Kingdom Stewardship

You're listening to the Cross Kingdom Sermon of the Week, we hope you enjoy

this message from Justin Carpenter. Well, one one bad joke last week and

I cleared half the church out. It was more, it was more than

one bad joke. Was that you, Chad, Thank you, buddy,

appreciate that. Oh man, thank you. Good to see you too.

Okay, Well, this is celebration weekend for everything the Lord's doing, and

we're gonna break bread together and for those of you that we're not here yet

this morning when we started, Um, we are closing on the twenty five

acres this Wednesday. Yeah at the moment. That will leave us roughly five

hundred and forty thousand cash to go towards the actual build. Thus far,

we've had fifteen commitment cards five thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars and first

fruits forty thousand, eighty four dollars committed for the first year pledge. Obviously,

the seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars une acted donation for the land was

unexpected and just like mind blowing. Yeah, and so that puts us,

like I said, real close to one point three million total raised and we

Like I said before, I know it's crazy, but we're really believing to

do this thing in cash, and I just yeah, it's it's been such

a such a journey that I'm just trying to hold completely loosely and say,

okay, Lord, he um. Like I said before, he will.

He will talk to you many times about things you didn't ask him about.

And then there are times he will not talk to you about what you're asking

him about. So my word of wisdom for you is, if he's not

answering a question, changed the question. Because he's always talking. He's always

wanting to talk. It's just if we want to hear what he's saying.

I M. Josh and I were turkey hunting this weekend and not well,

no, but the clip and my aar blew up. Literally the bottom blew

out when I was trying to sight in my gun. So I threw another

clip in there and it blew out. So yeah, and then I was

chased down by a bull. It was pretty hairy. I'm not a rancher,

Sean. Sean would have laughed at me. Literally, we're setting put,

I'm fixed. I have an old empty feedbag and I'm fixing and put

it against this woodpile. Josh is over there. He turns around and I'm

disappeared. He goes, what are you doing? I said, I said

that bull started coming towards me fast, I said, I ran, and

then then he looked at me. He started coming around. I thought it

was gonna have to start doing circles. I think he was just hungry for

the feed. But man, that dude who I was no match? You

know what I mean? Ah? Two? What Sorry? It's hard to

fly with the eagles when you're surrounded by turkeys, you know what I mean.

Okay, Hey, I want to do something. They just popped down

my heart. Um, if you have a business, or you're wanting to

start something but you just haven't had the resources to go after it yet,

I want y'all to stand up if that's you. If you have a business

and you're wanting you to like expand the business as far as uh, but

the resources are the biggest thing that's been holding you back. Or if you

have something in your heart and you just haven't been able to pull the trigger

on it, and provision is an issue on it. Okay, So father,

I just ask right now, Lord that you would release the abundance of

provision attached to the good works that you've called them to walk in. Father,

I pray that you would break restraint, resistance, and even stronghold thinking

that would limit them and hold them back. Father, I pray for an

increased measure of faith for these folks that are standing up. Would you cause

your favor to open doors this week for them? Would you cause unexpected things

to line up, provision to come in in the faith to boldly walk forward,

even if they can only see one step. Would you release more creativity,

more business ideas, more solutions to the problems even in our city.

Would you cause an expansion of your artisans that are being raised up, Lord,

cause an expansion in it? And I asked that you would open our

minds and our hearts this morning for your word Lord in Jesus name, Amen,

and if you ay for those of you that stood up. If something

amazing happens this week, please get in contact with us, because we really

do want to hear about it. And so for the next two and a

half hours, I just want to talk to you about kingdom stewardship. I

know we hear this buzzword of kingdom a lot and who knows, I may

even overdo it myself. But what'd you say, Hey, what Papa Jack

say about the kingdom? He said he had he didn't know a lot about

it, but what a little bit he knew. You remember telling me that,

Oh yeah, that was an a brilliant quote. You should like google

it to find it. But stewardship of your faith Romans twelve three. For

I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who's among you,

not to think of himself more highly. There's Chay's word about humility than

he ought to think, But to think soberly as God has dealt to each

one a measure of faith. The measure of faith is your your personal faith

at your personal anointing. And the only way that measure of faith grows is

if you're actually activating your faith, if you're actually walking by faith, doing

things by faith and not by sight. I prefer to walk by sight.

I call it revelation. But the reality is God has this great ability to

keep us intention no matter how much detail he gives to you about your life,

he has this ability to still keep out key things that leave you totally

dependent upon him. To see these things happen, and he's partnering with your

faith. Remember the disciple said, Lord, increase our faith, you know,

because they wanted to do all the things he said that they could do.

And he says, he said, it wasn't necessarily the amount, but

the quality of their faith. So purifying the measure of faith that you have

is first and foremost. He wants, He wants our motives to be pure.

He wants the reasons why we're doing things, all of our ambitions to

be killed unless it's for him. You know. It says that Jesus made

himself of no reputation. He emptied himself. And I think as we the

closer we get to him, I know this personally, I recognize the less

I know. And I used to think I knew it all as good as

a good Baptist boy in Bible college. And all you had to do is

ask me. I could tell you about whatever you asked me about, even

if I didn't fully know what I was talking about. I would totally present

myself to you as having some sort of understanding. And you know, Moses,

when he sat on that mountain, he saw all of those things happen.

He saw God judgment on Egypt, he saw the children of Israel go

from being sick and weak to literally like that, having their strength, no

one feeble among them. He saw all of these things, and I think

after eighty days on that mountain, he probably realized whatever box he had the

Father in, he needed a much bigger box, because we always say we're

pull got out of the box, and then we end up just putting him

him a little bit bigger box because of the lack of our trust. So

our trust increase, so we give him a little bigger box, but we're

saying that he's not in one. And so the stewardship of our faith is

without faith, it's impossible to please him. And so when we move forward

in life, and we move forward in different areas of our lives and our

calling unbelief is like kryptonite, that unbelief is going to shut us down.

That unbelief the children of Israel never went in because of their unbelief. See,

I think because we've lost the fear of the Lord, we really don't

take our unbelief that's serious today, but it literally kept them out of the

Promised Land. And if God's the same yesterday, today, and forever,

then our lack of faith, our unbelief is absolutely hindering us and areas of

our lives, whether we recognize it or not. Now we can spiritualize it,

and we can label fear as wisdom, or we can allow the Lord

to go deep and actually look at our motives of our heart. We think

about our thinking. One of the most powerful things my friend and mentor Dan

Groy said was think about your thinking. Yeah, that was good Number two

stewardship of your heart Matthew seven two. For with the judgment you pronounce,

you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it'll be measured

to you, or another way of saying it, you will become what you

judge. If you don't forgive it, and with the intensity of that judgment

towards someone else, it's going to be pressed down, shaken together, and

overflowing right back into your lap. And it says mercy triumphs over judgment.

So we should probably go with mercy. Where's that angel of mercy at We

should probably partner with mercy over judgment. And I'm not talking about the world

always hides like don't judge me, don't judge me. What they're saying is

I love my sin and it's none of your business. Leave me alone.

I'm not saying that because we're called to judge righteously. This judgment is when

someone's doing something you don't know them, you don't know the motive of your

heart, and you pass judgment on them. You begin to have a conversation

in your own mind and you begin to fill in the blanks of what they're

actually doing, what they're thinking, why they're doing it. That's the judgment

the Lord's speaking of. And we get these bitter root judgments even when the

first in the Ten Commandments when it says, honor your mother and father,

and it will go well with you, and you will live a long life.

So there's a promise that we honor our parents will actually prosper and will

actually see the fullness of days as we honor them. But what we end

up doing is we end up judging them at times, and those are bitter

root judgments. And what happens, it's measured back and it increases, and

then you actually end up doing exactly what you didn't like that you saw in

your parents. And that is a bitter root judgment. And when we sit

in a place long enough, we actually begin to have faith for that type

of behavior, which is a bitter root expectation. It's faith and the wrong

thing. It's faith and destruction. It's faith and steel, kill and destroy

versus abundant life. So we want to steward our heart because out of it

flow the issues of life. As a man thinketh in his heart, so

is he Proverbs. And then there's the stewardship of our generosity. Luke ix

thirty eight says give, and it would be given to you good measure,

pressed down, shaken together, running over, it would be put into your

lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to

you. This whole issue of with the measure you use it's measured back is

a kingdom principle. And if you can understand this kingdom principle, then you're

going to get a whole You're gonna get a lot further ahead in your walk

with the Lord, because with the measure you use, it's going to be

measured back in every aspect of your life. If you want to be stingy,

it's going to be measured back. And generosity goes way beyond mammon generosity

goes with our time. It goes with our willingness to help other people.

It goes to even phone calls, when God put someone on your heart and

you give him a call and you recognize, oh, my goodness, I

actually just heard from the Lord. I thought it was just my thought,

but I actually heard from him, and I actually needed to call that person.

The generosity that we're willing to spend time with the Lord, he was

always generous with his time. He wanted to go grieve the loss of his

cousin, and everybody found out where he was going, and they got there

before him, and he got there, and it says that he had compassion

on them, when easily he could have justified telling them to leave and go

and spend time alone on that mountain and grieve the loss of his cousin.

Instead, you actually end up seeing the very first feeding of the five thousand

on the very cuffs of a loss like that. The Kingdom is full of

ups and downs. Sometimes it feels like a spiritual roller coaster. You think,

the mountaintops, we don't know a lot. We don't always know how

long we're going to be on a mountaintop. So when you're on a mountaintop.

Enjoy it because it's glory to glory, and it's that middle valley part

that we call too that we're not super excited about a lot of times,

right, And it seems like the two always lasts longer than the tops.

You're so proud of me. My mind's got a joke, and I didn't

do anything. I love you, hun Stewardship of your obedience, Mark four

twenty four. And he said to them, pay attention to what you hear

with the measure you use. Here's this measurement thing again, your spiritual tape

measure. Everybody know how to read your spiritual tape measure. You know,

they got these tape measures for dummies where it actually shows like an eighth a

quarter like it reads all of them out. So if you don't know the

little marks, I'm not calling anyone in here. Oh you got one of

those Braden's like I got that. That's in my bob the builder belt.

Yeah, pay attention to what you hear with the measure you use. It

will be measured to you and still more will be added to you. Mark

four twenty four. So, in other words, for all of you revelatory

folks, for anyone that desires to hear God and actually hear his voice more.

Obedience is foundational. What's not an option because with the measure you use

and that word for here and Hebrew literally means for obedience, with the measure

or you use, it's gonna it's gonna be measured back. So what you

stewart will increase no matter what it is, no matter if it's hearing God,

if it's in the negative side of judging others. You ever notice where

you ever notice super negative people tend to attract negativity and then they begin to

have faith for that, and then they say, see, I told you

this was going to happen. That's because they have a bitter root expectation of

destruction over their life, and it's easier for them to stay in that place

and have faith for it than to break out of the cycle. So you

have a harvest and all of these, every every act you do, everything

you do is a seed. If you don't like your harvest, change your

seed. Think about your thinking. What are you sewing? If you tend

to draw certain types of people to you. This isn't new age, This

isn't the law of attraction, But there is a spiritual law of attraction.

It's called familiar spirits and bitter root judgments. You're always going to attract the

people that you're like. So if you don't like negativity coming, if there's

cycles there, what are you sewing to fix it. It's like when someone's

in an abusive relationship, if they don't deal with their pain and their heart

and they come out of that relationship, you ever notice they tend to draw

the same type of people, whether it's a male or female, they end

up drawing the same type of people. Again, this issue of bitter root

judgments and bitter root expectations. These seeds that are being sewn, they actually

have faith to be disrespected. I know that doesn't sound like fun. Think

about your thinking. Number five stewardship of your gifts. Ephesians four seven to

eight says this, But grace was given to each one of us according to

the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on

high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.

Where did your gift come from? Yeah, he came from the Lord.

Is he impressed with your gift? Probably? Yeah, not as much

as we are. That is correct, but we tend to be way more

impressed with the gifts he's given us than he is. I think personally,

he's way more impressed with the the guy that pulls over in the side of

the street and no one's around, and he helps the lady change attire.

Are we visit the widow, we helped the widow, We help the poor?

Right James says pure and undefiled religion as what And so I think those

acts of love when the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing,

I think those are the things that gets Heaven's attention. It's not the

only thing, but it definitely gets Heaven's attention. I've been around the church

long enough, and many of you have to realize that not every leader,

not every leader you see, has the same level of integrity as their gift

that's being displayed. And it's my heart that we don't raise up Sampson's,

but we have Daniels and Joseph's and Ezekiels and Jeremiah's. Number six is a

stewardship of your humility. Second Corithians ten twelve says this not that we dare

to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But

when they measure themselves, buy one another, and compare themselves with one another,

they're without understanding. Anybody ever been there, You start comparing yourself to

somebody else, and then all of a sudden you get discouraged and all the

all the insecurity that you were already feeling, just like magnified. I remember

when I was in elementary school. I wanted to draw. I wanted to,

you know, do cool stuff. And this kid, his name was

Dustin. This dude, yeah, Justin. And I actually had another good

friend named Dustin, so Dustin and Justin my wife knew Dustin. Any who,

um, and I watched this. I looked, I was drawing,

and I was, you know, having a good proud moment that I was

improving with my stick man work. And I look over and this dude is

like Picasso, and I was like, and I literally had the thought,

man, why I even waste my time? I can't do that? And

I quit. And who knows where I would possibly be today with that had

I not quit that? Right? Yeah, he's example. And oh,

by the way, all we got the b picture frame and it's up on

the wall. But when we compare ourselves to each other, we've totally lost

sight. What we're saying is, I think God values more, values you

more, values your gift more than me, and then we lose sight.

We try to find our identity in what we're doing rather than who we are.

If if we are comparing ourselves to others, it's going to be very

different cult for us to champion them and actually be proud of them, and

God forbid that their gift actually grows bigger than you. It's a joke.

My Lisa was at a workshop this weekend and she just was reminded once again

on how much church pain that like. There were so many people there that

had been hurt by I mean, I'll tell you this, if you've not

been hurt by the church, I'm probably not going to trust you because if

you if you're around people long enough, you know there's at least one or

two daggers that are going to throw you know, you have to pull them

out. Probably. I mean that, in the nicest way possible, church

would be awesome if we weren't in it right. Stewardship of your maturation Ephesians

twelve to thirteen to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for

building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of

the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,

to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. See.

I think what impresses God is when we actually start lining up with Ephesians four,

twelve and thirteen, we actually start increasing the measure the stature of the

fullness of Christ. We actually start allowing Jesus to be formed in us,

and people around us actually start seeing way more of Him than us, because

at that point we're operating in a low risk in a high anointing place,

which is opposite of what Sampson did. Right, He was high risk,

high anointing. And if you want longevity and life, and you want to

hear well done, my good and faithful servant, then we have to have

the same priorities. We have to recognize the importance of maturation. That it

says he who began a good work as going to what complete it? So

what does that mean? That means wherever you're bucking the Lord, wherever you're

pushing back and resisting him, you're just inviting yourself to stay in that process

and go around that mountain as many times as it takes. He let them

wander for forty years. He will let you keep hitting your head against the

wall until you realize this really hurts and it's not changing anything. Do Wow,

it's getting personal in here, folks. We'll have the ministry team up

here shortly hanging there for those of you that never mind. Okay, number

eight stewardship of your finances. The point of this, whoever so sparingly will

also reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountively. Each one must

give as he's decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For

God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound

to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things, at all times,

you may abound in every good work. What is the goal of the

Lord's heart with this, that you actually abound, that you have everything you

need to do what you're called to do. Jim Baker, not the one

that went to prison, the other Jim Baker, who just happens to have

some books on finances as well, but take heart, he's not been in

prison yet. And so he this Jim Baker, He's got all these amazing

one liners, and he said, what true prosperity is is that you don't

have to ask money to be obedient to God. You don't have to ask

money if you're going to be obedient to God, meaning that you feel like

you're called to do something, but you're you're in a place where you're shipwrecked

and your finances and in a ton of debt, and it's like you feel

trapped and you can't do it. You can't act out in that moment.

Is that hit home when I remember in two thousand and seven when the market

started busting, I was I was too poor to pay attention, and I

have sitting on two houses and a broken ankle and in a rent house,

and I thought, there is no way I'm ever going to get out of

this thing. And by the grace of God, we got out of it

and did not have to file bankruptcy. I mean, it was an absolute

miracle, but it came with a significant crushing in the lord and to the

finances too. And but I'll never forget. I mean, I I thought

I was I was probably lacking humility in that area. Um, but I

remember taking so much pride in my credit score of being over eight hundred and

and and all of the stuff, and I was feeling successful in the and

yeah, and in a moment says money can grab wings and fly away and

come here get the gun. We need the bird hunt um and literally boom,

finances were gone. Now if again, if my identity is in my

bank account, when my savings account is good, I'm good. If my

savings account is bad, then I'm not doing good. It says, what

should a profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his own

soul? Or what shall a man given exchange for his soul? The rich

guy he goes, man, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna build

new barns and build up and and say, ah, it's well with my

soul. And he says, you fool, Your soul is going to be

required of you tonight. Your money is going to go to somebody else.

What are you going to do? Tough word right there right. Second Corinthians

nine ten to fifteen says he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for

food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the harvest of

your righteousness see Kingdom finances is under the umbrella of righteousness, a harvest of

righteousness. And we don't tend to look at things like that. Though you

will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through

us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not

only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing and many thanksgiving

to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because

of your submission that comes from your confession of the Gospel of Christ, and

the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long

for you and pray for you because of the suppressed, surpassing grace of God

upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. And what's interesting

if you back up in a Second Corithians chapter eight, that was Second Corithians

nine, the church is actually preparing a gift for the Body of Christ in

that context, And what's it would be like us finding out that another church

in Kerville is in need and we take up an offering and we put this

gift together and we bless them and we and maybe they're Methodist, maybe they're

Baptist, maybe they're Lutheran, but biblically speaking, there's only one Body of

Christ, and if they're preaching the Gospel, then there's one Lord, one

faith, one Baptism, one father of all. And then we bless the

body because we recognize that we value every single light and if that light goes

out, then this region is not lighter, it's actually darker. And so

we have a love and an honor for the Body of Christ because Jesus is

our plumb line and he is the one that we focus on, and we're

going to live with them all. There's other denominations that will be in heaven,

y'all. I know somebody, I remember when I was Baptist, I

thought the only one's going we're Baptist. Yeah, we never. I can't

keep going down that. But we had an opportunity to bless another churches,

and so we did. So know that we're valuing we want to line up

with Kingdom, value kingdom stewardship and actually live out the things that we're talking

about. And so, but the church in they gave sacrificially. In Chapter

eight, verse two and three, the Macedonians were poor, yet they were

able to sacrifice. It did not lessen their generosity, but actually magnified it.

Somehow, even in their sparse circumstances, they found a way to give.

They weren't able to do much, but what they give, what they

gave all they could. You know, it's kind of like when all the

religious would throw all their money in so that remember that principle, and you

could hear all the money going in to the offering. And then the widow

comes up and takes her two mites, which is legitimately one penny today.

Interestingly enough, it takes like seven pennies to make a penny costwise, and

there's no more copper and pennies anymore. And so literally two mites and throws

that in there and walks away. And Jesus said, hey, she just

gave everything she had, and and he teaches us number two. They gave

supernaturally. In verse three, they gave beyond their ability because their giving was

empowered and enlarged by God. The fact is, you don't have to possess

large sums of money to be a larger giver. God's spirit makes it possible

for you to give far beyond your natural ability. The third quality is they

gave joyfully. Remember it says that God loves a cheerful giver, So don't

be getting all you know when offering time comes along, everybody's got them.

You know we're Christians, so we don't. There's acronyms for that. Face

right, You all know what I'm saying. The Christian version is resting,

brad face. Is that not over the line? Is that too much?

I'll back up? Sorry, okay, But the Bible says they gave out

of their abundance of joy. As second Grifthians nine reck reminds us God loves

a cheerful giver. God is able to make all grace abound to you,

that having all sufficiency and everything, you may have an abundance for every good

deed. The grace of God is directly connected with giving. When we fail

to see giving as a grace, it becomes a burden instead of a blessing.

Again, with the measure you use, Jesus said, take up your

cross daily and follow me so every aspect of our life. If we try

to seek and save our lives, we're gonna lose it. So if God

moves on your heart to be generous towards someone and the fear of lack hits

you, because as you're looking in the natural at your bank account instead of

the supernatural, and in the kingdom and understanding how finances flow, they flow

with open hands, then your fear of lack is actually going to stop you

from having a blessing, and it's actually going to keep you in a poverty

mindset because an orphan says there's not enough, and a son says, I

live from inheritance. It's awful quiet. People don't worry. We're not taking

up another offering. They gave willingly. The believers of Macedonia gave of their

own accord. They weren't forced into giving. They didn't wait to be asked.

They saw a need and responded voluntarily. They weren't drafted, they enlisted.

Do you ever feel like you're drafted sometimes in church settings when it comes

to giving. I remember sitting in a service one time, and I will

not name the speaker because they're pretty popular. Literally got up and talked for

about thirty minutes, no exaggeration, and then they took up the offering,

and when we realized that was the you know how we do a short,

little declarated prayer. They talked for thirty minutes and then did an offering.

And I looked over at my wife and I was like, oh, so

yeah, the manipulation is not kingdom. They gave eagerly in chapter eight,

verse four. When you read the full account, you'll see it. It

was the people, not the pastor begging to support the saints. They were

eager to give because to them it was a privilege. Perhaps they remembered the

word of the Lord, it is more blessed to give than receive. Number

six. They gave unexpectedly Chapter eight, verse five, Paul wrote that they

gave not as we expected. Paul implies his own reluctance to encourage the Macedonians

to contribute, since he knew of their desperate poverty. Grace giving always has

an element of the unexpected. I remember early on in ministry, after Lisa

kicked me out of her inventory closet from doing deliverance ministry, I got my

first massive little office of two hundred square feet. Shortly after that. Becky

Bowen, for those of you that know Becky Becky started doing a bunch of

prayer. She's not that bad, It's okay. She started doing a bunch

of prayer ministry with me and no monthly supporters and just you know, love

offering only. And there would be many of times where I'd go ten sessions

and get all the way to the end of the week and get a twenty

five dollars cash offering. I'd look over at Becky and I'd go, are

you out of gas? She's like yeah, and so I'd give her half

of the twenty five bucks. And it was in that moment I realized I

was not a TBN speaker. And and I remember another time again a couple

grand behind on bills, but they're not yet late. I'm almost done a

promise, and get to the end of the week, I get a hundred

bucks and the Lord tells me to take it and go sew at someplace.

And I could have easily justified holding onto that hundred bucks and tried to do

something with it because I was in need. I literally was in need,

like legitimately, and I was like, all right, Lord, So I

went down and I sewed that hundred dollars out of all don't do that just

because you think you're going to twist God's arm by the way, you do

it when he says to do it, okay, And so I did that,

and twenty four hours later a two thousand dollars offering came in from someone.

And they had no idea what my circumstances were, because I didn't gossip

my poverty to everyone and then go, oh, look, God supplied.

I kept it quiet. I didn't tell anybody. In number seven, last

one, they gave personally eight five to six. The Macedonians first gave themselves

to the Lord. They knew that God wanted them before he wanted their gifts,

and their giving to others was preceded by their giving of themselves. What

did Paul say? Don't give out of a sense of duty, but out

of a desire to please the one who gave himself for you. We're never

in this life, We're never going to outgive the Lord. He literally heaven

went bankrupt. He gave everything, he left nothing behind, and he poured

it all out for us. Again, when we seek and save our lives,

we've just cut off the life force of Jesus. In that moment,

we literally just severed ourselves from abundant life swift obedience, from a life of

submission, full of love and gratitude and thanksgiving. It says that we have

weapons of righteousness and our right hand and weapons of righteousness and our left and

our weapons aren't what carnal, they're not natural, and so when we recognize

the spiritual weapons the Lord's given us, sometimes it might just be blessing our

enemy. Sometimes it might be stopping for somebody you don't really have time to

stop for. It's it's it's the stewardship of your time. You know.

It's funny. We spent so much of our lives chasing after an unlimited resource

called finances, but we forget that the one thing that is truly limited is

what our time. We spend so much of our life running after the American

dream, and then we spend the rest of our lives spending all the money

to try to get healthy, because we ruined our health to get there.

Seriously, how many people you know that when they went to go hit retirement,

all of a sudden, all their health was bad. It says,

don't boast about tomorrow. You don't know what a day may bring forth.

Sufficient as the trouble and the day that you're in. Today's the day we

have when we wake up and you see the sun shining and you're still breathing.

This is the day that you have, and it's and it's a day

at a time, consistently choosing righteousness, seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness.

Consistently pursuing him, keeping our goals very simple, getting close to him,

loving him, loving others, and being obedient. And as we do

that day, just the day that we're in, all of a sudden,

you turn around and you have years of obedience, you have history with God.

You know. One of the things, y'all remember the dream I had

where Mica was a baby and he about maybe a year year and a half

ago. I shared it one Sunday morning and Michael was like a baby in

the window and he's like rapping, It's Tuesday. It's Tuesday. Y'all remember

that? Well, you know, this is another reason to stewart your dreams,

right down, your dreams and visions. Because I knew something amazing was

going to happen on a Tuesday. But that's all I had. The dream

didn't say what Tuesday or what was going to happen. And two weeks ago,

on a Tuesday, is when Lisa and I had lunch with that couple

and they said, hey, we believe we're called to lay the foundation,

and we want to give you seven hundred and fifty thousand cash. And in

that moment, in that moment, the Lord reminded me of that where I

see a little Mica. It's Tuesday. It's Tuesday. Something's about to change.

It's Tuesday. And he was so excited. And now I can give

you a real expert interpretation now because it's hindsight. But but Mica which means

who was like God. But Mica was a baby because it wasn't yet mature,

wasn't yet ready to manifest, just like the b vision that I so

expertly messed up when I tried to describe the pollen balls that they were carrying,

which we're at about one point two thousand views on that one. And

but it made sense that the pollen was in a case that was like a

wood case because it needed to be protected because it wasn't yet time to release

it. But that was a detail I didn't see back then. But Stewart

again, this whole kingdom stud ship. If God, if if the Lord

values it, value it, period. It's that simple. Whatever he values

were to value whatever he loves, we should love. Whatever he hates,

we should hate like just it's it is really that simplistic and being obedient,

swift obedience actually points to how mature you are. The fruit of the spirit,

Actually matures are. The fruit of the spirit actually points to how mature

you are. If you want to know how you're doing in Jesus, then

take the nine Fruits test. How loving are you? How kind are you?

How joyful? Yeah? I love joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodness, generalist, faithfulness, self control. Those nine fruit those are

evidences of an abiding life in Jesus. Now, you can hide behind your

gift. You can prophesy, you can see people healed, you can see

the dead raised, you can do all of those things. But those nine

fruits are what's really going to show you where you're at. And I don't

know about you all, but I want to be known for the fruit of

the spirit, not just because of a gift. I want to I want

to finish my life where people say he was loving, he was kind,

he was gentle, he was joyful, Lisa's still working on mister grumpy pants.

But joy, it's it's the joy of the Lord is our strength,

all right. So I'm gonna I'm gonna if I can get some of the

folks to come up for prayer, which Sean, are you still here?

Sean? Is your wife here? Sarah, she's out. Well, you

can identify for both of you as you come up. And then Lisa,

Josh, if we can get a few up here, I'm gonna close in

prayer. I'm gonna bless the food, and then we need some help pulling

some tables out. And then once the tables are out and we've got the

green light and the back, then we will have women and children line up

first and then the men. Um. We just so y'all know, we

are going to have a land dedication once we close Wednesday on the property.

We will we'll all go out there soon and bless the land, pray over

it and um and then don't forget Next Sunday, we have a baptism up

at the cross after service. There's a sign up sheet in the back,

so you've not been baptized and uh and obviously you know Jesus sign up on

the sheet and we'll dunk you all right, So, Father, thank you

for listening. For more messages and other resources, please subscribe to this podcast.

We'll go to our website at www dot Cross Kingdom dot org