WEBVTT NOTE Podcast: Acts 29 Vancouver Episode: Poverty Mindset Publishing Date: 2021-10-03T06:00:44-07:00 Podcast URL: https://acts29.ca Episode URL: https://acts29.ca/poverty-mindset/ 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.920 Hey guys, initially I thought that I'd live stream from New York, but the church that 00:00:09.920 --> 00:00:18.320 I'm speaking at in New York is around the same time that the Acts 29 service is at, 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:22.080 given the three hour time difference, so I thought I'd record it instead. 00:00:22.080 --> 00:00:26.440 So I want to continue from where we left off last week. 00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:37.040 We were talking about threshold faith and then we kind of ended on this idea of how 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:48.160 our expectations are hamstrung when I have an impoverished spirit within me. 00:00:48.160 --> 00:00:57.880 Where the largeness of my expectation, the ability to step into thresholds is hamstrung 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:02.800 when I cultivate an impoverished spirit. 00:01:02.800 --> 00:01:07.520 Another word for an impoverished spirit is poverty mindset. 00:01:07.520 --> 00:01:17.240 Where an impoverished spirit or a poverty mindset limits my expectations, limits the 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:22.760 risks I'll take, limits the thresholds I'll be willing to cross. 00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:31.160 It basically hamstrings me from scaling upward in the adventures of God. 00:01:31.160 --> 00:01:37.160 And we are all born with an impoverished or poverty minded spirit. 00:01:37.160 --> 00:01:40.680 We are born with that mindset. 00:01:40.760 --> 00:01:49.960 And so a poverty mindset is more than a lack of money because people with wealth can have 00:01:49.960 --> 00:01:51.760 a spirit of poverty. 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:56.360 People with wealth can have a spirit of poverty. 00:01:56.360 --> 00:02:07.200 And I would say that those of us at Acts 29 have wealth compared to 80% of the earth or 00:02:07.240 --> 00:02:11.240 maybe 85% of the earth. 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:17.760 By most standards, we are wealthy, but it doesn't mean that we are free from the spirit 00:02:17.760 --> 00:02:21.200 of poverty. 00:02:21.200 --> 00:02:29.700 And the spirit behind this is that of fear and the culture is that of an orphan. 00:02:29.700 --> 00:02:33.840 So what lies behind a poverty mindset? 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:39.520 It is the spirit of fear and the culture of an orphan. 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:42.560 And you have it, I have it. 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:54.400 As I go over these points, I realize that I struggle with every point to some degree. 00:02:54.400 --> 00:03:02.000 An orphan is basically someone who struggles to recognize and struggles to abandon himself 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:07.920 to the nature of the father, to the love of the father, and to the inheritance that 00:03:07.920 --> 00:03:10.520 he has or she has in the father. 00:03:10.520 --> 00:03:11.520 You struggle with it. 00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:13.400 You can't compute. 00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:15.880 You can't comprehend it. 00:03:15.880 --> 00:03:20.880 It doesn't seem practical, real, or sometimes experiential. 00:03:20.880 --> 00:03:25.440 And so you struggle to abandon yourself to the love and the nature and the inheritance 00:03:25.440 --> 00:03:28.920 that you have in the father. 00:03:28.920 --> 00:03:35.920 And for an orphan then to move into servanthood becomes almost impossible because when you 00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:42.120 tell an orphan that he needs to be a servant, he is threatened and he is vulnerable. 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:44.520 And you'll see that amongst us. 00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:46.320 Some of us struggle to serve. 00:03:46.320 --> 00:03:49.440 Some of us struggle to be servants. 00:03:49.440 --> 00:03:56.120 An orphan will always struggle to be a servant. 00:03:56.120 --> 00:03:59.920 Yeah. 00:03:59.920 --> 00:04:05.600 The culture of an orphan is a culture that is afraid, a culture that remembers lack from 00:04:05.600 --> 00:04:12.240 the past and can't bear the thought of it happening again in the future. 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:21.640 The culture of an orphan is one that tries to secure tomorrow, tries to control tomorrow. 00:04:21.640 --> 00:04:28.480 The culture of an orphan is that which commits what his other brothers and sisters and friends 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:31.320 have. 00:04:31.320 --> 00:04:41.320 A culture of an orphan is one that is careful with generosity and careful with faith. 00:04:41.320 --> 00:04:42.480 And we have many reasons. 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:50.520 One is the very fallenness of the world. 00:04:50.520 --> 00:04:52.560 Sometimes it's cultural. 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:55.320 Some cultures are more steeped in this than others. 00:04:55.320 --> 00:05:01.360 Sometimes it's the family upbringing or the conditions that I grew up in the environment. 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:04.200 Sometimes it's generational. 00:05:04.200 --> 00:05:13.640 Sometimes it's the emotions and the experiences that we've been through. 00:05:13.640 --> 00:05:22.360 And so unless I change my day-to-day mindset from a mentality that is impoverished to one 00:05:22.360 --> 00:05:30.560 that is steeped in the sufficiency of a good father and a benevolent master, it'll be very 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:36.960 hard for me to scale spiritually in terms of expectations, in terms of adventures, in 00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:43.560 terms of fears, generosity, in terms of risk taking with mammon as my slave. 00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:47.200 Let me say that again. 00:05:47.200 --> 00:05:52.240 This was one of the points I made last Sunday that first the physical, then the spiritual. 00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:59.000 If I'm not able to scale in the physical as God provides out of his sufficiency and makes 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:05.400 me sufficient in him, if I'm not able to scale physically, I usually am not able to scale 00:06:05.400 --> 00:06:09.720 spiritually either in the things of God. 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:10.480 Why? 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:17.520 Because I might have a vision from God, but vision is shackled because of my relationship 00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:18.960 with provision. 00:06:18.960 --> 00:06:23.520 Vision is shackled because of my relationship with provision. 00:06:23.520 --> 00:06:31.880 And my relationship with provision is determined by my relationship with the father as a provider. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:39.840 This is why, unless I change my day-to-day mindset from one that has an impoverished 00:06:39.840 --> 00:06:48.960 mentality to one that is steeped in the sufficiency of a good father and a benevolent master, 00:06:48.960 --> 00:06:56.080 I have to be steeped in the sufficiency, not of my bank account, but of a good father and 00:06:56.080 --> 00:06:57.800 a benevolent master. 00:06:57.800 --> 00:07:04.440 Unless I am that way, it's very hard to scale spiritually in terms of expectations, in terms 00:07:04.440 --> 00:07:15.000 of adventures in God, in terms of fierce generosity, in terms of faith steps that are not presumption, 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:21.560 and in terms of risk taking with mammon that should be treated as a slave and not master. 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:38.960 Strangely enough, we are called to a poverty of spirit, as in spiritual poverty is something 00:07:38.960 --> 00:07:43.560 that Christians must cultivate, a poverty of spirit. 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:46.920 Blessed are the poor in spirit. 00:07:46.920 --> 00:07:51.120 A poverty of spirit is a Christian quality. 00:07:51.160 --> 00:08:00.000 It describes a stance of utter dependence, utter bankruptcy and dependence on God. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:08.080 And poverty of spirit is an emptying of self so that God can keep filling. 00:08:08.080 --> 00:08:14.280 An emptying of self, not just self as in my ego or my id, but emptying of self as in every 00:08:14.280 --> 00:08:17.200 area of my life. 00:08:17.280 --> 00:08:21.200 You see that in Philippians 2 verse 6 to 9. 00:08:21.200 --> 00:08:27.720 But the thing is, the poverty of spirit is different from a spirit of poverty. 00:08:27.720 --> 00:08:35.320 The poverty of spirit is different from the spirit of poverty. 00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:41.160 One helps us view things as Christ viewed them, and it's so aptly described in Philippians 00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:49.040 where being glorious and being equal with God, he empties himself and takes on the role 00:08:49.040 --> 00:08:51.520 of a born slave. 00:08:51.520 --> 00:08:56.600 The other are lenses that I view the world through. 00:08:56.600 --> 00:09:03.680 A poverty spirit is the glasses or the lenses through which I view the world. 00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:12.080 And the lens of a poverty spirit distorts and colors what you are seeing till you begin 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:22.920 to look at life through lack, through decrease, through limitation and through careful unbelief. 00:09:22.920 --> 00:09:28.320 That's an Oswald Chambers phrase, careful unbelief. 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:34.240 When I wear the lenses of a poverty spirit, it distorts and colors what I see, and I begin 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:45.360 to look at life through lack, through decrease, through uncertainty, through limitations. 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:48.240 That's how I look at life. 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:50.200 All of us suffer from it. 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:56.480 We disguise it under terms like stewardship and being careful and have to think about 00:09:56.640 --> 00:10:03.640 tomorrow and got to be responsible and all those words are valid, they're legitimate, 00:10:03.640 --> 00:10:08.640 but sometimes the underlying reasons are suspect. 00:10:13.640 --> 00:10:18.960 So as I'm saying these things and I'm reading out what a poverty mindset looks like, don't 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:22.760 resist it, don't fight it, don't argue against it. 00:10:23.040 --> 00:10:28.440 You have to hear it and then balance it out because for every statement I make you can 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:31.960 say I'm not like that, that's not fair, we got to be careful about tomorrow, no I've 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:37.360 got to think about my children, no I've got to save them for tomorrow. 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:42.440 Don't come up with those defenses, those are strengths you already have. 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:46.840 Let's look at the weaknesses that we have so that we can correct them. 00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:51.320 Because it's a mindset. 00:10:51.880 --> 00:10:54.880 Poverty affects the mind. 00:10:54.880 --> 00:10:59.640 And please don't think you're free of it. 00:10:59.640 --> 00:11:02.640 You are not. 00:11:02.640 --> 00:11:04.960 I wish I could say I was. 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:09.480 I am not. 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:15.360 My thinking when my guard is down, as in when I'm not praying, when I'm not worshipping, 00:11:15.400 --> 00:11:23.000 when I'm doing life, pulling out my wallet, my thinking when my guard is down is like 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:30.760 a fingerprint that can help identify a poverty mindset in my life. 00:11:30.760 --> 00:11:39.800 What or how am I thinking in moments when my guard is down? 00:11:39.800 --> 00:11:47.120 So many statements I've made today could be taken as a topic in itself and expanded 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:52.560 on. 00:11:52.560 --> 00:11:53.720 This one really gets me. 00:11:53.720 --> 00:11:58.960 My vision is often shackled because of my relationship with provision and my relationship 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:14.800 with provision is determined by my confidence and relationship with the provider. 00:12:14.800 --> 00:12:22.680 And that if I'm not steeped in the sufficiency of a good father and a benevolent master, 00:12:22.680 --> 00:12:28.880 it is very hard to scale spiritually in terms of expectations, in terms of adventures with 00:12:29.800 --> 00:12:40.320 God, in terms of fears, generosity, and in terms of taking risks with Maman. 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:50.200 So here are some statements on a poverty mindset that may uncover the attitudes of heart and 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:53.200 mind in our lives. 00:12:53.520 --> 00:12:59.520 First, a poverty mindset derives value in quantity. 00:12:59.520 --> 00:13:07.240 A poverty mindset derives value in quantity. 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:11.520 It wants to extract as much as possible. 00:13:11.520 --> 00:13:15.480 Wants bang for the buck. 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:21.760 Wants to suck out the marrow, not one bit left. 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:29.560 It dislikes finding out after you've bought something or after you've gotten something 00:13:29.560 --> 00:13:33.200 that someone else got a little more. 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:35.960 Finds it very hard to live with that. 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:47.080 Regrets what you have purchased, bought, received. 00:13:47.400 --> 00:13:52.760 Israel was a prime example of a poverty mindset nation. 00:13:52.760 --> 00:13:57.600 Here was God saying, I'll provide for you every day and then don't go out on Saturdays, 00:13:57.600 --> 00:13:59.440 I'll provide twice as much. 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:02.840 But now they wouldn't listen to that. 00:14:02.840 --> 00:14:07.000 They wanted to go out and collect more in Exodus 16, 27. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:14.560 They would go out and they would heap their baskets full because there was this desire 00:14:15.040 --> 00:14:18.560 to hoard for tomorrow. 00:14:18.560 --> 00:14:22.200 Get as much as possible. 00:14:22.200 --> 00:14:26.120 Yet that principle that God established still stands forever. 00:14:26.120 --> 00:14:28.240 He who collected much didn't have too much. 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:33.440 He who collected little didn't have too little. 00:14:33.520 --> 00:14:39.720 An all-sufficient God is an aspect of God that we haven't grasped. 00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:50.440 A poverty mindset is not selective. 00:14:50.440 --> 00:14:51.440 It's not selective. 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:54.440 It doesn't look for God's best. 00:14:54.440 --> 00:15:02.360 It just is indiscriminate in its approach to life. 00:15:02.360 --> 00:15:03.440 It is not selective. 00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:14.160 It is often the deal or the bargain that drives the mindset. 00:15:14.160 --> 00:15:20.240 These are things that sometimes uncover the condition of a heart. 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:24.840 Stewardship is such a cool word because you can put everything under the word stewardship 00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:30.600 and pretend it's highly responsible, but it sometimes disguises the subtleties of the 00:15:30.600 --> 00:15:35.400 heart. 00:15:35.400 --> 00:15:40.800 A poverty mindset goes for outer show sometimes. 00:15:40.800 --> 00:15:43.200 Differ from person to person. 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:47.200 A poverty mindset goes for outer show. 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:50.960 It is leaves without fruit. 00:15:50.960 --> 00:16:00.480 It is ostentatious on the outside, but quite bankrupt, hollow, lacking inside. 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:09.960 It has all the flash and dash on the outside, but inside the reality is debts and lack and 00:16:09.960 --> 00:16:14.120 fear. 00:16:14.120 --> 00:16:24.160 But because a poverty mindset calibrates itself to the world's measure of success, as long 00:16:24.160 --> 00:16:28.640 as it can put up a show on the outside, it feels quite happy. 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:35.840 I'd almost advise Jesus's rebuke from Revelation 317 where it says, you say you're rich, but 00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:47.120 you're poor and naked. 00:16:47.120 --> 00:16:54.000 A poverty mindset looks for the seven essentials that were guaranteed in the Garden of Eden 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:56.280 outside of God. 00:16:57.280 --> 00:16:58.480 It looks for dignity. 00:16:58.480 --> 00:16:59.480 It looks for purpose. 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:00.480 It looks for worth. 00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:01.880 It looks for provision. 00:17:01.880 --> 00:17:05.680 It looks for security. 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:06.480 Companionship. 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:10.280 It looks for it outside of God. 00:17:10.280 --> 00:17:18.480 Because again, it's calibrated to the world. 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:20.280 Here's another one. 00:17:20.280 --> 00:17:28.180 A poverty mindset finds it difficult to receive what is not earned or deserved. 00:17:28.180 --> 00:17:33.560 You find it difficult to receive anything for free. 00:17:33.560 --> 00:17:36.280 You feel like you have to earn it or deserve it. 00:17:36.280 --> 00:17:43.480 If anyone shows you kindness and gives you something, you find it very difficult to receive 00:17:43.480 --> 00:17:44.480 it. 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:47.480 You almost feel like you have to earn it or deserve it. 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:54.680 When you receive something free from someone who's being generous, you try to repay that. 00:17:54.680 --> 00:17:58.480 You pay off and owe because you don't want to owe. 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:02.880 It's such an orphan mentality. 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:12.880 Guarding, fighting, deserving. 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:18.480 A poverty mindset second guesses on giving. 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:24.160 Second guesses if I'm giving too much, if perhaps I should give a little less, perhaps 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:29.080 the person doesn't deserve what I'm giving. 00:18:29.080 --> 00:18:31.480 So it either guesses on giving. 00:18:31.480 --> 00:18:35.480 It's always second guessing on should I give this much? 00:18:35.480 --> 00:18:41.480 And then it also gives based on whether the person deserves it or not. 00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:58.180 A poverty mindset is the older brother who does not understand that the farm is his as 00:18:58.180 --> 00:19:00.680 a son. 00:19:00.680 --> 00:19:07.480 A poverty mindset is the mindset of the older brother who does not understand that the farm 00:19:07.480 --> 00:19:14.680 is actually his as a son, but he's not able to see it. 00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:20.080 Maybe we need to talk about what it is to be an orphan as a believer. 00:19:20.080 --> 00:19:28.680 Many of us have been adopted and embraced by the father just like his own son, but we've 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:33.480 so gotten used to being orphans. 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:37.280 It's a mind shift. 00:19:37.280 --> 00:19:43.280 What I'm trying to do by calling out these different mindsets is just to expose the fact 00:19:43.280 --> 00:19:52.280 that this is what an impoverished spirit looks like and an impoverished spirit will not attempt 00:19:52.280 --> 00:19:59.980 thresholds, will not have large expectations because how I am in the physical often translates 00:19:59.980 --> 00:20:08.080 into the spiritual. 00:20:08.080 --> 00:20:15.080 How I behave in the physical. 00:20:15.080 --> 00:20:21.280 A poverty mindset will save out of fear of tomorrow. 00:20:21.280 --> 00:20:24.380 A poverty mindset saves. 00:20:24.380 --> 00:20:27.280 The Bible says save for your children. 00:20:27.280 --> 00:20:36.380 The Bible says save so that in winter when it is difficult to work, you have grain in 00:20:36.380 --> 00:20:39.580 your tour house. 00:20:39.580 --> 00:20:50.280 The Bible says save for those reasons, but the Bible doesn't say save out of fear. 00:20:50.280 --> 00:20:58.080 But a poverty mindset saves today out of fear that tomorrow things may go wrong and God 00:20:58.080 --> 00:21:04.280 may not be there to bail you or to help you or to provide for you. 00:21:04.280 --> 00:21:14.080 I know I've said this many times, but we actually think God is active in our lives till 65, 00:21:14.180 --> 00:21:20.580 but thereafter he is less involved and he helps us during the first 65 years to get 00:21:20.580 --> 00:21:25.680 ready for the years past 65. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:27.380 Such a strong mindset. 00:21:27.380 --> 00:21:30.380 It's like we're embedded in it. 00:21:30.380 --> 00:21:38.980 We work our entire lives to support ourselves when we get old. 00:21:38.980 --> 00:21:49.280 The thing about it that is so untrusting. 00:21:49.280 --> 00:21:52.280 You have valid questions when you say, so Jacob, what do you mean? 00:21:52.280 --> 00:21:57.280 Do you mean that we don't prepare for old age? 00:21:57.280 --> 00:22:03.280 Obviously not. 00:22:03.280 --> 00:22:11.180 As in, I don't know, we'd have to talk about that. 00:22:11.180 --> 00:22:15.780 I have answers, but it would go off topic. 00:22:15.780 --> 00:22:21.580 So we'll have to talk about that another time. 00:22:21.580 --> 00:22:27.580 A poverty mindset hoards to give another day. 00:22:27.580 --> 00:22:36.180 A poverty mindset hoards or collects today to give another day instead of giving today. 00:22:36.180 --> 00:22:38.980 And so it does not create room for increases. 00:22:38.980 --> 00:22:43.080 Always this mentality of, yeah, I'll collect it today. 00:22:43.080 --> 00:22:47.880 I'll save it today because maybe tomorrow I'll give but today let me collect. 00:22:47.880 --> 00:22:52.480 Let me collect for two days and then on the third day I'll give. 00:22:52.580 --> 00:22:55.680 It hoards today. 00:22:55.680 --> 00:23:04.180 Living out this fantasy that on the third day I'll give but not today and tomorrow. 00:23:04.180 --> 00:23:11.580 So many times Israel would hoard and God would have to say to them like he does in Isaiah 39, 00:23:11.580 --> 00:23:16.980 6 to 8 that, hey, all that you've collected will be gone tomorrow. 00:23:16.980 --> 00:23:32.180 It's like the man who built a barn and stored things and didn't enjoy it because he died that day. 00:23:32.180 --> 00:23:37.580 A poverty mindset will not enjoy a gift fully. 00:23:37.580 --> 00:23:38.980 You receive a gift from God. 00:23:38.980 --> 00:23:40.380 You receive a gift from people. 00:23:40.380 --> 00:23:42.380 You receive something special from someone. 00:23:42.380 --> 00:23:46.580 You receive someone who knows that you were longing for something and they give it to you 00:23:46.580 --> 00:23:52.480 and you will keep it away so it can be used tomorrow. 00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:55.780 You will not use what is given to you today. 00:23:55.780 --> 00:24:01.880 Sometimes as parents we do that with our kids. 00:24:01.880 --> 00:24:08.180 Give the child a video game that came out yesterday and it'll only be used two years from now 00:24:08.180 --> 00:24:16.980 because you have to first finish using what was given to you two years ago till it no longer works. 00:24:16.980 --> 00:24:20.780 And we as parents think that is being responsible. 00:24:20.780 --> 00:24:30.380 It actually is cultivating the same mentality in our children who will do it to their children too. 00:24:30.380 --> 00:24:33.580 I could get nitpicky and go into actual incidents, 00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:36.980 but I don't think I want to do that because it embarrasses people. 00:24:36.980 --> 00:24:49.480 I've done that before because it just touches things in our lives that are so sad. 00:24:49.480 --> 00:24:50.680 Plastic bags. 00:24:50.680 --> 00:24:54.380 Let me give you an incident from my life. 00:24:54.380 --> 00:25:00.680 I was appalled when I moved house some years ago. 00:25:00.680 --> 00:25:03.880 But I found I actually counted. 00:25:03.880 --> 00:25:07.180 I found that I'd saved up 84 plastic bags. 00:25:07.180 --> 00:25:08.780 84. 00:25:08.780 --> 00:25:18.080 For what? 00:25:18.080 --> 00:25:26.280 It betrays an attitude guys. 00:25:26.380 --> 00:25:32.180 First the physical and the spiritual. 00:25:32.180 --> 00:25:39.580 What if our lives were free flow lives where things came and things went, things came and things went. 00:25:39.580 --> 00:25:47.680 What if God had that freedom with my life? 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:48.780 Ah, he doesn't. 00:25:48.780 --> 00:25:51.880 I want him to. 00:25:57.180 --> 00:26:03.380 A poverty mindset lives in the past or lives in the future. 00:26:03.380 --> 00:26:07.480 Either things of the past and says I better be careful today. 00:26:07.480 --> 00:26:11.280 Remember what happened in the past or things of the future. 00:26:11.280 --> 00:26:12.680 I want to do that one day. 00:26:12.680 --> 00:26:18.580 So let's just deny ourselves continuously for tomorrow and then tomorrow and then tomorrow. 00:26:18.580 --> 00:26:26.180 So Jacob are you saying today just eat, live and be merry? 00:26:26.180 --> 00:26:29.780 No, I'm saying it's an attitude. 00:26:29.780 --> 00:26:33.480 Please hear me correctly. 00:26:33.480 --> 00:26:43.680 Try to drop your arguments against what I'm saying and think of it. 00:26:43.680 --> 00:26:48.980 In terms of what Jesus said enough is the evil for today. 00:26:48.980 --> 00:26:51.780 Do you want to hear that? 00:26:51.780 --> 00:27:03.480 Do you want to hear some really irresponsible financial advice? 00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:06.280 Let me find it. 00:27:14.680 --> 00:27:18.580 Do not store up. 00:27:18.580 --> 00:27:21.480 Let's write a message. 00:27:21.480 --> 00:27:29.580 Don't hoard treasure down here when it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or worse stolen by burglars. 00:27:29.580 --> 00:27:35.180 Stockpile treasures in heaven where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. 00:27:35.180 --> 00:27:36.480 It's obvious, isn't it? 00:27:37.080 --> 00:27:45.580 The place where your treasure is is the place you will most want to be and end up being. 00:27:45.580 --> 00:27:48.580 You can't worship two gods at once. 00:27:48.580 --> 00:27:52.880 Loving one God will end up, you'll end up hating the other. 00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:58.180 Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. 00:27:58.180 --> 00:28:02.180 You can't worship God and money. 00:28:02.180 --> 00:28:14.380 If you decide for God, living a life of God worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. 00:28:14.380 --> 00:28:21.080 There is far more to your life than food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. 00:28:21.080 --> 00:28:29.080 Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description. 00:28:29.080 --> 00:28:37.080 You are careless in the care of God and you can't farm more than those birds. 00:28:41.080 --> 00:28:48.080 If God gives such attention to the appearance of wild flowers, most of which are never ever seen, don't you think he'll attend to you? 00:28:48.080 --> 00:28:51.080 Take pride in you? Do his best for you? 00:28:52.080 --> 00:29:04.080 What I am trying to do here is to get you to relax and not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving. 00:29:04.080 --> 00:29:11.080 People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you both know God and how he works. 00:29:11.080 --> 00:29:18.080 Steep your life in God reality, God-initiated, God-provisions. 00:29:18.080 --> 00:29:24.080 Don't worry about messing up. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. 00:29:24.080 --> 00:29:32.080 Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 00:29:32.080 --> 00:29:44.080 A poverty mindset will not let go of what is in your hand. 00:29:44.080 --> 00:29:53.080 Doesn't matter whether it's a small jar of oil, doesn't matter whether it's two loaves and five fish, doesn't matter whether it's a staff. 00:29:53.080 --> 00:30:03.080 A poverty mindset will not let go of what is in your hand till you have something quantitatively better. 00:30:03.080 --> 00:30:12.080 You will not let go. It's always an exchange. It's always transactional. A poverty mindset is always transactional. 00:30:12.080 --> 00:30:24.080 Giving is so not transactional. Giving is relational. Relational. R-E-L-A-Y. Relational. 00:30:24.080 --> 00:30:34.080 And so faith is not compatible with a poverty mindset. 00:30:34.080 --> 00:30:41.080 With this mindset, you either walk in careful unbelief or you walk in presumption. 00:30:41.080 --> 00:30:49.080 You see that with this mindset. You either walk in a positive or you either walk in a negative. 00:30:50.080 --> 00:30:56.080 You either walk in careful unbelief or you walk in presumption. You see that with the Israeli Deutronomy 132. 00:30:56.080 --> 00:31:05.080 They were not willing to believe and step out. In Deutronomy 143, they were presumptuous and began to step out. It's one or the other. 00:31:05.080 --> 00:31:15.080 So what is the solution to this mindset? 00:31:15.080 --> 00:31:25.080 One, to recognize that we are unfortunately so impoverished sometimes in our thinking. 00:31:25.080 --> 00:31:33.080 And if you're not able to see that, if you're not able to face up to that, you don't even get to start. 00:31:33.080 --> 00:31:41.080 You continue with the mindset that you have. It has been built over years brick by brick. 00:31:41.080 --> 00:31:46.080 And what the Holy Spirit is trying to do is demolish it brick by brick. 00:31:46.080 --> 00:31:53.080 So it may not happen overnight because it's a thought process, right? 00:31:53.080 --> 00:31:57.080 So thoughts have to be, a way of thinking has to be deconstructed. 00:31:57.080 --> 00:32:01.080 But he'll help you and he'll do it really fast if I'm willing. 00:32:01.080 --> 00:32:09.080 And if I surrender, I have to surrender something that was part of the curse right off in Genesis 3. 00:32:09.080 --> 00:32:14.080 You shall work and toil by the sweat of your brow. 00:32:14.080 --> 00:32:23.080 And these are things that we think we have earned and therefore have a right to. 00:32:23.080 --> 00:32:30.080 It's very hard to break, but it is a spirit. It is a spirit of poverty. 00:32:30.080 --> 00:32:34.080 And I break it over this church and over my life and over your life. 00:32:34.080 --> 00:32:43.080 I break it in the name of Jesus Christ so that we can scale spiritually having overcome things in the physical. 00:32:43.080 --> 00:32:48.080 Because if you and I cannot deal with something as trivial as mammon, 00:32:48.080 --> 00:32:55.080 how can we deal with things that are of much greater significance? Jesus said that. 00:33:01.080 --> 00:33:04.080 So first thing is to recognize it. 00:33:04.080 --> 00:33:10.080 Then I'll just call on a few things that we can discuss in the future. 00:33:11.080 --> 00:33:16.080 Most of these statements you've heard before and as I begin to call these out, 00:33:16.080 --> 00:33:30.080 you might be tempted to think, isn't this like a prosperity gospel solution? 00:33:30.080 --> 00:33:34.080 No, it's not. It's just a change of mentality. 00:33:34.080 --> 00:33:41.080 We're not talking about money in our banks. We're talking about money flowing out of our hands. 00:33:41.080 --> 00:33:45.080 We're not talking about let us be blessed so that we can be a blessing. 00:33:45.080 --> 00:33:51.080 We're talking about let blessings flow through us. 00:33:51.080 --> 00:34:01.080 Whether it be a small amount or a large amount, whether I be the top of the ladder or the bottom of the ladder, let blessings flow. 00:34:04.080 --> 00:34:10.080 The prosperity gospel is the result of a poverty spirit. 00:34:10.080 --> 00:34:16.080 The prosperity gospel is the result of a poverty spirit. 00:34:20.080 --> 00:34:32.080 That if you do this for God, if you give, if you send so much money to this particular preacher or this particular ministry, 00:34:32.080 --> 00:34:35.080 then God will bless you so that you can be a blessing. 00:34:35.080 --> 00:34:53.080 It is so transactional, so cheap, so devoid of the giving nature of God, so gettingish, so outward trapping, so unsacrificial, 00:34:53.080 --> 00:35:08.080 so self-focused, so unself-emptying that it is a distorted, perverse theology that has come out of a deep impoverished spirit of poverty, 00:35:08.080 --> 00:35:11.080 as in an evil spirit of poverty. 00:35:17.080 --> 00:35:21.080 So the first thing is to realize these distortions in my life. 00:35:21.080 --> 00:35:31.080 The second thing is to realize that I am a person who is not a person who is not a person who is not a person. 00:35:32.080 --> 00:35:36.080 So the first thing is to realize these distortions in my life. 00:35:36.080 --> 00:35:45.080 The second thing is to keep playing with, exploring, digging deep into that simple phrase that I keep using again and again and again, 00:35:45.080 --> 00:35:50.080 that a son lacks nothing, but a servant owns nothing. 00:35:50.080 --> 00:35:52.080 A son lacks nothing. 00:35:53.080 --> 00:36:01.080 When I say a son lacks nothing, I need to understand that what I have in my hand is not what I have in God. 00:36:01.080 --> 00:36:04.080 That is how sons lack nothing. 00:36:04.080 --> 00:36:13.080 A son lacks nothing not because of what he has in his hand, but because of what he knows he has in the Father, 00:36:13.080 --> 00:36:23.080 and therefore he knows that as he begins to scale in obedience to what God is calling him in the physical and in the spiritual, 00:36:23.080 --> 00:36:29.080 that God will have to lead, God will have to invite, God will have to command, and God will have to provide, 00:36:29.080 --> 00:36:39.080 God will have to give evidence that this is something he wants, and it is not done through prayer or sacrifice or anything like that, 00:36:39.080 --> 00:36:45.080 meaning it's not done through trying to get something from God, it is done through obeying God and saying, 00:36:45.080 --> 00:36:48.080 okay, you want me to step here, I'll step here. 00:36:48.080 --> 00:36:57.080 Because as a son, I lack nothing, but I also understand, oh God, that it is not what I have in my wallet or my pocket or my bank account, 00:36:57.080 --> 00:37:02.080 but it is what I have in you, so if you say so, I will do so. 00:37:02.080 --> 00:37:05.080 If you say so, I will do so. 00:37:06.080 --> 00:37:09.080 That is critically. 00:37:10.080 --> 00:37:20.080 But till I change my impoverished mindset, I will not even hear it, or if I step out into these things not having changed my mindset, 00:37:20.080 --> 00:37:26.080 I just walk in presumption, and presumption always ends up with me drowning, 00:37:26.080 --> 00:37:31.080 because I didn't hear the command, come, and therefore I cannot step out of the boat and walk on water. 00:37:31.080 --> 00:37:37.080 Once I hear the command, or once I even see his lips moving saying come, I know that I can step out. 00:37:39.080 --> 00:37:42.080 This is so not about you prospering. 00:37:42.080 --> 00:37:52.080 This is so about others prospering because of your obedience, or the causes of the kingdom prospering, or the causes of God prospering, 00:37:53.080 --> 00:38:01.080 or nations opening, or families being built up, or exploits of faith being realized, 00:38:01.080 --> 00:38:09.080 or visions coming to pass because a provision that was shackled because a provision is now running live. 00:38:17.080 --> 00:38:20.080 As a servant, I own nothing. 00:38:22.080 --> 00:38:25.080 I've said this to you before. 00:38:26.080 --> 00:38:40.080 Every couple of months I have to go to God and say I need to release ownership over the things I have because I seem to think this is mine. 00:38:41.080 --> 00:38:43.080 I need to release ownership over it. 00:38:43.080 --> 00:38:45.080 I'm scared that I'm beginning to own it. 00:38:45.080 --> 00:38:52.080 I'm seeing this as mine. I'm seeing this as belongs to me and I have a right to decide where it goes, how much goes, when it goes. 00:38:52.080 --> 00:38:55.080 I want to just shed that. 00:38:59.080 --> 00:39:07.080 What a belief system and God we serve, eh? 00:39:15.080 --> 00:39:18.080 What I have in my hand is not what I have in God. 00:39:19.080 --> 00:39:22.080 I learned that from somebody who lives like that. 00:39:23.080 --> 00:39:26.080 They're not afraid. I want to be unafraid. 00:39:27.080 --> 00:39:29.080 They're not afraid. 00:39:31.080 --> 00:39:37.080 And therefore they take big risks. They really step out. They're not afraid. 00:39:37.080 --> 00:39:49.080 We talk about being stewards for God and being faithful and responsible stewards to the master. 00:39:50.080 --> 00:39:58.080 Here's another solution. A steward can be responsible to his master only if he's totally dependent on his master. 00:39:59.080 --> 00:40:06.080 A steward can be responsible to his master only if he's totally dependent on his master. 00:40:07.080 --> 00:40:15.080 If he's not dependent, totally dependent, utterly dependent on his master, then what the steward has, he will begin to hold back. 00:40:15.080 --> 00:40:29.080 He will begin to put away. He will begin to not give because he begins to get afraid that it may all go away. 00:40:29.080 --> 00:40:35.080 But if he's totally dependent on his master, a steward can be faithful and responsible with what his master gives. 00:40:35.080 --> 00:40:47.080 And to the degree that he is responsible and faithful, according to that ability, God keeps increasing what is sent to and sent through the steward. 00:40:51.080 --> 00:40:53.080 Beautiful eh? 00:40:57.080 --> 00:40:59.080 Here's another one. 00:41:00.080 --> 00:41:10.080 Generosity is the key to abounding in all sufficiency, in all things, at all times. 00:41:10.080 --> 00:41:12.080 2 Corinthians 9, 6-8. 00:41:12.080 --> 00:41:24.080 Generosity is the key to abounding in all sufficiency, in all things, at all times, for all good works. 00:41:24.080 --> 00:41:34.080 We are called to do good works so that our light may shine and the Father may be known. 00:41:34.080 --> 00:41:36.080 Matthew 5. 00:41:36.080 --> 00:41:49.080 But for good works, we need to abound in all things, at all times, with all grace, all sufficient, 00:41:49.080 --> 00:41:56.080 so that we can complete the good works allotted to us each month, each year. 00:41:56.080 --> 00:42:15.080 And generosity is the key to all sufficiency and all grace, in all things, at all times, in a way that abounds so that we may complete the good works allotted to us every month, every year. 00:42:15.080 --> 00:42:25.080 In one life, in multiple lives, in a community, in a nation, in nations, come church. 00:42:25.080 --> 00:42:52.080 And finally, one of the secrets or solutions to moving out of a poverty mindset into the mindset of the Son is to empty yourself. 00:42:55.080 --> 00:43:03.080 And making that one of your goals, to empty yourself. 00:43:03.080 --> 00:43:12.080 The strange thing about emptying yourself is, here is a God who continuously flows into empty places. 00:43:12.080 --> 00:43:22.080 One who does not empty himself does not create room for more, but instead ends up with a stagnant pool of the same. 00:43:23.080 --> 00:43:26.080 Emptying yourself. 00:43:26.080 --> 00:43:28.080 How do you empty yourself? 00:43:28.080 --> 00:43:40.080 You empty yourself by not thinking much of yourself, even when you have much, and not thinking less of yourself, even when you have little. 00:43:40.080 --> 00:43:46.080 Emptying yourself by not thinking much of yourself. 00:43:46.080 --> 00:43:48.080 Self-forgetfulness. 00:43:48.080 --> 00:43:50.080 Self-forgetfulness. 00:43:50.080 --> 00:44:02.080 You're a jolly beggar who is provided for every day so that you have seed for sowing and bread for eating. 00:44:02.080 --> 00:44:11.080 And as you are responsible and faithful, you have more seed for sowing and more bread for eating so that at your table, many more can sit and eat. 00:44:20.080 --> 00:44:25.080 You empty yourself by acknowledging the One from whom all good gifts come. 00:44:25.080 --> 00:44:36.080 The Creator of the universe who gives us the fruit of the vine and the bread and the seed that we need, who provides. 00:44:36.080 --> 00:44:45.080 It's a blessing that they utter before they participate in meals in the Jewish tradition. 00:44:45.080 --> 00:44:58.080 Then the other thing that we need to do if we want to empty ourselves is not cling, not cling to the advantages and the privileges that are yours from God. 00:44:58.080 --> 00:45:05.080 To not cling to the advantages and to the privileges that are yours from God. 00:45:05.080 --> 00:45:14.080 Either you inherited it or it was given to you or it was just the grace of God or you earned it, but you no longer cling to it. 00:45:14.080 --> 00:45:18.080 You don't cling to the privileges and advantages of it. 00:45:18.080 --> 00:45:27.080 Where do we get this from? We get it from Jesus, right? Philippians 2, 6 to 9. 00:45:27.080 --> 00:45:34.080 So Father, in Jesus' name, I pray for this, your church. 00:45:34.080 --> 00:45:38.080 I pray for each person. 00:45:38.080 --> 00:45:42.080 I pray, starting with me, 00:45:42.080 --> 00:45:47.080 that this impoverished mentality of an orphan 00:45:50.080 --> 00:45:54.080 is an insult to you, O God. 00:45:54.080 --> 00:45:59.080 It doesn't reflect you to the watching world. 00:45:59.080 --> 00:46:05.080 It is a little different from the world. 00:46:05.080 --> 00:46:11.080 And so in Christ's name, as the one that you appointed to this church, I come against the Spirit. 00:46:11.080 --> 00:46:16.080 This poverty spirit, this poverty mindset, I come against it. 00:46:16.080 --> 00:46:24.080 And I bring the sledgehammer of the Holy Spirit against this collective mentality in this church, and I break it in the name of Jesus Christ. 00:46:24.080 --> 00:46:28.080 And I rebuke the spirit of poverty. It is a wicked, evil spirit. 00:46:28.080 --> 00:46:33.080 It is a spirit that impoverishes physically, financially, relationally, spiritually. 00:46:33.080 --> 00:46:38.080 I rebuke the spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. 00:46:42.080 --> 00:46:50.080 I pray, Father, that we begin to change in our thinking so that we can scale physically, 00:46:53.080 --> 00:46:58.080 so that we may begin to take greater risks spiritually, 00:46:58.080 --> 00:47:03.080 knowing that what we have in you is enough. 00:47:04.080 --> 00:47:08.080 Not what we have in our pockets, but what we have in you. 00:47:08.080 --> 00:47:11.080 It will set our minds free to think like this. 00:47:11.080 --> 00:47:14.080 It will set our hearts free to be fearless. 00:47:14.080 --> 00:47:19.080 It will set our feet walking into places that we wouldn't dare before. 00:47:19.080 --> 00:47:25.080 Not in presumption, but because you're inviting us saying, come. 00:47:25.080 --> 00:47:31.080 But you never invite us to sacrifice Isaac in one shot, do you, O God? 00:47:32.080 --> 00:47:38.080 You take us through a process, degrees of separation from our land, 00:47:38.080 --> 00:47:44.080 from Lot, from Hagar, from Ishmael, and then Isaac. 00:47:44.080 --> 00:47:48.080 Would you begin that process with us, O God, as a church? 00:47:50.080 --> 00:47:52.080 In Jesus' name. 00:47:53.080 --> 00:48:00.080 Hey, what I mean by scaling physically, it sounds too abstract. 00:48:00.080 --> 00:48:12.080 What I mean by that is, if God wants me to give someone, 00:48:13.080 --> 00:48:21.080 ah, perfect example, remember the story that happened with Stephen? 00:48:22.080 --> 00:48:29.080 So he's waiting for someone outside their house to take them to house church. 00:48:29.080 --> 00:48:33.080 And God says to him, give him the best you have. 00:48:34.080 --> 00:48:39.080 And Stephen decides he's going to take out all the money in his wallet 00:48:39.080 --> 00:48:41.080 and give it to the guy when he comes. 00:48:43.080 --> 00:48:45.080 That's usually how we think. 00:48:45.080 --> 00:48:49.080 What I mean by scaling physically is now God says to Stephen again, 00:48:49.080 --> 00:48:51.080 give him the best you have. 00:48:51.080 --> 00:48:57.080 And Stephen realizes that he's got an iPhone X. 00:48:57.080 --> 00:48:59.080 I think it was an iPhone X. 00:49:00.080 --> 00:49:03.080 And he says to God, OK, I'll give this iPhone X. 00:49:07.080 --> 00:49:16.080 And so that's what I mean by scaling up, where I may begin with giving out of my wallet. 00:49:16.080 --> 00:49:19.080 And then God says, hey, now let me show you another level. 00:49:19.080 --> 00:49:24.080 And sometimes the way he shows me another level is by asking me to take risks financially 00:49:24.080 --> 00:49:31.080 and destroy the spirit of poverty that sets my course and makes me stay a certain way forever. 00:49:31.080 --> 00:49:36.080 You know, one of the things I've noticed in certain countries is people will come into a nation 00:49:36.080 --> 00:49:40.080 and live there for 20, 30 years and prosper, 00:49:40.080 --> 00:49:45.080 but they will not move out of the home they started living in, 00:49:45.080 --> 00:49:49.080 regardless of how difficult and small it is. 00:49:52.080 --> 00:49:57.080 Because it seems to trap us in a mentality. 00:50:01.080 --> 00:50:05.080 I'm not saying go and live in a palace. 00:50:05.080 --> 00:50:07.080 Please don't hear me wrong. 00:50:07.080 --> 00:50:11.080 What I'm trying to say is there is a way I function based on my environment 00:50:11.080 --> 00:50:16.080 and my ways of thinking that does not allow me to go further. 00:50:16.080 --> 00:50:22.080 That prevents my ears from even hearing if God is calling. 00:50:24.080 --> 00:50:28.080 Remember, the flip side of this is emptying oneself, 00:50:30.080 --> 00:50:33.080 being bankrupt and utterly dependent on God. 00:50:34.080 --> 00:50:38.080 It's not a contradiction. It's held in tension. 00:50:39.080 --> 00:50:43.080 And so then God says to Jeevan, give him the best you have. 00:50:43.080 --> 00:50:48.080 That's when Jeevan realizes that he's sitting in a car and God is saying, give your car away. 00:50:48.080 --> 00:50:51.080 And he calls up his mom and dad. 00:50:53.080 --> 00:50:56.080 And they're not super wealthy. 00:50:56.080 --> 00:50:59.080 You've heard Jeevan's mom and dad's story. 00:50:59.080 --> 00:51:03.080 And his mom says to Jeevan, if God is asking you to give your car away, 00:51:03.080 --> 00:51:05.080 don't think about it. Do it immediately. 00:51:05.080 --> 00:51:08.080 Because the longer you think, the harder it will be. 00:51:08.080 --> 00:51:11.080 And Jeevan gives his car away. 00:51:12.080 --> 00:51:20.080 I had that story and it deeply affected me because I wasn't sure I would be able to do that. 00:51:20.080 --> 00:51:25.080 It's not how much I have or the quality of what I have. 00:51:25.080 --> 00:51:27.080 It is, can I do it with two dollars? 00:51:27.080 --> 00:51:31.080 If I can, then I can do it with two hundred and two thousand and two hundred thousand. 00:51:31.080 --> 00:51:35.080 That's why when I hear guys like Warren Buffett giving away his fortune, 00:51:36.080 --> 00:51:38.080 one may say, ah, he's rich, he can afford it. 00:51:39.080 --> 00:51:42.080 Try it with two hundred and you'll still find it difficult. 00:51:43.080 --> 00:51:47.080 So trying with two billion is like, oh, I'm going to do it with two hundred and two thousand. 00:51:48.080 --> 00:51:50.080 So trying with two billion is as difficult. 00:51:51.080 --> 00:51:53.080 These people in the world are able to do it. 00:51:53.080 --> 00:52:01.080 Set my heart free, oh, God, that I may begin to walk as a conduit. 00:52:01.080 --> 00:52:07.080 Chad makes fun of me saying conduit is one of my favorite words, but it is a pipeline. 00:52:08.080 --> 00:52:12.080 I hope I've explained it to some extent and I hope this teaching has helped. 00:52:12.080 --> 00:52:16.080 I don't know how long it is, but feels long. 00:52:16.080 --> 00:52:19.080 Perhaps it is. Enjoy the rest of the service, guys. 00:52:19.080 --> 00:52:23.080 I'll see you when I come back on the 16th. 00:52:23.080 --> 00:52:25.080 Yeah, God bless. Bye.