The Blessing of Connecting: Blessed by Association | Pastor Aaron Pino

Genesis chapter 13, starting at verse 1.

Genesis 13 · chapter mention

I'm gonna read that here in just a little bit.

Uh but today I want to let you know that I'm actually starting a new series.

You ready for the name of the series?

It's called the Blessing of Connecting.

Someone say with me, the blessing of connecting.

One more time, like you mean it, okay?

I'm just telling you right now.

Say there is a blessing in my connecting.

Over the next several weeks, as we're leading into Friends Day, I want to talk to us about how there is actually a benefit from being connected to certain people.

We just came out of the series of the favor factor.

How many of y'all are favored in the house of the Lord today?

Amen.

I'm double favored.

Haha.

Come on now.

Y'all think you're not even I'm double favored up in this mug, okay?

But I'm telling you that the blessing of the Lord and the favor of God actually, there's a dimension of the favor and the blessing of the Lord that comes on you whenever you get connected to the right people.

Now you don't have to wave your hand or or anything like that, but I have seen in my life, and maybe you've seen in your life as well, that whenever I got out of the wrong relationships and I got into the right relationships, things in my life begin to go up and not go down.

Not to say that you're never gonna have like what I call critical junctures, which is like a moment where you need to have a conversation and confront some stuff and change some stuff.

What I'm talking about, I'm not saying that that doesn't happen.

What I am saying is this whenever you get connected to the right people, there is a level of blessing that comes upon your life.

Because what's on their life gets deposited into your life.

Can I prove it to you right off the bat?

Think about whenever you came to Jesus.

Everything you preach is right back to Jesus.

Yeah, we start with Jesus, we're in the middle with Jesus, we end with Jesus.

Come on now.

Why?

Because he is the word.

We start with the word, we stay in the word, we end with the word.

Does that make sense?

And so think about how whenever you came to Jesus, you brought him nothing, but when you got linked up with him, he gave you everything.

You brought to him brokenness and he gave you healing.

You came to him with fear and he gave you peace.

You know what I'm talking about.

There was a blessing when I connected with the master, and my friend, let me tell you the principle is true across the board.

Who you connect with will determine the life that you live.

Oh, don't believe me?

No, you don't have to wave your hand, but we have people in the room, and I don't need the sound of my voice.

You know what it was like before you knew the Lord, and maybe you were hooked on some stuff, and maybe you didn't have a home to live in, and maybe maybe you were wandering out in the streets, and guess what?

You you hung out with people who were hooked up on stuff, and you hung out with people that didn't have a home to live in, and you hung out with people who are wandering in the streets as well.

Do you understand what I'm talking about?

Why?

Because who you are around, who you connect with, determines the level of blessing that can flow from their life into your life.

I'm gonna help us out here over the next several weeks.

You want to go with me today?

You want to go with me over the next several weeks?

And so, listen, over the next several weeks, I want to show you how you can elevate your relationships with people and with God.

So, this is what I need you to do over the next several weeks.

I need you to lean in.

Just go ahead, lean in your chair right now.

Go ahead, just lean in like that.

Go ahead.

All right, you can lean back, okay?

But I want you to lean in and I want you to let this transform your mind, and I want you to let this touch your spirit because I want this to become a part of who you are, because who you are around is important to where you are going.

Amen.

God is a relational God, and when He wants to bless you, many times He will send a person to bless you, amen.

That's just how the Lord works.

Oh, good.

You only gave me 30 minutes on the clock.

Let me stick to my notes.

I was about to pontificate with everybody and do all those things, and we won't do that.

Have you found Genesis chapter 13 and verse 1 yet?

Genesis 13 · chapter mention

We're about to read the story of Abram and Lot, and let me set this up to you.

Abram told God to leave his family.

He was living in Mesopotamia, which would be the equivalent of him living in Manhattan in New York City.

He was well off, he was connected, and the Lord one day spoke to Abram and said, I need you to move from where you're at, away from your family, away from the city, to a new land.

And whenever Abram moved to the new land, there was a famine in the land that he moved to.

He moved to Canaan, and while he was in Canaan, the Bible says that there was a famine in that land.

And so Abram and everyone and everything that was with him, they went to Egypt.

And through a series of events, Abram then left Egypt to go back to Canaan.

See, you don't have to feel that bad if you're ever back and forth.

You don't talk about should I live here?

Should I not live there?

Should I move here?

Yeah, right.

Okay, people in the Bible had the same thing.

But through a series of events, Abram leaves Egypt, and whenever he leaves Egypt, he is exceedingly wealthy.

Livestock, gold, silver.

But all the time, whenever Abram left his family from Mesopotamia to Canaan, to Egypt, back to Canaan, he took his nephew Lot with him.

And that is where we pick up in Genesis chapter 13.

Genesis 13 · chapter mention

And I'm only gonna read 13 verses out of this portion of scripture, and we're gonna move on from there.

Have you found it yet?

Amen.

It says this.

So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot went with them into Negev.

Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.

Pause right there.

I want you to underline in your Bible, very rich, just underline very rich.

Because whenever you are obedient to the Lord, prosperity follows you.

I thought you were preaching on blessing and connecting.

That's part of the blessing right there.

You need to get the picture of what the Lord had poured out in Abram's life because Abram was obedient to the voice of the Lord.

And watch, he wasn't just rich with peace and rich with joy.

No, the Bible says he was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

So just in case you're wondering what the blessing of the Lord entails, it entails you to receive stuff and money.

Amen.

Come on, I didn't make this up.

It's right there in your Bible.

I just had you underline it right there.

Don't get mad at me.

It's the blessing of the Lord.

Amen.

Why are you just into that prosperity?

Yeah, I am into prosperity because what am I going to be into?

Poverty.

You just wanted them faith guys, right?

Yeah, what am I going to be?

A fear guy?

Well, you just you just declare the word, don't you?

Yeah, what else am I going to declare?

I'm not going to declare CNN or Fox News because all them jokers is crazy.

And all them jokers like to lie as well, okay?

But let me tell you, the Bible is the truth.

Amen.

So read your Bible and we'll have a good time.

Now Abraham was very rich in livestock.

The blessing of the Lord was upon him because of his obedience in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

Verse 3.

And he journeyed from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning.

Between Bethel and Ai.

Verse 4.

To the place where he had made an altar at first.

And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord.

And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.

Come on now, someone say blessing in connecting.

Say it again, blessing in connecting.

And what was what was the blessing that Lot experienced?

Stuff and finances.

Hello?

Okay, all right.

Don't get quiet on me now.

And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together.

For their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.

Verse 7.

And there was strife between the herdsmen.

I want you to underline that in your Bible.

There was strife between the herdsmen.

We're going to come back to that in just a moment.

There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.

At that time, the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

Verse 8.

Then Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife between you and me.

Circle that.

So don't just bring it to church.

Use it, okay?

All right, my bad.

Let's keep going.

Not my bad.

I'm not sorry for nothing.

Verse 9.

Is not the whole land before you, Abram said, separate yourself from me.

If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right.

Or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.

And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zor.

This is before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east.

Thus they separated from each other.

Someone circled, thus they separated from each other.

We're going to hit all this right now, because I'm telling you, you need to get this deep down in your spirit.

Thus they separated from each other.

Abram settled in the land of Canaan while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.

Last verse.

Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.

Father, today breathe upon your word.

Let us get all that you have intended for us in this moment.

Anoint me with a peculiar anointing to declare what you have declared to me, and for there to be a release from the Spirit into the lives of these people here before me in the mighty name of Jesus.

Come on, if you receive it, shout Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

So what we just read right here is this Lot was blessed because of Abram.

There was a blessing in the connecting.

And today I want to I want to let you know how you can be blessed by association.

Amen.

Growing up, they used to tell me this whole thing: birds of a feather flock together.

Right?

They they used to be guilty by association.

Everybody ever heard that before?

I'm I'm back in the day, I was guilty by association, but now because I'm linked up with Jesus, I think I'm not guilty any longer.

But I am freed, I am justified.

Come on now.

I am saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost.

I'm going to heaven.

Anyone else thankful for that?

So what so watch this now.

You're not guilty by association, you are blessed by association.

Amen.

Come on now.

You need to get that deep down in your spirit.

This isn't just things that I'm saying to make you all hyped up and jazz and everything like that.

No, this is something you need to allow to go deep down on the inside of you.

Watch this now to where it becomes your new paradigm, where it becomes your new filter, it becomes your way of thinking and living in this life.

You are blessed by association.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

I'm so grateful that I am not cursed any longer.

I am blessed.

Well, I don't know.

You know, the bloodline, and you know, there was something in my family lineage, and there's a bloodline curse.

That is all a bunch of patui.

Because whenever you come into the family of God, there's a new bloodline that is over your life.

Amen.

So any kind of curse and junk and mumbo, jumbo, and voodoo that you think was after you, it stops dead in its tracks because there is a new bloodline, and the bloodline of Jesus Christ doesn't say cursed, curse, curse.

The bloodline of Jesus Christ says blessed, blessed, blessed.

Come on, if you know you're blessed, how dare you just say, I'm blessed.

Hallelujah.

You are blessed by association.

And so here's Lot.

He is connected with his uncle Abram, and Lot was blessed because he went with Abram.

My friend, understand this who you connect to will affect your destiny.

Period.

Who you connect to will affect your destiny.

And you read the story right here, and we're gonna, I'm gonna give you three points out of here that's gonna take your connection to another level.

But before we talk about that, understand this.

Lot thought that his blessing came because he went to Egypt.

How do we know that?

Because whenever Abram looked at him and said, Take any part of the land you want, Lot looked at a part of the land and it reminded him of the place he had just come.

And it made him think, watch this now, it made him think that all of the blessing, all of the riches, all the livestock, all the tents, all the male servants, all the female servants, all the things that he had in his hand, he it made Lot believe and think that the blessing came because he went to Egypt.

The blessing did not come upon Lot because he went to Egypt.

The blessing was upon Lot because he was connected with somebody who was blessed.

Mm-hmm.

See, some of y'all wouldn't have nothing if it wasn't for Jesus.

Come on, you came from nothing, you grew up with nothing.

Hello?

Come on now.

You know what I'm talking.

Some of you don't know what I'm talking about.

Well, God bless you, but I'm talking, I know it was like to grow up poor, to grow up running around.

No, my mom not knowing what I was doing half the time.

Not half the time, probably 75% of the time.

I'm sorry, mom, if you're watching this today.

But watch, I'm telling you, there was nothing good in me, and there was nothing good for me before I met Jesus.

And you'd be mistaken if you thought that you were blessed because of something you had done or somewhere you had been.

Every blessing that you're experiencing your life, even right now, is not because you're so good, it's because you are connected to a good God.

Come on now.

You are blessed by association.

So don't be like Lot where you think it all came because you you were in Egypt.

No, you're blessed because you are connected to the right people, you're blessed because you're connected to the right and only one true living God.

So here's Lot.

He thinks, oh man, I'm blessed because of where I have been, but he did not understand.

He was blessed because he was who he was connected to.

His success was due to his connection to a man who was favored by God.

And because Lot got close enough to Abram, that which was on Abram's life rubbed off on Lot.

So, my friend, I want to encourage you this morning, find somebody who is blessed and connect.

Find somebody who is blessed and honor them.

Find somebody who is blessed and link up with them.

You have to recognize the blessing and connect.

You have to move towards the blessing and connect.

You have to honor the blessing and connect.

I'm telling you because what happens whenever you connect with somebody who is greater than where you're at, who is further along than what you are, in the things of God or in business or in family, guess what happens?

It begins to expand your mind, it begins to expand your capacity, it begins to expand who you are, that way you can receive more than what you have now.

Amen.

Well, this is just some kind of self-help message, isn't it, Pastor Aaron?

Yeah, I'm trying to help everybody out in the room.

You understand what I'm saying?

Because as believers, you should not live in some small, rinky-dink, non-effective life.

You should live with purpose, you should live with destiny.

You should live, come on now.

You should live a life that makes a difference in every place that you go.

But because you have not been taught, you think that where you're living right now is the fullness of your portion.

My friend, let me tell you right now, God has not destined for you to be small, He is not destined for you to be insignificant, He is not destined for you to be poor, He is not destined for you to be in sickness, He is not destined for you to be in confusion, He's not destined for you to be in fear.

I'm telling you right now, God has destined for you and me to be blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed.

Come on, if you believe it, shout, I'm blessed.

Come on, say it again.

I'm blessed.

I'm blessed, I'm blessed, I'm blessed.

Amen.

And I want you to shout it, but I also want you to think it.

I don't only want you to shout it, I don't want you only to think it.

I want you to believe that God wants to expand where you are at now because He has more for you than what you realize.

He has more peace for you, He has more joy for you, He has more godly relationships for you.

Come on now, He has more healing for your life.

He has more finances for your family, for what you come on now, what you want to do.

Am I talking to anybody in the room this morning?

So, whenever you connect with people who are blessed, it expands your capacity, it expands the way you think.

Amen.

I shouldn't have told them to give me 30 minutes on this clock.

Several months ago, I was sitting down with somebody, and uh I was telling them of the vision that I had for some things coming up in my own personal life and things for ministry, and I put a figure out there of a million dollars.

I said, Man, I'm believing God for a million dollars.

And this person is like a multi, multi-mult, multi, I can't even say it right because they got some multi-mini on there that thing.

You know what I'm talking about?

They were extremely wealthy, and they just looked at me and shook their head.

And I was like, uh oh no.

And they said, That term millionaire is straight from the pit of hell.

And I said, Come again.

And they said that term millionaire puts a cap on what God has and what God can do.

And I said, say that one more time.

And they said that term millionaire is straight from the pit of hell, it puts a cap on what God can do and what God has.

And they said, and they just shook their head, they said, You gotta get out of your mind the limitations of God because God doesn't think in millions, he thinks in more than enough.

And I'm telling you, I was there with this person and they begin to expand my capacity, they begin to expand my thinking.

Hello?

So, whenever you find somebody who is blessed who has what you want, connect with them.

Someone say there's a blessing in connecting.

So let me give you three ways on how you can connect.

You ready for this?

Three three things, how you connect.

We see this in the life of Lot.

Number one is this recognize the blessing, recognize the blessing.

Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 7 says this remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

What was the writer of Hebrews saying right here?

He was saying, Recognize what's on somebody else's life.

And if there's something else on if there's something on their life that you want, imitate what they're doing.

If you want to connect with the blessing, you have to recognize the blessing.

Amen.

Lot saw something on Abram that Lot wanted.

Think about this.

Lot was there with his family in Mesopotamia, just as Abram was in Mesopotamia with the family.

Lot was there whenever Abram came and told everybody, Hey, I'm getting out of here because the Lord told me I'm out to be blessed.

And I have to get out of here because he's going to show me a land to where I go.

I would imagine that whenever Lot heard that, he's looking at his family around him and saying, Well, I don't see you all talking like that.

And I want to do something with my life.

I don't have time to teach this.

But before God called Abram out of Mesopotamia, the family were actually experienced a very tragic event in their life where one of the brothers tragically passed away on a trip where they were going to a new land.

And because this brother passed away on a new trip where they were going to a new land, rather than the family finishing the expedition, the family stopped where they were at because of grief and they never went on.

So here's God seeing this.

And so he visits Abram and says, Abram, I need you to leave all these people.

Not because there's anything bad with them, but because they've allowed search circumstances and situations to stop them in their tracks.

And I never wanted them to stop here.

I wanted them to continue on to a promised place.

Because whenever God called Abram, he says, I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who cursed you, and through you every nation of the world shall be blessed.

Lot heard that.

So I am going to connect with what's on his life.

My friend, if you want to be blessed through connecting, you need to recognize what on what's on somebody else's life.

Amen.

So he'll be out of here in like 15.

Hallelujah.

Just kidding.

It's more like 20.

Okay, here we go.

You have to recognize what's on somebody else's life if you're going to connect with them and receive from that blessing.

You've heard me say this times before.

I'm going to say it again.

You do for me personally, you do not need a fishing buddy when it comes to your pastor.

Hey, Pastor, can we go and connect over coffee?

What do you want to talk about?

I just want to get to know you more and I just want to become your friend.

You don't need a friend from me.

See, good quiet now.

What you need is a man of God.

Because God forbid, if you're ever up in the hospital, you don't need a fishing buddy to come and pray for you.

You need your man of God to come pray for you.

And the prayer faith will heal the sick and they'll get out of their bed out of their bed.

Do you understand what I'm talking about?

Well, does that mean we can't talk to you, Pastor?

That's not what I'm saying right now.

But if you only recognize me as a friend, all you're gonna receive from me is the blessing of a friend.

Look at the person to the left and to the right of you.

If you just look at them and think of them as some stranger that I don't know, all you're gonna be able to receive from them is a stranger's blessing.

But if you look at them and realize that you're part of the family of God and that they are your brothers and sisters in the faith, watch this now.

You can receive a familial blessing from those who are around you.

You understand what I'm talking about?

But it all stems from the reality of you recognizing what's on their life.

If you do not recognize the blessing, you'll never be able to receive from the blessing.

Amen.

Come on now.

Well, I are you just up on some kind of pedestal, Pastor?

That's not what I'm saying at all.

But if you try, uh is this all right?

Even if it's not, I'm gonna say this.

If if you can you can't treat how do I say this?

Let's get it off of me.

Think of your marriage.

If you look at your spouse as just a roommate, you're only gonna receive a roommate's blessing.

But if you look at your spouse as your sole source of romance, friendship, come on now, it gets real quiet in the room right now.

I'm telling you, you're gonna receive that from your spouse.

If you look at your spouse as somebody as just a ball and chain, you're gonna receive the ball and chain blessing.

I'm telling I talk with people all the time, well, the old ball and chain, I'm like, You an old fool.

Ball and chain.

My spouse is not a ball and chain to me.

Huh?

Come on, I'm telling you right now, my spouse is part of the glory of the Lord that He's released upon my life.

My spouse is a gift from God.

My spouse is not, my spouse is a part of me.

So whenever I look at my spouse as lesser than, I'm actually looking at myself lesser in.

And if I if I'm gonna walk in the blessing, I have to recognize the blessing.

Hello.

And so, my friend, you are blessed through connecting.

So if you're gonna connect and be blessed, you have to recognize what's on somebody else's life.

Every single person that you encounter has a gift from God for you.

I'm not talking about money.

I met some people.

The Lord told me that you're supposed to sell what to my men.

No, he did not tell you that.

Okay, knucklehead.

But I'm telling you, there is something on the inside of them that God has deposited in them that you can benefit from them, but if you do not recognize the gift of God, you'll never be able to connect and you'll never be able to receive.

The second way you connect, watch this now.

The first way is you recognize Lot saw something on Abram's life that wasn't in the rest of the family, so he connected in that way.

He recognized the second thing.

If you're gonna connect, is this you have to move towards the blessing?

You have to move towards the blessing.

Nudge your neighbor right here and say, You gotta move, you gotta move, you gotta move.

Nudge your other neighbor and say, You gotta move, you gotta move, you gotta move.

You have to move towards the blessing.

Because how many times do people say this?

Watch this now.

Well, if it's the Lord's will, he's just gonna give it to me.

If it's the Lord's will, it's just gonna come to me.

If the Lord really wants me blessed, I'm just gonna be blessed.

Come on now, you gotta you gotta move towards the blessing.

You gotta move towards the blessing.

Hello, I said you gotta move towards the blessing.

Watch this.

Let me give you biblical precedent for this.

Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 4.

Genesis 12:1–4

Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

What did he say?

Abram, you gotta move.

Abram, you gotta move.

Abram, you gotta move.

You can't stay where you at.

You gotta move when I tell you to move.

Verse 2, and because you move, I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Watch.

So Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him.

Come on now.

If you are going to tap into the blessing, not only do you need to recognize the blessing, you got to move towards the blessing.

Lot moved when Abram moved.

Lot went to Canaan with Abram, and when there was a famine in Canaan, Lot moved to Egypt with Abram.

Whenever stuff dried up in Egypt for them, Lot moved back to Canaan with Abram.

Why?

Because watch this now.

You got to get close enough to where the favor of God that's on somebody else's life begins to rub off on you.

You gotta move towards the blessing, you gotta move towards the favor, you gotta move towards the relationship, you gotta move towards it.

Hello.

I'll never forget whenever I first uh uh met my father-in-law, I was 18 years old, a Bible college student at Christ for the nations, Dallas, Texas, hallelujah.

And I would go to their churches about two hours away from the Bible college I was at.

Our Bible college was in Dallas, Texas.

My father-in-law and my mother-in-law, before they're Ashley's parents, my girlfriend's parents, right?

They lived two hours away east of Dallas.

And on the weekends, I would go two hours away from my Bible school to East Texas.

Because they had a church there.

And I would go and I'd play bass for them.

The doot, the doop, the dook.

I wish I knew Michael still back then, you know what I mean?

Because he runs circles around me.

My God.

I would have just given him the job.

But I was there and Sundays I'd play bass for him, and I'll never forget this.

My father-in-law, who was my spiritual father for 20 years, he would tell me, Aaron, after the music is over for worship, I never want you back on that stage again.

And I would look at him and say, The first time he said, I said, Why?

He said, Because I didn't bring you here to play bass.

What you bring me here for then, you know?

And he said this, Aaron, you have got to get close.

And I was 18 years old at the time.

I didn't know what the word he was talking about.

You got to get close.

Close to what?

He said, get close to me.

He said, Walk with me in the altars.

Walk with me whenever I lay hands on people.

He goes, You don't lay hands on people, you just get close.

And I said, Okay, that's that's fine.

And so what I would do the first couple months, I just walk with him in the altars.

He'd get done preaching.

The presence of the Lord would show up in the room super strong.

People start running to the altars and crying.

And he he wouldn't ever give me the look.

I just knew.

Get up, big boy, and walk over to the man.

You gotta move towards the blessing.

And I'd walk with him, and he lay hands on people, and miracles started breaking out.

He lay hands on people, and someone gets delivered, started screaming in the altar.

He lay hands on people, and somebody fall out in the Holy Ghost.

So it happened for months.

Until one day I went up to him after a service.

I said, Man, that was great.

That was awesome.

You remember you saw that lady get healed?

You saw that person fall out?

I was like, Yes, I did.

I said, I gotta ask you, why do you want me to walk with you?

I'm not doing nothing.

I'm not even barely captured for nobody.

Why do you want me to get close to you?

And he told me this.

He said, Aaron, because more is caught than taught.

More is caught than taught.

He was basically saying, if you want what's on my life, son, you got to move towards the blessing that's on my life.

You see, how many people just I said it earlier.

Well, if the Lord wants it for me, he's just gonna give it to me.

Yeah, I don't think so.

I think he wants you to get close.

I think he wants you to move towards that which you desire.

You have to move towards the blessing if you are going to receive from the blessing.

Amen.

The last thing is this.

How do you connect?

First one, recognize the blessing.

Number two, you got to move towards the blessing.

Number three is this.

Go ahead, Brother Donnie, if you'd come up and play, please.

You have to honor the blessing.

You have to honor the blessing.

Proverbs 18 and verse 16 says this a man's gift makes room for him and brings him before the great.

You see that?

Highlight that in your Bible.

A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before the great.

Let me let you in on a secret.

When the Proverbs writer wrote this, he wasn't talking about your skill or your ability as a gift.

I know we we we make that we we we turn those things in church today.

Well, you know, because you're so able and you're you have such a strong ability, that ability, and and you're that thing that's on your life, it's gonna cause you to go before great men.

There's an element of that's true, but the context of what the Proverbs writer was this when you honor somebody with an offering, when you honor somebody with a gift, it's gonna open up doors for you.

You gotta get out of that poverty mindset now.

Come on now, because what does that poverty mindset say?

Well, they just need to bless me, they just need to pour out to me.

Can I tell it to you like this, church?

Nobody owes you anything.

Nobody owes you anything.

So when you see something on somebody's life and you want to move towards that blessing and get connected, blessing through the connecting, let me tell you something.

Honor them.

And don't just honor them with your words, bless them with something.

I know this is very practical, and you probably wasn't expecting to hear all this when you came to the church today, but that's all right.

I'm giving you some nuggets and some keys right here that's gonna open up the blessing of the Lord that's on somebody else's life, and it's gonna happen on your into your life.

Amen.

Honor is the key that opens the door, and honor is the key that keeps the door open.

Can I say it one more time?

Honor is the key that opens the door, and honor is the key that keeps the door open.

Bless them.

If you see something on somebody's life that you want on your life, make that connection, recognize it, move towards it, and I'm telling you, bless them.

Well, I I I they need to recognize it on my life.

How are they gonna recognize on your life if if you're not close enough to add something or add value to their life?

In church culture, especially in America, it's all gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.

Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.

Give me, give me, give me.

We are consumers in Christianity in America.

Would you agree to that?

Good.

I'm glad you would agree to that because most people would be like, I don't know about that one.

No, trust me.

We're all takers.

But if you want the blessing to open up on your life, become a giver.

And listen, this isn't a message about an offering for the church or an offering for me.

That's not about this.

What this is, is this is a strategy for you to get into divine relationships and divine connections that allows what's on their life to rub off on your life.

I love you very much.

You need right people in your life because the wrong people haven't done it for you yet.

And God is opening up a realm to you where the blessing that's on their life robes up on your life.

Last thing I'll say is this when it comes to honor.

I told you it's about 15 more minutes.

Look, I wasn't a liar after all.

Lot's blessed because of his connection with Abram.

Livestock, tense, riches.

But there came a point in time when there was contention between the two camps.

It wasn't about the fact that there was not enough.

How do we know that?

Because there was a famine in the land, and nobody else around them had stuff, but Abram had stuff.

Why?

Because whenever you're favored by God, the famine doesn't touch you.

Let me say one more time.

When you're favored by God, the famine doesn't touch you.

So it wasn't the fact that there was too many there, because God will always supply those who are favored.

Amen.

What caused Lot to be removed from the blessing?

You ready for this?

Dishonor.

Dishonor.

Because the Bible says, y'all ready for this?

The Bible says Abram had to go talk to Lot.

You missed it.

If Lot truly honored Abram, Lot would have gone to Abram.

Hey Abram, I know we have a lot of stuff here, and I just want to let you know there's some stuff going on with my guys, with your guys.

I just want to let you know I want to make it right.

Whatever we have to do, we're gonna make it happen.

But that did not happen from Lot.

Lot just let watch this now, the contention and the striving continue to the point where his uncle had to come to him and say, Hey, uh, you need to leave for my house because your guys have a bad spirit about them.

They keep fighting with my guys, and Abram basically was saying, I'm not gonna have strife in my house.

And so, Lot, you gotta get out of here.

The blessing that was on Abram's life was removed from Lot's life whenever Lot dishonored the blessing.

That's a good word right there, right?

And we all know this later on.

If you keep reading your Bible, the Bible says that Lot went down to the valley of Jordan next to Sodom.

If you don't know how that one ended, not good.

And I almost wonder if if Lot would have been preserved, his wife wouldn't have died, his riches wouldn't have been taken away if he just learned how to connect with the blessing.

My friend, let me tell you, you are blessed through connecting.

There's a blessing through connecting, and if you are going to connect, you have to recognize the blessing, you have to move towards the blessing, and you need to honor that blessing.

Amen.

Stand with me all over the room if you would this morning.