Keys To Surplus

Okay, don't know why but felt that we should talk about money. Not money for the church,

but money for you. Yeah? So that's why it's called Keys to Surplus. How does it work? How

do we go from a place where some of us—and at different times every person goes through

it—how do you go from lack to sufficiency to surplus? How do you go from lack to sufficiency

to surplus? Because we can be poor for different reasons. In some countries, Christians are

poor because they are being persecuted. They won't be given jobs. They are hounded. I met

them in Vietnam. I met them in India. I met them in different places. Sometimes it's our

family background. We come from a family that has been poor for sometimes a generation or

sometimes it's debts that we run up knowingly, unknowingly. We run up debts. Sometimes it's

the responsibilities we have. We've got to take care of so many different things that

in taking care of those responsibilities, I don't have much and I begin to lack. Sometimes

it's foolish spending where you ended up spending on something that you really had

your heart on but you didn't really need. Sometimes it's an error in decision. You made a wrong

decision. It cost you like crazy. Sometimes it's just loss where something happens and

maybe you invested in stocks, maybe in something else, but there's a loss. Sometimes it's

a lack of a job. Sometimes it's a lack of foresight, not knowing what to do next. The

different circumstances can bring us to a place of lack and that aside, we are constantly

fighting a system that operates on money. The Bible calls that system sometimes Babylon.

Other times the Bible calls it Mammon. Mammon is basically a system that craves for security

and our security is always connected to our money. And sometimes there is, like we see

in the book of Job, an attack on resources by Satan. That's real too. We see so many

stories in the Bible, particularly in Job, of how that happened. So if that's the case,

how do we go from lack to sufficiency to surplus? Because like it or not, money matters and

it serves you well, but if you're not careful, it becomes a tyrannical master. It becomes

a tyrannical master, meaning it can really begin to dictate what you do. And that's

where you go. It begins to own you. So how do you go from a place of lack to sufficiency

to surplus? Because money serves you well, but when it begins to master you, and it often

masters you when there's lack, or it masters you when there's greed, when it begins to

master you, it begins to dictate where you go, what you do, what you can say, what you

can't say, who you can please, who you need to suck up to, who you can't suck up to.

It begins to determine how we function. So when we use the word surplus, what do we mean?

We mean, can I get to a place where there is an excess that's left over after all requirements

are met? That's what surplus means. Surplus means an excess left over after all the requirements

are met. I still have an excess. Now I can do with it what I want to. That's the meaning

of surplus. What's lack? Lack is when all the requirements are not being met. What's

sufficiency? Sufficiency is when your requirements are being met, but nothing further. And all

of us fall into these categories, eh? God's intent is, hey, can I bring you from lack

to sufficiency to surplus so that out of your surplus, others lack can be provided for?

That's how he thinks. That may not be how you and I think, but that's how he thinks.

Any questions thus far? I would like to live in a place where there is surplus, but the

thing is, if I come into surplus, will I think like God? Will it go into my surplus now helps

someone else's lack, or will my surplus become just a massing of surpluses every year? That's

a human tendency. It comes from a place of greed and security. And it keeps being postponed

next year, next year, so that it gathers some more. So any questions? Because here's the

thing. When provision is absent, and I've said this many times before, when provision

is absent, vision is shackled, and your wisdom is despised. When provision is absent, vision

is shackled, and your wisdom is sometimes despised, sometimes despised. Ecclesiastes

9.9 says, there was a poor man, and he had tremendous wisdom, and he wanted to share

his wisdom with his town, but his town would not receive his wisdom because he was poor.

Says so. Any questions? Okay, so as we go through these points, there'll be times when

one or two of them will really hit you hard as in, this applies to me. If it applies to

you, tick those ones and know that it'll really help you. And so one of the first ones is

if you had a choice, and this is, I mean we'll all choose the right answer because we all

know the right answer, but if you had a choice, and you were given the choice between seeking

wisdom and seeking prosperity or surplus, and this happens to you when you're in lack,

which one would you choose? Crazily enough, most of us, even though we would say the right

thing now, in a time of lack, if you were offered wisdom or prosperity, you would choose

prosperity. Many of us would choose prosperity. We wouldn't choose wisdom. And yet there was

a man who was quite wise. Jesus said he was the wisest of them all. If you go to 2 Chronicles

1, 2 Chronicles 1, 11 and 12, 2 Chronicles 1, 11 and 12, 2 Chronicles 1, 11 and 12,

here's what it says. So Solomon is asked, what do you want from me? In verse 7, chapter

1 verse 7, that night God appeared and saw Solomon. God said to him, what do you want

from me? Ask. That's like a blank check. Ask what you want. He could have asked anything

you wanted. And the guy has the wisdom to, you see it in verse 11. God answered, verse

10, give me wisdom and knowledge as I come and go among these people for who on his own

capacity is able to lead these, your glorious people. God answered Solomon, this is what

has come out of your heart. You didn't grasp for money, wealth, fame and the doom of your

enemies. You didn't even ask for a long life. You asked for wisdom and knowledge so you

could govern well over my people whom I made you king over. Because of this, you get what

you asked for, wisdom and knowledge. I'm presenting you the rest as a bonus. Money, wealth and

fame beyond anything the kings before or after you will ever have. Crazy, eh? When it's a

choice between prosperity and wisdom, at a time of lack, we will almost always go for

prosperity when the right answer is wisdom. And in our lack, do you realize how rarely

we ask for wisdom? It's not part of the need prayer. The need prayer is never, oh God give

me wisdom, the need prayer is oh God please provide my needs. Little shifts, see, that'll

make a massive difference because it's a principle that's in the scriptures. I know that there

are many of you who are in lack or in places of efficiency and would love to go to surplus.

Try to include this in your prayer. Oh God, can you give me wisdom? I choose wisdom because

he will supply it without grudging and when he does, he begins to, what happens if you

ask for wisdom? He begins to outline the steps you need to take. He begins to change your

mindset. And he begins to bring you into the right path. He begins to change your mindset.

Sufficiency and then into surplus. That's what wisdom does, it begins to change you.

Any questions? So include that in your prayer when you ask for needs. I love that he outlines

the steps. What's the next step Jacob that you need to take if you want to come into

a place of sufficiency or surplus, if you want to come out of lack? I'll show you.

The second thing is this thing called favor. It's very hard to believe in that God favors

you. But he, as in God who owns everything, God who owns everything, wants to demonstrate

his delight over me. His delight over me. Why? Because he's my father. He's my father.

What's his intent? Can I, listen to this word eh, can I discipline you from lack into

surplus? It's a process. It's not a freebie. It's hey, so you want to enter from lack

into surplus? I'm your father. I want to show you my delight. But when I show you my delight,

it won't be, it won't be just throwing stuff at you. I'll teach you how to stay here forever.

So the intent is, this is very hard for us to believe. You know guys, there are few things

that bring as much shame, fear, desperation, frustration, bad decision making, shortcuts,

resentment, orphanhood as lack. Very few things do this. Very few things. It's one of the

most powerful weapons. It strips us of all these things. It strips us of dignity. It

brings shame. It brings frustration. It makes you resent your condition. It makes you jealous

and envious of others who aren't doing half as much. Everything begins to come together

with this word lack. But in the midst of that, to actually think that God favors you, that

the God who owns everything wants to demonstrate his delight over me. Demonstrate his delight.

Delight that's not demonstrated is kind of useless, right? Demonstrate a delight over

you. Why? Because he's my father and what's his intent? Can I discipline you from lack

into surplus? Discipline not as in be tough, be hard. Discipline as in the same discipline

that an athlete has if he wants to win a race. That kind of discipline. And so go to Leviticus

26. Leviticus 26. Read it from the New Life, New Living Translation. Leviticus 26 verse

Leviticus 26:9

9. Leviticus 26, 9 from the NLC. Leviticus 26, 9. God is telling Israel, listen, I'm

delighted over you. I want to bless you. And then he says this in verse 9, New Living Translation.

I will look favorably upon you, making you fertile and multiplying your people. And

I will fulfill my covenant with you. You will have such a surplus of crops that you will

need to clear out the old grain to make room for the new. Crazy, eh? Two words there, favor,

surplus. It's in the scriptures. It's hard to believe because when lack surrounds you,

or insufficiency surrounds you, it's hard to believe these things. But they are truer

than your circumstance. It's hard for me sometimes to believe it. But it's truer than your circumstance.

Any questions? Okay, third one. All these are more about God than about you. Third one,

we've gone over this before, it's still hard to believe or grasp or stay in. Your God is

an embarrassingly lavish, extravagant God. One of the things that I want to say is that

what does that mean? That means he's generous in nature. In Eden, two things that were guaranteed

to man and has never been rescinded is that God said, I'll provide for you and I'll bless

you. These are essentials in the Garden of Eden that haven't been rescinded. Even though

man fell in sin, these things were not rescinded. It's very hard. We don't think of God like

this. How you think is what you inhabit. What you think is what you inhabit. What you think

is what you inhabit. This is not how we think of God. We can think like this of our parents.

You can think of a dad or a mom or sometimes an older brother or sister who was embarrassingly

lavish. They would give you stuff in front of people. It used to be so embarrassing.

You'd say, not now, not now. Or you can think of your husband or your wife who suddenly

brings, yeah, husband comes with a huge bouquet of flowers that, not now, not now. So the

whole thing being, it's embarrassingly lavish. He's extravagantly kind and that's not how

we see God. Because we don't see him like this, we can't expect something of him. If

I don't see Don as a mushy guy, I won't expect him to be emotional about anything. So once

you think like this, you'll realize he's generous in nature. Go to 2 Corinthians 9, 9 and read

it from the message. 2 Corinthians 9, 9, read it from the message. 2 Corinthians 9, 9, read

it from the message. It kind of captures it. Let's start at verse 8. God can pour out,

God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways. This is the New Testament, eh? So that

you're ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be

done. As one psalmist puts it, he throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless

abandon. His right living, right giving ways never run out, never wear out. Crazy. Who

thinks of him like that? You usually think of him as a miser who needs three hallelujahs

and four songs before he is willing to release anything. But it says that he throws caution

to the winds, gives to the needy in reckless abandon. His right living, right giving ways

never run out, never wear out. Such a different way to think, eh? Fourth one. Man, those guys

are loud. Despite the fact that we call God father, there are so many times in my life

where I behave like an orphan. And it doesn't matter whether you're rich or whether you're

poor, whether you have lack or whether you have surplus, you can behave like an orphan.

An orphan is always thinking, how am I going to get it? How much should I get? How do I

secure it? And doesn't trust anyone? And I don't know how to do that. And I don't know

how to do that. This is how I behave sometimes. When I'm uncertain that the father will help

me or supply my needs, I immediately go here. Whenever you see this developing in your head,

quickly flip to the father, eh? Whenever this begins to develop, you're thinking, I don't

know how I'm going to get it. Who should I go ask? How's this going to happen? Impossible.

How much should I get? This is how much I need, but I better get more, because what

if next month? And so you're continuously conniving, manipulating. And then you go to

the third one, how do I keep it safe? I've got to make sure that I don't give too much

away, that I don't invite too many people, that I give less, whatever it takes. And it

kicks in immediately. And as that begins to kick in, immediately flip to the father, eh?

This often happens when God directs us to sometimes make a purchase or give money away,

then you suddenly realize your 100 bucks is now 20 bucks, and you immediately go into

this mode. You were very obedient, and you did well, till God told you. But now that

you've done it, and the water level in the dam is falling, you immediately switch to,

I'll be an orphan who swims in shallows. I don't know how this happens, but it happens.

What are we talking about? How do we go from lack to sufficiency to surplus? He is an impossible

God, eh? Like as in he makes the impossible possible. So we aren't even talking right

now about the way making, miracle working, promise keeping God. We're just talking about

simple principles. Leave alone the other ways he provides. We aren't even touching that.

Yet. Any questions? All the, yeah, go ahead. How do we unlearn this? We unlearn this by

letting God approach me as father. An orphan can only be healed by a father. And orphans

can't go looking for dads. Dads must go looking for dads. And if you don't have a father,

you can't go looking for dads. And if you don't have a father, you can't go looking

for dads. Orphans can't go looking for dads. Dads must go looking for orphans. One of the

things God specializes in is looking for orphans. That's what he's been doing since the beginning

of time. Looking for orphans like you, like me, and saying, can I begin to embrace you,

show you how much I like you so that I can build up your confidence in knowing me as

someone who won't let you down. That's the beautiful thing about this. The answer to

this profound question is not that, okay, now I've got to go and find God and know him

as a father. No. That he is father and he comes looking for you the moment you express

a deep desire to be found. And sometimes it's not even in words. It's just a groaning that

he hears. That's how all of us got found, guys. But we stop at salvation. We don't take

it right through. I mean, just imagine if it stopped at salvation now that you've got

a dad. All right, you're on your own now. That's a terrible dad. That's like a daycare

dad.

Yeah, you can apply to other different resources, including time, talent, treasure. Yeah.

So one of the keys, one of the primary keys, if there's a favorite one that I can't call

it my favorite, but an important one is, guys, the key to sufficiency is immediate obedience.

The key to sufficiency is immediate obedience. So what is sufficiency? It's the key to sufficiency

and surplus is immediate obedience. What do you mean? Look at the stories in the Bible,

eh? And these were all to do with actual needs. So John 21, Peter and the rest of the disciples

have gone fishing. They fish throughout the night. That's their livelihood. And they're

fishing. They fish throughout the night. They catch nothing. And then there's a stranger

walking on the beach and they don't know who he is. And he turns to them and John 21, 6,

and he says, cast your net on the right side. These are fishermen. Why should they listen

to a guy? They fish throughout the night. They caught nothing. It's immediate obedience.

Stranger one. Elijah turns up at this widow's house and she's getting ready to die. It's

a last supper, really. So she makes a cake. She's collecting wood to make a cake, feed

her son, and then they're planning to die because they run out of everything. And this

man, Elijah, has the audacity to say to the woman, listen, make me a cake first before

you eat it. I mean, what a demand, eh? What if nothing happened? He'd live for a few more

days and she'd die immediately. That's a risk, man. But that's what he asks her. He said,

go make me a cake and bring it to me. And she says, but this is all that's left. He

says, go do it. And she does it. Immediate obedience. You'll find that there are so many

instances in the Bible where there was immediate obedience. Peter, the JRS is after him, the

Jerusalem Revenue Service, because he hasn't paid his taxes for a while. And so they come

after him and he doesn't know what to do. And so he talks to Jesus and Jesus says it

very simply. He says, go fishing. And when you fish, you'll find a, you'll catch a fish.

When you catch that fish and you open its mouth, you will find a coin in its mouth.

That coin will be sufficient to pay for your taxes and my taxes. And so he goes fishes

and he finds a coin. Immediate obedience. Time and time again, this thing called obedience

brings immediate results when it comes to sufficiency and surplus. But we are so scared

because if I'm asked to give the last cake that I have before I die and you come and

ask me for it, I'd have to be really foolish to give it away so we don't. Elijah, the

brook has dried up. He doesn't have any source of water. The ravens that were feeding him

pieces of meat aren't flying anymore. And then God tells him to leave the brook and

go to a widow in Zarephath. To begin with, widows are super poor and wouldn't have anything

in those days. Second, he's supposed to go to Zarephath, which is not Jewish, it's Gentile.

But he immediately obeys. It's not that we sometimes don't know what to do. It's just

it scares the heebie-deebies out of you to go and take that extra step. True? And sometimes

you take that step and nothing happens. I remember once in 1995 having 60 bucks in my pocket.

That's all I had. 60 dollars in my pocket. I'm so sure. God's saying, I want you to take

this and give this to that person. I'm thinking to myself, this is the last 60 I have. I give

this, I got squat. And so I was very sure God was saying, so I gave the 60 and I thought

now there'll be a windfall from somewhere. Nothing, man. You know what that does to your

obedience? Makes you obey again, doesn't it? You okay, Dawn? You talked on what? So, so

obedience is so critical in this, eh? The problem is not did God say so. But the problem

is either the waiting or the timing or getting the timing right. When he tells you to do

something, you do it first and then you wait and you doubt it or you get the time wrong

where he tells you to jump into something. The thing is obedience must be expectant.

This is critically. Obedience must be expectant. But you can't look for guarantees before committing.

You can't look for guarantees before obeying. You can't look for guarantees because that's

when it becomes faith, right? Otherwise it's not faith. If every outcome was guaranteed,

there would be no need for faith. That's why you have accountants. What do accountants do?

They make sure that there's a prescribed outcome. Yeah, sometimes when God asks me to do something,

it's good to ask him when. Do I do it right now or do I do it tomorrow or do I do it a

week from now? Immediate obedience. Yes, Father, I'm ready to do it. Now tell me when. Do I

apply right away? Do you want me to wait another day? Aaron, you're a great accountant. I wasn't

thinking of you. Yeah. We have to be like kids, right? Your dad says something and you say

yes and then you ask him when and right now, but it's too late. No, no, it's a conversation.

One of the coolest things about, one of the things we should get used to church is conversations

that engage the nature of the Father. We must abandon seeking God for answers. We must embrace

seeking God for relationship. We must abandon seeking God for answers. There's something

crystal ballish about it. Give me an answer. Give me an answer. We're not looking for answers.

We're looking for conversations with our Father and in the conversation as you engage him,

you don't get just the answer. You get the way he thinks, man. That's so much richer

than an answer. I believe that this is one of the things that Adam and Eve used to do

with God in the cool of the evening when God would come walking in the Garden of Eden.

They'd talk. Next one. If we can wrap our heads around this. I believe that this is

the most important thing. Sufficiently lack, sufficiency to surplus happens when, man,

if only we could, if only I could wrap my head around this, when I'm not afraid of

lack. But I'm not afraid of lack. We are so scared of not having. But can you get rid

of the fear of not having? And the only way to get rid of the fear of not having is if

you recognize that you have someone who is your Father. This is why children are not

afraid of lack. Judah is not afraid of lack. But if you have someone who is your Father,

Brielle is not afraid of lack. Joey is not afraid of lack. As you grow older, Eliana

is not afraid of lack. Ruben is not afraid of lack. Shiloh might be getting there. As

we grow older, we begin to realize, ah, lack. It begins to scare you. But the day you and

I are no longer afraid of lack will be the day when you get to a place where you suddenly

move into this place of sufficiency or surplus. Why? And I've said this before. Sons lack

nothing. Servants own nothing. There's a guy in Bahrain who has tattooed it on his arm.

He heard this some years ago and he went and tattooed it on his arm. I'm not recommending

that. I don't have a tattoo parlor nor am I sending it to one. All I'm saying is tattooed

it on his arm. Sons lack nothing. And so there's a sweet spot, guys, that is so difficult to

hit because of the fear that lack causes. So a son lacks a lot of experience. And he's

nothing. A servant owns nothing. And so in this space, in this space, fear evaporates.

And it finds no place to germinate. In this space, fear is nothing. And so in this space,

in that space, fear evaporates. And so when you hit your bottom dollar, you are not afraid

because of this ridiculous trust you have in a father who has the ability to take care

of you even if you have reached your bottom dollar because of mistakes you made. When

I was squandering money, all I had to do was pick up the phone and do a sob story with

my dad. With my mom, it wouldn't work all that well. But with my dad, he was a sucker

for it, man. He'd immediately send me some money. But with my mom, it was difficult.

You had to work around her. But it's so hard to live in that space. It's because I'm not

confident of him taking care of it. A son lacks nothing. A servant owns nothing. Now

you have open hands that receive and a generous heart that gives. I know one or two people

that live like this. It's scary. There's one guy who for the last time has been in

the business for 30 or 40 years has never... This might sound really silly, but it's just

a sampling of what I mean. There's one guy I know who for the last 30 or 40 years has

never run out of Starbucks cards. Every time his Starbucks card is about to expire or exhaust,

someone will come and give him a new Starbucks card. 30 years, man. He's never bought a Starbucks

card in his life, right? Because it's always provided. That's just a small sampling. I

don't want to live on Starbucks coffee. But the point being, there is this space that

you can live in, whereas a son, you lack nothing, but as a servant, you own nothing. So there's

a freedom. It is so freeing that if one of you could practice this and show us, we'll

follow you and call you a pastor. Any questions? Any questions? This is particularly useful

for us who are at present in lack. For those of us who are living in surplus, great. Let

us know your name and your email and your phone number. But if you're living in borderline

sufficiency or in lack, where every month is difficult, then think of these principles.

Because lack does something to you. It makes you develop a system to keep meeting the need

every month and to keep not depending on God. You have found a system. And now that

you know the system, you'll keep going back to the system so that you keep, it's like

a hamster wheel. It just, you can keep it going because you've learned how to do it.

I'm speaking from experience. But you know how to do it. And the more you begin to step

on the hamster wheel, the less you need God. If he does a miracle, praise the Lord, you

get off the hamster wheel for a little while. You've lost a lot of weight and then you get

back on it again in two months. This is critical for us, guys. One of the things I pray that

this church will do is that we will never allow lack to become endemic. We shouldn't

allow lack to settle in our lives. Instead we keep moving towards sufficiency and surplus

only for one reason. And I mean this with all my heart and if you look back at the last

20 years, you'll see that it's true. It's only for one reason. So that our surplus can

provide someone else's. Lack. There are guys here. Ashish, can I share? Blinkers, can I

blink twice if it's no? I can't see at this distance. You know, there's a fascinating

bit about Ashish that I love when I heard stories from his life. One of it was during

COVID when hardly anyone was working, when nobody had a job, he and his friend would

go and they would feed 100 to 200 dogs, stray dogs. You would think, oh, I'm going to get

a job? Really? Yeah, really. When I talk about taking our resources and surplus and distributing

it, I'm not talking about doing it for the church. I'm not talking about doing it for

Christians. I'm not talking about doing it for your family. I'm talking about being in

right relationship with God, with people, with each other, with what God has created,

with animals, with the environment. But it's very hard to do this sometimes when you're

in lack. And that is why, that is perhaps why God wants us to go down this road saying,

church, can you keep an eye on this too? I heard that story and I thought, come on, man,

there are wiser ways to save money during COVID. At least it was dogs, praise the Lord,

and I'm glad that I did. Another thing that will help you prevent money from slipping

like sand out of your hands, this is unfortunate for us Christians. When it comes to Christians,

you have to live life with purity. Babylon can make money, as in the world can make money,

and increase money through corrupt, crooked ways. Unfortunately, because you're a Christian,

that avenue is no longer open for you. He's not able to bless greed, corruption, cheating.

He can't do that. So you're at a disadvantage. Nobody told you this before you got born again.

Too bad. But now that you're a Christian, you can't go down that road. One of the ways

you keep moving from lack to sufficiency and surplus is by not practicing illegal stuff.

And illegal stuff can go from anything like breaking the law to copyright infringement,

to downloading songs you shouldn't, to downloading movies you shouldn't. Oops, take a move on,

it's true. It's true. Next one. Find your land, as in find your vocation, find your

vocation, your life work, your life's work, your life's work, your life's work, your

mantle, your ministry, what you at present are meant for. And when you do, inevitably,

if you begin to cultivate it and prioritize it, inevitably, you will be able to do the

it will produce for you. Because heaven allocates resources based on who you are, not what you

do.

And so keep changing. Just because you started as an engineer doesn't mean you have to die

as an engineer. Just because you started as a doctor doesn't mean you have to die in a

hospital. Oh, that didn't work. Just because you started as a doctor doesn't mean you have

to. Finish as a doctor. Keep changing. You were one thing and God then shifts you to

a different place. God allocates resources to you based on, hey, at this point in your

life I expected you to walk in this. So now that you're walking in this, I won't hold

back anything because you're walking exactly where I asked you to. I mean, employers do

that, bosses do that. When someone functions well in the capacity that they are supposed

to function in, what do bosses do? Give you promotions, open doors for you. And so this

one is an important one. Find your vocation, find your life work, find your mantle, as

in whatever God has put on you, find your ministry, what you at present are meant for,

and cultivate it, prioritize it. You may not be able to make the shift immediately, but

prioritize it. For you students, my God, man, don't end up doing what you're studying for.

No, I'm not saying that, sorry. You don't necessarily have to do what you're studying.

This room is full of people who did zoology and then ended up doing business or history

and they're engineers. So be careful of the choices you make. What did you do for your

undergrad, Derek? There was a time when everybody thought that Derek, because he was an engineer,

could fix everything. This was when the church first started, and so if any laptop broke

down, if a phone broke down, if a little, before the iPad there was those little iPods,

right? Yeah, if anything broke down, you would immediately go give it to Derek. And Derek

would receive it like an expert. Then he'd spend the whole night Googling how to fix

it. Those were good old days.

Next one. Hey, the time is wrong. I've got a whole hour and five minutes.

Please allow me. Generosity. Generosity. If you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly.

Bread is for consumption, seed is for sowing. A farmer, when he has seed, doesn't eat it

all. Let's say a farmer has 100 seed. He'll always take a handful of 20 seeds and keep

it aside. Why is he keeping it aside? Because if he eats it all, then he'll have nothing

left to sow next year. So he always takes a handful of seed and puts it aside. He'll

never eat the whole thing. If he eats the whole thing, he's not a farmer. He's got more

sense than that. And so the question is, are you a sower who sows sparingly? Because if

that is the case, then you will reap sparingly. And so ask that question of yourself. Sometimes

you earn next to nothing. It barely meets the needs you have every month. The question

is, do you still cheerfully go and give it away? Do you still cheerfully do that? And

if you aren't, then this perhaps is the point that you need to take note of. The strange

thing is I'm using the word giving. I'm not even using the word 10% or 20% or anything.

Just giving. Do you give? And if you don't, then it's just giving. And if you don't,

it's almost absurd to expect that I don't follow a simple principle and I yet want to

move out of lack in the surplus. It's not possible. Malachi 3.10 puts it this way. You can rebuke

the devourer. You can strengthen the roots and you can increase the fruit of your finances

by giving. You can rebuke the devourer. As in, as you begin to give, let's say, you're

in a farm kind of sense, let's say locusts, the locusts are kept at bay. Though your fruit

increases, as in the tree of your life begins to produce more fruit and the roots are strengthened.

So how's your giving? Yeah, so that's another question that needs to be asked because it

takes you from lack to surplus. And when you, one of the things about generous people, and

I've rarely found this, eh, and maybe you have, a generous man is a man who is discerning

but indiscriminate in giving because he does not just give to the deserving and the needy.

Hear me again. A generous man is a man who is discerning, as in he knows the situation.

He's not blind, he's not dull. He's discerning. But he gives indiscriminately, as in he does

not check to see whether you deserve it or whether you have a need. He gives because

he's generous. And that matters the nature of God. Can you imagine if God was actually

only giving to those who deserve it? But the way I give is I'll look to see whether the

person deserves it, whether the person needs it, whether the person will do something good

with it. Hmm, this guy doesn't look like he deserves it. That's not indiscriminate

giving. And that is not generous. Yep?

Yeah. What do you do when you know that a person may use it for something ungodly? Gosh,

so many times God does that, man. He gives us things and He knows you're going to mess

it up. He knows you're going to use it for things that won't help. And yet He gives

it. And then He gives it again, and a third time, and a fourth time, and then He helps

you, instructs you how not to go down the wrong way. And that doesn't work. And then

He begins to discipline you. But He doesn't hold back saying, God is a God who knows every

step I'm going to take. Yet He's indiscriminate in His generosity, which is a freaky thing

to think of. We are supposed to reflect Him. We had a guy, Heidi would remember, the guy

would need money for rent and stuff like that, and we would give it to him. And then he would,

he thought the way to perhaps go from lack to surplus was to go to the casino. That's

one way. It might occasionally work. Usually it doesn't. So he would take the rent money,

go to the casino, and he would lose. But he would tell the landlord that Jacob will be

paying it. And so at some point we had to stop. But it wasn't the first time around.

What a crazy, wonderful way to live. I desire this for all of us, guys. We get to do the

things God wants us to do. Because one of my first statements was, when provision is

absent, vision is shackled, and sometimes wisdom is despised. It's God's desire to

do this for us. Go through the first three or four steps. It's the nature of God. That's

where we need to believe. We're not in this for a quick-get-rit scheme. I met a person

employed by a certain church who drives their vehicles. And so he was driving me around

and he said, Jacob, I've got a dilemma. I said, what? He said, I bought a lottery ticket.

What if I win? The church will dismiss me because we're not allowed to buy lottery

tickets. And he says, I have this strange feeling I'm going to win a car. What do I

do? It's such a strange situation to advise him on. Initially I told him, just give it

to me. Then I thought, no, that's wrong advice too.

What are some ways to give? First, give to Tony and Jacob. No. Okay, here are other

ways to give. One. Give to the place where you are. Give to the place where you are.

Two. Are taught things of God. Two. Give to the poor. Three. Give to churches in need.

Four. When I say give to the poor, it can be a united way. It can be any organization.

I'm not talking about Christian organizations or anything. Give to churches in need. Give

to the spread of the gospel. Three. Give to the poor. Four. Give to the poor. Three.

Give to people who you want to honor. Give to people you know are in need and haven't

asked. Take care of widows and children. Give to the poor. Give to the poor. Give to the

orphans in need that don't have any other family. Give to your family that may be in

need. Give. Pay debts. These are nine different ways to give. Give to the poor. Give to the

poor. Give to the poor. Give to your family that may be in need. Give to the poor. Give

to your children and children. Give to the poor. Give to the poor. Give to your parents

slice of pizza. Why? Because when you divide 10% 10 ways you only get 1% each.

Or the other thing that happens with many Christians is they say oh I need to

give to my family and everything goes to the family and nowhere else. So what

does that mean? It means I need to increase my giving. If I don't increase

my giving then it just stays. So what do you mean increase your giving? If you're

giving $2 give $4 or give $3 or give $2.50.

Okay is it true that when we give we shouldn't expect it back? Yeah when you

give if they give it back great but if you give and they don't give it back

let it be or specify right off the bat that this is a loan and it needs to be

paid back by certain times. Be very clear about it but the best way of giving it

giving and not expecting it back and oftentimes it comes back oftentimes it

doesn't.

So here are the different ways. Give to the place where you are taught things of God.

Give to the poor. Give to churches in need. Give to the spread of the gospel.

Give to people who you want to honor. Give to people you know are in need and

having to ask. Take care of widows and orphans. James 1 27 for that is pure

religion. Give to your family who may be in need as in sometimes parents need to

be taken care of. Pay your debts. These are nine different ways to give.

Yeah. Yeah and that's why we are in discriminating our generosity. We give

not just to people who deserve but to anyone we are prompted to and remember

anybody who is generous and giving must expect to be exploited and you must

bear your exploitation quite proudly. Generosity and exploitation go hand in

hand. Don't we exploit God every week? We get very righteous. I gave him ten

dollars and I saw him go buy a pack of cigarettes. That guy was desperate for

cigarettes. It doesn't mean go help him smoke but don't get so upset that he

went and bought a pack of cigarettes. That's like Starbucks to you. I'm not

endorsing Starbucks or smoking by the way. Yeah this will be a clear on that.

Let's take one more and stop.

I'm so glad this is not a church money grab but this is so that we move from

lack to sufficient to just surplus.

Pardon? Examples of people that I want to honor. Sometimes it's I remember when I

got my first salary I wanted to give a large portion of it to my mom and dad. I

wanted to honor them. Then there were people like Chad and Eddie and Michael

Scantleberry and others in my life who really worked hard to get me to where I

am today. So I would take a portion of what I would earn and every so often

whenever prompted I'd send it to them saying this is just to honor you for the

work you've done in my life. Other times it can be sometimes the boss who's been

kind to you where you decide you want to honor them with a gift because they broke

open an avenue for you to enter. So yeah it's people who broke a sweat

investing into you. They dug your life up so that now your life is as fertile as

it is. An example in the Bible is when Abraham gives Melchizedek a tenth of all

that he wins in war saying I just want to honor God and Melchizedek blesses him.

Yeah. Using worldly wealth to gain friends. The world runs on business, on

trade, on money. When you have money try and go and get friendly with people at

places that you can go and frequent where pick a hairdresser, pick a

restaurant, pick a particular airline, pick whatever and begin to get to know

people and in that process build a relationship with them. On one it's a

dilemma we have. On one hand it says do good to those that are of the

household of God which means if there is someone who let's say hip runs a private

jet. Yeah and so we begin to go to him because we wanted to give us free

seats on the private dinner and we begin to connect with him because he is a

Christian and now you've got Sheldon who's like a non-Christian but he runs

a music school but he looks like the type who really needs Christ and so I

start sending my son and daughter to his music school and in the process I form a

relationship with him. I'm using my money to cultivate a relationship hoping that

that will help in leading him to Christ. So it's both it's not one or the other.

Hip needs money to run his private jet, he needs money to run his piano and both

actually are the same cost when you check the price on his piano. Yeah.

So I just want to touch on stewardship. It's a word often used in Christianity

stewardship. Stewardship is a systematic approach, a systematic approach to

managing what you already what you have so that's one part of it. The second

part of it is this is the part that stewardship doesn't teach distributing

what you have and the third part is based on what God is saying and when

these three elements are not present in stewardship then it's self-serving, it's

self-serving, it's disguised unbelief and it's building bonds, building bonds for

retirement. That's why we got to be careful what stewardship. Stewardship is a

biblical word. God talks about stewards but the idea of stewards is the steward is

always accountable to his master. There is no stewardship without

accountability to the master. Stewardship does not exist in the Bible without

accountability to the master. Not all, a majority of financial stewardship that

is done in church does not look at accountability to the master but aims

at the last thing, building bonds for retirement. Can you gather enough so that

when you retire you can take care of yourself and you can continue giving

10% to the church? Can you also make sure that when you die the church gets all

your property? There's nothing wrong with that but there is a more excellent way

and the more excellent way is a systematic approach to managing your

money well and those that start young and there are some seated here who are

managing their money well, they are 20, they are 30. I know that you're seated

here. You will end up having enough of a surplus to do everything that God is

asking you to but the rest of us who don't do it this way will struggle with

lack. So I'm not dissing stewardship but the reasons should be it is managing

what you have, distributing what you have based on what is God is saying and you

cannot teach financial stewardship without teaching hearing God and that

never goes together.

The last one is diligence. If you're faithful you will move from lack to

surplus. If you're faithful anyone who is diligent will increase. Anyone who is

faithful will increase. Faithful in what? Faithful in whatever God is asking you

to do. You do it, God will increase you. It's like gravity guys. Some of these

principles are like gravity. It is impossible to stop gravity unless we

break out of its orbit which is impossible for us. I mean how high can

you jump? So the point is this. Just as gravity is sure you need to know that

anyone who is diligent, anyone who is faithful, anyone who's faithful, Matthew

25-23 talks about it. When you roll, these are the three things you have to

keep in mind. Will you rule over what you've been given be it ten dollars or a

million dollars? Rule over what you've been given faithfully. Will you work not

hard, diligently? Will you treat those around you well? Will you walk humbly?

This man or this woman will move from lack to surplus because these are

universal principles that are impossible to stop. Impossible. These kind of

guys will fearlessly invest in things. Fearless investment. Fearlessly invest.

They're not scared. They're not scared of things going up and down. As it says in

Psalm 112, they are convinced in their heart that Yahweh looks out for them and

cares for them. They're convinced. They're steadfast in their heart that Yahweh

cares for them. Those are the kind of people. And so little or big, I mean it

doesn't matter whether you have a job or not. If George is sitting at home without

a job but is diligent in the things that God is asking him to do, he'll be

rewarded for it. We're not talking about employment here when we talk about

faithfulness. You don't have a job to be faithful. You don't have to have a job to

be faithful. Cool. Any questions? The humility of receiving it. Receive

happily. Make sure you receive happily. That's another struggle in this church.

We give happily but my God, people here receive, don't receive happily. Struggle

to receive. Receive happily. Receive happily. We find it so hard to receive. I

don't even want to go to ask when you need because let's get past

receive happily before we go to ask when you need. Yeah? Let's pray.

Father, we've been talking about so many other things that had to do with going

out and praying for Richmond and the gospel and prayer and stuff like that.

And then in the middle of that, you plonk this. But you want us to go from lack to

sufficiency to surplus. And you notice a lack in this church that when it comes

to finances, there is lack. And I believe that's why you're showing us these

principles saying pick one, start with one. If I have initiated something, I

know how to finish it. So Father, we pick different points. And I ask that lack in

this church will move to a place of sufficiency. There are people who want to

do things that aren't able to do it. People that desire to give, that have

very little to give, and they still give it away. Oh God, this church is a generous

church. You know that. You've seen it time and time again. But now I ask Holy

Spirit, since you're the only one who can bring this change in our lives and bring

a change in our circumstances, I look at the students here who paid enormous

amounts to come here and sometimes are struggling because they can only work

20 hours and fee structures change, expenses are high. I remember them before

you. I remember those that don't have jobs, those that have jobs and need more,

those that need a break in their businesses, those that have debts piling,

those that have bought things and now are scared. I ask Abba that you bring us

into this place where lack is something in this church that we will not be afraid

of because we have a good, good father.

So without opening our Bibles, we try and remember Psalm 23, and we'll try to

speak it out and end with that. We may not get it together, Father, but we'll

say as much as we can.

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not lack. I shall not want. He leads me

besides...what's the next one? He leads me besides quiet waters. He restores my

soul. He lets me lie down in green pastures and leads me down paths of

righteousness. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

His...

You prepare...

You anoint my cup, runs over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all

the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Bless you guys. See you when we see you. If you need prayer, we will come up

and pray for you, yeah?