Full Barn-Empty Life

Summary

Podcast Summary: Red Rocks Church Weekend Messages

Episode Title: Full Barn-Empty Life
Date: December 6, 2025
Host: Red Rocks Church (Speaker: Sean & Pastor Sam Shelberg)
Series: Kingdom Builders (Week 3)

Episode Overview

This powerful weekend message at Red Rocks Church centers on the true meaning of generosity, legacy, and the dangers of living for material gain rather than eternal purpose. As the church concludes its “Kingdom Builders” series and prepares for a year-end offering, Pastor Sean uses scripture, storytelling, and real-world impact to challenge listeners to aim their lives at the right “basket”—living generously toward God’s kingdom rather than building barns for themselves. Special guest Pastor Sam Shelberg shares concrete examples of the church’s local and global outreach, driving home how collective generosity changes lives.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Heart of “Kingdom Builders” and the Giving Message

• Addressing the Awkwardness of Talking Money at Church
  • Sean acknowledges discomfort for newcomers when the topic is finances but reframes the offering as an opportunity for transformation and eternal impact, not an obligation (03:18).
• The Real Message Behind Money
  • Money, possessions, and generosity are frequent biblical topics (over 2,000 mentions), but God doesn’t need our wealth. Instead, He invites us to partner in His work for our own benefit and for others (03:54).
  • “God says, if you'll do that, you'll not only have an opportunity to make heaven more crowded, to have an eternal purpose, but you also get to live life to the fullest in the here and now.” (04:38)
• Core Prayer for the Offering
  • “God, based on all the ways you’ve blessed me this year, what can I give to build your kingdom and not mine?” (05:30)
  • The prayer rests on three biblical foundations: recognizing all we have comes from God, seeking His wisdom, and building His kingdom over our own (08:41).

2. Biblical Foundations for Generosity

• Scripture Focus
  • 1 Timothy 6: Wealth is uncertain; trust God and be “rich in good deeds... generous and willing to share.” In doing so, we lay up “treasures” for eternity and “take hold of the life that is truly life” (Zoe) (05:54 – 07:07).
  • Psalm 24:1, James 1:17, Deuteronomy 8:17-18: Every good thing and our very ability to work and earn come from God (08:46).
  • Matthew 6:33: Seek first God’s kingdom, and He will provide for your needs.
• Self-Check Questions
  • Who gets the credit for your blessings—God or yourself?
  • Do you seek God’s direction for how you use resources?
  • Whose kingdom are you building—yours or God’s?
    (Explored in depth through Luke 12's parable, see below)

3. “Full Barn-Empty Life”: The Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12)

• Modern Story Illustration
  • Sean recalls a basketball game where a teammate scores on the wrong basket—winning the shot, but losing the game (15:12 – 17:06).
  • “And then you can get to the end of your life and realize all your goals were aimed at the wrong bucket...” (17:27)
• Jesus’ Parable:
  • A wealthy man, blessed with abundance, builds bigger barns for himself, focuses only on his comfort, and ignores God.
  • Ultimately, God calls him a “fool,” as his life ends and his amassed wealth benefits no one (24:28).
  • Key Insight: Achieving personal, material goals without eternal perspective leaves us spiritually empty.
  • “Oh, you had a lot of stuff. You just didn't have any eternal stories.” (25:10)
• Memorable Quote:
  • “Our greatest fear should not be a failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.” – D.L. Moody, quoted by Sean (25:57)

4. What It Means to Be “Rich Towards God”

• The Real Problem Isn’t Wealth—It’s What Has Your Heart
  • It’s not wrong to be wealthy, but “that guy’s problem wasn’t that he had wealth. That guy’s problem was that the wealth had him.” (29:10)
  • Jesus: “You can’t serve both God and money.” (29:36)
• Excelling in Generosity
  • 2 Corinthians 8:7—Excel in the grace of giving, going above and beyond in generosity.
  • David’s posture: “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” (30:30)
  • Challenge: Sometimes God stirs a “scary number” in your heart—choose the generous, sacrificial path (31:35).

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Impact Stories: Where Your Giving Goes (w/Pastor Sam Shelberg)

5. Local, National, and Global Outreach Overview

(33:34 – 47:57)

Local Outreach Highlights

• Provided thousands of meals, shelter, and practical support to the homeless and those in need.
• Significant partnerships:
  • Kitchen One for One, Open Door Ministries, Source in Austin, RBI Austin, David Clifton Ministries.
• Major investment in foster care family support, addressing heartbreaking statistics for foster youth.
• “As a church, we gave $804,703 to local outreach.” (39:04)

National Outreach

• Aid for disaster victims—wildfires, Texas floods, etc.
• Prison ministry: Bringing hope and spiritual formation to death row inmates.
• Supported church planting: “$292,640 this year went to support church plants... In total, $445,791 went to national outreach.” (41:14)

Global Outreach

• Feeding programs: 51,000 meals packed in one event; “$157,150 to feed kids around the world through Convoy of Hope.” (43:24)
• Women’s empowerment: Training programs for single mothers in Africa.
• Missions and church planting in dangerous, unreached areas:
  • Built churches and pastoral training centers in India, Nepal, South Sudan, and South Asia.
  • A partner is “on track to plant 50,000 churches by the year 2030.” (46:00)
  • Constant risk and persecution faced by these local pastors.
• Total global giving: $743,693.
• “All in for outreach... $2,479,746.” (47:57)

Notable Quotes:

• “For the families displaced by disasters, the pastors being trained up in Asia, the girls that were rescued out of brothels this year, it changes their lives forever.” – Sam Shelberg (48:48)
• “That number represents faith in times of difficulty, choosing purpose over preference, and represents surrender to what God has called us to.” – Sam Shelberg (48:28)

6. Stories That Change Lives

Rescuing Girls From Sex Trafficking—Operation Red Rocks

• Through last year’s offering, the church was able to immediately fund a sex trafficking raid in Southeast Asia.
• “Ten girls were rescued … two of them were little kids.” (51:46)
• “After it was over, they called it Operation Red Rocks... thanks to the generosity of the Red Rocks community, 10 survivors were rescued, two of whom were underaged. All survivors are now receiving healing care in Jesus’ name and in Jesus’ way.” (52:16)
• Emotional reflection: Imagining parents of rescued girls being able to thank the church; underscores the real, eternal impact of generosity.
• “They're home today. Red Rocks. You did that. And we're going to keep doing that. We're not playing games. God's real. Satan's real. Heaven's real. Hell's real...” (54:04)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening & Light-hearted Banter: 00:04 – 03:00
• Why Talk Giving? The Heart of the Offering: 03:00 – 05:25
• The Foundation Prayer: 05:30 – 08:41
• Teaching Through Parable—Basketball & Wrong Goals: 15:12 – 17:27
• Parable of the Rich Fool & Lessons: 18:11 – 26:41
• Quote from D.L. Moody: 25:57
• Excelling in Generosity: 29:05 – 32:30
• Pastor Sam’s Impact Report: 33:26 – 48:11
• Rescue Story, “Operation Red Rocks”: 50:45 – 54:09
• Call to Action & Closing Prayer: 54:56 – END

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Memorable Quotes

• Sean: “You can have real, full barns and a real empty life.” (28:14)
• Sean: “It's not that the guy had wealth—the problem was that the wealth had him.” (29:10)
• Sean (quoting Moody): “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.” (25:57)
• Sam: “That number represents faith in times of difficulty, choosing purpose over preference, and represents surrender to what God has called us to.” (48:28)
• Sean: “They're home today. Red Rocks. You did that.” (54:04)

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Conclusion & Call to Action

Sean concludes by reminding all listeners that none of us deserve God’s blessings, but God invites everyone to partner with Him in changing the world. The challenge: Don’t just fill your barn; choose to make your legacy one of generosity and eternal purpose. Every prayer, act of giving, and step of faith is an opportunity to help hurting people, reach the lost, and make heaven more crowded.

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Final Encouragement:
“If you’ve ever questioned if your giving really makes a difference—whether for your neighbor in need or a child on the other side of the world—let this episode show you: it absolutely does.”

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Note: This summary excludes promotional, musical, and administrative segments to focus on core spiritual teaching and outreach impact.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Rocks Church. How are you?

You excited for church today?

I believe you. Help me say hi to everybody. What's up? All the Denver locations, we love you guys. Austin, Texas, Brussels, Belgium. Men and women in our correctional facilities. We love you so much. And everybody joining online, thanks for being with us. We like to say this top because you're gonna find out anyways. We really are just a bunch of messed up, imperfect people here at Red Rocks. But man, we love to get together like this and pursue a perfect God. So no matter what you have been through or maybe even what you're dealing with right now, our goal is that right now, whether you're in a building or watching from a screen somewhere, that you would feel loved and valued and welcomed. We've already been praying for you. We believe that God's gonna speak to you today about your life in Jesus name. We're gonna claim that for you. So we' you're here. Welcome home. Welcome to Red Rocks Church. High five. Somebody have a seat.

Guys, it just occurred to me today we're like two and a half weeks from Christmas. How's that possible?

Anybody? Anybody watching Christmas movies already?

All right, on the count of three, shout out your favorite Christmas movie. One, two, three.

I didn't catch one. Go ahead. One, two, three.

Man, you guys are confusing. Polar Express guy might need security to watch him for a minute. I heard that one. Hey, for real, we're so glad you're here. We're in week three of this teaching series called Kingdom Builders and man, we are so excited. And so if you're joining us for the first time, we are talking about this year end offering, that Red Rocks Church family we've been talking about for a couple weeks. And if you didn't remember, this is the week that we've been building up to. This is the week we want to make our commitments to this year end offering. And if you're joining us for the first time, I know what it's like to go to a church for the first time and then and be like, wait, you talking about money today? What? And kind of feel like a little rub. Like, I remember before we moved here, BZ took me to a church here in town when I was visiting and I couldn't wait to go. Just, I wanted to see the church and experience it and see what it was all about. And then I found out it was a weekend, they're talking about money and I felt a little cheated. And so I know what that feels like. But if that's you, let me just say this number one, we don't want anything from you. We want something for you. And I think what you're going to find out is that you didn't get cheated. You actually picked the perfect weekend to be here. Because you're going to find out without a shadow of a doubt over the next 30 minutes what this place is all about. You're going to know what we care about, what we're passionate about. You're going to find out that we so believe that God can change your life, that we actually get excited and to hit the end of the year and sacrificially give so that somebody like you or somebody you love can find out that God loves you so much that he gave his son to die for us. And if you today you could say yes, I just want to say yes to Jesus. I want to put my faith in Jesus. And today he could forgive your sins, give you the Holy Spirit so that you could get through things you never thought you could give you heaven forever. Like it is a game changer and we exist to make sure that you and as many people as possible hear that message.

What you're also going to gonna find out is though, and I said this a couple weeks ago, is that yes, we're talking about money, but it's about so much more than money. In fact, God talks about money over 2,000 times in the Bible. And, and oftentimes as you're reading about what he says or you know Jesus, almost half of every story he told was about money or possessions. What you find out is it's about money and possessions, but it's actually not really about money and possessions. It's actually about our lives and it's the life that he wants to have for us and that he gives us this opportunity to partner with Him. And he says, look, I'm God, everything's mine. I don't need your money. And honestly, the church, this church, any local church, doesn't need your money because the church is his church. But what he does is he set it up in a way that he gives us the opportunity to partner with him, to go help hurting people and go reach the lost in the name of Jesus. And he says, if you'll do that, you'll not only have an opportunity to make heaven more crowded, to have an eternal purpose, but you also get to live life to the fullest in the here and now. And so it's really about an opportunity. So don't let the topic, if this topic makes you feel emotions in a negative way, just breathe Easy. Relax. Open up your mind and just allow God to speak to you, because I think you're going to be surprised at what he might do today. You guys ready?

So we've been saying for the last couple weeks, if this is your church family, we want to pray this prayer. Go ahead and put that up.

God, based on all the ways you've blessed me this year, what can I give to build your kingdom and not mine? And we're going to really walk through that prayer here for a few minutes. But first, I want to read first Timothy six. And really, you start to see God's heart as he starts to try to explain to us we're talking about stuff, but this is really not about stuff. It's about your life and the life I have for you. He says this. He says, command those who are rich in this present age, this present world, not to be arrogant or to put your hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous. Here it is. Be generous and willing to share, and in this way, you'll lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age. He says, first, he said, I'm giving you the opportunity to partner with me through this thing called generosity. And if you do, it's about what you're laying up treasures in heaven. What you're doing is actually you're changing the landscape of heaven. At Red Rocks Church, we say all the time, we exist to make heaven more crowded. You didn't see that coming. I'm gonna give you one more shot. We exist to make heaven more crowded. Yeah. And God says, I'm giving you the opportunity to partner with me. Like you can have an eternal purpose in your life. And then he says this so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

That word life is Zoe. He's not just talking about, like, you're still breathing life. He says, if you'll partner with me with your stuff and be really generous, not only do you get to start living with an eternal purpose, make heaven more crowded, but he said, it'll help you take hold of the Zoe life, the life that I have in store for you. It's the same word Jesus used when he said, I came that you would have life and have it to the full. He said, I came that you would have, Zoe, that you would have the best possible life. Real peace from me, real joy. God says, from me, real purpose. Real, real significance. The stuff we crave, we want it. We want to know that our life matters. We want to know that we have a purpose. We want to leave a legacy. We crave it. We want to know that when we leave that people will be like, man, that person changed my life. Their generosity, the way they gave up their stuff, their time, their resources, their love, their encouragement, the way they shared with me has changed me. Like, we crave leaving that kind of legacy because the Creator created us to crave what he wanted us to enjoy. So God says it's about an eternal purpose and life to the fullest, not about the fact that he needs anything from us. So, like I said, I want to go through this prayer because I want to make sure that you guys all understand this was not like an arbitrary. Just words that we jumbled together and said, let's just pray this. But it's actually extremely strategic. Go ahead and put that back up, if you would.

There it is. Perfect. God, based on all the ways you've blessed me this year, what can I give to build your kingdom and not mine? There's really three parts to this prayer. It's assuming that we understand, number one, that it's all from God. Right, God, Based on everything that you've done, everything you've blessed me with, it's all from God. Then we come to God and we say, I want to ask you, God, you show me how to steward it. Because what I want to do is I want to build your kingdom. We want to realize it's all from Him. We want to ask him for his wisdom on what we should do. And then we want to, at the end of the day, be a part of building his kingdom and not just ours. So let's go through these three things. It's all from God, because I want you to know it's not just, like, strategic. It's extremely biblical. Psalm 24:1. The Earth is the Lord's and everything in it. James 1:17. Every good and perfect gift is from above. Coming down from the Father. He says, everything is mine. And so every good thing that you find in your life comes from me. And then this one he really, like, lays down the hammer. He says, you may say to yourself, my power, he just knows us, right? My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. He says, but remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth. God says, don't ever get trapped in that like I did that. That's why I have this Stuff. Now, there's a lot of Bible. There are Bible verses that talk about how hard work produces good results. 100% true. But God's saying, I just want you to see before you ever even had the opportunity to put in hard work, said, I want you to see that I'm the one who gave you the ability because of where I decided that you would be born on this planet is why you have the opportunities that you have, because of the mind I gave you, because of the ability to even think of the idea that I gave you, because of the physical attributes I gave you, because of the abilities to chase down, because I gave you the ability to work hard on the idea. He says, just make sure you understand every single thing we have is his, comes from him. And he's given us the ability to obtain anything that we have. So if any of us find ourselves in a position where we could even consider being a part of a year end offering, like God's been so good to me, I could actually give something. He says, just remember every single bit of it comes from me. Number one, it's all from God, right? So number two, we're going to ask God. James 1:5, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. And we know this is hopefully this prayer that we've been encouraging and challenging each other to pray for the last couple weeks. Hopefully this becomes something that you take into every area of your life. This prayer is not just about an end of your offering in 2025, right? This is the kind of thing where I want to be able to take this into every area of life. God, based on the intellect you've given me, I want to ask you, how could I build your kingdom with it? Based on the resources you've given me, based on the opportunities you've given me, based off of the skill set you've given me, how could I use what you've given me to build your kingdom and not just mine? So we want to ask God. And then number three, we know our calling is to build his kingdom.

Excuse me, Matthew 6:33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. It's interesting if you go read Matthew 6, he spent a good amount of time talking about our desire for stuff and our proclivity to worry. Will I have enough? Will I have a surplus? Will I get through? Will I be okay? What if I need more? The whole thing's about our stuff. And he says, look, just seek me first and let me take care of everything else. Proverbs 3, 9. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of your crop. So I just wanted you to see before we get started, I know we're kind of started, but before we really get into it.

This prayer is. It's very strategic, but it's extremely biblical and it applies to every area of our life.

God, I want to always be mindful that what I have is from you. I want to always be going to you for guidance on how to handle what you've blessed me with. And I want to always have in my mind, I want to build your kingdom and not just mine. Now, it's interesting because in Luke 12, if you have a Bible, flip to Luke 12. If you're using your phone or whatever, get to Luke 12. We're going to read out of there here in a minute. Jesus actually tells a parable. And what he's doing is, is he's describing what happens in our life if we don't pray this prayer. And if we live the opposite of this prayer, he says, let me show you what's going to happen. It's super interesting. So, yeah, if you have it, if you have your Bible, go ahead and flip to Luke 12.

You guys know I'm from Kansas, and I know that a lot of you are jealous.

I grew up in Wichita, Kansas. That's where I went to high school. But before I moved to this high school in Wichita, at ninth grade, I was in this. It's a town off of Wichita. And a bunch of you will have known of it. It'll be on some of your bucket lists. But it's called Clearwater. Clearwater, Kansas. And yeah, you know, there's one. One school, one grade school, one middle school, one high school in Clearwater. Didn't need more than that. About 50, 60 kids in a graduating class. And.

I don't want to brag or anything, but in eighth grade, I did play for the eighth grade Clearwater High School feeder program in basketball. Now, again, I'm not trying to brag. Starting point guard, eighth grade, Clearwater High School feeder team. I could touch the net.

Again, I don't want to make it about me. I'm just focused on him. But I'm just saying, you know, it was a thing. Well.

We did not win a game the whole season. Okay. Which is crazy, right? Because I'm like breaking ankles and touching the net, and we didn't win a game. Last game of the season. It's a true story. I almost said Google it. I don't even know if Google knows this, but it's a true story.

We're tied with less than a minute to go. True story. We're about to get our first W. And I mean, I think the refs at this point were like, these are obviously the two worst teams in the league. And I think they had, like, given up. They're like, we're not calling another foul. We just want to leave. And because it was like, possession, possession, turnover, turnover, crazy loose ball fight. I mean, it was getting. And the refs just swallowed their whistle. Nothing. Okay.

Ten seconds to go. Chaos. Ball. Loose ball on the ground. One of my buddies. I'm not going to say his name because again, famous story. One of my buddies gets in the scrum, and I'm talking, like, biting, scratching, kicking, fighting, punching, wrestling. And he rolls over and then he gets up on his feet and he comes out of the pile with the ball and. True story. Clock, three, two. He spins around. One, shoots. While the ball's in the air, the clock goes.

And the ball swish. And he goes bananas. His eyes light up, hands go in the air. He's yelling, screaming, we did it. And then he turned right and looked at us, and we're all going, no.

In all the confusion when he spun. Yeah, you know what's about to happen. That's a true story. He shot it and made it in the wrong hoop, and we lost by two points.

[A]

True story. Swear to God.

[B]

In like manner, Jesus, he says, be real careful.

How you handle your finances. Be real careful how you set your goals when it comes to your finances.

Because if you set them in this direction, you can make every shot. You can hit the goal, and then the buzzer sounds and the game is over. And you look back and you can realize the direction I was going. Like, I made it. I achieved that goal. I hit that shot. And then you can get to the end of your life and realized all your goals were aimed at the wrong bucket. And you hit all the goals you had, but you didn't win. You actually lost because you were shooting in the wrong direction. That's what he says about our finances. It's crazy how he uses basketball as an analogy, but he does.

Luke 12. Someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Two guys are just human nature taking over, both wanting some money, both wanting to have a little bit more than they have. Cause it's human nature, right? It's what we do. If I make this much, I just wish I made that much. And then I just wish I had that much. And if I rent, I wish I owned. And if I owned, I wish it was bigger. And once it's the biggest, I wish I had two. Right? It's just human nature.

Jesus said, man, I love that. That's how I picture it, man, who appointed me as judge or arbitrator between you. And he said to him, watch out. He said, be real careful, guys. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. That word life there again is Zoe. So listen to what Jesus is saying. Life to the fullest does not.

It doesn't exist in the abundance of your wealth.

He said, so be real careful. Cause this world will lie to you.

Social media will lie to you. Every marketer in the world will lie to you. You know the deal. We've all gotten an email this week from everyone we've ever shopped at in the last 24 years.

Cause they're all telling us the same thing. If you get some more stuff, you'll finally get that life to the fullest. You'll finally get that peace, that joy, that purpose that you're craving. You just need some more stuff. And. And Jesus says, be real careful. Because if the goal of your life is to keep gaining more and more and more, you might make the shot, you might reach the goal. And then you hear the buzzer sound at the end, and you're gonna turn around, you're gonna realize, I made the shots I was aiming at, but I was aiming at the wrong thing.

And I didn't win. I lost. I missed out on everything. Jesus is saying life to the fullest. It's not found in our possessions.

He says, the life you want, it looks different. Let's keep reading. So he says, let me give you an example. Let me give you an example of somebody.

Who'S about to hit the goal, about to achieve all the things they wanted, about to make the shot. You're shooting in the wrong direction. He said, let me tell you what it looks like. He told him this parable. The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. I love that. He. He could have just started the story with there was a rich man. But no, he wants to hammer this point home. He says, the ground produced this man a harvest. And everybody listening, they know what he's saying, right? Did the man make the ground? Did the man create a seed that could be put in the ground that would turn into crops? Did the man water the ground? Did the man provide sun for the ground? Right. Jesus is saying, God gave this man everything he had. Okay, so we got a wealthy guy.

Less than a minute left.

He thought to the ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, what shall I do? I have no place to store my crops like I did it. I had a goal and I got there, and I'm rich, and I don't even have enough room for it. So then he said, well, this is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and I'll build bigger ones. And there I'll store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, bro, you made it. You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry.

Let's funnel his life through those three aspects of our prayer that we just kind of reminded ourselves is 100% the Bible.

Did he. Did he do these things with the. With the knowledge that everything he has comes from God? Let's look at. Nope. I have no place to store my crops. I'll tear down my barns and I'll store my surplus. This isn't about what God has done for me, right? I made this, I earned this, I grinded for this. It's my stuff. So did he realize that it all came from God? No.

Did he. Did he ask God how to steward what he had? Well, let's look.

The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, what shall I do? And then he said to himself, this is what I'll do. He didn't ask God. He asked him.

My stuff. I earned this. I got this.

What I'm gonna do with it is what I want to do with it. So I'll ask me, and I'll make me more happy and me more comfortable, because this is how I get the life I've always craved. I can ask God what he wants. Just do what I want. It's my stuff. I'll ask me how to handle it. Did he build God's kingdom with it?

This is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and I'll build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus.

He wasn't focused on God's kingdom. He was focused on his kingdom. Right? You see the bucket this guy's aiming at?

Surplus and abundance of wealth and possessions is what will give me the things, the desires of my heart. The peace I crave, the joy I crave, the purpose and significance I crave, the legacy that I want to leave, that my heart craves, and if I can just get more, I'll get it. And so it's all about me. And I'll ask me what I should do with it, and I'll build my kingdom. It's the opposite of that prayer.

Here's what Jesus says.

But God said to him, you fool, this very night, your life will be demanded from you, and then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?

This is how it will be with anybody. This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich towards God.

He said, you made the shot that you were aiming at.

You just aimed in the wrong direction. And now the game's over, and all the stuff you craved, you missed out on. You never got to experience that supernatural peace that comes with partnering with me to reach lost people. You never got to experience that supernatural joy that comes with partnering with me to reach lost people and build my kingdom. You never got to experience that supernatural purpose that'll change everything. Oh, you had a lot of stuff. You just didn't have any eternal stories.

You just shot at the wrong hoop, bro. And you missed out. You missed out on life to the fullest because everything you had was, it's my stuff. I'll do what I want with it, and I'll keep building my kingdom. And now you're gone, and nobody cares because you had a lot of stuff, but no eternal stories. Jesus says, I don't want that for you. D.L. moody says this. Our greatest fear should not be a failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.

And some of you, I wouldn't even need to read this Bible passage for you to go, I've learned that one because some of you have lived enough life where you made a little money. You've had some success, you've accomplished some of the things that you never thought you could or that you always dreamed of accomplishing. Some of you know exactly what it feels like to be in a position where you kind of always dreamed of being and then going.

Well, why don't I. Why don't I have the joy? Why don't I have the peace? Why do I not feel any purpose? Like, this was always the goal. And I'm here, but I feel empty.

Just aiming at the wrong hoop.

I worked in the film business in LA before I gave my life to God. And one of my friends. After I left, he knew I left to go be a part of the church, and he knew I became a pastor and. And he called me years later, and I won't say his name, but this dude made it, made it everything we had dreamed of when we were both starting at the same time. And he called me, he was telling me about the houses and the cars and the boats and the trips and all this stuff. And then he got real serious on the phone with me and he goes, sean.

Is this all there is?

And I think Jesus would tell my friend, no, no, no, this is not all there is. You've just believed the lie that Satan wants you to believe. He wants you to think that more stuff will give you the life you crave. He said, the life you crave isn't found in the stuff. The life you crave is found in what you are able to give to help hurting people in the name of Jesus, to help reach lost people in the name of Jesus, to make heaven more crowded. You can live with an eternal purpose. You can leave behind the legacy you dream of, but it's not in what you acquire. It's what you choose to give. And see what this guy in Jesus story learned.

What a bunch of us have learned in real life, what my friend from LA has learned.

You can have real, full barns and a real empty life.

And I know a lot of people that find themselves in that boat. They're at this place in life where it's like, this was the dream. I just can't figure out why I'm still empty. And it's because we spend so much time buying into the lie that if I keep building my kingdom, that life to the fullest feeling will somehow hit. And God's like, I've already told you how to get that life to the fullest. It's excel in the grace of giving. It's give to build my kingdom. That's where it's found. God says, I don't want you to have full barns and empty lives.

And I know, you know, that leaves. That still falls in a gray area for me. For a long time it did like, okay, God.

I want to be rich towards you. I don't want to be the guy who just builds his kingdom. I want to do what Jesus said. I don't want to be just rich towards me. I want to be rich towards you. And understand, Jesus wasn't saying that having wealth was the problem. That guy's problem wasn't that he had wealth. That guy's problem was that the wealth had him. That was the problem. There's a lot of verses that talk about giving and receiving even more and working really hard. And receiving from God. Like he doesn't have a problem with wealth. He. He just doesn't want the wealth to have us. Jesus said, you gotta choose. You can't serve both God and money. You can serve God and have your money serve your mission, or you'll serve money and you'll never experience what you could with God. So we gotta choose because we don't want full barns and empty lives. What's it look like to be rich towards God? I think this passage helps right here. 2 Corinthians 8, 7. But since you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in the love we have kindled in you, see that you also excel in this grace of giving. See that you go above and beyond when it comes to your giving, to build my kingdom. And even then I go, okay, God, well, what's that look like? What's it look like for me to excel in the grace of giving? Because that's who I want to be. That's. That's how I want to be remembered. It just scares me in the moment because I'm human. My heart sometimes has a real unhealthy relationship with money, even when I don't want it to. And I Love David's perspective. Second Samuel 24. He said this. This is what excelling in giving looked like to him. He said, I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God. Burnt offerings that cost me nothing.

He said, I'm called to excel in the grace of giving as well. So when I bring an offering to God, I'm not gonna bring him an offering that doesn't cost me. I'm not gonna bring him an offering that I won't even feel. I'm not gonna bring him an offering that won't even make me think twice. He goes, no, I'm gonna bring my God an offering that'll cost me. A pastor friend was helping me with this one time, and so I was seeking advice on it. And he said. He said how it usually works for a lot of us is, he said, when we, when live that way, that prayer that we're talking about, God, it's all from you. You tell me what to do in any circumstance. I want to build your kingdom, not mine. He said, oftentimes two numbers will pop in your head. That's what he told me. He said, the first one will feel like, well, that's pretty good.

And that won't even hurt much. He said, and then there'll be a second, and that one will be the scary one. And he said, but when you pick that one, he said, I think you can safely assume you're excelling in the grace of giving and church. I want you to know when we do stuff like this, and I try to remind you because I just don't want you to think that I'm trying to talk about something that I'm not going to be a part of with you. Me and my wife will always go first every time we take an offering at this church. And I promise you, our goal is at this point, every year is to do more than we have before. And our goal is, listen, choose the second number and not the first. Even if it's scary because we really believe that what we're doing matters, that helping hurting people in the name of Jesus matters. The reaching lost people in the name of Jesus matters. And it's our absolute honor to partner with you and be a part of this church with you. And here's what I want you to know. If you've given in the last year, or if you gave it last year's year end offering or if you've given in the last year, I don't want you to miss this. I want you to fully understand the kind of purpose that you are living with right now, the eternal purpose that is on your life right now and the legacy that you are leaving. Because sometimes we don't. There's so much going on. God's doing so many miraculous things through our church family's generosity that we don't always do a good enough job of sharing. So I want you to know about some things that your giving has done so you can start to take in some of that eternal purpose that's on your life and, and that legacy that you are leaving. Red Rocks Church, I want to do something that I haven't done in a long time. I want to have someone else come up for a few minutes and help you get a real good picture of what your giving has been doing. So Red Rocks Church, can you put your hands together for the one and only Pastor Sam Shelberg?

[A]

Thank you, Sean. Great sweater, by the way, man. Glad I didn't choose the black one at the store when I was getting this.

Man. This weekend has been for years now, over a decade, one of my absolute favorite weekends that we kind of celebrate as a church and there's just something so special. It's kind of like a Spotify wrapped at the end of the year where we get to see the things that we have been a part of all year. And so, man, my hope in the Next few minutes is to just kind of share with you the deep impact that your generosity has made. But, man, as I do that, I think it's really important that you remember you are a part of this. We did this together as a church. And so include yourself in the stories, include yourself in the partnerships. I'm gonna go through a whole bunch of numbers, but, man, these are not just numbers that I'm going to share. They're not just stats. This is a representation of how God has used our church to meet people in the midst of their story. So here we go. It's going to be a quick snapshot and I have to go fast, so keep up with me. All right, so here we go in local outreach, which is where we try to make an impact here in our communities. We contributed $12,800 to Kitchen One for One to give free meals for people in our community. Kitchen One for One, man, they're an awesome food truck that shares the good news of Jesus by providing hope, love, and a warm meal. And we got to provide a ton of free meals to people. This year we gave $18,000 toward Open Door Ministries to provide fencing and better safety for their child development center downtown. And Open Door provides just practical help and hope to people in urban Denver who are homeless or low income. And this year we got to help them out by providing a safe area for their kids. In Austin, we gave $10,000 to the source to help care for and provide for women with unexpected pregnancies.

They also provide mentorship, walk alongside those who are fostering and adopting, and we got to join them in that. This year we contributed $37,000 to RBI Austin, which is a faith based program to mentor underprivileged kids in sports programs who otherwise might not have access to those sorts of programs. And man, a whole bunch of kids got to join in. This year for $37,000 through David Clifton Ministries, your generosity provided Thanksgiving dinner, haircuts, Bibles, and other donations to 1900 unhoused people here in Denver.

And we contribute this year, I love this, man. We contributed $36,900 toward helping foster care families and organizations.

One of those partners is called Rise and Rise supports families who've said yes to opening up their homes and their lives to kids through foster care and adoption. They, they provide practical and relational support through things like meals, laundry, and encouragement with the goal of keeping foster parents in the game for longer. And here's why this matters. Sarah from Rise shared these stats with us. And man, they broke my heart to Read them. Only about 30% of foster youth will graduate high school on time, and only 3% will get a college degree. One in four will be in trouble with the law within just two years of aging out of the system. Nearly 70% of the girls will be pregnant by age 21 with their first child. One in five become homeless, and all have an exponentially higher risk of becoming a victim of human trafficking. Up to 60% of those who are trafficked have had a history in child welfare. Man as a church as Red Rocks Church, we get to push back on these stats by making an impact on these kids and these families.

Here's a quick thank you note from someone on the team at Rise. She said, I want to share one inspiring way Red Rocks is showing up for these kids and families. Your financial generosity and opening of your doors allows us to feed 75 youth at Thanksgiving and 130 at Christmas. This is no small feat. Getting these youth into a church space is such a big step for some of these kids. And I know God is using the literal writings on the walls at Red Rocks to plant seeds that he's going to use. And we've seen that your financial support's breaking down walls and softening the hearts of the caseworkers that we work so closely with. God is directly using Red Rocks to prepare their hearts for Him. Your church has allowed us to reach more families and give our teams the tools and resources to be able to help in so many ways. I love that this year as a church, we gave 285.

In benevolence. And benevolence allows the church to be the church. We get to care for one another and be the light of hope in dark and dire times for people in our church, family and man, we've been able to respond to hundreds of critical needs this year. We helped families, single moms, dads and individuals and we did things like man help keep the heat on, avoid homelessness, flee domestic violence, car maintenance so they don't lose their job and then basic needs such as food, gas, water, medical bills and helping a Christian 501C3 stay alive. And man, that list goes on and on. That's us as a church helping our church.

So this year, all in for local outreach, we served our communities and contributed a total of $804,703 to local outreach.

It's amazing.

So on a national level, with partners around the country, we gave $10,000 to fight to Forgive to help bring the healing power of forgiveness to people on death row. We Helped them be able to create this really cool spiritual formation program so that they can see redemption, redemption in the lives of inmates who struggle to have hope for the future. And death row can be a dark place, as you imagine. And we got to bring light into that place. We gave $40,000 to Convoy of Hope in Zoe Church to meet the needs of people and families affected by the devastating wildfires in California. They were able to bring truckloads of supplies to meet immediate needs for people who lost absolutely everything. And when disasters happen, man, we as a church, we get to step in and respond at a moment's notice. And another great example of that is.

The floods in Texas. We gave $65,000 immediately to help with flood relief needs, as well as continued support for people rebuilding their homes and lives after such a sad and scary disaster. And, man, I love it when we as a church get to team up in situations like this. This next number I'm going to share, I'm really proud of. And that's because Red Rocks Church, we're not just about Red Rocks Church. We want to see heaven more crowded. We want to see the kingdom of God come. And so, man, $292,640 this year went to support church plants. And that was across the Front Range here in Denver as well as in Texas and beyond. And so in total, $445,791 went to national outreach this year.

One of my absolute favorite things that we do as a church is called Love Our City. And man, we take a few weeks each year where we get to serve our communities, do a whole bunch of outreach projects. Many of you have probably been involved in some of those. And this year we had 1,244 volunteers, serve a total of over 3,500 volunteer hours. And at just one event, we packaged nearly 51,000 meals with our partner kids around the world. So through that global partnership, we've also been able to purchase a playground that will be installed at a church in the Philippines. And in total, red rocks contributed $29,500 toward kids around the world, which not only feeds tons and tons of families, but creates a gathering spot for kids to come to the local church to connect, to play and to find hope. Speaking of Hope, $20,000 went to Hope International to provide an additional. We helped out last year with this as well. But this next year, an additional 140 single moms will go through an eight month tailoring training program. And that program includes savings groups, training in discipleship, tailoring business management and a sewing machine for each mom at the end of that program. And so as a result, even in this past year, we've seen women coming to Christ, having deep community and being able to provide for their families. And research indicates that when we put more income into the hands of women, child nutrition, health and education improves as well. One side note connected to Hope International. I just got an email from our connection there last week and she was in Hong Kong visiting a church called the Gathering. And she emailed me back and just said in quotes, hey, I'm at the gathering. They love Red Rocks Church and have listened to your sermons and worship. And so, man, shout out to the Gathering in Hong Kong.

I love just getting to see the thread of God's faithfulness around the world in just a small part that Red Rocks Church gets to play.

So as a church, we gave $157,150.39 to feed kids around the world through Convoy of Hope. And we did that in one weekend. One weekend we'll feed more than 1300 kids for the next year.

A whole bunch of you jumped on board with us. And man, for the price of skipping Starbucks like once a month, you get to genuinely feed a kid for the next year. That's incredible. $15,000 went to World Relief supporting 18 months of life saving nutritional care for 36 severely malnourished children under the age of five in the country of South Sudan. And that's a country, man, if you know anything about it. They are gripped right now with just a compounding crisis of conflict, displacement, food and medical insecurity. And through World Relief, our church was able to meet a need in a remote part that's really, really suffering right now. So a huge aspect of our global giving this year was aimed at reaching unreached people groups. $396,000,000 went to build pastoral training centers, church buildings and Bible schools in South Asia, Sudan and Nepal.

So we built three church buildings in India. We built a church in Kathmandu, Nepal. We built a church and a pastoral training center in South Sudan, which I just mentioned is maybe one of the most difficult countries to be a Christian in right now. We funded the construction of a Bible school in South Asia, as well as annual support of pastoral training centers. And just this last month, we were able to partner with our Austin campus to build this large training center in South Asia that's going to produce tons and tons of pastors. And man, the goals that some of our partners have are absolutely staggering. They're training up tens of thousands of pastors to go reach thousands of unreached people groups. The guy that we get to work with, man, he grew up in an unreached people group himself. And when he was a young boy, someone came to his village, risked his life to share the gospel. It changed his life. And now he has dedicated his life to seeing new pastors raised up to do the exact same thing. And so these pastors, they go through a one year training program and then they're sent out to lead three to five churches on their own, which blows my mind. This organization is on track to plant 50,000 churches by the year 2030.

Occasionally we are asked by our partners to use broad terms like South Asia, and here's why. Some of them that we work with, unreached triad, Hands of Mercy, among others. Sometimes those aren't even their real names, but that's what they have to use publicly because they need to operate in a way that doesn't put their teams, their staff and their pastors at risk. I was scrolling through photos, stories and videos this week just trying to like drum up some content, some things that I could show you to point to where your generosity is going. And man, in almost every communication I get from these partners, there's a warning sign at the bottom of the email and it asks us not to share anything, not to duplicate anything, don't post any pictures, don't record anything. And they're not messing around. These pastors are genuinely risking their lives for the gospel. We occasionally get these reports that show the progress of like when we contribute money, they'll show us impact things like, man, here's how many pastors we trained up, here's how many children were reached, here's how many churches were planted. And this, this partner, they also have a chart where they track by the thousands persecutions that are taking place. Yet they pressed on to share the good news of Christ. And we get to be a part of that. Man, I hope that you feel today that you are a part of that. You fuel that mission. We say all the time, let's go change the world. We did that this year and we're gonna do that again next year.

So globally today, this year we contributed $743,693.

All in for outreach. Local, national, global, $2,479,746.

And man, I'm blown away by that number. Not because it's just a huge number, which it is a huge number, but I'm blown away because what makes up that Number is countless stories of sacrifice from you. It comes from the people of our church deciding that there's more to be done, that God has a plan to use us to go change the world. That number represents faith in times of difficulty, choosing purpose over preference, and represents surrender to what God has called us to. There's no gift too small. That number represents us as a whole body of believers.

Sometimes we talk about these stories and these numbers in a way that feels disconnected from the people and the situations that they impact. But man, we care about these numbers because for the families displaced by disasters, the pastors being trained up in Asia, the girls that were rescued out of brothels this year, it changes their lives forever. Forever. And at the beginning, I told you to include yourself in these stories because it's important that you don't miss the weight of impact on behalf of the more than 65 partners, all the people that will be fed in the next year, the families fostering and adopting kids, the people who will be invited to new church plants, the men on death row or the men and women in our correctional facilities, the people in our church who receive benevolence, and the men and women in unreached people groups around the world. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[B]

I just wanted you to understand that, like, when we say we're going to take an offering and go help people, we're not playing games. We're going to go help some people.

We're able to do everything that Sam just talked about because last year, in this year end offering that much money came in that would allow us to go do that. Well, we want to do that plus this year. So that's why we do it. We're gonna go help some hurting people and we're gonna go reach some lost people. And Sam and I were in my office last night talking about this weekend and we just decided like, there's, there's so many stories we could share, but there's just one more story that I was like, I just, I got to share that one because that one just. Man, it got my heart. Sam got a text about five or six weeks ago from a partner in Southeast Asia called aim, and they.

They had an opportunity to make a real difference in a certain community when it comes to sex trafficking. He text Sam said, hey man, we've got this opportunity. And we're sitting here going, is there, is there anybody who would be generous enough to help us with it? Because we need money for surveillance cameras, we need all the surveillance gear. We gotta hire us, we gotta pay The SWAT team, we gotta pay the local police, we gotta take care of persecuting these people. If this thing works, we gotta take care of taking care of these girls. If this thing works, like this is a thing. And because of what you guys did in last year's year end offering, Sam didn't even flinch. He said, Go. 36 hours later, I can't even tell you the country. 36 hours later, in a little town in southeastern Asia, two brothels were raided. 10 girls were pulled out.

Two of them, two of them were little kids, little girls. Ten girls were rescued from sex trafficking. And in the organization they sent us this, they actually framed this and they sent us this in a plaque. And there's stuff blurred out obviously for you know why, but says this. Oh, by the way, after it was over, they called it Operation Red Rocks.

October 15, 2025. Thanks to the generosity of the Red Rocks community, 10 survivors were rescued, two of whom were underaged. All survivors are now receiving healing care in Jesus name and in Jesus way.

Would you bring that room up? I just want you guys to actually see this.

I saw the pictures last night for the first time and.

Even though the girls faces were blurred out, like you could tell, could tell a lot. And this was one of the brothels, this was the room. And every door you see there is where they were holding prisoner, these little girls.

And men would come in, grown men would come in multiple times a day and they were forced to have sex with these girls. And me and Sam were talking last night, we were like.

Like we got to pay for a SWAT team to go in that room and get them out. And he said, I wonder if, he said, what would it be like if like the parents of these girls could come to Red Rocks church and just say thank you.

And then me and Sam started crying together like two babies.

We thought.

What if, what if the parents of those two little girls could tell us thank you. Like, could you imagine there's two families right now in southeastern Asia. They're girls were taken and, and they had no clue where they'd been. And they'd been held hostage in that room going through the unthinkable, unspeakable.

They're home today. Red Rocks. You did that.

And we're gonna keep doing that. We're not playing games. God's real. Satan's real. Heaven's real. Hell's real. There really is an enemy who wants to steal, kill and destroy. But there really is a Jesus who says, I'm bigger and I'm better. And he's given us the opportunity to partner with him. And so, yes, I do challenge you to excel in the grace of giving church. Because we're going to go help more lost people in the name of Jesus. We're going to go reach more dead, dead people that are going to come to life, mess that all up. People that are spiritually dead that need to cross over to life. You know what I'm saying? We're going to go reach lost people in the name of Jesus. That's what we're going to do, Church. And we're not gonna stop. Would you stand up with me?

God, I thank you. Not one of us has deserved the blessings that you've given us. If all we did was just start with your son, Jesus. We've never earned or deserved how good you have been to us, how good you are to us. But we thank you, we love you.

God, thank you that you've given us the opportunity to take part of what you blessed us with and to bring back to you. And as we do, we say, God, would you help us through the power of your Holy Spirit, would you guide us to find and help more hurting people in the name of Jesus, would you help us tell more people about your son Jesus, so that they can find.

Forgiveness and new life and heaven forever?

And God, it's our honor and our joy to get to partner with you. Thank you for giving us the chance. With everyone's eyes closed, I want to ask two questions. The first one is this. You are somebody you care about is going through a really tough time right now. And today you just say, man, would you just pray for us? We need God to do some miracles in our life, in our family and the life of someone we love. Would you pray for us? If that's you, just raise your hand. Going to pray together to the God who still does miracles? Yeah, a bunch of us. The second question is this. I know we're talking about our kingdom builders offering, but you've just been a part of a service where you have. You've just felt the presence of God. You can't explain it any other way than that. You felt the presence of God and you're like, yeah, I didn't expect this, but I can feel it in my heart right now. The God of the universe is calling me into a relationship with him. Like I know it. This is my time. I want to ask Jesus to forgive me of my sins. I want to put my faith in him. I want his spirit in my life. I want to go to heaven forever and I just know this is my moment today I want to say yes to Jesus. If that's you raise your hand I'm going to say a prayer for you. Amen. Amen. I see that. I see your hand too. Yeah, yeah, I see you. God thank you so much for what you're doing in and through this family. God we pray for miracles right now in Jesus name we pray for healings in Jesus name we pray for miraculous provision in Jesus name we pray for relationship restoration in Jesus name God you know what we're dealing with. I pray that you would remind us that you're here with us that you still do miracles. I thank you for the eternal lives that are being changed and God I pray that you take this offering and help us to be a part of partnering with you and let's go change the world in Jesus name and everybody said amen Church I love you so much. Let's worship.