It's all about the heart | The Blessed Life Week 1

00:00:01

- What does a piggy bank, a funnel, change and $100 bill

00:00:06

have to do with God in our hearts?

00:00:09

My name is Brian. Welcome to Crossroads.

00:00:11

We're going to find the answer to that question

00:00:13

and more today.

00:00:37

We're doing a series called The Blessed Life.

00:00:39

We did this series several years ago,

00:00:42

and it's one of the most powerful series

00:00:44

that we've ever done.

00:00:45

And you're going to hear some stories from people

00:00:47

who went through it before.

00:00:49

So powerful that we're going to do it again.

00:00:53

Now, I got to tell you that that kind of hurts my pride

00:00:58

because we haven't really repeated very much

00:01:00

at all at Crossroads the last 26 years.

00:01:02

The first time we're going to repeat something,

00:01:04

it came from somebody else.

00:01:06

We've borrowed this content from Gateway Church

00:01:08

in Dallas, Texas.

00:01:09

I had pastor after pastor, person after person

00:01:12

say, "Oh my goodness, this material is,

00:01:14

sounds like a really religious cheesy word,

00:01:17

but it's true, is anointed."

00:01:19

There's something special about it.

00:01:22

And we found that's exactly what happened

00:01:24

when we did that before.

00:01:25

Churches have gone through this.

00:01:27

They've gone through it multiple times.

00:01:28

It's the first series, well second series in 26 years

00:01:31

we're going to actually repeat

00:01:33

and it's not even one that we came up with

00:01:35

or I came up with.

00:01:36

Man, why aren't the best things,

00:01:38

things that I invent on my own?

00:01:40

Well, you know why we're going to do it?

00:01:42

It's because we want to bring

00:01:44

the blessing of God into our lives.

00:01:48

Now, listen, this is not a campaign.

00:01:53

There's no commitment coming at the end

00:01:55

where you're going to sign anything.

00:01:58

There's no big ask of, you know,

00:02:01

to whatever, whatever, whatever.

00:02:03

This is not a campaign.

00:02:05

We are going to challenge you

00:02:06

because Jesus challenges us.

00:02:09

But we just want you to listen, consider,

00:02:13

and ultimately be blessed.

00:02:16

That's The Blessed Life.

00:02:20

Today we're going to talk about the different hearts we have.

00:02:23

All of us probably have one of these dominant hearts,

00:02:26

but all of us at the same time have elements

00:02:28

of these hearts that go through us.

00:02:29

We're talking about money.

00:02:31

And really, when you talk about money,

00:02:33

you're talking about your heart.

00:02:35

Jesus says where your money is,

00:02:38

there your heart is also.

00:02:41

I know if I was able to look at your bank account,

00:02:45

look at your credit card statement,

00:02:47

I would tell you who you are.

00:02:48

I would know something about you

00:02:50

based on where your money goes you'd know something.

00:02:52

You would know something about me by looking at mine.

00:02:54

You would see that guys spends a lot of money

00:02:56

on Jeep CJ7s, he must be restoring one right now.

00:02:59

You'd be like, "Man, that guy, that guy,

00:03:01

the work that he does and believes that his church does,

00:03:04

there's a lot of money that goes.

00:03:05

That guy, boy, you understand that guy.

00:03:07

That guy right there, he has a --

00:03:09

he must spend a lot of time watching TV

00:03:11

because he's got a lot of streaming services.

00:03:13

You'd know a lot about me if you looked at my money.

00:03:15

And God knows about us when He looks at our money

00:03:18

and our money actually impacts our heart.

00:03:23

What kind of hearts are we talking about here?

00:03:25

One of them, one of them is actually seen

00:03:28

in the Book of Luke 12:15. Here's what it says.

00:03:33

Jesus said to them, "Take care,

00:03:35

and be on your guard against all covetousness,

00:03:39

for one's life does not consist

00:03:41

in the abundance of his possessions."

00:03:44

Jesus tells us to be careful of a covetous heart

00:03:49

or a greedy heart.

00:03:51

That's what this kind of heart is. A greedy heart.

00:03:54

So many of us had piggy banks we were growing up,

00:03:56

or maybe you do right now.

00:03:58

What's piggy banks about?

00:04:00

About getting, getting, getting.

00:04:02

All of us are natural born getters. Get, get, get, get.

00:04:08

Anybody who's had kids,

00:04:10

you know you have to teach your kids to share.

00:04:12

You have to teach them to give.

00:04:14

They naturally know to consume and take and hoard.

00:04:17

That's called the human condition.

00:04:19

And this is the way many of us are still today,

00:04:21

even if we're decades older than when we were kids.

00:04:24

We're about getting and getting and saving and saving.

00:04:27

We may not even have any vision

00:04:29

for what we would do with the savings,

00:04:30

but I just want more of it.

00:04:31

I want larger, I want larger.

00:04:33

Or some people, they're greedy heart

00:04:35

doesn't come in the form of savings.

00:04:36

They're greedy heart comes in the form of

00:04:38

I always have to have new clothes.

00:04:40

Every party I go to, I have new clothes.

00:04:42

I always have the latest technology.

00:04:45

I always have to have an expensive vacation

00:04:47

that's on the horizon.

00:04:48

I always have to, I need, I have, I consume.

00:04:51

It's about greediness.

00:04:53

This heart right here has got to be broken open

00:04:58

because it just, it doesn't work.

00:05:02

It needs to be broken and it needs to be smashed.

00:05:05

Here's another heart.

00:05:06

Another heart is seen right here.

00:05:11

I forgot -- my forgot my prop.

00:05:16

Anyone have a $100 on them? Anybody here?

00:05:19

I forgot my prop. Anyone?

00:05:21

Yeah. Can I? Thank you. Thank you.

00:05:25

Right. Yes. This is --

00:05:27

This is -- oh, now it's -- now it's --

00:05:31

now it's two halves of $100. Right. Right.

00:05:34

There it is. Thank you very much.

00:05:35

I appreciate that.

00:05:37

All right. Well, what was I saying?

00:05:39

What was I saying?

00:05:40

Actually, here's the thing, if you were in the room

00:05:43

and I said, "Does anybody have $100 here?"

00:05:46

Would you have just gone, "Oh, I do. Here you go."

00:05:48

Or would you have been like,

00:05:51

"I don't know that I want to give it away.

00:05:52

I don't know that I want to let it go,"

00:05:54

because you might have been grieving it.

00:05:56

This is the second kind of heart that we have.

00:05:58

It's a grieving heart.

00:06:01

That guy, Paco, who just gave him that $100,

00:06:04

he's actually not grieving right now,

00:06:05

even though I ripped it half. Do you know why?

00:06:08

Because I gave him that $100 before the video shoot.

00:06:11

That's why.

00:06:12

See, "It's fine. You can have it. You can have it."

00:06:14

But when we believe that everything we have is ours,

00:06:19

that we've generated all of it, that we own all of it,

00:06:24

we will always grieve when it comes to releasing it,

00:06:27

because it's all about us.

00:06:30

Grieving hearts invent systems known as fair share.

00:06:34

Fair share is the understanding

00:06:38

that giving always sucks.

00:06:40

None of us wants to part with our money,

00:06:42

so it should be equally sucky for all of us.

00:06:44

Like, what's the equal amount for all of us?

00:06:47

Whatever your share is so no one wants to do it.

00:06:50

We shouldn't have to do it, but we've got to do it.

00:06:52

So, what's the equal thing so we can spread it out,

00:06:55

so we can all grieve a little bit

00:06:57

instead of grieving a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot.

00:07:00

What is wrong with this?

00:07:02

That's not how God has created us.

00:07:04

All that we have is His.

00:07:06

You and I haven't created anything.

00:07:08

We've just refashioned elements

00:07:10

that God has put on this planet.

00:07:12

Everything comes from God.

00:07:14

God is a giver.

00:07:16

We don't talk about giving a Crossroads very often

00:07:19

or so you think, because we only talk about

00:07:21

money giving very often.

00:07:23

But to be clear, we talk about giving all the time

00:07:26

because that's what Jesus did.

00:07:30

John 3:16 says God so loved the world

00:07:33

that He gave His only Begotten Son.

00:07:36

He gave. He is a giver.

00:07:41

The book of Deuteronomy 15:10 says this:

00:07:46

You shall give to him freely,

00:07:49

in your heart shall not be grudging

00:07:51

when you give to him, because

00:07:53

for this the Lord your God will bless you

00:07:56

and all your work and all that you undertake.

00:07:59

A grieving heart or a grudging heart

00:08:02

and the blessing of God comes

00:08:05

when we say no to this grieving heart,

00:08:08

when we say no to the greedy heart.

00:08:11

Those hearts don't get us to the blessing of God.

00:08:16

To have a life that's blessed is a life

00:08:18

when God looks at it and sees it, He says,

00:08:21

"There is a life I want to be vested in,

00:08:23

I want to pour more into because they're into Me

00:08:26

and they understand that they haven't generated anything

00:08:29

and I generate love for them all the time."

00:08:32

That's what I've done with Jesus.

00:08:33

- Paco, you got a 100 bucks for me, man.

00:08:35

- I'm sorry, but I gave my money

00:08:36

to a guy who needed it already. Apologies.

00:08:38

- I think you spent it on that sweater right there, man.

00:08:40

- This old thing? - Good look.

00:08:41

This was my grandma's carpet, and I turned into a sweater.

00:08:44

- Grandma's killing it, dude. - Wecome.

00:08:46

- Hey, welcome to Crossroads anywhere.

00:08:48

My name is Andy Reider. This is my good buddy Paco.

00:08:51

And today we are heading into this Blessed Life.

00:08:54

We're looking at what it means to live a blessed life

00:08:57

and how we can experience it first.

00:08:58

- That's right.

00:08:59

Now you're going to hear about tithing and money

00:09:02

and some terms that, like, get associated with the church

00:09:05

and get associated with weirdness at times.

00:09:07

Let's be real clear, God doesn't need your money. Okay?

00:09:10

This is about our hearts.

00:09:13

This series is about our spiritual formation

00:09:15

and how God uses our money to help form us spiritually.

00:09:18

- Yeah, I just encourage you guys.

00:09:19

It might be a little challenging. Lean in.

00:09:22

You will get out of this what you put into it.

00:09:24

And we don't want to just, like, talk about it, right?

00:09:27

We want to show what it means to live The Blessed Life

00:09:30

through the story of someone in our church right now.

00:09:37

- I grew up in a Christian household.

00:09:40

You know, my parents were very faith based.

00:09:43

I had a -- I had a really early encounter with Christ

00:09:45

and accepted Him as my Lord and personal Savior

00:09:48

when I was about seven years old.

00:09:51

As I kind of grew up, I guess I would say, you know,

00:09:53

my path kind of diverged a little bit.

00:09:56

Through that period of my life

00:09:57

I wasn't finding, you know,

00:09:59

what I wanted out of this life, essentially.

00:10:02

So, I decided to make a change

00:10:04

and I found myself back at Crossroads, actually.

00:10:08

I wanted to kind of rededicate my life and my walk,

00:10:11

so I decided to get re-baptized.

00:10:13

I started reading the Bible.

00:10:14

I started praying more regularly.

00:10:17

I joined a Rooted group

00:10:18

and I started to find more community.

00:10:20

I started to volunteer.

00:10:22

So, I started all these disciplines,

00:10:24

I guess, in my life.

00:10:25

And one that was, you know, still missing,

00:10:28

I would say, is giving.

00:10:30

I had given sporadically when they passed the plate,

00:10:33

let's call it, or at the end of the year,

00:10:35

you know, give a few hundred dollars there.

00:10:37

But I wasn't doing it as a practice.

00:10:39

I just kind of decided now is the moment.

00:10:43

There wasn't something in my life

00:10:45

where I was sitting there and I kept praying for

00:10:47

and praying for and praying for and was like,

00:10:49

you know, switching over to regularly giving

00:10:53

to make up something that was missing in my life.

00:10:55

I just decided, you know, this is one more --

00:11:00

one more step in my walk with Jesus that I need to do,

00:11:04

you know, to to have the life that He wants for me.

00:11:06

Putting God first in my life has brought about

00:11:12

a certain order in my life

00:11:14

that I was missing beforehand.

00:11:17

It's really a mentality shift that it has been.

00:11:20

It's so different.

00:11:21

It's like -- it's like I'm ready.

00:11:22

I'm not sitting back and saying,

00:11:24

"All right, what what am I doing now?

00:11:26

Where am I going? What am I going to do?"

00:11:28

Now I can say that that life is, "All right.

00:11:31

What do You want me to do? I'm ready.

00:11:32

Where do You want me to go? Let me do Your work.

00:11:35

Let my light shine to others."

00:11:38

Through this journey I definitely see, you know,

00:11:41

the Lord as a provider.

00:11:43

He provides for all the needs that I have and then some.

00:11:46

Now, you know, I'm giving, and now, all right,

00:11:49

more things have popped up.

00:11:51

You know, the joy, the purpose, you know,

00:11:54

the peace that I have, it's like, all right,

00:11:55

those things are overflowing.

00:11:57

Back when I was walking my own path,

00:12:00

I would like to say, the one thing that I realized

00:12:03

was that I was never alone there.

00:12:06

He was always there and always will be.

00:12:13

- The next part we're going to look at is this one.

00:12:19

This is liked to our heart.

00:12:22

This is our heart.

00:12:25

It actually is meant for

00:12:28

when resources come into our life,

00:12:30

they flow through our life

00:12:33

to places where God wants them.

00:12:35

It's my heart.

00:12:36

This is a generous heart.

00:12:39

Stuff comes in from God and stuff goes out

00:12:42

to the things that God wants it to go to.

00:12:44

Comes into my life and it goes out of my life,

00:12:47

a place where my heart directs it to

00:12:49

because I have a generous heart.

00:12:51

Comes in and goes out.

00:12:55

The generous heart, being interested in the things

00:12:58

that the heart of God is interested,

00:13:00

and taking His money that He's blessed me with

00:13:03

and funneling it over in those places.

00:13:06

That is a generous heart.

00:13:08

One of the things that we hate when our kids say this,

00:13:10

if you have kids, they always go, "Mine, mine, mine."

00:13:14

It's all about mine, my everything.

00:13:16

They're clingy. They're clingy to it.

00:13:18

Instead of seeing that we can give

00:13:20

and we can release and we can bless.

00:13:23

And the Book of Luke 6:30, here's how Jesus puts it:

00:13:28

Give to everyone who begs from you,

00:13:30

and from one who takes away your goods

00:13:33

do not demand them back.

00:13:36

And as you wish that others would do to you,

00:13:39

do so to them.

00:13:42

There is a saying of this in nearly every religion,

00:13:46

but it normally operates this way, except for Jesus.

00:13:48

It's, like, don't do to other people

00:13:50

what you don't want them to do to you.

00:13:51

That's a good thing.

00:13:52

Don't do to other people what you don't want them to do.

00:13:55

But Jesus puts it more in the aggressive,

00:13:56

on the assertive, on the proactive:

00:13:58

you do to others as they would do to you,

00:14:01

as you want them to do to you.

00:14:03

Generosity.

00:14:04

We would all love someone else to be generous to us, right?

00:14:07

So, Jesus says, "Be generous to others and to My work."

00:14:10

Now, I've got to admit when I read this,

00:14:12

I actually don't like that I read -- what I'm reading here.

00:14:15

I'm not liking at all.

00:14:17

Actually, I'm pushed. I'm pushed on this.

00:14:19

I think I've got a generous heart

00:14:21

and therefore I want to allow myself to be pushed.

00:14:24

Many people have already tuned out.

00:14:25

You're never going to come back for five weeks

00:14:27

because you don't have a generous enough heart

00:14:29

even to be pushed.

00:14:30

And that's just really, really sad.

00:14:32

I get pushed, and here's a way I don't like getting pushed,

00:14:35

but I'm opening myself up to it.

00:14:36

It said, Jesus says here,

00:14:38

"Give to everyone who begs from you."

00:14:44

I've gotta tell you, I don't do this.

00:14:46

I don't do this at all.

00:14:47

When I'm in a major metropolitan area

00:14:50

and I see somebody by the stop sign holding up a sign

00:14:55

and begging or I'm going to a ball game

00:14:57

and you've got all the panhandlers that are there,

00:15:00

99 times out of 100 I'm passing them by.

00:15:02

I'm passing by.

00:15:03

I'm telling myself the reason why I do.

00:15:06

"Well, I'm just maybe enabling a drug addiction

00:15:08

if I give something to them,

00:15:09

or I'm incentivizing them to not work,

00:15:13

because you can get a job right now, 4% unemployment,

00:15:16

or there's something else going on with them

00:15:18

that I don't want to support."

00:15:19

And I just always assume the worst and I don't give.

00:15:24

One my favorite signs I ever saw, by the way,

00:15:26

this person I almost gave to.

00:15:28

He held up the sign that said, "Why lie? I want a beer."

00:15:33

I was like, okay, I might actually --

00:15:35

someone may be telling the truth,

00:15:36

but I don't like this about my heart,

00:15:39

that I am begrudging that.

00:15:41

And I always, always err on the side of no,

00:15:46

when someone's begging.

00:15:47

And Jesus says exactly the opposite.

00:15:50

I don't know what that means to me.

00:15:51

I don't know if I'm now going to carry around

00:15:53

a lot more cash to give to people.

00:15:55

I don't know if I'm going to stop every time,

00:15:56

but it seems that's what it says.

00:15:58

I need to think about that because

00:16:00

that's what a generous heart does,

00:16:03

to allow himself or herself to be pushed

00:16:06

for the development of our heart.

00:16:08

Final heart that we have is seen here

00:16:16

with these chains or these shackles.

00:16:23

This is the way many of us are with our finances,

00:16:27

we are shackled.

00:16:28

We are maybe deep in credit card debt.

00:16:33

We're having a hard time making ends meet

00:16:35

at the end of our month, or we feel shackled

00:16:37

because we've been such a consumer for so long

00:16:40

that we don't have adequate savings to do

00:16:42

the kind of things that we want to do.

00:16:44

Or we're just shackled

00:16:46

because money just has us all bound up.

00:16:50

Well, there's another way that we're shackled,

00:16:52

or at least we were shackled at one time.

00:16:54

Let's go ahead and read it.

00:16:56

It's from the book of Deuteronomy 15:15.

00:17:00

Here's what says:

00:17:02

You shall remember that you were a slave

00:17:06

in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God

00:17:09

redeemed you; therefore I command you this day.

00:17:14

This is the preamble to the Ten Commandments

00:17:17

that are located in Deuteronomy

00:17:19

and also the Book of Exodus.

00:17:21

And it starts off, before God gives any commandments,

00:17:25

He said, "Let's just level set here.

00:17:28

You were a slave.

00:17:30

You were under tyranny and oppression

00:17:32

in Egypt under Pharaoh.

00:17:34

And I came and rescued you."

00:17:39

We have to develop a grateful heart.

00:17:41

This is the way I was.

00:17:44

This is the way some of us are right now financially.

00:17:48

But this is the way I was.

00:17:50

I'm not this way anymore.

00:17:51

There was a time when I was in shackles

00:17:54

to my own emotions and my own pride.

00:17:57

There was a time before I came to understand

00:17:59

who Jesus was and He gave his life for me,

00:18:02

that I always felt slighted, I always felt rejected.

00:18:04

I felt like I never fit in,

00:18:06

even though I fit in pretty well.

00:18:07

I was one of the relatively cool kids,

00:18:09

but I didn't feel that way.

00:18:11

I felt abandoned on the outskirts, like an orphan,

00:18:15

and I always thought people had it in for me.

00:18:16

And I took things too personally

00:18:18

and I was always trying to earn people's approval.

00:18:20

I'm trying to earn my way into the cool crowd.

00:18:23

I'm trying to make sure that I'm enough.

00:18:26

Let me tell you something,

00:18:27

when you feel that way,

00:18:28

that is utter and complete bondage.

00:18:31

And when I recognized that God likes me

00:18:34

the way I am right now, He not only loves me,

00:18:36

but He likes me and He doesn't give up on me.

00:18:39

And He blesses me in the midst of all of my foibles.

00:18:43

When I realized the love of Jesus, and I just --

00:18:46

I just got freed.

00:18:48

I got freed.

00:18:50

I became incredibly grateful.

00:18:53

A grateful heart.

00:18:54

So, have I given significant amounts of money

00:18:58

over the years? Yes.

00:19:00

Is the percentage of my income that I give away

00:19:03

higher than anything I would have thought of

00:19:05

way, way long time ago? Yes, it is.

00:19:08

Is that because I'm some great financial whiz? No.

00:19:12

Is that because I have more commitment

00:19:14

than the average person? No.

00:19:17

Is that because I make more money

00:19:20

than anybody you've ever thought of? No.

00:19:24

The starting point was

00:19:25

because I've got a grateful heart.

00:19:27

I'm thankful for what God has done to me,

00:19:30

in me, through me.

00:19:32

And as I throw God's money, not my money,

00:19:36

because I didn't create the money,

00:19:38

but as I throw the money

00:19:39

that He has brought into my life,

00:19:41

when I throw it to things that He is concerned about,

00:19:44

my heart -- my heart goes there.

00:19:47

Where my money goes, my heart goes,

00:19:51

and my heart is going the way of God's

00:19:54

and I want yours too.

00:19:55

That's what we're dealing with in this series.

00:19:58

I think you're going to love it.

00:19:59

You're going to be thankful for it

00:20:01

and your heart is going to be better for it.

00:20:03

We'll see you next week.

00:20:05

- Dude, I don't know about you,

00:20:07

but I am not trying to be a stingy old man. Right?

00:20:09

I'm trying to have a generous heart because

00:20:11

I'm grateful for what God has done for me.

00:20:14

- That's right.

00:20:15

That's one of the things we want to offer you guys

00:20:17

as a community, as a church.

00:20:18

And we have an example that coming up November 3rd,

00:20:21

we've got a thing called online prayer night.

00:20:24

Now, it happens over Zoom and you're automatically,

00:20:26

like, "Oh, my gosh, I just had, like,

00:20:27

a three hour training with HR on Zoom."

00:20:30

No, it's great. It will grow and challenge

00:20:33

and build into you spiritually,

00:20:34

a chance for you to receive prayer

00:20:36

from a gifted, trusted person on our team.

00:20:38

We'd love to connect with you that way.

00:20:40

And if you just want to connect with me,

00:20:42

like, personally, not just a team, not a chat,

00:20:44

bot, not anything, you can just send me an email

00:20:46

if there's something that I can be praying for you about

00:20:48

or something that we can do for you

00:20:50

no matter where you are, just send me an email.

00:20:52

We'd love to connect with you.

00:20:53

- You're going to be on the Zoom call?

00:20:54

- I'll be there. That's what I'm talking about.

00:20:56

- Hey, we'll see you guys next time.

00:20:58

More Blessed Life coming your way.

00:21:00

- But talk about something that some of us

00:21:02

are going to go, "Oh, yes, yes, yes, please.

00:21:04

Please talk about that."

00:21:05

And others of us go, "Oh, no, don't, don't talk."

00:21:08

I got my lie detector on.

00:21:10

I'm not going to tell you lie.

00:21:11

I am not going to tell you a lie.

00:21:17

- Hey, make sure you hit the playlist button ahead

00:21:20

so that you can keep up to date on videos just for you.

00:21:23

And don't forget to hit the subscribe button below

00:21:26

to keep up to date on all the latest content

00:21:29

coming your way from Crossroads.

Recent Series