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Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

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To get connected or to give online, go to hcv.church or give.htv.church.

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If at any point during this message you feel called to make a change in your life, text

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change me to 970-00. Thank you and enjoy the message.

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I love that Chris's heart for our church is to bring us the truth and to bring us the

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word from the Lord and that part of that, and I think it's a subject that some churches

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tend to shy away from because there can be mixed emotions and mixed feelings, but I love

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that we're spending a series talking about generosity and I know that that's almost a

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trigger word for some people because immediately you think about finances, but it's so much

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more than that and God has so much more for us in that.

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So I love the fact that we're talking about it and Chris, I've been able to share my story

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with him, so he asked me to share it with the church because God has just done amazing

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things in my life that has grown me in my spirit of generosity.

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I know just sort of as a background, I mentioned I had worked on a farm for a while. Before

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working at a farm, I was working in biotech biopharma and living very comfortably, making

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a really good salary and for me tithing and being generous with my finances was something

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that I thought was optional. It would happen occasionally if I remembered, if I hadn't

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already spent it on something else like Starbucks, it wasn't an act of obedience for me. It was

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an option.

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So I felt at one point while I was working in biotech biopharma that the Lord called

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me out of that and actually called me to take a job on a farm in the middle of winter, sleeping

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with the rats. So that's a whole other story right there. But I went from making what I

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had been to making $150 a week, eating beans, not having heat. It was a very humbling experience,

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but I decided in that season that I was going to start being diligent and faithful in the

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tithe because it's really easy to give 10% of almost nothing. It's certainly easier than

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when you're making more. The check gets a little bit bigger the more you make. So I

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was faithful and I was diligent in the small things, just like the word says. And during

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that season, I ended up getting into a really significant accident. It landed me in the

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hospital for a week. I had two emergency surgeries and I wasn't making enough at the time to

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afford life insurance. So when I got out of the hospital, they hand me this bill and it's

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for a quarter of a million dollars. And at the time I had about 300 to my name in my

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bank account. And it was something I remember it so distinctly where it was something so

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much bigger than anything I could figure out that it was so easy for me to hand it to God

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because there was nothing I could do so it had to be God who was going to fix this. And

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in the midst of that fear and financial insecurity, I stayed faithful in my tithe of my $300.

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And the state called me about a month and a half later and they said, Ms. Catalina, we

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would like to apologize. It turns out you were actually like really broke and really

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poor. And so we've redone the calculations and you owe us $125. Which I had, I could

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pay that one. So God just wiped out this quarter of a million dollar bill and I owed $125.

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And from that season, I just saw God be so faithful and be such a provider that it was

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so easy for me moving forward to never doubt his faithfulness, to never doubt his provision,

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to never doubt my financial security again because God had just absolutely blown my mind.

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So fast forward, you know, I'm no longer working at a farm, as you can tell. I am no longer

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working at a barn. But I'm now in a position and a job where I'm very grateful to be very

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financially blessed. And where God put it on my heart recently to live out generosity

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and to be a blessing was right here at HCV. It was the Sunday service before Easter where

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we had four incredible services planned and the screens started glitching out. And you

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know, Pastor Christ in it, he didn't call for a special offering. He, I think he even

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said, you know, we're just going to keep it in prayer and we'll figure it out. And so

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during that service, I'm sitting there and watching the screens glitch out and I just

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felt the Lord put it on my heart to go to Chris after service and let him know that

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whatever that invoice came out to, whatever it took to fix that problem and to get our

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church ready for Sunday service, that they were just going to send me the bill and I

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was just going to take care of it. And I have never written a blank check blessing before,

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which took a lot of faith. But it was so easy for me to say yes, because I knew that if

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God put that on my heart, he was going to provide and that the resources would be there

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because I've seen his provision in such a big way in my life. So went up to Chris, told

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him to send me the bill, whatever it looked like. And he was a little shocked. But, but

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I knew, you know, there, there was no hesitancy. There was no question that God was going to

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to show up and show off. And so the bill comes in and you know, praise the Lord, I had the

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finances to cover it. And I'm sitting in church the next Sunday, and I'm in one of the four

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services and it's absolutely packed. And I'm sitting off to the side in the room where

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the drums are. And I'm looking out over this packed sanctuary. And I'm just thinking, praise

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God that I was able to be a part of, even in a small way, I was able to be a part of

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people coming and worshiping together and our families coming together and our community

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coming together and hearing about the love of the Lord. And I felt in that moment that

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the Lord just put on my heart that that's, that's the impact of obedience. That is the

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impact of saying yes. I will never know whose lives I touched that day. I will never know

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what a difference I made. And that's okay, because God knows. And you know, it's, it's

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not just the financial aspect of it. You know, you saying yes to the Lord, prompting you

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to text someone that you're thinking about them, that you love them, you'll never know

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the impact of that. It's you saying yes to helping out in kids ministry, you, you will

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never know the full extent of what your yes does in the lives of the kids that you touch.

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It's saying yes to being a greeter, it's saying yes to going and getting lunch with someone.

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You know, if the Lord puts it on your heart, just living open handed and saying yes has

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such a ripple effect that you'll never know the extent of. So that was incredible. And

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I was, I could not have thought of a better way to spend that money than to just be a

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blessing to our church family. But we serve a really big God who loves to do above and

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beyond and who gives back so much more than we could ever give. So a few weeks after that,

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about two or three weeks after, a long time client of mine came in. And we were talking

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about something completely different. But out of nowhere, they turned to me and tell

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me that they would like to bring $10 million over to my business, which is huge. And of

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course, I said yes to that. I accepted that blessing gratefully. But I look at that and

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I say, you know, okay, I said yes to $5,000, which is not an insignificant amount of money.

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But God blessed me with 10 million. And, you know, I never, I never give to get it's never

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me challenging the Lord to outdo me. It's walking in obedience and showing myself faithful

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and knowing that I'm going to show the Lord that if he chooses to bless me, if he chooses

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to provide me with resources, I'm just going to live open-handed. And that if he needs

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me to get those resources to someone else, the answer is yes. And, you know, I think

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a lot of times people will think to themselves that they're not in a position to say yes

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yet. But I would really encourage you to know that you don't know the blessing that's on

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the other side of your yes. And it might be a financial blessing for you because God has

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done that time and time and time and time again in my life. It might be a financial

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blessing, but it could be an open door opportunity. It could be someone in your family being touched

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and ministered to or a prayer request that's answered. You just, you never know because

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God has so much for us and he's just looking for people to partner with. And he's just

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looking for people who are willing to say yes and live open-handed with their time,

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with their money, with their heart and generosity and their talents. And if he knows that he

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can use that, he's going to bless you and prove himself faithful to your faithfulness.

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And you can never out give God. You will never beat his generosity. And he wants to give

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it to you. And I love what I've seen the Lord do in my life. I couldn't, I'm not where I

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am today without my yes. God is good and he is faithful.

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That was good. You'll never out give God. You can't. You can't. It's, you know, when

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you show up with two loaves or what, two fish and five loaves, God feeds multitudes. And

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he is, he's just looking for people who are willing to say yes. And the sad truth of it

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is that not enough people are. And you know, I was talking about tithing at my old church

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once and it's this idea that we sometimes have that when you hear of a need, whether

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it's financial or volunteering in the church, serving somewhere, when you hear of a need,

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a lot of times our default response is someone else will take care of that. Someone else

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will do that. And it kind of reminds me of, you know, when you go into the store, when

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you're going into the Walmart parking lot and you see these shopping carts that are

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just left everywhere, it's because we have this immediate response of, well, someone

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else will take care of that. Someone else will do that. But what if you're supposed

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to be that someone else? Because not a lot of people are saying yes. And not enough people

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are willing to step up and say, you know, I'll do that. Send me Lord, I'll go. And

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the sad thing is when you don't take that opportunity to participate in the miracles

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and the blessings that the Lord has, you're actually shortchanging yourself. You, not only

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are you preventing that blessing from getting to someone else, but you're preventing the

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blessing that you could receive and how you'll be blessed by your yes. So I love living open-handed

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and I love saying yes to the Lord because he just blows my mind every time with the

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blessing that follows it. And I love benefiting from and receiving the blessings of the Lord.

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I've, you know, I'm in a place now where I just built my first home and I'm able to

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continue to bless my church family. I'm able to continue to bless my community and serve them.

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God is just so good and I'll never reach the end of his blessing

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and I'll never be able to outdo him.

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Picture yourself sitting the Sunday before Easter. Yes. Whenever the screen glitched out

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and you went up to Chris afterwards and said blank check blessing. Yeah. Which is why.

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Blank check blessing. Only what I've done so far. I'm sure the Lord has more planned in the future.

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You can blank check bless me if you would like. There you go. So I haven't felt the Lord prompting

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me for that one yet, Stephen. It'll come. He is right now. There you go. And there's your

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confirmation. No, but you were sitting in service. The screen was glitching out, whatever. Yeah. What

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feeling or vision or what happened while you were in that service that made you want to do something

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as crazy as write a blank check. Um, okay. So thinking back to there, I definitely stopped

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paying attention to Chris and anything that was coming out of his mouth because the screen was

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super distracting and it was driving me crazy. And all I could think about was, oh my gosh,

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we have four services planned next week. And Easter is one of those holiday seasons where

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it's some people's first time coming to church and I could not imagine them coming in for the

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first time. Maybe it's their one and only experience with HCV and not, you know,

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God can do anything and bless anyone, speak to anyone. He's done it for centuries without screens.

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So I knew that not, if we didn't have screens, it didn't mean that people couldn't still receive

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the word of the Lord, but I, I mean, we have such an incredibly talented group. The worship is

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amazing. The preaching is incredible. Our media team is awesome. And I didn't want not having that

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available to hinder anyone from receiving from the Lord. And like I said, Chris didn't, in that

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moment, he wasn't asking for a special tithe or a special offering to be given or anything like

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that. It was just this thought of Lord, there are so many people that you are going to bless and

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minister and speak to next week. And I don't want anything standing in the way of that.

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How do we fix it? And I'll be honest, I did not think that the Lord's response to that would be,

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you are the solution and you are going to fix it. Um, you know, to give you even more background,

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I was getting ready to close on my first home, which is to date, the largest financial decision

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I've ever made and a little bit terrifying. And I had no idea, you know, what I would need for closing

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costs or anything like that. So I knew that I had this big bill ahead of me and I was about to be a

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homeowner with a mortgage and all that fun stuff. Um, but you know, I, I had just seen God provide

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in such a big way, so many other times that knowing that I had this money saved up and set aside for

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my house, why wouldn't I want to use it to bless our house here? And that there would be so much

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more impact to the lives of people. If I said yes to this, then, you know, spending it on myself.

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And so it was just this feeling of, God, what are we going to do? How do we fix this? And

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having him turn around and say, you get to be the answer. And then after that, I still,

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I still had to choose. Chris had no idea that the Lord had put this on my heart. It wasn't like as

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I was walking out the door, if I didn't say yes, Chris would be giving me a call later. It was,

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it was just this idea that I was given the opportunity to say yes and to live open-handed

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and to be generous. And I could choose to do it or not. And I don't think that the blessings that

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I've received since then and the favor that I've seen in my business since then necessarily would

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have been there if I had missed out on that opportunity. So, I don't think that I would have

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been able to do it. So, there was a little bit of sweat. There was a moment where I was like,

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Jesus, I don't know what that check is going to look like. But he did. And if he told me yes,

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then he's going to provide for it and he'll have the resources. And so I just said yes.

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I like it. King, King David says, the Lord will not let me slip and fall.

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There you go. It was like, well, Jesus, you're wanting this check written. So you're going to

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write it. You know what you're doing. Yeah. How? So here's what I'm picturing. Service ends. Yep.

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Screen doesn't work. Yep. You're leaving. Maybe you give a high five to Chris. How does the

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conversation with him go? How do you feel before? How do you feel during? How do you feel after?

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Um, I imagine scared, but also very proud. Um, you know, for me, so I, I made sure I was very

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intentional. I was actually sitting on the other side of the church from where he was giving

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everyone high fives. And so I made sure that I went out that door and I just pulled him aside for,

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I think 30 seconds. And I said, Hey, Chris just wanted you to know how did you feel before from

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walking from the side where the drums were to the side where Chris was. How did you feel?

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On it. And this is, this is going to sound weird and I don't know that it's going to make sense

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to anybody else, but there, I mean, I think the moment I heard the Lord put it on my heart to

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offer the blank check, there was a moment of, so God, what does that look like? And then immediately

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following that there was just a piece because you know, the enemy is never going to be the one to

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encourage you to give, to be a blessing. So I knew that it was from the Lord. And

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because I have this history of seeing God come through in such a big way, I knew that he was

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going to do the same here. And so truly I, from 10 seconds after I decided it in my heart that that

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was what I was going to do, I was going to just offer that blank check. I had a piece about it

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that this, this is what we're going to do and this is what we're prompted to do and God's going to

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provide whatever it looks like. So no hesitation, no fear, no concern going over to Chris and, you

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know, just pulling him aside. I think he thought I was a little bit crazy. I don't know if he's

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received those kinds of offerings before he may have, but yeah, just pulling him aside and saying,

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Hey, Chris, just wanted to let you know, while you guys are figuring out what to do, I'm going to

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figure out what you have to do over the next week to get us ready for service, whatever it costs,

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whatever that looks like, I just want you to know, you know, send me over the bill. I've got it

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covered. And he asked me if I was sure, which I appreciate. He asked me if I was sure about that.

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And I was like, yep, no, God put it on my heart. So that's what we're going to do. And it was just

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this definitive settling in my heart that, you know, if God has prompted this, then he's going

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to pay for it. So I walked out of service and just waited to get the bill. And I got it a few days

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later. And I remember texting back, you know, do you want me to send it to you cash? Do you want

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me to wire it to you? Do you want me to put it through the online giving? How, like, how do you

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want me to get the money to you? And praise God that I've got the funds. And then after, during

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the Sunday service, that's where I thought I got my blessing. That's where I felt like God poured

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back into me because like I said, I'm sitting in one of four of our packed out services,

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worshiping with my church family, seeing God impact so many lives and knowing that, I mean,

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there's just such an incredible feeling that you get to experience when you get to be a part of

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what God is doing and the impact that God is having. And I imagine it's how the worship team

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feels every Sunday and how Chris feels when he gets to share the word and how our kids ministry

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feels when they've got these kids that just absolutely fall in love with Jesus because of

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the incredible ministry that they receive here. It's this feeling of I got to be a part of that

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because I said yes. And that is, it's the best feeling. I mean, truly, if you haven't experienced

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getting to say yes to something like that and getting to be a part of something like that,

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you don't know what you're missing out on because there's nothing, there's nothing I could have

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spent money on that would have given me that same feeling back. But then like I said, God does above

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and beyond and so much more and then blesses my business in such a huge way. And I didn't expect

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that to happen. And he keeps blessing my business because I keep saying yes.

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This won't be on the video part, but for the podcast part, for the audio, can you

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for the people listening, can you pray for the people that are listening to this right now?

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Yeah. Does that make sense?

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So father God, I just, I thank you for the incredible church family that we're a part of,

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that we have such a heart for our community and for those that call this home family, that we

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are excited and we cannot wait to share the abundant life that you have for us,

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that there's so much that you have for us and that we want to share our testimonies of how good you

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are. Father, I thank you for the testimony that you've written in my heart. I thank you for the

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testimony that you've written in my own life, that my story could encourage or inspire other people to

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live open-handed Lord, not just with their finances, because that's such a base level blessing.

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You have so much more for us and you ask so much more from us, not just with their finances,

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but living open-handed with their time, their generosity, being sensitive to what you might

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put on their heart, what you might call them to. It could be saying yes to being a greeter. It could

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be calling someone that they haven't spoken to in a long time to let them know that they're loved

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and that they're thinking about them. It could be financial. It could be that they need to be a

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financial blessing to someone else. But Father God, I just, I pray that you've used my words,

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you've used my testimony, the story that you've written in my life of your incredible generosity

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and how you out give me every time. And you would just let this word take root in their heart,

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that they would think about it, that they would pray about it, and more importantly,

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that they would come out of this series, out of this message and start to ask, you know,

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God, how can I be a blessing? God, how can I live open-handed? How can I say yes to what you have

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for me? Because they don't know the impact that their yes has on someone else. They don't know

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the blessing that you have for them on the other side of their yes. And so Father, I speak in faith

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and I thank you in advance for the incredible blessings that you have for your children.

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I thank you for the incredible blessings that you have for them and the incredible opportunities

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that they have to participate with you and to join you in blessing others.

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Father God, I pray that they would be sensitive to you throughout the rest of this week where they

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look for those opportunities to say yes to you, Lord. And that Father, if they don't know you,

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if they haven't said yes to the greatest gift and the greatest blessing that you could ever give us,

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which is salvation, Lord, I pray that they would start with that yes, because you could never bless

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us bigger or more incredibly than an eternity with you and a relationship with you. And so Father God,

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I pray that if they haven't said yes to that, that that's the best place for them to start.

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And that they know that after they say yes to you, that their lives will be forever changed

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and that they have a church family here that is so ready to walk alongside them in what that looks

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like next. Father God, I thank you for the blessing of your salvation and your son.

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If you gave us nothing else, that would be enough. But I thank you that you are so much more abundant

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in your blessings to us and that you have so much more beyond that.

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Father, I thank you for our leadership team and the heart that they have for everyone under their

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sound of their voice. Father God, that they would just carry this message to your people,

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that they would hear what they need to hear, and that they would just walk into this absolutely

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abundant life that you are inviting us to participate in. I thank you Father, and in

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your name we pray, amen. Amen.

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That's a wrap. God is good. You killed that. Oh, we get the tambourine going.

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You killed that. Sweet.

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Amen.