Description
CANTALOUPE
Harvest
Ed Young
April 29-30, 2006
All of us have different sized piles of cantaloupes. Did you know that? All of us have been blessed. Some here have a smaller pile, some a medium-size pile, some here could have just a huge, big, hulking pile of cantaloupes. I don’t know if you realize it or not, but it’s not yours. All those cantaloupes aren’t yours. They’re not mine. They’re God’s. God says, “Everything you have has been given to you by me.” Once we understand that and receive that, once the lights come on, our lives totally change.
Proverbs 3: 5-6. Those verses are very, very special to me and my family. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” So my part is to trust God. What does it mean to trust God? It means to lie helpless before him, to trust him with the totality of my being. When I lean on my own understanding, I’m in trouble. And I’ve done that before. I lean on my own understanding, what I think, what I see and not what God says—Whoa! I’m in trouble. If I trust God with everything I’m about, what happens in my life? He makes my paths straight. So my part is to trust. God’s part is to make my paths straight.
Then Proverbs continues, Verses 9 and 10, “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” There’s a correlation in the Bible between faith and trust and money or finances or things that are tangible. Our souls are intangible, but they’re influenced by the tangible.
What does it mean to be blessed? To be blessed means to be on the receiving end of the tangible and intangible favor of God. The Book of Proverbs talks about the blessed life. It says in Proverbs 22:9, “A generous man will himself be blessed.” I want to be blessable and I know you do too. God wants to bless my life, he wants to bless yours too. So to do that, it all goes back to the cantaloupes. It all goes back to the fruit.
Scripture continues, Luke 16:11, Jesus said, “So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” So check this out. I’ve been entrusted, you’ve been entrusted with stuff, with cantaloupe. And God simply asks, “Hey Ed, will you trust me back?”
In Luke 12:34, Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” That’s the treasure test.
The Bible says we should allocate our time strategically. We should spend time with God regularly. If you’re married, you spend time with your spouse. If you have kids, spend time with them too. The Bible talks about that. The Bible also says we should spend time in corporate worship. Time, that’s huge. Time is a gift from God.
Also, the Bible says we all have different talents and abilities. I’ve got talent that you don’t have, you have talent that I don’t have. And the Bible says we should leverage our talents and abilities for kingdom pursuits. So if we do that, if we leverage our stuff, our time, our talents for kingdom pursuits, then some amazing things are going to occur in our lives.
I look at Fellowship Church; we’ve got a bunch of people leveraging time and talent to make this thing happen. We have several thousand people that volunteer their time each and every weekend just for this thing to hit on all cylinders. I’m talking about non-paid staff. I’m talking about people just stepping up with their time and their talent, and that’s so inspirational to me and so many.
So time is important. Talent is important. But the litmus test of the whole deal is the treasure test. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is going to be.” Our soul is intangible but it’s influenced by the tangibles. I know mine is and I think yours happens as well.
God’s blessed us with this stuff. God is a God of firsts. God talks about the firstfruit, he talks about the first born, he talks about his portion. Jesus was God’s firstborn, his first fruit, and God gave us Jesus. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” God gave us the best. Where did God direct his tithe, if you will? To the local church.
The Bible says everything I have is God’s. It also tells me to bring to God the first portion of my income. So my stuff is not my stuff. It’s God’s stuff. We understand that all the cantaloupes that I have are God’s, and when I bring God the first portion, the firstfruit, God blesses my life. He blesses my life relationally. He blesses my life of opportunities. He blesses my life financially, all different ways. God is God. He blesses in a myriad of ways.
You remember Eve back in the garden? Eve and Adam, man they had it going on, a perfect relationship. How many married people do we have here? If you’re married can you imagine a perfect marriage? Are you guys married? Can you imagine that? I can’t imagine that. Because I’m self-centered and so are you guys. God said, “Enjoy one another. Have a wonderful time in the garden, but don’t touch the tree in the middle of the garden.” God always keeps a portion for himself. “Don’t jack,” God said, “with my tree.”
What did Satan do? “Hey, Eve. Hey, girl, you eat the fruit from that tree, you can become like God.” And we have the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life going on. What did Eve do? She chose a curse upon her life. What does the curse mean? Well, she chose to live outside the zone. She chose not to be blessable. That’s what a curse means. And she ate God’s portion.
Could it be that some of you here are eating the tithe? Are you eating God’s portion? God’s blessed you. He’s blessed me. He’s blessed our socks off and back, yet so often we eat the tithe. We eat his portion and due to that fact, we’re under a curse. We’re not blessable. So how can we say, “God bless my family? God bless my business. God bless my finances. God bless my emotions. God bless my relationships.” We can’t do it because we’re not blessable, because we’re not trusting him with what is his.
In Malachi 3 God says this, he says to the Israelites, “Hey guys and gals you’re robbing me.” Now how would you like someone to rob you in business? God is in business with all of us. I mean he’s the ultimate business partner. We cannot even talk about how to become a Christian without talking about financial terms. Jesus paid the price on the cross for your sins and mine. He bought us back. Jesus, because he loves us so much, he did that. He was God’s firstfruits.
So God tells us to give our best to him, to bring it to him. God is a God who wants to pour out his favor upon our lives, yet so often many of us, we come to God with our firstfruits, and we have a vice grip around our cantaloupe. And we look at it and we think about placing it in God’s hands, but we say, “This smells good. I’m going to do with it what I want to do. I will lean on my own understanding.” And here’s what we do—we take it away and we eat his portion.
Malachi 3, God says, “You’re robbing me.” “How are we robbing you?” “Of tithes and offerings.” What’s a tithe? The first 10%. That’s not being generous. People bring the tithe. I bring the tithe. I’m not being generous. Lisa’s not being generous when we do that. Generosity starts at 11%, 12%, 13%, 14%, then you’re talking about starter generosity. If I have a vice grip on the cantaloupe and I eat the tithe, I’m blocking the blessings in my life. But so often we have such a vice-grip on the cantaloupe that God can’t even bless us.
How can God give me more when I’m like this, “Arrrgh!” Veins sticking out of my head, my teeth all flared up like a Doberman. “That’s mine.” But when I give it to God, look what happens. Look at my hands now. Now I am in the posture, in the position to receive more blessings. And Malachi 3 says, “God will pour out so much blessing that I won’t even have room enough to hold it all.” That’s what I want to be about. How about you? Excuse me, I’m sorry. We have great attorneys here in Fellowship Church. They’re awesome.
Isn’t that incredible? As you think about your life, do you have a vice grip on your stuff? Are you clinging to your cantaloupe? “It’s mine!” Are you eating God’s portion? What happens when we eat God’s portion?
Let me ask you another question. What happens when we bring the tithe into the storehouse? What happens when we bring God what is his? For 24 years Lisa and I have done this. We’ve faithfully brought the tithe. And I wondered the other day, I thought, “Man, why am I so blessed, because I’m not that smart.” I look around at some of you people here and you’re making all this money and I know you’re not that smart, believe me. I’m like, “Wow.” Well I know why. God has just blessed your life. He’s blessed my life.
Well one of the reasons he’s blessed my life is because Lisa and I have been faithful financially to the church, to God. When we bring the tithe, God takes the tithe and cuts it open and look what is inside. What do you see? A bunch of what? Seeds. This is kind of gross, but he spits seeds of blessing into my life, seeds of a great marriage, of family, of opportunity, of being able to share his good news, of being able to be hooked up with Fellowship Church.
Look, God is the ultimate sower so he takes my offering, my tithe and multiplies that. But if I eat the tithe… Okay, if I’m going to eat this cantaloupe, here’s what I’m going to do: I will cut it, alright? Like that. I love cantaloupe. Man it’s good for you. And I won’t do it all, but I feel like Emerald here—Bam! I will take the seeds. You know what I’m going to do with the seeds I am like, “Forget that.” [Ed throws seeds away] And then I’ll eat the tithe. What did I do? I threw the seeds away. I discarded the seeds. I ate the tithe. It’s not mine to eat. It’s God’s. I rob myself of incredible blessings, protection, purpose, power, and strength, and all of this stuff. I’m talking about God’s divine economic plan. There’s nothing like it. Are you in on it? You need to be. You need to be. You need to be.
God doesn’t need your money. He doesn’t need my money either. Fellowship Church doesn’t need your money or my money. “Well, man, I’ve been here for the last two weeks, dude, and you’re talking about money again. All the church talks about is money. All they want is my money.” Well, all the Galleria wants is your money and all Jerry Jones wants is your money and all the marina wants is your money. And why do we talk about it when we go to church? We get funny when we talk about money. Well, money and trust, money and faith are inseparably linked. Please don’t send me any e-mails about this topic. I don’t even read e-mail anyway. I don’t even do e-mail. I don’t send e-mail so don’t do that. Try some knee-mail.
God, why, why God is the word “believe” used 272 times in the Bible? Well, God why is the word “pray” used 371 times? God, why is the word “love” used 714 times? God why is the word “give”…God the word “give” is used 2,162 times, why God? Why? Why? Why, God, in your word, the Bible, why were 16 out of Jesus’ 38 parables about possessions? Why is money the second greatest theme in the Bible? Why are often verses in the New Testament, specifically the synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—about money? Why, why?
You know, talk to God about it. Do the knee-mail. Don’t do the e-mail. I’m just telling you what God says about it. And I don’t want to keep you from blocking this amazing cycle of blessings that can occur in your life.
You’re looking at a blessed man. I feel like I’m the most blessed man on planet earth? Why? Well, you know I’m not that smart. It has to do with obedience, but it has to do with, I’m telling you, with the piles of cantaloupes that God has entrusted me. Trust
Do I help us before God? Trust God in all your ways. Don’t lean on your own understanding. Don’t lean on what you see. Lean into what God has said. In all your ways acknowledge him; he’s going to keep your paths straight.
“Honor the Lord with your wealth,” Proverbs 3: 9-10, “with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” Wow! I want some of that. And I experienced some of that because of what I’m talking about.
So, trust. What does trust look like? It looks like time. It looks like talents and abilities. It also looks like treasure. So if I’m going to understand trust, I’ve got to understand generosity. Why is that? Because generosity is who God is.
Six things about generosity. Are you ready? Because generosity is what trust is all about. You want to trust? Well, have this generosity flowing.
Number one: Generosity is all about God. Say it with me. It’s all about God. Right. When I receive Jesus Christ, he comes into my life. When I bring the tithe and when I give my offerings—remember offerings are 11%, 12%, 13% over and above my tithe—when I do that, I’m agreeing with my nature, not my old nature, but my new nature in Christ. When I eat the tithe, when I discard the seeds, I’m disagreeing with my nature. I’m living contrary to my nature. When it comes to generosity, it’s all about God. God is a generous God. It’s woven into the very fabric and framework of who he is.
Number two: Generosity is all about lifestyle. It should transcend everything we do, say, touch and feel.
I helped start Fellowship Church 16 years ago and it’s been just an incredible ride. Over the years people come up to me and they’ve said this to me, “Pastor, you know I have a deal that’s going to come through in about six months and I’m going to tell you something, it’s going to be big time. And I want to tell you when this deal comes through, Pastor, when it comes through, then I’m going to step up and I’m going to do the stuff that you’ve been talking about and the Bible been talking about. I’m telling you. I’m going to step up and be a player. I’m going to be a heavy hitter, Pastor, you can count on me.” And someone else, “Hey Ed, listen man, I’m involved in this deal and when it closes man, I’m talking millions, dude. And I promise you when it closes, then I’ll probably be your number one donor.”
Now I’ve heard that countless times. The when and then people, that’s what I call them. I’ve never seen one dime from them. Never. I look at who gives what and who robs God. I know. That’s part of what I do. That’s part of what our financial team does. It’s part of what our Board of Directors do. I know, I have never met one to come through, so don’t give me that weak stuff. Especially don’t give God that weak stuff. You’re eating the tithe. You’re robbing him. You’re throwing the seeds away and eating the cantaloupe. He’s not going to bless your life. If you roll those dice and say, “Okay, I’m going to rob God and I’ll eat the tithe, and I’ll do what I want to do with his divine portion.” If you feel like you’re big and bad enough to do that, go for it. But I’m telling you, I’m not. I’m not.
Number three (I’m talking about generosity): Generosity is all about blessings. God wants to bless you’re life and he wants to bless my life. He wants us to live in the zone, to be in the sweet spot of his success. Check these verses out: Proverbs 22:9, “A generous man will himself be blessed.” Proverbs 16:20, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 9:6, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”
I love espresso. You know that. I drink too much of it. Espresso, though, what I dislike about it is it’s too small. You order it and—whisp!—it’s gone, that quickly. They serve it in these little tiny cups—whisp!—but I love it. If you sow or if I sow an espresso-sized blessing, I’m going to get an espresso-sized return. That’s it. “Ooh, thank you Lord. Yes. Whisp! Yes. Amen.” But if I sow a venti-type, a venti-sized seed and offering, what’s going to happen? I’m going to receive a venti-type blessing. Whoa! I’ll be like all those people who hang out in Starbucks kind of wired. “Hey. Oh, hey, hello.” It’s all about blessing.
Number four: Generosity, 2 Corinthians 8 tells me, is all about attitude. 2 Corinthians 8:7—here’s what Paul told the Corinthian Christians, “But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of—what?—giving.” Paul is like, “Man, you are doing the stuff, but how about giving?”
Last time, what did we say? God uses cantaloupes and money and the things of the world, the tangibles, to test us. “Okay, you say you love me,” God says. “You say I’m the man. You say you’re trusting me with your eternity. Show me the money.” God doesn’t need it and we don’t need it. Show God the money. God tells me that every time I’m paid, every single time I’m paid, “Okay, am I Lord, Ed? Am I really number one? You say, you preach about it, am I? Let’s see.”
Wow that’s some heavy stuff, but see, it’s all about blessings and it’s all about the stuff that God can unleash in your life and mine.
Number five: Generosity is all about maturity. Generosity is all about maturity. One of our twins was talking to Lisa the other day and Lisa was talking to her about becoming a woman and some of the changes that will take place. And she was listening, and she started crying, “Mommy I don’t want to grow up.” I talk about this. I talk about bringing the tithe. I talk about offerings, and I talk about maturing in Christ. And I feel like some of you are the same. “But, Ed, I don’t want to grow up. I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to bring the tithe and the offerings.” It’s just an observation.
Fellowship Church, no question, is one of the most spiritually mature churches I’ve ever seen. In fact we’ve got to be one of the top two or three most spiritually mature churches in the nation. You’re saying, “Ed, how can you say that?” Well, I’ll tell you how I can say that. You’re unselfish. There is a core here, man. You guys are so unselfish, you blow me away. It takes unselfish people to grow a great church. When I’m immature, I’m thinking about me. When I’m mature, I’m thinking abou—what?—others.
I’ve been married for 24 years and my marriage hits on all cylinders when I don’t think about my needs but Lisa’s needs. I’ve had kids for a long time. My oldest is 19. I’m the best parent when I don’t think about me, but them. Take, for example, planning a family vacation. What is the most mature thing for me to do? To say, “Kids, let’s get together and I’ll take you to a mangrove-infested, mosquito-dominated island off the coast of Florida to catch tarpon and permit and shark?” Or, “Let’s go to Disney World.” You know that the more mature thing to do is to go to Disney World, and I did that, I confess, recently. I stayed for a day and a half. That’s all I could take. And when I walked out of the Magic Kingdom I looked at Lisa and I said, “Lisa, the next kingdom I will enter is the kingdom of God. I will never ever come back here again.”
But seriously, your unselfishness blows me away because you, for 16 years, have been willing to get outside of the box, to color outside of the lines, to think about the other people, for those people who haven’t shown up yet. That’s how we plant Fellowship Church, for those who aren’t here yet. And you inspire me, and I’ve got to tell you something, you inspire churches now all over North America by your unselfishness. So thank you for your unselfishness.
I hope you know this: I don’t enjoy speaking every time I speak. There’s certain subjects I hate to talk about. I hope you know that. I’m not like, “Oh, boy, today I’m beginning a series on lust. All right, yeah. Let’s call it Just Lust.” Or, you know, I’m thinking about doing a series on rebellion. “Oh, yeah, and let’s call it Thorny Issues. Yeah.” No, I don’t like to teach about everything I teach about. I’ve got to because I’m called by God to preach and teach the whole counsel of God. I’ve got to, but I don’t like to do it all the time.
There are a lot of musical numbers that we do that aren’t my favorite type of music. “Really? I thought you liked all the music we do here.” No! No I don’t. I have my own music that I like. There’s a zillion things that I do as a Christian and as a pastor that I don’t like to do, that aren’t my favorite things to do, but I’ve discovered something about maturity. People who are spiritually mature become comfortable with their uncomfortableness, if that makes sense. Well, that’s what you are. You’re comfortable with your uncomfortableness. You are willing to do a lot of different things to color outside the lines, to get outside the box, to reach those who don’t know Jesus Christ because that’s the way we grow the most.
How many of you were here at Fellowship Church when we bought this piece of property and when we built, I’m talking about construction now, the first phase of this campus? If you’d stand, remain standing, and do not clap for them yet. You’re tall, where did you play ball, man? No way! Incredible! This guy, how tall are you? 6’8’’? Yeah. 6’8”. Okay, now you guys remain standing. I want you to look at these people here because you are looking at some unselfish people. These people all throughout this worship center, they stepped up and they brought some serious cantaloupes to make this thing happen. Now, if they would have become naval gazers and just worried about themselves, and if they had said, “Well, I don’t want to grow up, Mommy,” you wouldn’t be here. Many of you would not be believers. Many of you wouldn’t have your marriages together. Many of you wouldn’t have this whole child-rearing thing down. Many of you would not be doing what you’re doing.
These people gave. They brought the cantaloupes, and because they did that, look at the fruit. Look at the seed that was scattered. Look at the blessings. You talk about investments. You can’t even tell me one investment that could top this. Don’t even sit there and try to compare the weak business world or pitiful Wall Street to this stuff. This is the real investment. Let’s give it up for them. Thank you guys so much. Unbelievable. Please be seated.
Well, my question is how about the next group? There’s thousands and thousands and thousands of people out there. How about the next group? You gonna eat the cantaloupe, eat the portion, or bring it and give the offerings to make this next thing happen? Who’s going to put the sign in front of Fellowship Church that says, “Enough”? I’m not. I’m not going to flip off the rest of the Metroplex and tell them to go to Hell. I’m not going to do that. We’re going to continue to grow at Fellowship Church until everybody knows Jesus.
And that’s the sixth thing I’m going to talk to you about. I’m talking about generosity. It’s all about now. It’s all about now. It’s not wining, “Then.” It’s not about, “Well, maybe.” It’s all about now. It’s all about now. Now is the time. God has just put 1,100 acres in our lap in East Texas and right now we are starting construction on phase one of the camp of all camps. I’m talking about a triple shot venti camp. A camp for children, a camp for students, a camp for leaders. You know, we have a ministry to about 13,000 pastors across North America—a retreat center for pastors and their families. This thing is going to be off the chain. People ask me all the time, “Well, Ed, where did God show up in the most profound way in your life?” No doubt about it, in a retreat in a camp setting.
We have an opportunity to do something that has rarely been done in the history of Christianity. Our uptown campus is growing. Just going off. We bought a building on 75 and Ross. On faith we bought it. We’re retrofitting it into a church. It’ll be 10 million. So the camp first phase is 10 million, this building is 10 million. Ten million plus 10 million equals $20 million. That’s a lot of money. That’s no chump change; it’s a lot. But we have it. God’s gotten it to us, now he wants to get it through us.
The book of Acts, Acts 2, don’t turn there, but Acts 2, in that book you read about the prevailing church. And think about all the saints who went to their grave praying for churches like Fellowship Church. Many of the saints went to their graves without ever seeing a church run 20,000 in weekend attendance like we do. Many of those saints went to their grave without ever seeing several thousand adults get baptized every year. Many of those saints went into their graves without ever seeing 4,000 children coming to worship every single week. Many of those saints went to their grave without knowing of a church influencing 13,000 pastors.
I’ve had church historians tell me, “Ed I hope you know Fellowship Church is not normal.” This has only happened two or three times in the history of Christianity, and we have an opportunity to do something significant. I just thank God he’s allowed me to be a part of it and I know you feel the same way. This is incredible, incredible, and I pray that we never, never, ever lose sight of it.
What’s it going to take for us to do this $20 million adventure? Now some of you might be going, “Man I’m new here. I just showed up. Wow, this…” Hopefully this message will show you how much we love you and how much you matter to us, because we’re doing all this for you. So just sit tight and relax and fasten your seatbelts, everything’s cool. But many of us need to step up and bring some serious cantaloupes to this deal.
Some of you are like, “Well, I’ve made all this money.” Well, again, you’re not that smart. I know you. God’s blessed you to be a blessing. He’s the blesser, you’re blessed. Now bring the blessing. You’re blessed to finance this church. And that’s the awesome thing about the garden. In the garden Adam and Eve could do what they wanted to do and enjoy the blessing, blah, blah, blah. But God said, “Don’t touch my portion.” You can wear what you want to wear, drive what you want to drive, fly what you want to fly and you can have 14 houses for all I care, as long as you are bringing it and as long as you are giving offerings over and above your tithes to the local church.
Someone here, who knows, needs to give a seven-figure gift. Maybe you could give in the millions and maybe that’s chump change to you. If it is, see me. I’ll be down front after this sermon. Others, though, the greatest gift you can give might be $1,000. But all of us, every single person here, need to be involved in this.
For two years, for 24 months, we have an opportunity to commit, to see what we’re going to give to make this thing happen. I want to challenge you to pray about this, to think about this, to seek the mind and the heart of God. That’s what Lisa and I’ve been doing over the last several weeks, and I want to tell you what God has done in our life about this. You know before we came up here and started Fellowship Church with a bunch of people, about 150, we were involved in another church, and they were in a building program. And Lisa and I had two cars, and we were first married, and we were making about $28,000 a year, and God told us to give one of our cars to the church. It seemed stupid. If I talked to an accountant they would have gone, “Man, what are you smoking? You don’t give a car to the church.”
God told us. I mean, I didn’t hear an audible voice like, “Give the car, now.” I didn’t hear that. I just knew we were supposed to do it. I did that and about a year later we came up here in our one car to help start Fellowship Church. And some of the men in the church saw that I only had one car and they said, “Ed okay, here’s a car.” They bought me a brand new car. Is that awesome?
Well, we had two cars for a while and kept going and going. And God began to bless our church, and all of a sudden we found this land, 160 acres in Grapevine. And we’re going to build a building and we needed to raise a bunch of money for it, money we did not have, and Lisa and I had saved up some money to put toward fertility doctors because the doctors said for us to have any more kids we would have to go to the fertility doctor, blah, blah, blah, and that money was earmarked “Baby.” Yet God told us again, “Give it to the church.” We did and a year later we had twins without any kind of medication. Isn’t that awesome? So I’ve lived this stuff out.
You cannot out give God. And recently I had the opportunity to sign the biggest book deal I’ve ever signed in my life. I signed with a publisher out of New York and they gave me an advance. I thought about telling you how much money, but then I said, “No.” Let me tell you why I’m not going to tell you. Because if I told you how much money I’m making on this book from this publisher, some of you would go, “That’s not that much.” Others would go, “Whoa! Bling-a-bling, ching-a-ching.” So, I’m not going to tell you. It’s between me and God and you and God. It is what’s left over.
I don’t care if you have millions or thousands or hundreds, it’s what’s left over. We bring the tithe, we give offerings. It’s what’s left over. So when I signed that deal, I just knew God was telling me, “Ed, I want you to give this to Town and Country.” I said, “Okay Lord,” I said, “It’s a lot of money.” If I talk to my accountant man she would just break out in hives. But I made that decision, and we’re in the process of doing that right now.
Well, then as I began to think about it and pray about it more, I said, “Okay, we have these savings over here and we’re vested in some areas. I’m going to match that from savings.” So I’m going to give the advance and also I’m going to match that from our savings to Town and Country.”
Now, let me tell you why I tell you that. I don’t tell you that to go, “Whoa, man, Ed’s a spiritual giant. Whoa, hey!” No, no. I tell you that because if you read your Bible, specifically in 1 Chronicles, David, King David said, “Okay, we’re going to build God’s church, his temple” in the Old Testament. And he said, “Here’s what I’m going to give.” His leaders said, “Here’s what we’re going to give.” And everybody knew what was going on. So that’s why I’m telling you what we’re doing. So for you, who knows? I don’t know. You’ve got to listen to God, to pray about it, to think about it, and that’s what we’re going to do over the next several days and weeks.
Next weekend is our commitment weekend. We’re going to give everybody a card. I want you to fill that out and bring it to Fellowship Church next week or the next week. Here’s what we’re going to give over the next 24 months. And the following weekend as we began this 24-month adventure, I want you to pray about writing the biggest check possible as you begin this whole deal. And that’s what Lisa and I are going to do.
Most of us, I will say the guys here, I’m going to say this, the guys here are sitting on the answer to what I’ve been talking about. You’re sitting on your wallet, and in your wallet you got money and on the money it says—what?—“In God We Trust.” In God We Trust. So I was thinking the other day, In God We Trust. Just think, drug deals are happening right now and people are using paper and on the paper it says, “In God We Trust.” Isn’t that crazy? Strip clubs are packed out right now, and men are paying with paper and on the paper it says, “In God We Trust.” Just think about that. Well, don’t think too long about that. Also, real estate deals will be done over the next week and people will pay with “In God We Trust.” When I make money, every dollar, it’s “In God We Trust.”
Maybe someone here has millions of dollars. Say you’ve got $30 million, which is a lot of money. Just think about it. Thirty million times, God has said, “In God We Trust. In God We Trust. In God We Trust. In God We Trust….” Don’t you get the message? In God we trust. My question to you is this: Do you trust him? It’s all about the cantaloupe.