Prosperity Gospel 3

I'll share what happened with him when he went to Wally.

And he said, how long should I take?

I said, when I stand up, you know your time is done.

And if you don't, I'll start playing the guitar.

And if that doesn't work, I'll start praying.

When you know I'm praying over you, you know that.

You shouldn't go further.

Yes, so Ben, I'm gonna go sit down.

When I stand up, your time is done.

Yeah.

How old are you?

How old are you?

Okay.

Hello, everyone.

Hello.

I got the chance to meet some of you.

It's on?

Yeah.

All right.

Yeah, so I got the chance to meet some of you

over the, since Friday.

And I just wanna say thank you to each and everyone

for welcoming me.

You know, I felt so at home,

even though I'm so far away from home.

I felt so at home.

Thank you so much for your welcome, for your love.

And I made so many memories, you know,

that I will take home with me.

I am married.

I have a wonderful wife and a 16-month-old daughter.

And I know Jacob through my wife's family.

And the story goes that she went to Jacob

before we got married while we were talking.

I'm so glad that he told her,

he didn't tell her not to marry me.

Otherwise, I would have lost, you know, my love and my life.

So thank you for that.

But anyway.

You're not doing anything.

Yeah.

Anyway, so I kept hearing about Jacob for last,

I would say seven years, actually, through my wife.

Every now and then his name would pop up

in our conversation.

So it was kind of like a mythical figure for me, Jacob.

But, you know, couple of months ago, he came.

I'm sure this was a good idea.

No.

No, no, no.

He came to Houston and I got the chance to talk to him.

And I only talked to him briefly for 30, 45 minutes.

And I could tell there's something different

in this man of God.

You know, it's like nobody else I've ever met.

The first thing that came to me is how carefree he was

and how down to earth he was.

Because remember, I had heard a lot about him.

So who he was in reality and who I had in my mind

were two different people.

That was just so refreshing for me.

But the real reason I am here today is to talk to you

about what happened Friday night.

When we went to Wally with some of our brothers here,

Derek, Don, and all those guys, we went out there.

So Friday morning, I'll start from Friday morning,

I was, I'm by myself, right?

So I'm just going downtown Vancouver,

seeing this beautiful city.

And I'm just, in my mind, I'm thanking God,

thank you Lord for this opportunity

to see this beautiful city.

You know, in the beginning of the year,

I was telling Jacob, I would never have thought

that I would be in Vancouver in September.

It's just a beautiful city.

But then I kept telling God,

Lord, this is not what I'm here for.

You know, if this is all there is,

I'm gonna go home disappointed.

And then, you know how Jacob is, right?

He won't give you a plan or anything.

He just, hey, by the way, you're doing this, right?

I kinda see how it works now.

But.

So I went back to his place, and he told me,

hey, by the way, there's an opportunity

for some ministry today.

And I'm like, yes, now you're talking.

Now, you know, I can go and see what these guys do.

So Friday evening, we met at Wally.

They have a rented office space there,

and they were praying.

And so before we went out to the streets,

they were praying.

This is like no other prayer meeting I've ever been to,

right?

Every other prayer meeting I go to,

there's a lot of people speaking to God.

You know, most of the time,

one person will say something.

Later, another person will say the same thing.

They ask for the same thing in different words.

And I've always wondered how God would feel.

Like, he's hearing the same things from different people.

But this place, I'm telling you, these guys,

I don't know if anybody prayed out loud.

But what Derek said, he spoke from the word a little bit.

He had us read the part in Acts

where Philip goes to the eunuch.

And basically what he was saying,

that is the Spirit of God gives you

clear, specific directions, okay?

Yeah, it's one thing saying that,

but it's another thing actually seeing it in action, right?

So I'm sitting there, these guys, like I said,

everyone's praying in their hearts,

but Derek said, listen, listen to God.

And if you hear anything or if you see anything,

just speak it out, just say it out loud.

That takes a lot of courage to do that, right?

So one by one, these brothers and sisters

are saying what's popping up in their minds.

And I won't go around and say everything,

what they said, even though I remember it.

You know, but one of the brothers here,

this brother right here said,

I don't know your name, sorry.

Oh, Dylna, okay.

I thought that was a girl's name.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry, brother.

Sorry.

Sorry.

So, yeah.

So, yeah.

Sorry about that.

Sorry about that.

I wasn't expecting that, but yeah.

He said, he said he saw the number 102,

something 102, and Derek wrote it on the board, 102.

And Don saw, he saw a guy with a black cap

and a black hoodie and a little bit of stubble

and white skin, okay, he was fair in complexion.

And then, and there's some guy,

someone heard the name Lucas,

and someone heard the name Caroline, okay.

Whole time I'm sitting there, man, this is so weird.

What is going on?

Because I've never experienced this, right?

And I've been talking to Jacob,

and I come from a Pentecostal background, right?

So, this shouldn't be weird to me, but.

But.

But.

But.

But.

But.

But.

But.

But.

But over time, I got kind of disillusioned with that,

and I started learning by myself,

and then I ended up in a place where I believe

that God can only speak through scripture, that's it.

If he speaks to you,

he's gonna remind you something you read,

so that is why you need to read your Bible.

Okay, that's my understanding,

and this is, I told Brother Don also later,

what happened there is completely alien to me.

So anyway, they wrote these things on the board,

and we all took pictures of it.

I have that picture with me.

And then we, there were 12 people,

so the director will split into three teams of four,

and I got put in a team with James, Don, and Jeremy.

Yes, and then we got in the car,

and remember the brother had saw 102,

so Derek told us, why don't you guys go to 102?

And there was a street nearby,

I believe it was called 102A, I might be wrong,

but when we looked at the neighborhood,

it's just a tiny little street.

So anyway, we drove over there.

Now when we got there, we parked,

and I saw this beautiful four soccer fields under light.

Okay, for some of you, that probably doesn't mean anything,

but I'm a huge soccer fan,

and I love seeing stadiums, not huge stadiums,

but soccer fields, especially under lights.

And then, that was so overwhelming to me,

because I started thinking, what are the chances

that I get put in this car,

and that car comes to this street, right?

So when we got off the car,

I felt compelled to talk to the brothers,

and I told them, guys, this is amazing,

I love seeing this, and I feel like God brought me here

for a purpose, so he's just talking to me like,

hey, this is real, you know, he's just confirming it to me.

So then we kept walking those streets,

and remember the two names,

we saw was Lucas and Caroline,

so every guy we would see, we would ask,

is your name Lucas?

Nope.

And any woman that would walk by, or a girl,

we would say, hey, is your name Caroline, by any chance?

No, no, no, Caroline.

And then at one point, we saw a guy with a black hoodie,

and I don't think he was wearing a cap,

but anyway, it was black hoodie, right?

He was on his bike, and he just zoomed past.

And then Don said, okay, if he comes back,

we'll talk to him, so he came back,

and then he went to try to talk to him,

but he didn't stop, he just looked at us weirdly,

and then just rode off, okay?

So, man, then we just keep walking for like,

it must have been an hour, I don't know,

but we keep walking, walking, I'm like,

God, what's going on?

Maybe because the skeptic is walking with them,

nothing's happening.

But I was like, Lord, come on,

with all my faith, I'm believing,

because I want to see something happen, right?

And then by that time, I'm walking with James,

and James kept saying, don't worry,

sometimes it's like this,

the important thing is that we obey, we're obeying,

so we kept walking.

And I was like, wow, that's a good thought.

That made me feel a little happier,

at least we're obeying, right?

So it might happen.

And then he said, some nights, we come out here,

and things happen, everything's happening,

some nights, it's like this.

I was like, wow, okay, hopefully something happens.

And so we walked around,

at one point we got a little bit lost, I think.

By this time, we were so far away from 102,

we even took a trails, like a shortcut.

It was, guys, I'm telling you, I'm telling you guys,

it was pitch dark.

And then Dawn was leading us with the cellphone light.

I'm like, what?

And I said, guys, this is an example of walking by faith.

Not by sight.

And then they started saying,

Ben is saying, why did he ever come to Vancouver now?

But anyway, we come out the right side again,

and now we're again at the soccer fields.

And at that point, they felt like, hey,

maybe we came here just for Ben.

So Dawn had a soccer ball in the back of his car,

so we started kicking the ball,

and the brothers started praying for me,

and they all spoke words to me

that mean a lot to me that I cherish.

The basic gist of what they all said was that

I need to come back to the simplicity

of just being a son, going back to his father,

and just loving the Lord.

Not being bogged down with all these doctrines

and dogmas and all that,

but just to approach him with the simplicity of heart

that I had as a child and I somehow lost along the way.

And then while they're saying it,

I don't know if they understand what they're saying,

but it was crystal clear to me, the word of the Lord.

And I took it.

And if that was it, if the night ended there,

I would go home happy, you know?

But it's like the infomercial, wait, there's more.

Listen, all right.

So we go from there, right?

By the time it's getting late,

I think Derek might have called them,

so we decided to go to the Walmart there.

I think the place is called Surrey.

Man, that place was full of drug addicts.

I have never been in a place like that.

I saw people taking drugs.

I saw people overdosing on drugs.

And basically, we're in that Walmart.

I'm looking at all these things,

but we keep walking past.

And it was a little university.

I think it was called Steven Fraser University or something.

It was Simon Fraser, yeah.

It was this small courtyard.

And then we kept walking there.

And by that time, again, I'm with James and Dawn and Jeremy

are a little bit ahead of us.

They kept walking.

And then we got to this building.

And James said, let's just wait here.

Let them go, let's just wait, wait.

I said, okay, maybe God is speaking to him.

Let's just wait, right?

And then I look up at this building.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

It's a 102 Avenue.

I told James, I'd say it's 102 Avenue over there.

And then James said, well, then that's the guy.

And lo and behold, there's a guy there with a black cap,

a black hoodie, and he's just pacing back and forth.

And so we went to him.

James said, can I pray for you?

And the first thing that came out of his mouth,

I remember is, I am super high.

I don't want to say anything inappropriate.

And I felt, wow, I didn't expect that.

I was actually expecting some more stronger,

colorful language, but it was so kind actually.

And then we prayed for him.

And man, by this time, I'm telling you, I'm feeling bold.

I'm feeling so bold like I've never felt before

because I just saw these things happen, right?

And I feel words coming up in my spirit to pray for him.

But at the same time, I don't want to be that guy

taking over, so I'm letting James pray.

And James is praying, and in the middle of his prayer,

he kind of stops and he says, do you want to pray, Ben?

And I say, yes.

And I started praying for him with all my faith

and praying for deliverance from his addiction

and all that.

And by that time, Don and Jeremy come back

because they had just gone a little farther.

Now they're coming back.

And Don told us, did you guys tell him

why you're talking to him?

And I think we actually forgot to tell him, right?

We knew, but he didn't know.

And Don told him, hey, we knew that we would talk

to a guy in a black cap and a black hoodie.

And we just talked to him, we prayed for him.

We asked him if he has a place to sleep at night.

And then he said he has a tent downtown.

And then I heard from these guys

that downtown is really far away from there.

So the chances that this guy would be there

are very, very slim, okay?

It was just amazing.

And then we asked him if he wants anything to eat.

And he said, because of what he took,

he can't eat anything.

But he said he wants some lemonade

and some protein drinks we bought.

We took and brought it to him.

And it was just surreal experience, man.

I'm digesting this all the way.

And then we go down and.

Yeah, I'll stop right now.

And then on the way, I see a guy,

and Don is talking to me about

how he saw someone overdose

and almost die at this very location.

As he's just seeing it, a guy falls over

right on the side there.

We go over to him, he's not moving, he's not breathing.

And we start praying, and all of a sudden he stands up.

He just gets up and walk.

And I was just praying,

Lord, I have made so many good memories.

I don't want the visual of a man dying in front of me.

I wasn't ready to see it.

And God, thank God he made it.

And the point of what I'm all saying is that

we need to remember the guy.

The guy's name was Jesus, okay?

I sincerely wish that when these brothers go out again,

that they will see him again

and that you keep in touch with him.

We can do everything to bring that man

because God saw him, right?

God saw him, it wasn't a mistake.

It wasn't just so I know.

It was for that soul, and hopefully he will come back.

And I just once again just want to say thank you

before Jacob prays for me.

Thank you so much, guys.

Do do do.

Live?

Okay.

All righty, guys, so this is the third part

of Prosperity Gospel.

So like I said last time, last week,

if you don't,

if you haven't heard part one and part two,

some of the things that I'm saying in part three will be,

will not have continuity or won't have context.

So you may have to go listen to part one and part two

to have a sense of continuity.

And I'm trusting that this is a concluding part

of this series, but I have a feeling I won't finish it

because Ben took too long.

And I'll try to wrap up by one o'clock

and then we'll have communion and go home.

So let's see how far we get.

So today we want to talk about Prosperity Gospel,

the principles of giving.

The principles of giving.

The principles of giving.

So the first part was the false Prosperity Gospel

that is being circulated in Christendom

for the last 20 years.

The false Prosperity Gospel.

Why is it so unbiblical?

What is it based on?

And we talked about the lack, the fear of lack.

We talked about greed.

We talked about those things in part one.

Part two was, so who is God when it comes to blessing

and prospering his people?

How do we relate to him?

How we see him allows us then to connect with wealth,

him and others around you in a way that is kingdom.

Today we talk about the principles of giving as Christians.

So that's where we start off.

And most of the things we're gonna talk about

are gonna come from 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

Most of it.

So go home and have a good read of that

because almost all the things we're gonna talk about

will come from 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

Yeah?

So here's the first thing we wanna talk about.

Sowing.

We already established the fact last week

that sowing and reaping is a secondary principle

because Jesus said, look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap, yet my father provides for them.

We've got to understand that

because the prosperity gospel, the false one,

is based on the principle of sowing and reaping

as the primary way of operating.

And so, preachers use it to make you sow

and tell you that you will reap

and usually the preacher reaps.

So we gotta understand that the primary principle

when it comes to money is God is a father, he provides.

And he provides so that our needs are taken care of

and he provides so that we can take care

of other people's needs.

That's the primary principle.

He provides so that we can be taken care of

and he provides so that other people

can be taken care of through us.

So sowing and reaping is a secondary principle.

So God provides, and this is from 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

Here's the strange thing.

God provides seed for the sower

God provides seed for the sower

and he provides bread for food.

And guess what he multiplies?

He multiplies seed.

We'll revisit that again.

But understand this, that God is the one

who provides me bread for food

or bread for my needs for consumption.

But he's also the one who provides seed for sowing.

God does this.

It's best that we imitate him.

And what he multiplies is not bread, he multiplies seed.

And when seed is multiplied

and it's not distributed, it rots.

Well, the prosperity gospel says this,

sow this so that you may have this.

And God is saying,

now I provide you this and I provide you this.

What I want you to do is take this and I'll multiply it

so that you can distribute it freely, generously

into people's lives.

He does both.

The second thing he says when it comes to sowing is,

stinginess, I'm taking it from different versions,

stinginess keeps, a stingy sower reaps a meager harvest

a stingy sower reaps a meager harvest,

a stingy sower reaps a meager harvest,

a generous heart reaps an abundant harvest.

A stingy sower or stinginess reaps a meager harvest,

a generous heart reaps an abundant harvest.

That's the second thing he says.

And always remember guys, where stinginess comes from.

Stinginess doesn't come from your parents,

stinginess doesn't come from your national or local

upbringing, stinginess doesn't come because you're in need,

stinginess comes because of a fear of lack.

It's a fear of lack and that's what makes me stingy.

So a guy who's very generous, very liberal can go

into stinginess pretty easily when the fear of lack comes in.

And the only way then you can free yourself from it is

you can free yourself from the fear of lack.

The only way you can free yourself from it is the way

it's said in the scriptures, keep your lives,

it's strange eh, Hebrews chapter 13,

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

keep your lives free from the love of money and be content.

Based on what?

Look at what God is saying, hey Jacob,

keep your life free from the love of money and be content.

But how, Father, what's that based on?

That I will never leave you nor will I abandon you for the rest of your life.

Therefore keep your life free from the love of money.

Keep your life free from the love of money and be content

because I will not leave you, I will not abandon you.

We use those scriptures in different contexts but what we

don't see is that context was specifically with regard to

the love of money and the fear that you have.

Hebrews chapter 13, verse 6 or 7 or 8, it's there.

Hebrews 13:6

Keep your life free from the love of money and be content.

Based on what?

Based on the fact that I will never leave you,

I will not abandon you.

That's what it's based on.

And then he goes on to say, therefore now with great confidence

I will say that the Lord is my helper.

I will not be afraid.

What can mortal man do to me?

Again we take the scripture out of context.

It's perfectly okay to take the scripture out of context by the way.

Jesus did that all the time, Paul did that all the time.

You can take it out of context and apply it to different places.

But when you do that, tell people you're taking it out of context.

So, that's where we mess up.

We don't tell people we're taking it out of context.

The actual context of the scripture, the Lord is my helper.

I will not be afraid.

What can mortal man do to me?

It's connected to the confidence that one has when one is not in love with money

but is in love with God because he knows that he will never be forsaken,

never be abandoned, that the Lord is his helper.

What can mortal man do to me?

What can your boss do to you?

Strange how the scriptures are connected in Hebrews chapter 13.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

And if you think you do not have the fear of money.

And Jesus said in 2 Corinthians 8, he says,

hey guys, you excel in so many things.

Why don't you excel in the grace of giving?

Why don't you excel?

Excel.

These are commands by God, excel.

It ain't enough.

Ten percent is not excelling.

We got to take a hammer to this tithing thing.

It's not excelling.

He said excel in the grace of giving.

Since you excel in so many ways, I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving.

So how do we give?

What's the attitude?

And then after that you can ask questions.

How do we give?

What's the attitude?

I love the fact that the Bible has taken care of this entirely.

So here's what it says.

You should give what you've decided.

You should give what you've decided.

You should give what you've decided.

2 Corinthians 8 and 9, read it.

You should give what you've decided in your heart to give.

You should give what you've decided in your heart to give.

If your heart can give 100%, give 100%.

If your heart can give 2%, give 2%.

And then change your heart nextayan month if you're giving 2%.

So give what you've decided.

You've got to take a hammer to tithing.

Not because it is not a scriptural principle.

Not because God did not command it.

Not because it's not a great principle to follow.

But because it is so blooming, limiting.

It's like telling your child, listen I'm sending you to school.

I don't want you to get through.

I mean, the child doesn't need help with that anyway.

Because that's what happened to most of us.

Look at Don. Look at Derek.

Manoj is the only one in that group who made it somewhere.

So you should give what you've decided.

Second, it says you shouldn't give if you don't want to.

You shouldn't give if you don't want to.

This is in the Bible. You shouldn't give if you don't want to.

This is just not what pastors should be preaching.

Second principle, you shouldn't give if you don't want to.

Nobody is compelling you.

You shouldn't give if you don't want to.

Third, you shouldn't give because you're forced to.

You shouldn't give because you're forced to.

You shouldn't give because you're forced to.

Basically, don't give out of compulsion.

Don't give out of obligation.

Don't give out of necessity.

Don't give out of compulsion.

Don't give out of obligation.

Don't give out of necessity.

2 Corinthians 9.

Why is this? Why is God saying this? Why?

Why? Very simple man.

Because God insists on a cheerful giver.

He insists.

He insists on it.

This is why he's saying,

hey, I don't want you to give out of compulsion, obligation, necessity.

Don't give. You don't want to give, don't give.

Don't give if you're forced.

Why? Because I don't want anything from you that you don't give cheerfully.

Don't want anything from you that you don't give cheerfully.

And if there's anybody who can read your heart, it's him, eh?

You can come dancing up front and throw money into the basket and dance back,

and he'll think to himself, my God, miserable heart, joyful dancing.

Because he knows.

This is why he stood by the side of that treasury box and is watching a man put a lot of money in it

and a widow putting her two mites.

And he knew.

I love the fact that he knows, eh?

I love the fact that the intents of my heart are always exposed before him

and there's nothing I can do to hide it.

You can fake it, and I'll believe you.

Any questions before we go on?

Is it possible that if we do give out our obligation or necessity,

that we actually kill the seed because we're doing it out of religious...

Is our seed stifled or...?

No, the seed is not stifled, but the return to you is stifled.

The seed... let's say you give me a hundred bucks because you feel compelled,

and you give me a hundred bucks.

Hey, the seed is good for me.

I give you a hundred bucks and I can spend it.

But what happens is the harvest that's supposed to come into your life gets crushed

because the soil that the seed came out of is so hard,

but there is nothing that can happen for you in that.

What am I talking about in returns?

Please don't think when I said returns, I meant the hundred will become a thousand.

I'm talking about the returns of thanksgiving from his heart.

I'm talking about the returns of being joyful before God.

I'm talking about the returns of giving something sacrificially.

Nothing that is not sacrificed will bear fruit.

Let me take away the double negative.

Everything that is sacrificed will bear fruit.

That is where the seed gets destroyed.

But feel free to give me your money reluctantly

because I will receive it joyfully.

There's no problem there.

Yeah, let there be no...

Yeah, sorry, any other question?

Any other question?

I mean, you think kids buy their mothers and fathers birthday gifts out of their pocket money happily?

They collected it for an entire year.

Now the dad goes into this, you've got to buy mom something bigger.

That's a question that I feel like that's a really helpful reframe on the God of the cheerful paper

because I normally phrase that in like plus compulsion.

You have to give, but be happy.

Yeah, give hilariously.

Laugh as you come to put the money in the offering.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

He died laughing.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Yeah.

Any other questions?

What principle is it that where anything is sacrificed...

Jesus put it this way, unless it's the kernel of...

Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it does not produce anything.

The seed for increase is always sacrificed.

What is the purpose if you gain the entire world and lose your life?

But if you lose your life, you will gain everything.

So something has to be lost.

Whenever things fall and die, something comes out of it.

Okay, basic methods of how to give.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16, and he was talking about mission giving,

but we can apply it to...

This is what I meant by taking it out of context.

He was talking about taking a collection for a mission in Jerusalem,

but I'm talking about how we can do it on a regular basis using this principle.

Every Sunday, he says, every Sunday.

In our case, it may not be every Sunday.

Every Sunday, make a generous offering.

Make a generous offering.

I love how God thought of all this.

By taking a portion, and he doesn't tell you what portion, eh?

By taking a portion...

This is New Testament now.

By taking a portion of whatever God, of whatever God blessed you with,

of whatever God blessed you with.

And then Paul goes a little further because it is mission giving.

He says, keep it safe.

As in, don't mess with it, don't spend it on a burger.

Keep it safe.

Yeah.

Whatever God blessed you...

So this is a very simple principle.

Every Sunday or once every month, make a generous offering.

That's all he says in terms of how much.

Make a generous offering by taking a portion of what God blessed you with during the week.

And set it aside.

There's such freedom in New Testament giving.

And without freedom, there is no increase in what goes out of your life.

Remember that, guys.

Whenever there's compulsion, obligation, and necessity,

there's always a limit on what flows out of your life.

The moment there is freedom, it has the power to increase.

When I am free to do what I want, it increases.

You set a child free in an area, and you will see what the child really is like.

Go ahead, Paul.

Hasn't he accepted from obligation and from...

Recognize it first.

If you see me compelling you to give money, recognize it.

Now, this guy's putting pressure on me.

I offer you a sob story.

This guy's putting pressure on me.

I tell you out of necessity, hey, you need to...

Sometimes, yeah.

Some of these statements, guys, we cannot use it as a blanket statement and apply it on everything,

but this is a general principle.

Yeah.

I just want to make it clear that I'm not against tithing.

I don't think it's unbiblical.

I think it's a good principle, but I think it's super limiting.

I think we should put it in the inside room, in the store room, where you keep stuff you won't use.

Yeah.

Just in case you thought Jacob doesn't believe in tithing.

Not true.

Yeah.

Sometimes, guys, you want to give, but you don't have.

You want to give, but you don't have.

Crazy.

The Bible's taken care of that, too.

You want to give, but you don't have.

I've been through times like this.

I wanted to give, but I didn't have.

At $60 in my bank, that's all.

I didn't have, but I wanted to give.

What do you do then?

And it says in 2 Corinthians 9, hey, just so you know, if you don't have, express your readiness to God.

And express your readiness even to one or two people, for it's acceptable according to what you have,

not according to what you don't have.

You want to give, you don't have, you go and say to God, Father, I so badly want to give in this.

Either give me something to give, or just look at my heart and take this.

And then you go and tell Sheldon, Sheldon, you know, I really wanted to give towards that.

I just wanted to know because you're my friend that I really wanted to give.

And then it goes on to say, now that you've expressed your desire to give,

you give according to what you have, not according to what you don't have.

But when you get, finish or complete your readiness by fulfilling what you said you would do.

All I'm doing right now is taking scriptures and wording them in simple English.

I'm not adding any masala to this.

According to what you have.

That's why faith seeds that people ask you to sow a seed in faith.

Hey, you sow a seed in faith, but don't do it because someone else is telling you to have faith to sow a seed.

If you got faith for it, you do it, not because someone compelled you.

But when someone on TV says, if you don't have the money, just put it on your credit card, God will provide for you.

Don't.

I watched a guy on TV who said, if you don't have money, use your credit cards because the anointing is here now.

If it lifts, you won't get the same reward. So use your credit card.

Do it in faith. That's not faith, man.

That's daylight robbery.

What's the outcome when we behave like this? What's the outcome?

Here's the thing, guys. Some outcomes are not supposed to be the motive, but some outcomes are supposed to be the product.

Very important. Some outcomes are not supposed to be the motive.

What happened with the prosperity gospel is they took the outcome and made it the motive.

Outcomes are not supposed to be the motive. Outcomes are supposed to be the byproduct.

Because you have a good father. He's the motive. He's the source.

Everything comes from him, goes back to him, or goes back to his cause.

He doesn't need your money. To obey is better than sacrifice. I don't need your money. I need your life.

It's an old Keith Green song.

Outcome. What's the outcome?

When one gives generously, when one gives generously, and when one gives cheerfully,

these are two words that God highly praises because that's who he is.

You've got to understand why.

God is the most joyful being in the universe.

It's so sad that it'll take a while before he'll show us a flashback of when the universe was created.

One of the scriptures that really grabs me is the morning stars sang when he created the earth.

As in as he was being created, it must have been one of the most amazing symphonies you've ever seen.

Things coming together. And it was pristine. It was pure. It was absolutely delightful.

There was joy. He's the most joyous person in the universe.

Tearfulness, generosity, it's his core.

So for us to give anything without that is like pagan. Sorry.

That's why. But when one gives generously, one gives cheerfully.

Here's the things that happen. God is able to bless abundantly.

I find, you know, of all the words in the sentence, the only word that really catches me is able.

God is able to. It's almost like he's not able to because you will not be able to handle it if these precepts are not met.

Generous, cheerful giving. God is able to. It's not that God is unable to if you don't.

He blesses anyways. But God is able to as in he gets to participate in what he's doing with you.

God is able to bless you abundantly. What does that look like?

One, and this is again from 2 Corinthians 9, A, you'll have more than enough.

You can take any one of these things I'm saying with scriptury.

Two, you'll have more than enough of everything.

Three, you'll have more than enough of everything at every moment.

Four, you'll have more than enough of everything at every moment to engage in every good work he planned for you.

So Jacob, where's the scripture?

He who sows sparingly, reaps sparingly. He who sows generously, reaps generously.

And God is able to cause his grace to abound to you so that in all things, at all times, you will have an all sufficiency for every good work.

Does this principle apply to retirement law?

Yeah, to anything that is given to you to steward that you invest.

Anything that's given to you to steward that you can invest.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, as soon as you recognize that your heart is not willing, remember Isaiah 1, it says,

He who is willing and obedient will eat the good of the land.

So whenever my heart is only obedient and not willing, I immediately go and say to him,

Listen, I'm doing this because I want to be obedient, but I want you to know that I'm not happy about it at all.

So please help me.

Yeah.

And because one of his favorite things is to change hearts, see?

Yeah, but he cannot change a heart that is not honest.

It's not that God cannot.

He doesn't take free will away, guys. That's his biggest problem.

The one thing, God can do anything He wants, but the one thing He does not do is He does not violate free will.

Because if He violates free will, He could have the entire earth saved without sending Jesus.

So He does not violate free will.

And therefore, one of the things He cannot do is He cannot sometimes work with a heart that is not honest.

When you're dishonest about your true condition, I realize it's not a good idea to come up like Ben and expose everything

and then comment on Dilna's name.

But go one on one and deal with it.

Sorry, Dilna, this might come up a few times.

I'm going to find another victim.

Go ahead, Betty.

Is there a window or a gap where I can give this thought, where I give it foolishly, in our thoughts?

Yeah, one of the things we have to realize is generosity will at some point be foolish.

But whenever you are foolish and generous, you are falling on the right side of the equation.

So remember, there's nobody who is generous that will not be foolish at some time.

You will do it thoughtlessly, you'll do it emotionally, you'll do it reactively, you'll do it impulsively,

and you'll make mistakes and you'll regret it.

But at least when you're falling, you're falling on the side of generosity.

Dust yourself up and say, you'll learn.

There will be times when you make mistakes because of your eager generosity.

That's okay.

How do you define a mistake?

We won't get there today, but there are hindrances that we have to look at.

For example, there was a guy, and some of us, Heidi knows about this, and others were there when this happened.

There was a guy who we were helping with rent.

And the guy would take the rent and he would go to a casino and gamble it, hoping that he could make a lot of rent.

Whenever you gamble rent, you never win.

And so we gave him rent for three months, and three months he went and gambled it,

and then he had the audacity to tell his landlord to call me to pay the next month.

That's when I realized, oh shucks, there's something wrong here.

But we did it out of generosity.

You will make mistakes out of generosity, but when you make mistakes out of generosity with a person,

remember that we are not talking about money, we are talking about lives.

And it is okay to give lives a chance and a second chance and a third chance and a fourth chance before you say, I'm going to stop.

It is okay to mess up with people who need a break, and you give them one break, two breaks, three breaks, and they're still not making it.

It's okay. So you lost $5,000. Is it a big amount? Absolutely.

But it was not money, man. It was a life.

We can't separate money and life.

Do you know how many times our parents made mistakes with us, sending us to schools they shouldn't have sent us to?

The church was so generous, they got me an Oculus thingy which you put on your face and you...

I think it's with Manoj right now.

Sometimes you make mistakes with your generosity. It's okay. Someone else benefits.

Then there's this thing that we want to completely avoid. It's called sacrificial giving.

See, tithing has nothing to do with sacrificial giving. This is why the church loves tithing.

Because tithing can keep you happy and content. But there's this thing Jesus presented called sacrificial giving, and it hurts.

Sacrificial giving, it starts with, again, all the principles of giving start with Jesus Christ and what he did.

And Paul doesn't leave that out. He just makes sure we get it.

Jesus Christ, though he was rich, became poor. So that you, by his poverty, may become rich. He became poor for your sake.

So here's a question. Are you becoming poor for somebody else's sake right now in your present life? Today.

Are you becoming poor? Not are you giving. Are you giving to the point that you are becoming poor so that someone else can become...

Not rich, so that someone else can benefit like crazy. Are you becoming poor?

This is why percentages are brilliant. You just have to handle that 10% thing. You can be happy all your life.

And you'll get a decent house also in heaven. I'm just kidding about the house in heaven, eh? Please don't think that's my theology.

All I'm saying is, am I... How best to word it? Am I impoverishing myself for someone else's sake at this present moment in life?

How do you...

Say that again? Yeah, yeah. Okay. I get it.

Hebrews chapter 12. For the joy that was set before him, he sacrifices. So every sacrifice becomes non-sacrificial as long as you do it from this perspective of, I love, therefore I will.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

And it can be two kinds of love. Either, I love God, therefore I will, or I care for Betty, therefore I will. It's one or the other.

But therefore, now that that is established, it's amazing how parents sacrifice for their kids. I mean, go ahead.

So when you meet by hurt, is it kind of hurt when...

It is a kind of hurt where, let's say you earn... When you told me last, you were earning $12,000 a month.

So... So... So... So... $12,000 a month. How much would you have to give away till you hurt?

Alright, I take back the question. Let's say... Let's say your hurt level is $3,000. You give more than $3,000, you got $9,000 left. You give $4,000, it begins to hurt.

Impoverishing oneself to the point where someone else benefits is sacrifice. But you do it because you care.

Is that kind of giving prevalent in the church? Guys, you may think what you want. You can be denominational in your thinking.

You can have come out of a stewardship class in some high-faluted Christian thingy. You can say this happened to me in my young age. This happened to me when I did it last time.

I'm snake-bitten right now. Won't try it again. You can come up with all that stuff.

But the end of the day, I'm giving you a scripture and I'm giving you the nature of God and you cannot argue against that.

You don't have an argument. You can have questions, but you can't have an argument here.

Because I'm not even... I'm not adding a word from what I've said. I've only given you scriptures.

I could have read 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 and sent you out, but then we'd have a very short service and that goes against the grain of my thinking.

So, there's nothing that I'm telling you that you can argue against. You can mold it to fit your thinking, but that's not what scripture is supposed to do.

Scripture is supposed to mold your thinking, not your thinking mold the scriptures.

Sacrificial giving. This is a question I ask myself. Jacob, are you impoverishing yourself for the sake of somebody else right now?

Or are you becoming poorer because someone else needs to get richer? Not to become rich, to get richer because they're in a very difficult situation.

Can I take a point?

Yep.

So, when you're single it's easier.

When you're single it's easier, huh?

Sacrifice is the same whether you're single or married.

But now you're sacrificing for somebody else too.

In those days, you know.

Because I can't.

You can't use your apartment.

I'm just asking seriously. When it's all me, it's easy.

But when you have to think about how many people I'm supporting.

Absolutely true. It becomes more difficult.

Which is why we are hoping that we can build a family way of thinking around the same principle.

Because what will happen otherwise is now that I'm married or now that I'm married and have a child, what if I start changing the way I function?

And suddenly again, I'm taking the principles of Christ and molding it circumstantially.

I'm not molding the circumstances with the scripture.

So then that begins the process of, okay, so how can me and my wife begin to think about this?

How can my wife and I and my 16-month-old baby begin to think about this?

This is important. The easiest way to avoid it is not to think about it and say we'll deal with it when we have some more money.

Now.

Second Corinthians 8 verse 5.

2 Corinthians 8:5

Paul makes such a cool statement. He's talking to the Corinthian church about the churches in Macedonia.

And he says, I want you to know that the churches in Macedonia, look at what he says.

They were going through a time of testing.

They were going through times of intense trouble and they were poor.

Despite all that, they still gave more than they could afford.

And having given more than they could afford, they begged to share in the relief for the saints in Jerusalem.

They begged.

And having done that, they first went about it really well.

They offered themselves to the Lord and they offered themselves to us.

That's sacrificial giving.

May I suggest to you that there are very few sitting here that actually engage in sacrificial giving,

where you become poorer so that someone else may become rich.

Very few.

May I also say that that is the threshold that we must reach for.

What will happen, Jacob, if everybody does this?

He who has much will have enough and he who has little will be taken care of.

So that it will be like in the Exodus, where it didn't matter how much manna you collected, there was sufficiency all throughout.

Poverty will never be endemic in a community like that.

Poverty will be banished.

Go ahead.

Everything you're saying is scripture.

But when I go out, you're going hard with the stuff all the time.

You either look at other people's lives or you read or you see from YouTube.

It's happening all the time.

It's happening on Christian channels too.

How do you know this and continually resist?

Because we're not talking about resisting it for one month.

How do you resist in the long term, for the long run?

Five people in this church, if they do it, the rest of the church will catch it.

Everything that Acts 29 today is, is because three to five people decided that they would stake their life for it.

Any principle here, you think the idea of the body of Christ in this church happened because of one person preaching it?

No, because three to five people took it.

You think hearing that Ben just talked about happened because one person heard?

No, three to five people got it.

Anything.

If we get three to five people in the church to behave like this, I'm telling you, this will happen.

Because it cannot be practiced in isolation.

We can have superstars who impoverish themselves.

What will happen if one person in this church impoverishes themselves?

One other person will benefit.

But what if five do it?

So, Jacob, what's the difference between these kinds of sacrificial giving with the spirit of socialism, where the idea is also to have it?

Socialism has to be, socialism requires things to be coerced or legislated from outside.

Socialism does not work if there is no legislative power from the outside.

There must be a law that makes you share your property.

There must be a law that takes one of your cars away.

But when it comes to this, none of this can be legislated.

None of this can be coerced.

It has to be because of Christ in me.

None of this can be coerced.

The moment it's coerced, we've entered into that socialist idea or we've entered into a cult.

None of this can be coerced.

It has to come from within.

Wouldn't the kibbutz be socialist?

Initially, when the kibbutz were formed, they were not supposed to be socialist.

They became that later, but the intent was, can we share?

Acts 2, 42-45 talks about this.

Remember, don't for a second think that in Acts when it talks about people brought what they had and placed it at the Apostles' feet, that the idea was everyone was bringing everything.

No.

How do we know it wasn't the case?

Because in Acts 5, Peter says to Ananias, hey, it was up to you how much you wanted to give.

Why did he have to fake it?

But there were people like Joseph from Cyprus who was a Levite who was later called Barnabas who sold a field.

He sold perhaps one field, maybe he had two, and he brought it and laid it at the feet of the Apostles.

What is the idea of laying it at the feet of the Apostles?

Something special about his feet?

No.

How lovely are the feet of them that bring good news?

Where to give?

We won't get there today.

We'll have to do part four also.

So the things that we won't get to today, because I'll have to stop in two minutes, are twisted giving, hindrances to giving, and how does one give in church?

Like what can we, your question, what different things can we give to?

Because we only think of the offering box.

What are the different things that the church suggests we give to?

And remember, when the church suggested that you give to, Jesus wasn't saying, hey, you got a 10% pizza, now divide it into tiny little pieces so that everyone gets a small little crumb.

He wasn't saying that.

Because that's what we do.

We take 10% and divide it so many times that it's like communion.

Everyone gets a tiny little piece.

That wasn't the idea.

So we've got to talk about that.

Distorted giving or twisted giving, hindrances to a harvest, and what are the different places the Bible prescribes we must give?

So either I'll do it over Zoom or you'll have to wait three weeks.

Let's just touch on one last thing and then we're done.

Please.

What is the meaning when it says that you'll have to stop?

Yeah.

That there's not going to be a day because of the fact that the entire world is not Christian, even in the Christian world we have the poor.

There's not going to be a day that poverty will be eliminated from here because the fallen nature of the world ends up in wealth being disparate.

It's not because there's not enough wealth.

It's not because there's not enough grain.

It is just because there is no way the nations of the earth, the kings of the earth, the rich people of the earth, and you will take all your wealth and make sure that there is no poor person left on earth.

Not going to happen.

Jesus was pretty factual.

He knew kingdom's truths, but he wasn't blind to reality.

Is there a place that won't ever define the church?

He definitely wants the church to change in this so that it is not prevalent in the church.

I almost feel like saying, hey, who will join me in impoverishing themselves?

But I won't say it yet.

Last thing, last point I want to talk about before we break bread.

When it comes to church finances, there's two aspects that we have to keep in mind.

One is God wants us to entrust and trust.

As in 2 Kings 22 verse 5.

2 Kings 22:5

I love this.

He says, entrust this money to the men assigned to supervise the restoration of the Lord's temple.

Then they can use it to pay workers to repair the temple.

But no accounting shall be asked from them.

You don't need to get a receipt for the money you give them, for they deal honestly and they are honest men.

That's the standard we want to establish.

That is the standard we want to establish.

This is when we got to kind of fight the world.

So you might say, but didn't Paul say that we are sending trusted men?

You know when Paul says that, he says that only to the church in Corinth because Corinth was out to get Paul.

Therefore, in 2 Corinthians 8.20, here's what Paul says.

He was appointed by the churches to accompany us as we take the offering to Jerusalem because we are taking every precaution against scandal.

We don't want anyone suspecting us of taking one penny of this money for ourselves.

We are being careful in our reputation with the public as in our reputation with God.

That is through the Corinthian church.

We got to stand holding both these intentions.

I'm not saying choose one over the other.

We got to hold it in tension that if I trust Tuni with money, then I will not look over his shoulder to see and I will not demand receipts of him.

But knowing that the government requires auditing, I will ask Tuni to submit the receipts.

But it is not, we got to collapse this idea that you have to have a watcher watch the guy who's doing the money and have another watcher behind the watcher who's watching the guy.

Churches have that. They got multiple people stacked.

It's not socialism. It's Orwellian.

Hey, what's the worst thing that can happen if Tuni took money and ran away?

How far will he get with the money that we have? Brazil?

Richmond.

So, guys, remember one thing.

There is a woman who comes with an alabaster flask of perfume and she pours it on the head of Jesus.

Do you know the comments around from his own disciples?

What a waste.

Wastage lies in the eye of the beholder.

What kind of beholder are you?

We are dealing with lives.

We are not dealing with money.

You have no idea how much money this church has spent on lives and many of them didn't come back.

They were like the ten lepers who got healed and only one come back.

Nine walked away.

Thousands of dollars, thousands and thousands of dollars spent on people that nobody would give a second chance to.

And they left.

Or they walked away. They did not come back.

You think it hurts me, affects me, makes me angry, makes Heidi angry, makes any of the leaders here angry?

No, it was worth it.

Did you know that Judas was stealing from the treasury?

John 12, verse 5 onwards, Judas was stealing from the treasury.

John 12:5

Do you know that Jesus knew it?

How did it get into the Gospels?

It says there.

So let's collapse this idea of I cannot trust you.

I've got to trust you.

If I can't trust you with mammon, how am I going to trust you with anything, man?

If I don't trust you with mammon, what am I going to trust you with in the kingdom?

If you need to be watched with mammon, forget ministry.

And the other thing is if you give me money that is meant for something and I use it wrongly, you know who's in the biggest trouble?

Wah!

So hold it in tension.

2 Kings 22, and he appointed people to pay for the repairs and he said, the message puts it as, do not ask for receipts.

Do not put someone to watch over them because they deal honestly and these are honest men.

On the other side, Paul, we don't want a scandal to affect us.

Our reputation publicly and privately is important.

Therefore, let's appoint someone who can watch over this so that nobody can point a finger.

Why is he doing that, particularly with the Corinthian church?

Because Corinth had a problem.

I mean, they were out to behead him literally, spiritually.

We stand in the middle.

We hold this because it is important.

And we hold this.

And everybody in this church must have a right to look at whatever figures, ask whatever figures, ask questions.

Everything should be in the open.

But we hold this intention.

And remember, the foundational principle is give cheerfully, man, and if you think you shouldn't give, don't give.

This is just not a good message for an offering.

This is how we deal with this.

Mark 14 verse 3 to 5, it will tell you, wasted is always in the eye of the beholder.

Mark 14:3–5

And you see money wasted when you don't see the life being wasted on Jesus being anointed and they cannot see it.

So did you hear from God that the moment was stopped when he got a ransom, he cannot get away from it?

Oh, that was easy.

When I heard he was gambling it at the casino, I confronted him and told him no more.

Yeah.

Guys, I was talking to somebody yesterday and this line came up, so I'm going to just say it so we remember it.

A church budget tells you how much you spent.

A church budget does not tell you how much you should spend.

A church budget tells you how much you spent.

See, a church budget does not tell you how much you should spend.

Just keep that in mind.

When there's a lack in this church and every so often we go through this, you know what we do?

The first thing we do is, and you can check with Heidi, this might sound like a boastful note, but who cares?

No, that's the wrong way of saying it, but I don't care.

If this church ever goes through the lack, the first thing that happens is Jacob will either not take what the church wants to give him or Jacob will take less.

So that's the first thing that happens.

The second thing that happens is this church will take what is in the bank and will start giving it away.

Why? Because we refuse to be crippled by lack.

Whenever church finances are low in this church, we break the back of lack by giving it away.

Heidi knows it, Chris knows it, many others know it.

And God has always been able to say, great guys, let me just do what I love doing with you guys.

Let's break bread. The rest of it we'll do later.

Hey, while they're going to get the elements, go ahead, Jillian, please.

Well, I just want to say that...