Two Keys To Becoming...a Giver

Happy New Year.

It's good to see you.

I'm really honored to be here the first weekend and Sunday of the new year here to speak to you.

Pastor Robert, by the way, is an Amarilla.

We have the first week of every year.

We have Zion.

There are services every evening.

We fast and pray all week long.

And that's what we've been doing this week.

And Pastor Robert spoke for us on Thursday and Friday evenings, did a phenomenal job preaching on the Holy Spirit.

And I think that's a series that he actually preached here.

Fantastic.

And he's speaking there this morning.

But it's great to be here.

And Pastor Robert and I were talking, and you guys have the church is just exploding.

And you guys are building a new building.

So many things are going on in this church.

And in about six weeks, you guys are going to be taking a miracle offering, a special offering for the building and just what God is doing here in the church.

And so I want to speak this morning on the issue of giving.

We just took a miracle offering.

In fact, we have taken miracle offerings for the last two years in Amarillo in two offerings.

This is two weekend offerings.

We've received over$4 million in cash in two offerings.

That's in Amarillo.

Y'all would be able to do better in Dallas.

Did you know that?

I mean, that's up in Amarillo.

So I'm just, I'm challenging you this morning to even begin to prepare your hearts to give, because isn't God doing a wonderful thing in this church?

I mean, it's a wonderful thing that God is doing here in the Metroplex, and so you're a part of that.

If you have your Bible this morning, turn to 2 Corinthians 9.

And this is where I want to preach from.

You know, when we talked about, when Pastor Robert asked me to come and speak, I actually had a different message in mind that I was going to bring.

The Lord gave me this message this week.

I've never preached it before.

I really believe it's the best giving message that I've ever preached in my life.

I mean, in the last 20 years of pastoring, uh, this is the message on giving that I believe that every person needs to hear.

In fact, the title of this message, The Two Keys to Becoming an Excited, Extravagant Giver.

Now, this is the message that I wish someone would have preached to me 28 years ago when Karen and I started giving, because I had a horrible attitude about the issue of giving.

And I want to make this statement now, and I'll explain it in just a minute a little bit further, and that's this.

I believe that giving is giving to the Lord and the Lord's work is the most tormenting and difficult issue for most believers.

It was for me, I'm just telling you.

I believe it torments people, and it's more difficult than almost any other issue in the Christian faith.

I just say it's more difficult than any other issue in the Christian faith.

At least it was for me when we first began to give, when the concept of giving began to be introduced to me.

I mean, it just really was difficult for me, and I'll talk about that more in just a minute.

But in 2 Corinthians 9 now, the Apostle Paul's taking an offering for the saints in Jerusalem.

The church began in Jerusalem.

There was a lot of affection toward the apostles and also the saints there, and they were going through a tremendously difficult time politically and economically.

So the Apostle Paul is raising an offering from the church at Corinth, and he's going to send it back now to the saints in Jerusalem.

So he's doing what any creature does.

He's just trying to give people reasons to give.

The only difference is here, the Holy Spirit is using him to write the New Testament.

And so what is what he's saying here becomes doctrine and revelation that is very, very important.

So let's begin reading 2 Corinthians 9, verse 6.

2 Corinthians 9:6

This I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

Now Paul is saying this to them to help them to overcome the objections that they have toward giving.

He's giving here two keys that all of us can, once we get these now, we will become an excited, extravagant giver.

I'm just telling you this morning, if you get this, if you get it this morning, the day in your life that you get these two things, you will become, without any, without any preacher preaching at you, without any outside force having to get it from you, you will become an excited, extravagant giver.

So that's what I want to talk about this morning.

Let me say a couple of realities that the Apostle Paul is taking an offering from the church for Jerusalem.

I want to give you a couple of realities now, and this is just reality.

And the first is this you do realize now we are the only people on earth that can fund God's work.

God's work will not be funded unless God's people fund it.

You know, no other religion is going to give to Christianity.

Do you realize that?

No other group of people on the earth, whether it is Muslims or Hindus or anyone else, they're just not going to give to Christianity.

They have their own cause.

And you realize that unbelievers aren't going to do it.

I mean, there's no other group on the earth that can give to God's work except God's people.

Let me make it a little bit more specific.

No church can reach its potential unless every person in that church reaches their potential giving-wise.

This church, Gateway Church, has a has a tremendous vision and a tremendous mission that God has given it.

But it's dependent, you realize, on you guys.

Those of you that this is your church home, if you don't reach your potential in giving, this church will not reach its potential and no one else can take your place.

Because see, the devil has a lot of ways that he deals with us to try to uh get us to justify not giving the way that we should.

And one of the ways that he gets us to justify that is the belief that just basically says, well, you know, I mean, I just don't have a lot of money.

And uh, you know, when when when I first began to consider the concept, I remember the first time I went to church and a preacher preached on giving, it just, it was disgusting to me.

I mean, I just couldn't believe it.

I just thought, you know, I came to church to get blessed, and he's trying to get my money.

The reason I came to church is everybody else trying to get my money, I'm coming here to get encouraged.

And he's trying to get my money.

And here's here's what I thought.

I thought, you know, I didn't ever think really where church money came from, but when I thought about it, I thought, you know, church money comes from rich people and phonetics.

You know, I mean, that that's where church money comes from.

And I'm not rich and I'm not a fanatic, so I just I shouldn't give.

And so the devil has all kinds of ways he deals with us to get us to think that I can't give.

I mean, there there's a way that I don't give what I should give, but somebody else will make up for it.

This church, I see churches all the time.

We have an association of churches, we help churches.

I see churches all the time that can't reach their potential because the givers in the church won't give.

I see it all the time.

This church, the reason that I challenge Trinity at home to give to their potential is not only does it bless them in a dramatic way, we can't reach our potential unless they give.

This church can't reach its potential unless you as a giver, you reach your potential.

And so I said earlier now that this is, in my opinion, the most tormenting issue for most Christians.

And here's the reason that I believe it torments us so much.

Now understand this, most Christians never tithe.

A tithe is the minimum level of obedience to God in the Bible.

10%.

Most Christians never tithe.

When I say most Christians never tithe, I'm talking about 80% or more of all Christians never tithe.

And so it's a very difficult thing that most Christians never get victory in.

But it's such a critical issue for you personally and for the church that we just have to get past.

But let me tell you why I believe it's so tormenting.

And let's go to verse 7 here in 2 Corinthians 9.

Let each one give as he purposes in his heart.

Let me tell you something.

Uh, here's two things I believe about you this morning, and I I really believe this about Christians, and that is, I know you love the Lord.

I mean, if you're here this morning and you don't give a nickel, I do believe that you love the Lord.

Let me tell you the second thing.

I believe that you desire to give.

I believe that in your heart, I believe that every Christian who is sincerely born again, when you get born again, I believe that there's a love for Christ there, and I believe that there's a desire to give.

The reason the issue of giving is so tormenting is not because we don't want to give.

It's because we just can't figure out in our heads how we can do what our heart wants to do.

You understand what I'm saying?

It's not because we don't want to give.

It's just it torments us because we want to, and we're just sitting there thinking, Lord Jesus, let me win that$314 million Powerball deal, you know.

And because then I could give the way that I want to give.

You know, and and this guy that won that, by the way, the Powerball winner, you notice that he went on television the next day and he said that he was going to tithe off the gross amount to his church.

He was a born-again Christian and he was a tither.

His tithe, by the way, to his church was$31.4 million off that powerball.

People asked me, they say, is it wrong to play the lottery?

And I say, not if you win and tithe.

If you lose or don't tithe, it's wrong.

It's a sin.

So and his wife said, she was on TV and she said, I just want, I just want to take what we've what we've gotten, you know, what we've won, and I want to go to Jerusalem.

I want to go to Israel and walk where Jesus walked.

Isn't that sweet?

And I thought, honey, you can buy it.

You know, I mean, you're you're rich.

And so, but that's a lot of people think if I had that kind of money, I could give obediently.

I could be an excited, extravagant giver if I had enough money.

I want you to know you can have, you can do what you want to do today.

Today, wherever you are, you can become an excited and extravagant giver.

So I want to give you now two keys.

The Apostle Paul is talking about here.

I want to give you two keys.

What he is telling the church at Corinth to try to help them, what he's trying to do is to get them to take the desire in their heart and to help their head to understand how they can do it.

That's what I want to do this morning.

I I know you want to give, and I know, I believe you love Jesus.

And I really believe if you're not giving the way you should, you're you're conflicted, and you're really battling between your heart and your head.

So I want to give you these two keys to help you to get your head and your heart to match so you can give the way that God wants you to give.

Let me tell you, I'm gonna give you these two keys.

Before I do that, let me give you the four levels of giving, Christian giving.

These are the four levels of maturity, beginning at the beginning.

Level four is where we all need to be for the church to reach its potential, for us to reach its potential, for the work of God's kingdom to go forth.

Let me give you the four levels.

Level one is shock and disgust.

And uh you're just you're just disgusted at the concept that somebody wants your money and a preacher's preaching on giving this morning.

Number two, grudging obligation at a minimal level.

Paul says, do not give with grudging obligation, but do it with cheerfulness.

Grudging obligation.

Now, Karen, when we started giving, uh, this was 28 years ago, and uh, when we started giving, we went to church one morning and the preacher preached on giving, it disgusted me.

It just shook my world.

And I sat out there listening to him speak on giving.

We made$7,000 that year.

We lived in government housing.

You had to be broke to live where we live.

You had to prove that you were broke to live where we live.

We turned in our application, they immediately approved it.

Our house payment was based on our income.

Our house payment was$109 a month based on our income.

We were broke, and we had a little uh daughter, and Karen did not work outside of the home.

So, I mean, just tell you, if if you make less than$7,000, let's come up and start a support group here.

I'm just saying, we we started at the beginning, and we were broke, and the preacher was preaching on giving, and Karen came home and she wanted to give money to the church.

And I just couldn't believe it.

And she just said, you know, Jimmy, let's, you know, we want I want to give$40 to the church.

And it's like a root canal.

You know, it's like your choices are pain or pain.

And I thought, well, we're broke, or we can give, you know, and if I don't give, God will strike me dead.

And if we do give, we're going broke, so my choice is pain or pain.

So we chose to give grudgingly.

It was a grudging gift for me.

I gave it and I said, well, fine.

And uh the Lord blessed it uh when we gave, and we began to see the Lord uh work in our finances, and the Lord began to bless it, and she wanted to give again.

And I just thought, Karen, you're gonna make a habit out of this now.

You know, we got away with it the first time, but it was just a grudging obligation to me.

Level three is committed giving at a level of obedience to God.

It's committed giving.

And then we began to tithe.

It my wife had more faith in the area of giving than I did, and it was her encouragement that got us to give, but we saw God miraculously work in our finances when we made little or nothing and we were living hand to mouth.

We saw God do miracles in our finances.

It took us several years to become tithers.

But I remember when we began to tithe, and we gave 10% of our income the first year, and uh.

It's when you're giving extravagantly and you're excited about it.

This is the level that you live to give.

Giving is not a grudging obligation or a shocking and disgusting concept or something you just do out of duty.

It is something that you live to do and you're excited about it.

Now, I don't know what level that you're at.

And uh I believe today that Karen and I, we're we're extravagant, excited givers, and I'm not saying that we've reached the pinnacle of that.

I'm just saying we're more than just committed givers.

We really enjoy giving and we live to give.

And so I'm just saying to you, wherever you're at today, I'm hoping that this message will just encourage you to go to the next level and to reach your potential.

And regardless of where you are today, that you would make level four your goal.

And you would say, Jesus, I want to become that.

So let me give you these two keys now that the Apostle Paul gives the church at Corinth to help you to reconcile maybe a conflict between your head and your heart.

Here are the two keys.

Number one, number one key is understanding the living nature of money, and number two is understanding the loving nature of God.

Those are the two keys that the Apostle Paul helps the church at Corinth with.

The living nature of money and the loving nature of God.

Let me begin with the living nature of money.

He goes to verse 6.

This I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

And he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

So he says, it this is sowing.

If you sow sparingly, you're going to reap sparingly.

If you sow bountifully, you're going to reap bountifully.

Well, let me tell you something about money.

And let me see if I have, yeah, I have a little money here in my pocket.

This is money, and the apostle Paul says, now, if you don't understand the nature of this, you're not going to be able to give.

Now, there's only three things that you can do with money.

You can spend it, you can save it, or you can give it.

Okay?

Now let me just tell you, when you give money, if you see this as a static instrument, and you give money, and that money is gone, if that's the way you see money, you're not going to ever be able to give the way you should.

Because that's not what the Bible says.

When the Bible talks about giving money to the Lord, it says it's like seed that you give and it will be given to you.

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, men will pour it into your lap, for by your standard of measure, it'll be measured to you in return.

This is not a static instrument that when you give it, you lose it.

This is a living instrument that when you sow it, it comes back to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over according to your measure.

That's why it says that God loves a cheerful giver.

If you went to a farmer and you told a farmer, if you plant this crop, there's a hundred percent chance that you're going to get a great harvest from it.

That person would be on that tractor dancing the entire time he is planting that crop.

The reason that God loves a cheerful giver is a cheerful giver understands that giving is not losing, giving is sowing.

This money's alive.

Listen to me now.

It's alive when you give it to God.

There are only three things that you can do with money.

You can either spend it, save it, or give it.

Let me just give you this little rhyme here, okay?

What you consume goes kaboom.

It's gone.

When you consume money, it's gone.

It's like eating your seed.

It's great.

You do need to eat some of it.

That's fine, but it's gone.

Whatever you keep goes to sleep.

If you put it in a savings account or a retirement account or any other investment, that's fine, but it's dormant.

Now you say, I'm in great investments, that's fine.

But you do realize now there's not one investment on this earth that's guaranteed.

Not real estate, not the stock market, not your 401k.

There is not one investment on this earth that is guaranteed.

And this dollar bill itself, you know, God forbid, but something could happen to the United States that could make this worthless.

There's nothing on this earth that is guaranteed.

Money you keep goes to sleep.

And you say, well, you don't understand, Jimmy.

I am the best investor in the world, and I mean I put money in the stock market and it grows.

Let me tell you about my neighbor.

My neighbor uh invested in the stock market during the 90s, became wealthy, bought a second home, and retired.

This last year, because of the condition of the stock market, he had to sell his second home and come out of retirement to go back to work.

Because this is dormant money.

I'm not saying it's no good, and I'm not saying you shouldn't save, because you should.

But if if you do two things with your money, if you consume and keep, then what you have two kinds of money, the kaboom money and the sleeping money.

The only here's a third rhyme.

What you give lifts.

What you consume goes kaboom.

What you keep goes to sleep.

What you give lifts.

He who sows bountifully will reap bountifully, because the only living money you have is the money you gave to God.

It's the only dynamic money.

It's the only money that's guaranteed to be working, and it's going to meet you in your future.

Now I want you to listen to me about a farmer.

Every farmer, because I'm from Amarillo, we have a lot of farmers up there.

Every farmer knows the key to meeting your future needs is in planting your present seeds.

Okay?

The key to meet, you say, well, you know, Jimmy, we've got children, we've got grandchildren, we've got desires, we we want to retire, we want to buy our own business, we want to do this and this and this.

I understand?

I understand.

I'm saying to you, if you sow bountifully into God's work, you will meet a bountiful harvest in your future.

If you love your children, if you love your family, if you love yourself, if you love God, plant seed, you'll meet it in your future.

It will be there for you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.

If you sow bountifully, you'll reap bountifully.

If you sow sparingly, you'll reap sparingly.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm just saying, I started with a bad attitude and gave$40 to God.

And what I noticed is over 28 years of giving, and we've given more and more and more every year for the last 28 years, what I realize is when you give this, it comes alive and it bears a crop for you in the future.

That's what I realized.

I didn't realize that before.

And that's why I had such a terrible attitude.

See, and someone says, well, I'm on a fixed income.

There is no such thing as a fixed income for a giver.

There's no such thing because this is seed.

There was a woman, we took our miracle offering a couple of years ago, a two and a half million dollar offering in one weekend.

And uh in our congregation.

There was a lady in our congregation, we were challenging people to give.

There's a lady in our congregation broke.

I mean, she lived on government assistance, and uh she was just broke.

And she wanted to give$50.

This was her testimony.

She prayed and said to God, Lord, I want to give$50.

And she uh stopped her call waiting, she stopped her cable television, she stopped everything, she didn't have any money.

So the only thing that she could figure out to do to get$50 together was just to stop anything that she was doing that she didn't have to have as an essential.

So she she was going to scrape together$50.

The week before she uh was gonna give her$50 in the offering, the government called her and said, we've made a mistake.

We owe you right now, I believe it was$2,500, plus we owe you$1,300 a month more than what we're giving you right now.

She gave$1,000 in the offering, and her income went up$1,300 a month.

She had a fixed income.

A couple in our church gave to that offering, and they were retired.

They're in their 70s or late 70s.

And they went into one of their IRAs or something like that, and they took some money out, and they said we're on a fixed income.

We took this money out, we gave it, and they reported miraculously within like a month out of nowhere.

We got like two or three times back what we gave.

Ladies and gentlemen, did you know that if you sow this banifly, you'll reap it banifully?

This is not dead.

If you have$500 and you give$50, you didn't lose$50.

You sowed$50.

It's alive.

It's going to meet you in your future.

It's the only guaranteed investment on this earth.

And that's the reason God loves a cheerful giver because they get that.

They understand the living nature of money.

Let's just read a few scriptures here together.

This is 2 Corinthians 9, and this is uh begins in verse 10.

Now may he who supplies seed to the sower, who does God supply seed to?

There's only one way you can sow, and that's to give to God's work.

God is committed to supplying you and seed as much as you're committed to sowing.

That's why it says, according to your standard of measure, God says, I'll measure it back to you.

And bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown.

And increase the fruits of your righteousness while you are enriched in everything for all liberality which causes thanksgiving to us through God.

Cause and effect.

When you give, God gives you more seed, and you give, and you're enriched the entire time in your own personal life, just from the overflow of what God's given you.

Proverbs 3.

Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of your increase, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.

Cause an effect.

You give to the Lord, the effect is you have an abundance.

I'm just saying, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not manipulating the scriptures.

I'm not talking to you about a get-rich quick scheme.

I'm talking to you about what the Bible says about money.

That when you give to the Lord, the effect of that is God multiplies it back to you.

God is committed to giving to givers.

He's committed to giving seed to sowers and bread for food, the blessing that we need in life.

Malachi 3, bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts.

If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it, and I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, so that it will it that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts.

And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful lamp, cause and effect.

If you come to me and you bring all the tithes into the storehouse, God says, I'll open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing until you cannot receive it.

I ate lunch with my brothers yesterday, my brother Mike, my brother Randy, and my brother Randy bought my brother Mike something for Christmas.

And my brother Mike's house is just full of stuff.

I mean, he's got stuff everywhere.

And Randy said to Mike, he said, Well, you know, Mike, it's hard to buy for you because every square inch of your house is full of something.

And Mike says, Well, that's fine.

When you give me something I like, I take something out and put something else there.

My brother Mike has to get rid of something to get something.

That's what this says.

There will not be room enough for you to keep receiving.

You know what Psalm 23 says, don't you?

Because the Lord is my shepherd, my cup runneth over.

He wants to give you so much that there's too much, and you have to keep getting rid of stuff.

That's the whole point here.

I'm just saying, ladies and gentlemen, the cause and effect in Scripture is clear.

And on the day that you understand the living nature of money, it'll change the way you give.

In fact, that's why you should go to the offering containers and give with excitement because it's not going to go kaboom or go to sleep.

When you put it in there, it lives and it's going to meet you in your future.

If you take your present seed, it will meet your future need.

That's just the truth.

Let me say one more thing about this point.

Matthew 6.

Jesus says, lay up your treasures in heaven.

He says, do not lay up treasures here on earth.

That means putting too much up for whatever reason.

He says, but lay it up in heaven.

You realize the only way that you can eternalize anything is to give it to God?

You realize that every single dollar that you ever give or time or energy or love that you give to God, you realize it'll be in heaven with you forever?

Unless you just be wise about this now.

The best of us in here is going to live 110 years.

I mean, if we live that long.

110 years.

In the view of eternity, it's a millisecond.

Understand this.

I I do want to be blessed here on the earth.

I'm just telling you, I do want to be blessed.

I want a nice house, nice cars, nice clothes.

I mean, I want all that stuff that all of us want.

But you understand it's all going to go up in smoke on it.

The Bible says that the heavens and the earth are going to go up in smoke.

God's going to create a new heaven and earth.

But you understand whatever you have in heaven, you'll have for a million trillion years, and it'll never rust, it'll never be stolen, you never have to take insurance out on it, you never have to pay taxes on it.

Somebody say amen.

Wouldn't you rather have something there than here?

The only way that this lives there is to give it to God.

When you give to God, not only is it living here and will come back to you, good major, fest down, shaking together, running over, you're going to meet it there too.

I just tell you, when you get it, I'm saying when it finally just hits your brain, it changes you.

The way you look at this makes all the difference in the world.

The second point, the second key to extravagant, excited giving is understanding the loving nature of God.

And this is what this is what Paul says, verse 8.

God is able to make all grace abound toward you.

God is able to make all grace abound toward you.

The word able there, that is the word dunatos in the Greek language.

Acts 1.8 says this.

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses.

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the other most parts of the world.

You shall receive power.

The word able there is the word dunatos from the same root word.

It means God is powerfully capable to make all grace abound toward you.

You say, well, what about the war in Iraq?

What about the war on terror?

What about the economy?

What about my job?

What about this?

What about that?

There is no force on earth that can keep God from blessing you when you give.

It is transcircumstantial.

It is above the economy.

It is above the geopolitical realm.

It is above everything.

When you give, God is powerfully capable to make anything happen to get the blessing back to you.

He doesn't depend on the U.S.

economy.

He doesn't depend on your boss at work.

He doesn't depend on anything.

He's able to do it himself.

Somebody say amen.

The Apostle Paul says, don't fear circumstances, because this is what the devil does.

But there's something in our heart, there's something in our heart that says, give.

Give liberally, give generously, but then something in our head happens and says, but what about the war in Iraq?

You know, what about what about the soft economy?

You know, what about this?

What about this?

And our mind begins to conflict.

And the Apostle Paul says, God is powerfully capable to make all grace abound toward you.

Let me just talk about all grace for just a minute.

I don't want the grace of prosperity.

That's one of the gracenes that God has.

I don't want one of the gracks of God.

I want all the grace of God.

Let me just explain this to you.

I want the grace of health.

Because it doesn't matter how much money you have if you're sick all the time and spend all your money on doctor bills.

God is able to make all grace abound toward you so that you can have money and enjoy it.

God is able to make the grace of health abound toward you.

He's able to make the grace of a good marriage and a good family abound toward you.

You know something, ladies and gentlemen, the number one reason for poverty in America is a broken family.

A single woman with children is 600 times more likely to live in poverty than a married woman with children.

See, it doesn't matter if your family's all broken up.

It doesn't matter how much money you have.

It just doesn't matter.

I want the grace of a good family.

I want the grace of wisdom and understanding.

It doesn't matter how much money you have if you're confused and deceit.

It's the Solomon principle.

God came to Solomon and he said, Solomon asked me for anything.

And he says, I want wisdom.

He said, Good.

Since you've asked for wisdom, I'll give you money with it.

The Solomon principle is this wisdom precedes wealth.

See, I don't want just money.

I want the wisdom to know what to do with it.

I want the wisdom to know how to invest.

One of the ways that I came into the ministry, by the way, is I had the choice between different I had invested in an oil well and I'd invested in a little stock market deal.

And when I came into the ministry, I took a big cut in pay to come into the ministry.

And I had the choice of several investments that I was looking at, and I prayed about it, and I said, God give me wisdom for these investments.

I had four investments I was looking at.

The two I did not invest in, both were disasters.

The two I did invest in made me enough money to be able to, I sold the oil well, and I hit a big deal in the stock market.

And I was able to take that money, pay off what I had, and to come into the ministry.

God is able to give you the wisdom to know how to invest.

See, I don't want the grace of money.

I want all grace.

And it says that God is powerfully capable to make all grace abound toward you.

Remember in Malachi 3, God says there, I will make you a delightful land that everyone will look at you and say you're blessed.

You understand the whole point in this whole thing is for us to be so blessed that unbelievers look at us and say, How in the world do you get what you got?

And our answer is Jesus.

Jesus blessed me.

Jesus is why.

Jesus is why I'm not in an insane asylum right now.

That we're so blessed.

God is powerfully capable to make all grace abound towards you.

What do you mean I'm saying he loves you?

Get that.

He loves you.

There's nothing you can do about it.

It doesn't matter all the bad stuff you've done.

He loves you just like your children.

I mean, your children can do the worst thing in the world, but you still love your children.

I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, you have a father in heaven and his name is God.

And in Matthew 6, Jesus says, don't you understand that your father knows every hair on your head?

He knows every sparrow that falls to the ground, and he says, Why do you worry about so many things?

Why are you so worried?

Why don't you just trust the Father?

Because if you sought him first, he says he'd give you all these things.

Did you know that you're loved in heaven?

It's like if you really understood that you're not an orphan, there's an orphan spirit that comes on Christians, and I had it for many years.

You know what covetousness is?

Look at it, this is Hebrews 13.

Hebrews 13, let your conduct be without covetousness.

Be content with such things as you have.

For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear.

What can man do to me?

Covetousness is an unhealthy need for things because of the lack of providing relationships.

It's an orphan spirit.

Covetousness is an unhealthy need for things because of the lack of providing relationship.

You think that you have to stack a bunch of things around you to be secure rather than being secure in God.

And here's what God says.

Don't be covetous.

You don't have to stack up things the world the way the world stacks up things.

Do you understand that I'll never leave you?

Who's saying that?

The God who provides for the universe today.

The God who owns all the gold and silver.

The God who owns the catalog thousand houses.

You know you'll never be in a circumstance that he won't be there?

Let me say, I don't know how much money you'll have when you get there, but you'll have God when you get there.

And I'd rather have money than God.

Somebody?

Anyone agree with what I'm saying this morning?

Well, listen to this scripture.

1 John 2.

Do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in it.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but of the world.

Well, what is the world?

The world is a way to get what you want without God.

That's just it.

The world is a system of thinking and behaving that I can get what I want without God.

Well, what is the Father?

The Father is the way that I get what I want through God.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

All these things will be added to you.

You have a choice.

You can either accept the love of the Father, or you can go out and do it without it, but you can't do both.

Jesus said, you can't serve God and man.

You're going to love one, hate the other, hold the one, despise the other.

I want you to understand this morning, ladies and gentlemen.

God loves you.

You're his child.

In the good times and the bad times.

Whatever happens on this earth, I want you to understand.

Your Father in heaven loves you more than any parent on this earth loves their child.

The day that you get that, it will transform the way you look at money.

You'll take money and realize this is a blessing, but it's not essential because he's essential.

My relationship with him is how I'm provided for.

Money is not my security.

God is my security.

One more scripture in our clothes.

Romans 8.

You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father.

That means Daddy.

Daddy, Father.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we're the children of God.

It says you didn't receive, it says we're joined heirs with Christ there.

Heirs of God, join heirs with Christ.

You did not receive a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you received a spirit of adoption that in our spirit, our spirit cries out, Daddy.

You know why the Spirit is in there doing that?

Because we have a daddy.

The Holy Spirit's trying to lead you to your Father, to your real Father.

He's trying to lead you to that relationship with God that will finally set you free.

If you have an orphan spirit here this morning, if you don't understand the loving, nurturing presence of God that is capable to make all grace abound toward you, you'll have an unhealthy dependence on money and things, and you'll never be able to give it up the way that God says.

But on the day that you understand the living nature of money and the loving nature of God, you will walk past that offering container.

And whenever an opportunity is presented to you to give, you will understand what I give lives.

And he loves me, and he'll always be with me.

And he is able in any circumstances to make all grace abound toward me if I trust in him.

In my opinion, the number one way that we give God an opportunity to show us how much he loves us is through our giving.

That's my personal testimony.

My giving to God and his response healed me of an orphan spirit, and it's convinced me that God loves me.

And I want you to understand, I'm not his favorite child.

We're all his favorites.

He loves you this morning.

He's waiting for an opportunity to show himself strong on your behalf and to show you how much he loves you.

And I'm just encouraging you this morning, wherever you are, whatever level that you're at in your giving, I'm just encouraging you.

Go to the next level.

Reach your potential and give it so that God can use.