Order of Operations - Week 4

A lot of people I've heard say that it's hard to preach following an out

pouring of the spirit like that. I think this is the easiest bullet to

preach. The works already done, the path's clear, the the battles won.

So I want to I want to finish up our series that we're in.

We want to talk about we'll talk about finances today, the order of

operation in our finances. But we we let you'all off easy last week with

no math problem. So let's get back and let's let's let's look at a

math problem and and let's see. Uh so this is same numbers that we've

been dealing with, a little bit different. So how many of you believe

that the answer to this is three thousand, one hundred and twelve? Raise

your hand. How many of you believe the answer is fifteen? Raise your

hand? How many of you believe the answer is two hundred and fifty?

Raise your hand? How about twenty five hundred? The answer to this is

two hundred and fifty, And we have one lucky winner. The order in

which we do things makes all the difference when we want the outcome that we

desire in our lives. So let's read our Let's read the same text.

We've started every one of these messages with Matthew chapter six, starting in verse

thirty three. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and

all these things shall be added to you. Father. We thank you for

your word. It's the only change agent on the face of the planet.

And although we are not going to preach any new concepts today, I pray

that Lord, the fundamentals of faith would rise up in our hearts and take

over our actions. Lord, that we would truly come to an understanding of

what it is to order our complete lives for you in Jesus name. Amen.

You know we've talked about putting the Lord first and everything we do,

and when we talk about finances, there's actually some pretty easy practical application that

we know if we're doing this or not. Now listen, if you if

you want to be upset with this, this is the word of God,

not the word of Steve. Come on, somebody, this is this is

what the Bible says, and we're going to We're gonna talk about it just

like the Bible talks about it. If you have a Bible, We're stay

in Matthew chapter six, and we're gonna back up to verse nineteen. Matthew,

Chapter six, Verse nineteen. It says, do not lay up for

yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break

in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither

moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

And this is this is the verse that I want to focus on. For

where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. Let me read

that again, just so that it can just sometimes I just want to just

soak amen. For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also.

Now here's a here is a really good practical way for you to know

the important things in your life. Go through your bank account and see where

you spend the most money. I wasn't really expecting a lot of amends there.

Go through your bank account and see where you spend most of your money.

And that really does line up with your heart priorities, whether your heart

brought them there or whether they brought your heart there. As an argument that

you can have at home with whoever spends the most money, come on,

somebody. But the reality is our finances are directly connected to our hearts.

And if we have the order of operations wrong in our lives, then our

hearts are going to be wrong. And the Bible says that the heart is

the seat of our life. So matter of fact, Obverbs chapter four,

verse twenty three, it says, keep your heart with all diligence, for

out of it springs the issues of life. Be diligent in protecting your heart,

because everything in your life spills out of your heart is what that's is.

So let's track that back now. So if my heart is where my

treasure is, and out of my heart spills the issues of my life,

then the issues of my life are connected to where my treasure is. So

if I have a problem with materialism, my treasure is probably being spent on

material things if I have now listen, parents get mad when I talk about

their kids, but I'm going to if you have a if you have a

kid worship issue in your life, in other words, you worship your kids

above God, then you can look and if that's where the majority of your

finances go, then you may have a child worship issue. And I know

things are expensive, look at me. I know things are we're gonna talk

about that in just a minute. We're gonna gonna blame the government for everything

and going about our business. Amen. That's my that's my escape plan if

this sermon turns side, was just gonna blame it on the government. Amen.

I like when I start them right, young. The issue that most

of us have is that we we stretch ourselves so thinn financially that we don't

have room to prioritize our purpose. Let me say that again, we stretch

ourselves so thin financially that we don't have room to prioritize our purpose because our

finances should be an alignment with our purpose. And we're pretty big on purpose

here. As a matter of fact. It's the culmination of everything we do

experience. God, walk in freedom, find your place so that you can

live with purpose. So, if you live with purpose, that means that

you're going to have financial alignment with your purpose. There has to be synergy

into every area of your life. Your marriage has to align with your purpose,

your friendships align with your purpose, your time management aligns with your purpose.

Those things have to be an alignment for us to achieve the great Kingdom

responsibility that God has called us to the first level. The first level.

The way we know we're putting God first is that we're giving. Now Listen,

I say it's time to give, and I've tried. But then I

say, with our giving, and it's just like whoa snug it in on

you. Now, First of all, I did not forget to receive the

offering. All right, we're gonna do that in just a minute. It's

with our giving. Now, Notice I didn't say tithe. And the reason

I didn't say tithe is because we have. We have taken this word tithe,

and we've made it the end all be all. We've made it the

thing that we aspire to, that the kingdom aspires to. That. Oh,

I'm a tither Now I've I've finally hit ten percent. I've finally gotten

there. I've oh raise the flags, Hallelujah chorus. I got there.

But the reality is tithing is the entry point. Tithing is that is that

minimum entry point into which we give. That's the that's the baseline of our

giving. Now. I just know now maybe some of you have done this,

but not because you wanted to. Nobody has woken up and said,

hey, I gotta have a car let me go find the most entry level,

no feature basic car I can part. Now, you may do that

because of what it costs, but that's not what you want. You go

to the car lot and you know you can a fire that you can afford,

the one on the end that's hidden behind the van, right, but

you touch all the other ones on the way because no, nobody likes entry

level. Nobody likes basic. You don't like going to a job interview and

then saying this is an entry level position. Everybody wants to start in management.

But when it comes to God, we think that we strive for entry

level. But tithing is the entry level in which we start giving in the

Kingdom. Now, I set through this session last weekend at Church Team's conference,

and this pastor was talking about his first year in ministry and how it

felt uncomfortable every time he decided he was going to receive the offering, how

how uncomfortable he got, and how uneasy he felt about it, and that

it was just really uncomfortable because it seems self serving. I want to go

ahead and declare something that this church, even though you do provide a salary

so I can do ministry, but this church is not my provision. It's

not my provider. God is my provider, and God will make away regardless

of what happens in my life. So my salary is not based on how

much you give. If every one of you wrote a check for a million

dollars today, I do hope the board would give me a raise. Come

on, somebody. But there's no direct correlation to your giving in my salary.

What there is a direct correlation to is your giving and the generosity we

send out of here. So if we if we brought in I don't know,

a couple one hundred million dollars today, by the end of the week,

we're going to give a minimum of twenty to forty million off it a

way because generosity has to be the very first thing we do in our personal

lives, in our businesses, in everything that we do. Generosity has to

lead the way because there's a direct connection between our heart and God, and

that is the foundational entry point into getting our finances. Right now, I'm

not going to go into every step of practicality. We're just going to hit

the three big macro elements of finances in our lives. So the first thing

that we have to understand is giving. The second is that we have to

understand saving. Now. Listen, most Americans get this one out of whack,

because even if we get the giving portion right, it goes giving living,

saving. Let me say that again, giving living, saving. No

wipe that out. It's giving saving living. Let me say it again,

giving saving, living. Let me read. Let me read this astonishing.

Let me read this astonishing passage of scripture out of Proverbs, because a lot

of people use the excuse, Oh, God's gonna just take care of me.

He will. God will take care of you. And God repeatedly in

scripture intervened in the most inconvenient, most traumatic moments to bring provision into people's

lives. But usually there was also the voice of a prophet who would speak

beforehand to tell people to get ready. And God took care of needs with

the people that he did. The voice of the prophets weren't just met at

the need level, but they lived in the abundance level as well. So

when God speaks, we begin to order things in our lives. That's what

this whole series is about, is about ordering our lives. In Proverbs chapter

six, starting in verse six, it says, go to the aunt you

sluggard. Now, first of all, that's like God. Why would you

Why would you say, sluggard? That's pretty harsh. If I started a

counseling session out with you and said, okay, sluggard, I wouldn't go

to that. That doesn't really set the environment. We want to say it

right for positive movement towards God. So he uses some strong lags. He

says, go to the aunt, you, sluggard, consider her ways and

be wise. Which having no captain, overseer or ruler, he says,

get some self discipline and do it yourself. Where to God provides her supplies

in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you

slumber, oh sluggard, When will you rise from your sleep? A little

sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.

So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like

an armed man. Prioritize saving, prioritize that, because even Jesus said darkness

is coming. There is going to be a season where no man can work.

There's going to be a time where your body won't be able to do

what it does. Right, Now, raise your hand if you're over fifty.

My body don't do what it used to do. I can't listen.

I used to be able to outwork everybody cumulatively. I still outwork them,

but not by as much. Come on, somebody, there comes a time

where we can't do the things and generate the things that we generate. And

now you're saying, oh, but what about social security? Social security is

not a savings plan. Let me say that social security is not a savings

plan. Social security is a partial repayment of an intentional overcharged by the government.

Do you realize is that if you didn't pay that same money into social

security, but you invested it wisely instead of barely scraping by, you would

retire multi millionaires. So do not rely on something that somebody forces you to

do, because that doesn't lead to abundance. He says, Listen, there's

no master, there's no overseer. You put it back for the time when

you don't have the ability to work. Now, let's go beyond that.

Some of y'all know that I'm big and preparedness and I store food and I

do all those things. And this y'all don't have to be like me.

You don't have to be like me. But listen, when you go home

and look in your cabinet and if you go to the grocery store tomorrow it's

closed, you're gonna be hungry. There's a problem with the way you order

your life. Put some resources in your home so that if next week there's

a I almost said the C word and they would have turned the live broadcast

off, you know, ceo vid. If there's one of those outbreaks and

you can't go to the store, you need to be able to make sure

that your babies can eat. So don't just save money, but get ahead

in every area of your life so that while you while you have resources now

and you're operating with a safety net, put things back. So if you

lose your job, one thing you don't have to worry about. It's whether

you eat or not. Just seems like sinse to me. Do you realize

even the federal government says have a food supply at home. They used to

recommend three days. Now they've upped it to two weeks. You need to

have two weeks of food now. Listen, it can be and weenies probably

not the healthiest, but it can be Beanie weeenies. I'm coming over by

the way, if that's all you got, but have a way to continue

life if things happen, if encroachment comes into your life, if the unexcepted,

if the unexpected happens, don't let it crush you. Because you've prioritized

planning and saving in your life. Some of you may be living in your

savings plan. I don't know, but have a strategy for those days when

things get tough, giving, saving and living. You know, most of

us think after giving that other ninety percent that's left over is just hours to

do whatever we want to with. But do you realize that we're not owners

of the ninety either. We're stewards of the ninety We're stewards of everything.

We're not owners. As a matter of fact, that whole concept of stewardship

is a spiritual principle. And when you hear things that contrast with that,

or that put pressure on that, if you hear that coming from anywhere other

than God, then there is a principle that's called oppression. So when governments

start saying you'll own nothing and be happy, that's oppression. That's not stewardship.

God calls it stewardship. I'm going to give it to you and entrust

you because I've also birth a purpose in you. And if you will use

alignment with your finances to achieve your purpose, you're going to have abundance and

you're going to have a fulfilled, in joyful life. It doesn't matter what

level of money you have. I know people that are are broke but love

their life and enjoy it because they live in the peace and joy of the

Lord, because they're aligned with their purpose. May look at me for just

a second. My wife, we decided that she was gonna stay home with

our children. But that's what we wanted to do for her, to stay

home with our children. I'm not telling you that's what you have to do.

I'm not even gonna try to make a scriptural case for it. We

decided that in our home that we were good, that she was gonna stay

home with our children. So we had one income, and it was a

pastor's income. When my wife and I got married. My bring home now

she was still working for those first couple of years. My bring home pay

when I first went into full time history was two hundred and eighty seven dollars

a week. Your kids make more than that working part time attract your supply.

Amen. But we made the decision. And because that was purposeful,

that was our purpose. We knew that other things had to happen in our

lives because we understand our purpose. That's why I still drive a two thousand

and four pickup truck with no payment. Come on, somebody paid for it's

the Lord's truck, but he lets me driving. So the concept of stewardship

is still about pointing us towards purpose, that thing that God created us for.

And if we understand purpose, we understand fulfillment and we understand joy.

And we stopped comparing ourselves to everybody else because comparison is where greed and jealousy

is born. If you don't compare yourself to anybody else, then there's no

greed, there's no comparison trap, there's no jealousy because it's your purpose and

it's God bringing the resources into your life so that you can achieve the great

things that God has for you. And when somebody look and says, hey,

why do you still drive that old car, you look back at them

and say, because I choose not to be a slave to the lender.

Look at him and say, because listen tomorrow. If the Lord calls me

to go to China to be a missionary, all I gotta do is sell

that hunk a junk and I'm out of here. You got to figure out

how to get right side up on your house that you pay too much for.

In your car is that you paid too much for, and your couch

and your TV and your here's here here, here's the reality of most people

in this room. And I love you and I want this cycle broken in

your life. Here's the reality and most people in this room is that you

pay cash for your wants, and you borrow for your needs. You go

to the ball game and you pay cash. You pay cash for I actually

don't think playing a lottos of seeing, but you pay cash for the lotto.

You pay cash for that. But then you go to the grocery store,

you put on your credit card. You pay your light bill late every

single month because you don't have the money to do it, because you have

spent it doing other things. And there's interest accrued in the form of a

late charge every time you pay those bills late. And we are financing our

needs when God says he will provide for our needs and then you begin to

question God and you look at God and you say, why don't I ever

have enough money? And God is screaming back, stop paying cash for your

wants and borrowing your needs. I'm giving you the cash to cover the need,

so stop blaming me for the misappropriation of funds in your life. See,

when we order our finances, we don't have to worry, we don't

have to stress, and we don't have to feel like we're in bondage because

we have the things in the right order. Now, are there seasons of

life where there is more month than money regardless? Yes, and that's where

the generosity of a great community of believers comes in to come alongside you and

help you. But if you don't get plugged in and nobody knows you have

a need, and you just choose to live isolated and buy yourself, you

just have to live broke, busted, and disgusted, and we can't do

anything about it because we don't know. But I can tell you that every

time I've heard of a need, somebody has stepped up to try to help

meet that need. There has been some movement from the generosity of individuals in

this body of believers to help meet that need. Because generosity is not a

core value on a piece of paper. Generosity is born in the hearts of

every single person that has been here long enough to grab hold of the culture.

Givers don't last very long. I mean givers last. People that don't

give don't last very long around here because everything we do is about generosity.

It's about giving, it's about pouring into the lives of others because that is

our purpose. So order your life giving, saving, spending, giving,

saving living, however you want to say it. And if you get the

order of operations right, you're gonna find and fulfillment. The band could come

on and get ready right now. I have a question that I who wants

to answer? Who wants to answer a question live on stage? Pastor Gary,

come up here, bro. I already know you're taking the money.

That's why I'm calling Pastor Gary. Con you got that check? Ready?

If I gave you a million dollars right now? Would it make you happy?

Yeah? But you take it right, he said, heck yeah,

yeah, I'll tell you what. Let's make it ten million. It's here

and better. You wouldn't fuss about it, would you give? You?

Get that check? Rope. So okay, let's I want to put a

condition on its ten million dollars, and I'm going to write you the check

right now. But the condition is that at midnight you cease to be h

money doesn't transfer dies with you. Do you want me to write you that

check right now? No? So then I actually watch you so then so

then, Actually, what you're saying is your life is worth more than ten

million dollars. Absolutely, But yet every day we wake up and we devalue

our lives by putting a price on it, every time we complain about what

we don't have and what somebody else has. Jesus made an investment in you.

Thank you giving a hand, He answered, right, Jesus made an

investment in your life, a life that is worth more than ten million dollars.

Waking up tomorrow, it's worth more than ten million dollars. I want

you to just put that in perspective for just a moment, waking up tomorrow,

and listen. I know Pastor Gary has stresses and worries in his life,

that he's faced with hard things, but he still chooses to wake up

tomorrow over going and buying a boat. This afternoon church order your finances,

because your life is more valuable than they could ever show. Chase purpose because

you were priceless, and the value in you is not a dollar sign.

It's who you are, the Kingdom working through you. Everybody stand with me,

all over the roof