WEBVTT NOTE Podcast: Acts 29 Vancouver Episode: Keys To Surplus Publishing Date: 2025-03-16T06:04:44-07:00 Podcast URL: https://acts29.ca Episode URL: https://acts29.ca/keys-to-surplus-march-16th-2025/ 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:17.600 Okay, don't know why but felt that we should talk about money. Not money for the church, 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:28.280 but money for you. Yeah? So that's why it's called Keys to Surplus. How does it work? How 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:35.000 do we go from a place where some of us—and at different times every person goes through 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:50.480 it—how do you go from lack to sufficiency to surplus? How do you go from lack to sufficiency 00:00:51.480 --> 00:00:59.600 to surplus? Because we can be poor for different reasons. In some countries, Christians are 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:05.160 poor because they are being persecuted. They won't be given jobs. They are hounded. I met 00:01:05.160 --> 00:01:10.400 them in Vietnam. I met them in India. I met them in different places. Sometimes it's our 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:16.960 family background. We come from a family that has been poor for sometimes a generation or 00:01:17.960 --> 00:01:26.560 sometimes it's debts that we run up knowingly, unknowingly. We run up debts. Sometimes it's 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:31.680 the responsibilities we have. We've got to take care of so many different things that 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:39.960 in taking care of those responsibilities, I don't have much and I begin to lack. Sometimes 00:01:39.960 --> 00:01:46.960 it's foolish spending where you ended up spending on something that you really had 00:01:47.720 --> 00:01:54.280 your heart on but you didn't really need. Sometimes it's an error in decision. You made a wrong 00:01:54.280 --> 00:02:01.280 decision. It cost you like crazy. Sometimes it's just loss where something happens and 00:02:03.720 --> 00:02:08.400 maybe you invested in stocks, maybe in something else, but there's a loss. Sometimes it's 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:13.800 a lack of a job. Sometimes it's a lack of foresight, not knowing what to do next. The 00:02:13.800 --> 00:02:19.440 different circumstances can bring us to a place of lack and that aside, we are constantly 00:02:19.440 --> 00:02:26.440 fighting a system that operates on money. The Bible calls that system sometimes Babylon. 00:02:30.320 --> 00:02:37.320 Other times the Bible calls it Mammon. Mammon is basically a system that craves for security 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:45.840 and our security is always connected to our money. And sometimes there is, like we see 00:02:46.040 --> 00:02:53.040 in the book of Job, an attack on resources by Satan. That's real too. We see so many 00:02:56.480 --> 00:03:02.840 stories in the Bible, particularly in Job, of how that happened. So if that's the case, 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:09.840 how do we go from lack to sufficiency to surplus? Because like it or not, money matters and 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:23.240 it serves you well, but if you're not careful, it becomes a tyrannical master. It becomes 00:03:25.200 --> 00:03:32.200 a tyrannical master, meaning it can really begin to dictate what you do. And that's 00:03:32.840 --> 00:03:39.840 where you go. It begins to own you. So how do you go from a place of lack to sufficiency 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:49.000 to surplus? Because money serves you well, but when it begins to master you, and it often 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:53.640 masters you when there's lack, or it masters you when there's greed, when it begins to 00:03:53.640 --> 00:03:58.000 master you, it begins to dictate where you go, what you do, what you can say, what you 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:02.680 can't say, who you can please, who you need to suck up to, who you can't suck up to. 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:09.680 It begins to determine how we function. So when we use the word surplus, what do we mean? 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:18.960 We mean, can I get to a place where there is an excess that's left over after all requirements 00:04:18.960 --> 00:04:25.960 are met? That's what surplus means. Surplus means an excess left over after all the requirements 00:04:39.760 --> 00:04:45.320 are met. I still have an excess. Now I can do with it what I want to. That's the meaning 00:04:45.320 --> 00:04:52.320 of surplus. What's lack? Lack is when all the requirements are not being met. What's 00:04:53.080 --> 00:04:58.960 sufficiency? Sufficiency is when your requirements are being met, but nothing further. And all 00:04:58.960 --> 00:05:05.960 of us fall into these categories, eh? God's intent is, hey, can I bring you from lack 00:05:06.520 --> 00:05:13.520 to sufficiency to surplus so that out of your surplus, others lack can be provided for? 00:05:13.520 --> 00:05:19.740 That's how he thinks. That may not be how you and I think, but that's how he thinks. 00:05:19.740 --> 00:05:26.740 Any questions thus far? I would like to live in a place where there is surplus, but the 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:41.360 thing is, if I come into surplus, will I think like God? Will it go into my surplus now helps 00:05:42.360 --> 00:05:49.360 someone else's lack, or will my surplus become just a massing of surpluses every year? That's 00:05:49.720 --> 00:05:56.720 a human tendency. It comes from a place of greed and security. And it keeps being postponed 00:05:57.240 --> 00:06:04.240 next year, next year, so that it gathers some more. So any questions? Because here's the 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:09.780 thing. When provision is absent, and I've said this many times before, when provision 00:06:09.780 --> 00:06:16.780 is absent, vision is shackled, and your wisdom is despised. When provision is absent, vision 00:06:18.060 --> 00:06:23.300 is shackled, and your wisdom is sometimes despised, sometimes despised. Ecclesiastes 00:06:23.300 --> 00:06:29.860 9.9 says, there was a poor man, and he had tremendous wisdom, and he wanted to share 00:06:29.860 --> 00:06:36.860 his wisdom with his town, but his town would not receive his wisdom because he was poor. 00:06:36.860 --> 00:06:43.860 Says so. Any questions? Okay, so as we go through these points, there'll be times when 00:06:51.380 --> 00:06:56.740 one or two of them will really hit you hard as in, this applies to me. If it applies to 00:06:56.740 --> 00:07:03.740 you, tick those ones and know that it'll really help you. And so one of the first ones is 00:07:03.740 --> 00:07:10.740 if you had a choice, and this is, I mean we'll all choose the right answer because we all 00:07:11.780 --> 00:07:16.860 know the right answer, but if you had a choice, and you were given the choice between seeking 00:07:16.860 --> 00:07:23.860 wisdom and seeking prosperity or surplus, and this happens to you when you're in lack, 00:07:23.860 --> 00:07:30.860 which one would you choose? Crazily enough, most of us, even though we would say the right 00:07:35.860 --> 00:07:41.060 thing now, in a time of lack, if you were offered wisdom or prosperity, you would choose 00:07:41.060 --> 00:07:47.020 prosperity. Many of us would choose prosperity. We wouldn't choose wisdom. And yet there was 00:07:47.020 --> 00:07:53.460 a man who was quite wise. Jesus said he was the wisest of them all. If you go to 2 Chronicles 00:07:53.460 --> 00:08:00.460 1, 2 Chronicles 1, 11 and 12, 2 Chronicles 1, 11 and 12, 2 Chronicles 1, 11 and 12, 00:08:07.340 --> 00:08:14.340 here's what it says. So Solomon is asked, what do you want from me? In verse 7, chapter 00:08:14.700 --> 00:08:19.620 1 verse 7, that night God appeared and saw Solomon. God said to him, what do you want 00:08:19.620 --> 00:08:25.980 from me? Ask. That's like a blank check. Ask what you want. He could have asked anything 00:08:25.980 --> 00:08:32.980 you wanted. And the guy has the wisdom to, you see it in verse 11. God answered, verse 00:08:36.020 --> 00:08:41.340 10, give me wisdom and knowledge as I come and go among these people for who on his own 00:08:41.340 --> 00:08:47.140 capacity is able to lead these, your glorious people. God answered Solomon, this is what 00:08:47.140 --> 00:08:53.020 has come out of your heart. You didn't grasp for money, wealth, fame and the doom of your 00:08:53.020 --> 00:08:57.860 enemies. You didn't even ask for a long life. You asked for wisdom and knowledge so you 00:08:57.860 --> 00:09:02.820 could govern well over my people whom I made you king over. Because of this, you get what 00:09:02.820 --> 00:09:08.540 you asked for, wisdom and knowledge. I'm presenting you the rest as a bonus. Money, wealth and 00:09:08.540 --> 00:09:14.580 fame beyond anything the kings before or after you will ever have. Crazy, eh? When it's a 00:09:14.580 --> 00:09:20.220 choice between prosperity and wisdom, at a time of lack, we will almost always go for 00:09:20.220 --> 00:09:27.220 prosperity when the right answer is wisdom. And in our lack, do you realize how rarely 00:09:27.340 --> 00:09:34.340 we ask for wisdom? It's not part of the need prayer. The need prayer is never, oh God give 00:09:34.340 --> 00:09:41.340 me wisdom, the need prayer is oh God please provide my needs. Little shifts, see, that'll 00:09:47.980 --> 00:09:54.980 make a massive difference because it's a principle that's in the scriptures. I know that there 00:09:56.140 --> 00:10:03.140 are many of you who are in lack or in places of efficiency and would love to go to surplus. 00:10:03.780 --> 00:10:09.820 Try to include this in your prayer. Oh God, can you give me wisdom? I choose wisdom because 00:10:09.820 --> 00:10:14.100 he will supply it without grudging and when he does, he begins to, what happens if you 00:10:14.100 --> 00:10:21.100 ask for wisdom? He begins to outline the steps you need to take. He begins to change your 00:10:23.100 --> 00:10:30.100 mindset. And he begins to bring you into the right path. He begins to change your mindset. 00:10:34.020 --> 00:10:41.020 Sufficiency and then into surplus. That's what wisdom does, it begins to change you. 00:10:44.180 --> 00:10:51.180 Any questions? So include that in your prayer when you ask for needs. I love that he outlines 00:10:51.260 --> 00:10:54.440 the steps. What's the next step Jacob that you need to take if you want to come into 00:10:54.440 --> 00:11:01.440 a place of sufficiency or surplus, if you want to come out of lack? I'll show you. 00:11:04.140 --> 00:11:11.140 The second thing is this thing called favor. It's very hard to believe in that God favors 00:11:12.060 --> 00:11:19.060 you. But he, as in God who owns everything, God who owns everything, wants to demonstrate 00:11:19.060 --> 00:11:26.060 his delight over me. His delight over me. Why? Because he's my father. He's my father. 00:11:49.060 --> 00:11:56.060 What's his intent? Can I, listen to this word eh, can I discipline you from lack into 00:12:04.500 --> 00:12:11.500 surplus? It's a process. It's not a freebie. It's hey, so you want to enter from lack 00:12:13.060 --> 00:12:19.020 into surplus? I'm your father. I want to show you my delight. But when I show you my delight, 00:12:19.740 --> 00:12:26.740 it won't be, it won't be just throwing stuff at you. I'll teach you how to stay here forever. 00:12:27.380 --> 00:12:34.060 So the intent is, this is very hard for us to believe. You know guys, there are few things 00:12:34.060 --> 00:12:41.060 that bring as much shame, fear, desperation, frustration, bad decision making, shortcuts, 00:12:42.060 --> 00:12:49.060 resentment, orphanhood as lack. Very few things do this. Very few things. It's one of the 00:12:51.140 --> 00:12:58.140 most powerful weapons. It strips us of all these things. It strips us of dignity. It 00:12:58.140 --> 00:13:05.140 brings shame. It brings frustration. It makes you resent your condition. It makes you jealous 00:13:06.140 --> 00:13:12.080 and envious of others who aren't doing half as much. Everything begins to come together 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:18.940 with this word lack. But in the midst of that, to actually think that God favors you, that 00:13:18.940 --> 00:13:25.500 the God who owns everything wants to demonstrate his delight over me. Demonstrate his delight. 00:13:25.500 --> 00:13:32.500 Delight that's not demonstrated is kind of useless, right? Demonstrate a delight over 00:13:32.700 --> 00:13:37.860 you. Why? Because he's my father and what's his intent? Can I discipline you from lack 00:13:37.860 --> 00:13:43.180 into surplus? Discipline not as in be tough, be hard. Discipline as in the same discipline 00:13:43.180 --> 00:13:50.180 that an athlete has if he wants to win a race. That kind of discipline. And so go to Leviticus 00:13:51.940 --> 00:13:58.940 26. Leviticus 26. Read it from the New Life, New Living Translation. Leviticus 26 verse 00:13:58.940 --> 00:14:05.940 9. Leviticus 26, 9 from the NLC. Leviticus 26, 9. God is telling Israel, listen, I'm 00:14:22.060 --> 00:14:27.420 delighted over you. I want to bless you. And then he says this in verse 9, New Living Translation. 00:14:27.420 --> 00:14:33.220 I will look favorably upon you, making you fertile and multiplying your people. And 00:14:33.220 --> 00:14:38.940 I will fulfill my covenant with you. You will have such a surplus of crops that you will 00:14:38.940 --> 00:14:45.940 need to clear out the old grain to make room for the new. Crazy, eh? Two words there, favor, 00:14:46.540 --> 00:14:53.540 surplus. It's in the scriptures. It's hard to believe because when lack surrounds you, 00:14:57.620 --> 00:15:01.900 or insufficiency surrounds you, it's hard to believe these things. But they are truer 00:15:01.900 --> 00:15:08.900 than your circumstance. It's hard for me sometimes to believe it. But it's truer than your circumstance. 00:15:11.300 --> 00:15:18.300 Any questions? Okay, third one. All these are more about God than about you. Third one, 00:15:18.300 --> 00:15:25.300 we've gone over this before, it's still hard to believe or grasp or stay in. Your God is 00:15:32.540 --> 00:15:39.540 an embarrassingly lavish, extravagant God. One of the things that I want to say is that 00:15:48.420 --> 00:15:55.420 what does that mean? That means he's generous in nature. In Eden, two things that were guaranteed 00:16:00.940 --> 00:16:07.220 to man and has never been rescinded is that God said, I'll provide for you and I'll bless 00:16:07.220 --> 00:16:13.020 you. These are essentials in the Garden of Eden that haven't been rescinded. Even though 00:16:13.020 --> 00:16:20.020 man fell in sin, these things were not rescinded. It's very hard. We don't think of God like 00:16:21.820 --> 00:16:28.540 this. How you think is what you inhabit. What you think is what you inhabit. What you think 00:16:28.540 --> 00:16:35.020 is what you inhabit. This is not how we think of God. We can think like this of our parents. 00:16:35.020 --> 00:16:39.900 You can think of a dad or a mom or sometimes an older brother or sister who was embarrassingly 00:16:39.900 --> 00:16:44.700 lavish. They would give you stuff in front of people. It used to be so embarrassing. 00:16:44.700 --> 00:16:49.060 You'd say, not now, not now. Or you can think of your husband or your wife who suddenly 00:16:49.060 --> 00:16:56.060 brings, yeah, husband comes with a huge bouquet of flowers that, not now, not now. So the 00:16:56.900 --> 00:17:02.660 whole thing being, it's embarrassingly lavish. He's extravagantly kind and that's not how 00:17:02.660 --> 00:17:07.860 we see God. Because we don't see him like this, we can't expect something of him. If 00:17:07.860 --> 00:17:14.860 I don't see Don as a mushy guy, I won't expect him to be emotional about anything. So once 00:17:22.900 --> 00:17:26.820 you think like this, you'll realize he's generous in nature. Go to 2 Corinthians 9, 9 and read 00:17:26.820 --> 00:17:33.420 it from the message. 2 Corinthians 9, 9, read it from the message. 2 Corinthians 9, 9, read 00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:40.420 it from the message. It kind of captures it. Let's start at verse 8. God can pour out, 00:17:52.740 --> 00:17:57.340 God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways. This is the New Testament, eh? So that 00:17:57.340 --> 00:18:01.100 you're ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be 00:18:01.100 --> 00:18:08.100 done. As one psalmist puts it, he throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless 00:18:08.460 --> 00:18:15.460 abandon. His right living, right giving ways never run out, never wear out. Crazy. Who 00:18:15.760 --> 00:18:21.060 thinks of him like that? You usually think of him as a miser who needs three hallelujahs 00:18:21.060 --> 00:18:28.060 and four songs before he is willing to release anything. But it says that he throws caution 00:18:29.060 --> 00:18:35.580 to the winds, gives to the needy in reckless abandon. His right living, right giving ways 00:18:35.580 --> 00:18:42.580 never run out, never wear out. Such a different way to think, eh? Fourth one. Man, those guys 00:18:42.580 --> 00:18:49.580 are loud. Despite the fact that we call God father, there are so many times in my life 00:18:59.860 --> 00:19:05.700 where I behave like an orphan. And it doesn't matter whether you're rich or whether you're 00:19:05.700 --> 00:19:10.260 poor, whether you have lack or whether you have surplus, you can behave like an orphan. 00:19:11.140 --> 00:19:18.140 An orphan is always thinking, how am I going to get it? How much should I get? How do I 00:19:30.660 --> 00:19:37.660 secure it? And doesn't trust anyone? And I don't know how to do that. And I don't know 00:19:41.260 --> 00:19:48.260 how to do that. This is how I behave sometimes. When I'm uncertain that the father will help 00:19:50.740 --> 00:19:57.740 me or supply my needs, I immediately go here. Whenever you see this developing in your head, 00:19:57.900 --> 00:20:03.900 quickly flip to the father, eh? Whenever this begins to develop, you're thinking, I don't 00:20:03.900 --> 00:20:08.620 know how I'm going to get it. Who should I go ask? How's this going to happen? Impossible. 00:20:08.860 --> 00:20:12.580 How much should I get? This is how much I need, but I better get more, because what 00:20:12.580 --> 00:20:18.380 if next month? And so you're continuously conniving, manipulating. And then you go to 00:20:18.380 --> 00:20:22.060 the third one, how do I keep it safe? I've got to make sure that I don't give too much 00:20:22.060 --> 00:20:29.060 away, that I don't invite too many people, that I give less, whatever it takes. And it 00:20:29.860 --> 00:20:35.020 kicks in immediately. And as that begins to kick in, immediately flip to the father, eh? 00:20:35.180 --> 00:20:40.060 This often happens when God directs us to sometimes make a purchase or give money away, 00:20:40.060 --> 00:20:43.900 then you suddenly realize your 100 bucks is now 20 bucks, and you immediately go into 00:20:43.900 --> 00:20:48.220 this mode. You were very obedient, and you did well, till God told you. But now that 00:20:48.220 --> 00:20:53.940 you've done it, and the water level in the dam is falling, you immediately switch to, 00:20:53.940 --> 00:21:00.940 I'll be an orphan who swims in shallows. I don't know how this happens, but it happens. 00:21:00.940 --> 00:21:07.940 What are we talking about? How do we go from lack to sufficiency to surplus? He is an impossible 00:21:09.900 --> 00:21:15.460 God, eh? Like as in he makes the impossible possible. So we aren't even talking right 00:21:15.460 --> 00:21:20.060 now about the way making, miracle working, promise keeping God. We're just talking about 00:21:20.060 --> 00:21:27.060 simple principles. Leave alone the other ways he provides. We aren't even touching that. 00:21:27.060 --> 00:21:34.060 Yet. Any questions? All the, yeah, go ahead. How do we unlearn this? We unlearn this by 00:21:34.060 --> 00:21:41.060 letting God approach me as father. An orphan can only be healed by a father. And orphans 00:21:44.380 --> 00:21:51.380 can't go looking for dads. Dads must go looking for dads. And if you don't have a father, 00:21:53.060 --> 00:22:00.060 you can't go looking for dads. And if you don't have a father, you can't go looking 00:22:00.060 --> 00:22:06.060 for dads. Orphans can't go looking for dads. Dads must go looking for orphans. One of the 00:22:06.060 --> 00:22:10.540 things God specializes in is looking for orphans. That's what he's been doing since the beginning 00:22:10.540 --> 00:22:15.820 of time. Looking for orphans like you, like me, and saying, can I begin to embrace you, 00:22:15.820 --> 00:22:19.940 show you how much I like you so that I can build up your confidence in knowing me as 00:22:19.940 --> 00:22:25.500 someone who won't let you down. That's the beautiful thing about this. The answer to 00:22:25.500 --> 00:22:32.380 this profound question is not that, okay, now I've got to go and find God and know him 00:22:32.380 --> 00:22:38.140 as a father. No. That he is father and he comes looking for you the moment you express 00:22:38.140 --> 00:22:43.060 a deep desire to be found. And sometimes it's not even in words. It's just a groaning that 00:22:43.060 --> 00:22:50.060 he hears. That's how all of us got found, guys. But we stop at salvation. We don't take 00:22:50.060 --> 00:22:57.060 it right through. I mean, just imagine if it stopped at salvation now that you've got 00:23:00.860 --> 00:23:07.860 a dad. All right, you're on your own now. That's a terrible dad. That's like a daycare 00:23:09.420 --> 00:23:12.420 dad. 00:23:12.420 --> 00:23:19.420 Yeah, you can apply to other different resources, including time, talent, treasure. Yeah. 00:23:19.420 --> 00:23:26.420 So one of the keys, one of the primary keys, if there's a favorite one that I can't call 00:23:26.420 --> 00:23:33.420 it my favorite, but an important one is, guys, the key to sufficiency is immediate obedience. 00:23:38.580 --> 00:23:45.580 The key to sufficiency is immediate obedience. So what is sufficiency? It's the key to sufficiency 00:23:45.580 --> 00:23:52.580 and surplus is immediate obedience. What do you mean? Look at the stories in the Bible, 00:23:52.580 --> 00:23:59.580 eh? And these were all to do with actual needs. So John 21, Peter and the rest of the disciples 00:24:08.300 --> 00:24:15.300 have gone fishing. They fish throughout the night. That's their livelihood. And they're 00:24:15.300 --> 00:24:22.300 fishing. They fish throughout the night. They catch nothing. And then there's a stranger 00:24:35.540 --> 00:24:40.540 walking on the beach and they don't know who he is. And he turns to them and John 21, 6, 00:24:40.540 --> 00:24:44.580 and he says, cast your net on the right side. These are fishermen. Why should they listen 00:24:44.580 --> 00:24:49.860 to a guy? They fish throughout the night. They caught nothing. It's immediate obedience. 00:24:49.860 --> 00:24:56.860 Stranger one. Elijah turns up at this widow's house and she's getting ready to die. It's 00:24:57.260 --> 00:25:04.260 a last supper, really. So she makes a cake. She's collecting wood to make a cake, feed 00:25:05.700 --> 00:25:09.100 her son, and then they're planning to die because they run out of everything. And this 00:25:09.180 --> 00:25:14.740 man, Elijah, has the audacity to say to the woman, listen, make me a cake first before 00:25:14.740 --> 00:25:21.740 you eat it. I mean, what a demand, eh? What if nothing happened? He'd live for a few more 00:25:21.740 --> 00:25:27.260 days and she'd die immediately. That's a risk, man. But that's what he asks her. He said, 00:25:27.260 --> 00:25:31.540 go make me a cake and bring it to me. And she says, but this is all that's left. He 00:25:31.540 --> 00:25:36.380 says, go do it. And she does it. Immediate obedience. You'll find that there are so many 00:25:36.380 --> 00:25:42.260 instances in the Bible where there was immediate obedience. Peter, the JRS is after him, the 00:25:42.260 --> 00:25:47.820 Jerusalem Revenue Service, because he hasn't paid his taxes for a while. And so they come 00:25:47.820 --> 00:25:52.260 after him and he doesn't know what to do. And so he talks to Jesus and Jesus says it 00:25:52.260 --> 00:25:58.380 very simply. He says, go fishing. And when you fish, you'll find a, you'll catch a fish. 00:25:58.380 --> 00:26:02.300 When you catch that fish and you open its mouth, you will find a coin in its mouth. 00:26:02.300 --> 00:26:08.300 That coin will be sufficient to pay for your taxes and my taxes. And so he goes fishes 00:26:08.300 --> 00:26:16.220 and he finds a coin. Immediate obedience. Time and time again, this thing called obedience 00:26:16.220 --> 00:26:21.940 brings immediate results when it comes to sufficiency and surplus. But we are so scared 00:26:21.940 --> 00:26:28.140 because if I'm asked to give the last cake that I have before I die and you come and 00:26:28.140 --> 00:26:40.980 ask me for it, I'd have to be really foolish to give it away so we don't. Elijah, the 00:26:40.980 --> 00:26:46.500 brook has dried up. He doesn't have any source of water. The ravens that were feeding him 00:26:46.500 --> 00:26:51.380 pieces of meat aren't flying anymore. And then God tells him to leave the brook and 00:26:51.380 --> 00:26:56.020 go to a widow in Zarephath. To begin with, widows are super poor and wouldn't have anything 00:26:56.020 --> 00:27:03.020 in those days. Second, he's supposed to go to Zarephath, which is not Jewish, it's Gentile. 00:27:03.020 --> 00:27:10.740 But he immediately obeys. It's not that we sometimes don't know what to do. It's just 00:27:10.740 --> 00:27:21.700 it scares the heebie-deebies out of you to go and take that extra step. True? And sometimes 00:27:22.700 --> 00:27:28.700 you take that step and nothing happens. I remember once in 1995 having 60 bucks in my pocket. 00:27:28.700 --> 00:27:33.700 That's all I had. 60 dollars in my pocket. I'm so sure. God's saying, I want you to take 00:27:33.700 --> 00:27:39.060 this and give this to that person. I'm thinking to myself, this is the last 60 I have. I give 00:27:39.060 --> 00:27:45.340 this, I got squat. And so I was very sure God was saying, so I gave the 60 and I thought 00:27:45.340 --> 00:27:51.140 now there'll be a windfall from somewhere. Nothing, man. You know what that does to your 00:27:51.140 --> 00:27:58.140 obedience? Makes you obey again, doesn't it? You okay, Dawn? You talked on what? So, so 00:28:09.780 --> 00:28:15.780 obedience is so critical in this, eh? The problem is not did God say so. But the problem 00:28:15.780 --> 00:28:22.780 is either the waiting or the timing or getting the timing right. When he tells you to do 00:28:24.420 --> 00:28:28.260 something, you do it first and then you wait and you doubt it or you get the time wrong 00:28:28.260 --> 00:28:33.300 where he tells you to jump into something. The thing is obedience must be expectant. 00:28:33.300 --> 00:28:40.300 This is critically. Obedience must be expectant. But you can't look for guarantees before committing. 00:28:46.500 --> 00:28:53.500 You can't look for guarantees before obeying. You can't look for guarantees because that's 00:28:59.420 --> 00:29:04.060 when it becomes faith, right? Otherwise it's not faith. If every outcome was guaranteed, 00:29:04.060 --> 00:29:11.060 there would be no need for faith. That's why you have accountants. What do accountants do? 00:29:11.180 --> 00:29:18.180 They make sure that there's a prescribed outcome. Yeah, sometimes when God asks me to do something, 00:29:23.700 --> 00:29:29.580 it's good to ask him when. Do I do it right now or do I do it tomorrow or do I do it a 00:29:29.580 --> 00:29:36.580 week from now? Immediate obedience. Yes, Father, I'm ready to do it. Now tell me when. Do I 00:29:37.580 --> 00:29:43.780 apply right away? Do you want me to wait another day? Aaron, you're a great accountant. I wasn't 00:29:43.780 --> 00:29:50.780 thinking of you. Yeah. We have to be like kids, right? Your dad says something and you say 00:29:58.660 --> 00:30:05.020 yes and then you ask him when and right now, but it's too late. No, no, it's a conversation. 00:30:05.020 --> 00:30:10.580 One of the coolest things about, one of the things we should get used to church is conversations 00:30:10.580 --> 00:30:17.580 that engage the nature of the Father. We must abandon seeking God for answers. We must embrace 00:30:21.140 --> 00:30:28.140 seeking God for relationship. We must abandon seeking God for answers. There's something 00:30:29.140 --> 00:30:36.140 crystal ballish about it. Give me an answer. Give me an answer. We're not looking for answers. 00:30:37.700 --> 00:30:42.240 We're looking for conversations with our Father and in the conversation as you engage him, 00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:47.180 you don't get just the answer. You get the way he thinks, man. That's so much richer 00:30:47.180 --> 00:30:54.180 than an answer. I believe that this is one of the things that Adam and Eve used to do 00:30:54.180 --> 00:31:01.180 with God in the cool of the evening when God would come walking in the Garden of Eden. 00:31:01.180 --> 00:31:08.180 They'd talk. Next one. If we can wrap our heads around this. I believe that this is 00:31:24.180 --> 00:31:31.180 the most important thing. Sufficiently lack, sufficiency to surplus happens when, man, 00:31:43.700 --> 00:31:50.700 if only we could, if only I could wrap my head around this, when I'm not afraid of 00:31:50.900 --> 00:31:57.900 lack. But I'm not afraid of lack. We are so scared of not having. But can you get rid 00:32:01.620 --> 00:32:07.260 of the fear of not having? And the only way to get rid of the fear of not having is if 00:32:07.260 --> 00:32:13.420 you recognize that you have someone who is your Father. This is why children are not 00:32:13.420 --> 00:32:20.420 afraid of lack. Judah is not afraid of lack. But if you have someone who is your Father, 00:32:21.380 --> 00:32:28.380 Brielle is not afraid of lack. Joey is not afraid of lack. As you grow older, Eliana 00:32:32.220 --> 00:32:39.220 is not afraid of lack. Ruben is not afraid of lack. Shiloh might be getting there. As 00:32:39.220 --> 00:32:45.740 we grow older, we begin to realize, ah, lack. It begins to scare you. But the day you and 00:32:45.740 --> 00:32:52.500 I are no longer afraid of lack will be the day when you get to a place where you suddenly 00:32:52.500 --> 00:32:59.500 move into this place of sufficiency or surplus. Why? And I've said this before. Sons lack 00:33:00.460 --> 00:33:07.460 nothing. Servants own nothing. There's a guy in Bahrain who has tattooed it on his arm. 00:33:08.460 --> 00:33:15.460 He heard this some years ago and he went and tattooed it on his arm. I'm not recommending 00:33:16.620 --> 00:33:22.820 that. I don't have a tattoo parlor nor am I sending it to one. All I'm saying is tattooed 00:33:22.820 --> 00:33:29.820 it on his arm. Sons lack nothing. And so there's a sweet spot, guys, that is so difficult to 00:33:30.300 --> 00:33:37.300 hit because of the fear that lack causes. So a son lacks a lot of experience. And he's 00:33:38.460 --> 00:33:45.460 nothing. A servant owns nothing. And so in this space, in this space, fear evaporates. 00:33:45.460 --> 00:33:52.460 And it finds no place to germinate. In this space, fear is nothing. And so in this space, 00:34:15.500 --> 00:34:22.500 in that space, fear evaporates. And so when you hit your bottom dollar, you are not afraid 00:34:25.540 --> 00:34:32.540 because of this ridiculous trust you have in a father who has the ability to take care 00:34:33.380 --> 00:34:40.380 of you even if you have reached your bottom dollar because of mistakes you made. When 00:34:41.380 --> 00:34:47.100 I was squandering money, all I had to do was pick up the phone and do a sob story with 00:34:47.100 --> 00:34:51.700 my dad. With my mom, it wouldn't work all that well. But with my dad, he was a sucker 00:34:51.700 --> 00:34:57.340 for it, man. He'd immediately send me some money. But with my mom, it was difficult. 00:34:57.340 --> 00:35:04.340 You had to work around her. But it's so hard to live in that space. It's because I'm not 00:35:04.340 --> 00:35:11.340 confident of him taking care of it. A son lacks nothing. A servant owns nothing. Now 00:35:17.140 --> 00:35:23.980 you have open hands that receive and a generous heart that gives. I know one or two people 00:35:23.980 --> 00:35:30.980 that live like this. It's scary. There's one guy who for the last time has been in 00:35:34.340 --> 00:35:39.580 the business for 30 or 40 years has never... This might sound really silly, but it's just 00:35:39.580 --> 00:35:46.220 a sampling of what I mean. There's one guy I know who for the last 30 or 40 years has 00:35:46.220 --> 00:35:53.220 never run out of Starbucks cards. Every time his Starbucks card is about to expire or exhaust, 00:35:54.180 --> 00:36:01.180 someone will come and give him a new Starbucks card. 30 years, man. He's never bought a Starbucks 00:36:02.180 --> 00:36:06.940 card in his life, right? Because it's always provided. That's just a small sampling. I 00:36:06.940 --> 00:36:13.940 don't want to live on Starbucks coffee. But the point being, there is this space that 00:36:15.860 --> 00:36:21.340 you can live in, whereas a son, you lack nothing, but as a servant, you own nothing. So there's 00:36:21.340 --> 00:36:28.340 a freedom. It is so freeing that if one of you could practice this and show us, we'll 00:36:29.060 --> 00:36:36.060 follow you and call you a pastor. Any questions? Any questions? This is particularly useful 00:36:46.740 --> 00:36:53.740 for us who are at present in lack. For those of us who are living in surplus, great. Let 00:36:54.740 --> 00:37:01.740 us know your name and your email and your phone number. But if you're living in borderline 00:37:06.220 --> 00:37:12.420 sufficiency or in lack, where every month is difficult, then think of these principles. 00:37:12.420 --> 00:37:18.500 Because lack does something to you. It makes you develop a system to keep meeting the need 00:37:18.500 --> 00:37:24.140 every month and to keep not depending on God. You have found a system. And now that 00:37:24.140 --> 00:37:28.780 you know the system, you'll keep going back to the system so that you keep, it's like 00:37:28.780 --> 00:37:35.780 a hamster wheel. It just, you can keep it going because you've learned how to do it. 00:37:35.900 --> 00:37:42.900 I'm speaking from experience. But you know how to do it. And the more you begin to step 00:37:43.900 --> 00:37:50.100 on the hamster wheel, the less you need God. If he does a miracle, praise the Lord, you 00:37:50.100 --> 00:37:53.780 get off the hamster wheel for a little while. You've lost a lot of weight and then you get 00:37:53.780 --> 00:38:00.780 back on it again in two months. This is critical for us, guys. One of the things I pray that 00:38:03.100 --> 00:38:10.100 this church will do is that we will never allow lack to become endemic. We shouldn't 00:38:12.900 --> 00:38:17.500 allow lack to settle in our lives. Instead we keep moving towards sufficiency and surplus 00:38:17.500 --> 00:38:21.780 only for one reason. And I mean this with all my heart and if you look back at the last 00:38:21.780 --> 00:38:25.460 20 years, you'll see that it's true. It's only for one reason. So that our surplus can 00:38:25.460 --> 00:38:32.460 provide someone else's. Lack. There are guys here. Ashish, can I share? Blinkers, can I 00:38:42.900 --> 00:38:49.900 blink twice if it's no? I can't see at this distance. You know, there's a fascinating 00:38:52.340 --> 00:38:57.580 bit about Ashish that I love when I heard stories from his life. One of it was during 00:38:57.580 --> 00:39:04.580 COVID when hardly anyone was working, when nobody had a job, he and his friend would 00:39:04.740 --> 00:39:11.740 go and they would feed 100 to 200 dogs, stray dogs. You would think, oh, I'm going to get 00:39:12.900 --> 00:39:19.900 a job? Really? Yeah, really. When I talk about taking our resources and surplus and distributing 00:39:20.580 --> 00:39:24.140 it, I'm not talking about doing it for the church. I'm not talking about doing it for 00:39:24.140 --> 00:39:29.140 Christians. I'm not talking about doing it for your family. I'm talking about being in 00:39:29.140 --> 00:39:34.780 right relationship with God, with people, with each other, with what God has created, 00:39:34.780 --> 00:39:41.020 with animals, with the environment. But it's very hard to do this sometimes when you're 00:39:41.020 --> 00:39:48.020 in lack. And that is why, that is perhaps why God wants us to go down this road saying, 00:39:48.620 --> 00:39:55.620 church, can you keep an eye on this too? I heard that story and I thought, come on, man, 00:39:58.940 --> 00:40:05.940 there are wiser ways to save money during COVID. At least it was dogs, praise the Lord, 00:40:05.940 --> 00:40:12.940 and I'm glad that I did. Another thing that will help you prevent money from slipping 00:40:24.420 --> 00:40:31.420 like sand out of your hands, this is unfortunate for us Christians. When it comes to Christians, 00:40:31.420 --> 00:40:38.420 you have to live life with purity. Babylon can make money, as in the world can make money, 00:40:39.540 --> 00:40:45.500 and increase money through corrupt, crooked ways. Unfortunately, because you're a Christian, 00:40:45.500 --> 00:40:52.500 that avenue is no longer open for you. He's not able to bless greed, corruption, cheating. 00:40:54.980 --> 00:40:59.540 He can't do that. So you're at a disadvantage. Nobody told you this before you got born again. 00:40:59.540 --> 00:41:05.820 Too bad. But now that you're a Christian, you can't go down that road. One of the ways 00:41:05.820 --> 00:41:12.820 you keep moving from lack to sufficiency and surplus is by not practicing illegal stuff. 00:41:14.100 --> 00:41:19.740 And illegal stuff can go from anything like breaking the law to copyright infringement, 00:41:19.740 --> 00:41:24.780 to downloading songs you shouldn't, to downloading movies you shouldn't. Oops, take a move on, 00:41:25.780 --> 00:41:32.780 it's true. It's true. Next one. Find your land, as in find your vocation, find your 00:41:46.140 --> 00:41:53.140 vocation, your life work, your life's work, your life's work, your life's work, your 00:41:55.060 --> 00:42:02.060 mantle, your ministry, what you at present are meant for. And when you do, inevitably, 00:42:16.940 --> 00:42:23.940 if you begin to cultivate it and prioritize it, inevitably, you will be able to do the 00:42:25.420 --> 00:42:32.420 it will produce for you. Because heaven allocates resources based on who you are, not what you 00:42:47.460 --> 00:42:54.460 do. 00:42:54.780 --> 00:43:01.780 And so keep changing. Just because you started as an engineer doesn't mean you have to die 00:43:04.380 --> 00:43:09.380 as an engineer. Just because you started as a doctor doesn't mean you have to die in a 00:43:09.380 --> 00:43:16.380 hospital. Oh, that didn't work. Just because you started as a doctor doesn't mean you have 00:43:17.700 --> 00:43:24.700 to. Finish as a doctor. Keep changing. You were one thing and God then shifts you to 00:43:24.780 --> 00:43:30.500 a different place. God allocates resources to you based on, hey, at this point in your 00:43:30.500 --> 00:43:36.660 life I expected you to walk in this. So now that you're walking in this, I won't hold 00:43:36.660 --> 00:43:43.300 back anything because you're walking exactly where I asked you to. I mean, employers do 00:43:43.300 --> 00:43:48.980 that, bosses do that. When someone functions well in the capacity that they are supposed 00:43:48.980 --> 00:43:55.980 to function in, what do bosses do? Give you promotions, open doors for you. And so this 00:43:56.660 --> 00:44:01.940 one is an important one. Find your vocation, find your life work, find your mantle, as 00:44:01.940 --> 00:44:06.460 in whatever God has put on you, find your ministry, what you at present are meant for, 00:44:06.460 --> 00:44:10.300 and cultivate it, prioritize it. You may not be able to make the shift immediately, but 00:44:10.300 --> 00:44:15.300 prioritize it. For you students, my God, man, don't end up doing what you're studying for. 00:44:16.100 --> 00:44:23.100 No, I'm not saying that, sorry. You don't necessarily have to do what you're studying. 00:44:23.740 --> 00:44:30.740 This room is full of people who did zoology and then ended up doing business or history 00:44:31.980 --> 00:44:38.980 and they're engineers. So be careful of the choices you make. What did you do for your 00:44:39.980 --> 00:44:46.980 undergrad, Derek? There was a time when everybody thought that Derek, because he was an engineer, 00:45:00.540 --> 00:45:07.220 could fix everything. This was when the church first started, and so if any laptop broke 00:45:07.220 --> 00:45:14.220 down, if a phone broke down, if a little, before the iPad there was those little iPods, 00:45:14.420 --> 00:45:19.180 right? Yeah, if anything broke down, you would immediately go give it to Derek. And Derek 00:45:19.180 --> 00:45:26.180 would receive it like an expert. Then he'd spend the whole night Googling how to fix 00:45:26.460 --> 00:45:33.460 it. Those were good old days. 00:45:37.420 --> 00:45:44.420 Next one. Hey, the time is wrong. I've got a whole hour and five minutes. 00:45:50.420 --> 00:45:57.420 Please allow me. Generosity. Generosity. If you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly. 00:46:07.220 --> 00:46:14.220 Bread is for consumption, seed is for sowing. A farmer, when he has seed, doesn't eat it 00:46:14.220 --> 00:46:20.020 all. Let's say a farmer has 100 seed. He'll always take a handful of 20 seeds and keep 00:46:20.020 --> 00:46:24.660 it aside. Why is he keeping it aside? Because if he eats it all, then he'll have nothing 00:46:24.660 --> 00:46:30.140 left to sow next year. So he always takes a handful of seed and puts it aside. He'll 00:46:30.140 --> 00:46:35.460 never eat the whole thing. If he eats the whole thing, he's not a farmer. He's got more 00:46:35.460 --> 00:46:42.460 sense than that. And so the question is, are you a sower who sows sparingly? Because if 00:46:46.620 --> 00:46:53.180 that is the case, then you will reap sparingly. And so ask that question of yourself. Sometimes 00:46:53.180 --> 00:47:00.180 you earn next to nothing. It barely meets the needs you have every month. The question 00:47:00.700 --> 00:47:07.700 is, do you still cheerfully go and give it away? Do you still cheerfully do that? And 00:47:09.740 --> 00:47:16.740 if you aren't, then this perhaps is the point that you need to take note of. The strange 00:47:18.140 --> 00:47:22.540 thing is I'm using the word giving. I'm not even using the word 10% or 20% or anything. 00:47:22.540 --> 00:47:29.540 Just giving. Do you give? And if you don't, then it's just giving. And if you don't, 00:47:30.180 --> 00:47:36.300 it's almost absurd to expect that I don't follow a simple principle and I yet want to 00:47:36.300 --> 00:47:43.300 move out of lack in the surplus. It's not possible. Malachi 3.10 puts it this way. You can rebuke 00:47:43.620 --> 00:47:50.620 the devourer. You can strengthen the roots and you can increase the fruit of your finances 00:47:51.460 --> 00:47:58.460 by giving. You can rebuke the devourer. As in, as you begin to give, let's say, you're 00:48:00.500 --> 00:48:04.980 in a farm kind of sense, let's say locusts, the locusts are kept at bay. Though your fruit 00:48:04.980 --> 00:48:11.980 increases, as in the tree of your life begins to produce more fruit and the roots are strengthened. 00:48:12.980 --> 00:48:19.620 So how's your giving? Yeah, so that's another question that needs to be asked because it 00:48:19.620 --> 00:48:26.620 takes you from lack to surplus. And when you, one of the things about generous people, and 00:48:26.620 --> 00:48:33.620 I've rarely found this, eh, and maybe you have, a generous man is a man who is discerning 00:48:35.140 --> 00:48:40.140 but indiscriminate in giving because he does not just give to the deserving and the needy. 00:48:40.140 --> 00:48:47.140 Hear me again. A generous man is a man who is discerning, as in he knows the situation. 00:48:47.140 --> 00:48:54.140 He's not blind, he's not dull. He's discerning. But he gives indiscriminately, as in he does 00:48:55.020 --> 00:49:00.180 not check to see whether you deserve it or whether you have a need. He gives because 00:49:00.180 --> 00:49:05.100 he's generous. And that matters the nature of God. Can you imagine if God was actually 00:49:05.100 --> 00:49:12.100 only giving to those who deserve it? But the way I give is I'll look to see whether the 00:49:14.580 --> 00:49:19.380 person deserves it, whether the person needs it, whether the person will do something good 00:49:19.380 --> 00:49:23.580 with it. Hmm, this guy doesn't look like he deserves it. That's not indiscriminate 00:49:23.580 --> 00:49:30.580 giving. And that is not generous. Yep? 00:49:30.580 --> 00:49:37.580 Yeah. What do you do when you know that a person may use it for something ungodly? Gosh, 00:49:54.980 --> 00:49:58.820 so many times God does that, man. He gives us things and He knows you're going to mess 00:49:58.820 --> 00:50:04.540 it up. He knows you're going to use it for things that won't help. And yet He gives 00:50:04.540 --> 00:50:07.860 it. And then He gives it again, and a third time, and a fourth time, and then He helps 00:50:07.860 --> 00:50:11.780 you, instructs you how not to go down the wrong way. And that doesn't work. And then 00:50:11.780 --> 00:50:17.180 He begins to discipline you. But He doesn't hold back saying, God is a God who knows every 00:50:17.180 --> 00:50:23.020 step I'm going to take. Yet He's indiscriminate in His generosity, which is a freaky thing 00:50:23.020 --> 00:50:30.020 to think of. We are supposed to reflect Him. We had a guy, Heidi would remember, the guy 00:50:31.580 --> 00:50:36.500 would need money for rent and stuff like that, and we would give it to him. And then he would, 00:50:36.500 --> 00:50:40.620 he thought the way to perhaps go from lack to surplus was to go to the casino. That's 00:50:40.620 --> 00:50:44.420 one way. It might occasionally work. Usually it doesn't. So he would take the rent money, 00:50:44.420 --> 00:50:49.780 go to the casino, and he would lose. But he would tell the landlord that Jacob will be 00:50:49.780 --> 00:50:56.780 paying it. And so at some point we had to stop. But it wasn't the first time around. 00:51:01.540 --> 00:51:08.540 What a crazy, wonderful way to live. I desire this for all of us, guys. We get to do the 00:51:09.140 --> 00:51:12.740 things God wants us to do. Because one of my first statements was, when provision is 00:51:12.740 --> 00:51:19.740 absent, vision is shackled, and sometimes wisdom is despised. It's God's desire to 00:51:21.620 --> 00:51:26.340 do this for us. Go through the first three or four steps. It's the nature of God. That's 00:51:26.340 --> 00:51:33.340 where we need to believe. We're not in this for a quick-get-rit scheme. I met a person 00:51:33.820 --> 00:51:39.540 employed by a certain church who drives their vehicles. And so he was driving me around 00:51:39.540 --> 00:51:44.140 and he said, Jacob, I've got a dilemma. I said, what? He said, I bought a lottery ticket. 00:51:44.140 --> 00:51:49.940 What if I win? The church will dismiss me because we're not allowed to buy lottery 00:51:49.940 --> 00:51:55.260 tickets. And he says, I have this strange feeling I'm going to win a car. What do I 00:51:55.260 --> 00:52:01.540 do? It's such a strange situation to advise him on. Initially I told him, just give it 00:52:01.540 --> 00:52:08.540 to me. Then I thought, no, that's wrong advice too. 00:52:09.540 --> 00:52:16.540 What are some ways to give? First, give to Tony and Jacob. No. Okay, here are other 00:52:29.260 --> 00:52:36.260 ways to give. One. Give to the place where you are. Give to the place where you are. 00:52:39.540 --> 00:52:46.540 Two. Are taught things of God. Two. Give to the poor. Three. Give to churches in need. 00:52:46.540 --> 00:52:53.540 Four. When I say give to the poor, it can be a united way. It can be any organization. 00:52:53.540 --> 00:53:00.540 I'm not talking about Christian organizations or anything. Give to churches in need. Give 00:53:14.180 --> 00:53:21.180 to the spread of the gospel. Three. Give to the poor. Four. Give to the poor. Three. 00:53:23.540 --> 00:53:30.540 Give to people who you want to honor. Give to people you know are in need and haven't 00:53:30.540 --> 00:53:37.540 asked. Take care of widows and children. Give to the poor. Give to the poor. Give to the 00:54:00.540 --> 00:54:07.540 orphans in need that don't have any other family. Give to your family that may be in 00:54:17.820 --> 00:54:24.820 need. Give. Pay debts. These are nine different ways to give. Give to the poor. Give to the 00:54:30.780 --> 00:54:37.780 poor. Give to the poor. Give to your family that may be in need. Give to the poor. Give 00:54:45.620 --> 00:54:52.620 to your children and children. Give to the poor. Give to the poor. Give to your parents 00:54:52.620 --> 00:54:58.500 slice of pizza. Why? Because when you divide 10% 10 ways you only get 1% each. 00:54:58.500 --> 00:55:03.940 Or the other thing that happens with many Christians is they say oh I need to 00:55:03.940 --> 00:55:09.060 give to my family and everything goes to the family and nowhere else. So what 00:55:09.060 --> 00:55:12.540 does that mean? It means I need to increase my giving. If I don't increase 00:55:12.540 --> 00:55:19.220 my giving then it just stays. So what do you mean increase your giving? If you're 00:55:19.220 --> 00:55:25.260 giving $2 give $4 or give $3 or give $2.50. 00:55:33.740 --> 00:55:38.980 Okay is it true that when we give we shouldn't expect it back? Yeah when you 00:55:38.980 --> 00:55:43.500 give if they give it back great but if you give and they don't give it back 00:55:43.540 --> 00:55:49.860 let it be or specify right off the bat that this is a loan and it needs to be 00:55:49.860 --> 00:55:53.900 paid back by certain times. Be very clear about it but the best way of giving it 00:55:53.900 --> 00:55:59.100 giving and not expecting it back and oftentimes it comes back oftentimes it 00:55:59.100 --> 00:56:01.460 doesn't. 00:56:01.460 --> 00:56:16.100 So here are the different ways. Give to the place where you are taught things of God. 00:56:16.100 --> 00:56:21.100 Give to the poor. Give to churches in need. Give to the spread of the gospel. 00:56:21.100 --> 00:56:25.540 Give to people who you want to honor. Give to people you know are in need and 00:56:25.540 --> 00:56:30.300 having to ask. Take care of widows and orphans. James 1 27 for that is pure 00:56:30.300 --> 00:56:35.980 religion. Give to your family who may be in need as in sometimes parents need to 00:56:35.980 --> 00:56:41.780 be taken care of. Pay your debts. These are nine different ways to give. 00:56:41.780 --> 00:57:01.340 Yeah. Yeah and that's why we are in discriminating our generosity. We give 00:57:01.340 --> 00:57:05.820 not just to people who deserve but to anyone we are prompted to and remember 00:57:05.820 --> 00:57:11.460 anybody who is generous and giving must expect to be exploited and you must 00:57:11.500 --> 00:57:18.580 bear your exploitation quite proudly. Generosity and exploitation go hand in 00:57:18.580 --> 00:57:26.860 hand. Don't we exploit God every week? We get very righteous. I gave him ten 00:57:26.860 --> 00:57:30.540 dollars and I saw him go buy a pack of cigarettes. That guy was desperate for 00:57:30.540 --> 00:57:34.220 cigarettes. It doesn't mean go help him smoke but don't get so upset that he 00:57:34.220 --> 00:57:51.340 went and bought a pack of cigarettes. That's like Starbucks to you. I'm not 00:57:51.340 --> 00:57:57.260 endorsing Starbucks or smoking by the way. Yeah this will be a clear on that. 00:57:58.260 --> 00:58:01.260 Let's take one more and stop. 00:58:15.260 --> 00:58:20.380 I'm so glad this is not a church money grab but this is so that we move from 00:58:20.380 --> 00:58:24.780 lack to sufficient to just surplus. 00:58:27.260 --> 00:58:41.900 Pardon? Examples of people that I want to honor. Sometimes it's I remember when I 00:58:41.900 --> 00:58:46.260 got my first salary I wanted to give a large portion of it to my mom and dad. I 00:58:46.260 --> 00:58:53.020 wanted to honor them. Then there were people like Chad and Eddie and Michael 00:58:53.020 --> 00:58:56.420 Scantleberry and others in my life who really worked hard to get me to where I 00:58:56.540 --> 00:59:01.460 am today. So I would take a portion of what I would earn and every so often 00:59:01.460 --> 00:59:04.620 whenever prompted I'd send it to them saying this is just to honor you for the 00:59:04.620 --> 00:59:09.820 work you've done in my life. Other times it can be sometimes the boss who's been 00:59:09.820 --> 00:59:13.620 kind to you where you decide you want to honor them with a gift because they broke 00:59:13.620 --> 00:59:22.980 open an avenue for you to enter. So yeah it's people who broke a sweat 00:59:22.980 --> 00:59:28.620 investing into you. They dug your life up so that now your life is as fertile as 00:59:28.620 --> 00:59:36.620 it is. An example in the Bible is when Abraham gives Melchizedek a tenth of all 00:59:36.620 --> 00:59:44.900 that he wins in war saying I just want to honor God and Melchizedek blesses him. 00:59:44.900 --> 01:00:02.540 Yeah. Using worldly wealth to gain friends. The world runs on business, on 01:00:02.540 --> 01:00:09.500 trade, on money. When you have money try and go and get friendly with people at 01:00:09.500 --> 01:00:14.620 places that you can go and frequent where pick a hairdresser, pick a 01:00:14.620 --> 01:00:20.620 restaurant, pick a particular airline, pick whatever and begin to get to know 01:00:20.620 --> 01:00:26.660 people and in that process build a relationship with them. On one it's a 01:00:26.660 --> 01:00:30.740 dilemma we have. On one hand it says do good to those that are of the 01:00:30.740 --> 01:00:38.140 household of God which means if there is someone who let's say hip runs a private 01:00:38.140 --> 01:00:42.300 jet. Yeah and so we begin to go to him because we wanted to give us free 01:00:42.300 --> 01:00:47.140 seats on the private dinner and we begin to connect with him because he is a 01:00:47.140 --> 01:00:53.140 Christian and now you've got Sheldon who's like a non-Christian but he runs 01:00:53.140 --> 01:00:57.380 a music school but he looks like the type who really needs Christ and so I 01:00:57.380 --> 01:01:02.620 start sending my son and daughter to his music school and in the process I form a 01:01:02.620 --> 01:01:07.760 relationship with him. I'm using my money to cultivate a relationship hoping that 01:01:07.760 --> 01:01:10.960 that will help in leading him to Christ. So it's both it's not one or the other. 01:01:10.960 --> 01:01:17.960 Hip needs money to run his private jet, he needs money to run his piano and both 01:01:17.960 --> 01:01:23.200 actually are the same cost when you check the price on his piano. Yeah. 01:01:27.840 --> 01:01:35.800 So I just want to touch on stewardship. It's a word often used in Christianity 01:01:35.840 --> 01:01:48.840 stewardship. Stewardship is a systematic approach, a systematic approach to 01:01:48.840 --> 01:02:01.300 managing what you already what you have so that's one part of it. The second 01:02:01.300 --> 01:02:07.700 part of it is this is the part that stewardship doesn't teach distributing 01:02:08.460 --> 01:02:23.940 what you have and the third part is based on what God is saying and when 01:02:23.940 --> 01:02:29.580 these three elements are not present in stewardship then it's self-serving, it's 01:02:29.580 --> 01:02:48.100 self-serving, it's disguised unbelief and it's building bonds, building bonds for 01:02:48.100 --> 01:02:55.780 retirement. That's why we got to be careful what stewardship. Stewardship is a 01:02:56.580 --> 01:03:01.980 biblical word. God talks about stewards but the idea of stewards is the steward is 01:03:01.980 --> 01:03:06.220 always accountable to his master. There is no stewardship without 01:03:06.220 --> 01:03:11.900 accountability to the master. Stewardship does not exist in the Bible without 01:03:11.900 --> 01:03:17.700 accountability to the master. Not all, a majority of financial stewardship that 01:03:17.700 --> 01:03:22.300 is done in church does not look at accountability to the master but aims 01:03:22.340 --> 01:03:27.660 at the last thing, building bonds for retirement. Can you gather enough so that 01:03:27.660 --> 01:03:31.620 when you retire you can take care of yourself and you can continue giving 01:03:31.620 --> 01:03:37.780 10% to the church? Can you also make sure that when you die the church gets all 01:03:37.780 --> 01:03:47.260 your property? There's nothing wrong with that but there is a more excellent way 01:03:47.260 --> 01:03:52.340 and the more excellent way is a systematic approach to managing your 01:03:52.340 --> 01:03:57.220 money well and those that start young and there are some seated here who are 01:03:57.220 --> 01:04:02.940 managing their money well, they are 20, they are 30. I know that you're seated 01:04:02.940 --> 01:04:10.220 here. You will end up having enough of a surplus to do everything that God is 01:04:10.220 --> 01:04:16.140 asking you to but the rest of us who don't do it this way will struggle with 01:04:16.140 --> 01:04:21.780 lack. So I'm not dissing stewardship but the reasons should be it is managing 01:04:21.780 --> 01:04:29.900 what you have, distributing what you have based on what is God is saying and you 01:04:29.900 --> 01:04:35.220 cannot teach financial stewardship without teaching hearing God and that 01:04:35.220 --> 01:04:37.940 never goes together. 01:04:37.940 --> 01:04:48.740 The last one is diligence. If you're faithful you will move from lack to 01:04:48.740 --> 01:04:54.820 surplus. If you're faithful anyone who is diligent will increase. Anyone who is 01:04:54.820 --> 01:04:59.380 faithful will increase. Faithful in what? Faithful in whatever God is asking you 01:04:59.380 --> 01:05:05.460 to do. You do it, God will increase you. It's like gravity guys. Some of these 01:05:05.500 --> 01:05:12.100 principles are like gravity. It is impossible to stop gravity unless we 01:05:12.100 --> 01:05:15.980 break out of its orbit which is impossible for us. I mean how high can 01:05:15.980 --> 01:05:20.980 you jump? So the point is this. Just as gravity is sure you need to know that 01:05:20.980 --> 01:05:26.580 anyone who is diligent, anyone who is faithful, anyone who's faithful, Matthew 01:05:26.580 --> 01:05:31.740 25-23 talks about it. When you roll, these are the three things you have to 01:05:31.780 --> 01:05:37.380 keep in mind. Will you rule over what you've been given be it ten dollars or a 01:05:37.380 --> 01:05:45.860 million dollars? Rule over what you've been given faithfully. Will you work not 01:05:45.860 --> 01:06:01.500 hard, diligently? Will you treat those around you well? Will you walk humbly? 01:06:01.500 --> 01:06:11.060 This man or this woman will move from lack to surplus because these are 01:06:11.060 --> 01:06:17.100 universal principles that are impossible to stop. Impossible. These kind of 01:06:17.100 --> 01:06:22.620 guys will fearlessly invest in things. Fearless investment. Fearlessly invest. 01:06:22.620 --> 01:06:27.540 They're not scared. They're not scared of things going up and down. As it says in 01:06:27.540 --> 01:06:32.500 Psalm 112, they are convinced in their heart that Yahweh looks out for them and 01:06:32.500 --> 01:06:37.260 cares for them. They're convinced. They're steadfast in their heart that Yahweh 01:06:37.260 --> 01:06:48.660 cares for them. Those are the kind of people. And so little or big, I mean it 01:06:48.660 --> 01:06:52.980 doesn't matter whether you have a job or not. If George is sitting at home without 01:06:52.980 --> 01:06:57.060 a job but is diligent in the things that God is asking him to do, he'll be 01:06:57.060 --> 01:07:01.740 rewarded for it. We're not talking about employment here when we talk about 01:07:01.740 --> 01:07:05.580 faithfulness. You don't have a job to be faithful. You don't have to have a job to 01:07:05.580 --> 01:07:19.540 be faithful. Cool. Any questions? The humility of receiving it. Receive 01:07:19.540 --> 01:07:25.140 happily. Make sure you receive happily. That's another struggle in this church. 01:07:25.180 --> 01:07:31.740 We give happily but my God, people here receive, don't receive happily. Struggle 01:07:31.740 --> 01:07:50.900 to receive. Receive happily. Receive happily. We find it so hard to receive. I 01:07:51.380 --> 01:07:57.220 don't even want to go to ask when you need because let's get past 01:07:57.220 --> 01:08:03.780 receive happily before we go to ask when you need. Yeah? Let's pray. 01:08:09.420 --> 01:08:17.780 Father, we've been talking about so many other things that had to do with going 01:08:17.940 --> 01:08:26.620 out and praying for Richmond and the gospel and prayer and stuff like that. 01:08:26.620 --> 01:08:35.740 And then in the middle of that, you plonk this. But you want us to go from lack to 01:08:35.740 --> 01:08:41.300 sufficiency to surplus. And you notice a lack in this church that when it comes 01:08:41.300 --> 01:08:50.380 to finances, there is lack. And I believe that's why you're showing us these 01:08:50.380 --> 01:08:55.700 principles saying pick one, start with one. If I have initiated something, I 01:08:55.700 --> 01:09:02.220 know how to finish it. So Father, we pick different points. And I ask that lack in 01:09:02.220 --> 01:09:10.660 this church will move to a place of sufficiency. There are people who want to 01:09:10.820 --> 01:09:15.620 do things that aren't able to do it. People that desire to give, that have 01:09:15.620 --> 01:09:20.260 very little to give, and they still give it away. Oh God, this church is a generous 01:09:20.260 --> 01:09:25.860 church. You know that. You've seen it time and time again. But now I ask Holy 01:09:25.860 --> 01:09:30.340 Spirit, since you're the only one who can bring this change in our lives and bring 01:09:30.340 --> 01:09:34.860 a change in our circumstances, I look at the students here who paid enormous 01:09:34.860 --> 01:09:39.180 amounts to come here and sometimes are struggling because they can only work 01:09:39.220 --> 01:09:45.140 20 hours and fee structures change, expenses are high. I remember them before 01:09:45.140 --> 01:09:51.660 you. I remember those that don't have jobs, those that have jobs and need more, 01:09:52.140 --> 01:09:57.500 those that need a break in their businesses, those that have debts piling, 01:09:57.900 --> 01:10:03.660 those that have bought things and now are scared. I ask Abba that you bring us 01:10:03.660 --> 01:10:09.140 into this place where lack is something in this church that we will not be afraid 01:10:09.140 --> 01:10:12.700 of because we have a good, good father. 01:10:17.700 --> 01:10:23.380 So without opening our Bibles, we try and remember Psalm 23, and we'll try to 01:10:23.380 --> 01:10:29.060 speak it out and end with that. We may not get it together, Father, but we'll 01:10:29.060 --> 01:10:30.140 say as much as we can. 01:10:31.140 --> 01:10:40.700 The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not lack. I shall not want. He leads me 01:10:40.700 --> 01:10:50.100 besides...what's the next one? He leads me besides quiet waters. He restores my 01:10:50.180 --> 01:10:59.700 soul. He lets me lie down in green pastures and leads me down paths of 01:11:00.580 --> 01:11:09.540 righteousness. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 01:11:10.100 --> 01:11:10.580 His... 01:11:18.340 --> 01:11:19.300 You prepare... 01:11:24.020 --> 01:11:34.300 You anoint my cup, runs over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all 01:11:34.380 --> 01:11:40.460 the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 01:11:41.020 --> 01:11:45.220 Bless you guys. See you when we see you. If you need prayer, we will come up 01:11:45.220 --> 01:11:46.060 and pray for you, yeah?