Prosperity Gospel 2

Check, check, thanks.

Okay guys, so we start with Prosperity Gospel Part Two today.

Last time we did part one, so it's important

that you go listen to part one,

because otherwise part two may at times

not make sense in certain places,

because we've already set it up in part one.

And so, Prosperity Gospel Part Two,

and if you wanna title it,

I shall not want.

I shall not want.

So, go listen to the first one if you weren't here

or if you don't remember,

and then you'll see why we're doing the second part.

So, we ended last week saying,

there is this thing called the False Prosperity Gospel,

and then there is the True Prosperity Gospel.

And usually when we use the words Prosperity Gospel,

we usually talk about the one

that is not based on the nature of God.

It may be based on a few scriptures,

but it is not based on the nature of God.

It may be based on scriptures,

but it is not based on the nature of God.

It is very possible to do things

that have a scriptural basis

without it being based on the nature of God.

That's fascinating thing about Christianity.

You can build a biblical basis for anything

without building it on the nature of God.

And so, that's how we need to examine this.

So, the False Prosperity Gospel,

the False Prosperity Gospel tries to serve,

tries to serve both God and mammon.

Some of it, if you listen to the first part,

you'll see why.

False Prosperity Gospel tries to serve

both God and mammon.

So, what happens is, again, it's so subtly,

it is so subtle.

You seek first and pursue the kingdom.

You seek first and pursue.

This is how subtle it is.

You seek first and pursue.

You seek first and pursue.

You seek first and pursue.

This is how subtle it is.

You seek first and pursue God,

kingdom,

word,

church,

giving.

You seek first all this so that

all other things may be added unto you.

May be added unto you.

This is a distortion of Matthew 6.33.

I have preached it and I have repented of it.

Seek first the kingdom and all his righteousness

and all other things shall be added unto you.

It's one of the favorite Prosperity Gospel scriptures,

thanks man,

which then means that if I seek God first,

if I seek the kingdom and the reign of God first

in my life or in my church,

then God will add all other things unto me.

And that's a distortion of Matthew 6.33.

This is why the false Prosperity Gospel

ends up serving both God and mammon.

You serve God so that you can become captive to mammon.

You give money.

You give or sow money.

You give or sow money

to receive

and reap money.

You need some water, Paul?

Okay.

You give or sow money to receive and reap money.

Sowing and reaping is a constant appeal

from the proponents of

or the adherents of false Prosperity Gospel.

I call it false because it's not fully true,

so why not call it false?

Nothing wrong with sowing and reaping,

it's a biblical principle.

But one of the things Jesus said,

and when I found that verse,

and I found it late in my life,

when I found that verse, it blew my mind.

Look at the birds of the air,

they neither sow nor reap,

but the Father provides for them.

That just took the breath out of me, man.

So you give or sow money to receive and reap money.

By the way, I'm not preaching to people who are not generous.

This church is one of the most generous churches I've met.

I know of your generosity.

I hear stories about your generosity.

Some of you don't even speak about it, the others,

but others come and tell me what Dilna did in Wally

or the number of ministries that you support

in different parts of the world

that sometimes has nothing to do with Acts 29,

and yet you're giving it Acts 29 is splendid too.

So these are things that you do.

So I'm not speaking to a group of guys

that are not generous.

So this is not about generosity,

increasing your generosity or increasing your giving.

This is about an extreme way of living

that is free from mammon.

Once life is free from mammon, anything is possible.

The greatest limitation as we go down this road,

you'll see one of the greatest limitation in our lives

is our beholdenness, beholdenness to mammon.

Subtly, covertly, sometimes overtly.

That's the intent here.

The intent is not to try and make you more generous

because like I said, I'm a recipient of your generosity too,

so I know that this church is a generous church.

So you give money or sow money to receive and reap money,

and this is why ministries end up peddling gifts,

peddling cloth, peddling oil.

Because once you start this process, it's never ending.

So it makes ministries peddle their gifts.

It makes ministries and ministers lie.

It makes them jockey for favor.

It makes them amass the wealth of others.

It's very rare that you find a prosperity gospel preacher

who does not engage in some kind of peddling.

There are exceptions, I'm not saying no,

but most end up peddling, either their gifts

or some kind of wear, W-A-R-E.

Philippians 417 is not the engine.

Philippians 417 is such a cool verse.

I don't know why I find scriptures very late in life.

Philippians 417, it says, Paul is saying to the Philippians,

not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit

that increases to your credit.

Not that I seek the gift.

He's just talked to them about needs in the churches

he's ministering to.

And then he says, but I want you to know that even as I ask

you to supply these needs, I need you to know

that I do not seek your gift, but I seek fruit

that will be credited to your account.

As in, I want you to increase.

I do not seek the gift.

Or in other words, I'm not seeking your cash,

I'm seeking your crown.

I'm not seeking your cash, I'm seeking your crown.

What if every minister, every pastor, every person

in this church began to think like this?

That even when you ask for a need, you don't think of it

as a gift to you, but you see it as something

that is credited to the other person's account.

And when you begin to see it that way,

you'll be able to pray it that way.

Just minutes ago, someone just interacted me 150 bucks,

saying, Jacob, thank you for this and this and this.

Do I receive it as a gift?

Or do I respond to her saying, I credit it as fruit

to your account, may you increase in this, this and this?

I remember, this happened in Acts 20 and many years ago,

where I wanted to teach someone about giving first fruits,

but they were scared of giving first fruits.

And I knew it was critical for them to learn first fruits

because it would help them tremendously in the future.

So I actually went and told them,

I want you to give me first fruits.

And so they wrote a check and gave me the first fruits.

And then for the next few months,

I would pay off a certain payment

that they had to make every month.

And the reason I did that was, one, if it was a gift,

then I should keep it to myself.

But the intent was, can I teach you this principle

so that you prosper for the rest of your life?

And I would make sure that I would pay off

a certain payment every monthly payment at payoff

so that the money would return to them,

but they would never forget the principle of first fruits.

What if we thought like this?

Now, even when you receive a gift,

you begin to credit it to their account.

The prosperity gospel does not think like this.

The false prosperity gospel seeks ways

to have money flow into your life,

not money flow through your life.

Money flow into your life,

not through your life.

And the reason the prosperity gospel,

the false prosperity gospel is so addictive

is because it is driven by lack.

It is driven by lack.

It is driven by lack,

and it is driven by a distorted or redacted,

as in reduced, redacted

view of the goodness of God,

view of the goodness of the Father.

It is addictive.

It wouldn't have lasted as long as it has lasted

if it wasn't addictive.

People will give hoping that,

it's almost like Christian lottery.

This time if I sow, maybe this month,

it'll come back.

And so we keep getting pulled in by the guy who says,

today's the seventh of July,

so if you give seven bucks or 77 bucks

or any multiple of 77,

God is gonna bless you.

Really, God had to wait till July 7th?

July 17th is a better date.

Thanks, Paul.

Paul is new.

Any questions before we go on to what is true?

We spoke some more about this last time.

Any questions?

No?

Okay.

Yeah.

Is it okay to say you've sown seed by faith?

Is it okay to?

Yeah.

Over and across the place?

Yeah.

So I should not ask you to sow seed by faith.

I should not ask you to sow seed by faith.

I should not say sow seed by faith.

But if you sow seed by faith, that's fine.

But I should not say sow seed by faith

so that if you sow seed by faith,

even though you don't have it, God will reward you.

I should not ask you that.

You should do it because it's a prompting

from the Holy Spirit within you.

But when I use that,

then I'm going against 2 Corinthians 9 where it says,

do not give out a compulsion, necessity, obligation,

or any arm twisting.

Give cheerfully.

So if an act of faith in giving

what I presently don't have but I promise it

because it's an act of faith that I do cheerfully from within,

prompted by the Spirit, it's different.

But when I cajole you into doing it,

then I'm asking you to go against 2 Corinthians 9.

And it says, give according to what you have

and not according to what you don't have.

And it says that give according to what you have

and even if you have a desire to give and you don't have it,

God will receive it based on your desire to give

even though you don't have it.

But let it be prompted out of you.

Let it not be prompted by an external pressure.

When I was in Bahrain and I needed a,

I remember going up to my boss

and before going up to my boss,

church service was on and I had to speak to my boss

about a raise but before I went to my boss,

I already paid my tithes,

which was what I believed in then, paying my tithes.

I paid my tithes on the salary I expected,

not on the salary that I was receiving.

But that was not prompted by the church.

The church didn't say,

if you want the Lord to increase your salary,

give on what you expect.

No, it was me saying, Father,

I really know that you want to bless and prosper.

So let me just go and pay it on what I'm going to receive,

not on what I was receiving.

And then I wished I had paid more.

Now let's look at the true prosperity gospel.

Because this is not a God who doesn't like

prospering his children.

But his reasons are very different, right?

Prosperity gospel, true.

So we start with the premise,

and this is where it gets difficult.

And this is where I believe truly that if we don't repent,

we will not be able to move into this.

I've been repenting since yesterday afternoon.

And then Derek interrupted my repentance,

so that was a relief.

So here's the first premise of the true prosperity gospel.

As a son, I lack nothing.

As a son, I lack nothing.

Problem is, this is not how we always think.

We look at what we don't have and we feel that we lack.

We look at our bank account sometimes,

and we feel that we lack.

As a son, I lack nothing.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

And this is based simply on seeing God as Father

and the Lord as Shepherd.

It has nothing to do with what's in my wallet or in my bank.

But our circumstances always challenge our faith

when it is our faith that should challenge our circumstances.

And if faith challenges circumstances,

then the way you live will change.

Because now you will attempt things

for which you do not have the resources.

That's the proof of it.

Whatever I see, I believe.

Whatever I believe I speak, whatever I speak I do.

And if this is not the progression,

then at some point my faith is not fully mature.

So yes, as a son I lack nothing,

but that's not my 24-7 way of existence.

So when David says in Psalm 23 that the Lord is my shepherd

or the Lord is my Father,

because he didn't know God as Father,

but we can say the Lord is my Father

or the Lord my Shepherd, I do not lack anything good.

I have to learn to inhabit this.

I know it's an old, oft-repeated phrase of mine,

but I have to inhabit it, inhabit it 24-7,

like a child, like a child.

This is what I meant by if I don't have a decent,

if I don't have a really, not decent,

if I don't have a really good relationship

with God, wealth, and myself, limitations are imposed.

Limitations are imposed on everything I do,

everything I think.

There are limitations imposed.

As a son I lack nothing.

Can I inhabit it?

Can I inhabit it?

As we go further, it'll fill up more.

As a servant, you know, this is easier,

because I think many of us are increasingly grasping

the goodness of the Father.

So in this church it becomes a little easier

for us to be sons and daughters,

and to understand God as a good God,

and therefore begin to move into this idea of,

in God I lack nothing.

So it is who he is that causes me to say I lack nothing.

It is not what I have.

That is what takes the limits away,

because in my Father there's everything.

Jesus lived like this, taught like this,

and whenever required he would be able to pull

what he needed from the Father.

He pulled what he needed from the Father,

not through a promise, not through some position

that he had with the Father.

He pulled things from his Father

because he knew the nature of his Father.

Once you know the nature of the Father,

you know what he will supply, when he will supply,

what he will supply for, how much he will supply.

All the limits are off, all the bets are off,

because now you know that Father's nature.

It's like,

yeah, if you were interested in planes, coffee,

or good chocolate, I'd buy it for you,

because now you know the nature of the person who's giving.

So you know in this area, it's most likely that I'll score.

Why is it planes?

Yeah, toy planes.

The next one is the more difficult one.

As a servant, I mean, ask Don

how many tickets I've given him for his birthday.

As a servant, Don, don't say a word.

As a servant, I own nothing.

This is the hard part.

As a servant, I own nothing.

As a son, I lack nothing I can handle,

because I'm getting to know the Father better.

I know his goodness, I know his nature.

But as a servant, I lack nothing.

Sorry, as a servant, I own nothing.

This is where it gets really difficult,

because here are the things that you are as a servant.

You're totally dependent on your master.

You're totally dependent on your master.

You're subject to his commands 24-7,

so you have to do what he tells you to,

trusting that he will resource you

for what he tells you to.

And you have to steward everything on his behalf,

as in you can't do what you want

with what he has given you.

You have to steward everything on his behalf.

This is where it gets difficult.

This one is easy, this one is difficult.

To say to you that all that I have in my bank

and all that I have in my home

and all that I have to my name, I do not own,

is also saying that I may have to give it away.

It's an extreme way of living, but it is extreme.

Let me rephrase it.

It's a Jesus way of living, and it happens to be extreme.

I own nothing.

And if for a second I think that I have reached there,

then the question you need to ask me is,

do all your possessions, or your wealth and your possessions,

do all your wealth and possessions

belong to Christ and the church?

And the church.

Do all your possessions and wealth belong to Christ?

And because Christ is the head and the church is the body,

does it belong to Christ and the church?

It cannot be coerced, cannot be legislated.

You cannot be forced to,

because that's when you become a cult.

But it's a decision that I have to make inside.

Does all my possession, does all my money in the bank

belong to Christ and to the church?

And now let's make the church something else, and to you.

Because a son lacks nothing, a servant owns nothing.

And my hope is that I can keep increasing

in saying that, yeah.

It belongs to the church and belongs to Christ,

because it can't be one only, it has to be both.

It's very sobering, man.

Because the master who saved us lived like this.

Lived like this when he was human,

lived like this since he rose and went back to heaven.

Until we begin to think like this,

we will never get there,

we gotta begin to think like this.

Thought then becomes, your thinking becomes a hammer

that keeps chiseling away at this thing called

self-preservation and self-sufficiency and self-care.

Nothing wrong with any of them.

Actually, there's something wrong with self-preservation,

but nothing wrong with self-care.

So what happens then is, I am supposed to place

possessions and wealth in the hands

of the invisible Christ

and at the feet

of the visible church, of the visible body.

So that God can distribute it,

so that God can distribute it,

and people can access it.

We'll pause for questions a little later.

Another question that I must keep asking myself is,

am I, and I'm not talking about quantity,

am I the most generous person at Acts 29?

Am I the most generous person at Acts 29?

Oh, sorry.

Am I the most generous person at Acts 29?

And anyone who leads must be.

If he's not, then he better pull up his socks.

Any of, anyone who's a leader must be,

because if you're not, you need to pull up your socks.

Now who is the leader?

Because God doesn't make leaders and followers.

He just makes people that can one day lead.

It's only a matter of time.

He makes sons and servants.

He does not make leaders and followers.

That's another system we have borrowed from the world,

where we have leaders and followers in Christendom,

when there are no leaders and followers.

There are sons and servants who are promoted

because they are faithful,

not because of their talents or gifts.

Does that be clear once and for all?

God only creates those in his image.

He created for himself us,

but he gave us a model in Jesus.

Jesus was a son and a servant, and he had to be faithful.

That's the same criteria now.

There are no leaders or followers.

That's a false dichotomy that we have created,

and it's just a continuance of the clergy-lady divide

that Catholicism brought in.

And it's not based on gifts.

It's based on the following of the Holy Spirit

and faithfulness to what he's called us to.

But are you the most generous person at Acts 29?

That's another question you have to ask yourself.

And generous is not quantity.

Because a guy who has 100 can give 98.

What if you have only 10?

Your only aim and my only aim then, and I love this.

I've said it many times and I love this.

Our only aim is that we become, that I become,

that you become the largest conduit,

largest pipe or conduit

through which money can flow.

Through which money can flow so God can supply others.

This is the true prosperity gospel.

The largest pipe, I mean these are very unbiblical words,

largest pipe you'll never find in the Bible.

You become the largest pipe through which money can flow

so God can supply others.

That is the nature of the prosperity gospel.

Proverbs 11, 24 and 25.

Proverbs 11, 24 and 25.

Proverbs 11, 24 and 25.

Here's what it says.

One man gives freely yet gains even more.

Some versions say one man scatters freely

yet gains even more.

Another withholds unduly but comes to poverty.

A generous man will prosper.

He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

He who refreshes others, it's always been,

the prosperity gospel has always been about others.

If that is your motive, that father shower me with money

so that I may become a distributor of all of it.

Then it's different.

So the true prosperity gospel will always seek

to have money flow through your life, through your life.

It's Luke 6, 34 on repeat.

What does Luke 6, 34 say?

You have received freely, give freely.

And if you do, I'll pour more into your laps,

press down, shaken together and running over

so you can generously supply more.

And it's Luke 6, 34 on repeat.

We've said this about the church,

we say this about money too,

we say this about anything that has to do with God.

Anything that is full must be emptied

so that it may be filled again.

Anything that is full must be emptied

that it may be filled again.

Anything that is full must be emptied

so that it may be filled again.

Otherwise, it will get stagnant.

It will turn into maggots.

And that goes for finances.

It even goes for the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit gets quite annoyed when there's no outflow.

Any questions?

Yeah.

You were talking about leaders and followers.

Yeah.

And doesn't the leader say that you're still a leader?

Yeah.

Doesn't he say that he's a leader?

Yeah.

So tomorrow, you may become a leader

and the ones that you lead should submit to you

and you should be worth double honor.

You should be, I should try and make your life easy.

I should do everything in my power

to help you live a life that is easy,

not make your life difficult.

But a day may come when,

because I practiced that with you

and I've been faithful,

you now go do something else and you raise me up.

But now I've learned 12

and now Nick has to go through the same process.

So the relationship between leaders

and the ones that they have been placed in charge of

should be that way.

And that's what Paul is describing.

But the amazing thing is there's only four things

that Paul requires for leadership.

Maintain good homes.

Walk in purity.

Have a zeal for God.

Convey things that are taught accurately.

That's it.

These are the only four categories for leadership

in the Bible.

And they are so attainable

that there is nobody who is excluded.

Nobody who's excluded.

Nobody who's excluded.

You can be single, you can be divorced.

You can be a spinster, you can be married.

How are you maintaining your home?

So Jacob, how did you throw divorce in there?

Because a man or a woman who's divorced

can spend 10 years after his divorce,

five years after his divorce,

living an exemplary life

one must look at his life,

not at the divorce only.

In India, if you aren't married,

you're not supposed to be a leader.

Thank God I've destroyed that one.

So these four things are attainable, guys.

Purity, passion or zeal.

Maintaining your home.

As a single person, if I visited your home,

would everything go under the bed?

I remember you once saying,

if I came to your home, could I look in your closets?

Yeah.

I've got so many funny stories on that.

Dad once, I think,

yeah, my dad was nice.

Let me not say anything about him.

It's just funny.

I still remember when I found the,

what do you fry things with,

that thingy that you turn things with?

Spatula.

I remember finding the spatula in a very odd place.

And the fourth one is conveying things faithfully.

Conveying things faithfully.

Not your own brain wave or not your own new theology.

If you're a part of a people,

what are they saying?

Convey it faithfully.

Can you say the four things?

Yeah.

Purity, zeal or passion.

Maintaining your home.

Conveying things faithfully.

And when any of these are missing,

you have to wait till it's caught up.

Four-legged chair.

Any other questions, guys?

So you're saying cleanliness really is next to godliness?

I'm saying to maintain a home that is orderly

is a good thing.

Because if I had four kids,

I'm not sure of the degree of cleanliness

that I could maintain.

I would have to get rid of the kids to be.

Yeah.

So, it's not so much cleanliness.

Are you faithful with the things

that have been placed in your hands?

Be it a little hut or be it a palace.

Yeah, are you faithful with what has been placed

in your hands?

And you can't use her standard for her or for him.

Her standards may be different.

I mean, maybe Mike helps around

and he makes sure nothing drops except grandkids

and takes care of everything.

But so.

So.

Sorry Mike.

So.

30 years from now when people will be listening

to these sermons.

Yeah, he'll be listening.

Yeah, he'll be listening to it.

Because sometimes we think that our way of maintaining

is the way that everybody else should maintain

and that's a false premise.

It's different for different people.

I can handle some dust on my TV cabinet.

And if you come to my house and do that.

Yeah, yeah.

Either that or lose your finger, one or the other.

Yeah.

Okay, sorry.

Terrible.

The next thing with regard to the true prosperity gospel

is that sowing and reaping is a biblical principle.

You see that in 2 Corinthians 9.6.

It says in 2 Corinthians 9.6,

he who sows sparingly, reaps sparingly.

So it is a biblical principle.

But you don't focus on it.

It is secondary.

You don't focus on it.

It must be secondary.

And why must it be secondary?

Because there is someone who is primary.

The father is primary.

The father is primary.

When second things are put first,

you lose out on the first and the second.

The father is primary.

Jesus said, look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap,

but the father takes care of them.

Till I get to know the nature of the father

and my relationship with the father and wealth in me,

I will not be able to avoid these traps.

Jesus was trying to say, listen,

I taught you sowing and reaping in the Old Testament,

but I want to say to you that there is a principle

above that which is that the father is a good father.

If he can take care of birds that do not sow or reap,

why do you think that you have to do things

to get him to do things?

That's the crux of the prosperity gospel, the false one.

You have to do things to get him to do things.

But that's not the nature of the father.

I mean, that distorts the nature of the father.

Here's another question I ask often

and the answers are up and down.

Is the father that I know,

is the father that I know embarrassingly generous,

embarrassingly lavish,

and extravagantly generous?

Is the father that I know embarrassingly lavish

and extravagantly generous?

And the resounding answer, let me speak on your behalf,

there might be exceptions,

but the resounding answer in this room is,

no, we don't see him that way.

If he did, I would see it in your life

and you would see it in my life.

Our attitude to life would be different.

This is not our 24-7 thinking of who he is

and yet this is who he is.

There's such a dichotomy between the God I worship

and the God I see in my life on a daily basis.

Is the father embarrassingly lavish

and extravagantly generous?

These are questions I have to struggle with,

if I wrestle with,

till I come to a place where I actually believe this often.

And there's enough evidence in scripture to say

that this is who he is.

But why is it that I worship a different God?

Jacob, I agree with that.

Is there anything that we could be doing in our lives

that is only believing

or that we're not experiencing that in this life

as we should?

Are we limiting the father?

Are we closing doors or is it just believing?

I think it starts with me actually thinking

that this is who the father is

or believing this is who the father is.

If I don't get to that place

where I begin to see him like this,

I will not experience it.

Even when he does it, I see it as,

oh well, that was his mercy or that was his goodness.

We forget the person

and choose a characteristic or an attribute.

When God is good, we say, oh, that's his goodness and mercy.

We rarely go into that place of, but that is my father.

There are things about me that my friends say.

But what else do you expect?

That's Jacob.

They don't say that's Jacob's goodness.

That's Jacob.

And so till I begin to understand that this is who he is,

even when he does it, I'm not able to suck the marrow.

It'll be the sense of, he was good to me this time,

praise the Lord.

It's like getting 20% off at Bay,

at the Hudson Bay, Sears doesn't exist anymore.

You feel thrilled.

You feel like you're getting 20% off at Bay,

you're thrilled.

No, it's much more than that.

What if your father owned the Bay?

Guys, one of the reasons we don't experience God

a certain way is because we haven't gotten accustomed

to thinking that that's who he is.

We must take God for granted.

We must take God for granted in terms of his nature.

We must take God for granted in terms of his nature.

Then, regardless of whether it happens

or it does not happen, nothing changes

because you take for granted his nature.

What's the difference between that

and walking in presumption?

Presumption is when you expect him to now deliver

on a promise.

Contractual, that he will come through.

I'm trusting you for this.

You better come through.

That can be presumption because he's got 200 other things

that he's working in your life through that one incident.

If Saul knew the nature of Samuel, he would have waited.

I think a start would be the nature of the experience.

Secondly, when we have problems,

we are thinking of the problems instead of focusing

on how God is getting us out of them.

Go ahead.

Let me repeat what he said.

We begin with this thing of the nature of God

and experiencing it.

Then, when circumstances challenge us,

we still hold on to the nature of God

and the experiencing of it and wait for God

to be who he is in our circumstances.

Our circumstances derail us.

I can be so pumped about this and tomorrow,

let's assume $15,000 goes out of my bank

and suddenly I'm thinking to myself,

ah, shucks, that is when the nature of God

should become even more evident.

But how can I experience something

when I don't even believe it is the nature of God?

Every time I experience it, I look at it as an anomaly

of the mercy of God.

This is why inhabiting something is so important

and you cannot inhabit what you don't think.

You cannot inhabit what you don't think.

You must think to inhabit.

But think, I don't mean think.

Think as in to meditate, believe.

I was just wondering about whether he's testing me

in this way.

Is he testing the nature of God?

Yeah, in that case, he was saying, hey guys,

23.3% is what I want you to give every year,

by the way, that was the tithing then.

Just in case we thought it was 10.

Hey, can you turn on the AC a little?

So God is saying, but this is my nature.

I'm a blesser anyways, I'll rebuke the devourer.

But I've set some rules for you

because your hearts are like stone.

The Holy Spirit doesn't live in you yet.

He didn't say that.

But trust me in this anyways.

But now he's not even saying that.

He's saying this is my nature.

I'm your father.

I was gonna say I'm your father, darn it.

And then I realized God wouldn't say anything like that.

Okay, let's skip a few and keep going.

Here's some other things about walking in true prosperity.

These are hard things.

Your security is not connected

to your bank account.

So you're not connected to your bank account.

You're connected to your bank account.

Your security is not connected to your bank account.

Which doesn't mean that one should just barely manage.

Because that's the other side of this.

Everything in a message can be taken and used the other way.

Oh, my security is not connected to the bank account

so I don't have to worry about the security.

I don't have to worry about the security.

I don't have to worry about the security.

So I don't have lanzer the bank account

so I don't have to worry about,

I'll just make a basic subsistence kind of a living

and somehow manage.

That's not what God is saying.

God is saying regardless of whether you have zero

or whether you have millions,

your security is not connected to your bank account.

If you're zero, start climbing

because I want you to begin to distribute stuff.

So don't stay at zero.

So the first thing is your security is not connected

to your bank account.

And while I may think this,

I also know how my heart and my hands begin to react

when the bank account dips.

The only one who is stone cold Steve Austin is Heidi.

Doesn't matter whether the bank account plunges

or whether the bank account is up.

Steve, the stone cold Steve Austin was a wrestler, Heidi.

Just so you know.

Yeah.

So for the last 16 years she's had no heart problems

because it doesn't bother her.

But it's surprising how when the bank account dips

we get scared.

When the mortgage rate rises we get scared.

Interest rate rises we get scared.

What if I could somehow,

the day I, how do I know the day this happens

when I'm no longer afraid?

Just so you know.

Impractical extremely.

Your job is not connected to your livelihood.

Your job is not connected to your livelihood.

Your job is not connected to your livelihood.

Because if we actually believe that provision and livelihood come from Yahweh Jaira,

then it frees your life from all limits at God's disposal.

You become at God's disposal.

Is there a difference between provision and livelihood?

Yeah, provision is what I might think.

Let me explain what I meant.

Maybe there's no difference.

But provision is what I think I have in terms of money or whatever to help me live life.

Livelihood is what supplies that provision.

That's the way I was looking at it.

So when provision, as in the money that I have and livelihood,

are no longer connected to...

When both come from Yahweh Jaira, then it frees your life from all limits at God's disposal.

So you might say, but I'm not afraid of losing my job.

I'm not afraid of this or that or the other.

The thing is, if this is how I live today, I can drop it today and go wherever God tells me to.

But we are not free like that.

We are afraid. We want to secure things.

I'm not saying be irresponsible.

I'm just saying prepare your mind to think like this.

Prepare your mind to think like this.

This is why I appreciate what Derek did when he first got here.

I remember him getting a job in Toronto.

And he had been jobless for six months or four months or something like that.

Got a job in Toronto. Good job.

Guy had spent money getting educated here.

And as a non-resident, you have to pay much more in terms of tuition and all that.

And I remember having a conversation with him and saying, Derek, you can go to Toronto and you can get that job and you'll do well.

Or you can stay here without a job and you will do better.

And he stayed.

That's when you know what you're connected to.

I remember May 1st, 2001, standing on a balcony in Richmond.

I used to live in Richmond then.

And I just got a job at the province helping the editor do stories and stuff like that.

I was thrilled.

And then I also get a worship leader's job at a church in Vancouver, which pays peanuts.

And I'm thinking to myself, which one?

And here's what it says.

Your work is with your God and your recompense is from him.

And then I thought, there goes the province.

And so I started working where I first began working.

And the Lord said, just so you know, this is me.

I want you to step out to your balcony and look towards the east.

I didn't know which way east was. I was looking the wrong way.

Because it was a bright, sunny day.

And then I looked east and east was Burnaby.

And then I looked east and the clouds have gathered and there's this beautiful rainbow.

I was so sure of what God had said after that.

It didn't matter. It was never a question of going back.

Those are the times you have to figure out where your livelihood and provision comes from.

You don't have to have it before you can be a blessing.

You obey to bless. Remember that, guys.

You don't have to have it. Money is not a...

I've said this many times. Money is not a factor.

It cannot tell me what to do, where to go, when to do it, how I must act, when I can start.

Money must have that ability in my life.

Money must not have the ability.

I hate it when money does that.

Money must not have the ability.

Money becomes alive. It comes alive.

It comes alive and it says, you cannot do this now.

You cannot stop this now.

You have to wait. You will not do this now.

You will not go there now.

You will have to delay it.

When you know inside of you, even without a reymar word, you know inside of you,

everything inside of you is saying, this is the Spirit of God prompting you.

You don't have any promise.

You're looking for signs. You can't get a sign.

But inside you, you know it.

And at that moment, money comes alive and becomes like a real person saying, you will not.

It's a tyrant.

Money is a tyrannical master but a great servant.

When it begins to tell you...

What I hate is when it begins to tell you, you cannot start now.

That's the kind of control this thing has, man.

And then there will be people who come along and say,

it won't be a good idea if you start now.

Remember the last time you started and you just completely failed.

Hey, there's not a single guy on the face of the earth that has not failed with money.

If you're going to throw my failures at me,

hey, I'm as big a target as it comes.

And I'm not talking about my size.

Of course there'll be failures.

But if you're going to throw my failures at me,

hey, I'm as big a target as it comes.

Of course there'll be failures.

You think Jesus didn't fail when he was growing up?

You think he always won every race?

You think he didn't mess up a table or two?

Oops, sorry, this leg is shorter than the last one.

You have to learn carpentry. You make mistakes in carpentry.

We just think that he was born with carpenter skills.

No!

No, I'm not being blasphemous. Don't look at me like that.

You don't have to have money before you start or want to start.

You have to obey to bless.

After having said what I said, you have to obey to bless.

You have to obey to start.

I love what Peter does. Peter doesn't show any faith.

Jesus is the one who's showing faith.

Hey Peter, do sons pay taxes? No.

But these guys are insisting on paying taxes. Yes.

So here's what I want you to do.

I want you to take a fishing rod. I want you to go and catch a fish.

The first fish you catch opens its mouth.

Hey Peter, there's enough money for your taxes and mine.

And he obeys. He obeys. He doesn't show any faith.

He just does what he is told.

He's a fisherman.

Money is almost never about faith.

It is almost always about obedience.

We use faith for money.

Money is always about obeying simple principles,

obeying what you're told.

And that is what breaks the back of the tyrant called money.

Then it becomes a servant.

When you obey the master, money becomes a servant.

When you obey the master, money becomes a servant.

When you do not obey the master, money becomes a master.

And the real master has to wait now.

So what does true stewardship look like?

Or in our case, true financial stewardship?

Because there are lots of financial courses that are doing the rounds in churches.

And they're done by really amazing people.

What does true financial stewardship look like?

It is the ability to be diligent.

It is the ability to be diligent.

How do you define the word diligent?

It's being faithful.

It's being hardworking.

It is being responsible.

It is being faithful with what you've been given in terms of finances.

How to go about it.

Directions.

Find out from the master.

Ability to be diligent.

To take into custody what has been given to you.

Then to transact and multiply.

What God has asked you to be faithful over.

What God has asked you to be faithful over.

For the sake of the kingdom.

For the sake of the kingdom.

For the sake of the church.

For the sake of others.

This is true stewardship.

Whatever you're given.

Are you a businessman?

Are you a pastor?

Are you employed somewhere?

Take your finances and begin to transact and multiply.

And then you're going to be able to do it.

And then you're going to be able to do it.

And then you're going to be able to do it.

And then you're going to be able to do it.

Make money.

And begin to transact and multiply.

Meaning make money.

I love telling businessmen.

What are you doing here sitting and praying?

Go make some money.

Make money.

And then use the money towards the kingdom.

The gospel.

The church.

And the others.

And others.

Use it as in distribute it.

Distribute it.

Distribute it.

So what was I repenting about?

You know what I was repenting about yesterday?

I told Derek this.

I'm finding that most of the things I do, I do well.

Most of the things I do well is not a sacrifice anymore.

Most of the things I do well is not a sacrifice anymore.

Yeah, what I was repenting of is, Father, I might be doing things well.

I might be doing things better than others.

But whatever I'm doing is so easy now.

It's not a sacrifice anymore.

When it's not a sacrifice, something about God, salvation, and people is missing.

If we are to follow a master, our life must be sacrificial.

And I'm finding that my life is no longer sacrificial.

What I do, I do easily.

I do well.

And being completely modest, I do it better than a whole lot of other people.

But it isn't sacrificial anymore.

And therefore, it lacks the quality of Christ.

It lacks salvation.

My mic's going off.

I'm going to change the battery.

I think it's done.

And it's not a prophetic sign that I should stop preaching.

Okay.

Okay.

Any questions?

Okay.

So has your life become more sacrificial with Remy over the last six months?

Because any sacrifice requires a heart that loves more, that gives more, that pulls out more.

Has my life become more sacrificial with you?

Or is it, hey, come over and give you 40 minutes and give you some advice,

and off you go because the next one's coming in?

Is it that I give away?

Is it sacrificial or has it become something I can afford?

2 Corinthians 8 verse 3 to 5 puts it this way.

2 Corinthians 8:3–5

These Philippians, he's talking to the Corinthians about the Philippians.

And he says, these guys, it's such a powerful verse.

It says, 2 Corinthians 8, 3 to 5, for they, as in the Philippians,

gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own accord,

begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.

And this was not what I expected.

And here's what they did.

They first gave themselves to the Lord, and then they gave them of themselves and what they had sacrificially.

And what I'm finding is, and the only reason I'm sharing it is so that you ask the question of yourself.

What I'm finding is, what I do, I don't do, I can afford what I do now.

When you become good at something, when you've done it long enough, you can afford it.

What am I doing sacrificially? Because that's the nature of Christ.

That is the nature of salvation.

I'm not saying this applies to all of you, maybe four of you or five of you, but it definitely applies to me.

What am I doing that is sacrificial?

It is so easy to do things well, do things by the Holy Spirit,

do things godly, and yet it lacks the nature of Christ because it is not sacrificial.

So then the question is, Jacob, in your giving, is your giving sacrificial or is it giving plenty?

Crazy, eh? These are the questions that Jesus would ask.

Is your giving plenty or is your giving sacrificial?

My answer is, my giving is plenty, but it definitely ain't sacrificial.

Sometimes I'm not going to give you that, but there's also, it's not like I'm ignoring it.

It's almost like, I'm not doing sacrifice, I'm doing pain, but it's not that all of these are sacrifices.

Yeah, I totally get it. A sacrifice is painful if I don't delight in it.

And so I can choose my level of delight, and therefore if this is where I want to give, I've stayed here now for very long.

Now God is saying, can you delight more? Can you love more? Can you love me more? Can you love others more?

So that this sacrifice will become delightful too.

When parents sacrifice for their kids, they never say, boy, you're such a pain as I sacrificed.

It's like, it's such a delight. It's very painful, but it's such a delight.

That is how you go about sacrifice. So when Jesus lays down his life, yes, it's a sacrifice, but he does it for the joy that is set before him.

And what was the joy? Pleasing his father and finding us. That was his joy.

And so I can be here and now get so used to it, and it still might be more than a hundred others, but it's gotten to a place where I can afford it.

Now I've got to step into another place of delight and another place of sacrifice.

I keep becoming more and more like Christ. And that's what I was repenting of.

Saying, how putrid is it that I have reached a place now where I can do this with the Holy Spirit, but without the nature of Christ?

Very odd, eh? These things combined, you'd think they wouldn't.

Because I have gotten used to it and it doesn't cost me anything anymore.

It's like David said. It is David. All the land belonged to the king.

Everything in Israel belonged to the king. And he has to offer a burnt offering.

And he says, no, won't do this. It's got to cost me. It's got to cost me.

We teach our children this. At a certain level, the child gives up two dollars to buy his mama a gift. Great.

But at 18, if he's still giving two dollars to buy his mama's gift, hang him upside down.

Pardon? You heard it here first.

Yeah. No, the reason you hang people upside down, there's a very... I mean, it's not just mere torture.

When you hang someone upside down, blood rushes to their head and they think clearly. That's why.

I mean, there's a reason behind it. You thought there was no reason.

When we begin to live like this, guys, a strange thing happens.

You're the one who is responsible. God becomes responsible for you.

God becomes responsible. He is anyways responsible for you.

But as you think you're going to empty yourself, God becomes responsible for your expenses, for your provision, for your needs, wants, desires.

Why? Because he takes on the role of father, king, bridegroom.

When we begin to live like this.

And the treasures on earth, your treasures on earth become moth-proof, theft-proof, rust-proof.

Matthew 6, verse 20 onwards. Because you're beginning to live like the world does not live.

Matthew 6:20

You begin to live the life of another kingdom here on earth in this dark age.

You begin to live the life of the kingdom. Your treasures here on earth become moth-proof, theft-proof and rust-proof.

Meanwhile, you're amassing things in heaven, which faithfulness here translates to faithfulness there.

But we'll talk about that another day. Let me end because we are 1.09.

Dylan asked this question last time. And I just want to end with that.

You save, do you save? Yes, you save to leave an inheritance for your children, spiritual and biological.

That's a new twist, eh? You save to leave an inheritance for your children, spiritual and biological.

That throws the spanner in the works. Sorry son, I'm raising this other guy spiritually. So you're going to get less.

Choose a firstborn. Give him two thirds and give the others one third.

Anyways, next thing is, next thing is, there's always a biblical way out.

Next thing is you save so that you have more to give away. You save so you that you have more to give away without asking God to provide.

You save, so you have more to give away without asking God to supply the needs of others.

You save, so that you have more to give away without asking God to supply the needs of others.

One of the cool things that began some years ago and I don't do it anymore because of different

reasons but I started saving.

You have that thing called, that thing where you can put money?

What's it called?

TFSA.

TFSA, yeah.

So I started saving, started putting it away and I was wondering why God had asked me to

And then he said,

Jigar, why don't you save for three months and then you come and ask me what I want to

do with it.

It was so much fun.

So I'd save in the TFSA and it would grow, it would grow, it would grow.

Sometimes it would be more, sometimes it would be less.

At the end of three months or four months I'd go and ask the father, so what do you

want to do with it?

And sometimes it would be go give it to this person.

Sometimes it would be go on a holiday.

Sometimes it would be go send it to this particular church.

And I would look forward to the end of three months because now I didn't have to ask God

to bless the church with provision.

Now it was, there was provision to give away.

So one of the other reasons you save is so that you actually have real cash to give away.

Here's a statement that I need to write.

The desire for self preservation goes against, this is another thing I had to repent of yesterday,

goes against the grain of Christ and the essence of salvation.

True prosperity gives sacrificially more than I can afford to give away.

And this goes back to Paul's question.

These are the ways you experience the intervention of God.

When it's me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me.

Pretty much, but occasionally you, occasionally you plan for things in the future where God

And then you set aside money for something that he wants you to save for.

Let's say you want to visit your wife once every month.

You'll have to, yeah, yeah.

Okay, once every two months.

Yeah, you'll have to set aside some money for it.

You know, in Bahrain there's this bank.

It's a new bank.

It wasn't there when I was around.

It just started two years ago.

In the Arab world they have these money pots.

They're called hasala.

You don't remember?

I never had money there.

So you have these pots called hasalas or something like that.

I forgot the name.

And so what this bank does is you can go to the bank and decide,

I want to put money aside for my car.

I want to put money aside for my air tickets.

I want to put money aside for my mother-in-law.

And so they actually call those accounts mother-in-law,

this thing and this thing.

And every month the bank will take and put it aside.

It's this very simple system where people begin to save.

It becomes like, instead of putting it in an envelope,

the bank actually does it for you.

The point being there are times when you save because God is asking you to put aside for something.

And then at the end of the day after you put it all aside,

he'll give it to you free and then you can give the money to me.

So it works that way too.

So at the end, terrible, prosperity, God's peddling a gift.

But otherwise you're right, Don.

Almost every other form of saving that looks to preserve my life at the expense of something else

that I know I should do it goes against the grain of Christ

and therefore the essence of salvation.

And there's something else I'm trying to repent of,

that Father, there's so much self-preservation left.

It's prudent to save for retirement.

But now to the prudence.

In the prudence, I have to dig up the word prudence and find if there's any fear there.

If there's any thought that if I don't do this, I won't be taken care of.

Those are the things that worm itself in and they are absolutely worldly, non-godly thoughts.

It comes from this place of absolute fear that once I turn 65, I shall abandon thee.

And it begins to worm itself in and you're scared.

So is it prudent? Yes, but the prudence has to be absolutely fear-free.

And that is where perhaps our struggle is.

Yeah.

Last point.

Okay, let's stop.

Okay, so, oh my God, some people are watching the clock today.

Okay.

All right. Oh yeah, you didn't warn your daughter and grandkids that it goes long?

I think most of the time was taken up by Derek Mohini, Paul, Paul especially, my God, he went on and on.

Okay. Can we end on a sadder note? You're laughing too much.

Let's just repent of anything that we need to repent of.

Father, could you just stick your finger into one of these things that I need to repent of around this room?

Repent is to say, I would like to change in this, so help me God.

Can you give us, can you highlight something for me?

I'm going to put down the mic, Father, we'll leave after this, but can you do it in two minutes? People are getting antsy.