Speaker 1: Good to be in the house of the Lord.
Speaker 1: Better than any cell in Gregg County, matter of fact, better than any cell in any county.
Speaker 1: Let's widen the birth of that a little bit.
Speaker 1: It's good to be here today.
Speaker 1: Y'all excited to hear the word from the Lord today.
Speaker 1: Some of you, I got you trained.
Speaker 1: The other ones you'll learn If you'll stand for the reading of God's word.
Speaker 1: Don't this stage look good over here with this corner on it?
Speaker 1: You may never even noticed it before.
Speaker 1: If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's fine.
Speaker 1: But thank you, brother Joe, for doing that.
Speaker 1: I called him Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it looks good.
Speaker 1: Got lots of room for Dale to dance over there.
Speaker 1: Calm down, calm down.
Speaker 1: That wasn't an invitation.
Speaker 1: He stepped up on that step and he was like you don't understand this, but when I step on something and it don't give, it's solid.
Speaker 1: So look with me at Acts, chapter 20, verse 35.
Speaker 1: Acts, chapter 20, verse 35.
Speaker 1: If you got it, say amen.
Speaker 1: If you need some more time, say hold up.
Speaker 1: And if you want to look, you can look up here too.
Speaker 1: Thank God for technology, right, it helps lazy people not have to look up anything.
Speaker 1: Oh, oh, you didn't.
Speaker 1: Oh, come on, you could have some fun.
Speaker 1: In church Acts, chapter 20, verse 35.
Speaker 1: And it says I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard.
Speaker 1: You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Speaker 1: We're going to put that to the test.
Speaker 1: If you said what you mean, let's pray.
Speaker 1: Father, we thank you so much for your presence here today.
Speaker 1: I pray, lord, that every person under the sound of my voice, whether in person or online, watching right now that their lives be transformed, that their whole trajectory of where they are headed will be moved and aimed towards you.
Speaker 1: Now, in the name of Jesus, we pray Amen, amen.
Speaker 1: You may be seated, look to your neighbor and say we're going somewhere.
Speaker 1: We are going somewhere.
Speaker 1: I was talking with, actually, the guy who's over here, brother Dale, before church today.
Speaker 1: He was talking about when Jesus was on the cross.
Speaker 1: He had the guy who went with him into paradise, into heaven, the guy who didn't want nothing to do with it and mocked him.
Speaker 1: I believe that that is a good example of the choices that we have available to us.
Speaker 1: You either choose him or you do not.
Speaker 1: There's no in between.
Speaker 1: There's no gray area here.
Speaker 1: You either choose Jesus as your Lord and Savior or you do not.
Speaker 1: There's no in between.
Speaker 1: There's no gray area here.
Speaker 1: You either choose Jesus as your Lord and Savior or you do not.
Speaker 1: And I want you to think about this.
Speaker 1: What are you doing in your spiritual walk?
Speaker 1: What are you doing in your Christian walk that has been reserved and not following what God has told you to do?
Speaker 1: Imagine the gates and the blessings that would open up and pour into your life If you would stop resisting what God would tell you to do.
Speaker 1: This is not me, this is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 1: Now, this is so crazy.
Speaker 1: Okay, I walked in.
Speaker 1: I actually have, in my message today, part of the thing that we say up here.
Speaker 1: It's actually scripture.
Speaker 1: We're going to read that in a minute.
Speaker 1: God has blessings for everybody in here, but do not be so short-sighted that you think blessings are green, that you think that your bank account gets larger the more God blesses you, because that's not actually the case.
Speaker 1: So today, the title is when you Stop Holding Back when you Stop Holding Back.
Speaker 1: Now, I don't know about you, but I love this verse.
Speaker 1: If I'm on the receiving end you.
Speaker 1: But I love this verse If I'm on the receiving end.
Speaker 1: Am I the only selfish person in the house today?
Speaker 1: Am I the only truthful person in the house today?
Speaker 1: I love when it says you are more blessed to give than you are received.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, come on.
Speaker 1: You don't you want to be a blessing?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I like to get matter of fact.
Speaker 1: You may understand this, but by the time we leave here today, you will.
Speaker 1: We are conditioned to want to get.
Speaker 1: There's something inside of me and this happens throughout the Bible.
Speaker 1: Maybe none of you are flesh, but I am that when the Bible says to do something and it's supposed to be for my good it's usually for the blessing of somebody else.
Speaker 1: That I don't like Got some head turns sideways on that one.
Speaker 1: A lot of times, when God's leading us to a better place out of a season of despair and out of a dry desert land, it's oftentimes through the giving and blessing of somebody else to somebody else.
Speaker 1: Now, this doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make sense either when the Bible says to leave the altar of sacrifice and go make right when someone has done wrong to you not if you've done wrong to them but go make it right.
Speaker 1: If they have done wrong to you, them but go make it right if they have done wrong to you.
Speaker 1: That does not sit well with my mind.
Speaker 1: I have to work hard to bend my will to God's will in that direction.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because I want to pray hell and brimstone on my enemy.
Speaker 1: Am I the only one?
Speaker 1: I want to pray down the wrath of God.
Speaker 1: Oh Old Testament Lord, come down in your mighty hand and smite thine enemy and tell me how good it would feel if you get to actually see it happen.
Speaker 1: Come on, some of y'all be whipping out a praise dance in a heartbeat If your enemy right in front of you, you just see them.
Speaker 1: Something magical and invisible smacks them through the air and they go fly and screaming.
Speaker 1: You be dancing in the corner, won't he do it?
Speaker 1: You would be so happy and excited.
Speaker 1: But oftentimes, matter of fact, every time in the scripture it says to pray blessings over those that curse you.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I gotta work at that.
Speaker 1: That takes effort for me to do that.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because the way that I feel is justified.
Speaker 1: This is where it gets hurtful.
Speaker 1: Because you know that how you feel is accurate and true and the way they acted and responded or whatever they did is false and it's going to burn in hell.
Speaker 1: But the Bible says to pray blessings over your enemies, matter of fact.
Speaker 1: We talked about this I think it was Wednesday night.
Speaker 1: We were talking about forgiveness.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'll forgive them when they come ask for it.
Speaker 1: That's not what the word says.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, forgiveness is oftentimes nothing to do with the person that has done something offensive to you.
Speaker 1: It's actually to heal you and free you.
Speaker 1: Because when you begin to forgive and pour blessings out from a place that you don't want to, you're bending your will, you're submitting your spirit, your flesh to God and when you begin to do this, blessings begin to manifest in your life.
Speaker 1: That was all free.
Speaker 1: That wasn't even in the message.
Speaker 1: But I love when it starts talking about giving and I love when it talks about receiving.
Speaker 1: But I really fight against it when it starts saying sacrificially.
Speaker 1: I mean, am I the only person that likes to say I'm a giver until it starts dipping in places where it hurts?
Speaker 1: Y'all can glide on me and you're nervously laughing because you know it's you, because it's me, it is me, the Bible tells me to give and I'm like okay, let me tell you a story.
Speaker 1: God taught me this about giving.
Speaker 1: We were youth pastors before we come here.
Speaker 1: We're youth pastors, worship leaders and associate pastors and maintenance and yard people.
Speaker 1: We had a lot of hats.
Speaker 1: I thought about just getting a t-shirt with everything listed.
Speaker 1: So, whatever they called out, I'd know yeah, that's me.
Speaker 1: You know you get a small church, you have a lot of things you have to do and you just chip in and do whatever.
Speaker 1: So we were at we were at a youth uh camp for the summertime.
Speaker 1: We had about eight kids that went and me being the holy youth pastor that I was.
Speaker 1: When they took up offering the first night, I knew I had cash in my pocket, in my wallet.
Speaker 1: I had smaller bills for the offering.
Speaker 1: I had larger bills for my food for the whole week.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not telling you you need to work out your salvation and what God speaks to you, but I'm telling you what he spoke to me and how he worked it out in me.
Speaker 1: He showed me this.
Speaker 1: Thank God it wasn't through a hard lesson.
Speaker 1: Anybody else learn that way.
Speaker 1: It sinks in real good when it's tough.
Speaker 1: The tougher it is, the more I remember it will not go there again.
Speaker 1: I learned my lesson one good time, but it's a good doozy.
Speaker 1: But this time, god took mercy and grace on me and he allowed me just to sit there and soak in what he had for me.
Speaker 1: And so this is what happened.
Speaker 1: They said we're going to take up the offering, and so I reached in my wallet like a good Christian person and I took out a $5 bill.
Speaker 1: Now listen, when you go in the grand scheme of for four or five days, $100 was my budget for food and snacks and everything.
Speaker 1: Four or five days, $100 was my budget for food and snacks and everything.
Speaker 1: That seems like a lot.
Speaker 1: Well, god said why is it, when you are called to give, you always reach for the least but expect the best back?
Speaker 1: Did anybody else feel that?
Speaker 1: I still feel it to this day, because God asks for us to do things all the time, and if you think this is just about money, you're missing the mark.
Speaker 1: God asked us to give him everything that we are the best, that we have the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: What was the law?
Speaker 1: You had to bring your best to the altar.
Speaker 1: And how many times do we come before God and we only bring him our worst and expect him to turn it into our best.
Speaker 1: So in Acts, chapter four, verse 34, I want you to think about this.
Speaker 1: Think about the way the political climate is right now.
Speaker 1: Like I don't teach about politics, I don't speak about politics, but think about this.
Speaker 1: We have the government trying to take care of everybody.
Speaker 1: So what does that do?
Speaker 1: That creates a bunch of babies that always need to be fed milk.
Speaker 1: Okay, it does.
Speaker 1: But listen to this In the Bible, in Acts, chapter 4, verse 34, if you look at market, it was not the government's job to take care of the people, it was the churches.
Speaker 1: And that's why there is such issue today, because the government tries to come in and take care of things when really it should be the church.
Speaker 1: But can I tell you, today, in the modern church house, we love to make sure that we're taken care of here.
Speaker 1: Everybody else can fend for themselves out there and that is directly against scripture.
Speaker 1: It said that no needy was among them.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine that?
Speaker 1: Like I can't wrap my Western mind around that.
Speaker 1: Like there's a lot of other cultures where a lot of families, mom and dad, everybody's in the same house.
Speaker 1: They got one whole thing and they all help together, they all cook together.
Speaker 1: A lot of farm families are that way Because you got to have hands on deck, there's a lot of things to do, and so in this culture here, everybody pitched in with everybody, matter of fact.
Speaker 1: You go on the read and they would sell their land and bring it into the storehouse so that nobody wanted I ain't selling my land.
Speaker 1: Now, listen, I'm not telling you that God's saying today to go out and sell any property you got, any vehicles you got, or your houses.
Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is what have we lost In a biblical context?
Speaker 1: What spirit have we lost that we don't give to those that actually need anymore?
Speaker 1: And now we get angry at those that have been produced out of our system.
Speaker 1: They're always going like this.
Speaker 1: They always want something Because the church is not stepping up and taking care of the needs.
Speaker 1: If they had a house, they would sell it.
Speaker 1: They would all pitch in together to make sure that no one went without.
Speaker 1: If, I'm honest, that is tough for me to even fathom anybody else struggle just to keep your house alive and eaten.
Speaker 1: Imagine if there was no want and no need anywhere, because the church was the church.
Speaker 1: Now, see, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I've had this conversation with my wife.
Speaker 1: I may have said it while I was preaching in the last couple of weeks but the church wants, they say, they'll wear t-shirts.
Speaker 1: We want the unchurched, the unloved, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1: But they want the kind of church because we don't want to actually have to do any work, actually have to do any work, because the true unchurched it's dirty, it's messy, there's addiction, there is always need.
Speaker 1: We don't want those people.
Speaker 1: We want the ones who already know a little bit of Bible, just enough to quote it so that we can feel like we've helped them and discipled them.
Speaker 1: There's an article in 2007 that was written.
Speaker 1: Now we're talking way back in 2007.
Speaker 1: Some of you there may not be any, some people in here they don't know when 2007 was.
Speaker 1: Let me help you.
Speaker 1: It was before Instagram.
Speaker 1: It was before Facebook, before we could binge watch Netflix.
Speaker 1: Anybody remember the Netflix where you had to actually wait for the video to come and the DVD to come in the mail Boy.
Speaker 1: We can stream today and got to wait for nothing.
Speaker 1: The only thing I have to wait for is finding the remote.
Speaker 1: Now some of you, if you're like me and you have this addiction.
Speaker 1: You'll cringe when I say it was before Amazon Prime.
Speaker 1: Two-day shipping that's got to be from God.
Speaker 1: But this article in 2007,.
Speaker 1: It told us that back in 2007, believe it or not, on your regular TV programming and radio, about 5,000 advertisements every single day, that you would come in contact with 5,000 a day.
Speaker 1: That's ridiculous numbers.
Speaker 1: Now, today, with all the social media and the ads and literally chasing after you in your phone, anybody ever say anything and you look at your phone and what you said is now on your phone Scary.
Speaker 1: Now the ads actually chase after you and are tailored for you.
Speaker 1: You click one ad scrolling through Instagram and now you're going to see one for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: That is just a different company doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: You click one ad scrolling through Instagram and now you're going to see one for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: That is just a different company doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: Now that has doubled and it has went to 10,000 a day Ads chasing after you.
Speaker 1: Now, why is this important?
Speaker 1: Because you need to understand that massive influence that comes from the ads in your life.
Speaker 1: What do I mean?
Speaker 1: In almost every ad, it's that ad's job to make sure that you feel like you cannot live without, or do life without, what they're trying to sell you, that you can't have a good, fulfilled life without having that new truck Like a rock.
Speaker 1: That might be copyright infringement, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Probably We'll find out if we're kicked off.
Speaker 1: And so you have these things in your life, these ads in your life that are always clawing at you, they're always chasing after you that you can't be fulfilled.
Speaker 1: Their products, their service, that they bring joy to your life.
Speaker 1: Connect the dots here for a second.
Speaker 1: They bring peace to your life and if you're on Christian singles ready to mingle, there'll be some love to your life.
Speaker 1: But they are selling you synthetic fruit for you to feast on with absolutely no nutritional value at all to your spirit.
Speaker 1: Now, studies show that the more ads we see as people, as consumers, the more miserable we are.
Speaker 1: The more ads we see, the more miserable we are.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because we begin to think about the things that we don't have.
Speaker 1: It begins to shift our focus from what we do have the blessings of the Lord and then it begins to get us on a track where we go deep into a hole of well.
Speaker 1: I need this to be successful.
Speaker 1: I need this to be fulfilled.
Speaker 1: I need to have this type of job to be fulfilled.
Speaker 1: I need to have this kind of relationship or spouse, or whatever you say.
Speaker 1: I got to have this kind of church to be fulfilled and happy.
Speaker 1: But if you keep going to different churches and you keep having problems, it's you.
Speaker 1: If you keep going to relationship and relationship and you're always getting shot down, always getting miserable.
Speaker 1: Oh, they do this to me, oh, they treat me this way.
Speaker 1: You're choosing wrong.
Speaker 1: You are the one that makes that decision, and so these ads are trying to make you make the decision.
Speaker 1: You ever watch a Dairy Queen ad on TV and all of a sudden, you want some ice cream.
Speaker 1: Can I get a hallelujah?
Speaker 1: The blessings of the blizzards.
Speaker 1: I got to get off that.
Speaker 1: It's getting close to noon, but every waking moment, think about this at least 10,000, and this is an average at least 10,000 a day chasing after you, telling you what you don't have and what you need.
Speaker 1: Remember, last week, we talked about all the hours to get eat up by everything in our life and we lay our head down on the pillow.
Speaker 1: We're like.
Speaker 1: I got one more hour.
Speaker 1: Oh, now I can give it to jesus, and then we wonder why our spiritual selves are dying and weak and malnourished just because we don't give god things first.
Speaker 1: We want him to take what is last, and the most ads that are out there say that you need to be happy and you need to get more and you need to acquire, you have to accumulate, and you can't have the good life without that new iPhone, your favorite brand of shoes.
Speaker 1: Y'all know me, y'all know me.
Speaker 1: I don't try to preach on shoes, but the Lord just pours it into me.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but what do we sacrifice for someone else that is not us?
Speaker 1: Brother Vernon, he hit the nail on the head today.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we come to God like this all the time Lord, I need something.
Speaker 1: And what does this do?
Speaker 1: It makes consumer Christians that always are coming wanting something from God instead of just coming to bless God because of what he's already done.
Speaker 1: And then we become these people and sometimes parasites to the church that always come, always want, always need, but never bless, never pray for somebody else's need.
Speaker 1: Now listen, don't get me bent.
Speaker 1: God wants to hear you.
Speaker 1: We want people in these altars, we want you to come and we want you to pray and we want you to seek God and we want you to bow before an almighty God and say God, I need your help, I need your mercy, I need your grace.
Speaker 1: Here I am once again, but do not hold back from praying those same blessings on your enemy, because the culture is screaming over and over and over again it's more blessed to get, it's more blessed to acquire, it's more blessed to accumulate.
Speaker 1: I don't even see the commercials, but I know I need more shoes.
Speaker 1: Girl, I moved you.
Speaker 1: I know how many you have.
Speaker 1: I told them when we were moving her.
Speaker 1: I was like man, she ain't gonna have enough closet space and there's like 20 closets in this house.
Speaker 1: That's what you get for raising your hand in church, but the culture screams that it's over 10,000 a day.
Speaker 1: It is more blessed to get, but Jesus had a very counter-cultural way of seeing things and introducing things and he said it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Speaker 1: So how much more should we allow the word of God to be pouring into us, to speak this truth, than we do the ads?
Speaker 1: That's hard.
Speaker 1: How can ads not get you?
Speaker 1: No phone, no tv?
Speaker 1: Oh, pastor, you're going crazy.
Speaker 1: But what are you willing to sacrifice to get closer to God.
Speaker 1: What are you willing to let go of?
Speaker 1: Listen, listen.
Speaker 1: I love social media.
Speaker 1: I have a business and I put social media stuff on there.
Speaker 1: I try to stay up with the times and do ads and all that.
Speaker 1: I'm the one putting out ads and trying to.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get your attention.
Speaker 1: But something that I learned is that when I would try to study the word of God, these little things that I have learned to hate called notifications would pop up on my phone and tell me that I need to come.
Speaker 1: Look at something.
Speaker 1: They're alerts, right, let everybody know.
Speaker 1: But Jesus said that it's more blessed to give.
Speaker 1: That sometimes.
Speaker 1: And listen, I love clothes.
Speaker 1: You still got a Palm Sunday shirt on, in case you're wondering, got palms on it.
Speaker 1: Have you ever held back being generous before Because it didn't feel like you had much to give, or you wanted to wait until you had more before you did give?
Speaker 1: Mm-mm, you know, if you always wait until you have more, you'll never give.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something about tithes 10% of $1,000, when that's all you got feels like a lot.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something 10% of $100,000, let me tell you something 10% of $100,000, that's a lot.
Speaker 1: You think when you have more you'll give more.
Speaker 1: But a lot of times you back up from that because, oh, I can't give $10,000.
Speaker 1: That's not God.
Speaker 1: Think about it.
Speaker 1: It's 10% across the board for anybody.
Speaker 1: But yet when you start getting more because you think you'll give more, it actually never works out.
Speaker 1: And a lot of times this is what I do when I give cash, especially when it's a small, like $1 bill or $5 bill.
Speaker 1: I do this I don't want nobody to see how little I'm giving.
Speaker 1: I fold it up to where all the numbers are inside.
Speaker 1: Nobody can see it.
Speaker 1: I do Because it's embarrassing, because I wish, wish, I can throw a thousand dollars in there, but I can't.
Speaker 1: But God showed me, when you go in to reach in for the least, you just give me your best.
Speaker 1: Now, some of you that may apply to money, some of you that may apply with your time, some of you that may apply with your relationships, some of you that may apply with your attitudes.
Speaker 1: Let's move on.
Speaker 1: Luke, chapter 21,.
Speaker 1: Luke, chapter 21, verse one through four.
Speaker 1: Luke, chapter 21, one through four.
Speaker 1: And it says this while Jesus was in the temple, he watched the rich people.
Speaker 1: Now listen to this, if you ever think you don't have anything to give God, shut up and listen to this.
Speaker 1: He watched the rich people dropping their gifts.
Speaker 1: Look, this is people with abundance and they're just boom, boom Dollar, dollar bills, y'all.
Speaker 1: They just flaunted because they know they got it In front of anybody who wanted to watch Dropping their gifts in the collection box.
Speaker 1: Then this poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins and Jesus said this I tell you the truth this poor widow has given more than the rest of them, for they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything that she has.
Speaker 1: Do not tell God his business.
Speaker 1: Do not tell God, oh, because I don't have this amount, that I cannot give it to you, or because I don't have enough time in the day.
Speaker 1: When you frame it up like that, it gets a little different.
Speaker 1: Oh Lord, I'll just get you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Now listen, probably none of us in here are so bold to say that, but we say it with our actions constantly.
Speaker 1: If you think you're good, because those words aren't coming out of your mouth, watch your actions, because we will do things constantly to put God last on our list to get to that day.
Speaker 1: That is why I say every single Sunday the challenge of 15, five minutes in prayer, five minutes of reading your word, five minutes of praising God.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because if you set yourself up and you start off with even just a little bit like this widow, did you give just a little bit God?
Speaker 1: This is all the time I got, or I can read the word as I'm traveling to wherever I'm going for work Give God time and watch him.
Speaker 1: Multiply your time, multiply your relationships that you need, multiply your bank account.
Speaker 1: This is not prosperity.
Speaker 1: This is just simple, simplistic, basic things that every Christian needs to know that, whatever you have, whether it is in abundance or whether it is little, what happened?
Speaker 1: What would happen if you stopped holding back?
Speaker 1: What would happen if the things that you've been reserved for yourself?
Speaker 1: Because he can take nothing and turn it into something, if he can take a homeless drug addict who was worth nothing and he could put a microphone in his hand and a pulpit at his feet, what can he do for you?
Speaker 1: A while ago, I stopped telling God what he can do in my life and then God began to work in my life.
Speaker 1: He began to change things around in my life.
Speaker 1: He gave me a new child coming, a little girl.
Speaker 1: That was our harsh desire and he gave us the name before we even knew we were pregnant.
Speaker 1: Imagine what God could do in your life if you stopped holding back your stuff from him, your heart from him, your mind from him, your money from him.
Speaker 1: God doesn't want your some things, he wants your everything.
Speaker 1: And every little bit that you got in the hands of God can be turned around and multiplied beyond anything you could ever dream.
Speaker 1: All he's asking is for you to submit control to him and put it in his hands.
Speaker 1: That's all he wants your nothing your time, your money, your talents, your gifts, even your heart's desire.
Speaker 1: We did our gender reveal yesterday and I asked you that morning.
Speaker 1: I said, are you going to be happy if it's a boy?
Speaker 1: Because we gave it to the aunt and they did a little cake pop thing where they went around and bit into it and whatever color it was, it ended up being what it was and it went like seven people deep and I'm like, oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: And I asked her what are you going to do if it's a boy?
Speaker 1: And you know we did.
Speaker 1: We do the parent response.
Speaker 1: Well, I just want it to be happy, I want it to be healthy, but both of us in our hearts we wanted a little girl.
Speaker 1: I said, well, I'm going to praise dance either way, because that means you got to give me another one.
Speaker 1: There's always a silver lining, because I knew that whatever it was going to be, it was God's choice and he was going to take care of it.
Speaker 1: And he ended up giving my heart's desire.
Speaker 1: Most of you know the story of how I was addicted to drugs, I was homeless, all these things.
Speaker 1: My son did not live with us, he was with his mom and I had a conversation with God.
Speaker 1: I said God because this is what I knew.
Speaker 1: And the pastor that was over us at the church we come from, he knew it.
Speaker 1: I felt it.
Speaker 1: We felt it we weren't pursuing it, but we knew God was going to lead us somewhere else.
Speaker 1: Actually, a year before we were called to come over here, my pastor took me to lunch and said you have my blessing for whatever God leads you to, a year before we were ever called anywhere, and him and his wife were crying at the table, and it reminds me of Abraham walking up the mountain with the son, and this was a blessing that God had promised him and the very blessing that God gave him.
Speaker 1: He said now I require you to sacrifice it.
Speaker 1: We love to be blessed by God, but we hate sacrificing what he gives us.
Speaker 1: And I had a conversation with God and I said, lord, lord, I don't know what you have for this family, but wherever we go, my son is yours.
Speaker 1: Protect him, because if he took us anywhere, that meant that we were going to have to leave him and we were in an apartment.
Speaker 1: We'd been married a couple years and we finally ventured out and made the step and we purchased our first home and the season was still a little cool it was in the springtime, but it was still a little cool.
Speaker 1: And I got a phone call and it was his mother, offering him to come live with us.
Speaker 1: I said, god, I felt like Abraham walking up the mountain.
Speaker 1: I was going to a place where I knew would be a place of sacrifice.
Speaker 1: But I said, god, whatever you lead me to, I will be faithful to you.
Speaker 1: And we went all the way to the top of that mountain and God said because you have been faithful over just a little bit that you have.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna bless you beyond what you know, and that's what God wants for you today.
Speaker 1: See, some of us wanna sit at the bottom of the mountain and we wanna wait with the blessing and we wait, and we want to wait with the blessing and we wait, and we wait and we end up leaving out the very important thing that God has not made you to stand there and just watch.
Speaker 1: He wants you to do some walking.
Speaker 1: Some of us are called to do some mountain climbing to get to the place of sacrifice.
Speaker 1: But if God leads you to the place of sacrifice, he will provide the lamb and the bush, because God is always faithful.
Speaker 1: You talk to anybody who has served God for an amount of years and they can say to you it has been hard, it has been tough, promised, promised over again that it was going to be rough.
Speaker 1: I was going to have to go up this mountain, I was going to have to do some climbing, but at the top, just in time, just in time, god showed up.
Speaker 1: And now, today, years later now, he's coming up to play piano and serving in the ministry with us, when I thought that my blessing was going to be taken from me and because of the drugs and alcohol I missed most of his life.
Speaker 1: But the summer, when he was about to go into the third grade, god gave it all back.
Speaker 1: Not only has he given back the blessing, but when I gave it to him, he returned it and put a burden in him and gifts in him.
Speaker 1: You cannot convince me that you sacrificing for God and giving him everything that you are does not work out, because I am living proof that when you allow God to be God over your life, everything will work together for your good.
Speaker 1: I want to get to the two points right quick.
Speaker 1: I had a little kid come up to me before service.
Speaker 1: I won't say who it was, I won't say her name, but it was Aaron's daughter.
Speaker 1: She asked me if I knew what time church was over.
Speaker 1: I was like what do you mean?
Speaker 1: Do you know that it's supposed to be done at 12?
Speaker 1: I said well, your parents been teaching you some stuff, so we're going to look right quick.
Speaker 1: Two qualities of a generous person To being generous.
Speaker 1: What if you stop holding back in your life from what God wants you to do?
Speaker 1: First of all, generous people plan to be generous.
Speaker 1: It's not an accident that 5-5 and 5 plus 2, what's the 2?
Speaker 1: One small act of faith and about one person.
Speaker 1: We got some empty seats.
Speaker 1: If you got some empty seats next to you, start and invite your friends, we'll make room.
Speaker 1: We got plenty of extra chairs.
Speaker 1: If you've got some empty seats next to you, start and invite your friends, we'll make room.
Speaker 1: We've got plenty of extra chairs.
Speaker 1: But that small act of faith it's not so that something magical will happen in your life it's to begin to build that muscle, because small acts of faith lead to great acts of faith later.
Speaker 1: You have to be generous on purpose.
Speaker 1: You have to exercise that muscle.
Speaker 1: Look at Isaiah 32 and 8.
Speaker 1: Isaiah 32 and 8, it says but generous people plan to do what is generous and they stand firm on their generosity.
Speaker 1: Once you plan to do something in your life, do not waver if God's told you to do it.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, it's my policy here at the church.
Speaker 1: If you ever think this church is after your money, my policy is to give your tithe somewhere else for three months and watch God do what he's going to do in your life.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean your bank account is going to turn to a million dollars, but it means you will begin to understand and live fully in the blessing God has for you.
Speaker 1: That's his principle.
Speaker 1: The reason you have to be generous on purpose is because selfishness is a part of our sinful nature.
Speaker 1: You don't have to teach a toddler to be selfish with their toys.
Speaker 1: You got two or three together and you got one that knows that's their toy and you're in their house, mine, mine and no.
Speaker 1: They know that real well Because I've been told no so many times and they understand mine.
Speaker 1: It belongs to me.
Speaker 1: We gravitate towards selfishness.
Speaker 1: No one taught them that.
Speaker 1: It's our sinful nature.
Speaker 1: So we have to fight against selfishness so that we can be generous.
Speaker 1: Like what if God tells you to go in line, not to just hurry them along because they're being slow, but to pay for someone's groceries?
Speaker 1: Some of you are like I ain't a millionaire.
Speaker 1: I understand that.
Speaker 1: What if you went to somebody else's pump and just said, hey, can I pay for your gas?
Speaker 1: What if you pay for somebody behind you in the fast food line as you're picking up food for your family?
Speaker 1: No agenda, no hidden nothing.
Speaker 1: They don't even know who you are, but you're just being generous.
Speaker 1: Generosity does not wait to be noticed.
Speaker 1: Generosity is that thing that does and moves on.
Speaker 1: Malachi 3.10.
Speaker 1: This is the, the pledge.
Speaker 1: This is part of the pledge.
Speaker 1: Bring all your tithes into the storehouse so that there will be enough food in the temple.
Speaker 1: If you do, says the Lord of Heaven's armies, I will open the windows of Heaven.
Speaker 1: I will pour out a blessing so great you won't even have enough room to take it in.
Speaker 1: And then he says try it and put me to the test.
Speaker 1: If God says to try me, I'll be foolish not to try him.
Speaker 1: But we have to exercise that generosity muscle and it will grow.
Speaker 1: It will become stronger, you will be more generous.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that your bank account will get larger.
Speaker 1: God is not a slot machine.
Speaker 1: You're not doing to get, because if you do that you're missing the whole point.
Speaker 1: That's not generosity.
Speaker 1: You don't give God your last, you give God your first.
Speaker 1: Let me explain.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about giving.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about your time for a second.
Speaker 1: I said it a minute ago your 15 minutes.
Speaker 1: You can do two of these at the same.
Speaker 1: You could do all three of these at the same time pray, read and praise and worship.
Speaker 1: You could do all these at the same time, so it can be five to seven minutes.
Speaker 1: But here's what I know when you begin to give God your time, all of a sudden, the time it consumes is amazing and it's never enough.
Speaker 1: When you begin to do things with God first, and it's never enough.
Speaker 1: When you begin to do things with God first, everything else will be added, because if you wait until your day is over, you will have good intentions, but you will lay down your head and say God, I'll get you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: If you wait, you will wait, meaning if I push it off until later, I will definitely push it off till tomorrow.
Speaker 1: If you wait, you'll wait, you'll say I'll do it later.
Speaker 1: And then later becomes tomorrow, tomorrow, next week, next week, next month.
Speaker 1: When you push God off, you begin to distance yourself from the blessings you need to draw close to you, distance yourself from his spirit that you need to be drawing close to you, distance yourself from his principles and his discipline that you need to be drawing closer to, not away from.
Speaker 1: We give God our first.
Speaker 1: We give God our first and our best and trust him to bless the rest.
Speaker 1: You know it's true because it rhymes we give God our first and our best and trust Him to bless the rest.
Speaker 1: Give God everything first in your life, because something that I've learned is that even when I put God second, he still puts me first.
Speaker 1: When you put something in God's hands, no longer listen to this.
Speaker 1: When you put what you have, when you put who you are in the hands of God, it's no longer your problem.
Speaker 1: Now, this is something I did when Tristan was a little younger.
Speaker 1: Then it was in 2020.
Speaker 1: I got a new truck.
Speaker 1: This is something I did when Tristan was a little younger.
Speaker 1: Then it was in 2020.
Speaker 1: I got a new truck.
Speaker 1: I had it on at the house over in Flint and I was out there.
Speaker 1: I was listening to worship music.
Speaker 1: I had my anointing oil.
Speaker 1: Next week, every single person in this church is going to walk home with anointing oil.
Speaker 1: We want to empower the people to begin to anoint things in your life, to begin to change the atmosphere of where you go.
Speaker 1: And I was anointing the truck and I was sitting there and I was crying and I was praying, and he walks out there and he said what are you doing?
Speaker 1: I'm taking the blessing of God and I'm anointing it and I'm giving it back to him.
Speaker 1: When we sold our house to move to Longview, texas, we were able to, with the blessing of that house, put a down payment on this house and be able to finish paying that truck off.
Speaker 1: In a year and a half it was paid off.
Speaker 1: Some of you that's like oh, that's great, that's good, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what the blessing did when I gave it to God.
Speaker 1: Not only did that sale make that paid off, but last year I sold that truck to get that SUV and that money went and paid off the rest of our debt and made us debt free.
Speaker 1: What have you been holding back and not completely giving to God and having it under the umbrella of blessing that God has for you?
Speaker 1: One of the hardest things to cut loose of is bad relationships.
Speaker 1: We will hold on to them until they kill us and burn us alive.
Speaker 1: Some of you here today have relationships still in your life that you should have left years ago and you wonder why your spirit is sick.
Speaker 1: The number two characteristic of a generous person is you round up, round up, round up.
Speaker 1: If we have a round up mentality, god will honor that.
Speaker 1: Listen to this Luke 19, 8.
Speaker 1: It says Meanwhile, zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said I will give my wealth to the poor.
Speaker 1: He just came to Jesus.
Speaker 1: He found salvation Boy's excited.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give my wealth to the poor and if I ever cheated anybody on their taxes, which they had a reputation of doing, so still today, come on, somebody.
Speaker 1: It's tax season, come on, we can be honest.
Speaker 1: He said I will give half my wealth to the poor and, lord, if I've cheated anybody on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much.
Speaker 1: This boy had a roundup mentality.
Speaker 1: If he had done anybody wrong, he was going to bless them back four times after giving away half of what he had.
Speaker 1: Can I tell you, when we come to Jesus for the first time, we get excited and we got our roundup mentality.
Speaker 1: And over the years we become selfish again and we start to round down Zacchaeus.
Speaker 1: He didn't just want to make things even.
Speaker 1: He didn't just want to make things right.
Speaker 1: He wanted to bless those he had done wrong.
Speaker 1: He wanted to go above and beyond.
Speaker 1: He wanted to round up.
Speaker 1: Some of us do this here today with forgiving people and mercy and grace.
Speaker 1: We only give it out when we receive it.
Speaker 1: We only give out if it's equal or lesser value.
Speaker 1: We don't want to round up.
Speaker 1: We're stingy shop owners.
Speaker 1: We don't want to bless anybody.
Speaker 1: We want to use the measurement of what other people measure to give unto us, and that is not the way God designed us to be as Christians.
Speaker 1: He wants us to give in abundance of mercy and grace for those that do not deserve it.
Speaker 1: How much of a testimony of God's goodness, his love, his mercy and His grace if you love and give grace and mercy to those who have done you wrong.
Speaker 1: That is what fills a church house.
Speaker 1: Not being stingy with salvation, mercy and grace and love.
Speaker 1: We use other people to measure what God has told you to give in abundance and make that your give meter.
Speaker 1: We need to be what God has told you to give in abundance and make that your give meter.
Speaker 1: We need to be seeking God.
Speaker 1: Lord, what will you have me give?
Speaker 1: What will you have me do?
Speaker 1: What am I not fully giving over to you?
Speaker 1: Can I be honest?
Speaker 1: I've touched on money.
Speaker 1: This is actually the first money anything I've ever preached in my entire life.
Speaker 1: But I believe today a lot of us are robbing God of time.
Speaker 1: You can earn more money in your life, but you can never earn more time.
Speaker 1: Once it's gone, it's gone.
Speaker 1: Like I said, if you think this message is just about money, you're missing the point.
Speaker 1: God isn't after your money.
Speaker 1: He wants your heart, and everything else will follow.
Speaker 1: If you give God all of your heart, everything else will follow.