Whose Money Is It?

Well, good morning again. We are launching a new series today called Crowdfunding the Kingdom. If you've lived more than 20 years, you've probably lived knowing what that word means. When a group of people come together to fund something that's important to them, people give varying sizes of gifts to help make an incredible impact in some way. That term first occurred in 2006, by the way.

The Internet was about 10 years old at that point for us, using it on a daily basis. And someone had this innovative idea that let's raise some funds for our business by sourcing it from the Internet. And that's how crowdfunding was born. And it's given way to a variety of platforms and websites that help facilitate crowdfunding. Two of the most famous are Kickstarter and GoFundMe.

Anybody ever contributed to Kickstarter or GoFundMe? All right, several of us. They have two totally different purposes. Kickstarter. They fund projects and products that are for profit.

GoFundMe funds causes and needs. For example, a tragedy happens in someone's life. They'll start up a GoFundMe to be able to source resources for a funeral, for medical expenses, for some other need. But they both, in the big picture, do the same thing. They gather the resources of many people at varying levels to support something that no one could do on their own.

Now, in recent years, while GoFundMe and Kickstarter still exist, we've seen even more innovations in crowdfunding. YouTube has become a huge player in crowdfunding. In fact, one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in history took place this summer. YouTuber by the name of Ryan Trahan. Anybody know who Ryan Trahan is?

All right. He's one of our favorite YouTubers. They leverage their influence to get resources for a cause. And Ryan and his wife, Hailey Haley Pham, they went on a trip. 50 states in 50 days.

The goal was to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. In those 50 days, they raised $11.5 million million dollars for St. Jude's Children's hospital. It's incredible. Do you know what the smallest donation was to the 50 States in 50 Days series? 10 cents.

Do you know what the largest donation was? $867,000. And yet, at the end of the day, the person who gave 10 cents, which I'm guessing was a kid, and the company that gave $867,000, they could both say, I was a part of that. I helped do that. Another innovative crowdfunding campaign in Recent years has been the campaign to raise funds for the television series the Chosen.

Has anybody ever watched the Chosen? Yeah, they just finished filming their sixth season. BBC published an article back in 2024, and at its publishing date, fans of the Chosen had funded the series with $100 million to produce to that point, five seasons, this dramatic retelling of the life of Jesus, his ministry, his mission, his impact. And once again, it's this idea that someone can give $5 to the Chosen or write a check for $100,000. At the end of the day, when people's lives are being changed by the story of Jesus and what he's done, every one of them can say, I did that.

I was a part of that. That's the power of crowdfunding. It's this ability to get us involved and help us have this shared ownership of something that's way bigger than ourselves. Now, although the term crowdfunding kind of originated in 2006, the concept's been around a long time. For those of you that may not know who Ryan Trahan is, you might not know who the Chosen are.

Like, do you remember at your school doing something called jump rope for the heart? Anyone? That was crowdfunding. Okay, Relay for life. That's crowdfunding.

But it goes back even further than that. What if I told you that God was the original innovator? Crowdfunding, Like, God designed the whole concept of crowdfunding. I want to take you on a very quick tour. I promise you it's going to be a blitz.

I would not recommend trying to find it in your Bibles. You'll get paper cuts. You can try to find it on your phone, but you might break your screen tapping it so hard. But I just want to show you a quick overview of how we see God, this innovator of crowdfunding, how he uses it to crowdfund his kingdom since nearly the very beginning. One of the first places we see crowdfunding show up in Scripture is with the building of the tabernacle.

When Moses went up on the mountain with God, he received the Ten Commandments, all these laws and instructions. But part of what he received up there was God said, I want to come, and I want to dwell among my people in this temporary shelter we'll call the tabernacle. He gave him precise measurements. He told them what it should look like, how it would be designed. But then he needed to collect all those materials to build the tabernacle in Exodus 25.

Just gives us a little insight into how those materials were donated. Here's Exodus 25:1 and 2. The Lord said to Moses, tell the Israelites to bring an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. Notice.

No one's being forced to to give. It's the ones whose heart prompts them to give. Just have them give an offering. And as you follow along in that account, eventually the things, the materials, the resources, the gold, the silver, the bronze that's needed for the tabernacle, it's contributed. God is crowdfunding his kingdom through his people.

When David says, God, you deserve a more permanent structure. He wants to build a temple for God, a place for him to dwell. And God says, david, listen, like, you have been involved in far too much violence, far too many wars. You don't get to be a part of building my temple, But I'll let you oversee the collection for it. And so First Chronicles 29 shows us the collection for the temple of God, the first temple.

Here's a 1st Chronicles 29 verse we'll pick up in verse 3 what it says. David says, in my devotion to the temple of my God, I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God. Over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple. 3,000 talents of gold, gold of Ophir, and 7,000 talents of refined silver for the overlaying of the walls of the building, for the gold work and the silver work, and for all the work to be done by the craftsmen. Now, who is willing to consecrate themselves to the Lord today?

Another way to translate that in other versions is who will follow my example? David gives generously. He says, who's going to follow my example? Who's going to consecrate themselves to the Lord today? And look at what follows verse then.

The leaders of families, the officers of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of the king's work gave willingly. They gave toward the work on the temple of God. 5,000 talents and 10,000 darics of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze and 100,000 talents of iron. Now, if you have a Bible, digitally or physical, that has some footnotes, you can see kind of what the value of those are. It's a lot.

Anyone who had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the temple of the Lord in the custody of Jehiel the Gershonite. The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. And David the king also rejoiced greatly. So this is beautiful picture of we're going to build a beautiful temple for God. It's going to be a place where he can dwell more permanently.

And how's he going to do it? By crowdfunding his mission through his people. Eventually, God's people become more rebellious and God raises up the Assyrians and the Babylonians to come in and conquer his people in what we would traditionally call the Holy Land, the Promised Land. They're taken away to captivity. And when that happens, in 586 BC, the temple is destroyed.

Well, eventually God in His grace allows his people to return back to that same area. And a couple of men, Ezra and Nehemiah, oversee the rebuilding of the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. And guess how God crowdfunds that project through his people. In Ezra, chapter 2, verse 68, we read these words when they arrived at the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the heads of the families gave free will offerings towards the rebuilding of the house of God on its site. And then what continues in Ezra is the rebuilding of some of the parts of the temple.

The point is, as God continues to crowdfund his kingdom and as we race through the story of God, now he's been working in history, we come to the life of Jesus. How many of you just be honest, don't lie to me. How many of you knew that Jesus ministry was crowdfunded by people? Anybody? Yeah.

Luke, chapter eight. This is a beautiful verse. It's one of my favorites. I didn't discover it until probably 15 years ago and it had impact on me. But if you look at Luke chapter 8, verses 1 through 3, we find that Jesus ministry crowdfunded.

It says, after this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The 12 were with him. That's the 12 disciples. And also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. And then Luke names a few of them Mary, called Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out. Joanna, the wife of Chusa, the manager of Herod's household. Susanna, and then many others who he doesn't name. And look at what it says next. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Jesus ministry was crowdfunded. So when we talk about crowdfunding the kingdom, we're not talking about a new concept. The term may be new, but crowdfunding was God's innovation. Crowdfunding was God's Innovation to fund his mission in the world. What is God's mission in the world?

Well, it's stated a few different ways, but it's consistent throughout Scripture. God's mission is that he wants to bless the world. He wants the earth and everyone in it to experience his blessing. What do we mean by his blessing? We want people to experience the fullness of his greatness or his glory, we might say it that way.

And the fullness of his goodness. God wants the whole world to experience his greatness and his goodness. It shows up for the first time with Adam and Eve in the garden. Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it.

Take my way of living to the world. Show them how great I am and how good I am. When the world is destroyed by water and Noah and his family and those animals are preserved, one of God's first commands to Noah is to be fruitful and to multiply. It's consistent. Go out into the world and bring my blessing.

What happens in Genesis chapter 12? We just had this in our series, the Greatest Story Ever Told. God calls Abram. And in calling Abram, he says, I'm going to bless you and I'm going to bless the whole world through you. You'll be a blessing.

The world will get to experience My greatness and My goodness through you and your offspring, Abram. In all the stories that we read about the Tabernacle and the temple and the second temple, they're all about God revealing His greatness and his glory to the world, his goodness to the world. Jesus is revealing God's incredible goodness and greatness to the world. And all that's been funded by God's people. It's crowdfunding.

Funding the kingdom. God's intent from the very beginning is that his kingdom would be funded by his people. And it shouldn't surprise us that that continues to this day. God still intends for his people to fund his kingdom. The generous contributions of his people crowdfund his mission and his purposes in this world.

That goes for every iteration of the church that exists today, that has existed, that will exist. Whether we meet in large buildings like this or we meet underneath trees in Sub Saharan Africa or in basements in China or Eastern Asia. Think of the stands. Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan. All places where Christianity is oppressed.

All those iterations of the church are funded by his people. The same goes for Christian nonprofit organizations. They're funded by his people. The work of the kingdom that happens through them comes from the crowd of Jesus followers that exist in the world. So Our hope and our aim in this series is to help you be inspired to see God's intent that we, his people, would take what we have, whether it's little or it's much or it's somewhere in between.

And we would choose to generously contribute to his purposes and to his kingdom. And collectively, we could say, I was a part of that. I helped do that. If you were here last night for Trail of Treats, it was just a very small picture of what crowdfunding in the kingdom can look like. Some of you donated hundreds of dollars worth of candy.

Some of you went to Costco and you were like, just fill up the cart.

Some of you were trying to figure out how you'd have any money to buy just one small bag of candy. And yet whether you gave one small bag of candy or multiple big bags of candy, you each get to say, I was a part of that. And when you see the smiles on the kids faces that are leaving the building and you know that this impression has been made on them that Greenwood Christian Church is a church that cares about them and about their community, you can say, I was a part of that. That's crowdfunding the kingdom. And God intends that to be the way we continue to fund his mission and his purposes in this world.

In the time that I have left this morning, I just kinda wanna help you see, like how do we start? How do we get to the place where we're willing to, to generously contribute to his kingdom, to crowdfund his kingdom? Like, what has to happen first? What's that catalyst? What's that beginning point for us?

And for that I want to go back to 1st Chronicles chapter 29 and we'll linger there most of the rest of our time. I read to you the first part where David gives and he says, hey, who would follow my example? And the leaders of the families and the commanders give. But after that inspiring display of generosity, what follows is that David is just compelled to pray to God in his prayer in 1st Chronicles 29, verses 10. And following we find what is the catalyst, or you might even say the secret to being someone who generously contributes to God's kingdom, who going to crowdfund his kingdom.

Listen to his prayer. Then I'm going to show you where this catalyst, this beginning, this starting point is found. 1st Chronicles 29, verse 10. David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly. David is praying and everyone is listening in.

This is not a private prayer. Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our Father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you.

You are the ruler of all things, and in your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks and praise, your glorious name. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors.

Our days on earth are like a shadow without hope. Lord, our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your holy name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I've given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.

And the prayer continues. But I just want to show you, if it didn't stand out to you like within here, it's almost like there's this drum that David is beating, this perfect cadence. He just keeps saying it again and again in different ways. What has to take place in someone's life to be willing to say, I'm going to give generously to his kingdom? If you didn't catch it at the end of verse 11 or the middle of verse 11, it says, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.

As David prays, he says, God, everything ultimately belongs to you.

In verse 12, the opening words are, wealth and honor come from you, that God is the source, God is the one who provides what we have.

Verse 14 at the end, it says, everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.

What a startling concept. Like, you can just hear the humility in David. Like, we gave this stuff to you, God, but it wasn't even ours in the first place. We're just giving you your own stuff back.

Verse 16, Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your holy name comes from your hand. All of it belongs to you.

What is the catalyst? What is the starting point for growing into people who generously contribute to God's kingdom? Crowdfunding that kingdom, it's recognizing that everything that we have ultimately belongs to God. He owns it all. Everything we have is his.

He's the rightful owner of everything. The title of the message is, whose money is it? And the answer is, it's not mine. It's his. Now I know that that is a revolutionary concept.

It's a disturbing concept. And it's a concept that we as people often wrestle with. To think that everything that I have, not just my wealth, not just my possessions, but our bodies, our talents, our time, our skills, our abilities, like, they belong to him. We just, at our very best, are stewards and managers of those things.

Here's the wild thought that went through my head as I am preparing to preach last night a little bit and praying through the message. I'm reading those words of David in verse 14. Like, who am I and who are these people? And everything we have comes from you. We're only giving you what is yours.

And it just dawned on me that that's what preaching is.

Like, who am I?

Who is Matt? Who is Cody? Who is Bean? Who is whoever preaches from this platform? Like, do you realize we only get to say what God has already said?

Like, these are his words. Like, there's nothing special about us. Like, we just get to tell other people what God has already said to recognize that what we have ultimately belongs to Him. That's huge.

And I'm guessing that some of you are wrestling with that. Like, come on, Craig. This is one prayer by one man who lived a long time ago. Like, prove it. Well, what about Psalm 24, verse 1?

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the people and all who dwell in it.

Some of you are like, well, okay, that's Old Testament. Give me something more recent.

Do you remember when Jesus tells the parable of the Talents? He tells this story, and he talks about a wealthy man who decides to go away to a distant country. And he calls his servants to him and he gives one. One amount, another. Another amount, and another different amount.

And he tells them to take care of it while he's gone. And then he returns and he says, what did you do with what I gave you? Jesus in that is illustrating that God is the wealthy man who goes away and comes home. Like, he's saying, like, what's been given to you comes from God. And while Jesus saying it should be more than enough to convince us, I know that some people are still like, I'm just not sure.

Well, what about these words from Paul to Timothy? In First Timothy, Chapter 6, Timothy is preaching at the churches in Ephesus, and Paul's writing to encourage him and Challenge him. And he says, command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous and willing to share. In this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

But look at what precedes. Like, if they're going to be those people who are generous and rich in good deeds and are willing to share and laying up treasure in heaven, what has to happen before that? He says, put your hope in God, who richly provides us with everything. Like, everything comes from Him.

And I know, because I can be a little stubborn, a little bullheaded, like, maybe that's not even enough. Maybe you're like, craig, I get it. Like, God gives us a lot of stuff. I'll acknowledge that. But you don't understand.

Like, what I have, I worked for it. It's my blood, it's my sweat, it's my energy that's been poured out for. Like, I'm the one that went and got the degree. I'm the one that developed the shrewd financial sense. Like, that's how I got what I have.

So I'll give you this. God gives us a lot of stuff, but there's no way that everything that I have comes from Him. And if I could just encourage you that you're not the first person to ask that question, you won't be the last. But God's addressed those statements.

Let me show you these words. In Deuteronomy, chapter 8, Deuteronomy 8, verses 17, 18, he says, you may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. Verse 18. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors. As it is today, there's no way around it.

When we have a worldview informed by God and the Word, that everything that we have comes from Him. And while it's a difficult concept to grab hold of, like, how do we begin to foster that in our lives? If that's the gateway, if that's the catalyst, if that's the starting point for us being able to give generously and contribute to his kingdom, how do we develop that? Well, it starts with having the right posture. If we're going to view everything we have as belonging to God, we have to assume the right posture because posture leads to perspective.

There are some things that you can see from up here that you're not able to see from down in the seas. If you're standing sometimes in the mountains, you just move your posture a little bit and you can see far more. What's the posture we need to be able to see from God's perspective? It's humility. Humility is a right understanding of ourselves in relation to God and that informs our relationship with other people.

It shows up in 1st Chronicles 29, by the way.

If you just skim through the opening words of the prayer, we see David just fascinated and focusing on the greatness and the splendor and the grandeur of God. Verse 10. He says, you're from everlasting to everlasting. Verse 11. Yours is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor.

Yours is the kingdom. You're exalted as head over all. He says you're the ruler of all things. Verse 12. In your hands are strength and power.

And as he extols and praises God for his greatness, it places David in the proper posture. Because there's no way that David can be too full of himself when he's so full of God. And as he beholds the greatness and the glory and the majesty of God, he sees that apart from God he is nothing. Shows up in verse 14. But who am I and who are my people?

Do you hear the humility in David's words? Like, who am I and who are all these people that we should even be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you. And he gets to that place because he recognizes the greatness of God. So if we're going to be people who crowdfund his kingdom, it's going to require us to recognize that God is the rightful owner of everything.

Everything that we have belongs to Him. But we likely won't accept that until we have our perspective of God extended by assuming the right posture. That he is great. He is incredible, far greater than we can imagine. And that I am only when I am in Him.

What could this look like practically in our lives?

Do you know what type of jeans that Jesus would wear?

I know probably a controversial question. Is it Carhartt? Is it Levi's? Is it true religion?

Those are really expensive. I don't think Jesus would wear this. But the buckle. It really doesn't matter what brand, but here's some jeans. I think Jesus Would wear about eight years ago.

We're in the living room of some friends of ours, and they're friends that have more financial means than we have and ever will have, I think. But we're just having a casual conversation. And, you know, as friends talk, they talk about what's coming up in their life. And I started sharing about how we had to do some shopping because my jeans no longer fit. And I will just say it's because they were old, not because I had grown, which probably isn't true, but that's what I would like to believe.

I needed some jeans, but I wanted jeans that were comfortable, and I didn't want jeans that were, like, really rough. I wanted to be soft and have a little bit of stretch because, you know, you. You get in your 40s, you need a little stretch. And my friend said, have you tried this brand? I said, no.

He said, well, I just got a few pairs of them, and I love them. He said, in fact, hold on. He went back to his room, and he came out, and he had two pair of jeans in his hands, and he placed them in my lap. He said, try those on. So I went in his bathroom, I tried them on.

They fit really well. And I said, man, these are incredible. I have to get me some of those. He goes, no, just take those. They're yours.

I said, no way. He said, well, they were a little big for me. Like, you can have them now, my friend. Yeah. Ha ha ha ha.

My.

I came for the affirmation today.

My friend sells stuff on Marketplace all the time. And so he could have easily sold those jeans, but he wanted me to have them. When I offered to pay him, he said, this I'll never forget. He said, craig, they're not mine anyway. He said, all this stuff belongs to Jesus.

Those were his words to me. And I believe those are the type of jeans that Jesus would wear. At the risk of sounding like a country song, what kind of truck would Jesus drive?

I know at least one of them is a Toyota Tacoma, because there's a man I know in southern Indiana who was nearing his retirement. His company had supplied his vehicle for him for years, and as he approached retirement, he knew he would need a vehicle. So he bought a Tacoma, his dream truck, and he put it in the garage, and he'd use it for yard work here and there. And one day, he heard his preacher talking. And his preacher said, our car's in the shop.

We really need transportation. And this man, without skipping a beat, said, you can have my truck for a while. We're not talking hours, we're not talking days, we're talking weeks. And on top of that, as this preacher drove this man's truck, it experienced some damage to it. And so the preacher was like, went back to this man, he's like, I'm sorry, I will pay for it.

And this is what the man told him. I know this because the man who lent his truck is my father. As my dad's telling me this story, he told his preacher this. He said, don't worry about it, it still runs good. It just looks a little different.

It's not my truck anyway. It's Jesus truck is what my dad told him.

And you know, the longer I've lived, I've seen that Jesus doesn't just have jeans and trucks. Jesus has computers. At one point in my life, I couldn't afford a computer. My computer that the church I was working for had broken an elder and his wife took me to an Apple store in Columbus, Ohio and told me to pick out a computer. And they bought me a computer computer.

I've learned that Jesus has houses and Jesus has condos and Jesus has vacation getaways and Jesus has season tickets and Jesus has food and Jesus has bank accounts. And when people choose to say all I have is yours and they hold it open handed, God does incredible things with it. My hope is, and our leadership's hope is over the coming weeks that we'll discover what it looks like to crowdfund his kingdom. Holding things open handedly. What could your next step be from today?

I came up with a few. I think one of them could be that if you struggle with this idea that God owns it all, that maybe you just make 1st Chronicles 29 or 1st Timothy 6, a verse that you just read this week and just ask God to teach you. Tell God I'm struggling with this. I don't see that everything that I have is yours. And so would you just make it a point to read it to me, meditate on, to ask God to teach you?

And maybe you're like, I accept it, I get it. I believe that everything that I have belongs to God. But maybe you're not practicing it. Would you ask God to show you, like, what am I withholding from you? Would you ask God to help you see how you can share something that you have to benefit his purposes and his kingdom?

Maybe a next step for you. If this is a whole new concept, crowdfunding God's kingdom, and you're struggling with where to start, would you just choose to make one Intentional act of generosity this week.

Maybe you look behind you when you're at Walmart and you see a young family and you offer to help pay for some of their groceries, or you see those cute kids, like, I'm gonna be a grandparent in March. And like, something is changing in my heart. Like, I just want to give kids stuff all the time, right? So maybe you see those kids and you just want to give them chocolate, right? And so you buy them a candy bar.

I don't know what it is. Maybe you pay for the coffee for the person in front of you in line. I have no idea. But would you just make one intentional step of generosity? Could that be your next step this week?

Other next steps we could all take is that, what if we intentionally prayed and asked him before he made a purchase? Because after all, if all that we have is his and the money that we're spending actually is his, and what if we just said, God, what do you think about this? And we waited for his peace to rest in us before we move forward. What if we offered something of value to someone else? What if we asked God to shape our perspective on money to reflect His?

What if we started giving a percentage of our income to his mission by giving to our church? You know, each week when you come in, if you come in early, I know some of you struggle with that, but if you, if you come in early, there are slides that show on the screen and one of them says, like, four ways to give. And you can see ways to contribute to God's kingdom Here at gcc.

I don't know what it is, but I know that each of us has the next step to take. If you need help taking your next step, then we encourage you to text the word next to the number that you'll see on the screen.

If you want help making other Next steps unrelated to how you view your finances, we've launched these new Next Steps classes. They happen each month. The first Sunday, Second Sunday, and third Sunday. The first Sunday of the month is Next Steps. Discover where you can discover how your story fits in with God's story and how GCC's story intersects with that.

The second Sunday of the month is Next Steps Follow Jesus. We just give you an introduction to what it looks like to follow Jesus, who he is, what he's done, and what it means for us. And the third week is Next Steps Engage. We help launch you out into engaging his mission in the world and at GCC. So the first Sunday of the month is next week, November 2nd.

Come check out Next Steps, discover the classes are always offered in room 502 A&D right outside by the Commons. At 11am we would love to see you at one of our Next Steps classes. I don't know what your Next step is, but God does. And so as I pray, I'm going to invite, while I pray the Next Steps Decision team to come down to the front of the room and after my prayer, you're dismissed. Father, we thank you.

We thank you for giving us far more than we deserve.

We thank you Father for being faithful even when we're not. We thank you for your grace that covers over a multitude of sin.

God, it blows my mind. I think it blows many of our minds that while you own the cattle on a thousand hills, you would choose to entrust the cattle to us and God. We get to use it and leverage it to help fund your work in this world. So God, wherever we're at, meet us there. Lead us to our next step.

Help us to see our wealth the way you see it. Help us to be generous, help us to be joyful, help us to be willing and God together help us crowdfund your incredible work in this world and be able to say, I'm a part of that. God, for those that maybe need prayer today and those that need to know more about your son Jesus, God, give them the courage to come down and meet with our Next Steps team. God, lead us and guide us as we leave this place. It's in your name we pray and trust the name of Jesus.

Amen.