Peace: The First Time- 12.28. 2025 (9AM) - Elder John Swain Jr.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Love Quest International

Church Podcast, where we seek to love all nations, equip the

church, mobilize the equipped, and serve all.

We're super glad you're joining us from whenever and wherever

you're at in the world. Welcome to the family to get

your Bibles ready, get some water, get some coffee, maybe

some tea, and get ready to receive.

It's go time. Let's get into it.

Amen, Amen. Amen.

I I do want to thank you again, pastors, for another opportunity

to share the to share the Word of God.

It's never lost on me the honor and the privilege it is for

God's men and women, anointed and called of God to give you an

opportunity to share with the people of God.

So again, I'm very, very grateful and I'm very, very

thankful for the opportunity. Today's going to be a little

different. Uh oh, I lost my men already

meant down, meant down. Woo, woo.

That's just under that up. Anyway, you can stop, it's going

to be a little different today. And I just warn you ahead of

time because it gives you an opportunity to hear different,

listen differently. Amen, Amen.

So I want today, I want to I'm going to talk about some things

that I can honestly say I've never shared before and I've

never heard preach before. I don't recall the goal of

whenever you have an opportunity to share the word of God is not

just to get something new, it's to share what you believe God

wants people to see, want people to hear.

That's the goal. And if it's the same thing like

you just saw there in the in the in the word, he said be bless

the Lord, be thankful, pray perseveringly and then thank God

again. Sometimes God is in the repeat

business because he's trying to get it across to you and show

you how sincere he is about what he's sharing.

So so it's not always about getting something new.

It's about God. What is you'd have me to share

and it but in the midst of that, in the course of that, I have

discovered some things I have never seen or had not never

heard preached before. It doesn't mean there hadn't

been. I just, I'd never heard it.

So I want to make sure you were clear about that, Right.

So you start Googling and, and all that kind of stuff and

you're like, oh, I found somebody.

OK, good. I'm glad you did.

Now you got to, now you got to, now you got to.

And it is a word and it's and it's one of those words where I

don't, I wasn't even trying to go there.

But once you're there, you can't Unsee what you see.

Does that make sense? You can't unhear what you, what

you, what you've heard. And so with that, as we want to

begin and encourage us today that as we look deep into the

mirror of our souls today, I want to remind us of a key point

which the Holy Spirit declared on Christmas Eve.

It was during that day on Christmas Eve, the day before we

celebrate the birth of our Savior, when our pastor preached

that peace is about a change of government, say change of

government, say again, change of government.

Not a change of feeling, but a change of government.

Although changing from a bad government to a great government

will change how you feel. Amen.

He said that peace was not about an emotional calming, say

emotional calming of circumstance, but a change of

government. When your government change,

then therefore your circumstances change.

A government that sets things in order.

He says the if a government of peace has come to set things in

order, and so when the government comes and sets things

in order, then you can agree with me.

I believe that that a sense of calm comes when things are set

in order. So though it's not about calm,

the peace, the government of peace that comes and set things

in order, you will experience calm.

A mind in order will experience a sense of calm.

A life set in order will bring a sense of calm.

A relationship that's set in order will bring a sense of

calm. But still, peace is about a

change of government, not that emotional sense of calm.

But why is it important? Because you got to know what

peace is in order to walk in it. You got to know what peace is in

order to make sure you're not giving it up unnecessarily.

Now with that at the forefront of our mind, I want, I would

like just to examine this discussion of peace once again.

And I by turning to and reading our text.

Now, don't put a slide up yet, but but I want you to turn to

your text. I got I got my text up here.

What happens when the power goes out?

Does your Bible go off? I do think that God's calling us

to a place in these days where it's important to know the book,

not just know how to search. See when you know the book, you

know more than just what you're looking for.

See to find a chapter, I got to see what's in front of it and

what's behind it. I get a context for more of the

word. There's learning upon learning.

It happens. And so I know I believe God's

calling me too and I'll see, you'll see me in and out again.

This is my conviction, but I believe God is stirring

something and saying make sure you know how to go to the book.

And so in Genesis chapter 14, verse 20, I'm going to read this

Genesis 14:20

out of the the NIV version and it says this and blessed be God

most high who delivered your enemies into your hand.

Then Abram gave him a 10th of everything.

I want you to put that up now. If you're following that, just

read that one more time on the emphasis from the top and praise

be to God, Most high, say most high, who delivered your enemies

into your hand. Then Abram gave him a 10th of

everything. So Abram gave him a 10th of

everything. I wanted to highlight that

particular part. Abram gave him a 10th of

everything. See, now, right now at this

point, some of you might be saying, EJEJ, are you bringing

up tithing because of the New Year's Eve special offering or

because of the remnant offering? The first thing I would say to

you, if that's come to your mind, I would say that that may

be part of it, but it's not the point of what I'm saying.

Second thing I would say to you is that the tithe is giving 10%

of your increase, New Year's Eve giving and the remnant of

special sacrificial offerings that are in addition to or above

the tithe. Now while I do encourage you to

give generously and though an offering even exceeding 100,000

would be an an encouragement to your pastors, it would not bring

them peace because the peace Jesus gave them is not tied to

your giving or to my to my giving.

Yet I am talking about peace, a governmental peace.

So don't lose sight of the purpose and the point.

So the title of the message I want to share with you today is

this peace the first time? Everyone say peace the first

time. Now all of our gap members here,

they know when I do presentations these in gap, I'll

put a slide of a location. They're like, what's that

location? What's that mean?

What that be? So that's a little different

than past. I'm still working on my slide

push ups to catch up with them here in different dimension.

Now I see. So I got AI got I got to get in,

get in the woodshed on my slide game.

But yet and still there's purpose in the illustration

there, and I'll talk about that in a little bit.

Everyone say gate, Everyone say again, peace the first time.

Before going further, let me give you a little context

because context is the frame that brings understanding to the

picture. You always want to know what the

context is or what you're talking about.

In Matthew 624, Jesus states that you cannot serve 2 masters.

You cannot serve God and mammoth or things for you either love

the one and hate the other or hate the one and love the other.

You cannot serve God in mammoth. You cannot serve 2 masters.

So Jesus is letting us know there are two masters and when

he gives that description he's telling you there are only 2

masters. He's saying these two masters

are in somewhat a competition for you and you have to decide.

One of them is Mammon, the other one is God.

You only have a choice between two governments, the government

of God or the government of things, the Kingdom of God or

Mammon, and you have to pick. But understand it's the

government you pick will determine your peace.

If you pick the Kingdom of God, you'll have a Kingdom of God

peace. If you pick mammon as your

government, you'll have a mammon govern peace.

Your pick will determine your peace.

But it's important to understand that Jesus was declaring this

not just in Matthew 624. He was prophesied as the Prince

of Peace. That's government of peace.

At his birth, Angel said peace on earth because the government

of God was at hand, The Kingdom of God was at hand.

And before he died, he said, I give you my peace.

As he was preparing to establish his church, which is the agency

of his government. It's ecclesia, the agency of his

government on earth. The government you choose will

be the government that you live by, and there will be the

government that governs your peace.

So Jesus has been telling us you got to decide what government

you're going to pick because the government you pick will

determine your peace. Jesus always connected those

things, but he not only chose us that we have to choose, but he

also gives us an understanding in that declaring that of what

Abram was doing in Genesis 14. So I want to give a little more

for look for at the context. There were 5 kings or five

governments that are united to take over four other kingdoms.

So five against 4, right? One of the four was Sodom.

Everyone say Sodom. Now Sodom was near the land that

Lot chose from himself in Genesis chapter 13.

Genesis 13 · chapter mention

So we're talking about 14 and but yet just in one chapter

prior, Abraham was saying, listen, man, God has prospered

us so much that our, our, our kingdoms are beginning to beef

with each other, our, our maidservants, our men, servants

beginning to beef with each other.

And Abraham said, I want to pursue peace, say peace.

So Abraham's pursuit of peace begins in chapter 13 and he says

lot, you pick, you look around and whatever land is good, you

pick and you go there and I'll go the opposite way.

That's Genesis 13. So in Genesis 14 we find that

Lot did pick but he picked near Sodom and now he finds himself

carried off into battle a captive when those five

governments came down to attack Sodom and their allies.

Now the word comes back to Abraham or Abram at this time

and he says man your cuz man he got he all caught up and his

family caught up man what you going to do?

Abraham says no worry I'm going to take the people from my house

and lead the fight to go get them.

He's some of the people of his house and also some allies and

he said listen we going to go and do this thing.

So they went and Abraham as one beat back 5.

Maybe you've never been in an unfair fight where you felt you

was our number 5 to 1. Maybe you've never been in a

place where you thought you was losing your mind and you were

trying to figure out how to stay sane, to get to the next minute,

not just to the next hour. To know that Abraham came and he

beat back five with just his one tells you something about who he

is and what God's doing in his life.

Now. When that happens, he begins to

come back, say, come back from the victory.

And on his way back from the victory, Abraham is in the

Valley of the Kings. That's that picture the Valley

of the Kings. He's in that space.

He's on his way back from the battle, passing just outside of

Jerusalem in this place called the Valley of the Kings.

Now in that Valley of the Kings, the king of Sodom goes out to

meet Abraham. But before he does, before he

can connect with Abraham, we see the first mention of peace in

the Bible. This is the first mention of

peace in the Bible. Now it's important to understand

something about the law of first mention.

OK, everyone say law of first mention.

Put your finger up to the forehead like this.

Say law of first mention. See how much more smarter you

look when you I can law first mention.

I know what that means, right? The law first mention is a basic

principle to states. When something is first

mentioned in the Bible, it becomes the foundation for

understanding it all throughout the rest of the Bible, the law

first mentioned. So whenever you're studying

something from Scripture, go back to when it was first

mentioned and you'll learn some things about its foundation that

applicable to every other mention.

Everyone say law first mentioned.

Now Abraham encounters Melchizedek, he's the king of

Salem, the king of righteousness and priest of God Most High.

So there's 2 kings in that valley, Sodom, king of Sodom and

Melchizedek. Now Salem means peace.

That's the first mention of peace in the Bible.

Peace right there, Melchizedek, King of Peace, King of

Righteousness, and priest of Most High God, Salem means

peace. So he is a gut.

So he's the governor of peace from the Kingdom of peace.

This is the first mention of peace in the Bible and it's

connected with government. The king of peace, the

government of peace is here. So you see this connection

between government and peace that's there.

Now, Sodom also represents something, but it represents

more than just sexual sin or violence.

People may know of some of those references.

Ezekiel 616 says this. Ezekiel 16 compares the sin of

Jerusalem and her sister's sister, Sodom.

So you put that King James version of that verse up there.

If you got that, I want to go through a few versions of this

so you can kind of see what it is.

I'm going to go ahead. I got them written down here.

So I'll begin to go ahead and work with them and they'll get

them up there when they can. So in Ezekiel 16 it says this,

look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom.

So the Spirit of the Lord is speaking to Jerusalem, but

talking about her sister Sodom. She and her, she and her

daughter had pride. Sodom had pride, fullness of

food, and abundance of idleness. Neither did she strengthen the

hand of the poor needy. And they were haughty, puffed up

and committed abomination before me.

Therefore I took them away as I saw fit.

So we see if Sodom had another problem.

And the NIV says this. Now this was the sin of your

sister Sodom. She and her daughters were

arrogant, say arrogant, overfed, say overfed and unconcerned.

They was unbothered and they did not help the poor and needy.

They were Hardy and detestable things before me.

Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

Now I think it's important to understand order here because

what that translation says is that they were arrogant or

prideful, overfed and unconcerned.

That being full of themselves kept them from reaching out to

help those that were in need. More focused on their own

bellies than what God was doing. More focused on their own

comforts than what God was doing and what God needed to be done.

But notice how that being content in your own comforts

leads you to a place of not only hardiness, but being idle and

doing detestable things. Living life out of your own

comforts will eventually lead you to a place of pridefulness

and lead you to a place of doing some detestable things.

There's a sequence here. In the AMPC version, it says

this. Behold, this was the iniquity of

your sister Sodom. Pride over abundance of food.

Prosperous ease. Prosperous ease and idleness

were hers and her daughters. Neither did they strengthen the

hand of the poor and needy. What that is also suggests is

this, that God doesn't mind you prospering, but what are you

doing with your prosperity? What are you doing with it?

What we see here, God is saying part of Sodom's sin is that they

got enough and they keeping it for themselves.

They got enough in keeping it for their own agendas, for their

own goals, for their own lives, for their own imaginations.

It sounds like Sodom is a lot like Mammon to me.

So now that you got these two in the valley, you got the Kingdom

of God and you got the king of Mammon.

Now Abraham got to make a choice.

Who's he going to commit to? Abraham chose which government

he was going to line with everyone, say but God.

See, you have to understand, Mammon came to talk to Abraham

before he had an opportunity to choose peace.

Mammon was on his way to master Abraham.

Abraham in that valley. But before Mammon could get

there, peace intervened. Before he could get there,

Melchizedek showed up and said, let me tell you about the

government that they're not going to tell you about.

Let me tell you about the peace that that stuff is not going to

get to you. So God sent his peace.

Before all of those things, Abraham encounters peace 1st and

he knows he has a choice to make, and he understands that

his choice not only reflects on him, but reflects on his God.

And that's where we find him in Genesis 14.

Genesis 14 starting at verse 18 says this.

The Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine.

Everyone say covenant. He was the priest of God Most

High, said Most God Most High, and he blessed him and said,

Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and

earth, and blessed be God Most High, who was delivered, who has

delivered your enemies into your hand, And he gave him a tenth of

all. Hebrews 7 says that the greater

does the blessing and the lesser receives the blessing.

So Melchizedek is greater by definition of Hebrews.

Melchizedek is greater. Peace is greater.

Though Abrams decided to respond to Melchizedek's blessing,

respond to Melchizedek's covenant demonstration of peace

with a tithe. He understood that peace is

better and more important than my tithe.

Peace is greater. Peace can get me something that

my stuff can't get me. Now, some translations will say

this, that Abraham intended to tithe all that he had won in the

battle. I don't know that that was

really the case because as I look at the context of it,

Abraham said this when Sodom showed up.

I don't want none of what you got, Sodom.

I don't need that to survive. I don't need you thinking you

control and dictate my life. And I don't want anybody to say

that to God. Who blessed me was confused with

what you did for me. He saw him and he had to make

that decision in that moment and he had to make that decision

knowing it was going to impact him and impact his people,

impact everyone else. Now again, it says that he maybe

he was going to give a ties with all the stuff that he brought

out. I'm going to tell you, I don't

think that's the case. You know why?

Because when he told Sodom I don't need your stuff, why would

he keep the other people's stuff?

If you got more than silent memory there was 4 right?

So he brought back 4 kingdoms stuff, not just Sodoms.

If he says that Sodom not going to keep your stuff, I don't want

to twist it that thinking you prospered me and made me rich

instead of God. Why would he keep the stuff from

the other three? And if you wouldn't keep the

stuff from the other three, he wouldn't give a tithe from this

stuff for the other 3. So when he's talking about

giving a tithe, I think there's a case to be made.

He's talking about his stuff, not what he brought back.

So when he says he's going to give you a tithe of all, what

he's saying is I'm going to give you a tithe of all that I have,

not what I've captured, which is far exceeds what he brought back

from those other kingdoms. Abraham's peace, Abraham's

response to peace, his way of anchoring in peace.

Now remember the law first mentioned the 1st and primary

way of anchoring into that governor of peace Abraham felt

was by what? Tithing.

Now you ain't trying to see that, but when you see it, you

can't Unsee it. The first time peace is

mentioned and conveyed. Abraham's response to peace is I

want to give a 10th of everything I have because I'm

grateful for the God that brought me out to me.

That was, I suggest biblically that some place, somewhere, your

peace is going to be connected to your pocketbook.

Your peace is going to be connected to whether you're

serving God or you're serving Mammon.

You can't run from it. And too often that's what we

want to do. We want to deal with that last,

not first. When in the Bible, the 1st

place, it was dealt with when peace showed up, not the last

place. Because his heart was anchored

in peace, he could say no to Mammon.

He could say no, I don't want the things that come with

Sodom's gift. And because Melchizedek, the

king of righteousness, had made a covenant blessing of peace, a

Bible peace, he established that peace means completeness and

wholeness. The word peace doesn't mean

sense of calm. It means wholeness.

It means safety, it means protection.

So when the king of Salem shows up, the king who is able to

bring wholeness to your life shows up.

The king was able to bring safety and protection to your

life shows up. Peace is about bringing

wholeness to your life, not an emotional change or transfer.

Peace is bigger than your pocketbook.

It's about your whole life that God has given and the whole life

that God is dealing with and demonstrating with you in.

I want to go to 2nd Corinthians 96 through 15 in the AMPC

because I think when you understand this peace, then you

understand what this is saying. If peace means wholeness, if

peace means complete in every error in every way, if peace

means nothing missing, nothing broken, nothing that's there,

then I think that Second Corinthians 96 says it also in a

different sort of way. And I just want to share that.

And when you understand this connection to peace, then you

understand this verse. It's not a get me rich verse,

it's a get me peace verse. It says this.

Remember this, He who so sparingly and grudgingly will

also reap sparingly and grudgingly, and he who sows

generously that blessings may come to someone will also reap

generously and with blessing. God is more interested in the

character of your heart and the intent of your attitude than He

is what you have in your hand. Remember, Abram came back after

victory, though he knew God was on his side.

Whenever you go to battle, you know lives can be lost.

He was grateful not only that his life was spared, grateful

that it's all of the people he took with him was spared.

Grateful that Lot's life was spared, grateful that he had a

victory to bring these other folks back.

He was grateful to God in so many ways beyond just what

happened in his own life. That's what you see.

That's that attitude of gratitude that bubbled up when

peace showed up. It's amazing how peace prompts

gratitude, doesn't it? Let each one give as he's

made-up in his own mind and purpose in his heart, not

reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion.

You choose. Now, if it's important to

recognize this, Melchizedek didn't say, Abraham, pay me,

boy. Melchizedek saw Abram and said,

man, I just want to bless you. I want to bless you.

I want to release a blessing on you.

He didn't ask for anything back. Now, how do you know why?

Why do you think he was sent? Because his relationship with

God went way before that battle. And the guy who started the

relationship saw him in that moment and said, you know, I

want to send peace your way in a greater measure so it's not

under compulsion. He was not forced to give

anything. He wasn't asked to give

anything. He wasn't pulled, but he had an

opportunity to respond to peace with gratitude.

And for him that meant a 10th of things that he had.

For God loves. He takes pleasure in prizes

above other things and is unwilling to abandon or to do

without a cheerful giver whose heart is in his giving.

Next. And this is the part right here

that's really critical. This is the peace part right

here. And God is able to make all

grace, every favor and earthly blessing come to you in

abundance. He says, you may give money

cheerfully, but I'm going to make all grace abound towards

you in abundance. You may give this in this way,

but I'm going to make all grace abound towards you in abundance.

He says I'm going to make all grace.

What does that mean? Let me tell you what all grace

is. There's a young man here.

I told his testimony. Hopefully you don't mind me

telling it again. He was on his way to prayer

meeting. He and his lovely wife just

married in the car. Something happened to him and he

lost conscience at the wheel on 200 St. and the car went from

one side of 200 St. crossed the lanes of 200 direction, went

into the other lanes on 200 St. in the opposite direction,

cleared those lanes, went to the side of the road where there was

post and pillars and bridge overpasses.

Cleared those wind up in a ditch.

You know what you call that you call that all grace.

That's what all grace gets you. God wants us to understand all

grace is what he's after in our lives.

See this peace allows us to walk in all grace and God is able to

make all grace an abundance to that you made keep going always

and under all circumstances and whatever the need.

That sounds like peace. Nothing missing, nothing broken,

always enough, complete hole in every area in every way.

What he's saying is this. It's your joy that gives me

delight even more than the gift of your hand.

It's the gratitude and the Thanksgiving you come to me

with. To think that all I did was come

and bless you with peace. And your response was Daddy, I'm

so grateful for what you've done.

I'm so grateful for what you've taken me.

I'm so grateful for how you've delivered me Dad.

I can't do what for you what I want to, but I'll give you a

10th of everything that I have. No, it's not even a token

compared to what you've done to me.

I want to make it clear. Keep going because another part

of supporting furnishing abundance for every good work

and charitable Nate donation. That's how Abraham was able to

have the resources to go rescue his brother lot, his cousin lot

keep going and it's written he the benevolent person scatters

abroad. He gives to his poor his his

deeds of justice and goodness and kindness and the benevolence

will go on and do it forever. And God provides seed to the

sower and bread for eating will also provide and multiply your

resources for sowing. And here's the key and increase

the fruits of your righteousness.

See God's not stupid. How many y'all know sometimes

you tell a youngster, hey, if you take out the garbage, I'll

give you allowance money, you'll incentivize and do what's right

by showing them there's increase connected to it.

God is after the increase of your righteousness more than

anything else. He said I'll give you all of

those things, but also will increase the fruits of your

righteousness as well. Keep going.

Thus you will be enriched in all things and in every way so you

can be generous your your generosity as it is administered

by us. We'll bring forth Thanksgiving

to God. Go back to Pastor Terence talked

about there's a Thanksgiving loop that happens.

Peace begins a Thanksgiving loop.

It begins a Thanksgiving loop and you begin to get thankful

and grateful because you understand I'm whole.

God is taking care of me. God, I'm grateful.

I share my words with you. I share my tears with you.

I share my resources with you. I share my life with you because

I'm grateful. And The thing is, you think

you're tithing. It's just about the money.

It's just about the work that's done.

Yes, it's about that. But this is what God is saying.

Your commitment to respond to that peace through that grace of

giving will cause other folks to begin to give thanks unto God.

And when people begin to give thanks unto God, they begin to

recognize the goodness of God. And the Bible says it's the

goodness of God that least meant to repent, not how much you talk

ugly about them. It's them getting the revelation

of God's goodness. And when someone says you don't

even know me, but you sold for me, you built for me you, You

did that for me. I wasn't even here and you did

it for me. How could I not begin to thank

God that he would have people thinking about me that knew

nothing of me? Your giving starts a gratitude,

Luke, and I want to say this very clearly, Abram didn't buy

peace. To buy peace is to say you paid

for something that you didn't have.

It also suggests you can only get as much as the money you put

down. So remember the law first

mentioned, the king of peace gave the blessing for nothing.

He didn't buy it. He already had it when he

decided to give. He gave from peace, not to get

it and without. And the king of peace gave him

that without asking for anything in return.

Abram gave from peace not to get it.

He gave from gratitude, not greed.

He came from victory. He had already won the battle.

He's on his way home. He didn't have to give for

victory. He gave from victory in

response. And Jesus did the same.

Pastor talked about this as the anchor for the Scripture and the

and and and the and the and the the series.

Jesus says this, I give you my peace.

Jesus gave us his peace. Jesus gave you his peace before

you ever gave him anything. You can't.

But his peace is not for sale. So don't think I'm saying that

God is saying purchase peace through your money that you

give. He's already giving you the

peace. Jesus says it this way.

He gives you way more. I already mentioned it in the

verse. You gave $2.00.

He gave you all grace. You gave God, I thank you, and

he gave you all grace. It says if you so cheerfully, He

didn't say just so money. You saw the praise when your

pockets were empty, and you did it cheerfully because you were

grateful for your life. And God made all grace abound

towards you. You never get what you quote UN

quote pay for in giving to the Lord.

He always gives you his all. That's why when your heart is in

your giving, your penny becomes an all your $10 becomes an all.

We can give different things. But when his heart is in his

giving the same way her heart is in his giving and his heart is

an all is in his giving. What we have to just talked

about at the top of the thing that deep Thanksgiving from down

here with deep within you. When all of our hearts are in

all of our giving, then God's able to make all grace abounding

you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,

you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you.

And it reminds me of that verse when Jesus talks about the

parable of the master went out to the marketplace and he cut a

deal with the first set of guys and he said, OK, 100 bucks, 1000

bucks for the day. And he went out every three

hours after that same master all the way up until right before

the end of the day. And the people that he hired at

the end of the day got the same as the people he hired at the

beginning of the day. You know why he said in the

parable, don't be mad at me because I'm generous.

That's another way for saying grace.

Don't be mad at me because I'm a God of all grace.

Don't be mad at me that I'm going to pour out all grace to

you no matter what, whether you give different than what He

gives. All I'm looking for is your

heart to be in it. I'm looking for your

cheerfulness to be in it. I'm looking for your joy to be

in it. God is saying to us that peace

is a change of government. It is and the law first

mentioned from the scripture. So that's why I got the title

peace the first time. Think about what peace means the

first time you see it. Think about what peace involves.

The first time it's mentioned that God is saying to us that

peace does involve a change of government.

It does, but not one you can buy and pay for.

But also understand there's a response and gratitude that you

can be moved to give again, I want to point this out.

How is it, do you think he was able to say so strongly to the

king of Sodom afterwards? And the King of Sodom says you

keep it all. And he said, I don't want none

of it. You know why?

Because his heart was already anchored in the Kingdom of peace

through the gift that he gave that prepared him to be able to

reject the things that will steal his peace.

Scripture says this way. Wherever a man's treasure is,

that's where his heart will follow.

God gave Abram peace without him asking for it.

God sent the government of peace to Abram's behalf out.

I'm not calling for it. Abram was smart enough to anchor

his heart in that government through his giving.

He was smart enough to say, I'm going to put my heart there and

I'm going to choose that that Kingdom and that government.

Now I want to give you a little bit of epilogue.

I want to say epilogue how y'all like stuff that comes after the

credits. What comes the shortly after

that is Abram cries out to God and says, God, I'm a wealthy

man, you bless me so much, but I don't have an air.

I don't have anybody to give it to.

I got God. I'm missing something that money

cannot buy. And that same God of all peace

who met him in that valley, he says, don't worry man, I got

hold this for that too. And that's where you cut a

covenant to give Abram something that his heart ached for that he

could not find from any place in the earth, could not get from

anywhere in the earth. That is what it means to be a

God of all grace and responding to you.

God knew and Abraham knew. So I just want to take a moment

here to just kind of seal up what we've been sharing here.

A message like this is there's competition for it because the

Master of Mammon is trying to master you even as you're

hearing it, trying to master your hearing, your attitude,

your perceptions, your whatever it is.

But understand, your God understands that the peace that

Mammon brings you will never be the peace you're seeking.

And he's trying to make sure your heart is anchored in his

government so you can receive the peace that he has to give.

Not that he not that he wouldn't give it to you anyway, but when

your heart is anchored in his government and his peace, you're

less likely to give it up when temptation comes.

Let's pray, Father, we thank you, bless, you're the God of

all peace. Thank you're the God of all

grace. We thank you, Lord, we thank

you, Lord God, we thank you. Let's begin to thank the Lord.

That's that's where it begins with Thanksgiving.

Thank, thank God, whatever you have to thank God for.

If you have life, if you got a marriage, if you got family, if

you got kids, if you got your limbs, if you just made it here

today. I know there's a couple here

that's thanking God they made it here today because they know

what that means and they don't take that for granted.

God, we thank you, we thank you. God, we thank you, we thank you,

We thank you for all that you've done and all that you're doing.

And we're so grateful, Lord God, that you have given us peace

that surpasses all understanding.

And more than a feeling, more than a calm, God, you've given

us a government to sustain us, a government of peace.

And we give ourselves to that government of peace.

O Lord, we give ourselves to that government of peace.

And Father, we thank you, God, that you demonstrate to us that

one of the ways that I've, that our grandfather Abraham

committed himself in that was through that giving of that tie.

And so, Father, we allow your grace to flood our hearts and

your gratitude to so well up within us so that we too shall

respond and can respond like our grandfather Abraham.

And we say God will give you a tenth of all.

You didn't say of all of my stuff a tenth of all I'll give

you praise, I'll give you joy, I'll give you life.

I'll give you time God, I give you a tenth of all that I have

and we thank you father that are not responding accordingly.

God more than whatever that money would bring the grace that

brings the peace of God. We so long for is going to visit

us. We thank you for that Lord in

Jesus name, Amen, Amen, Amen Amen.

Give God a hand clap. You know, God, God will give us

missing keys and ingredients for things.

And I want to make sure it's clear that's not the only way of

accessing God's peace, but it's often one that people will

overlook intentionally. And I want to tell you this, if

you want to be a tireder, you can be a tireder today.

All you got to do is make a decision you want and watch the

God of our grace back you up on it.

But you don't have to wait till the resource comes on the 30th.

You can start titling on the first because it's about grace

and gratitude more than the check you cut.

I want to tell you, you have an opportunity to give and practice

this and activate this very thing with myths of our year end

giving New Year's Eve. I mentioned it earlier, there'll

be an opportunity for some sacrificial giving on New Year's

Eve as well as our remnant campaign is, is we're going

through the ribbon on that. You have an opportunity to give

generously in that as well. I encourage you to take this

word, listen to it, go through it, pray about it.

Let God touch and minister to your heart on it.

And then as he does, just respond according to the way the

God of our grace leads you to respond and according to it.

And believe me, you'll find yourself being more generous

than you ever thought. But I will tell you this, you

will have to make the decision to be generous just the same way

Abram had to make the decision not only to tithe, but to say no

to that which was seeking to steal from him.

He had to make the decision. So I encourage you today take

advantage of these last of year and opportunities to give some

of the biggest, most generous gifts you have out of the

biggest and generous gratitude that you have for the Lord and

watch him make all grace abound towards you in every area and in

every way. Amen.

There are some ways to give here.

At the end of our time together, you'll be able to step out and

and do your giving there. Thank you.

Appreciate you for for really listening to this message.

And God is trying to I can't some things in my spirit, I

can't. I'm not, I'm not privileged to

share, but God is trying to help his people now before the help.

It's too late. Amen.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you pastor, for allowing

me to share a message like this. I appreciate you.

Hey man, you guys could do better than that.

Thank you EJ really quickly for your keep your phones out or

your notebooks out. If you haven't had it out, bring

it out as the as the pastor of this church, I get AI get the

unique opportunity to come up and I have a responsibility to

also clarify. I have a responsibility to to

after, after people share an opportunity to also fill in some

areas where I could discern where people may either miss it,

maybe wasn't paying attention, or here's the more important

one. They're not really Bible

readers. So the message like this, if you

actually aren't a Bible reader, there's so much you miss because

you're hearing stuff not only for the first time, but you also

have no foundation to connect what he's saying to the nature

of God, right? And so I'm going to give you a

couple things, which I think is is very important.

Again, thank you, Elder John, for being courageous enough.

People wouldn't look at a message like that as courageous,

but that's very courageous to speak on that.

I got a few announcements, but I just want to read a couple

things to you. You could, you could, you could

take a break if you heard it or not.

The tie is connected to governing.

That's very important because you can shout about peace and

actually miss this key component to activating peace.

Because he says that your treasure is where your heart is.

Where is peace governed in my heart?

So it's it. It needs to be understood that

if your heart and treasure is in the world, he mentioned this,

then your peace is governed by the world.

This is very important. I've been there, done that.

I've I've been a Christian and not tithe.

I've been a Christian and had excuses why not tithe in.

I've been a Christian who didn't tithe because of what somebody

else owed me. Your tithe has nothing to do

with what others give you. It has everything to do with

what God does. You get what I'm saying?

I've had people watch this tithe where they prefer, but not in

the storehouse. So you like, I'm going to give

my tithe to the YMCA. That's not where he says put the

tithe. The storehouse is your church

home. It's very important.

So you don't, you don't get, you can give wherever you want to

give, but you don't get to say the tithe.

I'm tithing when I give to the charity down the street.

Watch this. You don't even tithe 20%.

You tithe 10. It's a tenth, not a twent.

It's very important because some people will braggadociously say

I tied 30% tithe 30 don't even go together and you robbing

yourself because I tied 10% and I went 20% above and beyond.

So you don't get the tithe where you want to.

Biblically you tithe at the storehouse he has called you to

and he's feeding you from watch this you you tithe to your

favorite evangelist on YouTube but not your church.

You're not biblically tithing. OK can you just turn that heater

off for like 5 minutes? Thank you so much.

Tithing is the hinges of heaven's economy.

You have to understand that. And faith is heaven's currency.

Tithing is the hinges of heaven's economy.

So when we tithe, it connects us to something that's already

rewarded. It's already fruitful.

You know, right now people are putting money into certain

stocks. They're partnering with

companies. When you tithe, you partner with

heaven's economy and heaven's economy.

The currency of it is faith. Money is the currency of the

world. The world buys and sells.

That's the economy. Heaven's economy.

We sow and reap two different economies.

So even peace is transaction by faith.

Very important. This parallel that Elder John

gave us that if you don't read your words, you don't even know

it's a parallel and you may get lost.

He mentioned 2 governments, say 2 governments, right?

There's a scripture in Matthew 6.

It says you can't serve 2 masters, which which is the

masters God and what Mammon? Then he brought you to to to

Abraham. But the king was Melchizedek.

And then there was the king of Sodom, correct?

What Lot came to a point and Abraham, they both were

prospering. Lot said I'm gonna go where the

grass is greener world economy, Sodom, Gomorrah had a different

king. Abraham said cool, I'm gonna go

over here. Who did Abraham encounter?

King Melchizedek. He mentioned peace here, right?

So you have two different economies.

You got Abraham and Lot, you got Melchizedek, Embarra, you have

God and Mammon, you have Salem and you have Sodom.

If you're not reading your word, they all disjointed and you

don't actually see how Jesus is pointing to the tithe in the New

Testament from the beginning. Then you go to Matthew 6 or you

go to Matthew, I think it's 20. He tells the scribe, you

scribes, you tithe, you tithe with your men and you tithe, but

you don't. Do you know?

No faithfulness, no love. So tithe is a part of the New

Testament, but we're tithing under grace, so you don't have

to. But all these things that you're

trying to tie your fruitfulness to in the world, remember,

you're tying them to a worldly economy.

Watch this. The world does not take account

of the future of the world when you sow into the Kingdom of God.

It takes account of not just your life, but every generation

in your bloodline. So you don't understand when you

don't tithe, you don't cover your children, right?

I know I'm living off of I could not be in Canada if my Mama and

my grandma didn't tithe when I was little.

So you don't realize that when you're tired, not tithing,

you're robbing future generations.

Matthew 623 can you put it up? This is pastoral because I think

God has been trying. I cannot wait till New Year's

Eve message to give you the word for 2026 boy.

And I look back and I'm like God because I'm not the person.

I I didn't plan New Year's Eve message seven months ago, so I

didn't have this series. I'd never planned the year of

sermons. It's just kind of led as we go

and I look back and I'm like, whoa, you've been setting us up.

God is about to do something so significant in this next year.

So you don't tithe where you prefer.

Why it it makes sense to go and give into famine that don't make

sense. But if God said do it, guess

what? It don't need to make sense.

Here it is. But if you're at no verse, do do

do. But if your eyes unsound your

whole body, go to verse 22. Yeah, we'll start there.

The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your

entire body will be full of light first.

Yeah. But if your eye is unsound, your

whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the very light in your in you, your conscience is

darkened, how dense is that darkness?

No one can serve 2 masters. Whoa.

How we go from there to there? He's he's talking if you go back

to the light, he's talking about peace, he's talking about this.

This inner man. He goes on and no one can serve

2 masters. For either he will hate the one

and love the other or he will watch this.

The fact that you cringe during offering compels speaks to which

one you serve. Light on the inside, the master

on the inside is opposing the master you're hearing about.

For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will

stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against

the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon

deceitful riches, money, possessions, or whatever is

trusted in. Watch this boom.

Keep going. Therefore I tell you, stop being

perpetually uneasy and anxious. Worried.

He goes from giving to peace. The fact that you don't trust

God contributes to why you struggle with keeping peace.

Your anxiety is connected to your lack of trusting God.

It's a government. When you're not just trusting

this this higher power, you're trusting the Prince of Peace.

If you don't trust God, you don't trust the Prince of Peace.

If you don't trust the Prince of Peace, then just lay out the red

carpet for worry and anxiety and you probably just thought you

inherited worry. Guess what?

You probably did because your Mama didn't trust God.

If you are going to be the interruption in mental health or

mental illness or anxiety or worry or depression in your

bloodline, it's no way. If you don't trust God and his

economy, it's no way. And so look, go do what you want

to do, sow where you want to sow.

I promise you, the world that we sow into every day, it will fail

you, Marty, you can write it. This is not even prophecy.

This is just written word. The world is doing this.

And watch this at least once a day we sow into an Antichrist

company. Don't let me mess with your

coffee. I don't like that coffee anyway,

man. I'm not saying be deep.

I'm not saying don't go to Starbucks.

I mean, I'm not I'm not, I'm not saying don't go to I'm just

saying if you just right and they're bowl with the with the

logo. We just think it's a cute Little

Mermaid on there. We we don't, we don't, we don't

care what it is, but once a day we sow into something that is

not advancing the Kingdom of God.

So guess what, when we're church that don't sow no, we can't

start our own coffee companies. We can't start our own

businesses so that when the world begins to funnel watch

this wealth transfer does not happen because God's going going

to kill all the wealthy people who don't believe in him and

give us money. No, we have to create funnels

for him to give in to wealth transfers because the church is

now prospering. They're building studios and

gyms and spas and, and all these things that belong to the Lord.

And if God has blessed you with a company and you don't tie it

from that, guess what? Then the, the, the, the source

that you serve, you're limited. You're prospering is limited to

your clientele, not the Kingdom of God.

And so I appreciate you, Elder John, for being courageous and

bold. Write this down, Proverbs 420

through 23. Tithing is also a protection

system. You're tapping into the the the

security of heaven. Amen.

They say guard your heart for out of it flows the itches like

so security. I I don't even think I told my

kids this, but being my wife was driving week ago, two weeks ago,

we took the long route home. For some reason, I think I just

want to spend more time with her and keep keep laughing and

talking to her and look at her. But we drive in and there's a

there's a yellow light. It's not orange yet.

It's yellow, right? It's in between green and yellow

and we're coming. I'm going straight, but there's

a turn that's available. Yellow big old truck.

I, I, I don't really accelerate. I just don't decelerate, but the

trucks accelerates. He hits the gas and he turns and

I'm, I'm one hand driving and we are coming on head on.

It's like a week and a half ago we coming on head on and I just

remember like mind you, head on him hitting the gas, not him

slowing down and we both hit our brakes and I slide across the

intersection. But man, I'm telling you it, it,

it was it was so beautiful how I hit the intersection.

The peace of God hit me like I kid you not, one hand, other

hand is on the door and I hit my brakes one hand and we slide

into the intersection. My wife didn't, She didn't grab

the steering wheel. The man hit his brakes.

I kid you not. He comes here and I just, I

scanned. It felt like slow.

I scanned and I saw a little pocket over here and I just

turned the wheel and we ended up and it's just a little pocket

right here, Smooth little pocket.

I saw the lady right here as I was turning.

She was like, what? The.

And then I looked at her, she looked at me.

The guy kept driving. He went over here, he's getting

ready to stop to see if we was OK.

I was like, we cool bro, I'm out.

And we just drove home. I kid you not.

It was just that smooth. We just, we just kept going and

we looked at each other was like, wow, like the peace of

God. Like we could have just that

could have been a phone call to our kids, could have been a

phone call to my mom and Christmas would be different.

Could have been a phone call to Love Quest.

Christmas would be different. And we go home and we're out of

it. And then I walk in the house and

I start feeling my legs shaking. I was like, but your body still

knows you went through something.

But understand the peace of God overrides the natural right.

It in the car wasn't time to be shaky and nervous.

No, we actually laughed on the way home.

We didn't have to get no reports or nothing.

But when we're talking about the protection of God, the grace of

God, all grace, all grace, supernatural peace that

surpasses my wife should have grabbed the steering wheel.

She should have. She should have panicked and

many people do. I should have.

I should have grabbed the steering wheel with both hands.

But I kid you not, it just happened in slow MO.

I didn't, I wasn't like, Oh my God, watch this.

I just see my life flash before my eyes and we looked at each

other like crazy. Huh.

I can give you testimony after testimony.

Top of the year, we're going to have the ties challenge.

We're going to do things to give our church an opportunity to be

a generous people. We're going to have sacrificial

Sundays, every first Sunday watch this.

It wasn't PT one of the elders came to me and it wasn't EJ and

it wasn't E raw and they said we should do sacrificial.

We should once a month. We should make it forget all

this special giving where we're training people.

We only give big or special when there's like something to do

versus like every month God finds it special to wake you up

and protect you. So why are we so event based in

our giving or project? Why is generosity connected to

projects? So every first Sunday we're

going to give our church opportunity gives above and

beyond. We going to take communion.

We going, we going, we going to do it.

And so the end of the year, you have an opportunity to give.

I don't know what our family is going to give.

I know our family is going to give our biggest seed that we've

given this year. I don't know how.

Don't you know PT? Because I'm not stopped.

I haven't stopped listening. Most of us have figured out what

we going to give based on our budget.

God might say, OK, now you figured out your budget.

That's good. Now I needed you to figure out

what your budget was so we can go above that. 2026 for the

Richmond family going to be the most prosperous year for real

our family have ever seen. But it's not going to because

it's just just God just going to choose.

No, we tapping into something. OK New Year's Eve, be here to

receive the word and align yourself with 2026.

Write this down. January 6th through the 26th

will be our 21 day fast. That's why I'm telling you now

so you can be prepared. 21 day fast.

January 6th through the 26th, Worship and prayer every

evening. January 19th through the 26th.

OK for one week we will close the fast out meeting every

evening so put it on your calendar.

This will be the most organized year in Love Quest history.

I'm thank God we've established a church where the people don't

control it, the Holy Spirit does.

So now we are going to bring some order to some things so God

can expand the foundations. OK, got that.

And then Love Quest international worship.

There was some technical difficulties this week if you

pre save, but here's a beautiful chance to pre save home with

him. This is Love Quest's rendition

of some old hymns. And we did our thing.

We put some sauce on it. Amen.

So it should be out any day now, but you get a chance to go pre

save it now in the back. We got some end of the year

merch for you. If you go, go check that out.

It is 30% off. Lord Jesus, help us.

You know what? You know what you you see, see

every single seed that goes sit, man, I thought I was trying to

get some. I'm trying to get some. 100% of

the finances that go to that table is going to go to the

remnant. No, no, no, no, no, I don't.

I don't even need an applause. I didn't do nothing.

God did something, but I'm just saying I'm being I'm just like,

I was just sitting there because I was like, OK, we can only do

some entity your money 30% off. And Lord said, yeah, I'm glad

you figured out 30% off. Now you going so that to me, I'm

not mad. I'm just listening.

So every seed, every hat, every sticker, every hoodie, every

book, 100% it goes to end the year.

Lord, you stand to your feet. People, please.

Hallelujah. Yes.

Next experience we will hear a word from heaven, from Elder

Brett. I cannot await.

Lord, we thank you for a generous people.

Lord, Lord, you're going to build your church.

You're going to get us in that building.

You're going to bring in every resource we need above and

beyond. You're going to be the source of

overflow. Lord, there's no better deal in

the world. Then you give us 100% and then

give us an opportunity to give 10%.

And then after you give us a hundred and we give you 10, you

going to blow that up? Press down, shaken together.

You going to cause men to give into our bosom?

There's no deal in the world like that.

The world will not give us 100. Just ask for 10 so you can

multiply it. So we say, God, you have the

greatest economy, it never fails.

You have the greatest peace, it never fails.

You have the greatest joy, the greatest faith, the greatest

hope. Lord, your fruit never fails.

Matter of fact, Psalm tells us that we can be fruitful in every

season, no matter what. So we thank you when we tithe

and when we give. Lord, we are tapping in, we are

partnering, we are tethering. Father, we are in covenant with

an unfailing economy, unfailing Kingdom.

Lord, replenish. Elder John, replenish his

family, replenish his wife for praying for him in the middle of

the night as he receives a word. Lord, bless the Swain legacy in

the name of Jesus. Lord God, we thank you for your

servants, that as they have prepared the word, we prepare

our hearts. Lord, as they sow as farmers, we

receive as soil. Lord God, I declare there will

not be a word that was sown in 2025 that will be lost.

Lord God, we rebuke the divide power in the name of Jesus, and

we thank you that we are a fruitful people, a prospering

people. We are a people that are

obedient. Lord God, we are a people with

the spirit of the fear of God in the name of Jesus.

And we thank you, Father, that we are blessed for generation to

generation to generation to generation.

Lord, we rebuke the second guessing.

Forgive us where we didn't trust, but we just declare now

we are tithers. We don't just tithe, we are

tithers. And Lord, we make a commitment

now. Whatever you bring in a 10th is

yours for down to the tax return.

Whatever you bring in, may we stop just reasoning in our mind.

May we stop just trying to put this over here?

Oh God, don't mean that over there.

He don't want. No, no, no.

Everything you bring into our household.

Lord God, we will sow the 10th back.

We will not deny the prospering that you want to bring in our

lives. We will be a church and a people

that's a resource to the city, a resource we will not be a people

that's non essential. So bless every business in here,

bless the kings, bless the kings and we thank you for now in

Jesus name. Well guys, that's the last

Sunday in 2025. I hope to see you next

experience or I hope to see you on New Year's Eve at 7:00 PM.

Watch this on New Year's Eve. Come right away.

In the past we ate at the top. We not doing that no more.

OK, so come we going to get into worship at 7:00 PM.

We got a word and then we'll get into some fellowship.

But you don't want to miss New Year's Eve experience.

We are out of time, but we are not out of peace.

We are not out of generosity. And until next time, you know

what it is. Get your love fixed, man.

Have a wonderful evening. Thank you so much for tuning

into this week's sermon. We pray you were challenged,

equipped, and encouraged. Make sure to follow us on all

platforms. That's Lovequest Intl Church we

out here for. Real.

We're really doing it. That's Facebook, Instagram,

YouTube and TikTok. You can find us anywhere you

need to find us. But until next time, you know

the drill, you know the motto. Get your love fixed man and

we'll see y'all real soon.