When he invoked the name of Rocky, he won my heart. In fact, come here, Gabe, real quick. LJ, just in honor of Gabe, let's do this real quick. Let's do it. Go ahead. Go ahead, LJ. Oh, you want to run the stairs? I like that! Yeah! Do those stairs over there, yeah. Hey! Go all the way. Take those stairs. Yeah! Yeah! Come on, man. Make it count! Hurry up! They're running out of time! This is it, Gabe!
So this could be you. Elevationchurch.org slash internship. Thanks for coming. No, that's cool. Sit down, man. That's enough. Catch your breath. You know you hadn't done that much cardio in months.
So I was like, you like Rocky? He goes, yeah. I said, now this is the real test. I said, what's the best Rocky? He said. He didn't have to pray. He didn't have to pray. This is how I'm going to test if he's a true man of God. He said he wants to go in ministry one day, and there's an answer to this, and it's definitely not five.
We all know that. It could be three, but he said the right answer. He said Rocky four. When he said Rocky four, I said, I perceived that thou art a prophet, and the words of life. I was like, just because that's the first one my dad showed me.
I remember my dad on a Friday night. We stopped by National Home Video in Monk's Corner, VHS tape, and he said, you're ready for Rocky four. You're ready to see. By the way, just so I can know who to pray for that needs the Lord. How many of you have not seen Rocky, a single Rocky movie? Oh, come to the altar. Are you serious? Your parents haven't shown you Rocky four?
Let me call DSS on those parents. I almost felt like with my kids it was a generational responsibility to show them how the Cold War really ended with Rocky defeating Drago.
When I found out that Creed two was the sequel to Rocky four, I was like, oh man, this is the equivalent of Joshua and Moses. This is like the Red Sea and the Jordan. This is probably taking the illustration too far, but I almost had a spiritual experience.
I met them at the theater on Thursday night and we watched Rocky. I think we annoyed everybody in the theater. We were so loud at Stonecrest, but we went to the Temple of Stonecrest and we watched the gospel according to Rocky Balboa.
There's so much gospel in Rocky, but you probably don't know the backstory to it. It prompted me. Sermons come to me from all kinds of places, but I'm sitting there. Graham and Elijah went with me, and we're watching Creed 2.
I won't tell you how it ends, because your homework this week is to prepare your offering, read your Bible, and go see Creed 2. It's fantastic. Then I was thinking… Graham was sitting with me. Elijah was sitting with me. The interns were there.
I was thinking… Remember, my dad's in heaven now, and so I was remembering when he showed me. It was just a cool moment where I was like, every generation gets their own Rocky. It was cool.
Then I thought, I wonder how many of them know the backstory of how Rocky Balboa was created. I wonder how many of them know what these stones mean. They know that Michael B. Jordan wasn't the first Creed. I wonder if they know.
I don't know how much of this you knew, Gabe, but when Sylvester Stallone created Rocky, he was inspired because he was broke. He had been in one movie, and he had moderate success, but he moved to L.A. because he wanted to start really trying to write, and he would walk around writing stuff.
He went to see Muhammad Ali fight Chuck Wepner. How many of you didn't know any of this? Just raise your hand real quick. Okay. This is important. This is almost biblical. Rocky is canonical.
I promise you we'll be in Joshua in just a moment, but let me give the backstory to this. When he was watching Chuck Wepner fight Muhammad Ali and go the distance, even though he didn't win, and put the champ down, he was inspired by the story of an underdog.
He thought, that's what I need to write, and he spent the next three days writing the rough draft of Rocky. Rocky. Three days. So, for those of you who don't believe that Rocky is biblical, it's three days.
Then when he finished writing it… Remember, he was prompted just by something he saw. Talk about the power of a prompt. He was prompted watching it. I need to write that. He wrote it, and then somebody asked him what he was working on when he went for an audition one time.
He almost didn't want to tell him because he didn't know if it was any good, but from the show, I'm working on this thing. He's prompted. Then they offered him $25,000 for the script. $50,000? $100,000? No, because they weren't going to let him be Rocky, and he wanted to play Rocky in something, and told him, you know, you need to play this character. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
Then they offered him $250,000, $300,000. $360,000. He had $106 in his bank account. They offered him $360,000 from the script. He said, no. He had already sold his dog, Butkus. He sold his dog, Butkus, and he turned it down.
Finally, they gave him a million dollars to make the movie, which wasn't much, and he made it. As of 2017, according to what I Googled, the Rocky franchise has earned, in the box office alone, over $1.4 billion.
So let's thank God for Rocky, and then we'll move on to something I want to tell you about. I just told you… I can see some of you like, come on, man. I didn't come for all this. Well, shut up. I'm trying to get to something here, all right?
Responding to Holy Spirit Promptings
I have a reason for telling you this, because everything great that I've ever seen I would attribute to the hand of God in my life started with a prompting. The thing about game-changers and game-changing decisions is that they don't feel like game-changers in the moment. A promise from God usually doesn't feel like a promise.
Here's how it operates in the pattern of Scripture. God will give you a promise, and then he will give you a prompting to act on the promise that he gave. Learning to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit is the most crucial skill you could ever acquire in your life.
It takes courage. It takes discernment. It takes sometimes being still, shutting the other voices off. But the promptings of the Holy Spirit… I mean, how many times have I missed the blessing of God in an area of my life because I did not respond to a prompting?
How many times have we come to church and heard a sermon, and then we experienced a prompting, but because we didn't respond to the prompt, we did not receive the promise. It could be the smallest things.
One time God prompted me to send somebody a voice memo. They said they saved it for four years on their phone. I didn't know they were going to save it for four years. I just knew they were going through something, and I sent it to them. Prompting.
It must have seemed weird to the Israelites. Set up the stones, but the stones are not there to serve the purpose they seem to be serving on the surface. They are to prompt the story. I'm preaching to you today because there are some things God has placed in your life and some things he is doing that if you will pay attention, God is trying to use that thing to prompt you in an area of your life where he intends to bless you.
The stones prompt the story, and then the story is meant to prompt the faith of the people so they can continue on. This is how God works. I want to practice this today. I want to do this in front of you. It's one thing to preach it. It's another thing to practice it.
I realized the Israelites didn't go back to that place in Gilgal and tell their children the story. That's why in Judges 2.10 it says the next generation didn't know. Why didn't they know? Because their parents didn't revisit the place. They got so far from where they started that they lost their sense of who brought them.
Now, I don't want that to happen to us as a church, and so I thought what might be appropriate today to help prompt your faith is to share a few stones. Not 12. I'm not going to do 12 like the 12 stones. We don't have that long. But I just want to take five.
I just want to take five prompts. This is where the Post-it notes come in, because I wrote down five prompts, you know, like a writing prompt that you get. I'm going to hand these one at a time to these interns, and I'm going to ask them to tell me the story.
You can ask me anything you want, as long as it's exactly what's written on this Post-it note, and I'm going to answer it. To prompt… Everybody say prompt. Prompt. That's the word God gave me, prompt, to learn how to respond to the prompting of God.
That's what this offering is about. That's what life is about. That's what forgiveness is about. God is going to prompt you, and will you respond to the prompt? That determines how you experience the promise.
Personal Stones – Stories of Promptings
I've got five of these, and they will prompt the story like those stones prompted the stories. I pray that God will use it. Do you want to read the first one? You didn't get to go last night. Okay. It's the same ones as last night, though. I didn't change them because it went good last night, so read me that.
Tell me about the time you thought your college roommate was going crazy but was actually setting an example you would follow for the next 20 years. What a great question. Thank you for asking me that.
My college roommate my junior and senior year was named Alex Early, which is funny because he would get up super early and he would pray. I would get up last minute, 7.57, for an 8 A.M. class. We went to North Greenville University. It's where I got my degree. It's where I got my wife.
If you were to ask me which of those two has served a greater purpose in my life, it would no doubt be that one. I hadn't shown anybody my degree in a while, but I show her off all the time. Anyway, my roommate was Alex Early. He was very spiritual, but he was also one of these people who wasn't so spiritual that he wasn't funny.
He could quote John Calvin to you, but he could also make the funniest prank phone calls. He had this redneck persona called Dwayne McGraw, D-U-W-I-A-N-E with a thing over the E because it's French, Dwayne McGraw. He modeled after Roy D. Mercer.
We had the best time in college, but what I learned from him that I'll never forget that I'm so glad you asked me about, and thank you for asking me that, is one day he came running back to the room between classes, and he looked like he was in a state of absolute emergency.
He was in panic mode, and he starts grabbing out of the drawers all the money he can find in the room. Not my money. His money. He starts grabbing all the money out of the room. I was like, what are you doing? He's like, I don't have time to talk about it. I'll tell you when I get back.
I'm like, oh my God, what is Alex into? It's like some Walter White crap going on. He came back. He wouldn't tell me what he was doing. He came back. He looked so relieved. I was like, what was that? He was real serious.
He goes, God convicted me, bro. I've been… Hold on. Let me tell you what he said next. He said, since I've been here at college, I haven't been tithing. He belonged to a church that I really admire in his hometown in Woodstock, Georgia, First Baptist Woodstock, Pastor Johnny Hunt.
He said, I'm sending my tithe. I calculated. God spoke to me that his money was in my bank account. I'd been telling myself the whole time I was here at college that since I was away and since I didn't have much anyway… He said, but God convicted me not to keep his money in my account.
That boy mailed the cash. He had coins and everything he could find and sent it in the mail. One of the ways God will prompt you sometimes is through the example of somebody else. That's why I always do the giving on the weekend where people come and give, because I think sometimes an example is better than a sermon.
When he did that, God spoke to me. My mom had taught me the same principle of tithing, and yet I found so many excuses. You know what I did? The next thing I did… Well, I had a checking account. I didn't think it had to be as ghetto as he made it out to be, like throwing cash in the mail.
But I did the same thing. I decided, you know what? He's right. He's right. If I can't trust God with that 10 percent, how can I say everything I have comes from him? Yeah, amen.
See, I'm not… I need you to know this in case you're new or a guest or something. I am not one bit timid about preaching this stuff. This is my testimony. I don't apologize for it. I believe in what we do. I believe in what God's Word teaches. I've seen it in my life.
If you need me to get up here and say, that's not me. That's not how I feel about God. That's not how I feel about his Word. That's not how I feel about his principles. That's not how I feel about his promises. I believe this stuff. Man.
So, it prompted me. I never kept God's money in my bank account after that, no matter how much I had, didn't have. And it got harder when you have more. You know, 10% of $50. Isn't that hard to send? Send God some coupons in the mail or something like that.
Then when God starts blessing you, you have to decide you want to trust him on the next level. Amen. So, I believe God is going to prompt some people this year in that you've been holding on to what is God's.
I should move on from this point. I feel super uncomfortable. But these are just my stones. These are my stories. This is what God has done for me.
More Stones – Sacrificial Giving and Rejecting Shortcuts
So, here's another one. I really like this one. This is probably my favorite one. Who wants to do this one? You want the prompt? Okay. Let's get her a mic. Ben Landier. By the way, Ben, who's your favorite intern on the stage right now? Don't answer that. No, just give her the mic.
Tell me about the big decision you made at the kitchen table that made you feel like you were going to throw up in your mouth. I wrote it in an acceptable way. I think I actually did throw up in my mouth and swallow it back down. So, here's the story. It's too vivid. I understand.
You know, when Holly and I got married, she taught school, and I traveled, and we saved up and put a down payment on a house. We did what Dave Ramsey taught in his financial peace stuff, like no debt and all that. We tried to do that other than our house, but then another thing we did was he said put an emergency fund.
Dave Ramsey said it. He said it. It scared me to not do it the way he said it. He said it should be a certain amount of your expenses in case something happens, and he said do it as quick as you can. Well, we were just married, and we didn't start with a lot of money or anything like that.
We started with no money, but over time I was able to build up. I'll never forget… We're in our house at 330 Delwood Drive, Shelby, North Carolina. You could go by there and knock on the door and ask the person, say, hey, hello, and then go into the kitchen and then sit down, and you'll see the spot where this happened.
We had just put that amount of money. We just hit the amount in the savings account, and I was going in to tell Holly, hey, good news. We got our emergency fund. We hit the number because we set the number and hit the number.
When I went in to tell her prompt, something prompted me. At first I thought it was the Devil. I really did, because it was like, hey, what if you gave that money instead? We didn't have kids yet. We didn't have that pressure of providing for children yet. We were young. We could afford number one combos at the Mexican restaurant.
It was like, what if you gave it away? Would you do that? When I sat down at the table, I told Holly, hey, I have good news and bad news. The good news is we have our emergency fund. The last deposit, we made it to the… She said, what's the bad news?
I think God might be… I don't know if I used the word prompting, but I feel like an impression that we should give it away. See, I'm counting on her to say, that's not God. I'm counting on her to have no faith. Then I can say, well, Lord, the woman you gave me…
She goes, oh, cool. I trust you. God spoke to you. Just go. Just give it. Dang it, woman. I remember sitting down writing five checks. I remember who we wrote them to. It's not important. We didn't have Elevation Church yet, the church we were part of at the time, another ministry, and we gave it away.
The funniest thing was, while I was doing it, I was like my hands were shaking. Right when I had written the last one, I felt like a peace. The way I interpreted the peace I felt was like God was saying to me, keep your hands open to me.
No matter how much I bless you with, no matter how hard things get at certain times in your life or how tight it seems… I've experienced both of those. Keep your hands open to me and see what I will do through you.
Let me tell you the sequel to that, because every Rocky IV has a Creed II. Every Red Sea has a Jordan. Just this past Monday, I got to sit down with our kids at the kitchen table, and it wasn't some holy, sacred moment. In fact, they were running around. They were, I think, annoyed that they had to sit and listen to these stories again.
I think Graham said, Dad, we know this already. But what I did… I told them our testimony. I asked them to bring all their money to the table, which is really, technically, my money. You have no money. You understand that? But bring my money that I let you pretend like is your money and keep in your little stupid wallet. Bring it to the table.
Abby has more money than the boys. I don't know what she's running on the side at school, selling some Jolly Ranchers or something. Abby is so loaded. She says to her brothers all the time, you need to visit the bank of Abby. He's seventh.
I said, I'm like, hey, it's time. It's a year-end offering. You know, we did this with Waymaker. We did this with Surround. We did this… We've been doing this since they were conscious. Like, here's mommy and daddy. Remember… Because different times we've done that over and over again. Not the tithe, but above and beyond.
Then we pray about it. Sometimes God will give me a specific number that's meaningful. Sometimes I'll think I have the number, and then it's not the right one because it doesn't take faith. God will stretch me because one will be what I can do, and then one will be something that really says how I need him.
But when I was walking them through that, I'm like, sit down and listen to this. You need to hear this story. I realized something. Just this year, we hit a milestone where now Holly and I, by the grace of God, have been able to give to this church, Elevation Church, not what we originally gave at the kitchen table in Shelby, the emergency fund, and not two times that.
Over the course of this church, we've been able to give not ten times… I couldn't really believe this number, not a hundred times, but a thousand times what we gave at that kitchen table to this ministry. I'm not going to tell you the amount, because it's not about the size of the gift. It's about the sacrifice. It's what it's always about.
Like, some people sit through this teaching, and God prompts them to give a million dollars, and they're able to do that. We've seen that. But some people God prompts them to do something that would seem small, but to him it's bigger because it represents something that comes from your heart.
That's all God is. I went to Elevation. He just talked about money. I'm not talking about money. I'm not, but I felt that. And let's go to him, and the submit ma кошkin table, I pray to him. It Happens to your heart will be also.
We talk about every element of your heart, but until this happens, until your hands are open to God, That's what the offering is about. It's about getting your hands open, not because God needs what you have. You need what he has.
I'm preaching on this stool. I don't even need a pulpit for this sermon. I am preaching on this stool. I'm grateful. When we first gave to Outreach, I had no idea that it was a stepping stone. It was a stepping stone. God was setting the table, because when this church didn't have much money, Hurricane Katrina hit, and I felt a prompting.
Reach out to somebody in New Orleans or in the area, and I found a pastor in Slidell, Louisiana, and we sent him $1,600 that we did not have. We needed that money for our church, but I was operating out of the same principle. You keep your hands open to me and see what I will do through you.
Now, the fact that we've given and will have given, by the end of this year, over $40 million away to those in need…. Come on. I'm prompting you right now to praise God for what we've been able to do around the world.
So, you kind of go back and you wonder. You wonder, what if we had said no back then? What if I said, no, I'm going to keep my low $1,600 for our outreach? And God is prompting some of you to open your hands to him, and I pray that you'll know that joy. It's a real privilege.
The Silver Bullet Temptation in Church Planting
Let's do another prompt. I think we have time for one or two more. You want to do this one? You sure? This is a big one. Don't screw it up. Take the Post-It now. That shiny cross around your neck. Tell me about the silver bullet of the church planting.
The silver bullet of church planting. You want to know about that? You sure? I don't know if you can handle the silver bullet of church planting. I certainly wasn't ready for the silver bullet of church planting.
Imagine this. The church has not started yet. I'm meeting with the seven families that moved here to start the church. Come on. Let's go back to the Jordan for a minute. You have to go back to where you started and revisit these miracles.
At that time, I didn't know anything to teach these people, so all we did was read books from people who knew how to start a church, because we never started one. I was 25 years old. I had no idea. I mean, I'm scared to death, but I feel like God is prompting us to start this church.
We had just decided to come to Charlotte to start it. We put up a map. Anyway, you don't need to know all that. The point is, I brought in a guy who I thought was like an expert in church planting. I asked him, talk to my team, tell them anything you want, and I'll give you a $50 Chili's gift card.
At the time, that seemed generous. We got it from credit card rebate points. He's like, you don't have to give me anything. Just I'll come. Nice guy, and he shared with us a little bit about evangelism, a little bit about marketing, a little bit about team building, unity, groups, all the typical stuff.
But then, when it was over, we had been recording the whole session so we could listen to it and learn from it and taking notes, and all the families are sitting around the table. At the end, he goes, okay, can you turn that off a minute? Can you stop recording?
You turn it off. He goes, can you shut the door? What's about to happen here? We shut the door, and he's like, now I'm going to give you the silver bullet of church planting. Okay. I'm like, I'm about to hear this.
Then he goes, there are friends you have that belong to other churches, and those churches are big. They tithe to their church, but their church wouldn't miss it if they stopped. Get them to transfer their tithe from that big church to your little church for 24 months.
When he said it, it felt like a bullet. Not a silver bullet, but it felt like, if we did that, if we started this church on that kind of manipulation, we would always have to manipulate.
I thanked him. I didn't correct him until he left the room. I said, thank you for coming. Appreciate it. God bless you. He prayed. He left. I shut the door again when he left.
I said to the team, I said, we will not build this church on those types of principles if we're going to do God's work and God's will. We'll have to do it God's way. It was a temptation in the moment, you know, because it was strategic.
Sometimes you'll be prompted to take a shortcut and to do it your way, and you can justify it, you know? But in that moment, here's what God prompted me to ask of that team. These are just normal people, some of them with small children, all of them moving with no job.
We didn't have some big funding. It was nothing like that. I just said, what if we gave 10% of the tithe to the church we're currently a part of until we leave that is sending us, and another 10% to the new one we're starting?
What if we all committed to lead the way and to do that so that when we stand up and ask people to be a part of this, we will have set an example that they can follow?
Do you want to know why God is using this ministry today and now, like I look in the camera, and it's like in Singapore and Cape Town and Gastonia and all kinds of places all around the world? It's not because of great preaching. It's because of personal sacrifice that people were willing to make.
Hear me. I appreciate the front row, but I want to say something to everybody watching this sermon. If we become now just consumers, Christian consumers, where it's like, I didn't really like the word today. I didn't do my song today. I was a guest today. If it becomes about that, God will shut it all down, because that is not what this church was founded on.
Do you see how they're looking at me out there? It's like this. You are sitting right now in somebody else's sacrifice. I always thought that was so crazy. People would come and go, I don't like when the church talks about giving. How do you think there was a church for you to come to if somebody didn't give?
Me too, JJ. I love to tell the story of how that original core team…. They're all still here at the church, by the way. All of those families… Do you know how rare that is? God kept those families together these twelve and a half years, and now God is calling on another generation.
Responding to God's Prompt Today
I really don't have time for the last two stones. I'd like to give them to you, but I'm only going to be able to give you one of them. I'm going to let you vote on this one. Which one do you want? Do you want to hear about the time John the Baptist came into my office? Or do you want to hear about the time we took a bus ride from hell?
These are your options. Pray about it. See if God prompts you. Who wants to hear John the Baptist make some noise at every location? Who wants to hear about the bus ride from hell? Make some noise.
All right. So, John the Baptist…. I'm going to tell you this one real quick. That's the time John Butler, who was a Baptist…. Yeah. He was a Baptist preacher, and he came in my office… Listen to this. You heard this last night, but listen again. You need to hear these stories over and over again.
He came in, and he had $300,000. He had a denominational job. He had been coming to the church. The church was full. He sits on my couch in my office. He asks for a meeting with me, and he said, Well, preacher, you were full this Sunday. I noticed you were full. I noticed there wasn't an empty seat in the house.
I was so proud of that. I was like, Yes, sir. Praise the Lord. You know, spiritualize it, but really I was proud of it. Yes, sir. Praise the Lord. We pray for it. Praise God. He goes, Preacher, that's a problem. I said, No, it's not a problem. It's a goal. I want a full house.
He said, Yeah, but you're telling these people to bring their friends. Where are their friends going to sit? You need to start another campus. I have $300,000 that a little old lady who died left to the Baptist Convention for church planting. I'll give it to you if you'll start another campus.
Here's what I said. I'm ashamed to tell you this to this day. For all of you that think this is just a brag session to tell you about my great faith, it's not. It's about God's faithfulness in spite of it.
Because I looked at that man and said, I don't have the gifts to do that. People would not watch me preach on a screen. So I thank God for what he said next. So powerful. He said, Here's how it works, Preacher. He's talking to me like a young punk. Like I was, but he said it with love, too.
He said, If you get ahead of God trying to obey him, he'll just shut the door. If you get behind God and won't obey him, he'll just get somebody else to do it. You take a few days and pray about it, Preacher, and let me know what you want to do.
And he got up to walk out. I said, You're going to come back. We'll do it. We'll do it. We'll do it. I don't want God to pick somebody out. Come on. I want in on this. I want to be in the middle of what God is doing.
I want to say it's 17 locations. It's more than that, because somebody's watching this in a hospital room on a screen. Somebody's watching this on television. Somebody's watching this in a prison. It all starts when you respond to a prompting.
So, for just a moment, would you just seat it right there where you are for a moment? Would you make a space right now in your heart for the Holy Spirit to prompt you in an area of your life where he is speaking to you, but you have not yet responded?
Joshua said, Set up these stones so that when the children of Israel ask you what these stones mean, you can tell them what God did. I did my best today in the little bit of time we had to tell you some of the things God has done for us in the twelve and a half years we've been at church.
Some of it before you got here. Some of you have been here for many of these miracles. I did it in hopes that it would prompt you to know that when faith skips a generation and when we start to stand in the middle of something God did that was extraordinary and treated as common, miracles start to dry up.
All I'm asking you to do, as we prepare for next weekend, online around the world. We've already had the conversation with our family. Here's Abby's money. It's the biggest one. It's the kids' money. That's what God prompted them to do.
Holly and I have been praying. I didn't tell you this yet, but in my heart while I was preaching last night my number went up, because one number was comfortable and then the other number represented a commitment to not rest on what God has already done but to make way for what he wants to do.
The ask is very simple. Ask God. Ask him to prompt you. Some of you have never been through this process or you've never taken it seriously, and I understand it's uncomfortable, but this card is a prompt. It's a prompt for you.
You know, what a great word, prompt. Prompt. Prompt. It also means immediate. Prompt. Prompt. Yes, God, it's yours. Of course, God, of course I would advance your work. Of course I would give to you. Of course I would be generous. Of course I would want to make a way for someone else like you made a way for me. Of course, Lord.
It's yours. When you get that kind of spirit in your heart, you begin to experience promises of God that you could never imagine. This is not some name it, claim it, blab it, grab it weird theology where I'm telling you you can get a Mercedes if you give God ten dollars. I don't believe in that. I don't preach that. Never have. Never will.
What I'm telling you is a testimony that God has made a way for me time after time, and I want to see him do the same in your life. If that means that right now you're in a season where you can't give, then let this be the season someone else carries the load. There's nothing wrong with that.
But you pray. You pray that those who are able to give will give, not on the level that's comfortable, but on the level that represents a true commitment to the cause of Christ.
May we never become like this when we started like this. I want you to bow your head and close your eyes. No one moving. This is a pretty important moment. Right now is a setup for something God wants to do in the future.
I'd like to just give you one minute, just 60 seconds after I stop talking, and if you would ask God silently… You don't have to pray out loud or anything like that. Maybe you even want to just open your hands physically, like right in front of you.
That's what I do sometimes when I'm praying about a message or when I'm asking God for direction in my life. Maybe just with your hands open and just say, God, would you prompt me to respond to the gospel you've freely given me as I get the opportunity to share it with others?
Would you speak to me specifically, God? Show me how I can be used as I prepare my offering, as I give it online this week or bring it back next weekend. Show me what you've given me that came from you that I can now give back as an offering.
In just a moment, I'm going to allow you to sit. God often doesn't shout. He doesn't draw stuff in the sky. He doesn't always respond with a big sign that comes from heaven out loud. He speaks in a whisper, still small voice. He prompts you, and it is your response to that prompting that determines how much of his promises you experience.
Father, now speak to your people in this minute of silence and throughout the next week and prompt them as to what you would have them to do in obedience.