Portfolio - Week 2

We're going to continue in our series today portfolio. Last week we talked about

tithe. I mean, we're gonna continue talking in the area of giving.

Today, we're gonna move beyond tithe. Now we're gonna talk about offering.

And we talked about the benefits. Last week, we talked about what that

does to the believer. We're gonna talk about some of those things today as

well, but also a fundamental understanding of what that is. Because I think

a lot of times when we give, we look around and we make assumptions

about other people. Come on, somebody, how many of you you're guilty

of of of judging a book by its cover, Raise your hand. Everybody

is. Everybody is. We make assessments about the people sitting next to us,

or the people sitting in front of us or behind us. And a

lot of times we think to ourselves, well, you know, I know,

surely they're giving more than I could ever give, So my contribute doesn't

make a difference. But I want to be clear that your contribution does make

a difference. It doesn't just make a difference here at the church you're giving

to, but it makes a difference in the Kingdom, and it makes a

difference in your life. Let me say that again. It makes a difference

in your life when you give. It makes a bigger difference in your life

than it does in the church, because ultimately God is our provider, just

like he's your provider. Now he does choose to provide through you many times,

but God can do supernatural things. I remember, as I look back

over over the history of this ministry, there was a situation where Connie came

to me and like she's done several times, and I wish you'd just keep

these things to herself, but she can. You said, Pastor, you

know, we don't have a whole lot of money in the bank and where

it's getting tight, bills are do you what do you want me to do?

I said, how much money do you have? And I think at

that time it was like twenty one hundred dollars, had twenty one hundred dollars

in the bank, and just the building payment at that time by itself was

around five grand. And that was coming to you. And I remember looking

at Connie and hearing the words come out of my mouth and knowing that they

were faith words, but also thinking it was the craziest thing I've ever said

Amen. She said, what do you want me to do? And I

said, I want you to call And I called the pastor's name. I

said, I want you to call him and tell him we're going to send

him a check for twenty one hundred dollars, because the only way we're gonna

make is we get seed in the ground. And and she she called him

and we mailed that check, so that that put us at zero. Come

on, somebody, sometimes you know, when you're drowning, it don't matter

if you're an inch deep for a mile deep. You just got to exercise

faith to get to the surface. And I remember that next day, somebody

didn't attend our church, had never attended our church at that time, walked

into my office and said, listen, your your your your your midday things,

midday live teachings at lunch. I look so far to has bless me.

I just want to do a little something for the church. Reached his

pocket, handed me a check, and when he walked out, I opened

it up and it was a check for one hundred thousand dollars. So the

Lord can supply any way he chooses to supply. Amen. If you're watching

online, maybe that's a word to you. I'm just kidd I'm just kidding.

But the reality is, when you give, it does more for you

than it does for the institution that you're giving to. The whole process of

giving is about heart alignment, about kingdom alignment. So don't think your gift

is insignificant. As a matter of fact, let's look at let's look at

some words of Jesus in Luke chapter twenty one. Luke chapter twenty one,

Starting in verse one, it says, and he looked up and saw the

rich putting their gift to the treasury, and he also saw a certain poor

widow putting in two mites. So we said, truly, I say to

you that this poor widow has put in more than all for all these out

of their abundance, have put in offerings for God. But she, out

of her poverty, put in all the livelihood that she had. Father,

We thank you for your word changes today help us understand that generosity is not

a thing, it's a lifestyle, that alignment with You is the most important

thing in our lives. Lord, we love you, and we thank you

in Jesus' name. Amen. Jesus looks at this woman and he says,

hey, it's not about the amount that's given, it's about the proportion of

sacrifice or the proportion of heart alif much to the kingdom, this woman didn't

give nearly as much as everybody else. As a matter of fact, he

called them rich people that we're giving. And he called her a poor and

not just poor, but he said a poor widow. You know, there's

different Come on, there's different levels of poor, amen, you know,

like there's there's poor college student amen, like you know, ram and noodles

every day. And then there's how I grew up like dirt poor, right,

and then there's just some levels underneath that too. And we have to

understand that God doesn't expect us to give on the same level as someone with

more resources, or the same amounts as someone with more resources, but he

certainly does expect us to give to the certain level of sacrifice as the other

people around us. And when we enter into that place of sacrifice, when

we move place past the place of comfort and we move into the place of

sacrifice, it begins to beat down some of those primal desires that are in

our lives, those things that that drive us, those things that that distract

us those things that get us off course, because it's actually the same thing

as when we when we fast, we begin to tell our body that I'm

going to be dependent on God for my food and finances. We begin to

say that we're going to be dependent on God in the area of finance.

There's areas of sacrifice in every part of our relationship with God, and giving

just happens to be the one that we get the most stirred up about.

Come on, somebody, you know I as as we as I started this

series last week and I looked ahead till today because this is Daylight Savings Day,

right, this is the I want this is I want you to think

about this. This is the least attended Sunday in the American Church, Daylight

Savings not not not July the fourth, because you lost one hour of sleep.

Come on, somebody, and you didn't lose it. You could have

went to bed an hour early. You didn't lose it. All that moved

was the clock. The earth didn't speed up or slow down, just change

the clock. And then I started thinking, Oh my goodness, and I'm

preaching on giving. The only people that are going to show up Sunday or

the people that are scheduled to do something, but the reality is we take

it so serious. Finances are cause of the the closeness to our heart.

Finances are there is a direct correlation to finance. And and I believe that

when you go to some of the poorer places in the world, you see

so much joy in those places because they don't struggle with those things the way

we struggle with those things. That they're literally not believing God for a raise

for a new car, but they're just believing God for a little rice so

they can make it till tomorrow, or a extra fish so that they can

trade it for an apple. And there's a lot of joy because they don't

struggle and fight this battle with the God of this world over that monetary system.

Mammon, mammon. And here Jesus looks at this lady and he says,

listen, she got it right. And I want to celebrate her because

she gave everything she had and it didn't listen. Two mites is like two

pennies. It did not really help the gospel go any further around the world.

You can't even pump two cents worth of gas in your gas tape.

Try it when you leave here, go buy the gas pump and try to

pump two cents. Nobody's hands fast enough to pump two cents. You can't

do it. It'll be a nickel, just like that. And she didn't

even And Jesus said, listen, she got it right. She did more

because it positioned her heart to make an impact. You will make a bigger

impact in the lives of people than you're giving everwill Os. It's made a

little more shouting than that, So let me say it again. You will

make a bigger impact in people's lives than you're giving Everwill. If he's got

your heart, he will set you on fire, and you will start a

forest fire around you. If Olyppians, chapter four, verse fourteen, one

of the most taken out of context passages of scripture in all of Pentecostalm Pentecostalism,

is here. We always talk about taking scriptures out of context, and

I believe that this is one that we quote this one all the time,

but we have removed it from its context, and we need to place it

back in context so that we can see what's happening around this passage of scripture,

because there's some correlation Philippians chapter four, verse fourteen. It says,

nevertheless, you've done well that you shared in my distress. Now you Philippians

know also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia,

no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving. But you only let

me break that do for you. He said, y'all are the only ones

that sent help. Nobody else, just the church at PHILIPPI sent help for

even in Thatsalonaika. You sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not

that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your

account. Indeed, I have all in a bound. I'm full, having

received from a paphroditis the things sent from you, a sweet smelling aroma,

an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. And My God shall supply all

of your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to

our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen. You know

we quote that passage of Scripture. Somebody's having a hard time when we look

at him when we say, Oh, my God shall supply all of your

need according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. But we've removed it

from its context because Paul is saying, hey, you gave, you were

consistent, habitual. Your giving was a lifestyle, and as a result of

the lifestyle of generosity you live. My God shall supply all of your need

according to His riches and glory. It's if then, come on, somebody,

we don't like if then blessings in the Bible. We don't like those

things that if you do this, then God does that. But the New

Testament is full of those if then blessings. Now it's not that God can't

or that he won't, but we open ourselves up for blessing to flow.

As a matter of fact, everything in the Kingdom is a flow. Everything

is about movement. And this is what he says. Listen, when you're

generous, you don't have to worry about the need. I'm going to supply

your needs so you can continue being generous. It erases the worry, It

erases the stress and the anxiety that we live under because now we begin to

trust God and this flow begins to happen in our lives. That as we

give, God gives back, and as we give, God gives back.

And then we realize that we're humanity, and we're giving to those that are

less fortunate. We're pouring to carry the gospel around the world. And God

continues to give, and a flow happens. See God talks about rivers,

he doesn't talk about ponds. Everything is a flow. In John chapter seven,

verse thirty seven, it says on the last day, that great day

of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirst,

let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me,

as the scripture has set, out of his heart will flow rivers of living

water. But this he spoke in turning concerning the spirit whom those believing in

him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was

low. It's about receiving. In hey, it's not just finances. Everything

in the Kingdom is about a flow. It's about receiving and giving, receiving

and giving. It's about sowing and reaping. He says, the Holy Spirit

is the same way, and if you drink from me, there's going to

be a supply that allows a river of living water to flow out of your

life and begin to touch people around you. It's all a flow. And

if we wonder why we don't operate in the flow, maybe the beavers are

living on our side of the equation, not on God's. If you didn't

understand that beavers down up the stream so that the water can't flow, maybe

those things are because we haven't really gotten into that flow of giving. Wants

to look one more place. Second Corinthians, chapter nine, we're going to

start in verse six says but this, I say, he who sows sparingly

will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully also reap bountifully. Us

stop right there now, we've already opened up today, saying that it's not

about the amount. It's about the level of sacrifice. It's not about whether

you can give a hundred or ten. It's about how our heart is drawn

into alignment and trust with God. And that's what sacrifice does. And he

says, he who sows sparingly will reap sparingly. Don't get mad at me.

Is the word of God, not the word of Steve. I'm just

a paper boy. I'm just delivering it. He says. Listen, if

you give with a spoon, you'll receive with a spoon. If you give

with a shovel, you'll receive with a shovel. If you enter into the

flow at the greater level you trust God, the greater level, his blessings

will abound in your life. Because the just we don't live by sight,

we live by faith. We look at obstacles and we don't figure out a

way around the obstacle. We believe we serve a God who will carry us

right through the middle of the obstacle because we live in his abundance and his

supply and in his flow. And here he sets it up, and he

says, listen, the more you give to the greater level, you give,

the greater opportunity exists for blessing in your life. So let each one

give us he purposes in his heart. We won't come back to that in

just one second, not grudgingly or of necessity, For God loves a cheerful

giver. He says, okay, So so if you, if you,

if you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly. If you sow bountifully, you

reap bountifully. God loves a cheerful giver. So that means get your heart

right. Don't do it grudgingly out of necessity. Don't be let don't be

a curmudgeon. Amen, don't be don't be a curmudgeon, and don't be

a show boat. Don't talk about how much you give. Listen. As

a matter of fact, if you talk about how much you give, you

probably need to give more. If if that's a matter of boastfulness in your

life, give until it hits sacrifice. Because people don't normally talk about their

sacrifice. They live through it. And he says, here's the here is

the key, this is this is what's going on right now is you have

to purpose in your heart what it is you will give. You have to

take some time. Listen, I know here we are on time again.

We just did a whole series about now it's popping back up again. You

have to take some time to get purpose according to your giving. In other

words, oh no, the bucket is coming around. Whatever is in my

that's not purposeful giving. Purposeful giving is that I don't wait until pastor Steve

says it's time to give, and then I go into a panic because I

have a I left my check book in the car. Oh I forgot to

go by the ATM. Purposeful giving means it's a lifestyle, and it starts

on Monday and I begin to purpose in my heart what I'm going to give,

A purpose in my heart, what I'm going to give to the church,

I purpose in my heart, what I'm going to sew into those people

that are around me that are less fortunate than me. Listen, I want

you to give through random acts of kindness as well as giving to the church.

I want you to walk up in the grocery store behind somebody and look

at them and say, hey, can I pay for your groceries today?

I want you to do that, and then they're like, why would you

do that? Well, because Jesus paid a debt. I didn't know he

paid a debt I couldn't pay. I owed it, but I couldn't pay

it. Jesus paid my debt, and I just want to I just want

to show the kindness and love of Jesus. Or pay for the car behind

you, pay for their meal when you go through Chick fil A and just

tell them, hey, just because Jesus chose you to have a free breakfast

this morning. So when you're purposeful in your giving, those things can happen.

You can do those things, You can complete that plan of God in

your life, purpose in your heart. But now what that does is listen.

I've said it, So don't think every when somebody says this, don't

think they're wrong from now on, because I've said this, and there are

times where I will continue to say this, because God speaks to us while

we're standing in front of the congregation a lot of times. But I've heard

it said over and over again. Ask the Lord how much he wants you

to give today, Ask the Lord how much he wants you to give,

and whatever he says, you give it. Now the Lord will ask you

for things. The Lord will ask you for things. But if the Lord

has ask you for something, it's no longer offering. The Bible refers to

it as a dedicated thing. A dedicated thing gets the same blessing. And

we're gonna talk about the blessing that comes from giving in just one second.

Just hold on, I'm gonna get to the good stuff, say the good

stuff. A dedicated thing receives the same blessing and anointing as the tithe devour

is rebuked on everybody because a dedicated thing means we probably should have already given

it and we didn't, So Now God's asking for it. So if he

asks you for it, then it's mandatory that you give it. So he

says, purpose in your own heart what you should give. Be intentional about

your giving. Build your giving into your budget. You're like budget, got

no budget. I just spend it till it's gone. Baby, when the

debit guard quits working, that's how I know to quit spending. You need

to get a budget. You will be more effective for the kingdom and in

life if you live on a budget. So let each one give us the

purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or necessity. For God loves a cheerful

giver, and God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that

you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for

every good work. As it is written here is that blessing associated to the

to the tithe that we talked about. Now here you step. God never

intended the tithe to be the end of our giving. We have placed that

as a limiter on our giving. A lot of times. God says,

that's the introductory level, because the blessing above that that's associated with that is

not now about protection. It's about abundance. It's not about holding on to

what I have. It's about taking ground and reaping. It's about the wealth

of the Kingdom of God being at hand and able to be received. So

says He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor. His righteousness

endures forever. Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for

food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increased the fruits of

your righteousness. Now watch, God does multiplication when we begin to move in

the area of offering. He does multiplication, not at the harvest level,

but at the seed level. And you're like, well, so what When

it's multiplied at the seed level, the harvest becomes exponential. If you multiply

the harvest by two, you get twice the harvest. But if you multiply

the seed by two, you have a regenerative miracle that continues to work.

And now you have more seed than you were able to sow. So it

says he gives you the seed. You release the seed and plant the seed,

and then God comes behind you and multiplies the seed so that the harvest

becomes exponential. And you're thinking, well, I ain't rich been given because

the key comes next. Nope, go back, I'm sorry. In the

same passage of Scripture, supply and multiply the seed us on and increase the

fruits of your righteousness. See we have a bad understanding. We are not

a bad We have a bad habit of thinking I give money to get money,

but we sow. God multiplies at the seed level, and he increases

the fruits of our righteousness, our rights standing with God, the totality of

the covenant that we live under. See. God's promises are in the Covenant

of righteousness, the promise he makes to us when he hung on the cross

and shed his blood on Calvary. And now we've trusted him as our savior.

And what are the fruits of righteousness. It's all the stuff. It's

health and healing, it's increasing our finances. It's happiness, it's joy,

it's relationships. It's the miraculous opportunity to step into something that God has for

me that I could have never created on my own. Listen, I'm standing

on this stage preaching to you, not because I deserve to be here,

not because I'm the most qualified person to pastor you, but because of God's

grace. He took someone who was not qualified, who did not deserve it.

Many people have more credentials and better education and are better speakers. But

God just simply because of the fruits of the righteousness in me, not because

I'm righteousness, but because of the fruits that come through His righteousness. And

He positioned to be here. And I don't deserve to be here, and

I know I don't deserve to be here, and that's why I operate in

such gratitude over the fact that I am here. And graciousness explodes out of

our lives, and people are attracted to someone who is gracious and has a

positive attitude and looks like everything is not caving in around them even when it

might be. And that happens because He increases the fruit of our righteousness through

our seed that's multiplied at the seed level. I'm going to ask a question

now listen. The answer is yes to the first part of this question.

When you cut open an apple, Can you count the number of seeds in

an apple? Yeah? I mean you have to dig in there, but

you can. Right. Can you count the number of apples in a seed?

Let me ask you that question more time. Can you count the number

of seeds in an apple? Can you count the number of apples in a

seed? So do you want the seed multiplied or the apple multiplied? You

want the seed multiplied because God controls how many apples are in a seed.

Giving brings us into the Let me say it again, flow of the kingdom.

Now who now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for

food supplied and multiply the seed you have sown and increased the fruits of your

righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all all liberality, which causes

thanksgiving through us to God. Clay, you guys can come and get ready,

He says, Here is the thing that happens when you begin to give.

People begin to take note the generosity and the blessing in your life,

and they begin to tell the story not just of what God's doing for them,

but what God's doing for you. And they begin to rejoice over the

fact that God's blessing you and the things that are happening in your lives.

And then people begin to say, oh, it's not just it's not just

Lexi that's blessed down there at that church. It's not just Lexi that's the

greatest child that's ever been born, and kind and nice and generous and great

first basement and smart. Come on, I don't get to say nice things

about or very often, so I just want to pour my out right there.

But you know, Randy, he's a good guy too. And let

me tell you. Let me tell you what God's doing. Pastor Gary Life

and Dean Man, I tell you what, Old Dean Ford. He used

to come to church sleep every week, and he ain't been asleep in like

a year and a half. And he's working at the food pantry and he's

blessing people. And they go and they pick up the food and people get

fed, and watch what happens. Watch what happens. People begin to hear

the stories of what's happening in the people of God's life, and they begin

to be attracted to the Kingdom of God because you gave, and God is

increasing the fruit of righteousness in your life. And people want what you have

because they don't get it living in the world, trying to dig it out

of the ground on their own. And suddenly we have a cooperation, a

network, a web of blessing in people's lives, and people want to be

part of that, because it's all about a flow. God will bless you

as long as someone else sees his blessing in your life. So giving has

very little to do with your money and a whole lot to do with you.

You know, when I look at the greatest gift ever given, Jesus,

and you look at as that gift, the life of the sinless,

perfect son of God, it wasn't about him. It's about you. It

was about you. Giving is about you. It's about God working in us

and through us. And maybe you're here today and you feel unworthy and broken.

You you just don't feel clean. There's always some kind of tension right

about here in your life. You can't quite put your finger on it,

but you know something's a little off. Maybe it's because you've never received the

greatest gift ever given to the world, the sacrifice of Jesus. That he

shed his blood not for the best person in this room, but for the

worst person in this room. He didn't shed it for us, he shed

it for you. If you were the only person on earth, Jesus would

have still given his life to wash away your sin. Don't reject his gift

this morning, but allow yourself to be washed clean and made new by the

blood of Jesus. Everybody staying with me all over the room and online.

I hope that, I hope that you that has already it's already put comments

negative comment. It's not happened yet. The trolls don't watch until late at

night. But you that have already put those negative comments and called me a

crook and a fleecing a congregation and all because we talk about giving, which

benefits you. I hope you stayed on because I want you to know that

Jesus gave his life for you, and I don't care if you ever give

a penny here. Jesus gave his life for you, and he's calling you

into the Kingdom of God right now. Father, I pray right now that

you open the heart of everyone under the sound of my voice, whether now

or later, Lord, that you do a work so profound that someone would

look back to this moment in time and know that is when they were changed

forever. Lord. I love you now, Thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen, listen right here in this room. If you're here and you don't

know that, you know that, you know that you're saved that if you

died today, that you would go to heaven. If there's any doubt in

your mind, you can get that assurance by responding in just a moment when

I count to three and coming to the altar, praying with someone on our

Alter Team, Alter Team, come on up. A lot of times I

think you get trapped. Well, I've been coming to church here for so

long and people already think I'm saved. If I go down, doesn't matter.

We don't. We don't think about things like that. We we don't

think about things like that. Well I'm on the board. We don't care.

This is your moment where Jesus is calling you. I'm a team captain.

You'll be a better one. Why everybody thinks I got my stuff together?

No we don't. I don't think anybody in this place has got their

stuff together, because we're not really a church for stuff together people. We're

a church for hurting, broken, dysfunctional people just like me. And this

moment right now is where you can fall into the arms of Jesus to allow

him to wash away that herd and that brokenness and that guilt and that shame,

that stress and that anxiety and all you have to do is step out

and come so on the count of three. If you're here and you just

you just don't feel like everything is okay, this alter call is for you.

When I hit three, don't look around and see if anybody else is

moving. That's popularity. That's not faith that today this is all about a

faith decision. It's on the count of three. I want you to step

out from where you are and make your way to the front. The band's

gonna start playing. These people that have already been praying for you, They're

gonna pray for you right now. God's gonna do something so incredibly supernatural and

beautiful in your life that today will be the day you remember forever. It's

on the count of three. I want you to step out and move.

You just want to know that everything's okay between you and Jesus one, two,

three, Step out and move right now. Where are you? I

know you're out there, Come on, step back,