You know, one of the things I'm most thankful for every week is that we have a worship team that worships instead of performs. You know what I mean? Um, it's just awesome to be led by these guys every single week. Seriously. You guys are awesome. Well, if you're if you're just joining us for the last month or so, we have been in a series based on a very simple question with a very complicated answer. The question is, are you happy? Are you happy? Some kid just went, yeah, you got it. We're done. Let's go. Let's go. Early lunch. It gets more complicated the older you get. That's what's hard, right? And the truth is, there's really nothing in our world that we work as hard for as happiness. But if being happy were easy, everyone would be happy. If having real lasting happiness were simple, everyone would be happy, and things like worry and fear and anxiety and depression, they would not bombard our society like they do. Real lasting happiness is almost as rare as anything on this planet. But God wants it for us, and he wants it for you. In fact, we've read this verse so many times because we need to, we need to memorize this. Nehemiah 8:10. Don't be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. There is a joy that God has for you that is so powerful, it is so real, it is so complete, that he equates it with strength. That it's meant to be something you can rely on, it's meant to be something that you can fall back on. That's the kind of happiness that God has for you. This is not light fluffy stuff. Happiness is no joke, not the kind of happiness that God has anyway. He wants your life to be filled with real joy. And so as a church, we've been on a mission. We are pursuing the joy of the Lord together. We are saying, as a family, because that's what a church is, that we want the happiness that God has. We want the joy in our lives that He says is meant to be our strength. So we've been exploring what that is and how we can have it. And today I'm really excited because today is both a midpoint and a starting point. It's a midpoint because we're about halfway done with this series. It's a starting point because today we start tackling some of the major obstacles that we face to have real happiness. Because there are obstacles, there are roadblocks, there are brick walls that we've got to find a way through if we want to have the joy of the Lord in our lives. We have to. Anyone here ever watched the show Fix Her Upper? Ever watch that show? I would not know what Shiplap was if not for Joanna Gaines, right? I wouldn't know. That's a show that Megan loves, and I'll watch it with her from time to time. And she's got this husband, if you've never seen it, it's like one of those house remodeling shows. They're a couple and they do it together, and she's a great designer. Her husband's like a goofball. Um, he just is, and I relate to that very well. So I like that show, and his favorite day, like what he lives for, is demo day. The day when you get to start knocking walls down, right? And that's what we get to do together in here so much. We get to knock walls down. We get to come together and ask God, ask the Holy Spirit to demolish some obstacles that stand in the way between us and what God has for us. And so, starting today, we're gonna start demo day, demo month, whatever you want to call it, when it comes to the obstacles that keep us from the joy that's meant for us. I want to start with what I believe is the most pervasive obstacle to us experiencing real joy in our culture today. The number one obstacle that we have to get over, the number one thing we've got to get past if we want to start moving toward real joy. And it's this I'm just gonna come right out and say it. It's a customer mentality. Living life with a customer mentality. This last week I was here at the office, and Bill Hancock, who helped us launch our foster care ministry, he was here meeting with somebody, and and this guy happens to be this really cool guy from South Africa, and he has an amazing accent because he's from South Africa. Anytime you meet someone with an accent like that, you you kind of wish you talked that way, right? And if you're if you're like me and you talk about God, you really wish you talk that way, because everyone likes it more when you have that kind of accent. They just respond in a different way. It's all epic, and so he's talking about God, and I'm just eating it up. This guy's really smart. His name is Doctor, because it's not his name, he's his title. His name is Johan Mostert. He's from South Africa, and he's a doctor, and so I just call him Dr. Johan because that's fun. And he starts talking, and he's saying all these incredible things about God, and I'm just like soaking it up. And then he said something, and I felt really bad because in retrospect it was probably really rude because I went, stop, stop talking. I need you to say what you just said again. And I went over to a whiteboard and I'm just like, uh-huh. No, okay, slow down. Okay. And I'm and again, he probably felt really awkward, but I really needed to hear what he said again because what he said was very much for today. And I just want to read you what Dr. Johan from South Africa said. He said, if we don't learn to recognize and rise above our cultural programming, and I love that phrase, we will interpret scripture and our concept of God by extension in terms of our culture. If we don't learn to recognize and rise above our cultural programming, it's one of the biggest challenges of being a Christian, a follower of Jesus. And some of us in the room, like we may not have made that decision yet, and that's we're glad you're here. When you make that decision, what it really is, is a decision to surrender to Jesus. And it's awesome, it's great, it's it's we get love and grace and mercy, but then there are certain aspects of it that get hard because we live in a culture that doesn't value all the same things that God values. And it's always been that way, by the way. We can't have this mentality like back in the good old days. Back in the good old days, they killed Jesus. So culture has never lined up with God. And sometimes there are massive issues in our culture where what culture deems right, God says is wrong, or what culture says is wrong, God says is right. And we have to make these decisions. It's hard for us to go, ooh, which one do I pick? Because if I if I side with God in his word, then I look like a crazy person to these people, and I may not be popular and I may be accused of things that aren't true, but if I side with culture, where does that put me with God? And and so often people side with culture and they begin to pick and choose what they want to believe and what they don't want to believe when it comes to what God has said. But when we do that, we're essentially saying, culture knows better than God. And it doesn't. If it did, we'd live in a very different world. So we have to learn to recognize our cultural programming, to understand that there are things that our culture has programmed us to do, has taught us to do from birth, that do not match the way that God wants us to live. Not the way that God wants us to live so He can be happy with us, but the way God wants us to live so we can have the happiness we're so desperately trying to find. And if there's one thing that our culture has programmed us to do, it's be a customer. Like we're really good at being customers. We're amazing consumers. In fact, as a nation, that's what we do. We consume. The entire world's economy is basically banking on our ability to consume massive amounts of everything. We're consumers. And it's fun to be a customer, right? Because the customer is always what? Yes. The husband is always wrong, the customer is always right, and so if I have to pick or choose, I'd rather be a customer. Because when I'm a customer, I'm I'm right, even when I'm not. When you're a customer, you you have a sense of entitlement. There's a sense of importance, right? You sit in line sometimes and you go, I cannot believe I'm being treated this way. I am a rewards member here. I have a gold card. And I'm gonna forget the fact they give it to everybody, but I'm just gonna pretend like I'm special. When we think like a customer, we have this sense of importance, this sense of entitlement. And we are so good at being customers. But here's the challenge with that. There's probably no one on earth that is as hard to make happy or keep happy as a customer. Anyone who works in sales or any aspect of business can attest to that. Customers are not happy by nature because all a customer needs to be unhappy is for one thing to simply be not quite right. That's all it takes. You go to a restaurant, you order some steak, you didn't have to kill the cow, you didn't have to butcher it, you didn't have to cook it, but you ordered it medium and it came out medium well, and you're upset because it's not just right. And when you're thinking like a customer, that kind of that kind of behavior is accepted, and that's okay, but but that is not the path to happiness. Happiness is not waiting for us at the end of a customer service line somewhere. Right? That's not that's not the way to be happy, that's the way to live frustrated. Think about this phrase. This is my phrase. You may say this exact same thing, you may have your own version of this, but the phrase, this is ridiculous. How often do you think that or say that or some version of that? I do it all the time, and it's actually never when something's really ridiculous, it's just when something is inconvenient for me and I'm thinking like a customer. So the internet goes out for 15 minutes at my house, and I'm thinking, this is this is ridiculous, right? Like, come on, Comcast, how hard is it to supply nonstop data to millions of people 24-7? How hard can that be? And I bet it's pretty hard. Because one dude digging in his yard can ruin it for like a city block, and Comcast has to come out and deal with that, but I get frustrated so fast and I start to think this is ridiculous. Or you're in the drive-thru line, and the car in front of you is picking up for some banquet they're on the way to, and it's just like food, bag after bag is coming out, and you're sitting there like, this is ridiculous. Come on. Come on. A couple weeks ago, I'm in this store, a very small store, it's just one employee. And I went there and I picked out some merchandise and I went to the counter to pay for it, to buy it. You know, that's what customers do. We buy things, and and while he's he's ringing me out and tabulating everything, all that, kind of scanning it all, the phone rings, the store phone. And he picks it up, and he starts to talk to this other customer that's on the phone that's called, and he starts to handle this customer's issues and questions, and he's looking things up on his computer, and he's he's sitting there going, like, uh-huh, mm-hmm. Oh, okay, yeah. Let me see, let me check on that. And I'm sitting there kind of like tapping my foot, like, dude, I got here first. And I didn't cop out and call you, I drove here. And I actually got to the counter before that guy called. You need to stop what you're doing and take care of me, right? And then he did one of these things, he's talking, he looked up at me, and he could probably tell that I was a little, I was a little furious, uh, just a little bit. And and he did, he went, just one second. You know, like that finger. You know when people do that to you, they're on the phone, they're like, just one minute. And so I just kind of nodded my head, like, sure. And he kept going. And then and then a few minutes in, this has been several minutes, not seconds, people. Entire minutes of my life have passed by. Minutes I'll never get back. And and he I hear him say the phrase, hold on just one moment, sir. And I'm thinking, finally, this kid's got it. Finally, he has realized the error of his ways, and he's gonna say, Hold on just one minute, sir, let me finish, let me finish ringing this guy up, and then I'll take care of your issue. But that's not what he said. He said, Hold on just one second, sir, while I go to the back and see if we have that in stock. And then he walks away, but not before looking at me and giving me one more of these. Just one second. And it might as well have been a different finger, but like the way I felt, like that's it, that's how it felt to me. That's I mean, I was sitting there going, oh, okay, okay. Like I wanted to break that finger off. I was so mad. And then he came out and he did it, and I walked out of there, and I was so frustrated, but not because anything ridiculous actually happened. I mean, I'm sitting there thinking, this is ridiculous, that I had to wait five minutes. Because when you think like a customer, that's all it takes to steal your happiness. And our culture has programmed us, trained us from birth to think like a customer. But the reality is real happiness comes not when we live like a customer, but when we live like a contributor to the world around us. And we've kind of talked about some things related to this over the last few weeks. This is sort of tying the bow around this package that we've been exploring, what it means to serve, what it means to take the way that the world tells us to live and flip it upside down and live for other people, not for ourselves. But the truth is, if we want to experience real happiness, we have to stop thinking like a customer on a regular basis, and we have to start learning how to think like a contributor. Acts chapter 20, verse 35, says, You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus. And I very much agree with that statement. It is more blessed to give than to receive. I love the way the message version puts it. You'll not likely go wrong here if you keep remembering that our master said, You're far happier giving than getting. You want real happiness. You're far happier giving than getting. You're far happier contributing than consuming. The book of Acts is one of my favorite books of the Bible, and if you've never read it before, it's a short read. It tells you the story of the early church. And that's how I used to see the book of Acts. It's the story of the first Christians. And then a couple years ago, I read this book about the book of Acts, because that's what I do. I read books about books, which is weird, but you know, whatever. And this book gave me a whole new perspective. It said, no, no, the book of Acts is really the gospel of the Holy Spirit. So when you read Acts, understand that the Holy Spirit is the main character. The Holy Spirit is the one making everything happen. And when you read it that way, you see it completely differently. All of a sudden, you stop seeing just people doing things, you start seeing the Holy Spirit as the causal agent of everything that's happening. It's the gospel of the Holy Spirit. I love the book of Acts. And in the book of Acts, chapter 8, there's this story of a man named Simon. Now, at this point in history, Simon was a really common name. There's a lot of Simons in the Bible, ton of Simons. In fact, Peter, who's one of Jesus' closest friends, one of the first apostles, one of the first leaders of the church, his actual name was Simon, but Jesus changed it to Peter, and sometimes in the Bible he's Simon, and other times he's Peter, and sometimes he's Simon Peter. But this particular Simon in Acts chapter 8 gets himself into some hot water with Simon Peter because he's thinking like a customer. And Peter puts a stop to it. We'll pick up in verse 9. It said, A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great. Everyone from the least to the greatest often spoke of him as the great one, the power of God. They listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic. But now the people believe Philip's message of good news concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized. And then Simon himself believed and was baptized, and he began following Philip wherever he went. And he was amazed by the signs and the great miracles Philip performed. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there. They sent the big dogs, Peter and John go down there. And as soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power. Let me have this power too, he exclaimed, so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter replied, and by the way, if you don't know Peter, kind of a hothead. Okay? So his reactions tend to be on the extreme side. But Peter replied, May your money be destroyed with you for thinking God's gift can be bought. You have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God. There's some subtlety there that you've got to pick up on to understand why Peter's so upset. Because notice that Simon didn't say, Let me have the power of the Holy Spirit in my life, so that I can give the Holy Spirit to others in this sort of, I want to serve other people kind of way. No, no, the emphasis was on him, on let me have this power so that when I lay my hands on other people, they'll receive the Holy Spirit. See, Simon's used to being the one with all the power. He's used to being the one that everyone looks at and goes, wow, that guy's full of power. And he said he was a sorcerer. And just to give you some context, in this time, in this day and age, being a sorcerer, that was an actual profession that many people had. We still see that in our world today. There are people who are palm readers or or they read the stars or their psychics or their mediums. And a lot of the times that stuff's just a bunch of hot air, and it's someone taking advantage of superstition. And a lot of the times it's not hot air, and it's just something that's dark and not from God. Because here's the truth: spiritual things are real. If we don't believe that the spiritual is real, then we just shouldn't be here this morning. What is spiritual is real, but what is spiritual is not always good. So sometimes there there are things that are spiritual, but they're not good. They're dark, and we need to stay very clear of those things. But but you have to understand that in the culture of Samaria at the time of the book of Acts, this was ubiquitous. In fact, if you read Acts chapter 13 later, we don't have time to go through it on the screens, but tells the story of another sorcerer. And this man had attached himself, the Bible says, to the governor of this area, and it describes the governor as being a very intelligent man. Well, if you read the Bible, Old Testament all the way through the New Testament, most rulers and people that were wealthy and influential, they had sorcerers that were their consultants. Because in that day and age, if you would have said, Man, I'm dealing with some hard things, I need to go consult my sorcerer, that would not have sounded weird to anyone. That was their culture. That was normal. It would be like us saying, Man, my back hurts, I'm gonna go see my doctor. That's just how they live. And so Simon is one of these professional sorcerers. He's lived his whole life being viewed as someone powerful, someone great, and then all of a sudden he encounters something greater than him. He encounters Jesus. And he believes, the Bible says, and he gets baptized in the name of Jesus, but then he sees that power, the power of the Holy Spirit, and he wants it and he wants to buy it. He approaches God like a customer. He says, Hey, how much? How much for that power? Because I want to be the guy again who who, when I lay my hands on people, everyone goes, Wow, look at the power you've got. And Peter says, No, no, no, that's not how it works. See, Peter had spent years having Jesus deprogram him. Because Peter had grown up programmed to aspire for authority, for greatness. And he spent years with Jesus, constantly telling him, You want to be great, serve. You want to be the greatest, be the least. And time and time again, that's what Jesus taught. And so Peter says, Look, you've got it wrong, man. That's not how God works. So keep your money. You can't buy this for your own gains. You can't be a customer of God. We're all trained to be really good customers, and so it's very easy for us to approach every aspect of life like a customer. We approach relationships that way. When I think about my marriage, when I'm really frustrated in my marriage, it's almost always because I'm thinking like a customer. I mean, really, it is. I can I can pretty much simplify 90% of my frustration in marriage over the last 11 years to be moments where I am thinking like a customer. What should she be doing for me that she's not doing? I don't want her to think that way about me. That'd be a long list. But but seriously, when I think that way, what what should she be doing that she's not? In what ways should she be serving me? Because I should have a rewards card after 11 years, right? In what ways should she be serving me and she's not? When I think that way, I'm just frustrated all the time. I'm not happy. Because there's always something that's just not quite right. Always. I have to think like a contributor. If I flip that and I start thinking, God, what can I do to serve her? What can I do to bless her? All of a sudden, that frustration melts away. Because contributors are happy people. Customers, not so much. Contributors, yes. Jesus was right when he said, you'll be far happier at giving than getting. We can think like a customer when it comes to our jobs. What can this company give me? But the people who really succeed are the people who serve their employers, their coworkers, their company, their industry. And they think like a contributor, not like a customer. Honestly, we can treat we can treat church that way, right? It's very easy to think like a customer when it comes to church. And I know that's kind of inconvenient to talk about because we're here. It's a little awkward. But I thought that way about church for a long time. When I was in college, I got to pick what church I wanted to go to. For the very first time, like it was 100%. My decision. And we moved around a lot growing up. So we went to a lot of different churches. And my mom and dad were awesome, and that they always they always valued what we liked as kids over what they preferred. And so we would always go to whatever church they wanted to go to that that also matched what we got a lot out of, which was great. So we had great experiences. But college was the first time where I actually got to go, hey, like it's just my decision. I'm not even choosing from the options my parents have presented me with. I can just go anywhere. So I shopped. I was shopping churches, man. It was awesome. I was like, I don't like that place. That guy, he's weird. I don't like him. Um, I don't know, no cute girls, you know. No, I was dating Megan at the time. That wasn't one of my filters. So I'm going to all these different churches. Really wasn't, okay? Really wasn't. So I'm going to all these different churches. I'm in college, and finally I found one that I really liked. Loved it. And I went there, and six months in, it's awesome. It's great. I'm eating it up. And then Megan moved to Kansas City and we were dating at the time, and we were getting engaged pretty soon, and we start going together, and she loved it. But then, like a year into it, it sort of wore off. The newness was gone. I didn't leave blown away every single Sunday. And I walked out one day and I looked at Megan and I said, You know what? I just don't think I'm getting anything out of this anymore. And I'll never forget that moment because I can remember the weather. I can remember where I was standing in the parking lot, and I remember it so clearly because God spoke directly to me in that moment, and it was it was like a punch in the gut. That happens pretty often with me. I said the words, I'm not getting anything out of this, and God said, What are you putting into it? I was like, ugh. You know, read you loud and clear. And so the very next Sunday we signed up to serve. And we started to contribute. We went from being customers of the church to contributors of the church. And I just want you to know that the phrase, I'm not getting anything out of this, never came out of my mouth again. Because from that day forward, anything awesome that happened in the church. People got baptized, people got saved, marriages were restored, whatever it was, even though we were playing a really small role at the church, we felt like we were part of that. We were like, man, I'm so excited to be part of this, to be part of making this happen. And it was it was amazing. We got so much more out of it than we'd ever gotten before. And I want you to understand, there's no agenda. Like we're not about to unveil some big campaign where we want you all to go sign up for something. Okay. Don't get me wrong, I would love nothing more than to see a gigantic line at the Connect Desk when we leave, full of people who, A, aren't mad that they're standing in the line, right? Just saying. But but people who want to contribute, because I think about people here at our church, like volunteers, I know, like Ashley Haygood. Okay, Ashley leads our nursery and kids check-in team. They're the people that check your kids in and help you out with anything like that. So she leads that team. She's a volunteer. And every single week there is one check-in person that stays throughout the entirety of the service in case anyone comes late, any any moms running behind or whatever, and they don't walk into a blank room and have to do all that themselves. There's someone there to greet them, to love on them, and to help them get connected. She stays through every service and has for the last four or five months. Every single service. I would love it if a bunch of people signed up to help with the Connect team, at the Connect Desk, to help with the check-in team, so Ashley could come in here every once in a while. I would love that. She's listening right now, I'm sure, on the speakers. I would love that. I think about Lee Glidewell. Lee is a volunteer who leads our parking team. So you've seen Lee. And just so you know who Lee is, he's the guy with the big beard. Okay? And he's he's like a big guy. And when he tells you to park somewhere, you just do it. Because you kind of know that if you park somewhere else, he'll just come pick your car up and put it where he wants it, right? That's Lee Glidewell. I love Lee, he's one of my favorite people in the world. He's a gentle giant, a big dude. When I moved, he was the first guy I called. Because I'm like, look, I got a refrigerator. Here, Lee, can you just pick? Sure. He's huge, big guy. Lee leads the parking team. He's a volunteer. He serves on that team every Sunday. I mean, he's out there every single week, rain or shine. I would love it if at the Connect Desk there was a big line of people wanting to come alongside Lee and give him a Sunday off. I would love that. But not because, not because they asked for that, not because I just want our teams to have more people, because I see the joy on Lee and Ashley's faces every Sunday. You will not find two people here who are who are more enthusiastic, who are smiling more, than Ashley Hagood and Lee Gladwell. And it's because they contribute. Like so many of you do. The people who leave here every Sunday, the happiest, are not the people who walk out of here talking about church like it's a restaurant. Like, man, that really filled me up today. And don't get me wrong, I like to get filled up too. You should be filled in church. But you shouldn't be filled just to be filled. We don't get filled just to be full. We get filled to fill others. When you start getting filled because you have to fill someone else, like that changes everything. You're like, I'm gonna start filling other people up. So I have to get filled, because if I don't get filled, I won't have anything in me to help fill someone else with. When you live that way, you shift and you start thinking like a contributor. I'm telling you, there is a joy that you've not experienced yet. And I know this is challenging. I'm just saying that when it comes to church, if you've only ever come here to get filled up, you haven't experienced church yet. You just haven't. Because there is a whole other level of joy when we contribute to whatever we're part of. And today's today's not about his hands church. Today's about your life. It's about your marriage, it's about your friendships, it's about your job, your career, it's about anything in life that you value, whatever that is, whatever you value most in life, do you approach it like a customer? Or do you approach it like a contributor? If we're gonna take Jesus at his word, we will be far happier in every aspect of life when we live like a contributor and not like a customer. I said earlier that I think a customer mentality is the number one most pervasive obstacle in our path to happiness that we have to deal with. I really believe that. I also believe it's the easiest to overcome, which is really convenient. That's how things are a lot of the times with Satan, by the way. Like, he's he's a lot of bark and way less bite. A lot of the battles you see in scripture between Jesus and Satan or God and Satan, they're very anticlimactic. It's a lot of buildup. You know, it's like a boxing match, a lot of buildup and all this stuff, and like one punch, it's over. You're like, oh, I was expecting something different. Like, no? A lot of the times the obstacles that we face, they look a lot stronger than they really are. I think this is one of the easiest, easiest obstacles to move out of the way. Because it just takes one move. One move in your life. And I think about it this way: it's it's C to C. Customer to contributor, consumer to contributor. That's Pac Man. But you get that? You know, Pac-Man is like always consuming. I don't want to be Pac-Man. Pac-Man doesn't even have eyeballs, he's terrifying when you really think about it. Just a big yellow square or circle, whatever he is. Pie shape. Who knows? I'm tired. So my daughter Lily, she's not here this morning. She has 102 degree fever, and she woke us up, I'd say, short of 80 times last night. So Holy Spirit, that's what I'm relying on right now. All right. Um, and pray for Megan because she's at home with Lily. Lily's not super pleasant anyway. And so, if you've ever wondered her with a fever, is she nicer? No, she's not. So Megan's at home contributing to our child. That's the tie-in, bringing it all back. You know, there's a few misconceptions I think we have to get over to make this move. It's not a big move. It's not easy, but it's it's not that hard either. There's a few misconceptions. Number one, I think sometimes we feel like we're contributing all we can. And there's this idea that we have like, I'm already contributing so much. Are you serious? You want some more? God, you want me to you want me to contribute more because I'm contributing at work, I'm contributing at home, and no one notices, no one appreciates it. So you want me to contribute more, and I want you to know if that's if that's you this morning, it may be that your spouse or your company or your kids or your community, whatever it is, they may not notice all you do. And they may not reward you for all you do, but they're not God. And he's different. Matthew chapter 6. Jesus says, Watch out. It's a good way to get your attention. Don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don't do as the hypocrites do, blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity. I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your father who sees everything will reward you. What this is saying is that if you are someone who contributes, but it doesn't get noticed, you're actually in the best possible spot you could be with God. Because we all have a decision to make. On what side of heaven do I want my reward? Do I want it all now? Do I want to stand in front of God one day and hear him recognize everything and reward everything? And that's not to say that when we when we honor God in our lives, that we get no glory or benefit or whatever it is now. No, he's a sharer. God will share glory sometimes. He will be, hey, I'll give you, we can have a good idea that comes from God and He'll let us take credit for it. Like He's okay with that sometimes. You can be like, I had a great idea, and he's like, actually, it was me that gave it to you, but you know, whatever. I'll let you, if that makes you feel good. He's like that. In the end, he gets all the glory. Don't get me wrong. But but what this is saying is that if you contribute and it goes unnoticed, it doesn't go unnoticed by God. And if it goes unrewarded by the people in your life, it does not go unrewarded by God. And there will be a day where every contribution you have made to the world and to the people around you, God will reward that. Whether it's on this side of heaven or the other. So there's always, there's always motivation to contribute more when you have a God like that. Number two, I think sometimes we we get caught up and held up from making this move, this C to C move, because we believe in our minds that to contribute means we give up our ability to consume. Like it's one or the other. I mean, yeah, I want to contribute, but I like to consume. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. It's in every one of the Gospels. In fact, it's the only miracle he performed that's in all four Gospels. And he feeds 5,000 plus people, and it's amazing, and it's super popular. Everyone loves it because even 2,000 years ago, free food was still a big draw. And so, you know, Jesus is at his all-time height in popularity, all-time height after this miracle. Huge miracle, but it would not have happened if this one person hadn't contributed to the cause. Wouldn't have happened. It was this little boy who had these five tiny loaves of bread and these two very small fish, they would have been sardines. Sometimes we, if you grew up in church and you heard this story, I pictured big fish and big loaves like this little boy's carrying mackerel on his back and giant French bread loaves around his. No. He's got a little satchel, and there's five tiny, tiny loaves of bread, and these two small fish. And he gives these to Jesus, and Jesus miraculously multiplies it so much that over 5,000 people eat until they're full and there's leftovers. And it wouldn't have happened had that boy not contributed what he had. But here's the thing: that kid still ate. It's not like he gave up his food. He contributed and then he consumed. In fact, I very much doubt that food he had would have filled him up, but it said he ate till he was full as well, and there was leftovers. I mean, he had a double portion. He got the joy that comes from consuming, because there is a little bit of joy there, right? There's a little bit of instant happiness when you consume something good. It just doesn't last very long. But then he got that extra portion of joy, that joy that does last a long time, when you get to watch the results of your generosity. That's why anyone who lives as a contributor knows that when you when you contribute to something, you actually consume more than the people who think they're the ones consuming. You get more out of it. You do. So you're not giving up your ability to consume when you contribute. Last little obstacle, little mini obstacle, and our big obstacle we have to get over, this misconception, is that the gap between those two things is some giant chasm. Like we have to we have to do some huge thing to become a contributor. It's so small. It's so small. Take a person in your life, a relationship you have, and maybe you're sitting here and you're going, you know what, I have definitely been more of a consumer, a customer than a contributor in this relationship. I've been consuming a lot, I haven't been recognizing this person. I'm gonna deal with that. You're thinking, what can I do to bridge that gap? What can I do to make that move? Something tiny. Just look at the person today and say, hey, I recognize what you do, and I understand that I don't appreciate it as much as I should. But I want you to know that I love you and I see it and I'm grateful, and I'm gonna try my best to do a better job of recognizing you. If you say that, you have bridged the gap. It doesn't take some giant act to move us from customer to contributor, it's a small step. If you go out to eat today and you have a waiter or a waitress, just take whatever your normal tip would be and add $10 to it and see see the kind of joy that can create. And you might be thinking, well, what if it's only a $10 meal? Well, then it's a $20 meal. There you go. The math, I did it.

You're like, what?

I mean, think about it, think about $10. Seriously, $10. Like, what can you what can you buy for $10 that will give someone more joy than a server at a restaurant who's serving all these different people who are mad about this and mad about that and mad about this, and all of a sudden they get $10 extra dollars. Like that. How many cups of coffee at Starbucks can you buy for $10? One. Right? One cup. That's it. I mean, seriously, if you can if you can go to someone and say, hey, here's $10 in the midst of your day, and this is a person that was there expecting you to be the customer. And all of a sudden you flip it, you're the contributor into their life. I'm telling you, the joy that will produce in them, you will not be at the end of your day today going, ten dollars. I could have had ten more dollars. Like, ah, no, you will have joy. Because that's what God gives to people who contribute. I want you to think about Jesus as we wrap this up in worship. We are wrapping up, I promise. Mark 10, 45, Jesus said, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom to many. In other words, this is God saying, I'm a contributor. You ever think about the fact that Jesus is not a customer of anyone? There's never a moment where God goes, Who can give me what I need? Never happens. So every single time we see God ask something of us in the Bible, it's not because God needs it. Like when God was asking the people in the Old Testament to sacrifice meat on an altar to essentially grill meat, it wasn't because He he was up in heaven just, mmm, the smell of grilled meat. I needed that today. Like that's not what was happening. God doesn't need anything from us. So he is 100% a contributor all the time. Never a customer. We literally have nothing to give him that he needs. Think about that. In fact, if you're here this morning and you haven't given your life to Jesus, this moment hasn't happened for you. Just understand that when you breathe air, you're just consuming something that God has contributed. That literally, without him, you'd have nothing. And not only has he given you oxygen, he's given you love, he's given you grace and mercy and a chance to know him. I mean, he is the ultimate contributor. And if you feel like there's something lacking in your life, you have him in your life, I'm telling you, you will want for nothing that you really need. Because he always contributes. The Bible says that he created us to be like him. He knows the joy that comes from living as a contributor. He knows. Like he's in a good mood right now. And it's not because of what he's consuming, it's because of what he's giving. And he wants you to feel that same thing. He wants you to make this move in your life. So my challenge is simply this pray. And ask God to reveal to you whatever area of your life you need to make the move. Is it your marriage? Is it your relationship with your kids? Is it your job? Is it another specific relationship in your life? Is it here? Is it wherever? Say, hey God, where do you want me to make the move? Show me. And then take one step. That's all it takes. C to C. Customer to contributor, it's a game changer. When you do that, you plow through the most pervasive obstacle to joy that we face. And you are that much closer to the joy of the Lord in your life. Pray with me. Jesus, thank you so much for being a contributor to our lives. There's literally nothing that we have that you didn't give us. And sometimes, Lord, we we forget that. Sometimes we begin to think that our success or our possessions or whatever is the result of our work. And obviously you've shared in the work with us and you've given us work to do and you honor it when we work hard, but we sometimes even forget that if you hadn't wired us the way that you wired us or put us in this time and in this place, we wouldn't have even had the opportunity to have everything that we have. It's all from you. The Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes from above, and we believe that, Jesus. We believe that everything good is something that you have given, something you've contributed to us. Lord, we want to be people full of joy. We want to be people full of real lasting happiness. And we understand that happiness is not the result of being a really good customer. Happiness is the result of being a contributor. So help us be that this week, Lord. We we love you, we depend on you. We ask all this in your name. Amen.