Where's The Beef?

Today I'm beginning a new series called faithful stewards faithful stewards and

Starting today for the next few weeks. We're gonna look at different principles of biblical stewardship

You don't know what that word is. You're gonna know what it is before the end of today's service. Amen

I'm gonna invite you if you can we're gonna go to the book of Psalms

Psalms 50 · chapter mention

chapter 50 and verse 10 Psalms chapter 50 in verse 10

Psalms 50 · chapter mention

one verse and

then we're going to

Jump back to the book of Leviticus but Psalm 50 and verse 10

Amen the word of the Lord says for every beast of the forest is

mine and

The cattle someone say the cattle

on a thousand hills

Amen now, let's read Leviticus

Leviticus chapter 27 and verse 32

Leviticus 27 · chapter mention

Thank you for your patience and standing for a few more moments. I know we've been standing but you'll be seated in just a moment

Leviticus chapter 27 verse 32 again just one verse

Leviticus 27:32

It reads and concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock of

Whatever passes under the rod one tenth shall be

holy

to the Lord

Amen for my title today. I want to borrow a famous line that some of you

You probably never heard before but some of you have from an old commercial. I'm gonna call this message

Where's the beef?

Someone say where's the beef

today's message asks a

Spiritual version of this question. We're not gonna talking about food today

When it comes to giving God our all

Stewardship and giving why don't we pray together father? I thank you for your spirit. That is so

tangible in this place today God and

Gathering us here God from every walk of life

Overcoming different challenges adversities Lord by your grace

We are here today and we've come with a purpose to lift up your name Lord in worship

To give you our very best God and receive from the word now

I pray that you would anoint the ears the hearts of everyone in this place God that this word would fall on good ground

Lord, I believe that the ground has been prepared anoint my lips of clay Lord

That the word that you have deposited into my spirit

I can preach that word just as you gave it to me and let your people be edified in Jesus name

We pray somebody say amen. Amen. You can be seated in God's presence

Amen, you know the old lady from the Wendy's commercial became famous

For asking a simple but very pointed question when she said where's the beef

Where's the beef in the commercial?

And if you have that you might remember some of you this commercial she peers over a massive hamburger bun

Hiding a small patty underneath there and she demands to know

Where the substance is

And I agree with this little lady, I think especially when it comes to burgers

I don't know if I got any burger lovers out there, but nothing is more

pitiful

You could feel my pain right now. Then when the bun is bigger than the patty

I'd rather have the patty be bigger than the bun

Because I can bite off the edges of that meat. You all don't know what that's like. Hey, man

Amen and the same can be said when it comes to our tithing our giving our stewardship

We can be all bun and no beef

We can present something that looks right impressive on the outside

But when lifted up for examination it lacks the substance that God is looking for

And so when it comes to our giving our our

Stewardship our offering our tithe and all of the above when it comes to that even our worship

Every aspect of our life because let me tell you that as we go through this series

We're gonna look at different aspects of stewardship people here stewardship, especially Christian

They go pastor's gonna talk about just money through this whole series. No, we're not

We're gonna talk about various aspects of stewardship of our life of our time of our of our of our

The truth there are many stewardship principles in God's word

And when we look at these things, it's important that God is looking for substance

We can present the right things, but the question that God might be asking us today is

Where's the beef? Where is the beef now? Let's look at psalm chapter 50 written by

Psalms 50 · chapter mention

Asaph who was a levitical worship leader and a man of faith

So if you look at Psalm 50, it's written by Asaph who was a levitical worship leader and psalmist

With a prophetic message he wasn't just a songwriter. It wasn't just a poetic guy

He he had a prophetic message for God's people and the entire psalm I encourage you to read psalm 50

It plays out like a a courtroom a courtroom scene if you can envision this in your mind with God as the judge of the courtroom

and he is judging his people.

And God in this glorious courtroom

is calling his people to account.

He's calling them to account for their giving

and their worship habits and their overall attitude

towards his temple and towards him himself.

And so this is a very serious moment.

And I think the courtroom is probably

the most fitting example for the seriousness

that we are reading this text as very serious.

And God is in this Psalm through his servant Asaph

reproving his people to move beyond the empty ritualism

that they have or the lip service

or whatever you wanna call it,

to get beyond the superficialness

and to embrace his model of giving

and stewardship and worship.

And so God is, he's reproving his people.

And this is one of those types of scenes of scripture

where the tone is serious,

but it's all because God loves his people

and God has a way.

God has a plan, God has a system.

And then in the middle, in the middle of that chapter,

we come to this very scenic verse in verse 10,

which many of us have quoted or have heard often

telling us that God owns the cattle on a thousand heels.

And this picture reinforces the most fundamental truths

about God and stewardship.

And this is gonna bring me to my first point today.

And I encourage you, if you take notes,

if you're not a note taker, you won't offend me at all

if you take pictures of the things

that we're going to be covering today.

The first point is this,

and I don't think anyone's gonna disagree with it

on the surface, but here it goes.

It's that God owns it all.

Amen.

Amen.

I said, he owns it all.

Now, it's easy to confess this

and on a basic level and accept it.

And I don't think that in general terms,

a Christian would contest this idea

because scripture tells us about God

and how he created everything.

And what I want and I hope for us today

is that we can fully grasp and believe.

To be sure, God doesn't just own the cattle on the heels,

God owns the heels that the cattle is roam on.

And he doesn't just own the heels that the cattle is roam on.

In Psalms 24 and verse one, he also,

the Bible says that the earth is the Lord's

and the fullness thereof,

the world and they that dwell therein,

all of creation belongs to God.

The resources, the creation, including you and I,

everything belongs to him.

It's all his.

He created it, every thought, every good idea,

every invention, because even with the mind

that creates and invents, God gave us that mind to do so.

God owns all of it.

The Lord himself deposited every diamond,

ruby, emerald and sapphire,

every nugget of gold and silver into the crust of the earth.

In Haggai 2 and 8, it says the silver is mine,

the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts.

And you'll find verse scripture after scripture

in the Bible, which attest to God's ownership of everything.

Don't have time to read them all, but hear me today.

Take me at my word that God owns it all.

But in Bible times, cattle,

because that's the object we're looking at today,

cattle were the most common form of monetary means.

Currency and exchange, cattle.

Now, some of you might be thinking,

I thought it was gold and silver.

Well, for the wealthy, probably,

but gold and silver were mostly used

for big purchases like land,

but not for everyday expenses, cost of living stuff.

That was cattle.

So cattle was the equivalent to cash or liquid assets.

This is what cattle represented.

Like money, people exchanged cattle for goods,

for services, for food, for payments.

It was their currency that they used to live their life.

Not gold and silver, but most of all, cattle.

It was used for a variety of reasons

to even pay payments or pay the dowry,

the price to a bride's family before they can get married.

I think we should bring that one back, huh?

Bring me some cattle.

My father-in-law is here today.

He didn't ask for any cattle, but you know,

if he did, I would have had to go get some cattle.

Cattle was also used for collateral, for debts.

Cattle even had legal protection.

They were FDIC insured.

If someone stole your cattle,

you had a legal right to restitution.

That's how valuable it was.

Cattle under the law of Moses was very significant.

However, cattle's highest value was its spiritual value.

Serving as a means of physical offering and tangible faith.

All the forms of giving throughout the Word of God,

all the forms, especially in the Old Testament,

was through cattle, and cattle was used for offerings,

tithe, which is the 10% of income.

All of this, cattle was the primary source,

the primary means of offering to the Lord.

So God owns all the cattle on a thousand hills.

He gave his people the cattle,

not just so that they can have the cattle

and grow a great, big, large cattle ranch,

but so that through that cattle,

they also might return to the Lord what was his

and bless the work of God.

And as a sign of gratitude,

as a sign of praise and worship,

cattle was the currency that God gave his people.

And he entrusted them with cattle

in order to bring him the beef.

Someone say the beef.

The beef.

Stewardship.

This brings me to my next point,

which is that stewardship determines where the beef is.

God owns it all.

Amen.

But you are responsible, you and I are responsible

for managing what God has entrusted into our personal care,

the cattle that you keep or return to him.

Now what you do with your cattle matters.

And this is where I think at some point,

we may find some hair splitting

on what exactly cattle is meant for.

And of course, we're not talking about

the cows that are roaming the street.

We all understand.

We're talking about financial resources

and monetary means, okay?

Scripture gives us two cautionary examples

of how your relationship with cattle or finances

can determine your destiny.

There is a very direct connection

between the way we steward our resources in our lives

that God has blessed us with

and the destiny that God has for us in a spiritual sense.

The two are connected.

One seems very tangible, very literal,

and another can seem very spiritual or eternal,

but you need to see the direct connection between the two.

The first example from Scripture I wanna point out for you

is that we have the Israelites in the desert

who turned their gold into,

of all the animals they could have chosen,

a golden calf or a young cow.

Hmm, I don't know if that's where they got the term cash cow,

but there it is.

There it is.

Now this is a very bizarre case.

Now for you Bible students

or those who remember the story of when Israel

took their gold and they casted this golden image,

on the one hand, this is what's bizarre about it,

on the one hand, it's very generous of them

that they donated their gold to this thing.

It's not like these were stingy people.

They donated their gold to the,

so on the one hand, that was good that they donated,

but on the other hand, their giving was misguided.

They gave, someone say they gave,

but they gave to the wrong thing and for the wrong reason.

They were sincere, you know you can be sincere,

but sincerely wrong.

They were not stingy.

No, we're not saying that they're stingy people.

We're not saying they're withholding people.

No, it's just that they gave to something

that God didn't tell them to give to.

Now watch, they didn't mold the calf.

Now people say, oh they just wanted to worship idol.

They didn't mold the calf

because they wanted to be idolaters.

If you read the text clearly,

it says that they lost faith.

They lost faith in Moses and in God's plan.

And because they weren't understanding what was going on,

they couldn't understand what was happening.

They couldn't understand why Moses was taking so long.

You read the story, there they were

at the bottom of Mount Sinai.

Once Moses kind of come back,

it was their lack of patience

for what God was eventually going to do

that led them to say, let's take all the gold that we have

and mold from our something to our liking,

something that we like, something that we have,

you know, that we can do.

And this is exactly what they did.

And of course, you know the story.

Moses comes down from the mountain.

He sees what happened and he is hot.

The Lord is hot, I should say.

The Lord wanted to wipe them out.

The Lord wanted to destroy these people.

He said, you know what the Lord told Moses after that?

He said, why don't we just forget all these people

and start over?

You read your Bible, that's what he said.

Why don't we just forget it?

And I'll just start with you, Moses.

But it was Moses, the people didn't know this,

but Moses was interceding for them.

Say, God, please hold back your wrath.

It's like Jesus, we said, Lord, forgive them

for they know not what they do.

They're doing it, but they're doing it sincerely wrong.

And Moses intercedes.

God, please don't judge them.

Don't judge them, Lord.

Don't judge them.

God withholds his judgment.

But the moral of the story is,

is a group of people, the children of Israel,

who lost faith in God's system,

lost faith in what was going on,

and then they took their resources

and they molded this calf,

and then of course it becomes an idolatrous thing.

Believers today face a similar dilemma

when they start losing faith in God or his system,

and they start trusting and idolizing their cattle,

and they start molding their giving to their liking.

And, my friend, that's not how it works.

Amen.

When you give and you tithe regularly,

you are returning it to God.

Why?

Because it's his.

Somebody say amen today.

Amen.

And then what happens next is in his hands.

It's in his hands.

It's God's business.

It's his business.

We do our part.

I give unto the Lord,

and I give my tithe or my offering

or a free will and extraordinary offering

that I feel to give to God.

When I do that, what happens next is in God's hand.

All I know is this.

I did my part.

God will do his.

And what God does with that is God's business.

But I do my part and God will do his.

God will judge all things in due time,

both man and system.

What he's looking for is my heart.

He's looking for my obedience to his word.

And I come to tell somebody today

that when we think about stewardship,

it's not that God needs anything that we have to offer him.

God doesn't need our money.

He doesn't need our houses.

He doesn't need any of that.

What he wants is our heart.

He wants us to, he wants to know that we trust him,

that he's the source of everything that we have

and that he is a provider for all that are need.

Somebody give God some praise today.

Hallelujah.

Yeah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

The second example comes from the Israelite tribes

of Gad and Reuben.

One of another interesting cattle story.

They famously settled on the east side of the Jordan

instead of crossing into Canaan

and possessing their true inheritance.

I pray to the Lord, before I read this verse,

I pray to the Lord deeply over this.

And I understand you get into these topics,

sometimes it can go a little sideways

for people in their mind.

But what I pray to the Lord is that,

if there's any room for conviction in someone's heart today,

I pray that this point might be the one that does it.

You know, sometimes one sermon is not gonna do it,

but sometimes it can.

What was the reason?

Here is a group of people.

They were part of the 12 tribes of Israel.

They were a group of people

whom had been brought out of Egypt.

God delivered them from sin and bondage

from the hand of Pharaoh.

They walked through the Red Sea.

They experienced the pillar of fire by night

and the cloud by day.

They saw the wonders of God in their life.

And it was all leading them to a land,

a land of promise, the land of Canaan.

That was their destiny.

That was the point of it all,

not just to get through and just, you know, celebrate,

but it was to make it.

We've got to arrive where God is calling us to go.

But then they got to the junction of the Jordan River.

And it was at that junction of this crossing over

into the next phase of their destiny in God,

the promised land.

They decided that they could not go any further.

And let me show you the reason why.

In Numbers 32 and verse one, this is what they said.

Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad

had a, watch this, very great multitude of livestock.

And when they saw the land of Jaser

and the land of Gilead,

that indeed the region was a place for livestock,

they told Joshua, Joshua, if it's possible,

can we stay on this side of the Jordan

instead of crossing over because we've got too much cattle

and we don't want to let go of it.

Their top priority was preserving their cattle,

which led them to settle on the outside of the promised land.

It got me thinking how sometimes the more we possess,

the more it possesses us.

They had all this cattle, they said,

what are we gonna do?

Sometimes you can't take all your cattle with you.

Oh man, hallelujah.

I told my wife, I'm gonna buy some cricket sprays.

Whenever I hear crickets in the church, we can spray them.

Getting a little quiet now.

I brought my cricket spray today.

The harder it becomes.

And I wonder what was going on in the mind of Gad and Reuben.

They're right there, I mean, they're right there.

They've already been delivered from Egypt.

We're not talking about like salvation from Egypt.

We're talking about a destiny in God.

And if they've only would have just surrendered,

given up some of that cattle that they had

and gave it up and realized that there's more

that God has in store for them.

Giving the Lord's way, what will it do?

It'll break the grip of greed in our lives.

It'll break that some are hostage to that.

The children of Gad and Reuben, I've said this before,

they were not children of God, they were children of Gad.

Amen, we've got some children of God

and we've got some children of Gad, amen.

I don't wanna be a Gad fear, I wanna be a God fear.

But if you're a Gad fear, you're constantly living

in a state of preservation.

Oh, I've built too much now.

Now I don't know if I can really trust it.

Who are you trusting?

Some trust in chariots, some trust in their army,

but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

Giving the Lord's way breaks the grip of all of that.

Greediness is not the same as stinginess.

Let me tell you, you can give and still be greedy

when it's not what the Holy Ghost asked for.

What are you talking about, Pastor Jacob?

I invite you to interview Ananias and Sapphira.

It wasn't that they were stingy, they gave,

it's just that they didn't give everything

that God asked them to give.

They wanted to present, they wanted to look like everybody

and say, hey, everybody's giving, everybody's tithing,

everybody's giving, everybody's giving, everybody's giving.

And the Lord judged them.

He judged them, he said, why?

Because you're not really giving what I asked you to give.

You're giving on your terms.

You say, oh man, but that's the New Testament.

That's not the old, we think God only struck people down

in the Old Testament.

No one's gonna get struck down here, I don't think.

That's not what God wants to do.

But I'm here to tell you that if,

you know what the Bible says about the land

that they were going to?

It was a land that was flowing with milk and honey.

Now I'm no farmer, but where do you think

the milk comes from?

And don't be funny and say goats.

Goats, oh yes, they probably do,

but they also come from cows, from cattle.

Here's the point, the very thing that they were afraid

to give up and surrender, God says,

I've got a land that's flowing with it.

Oh my God, you mean to tell me,

I've been holding back and holding out

if I just gave to the Lord the Lord's way,

to my church, to the Lord's word,

then God's got way more in store for me,

absolutely, it's a land that's flowing with milk and honey.

Let me tell somebody today, you can never out give God.

You can't do it, you can't do it.

I'll be just a few more moments, but you can't do it.

You can never out give God.

When you tithe, when you give,

your 10% which belongs to the Lord,

it's not yours, it belongs to God.

He will always provide what you need.

The Lord said this in Malachi 3 and verse 10,

he says, bring all the tithe into the storehouse.

Whose storehouse?

Not mine, God's 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, hallelujah,

the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing

that there will not be room enough to receive.

Either God is lying or he's telling the truth,

but my Bible says that God is not a man that he should lie.

So if my Bible tells me, if I bring my treasures,

I bring my offering of my tithe to the house of the Lord,

God's gonna bless,

God's gonna open up the windows of heaven

and let me remind you today

that those blessings that come down,

it's not always in the form of financial resources,

my brother, it's not always in the form of a check

or a check in the mail or a bonus at work,

God will bless you in manifold ways.

He'll bless your relationship,

he'll bless your family,

he'll bless your ministry.

Oh, I want the windows of heaven to open.

Somebody clap your hands and let's give God a praise today.

Hallelujah.

I'm here to tell you that number three,

before I close, let me give you this last point

that giving, faithful giving fuels revival.

I want you to see the powerful way

that giving fuels the church and revival.

Giving, tithing, this is so apostolic.

Watch the book of Acts and the other books

that record how the members, they went above and beyond.

They sold their possessions, their goods,

and they gave regularly to the Lord's church.

Acts chapter two, Acts chapter four, Acts chapter five,

you keep going down the chapters.

First Corinthians nine, First Corinthians 16,

Second Corinthians chapters eight through nine,

on and on and on.

We see there is a direct connection

between the generosity and the giving

and the support of the people to the revival

that God is working through his church.

Hallelujah.

This is, oh, this is apostolic doctrine.

This is as much doctrine and apostolic

as any other apostolic doctrine that we teach

and practice in our lives.

Tithes and offering, it's one of our 19 doctrinal points

as being a part of an apostolic assembly.

It's the economic system that God has set up in the church.

And I have come to encourage you

that if you would get ahold of it,

if there's any room, give God a centimeter

and God will give you a mile.

God will show you if there's any room,

is there any room for conviction?

If I just open up a little bit and say, God work in me,

would you not believe that God will bless you?

Can I testify here for a few moments if that's all right?

Somebody say, go ahead.

I am standing in this place not to gloat, not to boast,

but I am a blessed man.

I stand here today as a fourth

and the fifth generation apostolic,

not to pat myself on the back,

but here today we've got at least five

or four generations of apostolic believers.

We've got my wife's grandma that is here.

We love our grandma B, she's here, hallelujah.

I've got my parents and my in-laws that are here.

We've got myself and my wife that are here.

I've got my son that is here back there

running the multimedia and my daughter that's in class.

And then of course we've got the saints

that went ahead of us already in the presence of the Lord.

Let me tell you one of the secrets of longevity

in the kingdom of God.

For some of you who have not been in this

as long as our families have.

Financial commitment to God

and the giving of our tithe regularly to the Lord

and devoting our offerings to him.

I'm talking about almost a hundred years of faithfulness.

Now you think, oh, they've always been blessed.

We go down the list and they were only able to give

maybe just a few dollars or cents

that they would give to the Lord,

but the Lord always provided.

He made sure that there was food in the pantry.

He made sure that there was gas in the car.

He made sure there was a roof over their head.

He made sure, I wonder if there's anybody

that can testify with me today,

that the Lord is good and his mercy endures forever.

Oh, pastor, are you saying that prayer?

No, prayer's important.

You ought to pray, you ought to fast,

but don't shortchange God.

Say, Lord, here it is, it's yours.

And I'm not here to go, I'm not here to parade my family.

That's not why they're here.

That's not why this is happening.

But I just felt in the Holy Ghost to testify to somebody.

You could be the difference maker.

You can turn that thinking around.

It can start with you and say,

we're gonna trust in the Lord with our 10%.

We're gonna trust in the Lord.

We're gonna give unto the Lord.

And I'm here to tell you today, church,

things are gonna start shifting in the spirit.

Things are gonna start shifting here in this church.

We're gonna renew the emphasis that we need to.

God has dealt with us.

He's dealt with me on this.

And gone are the days where we just dismiss

and just throw whatever we've got

and just head on out the door and forget about the,

no, we might even move the offering back

to the middle of the service.

You say, why pastor?

That's gonna scare the visitors.

No, I think it scares the members

more than it does the visitors.

We're gonna bring the offering back and say,

this, I miss the days where bringing our offering.

I know it's all digital, Venmo, Zelle and all that,

but I kind of miss the days

where we would bring something physical to God

and put it in the offering basket.

You say, oh, you're just trying to show off.

You don't know what they put in there.

That could have been their month's rent.

It could have been anything.

But this is what I know,

that if you give, God will give back to you.

Give and it shall be given.

Shake it, oh, press down.

Shake it together and running over will come out of your bush.

Oh, that son's gone into pastor.

Oh, pastor, he woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

He didn't have his Wheaties this morning.

You're right, I didn't have my Wheaties.

I had homemade tortillas and that's the key.

I'm gonna watch out.

I'm gonna be grounded here every week.

This is gonna get kind of crazy up in here.

He said, well, why, why, why, why, why,

why we gotta do all that?

Because every revival, every move of God,

you see a direct correlation between the generosity

to giving of the people.

And I think it's time.

I believe it's time.

God is awakening something within us and within the church.

We wanna grow, amen.

We wanna see souls come to the kingdom of God.

We wanna see these, oh, yes,

we've got to tell them about Jesus.

But we've also gotta be that kind of church,

a Macedonian church.

We gotta be that giving church

and pour it out at the altar and say,

here it is, Lord, it's yours.

Oh, hallelujah, God.

Hallelujah.

Play something good there, brother, like very emotional.

Very emotional.

Just kidding.

Yeah, yeah, no, not too emotional, not too emotional.

Listen, I'm gonna give you this final picture

because God showed this to me.

I have books, I have commentaries,

I have all these wonderful things

that are nice to age or study.

But I'm gonna tell you, 80% of the things that God gives me,

it comes through revelation.

It comes through my prayer and a Bible.

And this is what the Lord showed me.

I didn't get this from anywhere else.

Nothing to do with other sons,

so maybe someone else on another continent preached it.

But I found this scene in 1 Samuel chapter six

where the Philistines used untrained nursing cows

to return the Ark of the Covenant to God's people.

Some of us may be familiar with that story.

The Ark of the Covenant,

which represents the glory of God,

the presence of God was in Philistine hands, enemy hands,

and it was time for it to come back to God's people.

And so through divine means,

they send the Ark of the Covenant back

and it's being carried.

It's being carried among all things.

It's being delivered.

My God, UPS, here it comes.

But on cows, on cattle.

Now their natural instinct,

they were nursing cows, the Bible says.

Their natural instinct would be to return to their calves

and feed their calves.

Plus they were very unfamiliar with the terrain.

Very unfamiliar.

So these cows miraculously walked

from the land of the Philistines,

straight shot to Israel.

Because when you give your cattle a purpose,

don't just give, give with a mission.

I'm gonna bless.

Woo, shan'ta la matah.

I don't, let me tell you something.

We don't give, this is not a charitable,

we don't give donation, we give offerings.

And our money has a mission.

It's anointed money.

It's got the Holy Ghost on it.

And when we give it to the Lord, it's with a mission.

And so here come these cows

and they're walking through the terrain

and they're on their way.

Oh man.

And then, and then they finally get there.

Can you imagine the cows like,

yeah, we made it all the way.

Huh?

High five in hooves.

We did it.

We got here.

Oh man, what a journey it was.

And just when they were getting ready to celebrate,

huh?

Just when they were getting ready,

start making milkshakes and things like that.

Here comes the guy with the big ax,

firewood, lighter fluid.

And what those cows didn't realize

is that they were about to become beef.

Oh, I'm sorry to tell you cow, you went all that way.

I know you've got a story to tell.

I know that, yes, yes, yes.

There's a whole backstory here,

but you brought the covenant back.

You brought the glory of God back.

And when you, hallelujah,

when you release your faith,

your finances into the hands of God,

it will sustain, it will carry the presence of God.

But that's not all.

Hallelujah.

Oh my God.

It will sanctify your resources.

When the cows arrived,

then we asked the question, where's the beef?

Oh my Lord.

I'm almost done.

Listen, 1 Samuel in chapter six, verse 14,

it answers the question, where's the beef?

Oh, they didn't come just as a delivery service.

These cows came to die.

They came to give themselves holy.

They came to give all of themselves.

And the Bible says,

then the cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-Shema

and stood there.

A large stone was there.

So they split the wood of a cart

and they offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord.

And this signified a change

in the storyline of God's people,

that the glory of the Lord was back in Israel.

Church, as I conclude right now,

let me tell you that God didn't need the cows so much.

God didn't need all,

but what he did want was the sacrifice.

What he wanted was the heart

because Jesus said where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also.

Oh, God's not looking just for a handout today.

God's not looking just for a spare change.

God's not looking for whatever you had under the mattress.

God's not looking, what he's looking for is our hearts.

And he's looking for a cheerful giver,

a cheerful giver of worship,

a cheerful giver of praise.

Oh, hallelujah with the sacrifice of praise,

the fruit of our lips,

a cheerful giver in every aspect.

I invite you to stand with me here today.

Hallelujah.

I don't know about you brothers and sisters,

but I feel the spirit of God here.

I feel the Holy Ghost.

Oh, I feel something tugging on my spirit today.

Oh, hallelujah.

I feel joy in the house of the Lord.

Oh, hallelujah.

The Bible says it's better to give than receive.

And today I wonder if you have something to offer to God

and you can start with your worship

and you can start with your praise

and you can start with the lifting up of your hands.

You can start with the opening up of your mouth.

You can start by acknowledging him as the provider

and the sustainer of your life.

You can start by acknowledging that God owns it all.

Hallelujah.

Everything belongs to him.

Oh, I can't hold it back.

I've got to give it to the Lord today.

He's just somebody in this place

that would join me in worship unto God

as we offer up the sacrifice of praise,

as we offer up this thanksgiving offering,

as we lift up the voices,

as we magnify the Lord today.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, God.

Oh, let me tell you, God's been faithful.