The Power of Generosity

[SPEAKER_01]: And so if you have your Bibles, turn with me to second Corinthians chapter 9, second Corinthians chapter 9, and we're going to start reading in verses 6 and we're going to read down through verse 11, second Corinthians chapter 9, verse 6 through 11, also be on the screen if you want to follow that way.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention 2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention 2 Corinthians 9:6–11

[SPEAKER_01]: It says this, it says, remember this, the person who's so sparingly will also reap sparingly.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the person who's so generously will also reap generously.

[SPEAKER_01]: Each person should do as he has decided in his heart not reluctantly or out of necessity for God loves a cheerful giver.

[SPEAKER_01]: And God is able, everybody say God is able.

[SPEAKER_01]: God is able to make every grace overflow to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that in every way, always having everything you need.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, how many of you are grateful that God provides and he has everything that you need taking care of.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah, thank you, Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work.

[SPEAKER_01]: Next slide.

[SPEAKER_01]: As it is written, he scattered.

[SPEAKER_01]: He gave to the poor his righteousness and doors forever.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the one who provides seed for the soar, and bread for food will provide, and will multiply, come on somebody, your seed, and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

[SPEAKER_01]: You will be enriched in every way for all generosity, which produces Thanksgiving to God through us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're taking notes this morning, the title of today's message, I'm not gonna preach a long time to you because we wanna do this miracle offering today, but the title of today's message is the power of generosity, the power of generosity.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me pray for us this morning as we dive into this Father.

[SPEAKER_01]: I thank you, Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Father, for your Word.

[SPEAKER_01]: I thank you for the truth and the revelation that is packed into your Word God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I thank you, Father God, that as we are obedient, as we come to the understanding of what your word teaches us and we follow the truth of your word God, I thank you, Lord, that you just begin to do things in our lives that just exceed our expectations, that you begin to do wondrous works and perform mighty miracles and you take care of us like nothing

[SPEAKER_01]: And today we're so grateful for that Father and Lord, I pray that as we listen and as we dive into your Word and as we hear what you would have to say today, God, that we would truly understand the heart of generosity and that there is so much power in being a generous people and to having a generous, heart, a generous spirit that there is power behind that and Lord, we thank you for it today, we thank you for your Word and Jesus name, everybody said,

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the power of generosity.

[SPEAKER_01]: So how many of you know and understand that before you have a harvest time, you have to have a seed time.

[SPEAKER_01]: that before a harvest can even grow, there has to be seed that is planted.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's kind of one of those things like common sense, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you can't just walk out to a field and say, grow, corn or grow, whatever, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's probably really not going to work that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: You actually have to,

[SPEAKER_01]: Take the time and you have to put the work behind it to actually dig up the ground and put the seed in the ground and cover the seed back up and then you have to tend that ground and you have to begin to water it and take care of it So that way you can ensure the fact that the seed is going to grow into something and eventually it's going to come to the point where it sprouts out out of the ground

[SPEAKER_01]: I see, it cannot do that unless it's sewn in the right soil.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't, you know, it's just like here, you don't see a bunch of palm trees around here.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have the right, we don't have the right soil, we don't have, we don't have the right climate, we don't have all these things for palm trees to grow, but you can go to Florida, come on now, on vacation, and you can go to the beach and everywhere in Florida is not them up palm trees.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it has the right soil, has the right climate, has all the right things for the seed to be able to grow into what it was designed to grow into.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so hear me church, could never have a harvest without seed.

[SPEAKER_01]: No farmer has ever planted seed.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then went out to the field and wondered, is something going to grow?

[SPEAKER_01]: No former goes out and does all the work and plants all the seeds and then weeks later and months later goes out there and says, is anything going to ever happen?

[SPEAKER_01]: There's no question in the farmer's mind if something's going to grow because he knows that he did what he had to do to plant the seed therefore there is going to be a harvest that comes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oftentimes in church, we only ever consider and we only ever discussed the Tithe.

[SPEAKER_01]: In this morning, we're not talking about the Tithe, but we're talking about miracle offering Sunday, but hear me loud and clear church, like we are a generous church.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've been talking, we've said that for ever, since since day one of our existence as a church, we are a generous church.

[SPEAKER_01]: We believe in generosity.

[SPEAKER_01]: Generosity is a part of one of our core values.

[SPEAKER_01]: We believe in being generous.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've always been a generous church, we always will be.

[SPEAKER_01]: The great thing about this church is that we have big hearts to give.

[SPEAKER_01]: Big hearts that are willing to give.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that goes beyond our finances.

[SPEAKER_01]: We give him multiple ways.

[SPEAKER_01]: We give out of our love when we go to these community events and we love on people and we shower the love of Jesus on them and we're generous to them and more ways than one.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's who we are as a church, a two-week always been.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to talk about the tide this morning, but I want to make mention of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because when it comes to the tide, so many believe that it's not for today, and we're really seeing and kind of an ever-increasing change in the church world of people stepping away from the tide.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's sad because so many say, well, you know, tithing is not for new testament people, or we're not under the law anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: You hear all these different kind of things that are mentioned.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've never been under the law since Christ came.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because remember, he delivered us from the law of sin and death.

[SPEAKER_01]: And remember, we became recipients of the law of life, which is Christ Jesus, amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: So let me say it this way today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tithing is not law.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tithing is love.

[SPEAKER_01]: People get all to the whole rules and regulations and should I and should I not and this and that and this scripture and that scripture and Old Testament, and this and New Testament is that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Get rid of all of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hear me today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tithing is not law.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tithing is love.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's an act of love, it's act of service unto the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: As a matter of fact, you need to understand that tithing is not a contract, but rather tithing is a covenant.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a covenant with the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's saying, God, I'm making covenant with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'm willing to give up all that you've given me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not in the form of a contract, but in a covenant to you, God, and I'm saying, I vow to give back to you what rightfully belongs to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So as you know, if you've been around church of the city, it he given amount of time, you know that we're not one to pull on people's leg when it comes to giving or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: As a matter of fact, for the past two or three years, we've almost pretty much stopped talking about giving it all together.

[SPEAKER_01]: We stopped really taking up a formal offering and we stopped really talking about the tie and pretty much anything that that all entails.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that that was strategic for the season that we were in, that the Lord just kind of pulled us back from that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And just allowed us to as a church really capture the heart of the father and capture the heart of generosity and what it means to give unto him instead of hearing it all the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I mean, I grew up hearing it all the time all the time all and none of that's a bad thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it gets old and it starts to corrupt you a little bit and it starts to see things that you wish you didn't see and you know you start you know seeing money go in directions that it was never intended to go.

[SPEAKER_01]: or money promised to go one place and ends up going another place.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you start getting into this place as a believer and getting into this place as a member where you're like, man, I don't, I don't even do this anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: And for us as a church, we've kind of taken a back step to all that and say, you know what, let's just believe that the Lord is going to speak to us on an individual level of what this is about and what this means.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we must understand this and we must learn this truth this morning and the heart behind student, the heart behind generosity is stewardship.

[SPEAKER_01]: Stewardship, learning how to steward what he's given you well.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't steward well what he's given you, then it's not going to work out very well.

[SPEAKER_01]: If the farmer doesn't steward the seed well, he's not going to have a harvest.

[SPEAKER_01]: If the farmer goes and he plants the seed into the ground and covers it with the dirt and never waters it, he'll never have a harvest, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So we have to do our part when it comes to this and then God does his.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it comes to the, it comes to the whole point of stewardship, being a good steward of what God has given us and trusting us in the area of stewardship, God says, I'll bless you, but I need you to be a good steward.

[SPEAKER_01]: The last thing we ever want for your lives personally is for you to come in here every Sunday and lift your hands and get touched by the Spirit of God and hear a message that inspires you, but then you live financially broken all the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hear me, God wants to bless you so that you can indeed be a blessing to others.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not that you can live this lavish life.

[SPEAKER_01]: God didn't call us to that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe in the whole prosperity thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe God wants to prosper us.

[SPEAKER_01]: 100% God wants to bless us.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that with all my heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't believe that Christians are supposed to live this lavish life while we watch the poor suffer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hello.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hello.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe that one, for one minute.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there's people that are hurting and broken all around us in our families and our friends circles.

[SPEAKER_01]: He just go down the street and you'll find hurting and broken people who would do anything to have a dollar to their name, who would do anything to have a hundred dollars in their bank account.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then here we are as believers sitting back thinking that God owes us all this money.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, he don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if that's what you've learned, and that's what you've grown up in, hopefully today, that just kind of gets removed from you supernaturally, and you come to the understanding that God is all about generosity.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wants to be generous to you, but He needs you to learn how to be generous.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the way that your generous, as you give unto the Lord, first and foremost, He says, give the first fruits unto Him, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: We're generous in that way, but then we're also generous to people around us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: You heard it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've heard it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's more blessed to give than receive.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd rather be a giver than a receiver, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd rather be in a constant state where I'm giving unto people, where I'm blessing people.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't do that because I know God is going to give something back to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, no.

[SPEAKER_01]: I do that because I have a generous heart in my heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: In my heart, I hear the Spirit of God say, give.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And the Bible says, given it shall be given back unto you, press down, shaking together, all in over, come on, somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God wants to bless you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And indeed, He does, He wants to bless you so that you could be a blessing to others.

[SPEAKER_01]: But there is something that is so significant and there is so powerful about the spirit of generosity that's really different than anything else in life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And listen, when it comes to giving, the motive should never be to get something back.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I'm gonna do this for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna give this to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't forget God, you owe me something.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whoa.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I'm gonna do this if you do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Imagine the heart of the Father being broken hearing something like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you need to know that when you give unto the Lord, he will absolutely bless you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the system of the world, it looks like this, you buy and you sell.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the system of the kingdom looks like this, you sew and you reap.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's how the kingdom of God operates.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's how the kingdom of God works, it's a kingdom of sewing and reaping.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I sew love from my brother, Eric, I am going to reap love back from him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: If I so grace to somebody who's made a mistake, I'm gonna reap that grace back.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it comes the same way when it's financial, when we sow unto the Lord, when we sow out of a generous heart with the generous spirit, with generosity backing what we're doing, stewarding everything well, we will reap a harvest.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wanna reap Proverbs chapter three, verses nine through ten, if you'll put it on the screen.

[SPEAKER_01]: says this, says, honor the Lord with your possessions.

[SPEAKER_01]: So this is not a matter of like, you know, trying to figure things out or do this or do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a matter of honor right here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Honor and God, honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then,

[SPEAKER_01]: Then, see a lot of times we like to get into this part of like, oh God, it's gonna fill up my barns.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's gonna do this and he's gonna do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, but you gotta read the first part first.

[SPEAKER_01]: Only if we honor the Lord with our possessions and our first produce, then guess what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's comes the benefit of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Irgums the blessing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then your barns will be completely filled and your vats will overflow with new wine.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about you, but that's, that's where I wanna be.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wanna be there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Notice how the scripture goes beyond first fruits.

[SPEAKER_01]: Says, honor the Lord with your possessions.

[SPEAKER_01]: And your first fruits.

[SPEAKER_01]: So many times we teach like, oh, the way that you honor the Lord is to give of your tied your first 10% your first fruits of everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, we honor him beyond that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We honor him with all of our possessions.

[SPEAKER_01]: because he blessed you with it to begin with.

[SPEAKER_01]: People say, oh, I landed this job.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm making good money.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, God blessed you with that job.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we have to, we have to come to the understanding that everything that we have, all of our earthly possessions, he gave to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: It didn't happen out of coincidence or or chance or because we did the right thing or the wrong thing but everything that we have first belong to him and he blessed us with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we get to live in that blessing of the Lord, but we have to honor him with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have to honor him and with our possessions and with our first fruits.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can I help everyone out in the room this morning?

[SPEAKER_01]: This will help set us free today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, God will never ask you for what you don't have.

[SPEAKER_01]: So many times people say, oh, God's, God's telling me to give all of this, and I don't even have it.

[SPEAKER_01]: God will never ask you to give what you don't have, but he'll ask you to give what you do have.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe somebody gave them a prophetic word.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh God, told me to tell you that you are gonna sell $5,000 into the kingdom and don't know the person saying, I don't even have $5,000 right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then they get into a financial bind and they find themselves making a big financial mistake because they believe that it was the Lord speaking through somebody to do something that they didn't even have to begin with.

[SPEAKER_01]: So why we got to use discernment.

[SPEAKER_01]: We got to be, we got to be wise.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean Melissa asked me this week.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just yesterday the day before she said, is there a number that you have yet about miracle offering?

[SPEAKER_01]: I said honestly, now, the Lord has still, even right now, here's standing here, the Lord has yet to give me a specific number that we're supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: So many times, I feel like I, the Lord kind of gives me a little bit of a head start, he'll just kind of download that, you know, and tell me, like, speak something to me, I'm like, okay, I got this, and then I could stand on it and pray on it, all that kind of stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm still like, Lord, what do we do?

[SPEAKER_01]: I told Melissa, I said, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got nothing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got nothing to say, because I don't know what he's calling us to do for this.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what I do know is that he's not going to call us to give something we don't have.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to call us to give something we do have.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine being in a place in a position with God where you can say everything I have, God belongs to you?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's the way it should be, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: or how about this God, everything in my possession right now, you can have full access to everything that I have.

[SPEAKER_01]: In my life right now, God, you can have every bit of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine being in that kind of posture of your heart and in that kind of place of generosity where you come to the conclusion, if God requires everything that I've got,

[SPEAKER_01]: because I know he'll take care of me.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I'm obedient, he's gonna take care of me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me tell you this, God has a love language.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so many times people say, oh, my love language is acts of service or physical touch or this or that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have our own love language, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: You've all heard that kind of thing tossed around before.

[SPEAKER_01]: God has his own love language.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you wanna know what his love language is?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's giving all of you to all of him.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's God's love language.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's us saying God, everything that I am, everything that I have, all of me, I give it all to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, that's right, sign.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's right, daughter.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is what I want.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want every bit of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, this would be on finances, please hear me.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is your heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is everything that God has blessed you with in your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: He, we just give it all to him, God, you can have my family, you can have my kids, you can have my job, God, you can have all of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I give it all back to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's literally becoming a living sacrifice to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when it comes to blessing the Lord, he's not trying to take something away from you, but rather he's trying to get something to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: People say things like, well, why does God need my money?

[SPEAKER_01]: Hear me church?

[SPEAKER_01]: God doesn't need your money.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what he does need is your heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: What he does need is your obedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: What he does need is your sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_01]: Miracle offering Sunday that we're that we're doing today is is not about giving more It's not it's not about you know doing all of this and doing all that it's about being a sacrifice It's about surrendering all of who we are to him and Being okay with that mean confident and saying God I trust you Does God really need your money?

[SPEAKER_01]: No Does the church need your money?

[SPEAKER_01]: No, God will take care of the church, but what is needed is a sacrifice of obedience laid upon the altar of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_01]: God I make a sacrificial offering unto you today, and I lay it at your altar, and I give it to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I give it to you as an active obedience, as a heart behind it is to honor you and to worship you.

[SPEAKER_01]: In this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Church, if you want to walk in fields of the harvest of the seed that you have sewn, then don't sow your seed out of guilt.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't sow your seed out of pressure.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't sow your seed out of remorse or with a corrupt heart or with a bad attitude.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to walk in the field of the harvest that God is blessing you with, be a cheerful giver.

[SPEAKER_01]: Give out of obedience, give out a honor into the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I honor you with my finances.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I honor you with all that I am.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I give it to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are going to be times and seasons of life where the Lord will call you to give not what feels comfortable to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what is precious to you?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you think, oh, I've got to hold on to this and God says, I need it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I've noticed about people who are generous in the area of generosity.

[SPEAKER_01]: when people are generous in the area of money and giving those kind of people you know what I've noticed about them that they're also generous and kindness they're also generous and joy they're also generous and a smile on their face they don't walk around like all

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know.

[SPEAKER_01]: All miserable all the time with the sad face or a mad face.

[SPEAKER_01]: People that are generous in the area of giving are typically generous in every area.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'll give you the biggest hugs.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'll have the biggest smile on the face.

[SPEAKER_01]: They will show you kindness and love and grace.

[SPEAKER_01]: All of those things.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you know what I've noticed on the flip side about people who are stingy in the area of generosity,

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because you want to hear of like the other good stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: But let me tell you about the other side as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: People who are stingy in the area of generosity are often stingy in their smiles.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're often stingy in their joy.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're often stingy with the grace that they're willing to give toward one another.

[SPEAKER_01]: So this is not a matter of money.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a matter of the heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: a generous person will so generously and reap generously.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just the way it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this is going down to simple, biblical principles of life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're going to give out of a stingy heart, then let me tell you, then people will read it all over your face.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because you ain't just stingy with your money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because generosity, listen to me, generosity is an announcement.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's an announcement that everything that I have, God gave me, and I want to share it with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what generosity is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Generosity is literally a walking announcement of everything that God has blessed me with, He has given to me, I want to make it known and I want to bless you.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is nothing greater.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing greater than being at a restaurant and seeing maybe your waitress, you could tell she's going through something and instead of just giving her the portion that is, you know, they have it on the checks these days, you know, if you want to give 10% it's this, you know, give 15, you know, you all know what I'm talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it says, you know what I recognize that there's a need in this person's life right now and I'm going to be generous and I'm going to give more than what's even suggested on this little receipt.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the heart of generosity.

[SPEAKER_01]: The heart of generosity is when you're in a store and you see a family and you just have this immediate knowing that they're struggling.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you step into a place, and you say, let me help you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me buy your groceries today.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the heart of generosity.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what it means to be a generous person.

[SPEAKER_01]: And my prayer for me personally is that I am generous.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I do have a heart of generosity and I care more about being generous than about what I can get out of somebody or whatever it may be.

[SPEAKER_01]: That I'm constantly in a state of what can I do to bless somebody else?

[SPEAKER_01]: What can I do?

[SPEAKER_01]: People have asked me, why are you a pastor?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why do you preach?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why do you have a church?

[SPEAKER_01]: Not because I live the microphone.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need this thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now because of the stage or the lights or whatever, because let me tell you, the microphone, the stage, and the lights brings a lot of attention that is often negative.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's not what I'm in this for.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in this because I love people.

[SPEAKER_01]: In part of my love for people is, how can I be generous?

[SPEAKER_01]: How can I love my brothers and my sisters in Christ?

[SPEAKER_01]: And if God calls me to bless somebody, I have to be obedient to that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have to honor the Lord in that way because it truly is more blessed to give than to receive.

[SPEAKER_01]: It really, really is.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's, listen church, we've done this so many times.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing greater than sitting in a restaurant and telling the waitress, hey, see that table right over there?

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me pay for that table today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't even tell them, but just give me the bill.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when they get done and they're asking, where's the bill on the waitress says, taking care of somebody blessed you, to be able to look and see the joy on people's face?

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, I mean, really doesn't get any better than that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it really doesn't.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember a couple years ago, Melissa's mom, we need a pray for her because she's sex.

[SPEAKER_01]: She got strepto, we're gonna pray for her in a minute.

[SPEAKER_01]: Melissa's mom, she told the kid, she told our kid she said,

[SPEAKER_01]: But this money is so that you can go and bless some people that need it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we took the money and we went and we bought all of these supplies and we went downtown Dallas.

[SPEAKER_01]: We drove out to downtown Dallas and we got down into the heart of the city and we parked on the side of the street and there was a homeless man that was sitting there on a bench and I told the kids, I said, okay, I want you to grab your stuff and you're going to go and you're going to go bless this man with all of these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: Man, I'm telling you, the kids, we got out of the car, right, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: We got out of the car, the kids gave the guy the bag full of, you know, like toiletries and, you know, just necessities of life and all that kind of stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd have never seen anybody light up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Light up for a toothbrush.

[SPEAKER_01]: Light up for deodorant.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, light up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the kids got in the car after that experience with them.

[SPEAKER_01]: There was some food in there, started eating it right away.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he didn't even wait.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he was just taking it down, taking it down.

[SPEAKER_01]: And lit up over that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember we got in the car, and the kids said, I want to do that again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not because

[SPEAKER_01]: they wanted the attention or it's because the feeling that they had of what it means to be generous and to see the blessing of the Lord and what God can do when we bless others.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing greater than it church.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when we are talking about miracle offering Sunday, when we're talking about selling into the next seven years as a church,

[SPEAKER_01]: The money doesn't come to Melissa or I.

[SPEAKER_01]: The money doesn't go into upgrading anything in this building or doing this or doing that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It goes into sewing into people's lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: Seven years from now that we haven't even met yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's being generous to those people.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's being generous when we go out and we go to the next community outreach event.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we begin to love on people and share the love of Jesus and give away gift cards and do all the things that we do.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what this is all about.

[SPEAKER_01]: The church don't need no money, don't need no more of money.

[SPEAKER_01]: But God wants your heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll say it this way today as a challenge, but also as encouragement to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't eat your own seed.

[SPEAKER_01]: don't eat your own seed.

[SPEAKER_01]: If God has called you to sow that seed, don't eat it.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I were to have an apple right here before you, and I began to eat it, what would I not eat?

[SPEAKER_01]: The seeds.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not because they don't taste good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not because you know your grandma told you when you were little if you eat that seed you're going to grow an apple tree in your belly That's what I was told at least Okay, all right, glad I got it out of it glad we're on the same page But did you know That it wouldn't be one apple and maybe not even two or three But if you ingested a certain amount of apple seeds

[SPEAKER_01]: Did you know that if you were to ingest that those seeds actually have cyanide in them?

[SPEAKER_01]: At some point, if you look it up, I promise you, I look it up, I think this guy is nuts.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, look it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't test it, but look it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, but hear me, you can eat enough apple seeds that it can kill you.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you eat a certain amount of apple seeds, you will die.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because the poison will begin to spread in your body, and there's not much that they can do about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's important to understand that we're not supposed to eat the seed.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so many times, we have opportunity to sow seed.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we say, you know what, this time, I'm just going to eat my seed.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want the seed for myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is why you must sow the seed.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you eat the seed that God intended for you to sow generously, you could die.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have gotten sick by eating the seed

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm telling you, there's been times where God's called us to something.

[SPEAKER_01]: God's called us to so into something and we didn't do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: We were disobedient and we raped disobedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: We raped that.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is why the enemy never comes after your harvest, but he comes after your seed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever noticed that?

[SPEAKER_01]: The enemy is not interested in your harvest.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't even try to come after your harvest.

[SPEAKER_01]: He don't care about your harvest.

[SPEAKER_01]: He comes after your seed.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knows that if he can take the seed away from you, you'll never be able to reap and stand into the, and stand in the fields of harvest.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not interested in your harvest.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's interested in your seed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let the enemy rob you of your seed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to today's message.

[SPEAKER_00]: We pray you were inspired, challenged, and marked by the word you heard.

[SPEAKER_00]: If this message blessed you today, we encourage you to subscribe to the Church of the City Podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: There you can find more faith-filled messages to uplift you and help you on your journey of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: For more information about Church of the City, head on over to www.cotcdfw.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: And until next time, remember this, the best is yet to come.