Entrusted 2 | Entrusted Stewards

Thank you for listening to the Kelowna Christian Center podcast.

Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you.

For more information on KCC and how to connect, visit us at KCC.net.

And as you know me, don't sit down yet.

I'm going to have you stand one more time.

Would you do that, please?

I am I'm very thankful and I remember down through history those who have given their lives so that we would have the word of God in front of us.

And so I love to stand to read the word of God in respect and in honor.

Do you like to do that?

Because there's blood that's been shed so that we could have what we have in front of us this morning.

Before we read this, I just want to say some of you were at our AGM last week, and that's a point of accountability, not just in terms of government, but financially for everyone in our organization.

And I just want to say thank you for taking the time to connect with us at that time.

That was really, really important.

One of the things that sort of emerged from that was a little bit of confusion as we're looking at hiring a new, we're going to call it an executive director, someone who will be replacing Andrew Green.

Andrew has decided to retire in June.

And he's been a special friend and helped my, my, my, my, my.

I'm going to miss him on the team, but he's given us a very specific amount of time to replace him.

And we're certainly in that search right now.

But uh some questions that emerged from the AGM was well, what are you what's happening with you, Pastor?

If he's taking the executive director position and maybe up to a third of uh the job responsibilities I've had.

Um, that's to be determined.

Is that okay?

Don't get all weirded out.

I'm still here.

Uh over the last five years, I've taken on more and more and more.

And now I'm getting rid of some of it, and I'm going to be focusing on the things that I have a passion for, not only for the church and our and our organization, but also the nation of Canada.

And so please be in prayer for me about that, that the Lord will make that very, very clear for our entire team.

But is that okay?

All right, okay.

Just want to make sure that that's clear.

Luke 16.

I'd like you to read the Word of God with me today.

Uh, this portion of Scripture is Jesus speaking to his disciples, verses 10 to 13.

Let's read it together.

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.

I can't hear you.

And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.

If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon.

Now there's a word there that is not from familiar to our culture, and this word mammon.

Jesus used a phrase that was very uh connected to uh the ancient East, and that came from a Philistian term that described the God of wealth or money.

And so Jesus picked up that term that the people of his age and uh and culture could understand and said, You cannot serve God and the spirit that is behind money.

The word mammon there refers to a God, an idol that was worshipped, but it represented a spirit in the culture.

And the spirit of the culture basically was a spirit of impoverishment or poverty that basically said, you can't give away what you have because if you give it away, you won't have anything left.

If you give it away, uh another spirit would attach itself to that, and it would be fear and anxiety and discontentment and greed, and it would make that spirit even stronger when it was connected with those emotions in our heart.

So the spirit of Memmon that Jesus was referring to as the God of the Philistines, is that spirit still alive in our culture today?

It is still alive in our culture that basically says you cannot live your life giving away, because if you do that, you won't have enough.

And that comes totally contrary to the word of God.

And Jesus' promise that if you give, it shall be given unto you, shaken down, pressed down, shaken together, running over, and will men give into your bosom.

There'll be a blessing from those around you coming back towards you.

And so that has to be broken.

That spirit has to be broken in our culture, as it was had to be broken in that culture for us to be free financially.

How many of you want to be free financially?

Thank you, Lord.

So, Father, this morning, thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, for your presence in this place that breaks the power of the Spirit of Mammon over every life and opens us to the Spirit of God who will set us free.

And whom you set free are gonna be free indeed.

And we thank you for that freedom in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You may be seated.

The Lord bless you this morning.

Now, last week, Pastor Brody uh started and initiated a series entitled Entrusted.

He spoke from Genesis chapter 12 on the covenant that God made with Abraham.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

And Abraham was told that if you serve me, if you look to me uh as your God, I will bless you, Abraham, and I'll make you a blessing.

And in you through your seed, all the nations of the world will be blessed.

And uh those who bless you are blessed, those who curse you are curse.

In other words, I'll take care of this covenant over you, I'll take care of the attacks that come upon your life, and I will continue to ensure that the blessing remains upon your life.

We look at that as something historical, that was something God spoke to Abraham years ago, but in reality, uh the New Testament comes alongside and affirms that truth, that the truth is now broader than that.

Abraham was the father of faith, and when we operate in faith in Christ, Paul wrote this in Galatians chapter 4, uh chapter 3, verse 14, he says, Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed us with the same blessing he promised Abraham.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

And so the blessing that was promised to him has come upon us, and we have been blessed to be a blessing, and everyone around us should feel the blessing of the Lord that's flowing through our lives.

I believe that.

I made a determined practice this week, wherever I went, whether it was to the Christian community or the secular community, to say, God bless you, God bless you.

And uh I had some reactions from people that, you know, this was this was not acceptable for me to say it.

Others, it was like a real response.

How many of you know that's a spiritual thing that when you utter the blessing of the Lord that's on you, when we say God bless you, we're saying that because the blessing of the Lord's already in us and we can release it.

Right?

And under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, when that goes out, there is a pushback in the spirit of the world that basically counters the blessing.

Others come under the blessing and they receive it and welcome it into their life.

I would encourage you to uh to uh to and challenge you to do that this week.

The word entrust essentially means that we're to we've uh we've been appointed and given or chosen to manage uh another's property.

And so when it comes to stewardship, you are stewards, whether you think of that or not.

You are stewards.

And so this morning I really want to focus on stewardship that we've been entrusted as stewards with the resources that God has given to us.

For the Christian, stewardship is based upon one key primary principle in Scripture, and that is that God owns everything and everyone.

That it is through the Lord that I actually have breath to breathe.

I was given life and created by him in the womb.

He put his specific stamp on who I became, that my life was given to me, and the very breath that I breathe is given to me as a gift from God.

I recognize that God not only created me but owns the picture, has a plan for me for the rest of my life.

Hallelujah.

I'm grateful to God for that.

But that that that every one of us has is owned and everything we have belongs to Him.

When we came into this world, we didn't bring anything with us.

We came with nothing.

And by the way, when we leave this world, there's not gonna be any U-Hauls.

We're not taking anything with us.

Naked we came in, and naked we'll leave.

Okay?

But but the key thing is what are we going to do with what we've been entrusted with between our birth and our death?

That's gonna have an impact upon our future and and destiny.

Everything that we received, we receive from God.

Everything that we now own is on loan from God.

Would you say that to someone this morning?

Everything that I own is on loan.

Come on, I want to hear that.

Everything that I own is on loan.

Now that's the that's the measure of what if it means to be a Christian.

Because in the Christian encounter with God, Jesus made this deal with me.

And the deal was, David, you give me everything you are and everything you have, and I'll give you everything I am and everything I have.

And I looked at that deal and I thought it was a good deal because what I had was temporary and it wasn't gonna last very long.

I made a great deal when I gave my life and everything I have to Jesus.

Now the issue is Jesus doesn't leave us penniless or without.

He promises, I've left heaven and all of heaven's resources, and I became like you, so I could take your impoverishment and bring you into the resources of heaven.

Come on.

Say hallelujah.

Thank you, Lord.

It's important.

We often speak in very personal and I'm gonna say self-centered ways about everything about us.

We talk about our life, my life, my job, my position, my possessions, right?

Hello.

We tend to personalize it as if it belongs to us, but in reality, that's an anti-Christian or a contrary non-Christian worldview.

The Bible says the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

We are stewards of everything we've been given and not owners.

God entrusts us with life.

He gave me my life, he gave me my breath, he gave me my time, and my time is established by him.

He gave me abilities and strengths and knowledge and health and resources.

All of that has come from the Lord.

He has entrusted that to me.

And the Bible says he's looking for a return on that trust, a return on that investment.

In Malachi chapter 4, verse 7 to 11.

Malachi speaking to the people of God in his day.

They've actually been able to come back into Jerusalem and start rebuilding the city.

Uh, but they've now turned their attention on themselves.

Haggai kind of alluded to it when he said, You go home and you build your paneled, walled homes, and the house of the Lord remains in ruins.

He said, What's happening is your wealth is going into pockets with holes in them.

And you will constantly be putting money into your pockets, but you're going to be losing it out the wrong side.

Get your priorities in place.

And so Malachi makes a statement.

He says, You return to me, and I will return to you.

Now the word return is an interesting word here.

It just simply means that if I'm returning something to you, it's that you owned it, you had it before, you owed it back, and you're asking for me to return what I gave you gave me.

God is making that statement to his people in Malachi chapter 4.

Malachi 4 · chapter mention

He's saying, Return to me what I gave you, what I invested and entrusted to you, return it to me, and I will return to you.

In other words, I'm not here to take it from you.

That's that feeds that spirit of mammon.

I'm here to take it to be able to give it back to you, enlarged and increased.

Prosper you.

That's the heart of God to prosper you.

But you have to give back what you've been given so that he can take what you're giving back and prosper it.

He said, Return to me and I will return to you.

And and he gets this childish response from the world at that time saying, Listen, uh, where do we return to you?

How how do we return?

Uh and and Malachi says, uh, speaking from the Lord, begin by being honest.

Do honest people cheat God?

But you rob me day after day.

You ask, How have we robbed you?

You know, it's like dealing with a child.

Why?

How come?

You know, and they keep on asking, and all they all they're doing is trying to get around having to actually get the answer.

And so sometimes we're like that, hello?

Sometimes we're like that.

And God's dealing with that attitude in his people there.

Like we're not doing anything wrong.

What's the problem here?

And God says, if you return to me, I'll return to you.

But right now you're cheating me, you're robbing me, and you're robbing yourself by robbing me.

And he says, You've robbed me in your tithes and offerings.

That's how.

The people were not building God's house, they were building their own.

Scripturally, God expects that return that he has given to us, the investment in our life, to be returned in four different ways.

Number one, when God's blessing comes upon your life and he has blessed you with resources, blessed you with time, blessed you with health, blessed you with friendships, the Bible makes it clear that we're to return that to him by investing in his cause.

Malachi again says this bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there can be food in my house.

And that day it was supporting the priests that ministered the duties of bringing the word of God to the people, etc.

But it was also a place of compassion.

When the house of God was full and had more than enough, we could reach out beyond ourselves and give it away, like we do on Tuesday night to the poor about our around our community.

But he also says this in scripture in Deuteronomy 8:8.

Deuteronomy 8:8

He says, if you start thinking to yourselves, I did all this all by myself, I'm rich, it's all mine.

Well, think again.

Remember that God gave you the strength, the power, the ability, the capacity to produce all of this wealth so that it can confirm the covenant that He has promised to the world.

In other words, your ability to make wealth was given to you by God.

Your resources, your capability, your skill sets, your talents, your relationships have all enabled you to have this power to generate wealth.

God says, remember, you didn't get it by yourself.

I gave it to you.

And the purpose I gave it to you was to establish my covenant so that everybody knows about me in the world.

You think if God gave you that power, he can remove that power?

Quiet.

I said, Do you believe that if God gave you the power to gain that wealth, that God can remove it?

So if if we are faithful with using the generated wealth of our life for the purposes of the kingdom of God, and we think in those terms, how can I use this to be a blessing that God will continue to increase and enlarge our blessing?

But if we choose not to, there'll be some serious consequences.

The first place is there's your heart in the house of God.

If you will build the house of God, God will build your house.

First and foremost, priority.

You know, you don't have any problems with that.

Oh, you do, you may, you may, depending on how much taxes you pay.

But when you get your your your paycheck at the end of the week or the month, uh, has the government already stepped in and taken some money at their tithe?

How many of you know it's more than a tithe?

Some of you it's a double tithe, some of you it's a triple tithe.

Come on, in terms of the percentage of your wealth, and you just take the remaining be home and you work on it.

You don't complain?

You may, but you don't do a lot of complaining on that level.

You just, well, it's an accepted fact.

But when it comes to God who promises you can do a whole lot more with 90% of your income than the 100%, you have trouble.

Oh, it's because God isn't a thief and he doesn't come and take it from your check every night, every week.

Hello?

No, no, he asks you to do that from your heart as an expression of gratitude and thanks for what you've been given, and he promises you that if you return it to him, he will return it to you doubly, increase it, magnify, prosper you.

Come on.

That's the heart of God to prosper his servants, those who are committed to doing his will.

The second place that you take care of is your personal family.

The Bible makes it clear in 1 Timothy 5 8 if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.

So God gives you resources.

Honor the Lord with your resources, then honor your family and take care of your family.

How many of you know God wants you to have every need supplied?

I was here in the first service.

I realized that you know my wife was a gift of God to me.

I didn't earn her love.

God put God's His love in her heart for me.

And I, right from the very beginning, she made it abundantly clear.

She said, I am a gift to you.

I am God's daughter.

That's your father-in-law.

You don't treat me like a princess, you'll have to deal with my dad.

Hello?

And I tell you, I got that right at the very beginning of my life.

I got that, but uh but it took me 25 years before I could walk in front of her and say, you know what?

I'm a prince, I'm a gift to you.

Come on.

You know, I it took me a long time.

She had a high self-esteem or god estimation of her life when we got married.

I it took me all 25 years to get to that place.

But I realized that I'm to provide for her, I'm to provide for my children, I'm to give my life if necessary, sacrificially to make sure that they're taken care of.

And so, right from the get go, as I honor the Lord.

And then I honor my family and take care of their needs.

I'm honoring the Lord's resources in my life.

Now, can you can you uh are there people in the world that don't have that kind of value system towards their own family and they do everything else with their money but fail to invest in their family?

Yes, that's there.

And that's a shame to the body of Christ if we act that way.

We take care of our families.

How do we invite the world family into the Christian family if when they come in they see we don't even care about each other?

So the third thing that we're to give with our do with our resources is what God entrusts us with as a steward, is to invest in the body of Christ.

The third thing is the uh Galatians 6.10 says, as we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith, the poor.

So I took a take a look at my responsibility as a steward to God.

Then I look at my as a steward of uh the family that God has given me to raise and take care of.

And then thirdly, I look at the family of God.

I look at the body of Christ, because we're inviting the world into this family, and they're gonna have to take a look at how we treat each other.

It's been a joy in my life as a as a pastor to see the times when we've been able to give away and help and bless and release.

And, you know, I see the heart that is there, never lose that.

The Jews had a uh a blessed with purpose pocket.

So when they went on a trip, they had one pocket to take care of all of the needs that they had on the trip, and they had another pocket with some money in it, so that I could I could give some money away to be a blessing.

Now, is that how you purpose your life?

Is that how you think about your life?

That I'm going to live with more than enough?

Because the enemy will come with that spirit of mammon, that evil spirit that'll say, if you give that away, you're not gonna have enough.

And anxiety hits and fear hits, and a spirit that actually takes away.

And we become more self-centered and selfish with our resources rather than giving towards God.

You you know what I'm talking about.

God says you'll take care of every need that you have.

So here's your circle of need.

And then God says, if you will honor me in this process and honor your family, and honor the body of Christ, your brother, extended family, the brothers of sisters of Christ, then I will enlarge your circle.

And it'll be the circle of blessing that will override the circle of your need.

You know what most people do?

They enlarge their take from it.

When the God blesses them, they keep on eating up the blessing.

And they enlarge their there's from a circle of need, the circle of need grows and becomes a circle of greed.

And they eat up all the resources.

I've sat down when I was making uh uh$400 a month with my my income at my my housing, it was$200, my tithe was$40, my my gas was, come on, my food, all of that stuff.

How on earth am I gonna live on$400 a month?

And two and a half years later I had$10,000 in the bank.

More than I had made the entire time I was the first two and a half years of my ministry.

And it didn't happen because of my skill sets and wisdom investment.

It came by the blessing of the Lord just coming, knocking on my door as I took care of honoring his house.

God honored my house.

So when we look at it and we beg start seeing how to bring about that blessing and pour it out, when God sees us doing that, he begins to honor us.

And the fourth area he says to give is to the poor.

Are there poor amongst us?

Well, you say, well, the poor in our country, they've got all kinds of resources, everybody takes care of their needs, etc.

Yeah, there's truth to that, but God doesn't want you to turn off your heart towards those who are in need.

I I have one of my grandchildren that whenever they get in the car, she's got a love package.

She's got hygiene, you know, toothpaste and toothbrush and soap and and and and shampoo and and candy and all kinds of things in a bag.

Because she's seen so often going down the road, people standing at the corner saying, help me.

So at a very young age, she says, We've got to have something to give to these people.

Hello.

That's why we have houses of mercy on Tuesday night that feeds hundreds and hundreds of families in this area.

Because we're giving back to the community.

We're not gonna shut it down.

Okay, four areas the Lord and his house, our own home, the family, the body of Christ, our brothers and sisters, and then the poor.

And God says, if you will honor me and steward the resources to give it away that way, I will honor you.

If you return to me and begin to invest it the way I've asked you to invest it, I will pour that investment back into your life.

That's the promise of scripture.

Now there's there's a warning here and there's a and there's a blessing here.

The warning is if you withhold what you've been stewarded, your life, your time, your resources, your education, your abilities, your your health, your strength, and you remove it from your from the Lord and from the the body of Christ and from your family and and from the poor, then God calls it sin.

You ever heard that three-word letter word before?

It means you've missed the mark of what brings honor and glory to God, and when you withhold, God withholds from you.

If you fail to sow, you cannot reap.

People want to reap where they have not sown.

God says, if you withhold from your family, you withhold from me, you withhold from the body of Christ, you withhold from the poor, I will withhold from you.

You say, Wow, man, my circle keeps on shrinking and shrinking and shrinking.

Well, that's not God's heart.

God wants to see it keeps on keeping on enlarging.

But he does not want to see the blessing consumed by our greed.

It's quiet in here.

I love preaching when it's so quiet.

The second thing is if you withhold, God says he'll withhold from you.

I don't want any of you to be withheld from.

I want the blessing of the Lord attending you.

The blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow to it.

And no amount of work can increase the blessing.

Right?

God knows how to bring blessing from left, right, and center on your life, from down beneath and over top and beside, the blessing of the Lord goes ahead of you and makes a way a favor.

But but the Bible says if you release who you are and what you have, when you live like you're blessed to bless and you're living to give and giving to live, it'll open up the windows of heaven in terms of a provision for your life.

Well, who would want that?

It says here in Malachi 4, bring the tithe into the temple, into the house of God, that there'll be ample provision.

Test me and see if I would open heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams.

My dad, the very first thing he taught me when the first job I had at about 10 years of age of a paper root was, David, what are you gonna do with the tithe?

I am so glad he taught me that.

Because from that point on to this point, I've seen the blessing of the Lord track my life.

Proverbs 11, 24 says, the world of the generous gets larger and larger, but the world of the stingy grows smaller and smaller.

How do you want your world to be?

Large?

Influence?

Increase?

Magnified?

Or do you want it shrinking?

Jesus said in Luke 6, 38, he says, give away your life.

You'll find your life will be given back to you, and not merely given back, given back with bonuses and blessing.

Giving, not getting is the way.

We don't give to get, we give to get to give.

Generosity begets generosity.

So, what are the things that we have to steward?

First thing is our time.

The first thing God is calling upon you to steward is your time.

Have all of you been given time?

Have you all been given enough time?

24 hours a day, 168 hours a week.

There was a poll taken in in 2007, which is 12 years old, but it's the only one I could find.

It talked about how Canadians spend their time.

40 hours a week at work, 30 hours watching TV.

Hello, 56 hours sleeping, 10 hours on internet and media.

How many of you know it's a whole lot more than that today?

33 hours left?

Do we tithe our time?

16.8 hours a week.

Do we tithe our time?

Or do we say, um, you know, let other people do it?

How many of you know your time does not belong to you?

Even Jesus said, my time is not on my own schedule, my time is in the Father's hand.

Whether I have 70 years, 80 years, 90 years, 120 years, I have an appointed time.

Then I'm gonna have to stand before God and give account for my stewardship.

What are you doing with your time?

How are you serving God with your time?

I'm not talking about blocking it out and saying, well, this three hours and this four hours and one half hour and 15 minutes, like I talked, you know.

I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about the willingness of your heart to say, God, you've given me this time and space.

Help me now to use this time that you've given me and make it effective in people's lives.

Right?

The second thing is our talents and our gifts.

We build on this treasure that the Lord has deposited in us.

We've got education.

Listen, we're all ignorant in different areas, right?

But we're all wise in different areas.

And there are many of you who have been educated in so many different areas, and you've got gifts and skill sets and abilities, and ah, you understand what I'm saying.

There's doctors in this house, there are uh lawyers, and there are people that have skill sets on in electronics and technology and and teachers, and come on, uh, people that know how to cook well.

There's all kinds of abilities that are sitting here, and they what are you doing to serve God with those abilities?

So, what we've found in this modern 21st century culture is the spirit of entitlement and ownership.

And the ownership is not God, the ownership is us.

And we go, you know, when I look out there for volunteerism in the body of Christ, it's falling and falling and falling and falling and falling in terms of finding people who are willing to volunteer their help or their skills in whatever area.

Why?

Because we've taken ownership instead they're our skills, our time, our way, our education, and they keep it for themselves to grow it for themselves.

But what about the body of Christ?

Does the body of Christ have a right to Michael's ability to lead in worship?

Thank you, Michael.

Does the abil does the body of Christ have a uh have a right uh to Steve Therion's and his skill set with technology to help us in our meetings on a Sunday morning?

Does the body of Christ have a right to access Elisa Burke and her ability to make food that we all enjoy?

Come on.

What have you got to give from who you are that you can say, hey, this is what I can do for the body of Christ and for the Lord?

I want to serve him, and and he entrusted me with this skill set.

Now I want to give it back.

Or do you just come on a Sunday morning and leave, and that's the last time we see you next Sunday?

Maybe next Sunday.

Hello.

We're talking about are you a steward or an owner?

Who owns it?

Who owns who you are and all that you have and all you've been given?

See, from my perspective, when I say Jesus your Lord, He's master, I'm servant.

All I have belongs to Him.

He can ask for it any time.

It's not mine, it belongs to Him.

So, what are you gonna do with your talents?

There was that there was that illustration that Jesus spoke to about the man who was given money.

He was went on a long trip and he says, Here's a servant, I'm gonna give you five talents, another three, another one.

Um, I'll be back in a while to get have you give an account for the use of his resources.

Came back, the five had made another five, the three had made another three, the one, he hid it in the ground and said, Man, you are a tough taskmaster, and uh so here's what you gave me, here, take it back.

And the Lord basically speaking from that perspective, says, Listen, you could have at least put it in the bank and got some interest on that one talent, but you hid it, and that's evil.

It's evil.

Take it and give it to the one who has now ten.

And then the Lord made it this statement.

He said, the faithfulness that you exhibit in terms of what you do with the resources I've given you between the grave, uh the birth and the grave will determine whether or not you're gonna be able to rule over cities.

You say, well, that's for a future in the millennium.

Uh-uh.

I I've I've watched a brother of mine um faithfully serve the Lord in terms of using his skill set to be a blessing to individuals.

People didn't even know he was blessing, didn't even know the amount of time he was doing behind the scenes to help.

And the Lord began to speak to me into his life and said, now the time for promotion is yours.

And I I gave him a specific word and said, Your faithfulness in the small is now opening up the door for you to have faithfulness in the in the large.

And now God is moving you into uh into accessing cities, not just individuals.

Well, now he goes across Canada, and cities are opening up to him.

Cities, so this is not a millennial statement, this is the enlargement of the impact of what the Lord does in your life when you're faithful in the small, God begins to release it and enlarge it and take you, take the favor of God begins to move you out beyond, and the sphere of your influence begins to grow.

Do you believe that?

See, I I believe that.

As every man has received the gift, even so, minister the same one to another as good stewards of this manifold grace of God.

Everything you got, you got by the grace of God.

I am who I am by the grace of God.

I have what I have by the grace of God.

Now, as a steward, minister those gifts and skill sets and knowledge and wisdom to others and let the grace of God continue to grow.

The third thing is we need to steward our resources, the finances God has given us.

How you use your money is a spiritual thing, it's not a financial thing.

Do you understand?

How you use your money is not a financial issue, it's a spiritual issue.

You cannot separate your finances from your spiritual life.

It's a reflection of your priorities.

It's an extension of who you are.

Money is not evil in itself.

Money takes on the very character and personality of the person who has it.

If I'm compassionate, my money will become compassionate.

If I'm selfish and greedy, my money will become selfish and greedy.

I make my money take on a personality.

And I know that I enter into a spiritual battle every time it comes to finances.

The enemy wants your resources to be used for the kingdom of this world.

He wants more and more McDonald's.

Come on, he wants more and more Amazons.

God wants you to use it to invest in his cause and his church.

So that church after church after church after church is being planted globally.

An international coalition and corporation of the body of Christ reaching out to nations around the world.

You're in a battle for that dollar.

I made a decision years ago that these resources belong to Him.

I didn't own anything.

Remember, as a 27, 28-year-old with a family of three, all under five years of age, we had an evangelist in our home.

And we were talking to him, he'd come in to minister.

At the end of the conversation, the Holy Spirit said, Give him your car.

Only had one car.

But I could have entered into the Malachi 4 communication, right?

Why?

I'm gonna have to take the bus now to work.

I'm gonna have to walk with my kids to get the food.

Come on.

You're working through all of these dynamics in your mind.

God said, give it to him.

Well, to be legal, I had to give it to him for a dollar.

And I gave him the dollar back.

Because it's it's the Lord.

You have to be obedient.

It's not my car, it's the Lord's car.

Within three weeks, God gave us another car.

There was no complaining in the children.

They thought it was cool riding the bus.

But God came back.

Not only was it a blessing on our lives with a almost a brand new vehicle.

But the brother I gave the vehicle to, little did I know that this 1969 Ford Fairline had a four-lane had a had a 351 cubic inch Cleveland engine in it that was a racing machine with 300 horsepower in it.

I'd never really tested it.

He went and sold the car, the motor on the car, for more than I paid for the entire vehicle.

After he drove it for 10 years.

Hello.

I sit back and look at the blessing of the Lord.

And I go, We were blessed.

He was blessed, and he became blessed to be able to be a blessing.

I say, Lord, this is what I want.

This is what I want.

I want that for my life.

I'm going to steward the resources that He's given to me, and I'm going to use them for the body of Christ's sake.

When God's looking for a good steward, he looks for one who settled the ownership issue.

I'm going to give you this hundred thousand dollars right now.

Are you going to be stealing from me?

Or do you recognize that you're just a manager of it?

You're a steward of it, not an owner.

You're not going to be dipping into the tail, are you?

Why would God give those resources to you to have you cheat on him and rob him?

Love you.

I know that's why you only hear from me a couple, you know, once every couple months, because I beat up on you a bit, don't I?

This isn't this isn't intended to be a beat up on.

It's intended to be a blessing to come up underneath you and lift you up so that the blessing of the Lord can just prevail in your life.

But don't think God's stupid.

God is not going to resource you with resources for your personal benefit.

He says, I'm going to give you the power to generate wealth and resources so that you can be a blessing.

Now, if you use it for the bless, you return it to me this way, that on my investment, as I see the blessing of the Lord going out from your life, then I'll keep on blessing.

I'll keep enlarging.

I'll keep on enlarging the sphere of your influence.

I want to, I want the favor of God to go before you and make a way so that there's, you know, you get there, you go, God, look what God's done, right?

Faithful in the small, faithful over much.

Secondly, He wants faithfulness.

Thirdly, he just wants an attitude of gratitude.

Are you thankful?

For the resources and knowledge and wisdom and families and friends and everything that God's given you?

Are you thankful?

If you keep that heart of gratitude, God will keep on adding into your life.

David Livingston made this statement, and I'll just end it with this.

He said, I place no value on anything I have or my possess, except in relationship to the kingdom of God.

If anything will advance the interest of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept.

Only as by giving or keeping it, I shall most promote the glory of him to whom I owe all my hopes in time or eternity.

David Livingston was an incredible guy.

He just took his life and went, There are people that never heard about Jesus, I'm going there.

If you want to follow me, you're going to have to make a road to get to where I am because this is just who I am.

Everything was laid out for the kingdom of God.

Are you that kind of?

Seek first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness and what?

Everything that you need will be what?

Added unto you.

You believe it?

Now check it out.

Test it out, will you?

Thank you, Father.

So, Father, in Jesus' name, this morning, we take authority over that spirit of mammoth and say it will not ravage our life and undermine and uh undercut the blessing of the Lord.

We will rule over this spirit of mammoth and open the door for the blessing of the Lord to just land on our lives from the left to the right, behind, in front, over top, underneath.

Let the blessing of the Lord surround us and make a way where there is no way.

Level the path in front of us, take down the mountains, fill the valleys, make the crooked straight, and make a way for us, Lord, as Jehovah Jireh, the one who goes before us and makes the way so that when we get there, we found out God was planning on our arrival.

Lord, I just pray your blessing upon this congregation as they steward the resources that you've given them in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

God bless you.

Thank you for listening.

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