The 1980s | The One with the Most Toys Wins

The story you're about to see is true. People have got to know whether or not their president's a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father. Wait a minute.

Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me that you built a time machine out of a DeLorean? Center, you can see the firemen assembled here, the police officers, FBI agents, and you can see the two towers. A huge explosion now raining debris on all of us. Toss tree.

It's official. The government shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history. Build a time machine?

Out of a DeLorean? Well, if you're gonna build a time machine, you might as well do it in style, right? All right. Yes, yes. As you probably have well guessed, I am a huge fan of Back to the Future.

And welcome to the 80s. If you're with us here today and new with us, we're so thankful that you've come to check us out. I hope you are blessed, blessed by this service today. And I'm excited about what we have in this message. The 80s is like one of those really fun weeks.

And I see a lot of different people like dressed up. I see some colors out there. Some bracelets and all that kind of stuff. I see all kinds of things. So that's a lot of fun.

That's a lot of fun. So thank you. Thank you for all of you who are participating. In fact, Tariq actually cut his hair for this, okay? Now look, he's got the lines in the box, you know, he's got the box going on, so thank you for being a part of this.

And it's good to be in the Lord's house, especially in a house that actually likes to have fun in church sometimes, right? A church should be a time, yeah, a time of serious talks, but also a time where we get to enjoy each other and enjoy the Lord together, right? So let's walk today into the 80s. And what we've been doing week after week is dealing with a different decade. And if you missed the other decades, go back, listen to those decades.

I think you'll find some good stuff in that and you'll enjoy that very well. You can kind of catch up to where we are because we're kind of building on that. So we've started with the 50s and now we're in the 80s. And I want you to take a time machine back. Let's hop into the DeLorean today, okay?

And we're going to go back. By the way, I hopped into DeLorean and came here as Marty McFly. So I'm going to take you back into DeLorean. So let's all get into the DeLorean and let's go back to the 80s. And I'm going to share with you some things that are going on in the 80s.

What is it like to be a person in the 80s? Some of you are like, I remember that very well. Seems like yesterday. And what I love about the 80s is I was alive in the 80s. So I can actually remember the 80s.

So I was very young, but I remember drawing on the chalkboard, erasing 1985 and putting 1986 in the chalkboard when I was in elementary school. I don't remember what grade that was, but I remember that happening. So I remember the 80s. And if you were in the 80s as a kid, everyone had a cabbage patch kid. How many of you had a cabbage patch kid?

I mean, boys and girls, all of them. I mean, it was a big deal. Not only that, Big Wills, Care Bears, He-Man action figures. I had a Castle Grayskull, Masters of the Universe figures, Thundercats. How many of you are Thundercat fans?

And then technology-wise, we'd head over to the Radio Shack and look for a Tandy computer, right? That was the computer of that time. It's an IBM compatible, first IBM compatible computer. And not only that, we had the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System with Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. And I'd play the mess out of that.

Man, I remember when my cousins first got that. I was so jealous of them. I wanted it so bad. I just, I was, I didn't even have an Atari, you know, so. But Nintendo was this extraordinary thing.

I know, feel sorry for me. I'm going to go back to the 70s, right? If you, you'll catch that if you go back here to the 70s. A TV, if you had... If you watched TV in the 80s, which everybody watched TV in the 80s, is The Cosby Show.

Cosby Show was really popular. First, probably, African-American show to really hit it big time. You also had Family Ties and Growing Pains, and then you had Night Tine Soaps. I remember my mom watching these soaps. I'm telling on her if you're listing mom today.

She loved Dallas. She loved Dallas and Knott's Landing and Falcon Crest and all those different shows that came on. As far as cop shows, there was something about wearing a Hawaiian shirt or some kind of tropical outfit, right? You had Miami Vice with white suits, and then you had Tom the Man, Tom Selleck with Magnum P.I.

I'm going to pick on my mom a little bit more today. She always thought he was so attractive, and she always talked about... And he still is. He is! I know!

He's still got that beautiful mustache, right? And then we had movies. Movies. Pop culture movies were really, really the thing. Adventure movies.

There's something about adventure movies. Of course, Back to the Future. You know, that was probably one of the biggest ones. You also had Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones was a big one.

The Goonies. Oh, yeah. There you go. And then you had these dance movies like Flashdance, Dirty Dancing, and tons of Brat Pack movies, you know. If you were in that era, the teenage teeny bopper movies with The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, all of them were just huge in that time.

And of course, you know, SNL releases their people to start making big budget movies. One of those was Ghostbusters, if you were a Ghostbuster fan, putting Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray on the big map there. And the greatest movie, I believe, of that period, of that decade, and I think most people would agree, is the movie E.T. Yeah, Return of the Jedi was about fifth on the list.

But E.T. won, you know, four Academy Awards. Steven Spielberg really put his name on the map then. And just a beautiful, you know, this extraterrestrial kind of thing that was going on in the 80s.

That was a huge movie. Also, cable news networks came out, CNN. You could actually watch news for 24-7. Isn't that something? Wow, where did that come from, right?

Not only that, ESPN launched. You could actually watch sports all the time. What in the world's going on in this age? I mean, this is really cool stuff. Some of you are like, what are you talking about?

That was really a big thing in that day. So, what was going on? What would you watch on ESPN? Well, you know, for baseball, baseball was still big. But we had some other sports come.

And what we know about baseball, we've been talking a lot about the Yankees, you know, the Yankees and Michael Simone, I just want to press the Yankee button a little bit every week with him because he's a huge Yankees fan. But unfortunately in the 80s, the Yankees, although a very winning team in the in the 80s, were overtaken by the Phillies in the 1980s. The Phillies won the first World Series and that was a really, really big deal. And and so so baseball was still really, really fun and really big. The Miracle on Ice took place, the Olympics, where the USA beat the Soviets.

And that was a big deal for us because it brought a lot of patriotism. And some people would even say it was it was the start to the end of the Cold War. Football took a main stage. OK, here you go. All you football fans are waiting to get get home and watch the football games this.

OK, we're finally in the 80s where football is really getting big in the 70s. It was, too. But in the 80s, it really. And if you were a Chicago Bears fan, that was that was a huge decade for you because they had the most one of the most amazing records of in all of NFL history. And won the Super Bowl in 1986 under that phenomenal program.

And then we have none other than the man himself who brought basketball into the spotlight, Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan, the man with wings. And there's I'm sorry, guys, all you LeBron James fans and all that. I'm telling you, you can't compare to this guy. OK, bring him into this age and let him at that age and we can we'll see what happens. Right.

Also, if you're a wrestling fan, I've kind of threw this in this morning because I left this out and felt real bad about it. But, you know, Hulk Hogan, Andre Giant, Macho Man, WWF came into scene in the 80s was really, really a huge hit for music lovers. You walked around the Walkman. You had this thing called a Walkman. MTV was a big thing.

It came on TV as well. Right. And you had people playing. You would watch videos all the time, particularly people like Cindy Lauper and Madonna, who were the queens of pop during during that time period. You had Prince.

You had Whitney. You had and then you had who other could you think of when you think of the 80s in pop music is Michael Jackson's Thriller. Right. Michael Jackson, best selling album ever. OK.

And I would he would be tagged or titled the king of pop in that age. And then it was the golden age of rap where we had Run DMC, man. Tariq's got the haircut to go on with it. Right. They brought in the rap even more in that time period with NWA, Public Enemy, Heavy D and the Beastie Boys and everybody getting into the rap thing.

And then rock has always been around. Let's just be honest. Rock just evolves and evolves and evolves. And then we had the big hair rock movement. And it happens.

happening with Poison, with Guns N' Roses, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and then there was another genre of rock that started coming out of this as well that kind of was birthed from the British side of the house called the New Wave, and you had Duran Duran, Talking Heads, The Cure, A Flock of Seagulls, Culture Club, there were so many of them, Tears for Fears, and also the police and you two who came out of that movement who set themselves out from that and are still popular today. And then the interesting thing about the 80s is Christian music started getting a little cool, okay? It sounded good, and it was cool, and we started getting somewhere with that. Striper, and Petra, and of course all you know who this is, and that's Carmen. I don't care if you're Christian or not, you know who Carmen is, right?

Winning, yeah, winning a Grammy that year in Christian music, and really set the tone for Christian music. And there were highs and lows during this time. Many of you, and I experienced this even in elementary school, I remember this happening, how tragic it was, the space shuttle Challenger explosion. As the world was shocked, disbelief, the first major tragedy that we had in the space program. And the Cold War was in full effect, and the fear of communism was at the forefront of America still.

So Reagan put defense spending in place. Our president at the time pushed through, and the Berlin Wall fell by the end of the decade. And much of the Cold War fears were over, so we celebrated that. But we experienced in that decade one of the greatest recessions since the Great Depression. The stock market crashed in 1987.

But young professionals, urban professionals, were confident, despite the recession, we're going to keep spending, right? We're going to keep doing. Starbucks arrives on the scene, and everybody's drinking Starbucks coffee. You can actually go into a coffee shop, not just a coffee shop with breakfast and stuff, but actually a coffee shop that served coffee, and you could have coffee. And everybody was gathering around that idea in response, and the yuppie generation was born.

And many of you are yuppies in here today, it's never left, right? And there began this mad dash for more. In fact, we end the decade with an average of $11,000 debt per family, which is equal to $40,000, $41,000 today. So the governing message for each decade, we've had a title and a theme for each decade that we've been looking at. And if we go back in the 50s, we talked about the American dream and rules over relationship and how we put the dream above God.

In the 60s, it was as a result of all the religion of the 50s. The 50s, the 60s was a feel-good do-it. They gave up on religion, they wanted their own religion, they wanted to do it their way, which led to the 70s, which was a blame culture. The devil made me do it. And the movie in the 80s, I think, that really captures what was happening is the movie Wall Street that delivered the message, greed is good.

And people were printing stickers, bumper stickers, and people were putting on their cars, the one who dies with the most toys wins. And there was this mad dash for excess. We can call the 80s a decade of excess. Big hair, big houses, big cars, big shoulder pads, right? Talking heads.

Big bank accounts, big deals. I mean, everything had to be big. Everybody wanted what was big. It was a big thing. And perhaps the most revealing glimpse of the decade was the lifestyles of the rich and the famous, which came on TV.

And everybody wanted, it was like a carrot that was dangled in front of people saying you can have, this is what it means to be happy. This is what it means to be fulfilled. Everybody can have this. This captures what everybody was after. So what was going on?

Every decade has its problems. Every period has crisis. There's always issues, and every decade we can look at it and we can learn from that. Because if we look back at decades, we learn from those decades and we don't repeat the same mistakes. Because decades come and go, but God never changes.

God is always the same. That's the focus of this entire series. I want to tell you that our God never changes. And when we're in the wilderness and we're lost and there's nowhere to go, we always have a compass. We always have a true north.

We always have something we can pull out and go toward. We always have direction. That's why it says, I, the Lord, do not change so you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. You will not be destroyed. I do this, I don't change so that you are not destroyed, so that you don't destroy yourself.

In Jeremiah 6, 16 it says, this is what the Lord says, stand at the crossroads. We're standing at the crossroads, right? We're looking both ways. Which way do we take? And look for the ancient paths.

Oh, the ancient path, that's that dated path, right? That's that old timer path, right? That's the way the old timers did it, the way the old timers lived. No, if you go, the word of God is our ancient path. His rules, his laws, everything that he has in there, they actually work.

Even if you're not a believer today, if you're not a Christian today, you can confidently say that when you read scripture and learn from Jesus, learn from Jesus himself, that somehow his ways work. And it's not just laws, it's rules, and rules, it's something deeper. It's something deeper that we can work towards. So ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will what? Find rest for your soul.

The tortured soul of people. What are you carrying everything we do what is beautiful? So you can get it straight into the brown mountain. It's a constant thing in culture and throughout the decades, but we can find rest because God has something available for us to bring rest to our souls. So whatever you're going through today, let's just lay them aside.

Let's look to God. Let's look to the 80s because nothing changes. We're dealing with the same thing. We're dealing with wants and greed and wanting more and wanting more and wanting more. So what's going on?

What are the dilemmas? As I say every week, there's lots of dilemmas with every decade. But I try to pull out three different points to share with you. And this week I want to talk about greed. And what does that mean?

Okay, why were people greedy? Why did they want more? Even though they didn't have more or the money to purchase more, they wanted more. What does that look like? The first thing, they had a false sense of happiness.

A false sense of happiness. If I have it, it makes me happy. If I can get it now, if I get more toys, I'll be happier. If I can get a little better car, a little better house, I don't have any money, but if I can get it, I'll be happy, right? It sounds like us today.

The iPhone 15 just came out, right? We've got to have that because it's just a little better, you know? And if I can't afford it, it doesn't matter. I can put it on installment plans, right? And I can buy it because it's going to make me happy.

Live for now. Good things don't come for those who wait, okay? We don't want to wait. We want it now. And what advertisement tells you, and I have an advertisement and marketing degree, so I know this.

Advertisement, our single focus was, when we were advertising, we were talking about advertising, is to convince people to buy what they don't need. We want to do that. So you look at these advertisements and say, I need that. I've got to have that. But what we know is happiness is short-lived.

And guess what? Advertisers like that, too, because they want to sell you more. If I can get you to come back for more. Happiness is short-lived. And we have buyer's remorse, right?

After we buy something, I think everybody in here, after we spent an extravagant amount of money on something, and we say, man, I wish I didn't do that. I wish that didn't happen. And then weeks and months go by, and you're like, why did I even buy this thing? Why did I do this? Why did I have this purchase here?

Why did I do that? And it doesn't fill the hole. People are trying to fill that hole inside of them, and they think that stuff is going to do that. No matter what the cost, I'm going to get more stuff to fill that hole, to bring happiness. And instead of discipline, disciplining ourselves and knowing that we can wait.

You know what discipline is? A good definition for discipline is? Choosing between what you want now and what you want most. I want it now. It's not what you want most, but I want it now.

See, that's what greed says. You want it now. You don't want what you want most. You want it now. You need it now.

That's what greed lies and says to you. Here's what Proverbs says. In the house of the wise are stores. of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has. If he has the money, he spends the money.

If he doesn't have the money, he spends the money. He goes to be happy, he just eats it all up. I'm reminded of the story of Abraham and Sarah. And Abraham was promised by God children in many nations. He would be the father of many nations.

But Sarah, who was barren, was frustrated. She wanted it now. She wanted a child now. She had dreamed of a child. She had prayed for a child.

And God, you told my husband that we would be prosperous in this way. We would have many children. And I haven't even had one child. So she took matters into her own hands because she wanted what was now and not what was best. And here's what it says.

So Sarai said to Abraham, the Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her. Sarah. She couldn't wait.

She didn't trust God. And she made a decision, which we're still suffering from the repercussions of that in the Middle East today. Because they would have Ishmael, who the descendants of Ishmael would be the countries that are against Israel even to this day. Because Sarah made a decision. I don't want to wait.

I want it now. And I want it all. And I'll do whatever I can to have it all. The repercussions of that type of attitude can be tremendous. It doesn't just hurt you.

It hurts everybody. It harms everybody. The second thing is it gives you a false sense of image. Having a lot of stuff. If we're greedy, a lot of people are greedy because they think the more they have, the more people will like them.

And I dealt with this in week one a little bit, but I'll go a little deeper today. Proverbs 29, 25 says, the fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. If you trust in the Lord, you're safe. But if you fear man, it's a trap. It's a snare.

And we're keeping up with the Joneses, and people will like me if I have what they have, or I want to fit in this club, or I want to fit in this group, or I want to be accepted by these people. And I'm going to tell you, if people only accept you because of the money you have and the things that you have, then they're not really your friends, and they'll leave you just as quick as they came to you. I think about the cryptocurrency guy who got in trouble with the government. He was like one of the richest guys in the world there for a while, and every fame, every person, every body who had any kind of influence wanted to hang out with this guy. Not because of who he was, because he was kind of a quirky guy.

It was because of his money. And when everything fell apart, any of those friends there? Not one of them. Not one of them. Those aren't your true friends.

And we hide behind the mantra. He who dies with the most wins, right? We live that way. Spending more than I have will make people like me. Getting more, getting more, and if I make more money, even if it costs somebody else something, as long as it makes me look good.

They like their money. People like money, love money. Here's John 12, 43. For they love the praise of man rather than the praise of people. They love man's praise, and that's why they want more.

That's all it means. A false sense of identity. Not really knowing who you are, but thinking that things, stuff, influence, all that really is the ticket to happiness. The third thing is a false sense of security. And this is probably the biggest thing.

A false sense of security. Proverbs 15 says, better a little with fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil. Better to have just a little bit than great wealth with turmoil. How much is enough? How much is enough?

How much money is enough? Where's the line to having enough? Somebody asked John D. Rockefeller this question. How much is enough?

He says, a little bit more. A little bit more. And he might have been facetious, being facetious, being whatever it might be. But it's so true. Where's the line for having enough?

Because people who make little think, well, if I make 50, say I don't even know what little is. We don't even really know what little is because we're rich, right? But if someone makes little, they always want more. There's a scale that they're trying to reach. If I'm here, I'll be secure in my finances.

If I make $30,000 a year, if I can only get to $60,000. But if you make $60,000, I only get to $100,000. And then $200,000 and $300,000. And then those who make a million are like, if I can only make $5 million. Or I can make $500 million.

Or whatever it might be. There's not really a definitive line to security. And everybody is searching for security. And many find security in money. They think that that's going to bring them security.

Ecclesiastes 5.10 says, whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. Now, if you have money and you're still not satisfied, you have to ask yourself, Am I in love with money? Do I have a problem with money?

I'm not even talking about the people who don't have money. I'm talking about the people who have money. And you're never satisfied. Proverbs 18 says, the wealth of the rich is like a fortified city. They imagine it a wall too high to scale.

They want it to be so high. I've got to get as much money as possible. I might be secure for the rest of my life. But just a little more. Just a little more.

Because greed destroys the ability to trust God. Greed destroys the ability to trust God. And there's fear. If not going to be possible. There's never going to be anybody allowed.

You're not wrong with God and there's fear. Hmm. Over trust, and for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Many griefs.

They have grief. Who wants to be there? See, money promises only what God can provide. Money promises happiness. You can't provide happiness, we see that.

Money provides identity, is what it says. It lies and tells us. It can't provide identity. You'll lose the people overnight. Money provides security.

I want to just hit on this a little bit. Security? Does it really provide that much security that you're invincible? And God forbid that any of us have a terminal illness or anything, but all the money in the world. I think of many different people who are very, very wealthy and very rich that died of cancer.

They had all the money in the world, but that didn't secure them, right? It didn't protect them. See, that's a false sense of security. God can only provide that. God can only provide security.

God can only provide identity. God can only provide happiness. So what's the answer? Go to God. Let's go to God.

Let's see what God says. The answer is, for the first point, how do we conquer this lack of happiness thing that money provides happiness? Lead with generosity. Lead with generosity. The answer to discontentment is generosity.

The answer to not having enough is maybe we should stop and just say, maybe I'll give instead of receive. Maybe instead of spending, maybe I need to give something. That's the best way to kill discontentment is to practice generosity. First Timothy says, command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and 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 that they may take hold of what?

The life that is truly life. See, this world only promises temporary things, temporary happiness. But if you want life and life to the full, life that is everlasting, only God can provide that. And he's commanding us to be good and to be rich in our deeds. And you know what that does?

It feels good when we're generous. It really does, because we're built to be that way. As believers, we know that when we give, it helps us. It's good for us, our internal beings. Proverbs 11, 25 says, A generous person will prosper, and whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

Well, that's kind of weird. I know, it's contradictory. The world tells us, keep what you have and you'll be refreshed, right? But the Bible says, give and you'll be refreshed. It didn't work the other way, so why not try it this way?

Why not try it this way? In fact, in Acts, the message, I love the message. Let's just paraphrase how it says this, you'll not likely go wrong here if you keep remembering that your master said you're far happier, you're far happier giving than getting, you're far happier giving than getting, it will make you happier, you'll have a happier life if you start with generosity, because where your heart is, what your treasure is, where is your heart? If your heart's in the right place, you give, and it opens up margins for God. When you give, it opens up this margin for God to come in, because you're removing stuff, and you're allowing God to take his place.

It gives God authority in your life to come in and make you fulfilled, to give you a fulfilled life. The second thing is, we need to please God, not people. The answer to this image issue is that we need to learn to please God. It should only be about God. It should be all about God.

Who cares what people think? Who cares what people say? If it honors God, and it's about God, and we're following God, who cares about the approval of man? We live for the applause of people, but the applause of people is short-lived. Really, eternity is what we need to be focused on.

Are we pleasing God? Galatians 1.10 says, For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? And if I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

If I were a pleasing man, then I'm not really following Christ. See, people pleasers have a hard time pleasing God. We compromise, and we go in directions that we normally wouldn't go because we're worried about what people think. We spend things that we don't have. We obtain things that we don't have because we're worried about what people are saying about us.

We compromise on sin. We compromise on values because we're worried about what people think about us. And this scripture here says, I'm not a follower. That's what Paul said. I'm not a follower of Christ if I'm trying to please God.

And greed lies and says you'll be better off if more people like you because you have more stuff. You'll be better off, and your circles of friends and those places of influence that you're a part of now, you'll be better off. That's what greed says. But as a believer, we aim only to please God. That's where contentment takes place.

That's where image takes place. We are reflections of the image of Christ. That should be the only thing we are concerned about is being like God. And you know what? People don't like us, probably don't like us.

But God likes us. In fact, he loves us. Because people, I mean, you can do all you can. You work all the time to gain. People that are greedy, that want people to like them, they just work and work and obtain and obtain and get more toys and more toys just so that they can impress people that don't like them anyway.

I mean, it just doesn't really make sense and they won't like them anyway. But guess what? God likes you. God loves you. In fact, God gave you a gift regardless of who you are and where you've been.

He loves you that much. People don't know the motive of your heart. God knows the motive of your heart. God knows your heart. He knows the deepest places of your heart.

Remember David? Remember David? He didn't look like a king. He didn't act like a king. He certainly didn't dress or smell like a king.

But he was a king. He was a king. He pleased God. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our heart.

Hey, people may not like me, but that's okay as long as I'm leaning into God because I care about what God thinks. Because he's the ruler. His way works. And I'm going to align with him. And lastly, lastly, you need to put your trust in God alone.

Don't put your trust in security of money. Don't put your trust in security of happiness. Don't put your trust in security of other people, but put it in God alone. Because money promises only what God can provide. Real security comes from God.

Fill your hearts with less of things and more of God. God's doing this for you. He's asking you to be generous. In fact, he said, command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant. Don't be arrogant with what you have.

You've been blessed. Whether you think you're rich or not here, you are rich compared to most of the world. Don't be arrogant with them, nor put your hope in wealth, which is so uncertain. It could be gone tomorrow. We could have a big stock market crash.

Everybody's money's gone. The banks are closed. Where's my money? Where is it? It could be gone tomorrow.

Don't put your hope in that. Don't put your hope on the things that you have in this world. Put your hope in God who richly, richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. He provides for us. He gives us everything that we need.

He gave you your job. He gave you your resource of income. He gave you your family. He gave you everything. Keep that perspective.

And then all he has is ask us to not put our hope in that. He asks us, you know what? Be generous. Be willing to share. Be generous.

Be generous. Be generous. Be generous. Be generous. Be generous.

And I tell you, I'm trying to open up a world of honor to a world of joy, something that you can tap into that this world doesn't understand. Because he says in Proverbs 8, he says, with me are riches and wealth. With me are lasting wealth. My fruit is better. Gifts are better.

He gave us a gift. The gift of eternal life. He gave us something far more than riches, far more than fine wine, far more than the things that this world could give us. And when I think what Jesus did for me, when I think that though I was far from him, though I committed all kinds of things against him, he saw me and he liked me. He liked me.

In fact, he loved me. And he brought me to himself. And he gave me the gift that no one else could give. Money couldn't give me that gift. Security in this world couldn't give me that gift.

God gave me the gift of eternity. And what more can I do? The reason I'm up here dressed like Morning McFly today is because I would do anything for God. I would do anything for God for what he did for me. And I tithe and I give offerings and we support ministries and we support city and we do all these things because we care so much about what God is.

We get to do these things. I get to do these things. I get to be generous because God has been so good to me. Because he's been so faithful. He's been so good.

He's been so faithful as we sing about today. He's been so good. He's been so faithful. He's been with me through it all. He has never left my side.

What more can I do but honor him and give and obey him? And it works. It works. I can't tell you, I can't give you a formula, a mathematical formula. I can't give you, investors will tell you it doesn't make sense.

But when I'm generous, God provides. God gives back. And even those times, we're in a time, the economy and things look kind of down. And I'm going to tell you, it's hit our household really, really hard. There's not a lot of, as much money as there used to be.

And there's been months where Miranda and I have had to look at a budget and say, we're at zero. We're under zero. You know, we've got to figure this out, right? It's hard. But we never stop being generous.

We never stop tithing. We never stop giving offerings. We never stop helping missionaries and church planters. We never stop that stuff because we know we get to do this. We are still rich in this present world.

So many people are without it, but we have it. Take an opportunity with Jesus today wherever you are in your faith. Would you consider maybe God's ways to work because the other ways just haven't? You may be here, you have lots of money, and you're like, you're still not happy. Maybe some of you are without money at all.

You're not happy or you're not secure. Why not try God's way? Just try God's way. Won't you pray with me? Father, we thank you that we have the opportunity to be generous.

We don't want to be greedy people, Lord, because you're not greedy. In fact, you gave everything. And in your word, it steers us back north when we drift off. And there's people that have maybe drift off into the woods a little bit or off the course a little bit, but we always have that true north we can turn to. And if there's one here today that wants to know you, Lord, I ask you that you just present yourself strong today.

And I ask those of you who are out there that are sensing God, draw you to him. It's the Holy Spirit prompting you today. Maybe this is the time to make a decision. Hey, man, my wife hasn't been good. I want to turn to you.

I want to turn back to you. Maybe you want to rededicate your life today. Maybe you want to give your life to Jesus for the first time. If you would just pray this with me. I believe in your heart.

Father, I believe that you are the Son of God. Jesus, I want to give you the opportunity today, Jesus, the Son of God, to take over my life. And I want to surrender it to you. I want to do it your way, God. I've tried it my way too much.

So today, I confess that I'm far from you. Or I've drifted away from you. But Lord, reestablish me on that firm foundation, which is you. I give my life. I rededicate my life to you today.

Make me a new creation. Make me who I was meant to be. Reflection.