SPEAKER_00: Let's get into the word, shall we?
SPEAKER_00: And before we do, let's just lift our Bibles up like we do around here, wave my Bibles around, make Jesus glad and devil mad.
SPEAKER_00: Say this together.
SPEAKER_00: Say, Heavenly Father, I'm glad for Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: I'm hungry and thirsty for more.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm tuned in to what the Holy Ghost is saying to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not listening for someone else.
SPEAKER_00: I'm listening for me, and I plan to be a doer of the word, not just a hearer, in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's look at a couple of places.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 8 and uh also uh Matthew 28.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 28, Deuteronomy 8.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look at Deuteronomy 8 first.
SPEAKER_00: I recommend you read the entire chapter, ASAP.
SPEAKER_00: I'm only going to read one verse, but it's it's so powerful what he said right before this verse.
SPEAKER_00: And so Deuteronomy 8.18, but you shall remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he swear unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
SPEAKER_00: And Matthew 28, verse 18, right after the resurrection, before he goes to heaven, Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power, that word power is exodusia, it's authority, all authority in heaven and earth is given unto me.
SPEAKER_00: Go ye therefore.
SPEAKER_00: So it's delegated to us, it's delegated to the church.
SPEAKER_00: All power, all authority in heaven and earth has been delegated to the church.
SPEAKER_00: And what's the context?
SPEAKER_00: Going into all the world and uh teach all nations.
SPEAKER_00: My margin says, make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's what we're to do at local church.
SPEAKER_00: Make disciples of all nations, people groups.
SPEAKER_00: Think about nations not as boundaries, not as borders, but think of people groups.
SPEAKER_00: And we're to make disciples of them and baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_00: And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: And tonight I wanted to share a message entitled The Antidote for Lack.
SPEAKER_00: The Antidote for Lack.
SPEAKER_00: You know, everyone comes up against lack.
SPEAKER_00: That's when you don't have enough, or you run out, you know, you've got too much month at the end of your money, you know, you don't have what you need to go forward.
SPEAKER_00: And uh the main thing to say is don't panic.
SPEAKER_00: Don't panic.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, remember.
SPEAKER_00: The word remember there in Deuteronomy is a covenant term.
SPEAKER_00: When I see that word remember, it's not just like God saying, okay, don't forget.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's using a covenant term.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God remembered Abraham when he heard the cry of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they were crying, you know, being as slaves, they were being beaten.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and he told Moses, I I remembered Abraham and I have come down.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's a covenant term.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so remember the God of your covenant when you have lack.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the first thing you've got to understand.
SPEAKER_00: He's there to help you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh He gave uh Israel power to get wealth.
SPEAKER_00: That's old covenant.
SPEAKER_00: But since we have all power, all authority delegated to us, why wouldn't we have the same?
SPEAKER_00: We do.
SPEAKER_00: We have the same power.
SPEAKER_00: All power has been delegated to us.
SPEAKER_00: That includes the power to get wealth.
SPEAKER_00: Now that word power there in the Hebrew, in Deuteronomy 8, is the Hebrew word koak.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, it means ability, it means authority.
SPEAKER_00: And then when you look at it closely, it means chameleon.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the lizard.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget years and years ago when I was studying these verses and meditating on them because I had lack in my life, and I was pressing in to what the word had to say about it, standing on the word, knowing what the word said.
SPEAKER_00: I was remembering the God of my covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And I noticed there, and so I looked up the word, you know, uh power, and I came across this in my in my concordance.
SPEAKER_00: Chameleon.
SPEAKER_00: And so I, man, I thought, chameleon?
SPEAKER_00: You mean the lizard?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, what does that have to do with wealth?
SPEAKER_00: You know, and he answered me in a vision, and it took me back to when I was probably 11 years old, and I was in the driveway of our house in Refurio, and I was sitting in the driver's seat of my dad's company car.
SPEAKER_00: He had a 58 Ford Fairlane, powder blue, ugly car, four doors today.
SPEAKER_00: But it had a radio, and I turned the key to, I got the keys off the table, you know, inside, and I turned the key to accessory so I could turn the radio on, listen to channel 55 on the radio, listen to, you know, music, and then of course I would make, you know, I'd act like I'm driving the car.
SPEAKER_00: I love, you know, I just couldn't wait to get my license.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just 11, but I wanted to drive, and so I was making, you know, engine noises, and I had a hold of the steering wheel, and I was just imagining, you know, driving down the road.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, and now remember, I'm asking the Lord about chameleon, and he's playing this like a Facebook reel, this little video of mine.
SPEAKER_00: I mean all the way back when I was a kid.
SPEAKER_00: And and all of a sudden I was surprised because plump on the hood falls this green lizard.
SPEAKER_00: It's about eight, nine inches long, pretty big for a lizard.
SPEAKER_00: And it was bright green, it fallen out of the tree that was kind of hanging over the driveway next to the house.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking at that thing, and I and it kind of I kind of chuckled.
SPEAKER_00: And while I was looking at it, it turned the color of the car, powder blue.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it just changed colors.
SPEAKER_00: And I really laughed out loud.
SPEAKER_00: I'd never seen anything like it.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know about chameleons.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know lizards do that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if all lizards do it, but this particular lizard does.
SPEAKER_00: And so God said it means adaptability.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say adaptability.
SPEAKER_00: See, he he that power has to do with your adaptability.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to be able to change uh direction.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to be keen in the spirit, especially in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: Keen in the spirit and quick to obey.
SPEAKER_00: You can't ride a dead horse.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we talked about earlier in the year, you know, God, I'm going to make all things new.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that word, uh, behold, I make all things new.
SPEAKER_00: I make, he lightens the load.
SPEAKER_00: He lightens the ship.
SPEAKER_00: So it sometimes we need to lighten the ship.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we need to maybe uh put in our resume someplace else.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we've gone as far as we need to go where we are.
SPEAKER_00: And if we stay where we are, we might miss the next train.
SPEAKER_00: And then you can be in trouble with lack.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's happened to me numbers of times in my life where I interrupted my supply by being at the wrong place at the wrong time doing the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: So it's all tied to hearing from God.
SPEAKER_00: It's all tied to your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Prosperity begins in your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about how hard you work, it's not about where you work, it's not about what your profession is, it's about your spirit, man, and how you take God's covenant seriously.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh you're not a victim, see, you're a victor.
SPEAKER_00: You know.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so we we need to keep these things in mind when we encounter lack, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we could say antidote.
SPEAKER_00: We could, you know, it, you know, you it's the anti-venom.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, it's part of snake bite.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, have you ever felt snake bit snake bit financially?
SPEAKER_00: I have.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just like you got snake bit, and nothing works.
SPEAKER_00: You're poisoned.
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's an anti-venom, there's an antidote that can turn things around.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so that's what I'm talking about tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I've got one, two, three, uh, four things to go over with you, I think will help you here in this rest of this 2026.
SPEAKER_00: God is doing new things, and some of you are gonna, you know, if you'll catch a hold of the message and become a doer of it, you know, God can do new things, wonderful things in your finances.
SPEAKER_00: So uh the first thing on my list is obey God, and that's in Deuteronomy 8.1, and he he starts out that chapter, all the commandments which I command thee this day shall you observe to do, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swear unto your fathers.
SPEAKER_00: So your prosperity and anything, health, anything, I mean, really prosperity and health, what I preach Sunday morning on health, it applies to prosperity.
SPEAKER_00: It applies to your provision.
SPEAKER_00: You can say lack is like sickness, lack is like infirmity, it's frailty of money, frailty of your finances.
SPEAKER_00: So it's the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was made poor that we might be rich.
SPEAKER_00: Might is on our side.
SPEAKER_00: So on the might side, we need to be obedient to God.
SPEAKER_00: What he's said to us, is there anything you've neglected?
SPEAKER_00: Omission or commission?
SPEAKER_00: Did you used to do something financially?
SPEAKER_00: Did you used to give?
SPEAKER_00: Did you used to tithe, and now you don't tithe?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, tithing, well, I've had people argue, they say, well, tithing, New Testament doesn't take any, that's what Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: I said, no, it's Bible, it goes all the way back to Adam.
SPEAKER_00: It is a spiritual law every bit as much as gravity is a physical law, it absolutely will cause your plane to fall out of the sky if you don't tithe.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not God doing it, it's you.
SPEAKER_00: You're you're, you know, I I've still got that DVD out there of my interview with Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Or Roberts in 2005.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll I'm gonna look into maybe doing a little uh uh thumb drive to where people can get that and plug it in their computer and watch it because just it's just as current right now in 2026 as it was in 2005.
SPEAKER_00: But to make a long story short, God told him, My people are cheating themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They're not tithing.
SPEAKER_00: See, only about 2% of people who call themselves Christians tithe.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's terrible.
SPEAKER_00: And we need we need to be 100% obedient to God, and tithing is when we don't tithe, we tie God's hand.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi says you're robbing God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't choose to call it like that.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like you take from him the joy of blessing you.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to see you blessed, he wants to see you multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: Just like he said in verse 1, he wants you to live, multiply, go in and possess the land.
SPEAKER_00: And the land is all your inheritance here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, later on in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So uh obey God.
SPEAKER_00: And another aspect, obey God now.
SPEAKER_00: Don't put it off.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said, Oh, I'll start tithing when I get this next raise.
SPEAKER_00: No, you start tithing right now.
SPEAKER_00: The reason you're not tithing is you say, I can't afford it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you're going at it from an accountant standpoint.
SPEAKER_00: You're sitting at your table and you're going down your list of outgo and your list of income, and 10% just doesn't compute.
SPEAKER_00: It's never going to compute.
SPEAKER_00: It's by faith.
SPEAKER_00: You put him first and you make everything else wait.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can't do that, that just means that you didn't obey God, that you disobeyed God and bought things and got involved with things that weren't his will.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't ready for you to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, throw that overboard.
SPEAKER_00: Get rid of that thing.
SPEAKER_00: Suffer the consequences if necessary.
SPEAKER_00: But tithe, don't cheat yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Be a tither.
SPEAKER_00: You know, tithe, tithing is something we do, but tither is who we are.
SPEAKER_00: I am a tither.
SPEAKER_00: And even if I make zero and my tithe is zero, which I've I've had that situation in my life a couple of times.
SPEAKER_00: I've no income, and that meant I had no tithe.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I'm still a tither.
SPEAKER_00: Just because I can't tithe, because I don't have an income, that's not, that doesn't exclude me from standing on the promises of the tither.
SPEAKER_00: What does Malachi chapter 3 say?
SPEAKER_00: He said, prove me now.
SPEAKER_00: If I won't open the windows of heaven, pour you out ideas, concepts, and insights, so numerous you can't hold them.
SPEAKER_00: He won't pour out money because he doesn't have money.
SPEAKER_00: He has ideas, concepts, insights.
SPEAKER_00: He knows where to tell you what to do with your money, where to what to do with your career, where where to go to work, how to make investments, how to do everything that has to do with money.
SPEAKER_00: He'll pour those out.
SPEAKER_00: So many you can't receive them.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'll rebuke the devourer for your sake.
SPEAKER_00: So guess what?
SPEAKER_00: He's the eater.
SPEAKER_00: The word there means eater.
SPEAKER_00: So when we're not tithing, what's happening?
SPEAKER_00: The devil's eating your finances, consuming them.
SPEAKER_00: It's like you've got a bag full of holes.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you get a you get a little money in a bag and it's just full of holes, and all the money leaks out.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and so, you know, you don't want to cheat yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's cooperate with these spiritual laws of giving and receiving, and talking about the antidote for lack.
SPEAKER_00: And make a decision.
SPEAKER_00: See, don't try to make up for what you didn't do.
SPEAKER_00: Just start now.
SPEAKER_00: Start right where you are.
SPEAKER_00: Just make a change.
SPEAKER_00: Say, God, I'm sorry, I should have been tithed.
SPEAKER_00: See, tithing is about honoring God, putting him first.
SPEAKER_00: You can't put God second because it won't work.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the tithe means you've honored him first.
SPEAKER_00: You put him right off the top.
SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, we do believe in giving over and above the tithe.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you may be in a situation where you do have to put that off for a little while until your finances improve.
SPEAKER_00: But I tell you what, he said, prove me now.
SPEAKER_00: Prove me.
SPEAKER_00: It's the only place in the Bible where God said, test me about this.
SPEAKER_00: Because he knew the devil would attack our finances.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that we would be consumed with concern about, you know, our income and being able to pay the bills.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's given us sure promises.
SPEAKER_00: So obey God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, um, Galatians uh 5, 6 says, you know, faith works by love.
SPEAKER_00: Faith works by love.
SPEAKER_00: So if faith is the engine, love is the oil.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I like what he told the Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: He said, bring that offering.
SPEAKER_00: It's a proof of your love.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if we love God, then we ought to give.
SPEAKER_00: It's proof that we love.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody can tell, oh God, I love you.
SPEAKER_00: And then you don't tithe, you don't give.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you're not bringing the evidence of the love.
SPEAKER_00: So your faith isn't gonna work.
SPEAKER_00: Your faith engine is gonna seize up just as surely as your engine will seize if you don't have any oil in the crankcase.
SPEAKER_00: So obey God in the area of finances.
SPEAKER_00: I remember years ago I'd moved back from corpus, broke.
SPEAKER_00: My company that I worked for, I'd signed a six-figure contract for a year, but I stayed a year and a half.
SPEAKER_00: In the last six months, uh, I didn't have a job, and so all my finances were falling apart, and I had to move back to Houston.
SPEAKER_00: And it was humbling.
SPEAKER_00: It was it was a tough time, and we had to move in with my sister.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard me testify.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and then Brother Osteen, you know, one Sunday morning says, I want everybody that needs a job.
SPEAKER_00: Stand up, and I'm sitting on the front row.
SPEAKER_00: 5,000 people looking at me.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I didn't want to stand up, but I had to humble myself.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I couldn't, I couldn't not stand up.
SPEAKER_00: I need a job.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody was hiring me because I was had been self-employed for a long time, and so they all said, you know, the people that would talk to me would say, Oh, you're overqualified.
SPEAKER_00: So, oh, thank God, overqualified.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that just means they didn't want to hire me because they knew as soon as I made a little money I'd be off doing my own thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they thought.
SPEAKER_00: So I stood up, and uh, you know, and so somebody that I knew saw me stand up.
SPEAKER_00: And I knew him pretty well, and uh so he called me the next day.
SPEAKER_00: He says, uh, John, he said, uh, and he didn't mention knowing that I stood up.
SPEAKER_00: He just mentioned that he called me and said, John, do you know anybody that wants to uh go to work for$6.50 an hour?
SPEAKER_00: And uh minimum wage in those years was$3.50 an hour.
SPEAKER_00: $6.50 an hour.
SPEAKER_00: And so I hadn't made$6.50 an hour since I was 15.
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I I thought, is he talking to me?
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say anything.
SPEAKER_00: I said, no, I sure don't.
SPEAKER_00: I said, but if I do hear about anybody, I'll sure let them know.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Oh, be sure to do that.
SPEAKER_00: I hung the phone up and the Holy Ghost hit me, and he said, uh, you better call him back before he gives that job away.
SPEAKER_00: And I was kind of astounded.
SPEAKER_00: So I called him and said, you know what, I repent.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I you saw me stand up.
SPEAKER_00: I'll what's it what's it involved?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm just painting a house.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just just need some laborers, and you know, I know it's kind of beneath your station, but I said, Well, I'd do anything to have a tithe and give some offerings.
SPEAKER_00: I need to do something.
SPEAKER_00: So I went to work for him.
SPEAKER_00: We painted a house, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I I hired painters.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a home builder.
SPEAKER_00: I never painted a house.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, I had to humble, I had to get lower than the devil, I had to get lower than the devil's accusations.
SPEAKER_00: I had to humble myself.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't gonna let the devil humble me.
SPEAKER_00: I humbled myself because I knew God would exalt me in due time.
SPEAKER_00: So right after that, two or three weeks, you know, got a little check, had a little tithe, got a little, able to pay a little off, you know, put a little offering, nothing like I used to, but at least it was something.
SPEAKER_00: And then he called me back and he says, another friend of ours that I knew, see, God was using people, see, God uses people in your life to bless you financially.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're so proud that you don't let anybody know that you have a need, well, you're cutting yourself off from your supply.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't go around with my hand in my uh my uh hand out asking anybody.
SPEAKER_00: I just I answered an altar call.
SPEAKER_00: He's there wasn't even an altar call, just stand up.
SPEAKER_00: So I did.
SPEAKER_00: So this second person who happened to work for a big candy company, and so he hired this man that had hired me to paint, and he was going to be kind of the superintendent, and he was in turn hiring me for the same money,$6.50 an hour, to go around to convenience stores, and they had these racks that I had to put together and hang in coolers, and I had to stock these racks with Snickers candy bars and Mars candy bars.
SPEAKER_00: It was Mars Candy Company.
SPEAKER_00: And uh they had this brilliant idea that people would just love here in Houston, would love to buy an ice-cold candy bar.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I tried an ice-cold Snickers, it almost broke my teeth, and it got all over my mouth because you can't buy it, and it just, you know, it was a mess.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, why would you even want that?
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't want that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and it didn't, it was a failure.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody thought so.
SPEAKER_00: But it it they paid me plus mileage.
SPEAKER_00: I've made more on the mileage than I did the hours.
SPEAKER_00: And I did that for three or four months, and I had a tithe.
SPEAKER_00: I see, I I'm coming off the bottom.
SPEAKER_00: I'm coming out of unemployment.
SPEAKER_00: I'm coming, I'm far below where I've been in my life, but at least I'm making this helping anybody.
SPEAKER_00: See, obey God no matter what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Obey him.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: Humble yourself.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: The second one is acknowledge or count your blessings.
SPEAKER_00: Old timers used to say that.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, count your blessings and not your sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Count your blessings or acknowledge your blessings.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God can't multiply what you don't acknowledge.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when 5,000 men, at least 20,000 people were out in the wilderness and they're hungry and it's getting dark, the staff, Jesus' staff, his disciples come and said, Lord, we've got to send them home.
SPEAKER_00: It's getting late and there's no place to eat out here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you feed them.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we can't feed them.
SPEAKER_00: That's too much.
SPEAKER_00: Even if we could buy the food, it's more than we could spend.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, where are we going to get food?
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and he said, Well, what have you got?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, all we got is this little boy's lunch, five loaves.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Bring it here to me.
SPEAKER_00: See, they had to count what they had.
SPEAKER_00: They had five loaves and two fishes.
SPEAKER_00: But what is that among so many?
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you might be saying to yourself, I'm I'm counting my blessings.
SPEAKER_00: They're not very many.
SPEAKER_00: Well, count them anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Find out exactly what you have, where are your assets?
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people just go by the seat of their pants.
SPEAKER_00: They don't even know what they own.
SPEAKER_00: They don't even know how much money they have coming in, and they don't even know how much money is going out, and yet they're praying for finances, but they haven't done their part.
SPEAKER_00: They haven't kept up with their own.
SPEAKER_00: Cost of living.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who I'm talking to, but I mean, you know, listen, we've got to we've got to do our part.
SPEAKER_00: It's a covenant, see.
SPEAKER_00: It's a covenant, it's two ways.
SPEAKER_00: So uh he said, Bring those loaves to me.
SPEAKER_00: And then he said, now have them sit down.
SPEAKER_00: After he had the loaves and the fishes.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he's got five loaves, two fishes, 20,000 people.
SPEAKER_00: How did he know he had 20,000 people?
SPEAKER_00: He said, sit them down in numbers of in ranks of 50 and 100.
SPEAKER_00: And by the time they all sat down, he could look out on the crowd and he could count how much need he had for what his supply was, which was not enough.
SPEAKER_00: And see, some people are too afraid to count up the need.
SPEAKER_00: Some people have fear and they don't want to count the need.
SPEAKER_00: They're afraid if they look at it, they'll just fall apart, they'll panic.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if you don't have the courage to find out what it is you need, how do you know when God has answered the need then?
SPEAKER_00: How do you know that God has answered anything?
SPEAKER_00: So you've got to just you've got to count it up.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to find, you've got to count what you've got, and you've got to count what you need.
SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, then you can expect God to multiply if you do what he tells you to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he blessed the bread.
SPEAKER_00: See, you ought to bless what you've got.
SPEAKER_00: Bless it.
SPEAKER_00: And break it and start giving it.
SPEAKER_00: Find what you've got and start giving it.
SPEAKER_00: Put an offering in the envelope even when it looks like you're broke.
SPEAKER_00: I remember I hadn't worked, I mean, my houses wouldn't sell.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have a job, and my company hadn't paid me in almost a year, and I had lived off our savings, and at the last of my savings, I pulled it out, and we had nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing in the bank.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, we got bills.
SPEAKER_00: I had no uh no cash flow in my business.
SPEAKER_00: It hadn't paid me a salary in a year.
SPEAKER_00: And so I started looking around.
SPEAKER_00: What have I got?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I had a uh life insurance policy that had$10,000 cash value.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I I cashed it in.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it was a$10,000 life insurance policy.
SPEAKER_00: Its cash value was$500 or something.
SPEAKER_00: I got rid of the life insurance policy.
SPEAKER_00: That's not too wise, but I needed the money to add$500.
SPEAKER_00: And then I looked at my safe and I had five gold coins, uh, you know, South African crew grants, one ounce each.
SPEAKER_00: I'd paid$350 each for them.
SPEAKER_00: It's five of them.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, I could go sell those.
SPEAKER_00: And God said, give those in the offering.
SPEAKER_00: Give them in the offering.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh I got an offering envelope.
SPEAKER_00: And these coins, you know, they're heavy.
SPEAKER_00: They're at one ounce, and they and I'd put five of them in one Lakewood church offering envelope.
SPEAKER_00: I checked Brother Osteen's name on it, made sure he got it, and I taped the, I put tape all around it, you know, and I dropped it in the offering the next Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so see, I obeyed God.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I'll never forget, I mean, I can't say that I had all that much faith because it just seemed like goodbye forever.
SPEAKER_00: But what was$1,600 and$1,700 worth of gold coin gonna do me anyway?
SPEAKER_00: I'm way behind.
SPEAKER_00: The need was was$20,000, and all I got is five loaves.
SPEAKER_00: God's gonna have to multiply somehow.
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all with me now?
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh the end result is that the phone rang.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody I knew that needed help in Corpus Christi, and that opened the door for me to move to Corpus and sign that six-figure contract.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was after we gave under pressure.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I tell you, when you give like that, when the devil says you're done and you just punch him right in the face with your giving, I'm telling you, that's when your breakthrough starts to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the widow in her jars at 2 Kings 4.
SPEAKER_00: She had no, you know, she had no hope.
SPEAKER_00: Her husband had died, she had two sons, or creditors are come take her sons away from her.
SPEAKER_00: She cried to the prophet, you know, Elisha, what'll I do?
SPEAKER_00: She said, Well, what have you got in the house?
SPEAKER_00: Well, nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, I got a pot of oil.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what's what's that?
SPEAKER_00: A pot of oil?
SPEAKER_00: What's that?
SPEAKER_00: I don't, that's nothing.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Okay, go through the neighborhood, borrow a lot of jars.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just borrow a few, borrow as many as you can.
SPEAKER_00: And so she goes and does that.
SPEAKER_00: Goes to every neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Can I borrow some uh water vessels?
SPEAKER_00: I probably I picture them probably stone water vessels, you know, pretty big, heavy.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know what kind of vessels they were, but they the sons went through the neighborhood, they they filled the house up, there wasn't room for another jar.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Okay, now shut the door and pour out of your oil into those empty jars.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so she did that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how foolish is that?
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna go very far.
SPEAKER_00: Well, God multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: See, she had she had it all lined up, she knew what the need was.
SPEAKER_00: She had, let's just say she had 50 jars and she's got one jar of oil.
SPEAKER_00: The need is 50 jars if you're gonna fill them all, and she's got one.
SPEAKER_00: So what did God do?
SPEAKER_00: She starts filling and then she just kept filling and kept filling, just like Jesus kept breaking and kept breaking.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, it's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's a spiritual law.
SPEAKER_00: If you will not let the devil lie to you and say you can't tithe and give.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's when you stand up on your hind legs.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even an animal will, well, if it's cornered, is going to come out after you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: When the devil has us cornered, you come after him with everything you got.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh when she did that, after she got the last one, the oil stayed.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't any more left.
SPEAKER_00: And so the prophet said, okay, sell the oil, pay your debt, and live off the rest.
SPEAKER_00: So God took care of it.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, God will take care of your lack.
SPEAKER_00: He's got this is the antidote for lack.
SPEAKER_00: I said, this is the antidote for lack.
SPEAKER_00: So take inventory, uh, both of what you have and what you uh have need of.
SPEAKER_00: All right, number three, uh, we find in 1 Timothy chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: Let's turn over there.
SPEAKER_00: Are you getting anything out of this?
SPEAKER_00: I'm having so much fun preaching this and reliving some of the things God has done for me in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's been an ever, a very present help in time of trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I was a slow learner.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still learning about finances.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Timothy chapter uh 6, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Charge them that are rich in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say, Well, I'm not rich.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you are.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was made poor that you might be rich.
SPEAKER_00: He considers you rich, he considers you healed, he considers you blessed, he considers you saved.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: It's all the same.
SPEAKER_00: Rich just means having an abundant supply.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: Charge them that are rich in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Besides that, you live in America.
SPEAKER_00: It's the richest country on the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: How would you like living in Iran right now?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think their inflation rate is 6,000%.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they they they they're broke.
SPEAKER_00: So uh charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
SPEAKER_00: See, he it doesn't bankrupt heaven for you to have good things and uh drive a good car, live in a nice home, and wear good clothes and have nice shoes like mine.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I used to have one pair of shoes and had a hole in it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, every time I buy another pair of shoes, I let the devil know you're never gonna do that to me again.
SPEAKER_00: I kick him in the face with it.
SPEAKER_00: I remind him.
SPEAKER_00: So he gives you richly all things to enjoy.
SPEAKER_00: I enjoy shoes.
SPEAKER_00: You don't enjoy them.
SPEAKER_00: That's all right, doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you enjoy.
SPEAKER_00: He gives it to you.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, charge them that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.
SPEAKER_00: Communicate means give.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what you have to stay when you're under pressure financially, is be ready to give, willing to distribute.
SPEAKER_00: Now you're getting over what you didn't have and you're counting your blessings, and you're gonna sew part of it.
SPEAKER_00: Just like I did.
SPEAKER_00: I sold some of my I sold the whole gold coins.
SPEAKER_00: I sold them all, sold the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: After we moved into this building, uh I had a businessman that was coming to church at that time, and he said, I've got something I want to give you.
SPEAKER_00: And he brought me five gold Kruger rands.
SPEAKER_00: Only this time they were worth about$800 a piece.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know my story.
SPEAKER_00: I'd never told the story before.
SPEAKER_00: I just laughed.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, well, you missed God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm believing for a hundredfold return.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, no, I didn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so answer lack.
SPEAKER_00: See, lack is shouting you at you.
SPEAKER_00: Lack is saying, I'm victorious, lack is saying I'm gonna put you under.
SPEAKER_00: And you answer lack with words and actions.
SPEAKER_00: I remember one time during that point of time uh, you know, uh living uh in my sister's house.
SPEAKER_00: They had since moved out and moved someplace else, and we were there by ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: But someone gave us a car, and uh it was on in the driveway, and and uh a couple of weeks went by, brother Osteen started receiving an offering for uh seven years of harvest.
SPEAKER_00: He was doing missions, he was really had a vision for for India, and he was trying to amass a big war chest to to give and to break open uh uh Indian uh ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And I really wanted to give, but there were just we could we were tithing, we had an income, but it was just I had no credit, I couldn't float anything.
SPEAKER_00: I uh if I had a credit card, I could have given a little offering and then maybe believe God to work my budget out, but I didn't have that.
SPEAKER_00: So we were we were just strictly tithing at that time, hadn't given an offering in a while, and just hadn't had anything extra.
SPEAKER_00: And I looked at that car and I thought, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have a family meeting tonight.
SPEAKER_00: So we went to Lakewood on Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: I drove out the driveway past that car.
SPEAKER_00: There's a little Buick Skylark, medium-sized car.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, uh, let's have a family meeting.
SPEAKER_00: I said, you know, it's been a long time since we've been able to give an offering.
SPEAKER_00: Brother Osteen's receiving this offering.
SPEAKER_00: What do y'all think about this?
SPEAKER_00: I want everybody to give me your.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't like it, tell me.
SPEAKER_00: I want everybody to tell me because we're in this together.
SPEAKER_00: And my kids were younger, you know.
SPEAKER_00: My son was a maybe early teens.
SPEAKER_00: My daughter was late teens, and of course, Gladys.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I want to take that Buick out there and put it in the paper for$1,800.
SPEAKER_00: I think it'll sell quick for$1,800.
SPEAKER_00: I want to put that money in the offering.
SPEAKER_00: What do y'all think about that?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to do that?
SPEAKER_00: Gladys, do you ever drive that car?
SPEAKER_00: No, I hadn't driven it one time.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Claire, have you ever driven that?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Jay, I know you hadn't driven it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have your driver's license.
SPEAKER_00: So I said, what do y'all think?
SPEAKER_00: And they all, yeah, I think that's a good idea.
SPEAKER_00: So I put an ad in the paper back then.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you did.
SPEAKER_00: Put an ad in the paper, I mean it sold within, I mean the first day.
SPEAKER_00: And we took that$1,800 and we put it all in the offering.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I tell you, I just smacked the devil right in the face.
SPEAKER_00: I felt so good to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_00: See, God loves a cheerful giver.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all getting anything out of this tonight?
SPEAKER_00: And so, in the mission, see, notice in Deuteronomy 8.18, what's the purpose?
SPEAKER_00: So he can establish his covenant.
SPEAKER_00: See, he wants to establish his covenant, his new covenant through all the people of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to make disciples and all the peoples of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: There are just millions, billions of people that haven't heard the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so when we sow into the into the local church and and make disciples, we're we're fulfilling Deuteronomy 8.18.
SPEAKER_00: All right, the last one that I want to share with you is one that God gave me and such a rich uh inheritance about this verse.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at Isaiah 45.
SPEAKER_00: So, real quick, now, number one, obey God, whether it's omission or commission.
SPEAKER_00: Find out what you haven't done.
SPEAKER_00: If it's not tithing, tithe.
SPEAKER_00: Ask God to forgive you and start tithing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said we should tithe.
SPEAKER_00: The reason there's not much in the New Testament about tithing is because they're all Jewish and they all tithe.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, he didn't beat, he talked a lot about offerings over and above the tithe, but the tithe he didn't have to talk much about.
SPEAKER_00: And then count or acknowledge your blessings, be ready to give, willing to distribute.
SPEAKER_00: Now, number four, Isaiah 45, chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: This is a prophecy from Isaiah about a king that came along 500 years later.
SPEAKER_00: That's what prophets do.
SPEAKER_00: Many times they prophesy from mountaintop to mountaintop, from eon to eon.
SPEAKER_00: And you think they're talking about tomorrow and they're talking about something way down the lit way down the line.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 45, 1.
SPEAKER_00: Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden or strengthened, to subdue nations before him.
SPEAKER_00: See, he was the king of Persia, and Persia, when he came on the scene, conquered the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: And now we're in Persia or ancient Persia right now, at Iran, taken over by crazy Muslims.
SPEAKER_00: So he's prophesying to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holded, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings to open before thee the two leaf gates, and the gates shall not be shut.
SPEAKER_00: I will go before thee and make the crooked places straight.
SPEAKER_00: I will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut asunder the bars of iron.
SPEAKER_00: Now this verse three, and I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So that you may know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God wants to prove to you he's the God of your covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's just to King Cyrus.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's to every king.
SPEAKER_00: It's to you.
SPEAKER_00: We're kings and priests unto God, according to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we're all kings.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the king of kings, and we're the kings he's the king of.
SPEAKER_00: And so let me give you some different verse 3, the different uh uh versions.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to give you the hoarded wealth of secret places, treasures that are hidden in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: In the Knox translation, he wants to give you their hidden treasure, their most secret hordes, I will hand over to you.
SPEAKER_00: You see, I mean, so what's he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: God knows where all the money is on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have money.
SPEAKER_00: Money's in the hands of people.
SPEAKER_00: Many of the people the wealth is in the hands of are people of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: They are unsaved.
SPEAKER_00: They are they in fact, some of them just hate God.
SPEAKER_00: So God's not a puppeteer, he's not gonna make them do anything, but he can make it very uh advantageous to them.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, angels can influence even the worst uh lost person on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: So uh there's there's hidden treasure.
SPEAKER_00: So I I I'd get on that, God, you know where all the hidden riches are.
SPEAKER_00: You know exactly where I need to be.
SPEAKER_00: You know uh, you know, if I need to be doing something else with my with my see at the at the job, at the time I got that, I was I was putting those candy racks in the coolers.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget this.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I just found this verse and I was beginning to, you know, meditate on it.
SPEAKER_00: And I had to drive to college station.
SPEAKER_00: Uh go to a convenience store there to put in some candy racks and stock them with candy bars.
SPEAKER_00: Drove all the way from spring to college station.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, I'm at Aggie, graduated from AM, and I pulled into that station and I looked across there and there's the Aggie Land campus.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, it just came over me.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, grief came over me.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I my eyes just started white, tears just started flowing out of my face.
SPEAKER_00: It was involuntary.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't, I didn't, I mean, I was so tempted to feel sorry for myself.
SPEAKER_00: I was so tempted to feel beat down.
SPEAKER_00: And in the tears, I started laughing.
SPEAKER_00: I said, ha ha ha, God's given me the treasures of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: The hidden riches of secret places are mine.
SPEAKER_00: He's loosened the loins of kings on my behalf.
SPEAKER_00: See, I just I don't care.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, praise God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I just I just shook it off.
SPEAKER_00: See, you can you can't you can't get over lack by having a pity party.
SPEAKER_00: You can't get over lack by being afraid.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to you've got to sink your teeth into the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the God of your covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he's in there with you, and he's in there to uh to provide for you.
SPEAKER_00: And remember in Luke 6, 38, when you give, Jesus said this, when you give, give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give unto your bosom.
SPEAKER_00: And when I look back at the blessing that I've received, much of the blessing financially that I have received has come from my divine associations.
SPEAKER_00: Not by me putting my hand out and saying, Oh, would you, can you spare a dime?
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: But somehow, people that I know, people that I'm networking with, you know, somehow God is able to look on them and move on them and draw on the covenant he has with them and bless me.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and you know, that's how many times your breakthrough starts.
SPEAKER_00: So, uh, the antidote for lack.
SPEAKER_00: Did you get anything out of this tonight?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, lift your hands and receive.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for this year of the new, 2026.
SPEAKER_00: We're determined to receive all the new things, to throw overboard anything that's obsolete, anything that's not profitable, anything that's that's uh that's uh, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're we're not glued to anything.
SPEAKER_00: We've got your plan.
SPEAKER_00: Your plan alone is what matters to us.
SPEAKER_00: And we give you praise and glory and honor.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.