Redemptive Realities 3

our Bibles up and wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Let's say this together Say heavenly Father, I've tuned in tonight, not only to live stream, but I've tuned into the spirit and I want the Holy Spirit to shine His light on the Word of God tonight.

I have a willing mind, I have an open heart to receive revelation, because it's revelation upon which my faith is built.

In Jesus' name, amen.

I've been sharing some messages on redemptive realities and I wanted to continue along these lines with you tonight.

This will be my third message.

So let's turn in our Bibles to 1 Peter, chapter one, and also Romans, chapter eight.

1 Peter one, verse 18, for as much as you know that, you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation or manner of life received by tradition from your fathers, but you were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

And then in Romans, the eighth chapter, verse 32, one of my favorite verses he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all.

How shall he not, with him, also freely give us all things?

And I want to read out of the New English Bible he did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.

And with this gift, how can he fail to lavish upon us all that he has to give?

Isn't that great?

How shall he fail to lavish all that he has to give?

So redemptive reality?

So here in 2020, we've been calling it the greatest year yet and I still believe that.

I know there's been a lot of things that have come against us individually and corporately, but it's all I tell you.

I believe we can say this without hesitation it's all turned to the furthest of the Gospel.

Everything that we've been facing is just turned to the furthest of the Gospel.

I tell you more and more we get to testify.

We need to, we need to.

We get to tell people about our hope, that we have in Christ and perhaps, while we're not wearing a mask, while we're not huddled in our house, while we're not worried about things, listen, we're living life.

That's what the president said.

Don't let the COVID dominate you.

Just go out and live your life.

That's what the whole state of Texas, we need to.

Go live our lives.

Open everything up.

Come on, gov, open it all up.

Quit messing around and quit giving these, these independent little hitlerettes power over us.

We're tired of her, tired of all of these little people that want to lord it over us.

They don't have the authority to do it.

So, come on, gov, let's get the.

Let's get it, let's get us back to work.

100%, 100%, amen.

Get these masks off.

It's proven.

It doesn't work, it doesn't help, it doesn't doesn't do anything.

So let's, let's quit playing this game.

It's a Democrat game, is what it is, all right, but redemptive reality.

So it's the year, it's the year of our greatest year yet, and and we've been talking about the blood and the glory See, we've been redeemed by the precious blood.

Until the blood was shed for us, god's Holy Spirit couldn't come within us, and and so that's an Old Testament principle, that the, that the spirit, only was applied when the blood was applied.

You know, the anointing oil didn't come on the priest until after they applied the blood to the priest, when the priest of dedication.

So the spirit flows where the blood is applied, and our faith is based on our understanding of the word.

It's not just what we hear in our head, it's what we get down in our spirit, our understanding, understanding the word.

And so you know, we have to have a thorough understanding of what the blood of Jesus has done, is doing and will do.

Did you know that the that the blood of Jesus is still doing something?

Why?

Because it's deposited in the Holy of Holies.

Jesus blood is right there in front of the Father and the Son, and it stands as an eternal witness that we've been purchased out of bondage, we've been purchased out of sickness and disease, we've been purchased out of out of danger, we've been delivered, we've been made sound and whole and blessed because of the blood.

And so it's there as an eternal witness.

And so we've got to have faith in that blood and the thorough understanding of what the blood has done, is doing and will do, in order to receive all that God is wanting to lavish upon us.

In fact, he's already lavished it.

We have to be able to receive it.

He's already lavished it.

He's already lavished it.

All we have to do is receive it, and it's based on our faith.

And so, you know, last week we talked or the first week, I guess it was and we talked about the prodigal son, and the prodigal son we called Bubba, and the older son who didn't leave the, you know, his father's house, his junior and of course we, we talked about the fact that he had the double portion all along and he was griping because he didn't get a party and he didn't get a.

You know, he didn't, he didn't get the fatted calf and all of that kind of thing and so.

But when Bubba and Junior saw a revelation of their bloodline, see, they just didn't recognize the fact that they were sons and that they had an inheritance, that they were the, they were the royal bloodline.

And when they got a revelation of that, that's when the glory came, that's when the music and the dancing and the party began.

It's when they began to realize that they were sons.

And and so when we understand redemptive reality of Jesus' blood, then we can receive our healing.

We talked about healing last week and we talked about different theories that keep people from being able to receive and for God to lavish upon them their healing.

I mean, jesus has already healed us and he's got this lavishness and we've got this.

This deliverance with his soundness is available to us, and we talked about some of these theories.

You know, I like what Brother Hagin says about theories.

A theory is a supposition based upon ignorance of the subject under discussion and, and a lot of times people don't have any faith for healing or anything else, because all they hear are theories.

You know well, all things happen for a reason.

Well, they don't tell you what the reason is.

See, they say these, these little statements that don't really mean anything.

If kind of the implication is, if it's happening to you, god's got a purpose behind it, you might as well like it.

No, not.

Everything that happens is God's will, amen.

And so we need something more than theory.

We have, thank God, we have the Word of God that we can anchor our faith in, and so, and so we talked about how easy it is, and when we get revelation of what the blood has purchased for us, how easy it is to receive, because it's on our end.

We need to receive what God has already done.

All right, and so tonight I want to go along these lines in a little different subject, and we'll look at second Corinthians, chapter eight.

And Paul is addressing the church about, about an offering, as a matter of fact, and, and he's talking about giving and receiving and receiving, and, and he's talking about this great offering that he's been collecting, and he talks and he brags on the church at Macedonia, that they had gotten to be part of this offering and they had contributed.

And so in.

Then, in verse seven, he's talking to the church there in Corinth and he says, therefore, as you abound and everything and faith and utterance and knowledge, and all diligence, and in your love to us, see that you abound, and this grace also, what grace, the grace of giving, the grace of generosity, see to it, you see to it.

See, there's something, there's a part that we have to play.

We have to see to the fact that we abound in the grace of giving.

He's talking about giving offerings and supporting worthy causes within the church.

You know, we are always hit up for to, you know, to donate to the boy scouts and buy the girl scout cookies, and and let's give to the heart fund and let's get to the cancer help, stamp out cancer.

Hey, will you give an extra five dollars?

I always say no, no, no, no.

You know why?

Cause I give the things that mean something.

I'm not going to give to the natural, I'm going to give to the supernatural.

Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't be charitable.

I'm just saying, though, that they've always got their hand out for the natural, but the only thing that's ever going to make a difference is the gospel, and that's what matters.

And so that's what Paul is doing.

Paul is putting the need out not for himself, but for the one that he's talking about.

And so he said just see to it that you abound in this grace, the grace of giving.

Also, verse eight I speak not by command but by occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity of your love is easy to say, oh God, I love you.

But then, when you're stingy, it kind of belies your statement, because you know you can't be stingy in love at the same time.

And so then he says, first nine, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you, through his poverty, might be rich.

I want to read it out of the message Bible.

It's a little clearer.

You are familiar with the generosity of our master Jesus Christ.

Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us in one stroke.

He became poor and we became rich, praise God.

And so last week we talked about the two hinges upon which our redemption hinges, and its substitution and identification.

And here we see that Jesus identified with our poverty and became our substitute and took it on the cross.

The same time he took our sin.

The same time he took our sickness.

He took our poverty.

You don't get much poorer than totally naked on a cross and barred in a borrowed tune.

That's poor, and he lost everything.

He lost his friends, he lost his, he lost everybody and he lost his clothing.

They stripped it all off of him and he hung naked on a cross and he lost his clothes.

And then, when he died, he was buried in a borrowed tune.

So when did he became poor?

He became poor at the same time he became sin.

The same time he became sickness.

He did it as our substitute.

We deserved it and he took it.

He identified with us and became our substitute, so that we can identify with his riches and be his substitute on the earth.

They been and be able to be as generous as he was.

We need to see to it that we're abounding in that grace that we've received from his sacrifice.

Praise God.

And so we have to base our faith on the blood and the word and not just on our ability and our education or our status or where we were born.

Well, I wasn't born on the right side of the tracks.

Well, it doesn't matter where you were born.

It doesn't matter about your education.

I believe in education, I believe in being prepared, I believe in having a.

You know, if you don't go to college, you ought to get a trade.

You ought to learn how to do something effectively that people will be willing to pay you for.

I think that's all wise, but one of the greatest things you can learn is how to navigate God's financial laws.

That'll be, that'll do more for you than anything.

Praise God.

I think about people leaving college with a hundred and fifty two hundred thousand dollars worth of student loan debt.

And I think about men.

If they just learned how God's financial laws work, they wouldn't have to do that, they wouldn't have to go, they wouldn't have to be totally bankrupt before they start life.

I mean just and so.

So he was made poor that we might be rich, and rich is not billionaire.

Rich doesn't mean a certain amount of money.

It means having an abundant supply.

It means having an abundant supply, and so then, poverty means not having insufficiency.

In fact, a number of years ago, god gave me a new definition for America, because, you know, most Christians don't tithe.

There's a tithing in the church is like falling to like 2% and I haven't seen a real current figure on that, but I don't think it's even that much now.

Why?

Well, because people are not taught what the truth is about tithing.

Tithing is giving back to God what belongs to him, which is the first tenth, and once you've done that, then giving is over and above that.

So that's what Paul was talking about here.

The grace of giving is not tithing.

Tithing is understood in the Bible.

I mean, everybody was understood to tithe, all Jews tithe, and when they got saved they tied.

Tithing was their life, unlike it is in the 21st century.

People are spending their tithe and people are using their tithe for their personal bills, and no wonder that they're behind.

But if we tied, then in order to give over and above the tithe.

That's what he's talking about bounding in that grace.

And so God gave me a new definition of poverty.

Poverty is the inability to meet the needs of the harvest.

See, we live in harvest time.

It's going to take a tremendous amount of wealth to fund the harvest.

I mean, how they're going to hear without a preacher?

And how can the preacher go unless he's sent?

And if he is sent.

How is he going to get to where the lost people are?

It takes money.

It takes money to turn on the lights here.

It takes money to pay the light bill.

It takes money to do anything that we do in the church, and the tithe is part of that expense.

But then, in order to do anything else, it takes money over and above that.

The harvest needs are huge and I believe God's got a plan to meet that need by increasing every believer and making them rich beyond belief.

I mean, I believe God wants us to be well fixed.

He wants us to have plenty of money to fund the preaching of the gospel all around the world to help the poor.

And the greatest way we can help the poor is make sure they get the gospel, because without the gospel, you're just pouring.

You're pouring into a bottomless pit, you pour money into a place that doesn't have the gospel and you help them and you help them and you help them.

You're going to help them from now on, because there's no.

The only way out of poverty is the good news, and the good news is what you don't have to be poor anymore for his God.

So, poverty, inability to meet the needs of the harvest.

You know, I'm thinking about this generation that lives right now.

All of you watching, all of you listening to my voice.

I'm talking to you.

I'm reminded of Esther, how Mordecai told Esther.

He said for such a time as this, we've come into the kingdom For such a time as this.

You were chosen to live right now.

This is harvest time.

I mean, god is about to to bring in a great harvest and it's going to take a corresponding transfer of wealth into the church's hands to do it.

And so what I'm talking about tonight is redemptive realities how God paid the price for you to be blessed.

You know, bible says that Christ has redeemed us from the curse being made a curse for us.

I'll tell you, poverty is a curse.

I've seen people laid off from their job and they lose their healthcare and they get sick and they're unable to have treatment and they die with no treatment.

There's a lot of people that are dying right now that wouldn't need to, but they got afraid of COVID and they wouldn't go and get checked up, get a checkup.

They wouldn't go to the doctor.

They've got alarming symptoms in their body and they've been told oh no, don't come to the hospital.

You don't, don't come.

And so they.

They didn't go to the hospital, they didn't go to the doctor, they were afraid of being around COVID, and it's proven.

I mean, we're we're seeing a death rate, we've seen strokes, heart attacks, cancer, all kinds of things that are happening because of the fear and panic that the government agency spread over COVID.

I think everyone of them ought to be fired.

Well, don't get me started.

All right, so, but we're talking about redemptive realities, and when you know what the blood of Jesus has purchased for you, that is the great, greatest immunity you can purge.

I mean, it's a greater than any vaccine, is greater than any medicine, when you can realize that Jesus was made sick with your sickness, he was made poor with your poverty.

And so poverty, in my experience, all these years, 40 years of Christian, 33 years on the ministry, 26 years being the pastor of Glory Sway Church Uh, poverty is often a mindset, it's a way of thinking.

It's a way of thinking and, of course, my job is to watch after your soul as one that gives an account, in other words, to watch after your way of thinking, to inform your way of thinking and help your thinking get more in line with God's word, and so a stronghold, or wrong thinking, uh, or ignorance.

We can just call it what it is ignorance and ignorance, uh, of God's ways of operating financially.

There's financial way, uh, financial laws, god's laws, uh, according to operate financially, are just as real as gravity's.

You know the, the physical laws of the universe.

They are real and uh.

And so if you have ignorance of those that, that ignorance can be complete.

You might not know anything about it.

Or you might have partial ignorance.

You might have a bunch of theories.

You know that's, that's got you off track, just like it did, like it does on sickness and disease.

Or it can be ignorance.

Ignorance, in other words, you just know it but you don't apply it.

And so the Bible says, in Romans 12, to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

See, so part of the import of this message tonight is to renew your mind or to refresh your mind.

If you ever have to refresh your iPhone, sometimes it just gets jammed up and it won't work.

You know it won't do what you want it to do.

Well, sometimes you got to turn off power and reset it and all of a sudden, presto, it works.

Sometimes we need to reset or we need to refresh our minds and remind ourselves of the knowledge that we have and do a little checklist.

Am I following the God's financial laws?

I mean, cause he's got laws and we're going to talk about some of those laws tonight.

So we need to work on our receiver because again, he's lavishing these wonderful things out or we receiving the lavishness.

See, it's up to us.

If he's poured it out, we need to receive.

And I use this example that's kind of dated, I'm sorry, but it's one of the greatest ones I've ever read.

It was I was reading the sports page one day.

And this is the years when the Houston Rockets are professional.

I'm mad at them right now.

So well, they're not even playing now.

They got washed out of the playoffs but anyway, and I was kind of happy actually.

But back then they had brought in Yao Ming from.

He's a communist Chinese guy.

There you go.

Seven foot four, giant.

It looked like he looked like a life.

He was huge.

He had these big feet, I mean you know, huge, kind of slow and stumbling and awkward.

But he was tall and he was strong.

He just was awkward and I mean they stepped all over his feet In fact.

That's why he didn't have a short career, cause he had damage to one of his feet and they never could fix it and he had to retire early.

He was at his prime but they brought in Hakim Alajuan.

So here here you got a Muslim and they bring him in to talk to an atheist about his game and and I was reading the sports page about what all that Hakim had done and he spent he spent about a week with him.

He worked out with him and he, he worked out with him and he, he went over his moves under the basket.

So they were both sinners.

I remember.

I remember years ago I went to see a basketball game.

Somebody invited me to go as a corporate deal.

We got great seats and and got apparently close to the court where I could hear the punishment that Hakim would take under the basket.

I mean they would slam into him and you would hear the loud.

I mean bone upon bone.

I mean he, he, the slap of the skin hitting and the whole game.

They attacked him and he held his own.

He was a beast and he knew one thing he knew how to use when he got the ball.

He knew how to clear out the area under him with elbows.

I mean, one guy I saw that night got hit and he didn't hit him in the head, for him he would have probably put him in the hospital, but he hit him in the shoulder and he he had to leave the game.

I mean, he was a big guy, so he was he.

He was talking to Yao Ming, and Yao Ming is kind of mild, he's playing Chinese basketball, not NBA basketball.

And so he's he's saying he said now, now, now, this should be your move.

And he's talking about his elbow this should be your move.

Who's going to stop that?

Who's going to stop that?

And he was showing him how to pivot, how to pivot under and use his footwork.

Who's going to stop that?

And you, there's, this is a go to move.

It's a go to move.

You feel comfortable.

He's talking positive.

You feel comfortable.

Balance, balance, get your balance.

You can dominate, you can break all the records.

You do you believe that you should, you should score?

It will, you should score, it will.

Listen to, listen to what an unbeliever is saying.

He said what we ought to be saying.

He's speaking positively.

He's saying do you believe that?

I mean, it was just.

It made me, I mean I started hollering, I started shouting hallelujah, even though I know it didn't have any application to God's word, but it here's.

Here's a guy that discovered something that works no matter who he does it that even unbelievers can make the word work.

And he discovered that.

And, of course, hakim Aladjuwon is in the Hall of Fame, without a doubt.

I mean he's one of the greatest players I've ever seen.

But it wasn't an accident.

He said you should be scoring at will, scoring easy.

And he'd get him to look at him.

Easy.

And he didn't have to look.

I mean, he's taller than Hakim, but not by much.

I mean they're two huge guys.

And he said they're on trouble on defense they don't have, they're in trouble on offense.

They're in trouble all the time.

They have no answer.

He said no answer, the devil has no answer.

I want to take you by the shoulders.

The devil has no answer for you.

You should be successful at will.

You ought to be scoring financial victories at will.

Let's pick up on what Hakim Aladjuwon said about a decade ago or maybe more we ought to be scoring financial victories at will.

The devil has no answer.

Where's your elbow?

That's what I want to tell some folks.

Where's your elbow?

Come down on the devil.

Your elbow is right there in your mouth.

Praise God, your tongue is your elbow.

Oh, I'm having fun tonight, praise God.

I hope you're having as much fun listening as I am delivering it.

But the devil has no answer.

You should be coming down on the little guy.

That's what he told him.

You should be coming down on the little guy with your elbow.

That's what the devil is.

He's a little guy.

He's a little guy.

He's a fuitable elbow.

Oh man, so you know, when you have faith, faith, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god, god.

So faith, faith banishes fear.

You lose your fear, you lose the fear of running out.

See, this is the fear that binds people.

It keeps them from being generous in their giving and even keeps them from tithing, which tithing is not even tithing, it's just a matter of obedience.

Percent the first 10th, over off the top.

Somebody said I can't tie.

No, you can, it's just you're choosing not to.

Everybody can.

And if you have something, you can tie 10% because it's the first 10th.

So it's a decision you've made.

You've decided not to, so let's, let's get you, let's recognize where, what things they did need to be changed, choose to tie it and then choose to be generous over and above, and when you choose to do that, you're choosing to walk in God's financial laws.

So well, I don't know how I can do that.

Well, god just has so many promises that he opens up avenues of blessing for you when you start to honor him.

And so I wanted to talk about these three avenues of blessing that God will use to bless you financially, and three broad categories.

Lots of sub subcategories, but three broad categories.

First of all, what I want to talk about is inheritance, because that's what we've been talking about all year, Our greatest year yet our inheritance.

And what about our inheritance?

Well, god gave it to us, it belongs to us, it belonged to the, to junior and to Bubba.

Bubba took his and junior didn't Junior sitting around the house acting like he's a hired hand, when he was really the double portion son.

He's the oldest son, he had the double portion, he could have gotten it anytime he wanted, in fact.

In fact, when, when Bubba left the house, he should have gotten his double portion, right then.

Hey, wait a minute, I noticed something.

You did a distribution out of the family.

Trust Dad, where's mine?

I won't mind now.

He could have gone and bought him a whole another ranch if he wanted to, anyway.

So inheritance, and inheritance is earmarked for every human only.

Only it only flows through Christ.

See, god's got inheritance for every man, woman and child on the earth, and the only people that are able to get theirs are people that are born again.

Maybe, maybe it's time that we get some of the inheritance that other people aren't claiming.

That might be part of the end times, and Ephesians one 11, talking about inheritance, is one of the avenues of blessing, categories of blessing Ephesians one 11, in whom also, we have obtained an inheritance in Christ.

See, we've obtained an inheritance, you've obtained an inheritance.

Notice what the Bible says.

The Bible says you obtained an inheritance.

Well, I haven't seen it where you haven't appropriated it, because the Bible says it's yours.

The Bible says you've obtained it.

God earmarked it for you the minute you got saved.

Don't be like.

Don't be like Bubba.

Don't be like Bubba and sit here and complain I don't have anything.

I don't have anything.

No, you haven't inherited it, you just hadn't claimed it.

It's there, it's yours.

You think the devil's gonna give it to you?

No, what did we talk about all this year?

There are trespassers, there's poachers.

They're sitting.

The satanic squatters are sitting on your inheritance and you're gonna have to dispossess those illegal entities that are sitting on your inheritance, in whom, in Christ also, we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

That inheritance was yours from before the foundation of the world.

He saw you living in the 21st century For such a time as this.

You were ordained to live.

He gave you an inheritance.

You've already obtained it, but you haven't seen it because you haven't appropriated it by faith.

You don't even know you have it coming.

Would you start seeing the bloodline that you're in?

You're gonna start having the music and the dancing.

You're gonna start saying, hey, I do have a fatted calf.

I can throw a party.

Yes, I can.

You've obtained it past tense.

What a powerful thing to know that most people don't know it, sadly.

Praise God, praise God.

And so why be limited?

We have an inheritance as a child of God.

You think your inheritance is just a little pittance, a little nothing.

No, it's substantial.

And so this is an avenue through which God is able to bless you.

Romans 8, 17.

The Spirit verse 16, the Spirit himself bears witness, with our spirit, that we're the children of God.

And if children and you are a child, aren't you child of God?

Then you're heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs or equal heirs with Christ.

Do you think Christ is broke?

Huh, well, he sure isn't.

He became poor on the cross, but he's not poor now and we're equal heirs with him.

Does he have all things?

Didn't Jesus say all things have been given unto me, all authority, all things, everything has been given to Christ.

And if we're equal heirs with Christ, then we've got a substantial inheritance.

It's time to quit limiting what we have to what we can see with our eyes.

Amen.

And so if children, then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if so, be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

That word suffer doesn't mean suffer poverty and lack.

It doesn't mean suffer sickness and disease.

It means suffering persecution.

It means suffering on this earth because we're not in heaven yet.

So there's some.

Jesus had to suffer through it and he was our way through and he was our example.

Hallelujah, so if you're born again, you have an inheritance.

Everybody say I've got an inheritance, I've obtained it.

Amen, all right.

And then the matter.

The second one is the second three broad category or avenue of blessing is sowing and reaping.

Sowing and reaping In Genesis eight, all the way back after the flood, god told Noah in Genesis eight, 22,.

While the earth remains seed time and harvest, and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease.

Well, is the earth still remaining?

I know that people, the global warming, they're all worried about it, but the earth still remains.

And so just a cold and heat still remain.

Climate change, we call it climate change.

We're gonna have a climate change on Friday morning.

We got a norther coming through.

It's gonna be cold, but anyway, it says seed time and harvest is not gonna perish.

What is seed time and harvest?

Well, it's sowing and reaping.

That's exactly what it is.

Seed time is the time it takes a seed to bring forth the harvest.

So it talks about sowing and reaping.

And Luke six, 38, jesus said like this.

He said give and it shall be given unto you.

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over shall men give unto your bosom fall?

With the same measure that you measure it, it shall be measured back to you.

So it's proportional.

How much do you sow?

And that doesn't that make sense.

I mean, if you're gonna sow a thimble full of seed, how much harvest are you gonna get?

Not much, you know.

It'll be more than the thimble, but it won't be very much.

And so Galatians six, seven says he that sow with sparingness shall reap sparingly.

He that sows bountifully shall reap bountifully or generously.

So there are laws of sowing and reaping.

The entire kingdom is predicated on the principles of sowing and reaping.

Jesus said in Mark, chapter four the kingdom of God is if a man should cast seed into the ground and sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up.

He knoweth not how.

First the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear, and when it's ripe he immediately he put it in the sickle, for the harvest is come.

So all of the kingdom operates on sowing and reaping.

There are laws the more generous.

See, you have everything to do with that avenue of blessing.

You can still be blessed with your inheritance.

I mean, if you work for a living.

You've got a profession, you went to college and all of that.

You've got a good living.

You can be blessed in your living.

You can be blessed like that.

That's an avenue that God uses.

But if you're not a giver, you're not a sower of seed, well then you've cut yourself off with a major component of people wanting to bless you.

People want to bless you when you're generous.

I mean it's supernatural.

Jesus said it would men would give.

Men would give to you.

Men would just you would have favor with men.

You're business will have favor, business will have favor.

You will have favor sowing and reaping.

And so when you, when you sow a seed, it banishes the fear of running out.

See, the more you, there is that scatter and yet increases.

There is that withholds more than is appropriate and it tends to poverty.

So when we withhold, what do we do?

We're afraid of running out.

So we're saying, oh, I can't, so that I might run out.

See, go ahead and sow it and tell the devil to quit trying to intimidate you with fear, the fear of running out.

I, you can't give yourself into poverty.

I can tell you that I've never seen anybody give themselves into poverty.

I Mean, I see people make bad decisions, into poverty.

I see people spend themselves into poverty.

That's that's a way to do it and spend yourself into poverty.

But when you start giving and giving according to the spirit, giving according to the rules, that's how this church exists.

That's why it's still here 26 years after it started.

It's had every kind of attack on it, it's had every kind of resistance to it, and you know what?

We just keep sowing our seed and we keep reaping the harvest, and God just gives us favor.

Hallelujah, Come on, let's just lift our hands and thank God for these laws.

They're immutable, they're redemptive realities that fly in the face of all kinds of rich men.

Rich dad, poor dad.

You can read all these dumb books all you want to.

There might be a sliver of truth in some of them, but I'm telling you, the Word of God trumps everything.

All right, the third thing is a Reward.

Hebrews 11 6.

He that come at the God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

A Reward, see, a reward is different than sowing and reaping.

Sowing and reaping you had something to do with it.

You sowed and you reaped, and Jesus said give.

It'll be given back to you, and over and over, through the Bible, this over and over.

I could just sit here.

I'd quoted just a few verses, but there are many more.

But that's not so.

A reward is not the sowing and reaping.

Reward is for pleasing God.

Sometimes you just please God and he wants to bless you.

You know what, what you do with your kids.

I remember when I was a little kid I don't know what I did to deserve it, but, man, my mother came and one day and and she said, I got a surprise for you.

And I said what, what is it?

What is it?

I don't have no idea what it was.

We're gonna go to the movies and we're gonna see Davy Crockett and bought me a coon skin and cap and bought me a little flintlock rifle and I mean I thought I Hung the moon.

I went around my yard Grinning at bears and imaginary bear.

You know how Dave Davy Crockett grinned a bear down and all that stuff Went to see the movie.

I mean I was so thrilled.

And why did she do?

She just wanted to bless me, she wanted to reward me.

I don't know what I'd done to deserve it, that's for sure.

I sure didn't deserve a reward.

I was the youngest, I was spoiled rotten is what it was but a reward for pleasing God and that's another avenue that God can use to bless you.

He wants to bless you.

I Said God wants to bless you.

You gotta get that and that idea.

Jesus Redeemed you from the curse so you could be blessed with all the blessings of heaven itself enjoys.

Back in the 80s I was reading my Bible.

One morning is reading the story of of David and David.

King David wanted to build a house for the Lord.

He felt bad that you know and the Lord was still in in a temporary Dwelling place.

He wanted to build a glorious temple for him, and so he went to the prophet Nathan to share his idea.

And Nathan said yes, do all that is in nine heart.

And Then that night Nathan the prophet had a dream and God Came to him and said David is not the one to build my house, he's a man of war.

He shed much blood on the earth.

But go tell him that I'm glad that he wants to do that.

It's good that he wants to build it and I'm gonna let his son, solomon, build my house.

But he can't build.

But it's good that he wanted to.

And it's kind of dangerous, you know, because when the prop, when the prophet says, yeah, I do it, and then he has to go back and correct himself, that's a little bit of a.

He got to go back and tell the king he wasn't good enough.

That's kind of a dicey.

I mean, some kings could have took his head off, but not David.

David accepted it, he was okay.

But anyway, why I was reading that I, the Holy Spirit, said I'm gonna build you a house.

Now I was a home builder.

I just gotten back in the building business and I was in a rent house at the time and nothing in me wanted the house.

I didn't even, in fact I didn't even want to have to believe for a house.

I was just it was all I could do to believe for the rent on the house that I was renting.

I didn't even you know, and so I wasn't thrilled, but I knew it was him and I was wondering.

I said, well, where'd this come from?

I didn't, you didn't initiate this, I mean, I wasn't asking for this and I kind of felt pressure, you know, opposite kind of, and so I prayed the prayer that David prayed.

So no, but I tell him I'll build him a house.

That's what the prophet had to tell David, telling me it's good that you want to build me house, now I'm gonna build you a house.

And so David prayed this beautiful prayer.

So I prayed the prayer.

I wasn't a lot of faith with it, but I prayed the prayer and I said, okay, go ahead, father, and and perform the thing which you thou has said.

And then I promptly forgot about it for a long time.

Then, another time I was building in West you West University, we're looking at showing my house that I'd finished to my brother and his wife.

My brother and I used to be partners years before that and Sylvia was walking through the house and with the Gladys and me and my brother and Sylvia stopped and her eyes got big and she said, john, I just got the strangest feeling and what she meant was the Holy Ghost came on her.

She said we're walking through your house, you're gonna have a house, just like this.

I Said, oh no, oh no.

I didn't want to hear it.

I mean nothing in me wanted to believe for a house.

All I could do was that ring.

I was still in that rent house and that was fine with me.

But she tried to tell me she could have prophesied it, but she didn't.

She would just basically confirm it.

So, years later, we start the church and the church is doing well and it's successful church has been going for about a year, and a little over a year I guess, and it's still starting.

You know, it's not like it's.

You know, we had a long track record and and I'm in this rent house and knock, knock, knock, and here comes a constable.

Are you the owner of the house?

No, we rent.

Well, can you give me the address of the owner?

I said no, I can't, because I knew it was a lawsuit.

He's these, these, you know, got a lawsuit of some sort.

I'm not gonna help, do that?

I mean I'm.

You know, I don't have any obligation to help him.

And and he didn't like that very much, I said would you mind telling me what this is all about?

Well, they didn't pay their.

The homeowners Association is suing them.

They didn't pay their more, their maintenance fee, and I knew that they weren't doing well on the house.

I knew that they'd rented it way too cheap and they'd never gone up on the rent and all the years we lived there seven years.

Up to Then they'd never gone up in the rent.

They're kind of Amateurs and they don't know what they're doing and they're they're hurting and I felt sorry for them but there wasn't anything I could do about it.

So, but that was my signal we're gonna have to find us a house.

So I Went to a mortgage Company and I filled out some paperwork for pre-approval and I was just honest.

I said you know, I'm a home builder.

I had some houses that were foreclosed on.

I've had some credit problems.

I was out of job for a while.

I said I don't know what our credit looks like, but it's probably not great.

But I'll just let you know ahead of time.

I mean, I have to tell you it was more just obligation that we had to do something than anything.

It wasn't any desire.

And a couple of days later he called me.

He says Mr Griner, your credit is golden.

You go ahead and proceed, I said.

I said, bob Boyne, he gave me the figure.

You know that he would prove me pre-approving us for which was generous.

And I said hold on, hold on.

What did you say about my credit?

Say that again.

What my credit, what your credit was golden.

I said golden.

He said, yes, your credit was golden.

I said, really.

He said yeah, yeah.

I said I told you all that my credit's golden, yeah, your credit's golden.

I said, oh, okay, all right, okay, see, I'm telling you it was a reward.

God was rewarding me.

It was not my faith, it was not any feed-eyed zone, it was just simply a reward that he loved me and wanted us to be taken care of of all the wreckage that we had had in business and foreclosures.

And I mean, build a house and if the end don't have anything to show for it, in fact, money gets sucked out of your account at the end.

That's not the way it's supposed to work and God wanted to make it a part of the way up, and so we started looking for houses.

And again, it's a new church.

These are new people.

I didn't want to offend anybody.

I didn't want people to think oh, he's crazy.

Look at him.

He's going out and buying a new house here.

We just started a church and he's.

We don't even have a new church, but we've got this old building.

It's falling apart and you're going out and buying it, and it was.

You know, I just was trying to be careful, you know, trying to be wisdom, use wisdom.

So we looked and looked and every house we looked at we just stunk.

It was, you know, they smelled, they'd have animals or they had dirty carpets or whatever.

And so finally, one day I was driving around the neighborhood and I saw this neighborhood I hadn't noticed before I drove through there.

I went by this house and it was under construction and it was only the first floor.

Under it was built the studs, it was open and they hadn't even put the second floor on yet.

But I could tell it had three car garage, it had a big port of cachet on it, and so I walked up the front yard and I stepped up on the slab is about two and a half three foot up off the ground on that right corner, had to pull myself up through the studs and I came up through the master closet and I noticed there was two identical big closets.

I said wow.

And as soon as my foot hit on the concrete slab inside that closet I felt the power of God hit me like a ton of bricks, almost fainted.

The witness was so strong.

And as I went through the house I was just amazed.

It was everything I could have dreamed of wanting.

And we had four adults.

At that time, claire was still at home, and so was Jay.

Jay hadn't been married yet, and so we had four adults, and so we needed space, and this house fit the bill.

And, long story short, god supplied that house.

We were able to, and we needed more money than what had been approved, and I wasn't sure they would do that.

Everything fell into place.

I mean, they approved a bigger loan, they approved everything we had favor, and then God built me the house, because, for the first time in my life, I wasn't the builder of the house, I was the customer.

Another builder built a brand new house for Gladys and I had for our specification.

I'm talking about the reward, see, I'm talking about God has got ways to bless you, and so, in this time that we have, this is harvest time.

This is the greatest year yet.

Let's get our redemptive reality juices flowing.

Let's get our mouth moving in the right direction.

Don't talk lack.

Don't talk insufficiency.

Don't talk problems.

Talk the blessing, talk the supply.

Be generous as you're giving and be a generous giver.

See to it that you abound in the grace of generosity, of giving, and God will bless you.

Amen.

Let's receive the word of God tonight.

Hallelujah, what a pleasure it is to bring you the word and I know it's changed my life.

It'll change your life and God has got good things for you the best year yet.